44/52: Something Evil's Lurking in the Dark, originally uploaded by mandypug.
Via Flickr:
Izzie wishes everyone a happy howl-o-ween!
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
What do you do when your biggest obstacle is you?
So this weekend didn't go as well as I would've hoped. We only Q'd one out of eight runs. Izzie did her best, but I certainly did not. We had a couple of great and clean runs but time was an issue. The standard run where we were 0.15 seconds over still stings and if I had video I could edit in a flashing red arrow exactly where we lost the most time (hint: it was where I completely blanked on where I was going). Same with our jumpers run where we were 1.52 seconds over, glaring red arrow in my mind of that run exactly where that time was lost.
I do not blame my dog for any of this. She was a good girly all weekend and tried her very hardest. I found out some new things about her. For instance if we start a run and get buzzed by the timer to start again after only 3 jumps, she gets freaked out. I've never had that happen before and I've never really trained for that so I'm not sure what will help that. Maybe ending some courses early alternated with doing full courses just to party and start again?
Other things were not new but became glaringly obvious. I've been told it before but Izzie is constantly tuned into me to a freaky aware level and if I'm unsure then she's reading that loud and clear and is going to start melting. That's why we lost the time, that's why she's not sure about the weaves, that's why I want to cry thinking about how I caused her to fail. Even though I'm sure she is not one bit mad at me because I cost us a ribbon, I still feel like I let her down... Not because I feel worse for not getting a ribbon, but because I know as a team we can be great and my dog will bring it if I bring it too.
I went out there this weekend, shaking in my barefoot shoes for almost every run. Thinking "Well I know she doesn't like to weave in this barn" or "Do I do a blind cross here? What about all these front crosses to speed her up" or even "Where the fuck am I?" when I'm actually out on course.
The only run I felt truly confident on was the last run, a snooker run. I hate snooker, I'm terrible at planning my path and it stresses me out. I don't like choose your own adventure books and that's what snooker is to me. So I requested some help from Sarah. She's great at snooker paths and this one was no exception. I promised her wine if we Q'd and well I've gotta take a trip to the liquor store because we smoked that snooker run. Now if only I could trust my own brain as much as I trust my instructors. Or maybe I just need to drink more to loosen up so I can forget it's a trial and just run without inhibition... I doubt my sports psychologist from my skating days would approve of that last bit though haha.
Whatever I need to do, I better hop to it. I know we can blow these courses out of the water, Izzie has the skills. I just need to get over my demons.
I do not blame my dog for any of this. She was a good girly all weekend and tried her very hardest. I found out some new things about her. For instance if we start a run and get buzzed by the timer to start again after only 3 jumps, she gets freaked out. I've never had that happen before and I've never really trained for that so I'm not sure what will help that. Maybe ending some courses early alternated with doing full courses just to party and start again?
Other things were not new but became glaringly obvious. I've been told it before but Izzie is constantly tuned into me to a freaky aware level and if I'm unsure then she's reading that loud and clear and is going to start melting. That's why we lost the time, that's why she's not sure about the weaves, that's why I want to cry thinking about how I caused her to fail. Even though I'm sure she is not one bit mad at me because I cost us a ribbon, I still feel like I let her down... Not because I feel worse for not getting a ribbon, but because I know as a team we can be great and my dog will bring it if I bring it too.
I went out there this weekend, shaking in my barefoot shoes for almost every run. Thinking "Well I know she doesn't like to weave in this barn" or "Do I do a blind cross here? What about all these front crosses to speed her up" or even "Where the fuck am I?" when I'm actually out on course.
The only run I felt truly confident on was the last run, a snooker run. I hate snooker, I'm terrible at planning my path and it stresses me out. I don't like choose your own adventure books and that's what snooker is to me. So I requested some help from Sarah. She's great at snooker paths and this one was no exception. I promised her wine if we Q'd and well I've gotta take a trip to the liquor store because we smoked that snooker run. Now if only I could trust my own brain as much as I trust my instructors. Or maybe I just need to drink more to loosen up so I can forget it's a trial and just run without inhibition... I doubt my sports psychologist from my skating days would approve of that last bit though haha.
Whatever I need to do, I better hop to it. I know we can blow these courses out of the water, Izzie has the skills. I just need to get over my demons.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Things that are not as fun for me as agility...
... But that I do because they're still pretty enjoyable and Izzie seems to enjoy them too.
Rally and Obedience.
I like them don't get me wrong, but if I could only do one sport for the rest of my life it would be agility. It's my passion.
However, I do appreciate a well trained obedience dog who's happy to work with and loves their handler. That's a whole 'nother post that I doubt I'll ever write... But I digress.
Izzie and I travelled out to Cowley today with Sarah to go to the fun match at the Southern Alberta Working Herding Dog Association (wow that's a mouthful! SAWHDA for short). There was two rings set up, one for rally and one for obedience. Izzie and I ran through a novice rally course a couple times, once on leash and once off. As usual our off lead heeling is a million times better than off leash (I can feel you giving me that "that's why I make you work on leash in class" look Amanda...) and the distraction of working at the same time as Sarah and Gyp in the obedience ring was a huuuuge challenge for Izzie as she loves her aunty Sarah and idolizes her cousin Gyp. She worked through it though with encouragement, what a good girly.
In our training for obedience, besides duration in heeling with no verbal lovin's from me, her issue is her long sits and downs. Long sits are hard physically for dogs, if they're going to stay in one place for a longer amount of time they're going to lay down vs. sit. So this means endurance has to be built in the muscles to hold that position, especially when you're mentally and physically tired from the rest of the obedience routine before the sits. Practise practise practise though and we have been and I'm happy to say that she did not down on a THREE MINUTE sit. Very good girly! Her down? well that was another story, she started licking the floor like a weirdo and ended up getting up, twice. Oh well, practise and finding out these things are the purpose of fun matches.
After Cowley we headed home (in partially snowy weather) to go for lunch. Thanks for buying me lunch Sar, I owe you big time! Then we headed off to Perfect Pooches for another match. I wasn't entering Izzie but it's good for her to be in those places to get used to new environments anyway.
We watched novice obedience and then it came time for the sits and downs for that and Izzie and I were encouraged to use it as practise, so we did. Izzie nailed the one minute sit AND the long down, despite a very resistant Border Collie next to her. Again, good girly!
After watching Sarah and Gyp do their open routine, we headed back to the city and to our respective homes to have naps. I am very proud of Izzie, she's come a long way from being paranoid of me stepping on her during heeling and freaked out by me being too far away from her. She's getting more and more confident the more activities we do! Can't wait for our rally advanced debut next month and hopefully a novice obedience debut in the new year!
Rally and Obedience.
I like them don't get me wrong, but if I could only do one sport for the rest of my life it would be agility. It's my passion.
However, I do appreciate a well trained obedience dog who's happy to work with and loves their handler. That's a whole 'nother post that I doubt I'll ever write... But I digress.
Izzie and I travelled out to Cowley today with Sarah to go to the fun match at the Southern Alberta Working Herding Dog Association (wow that's a mouthful! SAWHDA for short). There was two rings set up, one for rally and one for obedience. Izzie and I ran through a novice rally course a couple times, once on leash and once off. As usual our off lead heeling is a million times better than off leash (I can feel you giving me that "that's why I make you work on leash in class" look Amanda...) and the distraction of working at the same time as Sarah and Gyp in the obedience ring was a huuuuge challenge for Izzie as she loves her aunty Sarah and idolizes her cousin Gyp. She worked through it though with encouragement, what a good girly.
 |
| She really liked Gyp's pointy nose dumbbell even though it squished up her cheeks. |
 |
| Nailed it! |
We watched novice obedience and then it came time for the sits and downs for that and Izzie and I were encouraged to use it as practise, so we did. Izzie nailed the one minute sit AND the long down, despite a very resistant Border Collie next to her. Again, good girly!
After watching Sarah and Gyp do their open routine, we headed back to the city and to our respective homes to have naps. I am very proud of Izzie, she's come a long way from being paranoid of me stepping on her during heeling and freaked out by me being too far away from her. She's getting more and more confident the more activities we do! Can't wait for our rally advanced debut next month and hopefully a novice obedience debut in the new year!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
I Suck At Blogging
Seriously.
I've been working a ton lately, like an actual adult. I don't think I like this being an adult stuff. Now if only I could win the lottery... Yeah, that'd be good.
Really you haven't missed much and I don't have much to blog about besides the fact that Izzie and I are very much alive and well.
The most fun we've had lately is a trip to the "beach" with the older Amanda and a few of her dogs. Izzie isn't much of a doggy dog, but she had fun playing for the most part! It was nice to see her run around on her own!
We've worked so much on her fetching that she's not afraid to pick up and put things in her mouth, even if it's just to chew on them and make faces. She never used to be a mouthy dog until she learned that yes indeed you can put it in your mouth.
We ran into Wendy too and Izzie met Lacey for the first time ever. She's much smaller in person than I imagined, about the same size as Iz but more heavy boned. She didn't seem to mind Izzie but I don't think I'd say they're BFFs or anything despite how much Izzie seemed to want to be.
On the way back we stopped at a field where there was a bunch of hay bales and I've always wanted to put Iz on top of one, so I did. The clouds from the rain that day were pretty angry looking which made the photo look pretty moody. I quite like it.
So that was the beach trip in a nutshell. Izzie and I both enjoyed it and it's a pretty cool place for photos too!
I've been working a ton lately, like an actual adult. I don't think I like this being an adult stuff. Now if only I could win the lottery... Yeah, that'd be good.
Really you haven't missed much and I don't have much to blog about besides the fact that Izzie and I are very much alive and well.
The most fun we've had lately is a trip to the "beach" with the older Amanda and a few of her dogs. Izzie isn't much of a doggy dog, but she had fun playing for the most part! It was nice to see her run around on her own!
We've worked so much on her fetching that she's not afraid to pick up and put things in her mouth, even if it's just to chew on them and make faces. She never used to be a mouthy dog until she learned that yes indeed you can put it in your mouth.
We ran into Wendy too and Izzie met Lacey for the first time ever. She's much smaller in person than I imagined, about the same size as Iz but more heavy boned. She didn't seem to mind Izzie but I don't think I'd say they're BFFs or anything despite how much Izzie seemed to want to be.
On the way back we stopped at a field where there was a bunch of hay bales and I've always wanted to put Iz on top of one, so I did. The clouds from the rain that day were pretty angry looking which made the photo look pretty moody. I quite like it.
So that was the beach trip in a nutshell. Izzie and I both enjoyed it and it's a pretty cool place for photos too!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Back to Back Agility Weekends: Part 2
I'm a slacker blogger lately! Izzie and I went to the Flashing Canines trial in Medicine Hat last weekend and the Pug did awesome! She brought home 1 Advanced Standard Q, 1 Masters Snooker Q and 1 Masters Standard Q. The Advanced Standard Q gave her the Advanced Agility Dog of Canada title too! Hurray! All her runs were great, especially her Masters Jumpers runs even though we were over time by a few seconds on each (my fault, I slipped and made handling mistakes). So I am very pleased!
The Masters Standard run was awesome. Izzie and I have been having trouble making time and that is no secret if you read my blog regularly. This run however was lovely, it was her first Masters level Standard run and we ended up being something like 12 whole seconds under time. That's huge! She nailed her weaves and was generally yippee skippy out there. So proud!
No luck with that last Advanced Gamble Q at that trial unfortunately. Oh well! I definitely know that our distance skills need work and that's something that I'll be working on over the winter in the barn for sure!
So in just over a year Izzie's in everything masters in AAC except Gamble. Not too shabby for a dog that some people said would never be able to qualify past starters level.
Here's some video of our runs:
Oh and something else that might not seem like a big deal to some, but Izzie made the top dogs list for 2012! She's earned 11 Qs and 1 title this year with what they've recorded so far (she'll be up to 14 Qs and 2 titles when they get the ones from this weekend on that). Proud of the little Puglet.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Super Kawaii!
Here's some of the photos I got from Izzie's supermodel shoot. Enjoy!
Thanks again Wendy!!!
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