Upcoming Agility Trials

Now that I will be back in the real world soon, I'm looking into entering some trails again. The first weekend I'm back there is a trial on the beach close to my house that I entered everyone in. (Fancy only one day.) We don't have very many trials in Ventura County, so I always go to the close ones. Unless I'm working the same weekend, which happens way more than I would like.

The weekend following that I'm holding an obedience play/ practice day for anyone who wants to come. I'll set my stuff up and run people through routines. The idea is participants who know what they are doing (ie- not total newbies) will also take turns running other people through so I can work my own dogs and also get a chance to socialize and hang out a bit. Last time I held one of these was the day after Dottie ate the rat poison so I will be sure to not let that happen this time.

The run through may or may not turn into a club event. I offered it to our club as an event because we seriously lack training days of any kind. In fact, the last one we had we the post-Dottie poison one that I held. And before that I can't remember. This time the club didn't like the day I proposed, saying the other club in our area was holding an agility show (over an hour away- outside our county) and we should not hold a conflicting event because we should support them. I understand that reasoning if they were holding the even in the county they are based in (ie- Ventura.) But since they are not supporting the local showing public by not holding the event locally, I see no reason to support them. Plus, lots of people in our club don't go to that venue because it is too far away. Therefore, I decided to hold the training play day anyway, used Facebook to get the word out, and heard back from the club that there might have been a misunderstanding, and maybe they do want this to be a club event. Since then I have heard nothing more, so maybe it was not a misunderstanding after all. If anyone reading this is in the Ventura area and wants to come and doesn't know me on FB (unlikely) leave a comment and I'll give you further details.

The other day that weekend I may find a show to go to or I may not. The following weekend is Easter so Sunday is out but I might show on Saturday. The weekend after that I am going to head to AZ to visit ffluffy.

Then I have drill the first full weekend in May. the middle of May is unscheduled so far. ffluffy and I are going to take the trailer to the big show at Pomona over Memorial Day weekend. We will do Sat-Monday but I think the entire show is actually 5 days.

I won't be showing too much in June because ffluffy is coming to CA and we will be hiking/ camping one weekend and I have drill one weekend. We hope to maybe go to 2 shows but the selections are not that great.

July will also be slim showing due to hopefully going to Big Bear one weekend, having drill (of course) and I think ffluffy and I may try to take a short camping trip. The timing did not work out for our Oregon trip this year. Our club is holding a 2 day agility trial (our first one!) on a Thursday and Friday but that might be the week of our camping. July is kind of up in the air.

I'd like to start Dottie in obedience soon. But it looks like this summer is the earliest it would happen and with the limited weekends I have to work with, it might not occur until the fall. Pie needs to get her groups under control before she can go back in the ring, but I am concerned it has become one of those things that only happens at a show. The other problem is I am not really sure how I want to go about fixing it. In the past I would go with, "Give her a strong enough correction that it is a big enough deterrent from continuing the behavior and it makes a lasting impression so if she considers rolling around or inching across the ring or standing up, she will remember the unpleasant side effect and decide not to." But I am now aware that is causing stress for her and even if I discount all the other negative aspects of stressing my dog, a very good reason not to do it is it causes her to get up as I return. She equates my returning with the correction, instead of her actions. So even if the correction "works" and she remains in the down, when I return we will fail anyway because she is upset by my return and inches in the down and her rear end pops off the ground a few inches and she scoots in the sit. Is the rolling around in the down stress also, or just messing around? I want that device from "Up" that allows the dogs to talk because most of the time during training I have no idea what the dogs are trying to tell me. I've got a long way to go as a trainer.

Pie's group issue is poor training, obviously. Not sure what to try instead. Reward correct behavior. Maybe practice it a lot at SchH training. I wonder if they will let me work both Mals in the sit and down at the same time? Dottie will benefit from it also.

Can't wait to be training, showing and mostly LIVING and PLAYING with the dogs again.

PS- In case I did not announce it yet, Pie and Dottie will try for their SchH1 on my birthday weekend in September. Both need continued tracking work, Dottie needs obedience (esp the retrieves- terrible mouther) and we need a lot of polishing work on protection. We should have enough time to be ready.