Moving On

Angel - One of my favourite photos showing the joy she felt for life

There are so many things I miss about Angel. Most are only little things. The silly growling noise that Angel made when she impatiently waited for her dinner. Her favourite spot under the patio when it was treat time before I went to work. Always the first to bark when she heard me open the gate when I got home from work. If she thought a trip in the car was coming up she'd whinge and shriek in excitement. Obsessively chasing her father down the beach. Now all cherished memories.

I never would have thought that a house of four dogs would feel empty, but without her it does. I have lots of regrets and if onlys. The night we lost her it felt like the world transpired against us so that I wasn't able to protect and save her like I wanted to be able to. But with that comes the things that I know I could give her while she was with me, hopefully in some way making up for her first two years of hell. If I still lived at my old house I feel certain that she would still be with us but she loved our new house with all it's space so much and I will always smile when I remember her belting up the driveway in hot pursuit of the other dogs. Out of all my dogs I think that Sonic has missed her the most. They used to play a lot and he was very quiet for the first couple of days after she'd gone.

Agility has played a very secondary role since then. I finally loaded up Sonic's last two trials of 2009.

The first one is from ACWA's midweek trial. Sonic was totally HYPER. It was a lot more low key trial being that it was midweek and only two rings running instead of the normal four. I'd say that it felt like a normal training night for him so added to his extra enthusiasm as he is still a lot more confident at training than at a trial. He had a clear run in Masters Agility but it wasn't one of our greatest runs. The three almost off courses cost us a lot in time.... Open Agility was a lovely course and he was able to really run on. Unfortunately he went off course on the second obstacle after crossing behind me (BAD Sonic) however he was flying around, squealling as he went. Quite frankly I'd rather he run full on and make mistakes as opposed to slow and clear. It is really exciting that he is getting much more confident on the equipment.



The Doberman Club trial ended up being our last trial of the year. Once again a clear round alluded us but on the up side his obstacle performance is getting much faster on a consistent basis and he is really up and happy when in the ring. So we are still looking for an improvement in our team work on course and the handler skills but it is being a very enjoyable journey as we attempt to get there.

Angel

This afternoon I lost my little Angel.

I felt guilty after a weekend of commitments so rather than go to the agility trial tonight I decided to treat the dogs to a trip down the beach. It has been so hot all weekend it seemed the best place to be. All the dogs jumped in the car very excited at the prospect of going out. It only took fifteen minutes to get to the beach, but when I opened the back of the ute, Angel was lying down and appeared to be convulsing. I grabbed her out to see what was wrong but she was clearly struggling. We put her on Colin's lap in the front and drove to Murdoch as fast as we could. As we got closer I knew we were losing her. When we got to Murdoch we rushed her straight in but she was already blue. They tried desperately to revive her but were unable.

We've brought her home so we can bury her on the property. Tomorrow I'm going to find somewhere special just for her.

She was such a gorgeous girl. She came to me as a two year old with lots of problems after starting out as a show dog, living in kennels. She was literally scared of her own shadow. In the last seven years she had blossomed into such a lovely girl. She always carried the mental scars that had developed from those first two years, but as soon as she trusted you she was your friend for life. She did a little bit of agility which helped to build her confidence and reminded me of a ballerina as she danced around the course. But first and foremost she was our pet who loved nothing more than a cuddle and to play with the other dogs.

We will miss her so much.

RIP Angel
8/01/2000 - 13/12/2009

ADAA

Sonic & I competed in our second ADAA trial on Saturday night and once again enjoyed some lovely courses, this time courtesy of Nat Kirkwood and Tracey Harrison-Hill. I entered him in eight events for the evening but decided to withdraw him from one of the Regular Open A Jumping classes as I felt it required too much interference from me with all the changes of direction. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the course, just not what I want him running until I feel his confidence grows. All the other courses where very open and flowing with changes of direction where I could be in front, that allowed me to easily redirect him without stopping his forward momentum to do it. His rear crosses, if on a tight angle, are a bit dodgy so I’m inclined to avoid those until I can do a lot more skill work on them. They surficed for Novice and Excellent, but not really adequate for tight Masters courses.

Sonic ran on beautifully for most runs and showed me some lovely shortening of stride when asked to corner tight. His weavers were strong and I made the most of getting in front to help encourage him to drive forward. He popped out of one set when Nat came up behind him and he caught her out the corner of his eye. Obviously he wasn’t focused enough on his job at the time. I just brought him back around and redid them without any drama. In that particular run I wasn’t able to get very far in front and I did think he was slower through the weavers so clearly getting him to drive through his weavers when I’m behind him is something that we need to continue working on to improve. Other than that the main problem was dropped bars. A few of those came down when he was trying to bounce jump and just didn’t quite reach far enough. I never train him on anything other than 500mm so I have to take some responsibility for it.

I have to say I do really enjoy handling an ADAA course. They are generally much more naturally open and flowing than a lot of what we see in ANKC. So often a Masters ANKC course includes a lot of pulling and pushing to get your dog around as opposed to natural bends that simply require a well placed front cross or serpentine. Speaking of serpentines I made a big botch of one in the last class that I ran Sonic in. I got him to come around onto the jump without any problems but Sonic continued on straight past me to go to a tunnel. By the time I got him to turn back he had put himself back behind the bar and back jumped it. At the time I thought that Sonic had missed my cue, but when I watched the video back I can clearly see that my cue for him to turn after the serpentine was soooo late that he had every right to think that his next obstacle was the tunnel in front of him, not the one to our right. Very BAD handler! He did some cracking weavers on the run home though so was far from a complete disaster.

We have a midweek trial this week for ACWA. They are valiantly trying to help raise funds for the National Agility Trial that is being held in Perth in 2010. It will feel weird going to a trial after work instead of training but I am looking forward to it. Then this weekend is going to be very busy. We have our two last ANKC agility trials for the year on Saturday and Sunday night and then Riot has in store appearances at the new Better Pets and Gardens store in Myaree on both those days. Riot hasn’t done any in stores for a while so will have to dust off his backpack and spruce him up to mingle with his adoring public!

Mmmmm...

What can I say about mine and Sonic’s “attempt” at agility at last weekend’s trial? Cause it was a bit of a disaster to say the least. I finally forced myself to watch the video a couple of nights ago. I spent the first viewing cringing constantly. After I’d settled down from the initial visual trauma I was actually able to find some positive aspects from our runs. Firstly I think his weavers are getting faster. Secondly, he does have stretches on a course when he is really driving hard. Thirdly, the speed on four out of the six contact obstacles was pretty good.

So where are we going wrong at this point in time? He is as a general rule, training OK. I’ve been working pretty hard on improving his weaver entries and increasing his speed on the dog walk. I’ve had varying success with both. I’m being very picky with what performance I reward on his dog walk in that unless it’s fast we try again. If he gives me a good one he gets a high value reward. His weaver entries seem to fluctuate. His weakest side is near side entries where if he’s on a diagonal line he will often go into the second entry. Then I’ve been racing him through them to build some speed, which I think is working. One thing I do want to try is restrained recalls through the weavers.

I’ve been attempting to do a fair amount of jump drill work to build on our handling skills. He does have a pretty sound understanding of all the handling manoeuvres but as the sequences have gotten harder he has definitely struggled more and we make a lot more mistakes. I suspect that would be mainly attributed to more choice of obstacles and far less margin for error.

So, the million dollar question, how do we manage all this to get Sonic through this stage as unscathed as possible? The last thing I want to do is upset him and turn him off agility. One of the things I love about him is his love for agility and the joy in him when we are working together. I have contemplated pulling out of the Masters classes for a while. I have already entered the few remaining trials for this year, plus one is an ADAA event where he is only eligible for the less complicated classes so I will finish the year off as is. But next year perhaps entering Excellent and Open classes in the Not for Competition category may be the way to go until I can see that he is getting around a whole course full of confidence. Then put him back into Masters when he’s ready.

I think back to my first two dogs, Murphy and Soda. Both were very successful agility dogs, Soda in particular. I had no idea what I was doing so their training was pretty average and our poorly trained contacts haunted me their entire careers. It took me over a year to title both of them in Novice and another year and a half to get their Excellent titles. By the time they made it to Masters both were confident in the ring and we had a pretty good understanding of each other. In fact it wasn’t until Soda was five that she started winning on a regular basis. Poor Sonic made it to Masters within four months of entering his first trial. I thought because he had done it so easily that he would adapt to Masters really quickly, but that’s not the case at all. He is the youngest dog in the Masters class by about six months. I’m starting to believe that a dogs maturity plays a really big part in being a successful agility dog and we are so far from that right now it’s not even a blip on the horizon. I thought that as he ran in more Masters classes he would gain confidence but that is definitely not happening and clearly I made a wrong choice in what was best for him. So time to try something new!

To China and Back Again

I swear I blink and I missed my holiday. After a day back at work it feels like I never left! However I do have some amazing memories that will stay with me and we had a fantastic time. China was like being on a different universe with the difference in culture. The comparison to living on 5 acres of land as opposed to the incredible high density housing that surrounded us in Shenzen and Chengdu (which has a population of over 11 million people) was extreme to say the least. It was pretty cool going out to these fantastic restaurants for dinner and being where there are hundreds of shops open late every night but on the down side I don’t enjoy not being able to see the sun through the haze of smog that covers the entire city and beyond. I could never live there. The traffic was insane with those ridiculous bikes with the little engines on them that you can’t hear absolutely everywhere. The first time you knew that they were close was when you were just about to get hit by one. I will certainly never moan about Perth traffic again. It was funny tonight that on TV the Today Tonight program was talking about how rude/inconsiderate Perth drivers are these days. I felt like calling them and telling them to go to China for a different perspective... My brother is the exact opposite though. He has lived in China for about ten years now and could never move back to Perth and the quiet life.


Two hours out of Chengdu and the smog doesn't get any better

Naturally I missed all of my furry family. There was a certain small enjoyment had in having no dependants for a couple of weeks but then I got to a point where I missed having a wet nose in my face waking me up in the morning. By the time we got home I couldn’t wait to go and pick them all up. Colin and I needed some padding to help cope with five over excited border collies bouncing off us in pure unrestrained joy but it was so great to have them back again. Kenny was a little more controlled but I was still met with a happy meow when I called his name to let him know I'd come to get him.


At the Panda Sanctuary

Last Saturday night was a trial run by the West Coast Rottweiler Club. I entered Sonic but I knew that our runs could be a bit dodgy with Sonic having been in kennels for the couple of weeks beforehand. As it happened it wasn’t all bad. Our first run was Masters Agility and his best run of the night. He was a little unsure of himself and a touch sticky on his contacts, but overall a solid run. He was only three seconds behind first place so considering that I stopped him on all his contacts it was a very good effort. In Open Jumping he was going well and made a really hard weaver entry but then popped out after the fourth pole. Masters Jumping was a really challenging course that I managed to get lost on. After coming around a corner I just could not pick the line that I needed. I actually managed to save us from a refusal and kept going but unfortunately he didn’t push out to a jump further on so we still managed to get a refusal. Open Agility was our last run and also our weakest. I felt that he was unfocused and a little tired so I just tried to make the best of it and keep him happy. He really hasn’t done a lot of agility lately so I think he is probably a bit agility unfit and lacks some confidence on the equipment.

The break I’ve had however has left me feeling fresh and ready to get some enthusiasm back into my agility. Tonight after work Sonic and I did some circle work out the back and then did some weaver entries. Both of us were revved up and had some real fun mucking around. I haven’t enjoyed it that much in ages.

The Old, Frail, Infirm and Just Plain Uncoordinated...

So we know that the Noodle is deaf as a post and now it would appear that Kenneth the Karate Kat is as blind as a bat. He probably lost his sight a while ago but because we’d been in the same house for five years he knew exactly where everything was. Now Kenny’s in a new house things aren’t quite so easy for him. Mind you it is remarkable how well an animal can get around without having any sight. Our first tip off was a few too many bumps into the coffee table, an inability to find his way back into the house if we let him go for a walk outside and consistently running into his dinner bowl at dinner time. It's still hard to come to terms with the fact that my beautiful animals are getting old.


Ahhh, when they were but babes 1997....Murphy (14 weeks) & Kenny (18 months)

Then we have the uncoordinated members of the household. Sonic, who has no excuse, (other than being young and hyperactive and never looks where he’s going) slammed into a plastic rubbish bin at training last week. I ducked/braced/grimaced for him prior to impact but it didn’t help. He kind of ricocheted back off it and as per usual form, kept right on going. Riot, who has a penchant for walking backwards and not looking where he’s going, reversed into the patio support. Unfortunately for him, they are metal and I suspect a rather large headache followed. He was quite dazed afterwards. Not to be left out, Noodle bounced backwards (as she likes to do, much to my ongoing distress) and straight into the very same metal patio support, very hard. You rarely hear her so much as wince, but she cried while her front leg dangled uselessly underneath her. I had a major freak out moment but after carrying her inside and icing her shoulder, she seemed to be OK. Then lastly, the poor Murphster (the most uncoordinated of the lot) copped it. Not his fault, his body just doesn’t quite work the way it used to. Following another incident of not looking where he’s going, Sonic ran straight into the poor old bugger who happened to be standing in front of another metal patio post. Murph’s legs went straight out from underneath him and straight into the pole. He was Ok though, just a little sore. I’ve been contemplating taping old pillows around the posts so they’re padded like football goal posts seeing as my dogs don't want to look after themselves.


Murphy ( at 5 months of age) with his best mate "da Noodle" Soda (at 7 months of age) 1997

Agility right now is pretty quiet for us. I’ve only been to two trials since the Royal. I guess it’s a combination of being busy at the new house, being too hot or just because it’s coming to the end of the year and both Sonic and I could use a break. We have actually managed two Masters Jumping passes since he moved into the class in July. Sonic has had some really nice runs with only small errors to big disasters that were pretty rubbish from start to end. Of late our biggest break down is he isn’t reading my positional cues AT ALL... I can be standing completely stationary on course, next to the obstacle that I want to turn him onto, and he has just blasted straight past me. About three or four strides later he stops and looks at me with a “what are you doing over there” expression. I do think that if he spent more time paying attention and less giving me a mouthful of cheek, it might be working out a bit better! Masters Agility has been pretty much more of the same. Open has been a little more successful with a few passes in Agility and Jumping. Both titles shouldn’t be too far away. His contacts have been pretty good though since the Royal which I’m very happy with.


He is still my beautiful boy even with the grey eye lashes! (Murphy 2009)

So, what is the plan? The rest of this year will be a wind down for us. I go overseas on holiday at the end of this week which means I miss four trials while I’m away. Then I think there are only a few trials left to take us to the end of the year. I will probably enter them but my focus will be on confidence with him in the ring rather than worrying overly much on high level skills. He will then have about five to six weeks of no agility at all. So I would say that at the end of January it will be time to bring him back in with all eyes on preparation for the Nationals in Perth at the end of April 2010. I have to say that I am VERY glad we get six months in Masters before the Nationals. At this point we certainly need all the experience we can get!


Noodle relaxing at home in the sun 2009.

I have also been lucky enough to secure a working spot at the Lynda Orton-Hill seminar in Victoria next year. I missed the last one and I was extremely keen to make it this time round. This seminar for me will be all about improving my skills as a dog trainer. Lynda is doing some handling workshops as well but given that seminars aren’t cheap I think that focusing on dog training is the most important thing for me. In general most seminars that are organised do tend to be more handling related so it will be brilliant to just focus on how to improve my understanding of how to get the best from my dogs. In particular building contact behaviours and building drive around the course. I have SOOOO many questions to ask!


Kenny's house. Is anyone game enough to tell him it's a dog crate???

Being on 5 acres of bush does bring a few concerns about snakes. We've done what we can to make the backyard as snake proof as possible for all the dogs. Thank goodness so far we've not seen any sign of the slithery creepy suckers however our friendly neighbourhood bob-tails are a regular fixture. Appartently not to be thwarted by five border collies they make a daily pilgramige into our backyard. Angel is the only one who pays any attention to them at all with some serious attempts at rounding them up. The bob-tails don't seem to care.


A local enjoying the sun.

Now I have to show off about my NEW CAR. It is lovely and will shortly be transformed into a dog transportation vehicle. The hardest thing is controlling the lead foot...


Beauuuutiful...so shiney and new.

Sonic's first Royal Show

It's been another crazy few weeks since my last post. We have now all settled into the new digs and my new internet connection is finally up and running. The dogs seem extremely happy and play endless catch me if you can games up and down our nice long rural driveway. Even Kenny the Karate Cat seems impressed with his new surroundings. I thought he'd be slinking around for weeks, hiding in dark corners, but by the first evening he was wandering around checking things out. Sonic is loving it. Every night he is curled up on his favourite lounge in front of the fire by 7pm. No more hyperactive puppy still trying to convince someone to play with him at 9pm at night!

Last weekend brought us to the 2009 Perth Royal Show. I was pretty undecided about entering this year. It can be such a pain with the yearly circus involved getting cars in and out, loading and unloading, not to mention the expense. On the plus side I always love the opportunity to watch all the other dogs competing and there is no way to replicate that type of environment. Its a small space that we have for the event, the ring ropes are always lined with masses of people with show bags, stuffed toys and it's very noisey. Bottom line is, if they can cope in that environment, they should be able to cope anywhere!

I entered Sonic in six runs over two days which kicked off with Teams Jumping, Teams Agility, then both Open Classes and both Masters Classes. We actually had quite a few agility bloopers between the two of us. Sonic managed to not hold a dog walk contact all weekend, fell off the side of the see saw, crept forward on more than one start line and missed one weaver entry. I managed to come up with some mediocre handle manouvres including a failed attempt at a serpentine that I thought I could make and didn't... However, even with all that STILL managed to get five clear rounds out of six!

My favourite class of the weekend was most definately the Masters Jumping class both to compete in and watch. The course was designed by Des Coyles from South Australia and was a nice change of pace from some of the very technical courses we have been seeing here of late. It was open and flowing but still plenty of things that could go wrong. One thing for certain was it was going to be FAST. The 600 height went first which meant seeing Domino run it. And run it he did. It was incredible to watch and I feel confident in saying that there wouldn't have been a dog in Australia that could have gotten around that course faster. It was truly jaw dropping to watch. The top 10 dogs were all within 2 seconds of each other. I am pleased to say that Sonic came in in seventh place behind Domino, Sage and Bryn, closely followed by Diva, Cuba and Smudge. All very fast dogs and I'm mighty pleased that Sonic at the tender age of 2 years old was up there with some of Perth's fastest dogs.

For the third year running, our team "The Masters & The Apprentices" took out the Jumping Teams competition. We also came second in the Agility Teams. The team this year was made up of Kriszty & Jess (who came out for a final run before "official" retirement), Simone & Cypher and me with Sonic and Riot. Terra was meant to be in the team but unfortunately has hurt her toe so Kriszty made the sensible decision to withdraw her. It meant a bit more stress for me because I had no idea how Riot was going to go. As it happened Riot did the most amazing Jumping run and although not quite as spiffy, I managed to get him round the agility run reasonabley unscathed.

I suppose I may enter again next year :-)