Perth Agility

The Sonic Project is going pretty well. We've progressed to me being able to recall Sonic to me when he's in the backyard with Riot which he would never have done before. If I let Murphy & Soda out as well I'm less successful but that is what we are working to next. I'm making the most of any opportunity that presents itself, for example last weekend we were out the front of the property gardening. It was such a nice day that we decided to let all the dogs out with us as well. Anytime they are all let outside of the backyard Sonic considers it to be "crazy" time so I worked on rewarding on the few occasions when he was lying down relaxed with the other dogs or when he came to me when I called him. After he'd settled down he would even come over and offer me tricks for a reward which made for a nice change from him spending every second watching Riot in case he did anything interesting.

I've had a couple of weeks off trialing which was a welcome relief. I love agility but sometimes you just need a break.... We had a single trial yesterday with Sonic just entered in both Masters classes. Although we didn't come away with any quallies I was really happy with what we did. Sonic uncharacteristically knocked two bars in agility and I unfortunately pulled him off a jump in jumping. Other than that he was spot on. Just goes to show that a training program of things like recalls and foundation work is far more beneficial than going to training and running sequences over and over again. I think Sonic's greatest improvement has come from me doing the recall work. Since I started working on that his response on course has improved out of sight.

The Sonic Experiment

A few weeks ago I decided that I wasn't happy with certain aspects of Sonic's performance in the agility ring. At the moment he is handling like a dream and no one could dispute that he has an absolute ball while he is out there. But for some reason I'm not getting the speed that I know he is capable of. Every time we run clear in either Masters Agility or Masters Jumping when our states top agility dogs also go clear we are always about 2 seconds behind. For those who have seen Sonic running with my other dogs he is an extremely fast. Not surprising considering that he's built like a greyhound. With that in mind I decided that my immediate goal with Sonic is to transfer that amazing drive, power and speed that he possesses across to the agility ring. And so "The Sonic Experiment" was born!

Susan Garrett has really been my inspiration for this. Her incredible dog training skills and her amazing dogs who are a product of that make me want to be a better dog trainer. I've always admired her ability to look at a situation and come up with a plan of action to work through whatever issue she is facing with her dogs. So I've been studiously reviewing the situation that I currently have with Sonic. The boy has two main loves in life. Water is right up there at number two. If I walk anywhere near a hose or water bucket he turns into a screaming banshee. With that in mind I have already gotten to a point where I can ask him to perform most agility behaviours using water as a reward. His drive when doing agility definitely goes up a notch when I do this. It took a while to get him to focus on the task rather than the fact that I was about to throw some water for him but we got there. Then streets ahead at a big number one is Riot. If Sonic even has a remote inkling that he and Riot are going to go for a run together Sonic turns into a crazed beast producing bursts of speed to make you gasp. Sonic will not respond to either food, toys or his name in this situation. My challenge is to somehow to put myself into the picture when Riot is involved. Ultimately I want to transfer that speed to the agility ring by using running with Riot as a reward for agility and thus transferring the value of it.

The bonus that I had to get me started is that Riot doesn't feel the same as Sonic (not that Sonic cares!). Riot loves to run free but if I call him he is happy to come back and when I'm training him I have a hard time getting him to leave. He will always take food or come in for a toy when offered. So I decided to exploit that particular trait to my advantage. Obviously I have to bring Riot and Sonic together gently to begin with otherwise it's never going to work. So by putting Riot in a stationary position on a table has given me the opportunity to get Sonic started with Riot as a minimal distraction. Every day I do some work on this I get something different. Some days I have a little triumph and others I get depressed but it's been incredibly interesting so far. I hope that no matter what the end result I learn heaps from the experience.

Fire, rain and agility

As part of preparing for next summers fire season we set fire to a good two thirds of our property recently. Living in an area that is predominately bush we have been rather nervous during the couple of summer periods since being here. The bush on the block was really thick and looked like it hadn't been burnt in at least 20 years. The controlled burn was carried out by a group of local volunteer fire brigade personnel of whom I have a very large respect for. These guys spent over five hours getting the job done on a Friday night in their own time. They also made sure to rescue any wildlife in the way and transfer them to area that wasn't being burnt. I didn't do anything particularly constructive other than wander round with my camera oohing and aahing as things went up in flames. I did take some very cool photos...







The downside is that the landscape is now rather charcoaled and the rabbits hate us but hopefully with the winter rains upon us we should see new life sprouting very soon.









We've also joined the solar power revolution and had solar panels installed before the government stops handing out rebates. It's actually spent more time raining than sunny since it was done though so it will be a little while before we really start to see the benefits. I'm definitely looking forward to much lower power bills over summer when the air conditioner is in full swing. It's kind of nice to be living in a more environmentally friendly way. With all the rain I'm happy to say that our water tank is finally full again.



We are smack bang in the middle of agility double header madness. There are enough trials for the next month or two to render even the most ardent agility enthusiast with exhaustion. There's a part of me that loves it and another part that is finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with everything so I'm going to start limiting the trials to fortnightly once I've made my way through the trials I've already entered. I've always felt that our agility competition year is too long and I think that we can over trial & train our dogs. I know of few other sports that run for an entire year. Most are seasonal allowing sports people time off to wind down and relax. Sonic loves his agility, don't get me wrong but to have any animal in peak condition for a whole year is an awfully big ask.

Trialling is going OK. We finally managed a quallie in Masters Agility at the Gosnells trial last weekend after a long drought. The courses recently have for the most part been really quite challenging with tight turns and off courses everywhere you look. Sonic is definitely reading my body better but I still see him asking questions and every time that happens we loose speed on course. I am still working on getting him to dig in and drive harder over small grids and sequences. Here is some of our recent weekend runs.



Gosnells Obedience Dog Club - Agility Trial 18/06/2011



Agility Club of WA - Agility Trial 12/06/2011

Celebrate Good Times!

Two big reasons to celebrate this week. Firstly birthday time is upon us again with the Murphster turning fourteen years old.

Its ma burfday again!

He's doing really well for a grumpy old bugger. Although a bit unsteady on the old pins he still trots around the property with us each night and runs around playing chasey with Riot and Sonic in the backyard. If he wants something he barks at us until he gets it and he hates getting up early in the morning. I'm pretty sure he's having a pretty good time during this his twilight years.



The other reason for celebration was Sonic's win in Masters Jumping at the Northern Suburbs agility trial last weekend. We started the day with a really nice run in Masters Agility but he pulled out of the last weaver when I moved away (very uncharacteristic I must say...). Then we had a fantastic run to go clear in Masters Jumping. I was happy enough to have a run that felt so great and winning the class just made it that little bit sweeter.

With all the work we've been doing on recalls and Sonic's response to my verbal and physical cues I'm very happy to say that the fruits of my labours are starting to pay off. Training has seen him coming away from off course obstacles that he would otherwise have taken as soon as I've called him which is what I've been aiming for. Then his response to my handling over the weekend and some pretty tricky courses was well above what it's been for quite some time. We've got another couple of weekends of double headers coming up so lets see if we can keep the good times rolling!!

Livin on the edge

Last Sunday was huge fun in the agility ring with Sonic and I managing two out of three quallies AND I didn't have to drive all the way to Geraldton! The class we didn't get a quallie in was my own very big LOSER fault when I pulled Sonic off a jump that I'm sure he would have taken if not for my meddling. It was almost a complete reversal from last weekend and even during runs where things went a bit wrong we still managed to qualify. It also included yet another opportunity for a slow motion moment in our video's from the trial courtesy of Sonic's over exuberant exit from a collapsible tunnel. There was a face plant, a roll and much gasping from spectators involved... That was after one of the most poorly timed pull throughs I may ever have done. Somehow though we still managed to come third out of about eight or nine quallies. Phew! I wasn't too worried that he was actually hurt. Stacking it is part of an average day for Sonic when he's racing around at home.



I do think that Sonic may need a few extra massages this week.

Old man Murphy has been in for a spot of surgery recently. He's had a wart above his eye for a while now which he managed to knock all the time. After getting the all clear from his regular "geriatric" vet checks and bloods we decided it was a safe risk for him have surgery to have it removed. As expected surgery was a complete success and he has recovered beautifully. Stitches come out this week and he should end up with a very manly scar above his eye which I'm sure will impress the other boys no end.



Daisy Peel hits Perth this coming weekend. Although I'm not doing the handling component as it's all Linda Mecklenberg stuff that I don't do I'm very much looking forward to the running contacts session. Quite a few people in Perth are now trying running contacts with their young dogs so I'm really interested in hearing what Daisy has to say and advise that she gives. That is definitely the upside of new training methods happening BEFORE you get your next young dog. You get the benefit of watching what does and doesn't work for everyone else first before you inadvertently screw your own dog up. I have to be honest I really have no idea about training running contacts at this stage of the game. I can't wait to see all these young dogs hit the ring when they are old enough. Just in case our WA dogs aren't fast enough, they are going to be out of sight as this new wave of running contacts start to come through!

Sometimes losing aint so bad!

You'd think that after spending five hours in the car driving all the way to Geraldton, competing in nine classes over the course of the weekend, not managing to secure even one agility or jumping qualifying card and then driving five hours back to Perth might make a person slightly frustrated and annoyed. Nope, not me! Sonic was great and I had an incredibly fun time running him. His enthusiasm was contagious and he was full of gusto out on the courses. Massive kudos to the judges as all the courses over the weekend were thoroughly enjoyable being both challenging but achievable (well maybe not for me...). I do have one success to mention and that is that Sonic and I teamed up with Cathy and Snazzy to go clear with a first place in Excellent Strat Pairs.

The first run that Sonic and I had on Saturday was a super run but as he was going through the weavers they started wobbling and he literally got bounced out of the poles! It was like revenge of the weavers. With that sort of luck I had to wonder if perhaps we may be going to have "one of those weekends" and I quite possibly inadvertently jinxed us. To top it off in the last run of the day on Sunday I thought we'd finally gone clear only to realise that Sonic had knocked a bar!



So you have to wonder if sometimes things just aren't meant to be. But if all his runs are as much fun as what I experienced on the weekend then who cares :-)

A Modern Woman?

Is the epitome of the modern woman working in the city by day donning makeup and heels while managing the statewide pharmacy application. Then by evening donning flannelette's and work boots while using power tools and lawn mowers, living a semi rural existence? Some may just call me mad...



After this evenings mowing the agility lawn is looking awesome. If only it would rain on a regular basis I could pack up the retic and start to use it. It's hard to imagine what regular rain even feels like anymore. Mind you I think I'd rather what we have than the cold, wet and windy conditions a lot of the cities over east are being pounded with of late.



Agility itself is cruising along right now. I had a feeling Sonic was sore last week but couldn't put my finger on anything in particular so I booked him in for some muscle therapy. We went to training on Tuesday and Wednesday to target some specific areas of agility that I think need the most work a lot of which don't involve equipment. On Wednesday we'd done a few flat work sessions and then I decided to fit in a couple of seesaws before finishing up for the night. After the second one Sonic started actually favouring a front leg so after a mild panic attack I comforted myself with the fact that he was already booked in to be looked at the next day. In the end it doesn't appear that he was lame but rather his muscles were so damn tight that he was suffering from overall muscle soreness. After the treatment he was a different dog and back to being happy and relaxed. I was pretty careful with him before heading down to Bunbury for a trial on Sunday and he was banned from all silly running around in the meantime. For some reason he has been mega over the top at home lately so being "quiet" has been quite a challenge. My main concern at the trial was making sure that he was completely warmed up before each event. And of course we have another visit scheduled this week for a follow up treatment.



At the end of the trial I was pretty happy. The only run I thought was "bad" was Masters Agility which was our first of the day. I was so distracted by him being warmed up properly I handled him rather poorly to say the least. I was hanging back and nowhere near where Sonic needed me to be for a decent run. Thankfully after that I pulled my socks up and he went clear in Open Agility and just a bar down in Masters Jumping. Open Jumping wasn't bad but he didn't get the distance challenge. He responded well to my handling so hopefully the recall work I'm doing with him is starting to pay off. At the moment everywhere we go we are working on those recalls!



This weekend is Geraldton so Kriszty and I are going to head up on Friday afternoon with Sonic, Terra and Shimmer. The only downside is that the World Agility Open is on and I really want to try and watch as much as I can. So the laptop will be coming and conveniently the hotel has free wireless internet...

GO TEAM AUSTRALIA!!