Bryn NA NAJ

Ah, Summer. What can you say about Summer? My least favorite season. The heat, the bugs, the humidity (which, I realize, is nothing like REAL humidity in other places, but I still don’t like it!). But there are always good things too, some lovely evenings and some very pretty foliage. We actually have a garden this year too (thanks to Heidi!)!

So far we are doing more herding than agility this summer, mostly because I’m trying to take advantage of as many opportunities as I can. Not exactly a Summer of Herding, but more than we have been doing. Had a nice clinic with Kristin, I appreciate things being broken down systematically and focusing on foundation behaviors. Both Asher and Bryn proved they still like to slice like nobody’s business, but we have some more tools to work on that. If it wasn’t so FRICKIN HOT we might go out and do that, but it’s been one 100 degree day after another around here. Sigh. But, yeah, it’s summer.

We are actually going to go out to Idaho in the Fall though, very much looking forward to that, we haven’t been out there in like 2 years! Even Navarre got to work with Carol at Kristin’s clinic, and he was remarkably cheerful about it too. The boys are gearing up for a couple AKC herding trials with Carol the end of the month, we’ll see how they do.

In the meantime our field was mowed so the dogs are happy to have all the acreage to run on again. We’ve been working on our agility skills as well. Asher has been working on his jumping, and Bryn has been working on her Justine Foundation, which has been fun. She was a little suspicious about it all at first, but decided she liked it. It’s definitely got her listening a lot better, and coming into heel SO much better. Sequencing … well, it’s a work in progress. Both Asher and Bryn are HARD to run … and I can’t help thinking the person that trained them should have done a better job. A-hem. Oh well, we have fun.

Getting ready for all my specialty classes this summer, I think it will be really fun. Though the class I’m most excited about everyone is too afraid to enter! Advanced Trick Challenges is teaching behaviors on the spot, I’d love to take a class like that. Well I’ll still enjoy it! We’ve had a nice break beforehand though, feeling refreshed and ready to get back at it. It’s been one heck of a busy year, that’s for sure.

Looking forward to extraneous new kitten! I’m hopeful he’ll get along with everyone and enjoy doing some adventures – and learn some agility! I have very low expectations in that regard though. It’s a good challenge though, we shall see if it’s up his alley.

I love that all the big agility events are back, so much fun seeing everyone so excited about competing again. The EO courses looked great, and I loved seeing the videos – agility has come so far! I appreciate watching it, but I thought it was telling that a VERY competitive handler with amazingly trained dogs basically posted since she wasn’t in shape there was no chance at placing. Agility overseas continues to move very much in the direction of handler physical fitness, which is fun to watch, but also makes it seem sort of like another sport entirely sometimes. I just love agility for agility for agility, the connection and communication – no matter what the speed of dog and handler.

We had the first of our Super Hot Summer 3 Day Trial Extravaganzas. And, as expected, it was like 100 degrees every day – and didn’t cool off at night much either. Ick. But that venue is so open and with a nice breeze, it was doable – the only place I’ll consider summer trials. SO NICE to be so close to home – loved it! The courses were nice AKC courses, nothing too weird, but nothing too mind numbing. Bryn did have one Open course with a tiny 360 pinwheel in the middle of it, but as that’s pretty much the ONLY thing she actually did out of that course, hey, I’ll take it.

So, yeah, Bryn was TERRIBLE for the trial. And in a pretty unexpected way. She reverted back to Ridiculous Extraneous Flanking Mode and could not take ANYTHING. Like multiple courses I lead out two straight jumps and she ran AROUND the jumps. She ran around EVERYTHING. I don’t think she was this bad since we first started working agility. FLANK-O-RAMA. And she wasn’t unhappy, she was like, “Going fast! Wheeee!” Weavepoles she didn’t recognize at all and just ran past unless I called her back three times and sat her down right in front of them. Once she got IN the weavepoles she was all “Zoom-zoom – wheeeee!”, but she just seemed perpetually surprised whenever she’d see an obstacle. She only wanted to run around flanking me.

I tried different approaches with Bryn, just starting with happily fixing things and just keeping the momentum going so she had a good time. But she kept getting worse and worse. I was determined to finish that novice standard title, so we didn’t have to stay until the end of every trial, but it was UGLY. She could do the equipment (and nice contacts all weekend!), but she could not follow any handling whatsoever. It was just lying her down and yelling her name and FORCING the issue. We SQUEAKED through those last two standard Qs. But her runs in Open jumpers and standard – total disasters.

The lying her down didn’t seem to help. I tried redoing sequences with more aggressive handling and could NOT get her take ANYTHING. Day three after giving her multiple chances to take ANYTHING, I went ahead and fired her from both courses. Which is not something I would normally do, but she was not even attempting to work with me at all, and I didn’t want her to practice that behavior.

Now we have ANOTHER three day trial in just a few days, which is bad timing for a dog that acted like she’d never seen agility before. So I took her out to practice, and I guess the good news is that the behavior was just as bad in practice as it was at the trial. I don’t know where it came from, but she couldn’t do ANYTHING in practice either. Good lord. We were able to make progress though, but only by firing her from her turn if she wouldn’t even TRY to respond when doing TWO jumps. After having her turn taken away a couple times it turns out she CAN actually go over the jumps and follow we without flanking out into the universe. Almost like someone HAS trained her. I’m not optimistic for the next trial, but we’ll see if at least we can make some progress. Good lord, I have never seen a dog act like this before! Oh, but she knew perfectly well what weavepoles were in practice though, so that at least isn’t broken at home. In trials will be another matter …

Now, I don’t care if Bryn qualifies at all, but I don’t want her to practice bad behaviors – and that’s what we’ve been working on from day one with her. Hopefully she’ll at least have a good time and do SOME things at the next trial. Fingers crossed. She’s just a baby, the bar is low. But apparently not low enough, as I was shocked at how bad she was!

As for the boys, the goal was to get seasoned, mature Navarre some double Qs to finish up that MACH that he should have had long ago. Did he get ANY double Qs for THREE DAYS? No he did not. Ha! We still had a good time. Day one he had a nice standard run – and then in jumpers he BROKE HIS STAY as I lead out. He NEVER does that! I was shocked, he then knocked a bar because I was no where where I needed to be. Which is probably good, I was so shocked I might have just gone with it – which is a terrible thing to do. But, yeah, no. Day two I ASSUMED he’d come into me when I said teeter, but he went to the table instead – I could have handled that better (and nice jumpers). Day three was a dogwalk with a tunnel straight ahead but you turn off the dogwalk to a jump instead. It was tiny spacing for a running dogwalk, but I felt confident he could do it. I called nice and early and pulled … and he did come, but ran around the jump. So I did a fix and go and sent him over the dogwalk again, this time he just drove into the tunnel! Dork! So obviously I shouldn’t have been cocky. And then took a jump for granted in jumpers and her ran around it. I should know better, WORK ALL THE JUMPS! Always (especially with Navarre!). He had a good time, and got faster and more into as the weekend went on. He seemed a bit slow to start with, but seemed more normal speed by the end of the weekend (when we, uh, weren’t qualifying with anything). Maybe we’ll pull our shit together next weekend.

Then the morning of the first day of the trial Asher is LIMPING. I was so bummed! We had actually worked some agility the evening before and he looked fine. Looked fine that evening, and I couldn’t find anything on his pads. He looked fairly pathetic too, so I assumed he was out for the weekend – and probably next weekend as well. What terrible timing! So I left him and Haku home and took just Navarre and Bryn. Came home … no sign of a limp. Hm. Later in the day I forgot and let him out in the backyard with the other dogs, and I look out and seeing him tearing around like a wildman playing with Bryn. Damn. Oh well, damage was done. Bring him back in – no limp. No limp later that evening. No limp when he woke up the next day, I couldn’t see ANYTHING. Now spontaneous magical healing NEVER happens to me, but I decided to bring him to the trial and have other people watch him move. Asked Desiree and other folks – they don’t see anything either. Play with the practice jump, looks great. Ran him for the rest of the weekend, no sign of the limp whatsoever (front left). I can’t explain it, I have no idea what that was about.

So Asher was the superstar of the weekend, he ended up going three for four. This was his test trial after all the jumping homework we’ve been working on. These courses were good for him, in that they had very little collection required. Still, his last trial before this months ago he was very flingy and his jumping wasn’t fluid at all. I’m going to say I actually did feel like he was making much better jumping decisions after our concentrated work. It could have been the courses as well, I suppose, but comparatively speaking, there HAD been improvement in the extension jumping. I also felt what little collection I did ask from him he did give it an ATTEMPT – there was a stride put in. I was pleased overall, and we felt remarkably in sync. Though it amuses me that I have reverted to just using his name constantly on course for everything, I’d like to feel more confident using handling cues instead – but I’ll take it for now!

His weavepoles were solid and he DECELERATED to hit his entrances! He didn’t knock any bars (but did break the tire that was the first obstacle, which he’s now done multiple times) and I was very pleased that he did the tough dogwalk exit that Navarre failed at. His first dogwalk of the weekend was off, but he also hesitated a bit going on the board not totally confident that’s where we were going, so I’m taking it. Teeters looked great too.

Overarousal … well, Asher is handling things better. He SQUEAKS on course which is adorable, but also kind of frightening how worked up he gets. The overarousal is less scary when I see him making good thoughtful decisions on course though. I wasn’t worried about him hurting himself this weekend, and that’s a nice feeling. He finished his AXJ, and now just needs one more excellent standard Q for his AX. Then he’ll be a real grown up agility dog. Maybe not as fast as other dogs, but I think he may actually be ready to DO AGILITY now. I’m feeling very optimistic that if we keep working, that we will hit our groove when he’s four (hopefully in herding too!). Such a good boy, he tries SO HARD.

So, yeah, running three dogs at trials is an adventure. It would be really nice to get everyone into Excellent, but Bryn has decided that she’ll be taking the slow route like Asher did, so I’m not holding my breath for her to get out of Open any time soon. Even then, the 16/20 inch conflict is real, I’ll just get used to it.

Took Bryn up to Joan’s to see if we could get her swimming again. She’s in a bit of dramatic stage at the moment, so she would do it, but refused to have fun. She even does the cutest little jumps into the water, so it’s not anything about her being worried or not confident about the swimming, she’s just being a girl about it all. She also continues to be wishy washy about eating. Sometimes she’s great, other days she’ll turn her nose up. It’s possible she’s feeling hormonal, I have her penciled in to come into season in September. Heidi’s dogs haven’t come into season yet though, and they were before her in the spring.

Bryn will be TWO YEARS OLD in October though – how does that happen? She’s still very much the baby princess of the family, and we all still love that little girl to pieces.

Haku had such a good time swimming with his pal Demi at the pool – such a happy boy!