Bryn’s Agility Debut!

Having Bryn’s agility debut after 6 weeks of not doing agility was maybe not the wisest move, but my expectations were really low, I just wanted her to be comfortable and play in the ring. We ran T2B and FAST as FEO with her toy and she was happy to play with me, but not very clear on what we were there for. Didn’t recognize the aframe or the weavepoles, ran around jumps – very much a baby dog. But she was happy, no issues playing and staying with me – I was pleased.

Agility Photos by Joe Camp!

The big test was going to be novice jumpers, seeing what she did WITHOUT the toy – especially considering we couldn’t really put anything together in flow in the other two classes. But I put her on that startline and she self released and was just totally on task, like she really DID know what we were there for – zooom! Some nice little rear crosses, no running around anything, no bars, and while she wasn’t thrilled about it, got her weaves the third time – and even had a go-on at the end! Totally surprised me, what a tiny steady superstar she is – her first agility Q! That is one solid little dog, she continues to amaze me with how she just takes everything in stride.

First trials are always interesting, seeing what works best and what kind of pre and post run routines work for the dog. Bryn likes to check things out, and will contemplate other dogs watching agility, but very neutrally. She is MOSTLY very focused on me around agility, but we were working at the practice jump, no issues with the other dogs or people or anything like that – but there was a little pile of what I assume was cat poo that was probably 5 feet away from where I set her up, and she HAD to find it, agility be damned. So that was interesting, and after she found it was happy to go back to totally focused, so that was weird.

Bryn very much enjoys playing tricks for food in the facility, she’s pushy and adorable about it in a way she often is not at home. She’s pickier about her toys at the trial, I realized we had not really spent any time playing with her leash, and she thought that was pretty stupid of me. I rewarded her jumpers run with a ‘dead’ squeaky pig, which she just loves at home/practice – but thought it was stupid in this environment. She loved her fuzzy squish tug toy though.

So, yeah, she didn’t understand the end of run routine for jumpers, she was like, “Where the hell is my toy?” and she was not thrilled with the non-squeaky pig once we ran over to it. Getting the pre/post run rituals and routines takes time (at leash she didn’t do the ‘dead dog’ act when I put her leash on her, which is always embarrassing …). I’ll be working on the concept that the rewards sometimes happen AFTER, not during the work. We need to see if she remembers her aframe at classes, as I didn’t like what she did on that at the trial, even just looking at the downramp – very leapy and not at all the behavior we had trained. Obviously need to work weaves, and jumping – and actually sequencing … so many things. I’m happy she’s happy, it was a nice little soft baby dog debut.

As for the boys, we didn’t get a damn thing. Navarre dropped a bar in standard (no particular reason I could see, it happens), but it was lovely otherwise. I was thinking about Asher and didn’t particularly like the jumpers course and as it didn’t ‘count’ for anything did some weird handling and then he flipped away randomly off course and there just wasn’t a good way to get back in flow, and it seemed silly to have him do weaves for no reason – so we left. Poor guy, I should have been a lot more focused.

Asher was high as a kite after waiting all morning while I ran Bryn, so his first run was excellent jumpers and he was squealing on the startline, which is never a good sign. I’m not sure which dog I thought I was running, but I gave him almost zero information about a turn (doing a sissy verbal call is NOT going to cut it with that boy!) and he went straight instead. Dropped two bars too, one was the triple from a tunnel, we should work on that …

Standard was a really nice RC exit, the course went tire – dogwalk – straight into the tunnel, which just happens to be one of his current issues where he leaves out a stride. He leapt, I was disappointed, and stopping to fix that definitely ruined our flow. I was going to a serp to blind later on, but it was clear he was not going to come in, so changed it to a front cross and off course he went because I wasn’t where I was supposed to be, hm. BUT, he stuck his table and got both sets of weaves the first time. And he was coming off a break as well, so good stuff. Someday we’ll get our shit together – someday.

Back to classes which means back to practice! Once again, broke down the dogwalk with Asher and built back up from the ramp. His issue continues to be extension exits, he’s leaving out a stride he used to do and it doesn’t work at all unless he really thinks about what he’s doing. He’s not really thinking about what he’s doing. As usual, after a while he did settle into nice hits again – but I know that dog, it’s not going to stick when he’s excited.

Bryn was also like, “Wheeee! I didn’t know we got to launch off of aframes!” after her trialing experiences. But I was able to get her to agree to come down safely running instead of launching again. She’s also so much more amped and forward focused at home I think it’s just naturally bringing her down lower because of the momentum. She COULD weave, but, yeah, still has baby dog issues of not wanting to collect for the entry or to hang on once she gets in. When she does get it correctly, wow, she can really move! Heidi got some pictures from her debut from Joe Camp – she looks SO SHORT! Even shorter in the weaves too as she really gets down low. Gosh she’s fun!

Now, sequencing … that remains a project. I’m pretty sure I didn’t create these issues, the outrunning – ugh. But she can be trained, and it does get better – we’ll get there. Dogwalk looked great, still assume that will be break at some point, but that’s a problem for another day …

I would say I’m definitely not doing the same amount of training with any of my dogs as a lot of other people. Maybe I used to do more? I definitely worry more about doing too much with young dogs these days, probably more than I used to. And dogs that are kamikaze with their bodies like Asher just worry me, I keep it very short and focused with Asher. That is the problem of the more you know, just way more worry. I recognize that it’s going to be a better trained behavior to do more repetition of behaviors, breaking it down and really focusing on the details – I just hate to do that level of repetition these days though. So I think that definitely affects the level of training my current dogs have, I don’t spend a lot of time doing repetition as I worry – but that can cause issues with overall understanding … which can then require repetition to fix. Ha!

The good news, I found a new chiropractor out in Molalla, so going to get on a regular adjustment schedule with her. Between that and regular massage with Maddy, it makes me feel better about the dogs. We saw the new chiropractor last week, Asher has a weird mid-back mohawk, so that makes me worry. She did find quite a bit out of whack on his back, and felt the hair should settle back down – but it never did. Hm. The big news is Navarre, who overall has been doing well – no roaching, no mohawks, moving well, no issues in agility. However, still had his weird long peeing thing, but I have given up about that. I know there is inflammation back there for some reason, but I’ve never solved it despite going to four different vets about it. Curiously though, after his adjustment, he’s not doing the long peeing and he’s been VERY spunky. We went hiking and he was just like a big obnoxious puppy pestering everyone to play the whole time. So, yeah, curious. I also think Haku seems much more limber as well, which unfortunately has also transferred into him thinking he can superman jump into the car again … but, hey. Some interesting positive changes from our first visit with her, we’ll see her in March again.

Beautiful portrait of Bright by Rebecca’s niece:

The good news, Bryn didn’t have anything of note, and she keeps running into everyone like the tiny brick she is. One thing that low rider body style is good for is injury prevention – that girl is a tank. She’s also in season, which is inconvenient as I had to pull her from her second trial, but convenient because that means she WON’T be in season for our ‘herding vacation’ the beginning of March. And gives us time to, you know, actually train and get her more prepared for her second go at a trial, which I think will be the end of February in a new location. Bryn continues to think cleaning up when she’s in season is NOT her job, so that hasn’t improved. Asher remains pretty chill, though of course she’s not really that exciting right now. We shall see what happens next week …

Bryn is growing her hair back though, and it’s funny how much WIDER she looks with it going on – and shorter. It’s like her legs are slowly disappearing. We shall see how much hair she grows back, I mean she JUST is growing it back in and I expect her to dump all that coat after her season. But who knows. Oh, and she did NOT get to be measured at all at her first trial, so that was pretty anticlimatic. Because there was no VMO they still have covid rules, so you just go run whatever and measuring be damned. So that was funny. I wasn’t worried about her measuring over, but I was ready to get it over with. Who knows when that will actually happen …

We did finally get back to practice at Maddy’s this week. Asher and I continue to be able to do things … really slowly. We CAN pen the sheep, if you give us a good 10 minutes and a lot of patience. The secret was me doing my job and holding my side. A-hem. I should know that … Asher really does have a lot of skills, and I have more than I used to. We are definitely no experts, but we can fumble through most things … eventually. While we may not be smooth, we are both trying our hardest without arguing (usually!), it’s just fun. Yes, still hoping to attempt some PN trials this summer, but don’t want to travel. And I expect that they will be humbling and give us a lot to work on. Still, we’re useful, and that’s something.

Bryn was doing better with her outruns at Maddy’s, less eying up, but not a lot of distance. She CAN drive a bit, but still doesn’t really understand the task. I feel like she’s definitely partnering up and trying her hardest to team up with me as well as do what needs to be done on the sheep. She is very good at keeping control of those sheeps, even if it means ignoring what I’m asking – and I get that. We have another month before we go see Robin, but I don’t have much practice planned in that time. We do have a Ron lesson next weekend, but Bryn’s going to be standing heat, so that probably nixes that for her.

Worked the dogs up at Brigand’s a couple times with Carol. Her and Navarre are really looking good together – like, suspiciously good. Like ‘when did he EVER do outruns and lifts like that?’ And he’s not stressed or redirecting and eating poop – just pretty happy and relatively under control. Carol is very good about being right on top of him, which is how he likes it. There are benefits to being almost 7, I think, he may finally have a handle on what his job is supposed to be. Maybe. Theoretically he’ll get to go to an AKC trial with Carol in April, we’ll see if he was just putting us on.

Did have a lesson with Carol and Ron on shedding – now that, not so much. He’s big proponent of keeping the sheep TOGETHER, and still doesn’t have the faintest what he’s supposed to be doing. Waiting to really learn to shed until a dog is seven is not the ideal way to go about it, I think. He doesn’t HAVE to shed – so we’ll see. Still, he’s had PRACTICE, which he hasn’t had for a while – he was very happy about it.

Now Asher, while I feel fairly confident and connected with him, he went for a lesson with Carol and Ron and, good lord, who is THAT pushy dog? And his outruns and lifts were bad, he wasn’t taking flanks – I was not impressed with THAT Asher. Navarre was making Asher look bad, and that’s saying something. So not sure where that came from, but I had noticed from the videos of the AKC trials with Carol that he is way pushier with her in general. Still had a good time though.

Brynnie-wynnie worked some outruns in the PT field at Brigands and I was pretty darn pleased, no eyeing up, so that was encouraging. She continues to have vague idea of what driving is, but seems to enjoy it … sometimes. She’s fun and ridiculously cute.

Not much to report with Bryn in season this time, Asher remains mildly interested but not at all over the top – they’re seperated most of the time, but are still hanging out together with direct supervision (I love having multiple dog yards!). Bryn is definitely not that sexy yet though, maybe this weekend. I have been trying out working her in agility with pants, and she doesn’t care in the least – score! Now, getting them on and off of her … that’s another story, she does her alligator roll into ‘limp dead dog’ – it’s pretty hilarious. She is CRANKY, she is not about to let any Asher’s up in her business, and now most dogs that walk past the car will get a piece of her mind too (it’s been so warm I can’t close it up!). She is a little more sensitive and needy, but doesn’t seem like she’s slowed down like she did last time. At least, not yet.

We did work some extension/collection exercises – guess who can collect?! Wow, SO much easier than Asher and Navarre. It’s nice to have some validation that it’s not just me and I teach my dogs not to collect. Because Bryn is NOT one of Nature’s Collectors, but she can still do it even coming into it with a lot of speed (she will knock the bars sometimes though!). Super pleased with her, so much work to be done.

Started the jumping online class with Asher, I’m open to whatever for the most part. Kind of made me laugh, we started with bounce jump grids, which I have never done with him (I do NOT want him to EVER think he can bounce jump things – he’s crazy enough as it is!). Now, what makes me laugh about these types of grids with my dogs and every dog I’ve ever put them in classes – I’ve never seen a dog not just do these pretty much effortlessly (unless the spacing was off). I just don’t know what they’re supposed to be teaching the dog, but, hey, we did them (and Bryn too – at Asher’s spacing, because I was lazy and didn’t want to change it – no problem!). We still have some other little homework exercises like teaching him to pull and learning not to target a draggy toy near your hand (who knew he was so bad at this? I’ve never noticed …). But we also did the extension to collection work and he wasn’t ridiculously bad, I was able to get him to collect. I remain optimistic once the arena gets up and running we’ll get more practice.

And, oh, is the arena getting close! There is only ONE major project left to complete – the irrigation. The viewing area looks GREAT! Insulated ‘Quiet Room’ is ready for my obnoxious dogs. The separating wall looks sturdy with TWO doors. A little balcony on top, which can’t really see the arena from that high, but it’s nice to have the extra storage, and you CAN put a camera up there for a more aerial angle of the arena. Finally got door knobs too! All the equipment is up in the arena now too, working on getting it cleaned up. Classes start up there the end of March, it’s crazy how it all came together. I’m sure there will always be something to work on, and maintaining the surface and all that – but so nice to have all the big stuff finally out of the way. Oh, and I did my taxes for last year – that was …. horrifying. Still, no regrets so far, I’m excited to see what Bright Arena becomes. I think we even have our first presenter in July – woot!