AKC NOVICE JWW Pasadena, CA 1rst and a Q

Well Breeze and I ran this jumpers course today at the trial in Pasadena. The weather was really nice and cool all morning and then got hot in time for our run. Breeze did awesome and I did not see any signs of stress at the start line like I saw last week. She was a rock at the start line. I got out on the course and thought I had just missed the GO sound. I was sort of confused, I put Breeze in a stay, took off the leash and then looked at the judge and he was just looking toward the exit so I was not sure if the GO had been sounded or not, in the meantime I had left Breeze in a stay, so I just kept staring at the judge who was not hurrying me on, so I assumed maybe they had not said GO??? What a dufus, but eventually they sounded the GO, which means I had left Breeze sitting there in a stay all that time for nothing, BAD HANDLER! That made me so much more proud she held her stay so well, she had extra time to hold it. Going out of the tunnel I knew she would have picked up speed and I knew I would still be lateral to her path so there was no way to show a little deceleration so I had to hope for the best for the entrance to the weaves.....and she just nailed the entrance, and completed the weaves with no problem. YIPPIE BREEZE. After Breeze got out of the second tunnel and was between 10 and 11, Breeze went around jump 11 and then slowed when I brought her back for the jump so the rear cross there was VERY choppy and I wish I could have handled that differently....but then we did the last rear cross without incident, so we ended up with a first and a qualifying score.

I have been playing a lot of games with Breeze to work on the start line and that seems to be working well. I put her in a stay and run away from her, put her in a stay and play with the toy and then when I say BREAK we break into a wild game, and I have been doing a lot of just plain treating for staying in a down until I give a release without even saying stay.

ITS OFFICIAL, LITTLE Breeze is 17 3/4-18 inches, and 32 lbs

YIPPIE!!!! Breeze got her second measurement for AKC, so she is all official. She was right on the line for the jump heights so we ended up losing a Q last time we ran because I had her in the wrong class, so now we are all official. Now to not lose the temporary papers with the measurements until the official height card gets here.


The judge that measured Breeze was Rhonda Crane and she was so patient with the dogs and with the novice handlers, some judges can just be so impatient when they have to come and measure-which I can see why, it must be a pain for them to have to come over and do that in their limited breaks. Rhonda was GREAT, she worked with Breeze, she explained to everyone the rules with measuring. You get your first measurement in AKC, they give you the yellow back copy of the measurement, which you KEEP!!! This will be what you use to check in until the next trial where there is another VMO (volunteer measuring official????). When you get to the second trial that has a VMO-they will do your final measurement, if your dog is over 2 and if both measurements basically agree with each other, then you will get the second yellow copy of the second measurement. You need to save both of these, but you use the second measurement until your permanent height card gets here. So Rhonda, and Alicia both said make sure to get a couple of COLOR copies of the measurements in case anything happens at the AKC. I guess most importantly DO NOT LOSE your copies of the yellow sheets. If one of the measurements is way out there then there will be a third tie breaking measurement. BUT NO NEED FOR THAT TODAY, YIPPIE!!!!

The trial today and tomorrow is in Pasadena. I just went today to watch Denise and Kodi in Rally and to measure in, and SHOP!!! This is a huge trial with a lot of vendors-although not as many as in years past, there is confirmation and obedience. There were a couple of people from my dog club trialing today and I saw Kara and Dillon, my other favorite border collie. Denise and Kodi did EXCELLENT in Rally and were in a three way tie for first place in Rally. YEA KODI!!!! Denise also did very well at her jump height of about 48 inches, hahahahahahahah, and she knows what I mean by that, I think she should definitely get a first place for her performance today.

So tomorrow we actually get to run, and no measuring in to stress me out. Worrying about the measuring in has made me way more nervous then the trial this weekend.

Four on the Floor or keep trying for the good ol' 2020?

I originally taught the four on the floor contact to both my border collies. Mainly I did that with the Aframe because I wanted to figure out a way to be easier on Breeze's body because of her hip dysplasia. Lizzie loved the four on the floor but figured out how to jump over both the up and the down contact....so I had to retrain the 2o2o, which proved way harder then I thought. So Breeze has been doing pretty good with the four on the floor on the Aframe but I would like to have a 2o2o on the dog walk so she is controlling her speed and being a little more careful on the dog walk after a few accidents she has had. Well, I started with a lot of working on a small plank, I shaped her being in a down position with her two front feet off, and if we hop on and off the board she loves the 2o2o, and I had thought it would be an easy retrain. I am finding every time I add in any excitement we are back to the four on the floor, so I am trying to decide just how much I want to fight this battle, do I just work on the four on the floor and be happy or do I keep going and insist on the 2o2o on the dog walk? I know I can eventually get a 2o2o, I think...but how much time is it worth?? I already know I am leaving the Aframe as is, she doesn't position herself forward even though she anticipates the jump and the reward appears that way, so I might try to work on that but otherwise I am pretty happy with the aframe.

NADAC FINAL COUNT, TWO FIRSTS with Q's, One second, and one mucked up start line run

Finally...some runs with video to back up what happened. What can I say, this weekend we started having not happy start line issues. Breeze was definately more stressed, and I am going to be working on that a lot this next week. The jumpers run was a NQ because we dropped a bar, but we got the big things, and we got a second.

The tunnelers run was a lot of fun. Breeze has not got the hang of understanding when she goes in a tunnel and I cross behind figureing out where I will be when she comes out, so I expected a LOT of spinning. It was much better then I expected. I will say when I walked out and there was that LONG LINE of jumps and I was thinking about how far I needed to run and I quickly figured out how fast she would make that distance, I was a little intimidated thinking of how much I would have to hustle. I was right about that. Best thing was I did not forget the course, those tunnelers courses can be hard to remember because you get in the middle and all you see is tunnels. The tunnelers run was a Q and a first place, Yippie!