The Complaint of the Day

OK, today is one of those days where I seriously consider retiring Katie. I had this fairy tale dream that after you get your UD, you should be able to just practice, tweak a few things, but otherwise just continue to reinforce all that good training you have done. I know this is totally unrealistic. For those who have not given utility a try, it is this endless cycle of exercises falling apart. After you fix a problem, something your dog completely understood yesterday is no longer understood. You fix that and then it is something new. So today was one of those days where I am feeling a little burnt out, but was going to train anyway and Katie had problems with her articles again. Only this time, it has been a problem for almost 2 months and its starting to wear me down. Katie's scent articles have been very reliable for probably a year up until 2 months ago. I have done a month of remedial work. Things are better, but the mistakes are still happening especially if there is any stress or pressure involved. I'm at the point where I'm simply doing obedience for fun, but its not fun. I'm not really trying to get a UDX, so when its not fun, its hard to push through it when there is not a big goal to go after. I really really really hope that she does well at the NY dog show. If she does, I will be revitalized for sure. If not, it might be what finally does it for me.

A Brag on Solid Stays

Last night, Katie and Travis were practicing their sit and down stays at Anne's building. They had already successfully completed the 3 minutes sit stay and were working on the 5 minute down stay with some other dogs. The line up consisted of a coonhound mix, Katie, beagle, Travis, and American Eskimo (medium sized white fluffy). During the down stay, friends, Anne and Holly, were trying to look at and treat a sore on another American Eskimo. He was overreacting and screaming his head off. Katie and Travis are super high prey and no doubt turned on by animal screams, so I tend to keep an eye on them when something like that is happening. Suddenly, the screaming Eskimo turned it up a notch and dogs were bolting from across the room. I spin around and there are my two perfect angels lying down exactly where I had left them. Not only had they ignored the screaming dog, but they also resisted chasing the 3 dogs that bolted from both sides............... the coonhound, the beagle, and the American Eskimo had all broke their stays and bolted as a group. I'm actually not that surprised they would stay and I would expect nothing less from them, but its really wonderful when the opportunity for them to demonstrate just how good they are comes up so I can give them big reward jackpots. Good Greyhounds!!!

Perry Agility Trial

We just got back from a 2 day agility trial in Perry, GA. Travis ran really well and qualified 3 out of 4 times. On Saturday, he got a first in Excellent Jumpers. However, in Standard I think we made all of our mistakes for the weekend in this one run. He dropped a bar (bad dog, its his job to keep them up) which made me forget what I was doing...... I then realized I should front cross which was late and then we collided. I even heard the crowd gasp... I guess it looked bad. Then at the end I threw in a totally unneeded front cross that made me pull him off the 2nd to last jump. So very terrible run. Then on Sunday we double qualified, so that's QQ#2 for his MACH 2. Not sure if we will get all the double Qs we need, but he has more than enough points already. His Sunday Standard run was perfect. The ending was the dogwalk and then a fairly straight line of 3 jumps, the last jump being the panel jump. You had to set your line just right or you could easily end up turning your dog into a wrong jump. So I wanted him to hold his contact on the dogwalk so I could step back and front cross. Well, he held his contact like glue.... almost too long, but it gave me plenty of time to set up the ending perfectly. It just wasted some time, but we've got time to spare. Then jumpers was perfect.... so smooth. Nothing feels better than a really fast, smooth, flowing jumper course. There was a man there that had been involved with racing greyhounds, so he wanted to see Travis run. I'm always glad when we can pull off a really good run for a fan of greyhounds :-).

Happy 4th of July

Well, summer has set in and it is hot. I try to train Travis and Katie when it is not so hot, but it is difficult to avoid the heat. I work at home one day a week, so I still get up extremely early with Stephen (4:40 AM!! I can't believe it sometimes), go to the gym, and then train the dogs just as the sun is starting to come up. I try to do the same on the weekends, but we are usually getting out there around 7 or 8 AM.

Much of our focus has been on preparing for the Greyhound Nationals and 4-day all breed dog show and agility trial (5 days total) in NY at the end of Sept. Travis will compete in Open B obedience at the GH Nationals and then he will compete in the all breed, 4-day agility trial that follows. Katie is going to compete in Open B and Utility B at the GH Nationals. I have not decided on the rest of her show schedule in NY, but we have 4 more days of obedience available to us. I might enter all of it and just see how it is going. If she is competing well and loving it, then I would hate to have not entered her. Of course, if I decide not to show her and pull her out of an entered class, it is money down the drain. Might have to just spend the money since we are talking NY.

For the GH Nationals, I think we are preparing for a unique situation. I think that Katie and Travis could very well be the only "B" entries in obedience. That means that Katie could end up competing in both classes back to back with only a few minutes of rest in between. In Open they will both have to hurry back in for sits and downs without much of a break either and Stephen will have to handle one of them for the stays since I cannot do both. We are also showing outdoors, so who knows what the weather will be like. I hope that it will be a nice overcast day in the 60's. I am hoping for other "B" entries and I am hoping that another class will be placed between the "B" classes to give us a break, but if not, we will be ready. We have been training for this situation just in case.

Both dogs are working really well. Katie easily remembers the Open exercises and has not confused any of them with Utility exercises. We are doing some extra work with the scent articles to ensure that she can calmly, quickly, and confidently complete the exercise like I know she can. Travis seems to be taking it all in stride and has been doing some nice obedience work. His agility work is as good as ever. I know that they will make me proud and I'm looking forward to showing them both off in a totally different part of the country.

They both are very healthy, sound, and happy. They still very much want to work. Since they are 9 years old, I think I start to prepare myself for the possibility of retirement or worse, so I'm not caught off guard. But they show no signs of calling it quit anytime soon which is how I would like to keep it.