Open Level Obedience

Since I have started teaching Riley Open level obedience exercises, I thought I would show Katie and Travis competing in Open so readers who do not compete in obedience would know what we are working towards.

This is Katie competing in New York (see, she used to be fine for 15 hour drives) at the Greyhound Nationals in 2007. Obedience was at the beginning of the day with few greyhound entries. Kathy Helmke and I made up majority of obedience entries, each with two greyhounds. You can see there were few spectators. And check out that busy road! I was warned ahead of time about the show site (thank you, Kathy), but had zero concerns with my two trusty hounds. This is actually Katie's very last show. The Greyhound Nationals were on Wednesday and she competed through the rest of the weekend. But about 10 days later she suffered her neurological injury that forced her to retire, ready or not. She won first place (against Travis) with a 195.5 out of 200 possible points.

This is Travis competing locally in Newnan, Georgia. He tortured me at the Open level. Katie completed her Open title (CDX) in 5 attempts.... I lost count on Travis. He never had a consistent problem, but would present a new goofy way of doing something that would earn a disqualifying score. Missed a couple of drop on recalls for sure. He did a 5 minute stand stay instead of a down stay once. Laid down during a couple of sit stays. On one occasion, he jumped the broad jump and then just kept on going to jump the ring gating and check out my chair... cause the treats were over there. I believe Travis qualified with a score in the high 180's here.

Day 4 of the Wine Cluster

It was the last day at the show. It was high to low in agility so Travis was scheduled to run early. Travis did not Q in standard. The course took you straight down the middle with a sharp left turn into a tunnel underneath the A-Frame. The problem is that the handler is stuck on the right side and is forced to rear cross the jump prior to the turn to the tunnel. Rear crosses cause wider turns and more questions, so Travis ended up choosing the A-frame over the tunnel. And then he did a weird thing later in the course... he turned around in one of the tunnels and came out the same end he went in. In Jumpers, he placed 1st again with 20 MACH points. It was not a very smooth run and it literally came down to the last jump. The last few jumps were sort of a straight line, but he was angled in such away that it became a zig zag. The crowd had already given a sorry sigh about missing the last jump when Travis made a hard turn and just barely cleared the last jump for the Q.

In obedience, Katie had Utility 1 again where articles come second. Her heeling was great and for the 4th time in a row, she completed all of the her signals which can occasionally be a problem for her. Articles were also correct and it was strange again because the judge put both articles in relatively the same place - 11 and 12 o'clock. Everything was going very well and I was beginning to think that we might actually qualify, but I also knew that she had not successfully done her directed jumping for the other 3 days, so I was not holding my breath. Well, she didn't even go out on the first go out.... took about 1 stride and kind of gave the "do I have to look". I said "yes". So for part 2, she did go out, but again just came half way back before actually sitting. Definitely need to work on that.

Open also went very well. She was very methodical and maybe even a little bored by day 4. I think in her mind she's thinking that it would be just so much easier to skip the work and go straight to the food jackpots. Its hard having to do 5 minutes of intense work prior to any reward. Anyways, Open came down to the last exercise, the broad jump. The broad jump is a silly exercise in my opinion. Its 4 - boards slightly raised, creating a 48 inch long jump. Well, she ticked the first board with her front feet, so that was an NQ. Again she performed perfect sits and downs and this time in the cold wind.

Around 1 PM we started to pack it up (Stephen doing most of that work - Thanks, Snookums) and as you can see in the picture, the dogs do absolutely nothing. They are the superstars. We haul their stuff in, set it up to perfection, and take care of their every need.

I said goodbye to some of our new friends and encourage 2 ladies to come to the Perry show in April. Maybe we will see them one day.

We left at about 2:30 PM. Stephen drove until 10 or 11 PM or so and I drove until 3:45 AM. The drive home was much easier and we arrived at close to 7 AM. Definitely a worthwhile trip, we had a blast!

Day 3 of the Wine Cluster

It is always interesting to attend an agility trial in another region of the U.S.A. You see a lot of the same........... most competitors are middle-aged women, the volunteers are great, everyone has elaborate set-ups for the comfort of their dogs, and there are always a couple of husbands that build all of the courses, move tents, and other labor intensive work. I find that most trials are held in beautiful areas and some have cute, small, downtown areas. Geneva/Romulus, NY was no exception.

In Georgia, we have a few guys who have standard poodles. I have never considered a poodle to be a man's dog, but in the southeast region there are a few men who consider the poodle to be man's best friend.............. New York was also no exception. This tall, sturdy man with rugged physical traits (see picture on left) even stated on his shirt that his best friend was a poodle. It gave me a chuckle and he too was one of those good guys who was also volunteering and helping out with a trial.

In the Southeast, we are big believers in child labor and often put the little munchkins to work. We often bribe small children to run leashes or scribe sheets. In New York, they are kept in crates.

OK, so its day 3 and the weather is perfect. Today we start off with obedience. Both classes again start at 8:30 AM. I am still not sure who thought that would be a good idea. Most people in Open B, also enter Utility B.... so why not stagger the classes a little. Katie was far down on both lists so I was unable to determine which class would come up first for us. It finally appeared that we would do Utility first (which I prefer). I warmed her up and then suddenly the steward from the Open ring was asking if I could go. Sure, I'll go. Open did not go as well today. I had to call her twice on the drop on recall. She also ran around the high jump when she retrieved her dumbbell. So no qualifying score for us this time. Came out and was immediately called to the utility ring. We lucked out again and had Utility III which means the articles are first. This was the same judge from the specialty. Katie got both articles this time. It was strange because the judge was putting the scented article at 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock, but I think she forgot what she was doing because she put it down at 6 o'clock twice. Regardless, I was just happy that Katie got it right. Go outs were icky again, but her heeling was good and she got lots of compliments from everyone again. We came out of the ring and they were literally screaming for Open sit and down stays before I could even give her a treat. Well, I wasn't about to skip the food reward for a utility performance, so I motioned that I needed a minute..... especially since we already were not qualifying in Open and could careless if we did stays or not. Katie once again preformed her 3 minutes sit stay and 5 minute down stay perfectly. Even though we didn't qualify, I was pleased to see that Katie held up to the rigors of obedience. She took it all in stride. We were especially rushed today and Stephen was a huge help with keeping up with what was going on in the agility ring, helping me change arm bands, meeting me after the class with Katie's food rewards, etc. With obedience done for the day, it was back to the agility ring where Travis was waiting patiently for his turn.

Well, the perfect run streak was about to end. On the standard course, he missed the teeter contact, dogwalk contact, and weave poles. Oh well, at least we got all of the errors out of the way in one run. Jumpers was very good, but there was a section at the end where he needed to go straight, but I was afraid he'd pull towards me and jump the jump closest to me. So I increased my speed to really drive him straight.... well, he went very straight, but was unfortunately angled towards a jump on the far side of the correct jump. It was definitely my error. There was also a very tough weave entrance, but he nailed it.

One other cool thing about today, Corey Fountain and his girlfriend came to see Katie and Travis perform. He lives in NY, but has 2 greyhounds he adopted from Southeastern Greyhound Adoption. I had helped him with some training advice via email and mentioned a few months ago that I would actually be in NY in Sept. He was only an hour away, so he jumped at the chance to see some greyhounds in action and was quite impressed with Katie and Travis..... and hopefully insprired to train his own greyhounds who need it.

Day 2 of the Wine Cluster

Today, I gave Katie the day off. I figured that 5 days of obedience would be too much for a hound, but I was wrong. Katie would have been happy to do another day of it.... she's a machine.

Agility ran high to low. Travis was awesome and placed first in both classes earning 66 MACH points. The grass was a bit slippery and he even fell on his face during one of his jump landings and didn't miss a beat... just got to his feet at full speed. Jumpers was a particularly fun course. There were some tough front crosses that I wasn't sure I could do, but did in fact get them in. There was a straight tunnel down the middle of the course..... straight tunnels tend to work like cannons and your dog tends to come shooting out of them like a cannonball. If you cross behind your dog while he is in a tunnel, they often come out of the tunnel looking for you on the wrong side because they did not see you cross while in the tunnel. This might cause an extra spin or a wide turn as your dog looks to find you. But since I was able to cross in front of him before entering the tunnel, Travis knew exactly where I'd be as soon as he came out of the tunnel. It made for a very fast and smooth run.

It was funny because a girl named Liz said to me "I don't know who you are or where you are from, but we are all just amazed by your dog.... and he's a greyhound!" She was very nice and complimentary. Another lady, Jutta (sounds like Utah), said that Travis was a wonderful dog, but he only ran so well because of my handling. That my instructions are clear and he always knows where he is going. Very nice compliment.

It threatened us with some rain and thunder storms, but luckily never interfering with the agility trial. We finished up around noon and decided to check out two local wineries since we were in wine country at the wine circuit dog show. Again, just beautiful country side. We had lunch at a winery called the Thirsty Owl. Afterwards, we did some wine tasting and Stephen and I each purchased our favorite. The lady at the counter was super nice and told us about some nice restaurants in Geneva.

Next we went to the Goose Watch winery. It had lots of sweety, fruity wines that I liked, so again we made a couple of purchases. The dogs were great and the clouds kept the car from getting too hot.

Finally, on our way back to the hotel. The skies finally opened up and it started to rain. We saw two draft horses (Belgians, I think) being galloped down the road with an Amish "chariot" behind them. It was interesting because there was no carriage. The Amish man was simply standing on a platform being pulled by the horses. It appeared that he had dropped off a load or was simply moving the horses to another location. It was pouring down rain, so I'm sure they were in a hurry.

On our way back, we stopped at Seneca state park for some Katie training. I was especially hoping to improve her go outs which she did perfectly as always when we train. This park was so beautiful. Perfect green grass fields everywhere, with trees, and a lake. It was huge and it would be wonderful for everyday training, tracking practice, or just walking the dogs........ of for a Greyhound Specialty (hint, hint to the GCA). But then it started to pour down rain. After a few minutes, I finally finished up training rain or no rain and let the dogs have a fun time playing in the grass and fetching their toys. The place was empty so I let Travis do huge galloping loops as he ran with his bumper. Luckily, we had just leashed the hounds when a park ranger drove by. I'm sure there were rules against this.

Day 1 of the Wine Cluster

The Wine Cluster dog show was held at another venue - Sampson State Park in Romulus, NY. This was about 25 minutes from Geneva and simply a beautiful drive each morning. I did not realize NY could be so rural. It was also interesting to see glimses of the famous white deer. There was a military base at one time with many acres fenced in. At some point, something odd happened and some deer were born white. When the herds were thinned out they culled the brown deer. This encouraged more white deer to be born and now there is a fairly large herd of white deer living on this abandoned military base - http://www.senecawhitedeer.org.

Stephen and I set up our area the day before. The show provides large tents for everyone to crate under and we were able to occupy an excellent spot.

This morning the agility trial ran Low to High and both of Katie's obedience classes started at 9AM. This made for one big conflict of needing to be in 3 rings around the same time. I had planned on running Travis first thing in the morning, so I had already walked the course, but the judge was not very accommidating and suggested I come back later to see how my conflicts were going. So I headed to the obedience rings with Katie. The judge in Utility was great and he let me move to the 2nd dog in the ring. So around 9:10 AM Katie and I entered the Utility ring. We lucked out again and had the Utility I rotation which is the same rotation used in all Utility A classes, so this is a very familar pattern to us and articles come 2nd. Heeling and signals were great. This time she got one of her articles right..... the first one in competition since May! So I was happy about that. Her go outs started to look pretty bad. She goes all the way out, but then she'd come about half way back before sitting instead of sitting promptly when I ask. The judge was very complimentary of her since overall she worked very nicely. Spectators were also impressed and commented on her.

Soon after it was our turn to enter the Open B ring. Katie was wonderful, impressed the judge, and scored a 192. We tied a Dalmation for 3rd, so we were called back for a run off. The judge said he'd never had a greyhound in a run off before. We did not win the run off, but we still placed 4th which is great for Open B.

With obedience out of the way, it was back to the agility ring. Stephen bought me some time and had moved Travis down so he would be the last 24" dog. It wasn't our smoothest course, but Travis ran clean and placed first earning 38 MACH points.

A few hours later and time for Jumpers. This course ran very smooth and we ran clean for a QQ, 2nd place, and 21 MACH points. A Terv had been just a partial second faster than Travis.

Happy with the days results, we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest and dinner.

New York or Bust!!!

We slept in on Monday morning, packed, took Katie and Travis for a quick hike, and then left for Geneva, NY around 2:30 PM. The drive up was particularly rough because we drove separate cars. Stephen drove a mini van with 3 greyhounds for a friend who was already at a convention in New Hampshire and I drove the Volvo with Katie and Travis. I do not find driving for hours very comfortable, I sometimes get some weird nerve pains in my right leg. We tried to sleep for an hour at one rest stop in Ohio, but it was too warm to get comfortable. My best friend, Anna, from California called around midnight. It was great to chat with her for an hour. A few hourse later, we stopped at a gas station and the temperature was nice a cool. I'm not sure what time it was, but we slept there for an hour and 20 minutes. I have to say that the toughest part of the drive was between 6 and 10 AM. I kept wondering how in the world was I going to find the energy to train the dogs when we get to Geneva. Anyways, it took us about 19-20 hours.

We arrived in Geneva at the Greyhound National Specialty site around 10 AM. Kathy Helmke was on the money with her description....... not fenced, very busy road, next to a lake with water fowl, and noisey railroad cars. Members of the Greyhound Club of America were already showing up and the tent people showed up soon after. I felt a little rushed, but everyone was very nice and didn't mind me practicing with Katie and Travis. Stephen helped me set them up for a short sit stay practice. In open obedience they are required to do 3 minutes sit stays out of sight so we hid behind someone's car for that. Travis actually failed and I had to correct him for lying down. Otherwise, they both did great as expected.

We checked into our Motel 6 at about 2 PM. Check in is at 3 PM, but we finally settled on a 2nd floor room just to get a room sooner. Its funny how you get a 2nd wind and find the needed energy when you have to. Once in the room, I took a shower and finally settled in for a long needed nap.

Final Preparations

Well, we are getting down to the final preparations for the New York show. Tomorrow, I'm taking Katie and Travis hiking. Both of them are working really well except Katie is still having problems with articles. It seems that she cannot function if the article exercise follows other exercises. If I get out the articles, she can do them. But if we work on some heeling, retrieve a dumbbell, and do a moving stand first... then she seems to fall apart. Everything else looks great. I think she will do especially well in Open. Even if she fails the articles each day, it really doesn't matter. She has her UD and working through this problem is probably going to end up being good practice for me. "Train without ego" is very important. Also if she fails, I just need to bite my tongue and pretend like it was all good when we are in the ring. She just needs to relax, be happy, and get her confidence back.

Travis has looked great all along. I hope that he can sharpen up his sloppy obedience for just one day next week... preferably Wednesday.