Travis is almost 9 years old and he still crates at night and still crates during the day. I hate that he spends so much time in a crate, but he leaves me no options. In the morning, he is quick to rise and starts crying. I am definitely not one to let my dogs decide when we get up, but its an all out battle to get him to stop. I am almost to the point of thinking that he cannot physically stop himself. Its like breathing. So life is just easier if he sleeps crated in another room. During the day, I had tried to leave him confined to the dog room with Katie, but he started to chew on the window trim. I have no idea why he does this. He does not have separation anxiety. The truly unusual part of this is that instead of chewing the totally exposed wood, he wedges himself between a crate and the window and chews on the trim there. It is very strange. Bitter Apple has not detered him, so its back to crating.
This weekend, Stephen and I took the dogs to Augusta, GA for a Dock Jumping competition. There was a big fishing tournament going on and dock dogs was a fun side show sort of thing. Our main goal was for Travis to finish his Junior Jumper title. He needed 2 more qualifying jumps and he actually gave us 5. His dock jumping isn't much to write home about. He only jumps around 13 feet where as some of the other dogs are jumping 20 or more feet. The world record is held by a 7/8ths greyhound & 1/8th coonhound mix - 28 feet, 10 inches. Absolutely, amazing. He is very greyhound like, but I do not know his story. The officials at this event said that Travis was the only purebred greyhound they had seen. So as always, its fun to show off the greyhound who likes to do it all. Travis really had a fun time. We did not practice at all last year and he was only able to swim a little last weekend. But he took right to it again. He couldn't wait to climb to the top of the dock for his turn.
We also camped close to this venue. Beautiful site right on the lake. We had a very nice flat spot for setting up the tent and for parking.
Katie earned UD leg #2 at the Brierfield, AL show last Saturday on her 24th attempt in the utility class. It was a teeny tiny show at a historic park. I was excited about it because I think she will show better outdoors on more natural footing and I think she proved me right. It was unseasonably cold.... started out in the 30's, but luckily our ring became sunny and it was probably just right for showing. Our judge was Barry Roland who was very nice. Before the show he said, "You are the one with the greyhound aren't you? I hope you do very well today." Katie and I were the only Utility A entries...... only 13 obedience entries in all. So it was the nice quiet setting I was looking for. Katie heeled beautifully and her signals were sharp and responsive. She only creeped fwd a little on the down. Articles were smart and confident. She had to work the piles. Barry gave us glove #2 which doesn't always ensure an easy retrieve, but this time it worked in our favor. No problem with the moving stand. Barry was a man with a beard wearing a hat........ very scary for some dogs, but Katie could care less. Then finally down the the directed jumping. Her go outs are great in that she goes all the way to the fence, but she creeps quite a bit back towards me. Nonetheless, it wasn't so bad that she NQed. The first one she stood there instead of sitting. The last jump was the high jump (panel jump) that we sometimes have trouble with. I gave an extra lean to really indicate that jump and it worked. Barry immediately congratulated us and off we went for the huge jackpot of treats. I bring several small containers of treats so I have a wide variety, but also so I can reward her according to how I feel about her performance. Qualifying performance earns them all...... less than qualifying might only earn a couple of containers. The other nice thing was that Stephen was there and was able to see and film a qualifying leg finally and his family was there as well. Points off were Signals - 2, Scent articles #1 - 1.5, #2 - 1, Directed retrieve - 0.5, Moving stand - 0.5, Directed jumping - 7 = 187.5 total score.
We just returned from the AKC Agility Nationals north of Columbus Ohio. Ohio is a lot more rural and beautiful than I had imagined. Its nice to see that some places are still green and not paved over yet. What an exciting event. First of all, this was a stand alone event unlike the one held in Tampa, FL that Katie and I had a miserable time at. This was held at a large equestrian arena on dirt and surrounded by lots of grass to potty walk your dogs on and decent parking. Check in was so painless and we were able to rent stalls so we took the whole gang with us this time. Anyways, Travis was awesome. On Friday, we did not qualify in either round of the state competition. We did not help Georgia at all. He ran very well, but it seems that I strong with finding a balance between sending him just enough. In this case, I pulled him off the jump in jumpers for fear of sending him over the wrong jump. In standard he simply missed the up dog walk contact.
