My Dog is a Derp.

Mission = Conquer new hiking trails.

Mission accomplished.

Da boys and I tried out a new hiking trail that's relatively close to home (10 minutes away).

A couple of years ago a large state building was constructed on the east end of the park and for some reason I thought the park no longer existed. I learned otherwise today when I had to go and get my car tabs renewed...

I guess they're good for something ;)

It was so nice out in fact I brought the camera.

We walked 5.5 miles. It was gorgeous.

And I even got some decent photos :)

Handsome.

Oh. Why are you not coming?

Blade channeling his inner Super Dog.

Evicted.

Hi.

If the path be beautiful, let's not ask where it leads.

Smile.

C'ya.

Where's Waldo?

Don Juan.

Oh? The title? What's with the whole derp thing?

Well, my dog IS a Derp.

Derp.

He Touched Me!?!? Derp.

Stop mid stride to shake? Derp again.

He growled at me!! Insert Derp.

Try to body slam Blade? Fail. DERP.

Nerd Alert.

It's official. I'm going back to school.

Ok, not really. 

I did enroll myself in a course (it's free I might add) that focuses on canine reproduction. I know, I know, it's a bit of a far cry from the whole Agility thing but I do think it can give me some incite on how hormones and that general part of the canine anatomy can effect a dog's ability to physically and mentally handle the strain of Agility training at a younger age. 

The course's name is "Canine Theriogenology for Dog Enthusiasts" and is being presented by Margaret V. Root. I personally don't have any idea who she is (maybe I should?) but I'm sure regardless if I agree or disagree with her she'll have something to bring to the table!

Interested in signing up? The link is below:
https://www.coursera.org/course/theriogenology

The course itself doesn't start until May so there's plenty of time to mull it over!

Foundation, Foundation, Foundation

Yesterday the boys and I headed to the cities to work through some of the foundation SS Grids with a couple of friends. 

It's been forever since I've gone back to basic jump work with either Blade or Viper and let me tell you, it showed. As a youngster I worked Viper through SS's puppy video and did quite a bit of work with her foundation grids. At the same time I worked through other aspects of jump training that adhered more to the APHS method. I can't really say which method was MORE beneficial for Da Vipe's jump training as I personally think they focus on two different aspects jumping. So for me, it's like trying to compare apples to oranges. 

Even though it's been a while, Viper nailed all of the grids that we worked on and even bounce jumped just shy of 17 feet which is a personal best for him. I was really impressed that even though we've taken a hiatus from jump work he settled into it very well and was comfortable completing the grids.

Blade on the other hand, has always struggled with SS Grids and that too showed. Even though all of the grids that we tried were just from her Foundations video, there is lack of confidence from Blade at being able to read varying distances several obstacles out. Which results in massive amounts of stutter stepping and flinging. The more he does them the better his jumping is and I know that...

But lets be real, grids are BORING.

Seriously.

I'd rather stick needles in my eyes...

Ok, that may be a tad dramatic (or a little bigger than a tad) but you get the point.

I might have to endure some needle sticking in order to consistently expose Blade to grids, but doing it with a couple of friends did make it pretty fun. So I might just have to find perma-grid friends to help endure grid work right along side of me ;)

Being able to have some down time also made it possible to puts around with the boyfriends camera and get a few shots of the dogs. Unfortunately none of the pics of da boys turned out but I did get some pretty sweet ones of my friends dogs!

Teaker Mon! Raddest blue dog I know.

Streak again.

Streak's son Dream. Second raddest blue dog I know.

Extraterrestrial.

No. He's definitely not an alien. But Vader is pretty rad too :)

Vader. What a stud.

For anyone wondering what grids are and who the heck SS is, I was referring to Susan Salo. She rode horses. Not just any horses. But show jumpers. She's got some pretty legit thoughts on how a dog's jumping form should be and how to get it there if its not. Don't be afraid to check her out. There's lots of good stuff to learn, even if you do have to endure some needles (kidding again! Promise!). Her system pretty much eliminates the handler for a while and it lets the dog focus on the task at hand. Which is pretty cool to watch if you are super anal like I am (or even if you're not!). 

Winter Wonderland

Brilliant Stuff

The boys and I headed south for a weekend of Agility a couple of hours away. Da Vipe was entered in everything while I was a bit more particular with Blade and only entered him in Steeplechase, the Master Challenge classes and a few classes to close in on his ADCH-Silver. 

Game plan for the weekend was simple: Criteria. 

I'm revisiting a stopped contact (on the dogwalk) with BOTH Blade AND Viper. Blade REALLY fought me on this for the majority of the weekend. Since I didn't enter him in everything I had limited opportunities to re-enforce what we've been training for months. Managing a "moving" contact (as it's not much more then a few stuttering steps before he lets himself leave the contact) is not my idea of fun and hasn't been for a while.

Blade may have won a few battles but I won the war ;) the final few runs of the weekend Blade gave me (not perfect) but 2o2o contacts that met all of my criteria :) Blade 8,325 Kim 1. It's a start.

Da Vipe on the other hand let me know loud and clear that the criteria for his dogwalk was extremely grey. I haven't posted much about it, but at the last two trials Viper powered up and across the dogwalk and then immediately stopped at the 2nd or 3rd slat on the last third of the dogwalk and stared at me. And STARED at me. He did this the first class of the weekend which just happened to be Master Gamblers so I simply marked the behavior and brought him back to the jump before the dogwalk and let him re-attempt the obstacle. Where he proceeded to run the dogwalk when I asked him for his stopped behavior. Dogs...

Grand Prix and Standard were more of the same but instead of simply "moving on" and managing the contacts I made sure that I marked the behavior with "Cheetah Cheetah" which is his cue that lets him know he needs to try something else because that wasn't correct. I REALLY don't like pulling him from the course as I really am focusing on criteria AND building his confidence. So we marked it and waited a beat before me moved forward.

 We even attempted the Master Challenge Standard course where Viper proceeded to stop 3/4 of the way through the dogwalk, then tip toe down to the end and release himself from the end position and attempt to move towards the next obstacle. It just so happened that I was able to step in front of him and scoop him up and take him off the course :(. Although I'm probably making Saturday sound like a total bust, it really wasn't. In the classes where Vipe and I didn't have to worry about the dogwalk he gave me some really BRILLIANT stuff.

Sunday, he proceeded to give me even MORE brilliant stuff. Like in Master Standard. Where he proceeded to run across the dogwalk and offer me an end behavior that met 80% of criteria. It was nice enough that I let him know what a good man he was. I know, I know, dog training is all about DOing and NOT TRYing, but I could tell Viper was looking to me for feedback and the way he exploded towards the next obstacle solidified the fact that he NEEDED that reinforcement from me. It made that moment all the sweeter when Viper and I got through the course for our very first Master Standard Q :)

We had to wait until the end of the day to have a go at Masters Gamblers again, and lucky me the dogwalk was positioned so I could make it the VERY first obstacle. Viper made it through 7/8's of the obstacle before he slammed on the brakes literally with his front feet in the yellow and the back in the red. It didn't meet criteria so I marked the behavior and we went back to the beginning of the dogwalk and re-attempted the whole thing from the start. Insert BRILLIANCE here. Da Vipe not only barreled across the dogwalk but ran into his 2o2o position! I ate up at least 5 seconds letting him know what a good boy he was! I could tell it put another notch in his confidence belt which was probably the biggest highlight from the weekend for me! Gamblers by no means is Viper's strong suit as I've worked incredibly hard to build MORE value for coming in to the momma then going away from me, and although we didn't have enough points Da Vipe smoked the gamble portion of the run too!

Our Q rate was no where near 50% but this weekend was a HUGE win-win for me and da boys. I took a lot away from it and even realized that Da Vipe is starting to put some serious miles on in the maturity department. With each run I can feel us jiving more and more as a team and I can feel him taking the reigns a bit more. Which is some brilliant stuff in itself. 

Frame of Mind

Name Chang(er) Could Be a Game Changer

Hello! Some of you may have been wondering if I had fallen off the face of the planet. I haven't (well, not really...) and I haven't stopped competing in Agility. Is that even an option? 

If you hadn't noticed the name change, let me point that out. This blog used to be "Live Wired Agility." Don't get me wrong I loved the name of that blog. I really did. I just feel that where I am now and where I was as a competitor when I started that particular blog are two very different places. You can call it maturity, you can call it whatever you like, but all I know is that I have been moving forward in a direction that I genuinely enjoy moving towards. I remain focused forward (get it?) towards the goals I want to achieve with my dogs in the Agility ring and that is how this blog was born...

Welcome to Focused Forward Agility!