I'll admit it...I'm not a fan of Halloween. At all. Usually I'll embarrass the spotty dogs with a few silly pictures, but I've been so busy I haven't had time. I guess they lucked out this year. :)
Peyton and I attended an AKC trial near Lakeland yesterday and oh was it HOT. Like 90+ degrees hot. Much too warm to be playing agility outside...not sure where fall is, but it would be really nice if it showed up soon!
We started with standard and it was a perfect course for Peyton - so much better than what we saw in Miami last week. Unfortunately he knocked the panel jump early on and then I had a number of small mistakes that I can only blame on brain-melt. Unfortunately I didn't get this run on video.
Next up was JWW and again, this was a nice course for us. My original plan was to handle with all rear crosses, but I changed my mind at the last minute and decided on a landing side front cross in front of the triple. Not such a good idea - he didn't read my motion (which wasn't that great anyway) and took the off-course jump. It was a nice run otherwise.
Despite the miserable heat, I was overall very happy with our runs. This was a new trial site for us and I thought Peyton handled the new environment well and seemed to have a good time. We took today off, but will be heading back tomorrow morning...I'm hoping it will be slightly cooler.
To all of my Halloween-loving friends, Happy Halloween!
Even though we didn't have any Q's, I actually liked our runs on the last two days much better than the first two. I think I let myself get frustrated with the courses and with our standard runs in particular and by the third day, I had talked myself into just running and having a good time.
Saturday JWW - I'm actually pretty impressed with how we managed this course. The opening was decent and we were doing pretty good up until I stopped moving and called him off a jump - then I was behind and almost stepped on him. Then he took the (off-course) weaves twice. Didn't see that coming, especially the second time! This was probably the happiest he ran all four days though.
Saturday Standard - Without a startline stay, this opening wasn't very friendly. We had an early refusal, some knocked bars, and then Peyton decided to duck into an off-course tunnel at the very end. He seemed to be running a little (extra) high as he usually doesn't take out bars like that unless I'm in his way.
Sunday Standard - I think this was the only course all weekend that I actually liked on paper. Peyton decided to take a few extra obstacles on the opening, he had his only hop off the table all weekend, and a dropped bar on a turn I didn't cue very well. But other than that it was a fun run and he did handle some tricky parts quite well.
Sunday Open JWW - Our last run of the weekend and I think it showed! This was another tough course and Peyton seemed to have a little case of tunnel vision...he really wasn't paying much attention to me so I just ended up going along with his interpretation of the course. :)
Lessons learned from our Miaimi experience:
1. Stop worrying about where I don't want Peyton to go and instead focus on where I want to go.
2. Call-offs are no fun - Peyton doesn't like them and they make me look ridiculous.
3. There is a "happy" distance where I can effectively handle Peyton in a trial - this is much closer than where I can handle him in practice. He isn't reading my lateral motion from far away - I'm pretty sure this is due to the added stress and distractions in a trial environment. Unless I make my cues more obvious to him, he's going to take whatever is in front of him. Hopefully with more experience, he'll be more comfortable and will be able to focus on me more.
4. Figure out my verbals - In practice, I rarely use a lot of "come here" or "Peyton-Peyton-Peyton" so why do I turn into a screaming maniac at trials? If I'm not screaming, I seem to have the opposite problem - I don't say anything. Need to find a happy medium, I think.
That's our Miami trial recap! We're trialing two days this weekend so look for more videos soon. Hopefully some pictures too!
I'm still trying to get caught up after our Miami trip, but I thought I would share the videos from our first two days. We had a couple of decent jumpers runs and a couple of terrible standard runs. I can't say that Peyton was very comfortable with this venue in general, but I'm pretty sure I made things worse by trying to over-manage his runs which in turn didn't help his stress level. On a good note, I took away a LOT of ideas for how I need to handle him, especially on tricky courses.
Thursday Fast - We only entered the first day of Fast - not my favorite class, but we did manage to Q with a 1st place. Once Peyton got his "must go bark at judge" out of his system, this was a pretty fun run.
Thursday JWW - Peyton wanted the weaves on the opening, then he dropped a bar on the double and then I just stopped handling.
Thursday Standard - I *hated* this course and the opening was terrible for large dogs because when they came out of the chute the dogwalk was right in their face. So what did I do? Stopped and screamed and clapped like an idiot. :) Peyton wasn't impressed - not that I blame him. He didn't seem to be very happy for the rest of the run either. This run was a very good reminder to me that calling Peyton off of obstacles isn't a very good handling choice and doesn't make for a confident spotty dog.
Friday Standard - I did a really bad job of handling this opening which lead to several off-courses. Then we had a really nice running a-frame which was followed by more off-courses. And a few more off-courses at the end. I think we finished with 7 total. On a good note, his table was nice. :)
Friday JWW - A Q and 1st place! Now we only need one more for his Open title. One little refusal, but otherwise this was a fast and fun run.
We're back! Had a nice time in Miami, but it's good to be home. The trial went okay - not some of our best runs, but it was definitely a good learning experience. We only qualified twice - Novice Fast and Open JWW (our 2nd leg), but we had some moments of brilliance and some um, really non-brilliant moments too. :)
Generally I'm not one to complain, but I wasn't really a fan of the courses this week. I think out of 8, there was only one that I liked. In general, they just didn't seem to have a good flow, and a couple were downright ugly - at least for large, fast dogs. I'm all for challenges, but some of these courses were no fun at all. The trial itself was pretty good - lots of nice people and it ran very smoothly.
As for Miami, I thought it was an okay city - I would probably have a better opinion if it wasn't for the traffic. We drove around downtown and out to the beach on Friday afternoon and it took 3 hours for a trip that should have taken an hour, tops. Our hotel was decent (I was a little worried) although as a little PSA - please, please remember to check the floors when you are traveling with dogs! I always do this first thing, but Peyton still managed to find what I'm pretty sure was a NyQuil LiquiCap on Thursday morning. Thankfully he didn't seem to suffer any ill-effects, but it was not a great way to start off our trip!
Peyton did great with all of the traveling and he was super in the hotel - such a big change from our early hotel stays. It might have helped just a little that his golden friends were staying there too and came over at night to hang out. Peyton has decided that Finn is a pretty cool puppy and they had a great time playing. They were hysterical to watch! Here's a short little clip...
After a long (but fun) day at the Pet Extravaganza yesterday, we woke up early to head over to the local AKC trial. At least I can say it was a very predictable performance. I've been saying all week that I was pretty sure Peyton would be wild, and he didn't disappoint!
Started off with Excellent Standard - a nice course, but we took out the first bar (never a good sign) and headed up the a-frame instead of the tunnel. Had a few other bobbles, but on a good note, he stuck all of his contacts this morning! I'm still struggling with how to best set him up for some of these openings...since right now he tends to pretty much bolt in a straight line, I thought for sure he would be past the dogwalk entrance...I guess that's what I get for thinking. :)
Next was Open Jumpers - did *not* see that tunnel coming! Then he crashed through the double when I didn't give him any room (oops). I decided to proof some lateral movement in the weaves (which was nice), but then I pulled him off a jump (oops again). Forward first, forward first, forward first (reminder to self).
Another reminder to self - do not wear my "GO UGLY EARLY" sweatshirt when running said spotty dog! :)
The good news was that we were done by 9 am so I came home and went back to bed. After a very busy couple of weeks, it was nice to catch up on some much needed sleep! Although it was tempting to skip the trial this morning, I'm glad we went. Even though our runs weren't great, we still had fun.
And next week we're off to Miami for a four day trial. I'm really looking forward to taking a few days off - a much needed mini vacation, I suppose!
In preparation for the Pet Extravaganza this weekend, I decided to take some test shots with my new backdrop. Fortunately for me, I have three very willing (read: bribable) spotty dogs who are always happy (read: somewhat tolerant) to be models.
Let's start with Indy - the *happiest* model ever, she says "I-love-modeling-yes-I-do-woo-woo-woo"...
But don't you dare look at her the wrong way, or accidentally imply that she might be looking a wee bit "fluffy" lately or you might get this...
If looks could kill...yup, that's my Indy girl. I would never say that she's *moody* cause well, I would like to wake up in the morning.
Pongo, on the other hand, is my old pro. He's a little past his modeling prime, but I can always count on him to deliver at least one good shot.
And Peyton...well, he's what I would call my aspiring model. He tries just a little too hard. He wants to be "cool". He wants to be "different". Normal ears do not apply here...I guess he's trying to make up for the fact he can't sport a mohawk.
Hmmm, does this remind you of a geeky high-school yearbook photo? Now all he needs is a pair of glasses with tape in the middle. :)
If you would like to see some more (slightly less geeky) shots of Peyton, be sure to check out my photography blog at simplyspottedblog.com.
I've been such a bad blogger! In my defense, I've been keeping *very* busy taking lots of pictures and getting ready for The GulfCoast Dog Magazine's Pet Extravaganza, which is coming up next Saturday, October 17th at the Sarasota Bradenton International Convention Center. In addition to having what will hopefully be a very cool booth, I'll also be setting up my portable studio and offering mini portrait sessions.
It's going to be a really fun event so if you live anywhere in Florida, you should definitely try to make plans to attend! You can learn more by visiting www.thegulfcoastdog.com.
On a related note, I am a little late in announcing the winners of my portrait session giveaway from our RDO day at SOTC. I wanted Peyton to pick the winners and apparently he decided we needed *two* this time, so congratulations to Brooke R and Diane K! We'll be giving away more Simply Spotted portrait sessions at the Pet Extravaganza, so be sure to stop by my booth and sign up!
Another long, but fun day at the USDAA trial yesterday and I'm sure feeling it this morning! I would like to think that I'm in relatively good shape, but after 11 runs with Peyton this weekend, I feel like I've been run over by a truck. I don't know how those people running 2 or more dogs do it!
Anyway, we had another good day and overall, I think Peyton did exceptionally well for his first USDAA trial. I keep saying that at this point we need milage, and we sure got it this weekend!
Yesterday we started with Gamblers and then had less than minutes to recover before we ran in Team Jumpers. Our Gamblers run got off to a funny start - even though I kept trying to set him to take the jump-dogwalk opening, he was pretty determined to start with the jump on the left. I guess it's a good thing that there's really no *wrong* course in Gamblers! We Q'd on this run, with first place.
We then hurried over to the Team Jumpers course - I wasn't feeling very optimistic about our chances with this opening, but it turned out to be my favorite run of the weekend. Even though I was a little obnoxious with my verbals...but it was a team run and I really wanted to be clean! Notice the "loose dog" at the very end - I'm thankful Peyton didn't notice him when we were running! Another Q and 1st place for this run.
We had a long break before our next run, which was Standard. I think by this point, Peyton's brain was a little fried. :) Despite some issues around the weaves, we would have qualified if he hadn't popped off the table (again). On a good note, his down on the table seems to be improving.
Next was snooker and while I'm *still* not a fan, I did come up with a plan fairly quickly and even though this run didn't quite go as planned, we still managed a Q and 1st place. Not sure what he stopped to smell at one point, but I heard he wasn't the only one so it must have been good.
Our final run was Team Pairs - we were sitting in 2nd place going in and Lisa and Riley had a very nice opening. Unfortunately, we had an off-course right at the start at our half. Bummer. Figures our only real off-course of the weekend would happen on the final run! Peyton also got a little hung up in the weaves...he didn't seem very comfortable weaving yesterday. One reason why I would really love to see all venues make the switch to 24" weave poles - 4" can make a big difference to large dogs! Even with my off-course, we still managed to qualify with 3rd place in the Performance Pairs Tourney.
We finished the weekend with 7 Q's - it was a great experience for us and we couldn't have asked for better team partners! The only bad part of the weekend was the heat - it was so hot and 11 runs were a bit too much. Not sure when we'll do USDAA again, but hopefully it will be cooler. Very proud of my spotty boy!
Our first run with pairs - I was kind of expecting a comical run, but Peyton had no issues running after Riley. Actually, they both did great and we qualified with 1st place.
Next was team gamblers - I had a plan that was good in theory, but I didn't take into account how far behind I would be on the first line. Poor Peyton didn't know where to go and I got a little flustered, but otherwise it was a decent run and he did get the gamble. I'm really bad when it comes to thinking on my feet...that's why I tend to like courses with numbers so there's a plan I have to try and follow. :) I included some of our startline routine in the video...boing! boing! boing! Is that a Dalmatian or a rabbit out there?
Then we had standard - we had some nice moments, but I caused an off-course in the middle. Peyton seemed a little *extra* high during this run - he blew past the weaves and hopped off the table...although his down was pretty darn good.
Next was team standard - this was kind of a tough course for us. I lost him at the opening - I'm not sure what happened, but he seemed a little distracted. We had a few call-offs during this run (which I hate doing) and finished with one refusal - not too bad, considering. For some reason Peyton also decided that he was going to have running contacts...maybe he thought he could do a better job handling this course without me. :)
I think Jumpers was next - A fun, fast course. We had a refusal (I was behind and giving too many forward cues), but still qualified with first place.
Finally was team snooker - I have to start by saying that I am not a snooker fan. Prior to today, my record on a snooker run (with Indy) was probably about 2 seconds before we took an off-course and got whistled off. Today we actually managed to qualify with a first place...but I still hate snooker! I think my problem is that I can be terribly indecisive by nature. When I walked the course I had a couple of options in mind, but just couldn't make a decision. I really didn't make up my mind until right before we ran (note: we were the last dog to run) - and all of that thinking managed to give me a giant headache! The opening of this run was not at all pretty...I knew that I was going to be behind and again, Peyton had no idea where to go. Luckily, we were able to work it out, but I felt bad that I had to resort to screaming "come". We could really use a startline stay about now...it would make life so much easier!
So that's our day 1 report - Lisa and I are currently in 2nd place in the versatility pairs tourney. I think we have a jumpers run in the morning that will determine if we can play in the final pairs run and/or qualify. Still not exactly sure how that works, but I guess we'll find out. :)
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