Pongo Loves Thanksgiving

I'm so very thankful that Pongo and I were able to celebrate another Thanksgiving together this year. He was one very happy spotty boy - not only did he get some turkey, but he also got a trip to the beach! I've got lots of pictures to share, but I couldn't resist posting this one first - it might just be my favorite Pongo picture ever...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! I am so thankful for all of my online friends and I sincerely appreciate all of the thoughts that you share and the nice comments you leave me.

I hope you all enjoy your day - as for me, I'll be spending time with my family and my three turkeys. Of course the chief turkey is pictured below. :)

Moments of Brilliance

That pretty much sums up our two runs at the AKC trial this past Sunday - and it's not just my phrase...I've been hearing it quite often lately!

I decided to enter Peyton one day at at trial in Tampa last weekend - mainly to give him the opportunity to run in a new location. He's been handling all of these new trial environments very well...much better than I would have expected.

We started with Standard and oh what a nasty opening! It was a very tight jump-270-dogwalk opening with the dogwalk on the left and an off-course jump on the right. I knew that the chance of him not taking one or the other was very slim so I opted for the off-course jump. :) He had some really nice moments in this run, including a great independent dogwalk contact, although I can't believe that he went to the table after I released him! Considering our table-woes, I can't really complain too much. :)

This was a one ring trial so we had quite a long wait in between runs - I think we ran JWW 6 hours later! I'm not sure if that had anything to do with our wild run, but it probably didn't help much.

I've decided that must Peyton think that the rules of JWW should be:

1. He who takes the most jumps in the shortest amount of time should win

2. Bonus points should be awarded for creativity in course execution

Actually the last half of this run was great! I should probably be annoyed when he decides to do his own thing, but it's really hard not to laugh at his antics. I'm sure there are some that think I should pull him from the ring, but I'm not sure that will solve anything. I guess I'd rather have the enthusiasm now and hope that (more) control will come with time and experience. It's really tricky when you have a soft dog that has the potential to shut down very easily.

Vero Trial Recap

I thought I would share some more videos from our weekend in Vero! First, here's our Novice FAST run - a couple of bar crashes, but this was a pretty tight course and Peyton was just a little on the over-excited side. A Q, second place and our NF title!

Next was Excellent Standard. This wasn't a bad run, but when Peyton forgot that he needed to stop on the dogwalk, I got a little flustered and wasn't where I needed to be so he took the wrong end of the tunnel.

Then we had Open JWW and a minor hesitation on my part caused me to get too far behind and Peyton took an off-course. Then near the end a tunnel must have called Peyton's name...not sure if you can hear it on the video, but evidently Peyton did. :)

Saturday's JWW run wasn't much better. I was surprised when Peyton bypassed the weaves so that kinda threw off my handling for the rest of the run. I really need to work on my recovery when something doesn't go as planned!

And finally, our JWW run from Sunday - some good moments, but I don't think I had the best plan for this run.

Overall, it was a great trial and I think for the most part, our Standard runs made up for our Jumpers runs. We seem to be having some difficulties in JWW lately and I think it's because I can't seem to be in the right place at the right time to give him the information he needs. I'm sure we'll figure it out, but in the meantime I really need to do a better job of handling each jump - I tend to forget that I'm not running the same dog that I have in practice and he needs more support from me in a trial. Maybe I need to write notes on my hand to remind me of all of these little things. :)

Some good notes from this weekend...

1. His table is looking so much better!

2. In general, his focus seems to be improving.

3. On Sunday, we had lots of little girl scouts working in the rings and he handled it very well. For those who don't know, he thinks children can be very scary sometimes. (Not that I disagree!)

On a side note, while we were playing in Vero, we had several friends out in Arizona running at the USDAA Nationals. I managed to catch some of the runs on live stream and wow, they were amazing! A huge congrats to Tori and her young Border Collie Rev (from Florida) for winning the 22" Steeplechase event and placing 5th in the Grand Prix finals. I think this was their first Nationals and she had some really incredible runs - if you like watching great agility, you can check them out here.

Excellent Weekend!

We've been trialing in Vero Beach this weekend and I'm happy to report that Peyton got his first Excellent A leg on Saturday with a 2nd place!

This was a really tricky course for us and I honestly didn't think there was any chance we could make it through the opening without a startline stay, but Peyton proved me wrong. I was so surprised that I almost pulled him off the tunnel afterwards, but he was really listening and hung on - good boy!

Only 6 out of 32 dogs qualified on this course in the 24" class and we finished 6 seconds off the first place dogs in both Excellent A and B - not bad at all considering we spent almost 16 seconds on the table. :)

On Sunday we had another great Standard run until the very last line when an off-course jump called Peyton's name. That was my fault though - I was thinking about the chute on the right and the tunnel ahead on the left and I should have had his head a little more coming out of the tunnel. It was still a really great run - Peyton has no idea what those pesky "Q's" are anyway. :)

We had a fun weekend - we also got our Novice FAST title on Friday and while Open JWW continues to be a real challenge, we did have some nice moments there too.

Girls Rule - Boys Drool?

Or is it the other way around?

Because it seems I'm always in a constant state of puppy envy, I often find myself thinking about the next little spotted pup that will join our family. Don't get excited - it's probably not going to be for a while - but it's still fun to think about. :)

Here's the big question - will it be a girl or a boy?

Since it seems most people tend to have a preference between males and females, I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions...just for fun, of course!

I'll admit that until now, I've never had a preference either way. It wouldn't have mattered to me if Peyton and Pongo were girls or if Indy was a boy - they still would have come home with me.

Now I realize that there will be differences between breeds and different bloodlines, and of course every dog is unique - but as a whole, what draws you to a particular gender?

Just for the sake of comparison, let's look at Indy and Peyton.

Indy is my serious girl. I'm won't use the obvious word, but she's very mouthy, dramatic, highly opinionated, and is captain of the fun police. She likes attention, but only when she wants it. And when she wants it, you better give it to her NOW. If you don't have cookies, she's not going to be your friend. And even if you have cookies, she probably still won't be your friend. No offense. She does have a very playful, silly side, but only when *she* feels like it.

It goes without saying that Peyton is my clown. He's the kid who is always in trouble at school. His motto could be act now, think later. He likes to party, is a little reckless, and thinks life is way to short to be so serious. He does have a soft side though and his feelings get hurt very easily. Most of all, he's 100% a mamma's boy. At home, he follows me everywhere - always watching me.

When it comes to training, Indy and Peyton are very different. With Indy, she does best when something is her idea - shaping games are perfect for her. On the other hand, Peyton would rather I just show him what I want. He gets frustrated easily and doesn't have the time to guess what it is I'm looking for. Peyton hates to be wrong where as Indy is never wrong so don't you dare imply that she could be. :)

I think in general Peyton learns faster than Indy, but it's likely because Indy takes more time to try and convince me that her way is better. Once she knows something, she is very consistent where as Peyton tends to push the boundaries a little more. Indy definitely is more focused, but her focus is always on what she thinks is best. Peyton is (obviously) more easily distracted - it's not that he wants to be "bad", but he really can't help himself.

While I absolutely adore Indy, I think I'm a little more compatible with my boys. Maybe it's because I (like Indy) tend to be very serious - and Peyton is a constant reminder that life is too short not to laugh. While his antics can be very frustrating at times, it's also impossible to be mad at him. He can be extremely charming.

And not to leave Pongo out, but it's a little easier to compare Indy and Peyton since they are closer in age and have had similar training. While Pongo was also a wild child in his younger days, now he's so laid back that it's hard to remember all the times he pushed my buttons. :)

So that was a little long, but now it's your turn. There are a lot of girl dogs that I love (including some spotty girls up north) so please share your thoughts!

Peyton finds this whole topic rather ridiculous...everyone knows that girls are dumb and boys are the best.

Better Days

Today was not a great day for team spotty dog. We started with Excellent Standard, and it was a nice, easy Peyton-friendly course. Unfortunately Peyton wasn't very happy with a few members of the ring crew and he was barking and frantic during most of our run.

For some reason, there are two ladies that we see at trials on occasion and Peyton freaks out every time he sees them. It's very odd...I remember during our Perry trial he would go nuts every time they walked by his crate - even when all of the windows of his crate were down and he couldn't see them. I can't recall ever having a bad experience, but for some reason he gets really upset around them. Today I knew we were in trouble when we went to the line and he kept trying to spin around to bark at one of them behind us and he stopped to bark at the other one during the middle of his run. He even started barking on the table and jumped off early.

We had our JWW run right after our Standard run and even though I tried to get him settled down, he was still very anxious and reluctant to go inside the ring. After one jump, he took off in the wrong direction to a tunnel on the opposite side of the ring. Definitely stressed - maybe tunnels are good stress relievers?

I'm really bummed. Not about having some bad runs, but to see him anxious and stressed out - that just makes me sad. I'm sure he'll recover, but it kind of made for a bad day.

DTCT Trial

We've been playing at the DTCT trial in Palmetto this weekend! We had one run last night and three today - lots of good moments and a few silly ones too.

Last night we had an Excellent Standard run and it was my turn to be the distracted one. Peyton handled the course pretty well, but I was just all out of balance...I'm really surprised I didn't fall down. The tunnels got the best of us in this run.

Today we started with Novice FAST - it was a nice fast, fun run and we Q'd with first place.

Next was Open JWW and despite missing the double (my fault), I loved this run! First time in a while where I felt we were both running on the same page, so to speak. He had a great recall into the weaves, although you can't really see it since my videographer (not naming any names ahem Karen) lost track of the spotty dog.

Our final run was Excellent Standard and I think I made the mistake of allowing Peyton to get way too excited before we even set foot in the ring. I had him out earlier than usual and he got really worked up while begging Lisa (who he adores) for treats. I knew the opening was going to be tricky, but he was just all over the place. On a good note, he held two out of three contacts and our table was pretty decent.

Well be heading back over early in the morning, but since we are in the first class in each ring it should be a short day. Tomorrow I'm going to try taking him out of his crate right before his run and see if it helps keep him a little more calm. Really though, I think we're making some progress!

Just Because

...he's so cute. :)

IPOC Trial Day 2

Yesterday was another warm day in agility land. On a good note, the heat didn't seem to slow down Peyton much. At least I think that's a good thing...sometimes I wonder!

First up was Standard and it was another nice course. I hesitate to use the word "easy" because nothing is really easy for us right now in a trial environment, but it was a very Peyton friendly course. I was really happy with the opening and I'm pretty certain that rear crosses are the best way to go in trials until we can get a startline stay. Unfortunately my very naughty spotty boy decided to run the a-frame which lead to an off-course. If you listen to the video you'll hear a collective "awwww" from the crowd, which made me laugh. :) The other bobbles in our run were pretty much all me, which is usually the case these days.

Next up was JWW and it seems like my ability to plan our strategy for a course has gone out the window. For the most part, I'm not one to walk and walk and walk and obsess over a course...I usually can come up with a plan fairly quickly and go with it. Now it seems that I'm over-thinking it too much.

For this course in particular I was debating a number of options and I just couldn't make a decision. I think the biggest problem is that I usually know what I would do if the course was set up in practice, but because Peyton runs differently in a trial I get stuck debating on whether I need to run like I train or if I need to provide him more support and set us both up for success. I'm still not sure what the answer is.

Here I opted for a less safe (non rear-cross) opening thinking that I might have a little less dog since it was so hot. This wasn't the case and I wasn't able to show enough motion in the direction we needed to go so we had an early off-course. Once we got back on track, this was a fun run and I opted to leave him in the weaves to get ahead - I didn't cue the jump after my cross, but it was nice to see how far I could leave him. Good spotty dog!

Poor Peyton seemed to be slipping quite a bit during this run and at one point he slid on his chin...didn't seem to phase him at the time, but sure didn't look very comfortable when I saw it on the video. I've also noticed that I've started "squeaking" when something goes wrong on-course...not sure why, but how annoying. I think Peyton is about ready to hold auditions for a new handler. Any takers? :)

I keep saying that we need mileage and we're definitely going to be getting our share in the next few months - lots of trials coming up and several in new locations. I've been wondering if it might be a little too much too soon, but Peyton seems to be having a lot of fun and I think as long as I keep the pressure off, he's more than happy to play.