My knees hurt. My left knee especially. Hirts on stairs. Hurts during the action to stand or sit. They ache right now even. The pain can be pretty sharp at times. I am not a fan.
Images
Scary Shit
All summer we have been letting the dogs run free with us on the property. On Thursdays we go down to the road with trash and/or recycle and the dogs join us. We put them in a wait or stay at the rock while we go to the road and so far this has been working just fine.
Until today. I told Vader to wait at the rock and took the bin to the toad. As I turned around to head back up I see a flying critter cresting the hill going away from me. My first thought was Vader! Then I was like no he is up the drive. But I couldn’t see him so I started running up the road calling for him.
When I got to the top of the hill I saw him down by the Christmas Tree farm! He finally had turned around and came running back to me. But he was booking it down that hill after something. No idea what!
Then add a car coming up behind him. Thankfully they saw him and were going slow. Plus a car coming up from behind me! I was at the top of the hill so they saw me and went slow too. So scary!!
So he will be losing off leash privileges for a while and I really really need to work on a recall. It is not my strong suit. I have never had a good recall on a dog. Sigh, I guess it’s time to figure it out!
Practice 2017-10-17
Today we worked weave poles with me way ahead. We also worked straight lines of jumps with speed.
Vader had some trouble with weaves when I led out past the poles. He eventually got them and was good. Then I led out further and beat him to the magic box. He popped the poles if I touched the box before he finished. We tried again and he was successful the second time.
Twitch had a tougher time with the poles and harder footing since Vader had made divets in the field. I should have packed them down first. He figured out his footing though. Its good for him to have that because it will build his desire to stay in and finish. I hope!
The straight line was interesting. I set the magic box at the end and for Vader the first run through he took out two bars. Not sure why as I was running the line myself. I wonder if he had a hard time judging his distance and took off too early. Each run after that was good and he didn’t knock any bars.
Twitch did just fine at the straight line. I can still beat him even after a send to the tunnel so I don’t think he is running full out but he is fast. I should try to time them some time.
I also worked some wraps around a standard with both dogs. I want them to drive out of the turns and I’m not sure how to get that yet. Twitch needs more work on Push and the threadle cue to the back of a jump. Vader did better than Twitch but could use more work too.
Overall a good practice!
Vader’s USDAA Runs 2017-10-13
He still bounds around instead of running in my opinion. Very much a bouncy boy still. 🙂
Team Jumpers
https://youtu.be/mIlYr98XCrY
This was a good run. I totally didn’t see the off course jump and didnt do anything about it as a result. But he had a great weave pole entrance!
Team Snooker
https://youtu.be/pQjXmtc0o2M
Tied with 3 other dogs for most points and was second fastest dog! Go baby dog!
Team Standard
https://youtu.be/YdOlE1wk1YI
I am not sure why he didnt commit to that jump near the end but the rest was lovely! Lots of dogs got lost at the tunnel next to the aframe from both sides!
Team Gamblers
https://youtu.be/zmKUf5lD1Sc
Got a little greedy on points and missed the buzzer but he had never seen a wall jump and didn’t hesitate at all!
Team Relay
https://youtu.be/e4lYcZAwHMc
Good stuff here! Great stay and nice run!
Advanced Gamblers
https://youtu.be/MhXe-JcL-MU
I was sure we would have trouble with this gamble but baby dog pulled through!
Starters Standard
https://youtu.be/m5t4Wn3XM6Q
Lovely run. His weaves were great all weekend! Need to work that aframe contact a bit more. Not a fan of all the creeping I saw this weekend.
Starters Jumpers
https://youtu.be/s_I3z36RT9A
He was great on this run! They recorded our time wrong so we were not the second fastest dog, by a lot. Lol didn’t matter because that off course jump killed our Q anyway. Everything was good but you can really see the bouncy puppy in the beginning. 🙂
We placed second in Team on Friday with April and Zippy and Libbi and Tosca. Two tournament Qs down for the baby dog just getting into Advanced!
First USDAA Team Event!
Tomorrow Vader and I try our hand at USDAA Team. We partner with two other handlers and their dogs to form a team. We are the Motley Crew. Libbi Peltz with Tosca and April Meyer with Zip. Our scores are added up over 4 classes, Standard, Gamblers, Jumpers and Snooker. Then we run a 3 person relay for final points.
The courses are judged at Masters level and have a bit of Masters and Master Challenge in them. We do great on courses like that in practice so it will be fun to see how we do in a trial. Vader needs another Starters Standard Q before we can move up to Advanced.
Sunday both Vader and Twitch will get to run Tunnelers! I can’t wait to see what Vader does with all tunnels! Lol