Drum Roll Please.....

We did it! Still can't believe it! Blast & I qualified to go to Nationals! It wasn't pretty, but we actually finished with 423 points I think!

I really didn't think I would qualify with Blast or Bizzie & was disappointed not to be running my steady guy Boo, so it was a huge surprise to me that we made it. Anyone who knows Blast will understand that it's been a difficult road for us - although he tries hard, he is so easily distracted I have to try to keep him with me the entire run. The only faults he had on Sunday were time faults, incurred by running to the fence to check out the dog who was barking, etc. What a good boy - I'm so proud of him.

Bizzie didn't quite make it - one off course too many. She was not running well at all & I could tell she wasn't feeling good. I finally took her to the chiropractor on Sunday & she had a huge adjustment (jaw, neck, shoulder, mid back & pelvis). I did have her adjusted before we left but it was a minor adjustment, so not sure what happened in between. Between that & really soaking her down to cool her off, she finally started to run in gamblers - did 14 obstacles, but got distracted in the final gamble by the spectators & dogs ... too bad since it was a gamble she could have done. Anyhow, it's OK, she's still fairly inexperienced & I didn't expect her to qualify.

We did have a great time, the courses were not easy, the judges were great, & it was wonderful to see some friends have great successes!

Off to Regionals

Well, we're off to Regionals this week. It will seem odd to not be running Boo this year, but I'm now sure that I made the right decision. I was worried about running 3 dogs, so now I'm down to 2 dogs, which will be plenty. This is their first Regionals, so I don't have high expectations, we're just there to have fun.

I had Bizzie at the chiropractor today (another adjustment) so hopefully she's feeling better.

While I was there, I had Catharine look at Boo's Xrays & she did confirm what my other vet told me. She also thought he had some involvement in his neck. Although I feel better about my decision, it still seems unfair that such a young dog should have his career end so early. But as I wrote before, he's first a pet, then an agility dog, so now he gets to live a life of leisure! Well, he's also the fun police when the other dogs get too unruly playing!

I sure hope the weather cooperates... it's been so cold & rainy this spring, we've hardly had any chance to practice outdoors. Anyhow, wish us luck & hope the courses aren't too daunting!

Tough Decision

This post is about my little guy Boo. He just turned 6 last month. I got him at 9 months & he was not the easiest dog to train. He was a show dog but didn't have the best nature & was dismissed from the ring for growling at the judge, etc. He knew nothing when I got him, & he was very spoiled. He was probably not the best candidate for your first agility dog!
We worked a long time together before things started to mesh... he would only do a couple of obstacles, then leave or refuse to do anything. He was very slow & velcro & wouldn't leave my side. Then at the end of the run, I could never catch him. Slowly things started to come together. We went to 4 AAC Nationals together... the first year we didn't qualify at Regionals, so we drove out to BC to volunteer, & I entered Boo in Steeplechase - he won his division! Huge surprise!
Then the next year we qualified to go to Nationals, so we went to Ontario & he came 3rd overall in his division. Another huge surprise! He also won the Steeplechase final for the 6" dogs! Money & everything!
I won't bore you with all the details, but the next 2 Nationals he placed 4th & 7th & finally got some gambles. He has since become a pretty good little gambler!

Boo has always hated the teeter & I always suspected that the jolt at the end jarred his back. He would always do it in training (when the treats trumped the pain) but not in trials.
I did start taking him to a chiropractor, who adjusted his back, & he seemed to run quite well.
Last week his back seemed to be really sore & he started screaming when we picked him up, etc. Off to the vet we went. After xrays & much poking & prodding, we determined that he has a protruded disk in his middle back. He's on crate rest right now, as well as muscle relaxants & medicam, so he's feeling much better. The vet explained that he could probably still feel well enough to run agility, but if he had a jar to his back, more disk could leak out & there would be a possiblity of paralysis. I just couldn't see us having fun running courses anymore if I was worrying & he was hurting, so I made the tough decision to retire him from agility. He may still run the odd jumpers course if I feel he's really itching to get out there, but otherwise he's done - no more teeters for the little guy. With AAC Nationals here in Calgary this year, it was disappointing to not be able to run him here if we qualified, but it's just a game & he is first & foremost my pet Boo.

The Weird, The Worriesome, & the Wacko

The Weird - I left the house for a bit yesterday & crated the dogs as I always do. (We just got Critter back after her maternity leave.)
When I came home, I let the dogs out & Critter was crying in her crate, kind of sitting with her front paws in front of her. I encouraged her to come out & she couldn't walk... Everytime she tried to walk, her front legs sort of collapsed & she went down on her face. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, but I was really concerned. I put her on the couch on her back to try to assess the problem & finally realized that she had her two front dew claws hooked together! Don't know how she did it, but of course everytime she tried to pull them apart, it hurt. Anyhow, we got them unhooked & she's just fine, but isn't that weird!

The Worriesome - I thought Boo was a little sore on sunday morning, so I didn't take him out to our CAA practice. He's had some chiropractic adjustments on his back, so I thought I'd make him an appt for this week. But yesterday, when I went to pick him up he just screamed & was shaking - he was definately in a lot of pain. I took him to the vet & his mid back & hip are both extremely painful. He's on crate rest for 2 wks, as well as Medicam. I'm having him Xrayed on Thurs, so hopefully it's not a disk problem. Keep your fingers crossed. With Regionals in less than 3 wks, I'm quite concerned he won't be able to run.

The Wacko - well, that's just Blast! Lovable as ever, but he sure has his quirks!

Whee Wednesday

We did the Whee Wed evening trial with all the dogs this week.
It was a "Regionals Prep", so we ran Gamblers, Standard, & Jumpers.
As you can imagine, with everyone getting ready for Regionals, there were a lot of people there. We didn't get home until nearly 1 AM...

We started with Gamblers - Boo did an awesome opening, got the mini with weaves twice, but the closing had the formidable teeter in it... however, it was the 2nd to last obstacle, & it was almost the finish line - Boo did the best teeter he's ever done & got the gamble! Yeah Boo!
Blast & Bizzie are still in Adv Gamblers, so they ran FEO... Blast qualified & had a pretty nice run, Bizzie would have qualified, but she was overtime since she took the scenic route & did the DW before we started the gamble, but they both got the gamble! A great start to the evening.

Standard was next, & it had some tricky parts... Boo was clean up to the 2nd last obstacle - that same teeter in the same place & I thought, oh, he's going to do it & the little bugger ran past the teeter! So much for that! Bizzie ran pretty well, but had a couple of oopsies, popped out of the weaves on the 10th pole... so she didn't Q. Blast did pretty much the same, missed a jump when I thought he was committed, but he ran pretty well.

Jumpers was last, it was getting really late & I think the dogs were really tired... Boo was overtime, which surprised me - he started off slow, but sped up in the middle.
Blast ran awesome, but he came out the tunnel entrance at the beginning, which he's done a few times in the past, but the rest was clean & really nice.
Bizzie said it's past her bed time, & was trotting around, so I picked her up & left.
I think hormones play a big part in her behavior, & she just came into heat yesterday, so I'll chalk it up to that.

It was a really long evening, but lots of fun anyways!

Oh, & the big news, Cactus got all her contacts & Q'd the Standard run!

Trials & Tribulations

We came back from our first outdoor trial this past weekend. The weather was really crappy.
I knew Blast would have a tough time with more distractions than usual & also the ring is not fenced, just a rope around it which is above his head, so that didn't help.
Fri nite was cool & very windy. I only ran the dogs in Steeplechase. Boo managed a Q, Blast was very stressed & ran out of the ring to poop. (The judge said he should have got a Q for leaving the ring to do it!) Bizzie did a little fiddling around, so she was slightly over time.
Sat morning was very cool, around 2 degrees. Bizzie ran well & earned a Q in the first Masters Standard course, so I was very happy with that. Boo had 5 faults, but I can't remember why... he really didn't want to do the teeter again... urgh... Blast was distracted by the dogs warming up & couldn't concentrate.
By the time we ran the second Masters standard, it was raining & blowing & Bizzie just walked around looking at me like - you must be kidding... Blast was once again distracted by the dogs warming up (both times the weave poles were at that side of the course, so he couldn't weave)
Only Blast ran snooker, & he managed a Q, by then there were no dogs warming up cause everyone was trying to stay inside their tents to stay dry.
Last course of the day was jumpers & I pulled Boo & Bizzie due to the weather. Blast ran pretty well, but he missed the first jump so had 5 faults. At least the weather didn't bother him.
Sunday started off cool & windy as well. Boo ran a beautiful opening in Gamblers, but there was a teeter in the final gamble, so he refused to do it...
Bizzie & Blast both got the Adv gamble, so I was really happy with that. I haven't done much distance work with either one of them. Boo got another Steeplechase Q, but I didn't enter the others. Biz was eliminated from the last jumpers round - I got out of position, she stopped & then left the ring to pee. Blast finally got it together mostly & got his last Adv jumpers Q.
The weather finally got nice around noon on Sunday, it was too bad it couldn't have done that on Saturday. It was nice to see some agility friends we haven't seen for a while, & despite the weather we had a great time!

Training & this & that..

I have so much to train & not enough time it seems. I've been going for physio for an achilles tendon problem, so I hope it gets better soon.

I'm feeling that the Derrett system is too much pressure for Blast & I am unable to help him enough & still stay within the rules of the system. I've been focusing more on skills the past little while rather than running courses.

We had a great time at the Terry Simons seminar.. I mostly ran Bizzie & Blast, did one gamble with Boo. Blast ran a nice jumpers run on Sunday, but we missed a jump (my fault).
Not sure what the issue was with Bizzie, but she did not want to run on Sunday, refused all the weave poles, etc. I took her to the Chiropractor last week & her back was out a little, but I'm not sure that was the cause of her stress.
The gambles were difficult, but I didn't expect my young dogs to do well since I've not trained distance with them.

Hopefully we can get outdoors now to do some practice since that adds a whole new layer of distractions for the dogs. I'm still working on Blast's contacts since he gets stressed easily if we drill them too much. With Bizzie, we need to work on collection when there is an inviting tunnel in sight... and they both need work on weave pole entries. Those are on the top of my list anyways. I've been working a little on a start line for Boo since I've mostly run with him to get his speed up. He's been doing pretty well, but we'll see what happens in a trial situation. He still has teeter issues in trials, which is difficult to fix since he seldom has an issue in training.
Yesterday was Boo's 6th birthday! Hard to believe - don't know where the time has gone!