Tuesday, after exercise class, I went to Decatur for Tea Cup Agility lesson followed by trials. I paid for 3 trials and passed one for our second qualifying score. We could have titled but on the last trial, she side stepped off the teeter. Tea Cup agility doesn't allow a fault. They will be doing it again next week and that will be the last Tea Cup trail for the year there. Hopefully we can achieve beginner Tea Cup title then.
I got some nice water repelant, fleece lined winter pants on Amazon. So did my 2 sisters. We are alike! I hope to find more like it in a different color than black. I sure could use the pockets for all the loose stuff.
Wednesday morning I went to Mechanicsburg for agility practice on the property/farm of one of our instructors. We had lunch afterward at "Abe's Hideout" . In the evening I went to a meeting for the Veterans Assistance Commission. I'm the secretary and do the roll call.
Thursday I went to open practice at Capitol Canine Dog Club. I planned to leave early so Shari could show me how to maintain my agility records. Well, just as I was about to leave, the lawn service had arrived to apply the fall treatment. This means I had to do a quick opening of the gate and closing of the doggie door flap to remove the agility equipment in the yard. After our practice we had lunch at the Sangamo Brewing Company bar and grill.
The weekend was full of Agility. It rained pretty hard Friday morning and the thunder made a few dogs, including mine, shiver. The humidity inside the barn was very high and wearing masks on the sidelines really fogged up my glasses. It was so cold I had my winter coat on. At least we didn't have to wear it while running and huffing in the ring. I thought I had a good second run on Friday but I was told she dropped a bar behind my back that I didn't know about. I did get home in time for an evening of open obedience practice at my club.
Saturday I cried when she left me and ran off on a zoomie run around the ring. I couldn't believe I lost her and she chose to explore. Amber hasn't been at that barn at the state fairgrounds and there's lots to explore. I was so upset at her. So on the next run,I was so emotionally upset from her zoomie, that I failed to point her towards one of the jumps and missed it.
Well I have been entering the trials in the novice level and still get an "non-qualified" score so I think I might switch my strategy. Instead of entering "novice" for nothing, I might as well enroll in "elite" and get more obstacles for the same entry fee and have the same result. In addition, Elite trials are first and novice last. I've been arriving early and and the last to leave. Many times with a real light lunch like applesauce or beets from a jar. Sophie is home alone all this time and she must get lonely. I don't know how these handlers can enter multiple dogs and run one after another. I have to sit down and catch my breath. Amber is so fast and I can hear her oral huffing while looking at me saying "where next?". She is my first and last agility dog and wearing me out giving her a good time. Well there are very few activities during a pandemic and I must say this is a quality alternative. However, winter is coming and some of this can be brought in doors but not all of the training and trials. Amber and Sophie are little sweet hearts. I've also met many other dogs that are adorable. I want to go back to cuddling dogs not avoiding them and distracting their focus to perform such as turning your back when they approach.
Monday was Alan's birthday. We celebrated with dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Lincoln, IL which is a half way meet-up. I was scheduled to have a nose work class for Amber but it was canceled for fear of sleet. There was a cold hard rain with little pellets on the way to dinner but nothing to fear. Oh but that bone chilling cold that comes with a damp rain. First of the season to show that little icy snowflake icon on my car's dash council too.
I'm hoping these nose work classes will get her sniffing focused. Not so much for the ribbons but that she's good at it and constantly sniffing. I can even hear her sniff. It has been our downfall at trials too because of her lack of focus. Monday we started Nose Work 2 classes by putting a treat in a box for her to find. Inside the box there are 3 q tips scented with clove, birch and anise. Our instructor explained that when we walk in a room, people smell beef stew. A dog will smell meat, carrots, and celery separate. That's why all 3 odors are in the box at the same time.
After exercise on Tuesday, I took Amber to agility lesson followed by a test in Decatur. It's agility for small dogs known as teacup agility. I did 2 trials but was told I could make my 3pm massage appointment but I had to leave before the 3rd trial. You may recall one of my post quarantine goals was to get a much needed massage. I have been sore from stress, exercise and dog training. Well I learned from a friend that I was refunded for the trial I missed and got 2 blue ribbons for the trials I failed. I plan to reject these ribbons next session until earned. Just because I was best at not qualifying doesn't mean a reward in my opinion.
Wednesday evening I went to agility practice. I am getting concerned that Amber showing fear of men. She's not afraid of my son but at Deb's barn, a man walked in the door at the end of practice and she growled. After that I stopped by the VFW to drop off a Wreaths Across America flyer and some comrades wanted to come out and see Amber. They are dog lovers. She cowered away. I've been gradually noticing this with men in other situations as well.
Amber's photo is in the Fall 2020 TDI Newsletter when she did tricks at the nursing home. The newsletter is now available for viewing from the following link.
Saturday and Sunday, Amber and I went to Glen Carbon for the CPE games. The games are Standard, Jumpers, Snooker, and Jackpot.
The first trial she had that look in her eye that said "I'm going to take off and do a zoom zoom". I had a slight delay and talkin' to her and she was great. We got 5 Qs (qualifying scores) that came with 4 blue and 1 red ribbon on Saturday. Sure we are just starting out at level one and jumping at 8 inch bars. There's a pedigree Border terrier there but she's jumping 4" bars. There's the difference in her mixed background. Well, let's just say her withers are on the border between the two jump heights. So on Saturday we qualified in all 5 trials. Twice she rolled on her back in the turf at the ready position.
Saturday 10/17/2020:
Colors L1 - 8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 45 yards SCT: 50 seconds
Score: 5 (Q) Time: 24.32 seconds 1st Place
Jackpot L1 - 8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Score: 32 (Q) Time: 48.00 seconds 1st Place
Snooker L1 - 8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Score: 37 (Q) Time: 23.16 seconds 1st Place
Standard L1 - 8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 119 yards SCT: 65 seconds
Score: 5 (Q) Time: 60.28 seconds 2nd Place
Wildcard L1 - 8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 91 yards SCT: 56 seconds
Score: 0 (Q) Time: 25.13 seconds 1st Place
Sunday 10/18/2020:
FullHouse L1 - 8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Score: 16 (NQ) Time: 30.49 seconds 1st Place
Standard L1 - 8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 106 yards SCT: 58 seconds
Score: 5 (Q) Time: 26.02 seconds 2nd Place
Snooker L2 - 8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
No Time
Jackpot L2 - 8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Score: 48 (NQ) Time: 60.56 seconds 2nd Place
Jumpers L1 - 8 Inch - Judge: Steven Klein
Distance: 51 yards SCT: 56 seconds
Score: 10 (NQ) Time: 34.83 seconds 2nd Place
Colors on Saturday for a blue ribbon
course
Jackpot on Saturday for a blue ribbon
course
Snooker on Saturday for a blue ribbon
course
Standard on Saturday
course
Wildcard on Saturday
course
Sunday CPE
Sunday we only qualified in one of 5 trials. She started off with a zoomie toward a bar setter sitting on the side. I was able to get her back on track but lost my place. I needed a score of 19 to qualify and only got 16.
Standard
Jackpot map that we went overtime on the gamble. We had the points but lacked the distance because I had to stay on the outside of the dash. Amber was confused.
standard map
Next was standard. We got a second place with about a 4 second difference.
I mad other mistakes. Like walking thru a jump for a shortcut. Duh. Amber and her loving handler with her 6 qualification ribbons.
Well it was a sports center and the trial was for Canine Performance Events so a sports background seemed appropriate. The arcade was covidly closed.
The sports facility had two arenas. The other side was leased out to New Hope church. They did not wear masks but shared the same common areas outside the arena despite the sign on the door. I didn't see a single one of them in a mask. It rained at the end of the trial and most of the way home. The rain was much needed because of the dry conditions and fire hazard. There's been fire warnings yet the other evening I saw someone sitting by a backyard campfire. Duh! There have been numerous fires in central Illinois according to the news.
The low gas light came on around shortly before getting off the freeway for home and straight to Casey's for a fill. Sean had done his laundry and kept Sophie company. He turned the heat on for me when I got home. Season is changing and time to get out my winter quilt.
I've registered Amber with a barn hunt number. Now to find an opportunity to find a rat.
Ahh the fall colors are showing their beauty this week.
Amber and I completed Intro to Nose work 1. It was a struggle. Not that it was hard. Just that a 6 week class that started the first week of July finished in the end of September and was drawn out due to instructor's complications. I think she'd have done better had there been pee-mail in the boxes rather than a kibble.
Amber thought the frame was a hoop to jump through. Tricks are a
different class. In my heart, I feel all the practice did not achieve my
goal. She was still sniffing at the floor and lost focus.
Before that photo above, the trick dog jumped through the frame. The instructor caught the return trip.
Tuesday morning I was the guest speaker at a Zoom meeting for
volunteers of the Historic Sites of Springfield. I spoke about the
Soldiers Aid Society that has events at the Old State Capitol and the
Lincoln Tomb. I wore my Victorian wrapper.
I love this dress a lot but don't wear it much because it's a "wrapper". Wrappers were like a bath robe for house chores but all the underpinning ready for a quick outer change for unexpected company.
Tuesday afternoon I took Amber to her first Tea Cup agility event at the coaxing of Kim Dykstra. They were expecting me when I checked in. I got a Teacup ID "pending" and got 3 trial runs and passed one. Amber turned it into a playground. While waiting for the experienced teams in their trials, I was shown how to be a timekeeper with the most patient person to shadow after. I found a little cheerleader inside myself as the other dogs ran and hinted a nose to go off course. These participants had such cute little dogs and the people were so friendly for someone new to this. I should feel guilty about a blue ribbon with no competition in our category. However, it's an initiation ribbon.
After running Amber, I did a run with Pixie (a black teacup toy poodle). This was a demo test run never intended for evaluation or score. Pixie's owner is having trouble with her leg and since Pixie is most acquainted with me from the club, we thought to give it a try. Pixie has separation anxiety from her mommy. She would do one obstacle and run to the gate for her mommy. Then I'd pick her up and set her in front of the next obstacle one by one. Then back and forth.
Tuesday evening, the neighbor across the street brought me warm cinnamon apple donuts freshly made. I can't remember my last doughnut.
Wednesday evening we canceled our AmVets meeting so I went to agility practice at Deb's place. She is trying to teach me blind crosses like at 1:21 on this video. Deb nicknames the technique as "pull the wagon". I'm having difficulty with it like learning a new dance step.
Friday I took Amber and Sophie to Caseyville. Went through some pretty dense fog part of the way. Amber needed on leg to title in Beginner Novice A and Sophie needed 2 legs to title in Rally Novice B. As I drive in the car, I can see Amber sitting next to me in the passenger seat with those big brown eyes like my husband had. Amber passed by the grace of the judge and the fact that we were in the inexperienced class "A". The judge gave me a little talk afterward that she didn't have with the other two competitors. My hand gestures were not natural or at my belly button, I repeated "Stay" and that's not allowed. I was expecting a "sit for inspection" but it was a "stand for inspection" which was fine and we were prepared for that. I expected the whole thing to be on-leash and half of it was off leash. We did a perfect figure 8 around cones but I was expecting the figure 8 to be around two people. This could have been a COVID modification. Putting our leash on a paper towel instead of a leash runner was a COVID change as well. I'm also concerned with her distracted sniffing along walls and floors. Hence the nose-work classes that have not kicked in from just an Intro Course that isn't progressing fast enough for my needs. I'm also thinking that since there were 2 men handling the other dogs and their owner is listed as a female that the handlers had pre-trained dogs by someone else.
Notice the man that handler for this First Place dog taking a picture but that the owner is a woman on the score sheet. This tells me there was help involved and the dog may have experience but the title was about the new handler.
Here's Amber with her overly generously awarded ribbon. The little green one is for the "qualifying" grade, yellow for third place (out of 3 entries duh!) and purple is for the 3rd and final leg awarding title of "beginner novice"(BN). Her first two legs were in June of 2019 with a blue and red for those trials. I've decided to hang up our 6' leash and use a 3' leash for everyday use until she heals better and stops the sniffing.
Well here are the girls on the display after Sophie's Non-qualified trials.
This is Sophie's first trial with an "NQ". The other NQ on trial 1 was a young St Bernard that was asked to leave the ring before finish for jumping all out of control. At least we finished and got a "yay" at the end. I didn't know we NQ'd until I saw it on the board.
Just for snicks and grins, This is Sophie's second trial with an "NQ"
After getting home late in the evening and feeling dissatisfied with myself, I went to bed early. The girls barked through the night in the yard through the doggie door flap. Ya know, I didn't care. The next morning I was teary and guilt ridden over Amber's new title that we didn't deserve. I don't know where to go next with her. I do know that Sophie will never trial again. I only brought her "out" at the hint of a club member. Sophie is really good as a therapy dog but I demanded too much from her. Sophie's openness to approach others to spread love is not always welcomed at the club or at a trial.
When I first started learning agility, we were taught to teach the teeter gradually because the fear that the "bang" would be a tremendous set back and hard to un-learn. Well what about my set back? I think my memory matters too. Amber, I don't forget your disloyalty over sniffing.
So Saturday morning I went to yoga class to help normalize my mind and body. I went into class with the woes and came out less woeful but I wouldn't say neutral. I have more trials on my calendar before I cut the cords with her training plans like I did with Sophie. I started a gibberish song to my dog.
♫ This is a song ~ about my dog ~ she likes it ~ Oh yeah
♫ and I filled it in with what ever came to mind. It didn't have to make sense because she liked the tone. I can say anything, even bad mouth her, as long as I say it in song. I got the idea from watching the "Freedom Riders" documentary on American Experience. They would sing "They can take away my mattress" and "They can take away my toothbrush"or what ever the stupid imposition was made by police.
After years of vacancy in the house behind, it will soon be occupied. I realized that since I had new window installed in my bedroom last year, that the blinds I used to have will not fit, the new neighbors will be able to see clearly into my bedroom. I decided to put sheers lace curtains up that were sitting in my closet. It seems to works. Saturday night I noticed my dogs barking in the back yard and noticed they are moving in and have 2 dogs they were letting out. I'm sure they will want to put a fence up since it's wide open.
I watched the debates for a beginning and couldn't take the interuptions and talking over each other.
Amber and Sophie went to the groomers on Thursday so I had to get their photo taken.
I decided to look online and see if Amber's title is on the website. Then the certificate came in the mail on Saturday. (initials RE mean rally excellent, CGCA means canine good citizen advanced, and TKE means trick elite performer). The titles listed are the highest achieved on that ladder, not all the titles leading up to it because some trainers skip and go to straight to the top. Not me, I'm learning and growing.
I'm starting to see a lot of Elite performers on YouTube now for the national competition. I explained to my son that it's like having a degree from Princeton but you don't know if your on the honor roll until December. I want to brag just with family on not on Facebook. My sisters convinced me to hold in the brag till November because our performance is Christmas themed. The nationwide AKC award will be announced in December. I really don't expect to win but the challenge in July pushed my plan to meet the Oct 1 deadline. Amber and I have practiced in front of a nursing home window but now it's official that we have AKC TKE. The award would be a plus. She is a therapy dog and I get credit for window visits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fqfw1c7-qM&feature=youtu.be
Wednesday evening I went to a meeting of the Interveterans Council of Sangamon County. We decided not to have a Veterans Day Parade.
Friday evening I took the girls to practice. I worked mostly with Sophie because she's been pampered and needs to finish rally next week. Amber was in a kennel. So when it came time to recall the dog. I called her by the wrong name. She came anyway.
I stopped by the Lincoln Tomb. Garrett, who was going to hire me in Spring for tours, was going to do a tour of Oak Ridge cemetery but it rained a little and no one showed. I said hello to the staff to see how they were doing tours in a COVID world. There's a tent in the parking lot to check people in and a guide at the tomb entrance to maintain 10 at a time. She didn't recognize me at first in a mask.
I finished an audio book called "The Heroines of Mercy Street". I liked that better than Godwin's "Team of Rivals". That was so long and repetitive. Seemed like a lot of plagurism put into an encyclopedia book.
Amber, Sophie and Moe were blessed by Fr George, pastor of St John Vianney, on the feast day of St Francis of Assisi.
I got some more buffalo lung. It was on sale buy one get other 40% off. Only it wasn't when I got to the counter. So after I got it in my car. I went back and ripped the sale sticker off the shelf and told the clerk. She didn't think what was on the sales receipt was a Meijer brand. As I leave for the back of the store to bring forth a copy of what I bought, she called me back to get the items from my car. So off to the car to get the tubs. I win! Or did I? The dogs love this stuff but to open the container is like opening a coffin.
Monday morning we had our first frost. It's gonna be a cold winter.
“When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are
grateful for the abundance that’s present....we experience heaven on
earth.” - Sarah Breathnach
