RubyStar

Our first clear round pass card is still in limbo, and with the interstate judges now home, I don't think our chances of getting our first qually card are good. So what should be her JD title, isn't... so we will try again next weekend

Pippa got 3 clear rounds in novice jumping this weekend to get her JD title She came first in her height for her novice jumping runs, and made it to the finals. Naughty ninja visited the judge in the final, blowing our chances of a win Must ask people to stand out on course at training! It was her first trial so she did extremely well, despite my initial disappointment at blowing the finals!

If you're talking ANKC, no they won't allow a toy to go into the ring. I do believe ADAA allow it if you do their NFC? I feel for you, TO, as I have similar issues with my girls. I don't really have any advice, because if I did, I probably wouldn't be in the same predicament! With Millie, without fail, I lose her at least once every run, then we either get it together to finish off decently, or she runs around half hearted missing jumps. So I've decided I am going to give her a bit of a break from agility, then maybe bring her back with some novice NFC rounds. We are entered next week already so we may as well give that a crack, but after that, yeah, might just give it a break and work on more joy and less tuning out in training with short, fun sequences, because our problem isn't restricted to just trialling (trialling just brings it out more obviously). With Ruby, she goes slow but tends to run faster if she's chasing me on the run, rather than me going slow or standing stationary waiting for her to catch up. We went clear in masters jumping twice this weekend, but one was out of time by just under 3 seconds (over handling on a serpentine because it was on a weird angle, so figured this was better than her taking the wrong jump or the jump from the wrong side, it definitely cost us time). She also went clear twice in excellent agility and today's run (in the rain!) I decided to just RUN in parts I could and Ruby gave it her all, definitely increasing her speed!! I was just so happy that she was happy :D

Way to go, Em and TSD!!!!

Video finally uploaded!

Had a ripper day at the WA State Agility Trial! It was Pippa's debut in both agility and jumping. The ninja got clear in both her jumping runs, and while no clear in agility, did awesomely! The part I thought she'd have most trouble with, the weaves, she nailed both times! The mistakes were silly handling mistakes, so not Pippa's fault. Ruby got a clear round in Excellent Agility, and what might be her first clear round in Masters Jumping. There was a technical fault which meant we couldn't get our results today, we will get them tomorrow, so I'm just waiting to see if Ruby was in time Ruby was so happy today, love when she comes out of the ring with her happy face on like she's done good and is so proud of herself! Millie had some good moments, but within the same runs, had some not so good moments, so no clears for her today Video of Pippa to come :)

Well done little Waldo! Go the schnitzels!!! Fantastic, TO! Well done

I'd like to introduce you all to the newest member of the family! Meet Bobo, she's a 14 year old Maltese from Shenton Park Dogs Refuge. I met her Thursday night at agility and was blown away by how much she resembled our old girl Chloe, who we had to have PTS in 2010 at the age of 16. There was little convincing mum and dad they needed to adopt her. So off mum and I went today to adopt her for dad :) The resemblance is uncanny. In this short time, we've already accidentally been calling her Chloe Her name Bobo is derived from Chloe's nickname, as dad wanted to keep the connection there. All the dogs get along so well already. The Labs are barely taking notice of her and Pippa just wants to sniff her. Bobo isn't phased at all. She has a big weekend ahead, as she'll be coming down to the state trial as there is no way we will be leaving her home by herself! It will be tough having such a short time with her due to her age, but dad is a softy in his old age and we wanted to be certain she would have a good home for her golden years :)

I am going to watch restricted Livertreats ran the borrowed red dog at the RATG and ended up with both dummies back in her hand. We forgot to take out his "go now" batteries and he broke on both runs , but again he was exposed to things he hadn't encounted before and he did really well. So sit and wait is on the agenda for the next few weeks. I think you should gun steward for restricted.... sans gloves :laugh: I'll probably go along for novice and depending in how long it goes, restricted too. I have assignments starting to pile up on me and this weekend is completely out! But I am becoming increasingly interested in restricted and watching what it involves :)

Sorry about your foot, mirawee You could always come down and just enjoy the day stress free? I didn't enter last year but came to watch on the Saturday and it was a nice relaxing day. Unlike this year for me, gonna be hectic running between rings with 3 dogs! Mum is coming down to watch Pippa so I've told her she has to be put to work with holding dogs and treats, toileting dogs, etc etc! Hoping I can find people to video Pippa for me because mum and dad really want it filmed to show people (they are proud parents!), however, mum is hopeless with a camera and also wants to watch without her eye behind a video camera.

It is usually held at Brookleigh, and I would imagine that is still the go even with only Nov & Rest being run. I will check with Catherine. No AA? Thanks, had a feeling it was Brookleigh :)

Well done! I'm so jealous you have a bumper boy

fetchindawgs, when you find out the location details of the Anzac Day trials, can you please post here? I'm thinking of coming along to watch/help. Thanks :)

Chocolate brownies?

Good luck, Tassie! Woah, 300km's... I get a bit precious when I have to drive to the other side of the city for a trial (it's easy to become spoiled living so close to the main trialling grounds!)

looking forward to catching up, TW :) Yeah I am not that confident with agility yet, nor jumping either to be completely honest, but as long as we don't go in expecting the world and just have fun, I don't think it really matters! Just keep running! Accuracy will come :) The big question though is - what do I bake for the weekend?!?!?!

I'm so over this week already, hurry up weekend! Just call me Grumpy Cat today! Looking forward to the weekend, going to be a tiring one, though. So thank goodness for short week next week! (I'm only in the office twice ) I've reluctantly got my girls entered this weekend, but have also entered Pippa the Ripper. I'm equally nervous and excited - it's her first trial so who knows what's going to happen!! The plan is to just ruuuuun, and not care about much else :D

So who will be at the state agility trial this weekend?

Thanks, I will try and remember this and put it into practice :) Appreciate everyone's advice

:laugh: Yes, but that is over an entire day - I left home at 8am and arrived home at 10.30pm. OK, so there was some puppy cuddling in between I edited my post above to try and clarify what I was trying to say, I am not sure it came out right.

But to me, that IS a lot you are doing :laugh: when I think of it in terms of how Ruby would cope with that and I'm trying to say that even with all your breaks, I would love a dog who could cope with that! Ruby doesn't get run continuously, she gets LOTS of breaks and does MUCH less than that overall, so it isn't about not resting her sufficiently and asking her to do continuous retrieves. But you are definitely right in that the 2 swims were too long and I won't combine a lengthy swim with a tougher concept again anytime soon (she did it, but tired her out too much to work on anything else afterwards - lesson learned!) I'm not sure how my posts are coming across, all I am trying to say is it is incredibly frustrating and demotivating for me to have a dog who isn't driven and is done for the day after 2 retrieves. I'm not willing to accept that she is more cut out for a pet life at home just yet, and I will work through the frustration she gives me in all sports because there are times she shows me just what she really is capable of :)

Don't worry TSD, I love talking and reading about retrieving so although we don't have fantastic things to contribute, I will try keep the thread alive with you I'm not sure how much we lost with dropping the dummies, didn't bother to check We got a score of 90/100 in the end, so sounds like the judge was kind and didn't ping too harshly for so many fumbles! Apart from that, I was really pleased with everything she did. I'm keen to get her out and do some more training, as she really enjoys it and I'd like to do the open test with her once we get our last novice pass. Got ages to get ready for that, though Fantastic work with Em. I love that you can train, train, train with her and she doesn't tire or get bored. What I long for in a dog! Millie could go for ages, much longer than Ruby, but she still has her limits. Ruby has a very short training session lifespan before she tires and/or loses interest Prime example - on Saturday we headed out for training and we worked purely on water marks. She was raring to go on her first one, and I started with a double rise because I wanted to get one in before she lost interest. I was all ready to abandon if she had trouble locating the first, but she did well. So we proceeded with the double rise and after deviating to try and pick up a log in the water, she found the dummy and brought it back. All good! They were 2 quite long swims for her, and I suspected that that may be it for her. While the others had a go I worked on some short handling on land with dummies left and right, still quite eager. Moved to do a single mark in another direction in the water and I should have gone with my judgement of that was her limit, at least with water. But still, I sent her out, she went out, but then she lost the plot on the way back Had to encourage her to bring it back and then I called it a day. So didn't exactly end on a good note. It's not like she did much, but her limits are much lower. So you can imagine that I long for a dog with drive!! I half have that with Millie, which is heaps of fun :)

Now that I've finally started training the traditional finish with Pippa, we might consider Rally at some stage. Haven't taught her the old LAT, though!

Sounds like you had a great day, RV! I'm sure as you are starting to realise that she is doing better than you think :) Great photos! Yesterday we had WA's first RATG for the year (our 3rd in total). 9 novice dogs, 3 open dogs. All the dogs did great! We had 4 qualifiers in novice, and all 3 qualified in open. I had Ruby and Millie entered. I of course drew #1 for Ruby but that doesn't bother me, as long as I don't have 2 consecutive numbers like last time! (#1 and #2, not fun!) Lucky I drew #6 for Millie Ruby did great until the last retrieve. It was through some long waist height grass and we couldn't see where it landed and I feared she'd stop and not go through the grass. She pushed on though to my surprise, but deviated to the left towards the thrower, and then that threw her off course so didn't locate the dummy. I called her in, but was very happy with her efforts! Millie who has had less training, especially in cover, I feared wouldn't get it either. To my delight, off she shot and the thrower guy said she was straight on it, and back she came with it! She's the polar opposite to Ruby, in that she has such a soft mouth that the dummy just kept falling out of it She dropped it 3 times on her way back to me, but didn't require me to ask her to pick it up again and brought it all the way for a nice present on her own accord. Best part was she actually waited to be sent, as she's usually so eager that she's off like a shot before being sent Was very very pleased with Millie's work, she loves retrieving so much! She walked away 3 points behind the winner with 2nd place Damn her dropping the dummy fetchindawgs has a couple of brags from yesterday too, and Strauss, livertreats' borrowed red dog did awesomely, too!

The cat is famous! Now I'm getting emails about that cat I wanna see the cat do RallyO :D