Bev Rumsower - passed away 7/27/09

Meme sent out a post today from the Midwest Agile list that announced the passing of Bev Rumsower. It's rather hard to believe as she's been around since I started agility or obedience for that matter. She use to have a number of border collies, having an attachment to those red merles.

Her health has been declining as of late. She stopped running her dogs and turned them over to someone else to handle. She was the ICDOC trial secretary for two years of the December agility trials at Kirkwood.

At her memorial service, dogs are welcome. I sure hope they know what they are in for. What a wonderful idea.

Weekend Results - From the Agile Reporter!!

The RELATIVES!!!
You know, when you ALL get together - you GOT to get a picture!!

The Family of BORDER COLLIES!!!!

You're going to need a score card!!!

Left to Right - Seeker - 2, Kruz - 11 yrs (Seeker's Uncle), Scorch - 2 (Seeker's Brother),
Stormi - 9 (Seeker's Mom and Kruz's Sister), Sunni - 1 (Seeker's Niece),
Down in Front - Breezy - 11 (Kruz's Sister - Seeker's Aunt)

By - Rilda Sue (aka - Agile Reporter)

Since I am home this week-end, not in Burnsville, to the North), or Glen Carbon, to the South, I was appointed the AgileReporter for both groups. I was also reminded to report "tastefully". I'm not quite sure who she thinks she is talking to but will try to keep any crude remarks to myself. As far as being tasteful, I'm sure there is a lot of "tasting" going on. It's an Agility Week-end afterall.

Day 1 - Glen Carbon: - Was a fun day but with nice runs but not many Q's. Sheryl and Jet Q'd in Open JWW and Terry and Rippy Q'd in Standards.

Day 2 - Just got a call and as I suspected, "Orange Crew South" was at a Mexican Restaurant tasting the Margs. I'm guessing that they had supper with that. It seemed like a much better day. Michele and Cider Double Q'd; Jeff and Bea Q'd in Standards; Petra was clean but over time (good little girl); Sid Q'd in Open JWW; Terry said the courses were fast and dropped bars; Sheryl is working on attitude and better jumping with Jet and I'm sorry but I didn't get Rocket's stats written down; Melinda is happy with how Phoenix is working for her. Mentioned something about a bad handler. One bit of excitement with Melinda and Phoenix is that he took down the panel jump - not just a panel but the WHOLE THING!!! What a good boy.

Day 3 - Terry DQ!!! Hooray. Michele Q'd in JWW and had an off course in standards. Paula and Petra were clean again but 1 second over time. Tracy Q'd in JWW today and in Open yesterday (I think - this reporter's notes are all running together). Melinda and Phoenix are working better each run as a team. The Q's will come. Run Melinda, RUN!!! I believe Jeff and Bea were just one thing off on each course.

Day 4 -Michele DQ'd again. Jeff and Terry each Q'd in standards. Melinda has fantastic JWW run with Phoenix and they learned a lot this week-end. Tracy got 2 titles on Sid and Petra got the RIPS!!!

This reporter got a little tired and mixed up probably on some things so you can put it out there and ask for corrections from the respective parties.

Burnsville Results

Carrie and Addie DQed on Saturday!! Huge DQ RIBBONS!! Not sure we have room to bring it home!! Kruz Q'ed in Stnd, Mad in JWW and Seeker in Open JWW. We played the up and coming RAD (Yes, that's right...named after Rilda's brother!!!) - aka - Run and Down, as a fun match on Saturday afternoon to help AKC build stats. It's similar to USDAA's steeple chase, which consists of an A Frame, jumps, weaves and tunnels. We had a good time!! Addie brought home some colored ribbons to go along with her DQ!

Dena came down to play RAD, go out for breakfast at Perkins and visit. It was great seeing her and Seeker's brother, Scorch run!! Not to mention his mom and aunt.

Sunday, just a few Q's, more color for Addie and the dogs did very well. I brought home a LOT of 'Home Work' for Seeker!! I should probably write it all down before I forget. We got a free TOY from some gals from Blue Earth, MN!! How nice was that!! Well, actually, I got the free toy first....then Carrie was whining so loud that she got one too. UGH!! VBG

Clean or not.......It's always a great day went you get to RUN YOUR DOGS!!!!!

Seeker's Open JWW run - Saturday 7/25/09

Congrats to OTCH HC MACH SONY!!!!!

Also known as -


OTCH HC MACH Lytnstryke All Wired Up UDX XF

Sony is Kruz's Niece and Seeker's 1/2 Sister.

She's obviously the OVERACHIEVER in the family,
Sony finished her Herding Championship a couple weeks ago.

She is 5 1/2 years old, and lives in North Carolina.
She is shown by Mary Whorton.

Sony even took time out of her busy schedule to have a
litter of puppies last summer!

(photo credits - unknown)

MACH_Shower_Bon Fire_ Celebration

Friday July 3rd a bunch of the "Orange People" got together to CELEBRATE!!

A New "human" baby boy due in the middle of September.
Poor planning in 'my' opinion, as September is the busiest agility trial season. G

Two NEW MACHS!!!! Addie and Carrie, along with Jeff and Bea.

Plus a bon fire, that we really didn't get to enjoy much as it decided to start to rain just as it got dark. I don't think it actually mattered too much.

Anytime you get together with Friends is a GREAT TIME!!
Especially when there's FOOD involved! Boy was there FOOD!!! And PRESENTS!!!!!

Whenever you give a baby shower, it's tradition that you have games. I'm not terribly found of baby shower games, so I put a twist on them. They would be DOG related! PERFECT!!

The first game involved matching the dog breed to a breed specific tidbit I found on the AKC website. I didn't pick anything obvious, as where would the fun be in that?

I'm not sure these people have ever been this quite!! Of course, there were the complaints.
They ranged from the questions were too hard, the font too small and of course Natalie who can't read that well. GEEZ!! They are a competitive group and Meme (Marsha) took the prize with 9 of 13 correct. Martha (Melinda) showed up 'late' and got them all correct, but we figured that didn't count as she had a lot more time and fewer distractions without all the grumbling.

While the breed game was fun. The Clicker - Human Trainer - Human "Dog", was a HIT!!

Everyone paired up with a partner and one person was the dog, the other the handler. The 'dogs' got to pick their reinforcement of assorted candies. M&M's, Skittles or Peanut Butter M&M's. The humans got to draw a 'trick' to teach their 'dog' using positive reinforcement and a clicker. NO VERBALS!! I happen to know, there WAS some CHEATING going on!!

Carrie was a SMART dog and was able to open up and sit on this mat in with only a few clicks!

Liz, not quite as smart as Carrie. Liz was suppose to put a tennis ball inside the crate, not get on top of it!! Meg got a GREAT laugh out of it however, so it was worth it!!
Great job Liz!!!

Jeff went for some extra credit points by putting his 'rump' on the sign.
No Jeff, boy hands!!

Poor Michele. She wasn't sure WHAT to do with these to bars.
(She was actually suppose to back through them)
She did offer a LOT of great behaviors however!!

Fritz and Rilda were a GREAT TEAM!!!
They had there trick perfected in NO TIME!!!!

Carol and Sue Ann, well....I think it might have been more difficult if Carol
(she was the handler), hadn't performed 1/2 of the trick herself by setting the bar to the appropriate height!! G

After the games, Jeff ran out to the fire in order to BURN his Novice A shoes!! I suppose this should become some kind of tradition. When you finish your MACH you should burn the shoes you ran with in Novice. Boy, that's pressure!! I'd have to remember which shoes they were!!


Of course, then there's the baby gifts!!! Not your normal boring, bibs, diapers, and such.
(Okay, there were those too!) But a cool orange and blue quilt from Johnette!!

And look what's on the back!! Perfect with the little baby T-Shirt with the same Logo.
A perfect homecoming outfit.

I'm not sure if the soft and cuddle stuffed animals ever made it home?
Michele, Rilda....GIVE THOSE BACK!

Then of course there are the MACH presents!
Meme makes the BEST MACH PICTURES!

Here's Carrie with hers.

Do to the economic conditions, we felt it might be necessary to make the MACH bars a bit smaller. So, here's Jeff showing off his newly earned MACH PEN!

How could we top off this party!!!!!
SPARKLERS of course!!!
Here's Liz and Fritz helping their Granddaughter Natalie.

Natalie was nice enough to share one with ME!!!!
Of course, I had to promise to sit still and not run around with it.
These people really just can't forget about one careless incident involving my sparkler and a person's shirt. For crying out loud, that was like EIGHT years ago!!!

His skin grew back......eventually!! LOL

Lessons Learned - results from Burnsville 7/11-12/09

The more I compete in agility, the more I learn.
Sometimes I feel like I'm a really SLOW learner!
I think I might finally be 'getting it'!!

For Seeker and I,
it's about learning what our weaknesses are.
It's not about the 'Q's'!!
I know, everyone wants to Q, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't care.

That being said, for us, it's more about being the best team we can be - together.
It's not about Q's, it's not about placements, it's about Teamwork!

This weekend in Burnsville was interesting and full of learning opportunities.
Of these learning opportunities, we took FULL advantage.
Our De-Butt in Excellent STND provided us with several.

I made the decision when I started running Seeker that I would never 'baby' him
through a course. I would would always challenge him and have the same expectations
in a trial that I would at home. I will admit, it's HARD!
I have specific criteria and will hold to it.

Start line - hold position until released.
Contacts - hold position until released.

He's been doing very well with these thus far. Our start lines have been perfect to date and I'm sure at some point we'll need to 'throw away' a run. I'm prepared and always ready to do so.

Contacts, we have had our nice little 'run throughs' and pulls at DSM in March.
Since then we've been back on track. I'm sure it may rear it's "ugly" head again at
some point. I'm once again prepared and ready to end the run.
Sticking to my criteria!

My criteria for my contact performance has evolved a bit.
After the DSM run-throughs, I'd paused at the next few trials in order to give him
a little more information as to his 'stop' at the bottom.
At the last few trials I have not paused, but continued to run by,
with the expectation that he would hold position.
I stop, make eye contact, give him a "Good Boy You"
and release. I realize this takes a few seconds, but I'm okay with that.
Someday it will get shortened, but it may be awhile.

Our weekend started off with a perfect run in Stnd.
Kind of like "Rilda's big ole fish story", you'll have to take my word for it.
Bill put the batteries in backwards in the 'flip'. LOL
Click on the image to make it big.


The first jump was actually 'wingless', with just the timers. Many of the "B" dogs
were rocking the timers as they came back over it as the #4 jump.

So, the plan was.....lead out between 1 and 2, hold to 3 and push to 4 and run and leave.
Yes, rush the triple. My job was to direct, not baby sit the spread.
I was past the triple before he was taking off and sprinted across the dog walk.
I kept going, he held. YIPPEE!!

Push to the chute, push outside tunnel, front cross in front of the tire and pull to table.
One thing I didn't anticipate was the draw of the dog walk to the table.
He was wide, but I held on and got him to the table.

Left him at the table and lead out to the middle of the a-frame.
He would be on my left. Released and left.
He held his bottom and I was now at the outside of the tunnel.

Released him, and sent him over the #13 jump into the wall.
This gave a perfect line to #14 jump and teeter.
Most people were pulling to the inside which resulted in a lot of
back jumps, or weave pole 'biting'.

Up the teeter, a blind cross with a contact hold.
A send to the panel, a 'bridge'...OMG!! I thought we
were done with the broad jump in Novice Standard!

After the broad jump I just left and ran as fast as I could to the end.
No waiting at the poles, no waiting to see if he got his entry.
That's HIS responsibility and we finished at the last jump
close to the same time. About a 60 yard sprint for me.

It was PERFECT!!

Interestingly enough....I learned a lesson from this.
Our weave poles were an issue the rest of the weekend.

WHY????

It took me until our Nov JWW run on Sunday to figure it out.
I believe it was a 'race', and he knew he was suppose to do the poles,
but he didn't like getting 'beat' at the end.
So, it would be quicker to enter late, or he was
so busy thinking about the race that he couldn't focus 'Ester' on the entry.

Will I change my running style and let him find it before I leave.
NO!
Remember, criteria!
It just gives me something to work on ...challenge, work and conquer!

Another great thing I learned, was he will keep trying.
I love that!
I really attribute a lot of that to his strong shaping skills.

He had to do the Novice poles multiple times (second entry)
before he completed them correctly.
Okay, that was rather frustrating, but he did them EVERY time
with the same intensity as the first.

When people tell me that their dog, "Doesn't like to be wrong",
it makes me think....
"How does he know he's wrong?"

If it's just a game and it wasn't the 'picture'
you wanted, just try again.
NO BIG DEAL!

If our "formal training" was more like "trick training"
our dog's performances would be SO MUCH BETTER!
We put on the pressure and cause the majority of our dogs' issues!

HAVE FUN!

CRITERIA
CRITERIA
CRITERIA!

I continue to Learn.
Isn't that Great!

-----------------------

Other results.

Carrie didn't want hers posted.
If you're curious....you'll have to ask her! G

Seeker was 3/4. Finished his NAJ! YIPPEE
Kruz was 5/5. GOOD BOY
Mad and Bill were 1/4 and just ONE thing the other 3 runs!

GREAT JOB!!

MACHs, ROCKS and BOOTS!!!

Yes, it's a rock!!!
Jeff, Carrie and Terry found it during a visit to the river
after a long wet day at the agility trial.
It's sure purdy!

As promised, below is Bea's MACH run!!


Complete with Jeff chasing Bea around the ring with a bar! G
We will now ALL 'bea' practicing running with a bar in
hands at class, as a preparation for our MACH runs!! LOL

On Saturday, the site had a LOT of rain. Terry didn't want to 'ruin' his shoes,
so he ran in his farmer boots!! Nice Look Terry!!!! G