Saturday, October 23, 2010

USDAA Nationals - It wasn't all about Agility

Okay, it was......but there were other things to see and do!  

For instance, we went car shopping for Meme!!

We didn't even have to go far!  
This one was parked just a few vehicles away!
Talk about making our silver van easy to spot!


 We went to Churchill Downs.
What a HUGE place that was!


  

Here's Barbaro!!
What a spectacular Statue!


 Then we went for a walk at a beautiful park 
across from the Louisville Zoo!


Did I mention how awesome the weather was!!!


We even had some time to tour the lot for RVs. 
Not that we'll ever get one, but it was fun to look. 

Is it just me....or is there just something WRONG
with this PICTURE!!  G


Now, this is ROUGHING IT!
RILDA STYLE!!


OH, This is NOT good!!
RV with UM... back up......
Van camping is looking better all the time!


Kruz would like to get back to agility NOW!!!
He was in his element!
So many rings....so little time!




Here's another video from Kentucky.  
Some clips from walks, there were 5 groups (A-G)
There was some electronic difficulties on Saturday night, 
so the gate steward and crowd kept us entertained.
With Clapping, Waves, and those crazy bleacher runners!

There was a Canine Cancer Lure Coursing.
Seeker really wanted to play!
You can hear him crying as the Rott
is chasing the lure!
Fun to watch!!



 We had fabulous weather on the way home as well.  
Here's the bridge from KY to IN.  
(the ambulance wasn't for us!)



 The Scenery was pretty!


FINALLY HOME!
Seeker got to play with his new Wubbie!
THANKS JOANN and SPORT!



Wednesday, October 20, 2010

USDAA Steeplechase - A-Frame and Weaves

The best part of the week at USDAA Nationals, other when running Seeker, 
was the Steeplechase Saturday night. 
Handlers and dogs were running all out in order to WIN!  
How much fun is that! 

Bill happened to pick the perfect seat!
  Right on the decent of the A-Frame!  
I wanted to see how dogs handled the A, 
and how they were going to handle that tricky stretch right after the Frame.




I really liked how Daisy Peel and Solar handled that jump sequence.
She wrapped Solar around jump #11 and that gave him a
nice line to the next sequence. 

There were others that had a nice push up that line,
but it didn't look as clean as Daisy's.
That being said, Daisy and Solar didn't win the Steeplechase.
It would be interesting however to see if handling it this way would have made 
the first and second place dogs, Feature and Scream, any faster.

Regardless, it was sure a LOT of FUN to watch!

So, the question is:
How will you train your next dog?



Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Steeplechase Video - USDAA - 10/16/2010

Here's a video put together by Marty, our crating neighbor in KY.  

She did a great job with it!  She was on the opposite side of the ring. 

I'll try to put one together tomorrow morning!


Monday, October 18, 2010

We're BACK!!! USDAA NATIONALS!! FUN! FUN! FUN!


We are HOME!!!  YIPPEE!!!!  We had a great time in KY and we'll be back next year!  
We learned a LOT of valuable lessons that I'll share with you over the next few days.  

I'll admit, if you like Border Collies, you'll see a LOT of them!  Aussies, Shelties and Mals as well!  
In the 12" classes, Corgis seem to rule, both the tail and tailless varieties.  I spoke to two yellow lab owners, they had daughters of Preacher!  Also, a couple Louisiana Cataholas!  One even made the 26" Steeplechase finals!! 

All your walk-throughs were completed first thing in the morning.  They started as early as 7:00 am, or as late at 8:45 am.  It was actually nice how they had it laid out, I was in group D, so for the most part, I walked with the same people.  If you did well, you continued to run...so, you could run as many as 3 times a day.  This meant that you had to walk 3 courses in the morning and then run them through-out the day.  Yes Rilda, I know...You'd be having a FIT!!  It wasn't bad!  HONEST!!  

Here's how I kept it straight!  I tried a piece of paper, but I kept misplacing it.  My hand was with me....all the time!!  Of course, it washed off later, but I was done with it by then.  On this day I walked Grand Prix from 7:15 - 7:25 in the Main Ring, then Ring 3 from 8:00 - 8:10, then Ring 5 for Steeplechase Semi-Finals from 8:30 - 8:40.  Running started at 9:30.  On this day I ran at 11:00, 2:15 and 4:00.  You had plenty of time in-between to go watch other groups run, so you could remember your course.  



Here's the course for the Steeplechase Quarter Finals.
I'll admit, this is becoming my favorite class!  
It's not just because you can win MONEY!!!!
It's FAST!


 

The photo of the ring below is from the far side, so the #10/#17 red tunnel is closest to you.
You'll just need to trust me when I say there was NO WAY to manipulate your dog into that #10 tunnel when you're hauling the mail down that line.  Okay, I'm sure some of those guys with the 6' legs could do it, but it sure wasn't happening for me! 

(Steeplechase Quarter Final Course) 



Seeker made it into the Steeplechase Semi Finals, (pretty awesome since the A-Frame was twice in the Quarter finals), and if his handler would have told him to take the A-Frame the second time, we would have made it to the Finals!!  RATS!!!  Live and Learn!  Sometimes you have to learn by doing I guess. 

I'm very proud of Seeker and how he did over-all.  No one likes to go into a big competition like this knowing you had a 'major' issue with particular piece of equipment.  Especially when that piece is in every class but 2 (Jumpers and Reknooks).  The A FRAME!!! UGH!!  But, we micro-managed it and we able to look respectable.  That will be our winter homework.  I'm still not sure whether we'll go back to the 2/2 or work more on our running.  I'll need to digest this a bit more before I commit.  I do know he's very confused and so, I'll need to do what's best for him.  
Our DAM Team - Three Sheeps to The Wind finished a VERY respectable 32nd of 205 teams and just missed the cut off of DAM Team Relay finalists.  NEXT YEAR!!!!   Great Job Seeker, Shenna and Shiver, Carol and Rio!!!!  We ROCKED!! 

Below on the Right, Stacy Peardot-Goudy said she wanted to be blog fodder!!
She said to tell all those IOWA PEOPLE "HI"!!!! 
I have several videos to share, but will need to edit them.  
The Steeplechase finals Saturday evening was a blast!! 
I'll write up a separate blog for that.  What FUN!!! 

5 rings, endless running and a lot of fun!!  
Plan to qualify and go next year!!!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Off To Louisville,KY!!

Tomorrow we're off to Louisville, KY and the USDA A championships!!

This is the first time we've attended this event and we're looking forward to it.

I'll try to send updates, but I'll confess right now, the  letter 'a' on our laptop isn't working, thus, you might need to fill in the 's long the Way!!  VBG  Unless spell check picks it up, you're going to have to live with it.  G

For now, the coolers re ready to be filled, the dog's raw food is frozen, nd I'm currently making bnn nd blueberry muffins for our breakfast. 

USDAA.com for the details.

I might have to re-employ the gile reporter!!

Right now I do know that the walk throughs re in the morning, so you might have 2-3 courses to remember throughout the Day.  The walking seems to be between 700 - 830, then we start running.  It should be interesting!!

http://projectgodog.blogspot.com

You'll likely get better - quicker updates from Shenna nd Shiver's blog!!