New OA and OAJ

Breeze competed again  in agility mid  September. It was a two day trial and all we needed was one Open Jumpers leg and One Open Standard leg for her title. She did it!!!!
However it is very obvious she has several weakness still that we need to work on.
Her contacts are great! Her tunnel send is great! Her enthusiasm is great!
Other than that everything needs work. And I need to remember who she is and she doesn't know.
Weavepoles entrances need ALOT of work, reading each others cues needs ALOT of work. Serps, rear crosses, front crosses, send outs all need to worked on.

The next level of competition is Excellent. Not only are the courses significantly harder but NO mistakes are allowed. We are not ready but have so much fun together we want to keep going. So our next trial is in one week.......Even if we don't Q we will have fun and learn to work as a team.

Breeze Debut in Open Agility

We have been so busy I have had no time to update the blog. Between training all the dogs, competing, and working I am having a hard time keeping current.

On the Aug 23 weekend Breeze made her debut in Open Agility as well as competing in Rally. After running back and forth between rings, I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. She had a three day trial and earned two Open Jumpers and two Open Standard legs that weekend. Not bad for a baby dog.
However as the levels get higher the skills needed get more difficult.

Weavepole entrances is what caused our initial failure in the course on both NQs. Definitely something to work on. Another problem encountered the first day in Standard was her apprehension of going into the chute. The first day we never did succeed.  After the trial was over I borrowed a chute without the tunnel portion and got her through finally with enthusiasm. But you can see my nervousness as the chute approaches in the course. Luckily she went through although not as quickly and willingly as I would have liked. I suspect the lightening of the arena was the cause.

The first run of the weekend was Open Jumpers. She had an awesome course with a speed of 5.95 yds/sec. My goal is to someday break 6 yds/sec. So close and of course no video! The rest of the runs that weekend were not as spectacular. In agility success is based on teamwork. The dog and handler have to read each others cues and know what each other is saying. This takes a long time and many many runs together. She is doing fabulous but I still need to remember she doesn't read me well and I don't read her well yet either.

The below videos are our first weekend together at this level. I apologize for the first Open Std video. If I only knew how to edit videos......I got into the ring too early and should have walked out but I stayed and started playing with her in the ring. I was nervous about starting with the chute so was trying to make her happy and excited. The run starts well into that video.

Ch Aragon Northern Lights TD NA NAJ RN

This past weekend at Mensona Kennel Club I had Breeze entered in Rally and Agility two out of three days. It seemed so reasonable on the entry form to enter both events. I was at the show anyway so why not do both? Of course the events were at opposite ends of the fairgrounds. And of course there was a ring conflict both days.

How likely is it in the entire day both events I was entered in were at the same time. As this always happens you would think I would learn....

Breeze did super in both Rally and Agility. She earned her second and third Rally Novice legs and thus her Rally Novice title. I love her attention, fronts we need to work on!!




And her third Rally Novice leg




Next post will be about her  Open agility debut

Breeze NA NAJ or Bendy Breeze

Breeze earned her NA and NAJ titles at the agility trials in Livermore Ca Aug 3 and 4th. She is fast and fun to handle. I have learned a lot of handling from her mother Whisper but I also made many mistakes. I hope to improve my handling with Breeze. Two mistakes that plagued Whisper and I throughout her career was holding contacts and lead outs from the table.

By the time I realized I had a problem it was almost too late to fix them. With Breeze I vowed to teach her early on what I wanted in a trial.

In her second and third Novice Standard videos you will notice I am trying to leave her on the table and lead out. I am nervous to go very far, when dogs are in a trial their adrenaline is high and they are almost hyper responsive. At least at the Novice level you can make two mistakes and still qualify. Her contacts have been excellent until the last contact of the third Standard run-the dog walk. She jumps off to follow me to the tunnel. Allowing her to do this would lead to earlier and earlier leaving  or to jump the contact zone entirely which is what happened with Whisper. So instead of making a big deal of the mistake , a simple Uh Oh!! and stop running for a second or two will hopefully correct the problem.








Now on to Open which allows only one mistake per run!

Western Sighthound Combined Greyhound Specialty

The Western Sighthound Combined Specialty in Lompoc is a yearly event. The Greyhound Club of America has the Western Greyhound Specialty at this site. On Friday July 27 2013 we had our conformation and obedience specialty.

Best of Breed was GCH Aroi Aryal Remarkable aka "Brego"and his owner Donna Arcaro.  A big congratulations to both of them. Brego has long been a favorite of mine so much so that he is the father of the Whisper puppies.

In obedience Echo did super-her first time in the Open A ring and she went High In Trial with a 196. This was especially suprising since she had been in bandages with a lacerated toe, then a broken tail, then another lacerated toe. She had been in bandages for at least 6 weeks before the specialty, hence minimal to no practice. Stitches came out and bandage off 4 days before the specialty. We quickly had to practice our teamwork.

Breeze also had her first attempt at Rally. In obedience I always start my dogs off with Rally. It is much easier and more interactive than regular obedience. She also did a great job earning her first Rally Novice leg with a perfect score of 100.