I was thinking I really should teach Jayda some formal obedience this winter…

Not that I haven’t taught her anything – I’ve taught exercises in bits and pieces, as a diversion more than methodical, goal-oriented training. Hey – Jayda’s an exceptionally OBEDIENT dog, if not an obedience-TRAINED one :).

I have managed to haphazardly teach her some very nice retrieving skills, so I thought maybe I’d introduce her to metal scent articles ….

BLEH! ICK! YUCK! EWWW! PTHOOEY! You want me to put THAT in MY MOUTH???

Fortunately Bryce is all too willing to retrieve anything (as long as he’s well paid for his efforts) so after a little “monkey-see, monkey-do” training (and LOTS of cookies for Bryce) I had Jayda fetching the metal article. Still not with great enthusiasm – despite the cookies she’s not QUITE convinced that this is “fun” yet. It probably doesn’t help that my articles were sized for Sally’s dainty muzzle. They fit Bryce just fine, but they’re just a tad smaller than ideal for Jayda’s, um, “sizeable” schnozz.

Update 11/27/06: I must have been pretty convincing, because now she’s starting to “table surf” for it! Stands up and “steals” it off the table where I leave it and walks around proudly before bringing it to me. Bryce is jealous – he can’t reach that high!

Here are 2 new photos* of Bryce and Jayda doing agility from the “Fast Pawz” NADAC trial on Staten Island last month – enjoy!

(* Both photos by M. Nicole Fischer photography)

Make that, Baby’s First TWO Q’s, and her first 2 clean runs :)!

At our first CPE trial, “BabyDog” Jayda Q’d in her Standard and Colors classes, taking 2nd place besides! She had a very nice opening in Jackpot too, accumulating 33 points (level 1 dogs only need to get 16 points). She earned herself non-qualifying first place ribbons in that class and in Snooker. I was very proud of her!

Not to be shown up by “the noob”, Bryce Q’d in all 5 of his runs at level 3 (you can choose to start trialing in CPE at level 1, 2 or 3) with an assortment of placements. His standard run was rather naughty – I didn’t think he qualified, but apparently CPE has generous rules regarding faults for level 3 :)!

Colors is a strange game. It’s two nested mini-courses (about 9 obstacles each) and you need to tell the judge which one you’re running before you start. I’m not sure I see the point of it but it’s easy and fun, especially for less experienced dogs.

CPE has no teeter or weaves at Level 1. Not an advantage for Jayda because she loves them both. Level 2 can have them, but yesterday’s trial level 1 and 2 ran the same courses all day. Jackpot had weaves and a teeter on course however, so Jayda got to do them both once.

It also seemed like there were LOTS of jumps on the courses, not very many tunnels. I was glad I didn’t enter Jayda in jumpers – that was the last class of the day and she was tired enough by then. The height cutoffs are different than other registries – Bryce got to jump 12″ all day for a change.

It was an exhausting day for both dogs (and me) – they were crated inside the building and, unlike outdoor trials where they nap between runs, neither one slept the entire day!

We just finished a crazy but worthwhile NADAC weekend. How crazy was it? Here’s the short version:

• I get totally lost on the way to the trial
• Jayda got carsick from me driving around in circles
• Missed Bryce’s first run, get there just in time to walk Jayda’s course. Jayda starts well but heads for the ring gates 2 jumps from the end. (I got her back but we were way over time). She gets a 4th place ribbon for the effort.
• An over-enthusiastic Bryce blows a Chances run
• Bryce and I have an amazing, if exhausting double shot of Touch N Go, finishing his TG-N with 1 leg to spare with 2 first place runs – 2 back-to-back runs of a 188 yard course!!!!
• We leave. On the way home while driving on the turnpike a (big!) bird flies into my windshield (no damage, except to the poor bird)!
• Day #2 begins with a wrong course on an otherwise very nice Regular course.
• We mess up a Jumpers run and a Chances run.
• Jayda starts another jumpers course nicely… until we reach a sequence of jumps headed towards the ring gates, where she kept going.This is a new one for me – a stressed Sally meant circling, spinning, or offering obstacles; a stressed Bryce goes hunting for edible micro-garbage on the ground. Stressed Jayda leaves! She didn’t show any sign of looking BACK to the ring gates while heading away from them, but sequences heading towards them are something we definitely need to address.
• Bryce runs tunnelers and Q’s to finish his TN-E despite a brief stop to sniff goose-poop.
• Jayda runs tunnelers and finishes the whole course without leaving the ring! Of course, I didn’t give her much of a chance to leave – I was right on top of her the whole time. She doesn’t like that – it slowed her down and made her spin inside a tunnel, but it kept her on course. She finished 3rd, just over course time.

All in all, a rather strange, but pretty decent trial weekend. The weather was beautiful (if a little cold) and it was a great day to be out with the dogs. Here’s a picture of “baby” Jayda with her first ribbons!

… and Bryce “The Man” with his ribbon collection (and his duck) …

Some dogs are resource guarders – they fiercely protect their toys, their food, even their people. Everything around them is “mine, mine, mine” …

Not so Bryce and Jayda. One of the things I love about them is that they happily share their food, posessions or my attention with family and strangers alike. Here they are sharing one of those dairy milk extractors (those black rubber thingies that were THE Border Collie Toy several years ago). They were each nibbling on their own end of it (until they saw the camera).

No matter how many dogs you train or how long you’ve been doing agility, there’s a dreaded moment that rolls around ever so often – it’s that day you run your new dog in a trial for the very first time!

I had Jayda entered in jumpers both days but scratched her on Saturday – it was VERY windy, things were blowing all over the trial site and she was pretty freaked out about it. I found a place where she felt comfortable and she managed to settle in there (and eat a lot of cookies) , but I didn’t want to push my luck by running her.

Sunday was much better. I also decided to try walking her around on a harness – good move. It made her more secure because if something did happen to spook her she didn’t choke herself and make the situation even scarier. So she spent Sunday in what used to be her big sister Sally’s tracking harness .

By the time Jumpers rolled around, she seemed pretty comfortable though, as our luck would have it, a FOOTBALL GAME or something was in progress nearby – complete with marching band and DRUMS! She wasn’t happy about THAT, but I think I was more nervous than she was – I had 3 people ready to catch her (or shoo her back to me) just in case she happened to make a run for the ring gates!

The run wasn’t a stunning success, but it wasn’t a disaster either. She took the first 3 jumps at a good speed (actually, faster than I was expecting :)!) , missed a tunnel entrance, zoned out and stared at her surroundings a little, came AROUND the tunnel, then went into the correct end. When she came out she had another “moment” (probably heard the marching band!) and started trotting the general direction of the end of the ring, but I was able to call her back to me before she got halfway there. That led to little mess at the weave entrance, then she did the rest of the course cleanly (just a couple little bobbles) and pretty quickly.

At the end, my “dogcatchers” greeted us (with her treats) and we had a BIG party :). Considering how few times she’s ever done agility outdoors, I was VERY happy with that! And considering all the stuff she ate, it’s a good thing she has the same bombproof gut as Bryce!