The weather was beautiful yesterday so I took the new car on it’s first road-trip (to a NADAC trial). It’s officially a dogmobile now!
Three crates in a Forester. Notice how nice and neat it is – the water bowls all fit nicely in the little side area. Bungees and clamps are on the other side And check this out – room to put stuff behind the front seat – what a concept!
Fall foliage was out in full force – I took this while sitting in local traffic on the way home…
This was a last-minute “day of trial” entry. The trial secretary at this trial usually accepts same-day entries (at $1 more per run) if the trial doesn’t fill – I love having this option and I wish more of them did this! Feeling kind of short on cash, I limited my entries to just a couple of runs per dog.
Bryce ran REALLY well yesterday! He didn’t *quite* get his elite Chances attempt, but it was the closest he’s been in a long time! I ended up handling him from what later became the Open line and he was fine from there. Seeing that he’d completely lost his distance work a while ago, that was encouraging. Also encouraging in light of the last CPE Jackpot Q we need. I ran him on a nice, fast, elite Jumpers course later in the day and he looked great – his speed was better than I’ve ever seen him at 8″ (skilled vet) and he seemed very happy out there and pleased with himself afterwards. Didn’t hurt that his entire fan club greeted him at the gate after he ran – that boy still loves to schmooze :).
Jayda Q’d in Chances and Jumpers with two really nice runs, but popped the 10th pole in Standard. Her weaves have been a little “off” lately – I know what we’re working on this week.
Raven was doing the Annoying Jumping Up Thing again – more about that in another post, but I’ve gathered more information and think I may have settled on an effective way to deal with it when it happens!
It is always fun setting up the new car! It looks great and glad you are enjoying it!
MaryAnn, If you ever get a solution to that “jumping up” thing, let me know–nOw that Zeeba’s doing longer sequences, he gets REALLY wound up and does that stuff. Time outs are not working.
Ugh – lucky you!
I’ve been trying different things. It LOOKS like what works best for Raven is to just freeze – not say anything, not look at her, no extra commands or signals – give her zero feedback. Did that one time this weekend where she was doing it at a tunnel – she stopped and looked at me, totally baffled for a second, then a light bulb went on and she turned around and did the darned tunnel! THEN she got a “YES!!!” I probably should have quit there, but since they were on the way to the exit we did the last 3 jumps (not perfectly but much smoother than the first part of the course) followed by lots and lots of treats.
FWIW, Raven seems to do it when she’s frustrated, overexcited, or both. Even though her tail’s up I think there’s an element of stress, so I’m reluctant to remove her from a course for doing it (which would reinforce it as a way for her to avoid a stressful situation), though I may start removing her early to have a big party WHEN she works through it, like at that tunnel.
You definitely have my sympathy – Rave’s the first one of my shelties that’s ever done this and it drives me nutz!!!
Good luck, and tell Zeeba “Mommy is NOT your sheep!”