The New Project

The new project is now live!!! Woot!

Still uploading courses daily as I receive them, but here it is...

https://sites.google.com/site/dogagilitycoursemaps/home



My idea is to create a massive database of agility courses all on one page... no more googling ten million websites, going through hundreds, only to find that they are not translatable in google or that they no longer exist or that they haven't been updated for 7 years...  I will be keeping everything up to date and continually looking for more courses to add... so if anyone would like to contribute, please email me!  Or send any suggestions or comments or whatever you would like.... a favourite saying of the computer nerd hubby is always 'agility addicts all over the world unite' (a very loose adaption from Hackers for those that did not know)... so this is the plan...

Anyhow, I hope it gets used.... so let's see what happens!

Weekend Summary

Well another weekend come and gone...

Yesterday was just one of THOSE days... Everyone was on edge and I am surprised that no-one got shot (or at least beaten up) in 'Agility Rage' (it is the equivalent of Road Rage, just in Agility).  Whether it was the moon, or just weather or whatever, it was not exactly fun...  I generally avoid the screaming and swearing, because I was too caught up in my own current problem...  Out of Chaos's nine rounds this weekend... he lost out on FOUR, yes count them... one, two, three, four QC's because of one knocked bar each round.

The problem with this is the amount of 'knock' training I do...  What is knock training in my world, you may ask?  Well it consists of many different exercises.  I have done grid work with my dogs since I before STARTED agility...  in 1994... co-incidentally in fact.  See I used to ride and because we did loads of grid work with the horses, it just seemed like a good idea.  I didn't think much of it or WHY I did it at that stage... that only came later... the point is that all my dogs have done grids... progressive, regressive, even and random grids (or whatever they are called in 'dog terminology').  Once I figured out the value and why I was actually doing these, it became even more of a habit.  I also do a lot of one jump training... this involves me doing a LOAD of weird things (eg. sitting down, running in the opposite direction, climbing a tree, running inside the house, spinning in a circle seven times (yes, yes, exaggerating, in case you have not noticed)), while I send my dogs over a jump and reward if they don't knock.  The idea is to teach them to clear the bars DESPITE my actions... and of course I never reward on any sequence unless they have cleared all the bars.  I will not re-do the ENTIRE sequence (how the hell are they supposed to figure out what is going on???), but only redo the section (one, two or three jumps where they knocked) and reward for NOT knocking...



I even did an experiment today... running progressive jumping grids, varying the distances (between 2.5 and  5m) and the heights (between 500mm and 750mm) on EVERY single grid I ran... he only knocked ONE out of 40 jumps (5 jumps per grid, two training sessions, where I ran each grid 4 times)... and the knock was on a 2.5m bounce, on 650mm and 700mm respectively, which, lets face it, is quite a lot to ask from a dog that is over 570mm at the shoulder...  I honestly do think my dog knows how to stride.  So what am I supposed to do???  HELP ME!!!!

Anyhow, yesterday was a busy, busy, busy day... six rounds in total, so I could not manage to get someone to tape every time, but here are some of my rounds...

I have to mention this... out of the nine courses from this weekend, 5 did not comply to our South African (or the FCI rules), purely because of the fact that the distances between obstacles were below minimum, being less than 5m... I wish I had all of Chaos's videos, because he bounced all of those distances (the ones in a straight line ofc), but still... I do not agree with this... purely because I feel all judges should stick to the rules... my dog didn't knock and perhaps our training should be of the quality that none of the dogs knock because of shorter distances (like they have in the UK for example)... Eish, but stick to the rules.

On another point, some close friends were very upset this weekend, complaining that the courses were just too much and drained all enjoyment from agility.  I am hardly ever on the fence, but on this subject... it is a difficult one.  Sometimes technical courses suit me, because I have taught my dogs those skills, however other times I do feel that it DOES upset me... Where is the line?  We had a few instances this weekend where NOT ONE dog could get around a course... is the fault with the (very small) South African agility community... or is the course design just really too much?  Most of these courses will be posted on my new website... which will be going live a few days later than planned since I  have been caught up in processing all the results for the last two weeks.



My one observation on that subject will be:  As a judge I set up VERY technical courses, ask anyone that knows me, but they are all very open... I very much lean towards maximum distances in between obstacles, where as 99% of the technical courses set up here are on absolute minimum distance (or less).  Obviously these do not suite me as I have VERY tall dogs (Chaos 57.5cm, Quake 56,8cm, Echo, 56.9cm)... and my opinion might change with the High Voltage Maniac... there will always be such a large 'personal preference factor' in agility... I really think we should all just stick by the rules and as long as those are followed shut the f$%k up... haha, not going to 'slap Alett for free' card with this one, since I am quite prone to the whole complaining thing... haha, just know I do it it because I am passionate, not because I am trying to nail anyone!



All pictures courtesy of Melissa Wilson.

Courage

Spaz working hard to keep that bar up

Courage is... well for me it is posting my bad rounds as well as the good ones.  You always see the good rounds on Youtube, sometimes even the nearly theres... but very few people post there bad rounds.  My resolution for this year, was to share EVERYTHING.  So here we go... these are my rounds from today.



And don't worry, Spazzie is 100 % fine after that fall of the dog walk... Don't know how he does it... when I ran it, it felt like he took a bad angle onto it, but when I did a frame by frame, it just appears like he lost track of his back legs.  Not a rare occurrence for him... despite the fact that I make him reverse for kilometers every month and make him stand on his back legs for hours everyday (oh in case this is the first time you read my blog, I DO tend to exaggerate every now and again... just a slight spot you know) Chaos isn't much into the whole 'back leg thing'... I don't know, maybe he just figures he only actually needs two legs.  I am happy with his contact round actually, would have been a good one if he didn't crash the dog walk.

Quake Monster with Flying Hairz and Flying Tonguez

In the jumping first round he did really well... he judges his distances nicely etc.  The Non-contact was a very technical course and I should have gotten it right.  Both mistakes are mine, complete handler failure (What's new?)  But he worked nicely and got some difficult bits right...  Sigh so tomorrow is another day and we will give it another go.  Due to the show raining out on Friday night (which by the way involved me having a one woman wet t-shirt contest, hosted by yours truely), we have six rounds tomorrow to 'give it another go'.

Check woman, I am friggin staring at that contact already!

Haha, after my rant and rave in my previous post, I feel obligated to say the courses and the judging was excellent today, thanks G, B and A for that.  And as another bonus, uber agility photographer, MW, brought me my newest batch of pics today, so now I have tons and tons and tons to upload with my blogposts again... woohoo!

Sheltie haz gotz ballz

As a last thing... My new project should be live by the end of the weekend...  I am starting a website solely dedicated to Agility Course Maps... I have uploaded about 150 courses already and lots more to come.  The idea is to have courses from all over available at your fingertips to train/study/set up/hate/love/practice/crit and just generally enjoy (if you don't enjoy it, that is your problem)...  If anyone wants to submit courses, please email me!!!  I want more more more...

Intense!

All photos courtesy of Melissa Wilson.

Fixing things and another rant on judging...

Actually I will start on my judging rant and rave...  I have been a judge for 11 years now, needless to say I don't judge with great frequency, since I would much rather compete.  I limit myself to about four shows a year...  BUT nerdy me... I read my rules A LOT and I keep up to date with the FCI guidelines.  I especially appreciated the FCI Guidelines that came out after the February 2010 meeting, you know the one, where they went to all the trouble of drawing a million and a half scenarios explaining refusals and refusal planes.  Read it dudes...

This weekend saw as many as TWENTY refusal calls missed, by various judges... Yeah we all make mistakes, but seriously???  I think as judges we owe it to the competitors to do our jobs properly... Prizes and even qualifications were awarded because of these refusals not being called. Just some (of the many examples):

In scenario B, a dog (one of many to do this), ran the path I indicated, originally the judge called the refusal, but when she approached the table after the round, she withdrew the refusal when she heard the dog was in Grade 1 and not Grade 2 as she had originally thought.  This to me is also not acceptable.  We have rules, they are clear in black and white.  Each just has their interpretation of these rules, this is inevitable and I accept that, but these rules do not allow for leniency because of Grade or size or personal issues or who they are friends with or who they are shagging or what colour t-shirt they are wearing.  I often hear discussions like 'if that dog was in Grade 1, I would not award the fault, but in Grade 3 I would'... now I am one of the judges that disagree with this.  A refusal is a refusal, a missed contact is a missed contact, a knocked bar is a knocked bar.  The CHALLENGE in judging different grades, is setting up a course for Grade 1 that is flowing and easy enough that you do not have to allow for leniency because of YOUR course design...  Nobody ever said judging was easy, okay?  Haha, and of course you will always have obsessive compulsive agility freaks like me that is bound to b$tch and moan, I honestly mean it as constructive criticism... I did have a very friendly conversation with all the said judges and they were all open to discussions... that is much appreciated.

Once again the retarded look on my face... Eish

The other incident that bugged me this weekend regarding judging... We are a small agility community bla bla bla, you all know that thing by now.  While walking of the course following a BAD round, the judge made a comment to... a personal comment about me and my dog...  Although it was a friend and a person I have known for years, I saw RED for that moment... I was on an adrenalin high after running, irritated with myself for screwing it up and generally on edge.  As a judge, you HAVE to act professionally at all times and that means NO PERSONAL issues/comments/remarks/feelings of any kind while you are judging.  You are friendly, but not a friend for that time... me and my big mouth...  if you run under me and I do the same, this is once again 'smack me upside the head for free card'...  Anyhow the judge did apologise profusely and made me feel like such a big tit afterwards... but I stick by the 'no personal remarks thing'...



Anyhow now to get to part 2 of the monster post...  Agility is quite hard for me at the moment.  This year I have lost a large part of my 'agility support system'... so at the moment I am functioning on very little input and support from anyone else.  Oh sob, I must just get over it... the boys are all working their hearts out for me, so no complaining... but add onto this that as I mentioned in my last post, every single round I run at the moment is preparation for SA Champs.  This means that I am DQ'ing myself a lot... every time Spaz decides to self release on a contact or creep too much in his waits, I am stopping and correcting it.  Now for someone as competitive as me, because I turn what could have been a potential clear round and placing (not perfect according to my training, but still clear), into a big fat elimination.  But I am getting results, that is for sure... even though I DQ, my rounds are looking smoother, handling better, good contacts and more and more connected with the Spaz dog.  That in itself gives me immense satisfaction, so I get up every weekend and drive to the show, knowing that there is a large chance I will walk away with 3/3 eliminations and just keep the bigger picture in mind.

Why does Chaos always have rabid like drool hanging from his lips.. what a spaz

On that subject... I would like to define what I see as 'okay' to train or correct on the course... First of all, I ALWAYS check with the judge if it is okay to rerun a contact...  If they are not cool with it, I rather leave the course.  I NEVER waste the judge or anyone else's time, I run back quickly and redo the obstacle once, lots and lots of praise and then continue.  I always keep up Chaos's enthusiasm, he has never displayed any sign of stress when I redo something, because I always keep it fun... in fact it is never a correction, I just create another opportunity for him to get it right.  And in the last 6 months Chaos has always succeeded on his second try, I have never had to attempt anything a third time, because he knows his job, just gets the occasional brainfart and forgets it the first time.  I will only redo something if I KNOW that my training has been 100% correct and he DOES actually know what is expected of him.

I mention this because of watching countless dogs shut down completely in the ring, when handlers redo something a million times... eventually slowing to a dead stop or running of the course in panic.  Grrrr, this makes me ANGRY.  Want to smack some people.  And 99% of the time it is because you can SEE these dogs have no idea what is expected of them.  They have no clue what their criteria is... wake up jackasses, go and train it properly and STOP confusing your dogs or just shut them down!  And another problem is handlers that train on the course... which I am cool with if done right.  But don't spend 5 full minutes on the course, kay?  That is not on... not for the judge or the helpers or the handlers running after you.  If your dog has gotten it wrong THREE times, go home and TRAIN, your poor Fido obviously does not understand and that is YOUR fault, not his.  Oh and when the show and judges allow you to practice a bit afterwards, that is an awesome opportunity, but there is NO need to run the same course 15 times even after you competed the whole day...

Oh hat, time to stop ranting and raving.  I will post some vids later in the week... I think you have been 'over-chaosinagility'd' by now.  Once again all the amazing pics in the post is courtesy of Melissa Wilson.

Qualified... Check

So the qualifiers are done...  And after finally picking up semi-decent points on Sunday, I can say that Spaz is going to the SA Champs again.  Woohoo!!!  Now that it is all over, I have some thoughts...

If you read this blog regularly you will know that I DO NOT agree with our qualifying system... this year's qualifiers really just confirmed my previous objections.  I am not going to rehash all my previous objections, haha, go and search for the post that I did a few months ago on our qualifying system.  But my additional objection this year is the courses... damn they have been shocking in the past, but this year has been the worst.  One particular course had SEVEN obstacles that had to be negotiated from the opposite side of approach (Go-Round) in one course of 20 obstacles.  Now as a judge, I feel that an advanced skill/handling concept can be tested once or twice.... maybe three times in one course, but seven times?  What is the point? It just completely breaks the flow of the course and is over the top... why not test OTHER skills?  On this particular round, the winning round was in my province, by one of our top handlers and let me tell you... it was atrocious.  In order to get around he had to scream and yell and manage... I also managed to get around that course, with the same tactics. I left that course feeling horrible, because I had to raise my voice at my poor confused dog... never again...  Thinking back I should have just let him dq... all of us should have.  But of course we are all always obsessed with points, points, points.

One of the contact rounds we ran LITERALLY had an obstacle discrimination with every obstacle... no I am not joking, it is true... dogs had other obstacles in their face all the time.  The first round basically consisted out of a million pull throughs.  There were 3 courses of the 8 that I thought was acceptable course design...even if two of them had one no-no for me... there was a wrong entrance of a tunnel 3m away from the tyre and honestly some dogs did land IN the wrong tunnel.  My biggest complaint... on NONE of the courses was there one spot where the dogs could just open up.  Now while I am the biggest fan of what is normally called 'challenging courses', this was just too much...  To try and explain... of 78 large dogs entered, 40 will go to the final... at the moment (missing some minor results), the lowest qualifiers will have 17 points... 17 points (out of 8 rounds (4 contact; 4 jumping)  = 1 good clear round OR 1 x 0.01-5 faulter + 1 x 5.01 - 10 faulter OR a 1 x 5.01 - 10 faulter and 2 x 15.01 - 20 faulters... and the rest big fat E's... now we don't have the best agility in the world, but we are not THAT bad... and also now we are allowing dogs that never ever touch a contact or dogs that cannot get a weave entry the first time to go to the national championship?  Arg (rips hair from head) there are just so many aspects!

Just had a sad moment on Sunday... I was having a convo with two of our top handlers... both represented South Africa at the AWC last year... and can you guess what the attitude was... 'I just want points, I will rather handle badly and manage my way around the course and get SOME points, than go full out and take a change of having an E' ... and no, it is not my little obsessive paranoid streak kicking in... because right after that we all looked embarrassed and agreed that our attitude is a load of crap...  Sigh, but since our system does not encourage you to do your best at all and in fact promotes all the 'safe-playing' and 'getting by'... to select a team which needs to go to the AWC and suddenly give it all... What do you expect dudes!!!!

So anyhow on the fourth round I managed to get some points...  Spaz went well... Shame poor dude (as per the picture) fell of the dog walk and still tried to get his 2o2o... haha, just a shame it was halfway down the the down ramp... a loooong way from the actual contact.  I caused his knock in the jumping.  Since I actually forgot my video camera at home, video will only follow once I have found to time to go to Mr. R and copy them...

All in all, I am happy to be going to the SA Champs,  but I don't think the results of the trials are remotely a reflection of the true potential of our South African Agility dogs...  This year, 3 of the best South African, were missing from running the trials... because my best bud (A) and her partner immigrated to the UK...  However,  those dogs would have taken the top positions, the results still does not reflect true South African Agility :(

It wouldn't have made a difference to me... I will be honest and say I SUCKED in the trials.  I should have gotten every single one of those courses and I COULD have, but I didn't.  Honestly I don't deserve to go to the SA Champs, but then again there is only two really GOOD rounds that I saw in TOTAL of all the dogs competing (Both Carmen and Seis in jumping), so who knows who is actually deserving this year...

Enough bitching and moaning, I AM (going to try my utmost) going to France this year...  Every single round between now and June will be aimed at the SA Champs... I honestly don't care about QC's or winning.   It is now about getting it right and doing the right thing for Chaos...

We will have to wait and see...

All photos courtesy of Melissa Wilson

The High Voltage...

I have been contemplating whether to make this video public or not... since 'dog's age' and agility is such a HUGE debate in general... Me?  Well my dogs tell me what they want to do and I enforce the 'common sense' factor...  So the following video is the TOTAL accumulation of every second of actual agility training he has ever done...



You know what I love about it?  He loves it...  I will probably not do any different exercises with him until he is about 10 months old... maybe older.  The biggest mistake I made with the Spaz was wing wraps...  Having chosen him because of his brother Blitz (from another litter), I taught him to wrap before anything else...  Blitz is awesome (yes, Julie he is an uber dog :) )  but he has a very 'wide herding' style of agility... so I jumped in at the deep end without thinking that my Chaos dog is a DIFFERENT dog.  So the end results is a dog that knocks wings and has no confidence in turns... MY fault.  Since I vowed not to make that mistake again (haha, probably to end up making a load of other mistakes), I am just going to let Volt run, run, run and play, play, play... and from there analyze the training and handling styles he needs...

But, come on... I know I am bias, but he really is a little golden boy... I promise these are the only times he has EVER seen agility equipment... As for the rest... we play and run.  Sigh, A LOT... the bloody little maniac tires me out...  I don't have any 'pure play' video, as there is no one to tape me, and playing involves our entire property.

Note:  There is no-one holding him or even present while we train :) He is THAT good...  I adore this little Sheltie and I really hope all little Sheltie dogs are like him.  He likes running so much that he ALWAYS drives at least 3m past his tug toy before coming back to it for the game.  This little boy just wants to run.

Author's notes:

1.  Not ONE of Volt's training sessions last longer than 2min at this stage.  Whether it is agility or tricks.

2.  I stop before he loses ANY enthusiasm... in fact I stop while he is still saying 'I want more'... and then we play.  Not 'do something for a play reward', we just purely play.

3.  I play at least double the amount I train.  I play with him A LOT.

4.  He always loves what he is doing.

Haha, those are just some of the 'Alett's training rules'

Sorry for the crappy video... the music and the vid WAS in sync when I did on Movie Maker, but somewhere in between a Gremlin crept in.

Happy Moments

Hubby has the music cranking and tonight I am in one of those tolerant moods where I can even handle his endless impatient back and forth skipping...  I have BC's chilling at my feet, a Sheltie tugging on the BC's tails/manes/feet, designing my courses for PE and having a glass of wine...  Not a bad evening at all.

A little bit sad that Quake is taking a short break from training, because he has been surprising me more and more.  Of course he is also NOT understanding that a double layer of 17 stitches in total on the inside of his mouth implies that he can actually NOT train or tug or fetch...  Apparently the fact that the left side of his mouth is swollen twice that of the right side does not bug him at all...  A few weeks ago I entered him into a show, just did my own courses with a toy and no poles...  Man did he surprise me, beat me down lines which I DID NOT expect... And Melissa got some nice pics...  Haha, the little shcizo boy jumps so high, very odd...

But other than that I a relatively content tonight... lots of agility to come, possibility of a short trip to the UK in June, HOPEFULLY a trip to France in October?  And awesome (yet occasionally disturbing) dogs... Disturbing you ask?  I have one that is OBSESSED with dirty underwear  (hmmmm, guess that would be considered an inappropriate tug toy at ringside?), one that CANNOT handle me dancing and actually goes ballistic, running through the house barking like a maniac at shadows when I dare dance, one of the dogs barks madly every single time Anthony says the word 'who', one that is apparently terrified of Shelties only when he has a ball in his mouth:  Ball in mouth BC runs away from Sheltie full speed, no ball in mouth, BC plays with Sheltie...  But when I say terrified... I mean tail between the legs, run like bat out of hell in one direction scared, and then I have a dog, that starts demonically eating grass the moment I throw a ball...  Yes, I have weird dogs... probably because I am weird... haha, but if you can guess which dog is which there, you are good :)  And I have to say, I ADORE my weird dogs... how boring would it have been if they were just... well... normal.

Training has gone well this week... just been doing grids (because certain Spazzie BC's that will not be named knocked endlessly last week), contacts and flatwork, but couldn't be happier... my dogs seem to be going through one of their 'responsive periods'... haha, I wish I knew what is making them love me more right now... must be in the water...

All photos used in this post courtesy of Melissa Wilson.

Small Pleasures

So first Champ show of the year done and dusted and of course, I always hope to walk away with a QC or two... which didn't happen, but at least I could find pleasure in some small things...  Me and the Spazmoid really did connect today... if only he would lift his feet...  I know a lot of bloggers that post the 'good' but not the 'bad and the ugly', but that is just not life. So there we go, I am breaking the ice ladies and gents, post some of your S$%^t rounds too... Posting your good rounds after that will inspire people.  Haha, I sound like an American Football movie, don't I? Even in the bad you have to find some positive points... so here is my contact round from Saturday.  Yes, a TON of knocks (guess what certain Spazzie Border Collie dogs will be training this week), but I am happy, very happy with his contacts and with our 'connection'... haha, and the vain side of me HAVE to mention the fact that he was 2 seconds quicker than any other dog over this course (lol, Lust and Wrath done... guess the next tattoo will have to be vanity :) )... which btw Chaos, helps NOTHING if you don't lift your feet... still love you though my boy...



That was yesterday... today, well today was just not such a good day... went to the parentals for lunch (first Sunday off for the year and haven't seen them since Xmas eve, so felt slightly obligated) and was playing with the dogs when I noticed blood on Delta... after confirming it was not his own, the inspection started (you know kind of like an army inspection... checking all the nooks and crannies... on 7 dogs and my brother's cat), when I realised that Quake-Monster had SOMEHOW managed to tear up the inside of his mouth... rushed off to my vet (60km away mind you).  So I can officially say that I touched my dogs bare jaw bone... while he was still alive.  Don't know how the little bugger (yes that was a dirtier word in my mind) did it, but here is the concise version.  Quake has a gash/cut/rip in his gums (yes INSIDE his mouth) right down to the jaw bone.  Me and Martin (my beyond awesome vet) estimate the total length of the cut at 7 cm.  Moral of the story, the monster is getting hectically stitched first thing in the morning....  Did he yelp?  Did he whine?  Did he STOP playing?  Did he show ANY sign of being hurt?  Did he mind random people TOUCHING his bare naked jaw-bone... erm NO.  Okay, so I am making a joke of this, but my point is that we don't give our dogs nearly enough credit.  If that injury got inflicted upon me... I would be writhing in pain and stoning destiny!  I would...  I would be blaming the entire planet earth and zeus for my suffering.  But not our dogs, no, for them life is easy... it is either fun or not fun.  For my sweet (yet schizophrenic/autistic) monster, life was still fun, so screw everything else...  Gotta love them... I am hurting for his sake, I am worried about the anesthetic, I am worried about how he will heal, I feel like CRAP for 'letting' this happen to him (even though no-one has a clue how it DID happen), but for him... it is simple, he has fun with me, he loves me, so nothing else matters... how the hell did I get so lucky?

Why I prefer my dogs to people...

So I haven't posted in a little while... I won't say that I have been irritated with agility, I will never be irritated with agility, but I have been irritated by people in agility and by myself...

Let's start with the first part... I serve on our provincial committee, I do some of our national results, I build A LOT of courses, I score, I time keep, I write some articles etc.  I have heard that I apparently do these things for a lot of reasons.... so here is the reality:

1.  I DO NOT want recognition.  Really I don't, some occasional consideration would be nice, but I can even live without that.

2.  I do not do it because I think I am Zeus or any other form of god-like creature or their whiskers.  Honestly I don't think I am better than other people.  If I am 'stand-offish' with you, it is probably because I am in a bad mood or my grandmother died or my husband has p*ssed me off (Anthony generally doesn't mind me writing about him... I think) or something similar.  Seriously I am not good with people, kay?

3.  I do not do it to please other people.  I do not do it to dis-please other people.  Really, you are not that important to me.

4.  I do not do it because I am sleeping with anyone.

5.  I do not do it out of spite or revenge or wrath.  Honestly, I don't have enough energy to devise and execute evil, sneaky plans... Being a super-villain is way too exhausting.

6.  I do, however, do it because I love agility.  I really do.  I honestly feel that you can't just take without giving back.

7.  And I will be honest, I do it because I am one of those annoying, impatient people... I would rather do it myself than have to wait...  So yeah, I am a pain in the arse, that I will give to you.

8. I don't do it because I am bored. Contrary to popular belief, I do actually have a life... so when I actually manage to meet those last minute panicky requests or favours... well I actually made time for it.

Worst part is I cannot even post here why I am so irritable, because people read my blog...  why I don't really know, that bored?  Anyhow, people read this and in the last while it has happened that people intentionally misquoted me or even just made up lies...  Not that I would post it in anyway, since I am not big on airing dirty laundry for the world to see (not my own or anyone else's)...  But do you know what the cool thing is?

Despite all the proverbial shizer that has hit the fan, I STILL love agility.  Of course I always love my dogs and both me and them still enjoy the sport... so bite me people that are stirring!  Woohoo!

The second part however... well that is a difficult one...  I am BEYOND irritated with myself...  Why? Because I suck.  I train almost everyday...  I vary my program, straight through from foundation to very complicated stuff.  And in training I am okay and my dogs are super awesome! In short we get things RIGHT... I am obsessive to the point that I tape 90% of my training sessions and watch them afterwards.  At shows, well my dogs are always super awesome, but I am pretty useless... now as I said, I ALWAYS love agility, but I am also competitive and I would like to get things right.  I have read a load of the mental management books, researched and listened to advice etc... but since I still suck, apparently these things don't quite work for me.  I will keep on trying...  but damn it can be frustrating... well for me, my dogs don't care cos everything is a huge game for them... I can actually read their minds.  All it says is 'ball, ball, ball, tug, go fetch, ooooh run, run, run'...

So I haven't posted because I have been a bit discouraged by 'non-agility related agility issues', if that even makes sense.  But sitting here, after a late evening training session, a load of BC's panting at my feet with the biggest smiles on their faces and a Sheltie puppy using Echo's mane for a tug toy... I know I love agility and I always will, so I will deal with all the retarded and valid crap and all the good things too, because that is part of it...

Here are some more action pics of the boys-e-ohs...

Volt's own living tug toy... poor Echo dog.

Smiling BC

Ball, ball, ball, I have the ball.  Woohoo!

Airborne Sheltie...

I haz it, I do!

Crocodile BC...

So anyhow, tomorrow I will go into duck-mode again.  Enough sulking!