Ready, Steady, Go

It seems that the entire South Africa is suffering from serious puppy fever.

For as long as I can remember, puppies came along few and far between.  With handlers getting new additions at a very slow and steady pace.

The last two or three years however, has seen a baby boom in the Agility World like never before.  Where ever you look you see puppies and young dogs of all ages, colours, builds and breeds.  Old handlers with new dogs are streaming in at an exponential rate (not considering new handlers with new dogs).  With this comes different training principles, methods and rates. Nothing wrong with that.  Whatever floats your boat, rocks your world, creams your Tinkie and all of that.  After all in Agility there are many rights, but there are also many wrongs.

With my increased exposure to young dogs at their first competitions, two things have become very clear.  Definitions of 'show ready' and 'meeting criteria' differ vastly across the board.

So many handlers are okay with 'just getting it right' and not 'really getting it right'.  They are happy if their dogs can negotiate the weave poles, miraculously with each pole on the correct side.  Dogs sauntering along in 2nd gear, with no real confidence or clarity as to their task.  Horrid, unsure, untrained jumping styles or just purely crashing every bar with no consequence.  Creeping or leaping contacts.  Dogs that I am pretty sure has never seen a tyre jump and has to be stopped dead (normally achieved by panicked handler leaping in their dog's path causing a head-leg collision) and pointed through the tyre.  Some handlers go so far as to enter and run past the multitude of obstacles they cannot do (this almost always includes the weaving poles and often the see saw).

Regardless whether you are tooth grinding competitive or 'doing it just for fun', surely your should be comfortable enough in your training that you can tackle ANY task, especially something so simple as basic obstacle training?  Saying you are doing it 'just for fun' should only mean that you honestly don't care about placings or even whether it is competition or training.  It doesn't give you a license to be a moron and expect more from your dog that you have given him.  Dogs that have competitive handler and dogs that have 'for fun only' handlers should have exactly the same skills, only their goals should differ.  I am pretty sure the dogs that have to worry about their handlers collision path through out the whole round because they have no understanding of their job is not having any fun.

And surely if you are competitive, common sense should have kicked in somewhere between only being able to do the weave poles on the left and your screams of 'wait, wait' on the contact obstacles right before watching Fido take a leap of faith that would scare the saints.  If you intend on being on being competitive you should be much more concerned with the big picture than the 'golden date', that date that Fluffy magically goes from being referred to as a puppy to being called 'that stupid dog', The Date, the date that they can start competing.  If you intend to achieve some titles, then that date should be meaningless. Your criteria is much more important.

By this I am not implying that if you are properly prepared before you start competing, clear rounds will start raining from the skies and cause floods on your record books.  What I am saying is that competing is hard enough.  Forming a partnership with your dog is hard enough. Travelling and new environments are hard enough.  So we, as handlers better be sure that we have given all our dogs the correct tools and skills and support and information that they might need to have fun doing Agility.

For those that have that wonderful skill of interpreting anything they way they want to see it (instead of accepting the actual intent), I would like to clearly state that by writing this I am NOT under any circumstances saying that you can start training your 13 week old puppy 12 closed weave poles so you can be properly prepared by the 'golden date'.  If you are stupid enough to be doing full contacts and weave poles by the time your poor Rover is 7 months old, make no mistake I WILL be judging you.  Knowing myself I might probably even run my mouth off at you.

I am ALSO not saying that it is impossible to have your dog wonderfully and properly prepared by the time they can start officially competing.  I have seen many a good, responsible trainer and handler have their clever pups ready and going and happy and skilled.

In fact I have been inspired by many young dogs and their old handlers lately.  I am not talking about the results on paper, but just about some fantastic moments, some wonderful skills and budding partnerships.

This is a very personal matter and people tend to take very serious offence if you mention anything in the realm of this subject, so unless you really go over the top (that would idiots dragging 5 month old puppies over contact equipment on lead), unless asked, I will keep my mouth shut and try to control my eyebrows and judgemental scowls. All I can do is hope that we all do the best we can by our dogs.  That I can also have the common sense that my all my future dogs are ready AND steady before I go.

Now I have saved the BEST news to last.  Chaos has been cleared to JUMP.  We officially started 25cm straight lines yesterday... both myself and Spaz were dancing!  Watch out world, in a few weeks Chaos will be hitting the Agility rings hard again!

Funny 'interesting', not funny 'haha'

I am rather immune... to erm.. 'everyone else'.  I read A LOT, I watch EVERY Agility DVD available.  I have a select (not so few) friends that I know comment honestly.  I have spent the last 16 years learning how to 'keep the good, leave the bad and not go homicidal or insane' in my own mind.  I always have space for more information.  I always try to share the good information.

I hate handlers/colleagues (talking RL job now)/friends/family that try to be 'all-knowing' and 'superior'.  LOVE people that can determine, recognise and BETTER their own mistakes.  The best handlers in the world (ie my absolute idols) have made certain mistakes that me (or someone else) could recognise, recognise and bettered baby!... I have made the same amount of mistakes exponentially and I will live the rest of my life compensating :D

Only by recognising your weaknesses can you improve... even if your weaknesses are still the strongest in the game.

1.  I don't like cheating.  I have more respect for the 'big names' that publish their whole spectrum than the 'big names' that publish only their success.  Honey, we do AGILITY, everyone makes mistakes!!! As for my current self?... on my videos A. I don't have a video camera, not even a crappy one, so the vids of the last week was taken in insanely BAD quality on my still camera.  Without decent quality vid it feels rather pointless to edit.

2.  I honestly didn't expect my puppy Psycho Chicken Child Dog to have such another spectacular session so soon.  I am a lazy bitch.  Different song and different vid is a lot of effort to me.

Time to go nuts, time to go Psycho

I know, I know, it has been ages again.

Much has happened, but I am not in the muchness of the mood to get into most of that.  I will say that Chaos's rehab for a bilateral iliopsoas strain is going better than anyone expected or predicted and he is surprising everyone with his quick recovery.  This is of course good news for both my and his sanity.  It means we can go on longer runs, he can swim, we can go on 'normal' off lead walks, controlled walks, not 'running around like a headless chicken on LSD' walks.  He is definitely less grumpy now, thank goodness.  And if all goes well we will be back to Agility courses very soon too.

Volt is excelling at the challenges I have been setting.  Me and him have very much immersed ourselves in 'our world' and 'our goals'.  I am very happy with the results so far.  We are very much working on very specific skills through the use of foundation work.  Despite this (more likely because of it), his performance on full courses in competition has been very good.  The two of us are off to PE this weekend to present some workshops, I will be playing the part  of trainer and Volt that of demo dog.  I am really looking forward to it, a great group of students attending.

What I WOULD like to talk about tonight is the Psycho Child.  This puppy is just so friggin cool. Challenging, VERY challenging, but 100% compatible to me.  I fall more in love with her with every minute that passes ( I say this while she is targetting my shin with her back foot... a very cute trick that has turned into her call for attention).

Conformation-wise she has turned out as close as damn-it to my 'dream dog'.  I wouldn't mind a slight bit more height (although at 49cm she is already rather tall for a BC female).  And too boot she is pretty too.  Who would have thought my farm mutt would be quite the beauty queen.  Her work ethic is to die for, she is all about getting it right and having fun while doing it.  This has created an issue or two, her almost unhealthy desire to understand her job (she is a perfectionist) combined with her toughness makes for her being rather hard on herself.  That might sound bizarre, but when I abandon an exercise because we are 'not getting it right' (I don't even have a neutral or negative verbal marker), she will go and reset herself for the next try.  It is so bad that I started attempting to release her onto a toy at this point, but she wouldn't even take the reward.  She is not negative about it at all, she doesn't show signs of stress, she doesn't lose enthusiasm, she doesn't even worry.... she just wants to go do it again...  Her detection of my body language is thus better than my OWN detection of my OWN body language... this is as close as a dog has ever come to reading my mind. Disturbing if you ask me.  I would rather not have her knowing my homicidal thoughts when the neighbours kids scream around the yard at 07h00 on a Saturday morning.

This pup has more eye than most people have seen.  I have had sheep trialling okes tell me that they have never seen so much eye??? Let's be honest, this is NOT actually the number 1 quality we want in our Agility dogs. Her insanely strong herding instinct also prompted her to try and 'conserve' herself as much as possible.  It took quite some convincing to let her know I wanted her to sprint with her whole little heart.  We are not on a sheep farm, she does not have to last for ten hours non-stop.  Her movement however is to die for.  She is a real sweetheart too.  And blissfully quiet, I have only heard her bark once.




She is rather non-stop.  If she is not trying to balance a toy (or what she defines as a toy) on my knee, she is targetting me with one or all of her feet, or playing with a cat, or trying to get my attention by climbing trees like a monkey.  She is not destructive, she never steals shoes, or chews anything she is not supposed to.  She is clever and innovative.

All in all, the pros and the cons, the good and the bad, the funny and the serious... everything in this little dog is just fine by me!  I adore her.

Extreme Roller-Coastering...

And not the cool kind of roller-coasters, the emotional kind.  I haven't blogged for ages, but I had valid reasons this time. A broken heart and feet not touching the ground... but like all non-fairy-tales, I feel I should at least attempt to start at the beginning...

My last post was right before the wheels fell off completely.  Roller-coasters have tracks, not wheels, so when the wheels come off, you either grind the rims or get on the tracks... makes for one wild ride.  Not a nice one in this case.

We left for Port Elizabeth and I was lucky enough to spend a night on the FARM with Psycho child's breeders, nice long (if COLD) walks and lots of dogs and I got to meet her sire!  AND best of all, is I got to put her to sheep!  Of course I missed the best moments on video, but regardless it was fun.  So now I am trying to convince the Nerd that I want sheep too... apparently he is not falling for my argument that we can sell the lawnmower then, he is concerned the neighbours might get a slight spot upset...



It had been a while coming, but in Port Elizabeth I broke my Sheltie.  Yup, broke him.  Took one awesome little demon-fast dog and broke it.  As the weekend progressed he was walking on courses and shutting down.  I hit a flat panic. Absolutely desperate to 'fix' my broken Sheltie, imagining the worst, wrapping him in cotton wool, allowing him to be rather moronic, because I didn't want to break him further.  I was in a state and a half.

Meanwhile Chaos seemed to be thriving on the... well on the chaos.  He ran like one hell of a superstar awesomeness dog!  He hit better form than he ever had.  Speed I wasn't prepared for.  Response I couldn't keep up with.

On top of that I was doing the results for the entire weekend. (don't worry, I am having about a million t-shirts printed with SUCKER on the front). Very thankful to the only 3 people form the province that actually cared and helped me out by the way (of which two do not even serve on their committee).  So ja, I was a bit wrecked at the end of it.  While on paper Volt's results looked quite okayish (winning over-all grade 3 small dog and some qc's) I KNEW it was only the ghost of my dog that won that.  Chaos was runner up for the Over-All, Over-All dog, one Super Spaz...

When I got back, I had to dive into taking entries and preparing for our own big show weekend (159 dogs entered into over 1200 classes).  The two open shows I attended while doing these entries were a lost cause on Volt... well actually more on me, since the worse he performed, the 'worse' I got... wrapping him in more and more cotton wool and hitting new levels of panic, despite specialists, vets, 'other' experts finding nothing wrong with him that was a major cause of concern.  Chaos continued to thrive and up his game with every single run.

Then Bumper Weekend was upon us.  In between and despite the ice fights, dives into tunnels (by humans not dogs), shirtlessness and other laughter, some of us really did work hard, I promise!  Over the four day weekend Chaos was just supremely phenomenal!  The best he has ever run, with speeds and times that shocked and awed me... he also became a Contact Agility Grand Champion (pending ratification from KUSA), as well as coming 3rd over-all, despite me judging a show and missing out on 2 rounds (so even only scoring 10/12 rounds) he managed to earn that many points and could have statistically won... luckily it was kept in the family and his uncle took the honours.

At the same rate that Spaz was succeeding, Volt was deteriorating.  Deteriorating to the ultimate 'break point' in my books (hmmm and I was so paranoid about breaking him even more I was allowing him to miss 6 poles along his way and self-release contacts and break waits)... by the last round of day 2, Volt actually walked off in the middle of a course to go and pee on a tree.  PEE ON A FRIGGIN TREE!  This was the big turning point for us.  Because at that point I went 'screw you little dude'...  you REALLY don't have to do Agility if you don't want to, honestly, if you just want to be a pet, I am cool with that sh!t, but we are going back to living MY life, no more of this cotton wool, panic, stress stuff...

And what would you know, the very next day I started getting my dog back... not all at once of course, but slowly he came back....

So by this point I had shifted my goals drastically.  I wanted to make the team with Chaos, perhaps place high in the SA Champs, I knew he could do it.  With Volt I wanted 4 x super fast disqualifications.  I wanted my 'unbroken' Sheltie back with no pressure and tons of fun.  He is so young he has many years to be on the team or do well in the SA Champs.  But of course the universe and fate and Murphy and my life doesn't work that way...

Immediately after Bumper Weekend I had to start the final arrangements for the South African Championships (which doubles as our Try-Outs for AWC), so still no touching of the feet to the ground.  To just ADD onto that, a few days after Bumper Weekend, Chaos picked up an injury... sigh at 3am in the morning mind you (bizarre I know)... having a tiff with Quake (I ask you in what universe, my dogs NEVER get into it?).  I didn't know until the next morning, when Chaos got up on THREE legs...  it was vet and physio and chiro and treatments and opinions and absolutely no training or exercise leading up to the finals...

I was so heartbroken that I could not even appreciate how much of my Super Sheltie I was getting back (this was his last round the weekend before the finals):



Chaos was cleared to jump the day before our official practice round at the finals.

Even in the practice I could see he just 'wasn't right' but also nothing terribly wrong.  It is like he did not know where his right back leg was and it kind of flapped around without purpose.  He couldn't find a place for it while jumping or even running the dog walk.  Volt was phenomenal!

My goals were muddled and warped now.

Chaos tried his heart out in round 1, but brought down bar after bar and definitely not running his best.  In round 2... towards the end of the course he came of a right hand turn screaming and hanging that back leg.  My heart stopped.  Picked him up and walked off, as I did not want the next dog in to suffer (having to wait on the start line for ages).  I did not know this, but it is clear on the video that a good friend (a few short minutes before having to run her own phenomenal dog), just downing her dog, sprinting and jumping over the fence to assist me.  Everyone rushing in to see if my boy was okay. I watched the video once, but my heart stopped AGAIN when I tried that, and since I am not a cat and don't have 9 lives to waste, I don't think I will watch it ever again...

He was checked out by the vet and by this time he was putting more weight on the leg... the only things the vet and physio pick up is a minor muscle strain, but there is definitely a root cause, so we will be off to the specialist next week.  Regardless, I had to pull my boy from the finals and probably should not have STARTED finals with him and his last chance to be on Team South Africa was gone just like that.  Not that I care about the Agility, I just want to know what is wrong and how I can help him! But please do understand that it rattled ME, it rattled MY handling.

Why might you ask?  Chaos is my rock, Chaos WAS 85% of my BMT.  Regardless of whether I ran him first or last, my whole mental game was based on the fact that I could do ANYTHING with Chaos and get it right or close to damn-it anyway... Volt's rounds followed naturally after that.  Without Chaos I was a slight bit lost.  Added to that...

Volt won round 1 and 2 in the SA Champs putting him the lead quite substantially.  This is a situation I did NOT want to be in at this stage.  All I wanted was an 'unbroken' Sheltie that ran like the wind and eliminated like it too.  I did not want ANY pressure (haha, kind of though it would be pretty cool if I could dq 3 rounds and win the last just for funsies)... but life doesn't work that way. Instead we were in the lead until the very end, but ended up third due to a retarded, nervous, silly handler.  So my first ever podium at SA Champs was actually an anti-climax and looking back I regret not appreciating it more.  I say a huge well done to D and N for their being Reserve and SA Champ respectively!

Important lessons were learnt, good lessons.  While I am gutted about Chaos, I think it is good that I am forced to focus on Volt.  I will love Chaos to eternity and he will love me.  Agility is/was a bonus depending on what time brings.

For now I have a judge's course to present, paperwork to finish, a neglected husband and household to sort out before starting to prepare for the FCI Agility World Championship 2013!

I am very proud of W and Missy B making it against all odds (going in with almost no points) on their first time out, also Chili and H making it for the second year running. A and Bowie and Chinz Pinz for not only a double SA Title but also making the team.  I congratulate everyone on Team SA and look forward to the year ahead.  I am grateful for my phenomenal dogs.

And here is to really hoping I can get OFF this roller-coaster now.

Spaz, this year is for you my boy!  Thank you for everything you have given and looking forward to every minute we still spend together.

And then just for those that are actually coming... the day after the finals we had a show judged by Gawie Faul the FCI AWC judge for 2013 and here is Volt running his courses:



His courses can be found here (and is updated on a regular basis):

http://gauteng-agility.co.za/php/courses.php

A huge thank you to Melissa Wilson for all the photos.


And as a ps.  I am still a non-smoker and have been drugless (the 'stop smoking' kind) for 5 weeks.

Random thoughts, change and differences are all good for Agility

First of all, I should be working.  Agility work unfortunately, not actual billable hours, but instead I am doing neither.  I have to mention two things for you to understand this post, which I have neglected to mention in previous posts:

1.  I have a new car.  A lovely HUGE, BIG, SPACIOUS new car, due to research, negotiation and a little help with from The Nerd.  I LOVE the space.  Chaos loves the space even more than me.  So much room?!?! What to do with it all.... (insert evil laugh here).... weeeeeelll....

2.  It has been 26 days since my last cigarette (thank you Champix and Happy Pills, all prescribed by doctor).  I am in the process of weaning myself off both Champix and Happy Pills and it is not easy.  Just fyi, if I only take the Champix and not the happy pills, I go slightly homicidal and The Nerd fears his life. Funny enough, it doesn't get me remotely irritable, never mind homicidal to my dogs... just shows you how friggin awesome my dogs are.  Addiction sucks.  Beating it sucks even worse until you have won the battle.  This I have to mention because 'having a smoke' used to be my 'vent'.  I have had to learn A LOT of self-control in the last 26 days.

On Wednesday I am leaving for the Port Elizabeth Disciplines weekend... it was going to be Thursday, but then I tonight I got an invitation from Psycho Chicken's breeders to spend a night with them (they are on the way) and who can say no to spending some time on a beautiful farm with fantastic working dogs?  I have also offered to drive down some 'stuff' (stuff includes puppy pens, suitcases, and ACTUAL puppies)... How much do I love having a HUGE car?  You have no idea... but the person that mentions petrol consumption will get smacked upside the head right now!

I really can't wait to get away...  We are doing some 'minor' maintenance to the house... there is NO such thing as MINOR maintenance anything!  I am done with having people in my face the whole day, being over-promised, lied to, being treated like an idiot, having to throw tantrums to get results and NO SPACE TO TRAIN at my own house.

Oh wait, to get back to the subject... So I picked up half of the 'stuff' tonight from a friend and we did some brief training together.  This is a friend that I haven't trained with in MANY years (have we really, I know you do read my blog occasionally *big smiley face*) and we generally have VERY different beliefs in handling, although we tend to agree 100% on training (yup, that IS possible).  There was one small section of a course, which she had handled, discussed, timed and dealt with in a class set-up(NO-ONE's fault, this is my point, Agility is NOT about heroes, but about thinking)... her words to me (sorry hope I am quoting verbatim here, otherwise I owe you a beer) 'I couldn't get it right, my dog kept turning the wrong way, but nobody understood what I was trying to do'. I hadn't really walked the course (Well at all), so took me three tries, but then it all just clicked.... we were trying to do exactly the same thing and I figured it out... her dog is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH faster than Spaz Boy, but that was irrelevant.... we both 'wanted to do the same thing' but just had to THINK about it.  There are no words I can use to describe exactly what happened... but the point is, we (two totally different people) found something that worked for US and what WE liked with two totally different dogs.

You know they have that whole 'blog action day' or 'blog action subject' or 'blog theme' or the thinga-ma-jig and loads of famous and non-famous people write about it?  The last one was 'internationalisation' and I could have written a whole book on it!  Very ambiguous theme too!  That could have been directly aimed at the South African AWC 2013 or about handling or course design or rules... or a million other things.  All the posts I read seemed to focus on handling and had 'new moves', 'ketchker turns', 'german style' etc worked in there somewhere, which is all fine and well, but I still think it 'misses a certain point'. Yes our handling differs (example: USA courses are a lot 'simpler' by our standard, but the handlers have a lot more success in teaching dogs to USE their speed and drive, Europeans depend more on handling, the Brits have a lot less concern for distance between obstacles, the USA rewards consistency more, the Brits aim for speed and consistency, the Europeans have more of a 'all or nothing attitude', the South Africans are always just busy trying to catch up to everyone... etc).  This same handler I trained with this evening and that thanked me for 'helping her figure out' what she wanted to do (which she would have done before the week was over on her own in any way), when an entire class and a trainer could not do two days ago... well I probably have every single round both our large dogs have run this year on video and if I had the time, I could do comparisons on every single round and I can guarantee you that at least 75% of the time we make different handling decisions.  Because of handler fitness and ability, because of difference in dogs (speeds, turns, training, trust, strengths, weaknesses, being clever, being stupid (yup sometimes REALLY stupid), ideals, ideas, faith and lack of it, core beliefs EVERYTHING), we make different decisions, however in this case we found something that was PERFECT for both of us.  And THAT ladies and gents is Agility.

There ARE rights and there ARE wrongs in Agility, but there is no golden recipe.  I admire Lisa Frick, Natasha Wise, Silvia Trkman as much as the next person does (probably more, because I am the ultimate Agility Super Nerd).  I read all the blogs, I buy the books, I watch the dvd's.  I subscribe to EVERYTHING.  But Agility is about finding what works for YOUR EXACT RELATIONSHIP (between dog and handler)... THAT is the secret, the trick, the recipe, the magic...  THAT is what I try to bring out in my students and what I feel is a trainer's job.  I have had another PHENOMENAL handler run my Spaz boy and he has always done a better job than I could have, but because of the difference in relationship, I could never handle it the same.

There is only one EO and one AWC every year.  The reality of winning either event (both being my ultimate dream by the way) in each dog and handler's lifetime is lower than 2% (I actually worked it out... ). So the first obstacle is setting your own obstacles (Don't call them dreams or goals, because obstacles can be overcome)... after spending a year with your pup, you should have a pretty good idea of what your most ultimate achievements COULD be... and that is where you (and hopefully your trainer) will start.

When Spazo, my awesome Chaos boy started competing, he got ignored... honestly and utterly discarded.  No-one but myself saw any potential.  But when he was a pup I realised a few things and developed a long-term plan.  Fair enough I made my mistakes, as we all tend to do, but now, at the age of six, Chaos IS a dog that people watch and check and follow and REGARD as competition locally, regardless of the mistakes I made (that still haunt us yes, but at least I LEARNT).  My Spaz child is my rock, my world, my 'something to grab hold of when I am falling off the cliff, whahaha, my cigarette when I can't smoke', he will never BE an international top 10 dog and I don't care, he is my heart dog...  Then I got blessed again, with my Steinenmeister Volt dog... whole long stories behind him as regular readers will know....  a whole new breed, an import... and what I got, was this fantastic, AMAZINGLY talented, reliable, working, loving... well kinda perfect dog (except for one aspect, which I can't mention on my blog).  Even though I have been doing Agility for 17 years and I had one of the most raw talented dogs I ever met, I still made huge mistakes that we are fixing every day.  The lack of Small dogs competing in South Africa makes it even harder!!!  But he truly is a talented dog.  In the hands of an experienced, well-educated small/medium dog handler (like Sabrina Hauser or Daniel Schroder) he may very well have been an AWC medallist last year.  And then my newest Pscyho Chicken Child.... I kind of feel guilty, as I am literally robbing a herding competitor of a world champion dog.  I have had herding handlers approach me about her.  I can see it.  I can actually FEEL her herding potential, however, I do not have the opportunity to pursue this and she is my girl and we will figure each other out to become as perfect at Agility as our partnership will allow.

All this thinking about the evolution (that is a MUCH better term than internationalisation by the way) of Agility, made me go back and watch OLD videos of myself and others and finding satisfaction that we have at least GONE somewhere (mostly gone somewhere better) rather than stagnate, so for tonight, I will leave you with this video of my 2012 PE Agility trip and if I get asked nicely, I will make a similar 2013 vid and we can all bask in the evolution and fun and absolute awesomeness of Agility...



Please comment on this post, as I really look forward to other's opinions on training, handling, dogs and agility in general.

Learn from yourself and others, discard what you don't need, but no information is invaluable.

The Voltenstein

This morning at training... VERY early, as in before the sun comes up, in the pitch darkness that is called supreme Agility dedication, a friend made a comment that made me all teary-eyed and stupid, but summed it up very well... Volt had just run one hell of a complicated sequence and as per his usual madness was spinning around me to go and do it or another course, or well anything again and she said to Volt... 'you just always run your heart out don't you boy?'

Today I just feel my Super Sheltie needs a special mention.

Please understand, we have tons to work on, turns aren't always our strong point and sometimes I am just way to slow for him.  I tend not to trust him nearly enough and my handling decisions are questionable at times.  Very occasionally Volt feels that it is more constructive to bark at me like a maniac while circling me at full speed, this is mostly in the middle of a course. Oh and there was that one time that he just went completely looney, apesh#@, coocoo for cocopuffs and literally did everything on the course that he was not supposed to.  Our start line stays, are... lacking to put it mildly.

He is definitely allowed all those things too.

Volt competed in his first Agility Show 1 year and 12 days ago... in this time he has done more than most dogs do in a whole career and apparently he is far from done.  At this point in time the titles and wins and rosettes and trophies and stuff really don't mean much to me though.  Getting it 'right' is the fun part.  And with Volt it is REALLY fun.... and there are Volt puppies planned for the future as well, I can't WAIT for more fun Shelties around...

I am really lucky to have found a one in a million dog like my Sheltie boy.  He has given me so much the last two and a half years, a life time worth of unforgettable memories and special moments.  Achievements aside, being on an Agility course with Volt is one of the most amazing experiences I can't describe, regardless of the result.

All the regional qualifying trials for our SA Champs and AWC Try Outs have now been completed and Volt managed to finish top of the Small dog category, well done Machine!  Here are the videos of all the trials (just a quick explanation, you run 4 jumping rounds and 4 agility rounds and then the points earned in your best 3 jumping and best 3 agility rounds are totalled):

Random updates... again...

It seems 2013 might just not be my year for keeping the blog updated, yes honestly due to lack of effort on my part, let's not lie... this year has just been one of those 'head-over-ass-spinning-full-speed-down-hill-into-inevitable-doom' kind of years so far... which is a good thing really... one of two things could happen... the ride could get even more interesting and I do like rollercoasters... OR things could just get better.  Either way, it won't be boring... and yes I exaggerate, but that is nothing new.  The videos in this post are just some recent random training videos, unedited nogals... yup, I am being really lazy indeed...

So our regional trials are done and dusted, we finished al four trials (so 4 x jumping rounds and 4 x agility rounds) to determine the qualifiers for the South African Agility Championships.  One province still has to complete the trials, so videos on this matter will have to wait until next. Steiner Weiner the Super Sheltie, occasionally known as Volt had some good trials... we won't say the same about me, he had to compensate for me more than once let me tell you.  He is currently lying on top of the scoreboard for both SA Champs and AWC and he should theoretically keep that lead.  We can only hope.  Spaz had the worst luck he has ever had.  My boy, that has never had a real injury to speak of, picked up a bad muscle strain while running the first trial and just as he was recovering from that, he managed to rip the top layer off ALL four his paws, so please don't ever ask me again why he is called Spaz.  So he ran the trials with almost no training, after having missed a few regular shows, so I wouldn't call them our best trials ever.  He managed to pull through for me on the last two trials though and is currently lying 11th in the SA Champs and 6th in the AWC section, although that might change when the final scores are calculated.  He is definitely safe to qualify though.

With the annoyance and worry of the trials being over, we can get back into 'all-or-nothing-go-for-broke-fun-full-speed' Agility.  I am very much looking forward to that and we have quite a busy time coming up too, including the first 'away' shows for the year.  Woohoo, looking forward to seeing some friends from all over the country and some lekker competition.



It also just occurred to me, that I forgot to blog about the National Dog Jumping League 2012... results only came out recently, but I am proud of the Spaz!  He won the National Dog Jumping League 2012, what a boy!  His full brother (from a different litter) came second as well, so Up the Farm Dogs!  Voltenstein didn't do too badly himself... he missed the first round of the competition as he was too young (yes hard to believe my little Stein has only been competing for 1 year and 11 days!), but he did manage to win 3 of the 6 rounds, since it is a cumulative competition, he only finished 7th over-all, but I will take it!



And now of course it is time for a Psycho Chicken update... loving her to bits and she honestly does give new meaning to the term 'working girl' and no get your mind out of that gutter.  She just has one interest in life and that is to work... whether it is playing circus circus for a clicker, going through tunnels are just running around full speed with me, work is IT in her little mind.  We will leave it with those updates for now...  Sorry for the lazy unedited training videos, hopefully you enjoy them anyway...