What's this? A VIDEO?

Huge thanks to Chad for taking this awesome video of Grete's goofy run today. She really wanted to take the chute instead of the tunnel... backwards. Cracked. ME. UP!

She's 6? Seriously. She's 6.

Too bad I didn't even know agility even existed when I was 6.

HD Video

BTW, those two videos are HD from my new Flip Ultra HD. However, it looks like YouTube has to change the width in that case, so now I need to fix the layout... Erfh!

Twisty Turns and Discrimination Tests

Twisty Turns and Discrimination Tests

Saturday's course contained a discrimination test at the very beginning (the tunnel versus the dog walk) and some twisty serpentine moves.

Grete and I did pretty well on both our runs. The first one I didn't call her to me enough so she blew past the second jump toward the tunnel/dog walk, but she got the really hard part of the jump sequence. (You can hear Cloudine say "Good puppy" right after she gets it.)



On the second run, we tried to work on those first two jumps. I think it was a little stressful for Grete. She hates jumping into me, and I need to work on that. After the stress, she started sniffing around and Cloudine zerberted her a bit and that got her little fire running. She and I missed the hard part of the jump serpentine, but that was due to my timing.

the course from the 16th (part 2)

two weeks ago, cloudine broke out the hard courses. (one week ago she eased up a bit)

this course was super tricky. the turn from 5 to 6 to 7 got me every time.

heck - looking at it now - i'm not sure i labeled it right. (on flickr, i've added notes with the obstacle order numbers.)

good thing i finally broke down and ordered a flip video for future reference!

the course from the 16th (part 1)

the "easy" part -- although grete didn't like starting with the tire

Updates and play dates

So much has changed in the past few months... I've switched jobs so Grete no longer comes to work with me. I had surgery in late October so I was out for a week of agility. Then I hurt my ankle and I was gimpy for a week. Then Grete cut her paw in early December so she was out for two weeks of agility. Then Christmas and New Years... and -BANG- here we are in 2010.

Because of the job change and because of Grete, I tried working a shorter day in the office and tried to work from home more, but that was hard on both of us. She doesn't understand working from home. And she really don't understand why she's not with me 24/7. To be honest, some deep emotional part of me doesn't understand it either.

We've hired a dog walker to give Grete and our neighbor's adorable little puppy some R&R / playtime in the middle of the day.

And the good news for you, my dear reader, is that our dog walker blogs so you can continue to get your Grete fix when I've been slacking!

You can read about Grete and Rusty's play dates here: http://www.little-furry-things.com/grete-and-rusty/.

More on our agility exploits in 2010... I promise.

Video! (08/21/09)

Sorry we've been so silent lately.

Hard to believe we've only been training with Cloudine for 1 year, 3 months, 8 days. It seems much longer because we've come so far.)

Even harder to believe that Grete is 2 years, 4 months, 19 days old. She seems much older and wiser. :-)

(Cloudine had a perspective student stop by class this Saturday, and while we were talking the subject of how long I had been training came up. I totally thought it had been 2 years at the time because I'm terrible with dates.)

Every week I vow to buy a video camera for class OR find my old point and shoot and bring the GorillaPod. I have no idea where my old point and shoot is (and the Nikon D90 doesn't do a good job of focusing on moving targets) and I still haven't bought one... but a couple weeks ago, Cloudine brought her camera and thus we have... wait for it... A VIDEO!

(To be honest, I really, really wish I had a video this last Saturday. The course was harder and we did so much better... IMHO.)

But here you go... A VIDEO!

Tentative Teeter Totter

I made a teeter totter prototype tonight. I'm pretty excited about it for lots of reasons. First, I did it all by myself. Second, Grete seems to "get" that pulling down the board is the first step. That was huge and exciting. She even put a paw on it. I think she likes it. (I hate to say it, but just writing that makes me think of that Beyonce song... "if you like it then you shoulda put a ring paw on it")

The pivot is pretty close to center, and so it moves nice and slow without weight. I do need to make it shorter in height overall because it is pretty wobbly, and I think I'm going to upgrade the legs to the thicker PVC pipe. (What you see in the pictures is all re-purposed jump parts from around the basement.) I also want to figure out a way to add some tension to it. Right now, the pivot is a larger piece of PVC with a smaller piece sent through it. I think if I can slide some material in-between the two pipes, it will help it feel more solid.

In any event, behold my handy-girl-ness.

Teeter-totter Temptations

Grete and I are having trouble with the teeter or see-saw. Since we don't have one at home, our practice (and thus our progress) is limited. For a while, I tried putting the board across the two couches at home, but even that was too scary for her. (Too much wobble?)

I did some research online tonight, and I'm still not sure what to do next. We might make our existing 8' board into a mini teeter with a 12" pvc base similar to this but without the ability to disassemble the board. That might help, but eventually, Grete is going to have to learn that a competition teeter isn't a scary thing.

However, real teeters are huge. They're normally 12 feet long.

This is why I'm just lusting after the one that Dog Agility USA sells.



It folds down! I could carry it. $450 is still a really, really steep price tag though. Belated birthday present for Grete's 2nd birthday?



I also like the seriousness of the J&J Dog supplies competition teeter. The base is $265 so that is a little better. We would have to make a new plank though. Maybe we could make a nice heavy plank that folds and locks with rubber chips and still come in under $300?



Both of these serious teeters here have tension adjustment. I think that might be super useful someday, but I'm not sure.