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Fusion Ring Time – 3/7/25
Empty Hands session thanks to Khamsin’s throwing skills. Also got to practice layering jump to tunnel vs coming into the jump. (and gave her a better run into it by starting with the straight tunnel). Cropped out of the video since it was hard to see way back there, but I walked her on leash to the starting point. Thought this one was interesting to see how she started reacting more as I was coordinating with Khamsin on where to throw next, but she was able to recover from it even though I didnt’ station her somewhere to have the chat. Next time I’ll have to set up the whole thing ahead of time with Khamsin (or whomever is helping)
She is dropping into a Fusion class tonight and on Thursday night. Then she has a mini seminar with Jacque H at OTR on Sat AM. I am thinking about taking part of tonight’s class to do an in and out rep.
Happy to report that the next 3 evening chats are on free nights for me!
Fusion Class – 3/4/25
Lift got to join Kaladin in his class tonight. She was pretty amped up at all the new dogs (all big dogs and 2 with a whole lot of energy – like Lisa Hennen’s Keylor) and class in the evening (after mostly having them during the day). I had food in my pockets but wanted to see how she did without pattern games inside the ring as she came in. Answer- lots of barking & spinning but then she did sit and had a lovely lead out. Decided not to try the first layer again since there was a lot of discussion at the start. She nailed the other layer at the end though.
Do we have more training night chats?
Yup – in the office for the first day. Flexible hybrid of 3 days/week in the office but they aren’t fixed days in the week and it sounds like it may not always be the full day. It’s less than 15min away and right off the highway so should he an easy commute.
March OTR judge is Meagan Johnson. I’ve got her entered in the Classic at 8in and am thinking I could move her to 8 for the OTR UKI trial too. It’s got a food box.
I organized the Stefanie T seminar so there’s a novice session and a masters one. I’ll get her into the novice (jumps/tunnels) session. Teri is coming for 2 or 3 days so there should be something appropriate there.
And I’m really glad I left her at home yesterday while Kaladin and I did day 2 of USDAA. Dean said she slept most of the day. I got done early (sadly only 150 runs on Sunday) so we took Lift and Demi for a walk before dinner. She also spent most of the evening sacked out on the couch Kaladin and I. (Midwest Classic opened last Wed so I’m busy getting folks entered)
Lift’s calendar has some enforced down time thanks to me going to the Invitational and the Midwest I.C.E. event without her.
March 7 – ring time at Fusion
March 15 – mini seminar at OTR with Jacque H
March 22-23 – OTR UKI trial (2 classes each day so first time trying 2 days.)
April 18 – Fusion ring time
April 26-27 – potentially a Teri O’Neill seminar at Fusion but don’t know if there would be an appropriate session for Lift yet
May 2-4 – either half day seminar with Stefanie T on Fri and 2 runs at Fusion UKI on Sunday or skip seminar and do 2 days at the trial
May 23-25 – Midwest Classic at OTR. Plan right now is run for realzies in SS Challenge on Friday and NFC Pentathlon a la carte Jprs and Snkr on Sat. Probably another SS run on Sunday (she can enter Pentathlon consolation SS a la carte)When we move to the empty hands, I’m assuming we layer that in with some reps where I have food on me for pattern games etc?
USDAA trial – 3/1/25
Lift was brilliant today at On the Run. First time in that ring, on artificial turf (beyond the tiny space that is the warm up jump), jumping 8in at a trial, and with no food box. She was pretty amped up when we got there, but the pattern games (and hanging on her cot) helped settle her enough that she was able to wait in line to be measured (ok so she did play a bit with her Papillon buddy next to her) and stood well for the measuring (12.5in).
P1 Jumpers
A bit cautious running in the first run, but hey – first time on turf and in a new place.
P1 Snooker
Seemed more comfortable in her 2nd run. Jan was nice enough to call out numbers for the closing. (I just took a short cut to get to the closing).
She’s staying at home tomorrow to recover while Kaladin and I head back for more. And then both of them probably go into shock on Monday since I start my new job with a day in the office. It’s been great to have the months off, but much longer and it will be really hard to get back to work. LoL.
For the weaves- she was doing really well with more motion from me when the poles were angled, but I backed off my motion when they went straight since she did start to miss the 8 o clock offside entry if I was moving more. But yeah – she does seem to be picking them up fast and I like her speed and then collection to make the entry.
I think I’m going to try 2 days at the OTR UKI trial in 3 weeks. I entered her in 2 runs each day with the intention of scratching 1 day before the closing date, but she’s not going to be doing much right before or after that weekend since I head off to the Invitational without her the next Wednesday.
2×2 weaves – 2/28/25
This was Lift’s 3 session with 2 straight poles (spread out over the last week). You can’t see it but all that clattering is a guy up on a ladder fixing the lights right by the entrance to the ring. Lift barely glanced at him on the way to the ring and got right to work. We haven’t done much with weaves yet, but I have discovered that my basement training room is too small for this so good thing the backyard is almost dry enough to work out there.
USDAA this weekend – My plan is FEO with her favorite furry lotus tug. Short sequence, toss toy, leash, out to party. There’s no food box and I don’t want to dilute the “toy is a predictor of treat coming up” bit by asking for a 2nd short sequence after tossing the toy just yet (esp not at OTR which is newish to her). So if the P1/Starters course has some less than optimal parts in it, I’ll just make my own short course up instead. (And I will certainly say something about Kaladin’s masters courses if the Coursebuilders don’t get to the judge first)
Lift’s countermotion was as good as or better than Kaladin’s yesterday! But he got a refresher with more toys thrown back to his landing point so it’s under control.
Lead out/leash stuff –
She is not comfortable with me slipping the leash off (or unclipping it) when she is in a sit so she will pop up out of it. I’m not sure I want to ask her for a sit and then have her pop up as I take the leash off and then ask for a sit again after her shake. Or did you mean cue her more or less into position without asking for the sit until after the leash is off? I could get her more or less at my side with the leash on, take it off and let her shake or whatever, then cue sit. I think I’ll also experiment with having the leash on up to the lead out spot to see if she gets less spinny/barky when it’s off for a shorter amount of time before I ask for the sit. (not necessarily getting her lined up next to me before I take the leash off) Or maybe I’ll see if she likes leash on to the spot, cue spin (to give her something to do in motion), leash off, (shake if necessary), cue sit. So many options!Khamsin, Kristin and I are sharing ring time on Friday. I should have entered Lift on Sunday instead of Saturday but Saturday had a better class schedule for her. The weather should be nice and the backyard is drying up so she can decompress zooming around with Kaladin in the afternoon.
2/25/25 Fusion class
Today’s class layout was Casey Keller’s Masters Agility course from last weekend. Lift even did a few parts of it (minus weaves & contacts). And today Dawn was channeling her inner very loud Snooker Judge voice (LOL).
Lift was raring to go but I also wanted to work on start lines a bit more so I settled for some crooked sits as a step up from the spin and go routine.
Worked on some backsides and balancing with front sides and tighter turns out of the tunnel. I need to remember to pause in the leadout so she has time to process before I release her.
Lift’s 2nd turn was the last of the class and we were running a bit late so there is plenty of activity as the new class was coming in.
I left Lift at home during Kaladin’s seminar with Karen Childs. There wasnt’ going to be much for breaks and I thought he deserved some focused time with me without the bratty little sister tagging along.
Looks like Lift is either 1/3 or 1/2 of her classes this Saturday so that should ease her into running at On the Run. I do plan on doing more USDAA with her in the future so I have my measuring form printed out…and should probably just stash it in my bag so I don’t forget it.Fusion Class – 2/18/25
I almost skipped class on Tuesday since she had such an exciting weekend and we weren’t able to go for a walk on Monday since the windchills were so bad (like neg 30), but I went because she was getting stir crazy. (I think some of it was definitely because she needed a decompression walk after the trial excitement but had to settle for shredding a paper towel roll instead) I did ask her for some harder things (layering and such) since your message about the easy stuff came in after our class. I did have food in her lotus tug and I also did a bunch of tossed food rewards. Also tried to be cognizant of her choosing to push her head into the leash loop at the end vs me putting it over her head as she approached me which I noticed from the trial videos that I was doing in her NFC runs.
Rep 1
Brilliant at the layering! You can hear her barking before we go into the ring -didn’t have much time to get her acclimated inside before her turn but she is getting better at handling that.
Rep 2
Didn’t have as many distractions during her run, but really happy with how focused she was coming in while the rest of the class was busy walking right by her to leave the ring. Worked on a few backside slices (hard to see but I’m tossing cheese down in her landing spot) Totally didn’t connect with her at 2:15 and she decided that was a blind cross moment.
She doesn’t have any ring time until class next Tuesday. It is supposed to hit 40 this weekend so I’m hoping the snow melts. Kaladin gets to do a seminar with Karen Childs tomorrow night, but there wasn’t a session I wanted to put Lift in so we’ll be figuring out what we can do in my indoor space.I did enter her in 2 classes (P1 Jprs & Snkr) for 1 day at the USDAA trial next weekend.
Oh yeah – I totally took a step to towards the broad jump as I came out of the FC. But yes, huge win that she just bulged wide and then did the tunnel without any commmentary (physical or verbal)
USDAA judge is Jan Skurzynski who is a “user-friendly” judge in my book!
Poor Lift & Kaladin – they would have really benefitted from a nice hike in the woods today but it was just too cold (even in our book) to be out for more than 5min at a time. They did get to chase the frizzers in the backyard for 5min and Lift got to shred a paper towel roll, but she’s still coming down from the excitement from the weekend. I was thinking about skipping her class tomorrow to let her brain settle down but it’s going to be even colder (windchills of neg35-40 tomorrow during the day) so I think I had better take her to class instead of trying to amuse her at home.
NFC Debut Day part deux – 2/16/25
Today Lift got to run first in both of her classes and they were earlier in the day so a nice step up in activity from Saturday afternoon when she was the last dog of the day.First run was Nov SS where she did all the things that I cued and we even got a sit (I did ask for it twice because she looked at me like I had a 2nd head when I asked her to sit the first time). Next time I need to remember to pause and take a breath before releasing her. (Don’t want to muddy the waters and ruin our nice lead out!) She thought the thrown lotus tug was way better then when I kept a hold of it on Saturday. She got confused running to her leash at the end since I did run her right by the food box but she quickly ducked back out of it and over to me for her leash.
Second run was Nov Jumping where we did a short sequence and then ran for the leash and out for our party. I had told the barsetters not to bother with changing the broad jump and then had to laugh when she went wide and checked it out.
She was tired enough after this to actually fall asleep in my lap while I was scoring even with all the human & dog traffic going by. Dean commented that this was by far the best debut he’s seen. (Min had a very successful one in terms of focus and doing a mini course but she was still in her “very bouncy” stage because she wasn’t quite convinced she should be driving hard down lines yet). I told him this was the debut that had the most preparation!
The photographer said she did get a shot of Lift coming straight at her from yesterday’s run!
Tomorrow is going to be a lazy day (maybe with a short jaunt to run around the yard. I’d take her for a leisurely walk except that the high is neg 4 for tomorrow.
She is entered in an OTR UKI Trial in 5 weeks (2 classes, 1 day). I’m undecided on whether to enter her in a USDAA trial at On the Run in 2 weeks. (it closes on Wed 2/19). She has been to OTR to spectate and to do brief stints in the warmup jump area (which has the new turf), but she hasn’t been in their big ring. Plus she would be jumping P8 and there’s no food reward box so I would probably do something like her 2nd run today with a short sequence while holding her toy, toss it at the end, leash & out.
Lift’s NFC Debut!
She was brilliant! Dean brought her to the trial mid-afternoon and we left her in the car while Kaladin ran Ch SS. (and I ran a rent-a-Beardie). Then we swapped them and let Kaladin chill in the car while Lift hung out at the scoring table and acclimated. It was a fairly large B/N SS class so I had time to do some pattern games (using the little dusting mop mini snuffly things) around the ring and played some games with her at the practice jump and then she hung out with me while I was scoring the class. While the trial was a pretty hopping & noisy affair earlier in the day, things had started to calm down towards the end of the day. I actually amped her up a bit a few dogs before she ran since she seemed too calm.She stayed focused even with the leash runner right where I wanted to start.She ran the outside of the tunnel on the first loop. Not sure if she noticed the photographer behind the tunnel but I called her name and she came flying down the line. Didn’t want to grab the lotus tug but I also didn’t throw it. I had a friend drop off the turkey at the NFC box after we started and Lift thought that was really yummy. So proud of her rear cross to the finish jump. It’s a bit hard to see over the tunnel, but she ran straight to the leash with me and pushed her head through the loop right away.
I have a choice of 3 classes tomorrow. She’s entered in SS, Jpg & Snkr which are the 2nd, 4th and 6th classes of the day. She would be first on the line in each class since it’s small to tall. My plan is to run one, maybe two depending on how it goes.
Lift was brilliant at the seminar this morning and Casey measured her at exactly 12.75in so she is a UKI 8in dog!
My plan for Nov SS tomorrow is to find 2 short sequences (running off the start) so that we can run to our Happy Hour in the NFC box and then run to the leash after the 2nd one.
Fusion Class- 2/11/25
This was our last agility training session before the seminar with Casey on Friday and her NFC debut this weekend. I had treats in my pocket and in her furry lotus tug both times.
1rst session –
Took a bit longer than usual to re orient to me after we walked in so waited and then tossed a treat when she did turn back. Had some feelings at the start but then sat when I asked her to, Did her first long jump (took a bit of a look and collected to add a stride but jumped it nicely). She was noticing the rest of the class coming in to set bars near the end and then I didn’t cue the right turn to the tunnel well at all so she kpet on her line and went right up to Dawn (who had just set a bar to 16in) and had to stare at her for a bit. I purposely stayed in the ring a bit longer to test her on whether she noticed/cared about the BC coming into the ring on the far side but she was fine.2nd session –
I liked our “setup” for the 1rst sequence here. Followed me in, did her bark and off we went. I think I want to do something like that for her first NFC run. Check out about 1:30 where Dawn accidentally got more in our way than we intended and Lift ran right by her as she was trying to get out of the way!
LOL! I almost wrote a comment about how I hope there is a tunnel close to the entry so that I can cue a bark and spin and then run. (ideally it’s a slightly curved tunnel so that I can get to where I need to be for where we are going next)
yes – on the left turn out of the tunnel, my verbal cue was late and the physical cue was pretty non-existent for what she could see. I was worried about pulling her off the tunnel with the a-frame there but I don’t think I needed to be.
With the line-ups where she was still standing. I was pretty sure she wouldn’ stay in a stand based on how her freeze it games have gone. And I gave her 50/50 odds on whether she would sit if I cued it. So planning on no leadout for the first rep in the first run and we’ll see how it goes from there.
I saw the rabbit fur lotus balls at Clean run but wasn’t sure how to attach a bungee to it. And Lift has been meh on any kind of lotus toy that doesn’t have fur – there are a lot of fabric/canvas ones out there that I found.
