a full weekend

Friday:
Agility Seminar with Kathy Keats
Attending: Gyp and Kaleb

Lots of great feedback on the dogs. I challenged myself more than I ever have with Gyp, and she was amazing. We did a LOP (Lead Out Pivot), past three jumps and with the tire parallel to one of them, so she had to take three jumps before she got to me, but had to pass five, if that makes any sense at all! It was really cool to see if we could do it. I am proud to say that her serpentines were awesome at full speed, something we have been working on, as her speed throws me off since I'm not used to the speed she has at times. She was completely responsive, and took all of the challenges better than I could have imagined, I pushed my handling and her skills and I was really happy.

I Ran K in two of the sets, he was really good too! Once I got my footwork, arms and shoulders working together, we managed to get a successful push-through, after a few attempts. I said if I didn't do it next time, I would do ten push-ups, so we ran the whole sequence, did the push-through, and I didn't have to do 10 push-ups, thank god. We need a lot of work on push-throughs, only because we haven't worked on it much as compared to a threadle or serpentine, which we both understand pretty well.

So I just need to keep challengng my skills and my dogs skills, and keep pushing them and giving it all I've got in practice, running harder and no holding back, to simulate the intensity in a trial setting, so I be ready for that in a trial setting.

Saturday:
Herding Lesson
Attending: Gyp and Jane (attending for the prospect of mice and sheep poo)

Gyps herding lesson she was patient and focused and didn't even freak out (too much) when I put the stick in my hand, she even responded well to a bit of pressure, which I hadn't done yet, as she needed to "be a bit bad" to build her confidence. The first time I used the stick to the ground, she went and took refuge behind Scott, which was funny, then she got over it and realized it was OK and went back to work. We worked on her lie down and redirecting her to the direction I wanted her to go in but using the stick in the place I didn't want her, it was really interesting to see her respond to it, and I am learning so much about how to read her and I hope to get better about staying out of her way. She got to be "a bit bad" at the end of the session which she really enjoyed :)

Jane had a great time too, see Jenny's blog: http://altapetestockdogs.blogspot.com/2008/03/city-dog-nah-country-dog.html

note: Kaleb was in the coulees for the afternoon with Pete, trying to figure out how to get the Geese off the frozen river.

Sunday:
Afternoon Run in the Coulees
Attending: The Three Amigos.
Horse poo, mud and flushing birds made for a fun time in the coulees.

The dogs were happy and tired by the end of the weekend :)