Many Many Many Photos from Taj MuttHall

SUMMARY: Fun with Google advanced search for images.

This is cool–using Google’s advanced search, I can find all the photos^* on Taj MuttHall of a specific thing. For example:

All photos of Boost
All photos of Tika
All photos of shirts
All photos with purple in them (although, interestingly, it found very few of the photos in my Agility Colors: Purple post)
All the course maps (actually did this one by searching for all black & white images)
All photos of people’s faces

This is too much fun! Must stop now.

^*Wellll… it’s not perfect. For keyword searches, it seems to rely on the text content, so for example if “shirt” is mentioned in a post, it displays all the photos in that post, even if they’re not actually of a shirt. Still, pretty cool!

Derrett System vs Handling Skills

SUMMARY: A fun timing exercise from class

Last night in class, a dog’s path option in the middle of our last course of the evening turned into a long and animated discussion, resulting in hauling out the electronic timers and timing everyone doing the two different options.

Here’s the map and some notes–I mention only the specific handling options that we used; there are certainly other handling options that result in the dog taking the same paths. What we’re interested in is the dog’s most efficient path.

At a glance, the longer option (A) seems like it would be a bad choice–2 extra yards in a jumpers course where the top dogs can be hitting close to 6 yards per second means, in theory, about a third of a second difference.

And, as we know from the recent FCI world championship, where the amount of time separating the midsize dog World Champion Luka from the 3rd place dog is a mere .09 of a second, .33 of a second is a lot of time.

Of course, it’s not just about time: In theory, a dog following a smoother path is arguably more likely to get through the course successfully. Plus, the Derrett System says, we believe, that choice A would be the right one.

(NOTE: I don’t know that I have the distances correct here, so our times might not be your times.)

Not surprisingly, the two options worked worked differently for different handlers and even different dogs with the same handler.

Tika was 6.90 on the wrap, and although I thought we did the serp fairly smoothly, she was 7.03, so 1/10 second slower. (And she was quite a bit slower at the end of the evening than at the start of class. Older dog. Sigh.)

Boost had the fastest time of all the dogs on any of the options, 6.05 on the wrap (although she knocked the bar). Then it took us 7 attempts for me to do the serp correctly with her, and she was 6.25. That might be because she’d just done 7 full repetitions at the end of a long class and was getting tired, or simply the obvious fact of our inability to handle it comfortably.

SB, who was the primary advocate for the serp method and handled it beautifully, when running Boost’s full sister T-Cam (different litter), got 6.17 and 6.18 doing the serp and 6.17 and 6.24 doing the wrap.

But with her older (nationals finalist, former world team) dog Maja, they were about .1 faster doing the wrap than the serp with very close to the same times as her younger dog.

SP and Kip had interesting results–he kept doing an odd hesitation when trying to do the serp compared to a fairly smooth wrap, but still got 6.33 on the serp and times of 6.75 and 6.56 on the wrap.

And JC and Jet were about a tenth of a second faster on the serp.

So–three dogs faster on the serp, three on the wrap.

Comments? If anyone else sets this up and gives it a try, let me know.

Weave Entries (and Exits)

SUMMARY: Some exercises.

Because Boost missed a lot of weave entries last weekend, I decided to work on weave entries with both dogs for a bit. Again. I am so tired of weave entry drills, but it’s been long enough now since I really drilled entries that I’m ready to face them again.

Here’s how I started.

I added the bonus of having the weaves end with barely two feet between the last pole and a large flower pot, so the dog has to wrap tightly around the last pole to get back to me without popping out early. It’s good to practice this (as we learned in class last night–actually Boost did very well on close-quarter exits and entries).

I want to aim the dog at the first pole because that’s what I want her to focus on, not on the gap. That’s because there are a lot of gaps but only one first pole. From a distance of 10 feet, of course, I’m not going to be able to ensure that’s where she’s looking, but it gives her a chance to think about it.

I also make sure that my body and shoulders are facing that first pole. I release and send with my left arm and leg, but don’t take more steps towards the poles.

As the dog makes the entry, I turn my body (feet and shoulders) and run parallel to the weaves so that I can toss a quick reward at the end of the poles and so that the dog is used to me moving with her.

Next, I will do the same pattern with the dog on my right. I expect this to be harder.

Next, I will do a similar pattern arcing around the other side of the poles, with the dog first on my right, then on my left.

I intend to repeat similar patterns from different distances. F’rinstance, can I stand right up next to the last pole with the dog on my opposite side and send the dog from there? (So she’s going almost paralell the length of the poles back to the beginning.) Can I do it from 30 feet away, not just 10 feet?

I also intend to do it with the dog starting at the end with the flower pot.

I’m doing this with 6 poles because I just don’t want to do that many sets of full 12 weaves.

I will next add similar patterns, but instead of going straight to the poles, add a jump in between. Of course this would be from much farther away. Also probably do it from a tunnel. My goal is to get the dog up to speed so she’s going full tilt and has to think and gather to make the entries.

I’ll mix it up with doing sets of 12 here and there to keep them used to the longer sets, and I will also try some patterns around the full set of 12. Boost seems to make her entrances better when there are only 6 poles; maybe she is dazzled by all the gaps in a set of 12 poles and can’t process where to start.

Haute TRACS course maps of interest

SUMMARY: summarytext

NOTE: You can download *all* the course maps here.

Rather than going back and putting these into the posts from thurs/fri/sat, I’m copying the relevant comments from those posts here, with additional info.

Thursday Steeplechase Round 1

“…I somehow pulled [Tika] past a jump–maybe I was signalling a serpentine when I didn’t need one?–and had to go back for it…” That would be jump #17. Pulled her between that and the #15/#6 jumps. There must’ve been more space there than appears on the map.

“Boost had a bar down and looked nice except for the blankety weave entry–she went right into the first pole and then turned all the way around to her left to come back to me.” That would be #18 weaves.

Otherwise it ran quite smoothly for both dogs.

Thursday Team Relay

“The fifth and final event, Relay, didn’t look terribly gnarly–I swear I’ve seen worse–but it definitely wasn’t a Boost kind of course; we bumbled our way through it with assorted bars and refusals, but, as I said, did not E. In fact, all three of us got through it without Eing, and that turned out to be our shining moment. A friend and I compared notes and counted with disbelief as 5 out of the top 6 teams Ed in the relay, and I stopped counting after that. “

“In the relay, [Tika and Maddie] had scary almost-offcourse moments where we were screaming our dogs’ names, but we survived the relay intact.” Tika headed for the offcourse tire after the #9 tunnel but called off it; Maddie headed for the offcourse #2 between the black 9 and 10 but called off it.

Team Jumpers

“…in Jumpers [Tika] cut behind me on a push-through and backjumped for an E.” I front-crossed the weaves and kept her on my left over #7, #8, and #9 (serping #9), and as she came over #9, I pushed forward with my left arm and leg between 9 and 10. That’s when she cut behind me and took #10 backwards.

“Boost ‘Did not E in Jumpers.’ (Bar and two refusals.)…As a team, we did manage to be 5th overall in Jumpers out of 27 teams (quite a few Es, apparently).” Looking at final score sheets, about 30% of the 80+ dogs went off course. Can’t tell you where.

Team Gamblers

“In the Gamble, [Boost] had decent opening points but in the closing futzed with the weave entry, then I didn’t call enough and she came onto the teeter from the side, negating our gamble points.” “During the DAM team Time Gamble, Tika took an obstacle that I hadn’t wanted her to take, and in a bit of a panicked effort to save the day, I … ended up bouncing off the judge…and fell straight forward…”

In the closing, my plan for Boost was weaves (going north), teeter, tunnel, and either jump on the finish line. She did the weaves on my right, and when I headed for the teeter, she headed for the Aframe. I called her off the Aframe, but that’s where she came onto the side of the teeter above the contact zone.

My closing plan for Tika was just teeter-tunnel-jump. At the whistle, she was in the tunnel in the upper left corner. I thought I was calling her hard to get to the teeter, but she had locked onto the jump-Aframe. I could still save the gamble bonus by going directly from the Aframe to the tunnel, it took me a moment to realize that–I started towards the aframe, changed my mind and came back towards the tunnel, and somewhere in there I ran into the judge and fell, Tika came in to investigate, I got to my feet, put Tika into the tunnel, and made it over the final jump in time. Whew!

Our opening sequence (which was a pretty common strategy or part of a strategy) was chute-dogwalk-tunnel-jump-Aframe-Aframe-jump-weave-weave-and then some other stuff (different for the 2 dogs).

Friday Snooker

“Tika: A 0-point run. (Knocked the first bar and my second obstacle was only a single full stride after that–no way I was calling her off it.)” That would be from the #1 in the lower right to the 7a jump.

“Boost: Knocked a bar on a 7-pointer in the opening, taking us out of SuperQ contention, then gave me a ‘what this jump” refusal on #5 in the closing, so not even a Qualifier.” Admittedly, that 5a jump was tough to get to.

Our opening plan was: lower right red, 7a, 7b, 7c, lower left red, 5a, 5b, upper red, 7c, 7b, 7a (all in a logical flowing path, not as numbered). Quite a few folks did the same.

Friday Grand Prix

“Tika and I came off that course with me yelling “Best Grand Prix Course IN THE UNIVERSE!” (thanks Pat Corl) ” I thought it ran beautifully. Not everyone agreed.

Even Boost was very smooth through it–after she ran past the tire on my opening lead-out pivot for an immediate off-course.

Saturday Gamble

“The Gamble was almost a gimmee. I haven’t looked at the Q percentage, but I’d guess 80%. And both dogs got it and Qed. I thought I had a decent opening, but muffed it completely with Tika (what an array of errors, and most handler-created), so once again we didn’t even place, and I held Boost on all 5 contacts that we did to ensure that she’s getting rewarded for sticking them, rather than trying to blast through and get more points. ” Turns out the Q percentage was more like 60%.

Wow, just looking at it now, I see that half of it is almost identical to what we did in the team gamble: Boost’s plan was again chute-jump-dogwalk-tunnel-tunnel (practicing the gamble)-aframe-aframe-jump-teeter-teeter. We bobbled at the jump before the teeter.

Tika’s plan (to avoid the dogwalk) was jump (next to the chute–which she knocked), tire, back to the same jump (which she avoided), chute (which she started to go to, came back towards me, then finally went in, jump (after the tire–it wasn’t at that steep of an angle, but even with my front cross, she ran past it after some confusion), jump next to the dogwalk, tunnel, tunnel (practicing the gamble), aframe, aframe… and then my plan was jump teeter jump weaves, but instead from the aframe she went to the tunnel again, so no points for that & wasted time.

Anyway, both dogs got the gamble easily with me on the sideline saying “Boost boost boost, again, tunnel!” (or Tika) which is my cue for back to back tunnels. Both had very fast gamble times.

Saturday Standard

“The Standard I really liked the flow of for my dogs–thanks again, Pat Corl. Others thought it was gnarly (in a complicated way), but it was SUCH a doable Boost course, and both dogs ran it beautifully. Unfortunately, Tika didn’t bother with the dogwalk down contact, and Boost knocked a bar, so no Qs. (To show you how gnarly it was, Tika still placed 3rd of 9 dogs without Qing.)”

“…[for Boost] an UNbelievably good table-down where I backed up about 30 feet away from her during the count and she never lifted even a single elbow.” Basically I moved out to the end of the dogwalk closest to #14, so when I released my dogs from the table, I gave the tunnel command and just slipped past the end of the dogwalk to front cross between #13 and #14. Piece of cake!

Also, I rear crossed the teeter and immediately moved into a front cross between 17 and 18 while the dog finished the teeter.

Steeplechase Round 1 Saturday

“I did a lead-out pivot after a broad jump to a tunnel, which [Boost] handled very nicely, but then I needed to do an immediate second front cross after that between the tunnel and the weaves, and my legs didn’t work, and my heel caught on the grass or my other foot or I don’t know, and down I went…”

“Poor [Tika] crashed into me TWICE when I couldn’t get the front crosses in that I needed. I felt so bad for her. I just couldn’t physically do it, I was so tired. She amazed me after the first crash [same place I fell with Boost], because it pushed her past the right side of the weave entry, and she basically made a u-turn in about 18 inches of space and still made the entry!”

If you stood at the start line and looked across the first three obstacles, you were staring straight through the *side* of the broad jump, so almost everyone did a lead-out to the left side of the broad jump, stepped forward to be sure the dog went through the correct poles, front crossed into the tunnel, and front crossed again to the weaves. That process worked better for some people than for others.

“[Boost] came to a complete stop at a jump on a rear cross…” That would be before #12. ” and as I had expected, ran past the last jump”… “she did two BEAUTIFUL sets of weaves, including one where I basically sent her ahead of me [#15 weaves] and peeled off to try to prevent the last-jump problem (she was still faster than I could be)”

Interestingly, lots of dogs either missed #9 completely or pulled away from it and had to go back for it.

Aaaaaand I think that’s enough!

Weave Entries

SUMMARY: Boost, funny dog.

Here’s how the field was laid out for last Thursday night’s class:

(Thanks, Nancy, for this course map of your class setup.)

There are tons of exercises that you can do on this layout. But I want to talk just about Boost’s weave entries.

In one of the exercises, we swooped around a course that included the obstacles with the square numbers–jump, tunnel, Aframe, weaves. I stayed on Boost’s right all the way through, intending to just shoot her straight forward at the weaves from the Aframe and cross behind to her left. But nooo–she went into the 2nd pole, not the correct entry.

This is the weave entry that Boost has trouble with. This is *supposed* to be the easy side (bearing left) for dogs to enter because they have to wrap the first pole, which is supposed to give them a solid place to aim for (there’s only one place where the weaves begin), compared to the other end (bearing right), where they have to go between two poles to make the entry (there are 11 places where there are 2 poles to go between).

But noooo, Boost is the opposite.

To end the evening, we did some follow-the-leader drills. There, the leader does a short sequence of 3 to 5 obstacles, and everyone else has to do it exactly the same way (same starting position, same crosses at same places, running on same side of the dog, etc.). With no walking the course–Handler See, Handler Do, all of us in rapid succession.

I marked two of them: The first in white circles. Challenging because you’re on the left, you’re not leading out very far, and the weave entry is not in a straight line from the line of jumps. I lined Boost up aimed at the left side of jump #1 so that she’d be on her left lead through the line of jumps, hopefully helping her to drift slightly towards me after the 3rd jump and then make a distinct right turn into the weaves. I also called her name once before the last jump to emphasize drifting in my direction, but kept running, and followed it with a quick “weave!” Worked perfectly. But then–this *is* Boost’s good side for weave entries. Most classmates had trouble with this one.

[Hmmm–in looking at this–the weaves were more to the left in real life, because I could look down the line of jumps and the left side of the weaves was more in line with the left side of the jumps, not so far to the right of the jumps.)

The next is in dark circles. With dog on your right, you send them into the tunnel, then skeedaddle into a front cross between the tunnel and the #2 jump, but the dog still has to make that turn into the weaves pretty much independently. Again, Boost had no trouble with it, but several others had to retry.

It’s both funny and baffling to have a dog who can make what I’d consider to be hard entries but can’t make what I’d consider to be easy entries. Ah, well, at least that’s something!

Maybe Practice Is A Good Thing

SUMMARY: A not-very-successful or satisfying agility day. (Plus Gamblers and Snooker course analysis.)

Saturday started with the alarm at 4:30. I was SO tired. And–wait–hadn’t I kinda said I wasn’t going to do this part any more, this getting up so early being among the things I like the least about agility? Maybe I’ll pull the blanket back over my head and go back to sleep.

Uhhh, nah, can’t, promised to be score table czar. Plus the dogs are on to me.

Good thing I didn’t, because I’d have missed our best run of the day. Here’s how the day went, in order:

Tika Gamblers: Very good opening and got the gamble. First place, Q, only dog of 8 in P3 22″ to get the gamble. In fact, one of only 5 dogs out of 38 in Pf to get the gamble. In fact, one of only 14 of 90 dogs total to get the gamble. Pretty low Qing rate. (I’ll talk more about the gamble at the end.)
Boost Gamblers: Didn’t stay at start line. Took her off and put her away.
Tika Jumpers: Didn’t stay at start line. Took her off and put her away. Were they, like, plotting against me?
Boost Jumpers: Left start line as I was raising my arm, but decided to run her anyway. Except she ran past roughly the 3rd jump and we were therefore immediately offcourse and E’ed. The rest was kind of OK except for one refusal problem on the incoming jump in a serp.
Tika Standard: An almost gorgeous run. But judge called our dogwalk up contact. Dang up contacts! Just, dang them all to heck! I do not like them, Sam I Am! I wish they’d stop faulting them. So, no Q or placement on a fairly straight-forward course in which neither Tika nor I really did anything wrong. (Except she didn’t want to go down on the table so lost several seconds there–still well under standard course time but wouldn’t have placed with that delay.)
Boost Standard: Lovely beginning–including start-line stay–for 4 obstacles. Then she came off the side of the teeter when I crossed behind, and wouldn’t lie down when I kept telling her to while trying to get in front of her. The judge whistled us off for training in the ring. (As she really should have.)
Tika Snooker: Tika did everything I asked, except that I ran the wrong course at #6 in the closing. Enough points for a Q but no placement or Super-Q. It’s not a straight-forward course, and people are crapping out all over the place just trying to get through the opening. Performance 8/12″ left an unclaimed Super-Q; so did Performance 16″. (That’s because not enough people Qed–and SQs go to only the top 15% of competitors, so you know the Q rate was low!) But, of course, in *Tika’s* group (Performance 22″), 5 out of 8 just HAD to Q, competing for a mere 2 SQs. Dang those 22″ Performance dogs! (I’ll talk more about the snooker at the end.)
Boost Snooker: Got away from me at one point in the opening and took a 2-pointer instead of a 6-pointer, but that’s OK, because so many people were crapping out completely. Got all the way through #6 and all she had to do for her first-ever super-Q (with a mere 48 points!) was one set of weaves. Aaaaannnnnd she skipped the first pole. Crap! So, yet another plain garden-variety Q.
Tika Pairs: Tika and partner ran really well. Yay! So did another pair, who beat us by barely more than one second. But I’m happy with the run and happy to take 2nd out of 11 teams.
Boost Pairs: Boost’s partner does very well. Boost knocks 2 bars but only one ended up on the scribe sheet. Do I talk to the judge about it? I don’t, and here’s why: We Qed with or without that fault, and our placement remained the same with or without it. So it made no difference. Happy about the Q, not thrilled with 2 bars.

Summary:
Three Qs for Tika, one 1st (our only Top Ten Points), one 2nd.

Two Qs for Boost: Pairs and basic Snooker, both of which she has a zillion of and I don’t care so much about.

I should practice more on fixing our weaknesses. Duh! For weekend:

Tika one start-line stay complete blow-off (my back still turned, still walking away), boost one like that, one when I was raising my arm but said nothing.
Table down crappy: Tika (since boost never got that far, don’t know whether hers was, too.)
Cross-behind screw-up on teeter: Boost
Bars down: two in one 10-obstacle run: Boost
Serpentine FAIL: Boost
Forgotten course: One, plus one where I stood flatfooted while dog was in tunnel trying to remember–fortunately did so in time to save an off-course, barely.
Weave entry fail: Boost. (Hmm–the only one she actually got to do all weekend!)

Attitude:
While waiting for my turn to run Boost’s first run of the day, I realized the following and commented to a friend: I was really looking forward to my Sunday hike and not so much to the rest of the day of agility. I really need to decide what to do here. I enjoy being around my friends at agility. But my enthusiasm level has waned so much. But I’ve already committed to being pairs and/or DAM team partners and/or score table czar for the next 2 or 3 trials. Just have to fish or cut bait. Still thinking about it.

By the time we got whistled off in Standard, I felt pretty grumpy. Had to just shut my mouth and not talk at all because I knew I’d just whine. Luka’s Human Dad helped perk me up a bit–with the trial being a one-ring trial–and everyone can’t work at once–he was at loose ends and so watched several of my dogs’ runs (fun having classmates, former classmates, and friends around to give feedback). He was in a good joking and jollying along sort of mood and pulled me with him. That, along with laughs and good random conversations with friends at the score table, helped me survive the day.

Masters Gamble:

Most people either did a loop with weaves and dogwalk, with teeter thrown in or not. Some got in 2 of those loops. Or they did an up and back through weaves with or without the teeter at the other end. Pretty much everyone tried to end up in the tunnel as a lead-in to the gamble, because it was a looooonnnng way from #1 to the #2 tunnel. Not a lot of dogs managed that part successfully (bigger, faster dogs got it more than smaller or slower dogs). The second hard part was turning the dog after #3 to the Aframe. Most dogs that made it that far either took the #1 again or, because they had come so far out towards the #1 when they finally turned towards the Aframe, were already too far along to make the turn and ran past it. And the heartbreaker, one do who did it all but missed the Aframe down contact.

Pleased with Tika and myself on that run; I SO ran out of obstacles before the first whistle, which means my planning wasn’t perfect, but boy, was she wired for her first run in so very long and running fast! But I managed to find something to do that didn’t go too far afield (the jump I labeled 10). When the whistle did blow, I kept my cool and am proud of that: I wanted to do the tunnel again to lead into the gamble, and even though the whistle had gone, I followed through on that and things worked great. Ended up even having plenty of time left over. I wish I could’ve run Boost–had a more aggressive course planned.

Masters Snooker:

The closing 2 through 5 was fairly straight-forward, but nothing else about this course was. Clever layout on the judge’s part. Almost too clever; you’d like all the Super-Qs to be claimed, at least, and they weren’t in two of the groups and barely claimed in a couple of others.

My numbers marked my plan. The fact that I did #6 backwards twice in the opening is what led me to do it backwards in the closing, too. Stupid, because I actually went back in at the end of the walkthrough to walk JUST 5-6-7 a couple more times to remember to do the #6 correctly. Dumb dumb dumb.

Most people tried some variation of my opening: 4, 5, 6, and either 6 or 7 after that. Some skipped the 5 and did 4, 6, 6, 7. Out of all the dogs competing, only 2 dogs got 53 total, which was probably 4, 5, 6, 7. Faster dogs had plenty of time, but I didn’t like the entry to #2 if we finished with #7, so I went for the two 6s (would’ve been 52 pts if we’d finished).

Fortunately, my visit with my cousin and the next day’s hike were WONderful. More on that in another post.

Course Design

SUMMARY: Masters versus Advanced versus Novice, notes from the clinic.

Jump angles

One thing that I had trouble grasping when designing courses was the angle of jumps to make them easier to take. Here’s an example.

When getting from the table to the dogwalk over the intervening jump, I kept wanting to think of the dog’s path as a smooth arc (dotted line), so therefore a jump at the height of that arc would be perpendicular to the line of the arc as shown in the first case above. I kept thinking that would be easier to do.

However, what one really needs to think about is how the obstacle is presented to the dog based on where the dog is coming from. If you look at the solid line showing the dog’s approach, in fact you’ll note that, in the first case, the dog is approaching at a very sharp angle, which makes it harder for the dog to see and harder for the dog to figure out how to jump it. This makes refusals and runouts (the dog runs past the plane of the jump) and even knocked bars much more likely.

Whereas, in the second case above, the dog clearly sees the jump face on, and the arc of the path doesn’t really change much at all, so the approach to the dogwalk remains about the same.

Course design methods

So: How does one get started building a course? Some of the methods mentioned:

Start with a scenario that you want to include and then build around it.
Start with the obstacles that you need to get to (contacts, weaves, table), rearrange roughly for good access, and build around that.
Draw a squiggly, crossing line (appropriate for the class level) and drop obstacles onto the path.
Toss all the obstacles onto the course randomly and then rearrange until they turn into a course.

Course design considerations

Then you have to figure out your judging path (how can you get to where you need to be without taking your eye off the dog or running into anything) and the appropriate issues for the level.

Those issues were actually pretty simple. For starters, only one or two side changes and they should be fairly simple. Some off course opportunities that are peripheral, not directly on the dog’s path. And flowing.

For Advanced, more side changes, and off-course opportunities that are on the dog’s path (that is, if he goes straight or fairly straight from where he last was and is following with the handler). And flowing.

For Masters, same as advanced, with added potential for refusals and runouts. And, as noted in the example above, you can do that often just by changing the angle of some jumps on the course. And flowing!

They’re trying to promoting fairly fast, flowing, courses, not with a lot of herky-jerky. Sure, you’ll see herky-jerky courses, but they’d really like the dog to be excited and moving quickly through the course.

And, at all levels–this is key: Design for the dog who is properly prepared for *entering* that level, NOT for the “top ten dogs”.

One also mustn’t forget, though: They should be courses that YOU would like to run, too!

My course designs

Here you go, team: My very first-ever course designs!

I started by scrawling a curving, overlapping line on the paper, putting obstacles at the crosses that could be taken in multiple directions, placing the judgeable objects at appropriate places, and then tweaking things around until it looked kind of like a course.

We were limited to having only one tunnel and only 8 winged jumps, which had to be used to make the required spread jump as well. Here’s my masters course.

I had trouble with the location of the #15 obstacle because I had to get from watching the weaves to watching the up contact on the dogwalk to the down contact, and #15 was in my path. I had fixated on keeping that 13-14-15-16 “loop” in my course because there was a loop in the original line I had drawn. Well–doh–the voices of experience showed that I could get rid of the #15, change the angle of the other jump, and not appreciably change the flow of the course.

Also, the position of the tire wasn’t ideal for a safe execution, so we switched it to be #1.

The instructors particularly liked the 6-7-8-9 sequence for a masters course–can take it smoothly but at the same time it presents refusal and runout opportunities.

It was surprisingly easy to change this into an Advanced course simply by changing the angle of some jumps and a slight rearrangement of the chute. (I still got a correction to a jump angle–shown in red–still figuring that out.)

Now, I’m not saying that these are great courses or that I’d actually use them, but they turned out better than I had thought I could possibly do in about 2 hours in my first attempt.

(The second night, I started and discarded several Advanced courses before coming up with one I just sort of liked, and then it was agonizing changing it to Starters–I went through about 6 designs before finally getting one, and that was with last-minute help from the instructor, too.)

More Notes from Tuesday Night’s Class

SUMMARY: Another student posted more than I did.

I posted a partial course map and some handling notes (Handling: Setting Dog’s Tunnel Exit Expectations”) after Tuesday’s class.

Another student posted the full course and additional options and notes.

(I’ve added this link to my post, too.)

Handling: Setting Dog’s Tunnel Exit Expectations

SUMMARY: A little thing from class Tuesday night.

This sketch is drawn from memory a day after class.Not on this drawing: #9 was in a straight path from #8 about 20 feet further on.

It demonstrated an interesting behavior on the part of most of the dogs.

We determined that probably the best handling for most handlers and dogs (especially fast dogs, where getting from 4 to 6 was tough) was this:

Move laterally away from the weaves, supporting the dog in the weaves, to get into front cross position between 2 and 3 (means closer to 3 than 2). (Note: None of the dogs had problems getting over the 2 from the weaves independently.)
Push the dog out slightly to get him around the back side of 4 and rfp and/or hold still briefly to be sure that you are anchoring him to pull into 5 (not go over 2).
Serpentine the 6, pull the dog with you a couple of steps and push over 7. (Maybe if you were fast and your dog was slow, you could’ve gotten in for a front cross before 6, but because of where 9 was, it was to your advantage to be on the takeoff side of #7 to be able to get there anyway.)

Here’s the interesting thing. Most of us completed our 270 from 3 to 4 right on the wing of 4 and then instinctively ran parallel to the tunnel. This not only put us in a bad position to get the dog over 6 to 7, it also gave the dog the info that you were right with him, running parallel with him (the dotted line), so the dogs tended to blast straight out of the tunnel (dotted line).

If, however, you stayed as close to 3 as possible to push the dog out over 4, then it not only gave you more leverage in pulling the dog to the tunnel, but it also meant that when you turned and ran towards the *left* side of 6, the dog could see before he went into the tunnel that you were a good maybe 8 or 10 feet off to his left (dashed line), so when he came out of the tunnel, he was more inclined to turn to his left to see where you were (dashed line). This both put you in the ideal location for a serp and gave the dog a tighter turn to be able to take it successfully.

Thanks, Nancy, for figuring this out for us!

Update: July 31, 2:45 p.m. PDT (Another Power Paws student posted the whole course map with some additional exercises and handling notes here.)

Day 4 at Haute TRACS

SUMMARY: Sunday

I’m sleeping great! I’m feeling great! If it weren’t for the dang blisters, on BOTH feet now–doh!

Tika is looking great! Boost is eager to go! Although by the end of the day, when she comes out of her crate, she’s clearly getting tired. Wouldn’t tell it on course, though, what a fast little girlie!

Morning and evening, every day, we get in some frisbee fetch (although with Tika it’s more like frisbee chase/pounce and with Boost it’s auto-frisbee-return after Tika’s done with it).

The weather continues to be outstanding. After rain early in the week, and rain predicted for early the following week, we are so lucky to have four days in the middle that are perfectly luscious. No mud, no awful winds (and this site is known for its awful winds–one of the few places where winged jumps have to be staked regularly, but not this time).

So, Tika had a perfect day yesterday! The odds are slim that we can repeat it. We almost never have perfect days in USDAA, let alone two in one weekend. But we’ll try!

Steeplechase Round 2

We start the day early today with Round 2 of Steeplechase. Because we won Round 1, we’re top seed in our height, so run last–and our height is last, too, so I have to wait through all the other dogs to see whether we can win it. I’m nervous for the first time this weekend. WHY?!? Really, it matters to nothing whatsoever except glory and the chance for a little pocket change. It is helped by the fact that two of my worthy agility friends have scratched their runs, for who knows why. (Tough competition around here! If you look at the 22″ names here and then look at the USDAA Top Ten candidate lists, you’ll find probably ALL of those names there. Sheesh. Keeps us honest, though. Never can slack off!)

Having learned from years of experience, I decline to watch the other 22″ dogs and go dink around with Tika for a few minutes while they run. BOTH round 1 yesterday and round 2 today have two Aframes. Of mixed minds on that: In the old days, used to love having two weaves because so many fast dogs would hose their weaves and Tika always got them. But Tika has 3-second weaves and the fastest dogs now are in the 2-second range (like Boost) AND have good weaves. So we can be faster on two Aframes because –ahem–she doesn’t actually HAVE Aframe contacts any more (“modified running contacts”), but if she DOES get them, they’re pretty fast because she’s not waiting.

So we step out to the line, I lead out just beyond the first jump (I’m going to pull her to the Aframe and then race to get ahead of her on the down contact), release her–and she knocks the first dang bar! So I know that we’re now out of it, so I push it to the max to try to maybe get a placement on time, but in this crowd it’s tough to make up a 5-point fault with 5 whole seconds faster speed. And it’s a glorious run, I must say, on a fun, fast course!

A little while later, I take a peek at the score table–and we’ve won! Wow, turns out *everyone* had faults on the course. What are the odds? So I gladly take my whole $21 (pays for Steeplechase entry this time).

Gamblers

I think I have a pretty darned good plan for the opening–again–and the gamble is SO doable for both dogs! I will be embarrassed if we don’t get this one! I mean, we live and die by doing turn-aways (“left” or “right”) from a contact to a tunnel! Well, sure, we haven’t practiced any ina while, but we have done SO many of them, I am 100% confident that both dogs will do it perfectly.

Also, we have an advantage in the opening. Many people are avoiding the 7-point Aframe to avoid the risk of going into the tunnel after the aframe and voiding their gamble, but we also do back-to-back Aframes ALL. THE. TIME. I see no risk for us at all.

So my plan is: jump-teeter-jump-jump-aframe-aframe-weaves [and another weaves for Boost]-jump-jump-tunnel (left side), circle and do left side of tunnel again if whistle hasn’t blown.

So, Tika: MAN she is hot! Spot on perfect! The whistle blows as we’re swinging around to do that last tunnel again, and she blasts through the gamble like on remote control. What a girl! I’d like to see anyone beat THAT!

Well–hrm–someone DID beat us, on time, not points, 1.5 seconds faster. So, for example, if we had been exiting the tunnel when the whistle blew, that’s the only way we’d have made up that 1.5 seconds. Ah, well, 2nd is still good!

Boost. Heh. In the opening, on the 2nd Aframe, she PULLS PAST IT instead of taking it! Who’d have thought?! Thank the agility gods she did NOT go into the tunnel; I swung her around and made another approach and she took it, but that meant no second set of weave poles for us, meaning 5 fewer points.

In the closing, perfect over the jump to the Aframe, holds the Aframe and looks at me, and I say “LEFT thru!” and–she goes FORWARD! And she’s bouncing around, looking at me, looking for a tunnel, left, right, back, forth, and FINALLY sees the tunnel and goes in. Then she’s over the last jump without knocking it and we’re under time! Yesss! I don’t think that she actually ever approached the tunnel for a refusal (which would’ve negated the gamble), but I’m not positive until I look at the score table and see that we have, indeed, Qed!

It’s apparently not a give-away but not completely trivial, either; 17 of 48 dogs got the Q in Boost’s height and only 2 of 8 in Tika’s height.

Jumpers

Can Boost get another Jumpers Q? Can Tika continue to keep her bars up and hold her start line stay?

The answers are: NO (but very close–crashed one bar and I forgot the course, sigh, but up to that point just lovely), YES, YES, and another 1st and Q for Tika.

A friend called it the easiest jumpers course in the universe, and it really was–smooth and uncomplicated (no good excuse for me leaving out jump #15) — and I’d have expected Boost to maybe Q it, but ah well.

Standard

Tika: I’ll admit that it’s a stretch for me to try to figure out a pattern for myself on Standard courses to be there to ensure that Tika gets the down contacts on the dogwalk and the aframe. Sometimes it seems like an impossible task. I miss being able to just trust her and head off for my next turn or send her ahead of me. The dogwalk, especially–she can cover 36 feet much faster than I can. But, yep, if I don’t fix the problem, I have to accommodate it.

The joy on this course is that (a) I can get a lead-out on the dogwalk to beat her to the end, and (b) even if I’m not there and she soars off, the next obvious obstacle is not in fact an off course. The HARD part on this course is the jumps box in the upper right! There are about 10 ways to handle that sequence, none of them easy. I plan on a ton of front crosses because I’m not sure that I do rear crosses all that well even in the best of times, and this one has no leeway for mistakes because it’s so tight.

Plan is front cross 13-14, push the dog out to get the 15 and front cross 15-16, follow the dog through, pull, and front cross 16 to 17.

Well, so, Tika runs it and there is NO way I’m getting the first front cross in, she’s so fast off the teeter, and once that’s done, I can’t catch up on the others and end up doing weird rear crosses all the way through. (I did walk it with various combos of fronts & rears, just to be sure.) Felt like I was living on the edge; tika turned the wrong way after 16 but I was able to get her back on track, and wow! we finished clean.

A friend came by to say wow, I handled that box so smoothly and effortlessly, I made it look like a piece of cake! (Sometimes the accidents turn out to be good ones, I guess.)

So–a Q and a 2nd place from time lost on a couple of wide/wrong turns. But I’ll take it!

Boost. Well. I *assumed* that she would take the #3 jump after the dogwalk because it was RIGHT IN FRONT of her, but noo, ran past it. I thought that was our only fault and the rest of it looked really good! I was surprised to find 10 faults on the score sheet, not 5. Dunno what it was. But it was generally a nice run. And only 7 of 42 dogs in her height Qed on that course, so it was a toughie.

Snooker

One more chance for Tika to earn a zillion (well–5–) top ten points by winning!

This is a clever and evil little course. Only 3 reds, and #7 is just jumps, which you’d think would be fast and everyone would be trying for three sevens in the opening. Problem is that it’s a lot of yardage and not easy to get to the reds from the #7. I timed it out a few different ways and decided that there was no way on this green earth that I could do 3 7s and the closing in 47 seconds (49 for Tika).

BUT! I was pretty sure I could do 7-6-6 with boost (love those fast weaves, and her weaves have generally been excellent lately), and 7-5-6 with Tika.

Plan: #1 on the right side, across the 7, push out past #5 and send the dog to the #1 on the left side; for Tika, have her on my left side over #5, keep her on my right as I go between the 4 & 2 & send her to the middle #1, then pull her on my right side as I stick close to #4 and enter the weaves on the right side. Then send her to the #2 tunnel from the back side–piece of cake to do–and the closing is then trivial. Says here.

So–Tika is lovely thru 1-7-1-6-1, and then it looks like she’s going for a tunnel and much jumping around and barking ensues, but I manage to get her to the correct end of the weaves without mishap and, voila, the rest is as predicted trivial, although I’m doing it pushing her hard hard hard because of that wasted time, and sure enough the buzzer goes off after we’ve completed the #7 but are still on our way to the finish line. This is fine! Now it’s just a question of whether others will try for 7-6-6 instead of our 7-5-6 and beat us on points.

I know that Brenn tried it, but too many time-wasted bobbles and didn’t get all the way through, and Hobbes, too, I believe, but they had a problem somewhere. So we won with 48 points, next nearest at 45!

Boost was absolutely spot on in the opening, I was so proud! But when I sent her from the back side to #2, she started to go in, side stepped to look back at me, then went in–for a refusal and negating the rest of the run. And it was dumb because I could *easily* have run with her to the #2 and handled it from the other side. Just another case of where she’s just not doing the obstacles with confidence, or something! Anyway, it was a beautiful start and we had a ton of time left so could’ve easily finished the closing.

It’s funny looking at the results–only 4 dogs out of 100 all heights/masters & performance got 50 points on that course, then Tika with 48, one 47, one 46, a couple 45s, but most 42 and fewer! One of the more challenging snooker courses I’ve seen in a while, and it looks SO simple.

Pairs Relay

Really, this was going to be a short post. But it is, after all, MY diary so I write what *I* want to and you just have to ignore it if you want to. Neener neener.

Tika: Paired with Brenn again. Brenn led off and ran clean and nicely; Tika rocketed through that course so fast I hardly even realized I’d been out on the field! And without popping her contact or knocking a bar! Our combined time was good for 3rd place out of 11 teams, and of course a Q.

Boost: Paired with a nice, young, fast Border Collie, who led off and did a super job, not a wrong step the whole way, and very fast! Boost was very fast, too, except knocked a bar and then ran PAST A JUMP RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER again, for an additional 5 faults and wasted time. So can two fast border collies Q with 10 faults (=10 seconds) AND another 5 or so seconds of wasted time?

Apparently they can, because they could! –Er, with a total time plus faults of 49.10 and a standard course time of 50. So “just barely” would be the operating phrase here. (Fun note–another team actually managed to place lower than us and Q, with 49.66 time! REALLY squeaked in!)

End of the day and the weekend

So!
Tika another 100% Q day, with a bonus Steeplechase 1st place on our 6th run! She just amazed me all weekend.

Boost actually got 2 Qs today; glad it’s today, as it makes me feel a little better about her weekend in time to go home.

I say goodbye to our set-up (note certain Merle Girls peering from behind the left side of the crates), pack up in daylight and head home. I love spring!

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while but haven’t had the time or it was under darkness, but this time was fading late afternoon sun and a perfect time to visit the Vista Point overlooking the Ghost Ships– the west coast Mothball Fleet.

At one time, I believe there were a few hundred ships of various sizes and shapes, but the last time that any of them were used was in the Viet Nam war era, and even then, not many of them. Now, they are all essentially rusting hulks of hazardous waste (many tons of leaded paint already flaked into the bay waters, petroleum products, etc.) and the word has come down that most will finally be scrapped as quickly as money allows. The process is already underway. Sometime in the next few years, the mothball fleets that have been a fixture in three American locations for all of my life and most of my parents’ will be no more.

The view would’ve been better from up the side of a steep hill, but my blisters were so painful that the thought of taking any extra steps was beyond me at this point.

If you’re unfamiliar with them, these are primarily world war II-era ships, held in reserve for times of need. They’ve been used to support military efforts on occasion; to support the Berlin airlift; and to store some of the nation’s emergency supplies of grain. Now, they’re fascinating to look at but are so old, obsolete, and decayed, that they’re not of much use to anyone any more. Until recently, they’d been painted above the waterline for many years so that they don’t look like rusting-out hulks, but they are, in fact, rusting out hulks.

They’re all lined up in neat little groups just off the north shore of Suisun (“suh-soon”) Bay (between San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River Delta) like patient students in their designated lines waiting to come in off the playground after recess. Time to come in from the cold and the wet, their era now long gone. (Click the photo for a somewhat larger version; click here for a really large version–you might have to click your magnifying cursor once it’s displayed to get it to its full size.)

Two hundred years from now, I’m sure we’ll all think, jeez, all those historic boats that could’ve been saved! Ah, well, can’t keep everything.