Maddie's Agility Debut

Maddie had a very successful agility trial debut a few weeks ago! I entered her in Novice Jumpers two days a row. No zoomies and she did her job like a pro! I could not be happier with how she did.

In her first run, Maddie knocked a bar, but otherwise was perfect. In her second run, she had a refusal at the weave poles. In Novice we are allowed 3 attempts at the weave poles and she did great on her second attempt. Here is the video.

In preparation to Maddie's runs, we walked, biked, played fetch, and dug holes. I also let her play with her friends and hug her favorite people. She just has so much energy that I wanted to make sure I took the edge off and then some.

I don't think we are quite ready for an 8 AM run time on day 1 of a trial. It is just so exciting, but hopefully by the time we get to Masters level we will be.  For now, I plan to keep entering her in one class per day. It is expensive and busy to run 3 dogs in a trial so I will pick classes for Maddie that do not interfere with Riley and Seven's schedule.

Photos were taken by my good friends, Beth Bradshaw and Maggie Fan. ADSENSE HERE

Maddie Agility Match

A week or so ago, Maddie had the opportunity to participate in an agility match. I actually hosted it as a fundraiser for the Road Trip Home Animal Rescue group after one of our local agility trials. Agility match for Maddie and we raised $1,390 for RTH!  An evening well spent!

Maddie had some really fantastic moments.  My favorite is in the first run. She is feeling pretty wild, but she collected herself and nailed the weave poles. In our second run, I was not very pleased with her zoomies, but in Maddie's defense, I was running around crazy making sure the match was running smoothly.  Maddie should have had a lot more exercise earlier in the day. In the third run, I wanted to make sure she got on the dog walk, table, and went through the chute.... and she did!

Maddie had another match on October 18th and I may have accidentally entered her in a trial or two. I don't think she is ready for a full slate of classes, but with Riley out I thought I might attempt a soft debut. ADSENSE HERE

Mad Dog

Miss Maddie got spayed 2 weeks ago right after a 4 day agility trial so we have not done much in July.  But I do have some photos and videos from May and June.

My friend, Beth Bradshaw took the above photos and those of Maddie and Teg below.

Look! Maddie and Teg have synchronized strides!

 Awkward!!!

 A typical Maddie facial expression!

We also had some fun on 4th of July weekend at Summerwind Farm.  The landowner is so gracious and wonderful to let us play there. Are you happy, John? :-)

 Maddie takes full advantage of the fields!

Here is a training clip from way back in June.

 

Since then, most of the guides have come off the weave poles.  Right now, Maddie is prone to popping out of the poles early so I usually have the last 2 guides on there.  I am still not sure when her agility trial debut might be. I really do not want to rush her. She is sensitive and does not handle making mistakes very well so I definitely want to make sure she is pretty solid on the weave poles.  I want her to be set up for success. We have 3 or 4 opportunities to do matches this fall so that will be a great way to get her some agility practice at some of the venues we will be competing at in the future. ADSENSE HERE

The Last Few Weeks

So behind in blogging again. We made it to Nationals and back again.  We did not have anything really great to write home about and our videos are awful.  Usually my friend, Jerry, and I will video each other.  But out of a couple hundred dogs, Riley and his German Shepherd, Ex, were surprisingly only a few dogs apart so we both paid for the professional videoing so we would not have to worry about it.  What a mistake!  The quality was horrible and they are frustrating to edit.

Riley, always the bridesmaid, completely bombed the Time to Beat Class. Slightly bombed the Standard class.  She did really well in Jumpers and I made the mistake that caused us to have an off course.  And then finally we ran clean in the Hybrid class. She did do all of the tricky stuff we had been practicing so I was happy about that.

Seven ran clean in Jumpers and Hybrid, but ran past the weave poles in Time to Beat and had an off course in Standard.  All in all, we had a fun trip, but I would have liked to have run better.

Time to get back to just running and finishing their second agility championships.  Riley needs 3 more double qualifiers and Seven needs 6.

Miss Maddie is coming along in her training. Now with Nationals over, the focus has switched back to her. Ever since her first season she has really matured. She just seems so much more grown up now for some reason.  I hope some of the playful puppy comes back.

I think her little boobies are pretty funny. I am just used to my greyhound girls being a bit more flat chested. I believe they should go down eventually.

Here is a video clip of some recent training.  I think Maddie looking pretty good.  She is cautious and does not want to make any mistakes.  I think she will speed up as she gains confidence.

It really is time for us to start practicing at other facilities and on different equipment. We are starting to make some plans for that.

We also have been doing a lot of fostering for Road Trip Home. Right now we have this little yellow Labrador Retriever.

She is quite shy.  She has gotten pretty comfortable with me, but is still very suspicious of my husband and everyone else.

She came from the local crappy, county animal shelter. Road Trip Home pulled all three.  I think she is probably the one in the back of the photo (below).

She will be transported to Animal Welfare Society in Maine on May 9th to find her forever home.

We also fostered this black Labrador Retriever.  Not our favorite foster. I will just leave it at that. She will do great in the right home.

And then a very special foster was a Shar-Pit (Shar-Pei X Pit Bull Mix).  I saw this photo in a rescue album on Facebook for the crappy, county shelter. Usually I am pretty tough and know that we cannot rescue them all, but the fact that this dog followed her jerk owner into the shelter off leash really bothered me. How could you surrender such an obedient, loyal dog?

I watched the album all week.  I offered a fairly significant pledge hoping to tempt a rescue group to take her, but nothing materialized.  Finally it was Monday morning and she had to have commitment by 3:30 PM. So I emailed my friend, Heather, from Road Trip Home to see if we could look at her. The group in Maine had asked that we not pull anymore pit bulls, but that if one was special that we could ask.  So Heather asked and they agreed they would take her if she passed the temperament test. And she passed.

So after being quarantined, she came to our house for a few weeks of fostering. She was so funny, sweet, playful, attentive, and wonderful. Fosters come and go, but the husband and I love her. Just so precious!

I wondered and there was some discussion, but in the end we were able to tell her goodbye about a week ago. She has been up for adoption for a few days now. Hopefully it will not be long before she finds her forever home who will appreciate everything she has to offer.

ADSENSE HERE

Mad Dog Agility Match

At the agility trial in Tennessee, Maddie had an opportunity to participate in two agility matches (a practice after the show is done for the day). She did really well the first day and mostly well the second.

I jumped Maddie 20 inches this time and entered her in Standard and Jumpers since they offered both at the match. Some of our sequences were longer than we had done in the past. I had introduced Maddie to the chute a couple of times prior, so I had a helper hold it open a couple of times so she could try one away from home. She did great. I also got her on the table and she tugged really well.

On the second day, although it is not evident on the video, Maddie was not tugging as well as she usually does. I was using a new toy and it is confirmed that she just does not love toys with fur. I could tell she was not as in to it and for the second run she was not into it at all. You are not allowed to use food in the ring, but you can use a Lickity Stick. It looks like a roll-on deodorant, but it has a flavor most dogs love. Maddie liked it so I went into the ring with that. She did some really nice work.... a full sized A-frame, the chute, the table, and some nice jump sequences, but at the end she ran into the tunnel almost 3 times. Sometimes tunnels make her crazy and she was getting that look in her eye. Screaming at her stopped her from running in a third time, but I hate that that was what we ended on. This was compounded by a situation earlier in the day where she flat out ignored me when she was playing with another dog. So ignoring me to go into a tunnel another time has been duly noted. But all in all, the video looks mostly good.

Due to Maddie ignoring me a few times in about a ten day period, she is on probation. She needs more controlled practice where I can intervene if she decides not to respond. I guess you could say she is a grounded teenager right now! ADSENSE HERE

Mad Agility Skills

Maddie is nearly 17 months now.  I am pretty sure she is about 26 and half inches tall.  Basically, she is the size of my male, Travis, who passed away five years ago, but not quite as heavy.  He probably was 5 pounds heavier.

Ziva and Maddie in April 2013 (above and below)

My friend, Maggie, and her Dutch Shepherd, Ziva, came out to train on my field last week. We used to let Maddie and Ziva play together when they were younger so Maggie and Ziva are a huge distraction for Maddie. The last time they came to train, Maddie was awful!

This time, Maddie was awesome! I felt like Maddie was interested and attentive to me the entire time. Towards the end, we even had both dogs on the field and took turns doing sequences and again, Maddie stayed with me.

Here is a short video of our training:

Also, someone asked in the comments last time why I was using two methods for training weave poles, 2X2s and Weave-A-Matics. I am playing around with both because 2X2s are great for teaching entrances to the weave poles from all different angles, but it encourages the dog to bounce through them with 2 feet at a time. Typically, this works well for small dogs and it works well for Seven. But she is my only greyhound to use the 2 foot weaving style.

The Weave-A-Matics encourages a 1 foot style which generally works better for big dogs. Below is a picture of Travis weaving with the 1 foot style.

Riley usually does too.

So I am experimenting with both methods to see what I can get with Maddie. After teaching Seven to weave, I am definitely not opposed to the 2 foot style if it is the dog's preference, but Maddie is 2 and half inches taller, quite a bit longer, and 10 pounds heavier than Seven so I want to make sure she is encouraged to give it a try. ADSENSE HERE