This N That

I've completed two regional agility events with Gusto. Both results are very similar, great, fast runs but one mistake keeping him from getting a lot of IFCS (international) points. This year is a try out year for the international competition held in England in 2010. I was not sure I was ready to compete for the points race but decided to go ahead and give it a shot. I did not sign the intent to compete form though as I wanted to see how we did at the 3 scheduled events.

He handled really well (except for both Round 1 Grand Prix runs). His times were right there with the top dogs - sometimes he had the fastest time. BUT one bar, one missed up contact kept us from doing well. I'm thrilled with where he is right now but we were soooooo close to getting a lot of the IFCS points in the 26 inch height class. He is sitting in 10th place but many folks have only done 2 events, Gusto has done 3. Tenth out of 70+ dogs that have earned points isn't horrible all things considered. It sets me up pretty well for the next competition year which is 2011-2012. He will be a little more seasoned and will hopefully handle his excitement level better or I will or we both will as a team.

I feel great about how I handled the pressure. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone but my ground speed or rushing him has caused some errors. I put him on a fitness program at the suggestion of several folks in an attempt to see if he can do better with the bars. I didn't start soon enough though but maybe it will set us up to have a fantastic National experience this year.

On a workout note, I have been running 2 miles early in the AM before Greg leaves for work so that Robbie can be watched (trying to protect his injured shoulder from his crazy self). I have been tracking my workouts including my warm ups. I only tracked my run today and my pace is 9.25 average over the 2 miles. Much better than I had thought as most of my tracking showed 12+. I'm going to keep plugging away as I seriously hope to someday give a 5k race a try. I have much work to do before I enter a race though.

A Must Have Photo

Oh my! Look at Gusto's expression!!! Priceless.

http://www.pbase.com/barryrosen/image/113153602

Competition is Fierce

I was at Flexi's USDAA trial yesterday. Gusto is totally qualified for Nationals but my last GP Q down in Maryland wasn't flawless. I ran conservatively to get his final Q so I let him land wide to guard the bars. He has been dropping 1 bar per class lately so I was getting extremely annoyed with him. I realized that I cannot push him with my own ground speed and I cannot ask for real tight turns in certain situations right now because he cannot handle it.

This weekend I set a goal for keeping the bars up or carrying him out if he didn't. I have really been focused on teaching him how to deal with all kinds of situations while he is jumping. I still work his weavepoles because he will forget to rock back to get in but my primary focus has been jumping. I do not do jump grids with Gusto. He does them perfectly so I do not feel that is helping him. Instead, I set up weird angles, I send him to jumps that he notoriously cuts too tight. I send him to the backside - all kinds of situations while I am running, talking, throwing toys. If the bar comes down, he gets in trouble, bars stays up then he gets praised and rewarded.

Maybe the hard work is starting to pay off. He was truly amazing yesterday. We went 3 for 3 clean. First run was Snooker and he took a nasty leap off the frame because he didn't get on straight. After making sure he was ok, we finished the run and he won the class. Next run was Standard - he ran very nice but went wide in several places because I am letting him jump before asking him to do anything. He took 2nd - behind his brother, Whip. Not sure what the time difference was but it was at least .5 seconds. Grand Prix was last. I really wanted him to run another one clean. I only have 2 local GP Qs EVER.

I went to the line not with winning in mind but with qualifying. I wanted him to keep his bars up so I didn't push him. Although, I wasn't jogging either but I was not asking for tight turns. He ran a beautiful run but had several wide turns and got caught in the tunnel so he took 2nd place behind Drifter by .4 seconds.

I have taken second place to 4 dogs locally - all of which have placed or won Nationally. The competition is tight in this part of the country. It makes us all better handlers and trainers. I have alot of work to do to reach some of my goals or dreams with Gusto. He is not quite ready to be pushed. You cannot spare wide turns if you want to win or even place Nationally.

I'm off to Perry on Wednesday for my favorite regional event. I will be going down with running clean in mind and will have to live with whatever results that gives me. For now, I'm an also-ran.

A Short Spin

My whole agility career is up in the air right now. It looks like the owner of the current location that I teach is going to want us out of the building when she makes changes for daycare. Without a source of income, I can no longer show my dog. I am going to go to Nationals but it will probably be my last trip out unless I find a flexible part-time job.

I was so upset, I hopped on the indoor bike and pounded out my frustration. I went only 5 miles, I do not want to injure my IT Band but DARN it felt great to pound!

I can always revive my cycling attempt if I am not trying to save my leg for agility. Not sure what I will do with all of these hyper-active BCs though. They definitely are not for the quiet life. One is barking at me at the moment because he is bored - of course, he is in hobbles and can't do a darn thing but he doesn't care a lick about that. He is saying, "do something with me". Poor boy.

I'm So Relieved

Life has been a bit crazy lately. I've been trying to locate an alternative place to teach agility. This search is not going very well. It cost A LOT of money to rent space large enough to do agility and the start up cost is quite expensive. If you take on this endeavor by yourself, you better be willing to work many hours and maybe even put on run thrus and trials to help cover your rental fee.

I prefer teaching part-time so that I can be home with Devin while he is still young and wants to be with his Mom. My current agility location is really bugging me. She is increasing my rental fee but the extra income she is going to get will not be used to help me replace gear as it breaks or ages. So when the gear breaks or needs to be replaced, it is coming out of my pocket. If I was the only person using this gear, I would have NO problem replacing it. However, the building is rented by other folks, I do not get a cut from this rental income. Also, she is putting in doggie daycare this Summer. I can guarantee they will use my gear to exercise the dogs. Do I get any compensation for this if they break the gear? NO I do not.

I am searching for alternatives. This is all trivial in the large scheme of life though. It's bugging me to not have an answer but it is still a minor problem.

There are bigger problems in this world. Like the neighbor's boy that has been fighting cancer. He is in remission but gets scan every 3 months to make sure he is still clear. He went for his scan yesterday and we usually get the word rather quickly. Yesterday, the news was late coming and we all feared the worst because he had been quite sick lately. He was not fighting off strep. But the news was GOOD when we finally got it. They discovered that he actually had pneumonia which was why the antibiotics wasn't helping initially. The poor family, as if they haven't suffered enough. Tonight, I want to take a bottle of wine down to the Mother so we can drink and celebrate life. It is so precious.

Last LAX Game

What a game! Intense is the best way to describe it. The team we played wanted to win badly, they played with ferocity. Actually, a bit too rough for this age group. The refs had to stop play several times and explain to the kids that the checks they were doing were either not legal, or too rough. We played this same team on Saturday but I was not home so didn't get to witness how rough they were. The other team did a lot of over-celebration when they would get a goal.

We unleashed several of our football players to help keep these kids in check. It worked. They backed of a little bit when they realized we weren't going to back down from the contact. One of our players, my son, unleashed several checks with fury because he was a bit miffed at their illegal hits. He flattened several of their kids - legally. The Refs did tell him to tone it down a bit though cuz he sent a few kids flying.

In the end, we won the game. Our Head Coach's son, JD, actually won the game for us. He called a time out with about 1 to 2 minutes left in the game and pumped the boys up. They went out on the field in a flurry with much more intensity, got a final shot off at the last second that won the game!

I will miss coaching these kids. They were alot of fun. I believe that many do plan to return next year as does my son. He really enjoyed the last 3 games of the season.

LAX Pic of Dev

Dev in the red. We have had a frustrating season of losses but it is a great game. I am glad he played and I got a chance to coach him. I do not believe he will be playing next year. He would like to try agility if Robbie is able to run in the Spring.