It was an interesting day today. My first order of business was Dolphin's private agility foundation lesson. We haven't had a lesson in several weeks. I have been training hard, but typical for Dolphin he lost his brain slightly when we got to the training building. It's not that he was extra wild or anything, he was just so unfocused, it was like I never taught him a thing. Frustrating? You bet! My instructor was very patient, and she thinks he is progressing well, but I know he can do better.

On the flip side, Pizza did great in her agility class. Our first trial is looming ahead at the end of the month. While her jumping style may be more power than accuracy, and her bucket of skills is less than half full, she is training great and I am amazed with her focus among the other people and dogs. Whoaaaa, rein in your excitement and optimism! Yeah, I should, but I am just so flipping excited about how far she has come and how she is progressing, I just cannot help myself!

What better way to spend National Noodle Day than doing Noodle's favorite activity - hunting birds! My friend and I brought our dogs out to the training field and had a blast all day, just chatting and training. Noodle was stellar, holding her point beautifully. At one point, she was more than a football field's length away from me, slammed on point, and held it the whole time it took for me to get up there. Then she continued to hold through the flush and shot. The bird was a good 20-30 feet away from her! This girl has so much talent, it amazes me, and kind of scares me. I so badly want to do right by her and let her hit her max potential. When I think about where we were just a year ago I am pretty darn puffy proud of how far we have come.

Pizza had a bit more trouble in the field. The cover was VERY high, as in way over her head. the wind was blowing, she was panting in the heat, and seemed to miss most of the birds while she ran on past. I am thinking she was running SO hard, she was not paying close enough attention to her nose. Hopefully we can get a handle on this before her first junior hunt test, which will be the same day as Noodle's first senior hunt test. That will be one exciting day!
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Pizza is currently ONE point short of earning her Grand Championship. She has FOUR GC majors under her belt at only 14 months of age! I really hope we can squeeze out a single point this weekend to finish it off. The following weekend is a specialty, and she probably won't get noticed in that huge entry. After that, we are taking a nice long break from conformation and focusing on agility and her first couple hunt tests.

Speaking of Agility, I played around with Pretzel in the agility yard today. He was super enthusiastic! Might be time to consider throwing him in a trial just for fun! Anyways, I shot a video today to show the people who are out there saying negative things about him. He was, and is 100% sound and healthy. This video hopefully will prove it!

Another weekend at a show in Lima...*sigh*...it was a mixed bag this weekend. Rather than dwell on the negatives, I will outline the positives from today. First: Pizza picked up Select Bitch to earn the last point needed for her Grand Championship! She is only 14 months old, has only been showing 3 1/2 months, and in that short amount of time she went from puppy to grand champion!!! That's a pretty cool accomplishment. She didn't show the greatest today, but I do feel it is definitely a work in progress, and maybe she was a smidge better than she was last weekend? I am trying not to put a lot of pressure on her, just getting the basics down and making sure she is staying happy. After next weekend we will be taking a nice long break from conformation. I am actually looking forward to that.

In other good news, Dolphin went in the ring today and showed great, and won Winners Dog for his first point! This meant Mark had to take him in to Best of Breed to compete for Best of Winners, since I was showing Pizza. Dolphin was a bit less cooperative for Mark, but he left the ring happy and that is definitely my #1 priority.

Dolphin is in a leggy, awkward stage right now and has some serious growing to do...not so much in height, but filling out his body. It will be good to give him a break after next weekend and let him mature a bit. I'd like to take some time off, and then bring him back out when he looks stronger and more mature. That's my plan, anyways! We really need to focus on training for the next few months anyways, because this is his prime "sponge time" where he is most receptive to learning. Time to get those agility foundations really solid!

This weekend, Cadence went to St. Louis with Darla, hopefully to show and gain more experience. Unfortunately, the indoor and the crowds were a bit tough for her to handler, and Darla opted not to push her and try to show her. I totally appreciate this decision, because I do NOT want her pushed hard right now. I want every show experience to be an uncomplicated, good experience. I really like the fact that I have a trainer who feels the same way and respects that. Those trainers are few and far between.

Today was a better day overall. Dolphin went in the ring with confidence, and took Winners Dog again for another point! Then Mark took him in the ring for best of breed, let him free stack himself, and came out with a Best of Winners! The judge had some really nice compliments to say about Dolphin, and that made me so proud. This is a judge that once awarded Pretzel a regular sporting group 1 over a top sporting dog in the country, so it seems he likes this type of dog. To top off the morning, Pizza picked up another nice Select bitch out of 4 bitch specials to add a few more grand champion points...new goal....heading towards Bronze! I was pretty proud of my pups this weekend. We are making baby steps towards improvement.

Today was the most glorious autumn day, and I got to spend it in the field with my best girls! Noodle did pretty well, held a beautiful point long enough for me to fire off a dozen photos. She is starting to creep a little on her point, so i need to work on making sure she stands absolutely still once she establishes her point.

Pizza did much better than last week. She still has zero self control once I flush the bird. I had to grab her collar while flushing in order to keep her from chasing. I don't want to dampen that enthusiasm, so I am treading lightly with this and not being too hard on her. I want to take it slowly with her and not miss any steps, so I won't have to do a bunch of re-training like I had to with Pretzel and Noodle.

I have a ways to go before I feel confident about the hunt test coming up next month, but I will keep plugging away! It was such an amazing day outside, the leaves were changing color and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and I got to spend it outside doing something I love...hard not to be completely joy-filled on a day like this.

I had Rally class with Noodle...I keep telling myself I do NOT need to be taking on another class with these dogs, but I had signed up for this class well before the pandemic started, and now that classes have started p again, I felt like it would be good for us. So far, it has been. Noodle's focus has been amazing, even around a few other reactive dogs. She handled it all in stride, and stayed on task with me. We have a few things to work on - reinforcing our sphynx down when she is in heel position (she has been pulling forward to lay down and throwing herself out of position), and getting her to wrap around me tighter on the about turns. I really like doing rally with Noodle. It is such a bond-builder between us, and she LOVES every moment she gets to work with me (and vice versa).

Today was the double Weimaraner specialty in Wilmington. This show, along with the weekend all-breed shows, was a major on the nose for class dogs. I didn't really feel like showing with all that competition, but I went to make sure the major held. Dolphin was entered in 6-9 puppy, and Pizza was entered in Best of Breed. We had sweepstakes first, and both Pizza and Dolphin were entered. Both got pretty much nothing, although they showed well. Sweepstakes is always a crapshoot since the judges are usually not actual judges, but local people.

Well by golly if Dolphin didn't go in there and win the major, plus take Best of Winners (with Mark showing in BOW)! He showed like a rock star, I was so proud. Pizza went in BOB and managed to eke out an Award of Merit out of 8 bitch specials entered.

We had a short break before the afternoon specialty happened. Sweepstakes once again was a wash, with neither dog getting a look. I was over the moon when Dolphin went in the breed classes and repeated his win for another MAJOR! Just like that, he got his two majors out of the way! I would have never ever expected that. It's just crazy!

Pizza repeated her morning show and received another Award of Merit. She had showed pretty good in the morning, but after going in the ring 4 times, she was DONE by this time and she let me know it! I keep forgetting she is barely over a year old, still very much a puppy! While the day wiped her out, Dolphin was raring to go and it didn't seem to faze him going in the ring so many times. Well, we are back tomorrow and Sunday to hold the major, and see what else will happen.

I opted to leave Pizza at home for the weekend shows to give her a break, and to also give Mark a break from having to take Dolphin in the ring for Best of Winners. Saturday went wonderfully, and Dolphin repeated his wins from yesterday and earned a THIRD major!

Sunday was our last day at the show, and no way did I think Dolphin could make it a four-peat. I was so wrong, he did and won his FOURTH major! He now sits at FOURTEEN POINTS, just one point shy of his championship...all at 6 1/2 months of age.

Sunday was a rather humorous day (yeah, I can laugh about it after the fact!). We woke up bright and early, and Dolphin pooped twice outside before the show. However, while waiting to be judged in Best of Breed, he pooped in the ring not once, but THREE times...nice, thick, wet poop. Messy enough that after we were done, they held p the ring so they could replace the carpet squares where he messed. Oops....

Today I got a lot accomplished. I headed out in the morning to go ride Cadence. This was the first time I rode her completely fresh on my own. It was a fantastic ride! Every time I ride, I am feeling a little more confident that I can do this. Funny how just a few years off of riding can really trash your confidence! I used to feel supremely confident in my riding and training abilities. But after selling Tango, I literally had NOTHING to ride and haven't ridden in several years. Yes, it's kind of like riding a bicycle, a bicycle that can choose to buck you off and kill you at any moment. I hate hate hate the feeling that I am truly getting old, I am not in my 20's anymore, and my body feels it. I am starting to have this slightly panicky feeling that I am aging faster than my dreams and I need to hurry and get everything accomplished before I am too old to do so. NEVER had that ever cross my mind until recently. I's a very odd feeling, and I don't like it.

That being said, my ride was great and I made progress. We are re-thinking the whole Tom Powers December show, and are considering doing the Venice, Florida shows in January. That would mean two back to back trips to Florida in December and January for me...but I am wanting to do it! We shall see, have to make a decision within the next week or so.

Yesterday I had a fantastic agility class with Noodle, and the day before I had a great Rally class with her also. My crazy girl is making a nice turnaround in her focus and training. Next weekend we will do our Excellent agility debut, and this will have much tougher courses and be more crowded in the building than when I was doing Open with her. It will definitely be a bigger test for us.

Tonight, my friend and I rented the training building to work our young dogs. Pizza was...um...wild. Wild in a pretty good way - she didn't do anything horrible like run off or not work with me, but she was SO fast and made decisions so quickly on her own, it was hard to run a clean course. I never ever ever would have guessed my big, clunky little puppy would mature into such a crazy fast athletic dog! I am loving it, but I have to sit myself down and remind myself to keep my eye on the distance and not on just today. I know that our novice agility debut next weekend will not be clean, and there is a good chance we won't even Q. It is going to be hard when everyone else is Q-ing and progressing faster...but I have to remember that she is different and if I lay the foundation right and plug onward without giving in to temptation to just go for the Q and not the training, then she will be phenomenal when we eventually get it all together. This means staying firm with my criteria for her. It's so hard, I know...

Here are a couple GOOD clips from tonight. A lot of it was a bit out of control and we worked on that, but I love her enthusiasm and drive. You just can't train that, and she has it in spades!

Today was the grand re-opening of another training facility in town (Noodle and I take our Rally class here). They had open run-thrus - 2 minutes for a $5 donation, so Pizza and I headed over there to see how she would do in a brand new environment. This is a building she has never been in before. We have never ever done any agility other than in my yard or at our regular training facility, so this would be a good indicator as to how she would handle a brand new environment. She was crazy fast and a little uncontrolled in some of her moves, but overall she was wonderful for me. The biggest plus was that she paid zero attention to the people and the other dogs outside of the ring. In the ring, she was very focused on me, but made a lot of green mistakes - knocked a jump, missed a jump because she was running too fast, came off her contact on the A-Frame, etc. Baby dog mistakes...I'll take that! I love that she stayed connected to me the whole time. To me that is the #1 priority! I am not saying she was perfect, but definitely improved.

I thought a lot about my ride on Cadence yesterday, watched and analyzed (over-analyzed) the videos of my ride. I am still so incredibly cautious about making dreams and goals when it comes to her. It's like I am holding a little part of myself back for fear of being devastated again. I don't like being this way, but I feel that I need to do this to protect myself mentally. Sounds weird, and a little dramatic, I know. But I am holding a little tiny part of me back when it comes to this dream. I know once I actually step into the show pen with her and have a successful ride, this will probably change. But for now, I am in a bit of a protective mode. But man oh man, I have never owned a horse like her, have never ridden a horse like her. It's so amazing, it is scary.

I entered this Monday with a positive feeling. I left this Monday feeling very negative. And so goes the roller coaster of my life

I had puppy training class with Dolphin, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did. He didn't seem to be overly distracted with the other puppies working close to him, in fact he pretty much ignored them. This is a big plus. I left the class feeling pretty good about where we are in our training.

Then came Pizza's class...ugh. We ran two courses, and the two courses were way more than her puppy brain could handle. She was off the charts wild today. Blowing contacts, iffy on her start line stays, jumping big and wide and not following my cues, knocking jumps, jumping on the bar setters, the list goes on and on. I left with a huge feeling of discouragement. We are entered in our first trial this weekend, and if she cannot handle the excitement of a 20 obstacle course with just a handful of people in the building, how will she handle a trial setting? I keep beating myself up about it, and I know I shouldn't. We all have to go through this at one time or another. Although it is frustrating to see other people have a seemingly easier time with their dogs, I know that everyone has issues they are dealing with, and not all of them are obvious. Yeah yeah, I say this to myself, but it doesn't help the feeling that I am going to fail, and I HATE failing at ANYTHING. But I know that failure is necessary to keep stepping forward. So mainly this diary entry is for myself, to type it all out to remind myself that we are all a work in progress, and every moment is a stepping stone I need to step on to move forward.

So Saturday is Pizza's first agility trial. It is also Halloween...2020. Daylight Savings Time ends (boo!). It is also not only a full moon, but the Harvest Moon. Maybe I should stay in bed...

My dogs decided to redeem themselves today. I took Noodle, Pizza, and Dolphin to field training this afternoon, and I am feeling a lot better about things. Noodle took the bulk of the time as we worked her with a master hunter and worked a lot on backing and retrieving. I am super happy with her backing, and her retrieving is spot on. I am cautiously optimistic. While I am sure we won't qualify our first few senior runs, I at least feel like maybe she won't make a fool out of me (but there is still that possibility!). We took the dogs out to the Darby River at the back of the property, and even though it was cloudy and 48 degrees, Noodle jumped into the water and swam across. That's my water-loving girl!

Pizza did much better today. Man, that girl has a big run on her! The trick will be making sure she doesn't get too far away from me and start busting up the birds that she finds. She was fairly steady on holding her points today, even through the shot. She did follow one flushed bird into the woods and picked it up. She brought it straight back to me, so I couldn't get mad at her break...and she brought it back to me alive and unharmed! Bonus!

We ran out of time for Dolphin, but I was able to just take him out to the fields by myself and work a little on what birds were remaining. He gave me some really pretty points, though I wasn't able to produce any birds. No big surprise, because my biggest handicap is that I can never seem to find the dang bird that my dog is pointing. I kick and kick around, and unless someone points it out to me (or the dog makes it obvious), I am clueless. This is a serious handicap, and I hope I don't hold my dogs back because of it.

It was a very fun and enlightening agility class with Noodle today. We were all given a "handicap" that we had to run with, and mine was to run the course without using my arms at all. I immediately assumed this would be impossible, because I use my arms a LOT to direct Noodle. Not being able to use my arms meant that I had to rely more on my verbals, and also be ultra careful about my body position and using my motion to cue. I can't believe it, but we actually ran the course clean! It was a pretty amazing feeling to know that I have that good of a handle on Noodle when we run. Now I can only hope and pray that same handle and focus comes out when she trials on Sunday.

Those who know me know I am not much of a gambler, in fact I hate gambling. I don't like to take big risks with consequences. I am all about taking a risk if failure isn't a big deal. But right now I am facing a decision that has major consequences, and either way I choose has a big amount of risk. I have been somewhat paralyzed with indecision over the past week, not being able to decide what to do. Today I woke up and decided that knowledge is power, so I decided to get another professional opinion on my dilemma. Yes, I know that sounds vague, but this is one of those decisions I have to make on my own without a lot of outside input. But let me tell you, the indecisiveness I am feeling is the WORST I like making firm, well thought-out decisions and being confident in them. This is not one of those times...and it is a mental struggle for me. I find that this indecision is coloring every aspect of my life.

My goal is to put this and everything else out of my mind this weekend and focus on what is really important - Pizza's official agility debut tomorrow and Noodle's Excellent agility debut on Sunday. It's game time!

Well, we started off the morning with Pizza discovering how to break out of her kennel. The first time she did it, we just assumed Mark forgot to latch the door. She did it 5 minutes later when I KNEW I had latched the door, so I put her back in and went in the other room to watch the camera, and this is what I saw:

In the early afternoon, Pizza and I headed over to the agility trial. She first had to get measured (measured a little over 24"). Then it was time for me to walk the course. Standard was first. Right at the start line, Pizza left me to go check out the bar setter sitting in the corner. I went and got her and put her back on the start line, and we started off smoothly. The run was actually pretty darn good - better than I had expected! She went to go investigate another bar setter, and back-jumped a jump when I was trying to get her re-set. This would have still been ok, but in her haste she knocked a bar, thus automatically NQ-ing. However - other than the couple blips she stayed WITH me, and nailed all 3 of her contacts plus her weaves! I was really happy. The first run is always nerve-wracking. I just didn't know what to expect, and that is the worst feeling.

Next was jumpers. There was a tricky pinwheel that required a rather right rear cross, and I was a little worried about that. That part actually went perfectly! She did a drive-by visit of the judge, but thankfully it was in flow between jumps so no faults were called. She over-jumped one of the jumps towards the end, putting her at an odd angle to take the jump right before the weaves. She got that jump, but it put her in a tough weave entry, but she nailed it! We ended up with a 1st place qualifying run and a score of 100! I cannot tell you how happy I am. She was happy, enthusiastic, and FAST, and for a dog that JUST turned 15 months old today, she had pretty good focus.

But hold on to your hats, folks. Noodle has FOUR runs tomorrow morning, and Pizza has another 2 runs. Tomorrow will be a crazy day. Tomorrow will be Noodle's Excellent debut, and the first time doing a trial with a full building of people since last October. I am cautiously optimistic because she has been training wonderfully...but with Noodle I have learned to expect the unexpected...and sometimes the unexpected with Noodle can be a bit scary! Stay tuned...