"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom."

Dolphin and I headed to Erie, Pennsylvania with our training/traveling partners. Erie is fun because it has dog-friendly beaches at Presque Isle! Oh, and the agility is fun also.

Once again, Dolphin ran awesome, but we had a little bobble here and there to keep us from any double QQs this weekend. Interestingly, he didn't knock many bars at all, but he had several off-course errors which is odd for him. Off courses never ever used to be an issue for us, but lately is is. I think a lot has to do with how confident he has gotten with trialing - he is confident enough to start thinking for himself, which can be a good thing but also be a bad thing when he ignores my cues to take the obstacke he thinks he should. Gotta love the confidence and enthusiasm though!

Here is a re-cap of the three days:

FRIDAY
   • FAST:Dolphin did great and got the send easily, but when getting points on the way out he sailed over his A-Frame contact. I sacrificed the Q to train the A-Frame two more times to make sure he was getting his contact, so no Q but good education on this one.
   • Standard: Dolphin was very careful in this course, but it was clean!
   • T2B: Dolphin started off careful again, but picked up a lot of speed and ended up with a nice Q and second place.
   • Jumpers: The wheels fell off in jumpers, of course it did since a double QQ was on the line! He grabbed an off-course jump when I sent to the tunnel, then turned the wrong direction (WHY???) when I sent him to the weaves and grabbed another off course jump. Then he knocked a bar on the way to the end. Wow, what a mess!

SATURDAY
   • Standard: I managed to save him heading towards an off-course tunnel, the whole course was a lot of me trying to manage him from going off course. He was running pretty fast and making his own decisions. I managed to save the whole damn thing, and I poke while he was over the last jump (a double) and he knocked the bar. Was it because I spoke? Who knows? I'll take the blame, though.
   • T2B: Dolphin missed a jump and then back-jumped it before I could get up there to stop it, so no Q.
   • Jumpers: Dolphin took an off-course tunnel. I did a fix-n-go to get it correct, and we finished strong.

SUNDAY
   • FAST: This was one of those plans that went like clockwork. It was a beautiful send (a difficult one - tunnetl to jump to a send to the far end of a second tunnel) and my course ran perfectly - nice Q and 1st place.
   • Standard: We had a beautiful, fast, smooth run for a nice Q! Great run.
   • T2B: Dolphin knocked the 2nd bar so I did a fix n go. I decided to try rear crossing the weaves as he was weaving, yeah, that didn't go well. Putting that in my plans to train the next month. He ended up knocked another bar and we ran out of time.
   • Jumpers: Let's not even discuss the fact that we were sitting on a potential triple QQQ. Guess what happened? No, not a knocked bar. Dolphin was headed for an off-course tunnel and I called him off, he turned to come back, and then went out and back-jumped a jump on his way back to me. Bye bye double QQ, bye bye Triple QQQ.

With the points we earned in the two standard Q's, we are down to only needing ONE single point to qualify for AKC National Agility Championship in 2026! Unfortunately the NAC is in California, so I won't be going. It was be cool to qualify, though.

Enjoy the photos from our evening on the beach.

My agility instructor and I are trying several thing in class with Pizza, and taking notes as to how she responds. My goal is to get her focused and relaxed enough to not go off visiting bar setters during her run. I haven't trialed her in AKC in over a year because we have been trying to get this issue under control. She is by far my most talented dog...except for this one little thing that keeps us from success.

Today we put a bunch of people out sitting in chairs for her runs in class. The first time when she left me to go visit someone, I calmly walked over to her, leashed her up, and exited the ring. We stood outside of the ring for a minute or two, then came back in and started all over again. She never visited again after that. When she looks over at someone but makes the decision to continue to focus on me, I immediately praise and reward her. It seemed to work....today. I am so thankful i have a coach that is willing to take the time to really delve into her issues and try to fix them. I swear if she didnt obsessively visit bar setters, she would have her MACH by now. When she is focused, she is super accurate, rarely knocks a bar, and rarely makes mistakes...plus she is blazing fast! I will not give up hope, she is so talented and so much fun, we will get there some day.

Today I decided to do something totally different - a conformation show! Mark came along, and it was kind of like old times, except we were showing Pretzel's son and not Pretzel. Dolphin hasn't shown in several years, and I wanted to see if I could keep him steady for the exam so that maybe we could start showing again in the future. Considering we have not realy practiced, he did pretty darn well!

In show 1 he was rock solid for the exam. I appreciated the judge that did not come right at his head grabbing at him (he hates that!). The judge in show 2 was that type - went right for his face. He leaned back a little bit for her, but stood well and never moved his feet. It was SO freaking HOT, 91 degrees and this was in an un-air-conditioned building. They had big fans blowing, but it was just blowing hot air on us. We were both dying in the heat, so he wasn't as sparky as he usually is, but he stacked and gaited beautifully. We ended up in the two shows with a group 1 and a group 4, and that group 1 ended up earning us a Reserve Best in Show! I was really happy with how he did, and wow...take a look at that ribbon! Pretty cool!

It was fun being at a show again, even though it was uncomfortably hot. I just may start showing him again, maybe. Yeah, if I ever have another free weekend...haha!

Today I didn't have agility class, so I rented the training building and worked Dolphin and Noodle. Noodle got a quick 20 minute work over some sequences just to get her moving. When I brought Dolphin out, I set about 3/4 of the jumps to 26", which is 2" higher than his jump height of 24". At home I have been doing short sequences with one or two jumps set to 26" and he has been doing really well on these - when he knocks them, I stop and acknowledge the knock, reset, and re-do.

Dolphin did fantastic! I got him pretty revved up with his toy so he was running like a trial. I had set the first jump to 26" and he knocked it a couple times (starting from a sit) until he figured it out. After that, the only other jump he knocked was a 26" jump right after the A-frame (in which he stopped on a 2 on 2 off, losing momentum). I did some tricky sequences with some slices, wraps, and pinwheels and he was accurate on every single one! I feel like we have finally made some progress on his bar knocking.

I did find one hole in both dogs' training. The weaves were set up to weave into the wall. Both dogs popped out of the weaves if I hung back behind them with little to no motion. If I ran through, even if I stopped motion at the end of the weaves they did fine. But if I hung back and got far behind, both dogs consistently pulled out. I worked this issue with both of them - with Noodle I tossed a treat ahead of her so she would drive forward without me, and for Dolphin I tossed his toy.This is something I will have to work on at home a little bit.

Pizza stayed home this time as I only had an hour, and she has had the benefit of attending every agility seminar I can sign up for in the past couple months. It's tough giving equal time for all three dogs, but luckily they all need different things and not everyone needs the same amount of time for training, so it works out.

Well, Noodle and I managed to eke out triple QQQ #13 towards our RACH (Rally Championship)!. This was also double QQ #20, earning us our RAE2 title. It was not a stellar day, although we had a good Master run with decent points, the other two runs earned the lowest scores I have ever gotten in one day (I think). While Noodle wasn't perfect - she had a sign in each run that had to be re-done - she was not too bad...but the scores were abysmal. Judges all have different opinions, I guess. It was super super super hot - my van said the outside temperature was 102!!! Inside it was cooler, but not very cool. To top it all off, Noodle refused to poop all day - not since yesterday evening. Of course that made her extra lethargic. However, I was very pleased with her sits and finishes - nice and straight. Fronts were good and straight also. Problem signs were the back up 3 steps (I have no idea why when she did it perfectly MULTIPLE times outside the ring!) and the sit-stand (she kept wanting to do sit-down instead). Things to work on before the next trial, I guess.

Today sure didn't start out as planned. I got up early and took Noodle to agility class. We did our usual warm-up/stretching. We worked some forward sends to a single jump. Then we went to run a sequence. Noodle took the first jump and immediately started limping. It appears to be er right front leg - looks like the exact same injury she had back in January of 2023 after the field trial, and the same injury she showed during an agility run months before that. Back in speing/summer of 2023 I had extensive testing done at OSU vet clinic and they could find nothing specific. She healed with rest and antiinflammatories and I did not see it again until today. Back then we thought it was in her right shoulder/upper leg, and it seems to be the same thing. I have to admit I am a bit devastated. I am always crushed when one of my dogs get hurt, but it is 100x worse when it is Noodle because I see her as such a fragile being. She will rest and be on anti-inflammatories for the next few days, and I will hope and pray.

On the flip side, I took Pizza to a bonus courses agility class today and she was amazeballs! Man, that girl has skills. She is so much fun to run. I only had one person sitting in the ring during her runs, but she never visited so that was definitely a plus.

Another good thing to note - Dolphin was stellar in his scent work class last night. I always have trouble reading his signal to me when he is on odor, and last night he consistently put his nose on the odor, glanced at me, and put his nose back on the odor. now there is a sign I can actually recognize! Might be time to find a scent work trial for him again, it's been a year since our last trial.

Dolphin and I headed with our training/travel buddies to CAPS in Cleveland for a 3-day agility trial. We had pretty mixed results...more meh than yay, but here goes the recap:

Friday was a real bummer of a day with zero Q's. In FAST we were short pn points because I did not realize that the 10-point A Frame was not bi-directional...ugh. Dolphin totally leaped over the yellow in the A Frame contact so we had to re-do it, I was a bit disappointed in him. In Standard, Dolphin started off kind of slow. He knocked a bar early, missed a jump, turned the wrong way on a rear cross and back jumped a jump. But....he had good contacts so that was something. Jumpers was a nice running course. Tunnel start - Dolphin went to the entrance and stuck his nose through the timer and then shook, then spun a circle before I got him in - no refusal was called, so that was a bit of a gift. He ran awesome after that - but went in second hole of weaves (looked like he just didn't try to collect), then missed a jump coming out of the tunnel. I did a fix n go to get that jump after the tunnel. The big plus - he did not knock any bars. He did knock a bar in Time 2 Beat, so that finished our day with a 0 in 4.

Saturday was a little better. We did not Q in FAST - Dolphin cut behind me after the send (which was successful) and then tried to jump the 8 point jump at an awkward angle and knocked it, so we were short on points. Sure wish he would knock a 1 pointer instead of the 8 pointer! In standard I did a front cross before the AFrame, for some reason he ran right up to the AF and then scooted between me and the AF for a refusal. After the AF he knocked 2 bars. I reset the bars and did a FNG and he finished awesome - super weave entry at full speed! Jumpers ran great - Dolphin finally pulled it together and had a super nice Q. This officially finished his qualifying requirements for the AKC National Agility Championships in 2026! Woot! Unfortunately, it is in California next year (outdoors...ugh) so we won't be attending, but it was really cool to qualify. In Time 2 Beat Dolphin knocked the first bar (he charged ahead as soon as I let go of his collar...bad boy!). He also knocked a bar towards the end. On the plus side he had great weaves and one of the tightest wraps he has ever done. So today was Okayish, and better than yesterday.

Sunday was OK. We had a nice Q in FAST and 2nd place. He knocked the 2nd bar in Standard, then missed a jump on a rear cross (it was the jump he had knocked previously), and knocked a bar coming out of the tunnel. His A Frame was marginal so I did a Fix N Go and had a really good one with a slight pause at the bottom. In Jumpers Dolphin knocked the 2nd bar. He ran great - had great weaves, but knocked another bar on a straight line to a tunnel. I reset it and did a FNG and he finished really fast jumping very big.

I was hoping there wouldn't be as many knocked bars since I have been working him with a lot of 26" jumps and he has been doing so well in training. I guess it, like everything else in our career, is a work in progress.

Noodle has not taken a lame step since last Wednesday, thank goodness. This morning I headed out to the bird dog club with Mark to do some training. We were using quail, and Mark was the gunner. While Noodle didn't run huge, she did run better than the last time I worked her, and ran much better once she realized these weren't pigeons and we were not using tipup cages. She knows the drill when we are training with training aids, that's for sure. She had some nice points and two PERFECT retrieves straight to hand. On the minus side, she got a little hoppy with the gunshot after the first bird, so this is something I need to tweak in our next training session. Her honoring was amazing, she was really paying attention and doing a nice job stopping from a good distance. It was SO great to be out in the field with her again!

I think Pizza is coming in season. Possibly, maybe? I will keep checking...she is hard to tell at the beginning because she is so clean.

Noodle had agility class this morning (in which she did great!), and afterwards we headed to the field for some more training! We had a different gunner this time, and we used chukar. The birds flew pretty low, and the field cover was extremely high, which meant that both birds Noodle pointed ended up being really difficult blind retrieves. She did get both retrieves eventually, but she had to work really realy hard. On the plus side, she was super solid on her bird work, and okay-ish on her honoring (it's hard to get a good honor when the field cover is so high she can't see the other dog well). Afterwards I took one of the dead birds and threw it a couple times for some essier retrieves, just to boost her confidence after all that hard work. It was a great day, and I was pretty happy with how she was hunting and ranging out. She was more like her old self - not completely, but definitely better than the last few times.

I don't usually do back-to-back travel agility weekends, but we did that this month, mainly because of everything else going on (and who wants to waste a holiday weekend sitting at home?). Dolphin and I headed to Sylvania, Ohio with our travel buddies to a 3 day agility trial. This trial was held in a place that had the absolute best turf I have ever run on - not a bit of slip to it. Because it was so nice, Dolphin ran pretty fast and secure, which was great. What wasn't so great? The one little thing that went wrong in almost every class. We came away with two FAST q's and nothing else. However, we had some of the best runs we have ever had, but man there were some weird mistakes that happened.

On Friday, we had a decent FAST Q to start the morning. Dolphin was pretty sloppy in Time 2 Beat and knocked a bar. In Standard, I sent him straight ahead of me to the tunnel, and for some reason he cut in front of me (almost taking me out!) and took an off course jump. Weird. In Jumpers he knocked a bar (took off too close) and also took off and did not pay attention to my turn and took an off course jump.

Saturday was a lot of the same. IN Jumpers, Dolphin knocked the 2nd bar. I did a fix n go and re-started, and he ran the whole damn course amazing and clean, go figure. Sure wish that mulligan counted. In Time 2 Beat, he knocked a bar. I did a fix n go and he did not knock any more bars, but he barely got a toe in the yellow on the A-frame. I stopped and stood still and let him know that wasn't good, and we walked off the course. Standard was a mess. I sent him into the right end of the tunnel, he ran all the way to the mouth of the tunnel and then cut in front of me and took the opposite end. What the heck??? he then knocked a bar and missed a jump. However, he ended string with a beautiful 3-jump serpentine and he sliced cleanly.

Sunday started off with a really good FAST Q. Standard was a heartbreak - he was running SO darn good, and I rear crossed as he came off the A-frame and he pulled off of the jump for a refusal. Jumpers was a special heartbreak - he ran fantastic, but knocked a bar.

I left the trial feeling very defeated. Usually I can talk myself up afterwards, but I struggled today. We work so hard, he is doing so well, and these weird little things just keep happening. I won't get into the down and depth of how I feel because no one wants to read that, but it is very disheartening.

On the plus side, Dolphin has never been happier running agility. He is having a blast, and his confidence is showing. That means everything to me, and no matter what happens in the run I always end it positively with him. I just may have to face the fact that while we are having a lot of fun, don't expect any success along with the fun.

Here are some photos from the trial, and a couple videos.

Ran clean after the fix n go!

One stinking knocked bar...ugh.