Two months ago we started our weave training. I'm thrilled to be able to share today's weaving video. Today Dare did 12 weave poles, with no channels, no grid guides, no wires. Just straight up 12 weave poles. Woot! Here's the video.
I will probably keep working with the wire on the entrance for a while longer, while I continue to work on more difficult entries, but I'll be taking them on and off, since I want to use them as a reminder, but I don't want it to become a crutch for her.
Now I'd like to start including the weaves in short sequences too, while the weather is still nice enough for me to have all the equipment outside.
I've always thought that's such a weird title abbreviation, since it is so commonly used for Nurses. LOL But regardless of the abbreviation, Dare has her first real AKC title now. :-)
Today the ring conflicts were really bad. In fact to be honest, if it weren't for the fact that my friend was keeping a very close eye on Twist's ring, I would have missed my turn. Thankfully, she knew I was going in the Rally ring with Dare right then, and so she had the gate steward move me to the bottom of the class in Open A with Twist. A huge "Thank you!" to Cyn!
Anyway, Dare finished her Novice B Rally title today with a score of 95. You might have guessed, that we tied with another dog. LOL The really fun thing was that it was our friend and traveling companion's dog, Tatum! How cool is that? There was another dog that scored 99 today, so today Tatum and Dare tied for second place. When I manage to get the video uploaded to Youtube, I'll post it. It's obviously not our best performance, but I'm still just thrilled to pieces with how well Dare is doing.
They had really pretty title ribbons, so we couldn't resist taking some pictures.
Day 2 of the Rally trial was very similar to day one, with two minor differences. One being that Dare improved her score to a 99 and the other being that even when she tied again for first with another dog, she had the fastest time today, so she took first place! Woohoo! Here's the video for Day 2.
Day one of the Rally trial went great. Dare was first dog in her class, and despite my nerves, she did fantastic. She had a bobble at one station where she was to come into front and then finish right. She hesitated to sit, like she was confused about what exercise we were doing, but she did it, and I think we must have only lost a point or two. After that, it went really well.
When we went and checked the scores, she had a 98! Woohoo! There ended up being three dogs with a score of 98 when the class finished, so we were all in a tie for first place. But they break the tie by time, and we weren't as fast as the Border Collie, so we got second place. But what an awesome way to start the weekend. :-) Here's the video.
It's long overdue as always, but here's an update on how Dare's weave training is progressing. The last time I posted, we had closed the channel, but we still had grid guides on all the poles.
Since then we've been able to exchange all the grid guides for less visual weave wires, and now we're in the process of removing those one by one. You can see the progression in the videos.
Now with more wires, less grids...
Grids only at the entries, and working on me in various positions...
With only 7 wires on the twelve poles, (note the sneaky little spin move to get the treats that she fakes me out with at the beginning) LOL
Yesterday was Dare's first official trial of any kind. Utah held it's first ASCA Rally Obedience trial and I thought it would be a great thing for Dare and I to try. We had a great time! There were about 17 dogs in our class, which is pretty big for ASCA in our area. Since this was the first Rally trial ASCA has held here, there were very experienced dogs mixed in with the total newbies. I figured it would be an accomplishment if we were even able to qualify, but if not it would be good experience anyway.
Well...Dare not only qualified, she tied for first place with a 199 out of 200! The tie is broken by the fastest time, so we ended up with second place. I'm still just walking around on cloud nine. What a nice way to debut! Here's the video:
I can see lots of footwork errors on my part and I think that our friend that we train with will still have lots of little hints to improve our heeling, but all in all, Dare was awesome. :-) If you watch close you can see where just before the figure eight station, Dare hops up and gets her leash tangled between her legs. The judge let me fix that though, and apparently didn't deduct any points. So, that was nice.
One of our friends was nice enough to not only video, but also to take some still pictures for us too. Thanks Katie!!!
Oh, and I almost forgot. The really cool thing about ASCA's Rally program is that if you get a score of 195 or higher, you get what they call an "X" Q. If you get all three of you Q's that way, instead of the regular RN title, you get a RNX title. Isn't that fun! It's definitely something to work towards. :-)
This blog is all about my Sheltie, Himark's Double Dare. She is a dream come true and this blog is a record of our training together for agility, obedience and just for enjoying life.
