Trial Ready

It is done. All that is left this week is to tweak the little things and load the motor coach to go.  Our first agility trial will be a week from today.  Holy smokes, the time has flown!

The following shots were captured from video taken of us on Saturday during a run through at a local club.  He is a delight to work with and I look forward to a long and successful career for us as a team!

Love the attention...

Panel jump to start and off to the chute...

 

 

After the chute, dog walk and a jump it's the table.

 

 

 

 

 

Table, tunnel and 12 weaves - awesome weaves by my guy!

 

The weaves were followed by a jump and the a-frame - what dog doesn't love the contacts :)

 



The lighting is bad, but you can see that I have a competent working dog next to me.  It will take us some time to learn how to work really well together, but wow have we come a long, long, long way in nine months!

We did three run throughs on Saturday.  The first one he had a cute case of the zoomies and I must admit I was strutting my stuff when we left the ring to hear people say things like "he sure was proud of himself!" and "he was really having a good time!!!"  Oh my, if they knew where we began they would have had the same tears as I - he has become confident in my leadership to let me lead him up a set of stairs, into an unknown building with three very loud fans blowing and dogs barking...  Confident enough that he let himself go and had a crazy case of the zoomies during our first run - tunnel, table, tunnel, table, tunnel, a-frame, tunnel, table.. and on it went for a minute or two.  What a dream moment, that is the run I wish I had on video :)

Boomerang

Stetson has been on fire this week.  He has given me so many high moments during agility and obedience training, that I don't think I can accurately recall them all at this minute.  Today was a hard road leading to a conclusion that probably did more for us as a team than any other individual training experience we've had to date.



The look of confidence

I had a reservation to rent an agility field this morning.  It was raining, but I decided to load up and go anyway because they also have an indoor area with equipment.  I thought if they didn't have indoor scheduling conflicts, maybe they would let me switch to use the indoor equipment.  The contacts aren't full height, but I knew there was a tire jump in there and I figured we could use the baby contacts to work on "two on two off" and practice some jumps (the tire in particular).  I desperately wanted to fix the nemesis from last week, the tire jump.  They generously let me trade.

There is a boarding facility in the building.  The room with the agility equipment is separated by a seemingly thin wall from the kennel. The noise and energy in the building was typical of what you have before morning feed in any kennel, very loud.  I immediately embraced the opportunity to expose him to this rowdy environment and ask him to work.  Showsites can be very noisy and I know that he strongly prefers a structured environment to chaos.

Stetson was worried about everything, entering the building, the dogs barking, dogs banging into the wall between us and the elevated voices of the staff doing chores in the kennel.  His brain exploded.  His ears were dropped, the pupils were dilated and glazed, his head was slung low and he immediately began offering behaviors to me that he felt certain I wanted; dog walk, tunnel, a frame...  Totally a stress reaction to the environment.  Of course I wanted none of that equipment offering with him in such a state.  What I wanted was for him to manage his emotions and focus on the task at hand.  I could not have created a better environment to help him gather his brain and decide to work, but he was really off.  He was not participating in the required connection between dog and handler well enough to get more than two obstacles completed without doing something goofy that caused me to "no" or "Stetson come here"...  It didn't take very long for me to realize I wasn't going to win this battle with agility equipment as his reward.  He doesn't have enough experience in this sport for the joy of doing it to soothe his soul like it does mine.  I put him on lead to keep him from roaming around while I pondered the situation.  I sat on a bench and absent mindedly put him in a "down" next to me.  I glanced over at him and he was intently watching me with his ears up.  Pupils were still gigantic, but his ears were up!  He understands "down", he gets that, in that moment he was performing to my expectation and he knew it.

I had my answer, he needs to do something he knows is right, something he knows I'm going to be thrilled with.  So I bounced off the bench, snapped his lead off, stuffed some chicken in my mouth, stepped away and called him "front".  He flew to a crooked front, but he flew so I straightened him out, asked for an around finish and took off in a fast heeling pattern.  On the first about turn, he wandered and his ears went down as a dog banged into the wall next to us.  I told him to "watch" and he was immediately back at my side with his focus solely on me and his ears up.  We finished with a couple of halts and then I took him to the tire jump.  Tire jump problems, who has tire jump problems?  They vanished as soon as his confidence was elevated!

Changing environments isn't something that comes easily to him yet, but I believe it will.  When he was being shown in conformation, a woman nicknamed him "the boomerang" dog because he always came back from whatever rattled him.  He gets rattled by these new things, and some days he gets rattled hard.  Learning to turn his issue into a working attitude was huge today.  We are light years from where we began only nine months ago.

His brain and the way he processes his surroundings will continue to challenge me to be a better trainer and partner.  I accept, I haven't laid down to a challenge in a very long time and he's worth this effort.  I look forward to our growth and smile on our progress!  I don't know if we will earn any legs in two weeks or not, but I know we will grow leap years in partnership as we continue to navigate the ins and outs of becoming a team.

 

 

 







Mulligan

Dave and I have golfed as a recreation for years.  A term used in the sport when a shot goes bad and you choose to "do it over" without counting the bad shot is "mulligan".

I am crazy emotional as we get ready to travel back home to Missiouri for a vacation in a few weeks.  Home means many things to many people, but for me Kansas City will always hold the piece of my heart devoted to the dogs of my life.  Dogs began in Kansas City for us with our first Siberian in 1988.  When we moved to Syracuse from Kansas City, and then back to Kansas City six and a half years later, that is when it all kicked in.  I became completely intrigued by dog sports.  Dog sports, agility in particular were my consolation prize for having left perhaps the best sledding area of the country outside of Alaska.  The craze for all things dog grew into a passion when we made that move.  The passion was snuffed out by seemingly tragic circumstances, and now, finally, the embers are ignited again with this new dog, and a new passion for sports with canine partners.

The shot that went bad for me was Magic - it was  October 28, 2007.  He had just turned seven years old.  I'd had him neutered a short time before and was seriously looking forward to running him once his hormones had run dry.  He was hot, he was honest, but he was hot and I was looking forward to a rich career with him as a neutered male who would be less interested in unaltered alpha male behaviour.  I believe we NQ'd most of the weekend, but he was quick and I thought we had a long road of green, and hopefully blue ribbons ahead of us.

Then it was over.  I packed up my bags that Sunday afternoon, headed home, unpacked and started my Monday morning.  The agility season was almost done, but my professional corporate career was in full throttle during the 4th quarter and we were heavily involved in preparing for our daughters' wedding.  The wedding was the most important moment of our lives, even for me as step-mother, it was such an amazing event and we spent our resources caring for the event as best we could. 

The year of 2008, I was taking my state insurance classes and exam.  It was an insane time, long days, longer nights plus a couple of weekends in classes.  On Sunday, November 9, 2008 I sat on the patio after one of those long classes enjoying a cool drink while the dogs played.  Maddie and Mira had repeatedly taken Magic by the neck and rolled him into submission.  He grinned bigger and bigger each time he regained his feet until this one final time when he simply rolled onto his stomach with his head between his feet. He was obviously not right and the girls were unable to stimulate him into moving from his prone position.  When I approached he yelped as he staggered to his feet and then collapsed again onto the ground.

Siberians don't typically "bloat" but to my horror, all I could imagine was my dog was experiencing this horrific death before my eyes.  They had eaten less than two hours prior and they were playing hard, it had to be bloat...  As I knelt next to him, he never moved his head.  There was no doubt in my mind that we were in deep trouble.  As I scrambled to get myself redressed from my night clothes into anything that resembled publicly acceptable, Dave got the truck pulled up and the doors open so I could load Magic in.  Once he was securely crated and I started down the road, I called ahead to the emergency Vet clinic to let them know I was en route with a "possible bloat", estimated 15 minutes from their front door.  They met me at the door and took him immediately to triage.  I filled out the necessary paperwork and began my pacing, chain smoking, wait.  When the physician entered the exam room after her review of necessary testing results, she said "the good news is he hasn't bloated; the bad news is I can't find the right/left kidney (I don't honestly recall if it was the left or right), there's this mass over it that I'm not sure what it is..."  With that said we began to toss scenarios around in our heads. A kidney that had a large tumor could be removed, actually most of both kidney organs could be removed and life sustained.  There was hope.  We made the decision to move him to a specialist on the following morning for further testing...  Upon their evaluation, they discovered his lungs were consumed with tumors, the cancer they had seen on the kidney was perhaps the least of our concerns.  We were told we could probably take him home for a couple of weeks and be able to maintain his comfort, but that he had a very, very short window of time.  There was never a doubt in our minds that the decision to bring him home to his healthy, active pack of bitches who were accustomed to grabbing him by the neck and throwing him about as if they were actually strong enough to do so would be a horrid injustice to this magnificent dog who had given us so much joy in the past seven/eight years.  We in that moment decided to say goodbye to him and leave him peacefully with the assistance of the loving staff at Georgia Veterinary Specialists.  I will never forget the tears of the attending physician as she said "I wish others could be so selfless to their animals..."

I grieved. If I decided to write about grief I couldn't begin to imagine what it was that I felt during those times until it was experienced first hand.  I closed out the dog world. I closed out my dog friends.  I shut the door on so many things, people and activities that meant so much to me before.  There was no way for anyone to prep me for the intense pain I was about to feel.  My heart was beyond shredded, I think it was pulverized.  There were no more dog sports for me.  I was done, it wasn't that I acknowledged I was in pain; rather I just closed the door and didn't answer anyone who knocked.

Years later, I finally regained some interest in dog sports with Mira.  My unlikely partner.  She was the only dog I ever put away and refused to train because I had no patience to work with her.  She drove me to the point of madness with her continual need to question everything. She was so unlike a typical Siberian, much more tempered toward a retriever, she constantly needed affirmation.  But she unlocked the chains on my heart.  She broke them down, tossed them away and guided me back to a place of willingness to learn and grow with a canine partner.  Running was our thing.  We were made for each other, our strides were perfectly balanced and our drive for the run was equally balanced.

The day she was was taken suddenly by cancer, I vowed I was never going to lose myself to grief again.  I swore that I would stand up to this relentless pain and rise above it, stronger and better for the suffering.

Here is Stetson, my mulligan.  He is the answer to my shattered heart.  He has brought me back to a place that I can enjoy running again.  Also to a place of experiment.  I'm learning things I never considered before such as competitive obedience.  I am looking forward to herding and tracking.  I don't know exactly how, but we'll find out if he is a swimmer and if he would like to "dock dive" too.  Lastly, but not least there was a GSD named Freya who loved to have Dave throw the Frisbee for her; Dave has longed for that connection since those days long ago and I hope Stetson will be able to bring that home for him.  Why not try it all out together.  He is open and so are we, I no longer resist the mulligans in life, I have learned to embrace them.

 

 

Thank you for being my mulligan. You're bringing me full circle and then some...

 

 

Three Weeks to Trial

The morning sky over the agility field at The Canine Ranch

It was a gray morning in Waleska at 7:50 when we arrived for our hour of agility field rental.  The dew was heavy enough to soak through my shoes into my socks before I could get from the car to the field.  Thankfully the hard pack sand mixture on the field provides good footing for dog and handler, so we both are able to navigate the obstacles safely.

He has come so far since my good friend and trainer, Joan Meyer asked me if he'd be ready for the Triune trial (Labor Day weekend) back in March or April.  I decided to sign up for a class to see if he'd like it.  And so it began.  I can't believe we have only been training since April and here we are three weeks away from our first trial.

I took this little clip yesterday evening when I began focusing on driving him into the weaves after a series of three jumps.  It was fun to teach him to gather himself and accurately find the entrance to the poles.  He is a pretty jumper and he gains ground in accuracy every time we work. 

 



Today when I introduced the tire jump to him he picked it up pretty quickly, until I included it in a sequence of jump, jump, tire.  All of a sudden he lost it, obstacle fail.  I haven't figured it out just yet, but I think it is his association of the obstacle to the activity.  Up until today, the act of jumping is typically associated with something that has bars across it.  I think the tire jump just looked so different to him, that he didn't pick up the jumping through it action.  Somehow, I'll  have to figure out what I need to do with this problem by the time we get back out to the field next Sunday. The solution will come, it's a small train the trainer issue. 

 

I am challenged in working with him in all venues (herding, obedience and agility) by the way my brain works.  I am a thinker, often times I'm an over thinker.  When my mind begins to race to contemplate a problem that we just encountered, or a handling issue or learning curve point for me, he loses focus and begins to offer whatever is handy that he is pretty certain would be right, regardless of whatever may be going on in my brain.  At once such moment today, he trotted off to the dog walk and struck a pose while he waited for me to get it together.  I couldn't resist the photo opportunity.

 

Voluntary dog walk while he waits for me to figure out a handling problem

  

I wanted to work poles with him, but they had twelve setup and I had wandered over to see if they could easily be separated into six .  Again, I was taking too much time to think when he walked up behind me, entered the poles and gave me twelve.  He missed a couple toward the middle, but his entrance and exit were really nice.  Of course I wanted to know if that was a fluke or not, so I setup a sequence and sent him to the poles and to my delight he gave me twelve without missing any.  So, I moved my sequence around so he came the other direction to the poles and he nailed them again, not once but twice more. 

 

It is fun to be at this place where you run into a snag, look at each other and figure out how to make it work.  Love my boy!

 

Race Pictures

The race pictures are out and the story they tell is sweet.  They will give some special memories as time and other races pass me by.




It is finished, I met the goal of not resting at any of the kayaks
 

There are tears in my eyes in the above picture.  I have worked so hard to learn to swim and have been so determined to become a triathlete who is competent in all three sports.  This was a gigantic step for me.  In the following picture, I've already looked at my watch and know that I am only two minutes off my goal pace. By now, my mind has already raced forward to Lanier and I've begun setting my time goal for the swim, there is no longer doubt...



Have seen my watch and am happy with my time

The photographer had nobody on the bike course and I am really sorry that I have no pictures from that leg.  It was a phenomenal ride.  By the time I got started on the bike my confidence was beginning to soar.  Then I began finding women ahead of me who had passed me in the water.  I began to chase and take over some younger women.  It is a great feeling to know that you can regain some ground lost on one leg during the next.  All my bike training has been done on a spinner at the gym, so to be close to my goal time on the bike gave me another emotional boost going into the run.

I expected to spend the first mile walking on the run because I hadn't focused much on bike to run bricks.  It was kind of assumed that my quads and hamstrings would be in a gripe session for a bit once I got out of the saddle.  To my surprise, the legs were working much better than expected and I began a slow jog earlier than anticipated.  I never picked up a pace better than a slow jog though, and it cost me dearly in my overall finish time.  Had I been properly prepared for the transition, I would have easily taken back all the lost time in the water and hit my overall finish time goal.  Easy fix, just have to train smarter these next six weeks before Lanier.

It was fun to have people at the finish line I knew, but I had no idea Dave would be there.  I was headed down the chute and checking out my time on the big board when I hear his voice from the sidelines.  I am tearing now as I recall the moment.  Several nights this week when I've closed my eyes, I have heard his voice excitedly calling my name from the side.  His support and love never ceases to amaze me.  The first picture below shows my delight when I heard his voice.

The thrill of hearing Dave at the finish!





Trial and Error

 

Thinking things over...

We have been together for nine months next week and we still are figuring each other out.  On most days things work well and I am left with a sense of accomplishment and even pride when the day is finished.  We really have come a long way, both of us, and I must never be tempted to forget how fragile we were in the beginning.

Wednesday nights are obedience class.  I love obedience and he loves it more.  He is honest and hard working, yet patient enough to ignore my novice obedience training errors.  I like being prepared for class, so Tuesday evenings are almost always "refresher" nights of the skills that we have worked on that week.  Tonight I decided to wrap up some training we've been doing on fronts, finishes and halts mixed with some heeling and a few signals.  It was awesome.  He was good, really good and I was learning how to communicate with him to achieve a straight finish and halt without luring him with bait.  I was pumped when we were finished.

Next up was agility.  We're three weeks from our first competition and I am hoping to be at the point that I can zone in on a few weak spots while working our strengths to finish the final preparations.   To my dismay, he was all over me tonight, there was no focus on the obstacles.  I couldn't get him to leave me alone and look forward.  Well of course not, I had just spent a tremendous effort in reinforcing his "attention" to me during our preceding obedience training.  He was just applying what he'd already been rewarded for to the task at hand.  My self talk was going something like this "all I want is a NA, NAJ title in AKC toward the versatility title...that's all I need and I'm done with agility..."  Yikes, that was the talk of someone who was ready to put a dog away and not work them in the sport anymore.  Not my typical response to challenge.

When I finally finished a successful sequence with a little drive, I ended the session with a jackpot for him.  It didn't take but two minutes of complaining to Dave to realize that I'd followed an intensive handler focused activity with an obstacle focused activity.  For Stetson, a pattern of only a few minutes or sequences quickly becomes "etched in stone" behavior.  My initial take away from this was very  short sighted - I have competition in three weeks, therefore, I'm going to deal with the situation by arranging my training around the issue.  In other words, I'll work obstacle focus skills before handler focus skills until after our first trial.  Something tells me I'll not be able to lay down to the challenge.  I'm betting on myself that I'll have figured out a way to work through this in the next week, but for tonight, I'm planning on giving myself a break on this one. When the day does come that I decide to step up to the challenge, we will both be better competitors for it.

 

The Journey

I have heard it said that true pleasure and satisfaction in your goal destination can only come in having enjoyed the journey.  This afternoon I sit at my laptop thinking about how much I've enjoyed the preparation for the Acworth Women's Sprint Triathlon tomorrow.  I am naturally reflective about the beginning of this endeavor, this path if you will, and how many intersections I've come through.  Sometimes I changed direction onto new roads leading me to ever more new places.  Places I either didn't want to go, or didn't realize I would enjoy if I were to go there.

Mira was my first Siberian who didn't have a "show" career of some sort.  We dabbled in conformation, but I really dislike the game and it was easy for me to decide her long loin and pink nose weren't worth the money it would take to finish her.  I didn't relate to the way her brain worked for agility, she questioned everything and it drove me mad after working with drivey Siberians all the years before.  She is the only dog I ever put away because I really didn't enjoy working with her.  Movement on the other hand was a different story, she was a lovely mover and she was light as a feather on her feet.  Those two things made her a fine running partner.  And so it begins, my love of the run.  My love of running with a dog for pleasure and health.


Pretty mover, even in a tracking harness

She never tired of the trail or road.  I learned to trust her to find the solid path on rocky terrain and gently snake around corners and debris.  I built my confidence with her next to me.  I learned how to support myself and a canine partner on both the road and trail.



Always ready to go

  After she was taken by cancer so suddenly in November, I stated "she was the wind beneath my feet" and I will always feel that way about her.  Stetson came into my life so quickly afterward that there were days I barely had time to think about the robbery that had just taken place on my soul.  He has been an open book and I have learned to open myself up to both dog sports I thought I was finished with years ago, and dog sports that I never considered before.

He is a willing partner in all that we have taken on together.  His open heart and willing attitude have given me the courage to step outside of my comfort zone and take some training and push myself to be better than I've ever been. I've challenged myself to condition for this triathlon more thoroughly than I have before.  I hired a coach and have decided to beat the fear of open water swimming that has previously held me to the end of the finish line.  I'm not sure this drive would not have come out for me had I not been forced to turn myself from a shredded mess into a thriving person in the blink of an eye.

 

This race is to honor you buddy. Thanks for showing me how to open up, let go and let in.