A-school [ Dec 16 2009 @ 10:41pm] misha_z Misha was energetic and needy today. She fought and played with Foomin several times, and nosed me for attention several times. My Misha. <3 We did a small course in agility school yesterday but most of thetime was spent playing a game, "the six dogs of Christmas." We had to make up our own course out of whatever was set in the ring, and it had to include: 6 normal jumps 5 wing jumps 4 tunnels 3 contacts 2 sets of weaves 1 table. I chose to do it in the easiest way I could find with a minimum of effort, by just circling around the outside of the ring, and doing one tunnel 4 times in a row. I was hoping to piss Misha off with the tunnel because she usually gets that way when I make her repeat stuff to excess but she did not get upset at all. She actually got distracted and sniffed something. She also showed me how to do the beginning part better by doing a fakey threadle so the tunnel afterwards could be flipped on each end instead of circling around each time to go in the same end. Misha really can be smart sometimes. Foomin liked my course, of course, because she got to zoom around in mostly straight lines. She did awesome... super amazing awesome for her weaves the first time. She wasn't really walking through them quickly. She was almost hopping through them with as few steps between each pole as possible for her. It is difficult for her to have very fast weaves becaue of her longness. Foomin is a long dog. Comment

ASCA trial [ Dec 14 2009 @ 11:56am] misha_z We went to an ASCA agility trial this weekend at my agility school. It was really cold both days. On Sunday it snowed, then rained. It was very slippery walking outside in that but my awesome new snow tires didn't have any trouble getting me and the doggies home. Yay, snow tires! I entered Foomin in novice gamblers as FEO so she could jump 4". She got most of them... Well, she got all of them but ran out of time for the first one that had an A-frame in the gamble. I am not sure why we took too much time there. The last one had a wrap around a jump. Foomin was not sure about doing that part because she likes to zoom in straight lines. She zoomed through the first two obstacles and when I called her to turn as I turned she looked a little confused. After the wrap was a tunnel though and she completely understood that and got down to zooming again. Misha was the only dog in the whole trial entered in 8" Elite for all classes so all her placements are first, regardless of whether or not she qualified. 4 runs of Jumpers: all Qs. The third one completed her "superior performance in jumpers" title, JS-E-SP. That meant that her 4th Q put her beyond superior. LOL! That was my instructor's idea. 4 runs of Regular (standard): all Qs. For the last run Misha dropped the last bar. One dropped bar is allowed but it would be considered a "half-Q." The judge didn't call it. I have no idea why. It doesn't really matter because I'm going to end up running Misha in standard 8 more times, at least, and she only needs 5 more Qs in this for her championship. 4 runs of Gamblers: 2Qs, 2NQs. Well, that's better than getting only 1 gamblers Q per trial. For her first run, Misha turned away from the tunnel but then turned back after much encouragement. She qualified, but the results said she did not because she did not get enough points in the opening. I had to speak to the judge twice about correcting Misha's scribe sheet and even then she did not believe me and went to ask the scribe, who is an agility judge in other venues. Luckily the scribe is a nice lady who remembered Misha's run. She knew Misha got all her points but because she could not hear the difficult-to-hear judge call out the numbers then she could not write them down. Q. For her second run, Misha acted like she was totally going to go do the weave poles but about three feet away from them she turned away to look at me and then came to me. Stinker! She looked like she was committed. NQ. For her third run, it was pretty much a straight line and Misha acted like a Foomin, zooming straight through without bothering to look at me. Q. For her fourth run, there was a send to a tunnel, a jump, wrap around the jump to send to the A-frame and then a jump. I was doubtful about getting Misha to wrap and send a second time but she did it, and speedily. Misha was super totally committed to running up the A-frame. Or so she seemed. She was still running fast after the wrap. A couple of feet in front of the A-frame, she zipped to the side and ran past the A-frame. Super stinker! She keeps tricking me! NQ. I tried a new activity to do in between my runs, because it gets boring waiting. I made 10 dog beds/crate mats. I need more space to do such a thing so I think I need to switch to a different activity. Read (1) Comment

i got the picture [ Dec 10 2009 @ 4:03pm] misha_z She is the teeter queen. Seven, not teen. She tips the beam. ( Read more... ) Read (2) Comment

SNOW! A-school! more AKC trial. [ Dec 09 2009 @ 9:22pm] misha_z It snowed today. It snowed a lot today. It really really snowed today. Misha was thrilled. She ran and hopped and tried to eat poop but only licked it because I was yelling at her so much. She also ate the snow and stuffed her face in it and frolicked and all that happy stuff. Foomin was her usual Foominy self, pleased with whatever is outside, on the patrol for squirrels. When clumps of snow fell heavily to the ground Foomin would look up in the trees for what must have been a squirrel. ( Read more... ) The vendor who was selling the dried chicken feet told us one of her uses for the feet. She will save ones that have the toes curled such that the middle one is the only one sticking up. Get it? And then she keeps it in her car so when some angry road rage driver swerves around her, she will wave her "road rage chicken foot" at them. Wouldn't you be creeped out by a random driver waving a dried chicken foot at you? Read (3) Comment

more AKC trial [ Dec 07 2009 @ 7:36pm] misha_z ( Read more... ) I found a decently priced hotel just about a half hour away from the new trial site that will be holding AKC trials in RI. I am curious to check it out. I also found out that the Memorial Day weekend trial in Granby MA will have International Class. I like IC. It is different and fun. If I decide to go to this trial instead of the one I had planned to attend in NJ (that is no longer having FAST class and may not even be at Dream Park), then I hope omnipoodle doesn't kill me or Misha or Foomin. There's snow at my house. It's too early for snow. Comment

AKC trial [ Dec 06 2009 @ 10:16pm] misha_z We went to NH for a trial. It started snowing Saturday afternoon and it snowed all night. I was hoping it was just there but when I got home I found snow in my yard too. Good thing I bought snow tires two weeks ago. They kicked ass! I recommend snow tires! It was not the usual crowd I was used to. Only a couple of the Sheltie people and hardcore world team and invitational-type people were there that I recognized. Otherwise it was a lot of people with Bostonian accents. There were 2-3 other Pems and one other Cardi, and even they were not familiar to me. The Cardi was actually in the same height and level as Foomin, 4" Preferred Excellent B. She had a direct competitor of her own breed for the first time. Of course Foomin got first, for both her Jumpers With Weaves runs. She "always" gets first. Misha's results were not as good as Foomin's, or even as good as I had hoped. :( Running at 12" Ex-A FAST: NQ. She layered a huge pile of jumps beautifully, which was the hard part of the gamble. She was almost done with it when she decided to stop and turn her head towards me right in front of the tunnel. FAULT! Crap! Ex-B Standard: Q, 9 MACH points. I was hoping for more like 15 points here but the judge was a bitch. Not personally but judging. For quite a few dogs, including for Misha, she refused to start the count for the down on the table until dogs' butts were completely flat. And yet for other breeds it was okay for them to just be crouched down with their legs under them. Jeez. Unfair. Ex-B JWW: Q, 4 MACH points Ex-A FAST: Q, 1st. Well, she was the only 12" dog entered in excellent-A... But it was awesome that she did it. She slowed down a bit before going into the tunnel but kept moving forward. We also could have gotten 77/80 points if she hadn't lost ~5 seconds being confused about how to go in the weaves. We got 66pts. Ex-B Std: Q, 1 MACH point. Misha went from awesome to awful. The judge created a super long course so I was looking forward to scooping up 20 points at least. But Misha had to waste all the free time standing on and sniffing something on the table instead of sitting like I was telling her to do. Bad, horrible Misha! Ex-B JWW: Q, 5 MACH points. So 2 double-Qs but a poor haul of points, hardly even counts as a haul, maybe just a handful. Poop. Comment

while driving [ Dec 04 2009 @ 10:36am] misha_z I remembered a couple of things I saw while driving to agility stuff. On the way to school I pass an alpaca farm. They have a sign that says, "Lease to own an alpaca." Yes! I really wanted an alpaca but I just can't afford to pay for one now. On the way to the trial in CT I passed an egg farm. They had a sign that said, "Limited edition eggs! Only laid once!" Ha ha. Ha. Read (1) Comment

many things [ Dec 04 2009 @ 1:06am] misha_z On Thanksgiving Foomin was wailing and crying. I sequestered her so she would not jump all over my frail grandmother. Suddenly the whining stopped. I was very suspicious so I went to check what happened. Foomin had peed all over next to the gate and went to hide. Revenge? ( Read more... ) Read (4) Comment

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