Greeting the Day

Mid-Morning

Sam listens to cicadas outside the open window as he contemplates his day.

First Morning

Waking up at the cottage where we have come to celebrate a birthday. Samurai hears car wheels rumbling down the gravel road.

Celebrating Taylor's PACH and PACH2

Thanks to the American Kennel Club for recognizing its Preferred Agility Champions. Thanks to Taylor for being the best little dog in the world.

Samurai Earns NA NAJ

Samurai brings home his first AKC titles.

Samurai attended a very nice Novice/Open Agility trial this weekend. He brought along plenty of surprises, as well as his first AKC titles. Samurai’s Saturday Standard was flawed, but a Q, and I messed up our Saturday’s Jumpers by trying to put a front cross where a rear cross should have been.

Sami’s wrapped a very nice Sunday Standard Q in a quick, 39 seconds. We squeaked by in Jumpers with some balky weaves and a run by on the jump after. The “scream of the Samurai” he let loose during this episode sent the whole house up in laughter so loud it was heard outside in the RV where scoring was being done. Regardless of his antics, he is now Wingssong The Seventh Samurai NA NAJ TG1 TBAD.

The Art of Running Sideways

Karen Holik performs the threadle at :30.

At summer camp, one of my favorite lessons was threadles. Which came as a surprise to me, because ordinarily, threadles are not one of my favorite agility maneuvers. Serpentines, yes. Threadles, no.

It just always seemed so "against the flow" and so apt to be met with a "wouldn't this be better as a serp?" face from Taylor, and an "I hate broccoli" face from Samurai.

Even at camp, I stumbled and bumbled through my whole first session of them with Karen Holik. But thank goodness, she got to the root of the problem, and scheduled an evening of movement training (or in my case, remedial movement) the next evening.

We learned to run a little better, and more importantly learned to run sideways. Turns out it's an essential skill in performing an efficient threadle.

You can see Karen herself performing the movement in the video above. Occurs at the :30 mark.

From this demonstration, I would guess that she has actually polished the mechanics of this move since when this video was taken at a World Team Tryouts event in 2009.

When performed as directed, her method gives a very clear indication of the handler's intention a stride or maybe two before the dog even commits to the first jump of the threadle. It also literally sidesteps the need to do any counter-motioning with the arms, which could tend to be ineffective, unclear and unnecessarily costly to speed and confidence.

I've been practicing these with Samurai since camp, and after the first few bumbling attempts, we seem to be getting it into our repertoire.

I guess the best thing that it shows is that the difference between considering something "fun" in agility and having something you dislike about it is often about having a clear way of doing it.

Once that's been settled, it's clear sailing (or at least that one part). And that's where the fun begins.

You can learn more about Karen and her superstar Sheltie, Sizzle, at oncourseagility.com.

What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

Happy Campers

For our summer vacation, Mike and the dogs and I headed up to Anne Braue's summer camp, where we indulged in three days of intensive focus on various aspects of agility training and handling. My "date" for the event was Samurai, however, Anne graciously invited Taylor to work in her facility during the off hours. Taylor was having some back trouble at the time, so we didn't get to work, but I certainly appreciate the sense of honor that Anne extended to little PNAC Taylor.

I have to say, Anne's facility is probably the nicest I've ever seen. Being in marketing, I appreciate the her sense of "branding" that she has instilled throughout her facility, and her organization. Excellent does show through at every touchpoint.

Anne has one indoor ring and two outdoor rings. All of them, including the equipment, were in pristine condition, and we were lucky enough to run on Anne's newly installed carpeting in her indoor arena. Sam ran really nicely on the carpet and immediately picked up on how to use his claws to get a tight grip on it.

The instruction was excellent across the board, with Anne, Karen Holik and Jennifer Crank leading the sessions. We also got a preview of Karen's fiance's upcoming running and movement for agility training, which will be featured in a soon-to-be-released video.

If you know Karen, bug her about it, because this kind of training could be very valuable to a lot of us "weekend warriors" who could benefit by learning to move more naturally and efficiently with our dogs.

We sampled some of the instruction at a night event, where we all got to try out the moves, and even have ourselves timed to see if by running more efficiently, we could run faster (almost everyone did). We had a lot of fun trying out the moves in what was almost a party atmosphere. The only thing lacking was music!

Some other important takeaways from the event were:

• Learning to threadle. Yes we can do this with certainty now, about as easily as we can serpentine. Thanks Karen!
• Learned the forward motion front cross. Great for working with the more difficult threadle situations.
• Got a new understanding of rear crosses on the flat, and on jumps. Thanks Jen!
• Got a new view of working with, and managing reactive dogs. Thanks Anne!
• Learning some great ideas in course strategy. Thanks Anne!
• Learned how to do push back turns. With our new footwork, Sam aces these now. Thanks Karen!

In general, I can see my handling with Samurai has tightened up a bit from what we learned. We have also improved Sam's ability to come to the appropriate side and to read my intention's sooner.

Thanks to my Champaign club member friends, Mary, Lisa, Dina and Charlotte, who were with us at camp and who started us on this journey.

Thanks to Anne and her wonderful crew for hosting this event. With any luck, we hope to see you next year!

Tintype Impression

Light dims, and a dog seems

less like a creature,
and more like the impression of a soul.

Doodle of the Day

Red Samurai

Taylor earns PACH and PACH 2 Titles!

PNAC PACH2 U-CD 9(HIT)Wingssong Sweet Baby James CD RE AX AXJ MXP5 MJP7 PAX2 OFP RL2-AOM

With the introduction of the new AKC Preferred Agility Champion (PACH) title July 1, I have learned that Taylor has earned a double championship of PACH and PACH2.

The PACH title is awarded to dogs jumping in the Preferred class who have earned 20 double qualifying rounds out of Excellent B Jumpers and Standard, plus 750 points. PACH2 represents 40 QQs and 1,500 points.

According to the American Kennel Club, the PACH was “created as a way to recognize the superior performance, speed and consistency of AKC’s Preferred agility competitors.” The title is being given retroactively to dogs who have earned the qualifying criteria.

Up until the titles were announced, I wasn’t sure if Taylor had earned PACH or PACH2, since I had only been counting double Q’s for the PAX. To date, he has 50 QQs to his record, but I wasn't sure where he stood with points.

Luckily, Taylor came through once again, bringing in the two agility championships, just as he heads into retirement. The two PACHs round out a banner year for Taylor, who earned the 2011 AKC 4” Preferred National Agility Championship in Lexington, VA, this spring. Only 11 national agility championships are awarded by the AKC each year.

Thank you, Taylor for bringing so much joy into my life. My “Precision Clockwork Mouse” has opened the door to people and experiences that I never would have had without him. Whatever else comes, I will cherish him always.