The final result: Streak and I placed 4^th overall after 5rounds of competition. Not too shabby.

The first World Team spot was won on the first day by the dog who had the best cumulative score over the first three rounds. I had hoped this would be me, but as Jean Lavalley put it best when she came over to me after round one, that was a “life lesson run.” True story. The second guaranteed spot was award to the dog with the highest number of “placement points” earned over five rounds of competition. I was number four.

I went into Tryouts with the hopes of winning a spot. I saw no reason why this wasn’t a very achievable goal. Well, turns out it’s not THAT easy, but I really was not far off the mark. I put up a very good showing. For being very new to the “big league” scene, I definitely felt that I showed what Streak and I can do- both brilliantly and where things can be improved… oh and making sure your dog goes over the LAST JUMP. Yeah. We’ll talk about that one later… and forever more as it is burned into my memory as the biggest.. OOPPS moment ever. Life lesson, as much as it annoys, crushes and makes me better, all at the same time. The courses were challenging, but exactly what I expected. The competition was stiff, as it should be. The atmosphere was intense and the competition exhilarating. I’m officially addicted and want to do this EVERY weekend! As if I wasn’t addicted already… seriously.

Over the next couple posts I will recount my experience, my choices and my strategies course by course.

Thank you to everyone who supported me. It was awesome. And I can’t think of anything else I’d want to do more…

I am extremely excited, nervous, ready to go, and prepared all at once. Streak feels the same way! We had a good last few practice sessions. She is jumping and moving beautifully. I had her gone over by my favorite Doggy Physical Therapist, David Acciani of Advanced Canine Rehabilitation Center in NJ. He said she felt great, no soreness at all, and she is ready to rock. GOOD! That makes me feel very confident.

Our flight out is tomorrow. My mentor, Diane Bauman, and training partner, Chris Parker, are both traveling with me. I know they will keep me sane, on point, and focused. I am very grateful for them. We are definitely a good team. I hope to make Diane and Chris proud and show what our training techniques and philosophies are all about.

My practice time is on Friday at 4:33pm. There are three sections with obstacles in then and you get two minutes on each set. I have not yet planned what I’ll be doing during those 6mins. Probably nothing facy, Friday is NOT the day to train anything new. I’ll treat it as a great way to get our heads in gear, in the building and on the equipment. Perhasp proof some Contacts, reward some peel-offs from the poles and expose her to the super huge accending double. I want it to be just like in practice, relaxed but focused.

I am currently in the process of packing. Determining if I can make it without checking a bag… to be determined!

I want to extend a huge THANK YOU to all my students who have supported me and wished me well. My Tuesday Night Advanced Class even got me some awesome PINK (for me), BLACK AND WHITE (for Streak) balloons and some yummy chocolates. Really a great suprise. It’s nice to know I have people supporting me. You guys are great!

This is what I’ve been waiting for and all I want to do. Time to do it!!!!

I believe that Streak and I are in a good place, both mentally and physically. This past weekend we showed at a local trail in NJ. First time outdoors since a very long time… and of course.. it rained on Sunday. I made the executive decision to NOT run Streak on Sunday, even though it was my last opportunity to show before the big event, the risks outweighed the benefits. It wasn’t raining hard, but it was raining enough, and though this particular field handles the water well, the tunnels and tunnel holders of this particular club’s , are somewhat sub par. I would be extremely upset (ok, let’s be honest, crushed, devastated, pissed beyond belief and might just jump of a cliff if it were nearby) if Streak got injured before Tryouts, when I knew the conditions were less than ideal. So with that in mind, and some good friends helping me KEEP that in mind, I left. Saturday however, was very nice and sunny. I do not Q with Streak. Standard was my fault, I was failed a skill I have failed in once before. It was a good mistake because now that it has happened twice, it will NEVER happen again as I distinctly recognize it as “a thing to pay attention to.” Jumpers she took a bar but had an otherwise FABULOUS run. Again, watching the vid reminded me of what I need to remember and do in those situations to guard against the bar falling. So overall, Streak did not do anything strange and ran very well and fast. Mentally, she was all on board. She wasn’t overly excited, she was focused and had the attitude of “Yes, this is what we do, let’s do this.” I feel very good about her mental state.

I am not showing this weekend. I actually am judging in Michigan for AWSOMM. It will be my first assignment at the Masters Level. I’m excited. Why am I judging and not showing the before? Several reasons. First: I am reducing the possibility of something FREAKY happening in competition the week before the big event. We are not broken, so don’t need fixing. I don’t want a NEW problem to arise. Second: I want her to be very fresh. Rest a weekend before the big show to keep the SPARK alive. Hopefully not TOO much spark, but as I said, her mental state is good. And finally, probably the reason that most heavily influences my decision, is that I am IMPOSSIBLE to please in this scenario. If I do well… I’ll feel nervous because I’m “peaking” on the wrong weekend or “spending all my good karma” too soon (I don’t actually believe in luck or such things, but it doesn’t stop me from being slightly crazy when the competition gets fierce). If I do badly, now I’m nervous because Oh my Goodness.. I suck, I can’t do anything, bad omen. It’s a lose, lose situation, I am impossible to please. So the solution? Don’t show. I’ll get to make some money, watch some good agility, judge with an awesome club and good friends and come back ready for the WEEK OF DESTINY. That’ might be a bit much, but as I’ve said, I am a very competitive person and this is what I’m LIVING for.

So overall, I’m feeling good. Have some skills to work on this week, rest the weekend and then keep going from there.

I am going to try the “Bison and Beef” recipe next. I have never officially fed the dogs Bison before. I know I like Bison, especially the Bison Burgers my boyfriend Cameron makes and inevitabely the dogs get to share some as well. The ingredients listed on the packaging are : “Bison, beef, beef liver, spinach, blueberries, pomegranate, cranberries, vitamins and minerals.”

So far I’m pleased. I like to keep the diets of my dogs as simple for me as possible. VITAL dog food is a complete and balance diet, this is definitely a plus for me. We shall see how she does with this recipe.

My goal is to be as comfortable and prepared as possible going into Tryouts. I want to be as at home with threadles and pushtroughs as I am with discriminations and peel-offs from the weaves. I want to walk into that ring and be able to say: “Yep, I know how to do that” and confidently go and do it. I don’t want to stand there deciding which is the best way of a million different ways, or worse, saying I have NO idea… I want to go out there and say this is how Streak and I do this skill, and here we go.

So with a total of three jumps here is what I practiced:

Streak nailed pretty much everything. And I did each sequence from behind, dog starting on left, dog starting on right, and lead-out style. Just in case She was a bit sloppy on the pull throughs, when hitting them at speed. If i didn’t hold on, she would have gone to the outside of the 270. But we refined it. Good Girl Streaky. Did not drop one bar.

Then I figured I could practice this with the other dogs too, can’t hurt and if we don’t get through all of them we’ll just stop and work on what needs to be worked on. Well.. Psyche didn’t get past sequence 1. Poor Psyche. She kept plowing through jumps, jumping what should have been wraps in full extension and generally not “getting it.” Just reminds me HOW MUCH MORE TRAINING I’ve done with Streak. Poor Psyche.. getting neglected. But Not today. We worked through the problems and broke it down. Finally we were able to get through sequence 1 with all bars up and my belief that she knew exactly where she was going. That’s what I really look for “Does the dog know where she’s going.” I base a lot of how I handle on this. I don’t care how you get there, just go. And the less I fuss with how they get there, so long as they get there, the faster they go. But you have to know where you’re going and obviously I have a lot more work to do with Psyche for her to pay attention to the bars, while reading me and processing this information.. while of course, in true Psyche style, LAUNCHING FORWARD. I lover her

Then Pirate somewhat made me feel better that I wasn’t totally neglecting the other dogs… She got through sequence three as which point had a hard time threadling through. She seemed to read the pushthroughs really well, but then unless I really held on, she was off to the backside of the jumps. However, she paid very close attention, worked well and even managed to keep her head when a bee flew by her (she gets very strange when bees fly by her.. it like zaps her brain). So good girl Pirate.

Overall, it was a good little training session. It is very clear which dog has been getting most of the focus. It’s a good reminder that this stuff isn’t easy and Streak is doing VERY well. Also that the others can do it too, just need to include them in the training time. You have to work in order to see results. Shocker right?

Pirate is my allergy dog. She is allergic to many things including dust mites, ragweed and mold. However, the hardest allergen to deal with is Food Storage Mites. Yes, products that are “stored,” will inevitably get contaminated by mites. This is especially true for grains. So while Pirate is not allergic to any particular foods, she cannot eat any grains. How did I find all this out? Shortly after I adopted her she started literally scratching her face off and licking her legs until they were raw. My vet recommended we do a blood test to determine what the causes of the allergies were. Ding Ding Ding- storage mites topped the list.

My first plan of attack was to eliminate grains from her diet. This is not to hard to do with today’s dog food market. However, I am not made of money nor do I have huge amounts of free time to cook for my dog. I barely cook for myself. Raw foods are often very pricey and I am not comfortable with all the sanitation required with feeding raw foods. So I guess I’m saying I wanted a reasonable priced food that doesn’t require a lot of work.

Enter: Freshpet’s new dog food: VITAL.

Freshpet makes fantastic dog food. Gently cooked, fresh meals, that are refrigerated. My dogs devour it. Up to recently, I’ve only been able to feed Psyche and Streak Freshpet as their Freshpet Select formulas all have grains. Poor Pirate. But yay for her, she can now eat the good stuff too!

Vital is grain free and there are four varieties to choose from. As with Freshpet Select, it comes in rolls that must be refrigerated. This works fine when I’m at home, but obviously requires carrying a cooler with ice when traveling. Will try all four varieties, but so far, Pirate is chomping down the “Beef/Bison” version and loves it.

I’ll see how it goes. If Vital works as well for her as Freshpet Select works for my other two I’ll be very pleased. Pirate is prone to losing weight quickly if she does not get the proper nutrients and calories. At least I know refusing to eat will not be a problem. sometimes she gets stressed when traveling and will have a harder time eating, perhaps this will help.

I’ll keep updating.

I’ve known Streak since she was a baby, and even went with Diane Bauman, by private plane flown by her husband, to pick up her new puppy. As per Diane’s personal Border Collie preferences, Streak mostly black, smooth and a girl. Though she was purchased and supposed to be Diane’s dog, that was not to be. As Lillie Goodrich, owner and amazing soul of Glen Highland Farm, often states, we do not find our dogs, our dogs find us. This couldn’t be more true. Streak wanted to be my dog, and as Diane’s untimely knee surgery and Streak’s unhappiness in a large pack of dogs, Streak increasingly spent time with me.  I took over her Agility training and soon she was living in my house. She was just blossoming into a lovely dog, happy to be with me, sleep on my bed and really bonding with Psyche and Pirate. It really just fit. With Diane and Streak’s breeder’s blessing, she officially became an “Ajoux” in July ‘09.

Streak is an amazing Agility partner. She gives me more than 100% anytime I ask. She is an athletic genius, able to move at unfathomable speeds, a fantastic jumper and has more heart and willingness to work than she has sense of self preservation. I do have to watch out that she doesn’t try to kill herself in daily life; but I’ve become quite good at “Streak monitoring.” Whatever I ask her to do, she does. She loves Agility and just goes. If I just tell her where to go, she’ll get there as fast as she can.

Streak and I aspire to make the USA FCI World Team. We have qualified for tryouts  2010 and have booked out tickets and hotel rooms. The competition is exactly a month away. My goal is to run Agility as we are capable. To show what we got. I’m excited for the future with my Streaky! Watch out, ‘cuz here we come!

On this blog I will share my trials (literally.. haha!), tribulations, accomplishments, thoughts and goings-on. Much has happened in my life since last year when I let this blog fizzle.

Here is me in a nutshell, as I sit today in my comfy arm chair writting to whom ever is interested in reading:

* I am 24 going on 24, living in NJ but soon to move in with my boyfriend of two years, Cameron, somewhere in Upstate NY.

* I own four dogs, three BCs- Pirate, Psyche, and Streak and an American Cocker Spaniel, Cheers! All do agility.

* I graduated from Princeton in ’07 but am currently dedicated my life to the pursuit of great achievements in Dog Agility. That goal is going well.

* I plan to Tryout for the USA World Team in May ’10 with my BC Streak. She is doing fantastically well. Recently she won the Triathlon event at the Mid-Atlantic Agility Showcase. It was a big accomplishment for us and gives me confidence in my abilities.

* I continue to judge for USDAA and am now approved for the Masters level, but still under supervision. I really enjoy judging, I learn a lot and am paid to simply watch dogs do agility. It’s amazing what you can see if you really watch.

* I am so proud of my students- teaching has proven to be a great joy and I get tremedous joy from seeing my students succeed, but more importantly, learn to understand dogs and become good dog trainers, agility handlers and partners for their dogs.

* I’m happy with life though real life as an adult is hard. I know.. poor poor me. But it’s true, it’s not life in the protected bubble or college or blissfull ingnorance of childhood at home. It’s real, and what you do, and only what you do, matters.

So I’m excited to share this journey- check back frequently to follow my journey as a dog trainer and competitor.

Pirate and Psyche did nicely as well. No Qs, but I’m not surprised as far as Pirate goes. The dog is forever changing… and in a GOOD WAY! I have never seen her do the dogwalk as fast as she did on Sunday. I was completely taken aback and just wondering, “Geez! Where did that come from? ” She is really developing into something. It’s quite phenomenal to watch. Love the Rescue Dogs!

Psyche held it together as well.  Minus one refusal, which I understand how it happened, she ran the EX Std course in lovely fashion. In Jumpers she took one bar, however I was not disappointed with the run. Yay Red dog!

This weekend is my boyfriend’s, Cameron, birthday. So the dogs and I will be taking a weekend off to go play at Glen Highland Farm. They are very excited.

It has been a week short of a month since Nationals. I do not know where the time has gone. I have shown every weekend since Nationals and returned straight to teaching my full schedule. I definitely have reflected upon my performance and experience in NC and have come to the following conclusions:

* I am proud of what I did.

* I have accepted the fact that sometimes shit just happens- You are never in control of everything in Agility. Neither you nor the dog is a machine and shit just happens (ie: doubles fall!)

* Some courses are your courses, and some just aren’t. I ran the challenger’s course as best as Jaq and I could. Given our current training and combination, it could not have been done any better. It just wasn’t our course.

* I handled myself with poise and in good sportsmanship like behavior. Even when I wanted to cry.

* I can do this.

So overall- I was thrilled with the Nationals. Considering I wasn’t even going to be going! The goal is now to get to Nationals next year in Tulsa OK with one of MY dogs Streak and Cheers! hopefully. Streak only needs one more AXJ leg before she can start accumulating double Qs. She already has two MX legs, i have very high hopes for her. I am running her at 24″. Cheers! has 1 DQ. Let’s hope.

I will continue to run Jaq until Diane’s knee is recovered. She already has 4 DQs for next year. Let’s get her qualified. She is also finally happy and excited and accustomed to me running her. Which is new and nice.

And onto more shows…