So that’s the preamble…

Lately I’ve been working on Lilli’s contacts.  Not much honestly – I’ve pretty much sold out on aility lately since Lilli started vaulting – it’s just so stinkin’ fun!    Anyway, we originally trained contacts as two-on-two-off with nose touch.  She would do it, but we had to encourage and remind her to come ALL THE WAY DOWN the contact equipment and Holy Moley did that take forever.  For such a ridiculously fast dog, her contacts move in reverse.   Today I had a brilliant idea…I heard music and saw Angels and the image in my mind became clear…the tasty, juicy, irresistable roast as the reward at the end of the obstacle…it was a FRISBEE!

I took Lilli out as I normally would, with a disc in hand (only one this time) and she fully expected us to play disc.  I pulled out the teeter and put it in the middle of the yard with no other equipment.  I set her up and asked her to teeter.  Now at this point, I didn’t say “touch” or “com’on’” or “all the way” or any of the “helping” I would normally offer to get her to do a proper contact.  (Susan Garrett suggested this as a bandaid for her contacts from how I trained them initially – with a plastic lid to a salad dressing.  If the lid wasn’t there – she wouldn’t target.)

Man, was she confused.  She went 3/4 of the way down and started offering behaviours.  Had no idea what I wanted but she sure wanted that frisbee.  She sat on the teeter, laid down, bowed, stared intently…finally after about 2 minutes she took a small step down…then another…then another…until she had one paw on the grass.  The I looked at her and said nothing (before this I didn’t give her any eye contact or stare down).  She slowly put another foot in the grass.  Then 30 seconds or so later she nose touched.  I said a big YES and released her and threw the disc.

We repeated this about 5 times.  I only rewarded average or better performances – another great Susan method – a couple times she went slower than the time before – and finally when she had the nicest, smoothest trip down the teeter, two on and two off and nose touch I ended the practice.  Tossed the disc several times and she went for a swim.

And I took a deep breath of relief.

Finally…the light went on a bit.  She’s learning to think instead of waiting for me to tell her everything.  Finally.

We’ll continue to practice this “disc reward” strategy for agility and see if it keeps the stakes really high for her.  There is no reward as juicy and irresistable for Lilli as her disc.  I’m so proud of  how she took on our new game today with control, curiosity and concentration.  She’s such a spectacular girl. 

We qualified for the standard run with a 90 and finished 2nd.  I was amazed.  I thought for sure we didn’t qualify.  On the jumpers run, I thought we did a lot better – although I had the same issue on the weaves. I was really pleased with our finish.  However – we didn’t qualify becasue of a knocked bar on the 2nd jump.

I debated a lot over that lead out.  I could have handled it from the inside and it would have left me on the outside of course onside the weaves.  That’s fine, but I’d have to run all the way around the wide side for the next several jumps.  So instead, I decided to lead out on the first two jumps and do a front cross onto the 3rd jump.  That plan seemed great – until I pulled off the front cross early and she didn’t take the 2nd jump.  It was all jumbo from there.  I expected that she’d take the rest of the jumps that we missed no problem.  I’m not sure what happened later in the run.

Anyway – here are both runs.  Overall a mess – I was really disappointed in my handling.  Great learning experience.  I think the second run was an improvement over the first even though we didn’t Q.  I got to practice and experience moving past a bad first run and starting over fresh.

This is the Novice Standard Run.  We qualified with a 90 and placed second.

This is the Novice Jumpers with Weaves Run.  We didn’t qualify because of the knocked bar on the 2nd jump.

Here are our first 2 runs ever.  I’m really surprised how much leeway is given in Novice.  You can make mistakes and still qualify.  I thought for sure we had blown it in each of these runs, but it turns out we took first and scored 95 in each.  That’s just crazy.

Anyway here you go.  Please feel free to pull it apart.    Suggestions and laughter are welcome!

This is the Novice Standard run.

This is the Novice Jumpers with Weaves run.

So here are a few things that I learned this weekend – first hand experience with agility trials.

10. 6 month cut off – Only a couple people mentioned it to us…(and none of them mattered because they weren’t the judge) but no dogs under 6 months old are allowed.  Leilani was there – she just turned 10 weeks, so just a little under 6 months…

9.  Lots of leeway in Novice - Man, there is a lot of leeway in Novice.  You can jump over the wrong jump, go through the wrong end of the tunnel, then reset and go back on course and it’s only a 5 point fault!  Don’t know who did that this weekend…

8.  Meeting before the start - Not really shocking, but cool to know.  The judge meets with the handlers before each run and goes over the rules and answers any questions. 

7.  Don’t line up too early - Several people this weekend that we were chatting with shared that we shouldn’t line up for our run too early.  There is a lot of tension in the starting area, barking and people riling up their dogs in preparation.  Wait until you see your buddy set up (see Pick a Buddy below) and then head into line about 5 minutes before your run.

6.  Pick a buddy - We ran next to the same dogs/handlers both days this weekend.  So while I was waiting to run, we chatted and I said that I’d keep an eye out for her when she went up to line up that way I knew I was coming up soon.  We ended up chatting all weekend and “being buddies” the next day too.  Turns out we were also competing for 1st and 2nd spots all weekend too. 

5.  Take Videos - If you have a friend or partner with you, ask them to video each of your runs.  It’s amazing to look back at what “actually happened” versus “what I think happened” in each run.  I can go back slowly and over and over and see exactly what happened in each problem area.  We use the Flip Mino Series Camcorder as an inexpensive and really portable option.

4.  85 is Q – You need 85 points to Qualify in AKC Novice.  This article is really simply written and explains the differences between AKC and USDAA points and qualifications.  I definitely need to read it a few more times!

3.  Weaves are freebies – This detail is covered in the above article but it’s a super cool point to know so it deserves its own number in the countdown.  You don’t get marked off for missing or messing up on your weave attempts.  As long as you complete them, there is no penalty.  You just lose time from having to do them over and over, and over…(wonder who had to do that this weekend…)

2.  Don’t stick both stickers…- When you check in to a 2 day trial, or a 3 or 4 day trial for that matter, each day that you’re registered for runs, you get a sticker to put on with your number on it.  Don’t stick all the stickers to yourself the same day.  I know that sounds funny, but really.  I saw 2 stickers and put one on my hat and one on my pants thinking that – Wow I just got an extra one… – yah, no.  Thankfully I could just wear the same hat on Sunday!

1.  Knocked Bars are auto NQ – On our last run, the Novice JWW, we knocked the second jump bar.  Someone came and told us that knocking a bar was an automatic no qualify.  I had no idea.  I also didn’t find this on the above article, but a couple blogs referenced this rule.  If anyone has something more “official” or any more detail on this, please post it in the comments, I’d love to read it!  I chose this one as the #1 thing to know this weekend since it was the only reason I didn’t get 2 double Q’s this weekend and run the tables – even though it was C.R.A.P.

If anyone has any more cool rules or tips the newbies could use, please share!  I’ll read over them and make a new list of the best tips.  Lilli and I had a blast this weekend – Jason mostly avoided being bored out of his mind.    I look forward to our next trial in a few weeks.  Hopefully we’ll be a little more seasoned and prepared by then…

Since she was a puppy, Lilli’s had stangers waving, cooing and rolling down their windows at red lights to ask about her.  This morning there was a very focused, studious looking woman in her car next to us.  She looked lost in her own thoughts.  The she saw Lilli.  She started smiling, waving and talking to her through her closed car window and a smile appeared.  I looked over and she looked “caught” – and quickly looked away. 

I didn’t look again.  Just in case she wanted to sneak another moment of morning sunshine with Lilli.  So not only is Lilli a fantastic frisbee and agility dog – she’s a smile maker.  Even on the faces of half-asleep morning travelers.