Belle and I celebrated New Year's Day at the QCDC NADAC trial. This is our first trial since we started working on a running A-frame. I was really pleased with the result.
Showing posts with label NADAC trial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NADAC trial. Show all posts
Monday, January 2, 2012
Monday, July 4, 2011
Back to Trialing
On Saturday, Belle, Dusty and I went to the QCDC in Davenport for our first trial in more than 10 weeks. I had hoped to trial on both Saturday and Sunday, but a summer cold took me down for the count Saturday evening and all of Sunday.
I was a little anxious to see if all the distance work Belle and I have been doing would hold up in a trial setting. Belle performed wonderfully for three of our four runs. Our fourth run, jumpers, was under SCT by just a hair. I realized during the run that Belle was running slow, so I did my best to move a little more to encourage her to move faster. Needless to say, we will go back to working on speed as well as distance.
I was very pleased to see that I'm not really limping all that much in the video. Sports turf is just so foot-friendly.
Here's video of Chances and both Regular runs:
I was a little anxious to see if all the distance work Belle and I have been doing would hold up in a trial setting. Belle performed wonderfully for three of our four runs. Our fourth run, jumpers, was under SCT by just a hair. I realized during the run that Belle was running slow, so I did my best to move a little more to encourage her to move faster. Needless to say, we will go back to working on speed as well as distance.
I was very pleased to see that I'm not really limping all that much in the video. Sports turf is just so foot-friendly.
Here's video of Chances and both Regular runs:
Monday, February 21, 2011
Another Milestone
I'm proud to announce that Belle and I reached another milestone at this weekend's QCDC NADAC Trial. On Sunday, we completed Belle's second NATCH with a qualifying run in Chances. The NATCH bar we received is particularly special since it was signed by Sharon Nelson when she was here in October.
I put my all into almost every run. I was getting tired and punchy by the last run on Sunday, Hoopers, and although it was a qualifying run, it was not pretty and it was not smooth. However, the Q was all that really mattered since that was the last Q we needed for Champs.
During the last week, I've been working on getting Belle to respond with a loud bark to "Are you ready?" I had tried giving her a bark command at the start line in the past, but wasn't very effective in getting her excited. Asking a question to elicit a bark seems to be more exciting. Maybe that's because "bark" is such a harsh-sounding word, and by using a question instead, you can vary the tone and energy of your bark cue.
Increasing my ground speed seemed to get Belle's little motor running--especially the running lead outs. I made some handling mistakes--pulling when I should have pushed, pushing when I should have pulled. The worst bobble we had was on Saturday's jumpers course. Belle sliced over a jump I was layering and almost got stepped on. I'm not quite sure what caused her to come over that jump, but I hope nothing like that ever happens again since one or both of us could get hurt.
When I let Belle out this morning with the others, I came to the realization that there is a definite limit to how much faster Belle can run a course if I depend on my own speed to motivate her. Handler energy is not just a matter of how fast you can run, it is also a function of how much of yourself you put into a run. I feel like I can truly say I put in a 100% effort into all of our runs except for the last one on Sunday. Even when I wasn't running physically, I was running and pushing mentally.
One last brag. Sunday, David and Dusty went 4 for 6, which is huge. Additionally, their Chances run was one of those runs of a lifetime. At least it was for me. I hope David felt the same. I'm really sorry we didn't capture it on video so that we could enjoy it again and again.
I put my all into almost every run. I was getting tired and punchy by the last run on Sunday, Hoopers, and although it was a qualifying run, it was not pretty and it was not smooth. However, the Q was all that really mattered since that was the last Q we needed for Champs.
During the last week, I've been working on getting Belle to respond with a loud bark to "Are you ready?" I had tried giving her a bark command at the start line in the past, but wasn't very effective in getting her excited. Asking a question to elicit a bark seems to be more exciting. Maybe that's because "bark" is such a harsh-sounding word, and by using a question instead, you can vary the tone and energy of your bark cue.
Increasing my ground speed seemed to get Belle's little motor running--especially the running lead outs. I made some handling mistakes--pulling when I should have pushed, pushing when I should have pulled. The worst bobble we had was on Saturday's jumpers course. Belle sliced over a jump I was layering and almost got stepped on. I'm not quite sure what caused her to come over that jump, but I hope nothing like that ever happens again since one or both of us could get hurt.
When I let Belle out this morning with the others, I came to the realization that there is a definite limit to how much faster Belle can run a course if I depend on my own speed to motivate her. Handler energy is not just a matter of how fast you can run, it is also a function of how much of yourself you put into a run. I feel like I can truly say I put in a 100% effort into all of our runs except for the last one on Sunday. Even when I wasn't running physically, I was running and pushing mentally.
One last brag. Sunday, David and Dusty went 4 for 6, which is huge. Additionally, their Chances run was one of those runs of a lifetime. At least it was for me. I hope David felt the same. I'm really sorry we didn't capture it on video so that we could enjoy it again and again.
Monday, January 3, 2011
New Year's Day - A Perfect Day
Wow! What a wonderful weekend we had. Even more so since it comes after a month of inactivity. We traveled to Davenport for the New Years NADAC trial at the Quad Cities Dog Center. It was nice of Ed to come along since I knew it was going to be a long day. The trial started at 10 a.m. and we were back on the road by 7:50 p.m. But what a good time we had. Belle and I went 6 for 6, something we've only done two or three times before, and never running in Elite in every class. David and Dusty cued twice - weavers and jumpers. The weavers Q was for Dusty's Elite Weavers title. Way to go David. It is really impressive the way David and Dusty pulled the two Q's off since Dusty hasn't trained in more than four weeks, and David hasn't run him in more than a month.
Here's the video footage of Belle and me. I was really happy with all our runs. The little red girl ran her heart out. Our jumpers run was a little hinky, but it was late in the day and although it wasn't pretty, it was still a Q.
Here's the video footage of Belle and me. I was really happy with all our runs. The little red girl ran her heart out. Our jumpers run was a little hinky, but it was late in the day and although it wasn't pretty, it was still a Q.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Last Weekend's Trial
RACE held a NADAC trial at the Quad Cities Dog Center Saturday and Sunday. I really, really want to get Chances Q's and the Touch n Go Q's. Saturday's Chances course was not that difficult, but the wheels fell off our run so badly that I just called it quits and ran to the finish line with Belle--something we've never done before. Normally, I just go with any mistake and keep running like that was the plan. But the miscommunication we experienced threw me for such a loop that I just couldn't think of any way to keep running a course.
Chances was the first run of the day, and I was a little apprehensive about more miscommunication. I decided I just had to be clear in my body movements about where Belle was going and forget about trying to do fancy work with my hands. (Maybe we'll work on the move that messed us up some more in training or maybe we won't. But I won't be using it in a trial setting again until I'm sure Belle understands what she is being asked to do.)
We ended up doing well in our other classes except for Weavers when I learned a very valuable lesson. I had walked the course with the idea of handling most of it from a small area in the middle of the course. Then when we ran, I decided to run with Belle. Unfortunately, I ended up at the end of an arc knowing we were supposed to go somewhere, but not knowing where since I had never viewed the course from where I was standing. I made a choice (not the correct one) on the fly and we went with it and finished the run. It is embarrassing to lose your way on a 14-obstacle course.
I'm not above changing how I run a course if I see others run it more efficiently and think I can do the same. Unfortunately, no thought really went into my game plan change on Saturday--I just decided to run with Belle because I didn't want to stand around like a lump in the middle while she was running and weaving.
Sunday, I also changed my weavers game plan after watching other teams run. It was a rather obnoxious weavers course, or at least the way I was going to run it, it was obnoxious. I had decided to do a front cross before before the weaves at #8 and #10. The the angle from hoop before was such that if my front cross wasn't spot on, Belle would have to get around me to enter the weaves. The advantage was that I would be on the inside of the exit turn after the front crosses.
However, waiting to change sides until the weave pole exit made drawing the dog's path pretty much a no-brainer, and all it took was a push (instead of a pull) to send the dog in the correct direction at the exit of the weaves. I decided to trust that I could communicate the direction I wanted and Belle would read it correctly, and this "obnoxious" course turned out to be one of the most satisfying ones that Belle and I have ever run. Everything just clicked so nicely into place.
Here's the video from five of Sunday's runs:
The missing run is Tunnelers where I once again learned that Belle could outrun me. The opening was two straight tunnels and I made the mistake of releasing her as I ran by space between them. She went flying by and my game plan was out the window since there was no way I could get to the center of the course. I ran valiantly, and we managed to snag a Q by .15 of a second. (We had a major bit of confusion about whether Belle was to enter a tunnel or run by it.)
Chances was the first run of the day, and I was a little apprehensive about more miscommunication. I decided I just had to be clear in my body movements about where Belle was going and forget about trying to do fancy work with my hands. (Maybe we'll work on the move that messed us up some more in training or maybe we won't. But I won't be using it in a trial setting again until I'm sure Belle understands what she is being asked to do.)
We ended up doing well in our other classes except for Weavers when I learned a very valuable lesson. I had walked the course with the idea of handling most of it from a small area in the middle of the course. Then when we ran, I decided to run with Belle. Unfortunately, I ended up at the end of an arc knowing we were supposed to go somewhere, but not knowing where since I had never viewed the course from where I was standing. I made a choice (not the correct one) on the fly and we went with it and finished the run. It is embarrassing to lose your way on a 14-obstacle course.
I'm not above changing how I run a course if I see others run it more efficiently and think I can do the same. Unfortunately, no thought really went into my game plan change on Saturday--I just decided to run with Belle because I didn't want to stand around like a lump in the middle while she was running and weaving.
 |
| Sunday's Elite Weavers - Approximate |
However, waiting to change sides until the weave pole exit made drawing the dog's path pretty much a no-brainer, and all it took was a push (instead of a pull) to send the dog in the correct direction at the exit of the weaves. I decided to trust that I could communicate the direction I wanted and Belle would read it correctly, and this "obnoxious" course turned out to be one of the most satisfying ones that Belle and I have ever run. Everything just clicked so nicely into place.
Here's the video from five of Sunday's runs:
The missing run is Tunnelers where I once again learned that Belle could outrun me. The opening was two straight tunnels and I made the mistake of releasing her as I ran by space between them. She went flying by and my game plan was out the window since there was no way I could get to the center of the course. I ran valiantly, and we managed to snag a Q by .15 of a second. (We had a major bit of confusion about whether Belle was to enter a tunnel or run by it.)
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