Sick

Last week, Dawn took Patriot to obedience class. He was very sluggish and unenthusiastic. He felt discouraged and was wondering if she could continue with him and she was even talking about retiring him. I got to thinking about the day and asked her is she fed the dogs when she got home. I usually get home first and feed the dogs. Sure enough, the dogs were double fed. We then noticed that Patriot had diarrhea and was vomited for a few days. Just goes to show you to rule out physical problems first when things seem to be going wrong. Wyatt did great, even double fed. His drive is strong. He did go down on his long sit though at 2 1/2 minutes, which MAY have something to do with a full stomach.

NADAC Results

Wyatt and I had a couple of heartbreakers Sunday. First, we had a great Elite Chances run. It was jump to weaves to start. He missed the weave entry but I was able to send him back. He then went out to a bunch of jump and then a switch to a tunnel. We have been working on sending out to tunnels at home. I was so happy that we got our first Elite Chances Q but later found out we did not Q. The judge said when I sent him back to the weaves, he must have stepped over the line with all 4 paws. We had a great weavers run, the first time with no restarts. Again, I thought we had Qed but were over by 3 seconds. They were not his fastest weaves but I did not say anything to speed him up afraid he would pop out. We also had great contacts in our first regular run (I got ahead of him and was able to control the dogwalk release.) Check out the video which shows the dogwalk issue very well. I can try to get ahead of him but also need a way to control the release when I am behind him.

NATCH-3 V-NATCH

This is my friend David May who earned a NATCH-3 and Versatility NATCH yesterday.  Very impressive.  They are a great team. 

NADAC Today

We had a good day today with the exception of the dogwalk.  Wyatt got 2 Qs in tunnelers and jumpers with 2 second places.  I ran Patriot and got 3 Qs in regular, tunnelers, and jumpers.  I also ran Wyatt in a practice Hoopers run trying out some new things.  Hoping for a better dogwalk tomorrow.  I went back for our first run and walked him off twice after that.  On our last Touch and Go run, we missed a discrimination challenge and missed the dogwalk.  Too bad as we had 2 excellent A frames.  Jumpers and tunnelers rocked.  Our last regular run was great too but we missed the second to last dogwalk.  

Down Idea

I was the only person at Open Class last night and discussed Wyatt's down issues with Tibby Chase.  I was thinking that maybe I should teach a fully rolled over down and I was initially very excited about this idea.  But then thinking about how nervous Wyatt is, I wondered if this would be feasible around other dogs.  Tibby agreed and suggested that I train Wyatt to fold in one paw and sit with one hip rolled over.  This would make it harder to get up that his current very alert sphinx position.  We started working on it with success and I am hopeful that this will be helpful.  To get the hip rolled, you don't roll it but you gently apply pressure to his rear side.  Initially I will do this training on a mat.  I may also have him looked at by a sports vet who has helped us in the past.  I believe that Wyatt wants to do the right thing but has a lousy build that sometimes gets in the way.  

After that, we did a quick run through which Wyatt aced with what would have a scores in the 190s.  I believe if we can fix the sit, that we can make it through Open pretty easily.  His sit is not 100% but is pretty solid at this point.  

Go Ahead

I have been working with Wyatt with agility go ahead.  I believe we are making progress.  I got some really good distance today but pushed it too far and he lost enthusiasm a bit so I broke off.  I am working on go ahead when I am moving and even from a stationary position.  

OB Class Last Night

We had a good class last night.  There was a lot of distraction and discrimination training.  Tibby had us do recalls and drop on recalls with the dumbbell in or close to the dog's path.  Wyatt had no trouble with this and had very good recalls and drops all night.  He had an awesome 3 minute out of sight sit but came up on his down twice.  We have had more trouble with that lately than the sit.  Just can't figure it out.  

Need Agility Class Again?

I am wondering if we need to be in agility class again.  I dropped in last night and we did OK but I saw other dogs had made more progress.  My biggest goal now is to be able to send Wyatt ahead much more so we can get Elite Chances Qs in NADAC.  You need 13 to get a championship. We came very close once but have trouble sending ahead long distances.  Our local class does not focus much on this but I need to work with Wyatt somewhere on this.  I did set up something at home but we are not doing that much agility.  Time to at least work on this at home.  I need to think up or get some ideas for working on this too.  There is a local person who specializes in this.  Maybe time for a private lesson!  

Downs

Wyatt did well on sits and downs last night in class though we could not really get out of sight, we were out of the ring.  He did turn to face me.  This morning though, he kept coming up right away on his down.  I finally got a 3 minute in sight down.  I can kind of predict when this will happen because he goes down very reluctantly.  I wonder if he is tired or sore or tight when this happens.  Of course, I want him to be reliable no matter what (unless there is a serious physical issue).

Quick Update

After having a perfect day Saturday after little sleep and going 0 for 6 NADAC agility Q's, we had a good day Sunday getting the long sought last Elite Regular Q for Wyatt's Elite Regular title.  He also earned his Elite Tunnelers Outstanding title (10 Q's)  and also picked up his 11th Elite Jumpers Q. Patriot picked up one AKC LC point today, which qualifies him for the American Whippet Club CAVX title - Champion Award of Versatility Excellent, which is earned about once every 4 years by a dog.