We pass Level 2…and it WASN’T easy!!!

I have been very busy over the past while. Most of it has to do with Cyberrally-O, and I am proud to say that I finally earned my level-2 title. I use the word “finally” because one of those courses was a real pain in the you-know-where.

My first level-2 leg was for course no. 6, on August 9th. Here is the link to that one: Course L2-C6P.

Then we started working on course no. 10P. (“P” stands for “performance” because the course will have transition moves from heel to side, like one finds in performance sports like canine freestyle and heelwork to music; there is also “T” or “traditional” which is more like competitive obedience in that the dog only works on one side of the handler.)

Well, let me tell you, over the course of about three weeks, we set up that course four times (once – maybe twice – on our lawn, once with Amit at the community center,and twice at the community center on our own). To tell the truth, I lost count. And I started  that course at least 15 or twenty times. Sometimes I would just get one or two stations done and BANG, we’d start over. AND… if I may be so bold as to say…most of the screw-ups were not MY fault! Once Linda forgot to set up the jump, so we had to start over. Once the caretaker came and bugged us in the middle, so we had to start over. What can I say? And through it all, I think I showed tremendous patience and sportsmanship and my tail kept wagging!

After NQing once, (August 29) we did take a break from that @#$% course and worked on course 1P. This was really easy compared to Course 10, and we finished it with one filming on September 12. Yay. Here’s the link to  Course L2-C1P .

After doing that, we went back to the community center to try Course 10. Again, a few false starts, but this time … I did it!!!! Yay.

Here’s the link to our qualifying Course L2-C10P.

Linda also made a video called “Nightmare on Course 10” which shows the frustration we went through to get to our goal.

I just want to say a bit about the music. I think the music adds SO much to the clip. Especially the Nightmare. It is really cool how Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor,  it just seems to fit. Now, the truth is, that Linda just “took the first” choice she found in the YouTube Audio effects that was the proper length (in actuality, it is a mite too long, and the end of the piece gets cut off, which is a bit frustrating. Sorry.) and “stuck it” onto the clip.

The same with the others. For Course 6, she added  one of her favorite composers, Andre Gagnon. Now, she knows there is the issue of copyright infringement, or whatever, but she hopes that it will be OK.

For Course 10, she added in her own choice, and immediately got a “third party content” notice from YouTube. So she decided to remove the music and add something from YouTube’s list. She added Prove it All to You by Whitney Morgan and the ’78s and I think it fits really nicely.

For course 1, she added, Addict by The Juice to Make it Happen (is that the name of a group ?!). Again, it just seems to fit so nicely. The truth is, for this one she did try a few different clips before she found one she liked.

If you watch the clips with the music turned off, I think you can see what a difference it makes.

Well, I’ve gone off on a tangent.
And it’s time to go. We are working on perfecting my heel-work.

 

I got a ribbon!

My 3 qualifying leg ribbons, Level-1 certificate and level-1 ribbon!

Hi everyone.

Ooh…I know, I haven’t written much at all lately. But I have certainly been really busy. I’ll give you a brief update.

In March, my mom quit agility. Just like that. One day we were doing it, and the next she was out. She quit the Friday sessions because she didn’t like that they were always doing long courses of 20 stations instead of concentrating on short sets and doing them perfectly. I think she has a point. Also I would sometimes run off to sniff the ground, and she got frustrated that none of the trainers were helping her address the issue. So we quit Friday (she hated going Friday afternoons, anyway) but kept going to the Wednesday evening training sessions

until …

the season came when there were these weeds have these little round burrs that drop all over the ground. My fur is like Velcro, and  I couldn’t stand still for trying to pick them out of my fur. After 15 minutes of trying to distract me from cleaning my butt area, she just scooped me up, said “Goodbye” to the group and walked off the grounds. We have never returned.

However, I don’t really miss it, because we are busy doing other fun stuff.  And that is basically, Canine Freestyle and Rally O.

I’ll leave the CF for another post.

Here I will say how good I am getting at CR-O! As you can see, I have already earned my Level-I ribbon.

Here are the links to the qualifying runs:

First qualifying leg

Second qualifying leg

Third  qualifying leg

Now I am starting to learn the things I need to know for second level. I actually know most  of them already, such as jumping over jumps and doing figure eight jumps (thanks to my mom who taught me in agility the cues for go around cw and ccs), transitions, leg weaves and spins (from freestyle), and tricks (I know a few).
But some new things for me are “go to target” and “pivot.” I’m pretty good at both of those already and I hope to get my first let soon. (A big problem is finding a good place to set up the course and filming it!…but that’s not MY problem.)

Just for fun…here are some of my tricks.

Atchoo

Clothespins

Pick up my toys.

OK, mom has just finished cleaning the driveway and she’s about to set up a new course! Bye for now.

Rally-O

Hi all! Long time no see, I know. What can I say?

Yesterday I had a fun time. Linda has been trying to start a group of “Rally-O” which is a kind of fun obedience thing. It’s been hard getting it going, you know, trying to please too many people at the same time. Anyways, yesterday, our regular agility group got canceled and so she got a few people together to try out Rally-O for the first time.

Here’s a Youtube clip to see what it looks like. (Not us, unfortunately, she didn’t bring her camera.)

I did not see anyone stop by before we left the house, but Linda said that Murphy visited. And then she said that the printer conked out in the middle of printing out the instructions and signs. So she had to hand draw them. But never mind, it was still fun.

There were four other dogs there. One was ChowChow, with whom I had to exchange some words (barks and growls). But then we played ball together, so we’re cool now.Other dogs were Tyson, Tommy and Bruno. And Honey, of course.

Next time we do this, I’ll make sure the camera comes along too.