AAR Dogs

I guess I forgot to blog about our AKC trial January 29-31st.

There isn't much to say about it anyway, it wasn't out best trial but it certainly wasn't our worst! Panic got his OA on Friday, finally, so I was very happy about that! That was my only goal of the weekend and (consequently?) that was the only Q we got! Next time I'll make my goal multiple Qs and see what happens ;)

I got very sick on Saturday at this show and could hardly talk, so I feel like I wasn't all there for Panic anyway. He was a good boy and fun as ever. He still throws surprises at me, good and bad. He has moments of insanity and moments of brilliance and very rarely anything in between. He showed me that weekend that these two things can happen in the same run though! Half brilliant and half crazy in Sunday's standard! Oh yeah, and I kind of realized that I actually need to get out there and practice agility sometimes! We hadn't done any agility since our last show and I've kind of been enjoying just chilling out with the dogs! But I can't expect either one of us to be nice and polished if we don't ever practice! Now if only the snow would melt and it would get a *little* warmer.

Three days is a LOT of showing, for me anyway, so I was pretty burnt out by the end of it. ...And to be honest I'm kinda liking USDAA a lot better now anyway so I was kind of thinking eh, It's AKC so who cares anyway? ;P

Silly


Studly



And Toby is...well...Toby.


He is very Toby.

Man do I love USDAA, it totally sucks that there isn't more of it around here! Panic came home with a whopping one Q for the weekend, but we had a ridiculous amount of fun along the way! I entered him in a hodge podge of classes because I definitely did not want/could not afford to enter him in everything. Saturday he was in Standard, Snooker and the tournemant classes, and Sunday he was in Standard, Jumpers, and Pairs. The only complaint I have was that the surface was AWFUL, very very loose dirt that was essentially sand. I wish they would have prepared it a little better. Plus it was cold as hell in there...
( USDAA BRAG Show wrap up  )

I don't remember much about Sunday and I don't have any video. I was very tired and cold all day. Panic had two very good runs, little mistakes in each. His dogwalk was kickass. I screwed up pairs majorly... :P

USDAA trial this weekend! So excited! I'm sure Panic will be off the wall, he hasn't done any agility since late November! It'll be so fun! :)

I can't believe the year is over, 2009 seemed to go by so quickly. I've been looking back on my year and am happier more than ever that I have Panic. He keeps me level headed and motivated to get up and go even when things are going horribly (and 2009 was sure riddled with those times!). There is never a dull moment with Panic, he constantly keeps me on my toes. Yes I love my other dogs to death, but Panic no doubt has a special place in my heart. We have a connection that I've never felt with any other dog.

Agility wise a big evolution occurred with us. My attitude has changed immensely. At the beginning of the year I had a really tense mindset all the time, now I just let myself go and run. When I step into the ring I feel no pressure or nervousness, just excitement at getting to run Panic. And man am I having fun, every run is a blast no matter what he does. I don't know why this changed for me, but I am enjoying this new found go with the flow attitude towards agility while at the same time maintaining my desire to improve and reach my goals. Perhaps this has something to do with our switch to running contacts, which we did in April of this year. I feel like running contacts force me to let go of my sense of perfection and worry in the ring and just run. And I HAVE to run, otherwise I simply won't get there! 

Panic has exceeded my expectations this year, going from a 0% Q rate at his first three trials, and basically just being off the wall every time we stepped in the ring, to being in excellent jumpers and one more leg needed for his open standard title. Not counting those first three Q-less trials, we've done this in five shows. I always have so much fun running him I can hardly stand it.

Now I'm looking ahead to 2010 with even more excitement. I have more shows planned for us and a lot more USDAA, including SE Regionals (where I get to meet Tori and Rev, and probably many other awesome people!). I feel like Panic is definitely getting the game now. We are actually becoming a team. I would love to go to Nationals since it is moving into our area (and for that reason I'm going to go regardless if I even qualify!) 2011 AKC Nationals is still in the back of my mind but it's not something that I'm all too concerned about, especially since we aren't in Ex. B for either class yet. It just depends on how we progress. Overall I am pretty much letting go of my expectations for him, which is in stark contrast to how I felt this time last year. There are things I would like to do and hope we get to do but I am not dwelling on anything. Instead I want to focus on improving myself as much as possible and most of all having fun (something I always do, how can you not have fun with a dog like Panic?) If I do that the rest will come easily. This is not to say that I am not going to be attempting to reach those goals--if I wasn't striving for something I don't think I would get anywhere at all. I'm going to try my absolute hardest to get where I want to go. But I'm certainly not afraid of failure, it's the only constant in my life.

Aside from agility, I'm going to ClickerExpo in March which I am REALLY looking forward to. There is so much knowledge I don't have yet and things I am dying to learn. I love agility but I also just like training in general as well as behavior. I love to learn! I also get to meet Devi and Fever, hooray! :D

The most exciting thing that is happening in 2010 is of course the start of my senior year of high school! I'm so ready to be DONE! Then again it means I will have to start seriously considering what I'll do for college. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

We will see what 2010 brings for us, but I think it's going to be a very good year!


"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done."

I did my oral. I'm SO done with school until winter break. Nothing else matters! I can't even tell if I did well or not I'm just so glad it's over!

Crap. My English Oral is on Thursday. Crap. It is 15% of my total grade for TWO YEARS OF ENGLISH. CRAP. I have to talk for ten straight minutes. FFFFFFFFF

Also, why is it so cold all the time? I am constantly freezing. I slept in a coat and scarf the other night.

I'm still a Junior in high school, so I have some time to figure out what I want to do for college. But it doesn't feel like ENOUGH time. I'm constantly worrying about it, thinking about what I want to do because frankly I still have no idea what to do. This takes away from the time I should be doing the work that I have for school right now. I took on quite a class load this year (for some crazy reason) and although I've managed pretty well I always feel like I'm on the edge of completely blowing everything. I always lack the motivation for high school and the work. It's not like I'm a lazy person that sits around all day doing nothing. I love working and learning, but in reality all of that motivation is channeled towards dog training and NOT to school.

It is hard to balance the necessity of high school knowledge with the strong desire for an expansion of knowledge on the training/behavior/agility side of things. Any type of intensive learning is so exhaustive that I typically have to choose one or the other. For Thanksgiving break the agility side obviously won out, since I went to Wild Weavers Friday, but now I'm stuck with loads of important school work while I'm STILL not physically renewed from the eight hour round trip.

But my main concern still remains the college dilemma. I've been going back and forth on what I want to do. I am seriously considering getting a teaching degree at our local university. Among countless other pluses, my tuition will be paid for if I go there or any other in-state school. And I could still stay at home.

I like Louisville. I'm not sure I want to leave. Not only is all my family here, but on the dog side of things I have friends and a community and soon a job. I don't even like to travel all that much, I just like being...home. It's easy and familiar.

Of course there is the other side of me that wants to branch out. I've been thinking of a lot of different options for majors, and one that was brought up to me was a path in hollistic medicine, massage or chiropractics, all of which I would apply to dogs. I am really liking the sound of those. But it means a school much further away, WAY more expenses, WAY more time and effort, and what about Panic?

I have so much to think about and it is really overwhelming. I'm trying not to worry but I feel like time is rushing up on me. Until then I have to go back and do more homework.

Went up to Wild Weavers in Ohio today to get a private lesson from Jenn Crank and do agility with several people from the "Junior" community. We took our private with Kelsey and Ace.

This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time, as I've felt my handling has become pretty stagnant. I am trying really hard to follow APHS and I think I've been doing a pretty good job, but you can only learn so much from reading about it and watching youtube videos XD

Jenn really helped to solidify some concepts for me and present new things that I hadn't thought about before. We now have a few exercises to work on which is awesome. I haven't been training too much on my own because frankly I just go out there and do random stuff that probably isn't all too productive. I just didn't know WHAT I needed to work on with Panic.

The best thing that Jenn explained to me (something I THOUGHT I had down pat) was putting an emphasis on motion rather than location. In a lot of places, lateral sends for example, I thought I was using motion pretty appropriately but now I see that it was primarily my location that was cueing the turn rather than my motion. When she broke it down and told me how to more effectively use motion, I totally got it and Panic read the turn a lot better. Definitely gives me something to work on.

The other thing she had to keep reminding me was the importance of verbals!! I am getting SO bad about this I don't know what to do. I need someone to scream at me to use a verbal. If I am not concentrating incredibly hard on using a verbal I won't use one. Oh well, until it becomes a cue that I am used to utilizing I will just have to concentrate really hard on using one.

Even though it is a really long drive and I am exhausted, I'm so glad I went. Not only did I learn a lot, but I also got to meet some awesome people and come out of my shell, if only a little bit. It was fun.