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We got 4 Qs out of 5 runs on Saturday and 1 Q out of 5 runs on Sunday. The moral of that story is that sometimes you’re on and sometimes you’re not! We did get our first Premier JWW Q on Saturday so I was pretty excited about that. The other Qs were in Excellent STD (2), Excellent JWW (1), and Novice FAST. We’re going back this weekend so we’ll see how things progress!

Elvis was the dog I had before Ann Perkins. He was by my side through many life changes and left me on the last day of the last show I produced, Sister Act. I left the local theatre scene after that. I felt so guilty because I had to spend so much time in the theatre that I was not able to spend it with him. I may be over compensating with Ann Perkins, but I want to spend as much time with her as I can. Elvis’ favorite thing was music. It always was, even when he was a baby puppy. That’s why he was named Elvis. I knew he was getting ready to go over the rainbow bridge so in the last several weeks of his life, I played him a song on my uke so he could relax. He was having issues with settling down and once he heard me play and sing, he would immediately calm down and go to sleep. I miss him so much and still love him so much. I hope you enjoy his album. The last video was taken the day he went over the rainbow bridge.

We participated in our 6th AKC agility trial in Raleigh this past weekend. We got our Open Agility and Open JWW titles. We even got a Q in Novice FAST. The trial was held at the JB Hunt Horse Arena in Raleigh NC. It was an indoor facility with a dirt floor. I think Ann likes the dirt floor. We got qualifying scores in Open STD (2), Open JWW (1) and Novice FAST (1). We got our titles in Open Agility and Open Jumpers. We’re super excited and still working very hard to make it to the top! Hope you enjoy the videos!

Here are a couple of videos from the Azalea Dog Training Club’s Show and Go on November 9, 2019. A Show and Go is where you can go and run a course with ring crew sitting in the ring and judges walking about. It is good for training to get your dog used to random people walking about the ring like in a real competition situation. There are a bunch of distractions as well. Ann is getting better at the distractions, but I probably needed my mom to be walking about to train her not to go to her in the ring.

Larry Bray took these videos for us! Thank you, Larry! And thanks to Barbara Bray for putting the Show and Go together! Also, we wanted to thank everyone who gave us some good feedback and suggestions of things to work on. I am always open for observations, insight, and instruction. We are new and still don’t really know what we’re doing. We just have a lot of fun doing agility!!!

On our first run of the weekend, Time 2 Beat, Ann decided to go sniffing for my mom and we did not qualify. So, my mom sat out in the car all day and my dad came to get her. Then after she left the building, Ann got a Q in Open JWW. The next day, Ann got a Q in Time 2 Beat, Open JWW and Open Standard. So, we determined that my mom cannot come to trials until Ann and I get a little more confidence and Ann can ignore distraction and override her impulse to do something she wants over what I’m asking her to do. We’re working on it!!

We attended the Moore County Kennel Club’s trial this weekend at Bon-Clyde Learning Center https://www.bon-clyde.com in Sanford, NC. If anyone is interested in dog training, this facility in Sanford is a great place to train!

I was really proud of Ann’s performance this weekend! We got a Q in Time 2 Beat (first place) and a Q in Novice Jumpers (first place) on Saturday, October 26. Then, on Sunday, October 27, we got a Q in Time 2 Beat (second place) and a Q in Novice Jumpers (second place). So, because this was our 3rd Q in Novice Jumpers (under 2 different judges), we got our Novice Jumpers title! Yahoo! Now we are in the Open Standard and Open Jumpers classes. We ran Open Standard both days this weekend and didn’t Q. My takeaway from this weekend is that I would like to work on consistency, focus, accuracy, confidence, teeter, threadles, serpentines, and accuracy when running full blast.

I’m learning a lot from the people at the trials and especially my teachers and friends from the Azalea Dog Training Club. I have to give a big shout out to Barbara Bray, who has been doing agility since the 1990s and runs 3 dogs in these trials, which is amazing. I can’t imagine juggling 3 dogs through these trials. Barbara is an inspiration and an awesome teacher and encourages Ann and me to reach for the stars. I have to also thank Judith Hawk and Joanne Brubach for their constant encouragement and assistance and nuggets of wisdom. I need to give a shout out to Dave Moore and Victor Pearsall for encouraging us from the sidelines! Finally, I also want to give a shoutout and congratulate my training buddy, Eric Wilson, who works really hard with his 11-year-old Cocker Spaniel. He got his Open title this weekend and now is in the Excellent class. So proud of him!

So back to Ann. As a re-cap, this is our 5th trial ever. It is our 4th AKC trial. We did a USDAA trial last weekend. Anyway, we got out of the Novice class in 4 trials. We are making progress. I have no idea what to compare that to and if that’s good or not. We are running Premier Standard and Premier Jumpers classes and people tell me that Ann is doing great in those classes, although we haven’t gotten a Q yet because she always wants to miss 1 obstacle per run. Oh well. We’ll get there.

I’ll post the videos I have. I don’t think I got a video of our title Novice Jumpers run but that’s the way it goes sometimes. The rest is here including the one where I fell down. Yay.

Wow. This is when we first began. It takes a lot of patience and time to train a dog. I had no idea.

Every Sunday I practice with Ann and some friends. My mom and dad come to watch and this summer, my nephew Kenji came to practice too. We usually practice with Eric and his 11-year-old Cocker Spaniel, Amber. Eric also has a new puppy, Cadence, who is a beautiful Cocker Spaniel and full of energy. Judith and her Russell Terriers, Fiona and Hunter usually practice with us too. Judith has another Russell Terrier, Scout, but she’s just a puppy (not old enough for agility) and competes in the confirmation ring because she’s pretty. Scout was competing this weekend so they weren’t at practice today. These are some videos of today’s practice. Ann makes me RUN RUN RUN. Yikes.

Ann loves to swim. She’s definitely a water dog. This is a video of her first time on a SUP. I’m not standing because I wanted to be sure she wasn’t going to jump off and swim away (which she did but when I called her to me, she swam back). Good thing she has good recall skills.