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Zumi had her last UKI trial this weekend before the US open cutoff.  And actually her last UKI trial before the big event.  I was hoping for those 3 stupid jumper Q's and the trial scheduled lent itself well those opportunities!  Between the master heat jumpers and the regular jumpers, she had 2 jumpers Friday, 3 jumpers Saturday, and 1 Sunday.

Spoiler alert, it didn't happen. Not once.

Apparently, Zumi has some weave pole issues.
Mostly not entering.  Either entering at the 3rd pole or running alongside the poles like she doesn't know what to do with them.

We had several would be clean runs that ended with weave pole faults.  :(

And then we had one run on Saturday that had a mini meltdown where Zumi went off course right before the weaves, went off course after the weave and then as she returned to me and I tried to keep handling she couldn't do anything.  Wouldn't jump.  So I took a few seconds to have her jump in the air and reconnect with her and then she finished strong.

sensitive girl.

The last run on Saturday I chose to do a NFC, aka toy run.  It was a jumpers run and I rewarded her weaves (which she nailed just fine) with a ball. Did some more things, then had her weave again when she also did just fine.

Sunday she only had speedstakes (no weaves) and jumpers (weaves) but she could weave just fine.
She must have been feeling sassier as she broke her startline on speedstakes and my handling to try and make up for it was too late.  And on jumpers she had a beautiful run and then took an off course tunnel right at the end before the weaves that no other dog took.  Avoiding weaves? or just unlucky?  She nailed the weaves with her new made up course.

Overall I'm really happy with how she handled on the courses this long weekend.  Lots of beautiful moments.  A few crappy handling moments on my part, but overall

I guess we have some training to do.

I can't say we've done much agility training at all in the last 2 years :(   Obedience has suffered as well, but is still generally easier to do tiny bits at a time, even with a toddler needing to climb you.

And in semi related news, I am going to try to commit myself to a running program if I can squeeze it in or can make it work with a stroller.  I'm not a huge fan of running but would like to not be so out of shape!  No issues with weekend trials, but I'm thinking about those long, long courses that could be present in November!

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Zumi TEAM 3

Zumi earned her TEAM 3H title!  It's been difficult to make time to practice any element, let alone the whole thing so Netta accompanied us. 



Level 3 is so much fun!  It's really where all of the foundation behaviors start to come together and you actually look like you're doing real obedience!

In the "H" level, Zumi is limited with rewards (just the distraction reward by the retrieve and then the very end) and it's supposed to be at a place you haven't submitted before.  Well outside our house is both new in that we just moved(!) and new in that I haven't had to do an outside one yet.    As we go into the 4-6honors level we will have to visit new parks or training centers to film!

TEAM 4 will actually be great prep for AKC open!  It will have work on focusing and being calm after a dumbbell throw (as you have to pivot away from it, throw a 2nd one, then pivot back!).  And has quite a bit of position change work that should help the new cue discrimination exercise in open, as well as figure 8 work aroudn distractions, and a broad jump.

The biggest thing we will be focusing on this next month, besides TEAM4, will be Zumi's drop on recall.  Apparently we are goign through a bit of anticipation issues right now with Zumi dropping or just stopping on the recall, before I cue the drop.  A very normal phase!  Just one I wasn't expecting as I thought I worked through that last year!  Apparently when you don't really practice it much at all and the dog isn't 100% solid on it then problems come back ;)

I have decided that I'm going to enter Zumi (well if we can fix the DOR!) in our club's AKC trial the end of October.  Her arousal with the retrieve is pretty darn good in practice now.  Not 100% but close to it with not vocalizing or pattering her feet.  And I'm honestly not sure I will ever be able to fix it for a trial environment.  We will keep working on it and keep shooting for reaching a 95%+ in practice.  And then I'm ok with the "it is what it is" mindset for trials.  At least that's where I'm at right now.

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All the Things

Wow, life has gotten busy and summer is almost over!  Here are the last month's happenings!

We sold our house, moved out of my parent's basement where we had stayed for just over 3 months, and moved into our new house.  It was kinda a disaster but things are finally coming together now.  Lots and lots of cleaning.  New floors in the basement.  Appliances that work.  Fenced yard and a potty yard.

The Boykin finally got adopted a few weeks ago!  And yes I did manage to teach him a hold, and a stand, in case you were wondering about his progress :)  I even started working on moving from a stand and hold to a sit and hold for fun!  And more importantly, his new family just adores him.

And now my current foster is a cute litter terrier, Speck, who hopes to be a hearing alert dog!  Aside from some minor terrierness fun, he is an incredibly easy dog to live with.  A welcome change from Splash's high level of training and management needed!

Oh and I got a chinchilla for my birthday!  Meet Kix!

Training wise, still not doing much with my own dogs :(  

Zumi has been able to do more TEAM work though this last month and I'm happy to say she earned her TEAM 3 title and I'm waiting to hear back on her TEAM3H title!  Level 3 is really fun!

I've done a few agility trials with her the last few weeks in attempts to finish up the last 3 jumpers Q's she needs to pre-qualify for UKI's championship, the US Open.  Unfortunately, we seem to be cursed with beautiful runs and then a dropped bar, or I miscue a jump and get a backside instead, or don't get the backside, or...  So still 3 jumpers legs needed and just 1 trial left.  Between the masters heat series and the normal championship level runs we will actually have 6 chances over the 3 days for a needed 50% Q rate.  Which is still 100% higher than our current Q rate in jumpers.

On the other hand, Vito earned his UKI championship title for the "select" division last month!  The IWACs!

The Corgi has struggled a bit these last few weeks.  We're pretty sure he either slipped another disc or has swelling, or something going on with his lower back.  On the positive side, he already started improving in a week before he had his vet appointment.  And he's certainly feeling better being on carprofen!  He's on a bit of rest right now and then we will reevaluate things next week!

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