One week to Petit Prix, new class schedule

I wrote this draft 2-3 weeks ago and neglected to finish and publish.  Though the dates are a bit misleading (“one week to Petit Prix” – which actually happened 7 days ago) I want to preserve the information on our preparation.

BLOG 10/2/09. After 2 weeks without a new blog entry I’m back!  It’s been a bit busy around here.

During the 2 weeks whent the YMCA pool was closed for cleaning and repairs I intended to visit another pool to keep my exercise regimen.

Instead I found myself digging into the list of projects I have, getting tons of miscellaneous tasks finished. Bud was on the road quite a bit so I was on my own most of the time. I also had the opportunity to judge 4H dog projects (obed, agility, rally) at a couple of local fairs.

Last week the pool opened again so I ramped up my swimming schedule. This week I’ve done about 8 miles in 5 days. I’m hoping the Racine Radisson’s pool will be open so I can do a little swimming next week.

Hazard and I have been working together this week at teacup camp. On day one she got very stressed with barking dogs — mostly Bud’s Kory.

We believe she doesn’t object to his barking. Instead, she objects to the shouting from us that follows the barking.

By the second day she was feeling better. On the third day I felt we were partnering better, and that she was getting my cues better.

Today Bud set up a course that required lots of front crosses and, for once, my handling didn’t slow Hazard down.

His second exercise focused on establishing our paces-per-second. It combined two of my favorite activities — stepping off the dog’s path and high school math. NOT

But I’ve had such good luck calculating Hazard’s paces-per-second and designing courses to fill the time allotted that I’m starting to enjoy the exercise a bit.

At Central Ohio Dog Sports’ trial a few weeks ago Hazard won her class by arriving at the pause table with all her points and exactly on time — she had 55 seconds and hit the table at 55:35 — and I always find that a  bit miraculous.

Today we struggled a bit on the first course. I didn’t feel overly connected. By the second course I guessed we’d collect 59 points in 55 seconds. Hazard hit the table with all 59 points at 55:12 seconds. Sheesh …. that’s cool.

In other news we’re contemplating adding weeknight classes. Here’s the plan I devised this morning while getting in my hour of swimming.

Tuesday evenings will be our flexible roster, to compete with the in-flexible local competition.

From 6-7pm we’ll offer a class on sport foundation training, following the protocols in my 2-minute dog training brochures for sport foundation. We’ll work on agility, obedience, and rally. There will be no guaranteed curriculum and we’ll be open to requests from the students.

This early evening class will also become my Women And Dogs club meeting place. WAD was an idea I had for a women’s social club. Folks were interested 2 years ago but I didn’t do anything with it, sadly.

[ … this is where my draft ended, so I’m going to publish this and then continue where I left off … ]

Tags: Bud Houston, dog agility, dog performance sports, dogs in motion, Marsha Houston, TDAA, teacup agility