Two Practices, in one weekend!

Catch- Chase's new little brother :)

Saturday No Nonscents participated in the Childrens Festival. Our dogs did great and had no problem with the huge crowds and all the noise. We are very proud of how well they did.

Sunday we had a regularly scheduled practice- this time with a twist though!

We invited some flyball people down to provide much needed distraction with a second lane. And boy, did they do a good job of that!!! Our dogs lost their heads with the loud flyball dogs running next to them. Every one of them had issues.

Some were afraid of the screaming dogs, Some wanted to chase them, and others wanted to put them out of their misery. Oi.

We have lots of work to do. Thankfully the flyball people thought it was great, and we are going to set up another practice with them.

The last hour was spent with the Newbie dogs. We have lots of newer dogs that are in various learning stages and we are working hard to get them up to speed.

We rotated through three stations: Jumping, Discrimination, Box Work.

We also officially welcomed Sarah and Gyp to the team! CKC has recently allowed Border Collies to get PEN numbers so we are pretty pumped to have Gyp on the team. She is partly trained already so she should catch on in no time!



we couldn't decide who was more excited to join- sarah or gyp!



Team Players

Here are a couple of photos of the team waiting as the dumbbells were being placed.
Thanks to Liz for the great pictures!

Bloopers

Way to go Team!

We had a great time, and our dogs raced their hearts out.

It was a very long night- we got back to our hotel at 11:45!!!! But it was so worth it, (well, at least I think so...)

We started out pretty rough, the dogs didn't really understand what we wanted them to do and we had quite a few blips. Running into the other lane, going to visit, dropping dumbbells, bringing back the wrong ones, or sometimes not at all. :) But as the night went on we got better. The dogs found their rhythm and we even won some races.

I am so proud of each person/dog on the team. Thank you all for having patience with me, and for doing such a great job.

We have lots of things to work on, and I've got some new ideas as to how to fix some problems, so we will be kept busy until the next race!

Last Practice

Today was the final practice before our first official race next weekend. We are all pretty excited about it. All of the dogs are doing great!

In Attendance:

Jolene/Kort
Judy/Roxy
Amanda/Pixel
Kim/Bosley
Mel/Rosie
Maureen/Crawford
and new comer
Tina/Jethro




Jethro is a Sheltie that is also doing Rally Obedience and Tina thought he'd like to play scenthurdle aswell.  All of the actual racing spots are filled for the year but she is excited to start training anyway!



What we did

• Started with the newer dogs. Building value for the jumps for Rosie and Jethro. Moved jumps against the wall and worked on sending to the food bowl. The foodbowl really helped Rosie to understand jumping more. Homework for Jethro is fetching, and Rosie is jumping.
• Crawford backchained to retrieving over the four jumps. Ran him with another dog a few times and he did the whole thing!! Yay for Crawford. This has been an ongoing thing for him- and he finally seems to be getting that we'd like him to go over all the jumps. :) What a good boy!
• We raced as a team- Pixel, Kort, Roxy, Bosley. We had Mel and Tina be distractions at the box and at the start line. The dogs ran well although were a bit distracted by the food bowl!

I took a few photos- the lighting isn't very good for action, but some of them turned out cute anyway.

Bosley pulling to start. We've discovered that Bosley runs best if he is first....

on the home stretch....

Kort barking in excitement...he really likes this game :)

Kort is a speedy guy!

Roxy really loves her dumbbell!

Handsome Bosley

Not in focus at all, but Rosie needed to get on the blog! This is how we encourage the dogs to drive ahead..

Crawford thinks Stay means bark. :)

and the cute Pixel. :)

Our next practice won't be for a few weeks as the key players are away next week. We may have practice the following week but I know there is an agility trial so some of us will be away. But if there are enough we will schedule it anyway- I will email everyone to let them know.

Smokin !!!!!

Holy guacamole we were smokin today ! :))

We had a mini race today after the Fun Match, Due South joined us for some friendly competition. We have 2 weeks until our first trial & we feel pretty darn good after today.
The racing dogs, Swift, Bosley, Roxy,Pixel & Kort did awesome !!! It was very much like a trial setting, dogs barking & people yelling.
The first 4 heats we won ! We then had a lane change & we kind of had some set backs :) Not to make excuses but this would not happen in a real trial setting, the lane change would come, but only after a break. So, I think the dogs were just a wee bit confused, especially because they are so new to the sport.
We are all looking forward to competing in Red Deer in 2 weeks...
Go Team !

PS. Mel, one of the newest team members, filled in as our box loader, she did awesome, thanks Mel, it's not the easiest job !

Also, we will have a time change for the Sunday March 27th practice. It will be at 12 NOON !

See you then !

Go Team!

In Attendance:

Jolene/Kort
Amanda/Pixel
Judy/Roxy,Mazie
Jaime/Cookie
Mel/Rosie
Shauna/Chase
Kim/Bosley
Donna/Swift
Liz/Cava


What We Did:

Our team rocked today! The dogs were fast & accurate. The new dogs are coming along by leaps & bounds, Swift is ready to trial already, & Cookie, Mazie, Chase & Rosie are coming along super with their scenting, jumping & taking from the box.
It is very exciting to think we will be in our first trial in 3 weeks!
Good Work Guys!

Next Practice, Sunday March 20th in conjunction with our Fun Match.
See you there!