photo by Erika Mauer

Finally getting caught up with sleep and laundry after getting back from Oviedo, Spain for the 2013 World Agility Open Championships.  Zip and I had an amazing time!! What a great group we were fortunate enough to be a part of!! Everyone on the team put in amazing runs and it paid off with lots of podium time by everyone on the team.  Jenn and Susan Crank were our amazing coach and manager and they did a great job at keeping us calm, cool and collected for the entire week.  Not an easy job as there were 16 team members and keeping us straight was sometimes like herding cats!!  Also would like like to give a big thanks to George Mariakis, our official, “unofficial” tech support and videographer, we would have been lost without you!!

photo by Erika Mauer

Zip and I arrived in Madrid on Monday morning and were picked up by fellow teamies Dave and his wife Erika.  From Madrid we made the five hour drive to Oviedo.  On our way up to Oviedo we did stop in the town of Leon to do a little sightseeing and lunch.  Lucky for us our dogs are incredibly patient and allowed us to pose them all over the town for photo opts!!  When we arrived in Oviedo we did not have our first team practice until Wednesday, so we were able to do more sightseeing on Tuesday.  This time we headed east to the beach town of Ribadesella.  The dogs had a great time running on the beach and getting a quick dip in the Bay of Biscay.

Wednesday afternoon we had two separate hour practices, one hour outside on the grass and another hour inside.  Since Zip and I have been showing quite a bit leading up to this event I did not want to do a lot of drills with him.  I just wanted to get both of us used to the surfaces and the equipment.  We kept our time in the ring short and sweet.  Zip was feeling great! We rarely have the opportunity to run outside on grass in the mid-atlantic and I forgot how well Zip runs on grass.  The bad news that I am so spoiled running on sprint turf all the time, I feel slow and sluggish on grass.  Note to self, run that much harder!! Thursday we had a much shorter practice, only about 30 minutes inside.  During this practice the music was blasting and the dogs were over the top.  Zip’s borderline start line stay was non-existent.  Definitely a good warm up for the weekend.

Friday morning was cool and overcast.  Our first class was the Individual Pentathlon Agility I.  Luckily we were inside as the drizzle had started and would continue off and on all day.  The Individual Pentathlon class consists of 5 rounds of agility over the course of 3 days.  There were some tricky spots on this course, the third obstacle was the wall jump which we had to take the back side and then later on course being able to leave your dog on the teeter in order to avoid an off course through a box came in very handy.  Zip ran the course great.  Looking back on the video I was late cueing the tunnel after the wall jump which caused Zip to take a hard look at the A-frame.  After that I felt pretty good about the run.  We ended up with a third place in the class! A great way to start the weekend!

photo by Erika Mauer

Our next class was Team Pentathlon Agility I.  The team pentathlon consists of 5 classes over the course of 3 days in which 3 dogs from 3 different jump heights compete as a team in order to earn points for the overall team placement.  There was a tricky turn off the dogwalk on this course.  I am usually able to get ahead of Zip on the dogwalk but this class was outside on grass where Zip was faster and I was slower than I anticipated.  I found myself falling further behind on the dogwalk so I used my highly professional top secret move in order to avoid the off course jump at the end of the dogwalk…I hollered as loud as I could “YOU WAIT!!” Zip naturally turned to look at the crazy lady yelling so he slowed down and I was able to inch ahead and avoid the off course.  We did incur 5 faults for a missed dogwalk contact but in the team event 5 faults is much better than an off course.  We ended up 2nd place!

Our third class of the day was Biathlon Jumping.  Biathlon consists of 2 rounds of agility over the course of 3 days.  This was our first year in the Biathlon.  Normally we have competed in the Games division but since we came in as alternates we were only allowed to enter the classes that the dog we were replacing was entered.  Biathlon is geared more toward fast runs, not our strong suit but we were happy to participate.  Zip and I had a nice round putting us in 11th place.

Our fourth and final class of the day was Individual Pentathlon Jumping.  We were outside on the grass for this run as well.  By this time the ground was pretty well soaked and the rings were starting to get muddy.  I know I was running a bit tentatively but we had another nice clean run and ended up  in 9th place.  All in all a very good first day at WAO!

Saturday the weather worsened quite a bit.  It was much colder, very windy and very very rainy.  We lucked out again and our first class of the day was Individual Pentathlon Agility 2 inside.  Zip was not feeling great this morning.  He had gotten run over by another dog Friday afternoon so his rib and back area was pretty sore.  Luckily David, our team PT was there to work his magic but I knew going into our first class he was not himself.  When I released Zip from the start line he ran around the first jump.  That is very unlike him.  I was ready to pull him from the class but thought I would ask him to take the jump one more time.  Being the good dog that he is he ran the rest of the course without issue.  I knew he was running much slower than normal so I was definitely worried.  The cold certainly did not help matters either, trying to keep his muscles warm and relaxed was a challenge.  David was able to work on him again and I hoped he would be feeling better by the next class.  Luckily he was pretty close to being back to his old self by our next class, Individual Pentathlon Jumping 2.  We put in a nice solid run earning a 12th place.  Saturday was a light day for us thank goodness.  After our second run Zip was able to get some rest and get warm in the car.

Sunday was finals day! All runs would be inside! Of course today is the day that the sun decides to come out! Our first class was Speedstakes, the final round of the Individual Pentathlon.  Zippy put in another great run.  Unfortunately I did not set him very well for the A frame approach and he ended up missing the down A frame contact, 5 faults.  This knocked us down to 7th place overall in the Individual Pentathlon.  Our final class was the second round of Biathlon.  I knew we had to go for it in this round.  We were sitting in 11th place and only a fast run could bump us up in the placements.  Zip put in another stellar run.  Unfortunately my pushing caused a missed dogwalk contact but I could not have been prouder of Zippy.  He came back from his injury like a champ!! I was just so happy and grateful he was feeling better.  We ended up 14th in Biathlon.  The team relay was the last class of the day.  All of our other teammies had put in great runs all weekend and USA was sitting in 1st place going into the relay.  The relay consists of 4 dogs, one from each jump height.  We had 4 very strong dog and handlers on the line for us.  They put in a great round clinching the gold medal for us!! Amazing!!

Here are our runs from the Individual Pentathlon.  Huge thanks to George Mariakis for taping!!

Here are our runs from the Biathlon and the Team event.  Again, huge thanks to George for taping!!

Zip and I have been fortunate enough to have attended the WAO each year since inception.  Each year the event gets bigger and the competition gets tougher.  This year was not exception.  for the USA to win the gold medal was phenomenal and I could not have been prouder to be a part of it.  While Zip and I did not make the podium in the individual events this year I was equally as proud in our performance.  The bobbles we had were   minor but unfortunately under such tough competition it put us out of podium range.  It just makes me that much hungrier for next year!!   Honestly  while making the podium is great (who I am kidding here..) there are so many other memories that are just as special.  Hanging with my teammies and my superstar dog in the stands cheering each other on is fantastic and it is those memories that always leave a smile on my face.

photo by Lynne Brubaker

Zip and I have been in a whirlwind since returning from Spain. In the last two weeks we competed at the Mid-Atlantic Agility Showcase in Palmyra, PA and last weekend we flew to Dallas, TX to compete at the Continental Championships of the Americas. Talk about no rest for the weary!! Both events were fantastic and we had a great time.

The Mid-Atlantic Showcase consisted of a three dog team event, the Mid-Atlantic Triathlon and individual titling classes. Zip was teamed with our usual team, Jeannette Hutchison and Mary Ellen Barry. Unfortunately due to injury Jeannette had to shuffle some dogs around and our usual doggie teammate, Rumble, was switched with Jeannette’s younger dog, Bert. We started the weekend with team Gamblers, where Zip managed to miss both his DW contacts…bummer!! The good news was that we opted for the harder gamble option and he got it, yay! After gamblers was team Standard where once again the DW contact was missed. I thought about trying to manage the DW a bit more but then decided to keep running it like we do in practice and see if he figures it out. The good news is that he did figure it out and didn’t miss anymore DW the rest of the weekend. I still consider myself very new to the whole running DW thing so I know my training needs tweaking. This will be a summer project for sure! Later that day we were entered in one titling class, pairs. Zip just needs a few more pairs legs to finish up his ADCh Gold. Lucky for us we were paired with Maureen Waldron and Mickle, a super solid team. Both of us ran great and ended up winning the class!! Team snooker on Saturday proved to be one of those courses that greatly benefited the small dogs. Small dogs were allowed more time and therefore able to accumulate many more points than the larger dogs. I picked a plan that was fairly challenging but I felt confident I could get through it with my little tight turning sports car. Our group was one of the last to go and I had yet to see anyone run anything even remotely similar to what I was going to do. I felt my confidence start to waiver a bit but stuck to my guns because I knew I could do what I had planned to do. Well off we went and little Zippy did not let me down!! We nailed it and won the class and ended up with more points than any dog at any height!! Here is our snooker run:

The rest of the weekend went great, Zip ended up High Scoring Dog across all heights and our team ended up in third place. We always have such a great time at the Showcase, this was certainly no exception.

It seemed like as soon as we got home and unpacked from the Showcase we were packing up and on a plane headed for Dallas, TX for the Continental Championships of the Americas. This was an important event for us because it was one of two events in which we would be earning points toward a spot on the 2014 IFCS World Team competition in the Netherlands. I came into the event knowing the courses would be challenging, but I have to say, these courses were probably some of the hardest and most challenging I have ever run. I am always eager to run challenging courses and man, did these courses ever get my adrenaline pumping! Zippy ran great, we had one off course in Individual Standard at a DW/tunnel discrimination. Pretty much the same set up we had in Cynosports in Denver in the Grand Prix semi-finals. I botched it up the same exact way too. Overall we ended up in pretty good shape with regards to points. We were 3rd overall in IFCS points and earned 4 Silver medals. Here are some runs from the weekend (gotta love the commentary from my agility buddies, they crack me up!!):

We also have another bit of amazing news to share with everyone, Zip and I will be joining Team USA in Oviedo, Spain for the World Agility Championships on May 17-19! Yup, Zip and I are headed back to Spain for another international adventure!! We are super excited to be joining the team. I am so grateful for this opportunity and also for having such supportive people in my life who allow me to follow my dreams.

On Easter Sunday, Zip, Brandon and I boarded a plane headed for Girona, Spain to compete at the IFCS Continental Championships of Europe for Team USA. Zip has had a lengthy road to recovery after his injured hip so we were thrilled to have been chosen to represent the USA at this event. Our team consisted of 10 of the best dog and handler teams in the country. Many of whom I was proud to call my friends and the others who I was looking forward to getting to know. We were also lucky enough to have our awesome coach Dave Grubel leading us and Dr. Sandy Ziemski as our team vet and physical therapist.

Sightseeing is hard work!

We arrived a day and a half early in order to be able to sight see a bit in Barcelona. The first thing I noticed is that Barcelona is an incredibly dog friendly city. Dogs are everywhere and are welcome anyplace. We had gotten some good advice from friends as to what to see while in Barcelona so we had lots to do. Being able to see the amazing architecture by Antoni Gaudi was breathtaking. My favorite place however was the waterfront. The White family was able to experience the Mediterranean for the first time together. In addition to sightseeing we also experienced lots of the outstanding cuisine that Barcelona had to offer.

Tuesday afternoon we had our first team practice. Coach Dave was able to arrange two practices at the venue on the equipment we would be using at the event. This was extremely helpful as some of the equipment used was quite a bit different than what we were used to a home. Some of the tunnels that were used were clear on the top so the dog was able to see the handler. It proved to be a bit distracting to the dog and dogs seemed to be a bit slower going through the tunnels. Also the tire was all white, not what we are used to seeing. It was nice to have a couple of opportunities for the dogs to get a good look and these things. Zip did great at practice, giving me some nice dogwalk and A-frame performances. The footing was ok, consisting of a rough sandy mixture. This roughness would prove to cause some issues for our dogs as the weekend progressed.

The Mediterranean!

Thursday was check in and a warm up class. The warm up class was a Grand Prix class. Zip ran this great but did miss his dogwalk contact. I was very happy with the rest of the run so I hoped that the dogwalk performance was a fluke and he had gotten it out of his system.

Friday we had Biathlon Jumping, Team Agility and Snooker. The Biathlon division would consist of two classes over the course of the weekend and there would be cumulative placements for this. There is also an individual all around division consisting of four rounds of agility throughout the weekend (jumping, standard, Snooker and Gamblers) and there would be cumulative placements for this as well. In addition to the individual awards there would also be a team division which would consist of a three dog team, two rounds of agility plus the relay. Coach Dave assigned our teams. I was teamed up with Tracy Hirsch and Silver(BC) and Greg Fontaine and Spice(BC). I was thrilled! We had a super strong team!!

Zip had a great Biathlon Jumping round, and finished in 3rd place with a Bronze medal and on the podium! Team Agility went great as well! Zip nailed his dogwalk contact and had a great run. We ended up with a Bronze and third place in this class as well!! Snooker was definitely a challenge. The high pointed obstacles were time consuming and the team decided not to try for all sevens. There simply was not enough time. I opted for a seven, a six, and a five and Zip put in a stellar run!! It was good enough for the Silver medal!! What a day we had!! So very proud of Zippy!!

Saturday was a full day of classes. We had Team Jumping, Gamblers, Steeplechase and Team relay. Zip’s feet were beginning to show some wear after running on this surface for 3 days. I opted to scratch from Steeplechase as this class did not count toward any team or individual divisions. We started the morning with Team Jumping. Zip put in another great run and we ended up in sixth place. The Gamblers class was nothing like I had ever seen before, the toy dog division had 50 seconds in our opening!! For those not familiar with Gamblers, we typically can have 25-30 seconds allowed in our opening. 50 seconds would feel like an eternity!! Needless to say we covered almost each obstacle twice in our opening. The gamble was a jump to a green tunnel, over another jump and then over the finish jump which was past the first gamble obstacle. Toy dogs only had 15 seconds to complete the gamble, not a lot of time to cover a lot of yardage. Unfortunately I had a disconnect from Zip after the first obstacle, he did manage to find the green tunnel but then I was not where I wanted to be to cue the next jump so he came in towards me and took an off course tunnel. Only one toy dog was able to complete the gamble so luckily we had accumulated enough opening points for a 4th place finish. Unfortunately our team encountered some bad luck. Silver was injured at the practice jump right before Gamblers. We discussed as a team and opted to scratch from the team relay. A total bummer for the team but we all were most worried about Silver, hoping she would feel better by tomorrow.

Sunday, our final day of competition! Zip and I had our final run in the Biathlon. At this point I was not sure where we stood in the Individual All Around but I knew I was in third place going into my second round of Biathlon. I was really hoping we would get one cumulative medal so I knew I had to make this round count! The opening sequence of Biathlon Agility was not ideal for us. It was a jump to a 180. Zip can decelerate so quickly and my lack of movement into the 180 can end up costing us a refusal and it almost did in this case. Luckily after that little bobble the rest of the course ran great!! We ended up with a Bronze in the second round of Biathlon and after the scores were tallied, a Bronze in the overall Biathlon!! I was beyond thrilled!! So very proud of my boy!! After Biathlon was over the Individual All Around scores were being tallied. You could have blown me over with a feather when Dave told me Zip and I ended up with the Bronze medal in the Individual All Around too!! I couldn’t believe it! I was so proud of Zip! I came into the event hoping for one of the two cumulative medals, I was over the moon that we received a medal in both!! I have already extensively gushed all over Facebook about how proud and blessed I am to have such a wonderful competitor and friend in Zip but I think he deserves me to say it again here. The little stray from the shelter has proven once again that great things do come in small packages!!

My wonderful teammates and husband were nice enough to tape most of my runs.  Here they are!! Enjoy!!

The entire week in Girona was filled with great memories I will treasure forever. Our team was amazing and everyone put in extraordinary runs. I was so proud to be a part of such a team. GO TEAM USA!!

The judge this weekend was Lynn Sigman.  I love Lynn, not only is she a good friend, but her courses are always fun and challenging.  Zip and I had a great weekend.  I probably should correct that statement, Zip always has a good weekend.  Zip, aka the perfect JRT, never puts a foot out of place unless I misdirect him so any mistakes he has are mine.  I was happy (for the most part) with my handling this weekend.  The courses were challenging enough that I was able to work on some handling moves that I had been practicing and wanted to put in a show situation and also some homework issues which always need practicing.  We ended up going 8 for 9 and the one off course we had was entirely my fault in a misplaced rear-cross.  I was really happy with Zippy’s running this weekend.  He gave me really good dogwalks, probably the best we have had in competition.  Watching videos of past shows I can see where I am tentative when running the DW in competition, I am not tentative when we are practicing.  This weekend I tried to really concentrate on running the DW like we do in practice and so far it seems to  be working.  Once again proving all of our mistakes are clearly handler induced!

This is our Snooker run from Saturday. The seven pointed obstacle was three elements, the jump, the tunnel and then the jump again. I didn’t think we had enough time to do all four sevens so we opted for a five, 2 sevens and a six.

This is the Masters Challenge Jumpers course from Saturday. I was pretty happy with this run. I did not run the #8,9 and 10 sequence like I had planned. I had planned to do a blind between #9 and #10 but chickened out at the last moment. Zip saved my butt as usual.

This last run is our Masters Challenge Standard run on Sunday. We started off a bit pokey but then picked up some speed as we got into it. I do feel that these international style courses can bleed speed off the dogs, but in my opinion that is a training issue for me. Building and keeping the appropriate amount of speed through the technical aspects of the course is what I have been working on with all my dogs. I think Zip and I have gotten better at it but you can see the first few jumps need some work. #15 to #16 didn’t exactly go as planned, Zip was supposed to be on my right to take #16 but clearly he read it as a blind cross. Good thing that jump was bidirectional.

A fun weekend all around. It was a nice small show so I was finished running by 2:00 pm and Zip and I hit the road. We made it home in record time.

“International style” seems to be the latest buzz word in the agility community.  Some people I have talked to hate it, others love it.  Personally I fall into the “love it” category.  I think my first real experience with international style courses was when I went to England in 2011 to compete at WAO.  Actually I should correct myself, I was running international style courses a few months before the event in order to prepare for the event.  I should thank our coach/manger Tracy Sklenar for making the introduction.  I was familiar with theadles and had been doing those for a few years.  However when I first saw a backside challenge, I thought “WHAT??”  but at the same time thought, this looks like FUN!!

I am happy to see more venues offering international style classes.  I think that many competitors are interested in running international courses and its nice to see that the various venues are listening to their members.  For competitors that have international aspirations, having the ability to run more challenging courses in a show setting is imperative to being able to compete on an international stage.  It seems silly for the USA to spend time and money to send teams abroad for international competitions and not have our teams prepared for what they will face internationally.  For those competitors that don’t necessarily want to go abroad to compete, they have the opportunity to step up their game and push themselves beyond their comfort zone and try new things.  Another positive by-product of the international trend in the USA is all the amazing international handlers that are coming to the USA to give seminars.  I have had the opportunity to take a few seminars by some of these handlers from over-seas and have gotten lots of great insights on handling.  I love all the new ideas and challenges that the over-seas handlers expose us to during these seminars.  I always come home with lots of great ideas and lots of new stuff to practice.

I know that there are some people who don’t like this international trend that is sweeping our sport.  I honestly don’t know what to say to about that.  Maybe these people don’t like to be outside their comfort level, maybe they just need the confidence that they can in fact rise up to the challenges.  I would probably describe myself as having a competitive nature.  Not so much that I feel the need to beat others in competition, but I want to beat my own past performances.  I am always thinking of ways to “one up” myself and I am most happy when I work outside my comfort level.  I am not afraid of failing.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like to fail, but I am not afraid if I do fail because I know I will try harder to figure out whatever challenge is in front of me. When I do get it right that’s when a feeling of satisfaction comes over me.  I think its a good thing that our sport is evolving, change is a good thing.  I think change is a good way to figure out what we want or don’t want. Between equipment standards changing for the better with regard to our dogs safety and our courses becoming more similar to what others around the world are doing, I think we are headed in the right direction.

You can check out other opinions on the “Internationalization” of agility here.

Zip on the underwater treadmill at VOSM

After slowly reintroducing Zip to all the equipment we have been given the ok to go back to full time training.  The main thing I was on alert for is any soreness after our training sessions.  I can happily say Zip seems to be in top form and is more than happy to be running agility again!  Here is a short clip of Zip just getting back to running:

In the middle of our rehab, USDAA was in the process of selecting a team to represent the USA at the IFCS Continental Championships in Europe.  The event will be held just outside Barcelona, Spain.  I decided to throw our name in the hat and we were selected!! Yay!! Zip and I will be headed to Spain the first week in April! Some of my east coast teammates organized a team practice last week in North Carolina.  The team practice coincided with a UKI trial as well as an AKC trial so Zip and I headed down to North Carolina for an agility extravaganza!!

We arrived on Tuesday night and had our team practice all day Wednesday.  Zippy was running great on some tough courses.  it was nice to be running with my favorite pup once again.  My teammies were great and provided lots of good feedback.  I have lots of fine tuning of my handling to work on between now and April.  I found myself a little rusty on my timing of my information and how my motion was either sending Zip too wide or not wide enough.  Things that seemed fine in short sequences but showed up more prevalent in longer courses.  I was most happy that Zip seemed in good form. I know my handling has always been a work in progress. We ended the day with a team dinner, couldn’t have asked for a better day.  Here a one of our runs from practice:

The next day we had a UKI trial at the site site as our team practice.  I was hoping to get some byes for the US Open which will be held in North Carolina this year.  Courses were challenging but fun.  Zip did great, only a missed DW contact due to my error and one bar in a total of 5 classes.  We ended up with one of the two byes we wanted.  Another great day for us.

Friday morning started the first day of the AKC trial.  I signed Zip up for a massage first thing in the morning.  We had done a lot of running over the course of the last two days so I wanted to make sure all was well.  The good news is that his hip felt fine, a little tightness in the opposite leg but not too bad.   Zip’s back was pretty tight, not unusual for him, his back is always his trouble spot.  Beverly was great and worked on him and loosened him up before our runs on Friday.  He put in two nice runs on Friday.  In Standard, he missed his DW contact and at first I was a little worried about it, not sure why he missed it.  The judge was nice enough to run into me after my run and told me that he took a misstep on the DW and thats why he missed it.  She knew I would not have seen it since I was in front of him so she wanted to let me know.  Very nice of her to do that and I felt better about the run.  Friday evening we got to run a demo run of AKC’s version of a Masters Challenge class.  It was great!! I loved the extra challenges and it was great getting another crack at the DW.  The weave pole entry on this course was tricky and Zippy nailed it, so proud!  Here is the video of the run.

Saturday was day two of AKC, my plan was to start my drive home by noonish so we only were able to run Standard.  Zip put in a stellar run, so happy to finish on a good note!  Zip also had another massage appointment, his back was much improved from the previous day which made me feel better, hip and both back legs felt great.  I felt like these past few days would be a good test on how Zip’s rehab was coming along.  I am very pleased that he held up well and I feel good that we can continue training regularly to be ready for Spain.  I am so amazed how tough my terrier can be!! He is a fighter and I am overwhelmed on the effort he gives me everyday.

We hit the road by 1 pm and we home that evening.  I had a great time training and showing with my teammates and seeing friends down south I typically don’t have a chance to see in my area.  I returned home with confidence and my second wind, Zip and I say “bring on the tough courses!!”

Ok…now on to the downs…  Two days before leaving for CA for the US Open, Zip injured his hip.  The initial diagnosis was a dislocated hip.  However that was never confirmed as the x-rays showed the hip was in place.  The vet that treated him that afternoon heard a pop as she was examining him so it was assumed this is what happened.  However the x-rays did not show any typical damage from a hip dislocation so we are thinking maybe it was a partial dislocation where the hip did not come out.  Given that we had no evidence as to what happened, we treated the hip as if it had been dislocated.  This meant Zip was in a sling, unable to use his left hind leg for 4 weeks.  Needless to say we missed going to the US Open that following weekend.  That was definitely disappointing as the US Open was a WAO team qualifying event with 2 win on spots on the line as well as lots of points toward team selection.  However in the spirit of making lemonade when handed a bunch of lemons, I was very grateful Zippy did not need surgery.

Zippy was a super patient the entire 4 weeks.  I could only imagine how hard it would have been to have your leg jacked up in what looked like an awkward position for 4 weeks.  The first 2 weeks the leg was held up in an Ehmer sling, using lots and lots of very sticky tape.  While it did hold up very well, it was terrible for his skin.  It tore the inside of his thigh terribly.  When the tape was on its last leg, I opted not to re-tape but to invest in a neoprene sling made by a company called Dogglegs.

Zip with the Ehmer sling version 1.0

Here is the new and improved sling:

We can now fast forward to today.  The sling has been off for about a week and half.  Zip is doing great.  He is putting lots of weight on the left leg and using it normally.  We took x-rays the day the sling came off to make sure everything stayed in place.  Both my local vet and the orthopedic vet looked at the x-rays and were very pleased.  No signs of joint damage, hip joint looked good and no signs of trauma.  Let the rehab begin!! The big thing with Zip’s rehab is getting his muscle back in that leg.  We went back to VOSM two days ago to have the ortho vet take a look at him as well as get a PT session in.  They took a leg measurement and his right leg is about 24.5 cm and his left leg is 23 cm.  The rule of thumb is when the injured leg is about the same size as the other leg we can resume normal work.  Luckily Zip has a team of superstar vets and physical therapists and agility friends who are doing an amazing job at making this happen.  We have lots of daily exercises to do as well as lots of leash walking.

Here is a short clip of Zip walking 4 days post sling:

Here is a clip of one of our walks 5 days ago:

Zippy is making great progress, I could not be happier.  After our visit at VOSM on Wednesday they want us to do 4 more weeks of leash walking before he is allowed to run free.  I imagine in the next four weeks his leg muscles will be greatly improved and he will be up and running in no time.

So this winter is shaping up to be a quiet one.   I don’t think the dogs are complaining though…as soon as that weather turns cold they are more than happy to snuggle up on the couch and snooze the afternoon away.

I have a ritual when walking any type of course.  I go through my ritual during each walk through regardless of they type of course.  I don’t differentiate between a jumpers or standard course although I do understand that jumpers courses may have the potential to be confusing although I don’t really like to label all jumpers courses as being “confusing.”  I also use visualization while walking courses.  Usually when walking a course one of the things I make mental notes of is what each jump looks like.   My criteria for knowing a course is being able to shut my eyes and visualize each individual jump as they come up in the sequence of the course.  I recall the color, whether the jump has wings, if it is a panel or spread, the more details the better.  Along with visualizing the physical characteristics of the jump I also visualize my path throughout the course and how I will be handling each challenge.  Sometimes there may be a couple of options on how to handle a particular challenge so I will walk both options.  Sometimes after walking it a couple of different ways, one way will seem more natural and comfortable for me and that may sway my decision on how to handle something.  Other times creating the straightest, clearest and fastest path for my dog makes the most sense so my handling will be decided on this.  Most times it is a combination of both these factors.

While competing at the World Agility Open Championships in Belgium earlier this year my visualization skills were put to the test.  All the jumps in all the rings had wings and were the same color.  Initially when I looked at the jumpers ring before the walk through all I saw was a sea of red and white jumps.  As I started to walk the course, I knew I needed to pay special attention to all the details of the course.  I could not just say “it’s the blue jump to the black jump to the green jump.” If you really paid attention, each jump was in fact unique.  Some had a panel on the bottom, others had just poles.  Some were single bars others were spreads.  I did make small mental notes on these differences but I knew I also had to use other skills in order to feel confident with knowing the course.  I had to recall specific details of each jump and what would be happening at that location. There were sequences where we had several single bar jumps in a row with no real way to differentiate between them. Under these circumstances, I really relied on recalling my handling decisions during these parts of the course.  Instead of relying on the physical attributes of the jumps I focused more on how I was handling that particular sequence.  For example, was the sequence a threadle, a serpertine or maybe a 180?  I also would chain together my sequences, for example, in my mind I break up the course into little clusters, the course may start with a threadle and backside to a pinwheel to a serpentine.  Instead of trying to just memorize numbers 1-20, I think of a course in terms of these clusters.  Truth be told, I usually never even look at the numbers on course unless I have not had a chance to see it on paper first.  I am attaching a video from the Individual Pentathlon Jumpers course from WAO.  Unfortunately I caused a refusal at jump #3, but this is a very good example of a course with similar jumps.  The best advice I can offer for not getting confused on a jumpers course is to not let the possibility of become confused get into your head.  Have a course walking ritual and stick to that ritual regardless of the type of course you are walking.

Good luck and happy training!

SE regional – 2011

I have been procrastinating writing this blog entry. On Oct 19, 2012 Dasher was officially retired from agility. I think I knew this day was coming sooner rather than later a few months ago but was hoping I was wrong. The trouble began earlier this year when Dasher sprained his toe on his left front leg. After months of no agility he was still not 100%. I also noticed that both his front feet were splaying a bit. We took a trip to VOSM where they took X-Rays and evaluated his movement. While his range of motion in his joints all looked good, his toes were showing degenerative changes. After a few more months of nursing his feet it became obvious that his feet would not be getting better. I decided it was better for us to stop running agility now in order to keep him comfortable for the long term.

While Dasher was not my first agility dog, he was my first Jack Russell. He is the reason I fell in love with the breed. Dasher is my first agility dog to have a ridiculous amount of drive and a love of the game. To say he has taught me a thing or two is an understatement. While it does sadden me not to be able to step to the line with my best buddy anymore, I am incredibly grateful for the memories we have together. Dasher will always come along to every agility trial, because for me it would not be the same without him. The hardest part of my decision to retire Dasher is not being able to explain it to Dasher. I don’t think he is going to understand why he stays at home on Tuesday night for agility class or why he will not get a turn when we are at the agility trial. I know if it was up to him he would keep running until his feet fell off. That is what makes Dasher, Dasher. That is one of the reasons why I love him so much. I am trying not to look at this as the end, but just the next chapter of our journey together. I am including some of my favorite memories of our agility journey, enjoy!!

Mid-Atlantic Showcase 2011 – Triathlon Finals – 1st place

2011 NE Regionals – Steeplechase finals – 1st place