Scratched (licked?) from trial; allergy woes

Darn, darn, darn. Lucy's foot-licking issue has been getting worse this week to the point she's got a sore spot on her left back foot now, between two toes. So, I scratched her from today's Dogz trial where she was entered only in Advanced Jumpers. Too bad, since this is a place we train at so I was looking forward to the chance to trial her somewhere she's comfortable. But she wouldn't have been comfortable with her foot in the state it's in, so it's a moot point.

Poor dog. She's pretty much always tended to lick at her feet and she gets recurring ear infections. Vets have suggested both may be due to an allergy (maybe food, maybe environmental) so last fall she started on a strict allergy diet where she ate NOTHING but a certain type of kibble for three months; no change so we did the same thing again with a different type of kibble; still no change. So, at the vet's recommendation we started her on an Omega 3 oil thing about a month ago; no change. Now that it's been getting worse lately I started her yesterday on benadryl since that's something we haven't tried yet.

Hopefully she's not allergic to the cats! ;-)

Fun match

Lucy shared a spot with Walter at the fun match, taking the two Standard runs.

Her first run was decent, but she entered the weaves a few poles in and was uncharacteristically slow on both the dogwalk and table. The table might be because she's used to the 22" table and hasn't yet been trained on the short mini table.

Her second run, her start line stay was very distracted and she ran around the third jump which told me something was off. I was going to stop the run but the judge gave me a timbit to reward her with and she immediately pepped up, though her reward up to then had been dried chicken which I thought should be pretty good.

I really need to figure out what is going on with Lucy's right back foot. She gets this skin condition on it; I thought it was looking better but I'm pretty sure it's still bothering her. I wouldn't want to run and jump if my foot was sore either. Offer me a hundred bucks to do it and yeah I might pep up a bit but that doesn't make the discomfort go away. Sigh.

On the bright side, her a-frame is looking nice with her happily sticking 2o2o.

Woot!

Today at All Dogs Lucy ran in her first trial in nine months. Just one run, Advanced Jumpers. No contacts or weaves to worry about. She had been doing well in practices so I decided to give it a go, especially since this class was the first of the day so it wouldn't be too hot. She ran in specials for the first time -- she seems happier with the lower jumps and at 6 years old she's almost a vet anyway.

I just watched video of her last trial run which was in this very same ring last September (K9 Kup): there were four separate instances of her running distractedly past obvious obstacles, plus she sniffed at the fence. Well, I am VERY pleased to report that there was none of that today!

Her run was the highlight of my day :D

Dogz fun match

Lucy's first fun match at this great venue since last spring because last year most of the dates coincided with K9 Kup.

There were a few attention lapses and sniffy moments, one of which was rewarded by her finding a treat on the ground - d'oh! Her sniffy moments felt like ages at the time but actually they were pretty short. Ah, the benefit of video. Thanks again L.L.!

An unfortunate moment in her second Standard run of the day where she stung her toes on the second jump which was right before the a-frame. By the time I heard her crying, she was already on the frame. She was fine after a few seconds, but sheesh, this is not exactly the kind of thing we need given the a-frame issues we've been working through. Oh well, not the end of the world.

She had no weaves to speak of today. She kept flying past the first six poles. This is something Walter sometimes does, but out of character for Lucy. When I switched to offside she did a lot better but popped. Actually come to think of it, she hasn't practiced weaves lately since the ones at our practice field are all wonky.

Fun match!

Today's fun match at Red Gate was Lucy's first agility event since last September, and her first fun match since way too long (July).

For the most part I broke the runs down into segments with lots of food rewards.

I couldn't have asked for more: She was focused and engaged and stuck all of her contacts, including an a-frame which she naughtily snuck over and did when we were supposed to run past it since we're not done with the re-train yet. Still I'll happily take that over her refusing the frame which she started doing last year in conjunction with our a-frame criteria chaos.

A few off courses where I had failed to provide her with a road map, but it was no big deal and she got a treat for being so innovative. Weaves were good, just one last-pole pop which I didn't bother fixing. She wasn't particularly fast today, but looked pretty happy.

We did just three of the four runs since she had done so well and I didn't want to push it.

Rather than bore you with the full runs on video, I'll just bore you with this compressed version:

Club practice

At tonight's club practice we ran one of the Standards from the 2006 Nationals. Broke it into chunks for Ms. Starters Lucy, and didn't do the frame since it was at full height. She seemed happy. Several off-courses at a couple of tricky spots, but only one brief episode of running off. Good dog!

A-frame practice #2

Quick practice today, second session back on the a-frame:
- first time asking for a full a-frame since last fall. not yet at full height - currently on link 25. happy 2o2o. threw in a few short sequences: tunnel to frame, frame to tunnel. (tunnel in front of a-frame, not snaked underneath)
- practiced some lead-out pushes. how nice to have a dog who calmly holds a sit-stay.
- tried some rear crosses but she wasn't driving ahead so it was awkward. need a new viewtainer as our old one broke today.

The verdict is in

2o2o it is for Lucy's a-frame retrain which officially began today!

After much thought and flip-flopping, I decided on 2o2o because Lucy adores knowing exactly what her job is and I'm just not convinced that our main alternative, the a-frame box method, would be as clear for her. And, it should require many fewer reps since she already knows the behaviour from the dogwalk and teeter, so the down side of it maybe being more uncomfortable to perform than a running contact is countered by the up side of not having to do a lot of frames. Lucy will be in specials from now on, so the frame will be lower which should hopefully make 2o2o more comfortable.

Today was Day 1 of the retrain. We started by putting the table next to the dogwalk and having her hop onto the table then go down the ramp into 2o2o since she already knows 2o2o on that obstacle though we never did this table backchain thing before. Then we did the same thing with the table next to the a-frame. She does it in Princess Mode, certainly not diving into 2o2o with any speed but then I don't think I want her charging down into position due to the physical aspect of it, so basically, whatever speed she chooses is fine by me, like Walter on the dogwalk. She seemed happy enough doing this today, though not overjoyed. Too bad due to her allergy diet she still can't have any treats, but I tried to make up for it with jackpots.

We also worked on rear crosses (one of our weak spots for sure) at the teeter and jumps. She surprised me by reading them pretty well!

Fun at Red Gate (again)

Thanks to Lyne we got some nice video of Lucy at Red Gate tonight. It was the first time Lucy came to this group practice session. She ran well but I should have capped it at two runs instead of four as she started to slow down and lose enthusiasm after that, though she stayed engaged nevertheless. Here's some video from her second and third runs, and some of Walter thrown in too:

Practice at Red Gate

Lucy had a great agility practice today. We worked on most of the exercises Walter did and I managed to remember to use a more baby dog approach with her. She was feeling great! This is the kind of Lucy I hope to see in the trial ring again some day: happy and engaged. She's just so darn cute when she's having fun. Here's some video: