Porezen

More hiking photos from this Sunday:

We're going hiking again for the whole day on Saturday. I hope I'll be able to post some photos on the blog before I leave for the specialty.
I also ordered a new crate for Wi and a new sleeping mat. I'll pick everything up at Wi's breeder. We also got some new toys from England and Germany in the last few days. Cuz toys (Ruffians) rock!!! The Bear Cuz must be Wi's favorite toy so far. She also likes her Tug-A-Jug, but she's still moving around the house too much while she plays with it (and bangs it on the floor and walls).

I'm also really happy with Wi's obedience training. Her heeling is really almost like I want it to be. She still needs to learn how to keep the same style of heeling (she looks like a marching horse) even if a go at a slower pace or in new environment. I'll try to practice heeling everywhere we will stop along the way (we will be driving for 3 days one way (Slovenia-Sweden) so I'm sure we'll have lots of opportunities to train.
In obedience we're in the first group and we're on 4th. I finally know which exercises there are (Thanks Fanny!!!) and except for the teeth examination (she might jerk her head if she won't be able to have eye contact with me) I'm feeling really confident that she will do all the exercises really well.

I also have some new videos of Wi's running contacts. I just can't find enough time to put them all together tough. Maybe today in the evening... but they're really looking good and she's 100% on them when in straight line. We haven't done any turning after the dog-walk yet. But we're now training various crosses and right now she's making her contacts no matter where I make a cross (before or behind). She drives forward very nicely and now I'm doing 2 contacts in a row (jump, contact, cik/cak on the jump, contact, reward). Her cik/cak after the contact are really nice. I hope I have some of them taped.

Ratitovec

Yesterday we went hikind again. This time we went to Ratitovec.
The dogs enjoyed the hike as always. Wi and Amelie had their crazy moments again...

Agility
Last Saturday we were at our 2nd agility competition. In agility we got 15 penalty points and were 16th in that run. This time Wi was running with a lot more confidence than before and she also did the teeter with minimum hasitation. She found the weave entry but I moved away too soon so she pop-up. When I went back to repeat it I blocked her the entry so she missed it but then I let her find it all by herself and she got it. The A-frame was good and fast. When we got to the tunnel I moved to fast again and she didn't get in (I always forget she doesn't pull on obstacles at all in trials). The dog-walk beggining was slow but she gathered speed fast and made a really nice cntact at the bottom.
In jumping we were disq. becouse I got her so crazed up by her toy she ran out of the ring to get it.
Another lesson learned.

Lately I've been working on her jumping a lot since I don't like her jumping style at all. So today we did some jumping grids on lowered jumps and she did really well.
We also did some running contacts on dog-walk. I also timed them and they were 1.6-1.4 s.

I got my Clean Run issues today (Jan 08-Jul 08) so now I have a lot of new ideas and I can't wait to try them.

New guests

Meet Pufi and Ula:

They'll be staying with me for about 3 weeks. Wi likes them very much but I don't let her play with them 'cuz she keeps slaping them with her paws. She can lick them tough.

This morning I made Wi some PVC pipe toys (I put together some PVC pips of diffrent shapes and placed kibble in them). She figured out most of them already but once I turn one part around she gets to figure thing ut all over again. But she's having a blast. She even knows which pipe can easly be separated from others and she uses this to get faster to the kibble.

I have a new lens. Nothing fancy...but better for dog photos than 18-55.

Agility competition in Domžale

On Saturday we competed for real.
In agility I was really nervous and my handling wasn't anything at all. Wi started better than last aturday but stopped dead right before the teeter. She didn't want to go on it at first but eventully she got on. She also missed slalom entrance a few times. My fault since I was so nervous I was sending her in at the wrong place. Should have stayed behind and let her find it herself.
And she also stopped infront of the dog walk. I think she tought it was the teeter again since she didn't even want to step on it. She slowed down a lot at the top but relaxed in the middle and even started to run again on the down plank. We really need to practice on more dogwalks and teeters so she gets used ot them.
In jumping she was again in a good mood and I was less nervous. After 2nd jump she wanted to greet the judge but I called her off before she could do that and I again blocker her way in slalom. But we got through with 10 penalty points and some points for the time. But I was really happy with her performance. Way to go Wi!

We have our next competition in a few days and then we can rest for about 2 months (no competitions in Slovenia).

Some photos from Ljubljana (photos by Tina Šolar):

Hiking, agility & dogs

Last week we went on some longer walks and one of them was a hike on Blegoš. Me and Maja (and the dogs) were almolst the only people there, the sun was shining and the wind wasn't to strong so we really had a great time.

On Saturday Wi ran in agility competition for the first time!
She was a test dog since her teeter performance isn't good enough yet. But next Saturday we're going to compete for real. I hope I'll be much calmer...
Wi's speed wasn't great but that's partly my fault. I was too nervous to motivate her enough and I even managed to forget where slalom was (that's why she missed it).
Her speed was about 3.8 m/s I'm hoping she will have at least 4 m/s on our next trial.


And...from Sunday on I'm dogsitting Lizzie and catsitting Ahti and Aino. And from today on aussie Ginny has joined our pack for a few days.

It's never dull around here.

Soriška planina

Yesterday we went hiking to Soriška planina and it's nearby hillls and to see some bunkers.
The weather was nice despite some rain showers and strong wind. There was even a little sun after noon. We both ha d a really nice time. I was mostly chatting and enjoying the view and WI was running around and playing with Amelie (Parson terrier).
We also went into 3 bunkers. Wi was very comfortable in them and was climbing in and out of line openings and she even managed to crawel through 20cm holes.

I really hope we'll repeat this soon.

And today I was feeling really well (no muscle pain after yesterdays 5 h walk) so I ran additional 0.5km in the morning. That would bring to a total of 4.5-5km (I really need to get a watch to know exactly how much I run).

And it feels good.

Backward weaving

Yes! It's a new "How to teach ..." video!

Enjoy

Catching up

It's been a while since my last post here. I still have one more week of school work ahead of me but then (hopefully) I'll be done untill next school year.


And now some quick updates on what was happening in the last month.

PNZ
On 17th Wi passed her PNZ exam (test of natural abilitys)!
She got 39/50 point. We would get more if I wouldn't be her handler and woulnd't make some really stupid mistakes. But at least now I know what are problems are and what to work on untill our hunting exam and hunting competition in autumn.

Tricks
Wi learned some new tricks. Here's one of them:

I promisse I'll try to get someone to tape our newest tricks.

Agility
In agility we started doing the dogwalk in course. So far she has showed a little progress. She still needs to get more confident on the dogwalk. We're also doing the teeter as the final obstacle (Polona is still holding one end). She really loves it now and really speeds up when she sees that it's the next obstacle. So hopefully we're be ready to compete in Ljubljana on the 21st of June.

Target training
Today I tried out a target stick with base. Here are 2 videos on which you sadly can't see the target but you can see how fast Wi is when she's going towards the target. Little red torpedo.



Some random photos