Trial Report:: Back to the Field House

First let me say that I love the Fredircksburg field house as a trial location. Indoors, nice turf, places to buy food (and beer), free wi-fi, and air conditioning as well as real bathrooms. What more could you ask for. So before I go into these runs I have to start by specifying that this was a weird trial for me because I had to work the overnight shifts (11pm-8am) for both Thursday and Friday. Which means I had already been up about 18-20 hours during each of these runs. I was a little loopy by the time we ran. Hopefully this explains some of my handling errors

So Friday we had one run Ex. A JWW. Gauis had a great peppy attitude during this run. Which is really the only important thing in the end. He missed the second jump but that was so completely my fault I pushed him right past it. We'll call that a lack of sleep thing. Pretty run after that. He tunnel sucked near the end though. Completely ignored my front cross. But hey, he's a dachshund... who can blame him for liking tunnels. They'd be like them putting sheep on the course for all the border collies. Smooth toward the end until my thertle which obviously confused him causing him to blind me but still get the obstacle. In all honesty I should have just done a front there. I think its hard, because all the people that teach me agility run fast big dogs. I mean, I know the handling system is the same, but sometimes these tricks that get you places faster, just aren't the best options for a little slower dog. I think the more we run the better I'll get on making handling decisions that fit us as a team.

Sat we started with Open. Speedy start but a slow dog walk. I think that's because he's confused about whats expected of him. In class I make him touch but at trials I don't. He was a little distracted by the girl scouts who were working the ring but managed to work past it. Run went really smoothly till the end. I treadled him right out the ring (hmmm guess we need to work treadles to tunnels). I managed to call him back (thank heavens that you are allowed one mistake in open) and got him to finish the run. Then the little bugger tried to dart out for his cookie. Would have served him right if that girl scout had touched him (as he hates being touched by strangers). But he came back and we got our second Open Std Q! He just needs to learn getting his leash on is just as important as the last obstacle.

Sat Ex. A JWW was nerve wracking because they had the walk through while I was running open. There for I had to run it without walking. At that point I was near delisional from sleepiness so I didn't care. Also I don't have high expectations for excellent anyhow. Well we ran it beautifully if slow and ran clean! We were 3 seconds over time but you have 5 seconds of leeway with Ex. A so we Qed! First excellent Q ever I was thrilled.

Sunday we started with JWW Ex. A. No film as alas Sean had to go to work and couldn't be our designated camera man. But the Exc. run was gorgeous. another clean run. And guess what?!?! We weren't over time (granted by the skin of our teeth), but we would have Qed in Ex. B! Which is so reassuring. I really didn't think we had much of a shoot of getting anything above AX and AXJ. Granted we wouldn't have gotten any MACH points but who cares. Now the issue was I was pretty out of breath by the end of the run so that doesn't bode so well. Maybe I need more cardio.

Open was another lovely run. We really ended the weekend well. Unfortunately he dropped the triple (our only fault) but we came in ten seconds under time. Even with him stopping to stare at the dropped bar. Poor guy, he hates dropping bars so much. His ears go back and he always stops to look and then I have to be really positive to build up steam again. It's almost as though he knows that disqualifies us, though the movement and sound probably just scare him. But hey, he's a dachshund. Drop bars are just a fact of life. He's doing something he simply isn't built for, it's not his fault. No hurt feelings on this end. As far as I'm concerned it was as good as a Q in my book. A great run.


Well that's the update. Now for some foster news! Oliver has been adopted! By a lovely older couple in Western Virgina. He has a senior sister so he'll never be alone. The home was perfect for him. And we have a new girl around these parts named Charlotte! More about her in my next post.

Doctors Orders

Couldn't even convince him to get on the steps for the picture

We have a new interior design piece at out house. Last week I bought three sets of little steps to help Gauis on and off furniture with out the gigantic leaps (and sometimes wipe outs) he generally has to do.

This was one thing Dr. Regina Schwabe wanted us to try. She's a DVM, acupuncturist and chiropractor who does a lot of work with agility dogs. She also does a lot of work with dachshunds recovering from back issues. We decided to pay her a visit after a Tracy Sklenar seminar where Tracy said Gauis seemed a little sore by the end of the day and should have his back and knees checked. (I have a lot of footage from that seminar I need to compile for a post. It's on the to do list)

So I trucked him off to P.A.W.S. as soon as I could get an appointment. She's a very busy lady Dr. Schwabe. It was a really nice visit. She has a very cool office that doesn't feel like the vets at all. But Gauis is a sharp cookie and he can smell a DVM from a mile away so there was a lot of barking. But he was defiantly more relaxed than at a regular vet clinic. He still ate the whole time and even played with some of the toys she presented to him. At one point she and I were convinced the barking didn't have to do with him being frightened anymore and had more to do with his attempts to shape us into presenting him with new and better interactive toys and treats. He knows how to make the best of any situation.

So she checked him out. She said there was a little bit of twingyness in his back right where his ribs stop. This is a common place for agility dogs to be sore but it's also a common place for dachshunds to slip disks. After she adjusted him she said she couldn't detect any sourness, which is a good sign. She still wants me to get his back X-rayed (something I've wanted to do for a while). But she recommends every dachshund have its back X-rayed at two years old to look for any calcification that could lead to slipped disks, since the causation is mostly genetic. In good news she said his knees look awesome and she doesn't see any luxating patellae in his future.

She gave us some warm up tips (I'll make a whole post on warm ups later) and a few other things to do. She sent him off with a clean bill of health and ants to see him for maintenance every six months. She would like to see him drop about half a pound, he's 10.2 pounds right now, 9.5 ish would be better for an agility dog. His weight is fine for a pet dog but with all his extra activity he needs to be super slim. Actually his regular vet says he's the slimist dachshund she sees (so many pet dachshunds are so fat :( ). But he's a performance dogs so the rules are a bit different.

She also wanted us to get these steps so he doesn't jump up and down and up onto furniture all day every day. She asked me, "How many jumps does your do do in a week?" I said hmmmm.... "Gauis goes to two agility classes a week, we get 4 or 5 turns a class, with about 10 jumps each...... so between 80 - 100" then she told me to add the number of times he jumps on and off of furniture in a week. Lets just say that's a significant increase in the number. So we're trying to reduce the number.


Gauis is not really into cooperating with this plan. He was really excited about the stairs when I got them out of the box, but once he was told they were not giant stuffed animals we bought him to grab, shake, drag around, and play with he lost interest. He'll go up them when lured but he's certainly not offering the behavior. In fact even when lured he looks resigned. We're working on it. He certanly thinks jumping on furniture is a great deal more reinforcing.

Oliver on the other hand is quite enjoying his new found ability to get onto furniture. So maybe even if I can't convince Gauis that stairs are where it's at, future fosters will appreciate them. Speaking of Oliver it's about time I gave you all an update.


Oliver is a giant sweetheart. Not a mean bone in his body. I took him to stoney point and he loved meeting all the new people and kids. He even gave one little girl kisses. We've been taking him on dog scout hikes to get him a little more exposure. He gets along great with the larger dogs and any weakness he had in his back end has virtually disappeared.

He's still very hesitant about stairs but I think that's more of a lack of experience with them then any physical problem. He's still good with the cat though he does try to mess with her more than my other fosters. I get the impression that he was a cat chaser at a young age and has since decided that it isn't worth it. Doesn't mean he's not VERY interested when she walks into a room.


The marking hasn't really improved BLECH. We need to buy stock in diapers. Sean and I used to have this inside joke when we lived with roommates. We'd walk down the aisle of a grocery store with the baby products and I'd always ask "Do we need to buy diapers for the baby?" We'd then laugh and make some disparaging comment about our roommates maturity level or cleanliness (All in love and jest). Well the habit stuck and I still say it even though we don't have roommates. Last the words slipped out I realized we actually were almost out of diapers. It was one of those sort of sad silly, and hilarious moments all in one.

In other news his soiling of his crate is much reduced, which is progress. Not 100% eliminated though.

Also remember when I called him very active for an old bugger. I have come to believe all the constant motion is more anxiety than anything else. So we've been doing a lot of rewarding for all four feet being still (To get a treat, get fed, or be let out of his crate). He is not a big fan of the training and is easily frustrated. Poor thing was never taught to think. He barks at me and circles like a herding dog. It's really odd. But I have see a marked decrease in the 'ants in his pants' fidgeting that he came to us with. Now that could be because of the training, or it could be because he's just been here longer and is more comfortable. But whatever the reason it's better.

Watching him interact with Gauis is interesting. Though he has no fear or discomfort around other dogs, you can tell he wasn't socialized much as his doggie social skills aren't the best. He doesn't read doggie body language signals well, and he doesn't know the all important doggie rule that possession t is 9 10ths of the law. or that walking on top of others and lying on them without warning is not really polite. Gauis is very tolerant so Oliver has been lucky. Something I think a new owner should be aware of though.

All in all he's a good boy and we are happy to have him, diapers and all.

Welcome Oliver

Well we've got a new comer around these parts. Oliver is a miniature (a real mini only 10 pounds) smooth black and tan piebald dachshund. He is 12 years old, which means we are holding our position as the old fogie sunset dachshund retirement home. Poor Gauis, maybe one day we'll have a dachshund he can actually play with. He's a very sweet boy, likes to be petted, not a huge fan of being picked up (Hey, neither am I, and we just met, I understand that. Maybe with trust he'll be more comfortable). No snappiness about it, just a wiggler. Very active for an old man, never stops moving. And the first dachshund I've had that I don't consider fat! (well other than Gauis who I only tease about being fat)

The old men always seem to come with a few health concerns. He gets ear meds twice a day for an ear infection and has pretty big patches of hair missing. He is also probably deaf. He's also had a bunch of his teeth removed, but all in all he's in better shape than Wilbur was. His only issue I can see so far is that he's a marker, yesh, makes me miss the days of perfectly potty trained Snickers. Right now we are jerry rigging him some diapers to wear as literally this dog tries to pee in my house about ever 15 minutes. He is not a fan of this but I'm not a fan of my carpet smelling like urine.

But he's really sweet and has a darling temperament (perhaps another therapy dog candidate). Great around Gauis and the kitty. Haven't tested him around larger dogs and kids yet (We'll take him to Stoney Point this weekend and check it out).

Well here's his information (CLICK HERE). As always if you guys know anyone who is interested in this sweet boy, let me know. I'll keep you updated as always :)

Goodbye Wilbur

Will went off to his forever home last night and we are super happy for him. He will have two young labs as brothers, and a 10 year old dachshund, and a 15 year old beagle. This way he'll never be alone (this is great because he gets nervous by himself). His new mommy also participates in the caring canines (a therapy dog group) and is really excited about taking him on therapy dog visits. And he gets to sleep in the bed :) I'm sad to see him go as he was my favorite foster pup so far, but the fact that his new home is so prefect for him makes me feel much better. Goodbye Wilbur and good luck. My new foster should be arriving tomorrow. I'll let you know all about him soon :)

Three Day Trial

This is my serious intense jumping face

Shesh it was like three weeks ago now or something.
Since our trial in Fredericksburg.
So some good things happened, some not so good things happened. I did things right, I made mistakes, but this is still a learning process and we're figuring it all out. So let's see:

Saturday:
DQ (Double Q)

Both runs were super fast and fun (Less detail this week on the runs because frankly I don't remember the details). Jumpers run was perfect from what I remember, Standard I took him over the wrong side of the triple (bad mommy) and we almost had a fluke there at the end, but it was still our first Q in open standard. So we left Saturday feeling good with a new title (which I was super happy about. If your in the Virgina area you HAVE to go to the capital cocker club trials. They have the best ribbons.)

All the other dogs don't have to down on the table, why should I?

So that meant our fist leg in Open Standard and or Open Jumpers title! I only have video of one run from this weekend. (Luckily it was one of the good ones) So here we go.



Moving on, Sunday:

Total disaster. I got to the trial like four hours before my first run (bad idea) and realized I might have a conflict (I've never had a conflict before. And I got to freak out because I've never run in excellent before! So I was a big giant stress pot. First day of a trial I've ever not had fun in agility. So I should have just gone home I guess. My runs ended up having to be about 5 minutes apart (GAH!). So I had to walk and remember two courses at the same time (never even done that in class before).

Look at me sit stay like a good boy.

We started with open standard. Gauis had a mistake right in the beginning of the run and I fell apart. Totally unable to recover. I'm sure my handling was atrocious from there on out and I was pumping stress hormones from every pore in my body. About three obstacles from the end Gauis said 'F*** this' and stopped running to sniff. I gave him a few chances by calling him but he ignored me completely. Now I don't care how bad I'm stressing out or how poor my handling is, that's just not acceptable. My stress is just another distraction, he's allowed to be slow but he has to keep trying. So I took him by his collar and walked him off the course.

As I was leaving the judge says 'Be careful!' in a warning voice. -Sigh- little dogs are treated with such kit gloves. All I could picture was my friend's dog Preacher (a 65 pound golden) getting dragged off the course practically off his hind legs for blowing a contact in front of the same judge earlier in the afternoon. He didn't say anything to her and I wasn't being anywhere near as rough with Gauis. Half wasy out the ring crew asked me why I didn't pick him up. I said 'Being picked up is a reward'. Besides Tracy Sklenar and Laura Derrett always say 'If you can't do it while training a saint Bernard, don't do it while training your small dog'


Anyhow, after that we had to race over to the Exc JWW run to try it again with only 5 minutes in between. We ran clean but it took us 52 SECONDS! OMG like pulling teeth. So obviously NQ. That seems to be the fallout of dragging him off course. His next few runs are REALLY slow. I think he's just making sure not to make any mistakes. But if he keeps trying that's fine, it's worth it.

Look at this weird ugly jumping form

The next day we started with Exc JWW. We made it around the course nicely we only dropped the triple (got a good picture of him knocking that bar too. Look at the picture below and you can see his back legs were hitting it). He was defiantly slow but much faster than Saturday. We were only two seconds over time. So since we're in Exc A (where you can have a time fault), that would have been a Q if he had kept the triple up.

I am so taking this jump down mom

The Standard Open run started off slow and steady, thought we were going to Q. Weave poles were like the 6th obstacle. Gauis started his usual slow and steady weave poles. Then about halfway through he picked up speed and I got all excited. I started saying "Yay! good boy! Great!" I thought hey we've got something here! He got to the end and suddenly squated and took a gaint dump. EMBARRASSING. Well that's an automatic NQ. He was picked up and carried out of the ring (Gah kill me now)

This picture was taken four weave poles before his 'grand finale'

Pretty humiliating but everyone was really nice about it. Apparently ever ones dog has done it once or twice. Hey, who says we don't end agility weekends with a bang :)

Had to be done

It was on the one dollar shelf at target..... had to be done.

PETS WHO WANT TO KILL THEMSELVES - “Stop taking your shitty childhood out on me.” ...

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures from last weekend I thought I'd throw up here for you all to see.

If he thinks happy thoughts maybe he can fly with those ears.

Is it just me? Or dose he look like he's about to slip in this photo.

He's flying here. It's nice to see a jumping picture where he's not a whisker away from taking down the bar.

Another strange ear picture. That's sort of the comb-over look.

The slowest weave poles in the West. A leisurely walk one might say.

Not a very flattering tunnel picture. He could caught bugs like that.

Well, we've got a three day trial this weekend and then Tracy is coming and then a trick demo. Busy busy busy. And I have an interview today at an emergency vet clinic to work as a vet assistant. Wish me luck.