Kenna - 2019 AB/NWT Regional Champion

 Last weekend we attended the Alberta/Northwest Territories Regional Agility Championships just outside of Edmonton. This is a 2 day event that determines qualification for the National Championships, which this year will be in Ontario.

The weekend starts on Friday with an optional Steeplechase event. You can enter up to 2 AAC sanctioned Steeplechases, which do count for Q's toward your Steeplechase titles. These Steeplechases are also qualifiers for an invitational only Steeplechase on Sunday afternoon. The Steeplechase Final follows the Regional competition and provides entertainment for the majority of competitors (since only a few dogs make the final), spectators, and the volunteers while the organizing committee frantically tallies the totals from the day's competition to determine the final standing of several hundred dogs. It's a really fun event with music and cheering and a commentator, and everyone tends to run all out because there is no qualification on the line... just money!

Loving that running A-frame!

This year in the Steeplechase prelims Kenna placed 1st and 3rd in her two Steeplechases and qualified as the second place dog in her height for the Finals, which she went on to win. I was so proud of both of us. It is a fast course and I wanted to get a bunch of blind crosses in to stay ahead of her and push her to be her fastest... and I got them all in! Kenna ran amazing and was still giving me her all even though it was her 9th run after 3 days!

The Regional competition happens on the Saturday and Sunday. There are 3 runs each day: Jumpers, Standard, and Gamble. You run one of each and it works a little different than a local trial. In Jumpers and Standard you start with a certain number of points (75 for Jumpers and 100 for Standard) and for every mistake you make you lose points - 5 points for bars, 20 points for an off course, etc. If you are clean you keep your points and you also get bonus points, one point per second under the standard course time. In Gamble you start with 0 points and you collect points in your opening the way you normally would in a regular Gamble event. However, for your final gamble, instead of it just being a "yes/no" and you need it to qualify (and technically for placement it just doubles your opening points), you get 35 points for completing it successfully.

All of the points that you earn during the 6 runs get added together to give you a total at the end of the weekend. You need 350 points to qualify for Nationals. Placements in each height class are given from 1 to 10 (the AAC only provides 1 to 6, but here in Alberta we have an amazing competitor/doggy daycare owner who donates 7-10 each year).

The 24" Regular class is not the MOST competitive class. We had 12 dogs total running in our class compared to 51 in the 20" Regular and 20 dogs in both the 16" and 12" Regular classes. However, the 24" class is almost exclusively large border collies, world team border collies (being up jumped to their international height), and malinois. We were missing 2 really strong competitors this year... one wasn't entered and the other was pulled due to a handler injury. Still, we had some really strong competition in our class, including a multi world medalist. I cannot even express how proud I was that Kenna won the Regional Championship. This was her very first Regionals and she's only just turned 3... she's just starting to come into her prime agility years. She ran consistently all weekend and never put a paw out of place. For a greyhound to win this class full of border collies and malinois is just... unreal. I still can hardly believe it happened.

Now we look forward to our first National Championships in Ontario. That's been a headache in itself... having to fly a dog for the first time, having to pack for an agility trial with a limited amount of baggage space, coordinating hotel and car buddies. It's all quite the new experience for me, but I'm very excited to take this next step in my agility journey. We will also be trying out for the IFCS World Team at the National event, so wish us luck!

Kenna - CKC Team Canada Tryouts

I'm super thrilled with Kenna's performance at her first National team tryouts event this past weekend. Not only was it a huge personal victory for us as a team, but I hope for "off" breeds everywhere. Who would have thought someone could show up with a greyhound and survive in that level of competition?

For all of the trials and tribulations that we dealt with leading up to this event with switching from stopped to running A-frame, and then being unable to practice for 2 months because of my back... in spite of all of that I am absolutely amazed at how connected we were. It felt amazing to get out there and run with my crazy greyhound. I have never seen courses as ridiculously hard as some of those were, and yet we managed to get through them. I know what kinds of things we need to work on now that we've had this experience, so that we can make things smoother and faster and hopefully really challenge for a spot on the team next year.

Although we didn't make the team this year, I am beyond proud of us. Kenna finished 25th out of 57 dogs, just one spot out from being named as an alternate to the EO team. She got points in two of her runs, and two of the runs she was eliminated on were such minor errors (one by me and one probably a combination of me and her). She made some really tough weave pole entries and she hit all of her A-frame contacts. I tried some things that I thought "yeah, she can do that in theory" but that I would usually never try in a regular trial (I'd pick something safer but slower) and she showed me just what a great skill set she has.

I also need to say a thank you to everyone who supported us through this experience. To the people who have been encouraging me for the past year to take her to tryouts; I was cursing you all when I started to see some of the courses, but it turns out you were right after all. To everyone who had kind words for us on our runs, even our less than perfect ones. The huge cheer at the end of our second agility run (we were only the second team to run it clean) gives me goosebumps and shows just how amazing, supportive, and inclusive the agility world can be. And finally to my coaches for all of their advice and help over the years.

This was a bit of a scary undertaking. If you asked me before whether I thought a greyhound could make a Canadian National team I would have said, "I don't know", if you ask me now... I think it's certainly a possibility and I'm excited to keep trying with the best partner I could ask for.

Kenna - Terry Simons Seminar

Kenna and I were lucky enough to snag a spot in the Terry Simons seminar that happened recently in Edmonton. A local competitor/dog daycare owner here brings him up every year, but as with all these seminars spots are hard to come by and fill quickly. As a result this is actually the first big seminar that I've attended.

The seminar was held at a turf facility, where we have taken classes on occasion. It's the only turf facility in the area that I'm aware of. It's good to get Kenna running on a variety of footings to get her comfortable, but I definitely find that turf is not her favourite. It can be a bit slippery and I do see her slip on turns and pull bars more often than usual, I also find she's not as fast (though this may also be related to the fact that the facility is not full size so obstacles tend to be a little closer together, which is obviously not as ideal for her to get up to speed.

I was really pleased with how Kenna handled everything. We didn't have any major problems with any of the course segments we were shown, mostly working on small adjustments and tweaks here and there. I'm feeling great about how she's matured and where we're at with her third birthday coming up in just a few days.

Kenna - Master Challenge Dog of Canada

We were at a local trial this past weekend. I was exhausted from working the day before and feeling a little put out that I would have to work again the next day... and you know maybe I should have taken a day of just hanging around at home resting and catching up on errands instead of being at agility. But what fun is there in that when I'm planning my life?

The girls did a great job of making it worthwhile. Kenna had a perfect day with 4 qualifying runs in Standard, Steeplechase, Snooker and Challenge, which completed her Challenge title. She also hit all 5 of the A-frames she was presented with, which makes me feel great about where we're at with retraining her to a running frame. This dog is absolutely amazing. I swear there's nothing she can't do.

Kenna - International Night

How did I get so lucky to have this dog as my partner? Kenna absolutely blew me away yesterday at International Night. I say "jump" and she asks, "how high?"... I say let's change to a running frame and 4 weeks later it's almost perfect. What more could I ask for in a dog? I only wish I was the handler she deserves to be her best. I'm trying my hardest and have learned so much, but as usual most of our mistakes were my fault. And she's okay with that... she's so forgiving and just wants to play with me.

It's funny though, because I'm always kind of disappointed with how much slower Kenna looks on video than in real life. I just about died yesterday, Kenna was so fast, and now I watch the videos back and I'm like "meh". (Ironically, her weave poles look way faster on video than they feel in person.) Either she's not as fast as I think (but this seems unlikely because I myself am probably one of the fastest handlers and I can barely keep up and stay ahead) or that darn long stride of hers is very deceiving on video. It would be super interesting if I could get video of a border collie and Kenna with similar total course times to play side by side as a little experiment on the impact stride length has on the perception of speed on video. I remember a discussion about this during a horse show jumping event that I was watching years ago... there was a relatively larger horse with a long stride and the commentator discussed how it looked like it was kind of lumbering along but in fact it was on pace to set the fastest time. I tried to look this topic up online, however, and couldn't find anything remotely relative.

Running A-Frame

You know that moment when you realize you might actually be insane? Well mine wasn't when I decided I was going to purposely buy a greyhound puppy for agility, or even when I decided to get a SECOND greyhound puppy for agility... it was a few months ago when I said to my agility trainer: "You know, I think I want to retrain my A-frame from stopped to running." That, my friends, is the definition of insanity. Trading in a 100% stopped contact behaviour that gives you a place to catch up with your dog, for a running contact which even at its most reliable is probably only 95% and makes you have to run so much more.

Not only are we talking about retraining a solid, well understood behaviour, but a running contact also requires the handler to retrain themselves in how to handle.

We had a private lesson on December 13, 2018 on how to convert to a running frame. 3 weeks later we had our first trial. It's still a journey in progress, but I thought I'd share our progress to this point. I had very bravely filled our January with trials, so we'll see how those go before we start signing up for February!

This was the first session we had after our lesson. We started by back-chaining... just putting her on the down ramp of the frame and asking her to step into the yellow and off. After a few repetitions of that we started doing the entire frame. I'm also using her release word to let her know she doesn't have to stop, and she's still not totally confident so there's a bit of hesitation. The bar or "stride regulator" gives her a target that her second stride needs to be below. Basically she needs to put in 2 strides.

This is the second week of training. I've been noticing that on many of the attempts without the stride regulator her stride is quite short and so even though she's put in the second stride, she's only just barely hitting the top of the yellow. The goal is for us to get all 4 feet in the yellow - 2 front feet followed by 2 back feet. When she hits high she's often only hitting with 2 feet. To try to help with this I've been adding in a wicket at the base of the frame. Typically you train a running frame with one method - people either subscribe to the wicket or the stride method. But heck, I'm already doing insane things like training greyhounds in agility, so why stop there? When training an unconventional dog in an unconventional sport use unconventional methods! Like using BOTH a wicket AND a stride regulator!

The stride method basically teaches the dog to put in a certain number of strides in order to hit the yellow. For large dogs that's 2 strides, for smaller dogs it may be more (don't ask me how many more because I don't have any small dogs!). The wicket method is different in that the striding doesn't really matter. What the wicket does is forces the dog to drop its head, which in turn forces the dog to run lower on the frame.

For the most part I do like the striding method, but since she is hitting a bit high, I'm hoping that getting her to drop her head a bit will force her to lengthen that stride a bit. Right now I'm using the wicket for the first couple attempts, then ditching it for just the stride regulator, and then finally removing everything (or using the stride regulator on one side and nothing on the other).

It's a work in progress, but here was Kenna today debuting her new running frame at a trial. I had run her FEO in the run before this and just had her do the frame a few times and rewarded with a toy, just to remind her and see what she would do in a trial environment. She was hitting high but doing her job. The frame in the Standard run was by far her best one of the day.

Kenna - International Night

Kenna recently attended her very first International Night, hosted by a local competitive trainer. International Nights are a special fun match type event that features world level or "international style" courses... i.e. hard! Although anyone can attend (if you can get a spot! They sell out fast!), these fun matches tend to have a lot of very high level competitors (world team members and those with world team aspirations).

I decided to try it out with Kenna as she's been developing really well and I wanted to test some of our skills. I'm always looking for ways to push myself and become a better handler, and what better way than international courses!?

I was so proud of us. There is a Jumpers course and a Standard course, and you get 2 turns at each. I'm sad that I forgot to video our second run on this Standard course as it was pretty close to perfect. In this first run we handled it really well for the most part, but Kenna tripped going up the teeter and had to bail off, and you'll also see that she almost face plants coming out of the close tunnel. And then I messed up the handling at the end (in the second run I instead chose to trust my dog, leave the backside after the dogwalk earlier to get far enough ahead to do the blind cross instead of the front, preventing me from losing sight of the tunnel entrance we were aiming for).

Can't wait for the next one!

Dogs At Large trial - Kenna MJDC

We were at another local trial recently where both girls ran fabulously. All of the errors were mine - I messed each dog up once with my handling... Kenna on her Masters Standard run (not videoed) and Kili on her Challenge.

Kili was a very good girl but the entire day I felt like she was a bit slow. At first I wondered if she is just getting older and needs to be dropped down to Specials. She's also had a bunch of time off for that toe injury, but I did run her at the CKC trial last month and she was wickedly fast. Finally after the final run of the day, as I was running her back to her kennel my trainer noticed that she was limping on her back left leg. I couldn't find anything significant with it and she is right back to normal again, so she must have just tweaked something.

Kenna finished her Master Jumpers Dog of Canada title as well on this final run. Good girl. We really need more Gamble and Snooker runs to enter as we're falling behind on those. She still needs one of each to get out of Advanced... we just haven't entered any trials offering them lately!

Kenna - CKC Trial in Calgary

In mid-September I decided to take the girls to a CKC trial in Calgary. We unfortunately missed most of the trials this summer due to my hectic schedule training for the World Championships in Ultimate Frisbee, and so we are just getting back into the swing of things for the fall. The girls are both very happy about this. Kili had hurt a toe in August right after I got home from Worlds, and so she had to be on agility hiatus. I did allow her to run in this trial but only 1 run per day, and because her championship is finished she only ran Jumps and Tunnels which is a bit of a newer class. She did great and Q'd in both.

Kenna on the other hand had a very full weekend with 5 runs each day. Saturday went awesome for us, except for some slipping and dropped poles due to the wet ground. But she was engaged and didn't otherwise put a paw out of place.

Sunday was a bit of a different story. I think I've realized that I need to enter more 2 day trials with her! She struggled a bit on Sunday, and honestly I think she was just mind blown at running a second day and a little bit of puppy came out. She was a little unfocused, making some uncharacteristic choices. Nothing like Kili back in the day (and sometimes still in the current day, ha ha!) but certainly out of character for my serious, focused Kenna. That's not a surprise though. She needs to learn to work through being both simultaneously aroused AND tired, and I think that was the struggle for her. We also just had bad luck. On two good Jumpers runs we had bars in one and then I messed up in the other.

Overall I was pretty happy with the weekend. I approached the weekend with the mindset that I wasn't going to baby any of the handling... I was going to run it like I know we can in practice and trust myself and my dog. Sometimes in agility we might see a hard section of the course and two ways to run it. One which is better and faster, and one that is SAFER but not necessarily as pretty or as smooth. Us casual competitors often just want the Q (nothing wrong with that!) and so we take the safer option. But sometimes to get better we need to test our skills that we know (or think) we have in practice to see if we have them in a trial setting. And sometimes it helps us identify areas that need more work.

We got some Q's (and therefore points toward Top Dog!) and we also had some great take aways on skills that need to be worked on more. There is always something to do in agility training... your dog is never totally trained.

Kenna - CKC Intermediate titles

After I posted Kili's CKC championship videos I completely forgot about posting Kenna's runs from that same trial back in May! I've only just remembered!

Kenna actually had a really awesome trial that weekend as well and completed both of her Intermediate titles, moving up to Excellent.

OC Trial - Splitscreen Agility

Last weekend the girls attended a local agility trial and both did really well.

Kenna had a bit of bad luck in her Gamble. She had a beautiful opening, but the course time for the closing gamble was very tight and even though she did it, she had a little bobble that cost enough time that we were a split second over time... so no Q. :( She also had a really beautiful Challenge run that I didn't get recorded.

Kili ran really well and had a perfect trial. She completed her Master Team Relay Dog of Canada and got her 10th Masters Jumpers which completed her Expert Bronze Jumpers. Unfortunately, I didn't get either of those runs on tape.

Both girls ran a really nice Master Standard course and I have video of both girls. So I thought it would be really fun to split screen the runs and watch them run it against each other. It really highlights the differences in their running styles. Kenna is so compact and can turn nice and tight, and she collects nicely over jumps when asked. Kili has no clue how to collect and takes pretty much every jump in extension no matter how hard I try to convey to her that she needs to shorten up her landing. The result is that Kenna is WAY faster, even though their actual ground speed is probably fairly similar. Kenna saves strides by turning tight.

BLAST trial - Masters Dogs

I have been nursing a couple of injuries recently so the dogs have not been doing much agility the past couple of months. We have been focusing on obedience and some of our SuperDogs behaviours as we have a show coming up in March. However, the girls did have a half day trial this weekend where they had a lot of fun.

This was Kenna's first trial running some courses at the Masters level. She has moved up in both Standard and Jumpers, so she got to try a Masters Jumpers course and a Challenge. Challenge is a Masters Standard class that adds some extra degree of difficulty. There are usually some extra "challenges" on the course compared to a typical Standard course. We had a couple of small bobbles that we were able to save on this course, and overall I thought she handled it very well! In fact, she was 2nd across all heights, and if I hadn't made her hold her contacts and wasted an extra second or two she would have been first (but contact criteria is really important to me right now, it's well worth the extra time it takes).

Kili got a Q in Masters Snooker, but sadly no video... although she was a bit wild and there was a fair bit of yelling involved to keep her on track... similar to her Masters Jumpers run. She didn't qualify in Jumpers but I was quite happy with how she handled the course as it was very tricky. Kenna had baby dog brain and couldn't quite get her act together on the Jumpers run, but it was her very first Masters run so I forgave her. ;) Kenna is 23 months old now and I'm just tickled pink with how she's coming along. She's really something special.

19 months - Gamble Skills

A couple of weeks ago, I took the girls for a half day trial. I'm gearing up for a big trip to Argentina for an ultimate frisbee tournament, so I'm trying to conserve a bit of time and money, but at the same time, the next trial the girls would be able to attend isn't until mid-December... so I figured 3 runs each still left me some time in the afternoon to get some errands done!

Kenna picked up her first Starter Gamble Q, and she did it in style. What a show off! She did both of the mini gambles twice, and we even ran out of things to do before we ran out of time. She handled the main gamble with ease as well. She needs one more to move on up to Advanced!

19 months - Agility Dog of Canada

Kenna attended her second AAC trial over the Thanksgiving weekend. And what a trial it was! She was entered in 8 runs over the two days, with 6 being eligible for Q's and 2 being FEO (For Exhibition Only). She Q'd 5/6, only missing her very first run of the weekend which was Steeplechase.

On Saturday she picked up the last 2 Starters Standard legs she needed to finish her Agility Dog of Canada (ADC) title. It took Kili and I over a year, and countless trials to earn that title... Kenna did it in 2 days and 4 runs (you need 3 Q's for the title). She also was awarded the Judge's Choice award that day, for the best Starter/Advanced Contacts. The prize was a trial record book for recording your runs and Q's.

On Sunday, she picked up her first 2 Advanced Standard legs, and the final Starter Jumpers leg she needed to move up. Which means I really need to get to work on Gamble and Snooker now! We did struggle a bit with her dogwalk contact on Sunday. She is really coming into her own at trials, becoming speedier and more driven (as if we needed that! ha!) and she was having trouble sticking her 2-on-2-off dogwalk contact. She was going so fast that she was sliding right off the end. She was still making the contact so it's not a fault, but for control and criteria I really want her to stick it. We'll be working that even more in practice, and also in FEO runs at trials when the atmosphere really gets her excited.

Here are her Sunday runs:

19 months - CKC debut

  Kenna had her CKC agility debut the weekend after her AAC debut. We made the 3.5 hr drive down to Calgary for this trial because we had to miss the big show at Spruce Meadows this summer. I had strained my back pretty badly the previous week, so the drive was a bit rough. I'd been in physiotherapy all week in order to get to a point where I hoped I'd be able to make the drive and still be able to run the next morning. I think my physiotherapist might think I'm a bit nuts... being in a rush to heal in order to... compete with my dogs. ha ha. Anyway, he did a great job because I was only a bit sore the morning of and was able to get both girls around 5 courses each... and still drive home to Edmonton!

Kenna was an absolute superstar. She had a perfect trial going 5/5, and with 3 Novice Standard Q's she earned her very first title, her Agility Novice. She needs one more Jumpers to complete that title.

She was very focused and only had one slip up in that regard, which was during her very first Standard run. She generally doesn't visit with the ring crew, but when she got up on the table she suddenly heard the photographer's camera clicking which got her attention. She was a good girl and didn't jump off the table until she was released, but the next obstacle was the weave poles and it was just too much. She ran over to investigate why this person was sitting in the ring using a clicker... and where was her treat? Click, treat! I called her back, and she went back to work and finished the rest of the run without incident. Silly baby dog!

18 months - AAC debut

Kenna turned 18 months old on Friday and weighed in at 27 kg. She had her AAC debut the very next day and I was very pleased with how it went. Overall she was fast and driven, but also focused and controlled.

We started with just a single run on Saturday in Jumpers. She rattled a couple bars, but left them all up, and finished the course clean in a little over 15 seconds... earning herself her first Q and also first place in the entire Starters class.

On Sunday Kenna got to run 3 times. She earned her very first Standard Q-  that first Q took Kili over a year to achieve and Kenna gets it her first try... go figure! She had a few problems with the weave poles, but she was very high (translation: excited, driven, over the top) and this club's weaves aren't perfectly straight which you can actually see in the video. Kili had a hard time with these weave poles  too when she was a novice dog. I was really proud of Kenna for getting through them and it's good for the dogs to see weaves that aren't perfectly straight so that it just becomes another potential problem that you have proofed against. I was happy with her contacts as she hit her 2-on-2-off positions quickly and showed good understanding and control - you can see her begin to release off the A-frame as I'm making the blind cross in front of her, but she remembers and steps back on her own to wait for the release word.

Her second Jumpers run was beautiful, but unfortunately she knocked a bar, and I think that threw her off stride so that she missed the next jump. I was really happy with the way she quickly called off the tunnel though and came back to take the missed jump.

Her final run wasn't videoed but we had a little teaching moment. She was the very last dog of the day and it had been a long day for a young dog! She had a bit of puppy brain and broke her start line, so we ended up spending all of our time working a start line. It's part of transitioning a young dog from training to trialing - they have to learn that the rules still apply in competition! It was a valuable lesson and I'm hoping she remembers it next weekend for her CKC debut!

Overall, I was so happy with this weekend and so excited to see what the future holds for us as a team.

16 months - Official UKI Debut

A few weeks ago Kenna had her official UKI trial debut. UKI allows dogs to compete in 2 events, Nursery Agility and Speedstakes, starting at the age of 15 months. I don't think Q's in Nursery count for anything, but Speedstakes does. No Q's for Kenna, just a couple of little mistakes, but I was very happy with how she ran. She was fast, focused, and very responsive. She is such a good little puppy for just 16 months old! I can't wait for September when she gets to start AAC and CKC!

15 months - UKI (unofficial) debut

Recently the girls and I tried out UKI agility for the first time. We already play in two other organizations (AAC and CKC) and really didn't need a third one to split our time and money to. However, I decided to sign up because they allow dogs to compete at 15 months in select classes (Speedstakes and Nursery). Unfortunately, those classes weren't offered at this trial, but they ended up offering some unofficial fun runs which was just as good. Kenna is ready to trial, she's just not old enough, and fun runs and the younger start age in UKI are great for exposing her to running in a trial environment.

Trials are a different environment from what most of us train in. There are lots of other dogs around, it's loud, it's busy, and handlers are often a bit stressed or nervous. Some dogs find this environment scary, and others might find it overly exciting. And then there are dogs that become trial-wise: they learn that at trials there are no food or toys in the ring. Many young dogs struggle at first in trials because of these reasons... they get anxious, or they get too excited to focus properly, or they just realize that it might be more fun to run around on their own since you don't have anything for them anyway. Since Kenna has all the skills she needs to start trialing, I want to start exposing her to running in trials so she learns to focus and stay with me until the end and that her reward is coming... it's just delayed a bit!

Kenna did absolutely wonderful. I was so pleased with her. I alternated taking a toy in to reward her with, and making her run the entire thing and giving a jackpot outside of the ring. This keeps her guessing for now, and I'll slowly start to phase out the toy in the ring until we never have one. She was beautifully focused, she listened very well, her contacts were perfect, her weaves were perfect. I am just so happy with her and it was so much fun to get to show her off for the first time.

Here are her runs (or portions of her runs... my videographer was a little late on a few of them!)

The other reason I signed up for UKI is because it is the only organization our friend can run her dog in. Fisher is her almost 3 year old English Setter. He developed cancer on his leg as a 3 month old puppy. He was treated with radiation several times to control it, but just before his 2nd birthday last year, it stopped responding to treatment and the leg had to be amputated. Unfortunately, this meant he was no longer allowed to run in AAC or CKC agility. Fortunately, she found out that UKI leaves this matter to the discretion of the judges. Most of the judges around here have seen Fisher run before, and they know that he is safe and not in pain. Fisher just has so much fun doing agility. He is such a joy to watch on course, and we had a great time getting to hang out at a trial again. We are joking about attending World Team tryouts next year... just show up with a greyhound and a 3-legged dog. Can you say #underdogs ? It just goes to show that ANY dog can do agility. Go Fisher!

NACA dog show 2017

Another Northern Alberta Canine Association (NACA) dog show is behind us. This is a large, local show that we attend every year for agility, and this year Kenna also showed in conformation. The show also hosts Rally and Obedience competitions.

I was so pleased with how Kili ran. She was listening and controlled all weekend long, but we just couldn't seem to find our lucky charms. On some very tough courses we handled all the hard stuff but struggled with minor 5-fault errors and only ended up Q'ing 2 out of 9 runs. It's almost more disappointing when we run well but can't Q. Still, I was very pleased with Kili's performance, and I got a couple of nice comments on how well she was running.

Kenna showed 3 days in a row, and sadly I can tell that her interest and comfort with showing are dwindling. She was absolutely fabulous the first day, stacking well, beautiful free stacking, super interested and attentive. There were no other greyhounds entered that day so she went to the group ring automatically. She made the first cut in group but not the second for placements. Still, that's the best we have done in the group ring! Later that day we were entered in Juvenile Sweepstakes and Kenna won Best of Opposite Sex! To get there she had to beat out 4 other 12-18 month females of various breeds, then she went into the ring with the winners of the 6-9 month and 9-12 month categories and the male winner of the 12-18 month. The 12-18 month male won the sweepstakes, and Kenna was second. Unfortunately, in sweepstakes there are no championship points awarded, however you win a portion of the entry fees. Her total earnings for the day was $91, which basically paid her full 3 days of entry fees. Yay! Unfortunately, she was not too happy about having to go back into the ring the next two days. She was a good girl and did her job, but she just lacked that happy spark that I like to see. We will go to some more handling classes and try to get her more comfortable again.

As a special treat for being so good, and having to go in the show ring while Kili got all the fun of playing agility, I convinced the hosting club to let me run Kenna for fun at the very end of the trial. The last class was Novice Jumpers, so that's the course we ran. Kenna was tired and pent up from a long day in the show ring and in her crate, and at first I don't think she knew what to make of being brought into an agility ring. She was so excited! This was also the first time she's gotten to play outdoors since last fall. And she's never seen this ring before. What a good baby dog!

Slow Motion Weave Poles

A few years ago I took a seminar with Dr. Christine Zink, a sports and rehabilitation specialist. I learned all sorts of great stuff there, including a discussion on how to identify lameness using jumps and weave poles. A colleague of mine just recently attended the same seminar, and she asked me to get some slow motion videos of dogs doing weave poles for her to analyze, so I took a video camera to practice a couple of times and got some footage of my own dogs, as well as one of my trainer's dogs. Basically you can look at what the dog is doing with footwork to help identify front leg lameness. Dogs do weave poles one of two ways: single foot or double foot. Most large dogs use a single foot technique, while small dogs use the double foot, however some large dogs will also use the double foot technique. Deviation in how a dog performs on one side of the poles vs the others can be an indication of lameness.

Aside from lameness studies, weaves poles are just really neat to check out in slow motion.

Here is Kili who is quite proficient with the single foot technique and shows a very clean and consistent footwork pattern on both sides of the poles:

And here is Kenna at 14 months who has been doing a full set of 12 poles for only about 3 weeks now. She is very fast and looks great, however you can see that her footwork is not 100% consistent yet. In this video she tends to use one foot on the right side but two feet on the left. If I were to video her over several different sessions we would see that she sometimes uses the single foot technique the whole way through, and she sometimes throws a couple of double feet in. She's young and very green on the weave poles so this is just her figuring out the footwork that works best for her, and I imagine that as she gains more experience she will settle into being a single footer. On an experienced dog who typically uses the one foot technique, however, a video like this might indicate that the dog is experiencing pain or discomfort, most likely on the left front leg.