New Titles for Cinder

On November 29th, Cinder had a wonderful day. She went 4-for-4 in qualifying runs!

The day started with her Rally Excellent class. Deb said that her attention was fabulous but that she (Deb) cost their team 10 points because she didn't wait for Cinder to do a complete sit before moving again. Ah well. They were 3rd in the class and earned their RE title, which officially ends their rally/obedience career. Deb isn't much for the structure of obedience and was using the rally classes for getting Cinder acustomed to the noises and stress of trials before she was ready for agility. Apparently it worked as Cinder is very serious and undistractable when doing agility.

The rest of the day was her three agility classes. Novice FAST was first and Cinder did very well, garnering 2nd place with a solid run. Then came her first attempt at Open Jumpers. Deb tried to do a lead out but Cinder had other plans and broke her start line stay -- a first for her, but it was bound to happen. Luckily she took the two jumps she was supposed to and they continued on the course. 28 seconds later they had their first OAJ Q and second place of 18 dogs.

After an early 8:00am Rally start, their last class of the day was Novice Standard at 5 pm and they needed a Q for the title. They had a couple of difficult spots -- the weave pole entrance and an awkward front cross caused Cinder to stop halfway up the A-frame -- but they finished and qualified with a third place and their title!

Photos by Moonshots Photography It was a very satisfying day for Deb and Cinder is now Imagine A Sonic Fireball RE NA NAJ

Catching Up

I've been real busy and have been a bad blogger. Also I've still been recovering from the Border Collie National Specialty shows. I re-injured my ankle at the Specialty and have been trying to give it a lot of rest in the hopes that I can avoid a third surgery. It's been almost two full months and it's not much better and I'm getting worried. But nothing is going to happen until after the holidays. I had one holiday season ruined by having surgery on this ankle the Monday after Thanksgiving (the first surgery) and I won't do that again.

The month of October was a special one for Imagine Border Collies. Besides Trey earning her B course duck title (HSBd) and Cinder earning her first ever agility title (her NAJ), both at the Specialty, O'my (on the East Coast) was also earning titles. On October 4th, he earned his OA (Open Agility) title. Then later in the month he went 10 for 10 at a CPE agility trial, garnering several new CPE titles (CL-1, CL-2R, CL-2F, & CL-2H). Then on November 20th, he finished the oh-so-hard-to-get (for him) Novice Jumpers title (NAJ). Way to go O'my!

Beckett and I are stuck at 3 UDX legs as double Qs elude us. Two failed attempts were my fault due to senior moments when I gave the wrong signal (once in Open and once in Utility so I don't feel so stupid). The last two attempts were all on Beckett. I gave the 'sit' signal, she saw the 'sit' signal, but she didn't sit -- both days! I'm not sure what's going on there because even here at home she is blowing off my signals, and not just the 'sit' signal any more -- all of them. So I'm going to give her a little time off and then pick up her training again to be ready for the spring obedience season in late March.

I am waiting for Trey to come into heat -- again. Two years ago, I was in this same situation -- wanting to breed her in the late spring/early summer but with Trey's heat cycle not cooperating. According to my calculations she's due to come in December 11th. But that's not cut in stone as she is rarely regular in her cycles. So I am once again trying to decide when to breed her.

It's easy if she comes in in December -- I'll just breed her on the next cycle. But if she goes beyond the first of the year, then I have to rethink things. Either I breed her on that winter cycle or wait and see when she comes in later in the year. If it gets to be late in the summer of 2010, then I'd be looking at puppies on the ground in cold weather and I really don't want to do that. So then I would have to decide whether to wait for another cycle and breed her on that one, giving me a new pup in 2011 instead of 2010. It's hard to decide what to do. This is "deja vu all over again" just like it was two year ago!

The BCSA National Specialty

I still haven't recovered fully from the week I spent in Wisconsin at the Border Collie Society of America National Specialty dog show. The first three days had herding scheduled and besides having Trey entered all three days on B course ducks, which I have been training her for since last November, I also worked the trials to help keep things moving smoothly along for the other competitors. I must have walked 10 miles those three days as I ran score sheets from the judges to the secretary to record, kept the judges on schedule by having the competitors at the gate in some semblance of order, and also scribed for my friend Robin while she judged sheep runs.

Trey held up well and worked thru some sticky moments (my fault) and did a qualifying job on Monday (a 64 -- barely) and Tuesday (windy, cold, rainy, yucky with a 69.5). I'm proud to say that she did very well despite having a novice trainer and handler (me) who made too many mistakes out on the course.

On Wednesday, she drew the most difficult set of ducks there, ones I saw Sonic struggle with earlier in the week. As soon as I saw them come out of the holding pen, I figured that the possibility of a qualifying run was gone and I went into training mode.

That's probably what saved us as I relaxed and handled better than I'd ever handled in my life. Trey earned her best score of the three days (an 81) under a judge who is extremely hard to qualify under. The judge is a friend of mine but she is tough! So to have qualified and earn our title under Robin was fantastic. And for her to say many nice things about Trey and about my handling was just double thick icing on a great day.

I had just gotten back to the car to put Trey in her crate when Deb walked up. She had just missed our run but was there to share my joy in the new title.

Thursday and Friday were Cinder's days as, after a rocky start in the FAST class which resulted in an NQ, Cinder went on to qualify in four straight classes! which earned her a new title in jumpers (NAJ) and two legs in standard. One more to go and she'll get that NA title, too.

I only got to watch the runs on Thursday as on Friday I was busy working rally and sweeps. But I was real impressed with Cinder's work ethic and the serious way she went about her agility runs. She wasn't real flashy but was so consistent and intent on doing it right. I never have been impressed with most BCs in agility as they tend to be very hyper and out of control, some even to the point of total disregard for their own personal safety. Not for me. And it has really turned me off of agility. But watching Cinder showed me that there can be other ways to run agility. So perhaps I'll give it a try someday.

I was thrilled to have shared in the joy of Cinder's first agility title. It was fun and satisfying, but tiring week. Wonder how long it will take me to recover?

Spectacular September for O'my

O'my and Lois have been very busy in September, earning three AKC titles.

On September 20th, O'my earned his 2nd Rally Advanced leg and then went on to finish the title on 9/24. Lois then moved him up to the Excellent class on the 25th and he continued his qualifying streak with three straight qualifying runs with placements to earn his Rally Excellent title. Tough to do when the agility ring was right across from the rally ring and O'my would much prefer to do agility!

On the agility front, O'my earned his second NA (novice standard) leg on September 12th and then goes on to finish the title on 9/24! That's two titles on the same day for O'my. The NA title also came with three placements earned.

Congratulations to both Lois and O'my on a spectacular September!

O'my Does It Again!

Last weekend, O'my again had a spectacular run and earned another AKC agility leg towards his Novice Standard title. One more to go. Jumpers Qs on the other hand are still eluding him, as Lois and he learn how to work as a team. Lois likes to talk during a run, giving direction, but O'my doesn't stay focused if she does talk and can get pulled off a jump, knocking bars, which is what happened last weekend. Ah well. It does give Lois a chance to 'train' once she knows it's not a qualifying run. She bragged that she was doing rear crosses and that the boy hit every one of his weave pole entries, even with a rear cross. Now I'm not an agility person, but since she was so excited, I'm guessing that that is a GOOD thing.

Way to go Lois & O'my!