now bad footing

the last 2 trials I ran Sony at had lovely footing, however that was not the case this past weekend. although its always nice to have trials close to home ( 1 hr) the footing was very slippery. loose sand/ shredded rubber over hard packed clay. my girls slipped all weekend and even I went down at 1 point. Sony really tried her heart out and did fairly well. Sat she ran Pairs at 22" with Rivet, I ran Rivet and Nick ran Sony. other than Nick still learning how to handle discrimination's he did great and Sony ran well. I then ran her in PGP at 16 and she popped out of the poles. of course other than that she ran perfect. Nick ran her in PII std and PI snooker and Gamblers. boy is she gonna teach him a thing or 2 :) Last Class of the weekend was Masters Jumpers at 22" she dropped 2 bars 1 was the first one and she dropped the triple. but I think I pushed into her and caused it. other than that she tried real hard and jumped better. so those 3 jumper legs are Gonna have to wait until 2010. but I fell confident I will get them.

I knew Sony would need to be adjusted I even caught her pacing at one point over the weekend. so Dr A checked her after work yesterday and she was not as bad as I thought but she did a number on her mid back and had a rib out. those are very ouchy. and some on her neck nothing horrible but those ribs can pinch. poor Rivet did a number on her self as well. we have time off till Feb from trialing, we have a few seminars and more training and more getting fit for her.


Judy and Sony

awesome weekend!!

I decided to run Sony solely in Perf 16" for the tournaments, simply for the reason that Nationals will be on the east coast and Since Sony will be 8 yrs old then, I don't think she can compete against the young dogs coming up. I do think she can be competitive in the 16" perf class so that's where she is going to stay :)

that said I went to PA for tournament only trial. what a fun fun weekend we had. Sony had a great time at 16" and really did well her speed has really picked up and she looked and jumped very comfortable, she had 1 bar maybe 2 all weekend . she Qualified in PSJ and PVP 1 refusal in GP kept us from Q'ing and winning that, (still had fastest time ) but she really was just awesome to run. a few minor bobbles here and there with the big fat E in relay I think we could have won the PVP. darn ;)

we continue to work and train in a mix of 16 and 22" we are headed to a trial local and she is running with Nick. then some seminars in Jan and the next trial will be in Feb where we will run in a mix between me and Nick. still shooting for her LAA Bronze we need 3 more jumper legs.

she continues to work and get strong. I plan on scheduling some time with Melanie for the UWTM over the winter to keep her going esp when the nasty weather hits.


Judy and Sony
just needs 2 PGP to be completely Q'd for 2010:)

Love the dirt

this past weekend I ran Sony at the Y agility trial in CT was nice to fairly close to home , they had nice packed dirt that Sony just loves! I drove up sat AM but stayed in a Hotel Sat night. Sony was entered in Perf GP 16" and Masters Gamb 22" on Sat. she had an almost perfect run in Perf GP, she popped the poles 'HUH' was very odd for her. she ran the rest perfect and fast. masters Gamb went quite late and although she seemed a bit stiff it was nothing like when she was at Fair hill. she walked out of it pretty quick. I did a few warm up jumps and she seemed OK. fortunately my plan didn't have alot of jumps. 2 contacts 2 tunnels and 2 WP. she did the opening well but now she really could not Weave. she was skipping all through all 12 could not get them. a few people said later how crappy they were but this is Sony, she can weave through anything and has. so I am a little concerned. she did get the Gamble but with out the WP not enough opening points. bummer. I went over her later and remembering that David said her abductor was sore I tried to work on it and she didn't like it. I gave her and NSAID that night and some herbs.
The next day I took one look at Masters Std and decided that since she wasn't comfortable in the WP and the course was very jerky and tight I scratched her. and give jumpers a try. she seemed just fine at the warm up jump and did great through most of the course, but I got lost, and caused a refusal and a bar. she had another bar, I think the very next one but not sure. she left all the spreads up and felt very good running.

I am glad she has 3 weeks to rest, before the next trial and that one she is at 16" I am giving her the NSAID for a few days to help with any inflammation and the herbs for a week maybe 2. I will discuss that more with Dr Angela tom. so rest for now.

Judy and Sony

Fun in the mudd!!!

as I had mentioned earlier Sony was on a CH team last weekend at Fair Hill. she did well despite the fact that it rained all weekend. fri was OK but Sat was a mess. My teamates and I decided not to scratch but to at least start running and then see how the dogs did. since they were seasoned dogs and knew about running in muck . The original schedule had Sony with 3 team classes on sat and Perf GP we ran Team Snooker Jumpers and Gamblers . Sony did pretty well considering her state of fitness and all the muck. Team jumpers she had 2 bars and 1 refusal(cuz I got lost and could not find #8 :)) she had the double down and the last jump. but managed a score :) Team Gamblers I opted to do as few jumps as I could. she did well and managed to keep all her Gamble points. Before I ran Team Snooker I had David work on her, he said she was a little tight but not surprising with the weather. I did keep her coat on as much as poss and we even ran the van for the heat a few times during the day. she was having an AWESOME run in snooker but I caused a refusal at #3. my teamates were doing a bit better than me and we were in qualifying range after the first 3 classes. however because of the weather the decision was made to cancel Team Std on Sunday and Run Team Relay on Sat. then all 3 tourn were done. so I went back to the van to get Sony out and she was real stiff and sore. David had already gone for the day so I told me teamies I was not comfortable running her. they were fine with it and decided to run the other 2 dogs anyway. all I had to do was go out there no dog and trigger the timer with my hand and hand off the baton. I believe my two teamies ran clean but my 200 faults for not running relay put out of Qualifying range. I felt bad but knew I made the right decision for Sony. I also scratched her from Perf GP even tho it was 16".

That eve she got out of the van at the hotel much better, and hardly seemed sore. unfortunately since she was covered in mud she and Rivet had to sleep in soft crates. I felt bad but at least it was warm . Sunday started out pretty chilly and miserable but not much rain. many people left and that made for a very early finish. we stayed to help pack the trailers, by then the sun made an appearence so I took the girls for a walk along the cross country course. and after we took a picture of the dogs on one of the jumps.

Sony has a trial next weekend some classes at 22 some at 16" can't remember. then a few weeks off until the Tourn only trial in PA. until then..

Judy and the finaly clean Sony :)

Forgot

forgot a link to the flyball tourny in IN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47qzk70gUmo

Sony is on the last team "Pirates for Hire" she is the 3rd dog. just 1 quick race :)

Happy Anniversary

its been exactly 1 year since Sony's surgery. its been a long road but she is back and doing well. still not as fit as she could be but we are getting there!

she has been very busy the last few weekends we played flyball in IN for 3 days then last weekend we were at the Keystone trial. this coming weekend we will be at Fair Hill in MD for 3 days.

the weekend of flyball was a ton of fun. Sony and Rivet shared a spot so neither had to race full time. well Sony surprised me and did very well and did not get too tired until the last race on the last day. one of her greatest assets is she can rest in a crate even with all the noise. I found her more than once upside down having a snooze :) she hasn't really played in almost 2 years but she never forgot. not only did she never fault. her box turn never deteriorated. it was so much fun to run her again. the exercise was even good for her.

knowing that we were busy a few weekends in a row I had planned to give Sony an easy weekend at Keystone. and concentrate on Rivet . so Sony was entered in Perf Speed at 16" on Sat. she was having a great run but I miss cued and she ran around a jump, in trying to fix it quickly I sent her to an off course jump which she gladly shot off to :).
Sunday I entered her in Masters Std at 22" since she was going to be on a team at FHI next weekend at 22" she dropped the first bar which I never heard but saw the judge put his hand up, so figured she at least didn't crash it :) she ran the rest of the course flawlessly with no other faults. I could not be happier. I was told by a friend who was watching she looked pretty good at 22" from what I saw I too thought she looked OK. makes me feel pretty good going into next weeks team. the first jump has been an issue for her but I will try and work on it before the weekend.

I did alot of thinking on my 3+ hr drive home. I was asked about the Kinetic dog tourn trial if I was doing Perf or CH. as I had not decided, I was asked about poss doing a Perf team . I accepted the offer and will be teaming with Katie Conn and Twix who recently got back from worlds. no pressure right :) :)

so I decided that even tho Sony is doing well I am going to get her Qualified in all the Perf tourn. just what she needs. (2 PGP 2 PPSJ and 1 PVP) then concentrate on getting her Q'd in CH. then I can see what she is ready for come next years nationals. I believe if she has even qualifiers I can choose. so will have to make sure I keep track.

Judy and Sony

more grids

Sony has become the queen of how not to do a grid :) she doesn't want to extend, she will add steps and if I make it to tight she just goes around or throws herself. smart little dog. I spent the last week working on different set ups to get her to use her rear with out cheating :) 1 thing I did was go back to Linda M one jump work that helps her a bunch. some susan salo stuff, 1 in particular helps but only at low heights. so I took that one shortened it to 3 jumps instead of 5 and played with the distance and height. I also play with where I set her up, far back or close. just did a bunch of them and she was real good. she has a trial this weekend and I put her back to 16 she has another trial in 2 weeks but 3 days of flyball next weekend. fortunately she is not a full time dog and rivet is her back up so I can pick and choose depending on how she is.

Judy and sony