Playing Catch Up, Part 4 ... June Fun, Yard Visitor and Floods

These months are just getting away from me these days.  This post will bring you what all we got into during the month of June.

Honestly, other than an agility trial there wasn't much else that went on.  Our hiking and picture taking took a break.  No conformation shows for Tucker happened since he decided to start blowing his coat.

Teach continued to do nose work every week and started to do really good with it and catching on to what was needed to get that reward.

I do have some videos to share from the agility trial.  This one was held where we wnet back in January, at an indoor horse arena.  While it wasn't air conditioned it was at least out of the hot sun.  So that was nice.

We'll start with Teach because he really rocked his first class.  This Touch 'n' Go course was particularly hard and even the upper level dogs struggled with it.  Teach was one of just a few that actually did qualify during this run.  And not only that, but also placed!!!  I was SOOOO proud of him.  If we had to leave right after that I would have been thrilled.

Here's his run and you can see how tricky it was.

Teach got his next Q from the tunnelers class which I'm sad we didn't get on video.  We do have his round 1 where he didn't qualify based on time, but he did everything.  He's a big dog and not speedy so I was thrilled he did get a Q.  

Here's his first run which didn't get a Q but still looked nice.  This was also the last class of the day and it was getting hot ... so he was even less speedy.  LOL!

He ended the day with 2 Q's out of 4, not bad.  And class placements in both.  Good boy Teach!!

Tucker had 2 Q's out of 6 (he did the weaves class which I'll get to in a minute) and even stayed on course and only wanted to visit the judge once and I was able to call him off before he got there.  So even better than the last trial.  It helped that there was no jumps so no need for ring crew to be sitting around.  

Here is Tucker's first Q in Touch 'n' Go Round 2.  Was really proud of this run for him, he gave me a great start line wait to get to the other end of the tunnel to get a good line for the dog walk.

And here is his tunnelers Q which was also round 2.  He's not quite as big as Teach but still doesn't cover the ground like some dogs do for this class.  We really need to clean up our lines to get that time down!

As for the weaves class I mentioned earlier, Tucker decided he didn't want to do them.  He had one good set out of 3 and after we got that I called it good and we finished the class. For the second round I scratched him.  I didn't want to create a habit of blowing by them.  After this show we have gone back to really working with them.  I did get pretty lax on practicing them (being new to agility) and didn't realize how easily they can fall apart.  Lesson learned on my part!  Now we try and practice them several times a week and even then it could be more, I think.

Here is a picture of the boys showing off their ribbons.  

June also brought a cute little visitor to our house one day.  The boys were out back playing when they started checking out our little kid playhouse that we have for Madalynn.  At first I thought great, they have a snake in there and Randy is gone.  Then I saw brown and thought a chipmunk must have went in and now can't get out.  I was wrong on both counts. Check out who was there:

This picture shows where the house is located and the fawn was behind that blue door!  CRAZY!

Thankfully the mama deer did come back for it that night and by morning it was gone.  It was so adorable!!!!!!  Probably won't ever happen again, but I guess she thought it was a safe place to be.

If any of you follow the news or the weather you'll have seen that we have some devastating floods come through southern West Virginia and completely wiped out several small towns towards the end of June.  Even now, almost 2 months later people still are recovering.  And will be for a long time to come.  The lake/dam that is north of us, Summersville Lake, saw its highest levels since it was constructed back in the late 60's.  Randy and I took a drive up there 2 days after the flooding to see.  Water was in the trees and just 10' shy of cresting the spillway.  The release gates at the base of the lake only normally release water during Gauley River White Water Rafting season that starts in the fall.  Normally the outflow for then is 2,800 cubic feet per second.  The amount of water they were releasing once the levels downstream started to recede was 14,500 cubic feet per second.  The campground was completely under water and where RVs normally sit, boats were tied off to trees there that had gotten loose from the marina.  It really was something to see and without that dam towns downstream probably wouldn't have existed.  Here are a few pictures and videos from the lake.

Playing Catch Up, Part 2

These pictures were taken by Irene from Fur-Fetched Photography.  Irene came to the All-American Dog Sports Agility trial in April and took some wonderful pictures.  The collies had a great showing.  With each getting a Q in their Regular Run Classes, Teach in Intro and Tucker in Novice.  This was also the first trial that Tucker did the weavers class.  Loved getting pictures of him weaving.  Stay tuned for our fast forward to May (I'll get everyone caught up!).

Wordless Wednesday: Ready, Set, Go

Mischief Monday: Agility Trial Fun

We started the year off right with a really fun agility trial.  This was sponsored by the place we take lessons from, All American Dog Sports and was a NADAC trial.  We entered 4 classes: Touch n Go, Regular Round 1, Regular Round 2, and Jumpers.  All were in the Intro level except Touch n Go and that was Novice.

The morning was very cold compared to the warm winter we have been having so the dogs were feeling it.  The first class was Touch n Go and it was a HOT MESS!!  OH MY!  The dogs were everywhere.  Teach did place 8th, but didn't qualify and Tucker went off course so got eliminated.  They both had a good time and I had hoped got all the excitement out of their systems.  I do have videos of it I'll share ... in all of our hot mess glory ... HAHA!  (as a side note after watching the videos they didn't seem to do as bad as it felt out there!)

First is Teach.  At the end he came out of the tunnel and went to check the judge out ... he didn't seem real sure about him.

Next up was Tucker.  He's so happy ... HAHA!  We had one moment of brilliance coming out of the tunnel under the dog walk, he's running ahead of me going through every hoop he should (he's also listening to me!), hits the A-Frame, goes through the hoops and was suppose to hit the A-Frame on the way back and did the tunnel instead ... oops!  Then we went to visit the judge at the end, even trying to jump on him.  He thought that may get him some bonus points, but I told him that didn't work that way.

So the first class would be our mischief class because the rest of the trial they redeemed themselves.  Teach qualified in Reg. Round 1 & 2 with a 4th place in Round 1 and a 2nd place in Round 2.  He did excellent in Jumpers, but didn't qualify because of time faults, he was 2 seconds over, but did place 4th.  Qualifying in Round 1 & 2 meant he finished his Intro Regular Title where he had a Q from the previous trial.  I put together his videos from the 3 classes.  They are here:

Tucker also redeemed himself.  Like Teach, Tucker qualified in Regular Round 1 & 2 with a 1st place in Round 2.  This also finished his Intro Regular Title.  In Jumpers Tucker qualified and placed 3rd.  A big plus in Round 2 and in Jumpers was Tucker didn't go visit any of the ring crew, that's huge for him!!  Here are his videos from the 3 classes:

It was a successful weekend.  They dogs came home with lots of ribbons!  We are loving agility and I really see a lot of potential in Tucker.  Teach enjoys it, but I think he does it more for me than himself, but he does have a good time.  And as long as he's having a good time I'll continue to play the agility game.  Tucker truly does seem to LOVE it.  That dogs just flies around the ring.  Randy had a lady stop to see Tucker while he was videoing Teach and I and she couldn't believe the personality Tucker had and said most collies she sees certainly aren't as outgoing as him.  

3rd Bloggiversary!

Looks like I missed Tails of Teach's 3rd Bloggiversary!  It was on Sunday the 13th.  I can't believe I've kept this going for 3 years already.  Even though this past year has really slacked off with the posts.  Its not for the lack of trying ... LOL!

So when we started the blog our family was a family of 3, myself, Randy and Teach.  Then last year we became a family of 4 with addition of Tucker.  I guess at some point I should have changed the name from Tails of Teach to Tails of Teach and Tucker since I mostly post about both of them now.  But I'm leaving it for now.  Maybe sometime down the line it'll change but for now its still Teach's blog.  He just allows posts about Tucker.  HAHA!

I think my last "true" post was back in October or the first of November with a recap of Tucker's show at the East TN Collie Specialty.  Since then we have taken Tucker to one more show in Pennsylvania.  But we weren't so lucky at that show and didn't come home with any ribbons (but still came home with the best dog!).

On the way home we stopped at Gettysburg Battlefield to walk around and stretch our legs.  And of course I had to get pictures.  It was right around sunset so we got some really cool pictures.

Teach and Tucker continue to excel with their agility training.  There is a show coming up the first weekend of January we are going to.

Tucker has accomplished doing 6 straight weave poles for about 3 weeks now.  So proud of him.  Doing them 2x2 is the only way to go!!  I think it took us about 6 months to get here.

Teach is still learning them.  I've struggled finding a motivator for him doing the 2x2 method and our awesome trainer told me to have him weave for dinner.  So that's what we do now.  I put an empty bowl on the reward line and if does them he gets a bite.  And we do this until dinner is gone.  We are also progressing, albeit slow!  

Lets see ... I've been taking lots of pictures so I have no excuse for not posting on Black and White Sunday or Wordless Wednesday.  I need to learn to use the scheduler and start scheduling these posts!  

I did get try my camera skills getting pictures of Madalynn with Teach and Tucker for Christmas Card pictures for my family.  We got some really cute ones!!  Everyone did so well and if wasn't for Madalynn's favorite (Uncle Randy) we wouldn't have gotten smiles from her.  HAHA!

So with that I'm going to save some pictures for future posts and not share all!  Thanks to everyone who has stuck around to read and see the pictures.  Maybe one of these days's I'll get better at writing blog posts.  Until then ... enjoy the pictures.

Our First Agility Trial Experience

This past weekend Teach, Tucker and I got to participate in our first ever agility trial.  I wasn't going to enter it because I just didn't think we were ready.  But when my instructor started talking about the Intro level they were offering and how it would be a good experience I decided, why not give it a try. We entered Intro Level Regular and Intro Level Jumpers.

We went in with no expectations other than to have a good time.  And that we did.  The people we met there were so nice and welcoming.  Everyone encouraged each other.  And no matter what happened in the ring everyone seemed very positive and upbeat.

NADAC is neat where you can still place even if you don't qualify.  So different from what I'm use to.

As most saw yesterday the boys did excellent.  I couldn't be more pleased with them.

Teach placed first in Regular and qualified and he placed third in Jumpers (but didn't qualify).  Tucker placed third in Regular and didn't place in Jumpers and didn't qualify.  And here when we started training for this I really didn't think Teach would last he just seemed miserable sometimes.  Randy says he is a performer and doesn't "practice".  Thanks to my instructor, Andrea, for telling me not to give up on him and keep trying.  He seemed so happy out there and even played with a tug before we started which never usually happens.

Tucker is VERY enthusiastic on the course (well he is very enthusiastic in anything he does) and I see we need to learn how to control that from a distance.  He did what I expected him to do though, and that was to visit the ring stewards ... LOL!!  He is just so social.  Other than visiting he did excellent for such a young dog and his first experience.

I was the cause the of them not qualifying in Jumpers, just my inexperience.  And it showed.  Teach took a jump the wrong direction and Tucker went in the tunnel off course.

We had several people want to meet the dogs.  Not only were they there to perform but apparently to be a good breed ambassador once again.  Teach and Tucker are always ready to meet new people.

Enough with all the typing ... I'll post the videos and pictures below.  The videos are Teach's Regular, Tucker's Regular, Teach's Jumpers and Tucker's Jumpers.  Thanks to Randy for the videos and our friend April for the pictures (which were taken with my new camera!).

Having too much fun!

Black & White Sunday: Agility Qualifiers

Come back tomorrow and see what Teach and Tucker did over the weekend.