Nerves of Plastic

And I don't mean the kind of government plastic that is used in helmets and bullet proof vests- I mean the flimsy kind that toy model kits or happy meal toys are made of. That is me right now. The closer we get to our first live freestyle competition, the more nervous I am getting.

My nerves are magnified by the fact that Teddy has been sick recently wtih a very bad sore throat. Thankfully, he is much better and took his last dose of medicine last night, but the medicine has made him feel lethargic and just plain lousy. Therefore, our practice on Saturday went pretty badly and did nothing for my confidence level.

After resting for more than a week, Teddy returned to work with me yesterday, and he went with me last night to help teach a class. I think he really enjoyed getting out and being around people again, he was pretty happy to be there. I gave him some puppy crack (aka Nutrical) with his dinner last night to help him feel better. It seems like every time Teddy gets sick, it takes him longer than most dogs to bounce back to his old self. I don't know if his thyroid problem has anything to do with that or not. Anyway, we are going to sit out of agility class this week just in case.

So, we'll just take our chances this weekend at the trial. That's all we can do anyway. I love my boy, and he is smart and talented, but he is a bit unpredictable. I never quite know what I'm going to get with him when we walk into a ring. Whatever happens, happens!

Ears and Freestyle

OK, so it it sounds like these two things are totally unrelated? Unfortunately, that's not true at my house lately. Ack, have we been through it lately! Teddy started off with inner ear inflammation, then he got an infection on his outer ear. I thought that the antibiotics that he was on was hurting his stomach, so we stopped those as soon as his ears were better. When he continued to be a picky eater (a sure sign that something is not right with him), we went back to the vet to find out that Teddy's throat was very inflamed. I swear, if it's not one thing, it's another! With all of this going on, we've been trying to finalize our new freestyle routine for our first live competition. Whew!


Last week, Teddy and I attended an adoption event for a local animal shelter. We had promised to do some freestyle and obedience along with some of our other freestyle training buddies. We had a blast, but it was the most difficult evironment in which to perform, even on our best day. We were in a parking lot, with our ring defined by a few orange cones, there were cars driving by, dogs and cats waiting to be adopted, and a modest crowd of people on their lunch breaks standing around sending telepathic messages to my dog for him to come over and say hello. Those telepathic messages are stronger than a little black poodle can take. It's a good thing that everyone was easily impressed with a few tricks because doing our full dance routine was not happening. Teddy's good at schmoozing the crowd.

As I said above, Teddy and I have been hard at work on our new freestyle routine. We've been trying to put all of the pieces together and make sure that it fits with the music and it looks somewhat polished. We're still working on the last part. :) So, below is some video from our practice last Saturday. It's very raw. In fact, we totally scrapped the whole first part of our routine, so this was the first time we were trying out our new choreography. I'm also only half in costume- don't worry, the green shirt is not part of the costume. I'm taking a risk in showing this video because we look so rough. It's hard to see in the video, but the reason we had trouble with the hula hoop is because Teddy has on a light line, so I have to make sure that the line clears the hoop before I can move it, otherwise it would look a lot smoother. Anyway, enough disclaimers, we still have a lot of practicing to do in a short amount of time!

Agility Class Videos

I have compiled a few videos from the last couple of weeks of agility class. I was anxious to try out my new video camera on the agility field. I used a tripod because I really didn't want to take people away from their own dogs. I am happy to say that Teddy is doing so much better about zooming (knock wood). I am thrilled that he is really wanting to play with me and is trying really hard. Now the problem is ALL me. And I am getting really frustrated with myself. It seems that I can't do a rear cross. Ack! God bless all of the first dogs out there who have to put up with their handler's ineptness while we learn what the heck we are doing!

The first video is a rear cross exercise. As you can see it takes us a couple of tries to get it right. I was pointing my body in the wrong direction, and I wasn't letting Teddy get ahead of me enough to actually do a rear cross. You mean you have to let the dog go ahead of you to do a rear cross? I am so challenged!

Here we did some Greg Darrett box work. Good stuff. We were supposed to use 2 front crosses. I am having trouble getting my timing right on turns so that I don't send Teddy around or in front of a jump.

In this video, we got to make up our own course. Our instructor just wanted us to use each piece of contact equipment twice. That's why the sequence doesn't look smooth or flowy. At the beginning, Teddy got distracted by a border terrier puppy in an ex-pen on the field. He has to go check everything out. Sorry that you can't quite see the whole field.

This is just a short sequence that we did: tunnel-A frame-jump-weaves. I lost my connection with Teddy at the bottom of the A frame because I did not reward his 2 on/2 off contact, so he was looking for his treat. I was also glad that his weaves picked up speed by about half way through.

This sequence was kind of difficult for me because I am so handling challenged. We were supposed to try to run it first by staying somewhat in the middle. Again, you can see that I have trouble with my timing and body language. The second time, we were supposed to use a rear cross. I really struggled to not turn too quickly and pull him in front of the jump. I did some heavy editing so you couldn't see how challenged I really am. Boy do I have a lot of work to do. I think I need to take some private lessons without my dog. Poor Teddy!