A Brag of a Different Sort

I have a whole other kind of brag to share today. Last night at the Arkansas Business of the Year awards banquet, my family's business won the Outstanding Philanthropic Corporation Award in the category of under 100 employees from the Arkansas Community Foundation. This is a special award to me as I am very proud of our company's commitment to giving back to not only the non-profit organizations that we partner with, but our communities as well.

I am part of the fourth generation in the prosthetics and orthotics business (artificial limbs, braces, therapeutic shoes, and mastectomy products). I love what we do. We get to help people, that's simply what we do. We help restore mobility and help people return to their jobs, families, and daily activities. Our patients are incredible; they can do anything without limits. They run, coach baseball, actively play with their kids and grandkids. They are welders, legislators, farmers, and police officers. And the technology is improving everyday from computer chips and CAD/CAM to lighter weight and stronger materials.

It is because of our patients that we continue to give of our time and resources to help a variety of organizations. I think it is because of the nature of our business that our employees are so willing to participate in community service activities. You have to want to serve people in this business, so it just goes hand in hand. They do everything from serving dinner at muscular dystrophy camp to answering phones at a telethon to walkathons to frying fish to visiting shut-ins to attending support groups to dog therapy visits (guess who), and so much more. Giving back and serving our community is truly a part of our corporate culture, and I would hate to be a part of a company where this wasn't second nature.

Anyway, it's just a glimpse into my work life. If you want to read more about the award, you can go here: http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/people_bizofyear.asp?id=351
And, if you want to see my father's acceptance speech (complete with penguin suit), you can go here: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1431564254/bclid1433966022/bctid1433964693
Thank you for letting me veer away from dog training for a while.

Brags

I'm not usually one to toot my own horn, in fact I try to stay pretty quiet (OK, don't laugh!). However, I have to admit that it has been pretty fun going to classes and meetings this week and sharing the news about Teddy's new obedience title. I've probably received about 50 congratulatory e-mails, and one really nice blog entry (thanks Patti!), and it just doesn't get old. We even got to brag in agility class. Our instructor is really great about starting off our class with brags of all sorts.

So, to continue the celebration, I ran by the bakery on the way to work on Wednesday and placed an order for some special cookies to take to our Open obedience class and our club's board meeting that night. They were a big hit.

Mmmmmmm! The taste of sweet success! :)

Teddy, CDX!!!

Although today began dismally with me thinking that I should have stayed in my nice, cozy bed, it had a happy ending (as you can tell by the title). It began raining as I was backing out of the driveway, and continued heavily during the entire 2+ hour drive to the obedience trial. It rained so much, so fast, that my car was difficult to control and fish-tailed on several occasions. Thanks to all-wheel drive (and my guardian angel), I stayed on the road. Normally, I am a good driver and love to drive, but I was a nervous wreck by the time we got there. Oh, and isn't it so much fun to unload crates, gear, and a freshly fluffed poodle in the pouring down rain?

This was a new show for us. We are still green when it comes to showing, but this show definitely had the most distractions that I have ever seen at an obedience trial. At most of the shows that I have been to, the obedience rings are totally separate from the conformation rings and at least one side of the ring is up against a wall. I know, I'm spoiled. Neither was true for this show. The obedience ring was adjoined to the rally ring, and anyone and everyone could walk all the way around the ring. I've never seen so many families with a boat load of unruly kids hanging on ring gating before. They also had a booming PA system with someone who was in love with the sound of her own voice in control of the microphone. But I won't go into the ridiculous announcements that she made. When I walked in and saw the setup, I thought there was no way on earth that we would do well today. I made that horrendous drive for this?

But we made it through, somehow. I was disappointed in our heeling, I had to give an extra command. We've been working so hard on heeling, but he lost his brain temporarily. It wasn't our best performance, but it wasn't our worst by far. I was proud that Teddy held it together under those conditions. You can't see it in the video, but the reason we had trouble with the setup for the broad jump was a row of 4 or 5 kids sitting on the other side of the ring gating and a woman standing right up againsts the gating. Teddy is too friendly for his own good. I was really nervous about his stays. OK, honesty time. You'll figure it out eventually anyway if you watch the second video. There were only three of us entered in the Open A class, and one did not show up. The second dog didn't drop on the recall and he broke his stays. I was so relieved to find out that even though the golden broke, Teddy was a good boy and held his stays. Whew! So- we finally finished our Open title (CDX) with a first place! Yea! Here it is:

A friend of mine thought to film us getting our ribbons, so if you want to see that:

As you can tell, Teddy is such ham, he gets so excited when there is applause. There was a vendor at the show from Texas that made glass dog figurines in clear or colored. He even had poodles in the sporting clip. I treated myself and had him make a black poodle in the sporting cut holding a dumbbell. I thought it turned out really cute, although it's hard to see here.

I was very proud of my sweet boy! Even though I eventually want to try for our UCDX, we can now concentrate on other areas, like rally, agility, and freestyle. So much to do, so little time! That's the benefit and the drawback of owning a poodle- they can do it all!

Happy Valentine's Day!

A belated Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

I had dinner with my family and took Teddy out for some training. I probably would not have gone if we did not have a trial this weekend. In agility class we did some Greg Derrett box work. From what I have seen of the Greg Derrett system, I really like and think it could help us in our training. The box work consists of 4 jumps set up in a square with possibly other jumps used as an adjoining square or just sides of the square. I was really proud of Teddy last night. He was really working with me and trying to follow my lead- that is except for a slight distraction gathering some treats that fell out of my pocket. He is doing his part to reduce the bug problem before summer gets here.

Afterwards we went inside to work on the broad jump, the real reason I needed to train last night. I was very pleased that he jumped it eagerly with me looking straight ahead and not at him. I guess I really was cueing him with my body language. It's amazing how they pick up on the slightest movement. I had built in distractions of the sub-novice obedience class on the other side of the ring gating, and I added in people standing at the end of the jump, with success. We'll have to wait and see if this pays off at the trial this weekend. My stomach is churning already!

Frozen Agility

Agility people are crazy! We go outside and run agility whether it is 25 degrees or 110 degrees. Yes, we love it that much! Last night was one of those crazy, what-was-I-thinking nights, I have not been that cold in a long time. When I got in my car, it said 28 degrees. That's cold for us southerners! And it was almost 70 just two days earlier. Normally, we have portable heaters that we hover around in weather like this, but none of them were working last night. As I stood watching everyone run the course, I literally watched the water buckets freeze over. One little dog was developing ice crystals on his belly fur, which practically touched the ground. Even though Teddy's coat is cut down to almost his summer do, he was supercharged last night. He was loving the cold and bouncing around like Tigger! I think I'm going to send him to Alaska to join an Iditarod team (see: http://home.gci.net/~poodlesleddog/).

As over the top as Teddy was, the greatest part of last night's class was- NO ZOOMIES! Yea! Any night without zoomies is a great night, no matter what else happened. We got to work through our new teeter issues. These were my fault for telling him to wait before he reached the tipping point, making him unsure of where to stop. Then we ran another crazy course, consisting of 180+ degree turns, weird angles, and distance work. We accused our instructor of throwing the numbered cones up in the air and letting them fall at whichever obstacle. Anyway, we had fun working through the challenges. I was able to get a little distance, but I'm still having trouble turning him. Teddy is so fast that he wants to charge ahead, so he turns too wide. So that is one thing I would like to work on. His weaves were good last night though, I noticed him single-footing them with speed. While we were running the course, Teddy's pop-up crate was blowing across the yard. Unfortunately, his dinner was on top and spilled everywhere. I tried to pick it all up in the dark, and when we got home after I dumped it in his dish, I had to pick out pine needles and grass. A little fiber never hurt anyone!

Bi-Polar Agility & Broad Jump Proofs

Zoomies on the agility field have plagued us for years. And like the fruit of the month club, it's the gift that keeps on giving. Just when I think that we are actually becoming a team, Teddy likes to keep me grounded by showing me he still knows how to zoom.

We had our first agility class this weekend in quite a while, due to the weather and illness, etc. I knew Teddy would be excited to get back on the field, and he did not disappoint. He surprised me by perfectly doing the jump chutes. I don't know that we have ever done the jumps at that height, that close together. I relaxed a little too early, as we all lined up to individually run over the teeter. He did it once, just fine. But when I took him back to do it one more time, I guess he stressed over having to redo it, and started zooming. It was a particular bad one, where I had to hide, while others eventually corraled my dog and put him in his pop-up crate.

After his break in his crate, the class lined up to run over the dog walk before we were to run the entire course. I was going to sit this one out, but I really wanted to make sure that Teddy was somewhat under control before attempting the entire course. He did fine with the one obstacle, so we decided to give the course a try, a very strange 21 obstacle course with a multitude of challenges. Our instructor prides herself on making very difficult courses to prepare us for the ring. She says that she wants us to feel confident that if we can run her courses, we can run anything. I love her classes! I would much rather work on a skill level above ours because it pushes us to be better, and I try things that I would never try on my own. That being said, I was very proud of Teddy. He ran great and was connected to me, and we ran the whole course without interruption. We go from one extreme to the other.

Yesterday was a similar story. Several of my fellow club members got together to run the nested course from the most recent Clean Run magazine. We ran the novice course just fine. Of course, all of the mistakes were mine where I pushed him around an obstacle or was late in giving him a command, but we were working together. Then it was time for the open level. We only got through about half of the course, and it was game over. Not to give Teddy too many excuses, but it was unusually hot (upper 60's) and he was tired from a long, full weekend. I think he was just done, maybe I pushed him too hard. Don't really know, but it amazes me how we can work in sync one run, and then in the next, it's all about whatever Teddy wants to do or the other way around. It's hard to know which poodle I'm taking up to the start line.

Now for a little obedience. We've been working on proofing the broad jump recently, after it's been giving us some trouble. My instructor had me leave Teddy in front of the jump, and instead of looking at him when I give him the "over" command, look straight ahead. I don't know why, but it has seemed to help. I guess when I look at him, it's confusing him as to when he needs to take off. I'm assuming that he is trying to read my body language as opposed to going from my verbal command. I'll see how this holds up over time.

So, that is the bulk of our crazy weekend, minus the freestyle work we did as well. Freestyle will be discussed in a post to come.

closes a door & OPENs A window

They say when God closes a door, He opens a window. Well, that is the story of my weekend showing in open A obedience. Saturday, like most of our first trial days, was a disaster. The judge was nice and easy going. He joked with me that he takes 10 points off for those who wear the same colored pants as their dog. Everything that could go wrong, did. I won't embarass myself by posting the video, but the bright spots were that our heeling is improving and Teddy did his sit and down stays. Besides that, I learned some valuable lessons.

1. Proof for noises on the drop on recall. His drop was slow and almost complete when a dog barked and people applauded loudly. This made an already nervous dog panic, and he walked in to me before I was allowed to call him. At least this gives me something I can practice.
   



2. Don't groom your dog the day before a trial. I should know this by now, but I was not thinking properly when I made the appointment. They shaved Teddy's tail a little too close, giving him a bit of razor burn. This suddenly bothered him on the retrieve on the flat. He ran out after the dumbbell quickly, but on the way back, he acted like something bit him on the tail. He dropped the dumbbell to check out what got him, but he did pick it back up and came in nicely.
   



3. Work attention and distractions on the retrieve over the high jump. Although it should not matter, we were doing our retrieves toward the adjacent ring. This is how we practice at our training center, but it does provide an extra set of distractions. Teddy ran out quickly and took the jump, however, his pick up was slow, and his ring nerves got him again. He dropped the dumbbell to sniff a spot on the mat, then picked it back up and forgot what he was doing. I had to call him back over the jump. Ack! I know he knows this exercise, but we have work to do.




4. Oh the dreaded broad jump! For some reason, Teddy lost all confidence in his ability to do the broad jump in the last week or so. I don't know why this happened all of the sudden, but it did. We've been working diligently on it. I've had him jump it over and over, chasing toys, and for jackpots. I think part of the problem is where the judge stands. So, I need to get many different people standing in different places around the broad jump. Anyway, on Saturday, when I left him in front of the jump, he was unsure and stood up, and I had to give him an extra command to jump, then he auto finished.
   

So, there are the ugly details. On top of that, I came down with a terrible cough on Saturday, the kind that burns in your lungs. We were fortunate to show early, so that we could come home and get a lot of rest that night. I doped up on cough medicine and watched the Eukanuba dog show. I wasn't sure that I would be able to get up the next morning and drive to the show, and I would not have, had we had an early ring time.

I'm so glad that we did make it, although I was coughing so much that I was not sure that I could give a verbal command. I kept popping cough drops to get me through. Our heeling was not quite as good as the day before, but again, I'm just glad to see Teddy trying. It's nice when we go from losing 15-16 points on heeling last year to losing 4-8 points. We are finally making progress. He usually does better the second day of a trial, and he did not break tradition this weekend. We made it through all of the exercises nicely, without second commands or too much distraction. I'm so glad I video these runs because it really helps me see why some things happen and what we need to work on. We lost the most points on, surprise, the broad jump. He took the jump, which made me very happy, but he sniffed the mat and did an auto finish. So that brought us our second open leg with a so-so score of 182.5 and a fourth place. I was worried when I saw that there were more than 4 qualifiers, but we still pulled off a placement. Yea! Here's the whole thing, minus the stays:



Two down, one more to go. It is difficult to get comfortable in the ring when we have so few shows and/or matches in our area. The last trial that we entered was the first weekend in October, so I guess it is just natural for us to be so rusty getting back into the ring. However, you should have seen us at this same trial one year ago when Teddy did zoomies in the ring and tried to run out. I kind of felt like we redeemed ourselves. I'm so grateful for the people who stayed to watch and cheer for us, and maybe even entertain Teddy on his sit-stay. :) Anyway, got to get to bed to get up early to go to the doctor.