Well, I am use to sleeping till 11 or so on saturdays so this is quite a change. I do have tons to do today so I guess I should be happy that I am up so early. Tony has to work at least half a day (love overtime) so I am planning on cleaning and getting the recycling taking care of among other things. I feel so weird as it was friday night and I was ready to go to bed at 8:30. I am not sure why my body seems to have such a hard time adjusting. Deuce sleeps all through the night now so not getting up and down but my body just refuses to not let me get my 8 hours of sleep! We actually let Deuce sleep in the bed last night and he was a good boy. He got up and moved a couple of times but for the most part, he slept through the night in the bed. I had been letting him sleep on the bed till I felt like I was about to sleep and then i was putting him in the crate. I will have to see how this goes because I don't want to jepordize his potty training if he is sneaking out of the bed to go potty but I am such a light sleeper that i would wake up if he did get up and leave. Tried to lay back down this morning but it didn't work. He was up and ready to go for sure so I got back up and gave everyone a chewie so I could blog and wait till daylight to go walking.
I posted the link to my blog on facebook and after I did that, I have gotten tons of emails of how did you train this or that or how did you come up with things so I thought I would do a blog on how I got into aussies first of all and who (Lori Michaels hands down) and what (clicker training) influences my training. I may have blogged about this before on my competition blog but I haven't here so I thought I would here too.
My very first aussie was strawberry. I kind of stumbled upon here so to speak. I was in college and working at our school's equestrian facility. Yes, my first love was horses and my first passion was dressage. I also dabbled in some western pleasure and some barrel racing too. Anyway, everyone on the rodeo team had a dog and the dog of that year was an aussie. My roomie, who also worked at the center had three aussies and I loved their personalities and their workability. Her father owned a tobacco farm in middle TN and had some stock and had a working aussie that she used as breeding stock for her bitches. Of course these dogs had no papers and had no pedigree to speak of other than they just worked. Berry was part of one of her litters that she had while we lived together. Berry was the runt and no one would even look at her when they came to look at the litter so I ended up taking her after my parents gave me their blessing. That is how the addiction started! Berry followed me everywhere I went, helped me at the center although I never "taught" her any herding commands, and was my heart dog. Of course I had dreams of berry being a mommy too so I could pass on her working ability but the new rodeo coaches yellow lab decided berry smelled mighty fine one day and they tied up and I just couldn't dream of her having mutt puppies so I had her spayed. Of course knowing what I know now, I would never in a million years breed berry but oh the stupid things you think of when you are in college.
Berry is responsible for getting me into the sport of agility and helping me meet my best friend Barb. We met at the barn when Barb asked what kind of dog berry was and then telling me that "oh, aussies do really well in agility" . Famous last words as I took her class at the kennel club and was severally hooked from then on. When I started berry, there were no "handling systems" per se and I tried to get her into the ring before I even really knew what the heck I was doing. Contacts zones, what are contact zones and what the heck is a front cross or a rear cross? LOL! Berry unfortunately blew out her knee doing non-agility stuff and had to end her career short:( She still is the cheerleader of the Red Aussie Crew and has survived a cancer scare and is still going strong at 12 years old!
Miller was my next aussie and I rescued him from the pound. I had friend (Teri) who worked at the shelter and was part of the kennel club who called me about him. I was in grad school in KS at the time and I really did not need another dog. I was renting a very small house and the dogs had to be outside and at the time, berry was on a cable tie outside when I wasn't home which was not an ideal situation. Also at this time, my then boyfriend now husband was moving to KS to live with me and I had already told him he couldn't bring his dog which was a golden because we didn't have room. Anyway, ended up rescuing Miller as he had been deemed aggressive and was due to be put down and no one wanted him because he was very shy in the shelter. Berry had sustained an injury that was going to limit her agility career at the time and was severely addicted at this point so really needed my next agility dog. Well, to put it lightly, Miller hated agility. He would do one obstacle and then go and hide under the truck. I had decided that he was just going to be a very loved pet (he really bonded with tony at that time) and had decided to get harley from a breeder so I would have a clean slate. Miller had tons of baggage being a rescue and was already a couple of years old when we got him and I wanted a chance to use all of the cool stuff I had learned while doing agility with Berry on a new puppy.
I am going to sneak in and start talking about my influences here because this was about the time that Lori Michaels came into my life. When I started agility with berry, all we had was the local kennel club that had a very small building with thin mats on concrete and a few pieces of equipment. While I am very gracious that they started me, we did not get any foundation training as that was not really "in style" so to speak at the time. I had found out about a lady named Joan Meyer at that point that had a training facility in Lawrence KS. Now don't laugh but at this point in my life, I had never driven on an interstate by myself. Yes, it is true, I hated driving and would absolutely throw a fit if I had to drive anywhere, especially by myself so I sure as heck was not driving on any interstates. Well, Joan was about an hour away from Manhattan and I was going to have to drive on an interstate by myself! I was so nervous about driving that I was practically sick to my stomach, but I did it and took a seminar with her on weave poles. She had a series that I had signed up for and the next one was crosses. When I got to the next one, there was this lady teaching that I had never seen before. Well, let me tell you I was pissed because I wanted world team member Joan Meyer teaching me, not some random person! Turns out this random person was Lori Michaels, future two time world team member herself but at that time, I didn't know that. Fastforward a little, I found out this Lori person is teaching in Manhattan out by the airport, so I signed up for lessons/classes. WOW! What I learned that I didn't know! Foundation skills were so important, handling was so important! It wasn't just about getting your dog around the course anymore. Lori had a great way of teaching and still does! She is so good about really making you get outside of your box to handle things not only the "safe" way or the same way but to do things differently because you never know what is going to work best until you try it. Since Lori is always trying out for the world team, we really get to work some awesome courses and when Lori is on the team, we do alot of getting together and setting up international courses and practicing things that we probably won't see here in AKC or USDAA agility but are very good for us as a handler to practice. I tell you it really helps to practice this kind of stuff because it saves your butt at nationals when we do international style courses and also at USDAA nationals when we do european standard and jumpers.
Lori is also very good at helping us mentally as this sport is so much mental! It is so nice to have someone coach you who has been to some of the toughest competitions in the world and had to push herself to be the very best and the most focused. She has really shaped my view of agility and my view of the mental game to new heights. I highly recommend if you ever hear of a Lori Michaels seminar in your area, to go and take it, even if you have to audit. I have become such a better more well rounded handler because of her. I would have never gotten my MACH or have gone to AKC or USDAA nationals without her being there, pushing me to do my best and helping me keep my head screwed on straight. We all have mentors in our lives that truly shape us and she really has been that person in my life. It just so happens that our puppies Deuce and Solei were born a few days apart so I have really been lucky to have her as a sounding board for Deuce's foundation training so far. She is the one who introduced me to the balance disc and to the concept of hind end awareness and body awareness. I had read about it but it really didn't stick until she showed me (i am a huge visual learner). I will really enjoy having Solei and Deuce grow up together, but will be more happy when Solei gets a little bit bigger so Deuce can't just sit on her and smother her!
My other influence is clicker training. I think probably barb introduced me to the clicker and I have read tons and tons on clicker work and really love it. I think it is so clear to the dogs! I can just get my clicker out and my dogs go nuts knowing that they are going to get to learn something and get treats too! I am currently working on randomizing Deuce's treats so that sometimes he gets a cookie, sometimes he gets praise, and sometimes he gets to tug. I think he is becoming a huge cookie monster and while I like his food motivation, I want him to be more well rounded and also have toy drive. Harley has tons of toy drive too and it has been nice to having another tool other than just food.
Okay back to my aussie story! Harley was the next to join my crew since I didn't think Miller would ever pan out as an agility dog. Harley came from Kyroka kennels in MO. Of course soon after we got Harley and started his foundation work, guess who decided he wanted to be an agility dog too? I really couldn't mentally handle both harley and miller in the beginner class so I asked my husband to handle harley while I handled miller. You know, people ask me, how did I get such a supportive husband when it comes to agility and I tell them, you get them hooked too! This was his hook because harley was fast and furious and tony loved it! While Tony and Harley have taken some time off from shows, they are back together now and really tearing it up. Harley takes some finesse to handle and tony being a beginner and having taken time off for a while is still learning how to handle both the courses and the mental game. Harley needs one more AX leg and I think three more MXJ legs to finish those titles so I am hoping this fall will be a successful one for Harley and Tony.
So those are my babies! I will be honest, when it came to thinking about my next agility dog, I did consider a border collie, but I came back to the breed I love, the breed that fits Tony and I the best. You can always read about my thoughts and frustrations and joys of running these guys on my competition blog. I seem to really pour my heart out on that one because agility is my passion and sometimes things don't always go as planned and you just have to let it roll off of your back and think about the next run. I have had an extraordinary couple of years with miller qualifying for USDAA nationals twice in all events, and AKC nationals twice and going to AKC nationals once with miller and once with someone else's dog. I look forward to having more experiences like this with miller (AKC nationals 2010 here we come) in the future till he tells me he doesn't love it anymore and I really look forward to getting Deuce addicted to running in agility too. Well, Deuce is back up from his nap and ready to go again so guess it is walking time! Have a great saturday with whatever you are up to!
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