maanantai 29. marraskuuta 2010

ASCA Agility trial in Rendon, TX

There was a 3-day ASCA agility trial in Rendon, Texas, which is just about 15 minutes out of Fort Worth. Driving South from Whitesboro would have been a 1,5 h drive, but I hit some NASCAR traffic! It was insane, just standing in line for 20 minutes without moving anywhere! :O

I did eventually make it to the competition area. It was a big horse arena that is normally used to host rodeos, barrel racing etc. A roof and some walls, but no heating. The first day (Friday) had three runs, one Gambler and two Jumper-runs. I had entered Dracu in only Novice class because I had no idea you could start from Elite if you wanted and just get your Novice and Open titles there! The classes were super small but everybody was really nice and welcoming. AND I won the prize for longest distant traveler! :D

Our first run was Gamble Novice. Dracu jumps in the 20'' height (about 51cm) and that is lower than what we would normally in Finland, 23,5''. The Gablers class in something we had never done (as we don't have anything similar in Finland) but I had read the rules and everybody helped me out. Basically you have 30 sec to collect as many points as possible by doing any obstacles you want. Different obstacles are worth a different amount of points. When 30 sec is up there is a buzzer and you need to do a 4-6 obstacle course the judge has made + there is a line that the handler can't cross so the dog has to do the so called "Gamble" in a distance.





So what could be better for us than a competition where you don't get faults (you just don't get points for a faulty performance) and you need to be fast and work at a distance? We had a load of fun even though Dracu was a bit confused that after doing the contact or what ever we just turned around and did it again! Our first run was a Q (qualified) with 1st place and high points :)

 The two Jumpers-classes were super easy, just straight lines and only jumps and tunnels allowed. But the jump distances were a bit different and Dracu knocked a bar or two down on both runs. But man was she fast!! She was going about 6,5 YPS (pretty much the same in meters)! Because the jumps were so low she could just plow on like a crazy dog!

On Saturday we had quite a busy time with 5 runs total! 1 Gambler, 2 Jumper and 2 Regular. We got an other Q from Gambler and got a new title GS-N - Gamblers Standard Novice! The other runs didn't go as well with more bars coming down. Even though the courses are a lot easier than Finnish courses there was one really difficult thing in even Novice, tunnel-contact combinations. We have not really gotten to train these yet and had some trouble with them. We made one more Q, this time from Novice Jumpers. We also had one VERY nice, fast and clear Regular class, but were disqualified because I went back to correct Dracu in the beginning because she stood up. In Finland the course has not started before the dog comes over the first jump but here it apparently is...





On Sunday we had 5 more runs! Again 1 Gambler, 2 Jumpers and 2 Regulars. We had gotten special permission to move up the Open Gamblers but didn't make the gamble. It was super hard, you had to stay way behind and get your dog into the farther side of a U-tunnel :O Even though I could laugh that the Elite courses are easier than the Novice classes in Finland, some of these Gambles are super hard! The dogs here really have to know long distance work and know the difference between the obstacle names! We did get a Q from Jumpers and got our title JS-N - Jumpers Standard Novice. We also qualified on the second Jumpers course, but had a bit of a commotion! A border collie got loose and chased us around! It was no big deal because Dracu didn't even notice, but they couldn't get our time. So we got to run the course again right away to get a time. We knocked some bars down this run but they only marked the time :)

So we got two titles and had a LOT of fun :D But the courses (all straight running, hardly any turns) really killed Dracu's turns! Also all the speed she got leaded to her knocking bars a lot more than normally. But it was cool just running like crazy and sending Dracu off to run like crazy! A lot of people were really impressed with her and she was the fastest dog in the trial, hands down.








Oh and just for me, our Gabler points were in total: 51, 60 & 35 (without gamble). Dracu's speed (YPS) were at best 6,58 (on Jumpers) and 5,62 (on Regular)

tiistai 16. marraskuuta 2010

Aussies, aussies, aussies...!

Next stop after our stay with Jean was Linda Bell's (kennel Winslide) in Gerogetown, TX. When I got there the weather was dramatically changing from warm summer to something more similar to what I left behind in Finland. It got dark, wet and cold and we only did a bit of work with Dracu. No herding yet - but Linda did explain to me about pressure and how to teach a dog to respond to pressure. She showed me different kinds of things I could train without the sheep, like applying pressure on her (like stepping on her leash close to her collar) and when she lied down I would step off the pressure. Dracu took a bit to get it and Linda had to really work to get Dracu to react to her pressure at first. But these are things we definitely need to work on because all the agility and obedience training has made Dracu not so sensitive to pressure from me.

The next day we did two sessions on sheep with Dracu on a long line and me helping her from behind. Linda would be with the sheep and apply pressure and I would just make sure Dracu could not get away with not reacting to the pressure. It slowed things down a lot and made it easier for me to understand what was going on and where the dog should be.


Dance aka Lagniappe's Winslide Dancer

Dance aka Lagniappe's Winslide Dancer

Linda and Dance

Dracu started to really respond well at the end of the second session and I'm sure if we had had more time she would have progressed nicely indeed. But as it was, I was in a hurry to reach my next destination. We did talk a lot of dogs and training with Linda and she showed her dogs work. I was specially taken with her super friendly aussie boy Tripp (Dance's pup). What a cutie! I also got a chance to meet Linda's old legend Winslow and was very stricken to hear he passed away just a few days after my visit :(


Winslide's Trip to the Top "Trip"

That evening I drove to Terry Martin's place so we could finish watching the tv-series we had started, Moonlight! We had a nice, relaxing evening in front of the tv that was a rare treat for me. I don't seem to have any downtime to just hang and do nothing! Or if I do, I'll be reading. I just can't get enough of these books! I can't ever find anything to read back home but here (thanks mostly to suggestions made by Terry) I have found so many wonderful books and it's all I can do to pry myself away from them and sleep a few hours a night! My suitcase is sure getting heavy... When I get back home I'm going to learn how to use Amazon.com and start ordering books that you can't find here.

The next morning I was up (way too early considering how late we stayed up) and drove 3 hours North to Whitesboro, TX. I went to visit first the Westermans (kennel That'll Do) at their home/mansion. That was one big house and grounds! I met all their dogs and also this years Nationals winner Manfred and his dog Nellie were there. Manfred was actually from Germany and has lived quite an interesting life :O

I had a nice time with him as he showed me all the grounds, animals etc. that were owned by the Westermans. Unfortunate they were leaving the next day for 3 weeks to California for a vacation after the huge job of putting the Nationals together. I spent a night there and finally bought myself the Cowgirl Boots that I had been looking for. pretty expensive, but worth every penny! Before leaving the area, I made a quick trip down the road to meet Jamie Burns (kennel Cut'N Loose). Because I only had a few hours she just showed me her dogs (what a happy pack!) and we talked some dogs and I made plans to come see her later as I would spend the weekend at an ASCA agility trial in Rendon, TX and would drive past her house after it was over! The next time I visited Jamie showed me some herding with Rosa, Sweetie and Dodge!


Sweetie aka Cut'n Loose 1 Tuff Sweetie owned by Jamie Burns

Rosa aka Cut'n Loose Mi-T-Sweet Rosa owned by Jamie Burns

Rosa aka Cut'n Loose Mi-T-Sweet Rosa owned by Jamie Burns

Rosa aka Cut'n Loose Mi-T-Sweet Rosa owned by Jamie Burns

Jamie and Rosa

Jamie being attacked by her super vicious aussie Sweetie (if love and kisses could kill...!)

Next stop was a three day ASCA agility trial in Rendon, TX! I'll write about that next! :P

maanantai 15. marraskuuta 2010

Two fearsome Cowgirls (NOT) cause havoc in Texas

After Nationals were over me and my Swedish friend Silja drove South to Bryan where she was staying at Russ Ford's place (kennel Aggieland). I had actually met Russ in 2009 when he came to Finland to judge in an ASCA herding trial, but that is an whole different story ;) It was really late when we got there and Russ was out of town on business. Russ's wife was already sleeping. I managed to keep awake the entire drive but might have given Silja quite a fright by kinda verging to the side of the road a time or two...

We got up pretty late the next morning and nobody else was home. Because Silja helped out with the daily chores, we went out to take care of the dogs in the kennel and feed the cows in the small pasture they were in. Before this though we decided to do a bit of herding. Silja managed to get four cows into the round pen
and then Dracu and I went in. Right when we went in she got kicked and she was pretty intimidated by the cows after that. Barked a bit but didn't want to go close. I think the round pen was too small for her and she felt like there was no place to escape if the cows wanted to get her. Silja called her aussie Chippa in to help
give Dracu more confidence and we worked on that for a little bit. After we were finished Silja went to let the other cows we had left in a take pen out.

When she got close to them they leaned against the opposite side on the pen and broke the chain and got out! Lucky for us the take pen was a gate into a bigger pasture of Russ's. But the cattle ran full blast out into it and had disappeared into the bush before we even understood what had happened :O Quickly Silja told me where to stand and left after the cattle with Chippa. My job with Dracu was to make sure the cattle didn't run out of the bush and into the wrong side of the pasture. Because the pasture was very large and covered with thick bush it was hard to tell where the cattle were and we spent a good hour running around in the afternoon heat trying to a) find the cattle and b) get it into the right direction! Finally we got a few cows into the smaller pen they were supposed to be in but Silja came to me with some very bad news. She had seen three escape through the fence into a neighbors pasture and three more were missing and there was an ominous hole in the fence that lead into an other neighbors 1000 acre pasture!!!!! We went to put the dogs away and started looking for the missing cows in the smaller pasture. It was really thick bush and used at some places as a dump. We found an ugly, greenish pond and the neighbors assortment of animals, including a mule and an ostrich but now cows.

At this point we were starting to feel pretty desperate. Missing cows, Russ and his wife both gone for the whole day. We thought of taking the two horses and looking for the cattle on horseback, but as luck usually has it, the saddles were in Russ's trailer that was being fixed in a other town and only Russ had the keys. So all we could do was wander around the pastures looking for the cows in the Texas mid afternoon heat - not exactly what we had planned for the day! Russ's friend came to help us a bit but she could only stay an hour. She did see a glance of the cows in the smaller pasture but they were to railed up to get close to. After she left we spend a good few hours looking for those bloody cows. Silja saw them once but could not get anywhere near in the bush before they took off. Around 5 PM (when we had spent 6 hours outside in the heat) we have up. My arms were full of bloody scratches of pushing me way in the thick bush and we were sweaty, dirty and tired.

We decided to drive into a close-by city for some lunch/dinner. We had Silja's American friend meet us there and ate with gusto. After dinner we shopped a bit and stopped at a local little amusement park and the movies. It was well past midnight when we came back to Russ's and again everybody else was already sleeping. The next morning Silja had to get up early because she was flying back home to Sweden. I got up as well to leave because Russ was expecting company. Not quite sure what to do next, I went into College Station to do some laundry (in a real Laundromat!) and use the Internet in Starbucks. I just wrote on a friends wall on FB that I had been kicked out of my current place for loosing the owners cows (kidding) and a lady I had met first at Melinda May's and then at Nationals wrote to me that I could come stay with her in the same town Russ lived in! Of course I jumped at this offer and was over at her workplace (Jean actually works at the ASCA office!) in a jiffy.

Before this though I had a little accident. I was just driving around College Station when some guy pulled out of a parking lot and hit me in the side! I was pretty shocked by this and pulled over. He came out and we went to look at my car. Of course it was a shady place I stopped at and I could not see any major damage. I got his phone number and said I would call if I needed his information. Stupid me. I was pretty shocked by the whole thing especially since Dracu was in the back of the truck in her crate and I thought he might have hit her! The damage seemed minimal but when I stopped to look at it after I calmed down I noticed it was much bigger than I had first thought. I called the guy the next day and he promised to look up his insurance info and call me back. You can guess twice did he call. I tried calling again but he never answered. So that was that. Apparently I should have had a police rapport anyway for the insurance company but I didn't even think of calling the police over a little fender bender. Not when they are busy solving murders and such (how very Finnish of me to think like this?).

Well next time some ass hits me I know to call the cops, complain about a awful neck pain and milk every penny outta the idiot... And that just might happen because I have had two VERY close calls with idiots pulling in front of me out of nowhere. Stupid people here never walk anywhere so I guess Mama never taught them to look both ways before running in front of moving vehicles.

Anyway, me and Dracu spent four very nice days with Jean and her husband and three aussies. I got a grand tour of the city in a very cool Jeep and learned how to drive a four wheeler! Now that was FUN! We went to agility class with Dracu and had a nice time to rest and relax. It was also fun to go bother Jean at the ASCA office, see all the cool history stuff they have.




On Halloween Jean took me around in her car and we went to see real, live tricker treaters! (Not a invention of Hollywood, they actually exist!) And I ate my first steak in 10 years! It was okay, not something life altering and I doubt I will ever be a huge carnivore but hey, I got it down and didn't feel like puking my guts out so all in all it was pretty cool. We also got a big dinner from this little trailer parked outside a gas station. In my opinion that's kinda like eating food bought out of a trunk of a car but whatever. I tried the ribs and pork chaps and they were okay but me and Jean ended up getting Chinese takeaway.



Oh and if you are wondering what happened to those 6 cows me and Silja lost, well Russ spent two days on horseback looking for them and he did eventually find them. So that was my one (and hopefully only) look at farm life. Left at a farm for too long, I'm sure I would efficiently bring down the whole meat industry of America... :D