Dremel!

Getting back into the habit of dremeling the dogs' nails. I used to do it with my other dogs and have failed to get into it with Eden and Kastle. Then, when I decided it was time, the Dremel battery was dead, not available to buy in any store. Well, it finally came in the mail so I got down to it this week. I'm very pleased with how lovely they look.

 His floofs are awesome!

The rest of those pics are HERE.

Flyball with Slammers

Since we were over on the East side of the state anyway, we stopped to visit Slammers during their training. Finn's breeder is on the Slammers team so that was neat for her to see him and us to see his dad run. There were also a slew of amazing puppies for me to Squee over. Lots of nice people and fast, FAST dogs to watch! I got a lot of help with Kastle. I now have a new way of starting him that feels much more natural for me and him and we are both more comfortable with it. He was a little flaky but new building, new people etc etc. Plus, Craig ran him a couple of times to show me how to do the things I need to work on. I also need to work on dragging my tug, not pulling it up last minute and also his mattress hitting - saves the shoulders but he needs to practice hitting it. He avoided it and took me out behind the knees and I totally wiped out one time. Luckily, I sort of cushioned off of Kastle and didn't get hurt really at all. :-) Had a GREAT time and learned a lot!!!

"Real" Agility

We've finally had a break through! Kastle is finally realizing that agility is a sequence of obstacles in which he does not need to, and should not, stare at me throughout. Yay! :-D I was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY happy with tonight's session as the last session left me feeling like we had a HUGE amount of work to do. Guess he thought about it and decided he could do agility after all. He was collecting and paying attention to the jumps, watching my body signals well without being too clingy and we even did some crosses. Very happy!

We worked on backing up to the contact obstacles - One Rear Toe On method and then sequences:
-Jump-Jump-Tunnel
-Jump-Jump-Jump-Tunnel
-Jump x3-Tunnel-Jump
-Jump x3-Tunnel-Jump-Chute
-Jump-Jump-Tunnel-Jump (blind rear cross)
-Jump-Jump-Tunnel (front cross)

The crosses were fun, especially the front cross because we would never have been able to do that before. :-D

Flyball Gear

Kastle's skid boots came in :-) Lies also helped me to fix his wrecked tug with a Chuck-It ball, conveniently blue so that it matched the rest of his gear, of course. He looks pretty....blue now haha Love it!

He's so cooperative, love him!

Even more photos are HERE.

Team Flyball

Tonight we worked on the team that Kastle will be on for the tournament in July. Phoebe, then Kastle, Jive. He has never passed into Phoebe and he's never been passed into by Jive, who is small. He did great. He never once looked at the other dogs. We started with really wide passes just to see how they did. It was HOT - 90 degrees, the building is not air conditioned and there was hardly any air flow at all. We did a few runs per turn and then packed up and called it a night - we were still all soaked by the end and Kastle was tired but did so well and I was very happy :-D

United Kennel Club Premier #4

Today was raining all the way to the Premier. I had an unfortunately bad experience that made us leave earlier than planned yesterday and I just wanted to get today over with. We appeared early but the UAD desk wasn't open yet and then when we came back there was a line...so we went to lure coursing first. It was dead there, due to the rain that left the grass damp and slightly slippery but Kastle did fine. I was extremely happy. The judge turned to me and said what a nice dog I had :-) That was awesome and he earned his CA title - yay Kastle - his first title!!!! :-D

This was his last day dock jumping, he went into the pool more-or-less straight off the lure course and earned 13'8" and 14'5", which gives us his 5th and final leg of his Ultimate Junior Jumpers (UJJ). Yay Kastle, title #2!!! :-D

Turns out he made it into the finals but I was so cranky due to some bad experiences that we just headed home immediately after his jump. Oh well, next time :-) I am proud he made it that far!

ETA: His certificate came, only one for some reason but both new titles are on there.

United Kennel Club Premier Day #3

Leg #2 of Kastle's CA title was earned today:

Day three of jumping in UAD. He earned two more legs towards his Junior title, only one more to go (and only one more opportunity to get it too!). 9'10" and 14'4" for his first jump and 12'3" and 10'1". New personal best is earned at 14'4".

Still so flat....

Rest of today's pics HERE.

United Kennel Club Premier Day #2

Started the day off with lure coursing, Kastle earned his first leg to his CA title. He was all about the lure this time, knew what was going on and barked to be let go :-)

He had two splashes he was in for UAD today. His jumps were 13'10" and 12'4" in the first splash and 12'8" and 13'3" - putting him solidly in the Junior division, we now have two legs towards that LOL Silly boy!

Absolutely no pop up at all. Really bums me out as he does prefer to pop, but just hasn't gotten comfortable enough to transfer that to the dock. Someday, when he does, he will jump farther I think. He's so flat now though.

My fave!!!

More pictures from today are HERE.

I ended up buying: a UKC sweatshirt, a Premier t-shirt, an agitation collar, a show collar, a show lead, two kennel pails for Limit, a paddle brush for Kastle's ear mats, and a show bag and Jason bought a UAD t-shirt for me, an antler, a raccoon hide, a raccoon tail, a fleece tuggy for Finn and pails as well (and he bought and ate 5 lunches...). We spent a LOT of money at this event but I love it, it's my favorite event all year!

United Kennel Club Premier Day #1

This is going to be a long, but very fun, event! We are signed up for 4 days of dock jumping courtesy of Ultimate Air Dogs (UAD) and three days of lure coursing - hoping for two new titles for Kastle by the end of the event and lots of vendors so probably a bunch of new "stuff" for him as well. :-D

Luckily, I have a friend that is good enough to stop by my house, pick up my GSD, take him to the event, get him used to the water in the pool and introduce him to jumping into clear water off a dock - thanks Lies!!! :-D By the time I arrived, he was ready to go.

His first jump he was a little too over-excited, forgot what he was doing and sort of...well, fell in. For a first jump of 3'5" LOL His second jump was 8'4" which put him very solidly in the Novice bracket for his title. One leg towards that of five needed.

Flyball Changes

Tonight Kastle had his feet taped before we started practice. I want him to get used to something on his hocks/stop pads for when his boots come in. We graduated from the jumbo jump board down to the small one so he can start getting used to the picture with no board in it (for at tournaments).

 We also put Kastle in as the 2nd dog in the team which means he passed into Rhythm (which we had been practicing) and Ping passed into Kastle (which was new). He had a little bobble when he almost took Ping out trying to catch his ball after he dropped it but he never looked at the other dogs at all. I just need to make sure I call him strong so that he comes right to me and his tug reward. I also worked on a different way to start him per Craig at Slammers because our start times are inconsistent due to the lunging/barking before I release him. I launched him from my thighs...this hurt a lot and resulted in some pretty serious scratches/bruising (I found out later), but Kastle was a lot more consistent and he liked it, he kept trying to cock his legs back into position when I grabbed him, which is cute :-)

ETA: the bruises...

Flyball Tournament Day #2

Kastle's second ever tournament. He raced Nikon and ripped off both of his stop pads sliding into the box. I ended up having to pull him from his second race because he was limping. I suppose Z-boots are in his future now (to protect his legs/stop pads from burning on the mats in the slide). He got his personal best time today (and I was so bummed he couldn't run the second race because he was much more "with-it" and focused today), 4.359 seconds! :-) Not too bad for a 13 month old rubber-necker!

Flyball Debut

Tonight was Kastle's flyball debut into a singles tournament. He ran pretty well, a little slower than in training with quite a bit of rubber-necking going on. Because of the rubber-necking, he was inconsistent on his speed to start and our start times were terrible. He was really running around 4.3-4.5 seconds with start times deducted. Not too terrible for his first time!

Kastle Eye-View

I bought Jason a nifty new camera for his birthday. He strapped it onto Kastle and then played frisbee. It's a little...nauseating to watch but pretty fun. Look at those floofs fly!

Working on Tracking Line Handling

Working on my line handling, really, really happy with how Kastle did on this shorter, easier and no-article track (while I get the hang of the handling). He was much clearer and calmer without being lazy on this track. We changed how he starts his track, putting him in the right mindset and then also my handling being more supportive without being too tight. Ball reward at the end. Hoping this will transfer when it's not cool, rainy and damp out though!