Trials Are Almost Here

Well the trials are looming very close and Yoshi had his private lesson to brush up on normal things he will see in his start of trialing. He did very great in his lesson and I feel like we will have a good start this year. I am WAY excited and I have high hopes for him. The first trial is January 5 and 6... a CPE only about 5 min away from me... should be a great place to get his feet wet.

I can't believe that after sooooo long of waiting for him to be old enough that the trials are soooo close. The days are now zipping by instead of dragging out...lol

If I dont post on here before the trial (if I do post, it will probably just be pictures of Yoshi and Foxy)... I have a new digi cam and video camera as well...so hopefully I can get some good videos and some pics of Yoshi in action. Wish us luck!

Communication

There was some of that going on last night during class, and I was not saying hardly anything. He did pretty good last night. Only one knocked bar, but it was a little of both of our faults and that angle of that jump we will not see in a trial for a long time. Every other jump bar stayed up and I did not say hardly a word around the jumps. By me not saying "over" I was not already saying "Here, here, here" when he was still in the air which was causing knocked bars. Of course he is still barely skimming over the jumps and sometimes tapped them, but they did not go down. He is such a terrible jumper.. I feel sorry for the poor dog.. his front end is so choppy when he runs. We made some really hard weave entrances and he did not need any guidance finding them. If I just stand back and let him have his space, he nails them...well of course in class atmosphere!!! That was our last group lesson for the year. We are going to have 2 privates before his first trial. One next week and one the week after.

Things right now, are looking up for him!

With the exception of him flipping out on the sidelines. I finally had to lay him flat out on his side and be in a firm stay. It stressed him out some, but then made him relax and he actually listened to me more on course. Not to self: need to buy some fabric to cover his crate at trials.

Hair Raising Class

Last night was the night where both me and Yoshi could do no right. It was a mess! He botched his weave poles, messed up everytime on tunnel/a-frame exercises, went off course a couple of times, and knocked more bars. Let's not also forget the wonderful plowing directly into the jump and resulting in a viscious face plant into the ground. Then you have me that literally can not stay 100% still while the dog is moving so then he knocks the bars. Or I am trying to get him to pay attention to me instead of the wrong obstacle and then he'll knock bars.....*sigh* I had to be a lot more firm with my voice in tunnel/a-frame stuff... I hate doing it but he gets so crazy around them and even if I put my body in exaggerated places to let him know "HEY WE ARE 100% SURE WE HAVE TO DO THIS OBSTACLE!" he will do the opposite one. At some time he prefers the tunnels.. then the next lesson he will prefer the a-frame. AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! LOL "What we have here is a failure to communicate!"

That is all I can say....

Next time we go out.. it will be better..... I keep telling myself that. I guess this is what happens right before your first trials.. everything falls apart!!!

Fun Match

The fun match went great with the exception of he did knock some bars. I am going to have to tone down my excitment level to hopefully calm him down..the knocked bars are going to kill us if he keeps it up. Hes been more riled up lately..not in a good way, in a "crazy" way sort of. We have less than a month now to try to figure it out.

His colors run was 20 seconds....lots of speed... now if he could put more effort into his jumping lol!

Coursework

We ran a couple of courses at PAWSitive last night. I have learned something that will definitely benefit for our start of trials.... Yoshis first runs are always a bit....err....enthusiastic. I need to remember to stay calm myself so we dont rush obstacles. If we can do this..we will be able to take on anything! I just need to calm myself down a few notches to get Yoshi to calm down a little. Of course, these courses are a LOT harder that hes going to see in Novice and Open.. but we are going to be great out there by the time we hit Excellent.

On a side note for the at home stuff... he still doesnt like being the only dog without any visitors or friends around. But hes coping. I think it has gotten him a little more wound up when we go to classes too, I think it stresses him a bit, but I am not 100% sure that that is what is happening..just a guess!

Things to work on: More weave work to get it as solid as possible, dogwalk 2o2o, fast as possible downs without sticking the butt up first (Thinking that 8" jump height table sort of threw him off though, he usually is GREAT on his regular height or around it), calming down before runs, and not rushing up to jumps so we don't get knocked bars. Silly dog, if he toned it down a notch or two, he could get better footing and probabaly would be faster..oh well he will learn with age..hes still a young dog! =) Even though he acts as lazy as an old senior at home. LOL I guess a dog that has 0% at home and gives 200% out on course is something I cant complain about too much now.

His running a-frame has been great, his speed wonderful, and he is very focused for such a young dog. I have a lot to be thankful for him.. even though he has spoiled me rotten with being such a wonderful dog.

We have a fun match tomorrow night where his first trial will be held at.

The final test for the AKC shows will be how he takes to the dirt. I have ran him at horse arenas before... but he wasnt as fast then as he is now. I think he should be fine because both places keep the dirt in great condition.

Videos

"Videos of a terrible, mean hard handler and a wonderful talented sheltie."

First run is ALWAYS a bit hairy when he gets this hyped up...




Much better =)



Ahhhh hit those weaves..NASTY entrance!

Ideas To Throw Around

I'm starting to teach Yoshi "stupid tricks". I think it will help him have hind end awareness as he never gets good footing..maybe because he needs some extra help. I need to interact more with him and teach him new things so agility wont get to be the same old same old. I am starting to work with him with mini sessions with learning tricks. Since yesterday he has learned basic versions of "crawl", "sit pretty" (though I wont call it that!), "bow", and "praise". I also started on picking up certain feet on command (this one will take a while!) I havent started the clicker on the tricks yet as I was seeing how he reacted to this new routine first. He seems VERY interested in this new thing so I am going to bring out the clicker probably today during our next session. I am going to start working Yoshi at my parents a bit more so I can get him sharp for the trials coming up. Our last few lessons have not been our best, but I might be looking too deeply into it since I am getting nervous! I might schedule a private lesson with Rachel if I feel like we need it.

I am going to get brave soon and start trying to run again... it will kill my shattered foot and shin splints but it will be good for Yoshi.

I went to this website of a VERY successful handler and dog (World Champions) and I got some REALLY great ideas from her, and she really makes training sound more fun to look at it from her point of view. I have some great ideas to try out now.... here we go!!!

Em- I didnt see a blog to reply on so I am writing on here. Yoshi wont be doing USDAA because he is 17" tall which would require him to jump 22". I dont want to do the performance division because I feel like he has a lot of potential and want him to go as far as possible. He could not hold up to jumping 22" due to his straight shoulders and he physically can barely jump that high to begin with. There are a few USDAAs here, but so much more AKC and I really want to concentrate on AKC with him since he can go all the way in AKC. I will do USDAA probably with my next dog, but just not with Yoshi as it is not very fair for him.

Class Indoors

With all of the rain we had, class was indoors last night. Which is a good and bad thing. Bad because its smaller in there and Yoshi cant get a grip on the mats very well..for some reason he never gets his footing very well. Reliant might be just a dream with him, because he has terrible time getting footing anywhere, he scrambles and tries to go faster..if he would just learn to settle a tiny bit then he would be able to go so much faster than he tries to.. goofy dog. Anyways it was good because he does need practice getting his footing..and because since everything is a lot closer together it got me on my toes and had me calling him off obstacles a lot more. He got some VERY hard weave pole entrances like a champ. I mean he was almost knocking his face in them and not even blinking he was just weaving like crazy. At one point, one of the entrances was almost a 90 degree into them and at first I compensated for him and turned him out a little. The next time I did not move and wanted to see if he got it himself... and he did! Not bad at all! Not much else to really say about the class. Just some normal stuff. The A frame/tunnel stuff sometimes still gets us. I might get out my old a frame for december and do various tunnel and a frame exercises. Along with I need to brush up his dogwalk contacts. Of course I think Im going to work at weave poles from higher speed stuff as Novice typically doesnt have so many crazy turns and so I need to make sure we are up for a high speed into weaves because the weave poles MORE likely will have a more straightforward entrance.. I dont want him to blow an easy entrance! I think Im just going to set up some stuff and hopefully my parents wont go mad with agility equipment in their yard for a month.. hey at least I warned them =)

I sent in my entry form for an AKC show the 2nd week in January and also for his CPE the first weekend in January. We are waiting for Flashpaws in Katy to open..which if you dont get your entry in right away it will be full the next day...so I am waiting on pins and needles. With all of the AKCs and CPEs (3 of CPE) in this area, Im going to have a full spring time here. I think we are sticking with just those two associations for the first of this year. He cant do NADAC, USDAA (which we wont do anyway), or ASCA until March 08 anyway. Maybe we might try one of them out at the end of this next year and see how we like it.

Interesting Times.... *sigh*

Yoshi only had a Tuesday night class because well..Thanksgiving was on Thursday so PAWSitive just didnt have their classes at all for the week. The grounds were a bit soft and soggy so it made for a different sort of class. All the dogs were more cautious and not up to normal speed. Which made me feel like I was handling in slow motion. I definitely feel like we did not gain anything really.. it made me frustrated, but I did see something to work on when the weather dries up. It has been raining nonstop. Anyways, he needs to come consistently to the side I call him on and so we dont crash together..... he tends to want to go behind me instead of coming to the side I call on. It wont take long to get him to get it down though.

Other than that, just continue to brush up on weaves is all we need... I feel sort of bored because there has not been much to work on.

I wish he wanted to play more so I could spend more time just playing with him, but he would rather sleep all day.

Anyways, Thanksgiving was a fiasco..I was yelled at throughout the day by someone very angry. Nice way to spend your holiday...around someone who gets mad at you for every little thing you say or do.

Last Thursday Night Class

Well we went to Yoshi's last Thursday night class. We are finally going to move up to a competition class (even though we have already been in one for 3-4 months at Rachels) so I am going to try to shoot for Wednesday night since I am at Rachels Tuesdays.

We were supposed to do Pairs, and we did for a while, but there were only two of us in the class so we did the full course at the end. The course consisted of 22 obstacles and Yoshi completed it in 40 seconds. I was very happy about that!!!

Yoshi didnt like Pairs too much. He HATES having to watch another dog run and it makes it hard for him to concentrate, but he compensated and did fairly well except he was "cussing" at me the whole way. lol

I had to end up taking Yoshi out of class early. The stress of the decision with Hemi and my living situation must have gotten to me and I felt myself getting annoyed when Yoshi couldnt figure out a send bonus at class. I just decided it was best if I just left before I messed up anything.

I just wasnt in a good frame of mind to be at my best to work with Yoshi and definitely didnt need to be the one causing problems with me and his relationship so close to show time.

I just need to relax............. these decisions are driving me mad!

Getting Excited

Well I sent in Yoshi's first AKC entry form in a few days ago. His first AKC show will be the 2nd weekend in January. We signed up for all three AKC classes for both days because the other two AKCs that month I dont think have FAST included. I am sooo excited. I think I am more excited about the shows coming up than I am about Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I need to register him for CPE because there are 3 CPE trials this spring at the place VERY close to home (with the first one being his VERY first show)..I think that might be one of our main "other" organizations to run besides AKC.

I barely can sit still thinking about it. I just cant wait to see how he does against other dogs and how he reacts and this will be my first time showing a dog of mine. I have trained several dogs of mine, or rescued dogs from my parents since I was in elementary school..so this had been a long wait for me!

He has class tonight so I will update this very soon.

Classes From Last Week

Yoshi has his two regular classes last week and he did very well at both of them. At Rachel's we did some more coursework..where he nailed the weaves every time. He did pretty good but sometimes I am too slow in calling him off of obstacles.. I need to be on my toes more. The course was set up to be a very fast course, which in turn, made it the hardest on me out of the class because i have the fastest dog. LOL there was a part that I didnt make it to at first, so for the next go round I had to absolutely haul butt to get to where I needed to be.. it was pretty funny.

For Thursdays class at PAWSitive.. we worked on FAST...the send was Open level.. and our best run was 62 points in 27 seconds. The instructor tried to push us to do a perfect round..but Yoshi started knocking too many bars. Though 60 points is enough to qualify in excellent so I was pretty happy with how much we did accomplish.

Yesterday I took Yoshi to go play with his girlfriend Rainey. I also helped Debbie work with Rainey on her contacts..she is going to be another competitive sheltie around here!! We did some coursework..and let them play and they had a lot of fun.

Then...

DUN DUN DUUUUNNNNNNN...

Bath time for both dogs. Now everyone is fluffy and clean. However, I am finding a LOT of ticks on both dogs and it is REALLY grossing me out. They have been on preventative.. but I think they are getting them right outside the apartment when they go potty. I guess I am going to have to talk to some people about this because they had a LOT of tiny ones on them like they had just been picked up...its horribly disgusting.

I also have noticed that Yoshi has had some irritated looking skin for a little while. At first it wasnt bad looking, now it looks pretty inflammed. They are little circular areas where they lightly scab over and the scabs then look dirty when he is due for a bath. When I bathed him yesterday and got rid of them.. the circular areas were VERY red looking.. what could this be?? He is not scratching or licking the areas that I have seen so it never looks like it bothers him..but it just looks like it isnt getting any better with changing weather (I was thinking a certain type of grass or something was doing it but Im guessing its not now) im guessing some sort of allergy? I just dont want to take him to the vet and spend another $120 for them to tell me something that I could find out for free.

Yoshi Makes Me Proud

We went to Pawsitive for the Thursday night class and we had Gamblers practice..which I will never run Gamblers (USDAA) with Yoshi, but he will run some other variations derived from it at other associations. Can I just say WOW?! I have NEVER seen him run like he did..which is really saying something. He just was ON. Totally amazing.

Since the class consists of mainly novice dogs, she gave us 45 seconds for the first part before the gamble...which meant A LOT of work for me. The first course I did I ran out of my course almost with 10 sec left. The next time I did: chute, weaves (12), jump, jump, jump, a -frame, jump, jump, teeter, jump, jump, dog walk, jump, jump, turn back and go around to a tire, dog walk, jump (43 points)..and still had a couple of seconds left...LOL and I had gone all around the course and was almost running out of things to do.

He did really good at the gamble. The only dog to get it consistently. YAY!

Did you catch on when I say he did weaves????? BEAUTIFULLY!!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING!!! He never missed a one! Yoshi knows when I need cheering up =)

What even made the lesson better, is the instructor was like, "What breeder is he from?!" She told me he was such an amazing dog. I then dropped the bomb and said he was only 14 months old. She was really impressed by him. It really made me feel good about how far I have come with my very first "real" agility dog.

Class yesterday night

Yoshi did pretty good...he gets the weaves, then he doesnt.. hes still really patchy. He did one BEAUTIFUL run through them though..it gave me some hope. We still have two more months before his first show. I am going to start practicing on the crappy inline set I have here a few times a week since he has inline down for the most part.

He did extremely beautifully with a jumpers course though. Our rear crosses are practically seamless most the time and it just is the greatest feeling working at that speed and he just totally gets it. I actually had to do part of the course over and over a few times because everyone else wanted to see how I was doing this extremely complicated course. All rear crosses...haha it is VERY difficult to get a front cross in with Yoshi because I cant ever get there in time for it to be effective.

Im trying to not do too much with them right now, things have been very upsetting and stressful and I dont want to get aggravated with Hemi and Yoshi too much.. with Yoshis first shows coming up quickly and Hemi being so sensitive. They have not been too happy about it, but I dont want them getting affected by what is going around. I think they know I am strained..they both really tried their hardest in trying to please last night and I could tell Yoshi gave me extra effort. Dogs are such blessings in disguise.

I think they are going to be fine, they never picked up the virus so we should be good to go.

Holding My Breath

Well the dogs I take care of at work (field trial English Springers) all came home with a nasty virus that they picked up at a trial. Some guy from California brought in a trailer full of sick dogs so now all the dogs are sick. I am hoping and praying my dogs dont somehow get it. I am very careful to wash my hands and put all my clothes up on the washing machine right when I get in the house. If they get this virus..its going to be battling extreme diarrhea and vomitting for 72 hours.

I havent taken the dogs to any classes or let them go anywhere because of this. I have been keeping an eye on them and I havent been feeling too great either. I have a bunch of drainage and its making me sick to my stomach everyday.

That and things have gone up in a fire lately.. its been pretty tough here the past few days.

Drumroll Please!!!!

Yoshi GOT the weaves. We went to a private lesson before our normal 7 pm class and he just got them right away. We moved the channel from 4 fingers apart, to 2, to 1, then inline..never missed a beat. Rachel also helped me give him a better approach so he would not miss that one pole. He did the inline set of 6 poles inside...with enthusiasm..not missing a pole, head down, and with some speed. Rachel said that she thought he had them down and that he should be good to go. She said not to expect him to do the same thing outside because of different place and it being 12 poles because it will sometimes throw the dogs off...However,

He zipped right through those weaves...all 12 poles, not missing a beat. Im thinking it might have been a 4 second weave pole run.. maybe 5 at the most. Not bad for a dog who has JUST started inline weave poles...Im so happy, its now time to start concentrating on getting him ready for shows. We are ready!!!!!!!!

Dec 1-2 I think we are running FEO in ASCA at College Station

1st weekend January- CPE in Alvin (5 min from home) I think we will do level 2, still not 100% decided, but I want to set him up for success and since I havent ever shown in agility before

2nd weekend in January we are running an AKC in Crosby TX

3rd weekend in January AKC in Katy

Last weekend in January AKC in Crosby again

woohoo!

Camp Was Great

Yoshi did really well at camp and I think he enjoyed it for the most part. We tried Canine Freestyle and he didnt get into it too much, but he REALLY liked the flyball stuff. I think we are going to look into some flyball training because he just really loved the motivating scene. He did wonderful in the agility classes. He won the "Top Agility Dog" award at camp.

I got a couple videos of his run. I couldnt get why that pole would fall so late on that one jump, it ended up the jump cup was turned a little bit and I think if the dog was running hard enough and jumped close to the jumps it breezed the pole off. Other than that, a pretty great run..no shooting through weave poles either..he came at my VERY insistent come come come come tunnel chant! haha

The last two videos are during the same course, the video stopped and had to be picked up again during the run.

Leaving For Camp!

Well we are leaving VERY early (5am) to go to the Iron-Dogs camp... I am sooo excited and I know the dogs know something is up. I think Yoshi is ready to rip on some new courses =)

Hopefully I will have a lot of pictures!!!!!

Class Last Night

Well class was a bit interesting if you want to call it that. First off I took Yoshi inside and did a bit of weave work..he did the channels closed totally on one end and then on the other maybe half an inch fairly well. When we would close them he would get confused again but he wasnt as bad. Then we go outside for class.. guess what the crazy dog does.. gets his entry during a course, weaves into the right pole without skipping, i just stood there not knowing what to do and he stopped....I started walking again and the crazy dog did an INLINE SET OF TWELVE POLES!!!!! I almost had a heart attack. He made me put my foot in my mouth because I was just explaining the hard time I was having with training him to weave. The rest of the night he didnt do them correctly, but he did gain some more enthusiasm. I set up a private lesson with Rachel before our next Tuesday's class and we are going to start to get his weaves down now. I think he will definitely be ready for January now. I was starting to get worried about the weaves, but he definitely made a breakthrough.

Then on to the not so great part.... Yoshi did yet another faceplant into the A-frame.. I am figuring it out, he only does it at night-time, when there is a bunch of dew on the ground.. young dog not getting his footing right and it being slippery out. He did the whole course again after that and didnt act scared of the frame. Scared the crap out of me though. I am going to start doing "gymnastics" work with him.. setting up 3 jumps at 18' apart and then recalling over them, then running with him, then putting them to 15' apart, then 20', then putting them at varied distances.. he might be not on the right lead. These will help him gauge his distances better...feels like I am training a horse all over again..lol

Trying to get the weaves down

Well so far, its still been a struggle for Yoshi to learn the weaves. Yesterday I took him to a place and I worked on weaves almost the whole time. We did a couple of sets of inline weaves, but he messed up a whole bunch..I finally got the clicker out and I had to click for every step he made when he would weave properly. He got really stressed and just started laying down and wouldnt move when I called him.

I worked on channel weaves and had him doing it maybe 2" apart fairly consistently. Right now he doesnt like the weaving and hes just not sure of it yet. I just hope I can get him weaving in the next 2 months and he picks up his enthusiasm. Im going to have to start taking him places at least 3-5 times a week I guess if we are going to get them down. At this rate, we wont ever get them down because hes just weave pole dumb.

Yoshi is retarded- I swear!

So we went to class tonight, he did wonderfully, very fast and focused and I think I did good on my handling as well. He was very consistent and he ran really fast on the dogwalk and stopped on a dime at the bottom, he jumped cleanly and he didnt break his start line stays. His contacts are still consistent on his running a-frame too. After Hemi's class we did more channel weave work..hes still not getting the 3" and under..that little "limbo area"

Well let me go into detail about what he did DURING Hemi's class...*sigh* He tore open the brand new $85 soft crate that I just bought 2 days ago......... The zipper is totally broken and man I was just livid...I cant believe the idiot broke the crate. I wish he would calm down and learn to watch. Its very distracting in class when I am trying to watch everyone else or listen to whats going on when hes making such a fuss. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

Guess Where We Are Going???

To the Iron-Dogs camp! I heard the behaviorist trainer was so good that the $400 was worth just to go to her seminars!

I am sooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!

A Little Off

Yoshi wasnt all that tonight. He ran ok, wasnt 100% focused, and didnt run very fast (maybe it was just me or he didnt like the mugginess) We did running a frame contacts again tonight... hes doing pretty well, I just hope he doesnt blow contacts.

The first part of class was more pinwheels.....Im sorry to say, but I am absolutely sick of the same exercises.. made me think about not taking this class because its not very challenging. At Rachels place, we run excellent level courses and exercises and I feel he does better with more of a challenge. I think Yoshi caught on to my attitude maybe.. who knows. After that though, we ran good! We had another successful teeter run in class..hes really got it down I think..yay for him.

Maybe taking him to other places is a good idea so he learns to run hard everywhere...we'll see if it was just an "off" day.

That and he had to wait at my work for 30 min for me to finish with the Springers before we went to class... I dont think that helped him any.

After Hemi's class, I went into a ring and did some channel weave work with Yoshi. I cranked them down to almost totally inline..we were a little patchy (I think this was due to the tire being right next to the weaves and it was a bit distracting) and not as fast as I would like..but we got some good practice in.

Much Better!!

No big a-frame problems tonight..he veered off on the right side a bit, but not as bad...and hes already getting running contacts down as well. Everytime he stepped well into the contact zones and kept a really level head about being let loose like that. It wasnt the most speedy, but it really saved on that extra stopping bit (looked like it was easier on his body), and I think he will only continue to get faster with it. We also used the teeter in part of a course, he did the best hes done. We had some fun coursework today, only one knocked bar and only one faceplant (Yoshi is still tending to peel out around corners sometimes). I found out that if Dustin holds him during the class, that he acts a bit better and it doesnt make me so nervous (when he thrashes and whines about trying to go run, it just makes me nervous!) At the end of class we made a beautiful tunnel entrance with a difficult full speed going at it with the other side and the a frame that was dead on from the jump being the most appealing things. I can barely fault him tonight, he did better than I expected..and maybe the a-frame isnt a big problem =)

Last but not least......He did his first inline set of 6 weaves..it wasnt necessarily pretty, and it was a bit slow...but he did it... I opened the channel up and let him rip through them. I also made him enter with me at a distance..he did wonderful.

A-Frame Woes

Well serious problem- Yoshi is not doing the A-frame very well anymore. It takes him a total of 10 seconds to go from top to bottom and he slides and veers off to the very edge of the a-frame now. I think he does not like the 2o2o because it must hurt him.

On Thursday he went really fast down the a-frame and I think it might have hurt him a bit. The final time he went down it, he just sat there and wouldnt move..I thought he was just saying hey Im tired, time to go home. But he did it again today.... this is totally unlike him at all.

*sigh* I dont think this is going to be very fun. Im wondering if I need to retrain for a running contact and he is just uncomfortable with how it feels, or if he might need to be readjusted because he hurt himself. ugh..... this is NOT good as we are in the final months before the trials start.

Class on Thursday

We went to Pawsitive Impact on Thursday, where we worked on serpentines...BUT it was really to make my handling skills better! Linda really helped me with my faults as a handler and I was really impressed with the class..she even got on to me for ducking and by the end of the class I was doing a lot better! Tuesdays it will be a class to nitpick on Yoshi...Thursday will be for me! haha perfect!

Drumroll---- Yoshi did his first teeter at a new place..and he did it really well =) yay! By the time January rolls around..he will be slamming it down and it will be old hat for him! Now all we have left is the weaves =)

Tomorrow I am going to meet up with Debbie and Yoshis girlfriend Rainey and we are going to let them play at Melanies place thats close to home. I might brush up on some contacts (really reinforce them with treats) and work on the channel weaves there too.

Did I mention I REALLY want to go to the Iron-Dogs camp?!?!?!?! Maybe I did ;-) haha

I'm Dying To Go!!!!!!!

If only I can scrape together $400!!!!

http://iron-dogs.com/

The class tonight

Class went alright..nothing too spectacular..although he did a tunnel/tire discrimination VERY well! We mainly did jumping exercises.... and we were indoors as well. I brought the crate with me so he could chill out a little more..he wasnt as bad as he was last class with the spazzing out on the side lines.

I moved the teeter height to a few inches off from regulation height..so we are pretty much teeter trained, he only needs to learn how to slam it down now... so we will definitely be good to go in the next couple weeks with the teeter. We will even try it during games night next time probably.

He did well with his channel weaves too, they were about 3" apart probably and he didnt miss a pole and got his entrances great too! I had him enter the weaves from more of a distance and he nailed it everytime (him being on the right side)

My dog dryer came in today..tomorrow I am bathing them and making them all fluffy! I cant wait =)

Yoshi's First Fun Match

Well Yoshi did really good in his first small fun match. We ran two AKC FAST courses. One was an easier novice style course, while the other one was more Open. Yoshi did extremely well, except on the first gamble he had one refusal into the tunnel (mainly because I took a step back when he went forward!!! whoops!) The gamble was pretty hard because you almost had to go to a screeching halt so it was hard to keep the dogs going. it was jump into the area, go towards a tunnel then go laterally to a a-frame... it was pretty intense! Other than that he nailed everything perfect, and he hauled some butt too. Everyone was really impressed with how he ran at only 1 yr old. I didnt bring the camera because Dustin wasnt there to take any video and it was at night so I dont know how the digital camera would have done taking video at night.

Today, I went and watched an AKC trial and took Yoshi so he could learn to wait calmly (well he was calm after he tired himself out) Needless to say, both me and Yoshi are pooped after being in the heat all day..and we didnt even run..LOL

I might be going back tomorrow..Im contemplating on taking Hemi instead since the little guy no longer has the explosive runs! =)

Yoshi Howling...Haha

For some reason if you make barking noises to the tune of Jingle Bells...he howls...Dont ask me how I found that out..LOL

Jumping the gun a little....

I think we are ready for Halloween over here...

Yoshi having fun

So I did a little "barrel racing" like exercise with Yoshi so he could have some fun and to just get him to listen to where Im saying to go..he did ok! he seemed to like it!

Wild & Crazy

Well class last night was interesting...... to say the least.

We did some REALLY hard exercises and had a fairly hard course.

I am learning my #1 fault when I handle Yoshi. I duck too much and it pushes him out instead of in. I dont know why I do it and its so hard to break, I guess I feel like I need to be lower since hes so short than what I am used to.

Yoshi was crazy, he was faster than ever (maybe because we were outside in the big field instead of in the little indoor place) and I had a hard time keeping up with him. The last part of the course was very hard (for me at least) and I kept messing up until Rachel would tell me what to do...ahh it was so embarrassing lol.

Yoshi was a bit wound up at the first part of the course and he was trying to do his own thing (of course I was ducking) so I am hoping it was just a bad day. He got it down good the second time I tried it (after I made him lay down and told him to calm down, then restarted the course)

I picked up my a frame, and also moved my teeter and tire jump to my parents house. I am going to start working both dogs at my parents a couple times a week if I get the chance. I am definitely going to try to do something with Yoshi before Games night on Friday...I just hope he shows a bit more control...and I handle him better as well =) Im so excited though, I cant wait..just this much closer to being in shows!

New Videos For The Yosh-Man!

From tonight!









Monthly games night is starting on Sept 21 so me and Yoshi will be doing that on Fri nights once a month.. woohoo! Cant wait.. I need to learn all these games, and what better way to do it than at a fun match setting?

Stuff

Well Yoshi is now in Tuesday nights competition level class..and I am really excited. I really benefit by seeing other dogs and handlers accomplish the exercises with ease (for the most part..haha) and now Rachel can really nitpick on my handling and get us ready for Yoshi's start. We did a jumpathon for the first lesson. We did lots of different jump exercises..with the last one being excruiciatingly hard! Yoshi and a terrier named Bailey got it on their first try.. but both of our second tries...not so great! We are starting to jump Yoshi 14" now to get him ready to start jumping 16". I am a bit worried because he doesnt clear the bar with a lot of room and I hope he doesnt start getting too lax over jumps. He only knocked a couple down, but still..just hope it doesnt become a nasty habit. Of course, when we start out in Novice, the courses and turns wont be quite so tight so we should be ok. After the lesson, I did some weave and teeter work (the two things Yoshi is not doing 100% yet) I got to crank down the channel weaves more than ever and he got them every single time.. he was attacking them and really moving. We only did a small teeter once, I know he can get this obstacle down..I just havent started moving him up on it. I really need to concentrate on these two obstacles and get them down. Other than that, just working on a few discriminations (tunnel/a frame/dogwalk/etc)

Thats all for now!!

Photoshoot

Finally!!!!

I finally got internet in the condo... woohoo!

Well Yoshi's classes have been going great... Last Tuesday he really started getting the weaves down so we could actually crank down the channel to be fairly narrow so he started getting footwork down. He actually found the entrances everytime except the first time we narrowed the channel!!! I was REALLY HAPPY! He wasn't doing too great with learning the weaves. His contacts continue to get better and better so I dont have to use a target anymore now. We ran an excellent level course the other night and he ate it up. I cant wait to get him out in the ring... We are getting sooo close now!!!!

I am going to try to get some good pics up soon...now that I have internet..happy happy :)

Much Needed Update

Well we have been in the process of getting ready to move into the condo this weekend so I have been super busy and havent had time to update on the dogs.

Yoshi has been doing extremely well in his classes...its already time for him to move up after only a month of this class.

I will start updating again regularly after we move in and get everything settled.. its been one thing after another with getting everything together and ready.

Class July 3

Well its been raining nonstop so I am thinking it is safe to assume that the fun match is rained out....bummer...

Yoshi's class went great.. we did work for distance stuff... he did great..and ran sooooooo fast that he was "peeling out" on the mats. We did some discrimination work as well... he only had one mess up and everything else he did great. Our work over jumps was just amazing.. he really made me proud.

I made a blog for my new puppy that I am picking up named Hemi.... so keep a look out for updates!

July 7- Yoshi's first fun match

On July 7 (prevented that it doesn't rain out) we are going to take Yoshi to his first fun match. We are going to have to leave out the teeter and the weaves, but she said it would be fine just so I could get Yoshi used to everything. I'm excited and I hope it will be a good experience.

I bought my tunnel and teeter base... now just waiting for them to come in and waiting on it to quit raining so I can start painting again.

I bought a tunnel with 6" pitch...I hope it will be fine because I know most places use 4" pitch. Hes only 20 lbs so I guess it doesnt matter that much as long as I have something to hold the tunnel down on its ends......

We have class tonight too..hopefully we will have some fun

Simple Work and New Horse

Yesterday I put together a tight little course of jumps and just worked on crosses and getting him to respond to how my body turned and such. I really emphasized on everything and after a few oopsies he really tuned into me. Hopefully I will start getting that focus right off the bat after a couple more months. He did really well and I even did a tire and jump discrimination and made sure I really exaggerated my body movements to motion what I wanted him to do and he did great. There was a simple sit stay then go jump, 180 left turn (where I do a rear cross...we are working on these) to tire, then 90 left turn to jump off away from me over another jump where i do another rear cross and call him to my leg. He did the exercise great.

My mom also picked up a new horse yesterday. He is a 16 H 6 year old bay Saddlebred gelding. Very unusual pick (I prefer the psychotic Thoroughbreds myself), but she wants to do dressage and he does have the movements (he is not gaited). So I have a new project because he needs a LOT of work. She hasnt done much riding under a professional, so I am going to have to get his initial training done for her. He needs to move forward a lot more... this is going to be interesting. I am used to already forward horses haha.

CGC and California Hear I Come

Well Yoshi got his CGC today! He did great and was very calm through the whole test. We had no mistakes and now I dont have to worry about getting it before we move up to the next level in a few weeks.

Oh yeah... yours truly should be in California in a few weeks.... MTV is flying me out to do a live tv show!

Updates!!!

I think this says it all:




Tuesdays class: We worked on turning away from me over an obstacle so I can do a rear cross... he was confused at first but today he got it down a lot better. We will continue working on that.

Thursdays class: We worked on entrances into channel weaves. We did a small sequence: weaves to table to tire to chute. Yoshi did good on that. We also worked on his 2o2o on the plank as well.. anyway the picture says the best about how hes doing...... lol

We might be going for our CGC on Saturday..hopefully it wont get cancelled..wish us luck!

Private Lesson #4

Well Yoshi's last scheduled private lesson was on Monday before he starts at the Tuesday night class at Bellecreek next week. He did very good, but I can definitely see that having a dogwalk at home is going to be helpful to reinforce my 2o2o training.. he is realy patchy in wanting to come straight down to the base. We did some jumping exercises first with a front cross...which made him shoot through some weave poles nearby (weird because the dog doesnt even know that obstacle much) He just shot through two poles really. So I guess I will have to emphasis "come" when jumping near weave poles. With the rear cross though...no problems! He did great. I think it is because I typically did rear crosses with him through his early jump training. Anyways... When I jump him I need to remember to try some front crosses because he does get confused with those still. We also did flatwork exercises... I had to send him out around two cones and go further and further away... turning with me and away from me. Also I had to walk with him right at my leg and then stop and try to get him to stay right with me unless I send him off... I think its going to work brilliantly. We also did work with the channel weaves...we made them just a bit tighter and he had no problems running through(I pray for fast weaves one day!) I am giving Yoshi a little bit of time off this week (Tuesday and Wednesday) Then he will have class on Thursday (unless it pours down rain there or something) and then over the weekend he might visit the beach. I think I might work him once and then just give him the other days off so he doesnt get burned out. He will have a class on Tuesday night anyway so he might start having regular two classes a week (depends on the plan at the place in pearland..this week is the last class for the 4 week session I paid for)

Yoshie's Jumpers Course and 2nd Day of CPE Trial

The 2nd day of the CPE trial went beautifully... I am so glad I got back into the sport of agility because everyone was so appreciative of us helping out (in racing everyone could care less what you did) Everyone was so helpful and nice and I have not had this much fun in a long time. When the trial was over...I went and ran Yoshi over the Level 3 Jumpers course at 8"...... he did......BEAUTIFULLY!!!!!!!!!!! I have never had him run so great, he pointed and clicked..he ran fast, charged into the tunnels (banked in them too), and was attentive to where I sent him. I was SO EXCITED!!! Im such a proud mommy!!!

PS Thanks to the A!Woof group (especially Kathy!) for the fryer for me and Dustin when we get an apartment =) it will be to a lot of use for us

We might be in College Station in a couple of weeks..depending on if we can get the money to go or not!!

First Day of CPE Trial

It went really well! I was a scribe the whole night (what a "first trial" experience!!!). There was a standard, snooker, fullhouse, and color class. Yoshi did pretty well with the atmosphere, he mainly stayed in his crate but I would let him out in between classes and get him to concentrate on me.. he did great =) I tried him out under the wickets and he did pretty well under them..he relaxed enough that he could have even jumped the 12" class last night (of course if he was old enough..lol) I am about to leave to go there again to help out tonight. I really like the CPE organization and I hope they have a lot more trials in this area in the future!! Im not sure what classes are going to be offered tonight (I think Jumpers is definitely tonight)..Anyways.. I will type more later!

Whoops!!

We went to practice tonight where the CPE trial is going to be this weekend and Yoshi did great...until he tripped on his feet and fell off the dogwalk (not a bad fall)! He was just running on the middle section and it just happened out of nowhere (right after Dustin asked if I had ever had a dog fall off the dogwalk) I just acted suprised and said WHOOPS!!!! and had him go right back on it.... I made him go back and forth a few times and then after 20 min of rest I sent him back over it and he did fine...just hope he doesnt get scared next time we go out. The look on his face was kind of humorous... he looked at me like WTF?!?! I think it didnt scare him too bad.. I guess he wouldnt have gone back over it the times I had him go back over it if he was that scared. Poor guy!! He also did his first banking turn in the tunnel tonight. =)

We are going to be at the CPE trial this weekend helping out and letting Yoshi get used to the trial scene.. I wish we could do a FEO run in level 1 (no teeter or weaves) but Im not registered with the CPE yet and someone said he might have to be at least 15 months old... we have a while to go if thats the case.

A Few Videos

Heres a few videos over the new jumps!

Where Did This Come From????

The last two days when I worked Yoshi over the new jumps....he just flew. Yesterday I worked on some jumps in a circle and also them lined up where I could get him to go in an X-Pattern..I barely had to go anywhere he just went where I pointed......and went there in a hurry!!!!! I was soooooooo proud because he hasnt shown his speed in a while.

I ended up buying the stuff to build a tire jump and the frame is built and waiting for the rest to be done. I have 3 more jumps also waiting to be finished. Most the jumps just need jump cups (I dont think Dustin likes making those...)

The table just needs two coats of pink on the top (with the sand to make it have texture) then its done. It looks kind of cloudy today so I might hold off until tomorrow.

We had to postpone the beach trip so we could build the stuff.... I really want to take him but my parents are renting a beach house in a couple of weeks so I will get my opportunity soon enough.

The internet has been awful so I have been having to come over to my parents to use their dial up...which is excuse for my lack of posting of the new videos I have of Yoshi.... I have quite a few waiting to be loaded!!

New Agility Equipment for Yoshi!

Well we built some new jumps and also a table! We used the designs from the beginners guide to dog agility (in the back they have some build your own equipment deals)... Anyways..they came out great! I have three jumps (minus cups...still waiting on Dustin to cut those) And Im going to run to the hardware store to get some more stuff for a couple more jumps. Surprisingly...Yoshi was excited about his new stuff...a new found speed let itself show when I let him jump over some baby 4" jumps (they are that high without the cups and poles in place)...hmm maybe this might be a break through..... He might have just gotten bored with the old jumps in the same area everyday. Anyways..I put some primer on my table bottom and I am waiting for it to dry so I can put the second coat on. Then I'll flip her over and prime the other side..then I can paint my table PINK (yes I know I am weird)! Soon I will be buying the stuff for my dog walk base (think I am just going to order a kit) and I am still deciding on if I should build a tire jump or just buy one. Also I will be buying a tunnel and I might buy a chute as well. Since he is still younger (almost 9 months now) I will probably wait for 2-3 more months before I try to buy a set of weave poles. I need to figure out if I need to buy some to make the channel weaves or what. It depends on his progress in the next couple months what I will do with that. Anyways...I am getting excited more and more because now I actually am going to have equipment of my own and no more cinderblock jumps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also we are going to probably go to the beach (if the weather is nice) and take Yoshi..so hopefully I will have some pics of that. I will try to get the videos up in the next couple days of his course run from the place a week ago.

Yoshi's way of frustrating me.............

Well last night we went to go look for some new shoes for Dustin (without success...they dont make the same style of shoe that he likes. This is going to be fun...) We get home and there are party paper plates, napkins, bags, and CANDLES all chewed up in Yoshi's crate. I have NO idea how in the hell the dog got to the stuff (I didnt even know it existed in the vicinity) but somehow he did and chewed it all up. Also somehow he got into a Koolaid singles pouch (that were way over on top of something) and ate it up....AND got koolaid stuff all over his crate pad and on his white legs...................... I was soooooooooooooooooooooo MAD!!!!!!! I didnt want to put stuff up against the crate because I didnt want him getting too hot..but looks like I have to if hes getting into stuff. I have some stuff blocking (at least I hope) his reach of anything around the crate. All together now.......UGH UGH UGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Class was rained out last night as well..... hopefully next week it wont be the same story.

Rain..........

Well it did it again....... it rained a LOT and looks like it will be a few weeks off.......again!!!!!! We had FOUR months of rain outs already this year. At least I have found a place thats indoors...but I wont be able to go there for a couple weeks.... hopefully the place that lets you go for $5 an hour will end up drying quickly. I might go stir crazy if I have to wait for weeks!

Class Yesterday and Training Today!

We had our class last night and Yoshi did really well! We worked on "learning the tire." (which he already knew, but it was great to reinforce the training to get him 100% on the obstacle) Next we started the channel method for the weave poles. It took Yoshi one try and then he learned to enter through the channel like a champ! The instructor said,"Wow! He learns fast!" LOL We then put the tire after the channel and had them go through both obstacles. The last thing was to work with bends in the tunnel (which hes already learned, but I wanted to work on more speedy entrances into the tunnel so I was excited to work more on the tunnel) Yoshi was very energetic and excited and listened well...so I am hoping at trials he will have that extra edge that will make him get through the course faster.

After class Yoshi got to play with his "girlfriend" Rainey a little bit.. shes a blue merle sheltie thats two weeks older than him.. they just LOVE each other. It is too cute. I got some videos of them running at each other and such. We didnt get a chance to turn them loose, but maybe next week.

Today we went to the Dogs Need A Job facility where the CPE event will be in June. It was a really nice place with two rings: beginner and then a standard course. I ran Yoshi in both rings and he did really well. First I went into the beginner ring and worked on the contact trainer to get him focused. Then we did some jumps and tunnels...he did fairly well..wasnt as fast as I would like but fairly steady. I tried to work with some crosses (front and rear) to get him used to them. When he got them down then he did really well, but he did have some confused moments too. We are getting there though! We then went to the standard ring...where he did the regulation height dogwalk! YAY for Yoshi...we had done a little lower than regulation and he did the regular height like a champ...I was so happy. We put together some little courses and he ran really well...but he tried to run to the table when he was near it and then would try to jump a jump instead of the tunnel...but all in all it was not bad considering we havent done much with courses yet.

I got some video of him running some of the course and when I go to my parents place I will get the videos together and post them asap!

I probably wont get to work with Yoshi too much this weekend because Dustin is racing his car both nights and tomorrow my dad has his truck entered in a show..and I am always the designated person to attend...lol. Monday Im going to a trial to watch...maybe I can see how different the speed is between Yoshi and the dogs entered the trial. That's all for now!

Heat Problems? Or is it something else?

I'm wondering if the heat is affecting Yoshi at all....hes not as fast as I think he was a couple of months ago. Maybe I am worrying too early, he is not even a year old yet so I know we have lots of time to get ready for competitions and get more speedy. My first dog (large mixed breed) I "trained" in agility was so slow and laidback that there was no chance to compete in a trial ever... now 10 years later I have a dog that will probably be able to compete and I guess I am just too worried too early because I want to get that chance that I didnt get when I was younger.

I cant wait to get the check from the insurance so I can buy the rest of my equipment (I have some stuff ready for building some equipment) I even have the paint (PINK) and planks/lumber ready for my dog walk and table. Hahaha

Earlier we worked on the jumps again (thats all I have to work with right now) he did fairly decent. I tried to work on setting him up and getting him to come over a jump and then going over a couple jumps afterwards as well. The only really thing that I could nitpick was his speed. Everything else he did fine... hes starting to look more at where I am directing him than just jumping wherever he wants to go.

Later this afternoon I will probably work on the basic work and give him a break from jumps.. He LOVES jumping and when we go for lessons that is normally what he wants to do the most but I am wondering if he is getting tired of the jumps at home..... lots to try to figure out I guess.

As for me, I think I need to finetune my handling skills..maybe I am just being sloppy when I am training him alone here and hes picking up on my actions.

Some Progress

We have been doing better with our contact work! He is now touching the target on the ground instantly. He is also getting the 2o2o concept a lot better now. In our lesson today we worked on the broad jump, the tire, and some jumps and tunnels. We didnt do too much with the contacts this time because that is what we really concentrated on the last couple of lessons. Our homework until the next class is setting him up (we are having a LOT of trouble with him not wanting to come directly to me when I am working with him...see the video I posted a couple of blogs ago) BUT we are getting better on that and by next lesson I know he will be 100% better! I am planning on buying a tunnel soon so I can work on his tunnel entries...hes not really speedy through them yet but I know it will come in time. I need to really get him to concentrate on where I want him to go too.. instead of him thinking he knows where I want him to go! LOL We just need to solidify our basics... tons of things to work on and that is fine with me :)

Photo Shoot

Yoshi looks so good after going to the groomers! He even got a little bandana!! :)

Video

Here is a video from a week and a half ago of me working Yoshi over a few jumps. I was working on small lines with him..not whole courses which explains the pauses in case you were wondering :) He did pretty good over the jumps.. hopefully I will have better videos coming up soon. Anyways...here you go for now!


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v473/MotoXQuadChick/?action=view&current=YoshiOverJumps01.flv

Class Tonight

We went to the beginner class tonight at the place that has had a lot of rain outs. It was mainly review and it was stuff that Yoshi has done a lot...but he had a lot of fun being with the other dogs. A lot of people complimented him so I hope he has the potential I think he does. When we did some tunnel work he was very attentive to where I was when he came out of the tunnel (I was very excited when that was pointed out.) I worked on some of the exercises that Rachel had given me to do..and Yoshi really did well. He is getting better already at his spins. He was actually extremely hyper tonight, I think he is getting more confident. The same level class that is right after Yoshi has another Sheltie in it and we let them go for a couple of minutes and they ran like crazy it was so funny. Anyways this weekend we are taking Yoshi to a dog park this weekend and tomorrow he is going to the groomers to see if they can do anything with his coat... (Im not too wonderful with it..or maybe it is a lost cause..)

Im wondering if I should continue classes at both places regularly or if I should just stick with one...I kind of like going to both places because I get different imput and lots more time out on the equipment.. but I am wondering if this will conflict with working on his contacts (Rachel is already working on them and Pawsitive Impact hasnt enforced them with the beginner class yet)... Either way I have 2 more classes at Bellecreek and 3 more classes at Pawsitive Impact... On June 19 we are going to start going to Tuesday night classes at Bellecreek. I guess at least until we get our own place I can spend the money and go to both places for now.. I really like going this much! Its lots of fun... Im already wanting another Sheltie to work with...hehehehehe

Yoshi's Start In Agility and Looking For An Apartment

Before we started in agility classes, I had worked with Yoshi over simple things to get him a head start before he was old enough to go to classes. I got him to sit, stay, come, run next to me, simple things like that. Then I put a little length of 2"x12" board down on bricks and got him used to "walking the plank." After a few sessions of that I put it up higher and he seemed to like it. Also I started working him over small jumps...he LOVES jumping and I started working on sending him over jumps. Our only problem is he wants to go and jump whatever he feels like and make his own course sometime... but more of that in a little bit. So we signed up for classes...which kept getting rained out...finally we got to go to one and Yoshi really did well.. he did seem a bit bored because most of the stuff was old hat because of the things I had worked with him on. The classes got rained out again...which ended up being four months of classes (with the exception of the one we got to go to.) I finally went to practice on the competition level night and they let me do a few exercises with him... I got him to do some nice entries into the tunnel..straight and curved. I also sent him towards the tunnel and he did pretty good. Anyways, I found another place to train and it is INDOORS... so it will NEVER get rained out!!!! I have taken a couple of private lessons (to get him ready for the Tuesday night class...its not the basic basic class because me and Rachel, who is the trainer and owner of the indoor facility, thinks that he is far ahead enough to not have to do the first time beginner class.) He has started doing slightly lower than standard heights of the A frame and dogwalk and he is doing fairly well. She has given me lots of homework after both classes. A lot of it is working him with the clicker and small step exercises to give him the best start as possible. One thing we are working on is getting him to touch the target and I will click and treat.. he is doing fairly ok with this. I havent put it on the ground yet..but is doing ok with it close. Hopefully he will be doing this exercise like an old pro in a week or two. We are also doing the walking forward and backward exercise. I am teaching him how to spin because he is not as flexible as we would like... he tends to like to turn to the left better than the right...... hmmmmm... hope this won't be a problem. She also wants me to work with him on getting him to come to my side when I ask when we are jumping since he wants to go do his own course. She also gave me some handler exercises with some front crosses and spins.... (I have never done fronts...only backs..so this is totally new for me!!) I just need to spend a few mini sessions doing these small, mind stimulating exercises for him and I hope he learns them great. We are supposed to have class at the other place tonight (finally night rained out.) I will also be taking another lesson at Rachel's on Monday. I have video from a week ago with Yoshi going over some jumps so I will try to post that soon!!!!

We are starting to look at apartments too! Dustin got a $2 RAISE!!!! Thank GOD!!!! We just need to pay off a few things and then it is hopefully on to our own place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You don't know how bad I want this to happen...... Anyways...I just am not sure how much everything is going to cost in addition to rent..so I am a little worried.

MTV is coming down on Tuesday for my interview. Their flight got cancelled last night so they couldnt make it in today :( which is such a shame because we had COOLER weather today and it was sooooo beautiful!!!! Anyways, that's all for now.