The Video !

Here it is....the video of our races :)

Great Night at the Races

Last night we raced right here in Lethbridge. There were only 6 teams competing but we all had such a great time !
HUGE thanks goes to Shauna who was our box loader for the first time.
Jethro & Epic competed for the first time & had clean runs!! Well done Tina & Donna!
Bosley was his typical funny self, taking his time up to the box, sometimes surveying his surroundings, but always getting his right dumbbell then racing back to the finish.
Gyp was her speedy self & was almost always right on, just a couple of tiny bobbles but is a definite asset to our team !!
Swift wowed us by not crossing the line once or barking her way around the box, what a good girl!!
Princess Pixel was her perfect little self & didn't make a mistake all night!
We had lots of funny moments as well.
In one race I made a huge mistake by not remembering where Kort's dumbbell was & told him he was right when he picked up #3, oops! I didn't even look at the number when he brought it back as I am so used to him being right, my bad!!!
The look on my teams faces when they saw me sitting on the floor hanging onto a barking bundle of a tri sheltie for an opposing team, was priceless :)
Tina's boyfriend was super nice to video the races for us, as soon as they are compiled we will post them here!
Congrats to Us! Good Job Team !!!

Last Practice

In Attendance:

Roberta/Karma
Johanne
Shauna
Jolene/Kort
Amanda/Pixel
Sarah/Gyp
Maureen/Crawford
Donna/Epic/Swift
Kim/Bosley


Last night we had our last practice before the race on Saturday. Judi Snowdon with Drummer & Donni Scott with Betty joined in on our practice. It was great to have them.
We have had a bit of a change regarding the racing dogs with Jethro stepping in for one heat. The dogs all worked well & Shauna has agreed to box load for us so we are ready!
Go No NonScents !!!

And the Racing Dogs Are....

In Attendance:

Amanda/Pixel
Johanne/Ruby
Shauna/Chase
Donna/Epic/Sport
Kim/Bosley/Maggie
Tina/Jethro
Jaime/Cookie
Sarah/Gyp
Jolene/Kort
Maureen/Crawford

Practice went well, with just a few suggestions to make our time a bit faster. Amanda picked the team that is to race in Lethbridge.

Racing are:

Pixel, Bosley & Kort, with Gyp & Epic alternating, & Cookie racing at least once to see how he does. Should be lots of fun !

Only 2 more practices until the real thing people !!!!

Wednesday Practice

In attendance:

Kim/Bosley/Maggie
Amanda
Jaime/Cookie
Sarah/Gyp
Johanne/ruby
Judy/Maize
Shauna/Chase
Donna/Epic/Sport
Maureen/Crawford
Julia/Tea
Roberta/Karma


Tonight was a bit crazy & loud:)
It is amazing to see the newbies coming along so quickly, most of them are already jumping, & fetching ! Whoo Hoo!!
The racing dogs had a bit of a rough start but finished great.
We only have a few more practices before our Lethbridge show, sooo exciting to be running at home !!!!!!!!

Wednesday Practice

In Attendance:

Jolene/Kort
Amanda
Kim/Bosley,Maggie
Julia/Tea,True
Donna/Epic,Sport
Sarah/Gyp
Jaime/Cookie
Tina/Jethro
Johanne/Ruby
Shauna/Chase
Roberta/Kharma
Judy/Roxy,Maize
Maureen/Crawford

Wow, we had a full house last night! The newbies, the in betweeners, & the racing dogs got in a great night of work. We had 3 groups running at most times, with the newbies practicing scent discrimination, the in betweener dogs working on getting their brains to work at the box after taking the jumps :) & the racing dogs working among a ton of distractions.
We have the last race of the year coming up right here in Lethbridge so we are looking forward to that!
It is so wonderful to see the increasing interest in this sport, we have a great team :)

Cowley Practice

In Attendance:

Jolene/Kort
Amanda/Pixel
Judy/Roxy
Kim/Bosley
Donna/Epic

There was only a few of us present but we had a great practice!!!
Ok, so Bosley was a dork once, & Kort wanted to take Pixels dumbbell & Pixel went round & round sniffing, but Epic was awesome !!!! He didn't make a mistake , was fast coming & going over the jumps as well.....looks like someone might just be ready to race at our Lethbridge show!!
Way to go Epic & Donna:)
Roxy also did super!!!! She got the right dumbbell each time & didn't look over at the other ring once, good girl Roxy !! :)
At the end Maggie got to play a bit, she loved it!! she even ran back over the jumps with the dumbbell, kim was so surprised & pleased :)
Maybe another Berner on the team Kim ?? :)

Meeting

We all have ability. The difference is in how we use it. 

Stevie Wonder

We had our first meeting as a complete group and Sunday, and hopefully things are more clear for everyone. The ultimate message was Teamwork. Everyone needs to work together, to put in effort, and to try. No one is perfect, and no is going to be able to make every practice, but putting in the "try" is what makes the difference. 

We all have great dogs, who are very capable. This game is great fun, but takes loads of training to start. Those who want to do well, and to race will. And those who don't won't.

I am working on an actual Calendar- there is a temporary one on this blog. We won't be racing now until November, so hopefully we can get some good training time in and get some of the newer dogs running.

Practice wise things are still tough to schedule.  Due to the agility trials coming up I think the next available time for actual practice will be Monday, Aug 29th at 7:30. Once we move into Fall/Winter it will be much easier to schedule regular practices on the same night/time. Summer is always the hardest time to organize people. lol

However,  we are scheduled to perform at Whoop Up Days (Aug 23-27) with Go Dog Go. We will be doing scent hurdle demos a few times over the week. More details to come. 

Spruce Meadows

We had some good races in Spruce Meadows. Kort, Swift, Bosley and Pixel all earned their Scenthurdle Excellent Titles. Congrats Guys!

Gyp is now just five points away from her first Scenthurdle Title as well.

The team ran well, with some nice tight passes and not too many errors. We still held Swift back though just to be sure to avoid an issue.

Our next race is in two week at the WAC trial.

We have a meeting scheduled for this sunday at 7:30.

Henderson Lake Practice

In Attendance:

Judy/Roxy
Julia/Tea
Shauna/Chase
Jaime/Cookie
Tina/Jethro
Donna/Epic/Swift
Kim/Bosley
Jolene/Kort
Amanda & Perkins :)

What we did:

This was such an awesome night ! We had a perfect spot to do some outside training, it was busy with people & dogs walking by ( & watching ), but still private enough so our dogs had the room to run the jumps.
The new dogs are coming along sooo great!!! Just a bit of proofing & they will be ready in no time! They are making fewer & fewer mistakes & are really seeming to enjoy the sport.
Speaking of proofing, Amanda was tough tonight :) She used Perkins & Catch as distractions for the racing dogs. Poor Bosley, you should have seen his face when he realized he was being followed by a wiener dog LOL!! Kort thought it was play time when he saw Amanda sitting on the ground next to the box with Perkins :) The point was to make the dogs think through the distractions, to remember their jobs no matter what. It was great.
The racing dogs also practiced jumping from different angles, straight on, from the far left & far right.

The following pictures were taken by Wendy on Saturday. This was at the demo we put on for the Windy City Rescue.

COOKIE......

GYP......

PIXEL......

KORT......

Springbank Show and Practice Times.

Pixel, Kort, Bosley and Swift raced on Saturday night and did great!!! I am just so proud of how far these dogs have come. It is hard to put into words just how awful those first couple trials were. Our dogs acted as though they had never been trained. This weekend you could actually see it coming together. We were successful in nearly every race. (7 of them). Yay for Us!

We did things a little differently though- which helped to make us more successful I am sure.

First off we made sure that our dogs came first. To make a good impression on the other teams (which can be intimidating) we are ALWAYS volunteering. This time I told the team to make sure not to volunteer the race right before ours. We took our dogs out to watch (the ones who need the excitement anyway :) ) and let them see what we wanted. That alone made a big difference I think.

Also we practiced before-hand. Before the scenthurdle was even set up we found a quiet space and just sent our dogs to the box a few times- lots of rewarding and telling them how wonderful they were. And it worked!

 Our dogs were focused 100% in the first three races. There was no looking in the other lane, just down and back to the box. Our times weren't great- but we were clean. And that was a great feeling.

When we switched lanes on the fourth race that's when it started to fall apart a bit. Swift lost her brain a bit and crossed over. She went up to meet two dogs, and after that I made the decision to run her last, and to hold her until the other team was done. This worked very, very well. We didn't win any races this way- BUT- the dogs were successful. Both Swift and the oppposing dogs. I think that we will continue to do this until Swift has more races under her belt. She is not an aggressive dog, but she is very excited by movement and often acts without thinking. I believe that with more experience and SUCCESS that she will continue to get better.

All in all I am just so proud of us. We really are the underdogs- Scenthurdle is a hard sport to break into. The teams, and the rules have been there forever and newcomers aren't welcomed by all. But slowly we are gaining fans. :) A few people have taken us under their wing so to speak and have been very helpful and nice. It is much appreciated that's for sure!

Also I need to thank Michelle (from the green team) for Box Loading almost every race!! She may be little but she is very awesome and did a great job. Thanks to Kim, and Christina who also stood in as a box loader for us. It was nice to know that things like this can be covered if neccesary.

We will be participating in a demo on Saturday at 1pm. Henderson Lake at that Kiwanis Picnic Shelter. If we can have people there by 12:30 at the latest to set up and get their dogs settled that would be awesome.

I also would like to do a practice on Sunday 7:30 at Henderson Lake. We will meet at the parking lot by the Japanese Gardens. (I think that's the Mayor Magrath side) 

Canada Day Demo & Official Race Pictures

We managed to get a few shots of the team while competing this past weekend.
The team also did a demo at the Canada Day Celebrations.
Enjoy!!

BOSLEY

PIXEL

GYP

CRAWFORD

KORT

GO Team !!!!!!

Outside Practice

In Attendance:

Tina/Jethro
Jaime/Cookie
Amanda/Pixel
Kim/Bosley
Sarah/Gyp
Jolene/Kort


With summer in full swing we took advantage & had an outside practice. The next trial is this weekend in Coalhurst after the agility trial.
The dogs did awesome, even with all the distractions they managed to concentrate & do their jobs!
The newbies, Gyp, Jethro & Cookie also did awesome, running the 4 jumps to the full box to bring back their dumbbells, just a few minor bobbles but they really rocked. These guys have been working so hard & it really shows, Congrats you guys!!!

The racing dogs, Kort, Bosley & Pixel were very focused & brought back the right dumbbell everytime.
I have to say we drew quite a crowd at times, they must have been wondering what the heck we were doing!

Looking forward to this weekend & racing ! Whoo Hoo!!

Friday Night Practice

In Attendance:

Tina/Jethro
Shauna/Chase
Judy/Roxie,Maize
Amanda/Pixel
Kim/Bosley
Jolene/Kort
Donna/Swift,Epic
Jaime/Cookie
Julia/Tea
Sarah/Gyp

What we did:

We finally found a night to fit in a practice!
Friday the 6th we all got together.
First we did some restrained recalls, owners & dogs first. Then we did side by side recalls, 2 dogs running at the same time beside each other. Then to make it more challenging we did recalls where the dogs had to pass by each other running. Thanks to Bobbi who runs her dogs in flyball for these suggestions for proofing our dogs.
Then the running dogs practiced a couple of heats, everything went well except for Kort who seemed to be having some difficulty finding his dumbbell.
Note to self: don't groom dog with smelly products before going to a scent practice :) !!

Then we split up into stations to practice with the newer dogs.

We had a jumping station which Kim helped with. Plus we had 2 stations of scenting from the box. Amanda & myself worked with the dogs at these stations. I could really see the improvement in all the new dogs, they were excited to find their dumbbells & are having loads of fun!!
Great job everyone!!

Two Practices, in one weekend!

Catch- Chase's new little brother :)

Saturday No Nonscents participated in the Childrens Festival. Our dogs did great and had no problem with the huge crowds and all the noise. We are very proud of how well they did.

Sunday we had a regularly scheduled practice- this time with a twist though!

We invited some flyball people down to provide much needed distraction with a second lane. And boy, did they do a good job of that!!! Our dogs lost their heads with the loud flyball dogs running next to them. Every one of them had issues.

Some were afraid of the screaming dogs, Some wanted to chase them, and others wanted to put them out of their misery. Oi.

We have lots of work to do. Thankfully the flyball people thought it was great, and we are going to set up another practice with them.

The last hour was spent with the Newbie dogs. We have lots of newer dogs that are in various learning stages and we are working hard to get them up to speed.

We rotated through three stations: Jumping, Discrimination, Box Work.

We also officially welcomed Sarah and Gyp to the team! CKC has recently allowed Border Collies to get PEN numbers so we are pretty pumped to have Gyp on the team. She is partly trained already so she should catch on in no time!



we couldn't decide who was more excited to join- sarah or gyp!



Team Players

Here are a couple of photos of the team waiting as the dumbbells were being placed.
Thanks to Liz for the great pictures!

Bloopers

Way to go Team!

We had a great time, and our dogs raced their hearts out.

It was a very long night- we got back to our hotel at 11:45!!!! But it was so worth it, (well, at least I think so...)

We started out pretty rough, the dogs didn't really understand what we wanted them to do and we had quite a few blips. Running into the other lane, going to visit, dropping dumbbells, bringing back the wrong ones, or sometimes not at all. :) But as the night went on we got better. The dogs found their rhythm and we even won some races.

I am so proud of each person/dog on the team. Thank you all for having patience with me, and for doing such a great job.

We have lots of things to work on, and I've got some new ideas as to how to fix some problems, so we will be kept busy until the next race!

Last Practice

Today was the final practice before our first official race next weekend. We are all pretty excited about it. All of the dogs are doing great!

In Attendance:

Jolene/Kort
Judy/Roxy
Amanda/Pixel
Kim/Bosley
Mel/Rosie
Maureen/Crawford
and new comer
Tina/Jethro




Jethro is a Sheltie that is also doing Rally Obedience and Tina thought he'd like to play scenthurdle aswell.  All of the actual racing spots are filled for the year but she is excited to start training anyway!



What we did

• Started with the newer dogs. Building value for the jumps for Rosie and Jethro. Moved jumps against the wall and worked on sending to the food bowl. The foodbowl really helped Rosie to understand jumping more. Homework for Jethro is fetching, and Rosie is jumping.
• Crawford backchained to retrieving over the four jumps. Ran him with another dog a few times and he did the whole thing!! Yay for Crawford. This has been an ongoing thing for him- and he finally seems to be getting that we'd like him to go over all the jumps. :) What a good boy!
• We raced as a team- Pixel, Kort, Roxy, Bosley. We had Mel and Tina be distractions at the box and at the start line. The dogs ran well although were a bit distracted by the food bowl!

I took a few photos- the lighting isn't very good for action, but some of them turned out cute anyway.

Bosley pulling to start. We've discovered that Bosley runs best if he is first....

on the home stretch....

Kort barking in excitement...he really likes this game :)

Kort is a speedy guy!

Roxy really loves her dumbbell!

Handsome Bosley

Not in focus at all, but Rosie needed to get on the blog! This is how we encourage the dogs to drive ahead..

Crawford thinks Stay means bark. :)

and the cute Pixel. :)

Our next practice won't be for a few weeks as the key players are away next week. We may have practice the following week but I know there is an agility trial so some of us will be away. But if there are enough we will schedule it anyway- I will email everyone to let them know.

Smokin !!!!!

Holy guacamole we were smokin today ! :))

We had a mini race today after the Fun Match, Due South joined us for some friendly competition. We have 2 weeks until our first trial & we feel pretty darn good after today.
The racing dogs, Swift, Bosley, Roxy,Pixel & Kort did awesome !!! It was very much like a trial setting, dogs barking & people yelling.
The first 4 heats we won ! We then had a lane change & we kind of had some set backs :) Not to make excuses but this would not happen in a real trial setting, the lane change would come, but only after a break. So, I think the dogs were just a wee bit confused, especially because they are so new to the sport.
We are all looking forward to competing in Red Deer in 2 weeks...
Go Team !

PS. Mel, one of the newest team members, filled in as our box loader, she did awesome, thanks Mel, it's not the easiest job !

Also, we will have a time change for the Sunday March 27th practice. It will be at 12 NOON !

See you then !

Go Team!

In Attendance:

Jolene/Kort
Amanda/Pixel
Judy/Roxy,Mazie
Jaime/Cookie
Mel/Rosie
Shauna/Chase
Kim/Bosley
Donna/Swift
Liz/Cava


What We Did:

Our team rocked today! The dogs were fast & accurate. The new dogs are coming along by leaps & bounds, Swift is ready to trial already, & Cookie, Mazie, Chase & Rosie are coming along super with their scenting, jumping & taking from the box.
It is very exciting to think we will be in our first trial in 3 weeks!
Good Work Guys!

Next Practice, Sunday March 20th in conjunction with our Fun Match.
See you there!

Practise Practise

In Attendance:

Judy/Roxy,Maizie
Kim/Bosley
Maureen/Crawford
Jolene/Kort
Amanda/Pixel
Shauna/Chase
Jaime/Cookie
Donna/Swift


We had a great practice last Sunday!

The Newbies- Chase, Cookie, Maizie
worked on fetch
jumping
finding the jump at angles
fetching from the box
beginning of discrimination

The In-Betweeners- Swift, Crawford
discrimination
carrying the dummy all the way back :)
passing

The Running dogs- Roxy, Kort, Pixel, Bosley
worked on passing
discrimination
speed

The People
talked about rules
box loading practice :) (we all need to learn!!!)
race how to's and questions

All in all it was a pretty great session- the newbies are catching on super well, and the two in between dogs are quickly catching up to the running dogs! Swift and Crawford both have come a long way in a short time! Although they may need to provide ear plugs to the rest of the team :) And the running dogs did great- focused and having a good time!

We also decided that Swift should be ready for Red Deer for sure. Crawford is still in limbo :)

Our next team practice will be Sunday, March 13th at 2pm!
Posted by manymuddypaws at 7:49 PM 0 comments

Practice

In attendance:

Maureen/Crawford
Julia/True
Judy/Roxy
Kim/Bosley
Amanda/Pixel
Liz/Cava
Jolene/Kort
Shauna/Chase
Mel/Rosie
Donna/Swift

What we did:

The better question is, what didn't we do!
The running dogs practiced with jumps ,without jumps, just racing to the box for the dumbbell, & restrained recalls for a faster run over the jumps.

The newer dogs worked on restrained recalls as well, first one jump, then back chaining until 4 were used. They worked on fetching first off, then on the box, as well as some scent discrimination.

It was great to see the newer dogs coming along so quickly, they will be racing in no time :)


Next practice will be Sunday Feb 27 @ the new time of 4 pm due to a busy day of other activities for some of the team.
See you then!

Newbies, and Training News

Amanda has been busy finding new team members. :)

Swift is a Australian Cattle Dog. She was rescued a few years ago and has certainly come a long way. She believes that all things should be done as fast as possible, and has a great zest for training. She and Donna make a great team.

Rosie is a German Shorthair pointer who is owned by Mel. She loves to fetch, and will catch on to the game pretty fast! She has also started doing Rally Obedience and will be hitting the ring this spring/summer.

Chase is a Shetland Sheepdog. He and his owner Shauna have been hanging out in the agility ring for the past few years and are looking to add some more fun to their lives. Chase likes fetching and has already figured out the best way to carry the dumbbell. He will give Crawford a run for his money barking wise. :) We may need to supply our competition with ear plugs.

And last but not least, Cookie! Cookie is a Munsterlander, and pending with the CKC will hopefully be able to be on our team. He is a goofy boy who will add some humour and fun to the team. He and his owner Jamie also play in agility and hope to hit the ring this summer.

Yay for new dogs!!! Being a team sport it is really important to help each other out, and on our team we believe in open communication and helpfulness. Our practices will be split in half for the next bit- with equal time for the newbies, and the already running dogs. Due to the increase in team members we will be closing our practice times to MEMBERS ONLY. This will allow us to spend more time focusing on getting the new dogs started, and fine tuning the team getting ready to race.

Looking Good !

In Attendance:

Kim/Bosley
Maureen/Crawford
Amanda/Pixel
Jolene/Kort
Judy/Roxy
Donnie/Zydeco
Daryl/Betty
Julia/True


What We Did:

Today we started with some restrained recalls over the jumps to get the dogs pumped up & ready.
We had gotten a few trial runs in & then "Due South" arrived to race with us. Thanks for coming guys!
Our dogs were super running against the other team! They really stepped things up a notch it seemed, show offs:) LOL!

We had our meeting to get a feel for who was able to go to which race. We have pretty much decided to give Red Deer a try. Amanda is going to see if we can get a box loader as we will all be running & we don't have that extra person yet to load our box.

We collected money for things we have bought or gotten made so far....if you haven't paid your $12, you can give it to Jolene at the next practice.
We had enough money to pay Liz for the vests she made, but still need to pay Kim for paint & Judy for the jumps.

Jolene is taking care of getting our vests ordered, we have decided on the logo on the front, without ours or our dogs names.

Amanda is working on finding someone to finish off the rest of the vests for the dogs, anyone sew LOL!

We have decided on the following dates for our next practices as well, this gives us 5 weeks before going to Red Deer.

They will be at our usual time of 2......

Feb 20 & 27
March 13,20 & 27

GO TEAM !!!!

January Practice & Meeting

Hello Group!

We will be having at meeting @ 2pm on Sun. Jan 30, 2011, this will be followed by a practice at approx. 2:30........

See you all there !