Why do you play Agility?

I wasn’t sure how to answer that question, at first,  but I have been hooked on agility since I started.
It is very gratifying, fun and something I can do with my dog. JoJo is an amazing dog and has been since the day I brought her home from her original owner, when she was 8 months old. She has some issues, but we worked them out together and She has changed me and how I relate to my dogs.
I have had many, many, hours of fun with her and I really enjoy it.

Over the last 3-4 years that we have been playing agility, I have been asked “Why do you do it” & “What’s so fun about that“. I would think “I guess you have to play agility to understand”.
The other night I was reading an past  issue of “Clean Run Magazine“,  http://www.cleanrun.com/
from December 2009.
After reading the “Editorializing….” article, “The Journey” written by Elizabeth Dott, it all became so clear on how to explain “WHY”.  She said it so perfectly, when she explained what the letters at the end of her dog’s name meant.
So let me see if I can put it into words like Elizabeth Dott did in her article.

…So why do I play agility, why do I spend all that money…

I realize now that it’s because of the Journey…..
I began training Jo when she was 4, but Our Journey really began when I switched trainers & I meet Chris Parker of SPEEDOGGIE PERFORMANCE  http://speedoggie.com/index.html.
She helped me learn the sport. She helped me understand to concept behind training my dog. She helped me understand how a dog learns to play aglity. She helped me develop such a passion for the sport. Thanks Chris.
After a year of training with Chris, it began. I started competing.
Our journey…… Our Journey began the first time I entered the ring. I still remember the day, it was 2 day show at Willingboro, NJ. It was the hottest day in June, around 99 degrees. I had coolers of cold water to keep Jo cool.
We ran Novice Standard and Novice Jumpers. We received “Qs” and first places in both classes. I was hooked.
Jo was a superstar.
It is because we got our Novice titles with ease, and had fun doing it.
It even was when we were having trouble while getting our open titles, when Jo was trying to tell me that I was trying too hard and I was  too emotional and it was affecting her.
It was when we got our Open title  in Jumpers.
It was when we got our final Q in Open Standard after working through all our issues together.
It’s because of  the people I have meet along the way, that share the same excitement with me.
It’s because of the excitement when I can share my success with my agility friends, who know were I’m coming from.
It’s because of the way I fell about my dog, my lil’ girl, who I adore for always giving it her all to please me.
It is because I REALLY ENJOY when some comes up to me and says “I can’t believe you can get a Jack Russell to do that, and do it so well” and “I can’t believe you have a Jack Russell that is so focused on you”.
It’s because of the look in her eye when I tell her “We are going to play”
It’s because she is my Jo and I love her and I love to spend time with her.
It’s because of the Journey. The one we started together as a novice,  and have grown and excelled together as a team now competing in excellent to get our ultimate goal a  MACH.
It is because it’s the journey together that makes us happy, not the destination.
It is because even though it will be sad, but the day will come when the journey will end and Jo wont be able to continue to play, even though that little Jack brain will want to. I will know that we had the journey together.
It is because I will begin that same journey with Haley, my newest addition to my family.
I would not trade this journey for anything, it is a bond that only a few will know, &
We are lucky, we have experienced the journey.

I’m not sure if I covered all the reasons WHY, but it should help understand WHY.

I thank you Elizabeth Dott for helping me with explaining it.

Our Progress

Well our Agility Journey has been slow these last few months. Jo is still injured and making very slow progress healing. It’s been really hard on me with Jo’s injury. I have to keep her on limited play to help the injury heal and she is not happy about that. That little Jack brain wants to go go go.
I’m really itching to compete again. The trials have already started after the winter break and well, I’m missing being there. Right now my main concern is to get Jo’s injury to heal.
I have been working with the puppy a bit. She is so smart, I am very excited, Haley picks up on things super fast. Can’t wait to really get training with her. We have already learned sit & down, working on come. We are also working on her targets, walking on a leash, walking along side of me,  balance on the bosu ball, Crate training, etc.  Also she is super fast. I will have to relearn how to run courses with a fast dog, since Jo is my velcro dog and isn’t super fast on the courses. Should be fun.
The girls have been getting along well, and it’s been a fun ride with the new additions to the family. Haley has figured out how to get on the couch, Jo isn’t safe anymore, Well she still has the bed. Haley isn’t big enough to get on the bed by herself yet. So Jo still have one place to go.
Jo’s favorite place to lay is on the top of the couch in the window, well it’s now Haley’s favorite place too.

Ain’t they just the cutest pair.

Haley has come at the best time. I can’t help to say it again, I am having a lot of fun with her. Too Cute!

Puppy Update

Well, we have been having a blast with our new puppy. Haley has been a lot of fun,  just like I new it would be.
After about a week or so, JoJo accepted her into our pack and that makes me very happy.

Here they are playing together.

Haley has been a fast learner, she is doing wonderful with her potty training. Very few accidents. She has figured out to sit by the front door when she has to go out, but don’t miss the signal, OOPS!

Slowly I have started working with Haley on some beginning training.  I am amazed at how fast she is picking up on stuff. Not only cute, but smart.

We had a snow storm on Saturday Feb. 6th, it was her first snow storm. The first time I took her outside she wasn’t sure what to do,  but the next time, she was having a blast running and jumping through the snow. Following JoJo everywhere she went.  The snow was almost over her head.

I just love this picture of Haley.

A little history.
I found Haley’s breeder through a friend of mine. After doing a little research and talking to the breeder we decided to go with her. I am so very happy we did. Haley is great. Couldn’t of asked for anything better.

Here is her website.
http://www.stardustparsonrussell.com/home
Just recently the breeder send me pictures of  Haley’s mom and dad. I can’t believe how much she looks like her mom.

Here is Haley’s Mom as a puppy.

Haley’s Dad.

Well thank you for letting me share my fine experiences with my new puppy.

Right now, I’m not competing, not only because we are on a little winter break, but because Jo is on the injured reserve.  She injured her back leg and we are working on getting it healed.

More to come.

Our New Puppy

Well, it’s offical we are the proud owners of a new puppy.
Introducing “Halley’s Comet”

She is an 8 week old Parson Russell Terrier.
Halley will be my new agility prospect. I will enjoy training a new puppy to compete with JoJo and I.
Stop back to see out Journey.

Jack Russell Terrier Nationals

The weekend of October 16th,17th, & 18th, we attended the 27th Annual Jack Russell Terrier National Trial. The trial was held by the Jack Russell Terrier Club of America. http://www.jrtca.com/ at the Steppingstone Museum – Susquehanna State Park, Harve de Grace Maryland. http://www.steppingstonemuseum.org/  It was my first time attending the show. I wasn’t sure what to expect. It didn’t help that it poured and rained the whole weekend. I of course entered the agility competition and also signed up for several other events. I wanted to see what else JoJo would enjoy doing.
The way they run there agility was a little different then I was used to, but we did pretty good. On Saturday we took 3rd place in Agility II, on Sunday we took 6th Place in Agility III.
Here is JoJo and her 3rd place ribbon.
 Agility III was a little different then I was used to there was a section of the course where we had to do a Gamblers. Send the dog away from us to the obstacles. JoJo wasn’t used to being sent away from me to do the obstacles, but she didn’t do too bad.
unfortunately, it rained so bad on Saturday, we didn’t get any videos. Here is our Sunday Agility III run. You will see towards the end where we are in the gamblers and  I’m having trouble getting JoJo over the fair jump. She got it eventually, but it took a little work.

Now we also entered Jumpers, unfortunately they only had a 12″ht class, we normally enter an 8″ class. She tried, but you will see that she went around some jumps and that’s because the were higher than she was used to.

Besides agility, we entered a few other events. We entered the “go to the ground” she didn’t do very well with that, it was her first time.

We also entered a barn hunt. It was the first time we did that too. Here are the videos from that. You will see in the beginning of the first one they let her look at the tube with the rat in it. We told her it was a squirrel, since I’m sure she new that instead of a rat. Then she had to find it. On the first run, it was like a walk in the park. The second time she moved a little bit faster, like she new what she was doing. When she found the tube when tried to get to the rat. Much better result.

We also entered Lure Coursing, WELL, THAT IS THE STUFF. She loved it so much, it was all she wanted to do. It was too funny.  There was 3 different types of Lure coursing. One with obstacles, a large course and a challenge course. I heard sounds come out of her mouth that I never thought I’d hear. Have fun watching.

Lure Course with Obstacles

Large Lure Course

Challenge Course

Since we went to the Nationals, I’ve been trying to find other places for JoJo to do Lure Coursing. I went to one fun event. I met my friend there and JoJo ran against her do.
I gave the camera to video JoJo and Tara’s run. You loose Jo for a few minutes becauase Tara is a  little bit faster.

Sorry for my absence!

I am sorry for my absence from my blog.
This has been a long, rough year for me and my family.
On April 25th, my dad was in a motorcycle accident, he later passed away on May 2nd from injuries he received from that accident.
On May 3rd Penny, my newly adopted Jack Russell Terrier, that you met in the previous pose,  passed way from Kidney Failure/Heart Failure, something she must have had and no one new, after we only had her for 3 weeks.
About 2 weeks later, my grandmother passed away. Rough year.

We have been competing on and off all year, battling some issues, weaves, stubbornness, emotions, hers and mine, and so on. We worked hard all summer long and I think we have over come most of our issues, for now.

This past weekend we competed in the Jack Russell Nationals in Maryland. What a blast. We had a lot of fun, would of had more fun if it didn’t rain the whole weekend. What a muddy mess.
The show was hosted by the JRTCA Club http://www.jrtca.com/
We competed in Agility, took 3rd place on Saturday and 6th place on sunday.We also tried several fun events, Lure Coursing, Go to the Ground, Barn Hunt. Seems that Jo took to the Lure Coursing the best.

Here is her attempt at Lure Coursing with obstacles.

Large Lure Course.

Small Lure Course, Called the Challenge Course

 We also tried the Barn Hunt. Jo, though she loves to chase any type of animal the attempts to come in the yard, did not seem to have the high drive to find the rat as most Jacks that we saw.

Her second attempt was much better, though she still just walked the course like she was on a Sunday walk.

Well, I know that this a blog about our Agility Journey, but I thought it would be fun to share some of our other adventures. We are still on a quest to get that last “Q” in Open Standard, we are having a great time on this journey. Thank you.

DCKC Show at Wrightstown PA

Wow! This should get me up to date with all the shows to this point.
On Sunday April 5th, 2009, we attended the DCKC (Delaware County Kennel Club) show at Middletown Grange Fairgrounds in Wrightstown, PA.
It was a pretty good day, a bit windy, left over from Saturday.

Our first run of the days was in Open Jumpers.
This was our Open Title run. When I set up JoJo and saw that she was sniffing at the ground, I thought we were going to have  a problem, but we didn’t. It looked like a tough course, but it wasn’t. I always think it’s tough before I actually run it. I have my instructor to thank for that. She always trains us on Excellant courses.
http://speedoggie.com/

Open Jumpers Run

Excellant here I come.

Ok, this was our second run of the day, Open Standard. I’ve got to admit, I screwed up this run. I did a front cross in the wrong place. Bad decision. JoJo missed the entrance to the weave poles, when I brought her around she took a off course jump. Man, I tell you, mommy sucked on this run. I guess we will have to wait for the next run to get our Open Standard Title.
Open Standard Run

Afghan Cluster, March 28 & 28, 2009. East Freehold Park, Freehold, NJ.

The last weekend in March was The Afghan Show at Freehold. This show is close to home and I enjoy going there. I took Saturday off from work and made a weekend out of it. Setting up a tent next to my friend Nicole, her husband Rob and their Jack Russell, Shelby. I had a great weekend and enjoyed hanging with Nicole and Rob. It turned out to be a rainy weekend, but we braved it and came home with a “Q”. Our “Q” bought our talley to 2 “Q’s” in Open Standard and 2 “Q’s” in Jumpers.

Saturday’s Open Standard Run.

We had a really great run here, but I didn’t line up right for the weave poles, which had me crowding the poles. JoJo past right on by the poles, then it was too many trys to get her back in the poles. Once I got here in she was perfect.

Saturday’s Open Jumpers Run.

On this run, we had some issues with JoJo looking up at me in the poles, but I have been working on it. We had a little problem with the first attempt into the tunnel. JoJo decided to jump the number on the outside of the tunnel. You can’t see that, but let me tell you she did it.

Sunday’s Open Jumpers Run

Even with the rainy weather, we have a great Jumpers run on Sunday. JoJo was perfect. She hit the weaves and never looked back. This was our 2nd “Q” in Open Jumpers.

Sunday’s Open Standard Run 
I’ve got to tell you, there are times when I really believe I have the class clown dog. I very rarely have an issue with JoJo on her start line stays, she’s almost always perfect with that. Today I should of known. I set her up and she kept sniffing the ground, very unlike her. I got her attention, or so I thought, did my lead out and when I gave her command to come, she gave me the most comical look and just went the other way. You wont be able to see the look, but check it out.

We had a great run, she picked up on all my cues. We did have a dropped bar, I will have to watch more closely to see if I cause her to drop the bar. He missed the entrance to the weave poles, I believe that was me, I stopped my forward motion and I think she picked up on that.
All in all we had an awesome weekend. Lots of fun as always.
Gotta love it.

SOJAC show at Dream Park, March 20,21,22 2009

Sorry for the delay in getting these posts done. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. We have been busy at the shop, busy with trials and busy with training.
On Sunday, March 22, 2009, we attended The SOJAC (South Jersey Agility Club) show at Gloucester County Dream Park. I like this place for indoor shows.
http://www.equinenow.com/farm/gloucester_county_dream_park.htm

Our first run of the day was Open Jumpers. It was a pretty good course, but we had some issues. I mean WE!!! I over compensated when pulling JoJo to the outside of the tunnel and she ran into the side if the opening. JoJo started this new thing, over running the Table. You can bet we worked hard on that and she isn’t doing it any more, I hope. She was perfect when it came to the weave poles, but the best part was at the last jump, when she bull dozed the jump. Not sure what happened, but I can’t complain, we had a good run.

The second run was Open Standard. This course was a little more challenging. A lot of twists and turns. I got a little confused on my handling, but we managed pretty good. As you can see JoJo over ran the Weave Poles. I believe, I pulled her off to much, trying to make sure I gave her a good entrance. We dropped a bar, but again we have a good run.

I love playing agility with my little JoJo, for the most part she makes it so easy. She does everything I ask of her, whether it’s right or wrong.

Our 2nd show.

We competed in the TBAC (Trail Blazers Agility Club) Show at Dream Park on Sunday only, March 8th. With daylight savings upon us and the fact that I didn’t have to be at the trial, until our first walk thru 10:53, it was nice to get a break from getting up early. But….. We got up at 7:30, and got to the trial around 9:45am. After I got my registration sticker and looked around, I luckily went over to the ring where we were running to see how many more dogs were left before us. Good Thing. I walked up to the ring and saw people walking the course and I asked someone “what are they walking?” to my surprise they were walking Open Standard, OH MY GOD!!! They were walking my class 45 mins early. I quickly found someone to hold JoJo and get over to do my walk thru. We had a pretty good run, had issues with the weave poles again, but they were much better. I was really pleased with out runs together. She is really focused on what I am telling her, she is responding to my cues., the weave poles will come with time. Our second run wasn’t till 3:30, there wasn’t anybody at the show that I new so I had a long wait.
Our Jumpers run was worth the wait. We ran it perfectly, we were totally in sync of each other. The weave poles were the 3rd obstacle and she nailed the entrance, and never skipped a beat. I even changed up my plan, not by choice. I forgot to throw in a front cross where I wanted to, so I changed it up and made it a back cross and she just nailed it. I was so excited, my first “Q” in Open Jumpers.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone to video tape my run, so I don’t have it to show.
We will have a weekend off then it’s back to Dream Park. I am looking forward to it. Hopefully, I will have videos to share.