Progress

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success."- Henry Ford.  This is the essence of agility, and all dog sports for that matter.

This past weekend, I attended a UKC agility trial with Layla.  Of course, Jademan came along for the ride.  Normally, I would not have chosen to enter a UKC agility trial.  This venue is just not a favorite for large and/or fast dogs.  The courses are so compact, and UKC even states that they like to focus on accuracy rather than speed.  UKC also has a lot of funny obstacles such as non-traditional jumps, a wiggle board, sway bridge, platform jump, pause box, and hoop tunnel.  However, Layla has always done quite well in UKC.  She is already a UKC Agility Champion (U-ACH) and she lacked 2 legs toward her UKC Agility Champion Excellent (U-ACHX) coming into the trial.  I thought that I would give it a shot, so I entered her both Saturday and Sunday.  If nothing, at least this would give me the opportunity to test Layla's contacts in a trial situation.

It had been 7 months since I entered Layla in a class with contacts.  Layla and I have always had contact issues.  The club that we first started training agility at teaches the dog no behavior on the contacts.  I was a very green handler back then, so I did not know that our lack of training a behavior on the contacts would cause struggles in the standard ring for years to come.  Layla is famous for bailing the contacts, or leaping over the yellow zones.  I have tried so many different things to try to stop this.  No matter what I did, Layla did the same thing.  She would act like she was going to complete the obstacle, but then bark at me and leap over the contact at the last minute.  Entering standard was always a gamble and it was so frustrating.

This summer, I decided that we needed a big change or we could only dream of double q's.  My friend Teresa and I began training just contacts several times a week.  We have basically worked nothing but contacts since the beginning of June.  I wanted running contacts with Lay, but after a month and a half of begging her to run full speed on the dogwalk, I am just going to hope that her speed comes with confidence.  Layla is not a confident dog at all.  Right now, we having what I call a "moving contact"- definitely not as fast as I like, but Layla shows no desire to bail anymore.  We are truly making progress.

It appears that all of our hard work is paying off.  Layla hit every single contact all weekend!  She has never had this record since the beginning of our agility career!!  I cannot be more thrilled with her performance this weekend.  We only got one q this weekend, but nearly every run was because of my lack of using my head.  In the first trial on Saturday, I anticipated a problem that never would have occurred.  In the AGIII level, you cannot step over the 6-foot tape line for the weaves and the table or pause box.  I wanted to be sure that Layla did not miss the last pole and exited towards me so I said, "Come!" before she entered the last pole.  Why did I do that???  I have never ever said "Come!"while Layla weaves.  Guess what?  Layla did exactly what I told her to do.  She popped out of the weaves too early and came in to me.  In the second trial, Lay blew past the last weave pole, but my friends who watched our run saw nothing that I did to cause that.  I took her back and this time ran past the weaves and front crossed while she was still weaving.  That was the trick!  In the first trial on Sunday, we were doing great until a straight line of jumps after the pause box.  My body was facing a window jump off of the line of jumps and Lay took the off course.  I finally got my act together for the last run of the weekend.  It was a clean run and Layla took 1st!  Layla actually had the fastest time in her class every single run that weekend.  Now to find one more trial to get that last leg!  Ugh!

Blake came and watched us on Sunday.  I don't think that Jade stayed in his crate longer than 15 minutes when Blake was there.  Both of my Goldens ADORE Blake and it is very obvious that he loves them just as much.  It was so sweet to see Blake sitting on the floor cuddling with Jade when I returned to my crates time after time.  Nothing makes me me happier.  My kids give me permission to keep him around for a very long time! ;)

We are off to Denver Saturday morning and I am so very excited.  There is so much to be done before we leave, but I am looking forward to getting settled in our house for a few days before we are off to Dolores for our first outdoor agility trial (in the mountains!) and our first trial in Colorado!

Here are a few pictures of my boys.  I love them so much.

 This is still going to make me smile in 10 years:)

 They make my heart sing

Puppy hugs and kisses

On Being Thankful

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads."  I love this quote from Henry David Thoreau's Walden.  I could not agree with Thoreau more.  I tried time and time again to begin this post with a witty moment of reflection, but I simply cannot top what Thoreau already wrote.  I am so incredibly thankful for all of the little things that bring me such happiness in my life.  I do not take nearly the number of opportunites that I should to recognize those who support and love me.  Without their guidance, I would surely be lost.

True to Thoreau's quote, I truly believe my life is so full of richness and beauty.  There is so much to be thankful for from the moment I get out of bed until the moment when I fall asleep.  I am so blessed that my parents provide for me.  They not only provide for me, but they go above and beyond to make me happy.  They are my biggest supporters and biggest fan club, even when they know I have not always been right or wise.  I have incredible friends I have made from all areas of my life.  My extremely close friends and I stay in contact despite the terribly long distance that separates us.  Happily, my freshman roommate still remains my best friend.  I still refer to Ellie as my "roommate" even though she is hundreds of miles away in Chicago, and I now have a house in Denver.  We have been through so much together in our short time at Lawrence University.  I know I can call Ellie at any moment of night or day.  She always has the best advice, even if it is something that I do not want to hear.  Ellie has the gift of making me laugh even when I am very upset.  More people should have close friends like her.  My Golden Retrievers continue to make me smile and laugh every day.  I sometimes cannot believe how much unconditional love Layla and Jade have to offer me.  I simply cannot be around them while in a bad mood.  I am so fortunate to have such great kids, and I want to do my best to make them think the same about me!  And lastly, I could not ask for a more loving boyfriend.  Blake is so sweet and extra silly.  He always makes me feel so good about myself.  He has given me so much confidence- something I have not always had a lot of.  I know he loves me for just being me.  He's most certainly my best friend, and I look forward to many many years together.  How did we get so lucky to find each other?

I know that my life is not perfect.  I could dwell on all of the imperfections, but I choose not to.  I have decided to learn from my mistakes.  I take what I can from a difficult situation and move forward.  Life is so full of beauty, but we often fail to take the time to stop and appreciate it. Being thankful is one of the best ways to appreciate life's beauty.  I know I have so much to be thankful for and so many people to thank.  Once I take a little time out of each day to do this, I can really see the heaven on earth under my feet.

The Drama King

Yesterday morning was an adventure.  Every morning, the kids and I have a routine.  We wake up at about 6:30.  I feed Layla, then feed Jade, stand back and watch the tumble and tug matches begin as I eat breakfast.  I might get in a little bit of training and playing while it is still cool before I have to go get ready for work.  At the beginning of each week, I trim nails and clean ears.  Yesterday morning seemed like any other Monday morning.  I went to the garage for the nail clippers in my grooming bag.  Both Layla and Jade followed me into the garage.  Layla sat obediently in front of me as I prepared to clip her nails.  Jade was being his normal goofball self and decided to carry on his game in the backyard.  In the moment that I sat down in the garage, held Layla's paw up, and was about to clip her first nail, Jade hobbles into the garage rather quickly just SCREAMING!  I thought he was dying the way that he sounded.  I immediately dropped the clippers and was trying to calm my puppy so I could see what was wrong.  Jade looked pathetic.  He was hunched over and refused to get out of my lap.  At this point, I was thinking the worst and started to panic.  I scooped him up (not easy anymore at 27 pounds!) and ran inside to call my dad downstairs.  Jade was whimpering in my arms the entire time.  My dad and I put Jade on the kitchen floor and checked his entire body.  My dad said we should try to watch him walk.  Jade refused to put any weight on his right rear leg.  He was even holding it up in a sit position.  I just could not see my puppy in pain.  I was blinking back tears and my dad was trying to calm us both down.  I threw on my scrubs for work and called my veterinary clinic.  I asked for the first appointment and they said to bring Jade right in.  My sister met us there so that I could get on the highway to go to work in Stillwater after the appointment was over.

Jade had the most pitiful look on his face in the waiting room.  All he wanted to do was to be held, and I was worried sick about him.  The Dr. called us back, and she performed an orthopedic exam on Jade. Jade was not refusing to have his leg manipulated in any way and he did not once cry out in pain.  I had him walk for her.  Jade was now putting weight on the leg, but he was definitely favoring it.  We ruled out stings, bites, and torn pads as well.  The vet sent us home with Deramax and told us to take it easy.  I was to call her if Jade did not improve in 72 hours.  I was utterly confused as I handed Jade to Allison so that I could get on the road to Stillwater. When I called home during lunch, my mom said that Jade seemed much better, but still looked uncomfortable walking up steps or getting up from a down.  I drove home with no intentions of going to puppy class.  I took Jade out of his crate as soon as I got home and watched him walk.  He showed no signs that anything ever happened.  I took him to the backyard to get a better look, and the little hellion chose to chase after me, leaping up and down to grab onto my shirt, which he knows is not an acceptable form of play anyways.  I decided that the little sissy boy indeed got his way- he got extra attention from all of us at home and at the vet clinic in the morning.  He caused everyone in the house to drop what they were doing.  Also, he got to go to puppy class in the evening, where he was his normal bouncy self.  I never could figure out what happened in the two seconds that I turned my back to Jade, but he is definitely 100% better as of yesterday evening.  I am sure he just made a typical bold move and jumped from our raised flower beds and landed funny.   Jade was acting very dramatic yesterday morning, and I learned that he has me so wrapped around his paw.  I would drop everything that I am doing for him.  Seeing him cry yesterday morning made me cry.  Our dogs truly become our children.  I would give up anything in the world to make my Goldens happy and to give them the best quality that I can.

The little hellion;)

The best kids anyone could ask for<3