"If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success."

A weekday agility trial? Heck yes! The Belgian Malinois National Specialty was being held in Wilmington, OH and they hosted an all-breed agility trial on Monday and Tuesday. My training partner and I entered our boys (I had also entered noodle, but had to pull her since she is in season).

I thought Dolphin would be useless since he was up pretty much all night howling due to the girls in season, but he ran super motivated! We had plenty of little mistakes, but I was REALLY happy with how he ran.

We started the day off with FAST. The send was really hard - two parallel tunnels and a jump, and almost no one got the send. Yep, neither did Dolphin! We came back for the next class - Standard - and he NAILED a beautiful fast clean run and earned 20 MACH points! I was thrilled with how he handled the course!

Time 2 Beat was next, and he had a couple mistakes - wrong end of the tunnel, and knocked the last bar. in our last class Jumpers he missed his weave entrance, and then I got messed up and we skipped a jump. Oh well...even with the mistakes he ran like a champion, so that's what matters!

Dolphin spent the night howling intermittently, and although he was really tired and slept HARD between runs, he still ran really well.

FAST had a tough send - jump - weaves - tunnel. I thought we would do OK, but Dolphin knocked the jump in the send, so that was all she wrote! We had an unusual off-course jump in Standard, but came back to get a nice clean run in Time 2 Beat. The Jumpers course was REALLY tough for a big dog like Dolphin - lots of tight, square turns. Yeah, he missed a jump, knocked 2 bars due to the spacing, but overall he worked hard to managed the tightness of the course. My plan this summer is to work tight courses with him in my training yard, because this is always going to be an issue for us.

Having two girls in season with Dolphin is Driving. Me. Insane. He cries all day, all night, nonstop. I took him to Noodle's agility class this morning so I could free up tomorrow for more field training. He actually ran really well...what the heck? He runs better when he is tired and has raging hormones, I guess.

We went field training locally this afternoon. Right off the bat Dolphin refused to honor. After whoa-ing him about 4-5 times I had to really get after him...he would look at the dog on point and just turn away. Ugh, so frustrating (did Noodle teach him this???), he had been doing so well.

He redeemed himself by locking on point on a pigeon a good 10 feet away, and not moving a muscle during the flush and the blank shot. The second bird was a chukkar, and he held nicely for that one on the flush, held on the first (real) shot, and the gunner missed and shot again and that time he broke. I called him and he stopped about 20 feet away, the bird was missed again and flew off. We threw a dead bird to practice a retrieve, and he did OK. I brought a semi-live quail home with me to practice a little retrieving with him...it needs sharpened up. Overall not a bad day in the field, I will say!

Dolphin got another chance to field train today. We started off a little shaky with a messy honor, but when he went on point on a loose quail, it was game on! He was super intense and held forever while we waited for our bracemate to work on honoring. I flushed the bird and blanked it and he held perfectly!

We went on and there was a pigeon (with the wings crossed so it wouldn't fly) out in the open. He went on point really close (zero wind today) and stood perfectly, even while the pigeon fluttered and moved. I waited on my bracemate to honor, and I nudged the pigeon with my toe so it would get up and walk, Dolphin held like a rock. I uncrossed the wings, flipped it with my toe and it flew off, Dolphin never moved a muscle. Words cannot describe how excited I am about this!

Dolphin had a chance to honor the next two points. The first one he did pretty good, I called him to me and he saw the dog and stopped, so I reinforced this with a lot of praise. The second one he stopped and actually pointed the other dog on point from a good distance away - more huge praise! I hesitate to even write this, but I think we might be ready...maybe! First senior hunt test in a little over a week, I am excited.

This week has been torture at home. Having both Pizza and Noodle in season means Dolphin has lost his mind!

We headed to an agility trial in Cincinnati today. Dolpin was unusualy distracted. Normally he pays ZERO attention to the other dogs, but today he couldn't take his eyes off of anyone nearby. He fell quickly in love with two Doberman girls who were in the running order behind us, and I lost his focus multiple times on course when he got close to the in gate and saw them. He had really wide turns and some very near runouts, but amazingly we managed to double Q! I(t was the ugliest double QQ in the history of double q's, but hey, I'll take it. I was really shocked that I could not keep his attention all day. He wouldn't even take a treat from my hand the entire day - so unlike him. I can't wait till the hormones stop flowing at home and maybe he will get back to normal.

Glutton for punishment? Yes, that's me! I was in Oregon all week working at the Weimaraner National Specialty. I flew home Thursday evening, and Friday morning I got up to go do some last minute field training with Dolphin and then we headed to Indiana. I had a judging assignment in Amo, IN and I decided to enter Dolphin in the couple senior tests I wasn't judging. Hey, why not?

Field training went really well on Friday, almost too well. Dolphin was steady to wing and shot, had a really nice retrieve, and was very biddable and steady. Oh boy....you know what that means.

Saturday was sunny and hot hot hot. Low 80's and extremely humid. Dolphin ran in the afternoon test. I doused him with water before we started, and had to continually douse him and let him drink throughout the course. He hunted magnificently, ranged out nicely, and worked well with me. We had a pretty nice honor right at the beginning, and then it didn't take him long to find his first bird. It was up and walking, and he held steady as a rock as it walked away from him. I got it to fly, and of course that stupid thing flew right over his head. He stayed put, the gunners shot the bird behind him and he remained steady. I tapped him on the head for the retrieve, and instead of doing a 180 to where the bird landed, he turned 90 degrees to the left where he saw the feathers fly and took off in that direction for the retrieve. He was utterly convinced that the bird had been shot to his left, and he ran and ran and ran and I had a hard time getting him to come back to me so I could redirect him. I finally got him back and sent him in the correct area, but he was panting HARD and really hot at this time. He managed to find the bird, picked it up, and dropped it after about 10 feet because he was panting so hard he was struggling to breathe. I did finally get him to pick it back up and bring it to my feet. Poor boy was struggling in this heat.

Thankfully the judges gave him a little break on that bad retrieve, and gave him high enough scores to pass! His first Senior Hunter Pass!!! And the best part was he was completely steady through all of his bird work.

Sunday was much cooler and cloudier. It had rained pretty hard overnight so the ground was soaked with a lot of standing water. Dolphin ran early in the morning. Once again he ran and hunted well, maybe not ranging out quite as far (I think he was still a bit worn out from running in the heat yesterday). He had a decent honor at the beginning of the bird field, and then went on point in the wet grass with the bird buried deep right under his chin...his chin was practically resting on the bird! I asked if I could dig it out and throw it, nope! I used my foot to dig it out from under his chin and got it to flush and fly. Dolphin stood through the flush, and then broke when they shot - completely acceptable in Senior Hunter (though I am training up for Master, so this was not as good as yesterday in my eyes). He did a really nice retrieve to me (I have to work on not letting him drop it at my feet). We were golden at this point, just needed to get through clean until time was up.

Dolphin was running along when a bird flushed wild - a little behind and to the side of him. I honestly don't know if he even saw the bird, he kept loping along, didnt chase, but also didn't stop until I "whoa-ed" him. The judges had me pick him up. Questionable, for sure, but I am OK with that. I have a lot to be happy about with how he ran on his first time out doing Senior Hunter. Man, this boy has come a LONG way since last fall! I am thrilled with how he is working. We will get there!

I should mention that I had an absolute blast judging all weekend. This is by far the most fun I have had in a long time, I am so glad I decided to jump in and become a judge.

Today I did some field training with a friend of mine. We were able to borrow some pigeons to work with. I had Dolphin out first with one of her dogs, and we tried to work on a stop to flush situation. That's a hard thing to train when there is only two of us! We worked on randomly tossing a pigeon and getting our dogs to stop in their tracks. Yeah, a major work in progress with Dolphin. He knows he is not allowed to chase, but stopping? That's foreign to him.

Dolphin did really well on his steadiess at the point, and had an OK honor and a pretty nice honor. I am definitely seeing progress in that area.

I got Noodle out to do a little work, and she was stellar as usual. She actualy had a super nice honor all on her own...I hope she remembers that this weekend...IF she gets in the test on Saturday. Right now Dolphin is entered, but Noodle is on the waitlist. It's a one day double test, so entries are limited.

Today was a totally frustrating day. I took Pizza and Dolphin to an agilty courses seminar. Both dogs were useless today! Maybe they had too much fun and exercise the past few days outside, but both dogs were very unfocused and tough to get going. I'd rather have a dog that makes a zillion mistakes than one who runs like it is tied to cement blocks. Dolphin just hates training and trialing at the place where we have classes...he is so much better everywhere else (even in my front yard!). Pizza's excuse is that since she came out of heat a few weeks ago she is going through a slight false pregnancy, which she seems to do a lot. She has other things on her mind, I guess!

What a day for a hunt test - it POURED rain all morning. I don't mean a light rain, I mean a complete downpour.

The good news is that I was contacted late last night and someone pulled from the morning trial so Noodle got in for at least one run in Master. It was an awesome run. This girl is never fazed by the weather, she is one tough cookie. We broke away well, and she ran to the far end, but listened and handled well for me in the backfield. When we got to the birdfield, our bracemate went on point immediately. I had to manage her a little bit to get her to the honor, but she stopped on her own (she was pretty close to me), and we stayed put through the retrieve. It wasn't long before our bracemate went on point again. Noodle was pretty far ahead of me and I was going to try and call her to me so we could avoid the dog and continue hunting, but I saw her see the dog and put on the brakes! It was an amazing honor for her, at a good distance from me and the other dog.

After our second successful honor, Noodle went on point. I could tell by her head position that she was pretty far from the bird, and after searching and finding nothing, I reloacted her. She went about 10 feet and stopped on point again. I started earching, the gunner spotted the bird a good 20-30 feet from her (man this girl has a nose!). I flushed (had to pick up and throw it since it was pouring rain), gunners shot, Noodle held beautifully for my command to retrieve, and had a nice direct retrieve. Boom! Master Pass #19 with straight 8's (the judge told me he wasn't bother actually scoring, just gave 8's in case I was going for advanced. Yeah...slightly annoying!).

Dolphin was next, in Senior Hunter. This was the first time he has hunted in the rain, so I had no idea what to expect. His bracemate found a bird first, and we managed a decent honor. It started raining harder, and he was struggling to find a bird. He was pretty far away from me when I saw him start to get birdy, and then the next thing I know he dives down into the brush and comes out with a wet bird in his mouth, and brings it to me. UGH. Big fail. My bracemate needed an honor, so we used the bird he brought me. I tossed it down and brought him in and whoa-ed him on point while the other dog came in for the honor. This was a great training opportunity because I was able to talk sternly to him and remind him he was to STAY PUT and not move! Ugh, a big fail, but a good training experience, and we had another shot in the afternoon.

Unfortunately Noodle was still waitlited for the afternoon trial, so it was only Dolphin that got to run. The rain finally stopped, and there were peeks of sun. The grounds and the birds were still very wet. Dolphin broke away well (although he is becoming way too interested in his bracemate that the breakaway so I need to work on this). We go to the bird field and it didn't tkae long before Dolphin went on point. He was pretty far from me, and he did move a little and go around to the side and locked on point again. Once I was close, he was confident again and very steady. I flushed the bird (again I had to pick it up and throw since it was wet), he held through that part but broke on the shot (acceptable in SH). He had an OK retrieve - put it down a couple times but brought it to me. Success!

Dolphin's bracemate went on point, and I brought him in for the honor. He did stop on his own...I made the mistake of opening my bog mouth and saying "whoa" and of course he tried to turn towards me. I need to shut up when he stops for his honor and just let him stand on his own. Regardless, we managed to finish the brace with a nice pass and a score of straight 8's! Senior Hunter pass #2!

Makes me sad that the hunting season has ended around here until fall. I feel like both dogs are in a pretty good place. This summer I am going to continue to work on Noodle's honoring, and also work on Dolphin's retrieve to clean it up a bit...oh, and definitely work on whoa to flush!

Noodle had a vet appointment today to have an ultrasound of her intestines done by an internist. We have a tentative diagnosis of primary lymphangiectasia. She will go back to the vet in July for a biopsy to make a definitive diagnosis. This means she is out of commission for the month of July. I am terrified to have her put under anesthesia, I am terrifed of this surgery, but I have to do it so that we know exactly what we are dealing with so we can treat it before it becomes a serious problem. She already has scarring and thickening of her intestines, as per the ultrasound.

This girl means everything to me, seriously everything. She is my soul. I am so afraid of what her future holds, I pray we can get things fixed up and get her back to normal after the summer.

Dolphin and Pizza got to do a little field training. Pizza didn't really do much other than cruising the field, backing the other dog several times, and finally getting to point her own bird towards the end.

We worked on the stop to flush with Dolphin - this required a bag of pigeons that would get randomly tossed in front of him, teaching him by repetition to stop and stand when the birds flew off. I think he was starting to get it by the end of the session.

The norening started of pretty cruddy. Noodle had agility class, and halfway through the class I saw her limp a little...ever so slightly. I videoed it and sent it to our lameness vet, hoping we can finally get this resolved.

Pizza was a poo-poo head in agility today. It was frustrating, on top of my worry (a double worry) for Noodle, it would have been nice to actually have a good class with Pizza, but NOPE.

Dolphin and I headed to do some field training locally. We worked some more on stop to flush with pigeons, and by golly he was really stopping well on his own when the pigeon was tossed near him. Progress! My momentary good mood evaporated when I lost my brand new Garmin Pro 550 handheld in the field...somewhere. We all searched for hours, but could not find it. $750, and I literally got it like 2 days ago and am now out the money. It's kind of soul-crushing...I worked hard for that money trying to fit this purchase in my budget. I am furious with myself, because my holder/lanyard that attaches the handheld to my vest literally comes TOMORROW...wish I had waited.

Dolphin's bird work was so-so - he was steady and solid to the flush, but broke on the shot, and his retrieve was kind of crappy. I could blame the heat, but my mood is dark so I am going to be doom and gloom with everything that happened, and be completely negative about our future. Don't worry, I should get over it tomorrow, maybe.

I think I need to quit trialing at the same place I train multiple times a week. My dogs were complete duds today, and that's putting it nicely.

Let's see. Noodle knocked a bar in Jumpers because she gave zero effort over the triple. She did get FAST, and was so slow and unmotivated in Standard that she Q'ed with ZERO MACH points. That's pretty bad! ON a good note - no sign of soreness. The building got pretty hot, and she got super lazy.

Dolphin was even worse. In Jumpers, it was a complete mess - knocked a bar, missed two jumps, and missed his weave entrance. Can you say ZERO FOCUS??? He botched the send in FAST because he refused to send to the tunnel. Knocked a bar in Standard, but did manage to give me a fairly decent Time 2 Beat Q.

It was a completely frustrating, motivation-killing day, and I went home questioning why I was putting so much effort into a sport that I seem to be failing at. Yeah, you know how it goes...some times I get into what I call "failure-modes" and it's very hard to drag myself out. I just need to keep on keeping on and wait for the tide to turn, and it will.

One thing I definitely need to add to my training regime is making tunnels fun for these two. Both Noodle and Dolphin hate tunnels, and they slow down a lot in the tunnels and seem rather unmotivated to go into them. I definitely can see Dolphin's point - he's nearly 27" tall at the withers and these tunnels are only 24" high. When he does run through them, I can hear his back scraping against the top ribs of the tunnel. Even Noodle is 24 1/2" tall, so she has to duck a little. I am going to set up some fun tunnel games at home next week and see if I can get their tunnel mojo back.

I think I might be right in thinking that my dogs just don't like to trial where they train. After a nice weekend of doing nothing but playing and relaxing, we headed down to Cincinnati for one day of an agility trial. Both Noodle and Dolphin were MUCH more motivated today!

Noodle had a nice Q in Standard and a nice Q in FAST...headed into Jumpers hoping for a triple Q (we only need two more for our TQX title, and of course we blew it. The Jumpers course started off with a tight curved tunnel to the weaves. As usual, Noodle came out of the tunnel slowly, and right upon entering the weaves, she sneezed, thus missing her weave entrance. What roten timing! the rest of the run was OK, but in looking at the video, I noticed her entire body seemed a bit stiff and sore, and she looked much more uncomfortable than she did in her morning runs. She's not actually limping, but something doesn't look right. She has an appointment with the sports medicine vet in a few weeks, hopefully we will get some answers. Possibly her overall body soreness could be related to her intestinal issues...might be making her uncomfortable. Just a thought...

Dolphin had a nice FAST Q, a nice Time 2 Beat Q, and a Standard Q (it really should have been an NQ as he missed a jump and I had to fix it, but it wasn't notated, so I guess Christmas came early?). Heading into Jumpers I was fully aware that he was in line to potentially nail a quadruple Q, but alas that was not to be as he came out of the tunnel in Jumpers really slow, and totally missed his weave entrance. The rest of the run was ok, but he lost his mojo a bit on that one.

Overall a MUCH better day than Friday! A big plus -Dolphin did not knock ANY bars all day long, that may be a first for him! We will work on this tunnel demotivational issue and see if we can make tunnels fun again.

Today was a hot one! The morning started off with agility classes - Noodle did pretty good, and Pizza was on FIRE! She was awesome. Very focused, motivated, and accurate. What a change from last week! I can't explain it, don't even ask me to try. I can't figure these dang dogs out.

Dolphin got to go field training locally today, he was all by himself. It was terribly hot, but he did pretty well considering. We worked a bunch on whoa to flushes with pigeons...he wasn't very good today, but then he is figuring the game out and knows when someone has a pigeon behind their back ready to toss at him. I figure repetition is good, because that's how this boy learns.

Dolphin was really goon on his birds. The first bird was a pigeon, he pointed held through the flush, we shot a shotgun in the air and he held. Second bird was a quail, he held his point through the flush, but even though we only shot in the air, he saw the quail land about 40 feet away and did break, thinking he was going to retrieve. I made him come back and we heeled away from the bird ("heeled" is a loose term, his heeling isn't very good yet!). Third bird was a pigeon and he was perfect, holing through the flush and shot again. I figured out that because the pigeons fly off really high, he knows there isn't a retrieve so he stays put. The quail tend to fly only a short distance and land, and that's what sets him off. We had one quail left to do one more bit of bird work, and wouldn't you know this bird had a death wish and flushed RIGHT into Dolphin's mouth. Dolphin didn't move one inch, not even a jump...the bird literally flew into his mouth. He stood there with the bird in his mouth, still on point, and with a guilty look on his face. Can't fault the poor guy. I took the bird from him, threw it and we shot in the air, and he held. I will call that success, and we ended the session with a few more stop to flushes. All in all a pretty good training session!