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

The morning started off with Pizza in agility class. I am still keeping Noodle out of agility class until after this weekend. Pizza was great! Man, when she is focused, she is so fun to run. With her, the slightest thing breaks her focus, or the hint of a correction makes her redirect and sniff. It's so odd, since I have never been really hard on her or gotten after her for mistakes. She is so sensitive.

After class, I dropped Pizza off at home and picked up Dolphin and Noodle and headed to do some field training. I worked Noodle first. She ran beautifully, but was pretty dramatic on point where there was nothing but old scent. This made things difficult. She was nice and steady on her birds, but she did get a little amped up on her honor and I had to correct her for hopping when the other dog went for the retrieve. By the way, her honor was outstanding! Like, I turned to find her and there she was standing and honoring her bracemate from a good distance. Where the heck is this dog when I am at hunt tests? It was awesome. This tells me she knows darn well what to do, but sometimes chooses to avoid it during testing. Ugh.

Dolphin was realy good, though he did try to break when I tossed the bird in the air (it wasn't a great flyer so I had to throw it). I was able to stop him verbally. He was running and hunting really big today, it was nice to see. I think he likes this cold weather (it was in the low 40's).

When I sat down tonight and started downliading all of the photos and videos from the past few days off of my phone, I realized what a jam-packed 24 hours I had with all three dogs! I did a fun little video montage of the 24 hour period starting at noon yesterday, to noon today.

Noodle and I headed out bright and early to North Carolina. This weekend is the First National Master Hunter Excellent test sponsored by the Westminster Kennel Club and AKC. I have been working hard for this, and definitely stressing hard since I lost a full month and a half of training due to Noodle's toe. I am cautiously optimistic...she was kind of bad in her first test at the hunt test last weekend but then was pretty spectacular at the second test, so that's what I am holding on to.

I stopped about halfway in to our trip to the New River State Park in Virginia to take Noodle for a hike/walk. I forgot what a pain she is to hike with, it's more like a pull/drag than a hike. My goal was to tire her out a little bit so she would sleep well tonight, but unfortunately this giel has lots of energy in reserve since she woke me up at 1:30 on the morning and we didn't get to sleep the rest of the night. Ugh. The scenery was beautiful, and weather was so nice.

The morning started off COLD! It was 28 degrees when I got to the hunt test grounds, outside of Oxford, North Carolina. The place was impressive - gorgeous rolling fields, and all sorts of Westminster signage to make you feel extra special.

We were supposed to be in the first brace of the morning, but my brace mate had car trouble and was running late so I was bumped to the afternoon. By the time the afternoon rolled around, it was HOT. What a drastic change in temperature! It was bright sunshine, and temps hovered close to 80 degrees, not idea hunting weather, but better than rain.

Noodle broke away like a shot, and she was running BIG! My goal was to try to stay away from my bracemate so I wouldn't have to honor (in MHX, you don't have to honor unless the situation presents itself). Not a problem, Noodle was running to the far horizon. The nice thing was that she was really listening to me - when I called her, she did a 180 back towards me, when I used my arm, she turned in that direction. I felt like we had a pretty good handle going, even with her big run. We had one pretty nice stop to flush, unfortunately the judges were watching the other dog behind me so no one saw it, but I was pretty happy with how Noodle handled it.

The best moment of the day was going around the corner and seeing Noodle waaaaaaay out there standing on point in the middle of the grass, really far from the clump of cover and trees. I walked up the hill and waited for the judge. I walked over to the trees and flushed the bird and blanked it, and she stood perfectly. It was such a cool sight! (See photo to the right, taken by another competitor/spectator!).

We continued on without incident into the bird field. The back course was a full mile, and it took almost 40 minutes before we reached the bird field. Noodle was HOT at this point and there was zero air moving, so scenting conditions were terrible. We were only given 8 minutes in the bird field, and when that time was up they decided to plant a bird for Noodle so we could do the retrieve.

Noodle went on point on the planted bird, it was right on the edge of the path and was not in any cover, so it was sitting there fluttering a bit and looking right at Noodle. When I flushed it, it went straight up and she grabbed it! At that moment I was devastated. All that hard work, all down the drain in one moment. We were done.

I honestly can't tell you when I have felt so low as I did at this moment. It seems like the entire year of failures had piled up on me, and this was the worst. I leashed her up and walked her back to the van, and let everything just wash over me. I know, I know, it was an "honor" to even be here. The judges both told me how much they liked my dog and were disappointed that she failed. Nothing really helps my disappointment right now. It is crushing. I feel like I have really failed at everything this year. Yeah, not true, I know...but right now there isn;t much that will console me.

Those who didn't pass today have the option to skip the next day, or they can go ahead and run and a pass tomorrow would count as another MH pass towards the dog's lifetime achievement award. I am 8+ hours from home, I opted to stay and run tomorrow. I've already paid, I am here, and I want to make sure Noodle works through her bad moment today. Back to the hotel I went, armed with a family-sized box of frozen mac and cheese as comfort food. On the plus side, Noodle was so exhausted she slept all night...Yay!

Today I woke up still disappointed, but in a better frame of mind. Having a full night's sleep definitey helped with that. We were in the 4th brace today, so we were going to be in the heat again, but since it was a bit earlier than yesterday it wasn't as bad. The course was slightly different and was a little longer, so the braces were running close to an hour each.

Noodle broke away big again. Pretty quickly in the backfield her brace mate went on point. She was pretty far ahead so I kept going. As she was running, a covey flushed behind her. I don't know that she actually saw the birds, but she did turn and started racing back towards where the other dog was on point. She came around the cover, saw the dog on point about 30 feet away, and stopped on her own, right next to one of the judges. The other dog moved on, and so did she.

The best moment of the entire weekend was coming up over a hill and seeing Noodle standing all by herself at the top of a hill, and as the judge and I walked up the hill we could see the other dog on point a good sistance away. I walked up that hill praying Noodle wouldn't decide to turn and blow off the honor to keep hunting...she stood perfectly! The judge remarked "Nice!" as we got up there. As we stood for the honor while my bracemate worked the bird, I told her quietly over and over what a good girl she was. I don't care we weren't really supposed to talk when they are honoring, I wanted Noodle to know how awesome that was, and how correct she was being!

After that we moved on. Farther down the back field Noodle went on point in some trees and heavy brush. I kicked around and reloacted her to no avail. The judge had me move her on, and about 6 feet to the right a bird flushed. She stopped and I blanked it. the weird air movement in the trees really had fooled her nose.

This time when we got into the bird field, she went on point fairly quickly. I flushed the bird but it the gunners missed. Noodle held steady so I collared her away and we went on. Within 30 seconds she was on point again. This time I could clearly see two chukkar sitting there about 2 feet apart! I flushed the one, and it flew over the gallery so the gunners couldn't take the shot. I informed the judge of the second bird, and as I did so, I saw Noodle suddenly freeze upagain right where she was - she had caught scent of the bird. This pne flushed nicely, the gunners shot, and I took my time sending her for the retrieve. She did a beautiful retrieve right to hand! This was a nice pass for Master Hunter #21!!!

Overall, I am crushed with disappointment, but thrilled with how great Noodle ran the second day. Maybe she is just a dog that needs a warm-up run every time? I can't help but be super proud of her - she ran like a big field trial dog, was (for the most part) honest on her birds, and I was able to direct her from a long distance. All good things, I just have to remind myself of this.

On a side note, Noodle's toe looked great after yesterday's run. She left it alone all weekend so i was really hoping I could get rid of the cone and donut while she was at home this week. However, it looked pretty bad after today's run. When I walked her off the field, it was bleeding a little bit, and now it looks pretty raw again. I guess we return home and back to the donut and cone until it fully heals. Can't believe it's been a month and a half and I am still dealing with this. I am still so thankful it healed up enough that we were able to particpate this weekend. For a while, that was my biggest worry.

Dolphin had a "moment" during field training today. He broke during an honor and stole the retrieve. I wasn't fast enough to get after him when le left me, and I didn't dare discipline him when he was coming back to the bird, so we re-enacted the whole scenario. When he broke again I was faster and was able to stop him and let him know he was very very wrong (Dolphin SO badly wants to be right, this is all it takes!). We did it a third time in a different direction, and he held nice and steady while the other dog retrieved.

He pointed a little too close to the bird, so on his second point I whoa-ed him as soon as I saw him getting birdy. This bird was the perfect training bird - when I flushed it, it flew about 3 feet over Dolphin's head and landed about 10 feet behind him and started walking around. We fired the "real" gun when the bird flushed, and normally this would make Dolphin break when he saw the bird going down, but he turned his head to mark but held nice and steady, and I was able to somewhat heel him off (his heeling needs a LOT of work, but I got him going in the right direction at least!).

I ran Pizza with my friend's two young dogs. I think she was pretty confused running with 2 other dogs, but it was good for her. There weren't any birds out, but she got to run and hunt, and honor whenever one of the other dogs stopped. All in all it was a pretty good morning!

Today was Noodle's first day back to agility class! She started off pretty good, got slower by the end of class but she stayed pretty focused. Pizza was pretty focused...until she wasn't.

I took Dolphin field training this afternoon (no rest for the wicked!). It was a beautiful day, sunny, and got pleasantly warm by the afternoon. I know these nice days are numbered, so I enjoyed it while I can.

Dolphin did an OK honor on his bracemate's first bird, and he did stand pretty still for the shot and retrieve. On his first bird, he came in and pointed way too close. When I flushed the bird, he actually broke on the flush! I had to get after him and get him back to me, which I was able to after only about 3 strides.

Dolphin's second honor was really nice - he was running and came to a break in the cover and saw his bracemate in the path on point, and he stopped nicely and stayed put..yeah! On his second pointed bird, I saw him getting birdy and following the scent in and I whoa-ed him and stopped him before he got too close. I am going to have to make a point to do that for a while to teach him to stop sooner. He was perfection on this bird, never moved a muscle when the bird flushed right over his shoulder. I am not doing any retrieving right now, we are taking a step back and working on steadiness for a while. I have no plans to run him in master hunter any time soon - I want his training to be solid before we make our first attempt.

Well, today's agility trial went as expected, and not as expected. Makes sense, right? I mean, I expected to not have any success. But in the far back of my mind I also expected I might be pleasantly surprised. Yeah, not today.

Dolphin did not go out for the jump in the send in FAST, so no Q (although he ran well).For some reason he was a complete slug in Time 2 Beat, knocked 3 bars out of sheer lack of effort. It was so frustrating because I haven't seen this side of him in so long, I had thought we were past that. However, he did come back and run really well in Standard and Jumpers. IN Standard he ran clean, but popped out of the weaves at pole 2. I put him back in, he then popped out at pole 6! 3rd time was a charm and he completed them nice and fast, but too little too late. In Jumpers he was running really well and then came out of the tunnel and missed the jump - came in to me and then jumped up at my arm. Same old problem showing up again and again. He only does it when he is running well and happy, which is what I want! Not sure how to stop it without deflating him. So no Q today for Dolphin out of 4 runs.

Noodle had a really nice Q in FAST, and it was..um...fast! I didn't realize it until later, but this was her 25th FAST Q, giving her her Master Fast Bronze title. She came out in standard and really ran well, but for some reason he took the off-course teeter instead of the jump. Then later in the course, it was dogwalk and flip towards you into the tunnel, and she was confused and hopped back on the dogwalk. Other than those mistakes, she really ran well. However, in Jumpers although I thought she ran well, she was slower, and she did stop to obsess over something on the ground after the weaves. We were clean, but about 1 second over time, so no Q. This was really depressing, once again to run clean but be over time.

I have done a lot of hard thinking tonight. I feel like maybe it is time to move her down to Preferred so she will have a lower jump height and more time. I feel like she isn't going to really get any healthier pr feel better than she does now, so making time in regular classes probably will never improve. The hard thing is that this means I am officially giving up on finishing her MACH. We are SO close - we have 17 double Q's (need 20) and 527 points (need 750). I am so torn. I know it's probably best to just give up and move to preferred, but giving up is really a hard concept for me. I really don't know what to do. What if I give up, and I could have gotten that MACH done? What if I don't give up, and I waste whatever years she has left trying to compete in something she physically cannot succeed at anymore? I wish I had a crystal ball, but I have to just rely on my own judgment and my own heart.

We have one more trial on Sunday. I guess we will see how it goes and then make an official decision.

Well, today's agility trial cemented my decision to move Noodle down to Preferred. She had a nice clean run in Jumpers, but was 1 second over time, just like Friday. Her standard run would have made time, but she knocked the triple. She just looked like she as struggling a bit with the jumping, and it's time to stop denying what I am seeing. Running standard at the end of the day was a little emotional for me, knowing this was her last 24 inch run. On the table, I told her how much I love her, and she gave me a big kiss. I think she knows how important she is to me.

Dolphin ran pretty good today. He was a mess in jumpers and knocked 2 bars. However, he ran better than I had anticipated, so that is good. We ended the day with a really nice qualifying run in Masters Standard. He is more than halfway to his MACH in points, but unfortunately we only have 4 double Q's. I wish Noodle could gift him some of hers! They will now go to waste as AKC will not allow you to transfer your MACH legs down to PACH. Stupid rule, everyone agrees, but AKC doesn't care at all (no matter how many e-mails I write!).

I'm a little scrambly in the brain today. I feel defeated.

What a fantastic field training day I had with a group of friends, and a couple of volunteer gunners. The weather was perfect, the dogs were almost perfect!

Noodle was great. The first round she was nicely in control. We had two beautiful retrieves to hand, and one absolutely amazing honor from a good distance all on her own. I even said out loud, "Who is this dog???" She got a second turn after everyone else trained, and she took off like a field trial and was promptly out of sight. We found her a few minutes later on the opposite end of the field standing staunchly on point on a big chukkar. I flushed it and the gunners shot (and she hopped about a foot forward, ugh) and it fell in the high cover. I released her to the retrieve and she ran straight to it. The chukkar was so big the wing completely covered her eyes. She was smart, and instead of running back through the high cover blindly, she went all the way around the cover and stayed on the path and brought it right to me.

Pizza was outstanding. She went on point quickly, but the gunners missed. She was steady as a rock. Her second bird flushed perfectly, and was shot a good distance away. I sent her on the retrieve, and by golly she did a perfect retrieve right to hand! I got some good training advice from a friend a few weeks ago, and now realize that her retriev issues are more of a recall issue than anything else, so we have been really working on the prompt recall. When she picked up the bird and started back to me, I called her name and vibrated her collar. She picked up the speed and ran straight to me. It was wonderful!

Interestingly after her first honor and then working several birds, she did NOT want to honor her bracemate again. Now granted, the other dog wasn't super staunch, but usually that doesn't matter at all to her. It was an interesting problem, because usually she is an honoring machine.

Dolphin, of course, is still a work in progress. He had some beautiful points, and on each one I clipped the leash to his collar so I could control him from breaking. On the first bird I had a friend hold the leash and he did break hard, but she held him in place. Second bird I held the leash and he was a little better. I didn't do any retrieving with him. We aren't going back to retrieving until he is rock steady to wing and shot again. Oh, but I should mention he had a pretty nice honor also. He;s getting it, slowly but surely. The problem always is that he stops when he sees the other dog on point but often he is pretty far from me, and wants to turn and come to me instead of staying put and waiting on me. Repetition, repetition, repetition.

Overall it was a wonderful day with great friends and beautiful dogs. I live for these moments.

Yesterday I spent the whole day judging a hunt test, and today I got to run Noodle. She ran really well in the backfield, and she was way ahead of me when we entered the birdfield. Her bracemate went on point, and from a long distance away from me she slammed on an honor, it was glorious! Unfortunately during the honor we had a rogue running bird, and also a flushed bird, and she kept creeping and hopping forward and ended up about 3 feet in front of me, so we failed. Before we leashed up, she actually did another pretty nice honor on a second point. I was pretty darn happy about that - we have been working SO hard on honoring, so even though we failed this was a HUGE win for us!

Pizza got to run ith the bye dog in the last brace of Master Hunter. She was magnificent, as always! She went on point really fast in the birdfield. Solid as a rock she was! She was on one side of some really high, thick cover, bird was actually out walking around on the other side. I walked around and was able to flush it and the gunners shot it, but there was no way Piza could have any idea that the bird went down because she couldn't see. Rather than send her on a frustrating fruitless retrieve (we didn't really need to since we were running with the bye), I opted to heel her off.

Noodle was called back out to go on point for a senior brace that had a dog that wasn't steady enough for the other dog to honor. They offered to plant a bird for her, and I told them not to bother, and released her. Within 30 seconds she was on a solid point. She did a beautiful retrieve to hand, and was pretty steady (mainly because I ended up having to throw the bird since it was half dead). Noodle was called back to run with the bye of the last senior hunter brace. It was a good thing - she went on point and when I flushed the bird she jumped forward several strides...very very bad! Since I wasn't under judgement, I was able to really get after her.

After the hunt test was over, I was able to take her out to the fields and work a bit on the leftover birds. She did have one point where the bird flushed and she jumped, and I trained through that. The rest of her points were either on half dead birds, or birds so buried in the cover I couldn't produce them. She went on point about 7 or 8 times, and I swear every one I think I took a picture. Some day when she is long gone, I will look at all of these photos I could never resist taking in the moment. I will cry a little because I will be missing her terribly, but I will also smile at how amazing she was and how she changed my life. I don;t know that I will ever own another dog like her, I cannot even put into words what she means to me. So, take the damn picture! I will never regret having all of these photos to look back on.

Photos from today

This morning Dolphin and I headed back to the local bird dog club where the hunt test was held. We met up with one of our training partners in hopes to find some residual birds to work the dogs on, but we were out of luck. We did have a great time exploring the woods and the fields that we haven't been to before. Dolphin had one very nice solid point and was steady to flush and blank shot...the bird was a big chukkar that someone else had planted for his dog (oops!). I gave the guy a $20 for flushing his bird and we went out to a different field.

I had such a great time not training, that later on in the afternoon I bugged out of work and took Dolphin and Pizza back to the bird dog club just to run. I am concerned about fitness - mainly Pizza's - since she has several field trials coming up next month. Surprisingly, stamina was NOT an issue for her! At the 45 minute mark she was still running so hard I lost sight of her. I had that 5 minutes of panic when I couldn't find her, and really mad at myself that I mistakenly put the GPS collar on Dolphin and not her. I eventualy found her about 100 yards away,. She did have a nice stop to flush when a quail flew as she ran past (so much for not training today LOL!).

There is something to be said about just taking the afternoon to play - no dog training and no agenda. I left the field feeling 100% refreshed and in really high spirits. I get so caught up in training all the time, I think I sometimes forget the sheer joy in the companionship of these grey family members. It is amazing how rejuvenated I feel, even hours later as I type this. I am going to make this a priority from now on - at least one day a week I will take time out to do something 100% fun with these guys, with no agenda. Let's just hope the stupid cold weather doesn't move in too quickly so I can have more days like today!

Well, another agility weekend with a lot of zeros. At some point I will start to have success again, but it's just not happening this weekend. However, Dolphin ran fantastic all weekend, even though his Q rate didn't show it. He ran all 6 runs with speed and enthusiasm. When he runs like this, it is so much fun that it takes a lot of the sting out of the NQ's. Here is a recap:

Saturday - Jumpers: Knocked a bar
Saturday - FAST: We actually Q'ed this one, although when watching the video I noticed that he SAILED off of the A-frame contact in the Send, but the judge never called it. Ugh. So it's a cheap Q.
Saturday - Standard: Probably our best run, it was really really good. Dolphin was running so fast, his rear foot slipped off the teeter and he had to bail. We re-did the teeter (fix N go) and finished the course with a super fast time, and no knocked bars.
Sunday - Jumpers: Dolphin did what I never expected him to do - he grabbed an off course tunnel (and it was one that really wasn't staring him in the face!). He usually hates tunnels, but he was so charged up he just blasted through one instead of taking the jump. The rest of the run was clean, of course. Sttill waiting on that 10th jumpers Q to finish his title...
Sunday - Time 2 Beat: Bad boy! He leaped off his A frame contact. I did a Fix N Go on that one. Ugh.
Sunday - Standard: He knocked the triple jump and then missed his weave entrance right after that. Towards the end, he leaped off the A-Frame contact AGAIN! I did a Fix N Go and got him to stop and hold his contact. I am so frustrated - this A-Frame issue is brand new and he did it on three runs this weekend. ARGH!

Back to the training drawing board. On a good note - I worked his weave entrances on Thursday and Friday before we left, and that is one thing he really nailed all weekend, and his weaves were FAST!

I did some field training with Dolphin this morning - it was freaking cold outside. Probably the first bitter cold of the season, and I am not ready!

We had some quail tied to string, and Dolphin went on point on the first one quickly. I tossed it and we shot, and he broke and went to retrieve the bird. STILL a problem! I was a little more ready for his second bird and was able to control him a bit and make him stand. Man, his second bird had probably the prettiest point I have ever seen on a dog (other than his daddy Pretzel). Sure wish I got a photo of it, but I was in full training mode and it was too darn cold to get my phone out.

Dolphin had one spectacular honor where he stopped all on his own and held still - a big step in the right direction! His second honor was almost as nice, but I had to help him a little. We are making progress. I have set no timeline on doing master hunter with him. I think my new year's theme for 2024 will be No More Timelines. I think I tend to put too much pressure on myself, and then I have to give up my goal or timeline and it feels a bit like a failure. I don't know, we will have to see where the next month takes me. I still have many more goals (written and unwritten) to accomplish...

We have this class competition thing going on in our agility classes during this 6-week session, where each person runs a course trial-style each week and the scores from each class are added together weekly. This is week #4, and today Noodle earned her third perfect 100 run. That's 3 weeks in a row of clean runs...woo-hoo! Today she ran amazing! She was the fastest I think she has been in well over 8 months, and she was accurate. I think moving her down to jumping 20" preferred was a really good idea for her. She seems to have an easier time with the jumps and is much more motivated. It's just a good sign that I made the right decision (because you KNOW how I agonized over that!).

Pizza scored a 95 again in her class - one refusal where she missed a jump and then went on a long stress-visit with someone in the ring, but came back and finished clean. Since there was a person missing in her class today, she was "volunteered" to run a second time for a score and she nailed it for a perfect 100. YES!

I braved the bitter cold and took Noodle and Dolphin out to the local bird dog club for a run. No birds, of course, but they had a great time running in the fields and the woods (and Dolphin did put his feet in that icey creek before changing his mind). I worked on just keeping Noodle running out in front of me. We have a field trial this weekend - both Noodle and Pizza. Our field trial is Saturday-Sunday. Funny thing - they called me because they had two judges for the Friday Gordon Setter trial cancel at the last minute, and they could NOT find another judge. Apparently in an emergency a hunt test judge can step in, so guess what I am doing Friday? This should be fun!