NADAC Agility Trial 3-16-13 Day 2

We were back for more action today.
It was a down right grueling day.  The first event is the same course for everyone so we had to be there early to make sure I got a chance to walk it.  We had to get up at 630.  If you know Team Rodgers, you know that we don't function well at that particular hour.  Even the dogs were upset.  We also had a lot of down time since we only did 3 events today.  It was down right freezing in the building.  Oh the hardships of being an agility handler.
On to more bellyaching, I mean footage...



Another go at Touch N Go.  It was basically the same course but technically easier..Oliver was supposed to take the tunnels this time.  He didn't like that idea.  You can see right out of the gate he steps on the dog walk instead of taking the green tunnel.  Turd.  Then you can see that I push him out to the yellow tunnel under the A-frame, which he takes, and I am pleased..so I continue on...that little turd turned around, came back out and went up the frame.  Are you kidding me?  It gets better.  You can't see him but we're having a misunderstanding about him taking that second yellow tunnel.  He was busy sniffing the sandbags that was holding it in place.  He finally did take it and we were able to finish the course.  Seeing as how he earned us all sorts of deductions, we didn't get the Q here.  Damn.



We decided to give Regulars a try..this event includes every obstacle possible.  This means weaves.  We had other problems before we even got there.  I hope you enjoy all the people that are going to make an appearance in the video.  So, you can't see, but we have a small disagreement about him taking that green tunnel again.  He finally does it, and I think we're good to go...you can see as we come around that I look around...as if I was lost.  That would be true.  I totally forgot where obstacle #6 was.  I found it though, and we continued on our way.  After that light blue tunnel there is a tricky pattern that I really hate. Oliver is supposed to make an S pattern with the jumps.  I never know how to handle this, and we usually fail.  Well we failed in a whole new way.  That little contact loving turd shot right up that A-frame, despite my best efforts.  When we were out there...I could see the moment he decided that was what he was going to do.  We do finally make it to the weaves, which we fail miserably at.  I can't figure out what his deal is.  We definitely need some serious work.



I did save the best for last.  If you follow along you know that we just need one more qualifying run to complete our Novice Jumpers Title.  Each title requires 3 qualifying (read: perfect) runs.  We've been needing this run for a few competitions now..and it's been eluding us.  Not this time my friends!  Oliver pulled out all the stops and gave me a great run!  He had pretty good speed and his focus was great.  Most of all he had his listening ears on, which he hadn't had up until then.  At the end of the run you can see him look around, he was looking at our home base area, looking for his dad I'm sure.  So, we took a 1st place and got the Q!  And a shiny new title ribbon to boot!




We've got one final day on the field, and we're up for another title...we'll see if we can get that one too.

Jessica 

NADAC Agility Trial 3-15-13 Day 1

So, it's been a while since Team Rodgers has hit the agility field.
But we're back, and we're here to win!
I had high hopes of getting some good practice in this season before this trial, but the snow gods decided that wasn't going to happen.  So I was, and still am a little concerned about Oliver's performance this weekend.
Friday night at the local trials, as you know, if you follow along, I know you all follow along, consists of just 3 events.  Hoopers, TouchNGo and Weavers.  Well if you follow along you know that last time we tried weaving events we were shamed..they were down right pathetic.  And since I haven't had a chance to really work on them, we only entered 2 events tonight.
That's right, time for the footage.



First up, as always is Hoopers. It consists of all hoops.  I mentioned last time we entered this event he ran off like a retard..sadly there was no footage of this.  So I was slightly concerned...but he pulled through like a champ.  His speed was a little down, but we finished cleanly.  The speed thing is partly my fault..you can see me waiting for him..we're just not confident in those pinwheel patterns (you know, where you go around in a circle).  I was pleased with his focus and really pleased it was a clean run.  Alas, no Q for us, we were 0.85 seconds over the Standard Course Time (SCT)  Boo!!



Our final attempt for the night was Touch N Go.  I should start holding quizzes...this event is all about the contacts.  Oliver loves contacts.  Last time we competed he surprised me with a TnG qualifying run..so I had high hopes..that was until I walked this dreadful course.  There are 3 tunnel/contact discriminations.  The point in this particular course is to not take the tunnels.  Oliver also loves tunnels.  Dogs succumb to what is affectionately called "tunnel suck"  and they just can't help themselves.  For Oliver, the worst is the dog-walk/tunnel scenario.  The opening to the tunnel is actually a little bigger than the plank of the dog-walk, so really, who could blame him.  BUT, he's such a good boy, we ACED this run!  He hit every obstacle with no problems what so ever!  You can see me twice in the video raise my arms up in sweet sweet victory as he takes the proper obstacle.  The speed felt good during the run, and it turns out, it was good.  We spanked the SCT and beat it by 12 seconds.  Earning us a 1st place and a big fat Q.  Way to go Oliver.

We're up for a full day of it tomorrow, as well as Sunday.  We'll be calling on the Luck 'o the Irish to help us have the best weekend possible.

Jessica

New Year's Birthdays

I'm not late yet...it's still January..for a few more days.

My sister and my mother-in-law have birthdays that are very close together, so I thought we'd have a little 2 for 1 special. 

 My sister turned 20 this year..which is ridiculous.

She likes the outdoors, so I made flowers.  I made the leaves pop up, mostly because I thought it was cute.  

It's sparkly, I got a new product, so I've been using it a lot...Perfect Pearls are fun!

I filled the card with a bunch of confetti with the numbers 1 to 20 stamped on them.  

My mother-in-law had a birthday recently as well.  This tea set stamp is one of my favorites. 

And Perfect Pearls makes it so much better!

I kept the inside pretty simple. 

Team Rodgers went on vacation over the new year break...that will be next.  

My coworker had her very adorable baby, so I made a very adorable card for that baby, but of course, you'll have to wait until it reaches its recipient before it gets put here on the blog.  

Happy Tuesday. 

Jessica

Hello Baby! Shower Card

Hello Baby!

There is nothing I love more than making baby cards.  And baby cards for surprise baby showers are even better. 

My friend at work is having a baby girl in January.  So everyone at work got together and fooled her into a surprise baby shower.  We paraded it as a department Christmas party.  She fell for the whole thing.  She had no idea.  I love it when a plan comes together. 

I have a thing for prams.  

I heard the nursery is pink and yellow.  I can deliver on that. 

 

The pram was a little plain, so I used my Cuttlebug to emboss little dots onto it.  It needed a tiny something extra, and my Hello Baby stamp did the trick.

 I kept the ribbon theme on the inside, with a little baby sentiment.  

I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.  

I am pretty excited for this little girl to be born, I know she's going to be adorable!

I'm even more excited to make her "name" card.  I've got some new toys in my scrap room that are perfect for a little girl card.  That will just have to wait until she's actually here though.  The count down is on!

Jessica

NADAC Agility Trial 12-14-12

Since I have to work this weekend we were only able to compete this one Friday night.  We only entered Hoopers and Touch N Go, since his weaves have been less than great lately.

We left Coraline at home and took just a few things since we weren't going to be gone for very long.  He was pretty fired up all evening, since he got to be an only child for a little while..and we didn't have our usual set up once we got to the trial site. 

Hoopers went pretty terribly.  The run was going to be difficult anyway.  He took off like a bat out of hell and didn't pay attention at all.  

We were experimenting with some new filming techniques (read: Jonathan was using his new phone and doesn't know what he's doing)  So it accidentally got recorded in double time.  Since it was a disaster, and super fast, circus music would be appropriate.  So, it won't be featured here.

But I do have our second run.  

This is Novice Touch N Go.  For those of you not following along, it focuses on the Contact obstacles.  It had a couple of difficult spots.  Right out of the gate is a discrimination between the tunnel and the A-frame.  Luck worked in our favor and he took the tunnel like he was supposed to.  After that is a pretty tight little ring of hoops I was afraid I wouldn't have enough time to make it through, but that went well too.  The only hiccup we had was he wanted to go back up the back side of the A-frame, but I was able to get him to come back to me and we finished strong!  It felt really nice, and it was a great comeback after our Hoopers disaster.  If you listen to the audio you can hear Jon's creepy voice saying "yes yes" once he realized we were clear of the difficult parts of the course.  

I'm going to toot our horn a little...(it's my show and I can do what I want)  The course is the same for all levels (Elite, Open, Novice) and several of the upper level dogs made mistakes costing them their clean runs.  In our height class there were 5 dogs..Oliver was the only dog to Qualify.  I couldn't be happier!  Oh yeah, even despite our hiccup, we came in 12 SECONDS UNDER TIME!!  He can be fast if he wants to. 

So this was the final trial of the year.  I plan to start taking Cora to training in hopes that she'll be ready in 5 months when she's old enough to compete.  Our biggest concern is that she'll be a runner-offer.  She loves her public.  

I have a card on deck..and not many other craft projects planned.  I'm hoping to find some time to get my craft on before the year is over.  Oh, and we're planning a mini vacation, so there will be photos of that soon.  

Jessica

The Dad's Birthday Card Blowout

Two birds, one stone.

I made some cards this fall for my Dad, and FIL birthdays.  

Man-cards are really difficult, as we've discussed before..no bows, jewels, or ribbon..lame!

 I made this one for my Father-in-law.

 I've never used this stamp set, but I really like how it turned out. 

 I made this one for my dad.  His birthday is the day before Halloween. 

 I ran the whole thing through my Cuttlebug to get the texture. 

I've got a few more cards to show.  I've got a baby card on deck, those are my favorite for sure.
Maybe we'll have a little Christmas Spectacular of my adorable dogs before Christmas gets here.

Jessica

Peacock Birthday Card

I'm trying to do my Blogger duty and get some posts up.  It's been crazy busy, as usual...and computing just isn't high on the list...playing games and facebook, yes, editing and posting photos..not so much. 

My mother had a birthday a few weeks back, so I made her a card..which is about all she'll let you do. 

She loves peacocks...so much that she's dedicated an entire new house to them. 

And I like shiny...oooh pretty. I used my iRock to set the gems, so they never come off...it's so much easier than trying to glue them.  

 The inside is pretty simple, you know for a nice birthday greeting. 

The holiday season is quickly approaching.  Team Rodgers put up the tree this week...with way more help than we needed.  We're preparing for the last agility trial of the year. We've taken our Christmas card photos, and they're being printed right now, so look for them in a mail box near you.  

Jessica