Spring and Mr. Woo have decided to try out, doing a tumbling routine:
Don’t tell me that tumbling isn’t dancing … a guy danced the “life cycle of the praying mantis” on the show the other night, so that makes pretty much *anything* “dancing.”
Spring is happy to have her wrasslin’ buddy back from Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Tweed doesn’t ‘believe’ in wrestling with little girl dogs, plus the mean Handler Lady wouldn’t let him do anything all weekend other than play agility and rest. And Dexter just lies down, which is no fun for Springles.
The WooTWoo were surprisingly well behaved for their grandparents, except for once incident with an off leash schnauzer, during which one of the rolly polly duo slipped his collar and made a break for it. Obviously that was Wootie, as otherwise I’d be telling you about TWooie being locked in Doggie Jail for killing a schnauzer! You gotta love moms though, don’t you? First thing mine did was cheerfully announce that the WooTWoo did not miss me at all. Then when I told her that Tweed won the, you know, Regional Championship, she said “Well, isn’t that nice?” the same way you might if you saw a teenager help an old lady carry her groceries or something ;-)
Oh my super duper Champion. He is so many kinds of awesome. Isn’t that nice?
It wasn’t very nice when he fell out of my truck at class last night :( No harm done though, today he is as good as new!
Here are some videos from Regionals. This is Tweed’s first clean Standard round. We had a brief negotiation over the dogwalk contact … I said “You touch that yellow part, you dirty rat bastard” and he replied “what’s in it for me?” and I said “cheese?” so he touched it :) Also, he probably could have made that second weave pole entry without the redirect – 99% of the time he hits his entry. But I was not about to let 1% mess up our Regionals, so I ate a little bit of time and played it ultra safe.. He either got 2nd or 3rd place for this run, I think it was 3rd:
In (rather sharp) contrast, here is Dexter’s Disaster Known as Standard 1: first off course on the 4th obstacle, multiple refusals at the first set of weaves, COMPLETE denial that the tire even exists, and then a sudden shift in attitude, where he forgets that as recently as last week, all jumps were rear crosses, and he no longer knows how to rear cross. Le sigh. Maniac.
In Tweed’s second Standard, we once again met at the negotiating table for his dogwalk contact, and this time I offered STEAK so we got that one too :). Otherwise, he was very wonderful!
In Dex’s Standard 2 he decides that he’ll play it safe and take EVERY FREAKIN’ OBSTACLE IN THE RING no matter where I would prefer he went, and also he has at this point decided that bars look much prettier on the ground than suspended in the air.
In Tweed’s first Jumpers, he narrowly, oh-so-closely avoids an off course tunnel which was all my fault, but he saved my ass by ever so smoothly veering away and coming back to the correct tunnel without a refusal. He still managed to get a 4th place even with losing those few seconds:
We didn’t get his Jumpers 2 on video, because our videographer was running her dog in another ring at the same time, but, it was perfect right down the last toenail placement.
UNLIKE Dexter’s Jumpers 1, which involved multiple off courses in the first 10 seconds of play, then a personality switch where he decides to run the second half of the course completely clean. Seriously, maybe he’s possessed?
As for Jumpers 2. Really, there are no words for the places this dog goes when the spirit moves him!
I have the first day Gambles on video too, but you get the idea – Tweed good, Dexter … something else!
When people see Dexter move, I believe they imagine playing agility with him looks like this:
In reality, playing agility with Dexter looks like this:
The Sadist thinks that Dexter believes his job is to take everything in the ring at top speed. This is really just another way of saying that Dexter has extension up the yin yang, and no collection to speak of, and also he poo-poohs my presence in the ring. So we’re going back to basics again with him, and last night at class while everyone else got to do full courses, Dexter got to do FOUR obstacles, and was rewarded only for following my direction. And he was mad …so mad!! Normally when he gets his tug toy, he lays down on top of it lest someone steal it. This is is favouritest reward ever, to be allowed to conceal his tuggie with his chest. But last night he would grab the tug and beat the shit out of it – he actually left divots in the earth from slamming it to the ground over and over again.
In the end, I think it really just boils down the simple fact that Dexter would be a lot better at agility if he had some legs!
At this rate, Spring is going to eclipse him in no time. She’s so awesome she doesn’t even need equipment to practice on!
All she needs is a very, very fat Mr. Woo.
ZOMG, he is so fat.
Tomorrow our agility club, Paws Squad, is holding a Fun Match in New Westminster. Originally I had planned to run Wootie, just as a crowd pleaser. But he is so fat I am not only a little worried about him doing equipment, I am also embarrassed to take him out in public. First order of business as soon as I have some money again is to get his thyroid tested, cuz there is no way this is just from eating. Even his brother is skinny, but Wootie just keeps getting fatter.
So Springaling is going to run instead. But no matter how awesome she gets, she will never be as awesome as Mr. Tweedles!
And hey, if anyone ever creates a contest for the dog who can drool the most, best and longest, Dexter will surely win!
Seriously. So gross.
sharon says
whoa, that’s some extension, Dex!
As a non-agility person (also, non-agile person, but that’s not relevant), I have to admit I enjoyed Dexter’s videos more. Is there a long-jump category?
Lise says
Holy cow what IS that coming out of Dexter’s mouth??? Does he have web slingers in there? Unbelievable!
Janice in GA says
ZOMG, in that last picture Dexter looks like those reptiles that can shoot their tongues out about 3 feet to catch bugs!
:)
Jen says
Literal LOLs. Thanks!
jackie says
In the first video did you yell out “you’re giving me grey hair!!!” ????
hahahahahaa
So fun to watch the videos. Thanks for posting them.
Katharine Swan says
From the looks of it, Dexter believes that the existing course is boring, and therefore everything is more fun if he makes up his own.
Karen says
I was the scribe for Tweed’s Jumpers 2, and yes, it was pretty damn awesome. He’s one speedy old man!
I was supposed to be running a dog, but pulled her Sat morning due to lameness:(
Vanessa says
I can’t get enough of your posts! You are such a hilarious and gifted writer, and your pups are so animated! I kinda wish you would do a reality show…or maybe put together an awesome comic book. Or both? Yes, both please!
Leslie Ems says
I saw several things in Dexter’s videos that could be fixed. One thing that would concern me is his early takeoffs. Have you heard of ETS? Have you had him checked? He takes off early for every jump, meaning the high point of his jump arc is prior to the jump. This would explain the knocked bars. He has tremendous desire and drive for this game, don’t count him out yet, but he does take off too early and you are not giving him signals in a fast enough time for his speed. I’m sure the Sadist has mentioned this but just to reiterate from another instructor…..
I love your blog, your pics and slightly jealous of Dexter. My three are now retired and for peace in my relationship I have to wait a bit yet before adding a new young dog. I have a good eye on runs and miss competing so much!
Great job with Tweed!! I wish my old guy could have had a finish like that. Unfortunately, a torn CCL was his retirement.
Denise says
Love your blog, love your photos, love your dogs! What camera equipment do you use? Thanks!
Janet says
Bwaahaahaaahaaa………….Dexter is out of control! Very entertaining to watch though!
And me LOVES the Tweedles! Congrats to the old man on his awesome performance!
Janet, Jester, Shy, Spur, Cutter and Copper.
The Food Lady says
Have I had him “checked for ETS?” No, how would I do that? – as far as I know from looking into it, ETS is a term agility people made up for dogs whose jumping style they aren’t happy with ;-) I can’t imagine how a dog would be checked for something like that, and I have to admit I find the whole concept kind of silly. Also, he doesn’t take bars down all that often – that’s only lately when he has decided to take every obstacle in the ring and has lost his ever-luvin’ mind!
And I do know my cues are late. Dex has typically had a problem over responding to my motion cues and bypassing obstacles in his haste to figure out what I want. Now we have the opposite problem. So I wait too long to cue him because I fear what he’ll do if I cue him earlier, plus I have lost all sense of timing with the poor creature. It’s kind of a lose-lose-situation … I don’t trust him out there, so he gets more frantic and thus worse at the game, and the worse he gets, the less I trust him. Now we both suck :(
I like running Tweed better. He’s like soft comfy slippers. I want to clone him!! He’s the awesomest :)
Riosmom says
Loved the videos – have been waiting for them all week. Tweed’s runs were great – he is such a good boy. And, even though I said in an earlier post that I was uncomfortable with taking dogs off the field for errors, after watching Dexter’s runs I would take him off the field after the first off-course and crate him w/o saying a word. He loves the game and is lovely to watch but he doesn’t have a clue. The going back to basics will also help and he is going to be awesome when his little brain kicks in. Meanwhile, Tweed is already awesome so ENJOY!
As always, enjoyed the whole post and pictures. Woo IS a bit rotund but I still love him – he seems so completely who he is and happy with who he is. Not a bit surprised that he slipped his lead but w/o any untoward results – he is, after all, the one and only Woo!
Laura in California says
I’m so glad you posted the videos! Tweed is so very smooth and professional. And then there is Dexter, he sure is enthusiastic and clears most of the fences room to spare. It does look like he is having fun, even if it’s at the expense of your sanity. And sanity is soooo overated :-)
Would love to see a video of Spring if you have one. I really hope nothing is going on with Mr. Woo, hasn’t he always been a little chubby? Maybe he has a secret stash of bunny snacks somewhere, it’s not like he’d tell you about that!
Jackie says
You know we all come back and look at your photos over and over. I just had to comment that Woo’s face in the photo where you call him fat is just the cutest ever. What an adorable smile!
kt and Mitzi says
He may suck at taking direction, but I LOVE watching Dexter’s ability to simply sail through the air! It’s insane how far back he starts the leap to go over the hurdles!
Leslie says
I would disagree. I’ve seen it often enough, with dogs trained very well. Have you watched some of the videos posted to the Clean Run site? Or read many of the blogs and articles in Clean Run and on the web about it? If you haven’t, I would recommend doing so when you have some time. You’re right though, there is no real way to check it and it is a term for an undiagnosed issue. However there is evidence of a genetic component by how frequently it shows up in related dogs.
To have it checked, well what I’ve found is basically to have someone who has been studying it check him out. Not medical tests, but various jump grids and such to see if different things affect how he jumps. And maybe he doesn’t have it or maybe his eyesight isn’t the greatest. Who knows, just thought I would mention it.
Alicia says
I love the videos, Dexter’s Jumpers 1 “Did he just jump the STANDARD?” HAHaHAha too funny!
Fay says
Dexter Morgan’s runs are a riot!!
The Food Lady says
Oh well, I’m sorry – I don’t know a lot about this so called “ETS”, I admit. I don’t mean to belittle it. The last discussion I read about it because tediously argumentative and I gave up reading. If it does exist, I don’t think it’s Dexter’s problem. He is not chronically a bar knocker, this is a new phenomenon that is parallel to his diminishing listening skills in the ring. The more frantic he gets, the less accurately he jumps. He is actually a beautiful jumper and I suspect going back to basics and improving his inclination to follow my cues will help him recover some of his former loveliness. Or else I shall throttle him! :)
Transmit Studio says
Comments now?
Tia says
Hi, love this post! can you tell us where and when the Nationals will be and are you entering the wonder dog?
cinnamondog says
Holy buckets, Dexter can jump! If they have a 36″ class, he can do it!
Well, I’m starting to trial Rowley Rowley Border Collie this summer, after I said I would never trial — we’re going to do CPE and NADAC, since the only thing I want to do with the AKC is burn down their headquarters and loot their bank accounts. :) We will see if Rowley, who is Mr. Dreamy in class, trials like Dex. Forgive me, but I hope not. LOL!
Melinda King says
Tweed’s runs are just outstanding! As one who used to run with “comfy pair of slippers” dog, I can so relate to how great it feels to be in the groove with your dog. There are days in class when I just want to cry because I miss running with Sparky so much. At 15, her best event now is Open Napping and Elite Belly Rubbing.
And Tweed is one speedy guy! Wasn’t expecting that he’d be that fast, especially after the troubles with is tootsies. But he is smokin’! What a memorable weekend for you with The Tweedles.
As for Dexter, I can see the early take-offs in the videos (I have no idea what ETS is) but I think you’re on the right track about going back to basics. That is the HARDEST thing in the world to do when you have a dog that has so much obvious talent packed into those long legs and when you know what it feels like to run with the comfy pair of slippers dog. :-) I really admire agility enthusiasts who do that…and it has paid off for everyone I know who did and was serious about it. So hang in there! I know we’ll see spectacular runs with you and Dex next year.
As for Wootie, I’d say he’s on the Hot Tamale Train with that gorgeous Tumbler move. Wooooo-Wooo!
Annie R says
Wow. I didn’t watch all the runs, but I gotta say, it sure looks like your dogs are all *fantastic* at their start-line waits. Chico and I are still working to improve his patience and self-control at the start line. Of course, having a dog who can’t wait to run is not the world’s worst problem.