Welcome to the new Power Paws website! It has been many months in the building and will be months more before I have put in all the content I hope to have here in our new web home. I like the new clean look though I can’t promise I won’t tinker more with colors and art and the overall look as time goes by. A while back I decided I did not want to make any more blog posts to my old word press page, thinking of course that I was only weeks away from completion of this new abode, now I have no excuse for not sharing all the stories and thoughts that have been lurking around in my brain.

I usually think about subjects for articles or a blog post, or projects in the works while I am walking my dogs each day. The last walk of the day is usually just before dusk, the sun is getting ready to set and the dogs are full of themselves after lazing around all afternoon. I am usually quiet and thoughtful while the dogs tear around the fields, but after seeing a mountain lion on a recent evening stroll, I have started to announce my presence on some of the trails. I am my own personal “bear bell” now while on the tree lined path through the ravine. The dogs like my new noisy enthusiasm, though it doesn’t do much for my thoughtful evening stroll mentality. I am often thinking about Scoop and what our next training goal is and what my next few days of training should focus on with him.

I have also been thinking a lot lately how an agility handling system is a lot like a recipe. A great chef can substitute ingredients and come up with a different kind of creation without the whole thing flattening like a ruined soufflé, or curdling like sour milk. There are a lot of handlers tinkering with their systems right now. Some of it looks very impressive, some, maybe not so much.  I have many students wanting to experiment with blind crosses and all the sexy European moves. The most experienced of these “chefs” could probably add some spice to their system without risking the integrity of the creation.  Without the basic ingredients of a simple and proven agility system as the starting recipe,  the new moves may just look like sloppy handling and you are left with a dog questioning his every line. When done right, like Sylvia Trkmans run to win the EO in July,  the addition of the blind crosses and an incredible threadle move to a rear cross, made it all look like poetry and it was the ultimate in agility entertainment. I am not ready to do blind crosses yet, but must admit when a great agility handler puts all those ingredients together like Sylvia did, it is a tempting dish indeed. Watch Sylvia’s run on you tube.  (EO2012 – WINNER – Silvia & Bu)

I am still thinking in cowboy mode after the recent Bay Team Western Regional where our team of Ace, Sweep and Switch won the Team Tournament. Husband Jim was running Sweep and Geri Hernandez was running her barely two year old mini poodle Switch who never put a foot wrong in every team class! The event was great if I do say so myself, and I do since I was the trial chair:) Ace won the local Steeplechase Round one and the Regional GP round 1, and did some other great stuff too. Scoop’ was on a training team with his dog sister Motive and our team of Scoop/Motive/Bounce  managed to qualify and finish in 13th place out of 42 teams!  The photo is of Ace in the cool piece of art that was created just for this event. We all had lots of fun taking photos on the western “set”.

Ace, Western Regional GP, Rd 1, First place

I hope you will come back and visit the new site again soon, I promise to have more for you to read and watch and maybe even a bit of shopping too.

Nancy

I came across the incredible website of Derek Sivers a few months ago, and have sort of been absorbing it a piece at a time.  Sivers.org

Derek calls himself (from his home page) Entrepeneur, programmer and avid student of life.

I love his book Anything You Want

I got it in audible form so I could listen to him read it himself. It came with a couple hundred free songs that he has gathered over the years as well. And then I got a PERSONAL response back from him after I responded to his “thanks for buying my book email”. WOW. This guy must be super busy and he took time to respond to my mail. The hook was set.

I listened to all his TED Talks, some are just a few minutes long. This is my favorite. Listen to this three minute talk if you have any big goals in your life.

“Keep your goals to yourself”

I especially love his article:

Ideas are just a multiplier of execution

I love his concepts about execution. For those (of us) dreamers that only execute half of the ideas we have every day, his words really hit home. You will need to read his article yourself first before you read my comparison to execution in our sport of dog agility. His article describes how even a brilliant idea is worth nothing without execution. My Comparison of Dog Agility Execution to Derek Sivers “Ideas are just a multiplier of execution” Sivers Execution vs Dog Agility

Our most brilliant agility dogs while not “worth nothing” as they are still our treasured companions after all, will never experience the glory of a National or International podium without the handler’s brilliant execution. I have known many brilliant as well as many so-so or good dogs. I’ve known dogs who could be the fastest on the planet, and dogs who run at a middle speed but have perfect turns and the handler has perfect timing. The brilliant dogs don’t always win and the so-so or just good dogs don’t always lose.

It is all about the execution not just of a trial course, but the day to day training and conditioning and attention and the downright zen of it all. Even “average” dogs have been on world teams, and I have stood beside both brilliant and just “good” dogs and their handlers as teammates and as a coach on the podium as they accepted their awards.

What makes an awful dog? Physical and emotional issues beyond what most handlers are capable of solving, without going into the nature/nurture theory! What makes a brilliant dog? It is one born with brains and a body to match and a handler who can bring out the best in them. Most of us have dogs in the middle of those comparisons and it is the execution that changes some of those dogs from awful to brilliant.

I hope you can relate to my comparison between Derek’s Execution theories and mine as it relates to dog agility.

Go out there and execute.

Nancy Gyes

I can hardly believe that Scoop will be three years old in a month. I want my lost year back! Ok, enough whining:) Scoop and I went to his first competition in almost a year and he did really well. No Q’s on day one, but on the second day he got his third open jumpers leg to finish the title and this weekend he will run in EX jumpers for the first time. His last time in the AKC ring was exactly a year ago, his 2nd open jumpers leg was on 2.12.2011, almost exactly one year between open jumpers legs!

Here is a video of the jumpers run and the EX standard Q we almost got till I dumped him in the weaves and had to pay for it with his departure.

Scoop is still getting weekly massages and last week he got one on both Friday and Saturday, Maybe that was why he was good on Sunday!

My student Mary VanWormer sent me a link to a really interesting article on why massage heals. I found it an eye opener and it has even more confirmed the need to have body work done on my dogs. I am now trying to adjust the time I spend working on Scoop myself so that I save time after training and not necessarily before. I really don’t think I can make time for both! Warm-up, stretch, train, then a least a little time devoted to massaging his tightest parts.

I hope our success continues and am really looking forward to this weekend instead of with the trepidation I have felt for so long on his progress.

I hope your youngster is right on track and that you make some time and same some money to spend on those valuable massages for your competition partner!

NJG

Seven of them walked past my office window this morning so I snuck out quietly and stood behind the redwood tree to snap a few photos. They blend into the surroundings so well, they are perfectly camouflaged. The dogs fuss at them from behind the fence sometimes but they don’t seem to care. Occasionally when the dogs are all put up for a meal or hanging in the house, the turkeys fly into the dog yard to investigate the dogs’ refuge. Our local wildlife are very used to the dogs and cats being safely tucked behind the fences and they meander within a few feet of the dogs totally confident that the wire will keep them separated. We don’t see the turkeys everyday, and it is such a coincidence that they came for a visit today as last night I watched a great Nature show on TV called My Life as a Turkey. If you see it on the tube,
don’t miss this really interesting program about imprinting and living with a flock of wild turkeys.

I got home last night from the 3 day AKC Show at Rancho Murietta.  Ace and I had a good time hanging with friends and running in the trial. Ace got three doubles and a triple, AKC lingo for qualifying in agility, jumping and FAST all on the same day. Our only error all weekend was not qualifying in one of the FAST classes offered. I put too much power and speed on the send and overshot a tunnel. Totally fine, I really only do FAST classes to get on the contacts if they have them as I show so seldom I like to take advantage of the opportunity to train them in a ring setting. “The dark arts”  as I call the skill required to be competitive in gamblers and FAST classes is not really my forte, that is my husbands specialty! Jim and I like to joke that he teaches them to send, then I teach them all to get reeled back in.

Hmmm… that sounds like job security!

I found a cute pic of Scoop from exactly one year ago, happily holding of one his favorite toys.

Scoop stayed home with Jim, I didn’t want to be tempted to take him for a hike or get him revved up watching agility and not be able to do anything with that pent up energy. We are headed back to the neurologist and orthopedist offices this week on the continuing search for a specific diagnosis for his discomfort. In the meantime he is just hanging out in the house bored unless we play calm clicker training games.

I was helping a friend this week to clicker train a retrieve on her sheltie. Have I mentioned that I think all dogs should have a manufactured retrieve? There are some skills that are so important to making agility training easier, and a good retrieve is one of them. If you can train a dog, you can train a retrieve, I see absolutely no reason for anyone to have the excuse that their dog won’t play with toys so they obviously can’t retrieve. And I would ask, what does toy play or tugging have to do with the perfect retrieve of any item you designate?

Well???

I hope you have as great retrieve on your youngster as I do on mine, and if you don’t, well get on it!

Nancy

Ace and I came home two days ago from the European Open which was held in Austria. The adventure had a rocky start with plane cancellations and a couple rescheduled flights, but after day one the entire journey totally rocked. Channan Fosty, Susan Cochran, Laura Jones and myself spent 3 days prior to the event in the beautiful area that is called Salzkammergut, a lake region in Austria in the area of Salzburg.

We hiked, ate, explored, ate, played tourist and then ate some more. It was so fitting that we were together in our travels as well as competing on Team USA 1, one of 4 large dogs teams (of 3 or 4 handlers and dogs) competing at the EO for the USA. Our team went into the Team Relay finals in third place, and while we did not medal from our team run, we still got to visit the podium for our trophies for our overall 3^rd place team scores which was a real bonus. Our team was one of only 10 teams to make finals and the only US team to do so.

The actual team winners were the three teams which made it through the incredible relay course designed by Judge Gabi Steppan. Finland rocked the audience with 4 clean runs in the Relay with a team of 3 “pups” and their Dam. How cool was that?

The European Open is a really interesting event in that they include each country in the individual finals. You can get into finals with a class placement, or you can be one of your countries top dogs. Daisy got there through a placement, and Ace and I were the top US large dog. There were only 2 large USA dogs in Individual Finals, Daisy Peel with Solar and Ace and myself. Ace and I finished in 7^th place, barely 1.5 seconds off the winning time. I have not seen the run on video, I don’t know anyone who filmed it.:( The Finals was held on Saturday night in a driving rain storm and most folks were huddled under umbrellas trying to stay dry. It would not be the EO without a little bit of weather challenge. We had perfect weather every day that week other than for the four hours on Saturday night for the finals.

I have been to 4 European Open events and Ace made finals each of the 4 years. This is the first year they have had a finals for Team. The winner is usually based on cumulative scores over the jumpers and standard rounds. The first year in Italy I fell down in the finals which were held in a sand arena and I found a deep bog and was down on my butt. I usually do pretty well in final rounds but that was certainly not one of my better moments. I can’t remember what place I had three years ago in Germany, but two years ago in Holland I got to the Podium and took home a bronze medal. I would have loved to repeat or better that finish, but I am not at all disappointed with what we accomplished. For a little dog that is not a speed demon, and who spends most of the year jumping 22 inches, finishing in 7th at what I think is the most competitive international event in the world is a huge honor. There were about 350 large dogs at EO jumping 26. Many of the same faces we will see in two months at World Championships were competing, and the class is twice as large as the WC with almost as many countries participating.

I have been going to International and National agility events since 1993. I have been lucky and had lots of high placements, but I have had my share of failures as well. The days following some of those wins and huge successes I used to describe my mental demeanor as being an “absence of sadness”. I often had a big letdown after a huge success, and I would not have described my attitude as being totally happy. I was simply happy that I wasn’t sad! Happy that I had not failed. I wanted too much not to fail as opposed to wanting to do the best I could. I wanted the wins a lot, but my focus was on “not losing.” For a while “not losing” helped me win. I threw everything I had at the finals runs, I would rather have bombed than lost, but the feeling afterwards wasn’t as joyous as it could have been. I hope that attitude is long behind me. I want to give it all I have when I am lucky enough to make a finals run, but I won’t commit hari kari the next day if I don’t win, and if I do win, I am damn well gonna enjoy it!

I am really happy this week. I was thrilled to be the only US handler to make both Individual and Team finals this year! My little dog did all he could do for me, and we didn’t have any huge errors or E’s. And I am happy that I kept a good attitude before during and after the event. I was excited and a little bit nervous prior to runs, but I could still breathe and smile and play with my dog and make small talk with friends while still staying connected and focused on the job.

The mental game that I talk to students and members of the World Team about I hope I am actually living and practicing and reaping the benefits from. Reading books, and articles and blogs on the subject has changed me over the years. I hope it will help me continue to help my students and those I coach as well.

I am happy this week that I don’t just feel an “absence of sadness”. This was probably 8 year old Ace’s last year at the EO and I want to enjoy all my lovely thoughts about the great experience we just had.

Scoop, well, just isn’t ready for me to consider International competitions yet. I sure hope that I have those goals to look forward to with him when I feel like he is really healthy and I can trust that setting a goal to go to Europe and get on a podium with him is actually achievable. I am training Scoop every day I am home, but I know he still has this creepy fungus growing in his head and I am sure it is affecting how he works for me which is really not 100% right now.

Tonight he was a good boy though and I am looking forward to being home the rest of this month to train him, after I get back from a weekend seminar. My happy thoughts and I are headed tomorrow morning to Portland to teach for the weekend. And today was a good day. I had some of my favorite students for classes, and I opened a box from Clean Run that held my Alphabet Drills book. Yeah!!! This was definitely NOT an absence of sadness day!

I hope all your happy days are really happy and that your pup dog is well on his or her way to helping you achieve all your dreams and goals. Mine have already done so for me!

Nancy

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