Jive has had a fantastic year with gaining titles in AD, JD, JDX, and ADX with first places in every event.
He also has two first places in Masters Jumping, Jive and Kris both have grown together as a great team and will be better for it next year. Jive will be trying out for the teams event in March to be run at the Nationals, we will be travelling to the Nationals in June 2012 which will be a great event, as all states in Australia will be competing at the Nationals in NSW. Jive also fathered two great little pups Spark and Roxy in August this year. So he did have a rather busy year.
Jive was awarded his sash at club this year with his titles that he gained.
Katie and Kris drove to Portland which is a five hour trip, a couple of weekends ago they did have a lovely weekend but only managed one pass all weekend and that was with Nakita.
So during the following week they had Jive all week and trained him nearly every day with front crosses, rear crosses, call offs from tunnels, and also some jump grids. So they were ready for the next weekend of trialling. It was the last trial for the year, Jive had some lovely runs but one or two faults nearly in every course, except for the one in masters jumping he blitzed the course by beating second (which is also one of the fastest dogs in the state) by 1.25 seconds .
Jive has had several runs in master's jumping with lots of one faults, a bar down or a refusal, sometimes a tunnel suck but at Warrnambool he finally went clear and won the ring. He has now gained his excellent agility title and has just started running in Masters Agility. Katie and Kris are taking the dogs to Portland next weekend which is a five hour drive from home and have a whole weekend of agility, so Jive will have a ball.
Below is vid of Jive first place in Masters Jumping.
Well I am very much behind in my blog but I will try and catch up on the news.
Its was Mr Jive’s 2nd Birthday last month on the 16th September and WOW what a full on 2 years this boy has been on he was born and raised in USA for 10 months, flew over to Aust on a massive flight, trained and trialled in Agility and now in Masters jumping and every qualifier he has had has been a first place. He also become a daddy with two great kids.
Jive ran at the Royal Melbourne Show last month, he was a very good boy, he perched himself on top of his crate and was very content to sit there all day getting lots of pats from the public walking by. He ran in four events and very close in each of them, he seemed to love the crowd, nothing phased him at all. Below is a vid of his Open Jumping course where the handler could not go over the pink line. He unfortunately knocked one bar as it was a very difficult angle, but he still came 3rd with an NQ.
Jive has been having fun with lots with running in the bush every morning the last couple of months, he gets so excited when John gets up every morning he knows it is time for his run in the bush. He whines, runs in circles, in and out of the dog door, and virtually tells John to hurry up he wants to run in the bush. They all go for an hour every morning. But this week is the last week for a while as it is warming up and it is too dangerous with snake season. So the dogs need to be happy with a run around the paddock and lots more agility training.
Jive has excelled all of our expectations, we counted his quallies last week and for 17 quallies he has had 17 wins, what a great achievment. He now has his excellent jumping title and will be running in Masters Jumping in a couple of weeks. Jive will be having his second birthday this month. As we have an average of 60 plus dogs in masters jumping it will be difficult to keep his record of all first places, but I am sure he will have fun trying.
Photo of all his ribbons he has collected in the last couple of months.
Excellent Agility 40.52 61 1st Place Q 03-Sep-11
Excellent Jumping
State Trial 21.39 40 1st Place Q 03-Sep-11
Hastings 20.34 32 1st Place Q 27-Aug-11
Warringal 24.63 40 1st Place Q 18-Jun-11
Scottish Breeds 23.95 40 1st Place Q 05-Jun-11
Croydon 21.92 35 1st Place Q 28-May-11
Knox 23.93 40 1st Place Q 21-May-11
Novice Jumping
Ballarat 18.06 40 1st Place Q 01-May-11
ADVC 17.9 40 1st Place Q 24-Apr-11
Launceston 17.91 34 1st Place Q 26-Mar-11
Hobart 1st Place Q
Novice Agility
Moorabbin 27.63 58 1st Place Q 16-Jul-11
Moorabbin 26.63 60 1st Place Q 16-Jul-11
Sale 30.91 65 1st Place Q 13-Jun-11
ADCV 30 67 1st Place Q 24-Mar-11
Games
Novice Gamble pts
State Trial 2011 59.86 60 1st place 56 points 03-Sep-11
Novice Strategic Pairs
Tassie 1st Place Q 01-Apr-11
Below is a couple of Jives runs in Excellent Jumping and Excellent Agility
I am a bit behind in my blog but for those who do not know Nakita has two lovely puppies, bit of a drama as she did have to have an Emergency C Section and three of her five puppies did not make it. But we are very lucky to have two lovely pups and Nakita live and well. Choc and white is the female very much like her mum, and the choc merle is a male just like his dad.
Below is a small video of the pups today at three and half weeks old.
Pups having a great time playing
Jive won two of the two Novice Agility events at Moorabbin on the 16th July. It was a big field for novice agility with over 30 dogs competing, in each event. Jive put in two lovely runs and won both of them with a very good time of 26 seconds.
He also had two excellent jumping runs with only one fault in each so Jive and Kris had a super day.No more trials until the 28th August so another break from agility.
We have been training on our Weave Challenge which Jive is going extremely well, I need to video some of the challenges but we are up to week 7.
Jikata's very soon
Jive will be a daddy in four days as Nakita is due on the 4th August but she might go a bit early as she so big, poor Nakita can't get comfortable.
Jive at Morwell agility trial. Thanks to Robyn Evans for photo.
We have no trials for several weeks as a lot of trials have been cancelled due to wet and muddy conditions and also other things, so next trial is not untill the 16th July. We now have plenty of time to train on our weave entries and other things like running Aframes with tunnels very close to Aframes. As Jive loves his tunnels.
As Kris and Jive have only one pass to go before they are in masters jumping, we need to train on advanced skills like obstacle discriminations, seems like that is very popular with judges at the moment, tunnels and tyres next to each other, lots of discriminations also more on serps, threadles, and pushthroughs.
We are in the middle of the Weave Challenge and up to position 4 which we found pretty tough going with the send and the recall. I am doing this challenge with Jazz, Merlot and Jive so we take it in turns and they don't get so tired. With the wet weather lately my ground is very soft, so after a couple of runs on the weavers it tends to get churned up quickly so need to keep moving the weavers to other parts of the ground.
And to think we have another two months of winter. The dogs get so wet and muddy that they have to swim in the dam at least twice a day not that they care as they love their swimming. I am getting very sick of mud.
Below is a video of the send into the weavers with some forward motion, I also had a tunnel very close to weavers as Jive is a bit of a tunnel suck but he was a good boy and did not go into tunnel at all. My computer is very slow in editing so I only videoed the send. I need to get a better edit program.
Last weekend we trialled at Bulla which is near Melbourne's airport, it was a lovely winters day in Melbourne we even had a bit of sunshine we were lucky with the weather as only a light shower during the day.
Thanks to Robyn Evans for some great photos of Jive
The Good
Jive had a lovely run in Excellent Jumping and won the ring, there were over 30 dogs in excellent jumping, Kris handled Jive well and he and Jive did a good job winning the ring. Only one more pass to go in Excellent Jumping and then he will be with the big kids in Masters.
The Bad
We are not having much luck in agility though, Jive had a lovely run in Novice Agility, we have been working on his weaver entries all week and he did a lovely job getting his entry as a lot of dogs stuffed up the entry. But this was the first time in his trialling that he missed the A frame contact, just when I saying to Kathy that we have not had any problems with the running A frame. Funny my older dog Merlot also missed his A frame in the same ring using the same A frame, so not sure why, maybe it was a bit higher than usual, but really no excuse. Jive did end up winning the ring with one fault as no qualifiers in novice.
Jive certainly enjoys himself running as you can hear him talking as he races around the ring with Kris.
Jive had three attempts at novice agility on the weekend and managed to win one, the other two he had a bit of trouble with the weave entries as the other two courses were very difficult with the weavers. Below Jive's winning run with Katie handling Jive.
Weave Pole Challenge
I came home from the weekend at Morwell and thought we must train some more on weaving and then when I read Kathy's blog I thought what a good idea.
Kathy and her girls at Agility Adventures are doing a weave pole challenge and I thought as Jive has been failing in his weavers in Novice Agility it would be a great idea to do the Weave Challenge with Jive's sister Cricket and others . It will be good training and lots of fun, Jive is pretty good at the weavers but lately we have been getting some really hard entries in novice and he has just not been gettting them.
We are a bit late in starting but over the last two days we have been doing some of the work in week 1 and 2 as we need to get to the hard entries as Jive is competing this weekend and it would be nice to get out of novice agility. We are supposed to have only the six poles but seeing we are competing on Saturday I am working on the 12 poles this week.
So, if you want to join the challenge or if you just want a really good description of the exercises just click here .
My videoing is not too good and I did not video all of the exercises, I should be better next week when I now know what I am doing. We are in the middle of winter in Australia so it is very wet and muddy, hence the gumboots.
Jive has been very busy since I posted last as he has won three excellent jumping events over the last three weekends, also he had three matings with Nakita so hopefully we will see little Jikita's early August.
Nakita ready to play with Mr Jive
Nakita and Jive playing together
Some of Nakita's runs at the Royal Show last year
Below is a video with Jive's first two excellent jumping from Knox and Croydon. Jive has had a bit of trouble getting a qually in agility, if it is not one bar down it is a tunnel suck problem, we have got over those two problems and now we have a weave problem. Oh well back to more training.
Jive had his first run in Excellent Jumping last weekend, he did a great job but with the famous one bar down. He had three runs in excellent jumping with one bar down in two of the events, he managed to get two seconds with an NQ in each, but still couple of nice sashes and two nice prizes. Jive also had two runs in Novice Agility with one bar down and the other run he missed the last weave.
Katie has been working on Jive's start line stays and this is going really well, Kris also is getting his timing much better with his rear crosses with Jive. I am really pleased with Jive's progress with lovely running A frames and nice fast weavers. He does all the hard stuff but just keeps knocking that one bar.
Jive's Excellent Jumping run
Jive and I have been working on jump grids this week and lots of set point jumps as Jive is trialling this weekend at Knox.
I took the dogs for a run in the bush this afternoon as did not have any dogs to groom, dogs just had the best time.
Jive usually runs 10 laps everytime we get to this spot on our walk through the bush.
Dogs having a swim after their run in the bush
Dogs having a seat on our bush walk
Dogs all tired after their run and swim, getting warm beside the fire.
We had a double trial at Easter at Altona, lovely courses and lovely weather. Kris and Jive are starting to work as a team, they had two qualifiers one in jumping which was his JD title. The other one was first place in Novice Agility. Jive and Kris also had some other fantastic runs but with just the one fault in most of their runs. Next weekend the 14th May Jive will be running in excellent jumping.
Jive's Qualifing Runs
Some of Jive's runs where he had the one fault, although they were super runs for a baby boy.
Jive has been back at my place and having fun going for runs every morning with John and the other dogs through the bush and then goes for a swim in the dam. Jive just never stops running he has such a great time.
Kris and Jive had a great weekend trialling together at Geelong last weekend, although they did not end up with Quallies they did have some lovely runs together, just a couple of small hiccups. Jive has been staying at Katie and Kris's place these last two weeks so Kris can put some time in to train Jive and run with Jive to get their timing worked out and work as a team, as this is a must for agility.
Jives's sashes he did not qualify as one bar down in each event but still managed first place in both of the Novice Agility events.
This Easter weekend we have a double trial on Saturday and Sunday, Jive has eight events in Novice Jumping and Novice Agility, in the mean time Jive is having lots of fun with his girlfriends Nakita and Kirra.
Getting ready to board the Spirit of Tasmania in Melbourne.
Jives first trial was in Hobart on the 19th March 2011, I ran him in Novice Jumping, it was really exciting to run him in his first trial after 10 months of training, finally the real thing. Jive was a good boy and won the ring.
He did have several runs in Novice both in agility and jumping over two weekends first weekend in Hobart second weekend in Launceston, most runs with only one fault in each, although we will need to work on his start line stay as he did manage to stand up in a couple of the runs on the first weekend. I was very happy with his running Aframe and his weavers although we might need to train on some more trickier entries especially coming from a running A frame. Katie ran him in a couple of the runs and won Novice Jumping in Launceston. So now he only needs one more qualifier to gain his title of JD. Katie and I ran him and Ace in Strategic Pairs and won the ring in Launceston. No video of Strat pairs as our videoing man was playing golf all weekend.
Below is a video of some of his runs in Hobart and Launceston
Launceston runs
This weekend we have a double trial at Geelong, Jive has 8 runs over two days, Kris, Katie's husband will now be running Jive. I have had so much fun training Jive as he just loves to learn, run and jump so he really is easy to teach. I am sure Kris will enjoy running Jive as he is so much fun.
Dogs having fun running up and down on the sanddunes on some lovely dog friendly beaches in Tassie
We are off to Tasmania this Thursday night sailing on the Spirit of Tasmania arriving on Friday morning at 7am. We have a cabin booked so should be lots of fun. Katie and I plus husbands and six dogs. We have a double trial this weekend, followed by some sightseeing of Tasmania during the week, the guys are hoping to get some golf and fishing in. Then we have another double trial the following weekend. This Saturday morning Jive has his first Novice Agility and Novice Jumping event.
We have been busy trialling the last couple of weekends with two double trials one after another in the country. Jive has had two weeks off as he tore his dew claw half off, he was scheduled for his hip score so we had his dew claw removed while he was under. He did come to Warrnambool with us and had a ball swimming in the ocean after the trials. Although he was rather bored hanging around waiting as he was 4 days short of 18 months so could not enter the trial.
Jive looking bored and saying when do I get a go at the fun stuff
Katie getting Jive used to all of the noise and commotion at ringside
We had an awesome time at Warrnambool with Katie and I winning 9 out of the 12 Masters rings.
Some of the runs we won.
Coffee break on way home from Warrnambool, with the public holiday traffic it was a long five hours in the car.
I gave Jive his first training session tonight after having two weeks off, he really enjoyed himself. (Not real good quality as I videoed session with iphone.)
Jive had his first full practice course yesterday in which I set the course up at home, Ron Diamond from Victoria designed the course it is an excellent jumping course, although I did add a couple of modifications. The course ran very smoothly with a lead out pivot and then some nice controled circle work, into a tunnel with a rear cross, then into another tunnel with a nice Go home.
The main reason I chose this course as I always envied handlers with their dog having a great Go at the end of a course. That is the one thing I did not teach Jazz she tends to slow down and says well are you coming. So I was determined for Jive to have a great Go. As Jive loves his tug he was pretty easy to teach the Go.
Australia Day today in Australia which means a public holiday. Katie and Kris came down and we all went to the beach. The dogs had a great time swimming and splashing around in the water.
Jive has been busy the last couple of weeks with working on his full height A frame, also we had to revisit our weavers and we worked on proofing the entries and exits. We worked on the challenges of the 2x2 DVD of Susan Garrett, lots of great exercises to go through on Susans DVD. Over the next two months we will be working on full courses in readiness for his debut of trialling.
Jive at work with me in the grooming shed
Jive comes to work with me each day as I work as a groomer from home, so everyday Jive comes up to the shed with me and puts himself on the grooming table and checks out all the customers for the day. He loves just sitting around and keeping me company. Any free time we have we go and have a training session of agility which he loves.
More Agility Training
Jive has also been working on his dogwalk, table, jumps and seesaw, there is so much to learn for a young dog, but Jive loves to learn and he loves his agility. At the end of the day he loves to climb on the chair with John or myself and have a big cuddle.
Jive has been busy with training his running Aframe this last month.
I decided to try and train a running A frame with Jive, as I have watched alot of dogs with running A frame contacts and they look so much smoother than the 2o2o method. Runnning Aframes seems to be better on the joints of the dogs. I would love to train a running dog walk but I just do not think I would keep up with Jive with a running dogwalk, also the dog walk is not as steep as the A Frame so there fore not so damaging too the joints.
I have videoed a couple of the segments of the running A frame, although I videoed them all today we have been training on the box and the grid for some 4 weeks now with three or four short sessions a day.
Our first segment is adding value to the box, once the dog loves going into the box, we then add the pounce out of the box. Once that is perfected we add the grid line which is the same distance that a dog would jump from the upper part of the A frame and then one pounce into the down contact, and another pounce into the colour.
Video below on some of the segments we have been working on:
Next segment is the grid line, this is the same line as the Aframe itself.
Today is the first day Jive has gone near an A frame we did back chain the A frame a couple of times, we then put it all together and have a lovely running A frame. We still have a long way to go as the A Frame is not at its full height still another 10-12 inches before it is at its full height. We also need to fade the pvc box and also we need to add add turns and rear crosses to the running of the A frame, but I am very pleased with where we are at, running contacts are a lot of work but I think they are worth it in the end.
