Agility - Dog 1, Man 0

Nothing is more humbling than your dog being smarter than you. I had a bad night at Agility, Lady did great! I didn't get the rewards in the right place and was a complete putz!

Lady is going over the A-Frame and was not scared. She did great on the Chute and okay on the Tunnel. The tunnel was hard because people were dropping treats and she was being food squirrely.

In my defense, I will say that Agility when it is 111 degrees out, is really ugly!

The DNA Test results are in....

I just received the DNA results from Lady's test, she's a McNab! She has the Ivermectin strain. This is so cool to have a breed of dog that I had never "heard" of before. I wonder where the owner before us got her?

I wish the weave poles would be this easy!

Herding at 5:30am

Lady had herding this morning. She is still a major novice, yet she seemed more controlled and was not so eager to bite the sheep. She was more focused on guiding them. Baby steps!

I bought some more poles for agility to practice at home. We were out practicing and Lady decided she had, had enough, she went in the house. She was DONE. I tried to get our cat Shubie to go through the poles with string acting as an enticement, she just wanted to run along side of the poles not through them. I have savants for animals! :)

I am sure Lady thinks I am obsessive, I wonder why I like Border Collies?

Disappointment has a name.....

Tonight was utter disappointment! Lady didn't do well at all. I guess I need to consider that this is her third class and she has only been with us for three months. Once again I wonder about "focus". What can I do to engage her in this thing called Agility!

We worked on the weave poles, of which Lady sat looking through the poles, but didn't want go through them. She was not thrilled going through the tire, but went reluctantly. The teeter totter, was not too bad, but she was not a willing participant.

We purchased weave poles for practice at home. Lady did at home what she did in class: sat peacefully looking through the poles! Good dog!

Oh well, five more classes to go. I can guess who will will be repeating level one Agility!!!

Agility Fun Run

Mike, Brianna and I went out to Club-Doggie for the Friday night Fun Run. I want to try and practice agility with Lady and thought it would be "Fun". Wow, it was also a great chance to see some serious dogs do agility. I wonder if Lady will ever be that focused? She is smart and learns things very quickly, but some of those dogs have intense focus. We were talking to some of the "Runners" and they assured me that Lady will come around, it'll be interesting.

When Lady is with the sheep, they hold her interest keenly, but I am very motivated to get to the point where all she does is look to me for the next command. That would be amazing!

We will continue to attend some Fun Runs to get the practice in, plus we met some nice people and that is always a bonus!

Agility, 2nd Lesson

Okay, perhaps I am a little too excited about this Herding and Agility stuff, but what can you do? Lady had her Agility lesson last night and she did fantastic. She is a Rock Star! She is learning so quickly and she even went through the Shoot, which I thought she would balk at and decide to not complete. She did it! We were learning "Right" and "Left". She picked that up no problem. This dog is such a delight, she loves her classes and since she is having to use her brain and brawn, she comes home exhausted. She does not even have the urge to terrorize Shubie (our fuzzy cat). Great job Lady!

We had Herding class this morning after being off for two weeks. Lady really likes chasing sheep, but does not want to work on the leash and learn the commands. I think once she is use to Kama she will work better for her. We have the same trouble at home, Lady decides that she is not comfortable with working, and tries to opt out. I am going to have to work harder with her on the leash. We will trudge on since I would like to compete with her in Herding. We'll see how she does in Agility on Tuesday.

Agility!

We had agility training tonight. What a great group we are in. There was a border collie there that I had met at the vets, so we had someone we knew in our class.

Lady did so well and we are encouraged. I thought for sure she would be scared and not work or balk about keeping her leash on, but she did an excellent job. Probably didn't hurt that we hadn't fed her before we went.

The balance beam was probably her favorite and she didn't punk out on the teeter-totter. I threw her treat through the tire and she followed. All in all an encouraging first time. We will also take advantage of the fun runs on Friday nights. Nothing like a little practice to keep our skills tight.

We are looking forward to Herding on Saturday. Lady could smell the sheep from where we were and was whining because she wanted to be with them. Mike has not seen her in her Herding capacity. My friend Jodie is coming out to see Lady get the sheep.

All for now!

The DNA Test

Well, we received the DNA test kit yesterday and immediately "swabbed" Lady. She was very impressed! Actually I thought she'd positively freak out since she is scared of everything, she did well. The test takes three weeks upon receipt of the "sample". Waiting is the hardest part. I asked Mike if I should test him to see if he was my husband, he got a chuckle out of that I can tell you.

Agility starts tonight, I hope Lady exceeds expectations and does not perform the doom and gloom that I have been predicting! I also hope she doesn't hate it!

Is Lady a McNab

When Lady started her Herding class, Jubie (runs Club-Doggie) asked me if Lady was a McNab. I bit back my smarty pants response of "I don't know what she was before we got her, but she is a Stamp now"! In real life I responded that I didn't know, I thought she was a Smooth Coat Border Collie. When we got back to the Herding ring Kama asked me the same thing. Lady is large for a Border Collie and she is not really built like one. Her coloring is typical BC however.

I had never heard of the McNab breed, so I looked it up on the web. Signs do point to Lady being a McNab rather than a BC. I am intrigued because based on my research McNabs are pretty rare. McNabs were bred from BCs, but to be smooth coated for ranching in California. My general mystery solving curiosity was piqued.

McNabs share the same genetic mutation responsible for Ivermectin sensitivity. This sensitivity is found in Australian Shepherds, Collies, English Shepherds, Longhaired Whippets, Old English Sheepdogs, Shetland Sheepdogs and Australian Cattledogs.

Of course my next step was to get a DNA test for Lady. That will be coming in the mail soon and of course we have to wait about three weeks after I send the swab in, but it will be interesting to know one way or the other. Additionally, it will make a difference in the approach to training, since McNabs are uber sensitive and do not take criticism well (kind of sounds like my daughter during soccer - I think she needs to be DNA tested).

Of course the question begs to be asked "what is a McNab doing in Arizona and how did this wonderful dog end up in the Rescue system? DNA testing here we come!!