There were not many dachshunds running at this trial. I think I saw maybe 3-4 and 1 of them is a dachshunds mix. I remembered seeing one long-hair dachshunds actually running pretty fast in the Excellent class. The dog was jumping at 4 inch, I believe. It did not qualify, but everyone was impressed with how fast the dog ran with its short little legs. It ran happily and decided to do the zoomies mid-course. Very entertaining. It was also very amusing to see the little dachshunds weaving!
Koji is not the fastest dog running in his jump height. At least, NOT YET. We are working on that. However, he is a very consistent dog and pays very good attention. I hope with time/experiences/training, we will be able to increase speed and improve/learn new skills to maneuver different courses.
He is young, at 2.5 years old, so there is a long window of time for us to keep playing. Down the road, I hope I can get a Master Agility Champion (MACH) title . It would also be pretty cool to participate in the AKC Agility Invitational at some point, where the top 5 Agility dogs of each breed with the most MACH points will be invited.
Even my older girl Maluko (she will be 7 in November) has shown a lot of potentials and interests in running Agility, so I look forward to the day when I run both dogs at an Agility trial.
I didnt even consider dachshunds weaving! Wow. I love seeing different breeds eventing. (There was a sharpei at lure coursing! and a mini dachshund named Wilma Q'd at the 300 yd course.) It is pretty nice of the Dachshund club to host an event at which their breed isnt necessarily optimized for. I give them a ton of credit.
You and Koji have a nice long road ahead together- enjoy! we'll be cheering for you!
I had the exact question about why a breed club would be interested in hosting an Agility trial if their breed is not the traditional Agility breed.
I was told that hosting Agility trials can be a money-making opportunity for the club. The club will hire a trial secretary's service to take care of hosting the actual event (publishing premiums, taking entries, finding judges, building courses, figuring out running orders, reporting results etc) and have a few club members there to help with hospitality and other stuff. Great source of income for the club.
There are a lot of the traditional Agility breeds (such as Border Collie, Aussies or Shelties) at every trials, but not every teams are successful (not just getting a qualification score, but how smooth the team run together). I don't think the traditional Agility breeds are that easier to train and they may pose even greater training challenges than the non-traditional breed would because of their speed and intensity.
I had the opportunity to run my instructor's Border Collie girl a few times in class and it was a totally different experience. She is so intense and fast, so if my cue is not on time and clear, she would have gone miles ahead. Her speed also makes getting in position and cuing her in time more challenging because she sometimes just takes one small stride or no stride between obstacles.
I know you took Juno to do coursing. Would you be interested in doing Agility with her at some point?
I don't know...She is certainly agile, and she certainly likes to do things together and is attentive, and fast (faster than me- what you wrote about being able to cue the dog in time is certainly true and not to be taken for granted.) but I learned at coursing that her operating distance from me is pretty close. It may be close enough for agility, but its a stretch at coursing. She def likes to do things together as a team, so maybe. But it will take a lot more than that, I am aware, to do trialing- it takes classes, training, practice ring time/own equipment, a good mentor, fees and travel- as you know, but I dont think I had a strong perspective on before I went to CAT and actually did this. I must make a Juno's CAT thread b/c I dont want to clutter up Koji's thread with a long post about Juno!
You took Juno to a lure coursing fun run and she enjoyed it, right?
Why would you say her operating distance from you is pretty close. I read your thread and Juno seemed to be really intense on chasing and killing the "lure" at the end. Did she drop the lure and came back to you if she was too far away from you?
We can keep the discussion either here or back to Juno's thread. It really does not matter. I enjoy working with my dogs and I love talking about the subject too, regardless of which thread.
I put up a detailed write up of Juno's CAT. What I forgot to include was that the fun run was a MUCH shorter course than the 600 yard CAT course. It was probably 350-400 yards. I think if I had a mentor, someone who had done this before to be there with me and show me how its supposed to go and what to do/not to do and what not to worry about I might have done better for her. It wasnt her fault she didnt Q. As you'll see in my thread I was thikning abotu a lot of things for the first time and was a bit out of my element.
I love my instructor. Her calm nature and patience really help us a lot. She is really patient and cares enough to give us constructive feedback, so we can improve our performance for the long term.
The clip was taken from a group session, but each time, only 1 dog is out working and the instructor really pays her 100% attention on the team she is working with (I had been to classes where instructor started chit-chatting with other students while watching the team she was working with running), so it feels like a private session.
That's really cool to watch, I love seeing Shibas in action! It was always a pleasure watching Tsune run around having fun. Once I get a bit more pocket change Ren is going to start her basic obedience training (guesstimating 3-4 weeks from now), once she's finished with that I plan on getting her into some agility training. Hopefully we can find a good instructor like you guys have
Both Shibas did really well at the Agility trial last weekend.
Maluko did wonderfully in her debut, qualifying 3 out of 4 runs, which is really amazing. Our runs were a bit choppy than my runs with Koji when he was in Novice, but Maluko was doing well. Again, both dogs ran very well and happily both at the trial and in class. They were both pulling to go into the arena in class this week.
Here are some pictures taken by a professional photographer from last weekend's trial.
I love how his tail curled or straightened when he took different obstacles.
Koji is really gaining up on speed now and runs happily and confidently. Saturday's trial, he did not Q and went off-course and when I text'd my instructor on our results, all she asked was "did he run happily?". He did and that's what matters the most.
With a good attitude and the dog being happy, it is much easier to train the other mechanical skills than the other way around.
We are very lucky to have a great instructor, who is not only supportive, but very knowledgeable in helping us reaching our goal, even though I have a non-traditional agility breed.
Koji had fun at our most recent Evergreen Afghan Hound Club trial last weekend. Got his 2nd double Q and some MACH points (you need 20 double Qs in Excellent B class and 750 MACH speed points to get the Master Agility Champion title).
Koji is learning to like the sports more and more and increasing speed, which sometimes costing us off-course as he runs faster and with more confidence. Kado, a Black and Tan Shiba, owned by Julie J from OR, was also at the same trial, competing. Kado just earned his Master Agility Champion (MACH) title in the summer and is the #1 ranked Agility Shiba in the country.
It is really inspiring to see Kado and Julie running and I hope we can do well just like them. I am hopeful we will as Koji and I are both learning. With a Shiba, it is really a lot of work to keep them motivated and wanting to do the game - I am the cheerleaders while many of the more traditional agility breed, the problem is reverse - they are so motivated and you have to put it under control, channel their motivation and drive to things you want.
By the way, Koji got his 12nd and 13th pass of Coursing Ability Test Saturday. I only signed him up for 1 Agility run (coursing and agility trials were held at the same location) that day, so he could have energy to run 600*2=1200 yards of coursing.
Koji and Maluko were both accepted as part of the Visiting Pet Friend program with the local humane society for quite sometime, but we have never gone on a visit until today due to schedule conflicts and other activities.
It was at an elementary school with 24 first-graders (between the age of 6-7). I chose to take Koji in as I know he is very tolerant of human interaction - adults or kids whereas Maluko prefers a gentle hand and little kids sometimes can move unpredictably and they don't always follow instructions, so I chose to leave her in the car and only took Koji in to our first therapy dog/visiting pet friend experience.
Koji was a total trooper. He was polite and very well-mannered throughout the visit. He held his down stay while I introduced him to the class and answer a bunch of questions from the kids - they sure have some out of the left field type of questions, but I think I handled them well. They were intrigued by our story and the pictures I brought with me of Koji doing various activities - Rally Obedience, Lure Coursing and Agility. After Q&A session, the kids got to line up and give Koji treats and pet him. They mostly follow their teacher's instructions to take turns and be gentle with him, but there were times when 4-5 kids surrounded Koji and each had their little hands on some part of his body. He was fine with it and seemed pretty at ease.
The kids had a good laugh when he rolled on his back being goofy while I was answering questions. I guess he was just impatient doing in down/stay. They also saw some tricks and some kids gave him some commands and he followed their requests like a trooper - sit, down, stand, shake hands and rollover.
It was a fun and positive experience for everyone involved and I look forward to future visiting opportunities if schedule permits.
Today is Koji's 2 year anniversary with me. He was 9 month old when I got him because his previous canine housemate (a 10-year-old black and tan Shiba girl) did not like him and he was returned to the breeder for rehoming.
He is my 2nd dog (which I naively got 4 months after getting my first dog, thinking it was only adding another mouth to feed). He has turned out to be a great pet and a fun partner to do all kinds of activities together. Our most recent addiction is Agility.
He had a lot of fun at the Portuguese Water Dog trial this weekend, earning his Open FAST (OF) title, getting his first Excellent A Fast qualifying leg and picking up a couple Qs in Time 2 Beat, Master Standard and JWW. He also for the first time, ran for someone else other than myself at this trial. He did really well for our instructor - got 2 Qs out of their 3 runs together. This gave me some breathing room to devote my attention to run Maluko in the other ring.
Here is a video of his Master Jumper with Weaves run with our instructor on Saturday. He moved really nicely and responded well for her motion cues.
Koji got 2 Double Qs and some MACH points this past weekend, counting toward his Master Agility Champion (MACH) title, along with 2 Time 2 Beat Qs.
I also ran the 2013 AKC Agility Invitational report to see where he stands among all Agility Shibas (the qualification period is from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013) and to my surprise, Koji is ranked #3 Shiba in the country for the period. Koji only started competing in AKC Agility since this summer and I am very proud of what we have accomplished in this short amount of time.
The 2012 AKC Agility Invitation is taking place this weekend in Orlando, FL and I know the 2012 #1 ranked Agility Shiba Kado and his handler Julie J will be there, so if you are close by, I would strongly encourage you to check out the event.
Koji has been progressing really nicely in Agility over the past few months. He has gained more skills, confidence and speed when he runs and it shows.
I am very proud of his Excellent FAST run on Sunday. FAST is a game where there is a distance send involved. There will be a line on the ground and the handler can not go pass that line while the dog has to go behind the line and complete the obstacle sequence in order (usually 3 obstacles). The Bonus Send of the FAST run in this video is 2 jumps and then the left side of the tunnel and the distance is about 15 feet.
This is Koji in Master Jumper with Weave (JWW) on Saturday. He gave me his fastest YPS (Yards Per Second) so far in this run. He responded very well to all the body/motion cues and I hardly utter a word during the whole run.
Comments
There were not many dachshunds running at this trial. I think I saw maybe 3-4 and 1 of them is a dachshunds mix. I remembered seeing one long-hair dachshunds actually running pretty fast in the Excellent class. The dog was jumping at 4 inch, I believe. It did not qualify, but everyone was impressed with how fast the dog ran with its short little legs. It ran happily and decided to do the zoomies mid-course. Very entertaining. It was also very amusing to see the little dachshunds weaving!
Koji is not the fastest dog running in his jump height. At least, NOT YET. We are working on that. However, he is a very consistent dog and pays very good attention. I hope with time/experiences/training, we will be able to increase speed and improve/learn new skills to maneuver different courses.
He is young, at 2.5 years old, so there is a long window of time for us to keep playing. Down the road, I hope I can get a Master Agility Champion (MACH) title . It would also be pretty cool to participate in the AKC Agility Invitational at some point, where the top 5 Agility dogs of each breed with the most MACH points will be invited.
Even my older girl Maluko (she will be 7 in November) has shown a lot of potentials and interests in running Agility, so I look forward to the day when I run both dogs at an Agility trial.
You and Koji have a nice long road ahead together- enjoy!
I had the exact question about why a breed club would be interested in hosting an Agility trial if their breed is not the traditional Agility breed.
I was told that hosting Agility trials can be a money-making opportunity for the club. The club will hire a trial secretary's service to take care of hosting the actual event (publishing premiums, taking entries, finding judges, building courses, figuring out running orders, reporting results etc) and have a few club members there to help with hospitality and other stuff. Great source of income for the club.
There are a lot of the traditional Agility breeds (such as Border Collie, Aussies or Shelties) at every trials, but not every teams are successful (not just getting a qualification score, but how smooth the team run together). I don't think the traditional Agility breeds are that easier to train and they may pose even greater training challenges than the non-traditional breed would because of their speed and intensity.
I had the opportunity to run my instructor's Border Collie girl a few times in class and it was a totally different experience. She is so intense and fast, so if my cue is not on time and clear, she would have gone miles ahead. Her speed also makes getting in position and cuing her in time more challenging because she sometimes just takes one small stride or no stride between obstacles.
I know you took Juno to do coursing. Would you be interested in doing Agility with her at some point?
You took Juno to a lure coursing fun run and she enjoyed it, right?
Why would you say her operating distance from you is pretty close. I read your thread and Juno seemed to be really intense on chasing and killing the "lure" at the end. Did she drop the lure and came back to you if she was too far away from you?
We can keep the discussion either here or back to Juno's thread. It really does not matter. I enjoy working with my dogs and I love talking about the subject too, regardless of which thread.
He ran happily, responded well to body/motion cues, and took obstacles presented to him in the path with very little hand-holding.
Looking back (we started foundation training a little over a year ago), I am really grateful to have a great instructor right from the very start.
Snf
I love my instructor. Her calm nature and patience really help us a lot. She is really patient and cares enough to give us constructive feedback, so we can improve our performance for the long term.
The clip was taken from a group session, but each time, only 1 dog is out working and the instructor really pays her 100% attention on the team she is working with (I had been to classes where instructor started chit-chatting with other students while watching the team she was working with running), so it feels like a private session.
You guys are doing super!
Snf
Maluko did wonderfully in her debut, qualifying 3 out of 4 runs, which is really amazing. Our runs were a bit choppy than my runs with Koji when he was in Novice, but Maluko was doing well. Again, both dogs ran very well and happily both at the trial and in class. They were both pulling to go into the arena in class this week.
Here are some pictures taken by a professional photographer from last weekend's trial.
Koji jumping though the tire
Koji over the triple
Koji is really gaining up on speed now and runs happily and confidently. Saturday's trial, he did not Q and went off-course and when I text'd my instructor on our results, all she asked was "did he run happily?". He did and that's what matters the most.
With a good attitude and the dog being happy, it is much easier to train the other mechanical skills than the other way around.
that made me smile!
We are very lucky to have a great instructor, who is not only supportive, but very knowledgeable in helping us reaching our goal, even though I have a non-traditional agility breed.
Koji had fun at our most recent Evergreen Afghan Hound Club trial last weekend. Got his 2nd double Q and some MACH points (you need 20 double Qs in Excellent B class and 750 MACH speed points to get the Master Agility Champion title).
Koji is learning to like the sports more and more and increasing speed, which sometimes costing us off-course as he runs faster and with more confidence. Kado, a Black and Tan Shiba, owned by Julie J from OR, was also at the same trial, competing. Kado just earned his Master Agility Champion (MACH) title in the summer and is the #1 ranked Agility Shiba in the country.
It is really inspiring to see Kado and Julie running and I hope we can do well just like them. I am hopeful we will as Koji and I are both learning. With a Shiba, it is really a lot of work to keep them motivated and wanting to do the game - I am the cheerleaders while many of the more traditional agility breed, the problem is reverse - they are so motivated and you have to put it under control, channel their motivation and drive to things you want.
By the way, Koji got his 12nd and 13th pass of Coursing Ability Test Saturday. I only signed him up for 1 Agility run (coursing and agility trials were held at the same location) that day, so he could have energy to run 600*2=1200 yards of coursing.
It was at an elementary school with 24 first-graders (between the age of 6-7). I chose to take Koji in as I know he is very tolerant of human interaction - adults or kids whereas Maluko prefers a gentle hand and little kids sometimes can move unpredictably and they don't always follow instructions, so I chose to leave her in the car and only took Koji in to our first therapy dog/visiting pet friend experience.
Koji was a total trooper. He was polite and very well-mannered throughout the visit. He held his down stay while I introduced him to the class and answer a bunch of questions from the kids - they sure have some out of the left field type of questions, but I think I handled them well. They were intrigued by our story and the pictures I brought with me of Koji doing various activities - Rally Obedience, Lure Coursing and Agility. After Q&A session, the kids got to line up and give Koji treats and pet him. They mostly follow their teacher's instructions to take turns and be gentle with him, but there were times when 4-5 kids surrounded Koji and each had their little hands on some part of his body. He was fine with it and seemed pretty at ease.
The kids had a good laugh when he rolled on his back being goofy while I was answering questions. I guess he was just impatient doing in down/stay. They also saw some tricks and some kids gave him some commands and he followed their requests like a trooper - sit, down, stand, shake hands and rollover.
It was a fun and positive experience for everyone involved and I look forward to future visiting opportunities if schedule permits.
On a totally different note, made this silly clip of Koji being a star- Gangman Style.
http://www.jibjab.com/view/4jWAEqNuR3uTyIYEYWuo9A?utm_campaign=URL+Copy&utm_medium=Share&utm_source=JibJab
And that clip cracked me up!
He is my 2nd dog (which I naively got 4 months after getting my first dog, thinking it was only adding another mouth to feed). He has turned out to be a great pet and a fun partner to do all kinds of activities together. Our most recent addiction is Agility.
He had a lot of fun at the Portuguese Water Dog trial this weekend, earning his Open FAST (OF) title, getting his first Excellent A Fast qualifying leg and picking up a couple Qs in Time 2 Beat, Master Standard and JWW. He also for the first time, ran for someone else other than myself at this trial. He did really well for our instructor - got 2 Qs out of their 3 runs together. This gave me some breathing room to devote my attention to run Maluko in the other ring.
Here is a video of his Master Jumper with Weaves run with our instructor on Saturday. He moved really nicely and responded well for her motion cues.
Must be because you are having so much fun! Congratulations!
Baby Koji with mom
Puppy Koji about 8 weeks old at the breeder's
Teenager Koji (about 6 months old) with his previous family
Koji with his previous family
Koji's half brother that we met at the Shiba Meetup.
Koji enjoying the snow a few winters ago
I also ran the 2013 AKC Agility Invitational report to see where he stands among all Agility Shibas (the qualification period is from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013) and to my surprise, Koji is ranked #3 Shiba in the country for the period. Koji only started competing in AKC Agility since this summer and I am very proud of what we have accomplished in this short amount of time.
The 2012 AKC Agility Invitation is taking place this weekend in Orlando, FL and I know the 2012 #1 ranked Agility Shiba Kado and his handler Julie J will be there, so if you are close by, I would strongly encourage you to check out the event.
I am very proud of his Excellent FAST run on Sunday. FAST is a game where there is a distance send involved. There will be a line on the ground and the handler can not go pass that line while the dog has to go behind the line and complete the obstacle sequence in order (usually 3 obstacles). The Bonus Send of the FAST run in this video is 2 jumps and then the left side of the tunnel and the distance is about 15 feet.
This is Koji in Master Jumper with Weave (JWW) on Saturday. He gave me his fastest YPS (Yards Per Second) so far in this run. He responded very well to all the body/motion cues and I hardly utter a word during the whole run.