So I've got a new dog...

[Captain Howdy]

I just want to say that dogs are very very good, and people who are good with dogs are pretty good, too.

More true words were never spoken.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I know what you mean with not morning dogs. My boy wants his food in the morning and then he goes back to sleep. When I get him up at the crack of dawn for agility trials, he sleeps all the way there, and barely wakes up for his first run of the day. His sister is revved and ready at 6 am. I can't win.

Wow, KC -- ya'll do agility too? Our three shelties are big agility hounds (though my wife is the primary trainer -- I'm mostly leash runner & dog walker).

Ours are a bit too smart for their own good -- they train themselves. They've conditioned themselves to my alarm in the morning. Alarm = breakfast, so they're usually trying to wake me up about 15 minutes early (which is no fun given my usual wakeup time is about 0530).

 

[KidCthulhu]

Yep, we're agility folks. See here for a picture of my older girl Argo getting a novice Q and her NAC title (at 7!). My younger boy Finney runs in Open (NADAC) and Advanced (USDAA) and needs one more leg to move to Masters Standard. I love it! And you'll definitely be the only person to get the joke of Finney's name. He is Westerlea's Call Lighning, and he really wasn't focused or mature enough to really compete until this summer at 3. It took forever to cast him, but now that he's here, look out!

 

[nakia]

So, I have another little story to tell regarding Logan. I just got an email from the DM of our current campaign (Emergent here on the boards, he's mostly a lurker), who wants me to tell what else happened on Monday night. Due to Logan's high ranks in escape artist, we had to cancel our Monday night game session this week so I could deal with getting him a new kennel. And not only is this our weekly game session, but this was to be the wrap up session for the game for a few weeks. So my new dog, on day 3 of living with us, managed to not only disrupt my life for a little while, but my gaming group as well. :\

Yep. Big confrontation with evil thwarted by escaping dog. Final battle postponed. Film at 11.

And I have never seen Rich more stressed about anything, ever. And I was even at his wedding.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yep, we're agility folks. See here for a picture of my older girl Argo getting a novice Q and her NAC title (at 7!). My younger boy Finney runs in Open (NADAC) and Advanced (USDAA) and needs one more leg to move to Masters Standard. I love it! And you'll definitely be the only person to get the joke of Finney's name. He is Westerlea's Call Lighning, and he really wasn't focused or mature enough to really compete until this summer at 3. It took forever to cast him, but now that he's here, look out!

Cool! And a great name, too!

Our Gizmo (age 10) ran Excellent/Masters, but had to retire for bad joints before getting a MACH or other high title. Riley (Roak Knoll's Believe in Magic -- a bit of fantasy flair -- age 8) has her Excellent and Masters titles, and is a great Snooker dog, but is still way too many double-Q's from her MACH -- she's about to go down to Preferred to go easier on the joints. Scout (My-T-Hi's Pathfinder, age 3) is the youngster, still on his way up running Open level. He's started conformation at the urging of his breeder, but I can't say I'm thrilled about the prospect of him becoming a froo-froo dog. Agility brainy athletes is where it's at!

We like NADAC best, but there isn't much of it in Georgia, so they've been running mostly AKC and USDAA for the last couple of years.

And I thought RPGer's talked in a foreign language -- I bet the above is greek to most of the EN Worlders here!

 

[KidCthulhu]

Greek indeed. But I understand you. I started agility 5 years ago with Argo, my older Toller. And although I've gone on to teach it, Argo she spent 4 of those 5 years with serious fear issues and couldn't compete. We've worked her through her issues, and she's competing again at the age of 7 and runs NADAC vetrans and USDAA performance. She's got a 100% Q rate in the Regular/Standard ring, which is pretty damn inpressive.

My boy, who's three has finally had a delivery from the brain fairy. He's only really been seriously competing this year. So 3 NADAC titles and a USDAA title in a summer is pretty good. He's no border collie (or sheltie) for speed, but he's fast enough, and he's consistent and reliable, which makes a big difference. The tighter and more complicated the course, the better he runs.

Too bad you're in Georgia. We could game while waiting between runs!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

She's got a 100% Q rate in the Regular/Standard ring, which is pretty damn inpressive.

Wow, that is impressive. Hope she keeps it up!

My boy, who's three has finally had a delivery from the brain fairy. He's only really been seriously competing this year. So 3 NADAC titles and a USDAA title in a summer is pretty good. He's no border collie (or sheltie) for speed, but he's fast enough, and he's consistent and reliable, which makes a big difference. The tighter and more complicated the course, the better he runs.

Too bad you're in Georgia. We could game while waiting between runs!

Consistent will beat speed at all levels except the top, so that's pretty good.

A bit of gaming between runs would be fun. I'm usually filming runs while my wife is running, so it's a pretty slow day in between. Agility is an amazing amount of work for 45 seconds of performance. Fun, though, and that's what counts -- the dogs love the agility field (which is where they are right now, with my wife teaching her weekly agility class).