Camp Photos

SUMMARY: Tons of photos, mine and pro's.

OK, all of the photos that I took at camp are now up on my smugmug site. I did no picking through them for the highlights (except that you saw them here in my camp blog entries). If for some obscure reason you want to,
you can order prints or download electronic versions from my site (I don't get money for them; it's just your cost).

And the semiprofessional (meaning she doesn't do this full time, I don't believe) photographer who was there all 4 days has posted photos, too; her $5 professional price for prints or digitals is quite reasonable. I mention Marcy because she's in class right before Boost's class so we see each other in passing every week. That makes us nearly sisters.

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Rear Crosses A-B-C

SUMMARY: Wendy Pape's ABC method of rear crosses

Both Wendy Pape and Mary Ellen Barry got a a chance to teach us more about how to handle rear crosses, and it's all about the direction of your hips. (In fact, LOTS of stuff this weekend was about the direction of your hips, and I'm sure there are plenty of punchlines for that if one cared to use them.)

I've known for a long time that your goal as a handler is to try to make your own most efficient path through a course. So, for example, in the following diagram, your line should be essentially a straight line down the center of the jumps, not veering left or right to push or pull the dog. But how best to indicate the dog's direction?

The basic steps are these:

1. Face your hips towards the far side of the desired obstacle (point "A") until the dog decides to take the obstacle. ("Deciding" being that the dog is looking at it and starting to head that way.)
2. Then direct your hips to the side of the obstacle closest to you (point "B")--on jumps, that would be the upright that the dog would wrap around--until the dog commits to the obstacle. ("Commit" being the point at which there is nothing you can do to prevent the dog from taking the obstacle--varies by dog and by obstacle type.)
3. Then direct your hips at the far side of the next obstacle (point "C"). If you're doing a double rear cross as in this example, the "C" of the first cross becomes the "A" of the next cross.

During this time, you never stop moving forward, AND you probably don't use your arms; the signal for a rear cross should be that you are crossing behind the dog (and the direction of your hips.)

The other thing to note is that you should never turn your hips beyond A, because that starts to get into the range of the dog following you past the jump, not taking the jump.

This made a lot of sense and seemed to work very well, but needs some practice to keep it smooth. I apparently tend to jerk myself from one direction to the next, and although it needs to be quick, it also needs to be a smooth transition as you keep running forward. Something for *me* to practice.

Added info (April 26, 3:30 p.m. PDT): I remembered the discussion as being about pointing your hips. Now, having discussed it with a couple of other camp attendees, they have it variously as "point your shoulders" and "imagine a laser beam coming straight out of your navel--point that." So now you know.

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Power Paws Camp Day 4 and Event Summary

SUMMARY: Day 4 photos and a comparison of prior (big) camps to this year's camp.

Sunday morning started with spatters on the windshield and wet roadways, but the sun working on breaking past a looming cloudbank.

Karen Holik discussing training your weave entries, showing how to place a jump as your training progresses. She recommended Rachel Sanders' article for Clean Run for specific advice.

Kathy Leggett's session was on walking courses, discussing options, and trying out handling skills.

Me and Boost.

Wendy (also from Boost's Thursday morning class) checking her voicemail and Renegade suggesting that it would be more fun to pay attention to him.

Another take at how stunningly yellow that field is on the way home on a sunny afternoon.

Camp this year is very different from past camps (in the Placerville and Turlock days) in many ways. Some of that is good, some bad, and some just--different. At the big camps, over 200 participants came and at least 30 volunteer workers who got to audit but who also "paid" for their attendance by being available to work before, during, and after each day. This time, there were 72 participants and maybe a dozen workers, if that many. Then, there were 18 instructors from around the country and the world; this time, there were 8, five of whom are local.

Then, there was so much to choose from. If you or your dog were tired, you could go to a lecture or audit a session that you might be more interested in than one of the ones you were assigned to. And instructors might each teach the same topic only 2 or 3 times in the weekend, so over the course of 4 days there were dozens and dozens of topic choices. The up sides to that were that it was kind of exciting to read through the course book and realize how much knowledge was out there and get to choose topics that might be more intellectual or conceptual than simply working your dog--for example, Kathy Keats' lectures on the developing science of timing obstacle and course-sequence performance, or John Rogerson's lectures on dog communication, behavior, and learning modes. The down side was that you couldn't possibly see everything that you wanted to see (well--maybe that was a motivator to keep coming to camp) and you couldn't really pick which working sessions you got to participate in, plus you had to read through the whole lise of sessions and lectures and plan your schedule for the weekend.

This time, there were only 8 rings, and the same instructor taught the same material 8 times, and there were 8 groups. So we all got to rotate through all 8 rings over the course of friday/saturday/sunday (the workshops Thursday were separate). For students, this was good because we got to see everything that camp had to offer. But bad for there being no choices or just sit-down lectures where you could relax and rest a bit. And bad for the instructors because it's got to be tedious, teaching the same 2.5-hour material 8 times in 3 days. (But maybe good because they didn't have to prepare for multiple topics.)

In previous camps, breakfast and lunch were in a communal hall and there was a camp-sponsored barbeque saturday night, so there was a lot of socializing and networking and meeting new people who were friends of friends and touching base with friends on what they'd been up to, what to look for, and what might be worth seeking out. In addition, there was a tricks competition, there was the famed 60-weave-pole timing event, and other activities. This time, no breakfast, no dinners, no communal dining place, no extra activities. You pretty much picked up your box lunch and sat with your session group, or maybe with friends and their session group. The down side was the lack of all the community building and info sharing. The up side for camp is clearly that it didn't take months of planning and tremendous amounts of energy at camp to keep things moving along. And less expensive in terms of facilities, I'm sure.

Then, you might get conflicting information among different instructors in what to do in specific situations. This time, the information was much more consistent. In some ways, this is good, especially for less experienced handlers and dogs. But I kind of liked seeing a variety of strategies and learning that one size doesn't always fit all. I mentioned that to Nancy, and she said firmly that that was a bad thing because what would happen is that everyone would start experimenting with all these different techniques and confused their dogs and it would take months (or longer) to fix everything that then got broken.

There's a lot that seems to have contributed to the declining attendance at camp. First, there used to be only one west coast camp. Then Power Paws started Winter Camp. Now someone else now puts on a camp in Washington. And three years ago Haute Dawgs and TRACS started their combined 4-day trial the weekend before camp, and not that many people can afford to take all that time off in a 2-week period (or at all).

I hope that camp continues to happen, although I just can't afford it every year. There is no doubt that I got a lot of valuable information and practice in my four days and that it will do me good not only with Boost but also (I hope) with Tika in competition. But there's also no doubt that it wasn't as exciting to be there; I didn't feel like everyone who is anyone was there. It was more like a convenient, extended 4-day seminar than like An Event. So it's sad to lose the atmosphere, but--having been somewhat involved in some of the previous camps by putting together their info-packed camp workbook--I can see that it's much easier to host something like this. And it still provides tremendous value.

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Power Paws Camp Day 4, Part 1

SUMMARY: Tired.

I'm just tired. Came home, fed the dogs, soaked in the hot tub, iced my knee, had dinner, read a little bit of the newspaper, tried to help a friend a little bit over the phone with a computer problem, and here I am. Really just want to go to bed, not upload photos or type notes.

So I'll have to do Part 2 tomorrow. Just some quick notes.

It did rain overnight and left some small ponds in parts of the field, but mostly didn't affect things. No rain during the day, but it kept skipping from warm enough to peel off layers to cold enough to put them all back on again and huddle for warmth. Odd stuff.

Today we had Karen Holik in the morning for weaves. Very helpful in identifying that Boost needs work at right-angle entrances (tried Tika on the same course during a break and as I expected she was perfect) and at full speed at anything more than basic angles she starts skipping.

In the afternoon it was Kathie Leggett for coursework--anaylzing a course and figuring out alternatives. Helpful in that she reinforced what a couple of other instructors had said about my handling style and Boot's going-on-over-a-jump challenges.

Knee was bothering me enough by about an hour before the end that I stopped running courses, although The Booster was eager and ready to go.

That's it for tonight.

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Power Paws Camp Day 3

SUMMARY: Mostly crosses of various types.

My cartload of gear stands ready next to my faithful dog-hauling vehicular unit.

Sharon Freilich providing feedback on one of our session-mate's runs.

Our group huddled under a canopy ringside.

Jim Basic doing his workerly work.

Nancy Gyes instructor one of her more hirsute students in International Handling Patterns.

One of our session-mates taking notes.

Another of our session-mates taking notes. Note the artist way I photographed over their shoulders to show both them and their notes. Don't we all look studious?

One of our session-mates (and Thursday morning classmates), Tracy and her Golden, Cal.

During Nancy's session, she had everyone simultaneously go stand in their chosen lead-out positions before discussing the run. There was much jostling for position, but it was also interesting to see how spread out some of the choices were.

If I were to buy another t-shirt, it would probably be this one. Front says Run Fast, Run Clean, Run Groovy. How cool is that? (Available from CleanRun.com.)

Again, a look across the field with rows of trees converging to the horizon.

A typical page of my course handout booklet after a session. Perhaps I'll be able to decipher it later when I look at it again, or perhaps not. But it helps cement the ideas into my tired brain.

Thai Chicken wrap lunch. Mmm. But enough for dinner, too.

Friends at lunchtime--Bobbie, Ken, Lisa, and (finally a picture of) me. Sorry it's not that great a photo of Bobbie.

Sandy Rogers discusses the graceful aspects of front crosses.

The peanut gallery for Sandy's ring.

Most of my drive home looks something like this. Plenty of buildings, but also lots of landscaping, mostly green from the winter but not everything. Nothing really noteworthy, especially in the rain. Sort of monocromatic.

Then, all of a sudden, surrounded by Fremont industrial parks, a brilliant swath of glowing yellow alongside the freeway. Wild mustard, I believe.

Don't have time to type much this evening, but will upload a ton of photos. I don't know why most of my interesting photos of instructors don't show their faces, but what can ya do?

This morning looked like it would be mostly sunny but on the colder side again. The fair weather held out until lunch break at around 1:30, when a blast of cold air arrived and with it the threat of rain. Fortunately that held off, just spitting occasionally, until we were done for the day. They're predicting a ton of rain for tonight and tomorrow morning, though, so I'm hoping that the field won't be underwater or a giant mud pit on the morrow. I've already done my soaking-wet agility weekend for this spring, thank you very much.

This morning we started with Nancy Gyes, whose topic was supposed to be International Handling Issues, but we ended up doing mostly basic types of crosses and weaves--our group is mostly babydogs, around 2 years of age, although I think that Boost and I are in many ways the least advanced of the crowd. Boost did weaves fine early on, but when we got to some harder entrances, she couldn't get in correctly or stay in correctly. Nancy did a brief correcting exercise with just us right after the end of the session, and then we had no more weaves for the day, so that was that.

Second session was with Sharon Freilich, again talking about crosses. (We're getting a lot of crosses this camp.) She had lots of individual advice for people as well.

Somewhere in there a couple of us were talking to Nancy about the down-sized, more relaxed Camp and how useful it was, and it's not clear how often they're going to be doing Camp again. WIth the proliferation of seminars and other camps, and now the 4-day Haute TRACS the weekend before, a lot of their participants have been drained off or sated or just can't afford the 2 weeks off, and while they barely broke even last year, this year is way down. I hope they can find a less expensive site (hard in the bay area) and can still manage to do it. It really provides a great service to the agility community.

Instead of having a catering company come in as they did for the giant camps of the past, they're just bringing in box lunches, but very nice ones. First day I had roast beef on some fancy roll with salad, fruit, big cookie; yesterday was hummus salad and pita bread with fruit and a brownie, and today was Thai Wrap with lemon bar and fruit and salad. Anyway, tasty, and a nice chance to sit down, even if only briefly.

Jim Basic taught a workshop on Thursday but otherwise isn't teaching; instead, is being the camp Main Facilities Guy, which means that he's getting speakers working and hauling fencing and equipment around and dropping in and schmoozing at any session he feels like, which I think he's enjoying immensely.

Our last session of the day--each ran 2 and a half hours yesterday and today--was with Sandy Rogers. Lots of very helpful info on front crosses, double front crosses, converting those into serpentines, and clarifying the whys of Greg Derrett's system. Really, it's becoming clearer that Serpentines are the handling phenomena of the latter half of the decade. Everyone who's anyone seems to be doing them and mastering them in the most interesting and unusual situations. It does seem to me that we've been doing more and more edge cases of serpentines in class the last year or so. And they can really make a course run fast--IF you and your dog have the skills for some of those interesting maneuvers. Yeah, I'll try to put up a couple of examples later next week along with everything else. :-)

I got a couple of nice compliments on Boost yesterday and today, in slightly indirect manners. Yesterday, one of the other people in our group said that she'll be wanting a new border collie in a year or two and is starting to look for a possible breeder, and she really likes the looks of Boost and wanted to know more about the breeder and how to contact them. Today, Sandy said that Boost looks a lot like Tala (Boost's mom) when she runs, which I've noticed more and more (although because I'm more familiar with my baby, my version is "I've noticed more and more how Tala runs like Boost" :-) ). And running like Tala is no backhanded compliment. I'm pleased.

Boost did not get nearly as tired today, so Tika didn't get much of a chance to be out of her crate, so she was pretty much bouncing off the walls at the end of the day. Will have to do *something* more with her tomorrow.

My knee is not at its happiest. Not helped yesterday by being launched into while I was holding a 60-pound Golden's toy. My dogs do that too often, and it hurts when they do it, but this was a good one. Plus it's not been at its best anyway. It's been anti-inflammatoried and iced and shortly I'll be taking it to bed, which is where the rest of me wants to be ASAP. Soon as the photos are done uploading.

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Power Paws Camp Day 2

SUMMARY: In which Boost gets tired (!), neither of my dogs "go on" very well, and I learn more about rear crosses and other random training tidbits.

Power Paws Camp site: There are trees all over this field about every 50 feet in all directions. Apparently they run trials here; don't know how they manage to work around the trees.

Wendy Pape helps classmate Wendy do hip rotations A-B-C for crosses.

Sue's Chase decides that the numbered cones make lovely retrieval toys.

Mary Ellen Barry tells us to keep moving when working a course or we're all going to get parking tickets.

Moe Strenfel demonstrates how a dog can learn to do the step-hesitate-step-hesitate style of contacts.

Tracey and Lisa look like they feel about the same way Boost does after a long day of training and messing up and rewards and learning and experiencing and trying again.

Today dawned 10 degrees warmer but with a light rain. (Amazing how important the weather becomes when you'll be spending the entire day outside with no hope for reprieve.) I was concerned, but by the time the sessions started at 8:00, the rain had stopped for the day and it was altogether warmer than Thursday. The sun even made a gallant effort at coming out late in the afternoon and I finally unzipped my fleece sweater (briefly), but the long underwear again stayed on all day.

In the morning, Wendy Pape's session was about Which Cross When, but we spent most of our time on rear crosses, which I found quite useful as she explained her "A-B-C" method of aiming your hips to guide the dog through rear crosses. I'm too tired tonight to make notes about that, and a diagram is called for, so that also will have to wait until next week probably. She also had a lot of helpful general handling suggestions and explanations. Among those, that I don't turn and run soon enough and spend too much time loitering, waiting for my dog to complete obstacles.

Well--yes--I've been working on that for years and having instructors yell "move! now!" and such at me all along. I've even gone for a couple of private lessons on exactly that issue. I just can't seem to break myself loose. But Wendy's session gave me some good ideas on what I'm doing and what I should be doing.

Next up was Mary Ellen Barry's session on Rear Crosses--which went over some of the same territory as Wendy's, but she branched out from there and had some excellent exercises. I was thrilled when Boost and I aced the first one, in part because I felt as if I was finally breaking myself away from waiting for my dog. After that, we never did completely successfully complete a sequence, although we did some bits nicely and I learned quite a bit again. In part, that I don't turn and run soon enough and spend too much time waiting for my dog.

Also a known issue that I can't push Boost in front of me; she wants to keep checking in. Did some practice things that I need to work on that in fact aren't much different from what Nancy had us doing (and reminds us periodically about), but I guess I didn't do them often enough or didn't follow through enough. (I'd be more specific about some of these things but just too tired to be truly coherent.)

At lunch, I got Tika out for a bit and tried a couple of Wendy's sequences and discovered that Tika *also* doesn't push out ahead of me very well and I got some spins from her in the same places I got undesired behaviors from Boost.

I've also been told over and over through the years to be quieter on the course--as in, say less, not say it more softly. And got called on it yesterday and today, too. So I was trying to be very quiet and discovered that both dogs are less likely to make mistakes when I'm using a lot of verbals--Tika in particular--but I know that then they're relying on my voice when they should be relying more on me running full-force through the course with good handling techniques so that they can concentrate more on running and less on whether I'm encouraging them or giving 2 or 3 commands at once.

So it was hard for me to start putting verbals *back in* today in key locations after I've been trying to take them out. I'm still not good at balancing that. So much that I've learned and relearned (or maybe never solidly learned) after 12 years of training! I'm feeling good about what I've experienced and clarified in my own mind after 2 days of camp so far, but I don't know that I know how to keep translating it into reality.

In the afternoon, Moe Strenfel gave us a session on contacts from the perspective of how to approach them and how to move away from them afterwards. More handling stuff that fit well into my goal this year of trying to be a more aggressive handler (as did everything in the morning, too). And, as with all the instructors so far, the basic training and basic groundwork and basic behavior suggestions are among the most valuable things to come out of these sessions, not just the assigned session topics.

Partway through our contact session, I noticed that Boost's contacts were a little slow, but attributed it to unfamiliarity with yet another set of equipment. Moe actually asked me whether she was getting tired, and I said, no, of course not, this is the endlessly energetic Boost! But then, when I put her back into her crate, she immediately curled up in the back, put her head down, and closed her eyes. Every time I leaned over to see what she was doing, her eyes popped open, but she didn't lift her head, and then her eyes closed again.

So, yes indeed, between the mental stretches she was going through today as well as the physical, she was wiped out. I put her back in her crate in the car and got Tika out for the rest of the session, and she was quite happy and eager to run. In fact, that's the whole reason I've been hauling Tika with me, so I'd have a backup dog for sessions. (In every camp I've been to, I've always ended up trading out my main working dog at least a couple of times.)

Meant to get someone to take a couple of photos of me at camp today, but didn't, or of our group of four from Boost's thursday morning class who are now traveling through sessions together for three days, but no. Maybe tomorrow.

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Power Paws Camp Day 1

SUMMARY: A cold day but useful workshops in weaves and serpentines ("Serp City").

This year's T-shirt (just what I need--more t-shirts--): A nice cocoa-brown, with attractive but nonspecific artwork (no mention of Power Paws Camp specifically or of the year).

Boost in her pop-up crate, my purple chair, my black bag for carrying miscellaneous stuff (You never know what you'll need ringside). This is what we'll be transporting from ring to ring every couple of hours.

At noon, it was frigid and windy and threatening rain; three friends from Tika's Wednesday night class (Bobbie, Cathy, Ken) huddle out of the way of Mr. Weather. With my purple chair.

Kathie Leggett, our first workshop instructor, explaining the finer points of weave entries and exits.

Mary Ellen Barry walking along the first serpentine set-up which completely stymied me (as usual).

Mary Ellen demonstrates how the angle of your shoulders (and back) demarks the no-go zone for the dog.

Boost's alternate (and preferred) crate: My chair.

Our first day dawned chilly and windy and threatening rain; 40 degrees F in my back yard before we left home at 7. Fortunately I'm going against traffic for most of my trip, so the drive took less than 40 minutes and I just crated out of my car alongside the ring set-up.

It's very different from camp of previous years, which was a major production with 16 working rings plus several lecture venues and 200 or more campers and all sorts of events going on all the time. This was quite subdued; 8 rings, maybe 10 people per ring, and the check-in area. Lunch space was just a moderate-sized canopy with room for the instructors but the rest of us lunched elsewhere. Kind of funny that I recognized more of the instructors and staff than I did of the participants. Also very different from in the past.

Kathie Leggett taught our first 3-hour session, on weaving. Got some excellent advice on exercises to try. Quite a bit I'd heard before in one form or another, but I particularly like the suggestion about getting your dog to turn and find the weave entries (she credited it to Jen Pinder). Usual training methodology has you working in an arc around the weave entrance, having the dog alongside you, facing the weaves, and send her in. You vary the distance and the angle and the speed with which you're moving and add jumps and so on. But this suggestion was to be playing tug with your dog so that the dog's back (or side or whatever) is to the weaves, then wrestle the toy away as usual and just say "weave!" and let the dog figure out how to turn herself around and still find the weave entrance.

Mary Ellen Barry taught our afternoon 3-hour session on serpentines. I mentioned to her before we got started that she came highly recommended from a blogger--and then I couldn't remember the last name (Amy with Flirt and Bodhi, I said) and she knew the last name immediately. Interesting about all these cross-country, cross-internet relationshiops. :-)

I confessed up front that I've been doing agility for 12 years and I *still* can't do serpentines worth beans. Oh, my dogs learn how to do them as long as I stay out of their way, usually behind them or away from them (as in a gamble), but if I try to do REAL driving serpentines with me ahead of the dog, I bobble it. Which I then proceeded to demonstrate. So dumb, because I can WALK it perfectly every time, with the shoulders turned correctly and everything. But add a dog--pfft!

Anyway, she was very helpful. Again, much of what she said was things that I realized I had forgotten or not practiced as much as I thought I had, and so on, but she had some very specific suggestions for me in particular to work on for myself and for Boost, as well as the general concept that was applied equally to everyone. Another well-spent session. (If I have a chance next week I might try to draw a couple of diagrams and write up text for my own review and post here. TBD whether I'll have time.)

Interestingly, Boost did LOVELY weaves all day today, even on some harder set-ups in the serpentine class, which was NOT concentrating on weaves. Could we have more inconsistency, please? I mean, really--

Fortunately, it never did get around to raining, and it warmed up slightly in the later afternoon. Today we were done at 4:00. Helped set up the ring for tomorrow, frisbeed the dogs a bit, chatted with a couple of friends, and was still home, dinnered, and showered by about 6:00. A nice change.

Next two days are longer; start at 7:45 and go 'til 5:00, with sessions with three different instructors each day. Sunday is only two sessions again.

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Power Paws Camp This Weekend

SUMMARY: Thursday through Sunday, lots of info and practice in Pleasanton.

Power Paws Camp is, for the third year (?), in almost my own back yard, so I'll be commuting. It's about a 45-minute drive, but that's not bad. Boost is signed up and I'm looking forward to the time with her.

At the moment, I know pretty much nothing--who the instructors are (other than "from among this list"), what workshops and sessions I'm assigned to, what time I'm supposed to be there in the morning, where I can set up when I get there. Hope that info's forthcoming. All I know so far is that the sessions themselves start at 9:00.

I last attended camp 3 years ago, I believe; it'll be nice to be back, although it's greatly reduced in scope from the original camps. I think that the California agility world has overcamped and there's not all the pent-up demand there once was.

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Goals for Camp

SUMMARY: Many reasons for attending agility camp.

We are registered and paid up for Power Paws Camp in April. I'm looking forward to it, after a year (or two??) of not going. The truth is that my primary goal in going to camp is to get lots of ring time with Boost. I felt that Tika started to mature as a ring-savvy dog, and we started to click as a working team, during the 4 days that we first did camp together. I think it was one of the best things I could have done for us as a team. The difference between Us Before and Us After was almost astonishing. And so I want to try to repeat that effect with the Booster Babe.

Sure, I figure I'll learn new and interesting stuff there, or fine-tune some rusty skills, or relearn some things I maybe once knew or have forgotten, or get to practice things that we're not very good at, or fix some of our specific working issues. But those are all bonuses on top of simply spending lots of time working with my dog in different rings, on different equipment, somewhere other than the familiar back yard and training yard.

I can hardly wait.

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