Zuma's AKC and CPE Debuts

Last Friday, Zuma had her AKC debut and on Sunday (Easter) she had her CPE debut.  Both trials went really well, I was very impressed with her ability to focus in such distracting environments!  We ran in Novice Jumpers and Novice Standard at the AKC trial with a qualifying run and 1st place in Standard (video below!).  We had a small bobble at the end because I forgot to do my front cross before the last few jumps and had to throw in a late rear cross which resulted in me almost running her over.  Our Jumpers run wasn't the best mostly because I failed to move when I needed to, so Zuma took it upon herself to figure out the course leaving me behind.  The positives were that she held her start line stay, nailed those contacts  and rocked the entry on the weaves.

The CPE trial yesterday was held at a different location than our home school.  I was a bit nervous about Zuma's ability to concentrate in a novel location but she surprised me with fantastic focus!  The floor was artificial turf which was quite slippery, Zuma took a spill right before going in the ring on the warm up jump so she was overly cautious with her turns causing her to run wider than usual (she runs wide anyways so it was very tough getting her where I needed her).  We Q'd with a 1st place in Fullhouse Level 2, Q and 1st in Level 2 Colors, and Q with a 2nd in Level 2 Standard.  We got the whistle 2 jumps in on Snooker because of an off-course.  Even though she had decent focus, I felt that she wasn't as connected with me as the previous trial which I'm figuring is because of the location.  Luckily that will come with experience.  The positives were that she held her start line stays again (YAY!) and that she was able to run decently well despite the location.   The other good thing was that she was completely relaxed in her crate between runs, huge change from when I adopted her.

As you can see, she was very happy with her ribbons!

Welcome to my new blog, Size Doesn't Matter!  I am Sara Brueske, owner of Follow The Leader Training in Minnesota.  Currently I teach dog obedience classes at On The Run Canine Center and Pet Nation Veterinary Care Center.  I focus on positive reinforcement training and specifically utilize clicker training.  I share my house with a very understanding husband, Tim, two dogs, Classic and Zuma, and two cats, Grover and Remi. 

Classic is an almost 3 year old mantle Great Dane.  I have learned more from him than any other dog I've owned and owe the majority of my understanding of canine behavior to him.  He is human reactive and does not like interactions with people he doesn't know.  These behavioral problems developed despite my best effort at socialization and early intervention.  We have used Leslie McDevitt's exercises from her book Control Unleashed to ensure that he feels comfortable around strangers and we no longer have reactions in public.  My goal for him is to reduce his anxiety around strangers enough to trial him in agility.  Because there are so many unknown variables that exist while trialing (bar setters running to put up a dropped bar, judges wearing hats and sunglasses, photographers kneeling, etc) it has proven to be a difficult goal to obtain.  However, he thoroughly enjoys his agility classes and as long as he is physically capable of playing agility, we will continue to work towards our goal.  

Zuma is an almost 2 year old Border Collie mix that I adopted last summer when she was approximately 10 months old.  She is exactly what I want in a dog and I hardly do anything without her.  She comes to work with me everyday and demonstrates exercises in my training classes.  She has recently started trialing in agility and is a rock star so far.  

Grover and Remi are the two cats that share our household and I swear they are bent on destroying my life day by day. (Just kidding, kind of.)  More on them later.