Pictures from the AKC trial!

When I decided to sign up for the AKC trial I was very hopeful that there would be a photographer there.  I've gotten a handful of decent photos of Dahlia from previous trials but I always want more.  And not only that, but she's looking faster and more excited.  I wanted to see what she looked like.

Lucky for me, the good folks at Pet Proof Photography were there taking photos.  Our first run was in the pouring rain and while I saw them out there, I suspect they didn't take many photos of our runs.  Bad luck for me!

They did, however, take several photos of our second (FAST) run and I was so pleased with them, I bought downloads of three of the photos.

This first two are of Dahlia actually taking the send!  As I mentioned in my last post this was huge for us.  Absolutely huge.  Dahlia is a "Velcro Dog" (she reminds me a bit of Needy Dög) and it amazed me that she got the confidence up to take a jump that I couldn't get within 6 feet or so of.  This may not be a huge deal to most folks, but it sure was for us!





 

You can probably figure out exactly where I was by following her gaze!  For the record, she did indeed take the tunnel that followed this but only after heading toward me and then going back out to it.  It was still an impressive feat for my girl!

The last photo is of Dahlia's first time ever taking a panel jump (they have none where we train).  I'll let you look at it for just a moment.  I hope it makes you laugh.

 

Just how high did she jump anyway?  Here's the thing: she jumped huge to make it over the jump (compare her jumping in the one above).  Not long ago this dog would have simply gone around it.  The first several times she saw wing jumps she went around them.  So here she was in a trial situation taking a jump she had never seen before and she did it.

It was a beautiful run.  Had I just kept moving forward and taken the last two jumps, we would have gotten our first AKC Q.  But because I'm a green handler (who cannot count) I made a stupid mistake and cost us 6 points in overtime, putting us down to 45, 5 points below what we needed to Q.

It's ok though.  She still looked great!  And these trials are not about winning for me.  They're about having fun with my dog.  And they're an assessment of our training.  Here I learned to trust my dog and to not second guess myself!  I hope it helps at our next outing later this month!

I love my dog

Sometimes I'm really struck by how awesome my dog really is.  And not only that, but by how much the training we've done with her has helped her with her confidence level.

Today I took her out to the park for a Halloween photo shoot.  I had big plans for this one, much more than just a costume.  I was inspired by the purchase of a pair of Doggles (goggles for dogs, if you're wondering what they are) and the video of Weird Al Yankovic's Dare to be Stupid (which you can see here).

The idea required that Dahlia stand up with her paws on a keyboard while wearing a yellow t-shirt with the atomic symbol on it and a pair of Doggles.   Yikes!

I worked my way up to it in the following way:

1. Standing with her feet on a park bench.
2. Standing with her feet on the keyboard which was sitting on the park bench.
3. Doing #2 while wearing the t-shirt.
4. Doing #2 while wearing the t-shirt and the Doggles.

For each one I also worked on getting her to hold the position long enough for me to take photos.

In the end, this was what I ended up with*.



 

All of this was accomplished in less than a half an hour!  She's such an amazing dog!

*Green screen edited in after the fact.

Can't...reach...

New camera

For ages I've been jealous of everyone else's photos.  I like mine well enough and I don't think they were bad, but I felt that they were lacking something.  What were they lacking?  Well, DSLR-quality.  This past Friday I bought a Sony Alpha A230 DSLR camera.  For those who care about specs, it's 10.2MP and came with an 18-55mm kit lens.  Along with that, my partner bought me a very early birthday present (my birthday is in October) of a telephoto 75-300mm lens.  And I bought a used Minolta 35-80mm lens as well (the lens was a grand total of $30!).

For those who don't care about specs (and even for those who do), here are some photos I took this weekend using the new camera. These first few were taken on Friday, a day that was very cloudy.


(Kit lens, 35mm)



(Kit lens, 55mm)



(Kit lens, 55mm)



(Kit lens, 18mm)


Dahlia with Teri

(Kit lens, 55mm)



(Kit lens, 35mm)



(Minolta lens, 80mm)


This is Hershey, my neighbor's dog.

(Minolta lens, 35mm)



(Telephoto lens, 150mm)



(Telephoto lens, 280mm)



(Minolta lens, 55mm)



(Minolta lens, 80mm)



(Minolta lens, 35mm)


That ought to give you a good range of what each lens is capable of doing. I love the camera and I love all of the lenses!