Local Agility Shows on 3 SEPT 2011!

LOCAL AGILITY SHOWS ON 3 SEPTEMBER 2011!





Pictures by Lynn Tan.

This Agility Shows all PUPSters came out and flood the West Coast Park Dog Run with the SEA OF RED! See the pictures above showing our new CRAZYK9 logo which symbolizes LOVE, LOYALTY, TRUST, BOND and SPORTSMANSHIP among our PUPSters and their K9 Partners.

We are very proud instructors of PUPSters and our Positive Warriors all came out and put forward their brilliant performances. Our Positive Warriors are Blossom & Ann, Vidya & YuLin, Hope & Nicole, Sky, Toby & Gillian and Millie, Ashley & Debra.

Even though I started my morning with very bad sore back and I have to be carried away by an ambulance. All PUPSters remain claim, collected and with great fighting spirit and the love for their dogs, put forward a brave fight. I am especially proud because from this agility shows, I can witness great improvement in all students, in movement, flows, direction, intends and controls. You must be very proud that you and your dogs have displayed great performances this time round.

Of course, we must recognized our winners; SKY & GILLAIN won a Qed and a 2nd Place in the Maxi-Novice Agility Class and VIDYA & YULIN won a Qed and a 2nd Place in the Mini-Novice Agility Class. Both Gillian and YuLin had their first CLEAN RUN in SKC and their K9 Partners SKY & VIDYA have live up to their expectations. Great job TEAM!

Not forgetting our great supporters, Lynn Tan, Bernie Oh, Kamal, Edmund took their time to wear RED and came with their great supports. Especially when I was trapped to my chair, I was indeed very well entertained by this group of great people.

Let's continue to work hard and you will reap better results from your very own hardwork and fun training your k9 partners.

As always, have fun & stay positive!

DogSport Weekend - 20.08.2011!

‎200811 - Thank God for the great weather, be it in the morning or evening, the weather has been excellent for Agility Training. This week we focus on weave-poles, motions, flows and control, all students have performed maverlously. Open-stride, close-stride, turns, crosses, weaves, left & right handling, smooth transition into another obstacle ... keep up the good work PUPSters!

Interesting Quote!

Steal from Gary Decker : I once attended a agility seminar where one of the concepts was...see the course from your dog's view. Well, I take that approach on viewing a lot of things these days....and it so simplifies life. Eat, sleep, mark your territory, and play when you can.....that's why I have my "Life is short, Play with your dog" t-shirt on! Have a great weekend everyone!

Great DogSport Weekend @7 Aug 2011

Sunday started off with a heavy morning rain. For those who do not have outdoor activity were very please with the rain and all stayed indoor to catch up with their sleep and rest. But for those of us who have outdoor activity such as Agility, were praying for the rain to stop. The weather continue to rain until about 2.30pm, and the sun came out and bring us hope.

In the evening we have Sky, Toby and Gillian and Bailey, Ken and Cheryl. The first group started at 4pm, we were drilling on movement, flow and intends. With Gillian focusing more on her motion, flow and intends, Sky and Toby read her like a book, keeping all bars up and making an excellent flow and motion on course. Even the youngster Toby is running up to 6 obstacles and keeping all bars up.

The second group came at 5pm, Bailey and Ken need some warm-up exercise to get Bailey up to speed. Bailey were giving great attention after a good warm-up games of tugs, play and treats. Bailey and Ken have improved tremendously, the motion, flow and intends given helps Bailey to quickly understand Ken's motion, direction and intention. Bailey now can jumps up to 6 obstacles such as Open Tunnel, Jumps and Pause Table. Crosses such as front-cross, post-turn, tandem turn, push and pull strategy building up Bailey agility vocabulary.

Marvelous training, excellent execution, motion, direction, flow and intend build up the team confidence in handling agility obstacles. We all had fun and as we stay positive, our training will continue to improve.

Wet & Adventurous Walk!

This morning I took Ashley for long walk. Trying to build bond so I brought him to a wet and adventurous walk. We clocked 1 hour 26 minutes and 41 sec, all drenched and soaked through skin for both dog and man. Our adventure path brought us through Seletar Camp, Jalan Kayu to Seng Kang Riverside Park. After going through the crowded Jalan Kayu, the long stretch of road towards Seng Kang was a very scenic one. Lots of trees, wildlife, fresh air and loads of hills to bring us to the nature.

Along the walks, there were many opportunity to practice on-lead and off-lead exercises. Once we reaches the riverside park, we went to the other side of the park where there is a connector connecting park users to the wetlands. The beautifully constructed bridge suspending over the Punggol Reservoir. I saw a pair of about 1.5 Meter long Monitor Lizards swimming in the wetlands and look like they are on the hunt. What a rare sight to see Monitor Lizards? As we pushes on on the connector, we were confronted by a very brave small poodle barking and charging towards us. And poor Ashley fled for his life. But I managed to coax Ashley to follow me passes the poodle and we continue our wet walk.

On our returning journey, I did some steep hill climbing opportunity, Ashley and me passed the climb with flying colors! We took a different routes back and we were treated with another amazing scenic walk. A very enjoyable and satisfying walk and I would definitely do another similar walk in the near future.

Great DogSport Weekend@ 6 AUG 2011!

A much needed weekend break for me. I was down by a bad flu at the beginning of the week. Took 2 days MC to rest and very please to recover by Friday. Most of my colleagues were heading for a Super long weekend. But I can't as I have a lots of issue to be resolve on this coming Monday.

This morning, Saturday, 6 August, the weather was great. We have a new comer; Herbie and Edmund. Actually there are not NEW, but decided to comeback to Agility Training after a very long 2 years break. Not only Herbie, Edmund is also coming back with Sundae. (Herbie - BC and Sundae - Corgi) Herbie and Edmund had a go a number of jumping sequences, this week we are using the letter Y as a training alphabet drills. Herbie is quick on course but he has mature and no longer behaving as a youngster running aimlessly and tirelessly. We will be focusing back on basic jumping skill and getting Herbie to focus on jumping properly, a good taking off plane and a good landing plane. After a few simple jumping drills, you can see Herbie is back for business and he will only gets better by the day.

We also have Vidya & YuLin and Hope & Nicole in this morning training. Both teams had good tries on the letter Y jumping drill. YuLin is working on being consistent, while Nicole is working on getting Hope to speed up on course. Both teams exhibit good flow and handling skills, working on the strength of their dogs and gaining ground in their superior handling skills.

When I was clearing up my yard for this evening agility class, I do notice there were some dark clouds heading towards PUPS DEN, but thank God, the weather hold up and we were given great windy weather this evening. In the evening class, we were greeted by another NEW comer, Aloysius & Dawson. (Dawson - BC) Aloysius trains with us with blaze but due to some injury, he is letting blaze to rest and decided to start working with his youngster Dawson. Dawson's nose was so keen, he can detect one of my girl are on season and he goes for a hunt for her. After a thorough warming up exercises, Dawson finally decided to follow Aloysius in training. Dawson and Aloysius is coming along well, room to improve on their bonds and Aloysius need to bring along various treats to win the heart of dawson during trying times such as training. This team had a good runs, tunnels, jumps and handing on right and left sides, allow this team to flourishes.

Of course, we have Bernie and Yoyo and Ann with Blossom and Milo. Bernie and Yoyo is back after nursing her dislocated elbow during our 9th USDAA Trials 2 weeks ago. This team is back with a bang, sounding their great intend to all triallers! Bernie and Yoyo did very well, great handling and Yoyo's attention have been fixed in following Bernie. This team can a force to reckon with, if they continue to work like they did this evening. Ann had a few go with upsize Milo but he did well, not forgetting his training and definitely has made Ann very proud of her old boy. Ann and Blo also had a blast at the jumping drill exercises, we had a great discussion of their handling options, and with clarity and great intends, this team will be the team to look out for.

All-in- all a very good Saturday training, very productive training session, a few in-depth discussion on handling options, but all for the good of the team.

As always, happy training and stay positive!

Training Insights & Dilemma

Training by objective is the key of animal training. Do not attempt to train your animal on a complex behavior. If training is too difficult, your animal may end up giving up in training prematurely.

In training complex behavior, you need to break down into smaller bit and pieces. This is what you call back-chaining. Allowing your animal to understand the final behavior will increase your chances of achieving the final behavior. Always remember to work on positive reinforcement, your animal work better in reward-base training techniques.

On a different note, I am in a dilemma when it comes to trialing. My personal believe is to allow my students take on the Course Designs on their own interruption and understanding of their animal. What's best for them as a team? However, in recent time, I understood that some of my students are actually thinking that I should coach them during or after their walk-through. And guess what? We are seeing positive results.

I think it might not be a problem if I allow my students to understanding the course designs and then offer some practical insights on how I approach these course if I'm running their animals.

Anyway, I am always searching for the better approaches and if the new approach is effect, I shall use it to bring out what's best in the team!

Happy Training! Have Fun and Stay Positive!

Cheers

Marvelous Sunday

I enjoyed my marvelous sunday today. After trials, all students wanted a break, and it's also a nice break for me too. Went for brunch in Changi Airport T3 this morning with my sweetie, and we had a good brunch and coffee. Went home to rest for a while before starting my training with Millie and Ashley.

Did some simple jumping exercises, sharpen our bond and execution. For Millie is all about timing, if I can find the rhythm, my execution with Millie will be flawless.

Ashley is getting along smoothly, setting in well in Agility. Did some jumping, tunnel, chute and weave-poles. Maybe his stamina is bad, after a few rounds of workout, he refused to jump on the first jump, but jump all the rest when directed. Poor boy must be tired.

After a good rest, I trained Millie on frisbee too. Rebound, stall, Aubrey, vaults and catches, a good refresher for Millie and me and she is still profusion in the moves.

It's been a long while since I have such a good time to train my own dogs. I will need to squeeze out some time just to do that, so that I can enjoy the training and companion of my dogs.

As always, have fun and stay positive!

Trials Results for 9th USDAA Sanctioned Trials!

Trials Results of our 9th USDAA Sanctioned Trials is now uploaded in our USDAA Singapore Website; http://usdaa.pups.sg.

Brave PUPsterS!

Today we went to our local kennel club show as a bystanders and not a participants. I quite like the feeling, however I will prefer to a participants anytime. We have 3 brave PUPsterS entered this show. They are Gillian and Sky, Nicole and Hope and Anderson and Blossom. Weather is good and all of us enjoyed the shows tremendously.

After a long break, Nicole and Hope are back and this team came back with a bang! Two clean runs in their maxi-novice jumpers class and earned their Jumping Dog Title. Well done Nicole and Hope, great wins with great handling. Anderson is a faithful USDAA scorer and she always have to give up her chances in USDAA Trials as a volunteer so that other participants can enjoy the shows. Thank God for local kennel show, now she can concentrate on her run. Guess what? Anderson and Blossom came in 3rd in the mini-novice jumpers class and this is their first clean run. Well done Ann and Blossom, your hardwork have paid off.

Gillian and Sky also have their good runs, however due to some faults, cause this team their win and placing. Take heart Gillian, continue to work hard, you will see your efforts pays off one day.

This being a great opportunity we brought along Guinness and she has proof her obedience. Guinness is so concentrated on us, she is quick to respond to her recall, distraction and a tempting big field to romp around. She has passed his test with flying color, she socializing well with all dogs and she is ready to enter competition when she is ready to compete.

Thanks to our supporters, Lynn, Yulin, kamal, Alex and Debra. This great support have given our participants strength to do well in the competition.




What a great day today? Once again well done to our brave PUPsterS,

Great Agility Saturday - 23.07.2011!

Thank God its weekend again. This Saturday, we all have a blast! Started bright early in the morning, Nicole and Hope came to PUPS, The Household of Champions for a last lesson before the local kennel club agility shows.

This team has shown great improvement and this partnership has blossom. Nicole and Hope had some great runs, showing very good composure and skills throughout the runs.

In the evening, we have a few more teams joining for the training. Ann and Blossom, Aloysius and Blaze, Debra and Ashley and Dexter with Millie. The Course Design today, provide the team the opportunities to exhibit good control, added with some difficulties in jumping angles, tunnel, chute, tyre and broad jump.

All team have shown great control, making very good decisions in their respective handling moves. Pacing steady runs after their dogs has proof successful. I think today's runs will give them the confident needed to do well for next saturday agility competition at West Coast Dog Run.

Good luck PUPsterS, but don't forget to have fun with your dog. As always stay positive!

2012 Cynosport World Games!

Next Year 2012, USDAA will be celebrating 25th Years of running Grand Prix of Dog Agility World Championships in Colorado, USA. And our president have announced USDAA is sponsoring U$1,000 per team to the 2012 Cynosport World Games, if we can bring a team of 3 dogs & handlers to this World Championships. (This offer is open only to Singapore)

SKC Trials on 30th July 2011

No time to rest on your laurels, one more week to go to SKC Trials, let's all work together to prepare for this coming trials in West Coast Park Dog Run.

Have fun & stay positive!

9th USDAA Trials Report - 160711!

We are pleased to announce that our USDAA participants have surpassed our target of 50 supporters, thanks to all USDAA participants and those who love this great sport and the fun of doing agility with our beloveth Canine Partners.

Yesterday was our 9th USDAA Sanctioned Trials 2011. We were honour to have Mr. Kenneth Tatsch, our President of USDAA Inc to grace our event. We also have our sponsor Mr. Vincent John and Andy representing CASA FERA from Hong Kong, China and thanks to their generous sponsor of our prizes.

We were blessed with an excellent weather after a scary Saturday whole day rain storm. Miraculously, the weather were beautiful, the ground was fairly dry and we all had a swell day. This 9th USDAA, we were focusing on the full PERFORMANCE TITLING programmes.

We started with Snooker and Gamblers Class. Participants were presented with various challenges and technical difficulties however without forgoing the speed element of the sport, making the dog agility a continuous movement of speed, control and handling.

After our lunch break, we continue with the Pairs Relay, Beat-the-Clock games, the standard agility and the jumpers class. We have progressed tremendously, as we have participants in Performance 2 Standard Agility and Performance 2 and Performance 3 Jumpers Class.

We have in total 18 Qualifications awarded and many went home with our beautiful Medallions from Hong Kong, China, thanks to CASA FERA.

Both our guests from Hong Kong and our President, enjoyed the event and were impressed with the qualities and skills of our participants.

Once again we cannot but appreciate our volunteers of our event; Ann, Bernie, Gail, Catherine, Lynn, Gillian, Alloysius, a BIG THANK to YOU, without you we will NOT have our USDAA Trials.

Last but not lest, we also wanted to thank all participants for always supporting USDAA and this Great Sport of Dog Agility and I'm confident that we can see more growth in this community and let's all work together to see this sport reach another level in Singapore.

9th USDAA Sanctioned Trials Update!

The latest 9th USDAA Trials Schedule is now available for download at this official site. Please also take note that, 9th USDAA Trials is a single day event and it's on 16 July 2011, Saturday.

We are attempting to do a LIVE STREAMING for our 9th USDAA Sanctioned Trials this Saturday. So let's keep our fingers crossed. And if all things turn up well, we will be the very FIRST to do LIVE STREAMING on a Agility Competitions in Singapore! Keep watch on this space.

We are honour to have Mr. Kenneth Tatsch, President of USDAA Inc to grace our event this Saturday 16 July 2011. And we also have our long-time friend, Mr Vincent John from HongKong, joining us for this event.

Great Agility Weekend - 2-3 JULY!

Great Agility Weekend - 2-3 July 2011!

A superb weekend of Dog Agility. We started with Hope & Nicole while Yulin is on holidays and Melvin back to Indonesia. For your information, Saturday was humid, hope & nicole were having tough time coping with the heat. However Hope & Nicole were performing very well. Especially in being able to manage the pace of their runs, very well executed crosses such as blind crosses, front crosses and tandem crosses. The team has very good eye on the line of the dog where given them very handy informations to manage, plan and control on their skills to improve their runs.

I have done many agility exercises with Millie and had some good runs. Special attention is given to Dogwalk, Weaveploes, Jumping, Broadjump and various crosses. During one of my run, benji was too excited and he decided to join the run, and I almost collided into him and I fell as I change my course to avoid a head on collision.

Millie was great this weekend, she was slick and performed excellently with her superpace weavepoles, running contacts, her trademark superslick pace jumping through the obstacles effortlessly.

In between agility training, Millie was called into action for some frisbee training. I also went for a good walk with Ashley. During our walk, we were confronted with a very daring Singapore Dog. I tried to pick up 2 stones to throw toward him and not at him to stop him to keep stalking us. By my 3rd attempt to pick up a stone, that street-smart dog, decided to turn-around and continue his journey home.

On Sunday, the weather is better, we were able to train before the sky hold no more at late six plus. Sky, Toby and Gillian had a great time. Starting from Sky, he is very quick and impatient, and Gillian need to be on her toe to be able to spar with Sky at his pace. In today training, Gillian and Sky did well in managing each other pace, skill, attention and commitment. On the other hand, Toby has been excellent. Toby did many cool runs with Gillian in short courses and Toby is showing his class. Keep watch for this team, they will be team to reckon in the future of Dog Agility in Singapore.

All in all a very fruitful and eventful weekend. Can't wait to start training with Millie again. We need to keep working as we prepare for the 9th USDAA International Dog Agility Sanctioned Trials in 2 weeks time. So if you have time and looking for a weekend of fun, do join us at Seng Kang Riverside Park on 16,17 July 2011.

Intro-Game - The-Pacman-Manaic!

This week let’s discuss on our next Intro-game known as The-Pacman-Manaic! This game originates from the old-time pacman game, where the smiley face gets to eat a super bill and turn into a superpower for a limited time period.

In Agility Context, the power pills are two jumps separated by an Open Tunnel. These power pills can be taken in any direction and once it’s taken correctly, the next 3 obstacles that followed, will be awarded 10 fold of the points awarded. And after the 4th obstacle, any obstacle taken will be reverted to the original point system and until the next power bill is taken the 10 folds systems will start again.

The scoring system is 1-3-5 but when you taken the power pills the next 3 obstacles will be 10-30-50. (Depending on the points that are assign to individual obstacle) The time period given to the competitor at 8/10” height class is 55 seconds and 12/16” height class is 50 seconds. The Pause Table will be the end; all competitors need to reach back on the table to stop the clock. The team with the highest score will win the game.

Always have fun & stay positive!

2 Prestigious International Master Tournament Titles!

Kindly be reminded there are TWO Prestigious International Master Titles up for grasp! For those who are trying to find a reason to take part in our tournament classes, here are TWO prestigious International Master Tournament Title available for your achievement, beside the local qualification to represent Singapore to compete in the 2011 CYNOSPORT WORLD GAMES (WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS) in Louisville, Kentucky, USA.

1. CHAMPIONSHIP MASTER TOURNAMENT TITLE &

2. PERFORMANCE MASTER TOURNAMENT TITLE.

Championship Master Tournament Title refers to Championship Tournament events such as Grand Prix of Dog Agility Championships, USD10,000 Dog Agility Steeplechase Championships & Dog Agility Masters Three-dog Team Championships.

While the Performance Master Tournament Title refers to Performance Tournament events such as Performance Grand Prix Championships, Performance Speed Jumping Championships & Performance Versatility Pairs Championships.

In order to achieve each Master Tournament Title, you will need to earn at least 10 Tournament Qualifications with minimum 2 Qualifications from each of the 3 tournament events mentioned above.

Let's all work together and challenge each other to be the FIRST to achieve the Master Tournament Title and make history in Singapore! Dream awaits no one, except for those who dare to dream!

9th USDAA Trials Attraction!!

In our 9th USDAA Trials, we are featuring 2 unique Agility Games to let the crowds or those new to agility a platform to compete in a more friendly competition such as Agility Games. Beat the Clock - is a strategic game where handler would need to strategize between gaining more potential points versus securing actual scores to win the game. While Pacman Manaic is strategic game where handler can uses the super 'power pill' segment where points will be multiply by 10 or 20 folders against running down the clock.... very exciting and interesting games for all and at the same time enjoying the top agility contenders in Singapore fighting to put international recognize Agility Titles on their K9 partners and gaining the qualification entitlement to compete in the Cynosport World Games World Championship Event in Kentucky, USA at the end of this year.

Excellent Day for Agility!

A very interesting weather, the whole day has been very cooling, very breezy and it's been a full day Agility Training for our students and me and our very own puppy.

Early in the morning, we kick started agility classes with Vidya & YuLin and Hope & Nicole. Today's challenges are Board Jumps, Weavepoles, Pin-wheels and usual crosses such as front-cross, rear-cross, blind-cross, tandem-turns etc Very good attempts by Vidya and Hope and both went away this morning very satisfied with their own performances.

In the early afternoon, I have a go with my own dogs, Millie, Ashley ..... had a few similar challenges and went away very satisfying with their performances.

In the late evening, we have Melvin with Ashley, Bernie with Yoyo, Ann with Blossom and Aloysius with Blaze. All attempted the similar challenges and all had an excellent runs! Bernie have found a new motivator for Yoyo, and Yo have responded well to this motivator .... hope bernie will make good use of this new found toy. Melvin also found a new motivator for Ashley, and he is responding, very happy with the motivators ..... sometime overly excited.

Not forgetting our old friend Vivien came with her new foster dog Kira. This is Kira first warm-up session and she stack-up to the challenges; jumps, A-frame, Tunnels, Tyre etc ....she seems a natural....