White Shepherd Stories

Playing Catch Up With Two AKC Agility Trials.

It is getting hot in our area, so we are usually only doing one day per weekend, of agility. I try to always leave Journey wanting more.  He loves it so much, and i want to keep it that way.  He is not real fond of the heat and neither am I.  

The trial we did on May 30, 2015 was held by the German Shepherd Dog Club of Oregon.  Journey has only recently moved up into the Excellent class in Standard Agility. This trial was his first running in Excellent.  We did not "Q" but it was not his fault.  There was a somewhat awkward flow to the table after coming out of the chute. I knew that and walked the course extra times to make sure I remembered.  Then we ran the course and I did not remember.  Journey was perfect.  Not so much - his team mate.  

We are still in Open class for FAST and for Jumpers with Weaves.  Journey did very well in FAST and got his second Q for Open FAST, with a 1st place..  Only one more to go.  

It was very hot in Canby, Oregon and we hurried home to play in the pool.  

Our second AKC trial was hosted by Columbia River Agility Club.  It was held at Clark County Fairgrounds in the equestrian barn and we were entered on June 6, 2015.  It was very hot - over 90 degrees in the barn. Journey did well in FAST, but did not Q.  

He totally nailed the hard part, "the send", where he had to cross the line on his own and run a section of the course without me with him.  Completing this section gives him the bonus, which he got.  We did not get enough points in the easy part and he cut the entry to a triple jump, which caused him to tick the top bar.  

Next was his run in Excellent, Standard Agility.  I walked the course a lot and knew it well.  Journey was very focused and things looked promising. Below is the course map.

The map above begins with the #1 jump in the lower left corner.  It ends at the lower right side #19 jump.  We were both doing well until we got to obstacle #12, which is a square with a T on it.  It is a table upon which he must stay for 5 seconds before moving on.  As he finished his 5 second stay, I sent him to obstacle #13(a tunnel, in the upper left corner).  Someone had left the big drive-thru gate open, in the corner by the tunnel.  I guess they had been transferring equipment from the trailer, outside the ring and someone forgot to close the gate.  

From the table, I sent him to the corner where the next obstacle was located, right next to the open gate.  He had never seen a large open gate on a course before and he took a couple extra steps toward it. He did not go out of the ring.  I called him immediately to do the tunnel instead.  He did, and he finished the course without a flaw.  But there are no faults allowed in Excellent class and the couple steps beyond the plain of the tunnel were considered a refusal.  It was disappointing, as we have been trying so hard.  But oh well, accidents happen.  That was only his second try at the Excellent course.  And we ran it in 90+ degrees.

Funny, when I first began doing agility with Spirit, there was no fencing around the courses, just a ribbon held up about 42" high, by stanchions every 10 feet or so.  The "gates" in and out of the rings were just openings without ribbon.  When I mentioned that to some of the younger participants at trials, they asked how we kept the dogs inside the rings.  I guess we just trained harder.  Now the dogs are so used to being completely fenced in on the course, a large open drive-thru gate is something that many dogs feel needs investigation.  

Our last run was Jumpers with Weaves.  Journey ran a perfect 1st place Q. And even in that heat his time was good.   So now we only need one more Open Jumpers Q and one more Open FAST Q and he will be in Excellent in everything.  He has done so well.  Last year at this time he was only a beginner.  

Our next AKC trial is the weekend of the 4th of July.  And the following weekend we have a local USDAA trial.  August will be a CPE trial.  We are busy and having fun, but it would be nice if the weather cooled a bit.  We are lucky to be able to come home and play in the pool.  

That's my boy!

 

An Otherwise Quiet Afternoon.

I was sitting on the couch, in front of the large windows overlooking the lawn and trees in front of our house.  I was reading some mail when out of the corner of my eye, some movement caught my attention.  Inside my fence, parallel to the road, (about where the dogs are in the picture above), an animal was loping toward our entry gate.  He kept looking back over his shoulder, into the woods behind him.  He was approximately the height of a good size dog, similar in height to a Shepherd. My first thought was to wonder how the dog got inside our fence.  Then, almost immediately I rethought his appearance and admitted to myself, "that was no dog".  His body shape resembled an Old English Sheepdog, but they don't come in black.  This critter was a young black bear.  He was not tiny, but he was too small to be away from his mother.  He was clearly not running away from his mother, so perhaps he had been chased by a dog or another critter.  My first thought was to grab my camera; but my second thought was to find out where the dogs were and to secure their doggy doors, so they could not get out into the yard.

The dogs were both inside and I put the sliders in the doggy doors.  Then I grabbed my camera and went out on the deck.  No bear...., so I tried other windows.  I could not see any sign of the bear.   

I called Fish & Wildlife Department and reported the sighting.  I told the man I spoke with that the little bear seemed stressed and a bit frightened of whatever he thought might be behind him.  I told him the bear was too small to be away from its mother.  The man told me I need not be worried about him as his mother was sure to be right behind him.  I told him that worried me more!  He said to just not feed pets outside, or leave them outside at night.  I assured him that I did not do either of those things, but that this was bright daylight not night time.  He said if the bear hung around for a week or more, to call back. I realized he was not going to be of much help. By the time I hung up and thought about the situation for a while, I decided it was probably as good a time as I was going to find, to see what surprises the yard might hold for us.  It was bright and sunny and our road was as well traveled as it was ever going to be, with everyone coming home from work. Mainly I wanted to know if he climbed out, over our fence, at the upper end of our property, or if by chance he had back-tracked into the woods again. Presuming he continued in the same direction, he would come to a split-rail fence, covered with 4-1/2' wire fencing.  He could climb over that and find himself in my neighbors larger, unfenced property which had woods and various outbuildings where he could find cover.  He could also make a left turn when he got to that fence, and continue to the back our my property, through the fruit trees and eventually to the huge cedar trees in front of the top property-line fencing.   He could hide under and behind the Cedars, or in the agility equipment shed, which only has three walls.  He could also continue to the upper level of the same fence into the woods (the same woods he came from when he came onto our property.

Plums
 

I was counting on Pirate and Journey to determine his pathway.  I put them on long leads and we headed out to the last place I saw the little guy.  I watched the boys carefully. They danced happily across our lawn toward the road.  They probably thought it somewhat strange to be on leash, for a walk on our property.  As we neared the last sighting spot, their noses - in unison - instantly jerked to the ground.  They turned right, following his trail, approximately five feet, then a quick turnaround and followed the bear's trail in the direction he had been traveling when I last saw him.  I found it interesting that they could determine the difference from the way he had come from, to the direction he had gone. They determined it in a split second too!  As we neared the end of the fence line we were following, I was looking for bent wire fencing and snags of black fur.  The dogs could have cared less, they cut the corner and ignored the fencing.  they knew where he went.  They headed up our property line toward the agility field.  It was a fast walk.  We stopped at the agility field and surveyed the property.  No bear in sight.  The Cedar tree branches have not been trimmed, and the lowest branches form caves under the trees, hiding the fence behind them.  The dogs wanted to go under them.  I did not allow it, as I had no idea whether the bear could be in there or not.  I kept thinking that I would hear something, don't know why, because in retrospect, the mother trains them to hide and be quiet.  We turned and followed the upper fence line back across the entire property, toward the woods that he had come in from, at the lower level of the property.  I looked in the agility barn, no bear.  I could not see any bent berry vines or branches heading into the woods.  

We sat out for a while, but eventually, as the sun was going down, we went inside.  Our night was uneventful.  The next morning I was feeling pretty sure the bear was not around.  I saw no signs of him.  When we went up onto the agility field by the big Cedars, the dogs got very interested.  They sniffed all around the bases of the trees.  Pirate was most interested in marking his territory around the trees.  From what I saw, I started thinking that there was a good chance the bear had been in the Cedars.  He may have spent the night there.   

I lived in bear country for eight years, in Alaska, but it was a lot different than the area we live in here.  The trees around Anchorage are skinny, scruffy Spruce trees and not big enough to hide a bear.  Sometimes bear came into our neighborhood, but Fish and Wildlife usually chased them back into the woods, or they trapped them and relocated them.  In looking at our trees and into the woods I decided it was a good thing I did not venture in there the day before.  I would probably not have been looking up.

I hope the little bear became reunited with his mother.  I remember his frightened look as he kept glancing over his shoulder, while he ran along the fence. I have no idea what the dogs or the bear would have done if they had confronted each other.  Now that I believe the bear was up off the ground, when he was possibly concealed by the Cedars, it was likely not as dangerous as it seemed.  He would have been afraid of the dogs.  

When I first moved here, in 2006, I asked neighbors if there were bear or mountain lions in the area.  A woman who had lived in the area for 40 years told me she had not seen a bear in 20 years.  Reports of the closest Mountain Lion were over ten miles into the wilderness, behind our hilltop area.  We have Elk and lots of deer.  There are raccoons, coyotes and opossums, but luckily I have not seen porcupines. I saw what looked like a badger once, but it was too dark to be certain.

I consider myself so lucky to have seen the little bear.  I just wish I knew he survived his frightening experience.  

The bear trackers.