Michele and Cara dip their toes back in the agility trial waters. The new normal has some benefits and if you want to be a part of it, think about joining a club! 

We discuss all of that as well as fat bars, a bit about stress and what we missed these past 3 months away from trials. 

Clubs, trial secretaries, and venue owners are working hard to bring us the sport we love. Support them with your entries, your offers to help and by focusing on what is working. 

Most importantly, be kind to your dog, they didn't fill out that entry form but are happy to be back by your side. 

We take a step into Cara's wheelhouse in this episode. One of her favorite things to do is organize because the goal of organization is to create efficiency. Efficiency means preventing the wasteful use of a particular resource such as time!

Finding shows, filling out entries and keeping track of Q's can be overwhelming and super-duper time-consuming. It doesn't have to be. Learn some hacks that Cara and Michele use so they know how to find shows, how to track what the heck you entered, how in the world did you pay for it and what in the world your results were.  

The PDF entry generator we mention in the show can be found at http://www.oaklines.com/, be certain to thank them for making your life so much easier. 

Canine conditioning is a big deal regardless if you have a performance dog or a couch potato. Older dogs, baby puppies and everything in between need regular fitness exercise in order to be healthy. 

Karen Kay, from Kay9 Fitness, joins us to explain just why that is. So many dogs are receiving wonderful veterinary and post-op care for injuries but what if you could help prevent them in the first place? 

The health of our dogs is in our hands. The more fit we can keep them, the more likely they are to live healthier lives. Knee surgery, shoulder issues and joint problems are common, but it doesn't mean they have to be. And while surgery is not fun, fitness training certainly is.

Karen is super passionate about what she does and she has an amazing background, beginning with humans but we all know working with dogs is way more fun :) I could relate to many of the issues, particularly about having an injury somewhere that sets the entire body out of balance. Just like you can get a sore neck or back from having a bummed knee that causes an off-gate, the very same biomechanical issues can and do happen with your dog.

Super excited to try canine fitness but thanks to the paindemic a class near you is not possible? No worries, Karen is doing something INCREDIBLE, for just $14.95 she is running a private group that not only offers an exercise every day in June, but she is providing video commentary on any submissions you want to make!  So if you are uncertain if you are doing an exercise correctly or if what you are doing is helping your dog with their fitness, join Karen's group and submit a video. This starts now, June 1st so get going and reach out to her today on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/Kay9-Fitness-115169546523796/ or via email [email protected].

The agility forums have been littered with worries about having to crate from our cars so Michele and I decided to tackle this tantrum head-on. We both happen to be experts in crating out of our cars, particularly in hot weather - we do not have heat-tolerant dogs by any stretch of the imagination.

Listen as we describe our setups and even post them on Facebook, we have it down to the tiny 4" spot you might have in your car, Cara knows something you could stick there like your chair! We also troubleshoot several safety tips, there are some good nuggets in this episode. 

From sun-reflection to powering your cooling system we know how to keep a car at a comfortable 72° even when the sun is blazing, the engine off and the temps surpassing 90°.

Below you'll find some helpful links to the products we recommend, all of these having been sourced with your wallet in mind. The health and safety of our dogs are paramount but we also need to keep our wallets cool so we can stay hot on keeping up with our entries. 

Schumacher Jump Starter - apologies, this bad boy became more expensive, still sooooo worth it!                                                                                      Click here for the link, it's super long on Amazon (same price on Walmart)

Temperature Monitor                                                        https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DWMJKP5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Aluminet Shade Cloth                                                   https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CM7W5XN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Dunnage Racks                                                                           https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DKWOE48/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 12" for the rear of most minivans  

Feel free to email us if you want more!

Michele and I set out this week to bring you great information on how you can keep your dog conditioned during the pandemic. We even made some videos to share with what you can accomplish with things such as couch cushions - but things changed. 

We both have had an emotionally tough week and rather than provide an episode on conditioning, which we still absolutely will, we're bringing you an episode on keeping your mental condition healthy.

The Stockdale Paradox, created by James Stockdale, an ex-POW demonstrates that we are better off surviving a bad time if we are able to acknowledge our situation and balance optimism with realism. If you constantly look forward to the date of a trial and then it keeps getting canceled, you will be sad. But if you keep real and realize while things suck right now, we will one day trial again. You're better off spending your time focusing on doing what you can to keep busy until that unknown time happens.

We discuss this and the new trial guidelines released by the AKC. 

We also share our excitement about our new sponsor, Cody's Creations https://www.etsy.com/shop/codyscreations. Use the discount code STARTLINE at checkout to receive 15% some AMAZING items. Custom made collars, leashes and an entire massive collection of pre-made accouterments for your canines. We're huge fans, major patrons and super happy that Kerrie is offering this deal to our listeners. 

Oh and she took it a step further, she has a free give away! Kerrie, the creator of Cody's Creations is giving away a medium martingale, 6ft ½ biothane leash with stainless snap and a bait bag. Details on how to win can be found on our social media posts.

Enjoy this episode, chin up and stay optimistic while remaining realistic.  

Michele and I are lucky to trial in New England which is chock full of super agility stars. Many, even as much as half of the members on the Agility World Team are from here, so we naturally get to fangirl these folks. Meg McCarthy Cataldo is just one of those agility superstars and we brought her on to share with you. 

We learn how she first found agility from a TV segment to how she set her goal to make the World team, conquering it twice, but not without a couple of years spent taking the last place in tryouts. We learn about struggles with early take off's (ETO)  and how there is information out there to help you and your dog if you are having similar issues.

We discuss how and why the agility community so desperately needs to welcome newbies. 

Listen to Meg's journey into the sport we love, the lessons she learned and where in the "Worlds" she's headed.

For a link to the Clean Run free edition article on Early Take Off's referenced in the show, click here 

Share your stories on our Facebook page. Who do you fangirl (or guy), who's been kind to you in the sport or even drop us a line if you are just starting and want to know more? We'll always help more people get addicted to the sport we love! 

You're stuck at home - you have some equipment, you don't have any equipment, you have a well-trained dog, you have a novice dog. . . it doesn't matter! We discuss so many options available to you without equipment, skill or geographical limitations.

Here are some thoughts - ok, really our outline for the episode but you get the idea.

At-Home Training

Equipment

Examples of Resources Available

Foundations:

Start with your instructor, are they offering anything?

Personalized training:

Online Classes

Facebook Groups

Course Building Specifically for your space

Trick training! AKC trick dog titles available via video review. Michele is an evaluator. Trick training is good for foundation agility behaviors (targets, spins, wobble boards, etc)

AKC Rally now available, earn a rally novice leg! 

UKI doing at home agility

Most importantly enjoy the time with your dog and have fun! Please share what you're doing on our FB page or tag us on Insta

Michele and I had the privilege to spend our evening with Grace Heck (houndsofheck.com) and Stefanie Rainer (stefanierainer.com). These two women are not only sparkling stars in the agility ring but they are spreading sparkles around our community with their Power of Positivity Fundraiser (and T-shirts).

The dog training world has taken a huge hit in the pandemic. Not only were the mats rolled out from underneath all of the competitors but the trainers were left without students, without income and without the ability to pay their huge overheads on facilities, or just pay the mortgage on their homes. While the news has toted tails of loans and unemployment benefits, they're not easy or even possible to get for many sole proprietors, the typical business structure of your favorite agility trainer. 

So Grace watched this happening to her friends and training colleagues, the struggle, and fear of losing everything. Fortunately, with a fulltime job unrelated to agility but certainly related to positivity in the pandemic, Grace with the help of Stefanie decided they had to do something. 

They began the Power of Positivity Fundraiser where students like you, nominate your instructor and students like you with family and friends support your agility instructor through donations, shirt purchases, contacting larger companies, however you can to help these beloved teachers survive the fall. 

Listen and learn how they came up with the idea, how Stefanie is the prime example of an instructor with no income or way to obtain unemployment and how you can help. 

Our sport is in jeopardy to even hold trials again but you can't enter a trial if you haven't been training. While in our next episode we will discuss what you can do at home to keep your skills and your dog's skills sharp, nothing competes with what you gain from your trainer.  We know trials are a far cry ahead, but as many states start to slowly reopen and small dog training classes make the cut to resume, we have to make certain we help our trainers so they can come back in to show you how to be the best handler.

P.S. When you listen to the podcast, the first person from a West Coast state that drops a comment on our FB page under the post for this episode gets a free T-shirt from Startline Pod. Get listening, get supporting, get nominating.  

Let us know what you are doing to stay positive during the PAIN-demic. What activities are you doing with your pups, what are some new things you wouldn't have been able to do or find yourself with more time to do? Please share, we need the social interaction :)

Michele and I discuss at the beginning of the COVID-19 shutdown of all things social in life, the impact of refunds on clubs versus exhibitors. We don't always agree so enjoy listening to how our opinions panned out.