2016 Goals

For years, I have enjoyed the process of reviewing the waning year and how I did with goals I set the previous holiday season and setting my goals for the upcoming year. Here are my goals for 2016:

Myself

• Website - change payment method. I have just GOT to get this done, for so many reasons. Or hire it done.
• Continue exercise challenge - aim for 200 workouts in 2016, with self-reward prizes for every 50 workouts. If I accomplish just 50 workouts a quarter, I will easily hit that goal.
• Walk/run a 5K in each quarter (at home on treadmill okay), reducing time each quarter. Did the one in late 2015 in about 56 minutes.
• Successfully raise and place a litter of puppies. Sonic was bred to Heidi Heibert's handsome boy Arrow in December, so I am hopeful that she will have puppies in mid-February. I've never raised a litter before, and I'm terrified at the unknown but so excited about the prospect of spending two months raising them.

Sonic (4 years old)

• Puppies! 
• To accomplish anything more on the obedience titles I'd like Sonic to earn in her lifetime, we have to start qualifying in Open B on a regular basis. The sit stay has proved to be a very hard exercise for her, though it was better last winter with all the conditioning work we did. If she does indeed have the hoped for puppies, we won't be back to competitions until late spring, and by then, we'll most likely be back in the field.
• Open B 1st place
• UDX legs
• OTCh points
• OM1 - she just needs one more solid Open score to finish that. 
• OM2
• Qualify for 2017 NOC.
• Improve Sonic's water blinds. We improved enough in 2015 to pass Master regularly, but they were often a battle. Especially in need of improvement are her initial lines with an angle entry, particularly long water entries.
• Qualify for 2015 Master National. She only needs one more MH pass before July 31 to do so. The Master National will be September 29-October 9, 2016 near St. Louis, where the 2015 FCRSA National field events were held, which were fantastic grounds. Whether or not we go will depend on her progress on her water blinds.
• Get some MH passes toward qualifying for 2016 MN.

Jag (20 months old)

• Attend one off-site fun match per month.
• CD with scores in the high 190's, with at least one HIT. 
• NA and NAJ. 
• Progress on Grand championship.
• RATO (barn hunt Open title) and RATS (barn hunt Senior title).
• Border Terrier National in June. It is in Ohio, so nice and close by. I'd like to show him in Novice Agility, at least Standard and Jumpers, Novice B obedience, and conformation.
• Show him in the Novice division at the AKC Classic in December. But since the qualifying period ends June 30, I'm not sure I want to show him that much in Novice by then. But it does only require 3 Q's in the qualifying period this time instead of 6 Q's.
• Matching seriously in Open by the end of the year.
• Matching crudely in Utility by the end of the year.

New Puppy

• Get him/her started on all the puppy basics for obedience, rally, and field.
• Get started in conformation ring.
• Matching in rally and Beginner Novice.
• WC?

What are YOUR goals?

2015 Goal Review

What follows are the goals I planned in January 2015. The blue items were accomplished. As usual, I was more successful with my dog goals.

Myself

• Website - change payment method. Essentially did nothing except realize that I need to hire someone to do this. I am hopeful that someone I contacted in early December will be able to help in 2016.
• Incentive program: Develop a more consistent exercise (me and dogs), dog training and other work (office-related and project) schedule. After using this system to earn myself an Apple Watch by June, I relented on the constant record keeping this required. And not keeping records meant I didn't spend time as consistently. Guess that means I need those records for accountability.
• Reprint Balancing Act
• Continue exercise challenge - aim for 200 workouts in 2015, with self-reward prizes for every 50 workouts. - strained my right hamstring in April when out for a power walk during a seminar lunch break. It is still bothering me as I write this 1/1/16, but between yoga and MELT method roller work, it is at least manageable. The hamstring and related pains meant I barely exercised in April, September and October. I did finish 2015 strong with 22 and 29 workouts in November and December, finishing with 170 for the year. Didn't manage to do the prizes in 2015.
• Participate in a 5K - did it at home on the treadmill on 12/28, but DID get it done.
• One goal that was not on my list in January 2015 was to lose weight, but when I started the Fast Metabolism Diet in February, I lost about 10 lbs and 2 pant sizes and have been successful at keeping it off, something I wasn't when I lost a bunch of weight 15 years ago. I've definitely changed the overall way I eat and cook.

Sonic 3 years old

• Give her time this year to mature into her obedience performances - focus on her motivation and speed vs. nitpicking for perfection
• Improve finishes to > 50% correct by working on them more consistently. I don't feel that we showed consistently enough to really gauge her progress. Plus I'm too lazy to go back and count!
• Keep her sound via a consistent exercise program
• UDX legs (1st 2/7; 2nd 2/15; 3rd 2/16)
• OTCh points (4 from 12/14 UB 2nd, 1/8/15 - 10, UB 1st; 2/6 - 20, UB 1st; Florida - 6 more for 3 UB 3rds; 1 for UB 2nd at Progressive 4/26; 2 for 3rd in UB at MB 10/18; 1 for 3rd in UB at Richland KC 12/3; 3 for 2nd in UB at Medina KC 12/4) 47 total
• OM1 - over 200 points by year’s end, just 12 shy of the Open points needed
• MH legs - Flyways (1st - 8/15), Marshbanks (2nd - 8/15), Backwater (3rd - 9/15), American Chesapeake Club (4th - 10/4), Central Kentucky RC (5th - 10/25)
• BUD [Big Useful Dog] award at National in April (qualify or place in 3 different areas)
• Qualify for 2016 NOC - though if I DO end up breeding her, I would want to do it a year from now, so she would be home with puppies during the 2016 NOC if all goes as planned.
• Didn’t even have anything about her breed championship on the goals list. But here she is on 12/4/15 with her Championship!

Jag 8 months old

• RN (2 legs at Strawberry cluster; 3rd at BTCA in May)
• RA (2 legs at Marshbanks October; 3rd leg at Greater Toledo November)
• RE (1st leg at Greater Toledo, legs 2 & 3 at IX Center in December)
• Matching for real in Novice, solidify his understanding of the exercises
• Matching at least crudely in Open
• Continue his Utility education, with a focus on Signals and DJ - didn't spend that much time on this
• Teach him to jump well (got Susan Salo's puppy jumping dvd in January...)
• Work on his CH (1st major 1/18/15; up to 14 points by TKC in June; 5 point major Sept 25); earned 1st 5 GCh points at Ft Wayne weekend.
• BT National in May
• Try Barn Hunt with him - June - he LOVES it! RATN in June & July, 1 Open leg in September.
• BN in fall if ready (1st leg at BT National in May 194.5; 2nd leg 194.5, 3rd leg 199.5 at Marshbanks)

What a Whirlwind Couple of Months!

Although I'm publishing this on January 1, I started to write this during our final show weekend of 2015 at Cleveland in December.

After a spring and summer of mostly field training and very little of anything else, Sonic and I dove into a series of Master Hunt tests. In addition to success there, we also threw in some conformation weekends, one barn hunt trial, and some obedience/rally weekends.

August 15/16 - Michigan Flyways Retriever Club hunt test: Master pass #1
August 22/23 - Marshbanks Golden Retriever Club's hunt test: Master pass #2
August 29/30 - both dogs helped me teach an obedience seminar for the Obedience Training Club of Greater Lansing
September 5 - showed both dogs in big zippo in conformation at the Jaxon KC show.
September 11-13 - Backwater RC hunt test: Master pass #3
September 19-20 - OFF
September 26 - Buckeye RC hunt test: Master test failure
September 27 - Monroe KC:  Sonic RWB, Jag Winners Dog for a 5-point major to complete his AKC breed championship!
September 27 - Great American Dog Barn Hunt trial: Jag first RATO leg.
October 3-4 - American Chesapeake Club hunt test: Master pass #4
October 10-11 - field weekend with Midwest Waterways FCRC: Sonic did a super job as test dog for WCX.

Sonic's 5th Master pass for her MH

October 17-18 - Marshbanks Golden Retriever Club's obedience/rally trials: Sonic Saturday Utility B 3rd place, 2 OTCh points. Jag 2 Rally Advanced legs (94 leg 1, 100+ 1st place leg 2) and 2 Beginner Novice legs (194.5 4th place, and 199.5 1st place) to finish his BN title.
October 24-25 - Central Kentucky RC hunt test: Master pass #5 - new MH!
October 28 - NE Indiana KC: Sonic WB 1 point
October 29 - LaPorte County KC - Sonic WB 2 points
October 31 - Marion KC: Jag Best of Opposite Sex 1st time out as a special, 3 point GCh major, also beating another dog special.
November 1 - NE Indiana KC: Jag Select Dog for 2 more GCh points, and beat a dog special.
November 7/8 - trip to Lakeland, FL to present a seminar. The dogs stayed home.
November 15 - Greater Toledo Obedience Training Club: Jag 3rd Rally Advanced leg with 1st place with a perfect 100+
November 15, trial  - Greater Toledo Obedience Training Club: Jag 1st Excellent leg with a 1st place 99.
November 16 - OFA Eye clinic. Both dogs passed with flying colors.
November 20-21 - Toledo KC: Sonic managed 1 Utility B pass out of 4 classes shown. A positive was she managed to hold her sit stay on the 2nd day, so we excused ourselves and she got a jackpot.
Jag: 1st place in Beginner Novice with a 198.5.
November 29/30 - OFF.
December 3-5 - Cleveland IX Center shows: showed Jag all 3 days in Best of Breed, got zippo.
Thursday, Sonic was 3rd in Utility B for one more OTCh points. Jag was the most distracted he had EVER been in his life and I begged and pleaded him to a 91 score–very generous–for his 2nd Excellent leg. I excused us from the Beginner Novice ring after essentially dragging him around 2/3rds of the heeling pattern. I saw no point in continuing.
Friday, Jag came back from Thursdays mess to win Excellent B with a perfect 100 to finish his RE title, one of the goals of my trip. He then went in Beginner Novice and did a fine job, earning 1st place with a 198.
Best of all, Sonic won Winners Bitch with Lindsey Cook showing her for the 3 points to finish her breed Championship! And she topped that off with a 2nd place in Utility B for 3 more OTCh points.
To finish off the show year, on Saturday, Jag was 1st again in Excellent B with a 95. Nowhere near as good a performance as Friday, but lots better than Thursday. Sonic was 3rd in Utility B.

Friday's Medina KC winnings - New CH for Sonic, new RE for Jag

Total for this stretch:
Jag - Championship, 5 GCH points, BN, RA, RE, and a RATO leg
Sonic - MH, 6 OTCh points, CH.