EMDAC

Posted on October 21, 2007 by Leanne

We were back at EMDAC again this weekend for the first show in their Winter Series. Kim has been promoted this season to Primary in both agility and jumping, so this was our first show where we were running Primary courses.

We did not have a good start! Kim was still sulking with me that Mollie and Dylan had set off on their walk whilst she had to sit in the car, and I knew on the startline of Primary Agility that she was not going to concentrate. It was a harder course than we had tackled for a long while, and it really needed some focus from both of us to get round. No such luck! E’d at 13 for a backjump – repeat to self: Must practise front crosses.

Primary Jumping was up next, a lovely simple course that I expected to see a lot of clears on (actually there were 24 clears, but lots of 5/10 faults for poles). I was just hoping for a clear round on this one, or failing that, Kim listening to me and/or using her speed. I was not prepared for what was to come … I downed Kim on the line in a wait and set off. When I glanced over my shoulder to check she was watching me, she was sniffing. Not a good sign. I gave the release command and she carried on sniffing, but harder. In fact, she shuffled forward (still in a down) and started sniffing around. I set off back to restart her, and just as I was reaching down to put her back, Kim decided she wasn’t having any of that and set off. Cue moment of indecision by handler – recall her back and restart, ensuring Elimination, or set off after her and just hope for the best?! By this time Kim is hitting the 3rd jump, a point at which I know she will spin if I’m not somewhere nearby, so I set off like a lunatic. Kim proves that she does not need me as a handler as she correctly negotiates the correct course. When I finally catch up with her at the weaves (obstacle 6) she stops dawdling and we finish the rest of the course in blistering speed. Cue overjoyed handler, and assorted family and friends trying not to laugh hysterically at the side of the ring.

Another write off, or so I thought. When checking the results, it turned out we had come 4th and were only 2 seconds off the winner. 2 seconds we could have gained from a proper start? NB: Kim’s sniffing wasn’t completely out of character. She was very clearly munching on something as she took the first 5 jumps, so I can only presume someone dropped a treat on the line. I’ll have a rant about that another day though.

Power and Speed was a cracking run until Kim’s love of the Aframe reasserted itself and she abandoned my desperate yelling of “leftleftleftleft” and hard breaking to redo part of the Power section of the course. Finally, Primary Helter Skelter. Helter Skelter is not one of my favourite classes. I either forget where I’m going or it’s just too easy and all the superfast dogs clip round and leave us standing in their dust. This was a course in the forgetful category.

It was also Kim’s best run of the day. She did her down wait. She was focussed, responsive and gunning for it. Unfortunately she is handicapped by a handler who, whilst remembering where she is going, is stricken by the completely unfounded fear that her dog is going too fast to turn for the next obstacle, and puts in an un-necessary left command that causes dog to be called off the obstacle completely (in a very sharp, fast turn) and get a refusal. (It was the 7-8-9 sequence, I pulled her off 9). We went back, carried on and blasted the rest of the course, and we were the 2nd fastest 5 faults, behind a dog who knocked a pole. Another what if course. I feel like I let Kim down on that run, I couldn’t have asked for more from her and she was on course for a top-3 place in her first Primary show.

She did get a 4th though, and the courses were all a step up from what we’ve done before. Definitely looking forward to the next one, although it isn’t until January 5th. Just Wyre before that — November and December are looking quiet.

Selby College Flyball

Posted on October 15, 2007 by Leanne

I haven’t had many flyball updates on the blog yet, we had a bit of a break through September.

Kim and Mollie were both running in the ‘Owlers second team, drawn as bottom seed in Division 2. I generally don’t mind being bottom seed, especially if the Divisions are well seeded, because I think racing against slightly faster teams can be very good for both the handlers and dogs! Unfortunately at this tournament we were the only team in Div 2 without a sub-19 seed time, putting our fastest ever time a good half-second behind everyone else. Plus we were missing Jet, our super-fast lead dog … but we went in and gave everyone a run for their money anyway!

We arrived at 8:45am, with our division due to start around 9:15-9:30. We walked the dogs and then wandered up to the hall to see how Division 1 was running. It was a bit of a shock (to say the least!) to find out the tournament hadn’t even started yet! There had been a mix-up with the paperwork, with some teams withdrawing at the last minute and the reserves unable to commit, although I am still a bit in the dark about the specifics. The tournament didn’t get started until 9:45, and with 5 Divisions to run, plus presentations and an hours drive home … not a great start to the day, especially since we had wanted to be home well before the World Cup Semi Final started! (We missed the quarter final because we were at Durham last weekend, and we’ll miss the Final because we’re at EMDAC next weekend! Not sure my mother is best pleased with my choice of comps at the moment …)

Our dogs didn’t get into the ring until 11am, and our first race was the one we were most looking forward to, against the ‘Owlers top team Barneys (who were drawn as top seed in Division 2). We won the first leg, and then a fumble and a light cost us the next three. Good racing though! Barking Owlers raced their socks off all day, but we sadly lost all but one race and finished 5th of 6. Barney Owlers did a better and finished 3rd, with one very unfortunate lost race and another against the fantastic Cleveland team who ran low 18-second times all day. I was boxloading for Night Owlers, our third team, who raced brilliantly all day and finished 2nd in Division 5. Their last race was at 7:30pm, and we didn’t hang around the presentations! We managed to listen to the first half of the rugby on the radio, and caught the second half at home.

Dylan was a bit nervous when we first went into the hall, but he soon settled down to watch the flyball with his baby sister Kai, who was an absolute angel! They have quite a family resemblence and they seem to share some personality traits too, which is lovely. Dylan had a lovely day playing with Lolly and helping Kim find suitable mole-hills to dig up in the exercise area. Speaking of, Kim was on top form when we were racing. She loves running indoors and always clicks into top gear. Her boxwork was spot on too, I couldn’t have asked for more from her. Mollie ran brilliantly as well, she hasn’t run lead dog for a while but she thoroughly enjoyed it. We need to work on her box and her stamina, but she’s finally fit again and go back to training.

Dylan’s Blog

Posted on October 9, 2007 by Leanne

You might remember I posted a couple of weeks ago about Dylan’s contacts mysteriously dissolving. I went back a step with him and he’s gone back to being 110%, even ignoring thrown toys and me dancing about all over the place in attempt to distract him. Even better, I’ve noticed a few times he’s adjusted his stride to ensure he hits the 2o2o, which really shows he understands what’s been asked of him.

This week I stepped up again and put my mini-tunnel out too. Again, we have consistent contacts! It didn’t seem to matter whether we were working away from or towards the tunnel, which was great, and we even managed to practise doing some front and rear crosses. Very pleased about that!

I’ve also started putting up the jumps to full height at various times when we’re doing exercises. Sometimes different jumps are on different heights, sometimes they’re all full height. So far so good! Dylan hasn’t had a problem with the height at all, which I never expected him to do, and he’s coping really well. The only issue I have is that he’s a very careful jumper, he doesn’t seem to like knocking poles. I don’t think he’s scared of falling poles, and I’ve never bothered about warning him about knocking poles because it’s always been something he’s done very rarely, but he just likes to make sure all those poles stay up! Whilst that’s something I’m pleased about, he’s so careful sometimes that he is sacrificing his speed to ensure he jumps nice and clean. I’m not sure what I can do, or even if I should worry at all! I think maybe as his confidence builds this will be something that improves naturally. Any comments very much appreciated though!

We’re flyballing indoor this weekend, and Dylan is coming along to get used to the atmosphere — it’s always a lot louder, hotter and different at indoor competitions, and I’d like him to be introduced to one before he has to compete at one (although that won’t be until next year!). The other reason is that Natalie’s adorable Kai is coming along too for a bit of socialisation, and I’m dying to get a photo of the two of them together. Little Lassie pups!

South Durham

Posted on October 7, 2007 by Leanne

Another KC show! Even I can’t resist the siren song for too long … that, or there aren’t any BAA shows on during September/early October. Either way, we had a fantastic time, with only one complaint on my part and I’ll get to that in a minute! I had Kim with me (of course!) but Katie had also entrusted her beloved Jet to me too, for her first KC show.

My first class was Open (or 1-7, as it is now I suppose!) Medium Helter Skelter with Kim. It was a really open course, a bit of a trap with the tunnel but it ran very fast and we ran a nice clear but not quick enough for the places. I didn’t really expect to get anything, since I knew as soon as I’d run it that Kim only really kicked in her gears on the back straight. I did check the results when they came out and Kim would have placed 12th. I was pleased to find out though that all the dogs that beat her were mainly Grade 7 (with a couple of Grade 6 dogs), so even without pushing she’d beaten all the other Grade 1-5 dogs.

Almost immediately after I had to run Jet in her Graded 1-4 Agility class. I am not used to running more than one dog at a show, it was harder work than I thought! I had to walk double the amount of courses and track all the different rings … good practise for when Dylan is out, I suppose. Anyway, Jet was one of the first dogs to run in the class and she set off like a lunatic! I did ok until we got to obstacle 7, our nemesis – the weaves – and I hung too far back and she popped right out. I brought her back around and she back jumped the previous obstacle before we finally worked each other out and tackled the weaves again. This time, perfect weaves, and we were off again. We had another backjump mid-way where I tried to do a rear cross, but she hit all her contacts and we got around the course so I was thrilled!

Kim was in her second class (Combined 1-3 Jumping, click for a larger version on the left) just 10 minutes after Jet was finished, so we hung around again. I got Kim a bit more hyped up and then offended her when she broke her wait and I made her go back. She hates that, she wasn’t impressed at all. Anyway, we set off and despite a really wide turn around 2-3 we ran a great clear and I was fairly confident we’d just won our first combined class. We actually won it by a full 10seconds, and Kim got a gorgeous 1st rosette. This was also the course that Jet a couple of hours later in her 1-3 Jumping, after I’d formulated a plan for the weaves. I was quite worried that Jet’s big, bouncing jump would have a problem with the box, but she actually handled it a lot better than Kim. Next was weaves … when I was reviewing our run in the morning, she’d picked up the weave entry as I was calling “go weave”, which had pulled her off. I’d decided this time to just keep my mouth shut and let her run the weaves herself. She picked up the entry and weaved away with me walking next to her, and we were off! She had no problems with the rest of the course, and actually finished just out of the placings.

Running the same course with two completely different dogs really made me realise how unlike they are! Kim is deceptively quick, with long flowing strides, she has experience on course, and we have 5 years practise running together which means if I do make a mistake she bails me out. She also likes to question my commands if she thinks they’re stupid. Jet, on the other hand, is all enthusiasm! She’s bouncy but much faster than Kim, does everything 110%, and she does everything I ask without a second thought, which means I have to be careful to give her clear commands. They’re both great dogs, just need handling very differently! It was definitely an experience to have two dogs to run.

Jet’s second class was a Graded 1-4, and I was really optimistic about the course with her. If we could crack the weaves again, it was exactly the kind of course Jet loves, with only the last 3 tightly-spaced jumps giving me a bit of a worry in case we had a pole down. She hit her weaves perfectly again and we absolutely flew the rest of the course, and she bounced the last 3 jumps so it wasn’t a problem at all! She came a fantastic 3rd and I was so proud of her. I can’t take any of the credit because it’s Katie who has trained such a fantastic little girl, and done all the hard work with her. She just loaned me an amazing dog for the day, and so (of course!) Jet’s rosette went home with her.

Jet also ran a Combined 1-3 Agility later in the afternoon, which actually went quite well until we lost focus mid-course. I’m still not entirely sure why, but my mum standing ringside with some chips may have had something to do with it! We got E’d for another backjump, but we went on and finished the course. We broke our weaving style simply because Jet was so far on ahead of me she turned around to check whether she was right when she got to the weaves, but when I pulled her back around to give it another shot, she did the full 12 beautifully. We also ran in Open Pairs with Sam and Dash (http://www.aprilmagic.co.uk/), which was a lot of fun! I think we got a 5 on the weaves, but it was a nice run to finish the day. Sam took the fantastic photo of Kim in this post. Jet also had a run with Cat (http://www.themodernlove.co.uk/)in Juniors, and they were unlucky to get an E. It was probably the most difficult course Jet has ever run and I thought Cat did a great job handling her.

My one complaint was the running order of the classes meant that Kim ran her first two classes before 9:30, and then never got to run her second two (both agility). Admittedly we did have to leave early but we hung on until 3:30 in the hope she might get to run, but no such luck. Even if we had have stayed, it would have meant there was a 6-7 hour gap in between her first runs and her last. I’m by no means singling out South Durham here, as every KC show I’ve been to this year has done the same thing, with one or two runs first thing and one or two runs last in the ring. I could understand this happening once or twice but every time?! Could it be (surely not!) that in trying to please the majority of people, the Mediums — as the smallest classes — are getting the toughest deal?

This is only a minor gripe though, because the show was great, lots of classes for Mediums and very generous with their placings (Kim’s 1-3 class had less than 10 dogs in it but they still placed to 5th). Beautiful rosettes and glass tumblers or trophies for the winners, and the judges and their courses were all fantastic too (I particularly liked Louise Raine’s courses). I will hopefully be back next year!

Lincoln Agility Show

Posted on October 1, 2007 by Leanne

Kim and I had an amazing weekend at Lincoln’s 30th Anniversary show, even if we didn’t start off very well! In the first class, I was handling ok but Kim wasn’t switched on, and in the second class Kim was completely switched on and I was terrible! I’m still a bit disappointed in myself on that run, since we set off so well and got all the contacts, only for me to pull her off the right tunnel entry and then I also made her pop the last two poles in the weaves. I guess you win some and you lose some though!

Our last class was the 1-4 Jumping (that’s the course on the left, you can click to see a larger version), and we ended up waiting for hours to run, as it was due to run in one ring and then was moved to last class in a different ring. I’m glad we waited because it was the kind of course Kim liked, and I was determined to get a clear round out of her at some point. It was a long run from 1 to 4, and I think I was the only person in the class to tackle 6-7-8 on the left! We ran a nice clear, but it was getting late and we couldn’t be bothered to hang around to see if we’d got anything. The next morning I bumped into a friend of ours who had been camping on the showground, who congratulated me on Kim’s jumping win as they’d heard the presentation over the tannoy. It took another three hours to confirm as the results sheet went missing, but Kim won the Saturday Grade 1 Jumping.

Sunday we had a tricky course first thing, which actually went a lot better than I thought it would! Despite a moment where she stopped on the dogwalk, I was hopeful that Kim might have been in the places as there weren’t many clears, and she ended up 2nd. Bailey had an amazing run but a split-second of distraction when she saw her lead led to an elimination, which was one of the unluckiest runs of the weekend! The next agility course (on the right, click to see a larger version) was one I was a bit worried about since I thought I might have to nag Kim around it too much for her liking, especially with all the trappy bits. I shouldn’t have worried so much, since we had a fantastic run and finally got the agility win we’ve been waiting for – bring on Grade 2! Again, I think I was one of the few people to handle 1-2-3 on the left, and I even dared to layer in jump 10 when we tackled 5-6. Seems like our years of ring experience finally paid off!

We then waited another age for the final class of the day, the 1-4 Jumping. Kim went clear again but we had a hugely wide turn at one point and I really wasn’t expecting anything at all, but we decided to stay for presentations just so we could get the time for her AW points. So it was a huge shock to find out we’d won the class! Three 1st places in one weekend was more than I had hoped for.

It wasn’t all positive — we did lose all the dogwalk speed we’ve been improving all summer, which I was really disappointed about, and my front crosses were atrocious. So those are the two things we really need to work on!

It was a lovely show though. Great venue, fab weather, good courses, trophies to at least 3rd even in the smaller classes, and it managed to feel like a small, relaxed show even though there were 8 rings. I hope Lincoln can manage another show next year! Big congrats too to Emma & Bailey, who in their first show back for 6 months won out of Grade 1 (and beat Kim and I to it by 12 hours!), to Joanie and Meg who had some great placings in the very fast Grade 3 Jumping classes, and to Orienne and Woody with a 3rd in Grade 3.