Bit of a late update about Sunday!

Dylan and Jet both worked really well. The course was the Combined 1-3 Tuffstuff Qualifier [eta: I stand corrected, it's either the Small and/or Medium Combined 1-3 Agility] from Newton Heath, which we didn’t go to but some of the people in our class had. I’ve drawn it as best I remember from training, but it’s probably a bit like chinese whispers – it’s changed a bit since the original. The spacing was minimum-distances all the way around, not great for my pair of big bouncing pups.

We worked on different sections of the course for a while, then we got two attempts. I’d forgotten how tiring it is running two dogs! And not only that but they’re both Large so I really had to get my arse in gear. Dylan almost went clear, but he got confused re-doing 4/16 and backjumped, which was my fault, I should have given him a stronger left command. I held all his contacts and he had no problems with the weaves. The aframe is still a big magnet and suckers him in but we still managed the call off, even if it was a bit of a wide turn! The second time was worse – I knew he was tired and I shouldn’t really have run him, so we messed up the call-off completely. I’m still working on my timing with him, and it is difficult as he commits very late to jumps and very early to contact equipment.

We are still having major seesaw issues though. He started off being a complete wuss but then every time afterwards his confidence was really building, but it seems that when he finally gets the courage to bomb it like he should, he freaks himself out and then we go back to the beginning. It’s so frustrating! I see him doing an awesome seesaw and he gets loads of praise and tuggy, but then we jump right back to the start again of creepy-crawly dog. The Aframe issue is sorted however, albeit not exactly how I wanted. I asked him to do it today and he ran it cleanly, quickly and straight into a perfect 2on/2off, and did it every time. I guess I can live with that.

Jet ran the course great both times. We were E’d the first time when she took 15/17 after 3 but we’d been training that way so she was just being too smart for her own good. Second time we ran a nice clear, she was fast, nailed her weaves and didn’t get any poles down. Hopefully that will have given her a boost for Dogs on Top next weekend!

The course really didn’t suit Dylan or Jet, those tight spaces and call-offs weren’t ideal for either of them. At the moment I think the class at Wakefield is just a bit beyond what I’d ideally like them to be doing. They both got around the course with decent runs but they both need a lot more work before they can competitively run a course like that. Jet dealt with it better than Dylan but she has a year of competitive experience to back her up, plus I’ve handled her in competition more than I’ve handled Dylan so we both know each other pretty well. Dylan and I are still working each other out!