Weekend

Posted on July 27, 2008 by Leanne

Oops, nearly a week since the last update! I guess I just don’t have much to discuss at the moment, and it’s nice to have a weekend free of competition!

The dogs all ran well at flyball training on Wednesday and Saturday. Dylan has been working his socks off for me. He’s scheduled to make his “official” Open debut at York in the Night Owlers, and he hasn’t run with any of the dogs in the team before so we’ve been making sure he’s ok with changeovers etc. Thankfully he is! It should be a decent team, but hopefully the weather will be a bit cooler this year. Our lead dog Big Archie is a heavy-set black Lab who can suffer in the heat, and I have no idea how Dylan will work as we’ve never had to deal with higher temperatures yet. On the other hand, it was pretty warm yesterday and he didn’t seem affected (unlike Mollie, who got a little too toasty!) so hopefully he’ll be ok.

The girls are both running in Marsh Owlers again, not sure how we’ll do as we have a couple of dogs running who can produce some cracking singles times but who can also really not! Plus we have the two manic black hairies Mollie and Lolly, who won’t stop if they overheat so we’ll have to keep an eye on both of them.

We’re also camping for the first time with ‘Owlers next week, it’s the club’s 4th Birthday and we’re having a bit of a party. The venue at York Racecourse is fab and Dog Friendly are hosting, so it should be a good tournament.

The results from EMDAC went up on Tuesday, along with the updated League Tables. Kim should qualify for the Primary Jumping Grand Prix Finals without much issue, she’s 5th in the League at the moment and I don’t think she’ll drop out. We almost certainly aren’t going to qualify for the Agility though, unless we have a great placing in Saturday’s Last Chance Qualifier! We are also going to get automatic promotion into Novice Jumping at the start of the new season, but it does look like I’m going to have to apply for promotion in Agility unless we do particularly well at Midland Counties. Our issues with agility this year haven’t been with the contacts, just generally with the courses and bad handling or simply being out of the placings, so hopefully we’ll get the OK. I’ve known for a couple of months that Kim wasn’t going to get the Primary Medium Dog of the Year, we sacrificed our chances to do flyball earlier in the year. Both the dogs in front of her are fantastic dogs though, I’ll be thrilled if either of them wins!

As I said before, I was really hoping Dylan wasn’t going to go into the promotion window for the Jumping, but unfortunately he has. The top 53 dogs are automatically promoted, and Dylan is currently 48th. Arg! I’m confident that he can cope with the Primary Jumping courses but I would have liked to stay as Introductory for another season, it would have been a big boost for both of us. I’ve still got my fingers crossed that some of the other dogs might overtake him, but if he does get any more placings at our next 2 competitions it’s very unlikely. Thankfully he does get to stay in Intro Agility, and I think our chances of qualifying for the Agility or Jumping Grand Prix finals are about very slim.

Our running orders have also come for Dylan’s first KC show. I chose to enter the Thursday only of Northern Week in the hope that the classes would be smaller and therefore the atmosphere might be a bit more relaxed, and Dylan also would be able to do the 1-2 Combined courses rather than the 1-4. Might as well take advantage of entering as a Grade 2 whilst I still could! My guess paid off anyway, his classes are squidgey small (45 in Agility, 47 in Jumping) so feeling pretty optimistic. Kim has two Medium 1-4 classes which ought to suit her as well, with 9 and 10 in Agility and Jumping respectively so no exactly a huge amount of competition! Still, getting placed does rely on getting a clear, so it’s not all plain sailing … !

EMDAC – Mixed Fortunes

Posted on July 22, 2008 by Leanne

EMDAC Camping on Thursday evening

Kim

Kim has ruined her reputation for consistency, if nothing else. She couldn’t have shown any less enthusiasm this weekend! She was placed 9th in Primary Agility on Thursday but I can’t even remember running the class so it can’t have been a great run, and it only got worse. We didn’t get another clear round until Saturday afternoon, when I got lost on the Clockwork Tunnels course but she was going at such a steady pace (read: a leisurely amble!) that I had time to correct and we got another 9th. Finally on Sunday I wasn’t even going to run her in the Open Wicked Weaves, figuring we had no chance against Graduate and Masters dogs, but in the end I gave her a go and she actually went clear although I could probably have run a snail faster. That she finished 2nd was a bit mindboggling! The dog that beat her is a Masters Maxi dog (currently working successfully at Grade 6 for those who only work at KC!) so I was really pleased. Weaves are not Kim’s strongest suit but she negotiated a set of 12 four times over a tough course without fault which is why she was placed so highly. Almost everyone else in the class was E’d.

By Sunday I was actually beginning to wonder if there was something physically wrong with her! The heart murmur issue is always on my mind and she had gone lame early last week after running into the side of the car, so I did wonder if she just wasn’t feeling well. However, when she was out walking she was sound as a bell and was happy in herself, eating well, no coughing, plenty of barking(!) so I wasn’t sure about it being her heart or some other illness. In some ways it was a relief on Sunday morning when she kicked into Kim-gear on the Primary Agility and ran well (albeit we got E’d, but my fault, not hers!), but in other ways it was incredibly frustrating as it’s obviously a mental issue she has — or maybe that I have?! — as it crops up every 3-6 months. Hopefully we’ll find a way out of it before Midland Counties in 3 weeks!

Dylan

As much as I expected Kim to do well this weekend, I did not expect to get anything from Dylan. He has been working very well in training recently but we hadn’t yet transferred that to the ring, and so I was looking at this as an extended training weekend for him. Lots of held contacts, proofing waits, encouraging speed, and confidence boosting if and when we got E’d. Taking it easy and no pressure, basically.

Was I in for a surprise … ! Apparently Dylan and I were working much more in sync this weekend than Kim and I. First time for everything! It really felt like we understood each other on course and were working on the same page rather than reading from different books, although that didn’t exactly work every time and we definitely didn’t have clear rounds in everything. Our best run and equally best placing was a 9th in Introductory Helter Skelter, a very fast, open course. He also placed 10th and 11th in the various Introductory Jumping classes, and another 11th from Power and Speed.

Intro Jumping run (10th place): http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/emdac190708.wmv
Very wide from 5-6 (shouldn’t have babied the turn!) and a real *faceplant* coming out of the FT, not really visible on the video but it looked painful! He was 2 seconds off the winner and this was by no means his best run, no where near running flat out and he actually stuttered a few times into turns (FHS!)

We still have a lot of work to do on contacts, they were creepy again but it is improving. A few more sessions with the stride regulator and hopefully he’ll be striding down more confidently. We did go clear in an agility class on Friday where I (relatively) quick-released his contacts, only to learn the timer hadn’t started. (3rd time and counting …) So we re-ran and made a complete shambles of it, so I held all the contacts and finished way out of the placings. We also got a clear in the agility on Sunday but with held contacts so I knew we had no chance. Jet, on the other hand, had a storming run and came 3rd!

There is still room for bags of improvement, there were only a few moments where he was really extending into jumps and touching something near to top speed. Generally I was just pleased that he improved on almost every run, and his very last run of the weekend was probably his best in terms of speed, extension and confidence, which meant we got E’d but still happy. We didn’t have complete focus for every run — there are still some distractables! — but he actually broke his wait for one which was a bit of a shock! Speaking of waits, I got strict after that and although I thought he had perfect waits afterwards, the video proves otherwise!

Sneaky Creepy Naughty Wait: http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/badwait.wmv

It’s a good job he makes me laugh, he looks so pleased with his attempt at being sly!

The only worry is that with these near-top-10 placings, Dylan might now be in the top-50 of the Intro Jumping League which would qualify him for automatic promotion next season to Primary. It will depend on how the other dogs in the tables have done, but with my calculations he’ll go in at about 45th and I really do not want him in Primary next year! We’ll cross that bridge when the points go up from this weekend, fingers crossed …

Mollie

Who would be without the Mol? She only managed 1 clear round this year, but she was only doing 3 classes, and came 17th out of 58 despite stopping telling me off a few times around the course. Here’s her video from Veterans Jumping on the first day, with me getting her a 5R on the last fence. Oops!

http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/molliejumping.wmv

She has also discovered the new love of her life. It’s even better than flyball! Or at least better than a tennis ball, and I never expected to say that about Mollie.

Dash’n'Splash: http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/dashnsplash.wmv

We did get her out in the end. Her fastest retrieve was 10.84s which wasn’t good enough to get placed, but she was the oldest dog there!

[NB: Katie at http://www.jetpops.co.uk/ has some more of the course plans available]

Graduation, upcoming EMDAC, Mollie can Jump!

Posted on July 16, 2008 by Leanne

I graduated on Monday — I’m now officially a graduate of the University of Leeds! I finished with a 2:1 in Classical Civilizations, I’m really chuffed. Unfortunately I now have to find a job and stop lazing around, very sad. My parents did get me a gift on Monday and so now I have my own camera and don’t need to keep borrowing my sisters. It’s not a big posh one but a cute little Kodak that suits me just fine, I have no excuse for not videoing the dogs now.

Firstly though I’m off to EMDAC tomorrow! I love their Midsummer Madness show, it’s a lot of fun and I’m running all three dogs this year. I have enough trouble just running Kim, so it’ll be interesting! Mollie is only doing 1 run a day in the Veterans Jumping classes to give her something to do, but I think she’s going to have more fun doing the Dash n Splash.

I don’t know how Dylan will handle doing a full 4-day show, but I’ve entered him in everything and we’ll just see how it goes. Thankfully he isn’t high enough up the League tables to be considered for promotion at the end of this season (he’s currently just out of the top-100 and he needs to be in the top-50 to get promoted), so even if we do manage to get some placings he’ll still be Introductory next year. Good news for us! Kim, on the other hand, is almost definitely going to get promoted to Novice in Jumping, and is just outside the top-25 for promotion in Agility, so we’ll have to try and get our act together for those points. I’d rather run at the same level for both, I’m not sure I can handle running Dylan in Intro, Kim in Primary Jumping and Kim in Novice Agility!

Finally, whilst playing with the props I realised that a) the ramp is almost the exact width of the height of a standard agility jump, and b) Dylan has never negotiated a wall. It’s very unlikely that one will crop up but you never know, so we improvised a bit and after a bit of persuasion he was clearing it nicely. Hopefully if we ever encounter a wall in a class we’ll be able to tackle it with some confidence now!

Whilst it was out, Mollie decided she wanted to play. So here is proof that TheMol can actually jump full height obstacles, albeit it is “solid” and there aren’t 18 to negotiate.

Haven’t quite worked out the settings on the new camera yet, hence why it’s a bit grainy and out of focus.

Play It By Ear

Posted on July 11, 2008 by Leanne

Dylan’s KC registration has gone through! And this is not the name I wanted!

But hey, what can you do? The name I wanted was “Watch This Space”, but for some bizarre and unexplained reason the Kennel Club does not allow the word “watch” to be included in a dog’s KC name. I’ve always had “Play It By Ear” on my list of maybe-names but I’ve never been thrilled with it, but I also always had the feeling that it was what he’d end up as (Kim’s name wasn’t my first choice either).

It also took 8 days after the actual day he was registered for it to arrive. I know the actual day he was registered because they rang me up and told me I couldn’t have “watch” in a name and to think of a new one, on the spot, ASAP, so they could register him there and then. And cash my cheque, of course.

I complain, but really I’m just pleased he’s finally registered and I don’t have to worry about it anymore.

Trick Training with Props!

Posted on July 9, 2008 by Leanne

We have some new toys!

Ex-sports equipment is a lot of fun for me and the hounds. Both are foam-padded with a tough outer, and have been acquistioned from the old storeroom. They weren’t being used to their full potential!

Kim has been learning to walk backwards up the stairs, which has taken her longer than you might think. She has a decent amount of back end awareness and I know she understands what I want her to do, but she can’t really see the point. She just thinks it’s easier all around if she just walks up front-ways. It is adorable when she does occasionally get frustrated with me though and starts offering every other behaviour she can think of, which I think I resist quite well! For a dog who only started working with the clicker this year, she’s really taken to it. She is a seriously smart cookie, I can only imagine how smart she could tell me she is if we’d been working with the clicker from puppyhood.

Dylan, on the other hand, is a very good and loyal little mummy’s boy and always does what he’s told. Either that or he doesn’t have the brains to think of other solutions! But he picked up the walking backwards upstairs in about five seconds, so we moved on to teaching him a handstand … kind of. http://fjoiris.livejournal.com/ has been teaching her Whippet Boing! to do a handstand, but I think Dylan is probably a bit heavy to pull this off completely. At the moment his back feet are still resting on the highest step, but the balance is coming and his front end is getting stronger, which is really what I was aiming for. His 2o2o in agility is lovely, but it won’t harm him to have a bit more front-end balance and muscle for when we finally get that creepy-contact thing out of the way.

The big ramp I’m just using to practise balancing on at the moment, because I can’t think of anything else to do with it right now! It is fairly hard for me to balance on with one foot. Kim and Dylan can hold their begs pretty well now, apparently they can balance a lot better than I can.

Dylan worked really well at agility last night, probably the best session we’ve had. He can be a lot faster than Kim and is always a lot more responsive, but he does prefer the big open courses where he can stretch out and actually jump extended. Still a lot of work to do on speeding up his contacts but we tried a stride regulator for the first time which did improve things once we’d worked out the best place to put it. I still don’t think he’s going to be fast enough to get out of Grade 3 but I think we should do well enough to put an Agility Warrant on him. As for BAA, we’ll have to see how it goes next week at EMDAC!