Dylan’s 2008 Review

Posted on December 28, 2008 by Leanne

We just had one goal at the beginning of the year.

Dylan to get his 200 points (Flyball Dog Award) in BFA Flyball

And we achieved it! It shouldn’t have been hard and somehow it really was, but my tall boy did get it in his first Open tournament.

He started competing in agility on January 19th, at EMDAC. Since then we’ve had a handful of top-10 placings this year, and qualified for the BAA Grand Prix Introductory Jumping Final, which was way beyond what I thought we were going to be capable of this year. We did get E’d in the Final, but it was on our trouble spot of the weaves and he actually ran really well, he coped better with the atmosphere than I had anticipated. We had some low points; we didn’t start training on a regular basis until May, and then we had to deal with some baby-dog issues (weave popping, dogwalk fear, flying/stopping on the seesaw) that I don’t think would have become a problem had we had access to equipment and regular training earlier. In the last few of months Dylan really seems to have matured in agility, he’s been getting much more confident and has shown some serious flashes of potential. If I can tap into that, we could be ok. (Of course, having a serious dogwalk fall hasn’t exactly helped that. I think at least the first few months of 2009 will be overcoming that issue.)

Flyball was a very up and down year, but we did finally move from Starters to Open tournaments. Dylan is now running solidly in a team, his boxwork is looking good and he has clocked some decent Singles times without ever being really pushed. He got his FD first time out and is actually well on his way to his FDI, he should have that by the end of the winter season. He doesn’t seem to be running as well indoors but that may just be his preference, a lack of experience, or Sutton Fields was a fluke. We won’t know for sure until this time next year, but that’s half the fun!

So, our goals for 2009.

Dylan to win out of Grade 3 (on points or wins)
Dylan to win out of Introductory (Jumping and Agility)
Dylan to gain his 3000 points (Flyball Dog Graduate) award
Dylan to gain at least 100 Agility Warrant points

Probably a bit too ambitious but I feel like I need to set high targets with Dylan otherwise we both relax a little too much, play about, and don’t do any proper training.

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2008 by Leanne

Kim’s 2008 Review

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Leanne

I know this is a little early but I have 2 more to post (Dylan and Mollie) and only 2 weeks until the end of the year!

My goals for 2008 with Kim were:

Qualify for a final
Kim to gain 10,000 points (Silver Award) in BFA Flyball
Kim to win out of Grade 2 (not on points!)
Kim to get her Agility Warrant Bronze award

And we achieved all of them.

Kim has generally had a fantastic year in agility. We moved up to Novice (BAA) in Agility and Jumping with 5 2nd places and 14 top-10 places, plus the 2nd from the Finals. We moved up to Grade 4 (KC), attending just 7 shows this year and gaining 5 1st places. Kim got her Agility Warrant Bronze in September.

In flyball, Kim got her 10,000pts Silver Award in October. She clocked 4.9 singles times as an average over the year, although that has now slowed to 5s. I’m not sure what will happen in the New Year as she’ll drop to 12″, so she could speed up slightly again. Who knows?!

It wasn’t all good news though, in some ways we had as many downs this year as we did last. I was devastated in July when we found out Kim has a Grade 4 heart murmur (bordering on a Grade 5). If I rest my head on her ribcage I can hear her heart skipping every few beats, and I hate it, especially the feeling of helplessness. I so want to be able to fix her, and I can’t. Kennel Cough in August was awful, we missed a few competitions, including the BFA British Championships where Owlers did so well. And of course, Julie’s stroke in June. Thankfully this year though I can say we had such a great bunch of people to support each other, from Owlers and A4P and Ruffdogs.

I was going to set some goals for 2009, but I couldn’t think of what they would be. Our goals for 2008 were the goals I always wanted to achieve with Kim. They were, essentially, our lifetime goals (competing at Crufts was also on the list, but we did that in 2007). Anything else we do now is a bonus, because 5 years ago I never believed we’d even get this far. On the other hand, I know how competitive Kim is. (I’m never going to believe those people who say my dog doesn’t know how well she’s done … Kim knows.) So I can’t let her down; I have to try and be the best handler I can for her, and go out there looking for a few more places, a few more points. I can’t wrap her in cotton wool, I have to let her go and do what she loves for the time she has left to do it.

So I guess I should set some goals, just to prove we’re not giving up yet.

Kim to win out of Grade 4 (not on points)
Kim to get her Agility Warrant Silver award
Kim to win out of either Novice Jumping or Novice Agility under the BAA
Kim to get her 15,000pts (Gold Award) in BFA Flyball

Realistically, I think the Agility Warrant Silver and the BFA Gold Award are completely out of our reach. We just don’t attend enough KC shows to get the Silver, and don’t do enough flyball for her Gold (that’s the choice we made when Kim decided to be a multi-sports dog). We’ll see though, right now it all depends on Kim’s health. I am cutting back on everything; fewer runs per weekend in agility, a slower team so she can sit out more often in flyball. I want to be setting goals again for 2010, knowing she is healthy and happy. So I suppose that is our biggest goal for next year; I want Kim to be happy, healthy and fighting, like she is now.

Nearly Christmas?!

Posted on December 15, 2008 by Leanne

I can’t believe it’s nearly Christmas! Just 10 days to go, crazy.

The dogs have not been getting into the festive spirit, yet. Dylan seems intruiged by the baubles on the tree, and equally terrified and fascinated by the Santa ornament that we’ve had forever. It winds up and the base gently swivels whilst it plays a tune (Silent Night, I think!), and Dylan can’t stop watching it. Maybe he’s just horrified.

We didn’t get to flyball on Saturday, everyone is going away for their holidays and there weren’t enough people to make it worthwhile. Plus the weather was horrible! Just one more agility training session too, or at least for Kim there is. Dylan and I are going to train with Natalie and Kai on Sunday in addition to the norm. I haven’t seen Kai work in the flesh for a while so I’m looking forward to that, and I haven’t had chance for a proper catch up with Nat in ages. I think it will do Dylan good to work in a completely new environment and on different equipment too, it’s something I wish I had done more with him earlier in his training but it just wasn’t possible. Much like now really! I wish I had the time and money to go and train with different people, but I’m working to a very tight budget at the moment and with show entries it’s just not feasible.

Dylan’s never actually been on a proper training day. I’ve always been a bit hindered with Kim; training days or evenings don’t usually work well for her. She hates repetitive exercises and she does switch off if we train for longer than 30-45 minutes, and most training days/evenings are much longer than that. It’s usually worth it for me to go and listen to what trainers are advising or explaining, but then again it’s hard to sit and listen when I’m trying to keep Kim focussed and enthused. Swings and roundabouts! I guess the solution would be to go without Kim, but then I always feel a bit of an idiot. Maybe Dylan will be up for some more training days in the future (when I have a bit more cash to hand!)

Barking Dogs

Posted on December 13, 2008 by Leanne

I was reading a blog post earlier about dogs barking when playing agility. Obviously relevent to my interests!

I blogged a long time ago about Kim’s barking habits, but in summary:

If I have a quiet Kim on my hands at agility, I’m worried. I want her to bark. I have a dog who isn’t always hyper-motivated (or even slightly motivated!) to work, and one of my sure fire ways to get her revved up is to ask her to “speak”. The issue with Kim isn’t that she’s barking and I can’t stop her, it’s that she’s barking and I don’t want to stop her. (Well, at agility. I can’t stop her at flyball, but I still want a barking dog!). It tells me that she’s happy and enjoying herself, and that she’s going to run at least one or two of her socks off, if not all of them. She’s a very vocal dog at home, which is incredibly annoying but it’s just part of her personality.

Dylan is a bit of an odd one. He barks when Kim or Mollie are training, but not when he’s training himself. For a long time as a puppy, the quieter he was, the more excited he was. He still goes through phases of that but he does bark more often now. The nice thing about Dylan is he’ll shut up if you ask him to!

Mollie barks constantly at training or competitions, she just finds it all really exciting and it’s hard to persuade her to shut up (unless you hand over a toy for her to wreck). She howls and sings a lot as well.

I know a lot of agility competitors find barking dogs really annoying. I guess I don’t because I’m did flyball first, and anyone who has done flyball knows that barking is inevitable. I think that probably has changed my attitude to barking as well; dogs bark at flyball because they’re excited. I want my dogs to feel as excited about agility as they are about flyball, so I let them bark.

How do you feel about barking dogs?