Monthly Archives: December 2008

More Course Analysis

  By Leanne | December 11, 2008 - 2:55 pm | Agility, Courses, Dylan
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Dylan is still sound and showing no signs of lameness or soreness. He’s stretching out fully when he gets up and I’ve checked for neck extension and curve (ie. holding a treat just to the left or right of his shoulders and then asking him to move his head only to get it). He will be going to a chiropractor … I’m just not sure when. There are none on our immediate area (ie. within an hour’s drive) that I’d be happy taking him to. I’m taking him to flyball on Saturday and I’ll see how he looks there.

Anyway, course discussions! I know most people find this super-boring but I just had to show you the Olympia Qualifier course from Wyre. This is the perfect example of something that looked so easy and really wasn’t. This was an Open 1-7 Combined course.

KC Medium Olympia Qualifier, Course Plan (from memory)Firstly, the wall as jump 2 caught out a few of the inexperienced Grade 1/2 dogs. It also meant that the dogs couldn’t see the long line of jumps coming up. The long line caught out all the dogs without a wait or a go-on command, but also really revved up the speed of the fast dogs and a lot of them missed the turn at 7-8-9 as a result (or had poles down).

8-13 caused some real problems. You needed to cross somewhere between 8 and 10 to set up for the Aframe, and then possibly cross again depending on which side of the Aframe you needed to be on. I rear crossed behind Kim as she hit 10, but she has a long stride which carried her nicely out to 11. Some of the smaller dogs skipped through the gap or missed 10-11 out completely to head for the Aframe. Most people I think front-crossed between 9-10.

Most people just weren’t fast enough to stay on the right of the Aframe and push out over 13, unless you had really solid stop contacts. Plus, staying on the right meant 14 or 15 were big traps (14 was more obviously in front of the Aframe than on my course-plan from memory!) Equally though, the line of 9-12 meant it was really hard to get a smooth line to run on the left of the Aframe to pull over 13.

I rear-crossed behind the Aframe and Kim did a smooth pull over 13 but then we messed up at 14-15. I hadn’t spotted the dogwalk as a trap when I walked the course, but because I was behind Kim and didn’t get my weave command in early enough, she veered off for the contacts. By the time she’d realised what I wanted and adjusted her stride she’d passed the first pole of the weaves. We also got marked for missing the down Aframe contact which was a blatent lie; I saw Kim hit it with both back feet, and so did several spectators.

Anyway, back to boring course analysis. Loads of people couldn’t do right-hand weaves, but it was hard to find a smooth way to be on the left without getting in your dogs way (or pushing them onto the dogwalk). Natasha Wise (the winner) did a fantastic ketschker here, first time I’ve ever seen anyone actually use it in competition and it really worked. I still can’t work out how she did it so I don’t think I’ll be doing one for a while … !

We got E’d on 16-17 when I accidentally called Kim through the gap. I think that was a fairly unusual place to get E’d, although I did see a few dogs taking 16, then the back of 8 and into the tunnel again. Then straight-forward finish.

From what I remember of the results, there were around 20-25 clears, 20 with faults, and the rest were E’d. There were 79 in the class. Personally, those are the kind of numbers I’d want, as a judge. Half the class got around, and half of that made it round clean.

I’m such a course geek! But it really annoys me to see 5million pull-thrus in a 1-7 course because judges think that’s the only way to make it complicated. It was a bit of a speed course for some dogs, but Olympia is a speed Final essentially, and all the qualifiers go through to Semi-Finals anyway. This judge set nice courses all day, and used the wall and the brush fence. Thumbs up!

Dylan’s Fall

  By Leanne | December 10, 2008 - 12:21 pm | Agility, Dylan, Kim
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Dylan had an awful fall last night off the dogwalk.

When we set the dogwalk up, one of the bolts wouldn’t screw in entirely. We do have a problem sometimes in that the bolts get clogged with the sand from the arena. We tested the plank and it was safe and sound, but obviously over the evening the bolt must have loosened — or the sand clogging it loosened and dropped off, which is what I think happened. I had Dylan doing some dogwalk-tunnel-dogwalk reps to try and cure the creepiness, and he was absolutely flying, which was probably what caused the bolt to loosen. Unfortunately the plank jumped up onto the bracket and then slipped as he was ascending and he went flying off the side, head over heels.

I screamed, and I actually thought he’d either killed himself or at the very least broken his neck. I’ve never seen such a horrible fall, he literally kept going for 5 or 6ft before landing in a horrible crumpled heap. Kim and Bailey were barking their heads off as usual and even they shut up. Somehow he got up and walked away with just a grazed face. He must have had some luck with him, because I don’t know how he did it. It was completely my fault, I should have checked the bolt after the first session to make sure it was still secure. I feel sick just thinking about it now, and I couldn’t sleep last night for playing it over in my head. Anyway, he got up, wiggled over to me for a hug with his worried face on. Not a yelp, not winded, not limping. I gave him a hug (hah, you try watching your dog do that and then not hugging him) and walked him around and he was sound, he trotted off to sniff the boards and just kind of asked what we were going to do next. He’s a lot braver than I thought he was.

We screwed the bolt back in properly and I walked him over the dogwalk on the lead. Some reluctance on both sides, I think, but I had to reassure him and myself that the dogwalk wasn’t scary. The first time he needed some real coaxing, the next few he was fine and just wanted his toy. He daren’t approach any speed on it and I didn’t ask him to. I don’t think I dare either.

Before his fall he was running around 2s – 2.2s for the dogwalk, even without quick releases. I think it’s going to take us a long time now to get back to that. We did do a few 2″ wide channel weaves and very simply jumping exercises (over Medium height) to finish with because I didn’t want him to fixate on agility, or the arena we train at, being scary. He was fine and raring to go, wanted his tuggy and being sneaky on breaking his waits.

Of course, Kim couldn’t have everybody ignoring her once she knew Dylan was safe. She made me smile when we were leaving. The yard sometimes have a flock of sheep inside in one of the pens opposite the arena. Jet likes to stare at the sheep quizzically from behind the arena gate, Dylan just ignores them, and Kim hadn’t really clocked onto their existence. As we were coming out, I was still in such a state of shock I completely forgot to put Kim’s lead on. She was heading back to the car with me when all the sheep moved and she spotted them. I thought she was going to start barking and chasing and had another heart-stopping moment, but Kim likes to be unpredicatable. She ran up to the fence with her tail wagging madly, head down, ears back; she sooo wanted to make friends. So cute, the poor sheep didn’t know what to make of her, and Kim was really disappointed that they wouldn’t come over to let her kiss them. She’d be a rubbish farm dog.

Doncaster

  By Leanne | December 9, 2008 - 2:15 pm | Dylan, Flyball, Kim, Mollie
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Doncaster is always such a good comp, lovely venue and it always runs to time.

Dylan was running in Marsh Owlers in Div 2, and it didn’t go exactly to plan. He was running anchor dog but he was just cruising along without putting any effort in. He clocked 5.2-5.3 singles times all morning which was pretty pathetic, but then again so did everyone else, and he was actually one of the faster dogs on the team. Slight improvement in the afternoon but still not much effort.

I think the problem is that Dylan is just plain lazy. He has bags of speed when he wants to use it, but I still need to figure out a foolproof way of getting him to use it when I want him to. He has very little natural drive; his mum wasn’t very drive-y and although his dad was, Dylan has come out at a low wash. So as I can’t rely on an inherent internal motivation (working for the joy of working), I have to find something else to motivate him. Clearly I haven’t found the perfect motivator yet.

Marsh Owlers finished last in our division, we didn’t win anything all day. But then again, we really didn’t deserve to, we didn’t look much like a Div 2 team, with some dogs running out and some dogs just way off the pace (like Dylan!).

Mollie and Kim were both in Night Owlers, in Div 3.

We took Mollie to be measured in the morning which turned out to be … hmm, a bit of a surprise for us. Mollie went under the measure and we were promptly told she was far too big and that was that, no point in measuring even for 2009. Well, Mollie has had 2 measurements at for the 14″ jump height before, because she ran as height dog when the maximum jump height was at 16″. I highly doubt that she’s grown in the last 3 years, but unfortunately we can’t find her old height sheet. She never got a height card from it because the ruling went back to maximum 14″ height before she got her final measure, and it seemed a bit pointless after that.

I have to say I really don’t like the new sliding measure. I think the principal is a great idea, a sliding measure should be easier and more accurate. But the actual structure of the measure means you have to walk the dog underneath a very solid-looking metal frame with two big weight blocks on either side (just smaller than a brick, probably) and get them to stand in the right place before dropping the measuring slide. A lot of our dogs, including Mollie (who is normally totally fearless!) were wary of walking underneath it, and if they’re not stood in exactly the right spot, you need to drag the measure to the new position, whilst asking the dog to maintain a comfortable stand. Doesn’t work! The other problem is that inevitably, someone has to lean over or crouch next to the dog to read the sliding measure. In this situation, most dogs want to sit down and give the person a cuddle. Mollie did, Kim did, and my friend’s two very experienced show dogs also did. So is the dog stood in a natural, comfortable position for an accurate measure? No chance.

Previously, the dogs were asked to stand and a series of lightweight measuring hoops were fitted over the dog, like the Kennel Club use for their measuring system. Nobody leaning over or crouching, you just see if the legs are resting on the floor. Much less stressful for the dogs.

Anyway, Kim and Mollie were both fab, they ran really well and we won our Division. This was a bit of a shock as we had a very strange mix-up team, and we ran slower times all day than the Eagles in Div 4 (who came 2nd in their division, and for whom I was boxloading). No idea how we managed that, but well done to both teams!

Dylan collected his Flyball Dog award (200pts) and Kim got her Silver (10,000pts) which I am so pleased about. Owlers give gifts with the big awards (Silver, Gold, Ice Blue Moon etc), and Kim got a little silver bag with a little silver dog toy, a silver trophy and some treats, as well as a card and a Silver Award badge. Thank you Owlers!

We were home for 8:45 too, which was nice. It was so cold all day though, by the time it came to leaving my brain had frozen (along with my fingers and toes). So many people said Merry Christmas and I don’t think I said it back to any of them, and I can’t even remember who “everybody” was! So if you did say Merry Christmas and you do happen to be reading this, I hope you all have a fantastic holiday and a great New Year. I’ll see some of you at EMDAC (Julie, Leah and Candy) and then the rest of the flyballers at Doncaster at the end of January.

Wyre

  By Leanne | December 8, 2008 - 1:32 pm | Agility, Kim
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Total case of great dog, shame about the handler.

We made a bit of a hash of the KC Olympia Qualifier, which was a really fantastic course. It looked so deceptively simple but it was filled with little traps and angles that meant only the really good dogs got around. We watched Dizzy (Raeanne’s Flippin Heck) run first and win it, obviously, with a ridiculously fast time (and a held dogwalk contact) that no-one else could touch. Kim went for the dogwalk instead of the weaves and then entered at the second-third pole, which was my fault for not giving her the command early enough.

We had the same judge for the Combined 3-5 Agility and again, really nice course, quite straightforward but with some sneaky bits. Kim had a flying clear until the dogwalk. As everybody knows, the dogwalk-jump combination has caught Kim and I out so many times that I now panic when I see it, and I did the same again. She was racing along the dogwalk and I panicked, yelled “steady” waaaay too early and so she ended up walking down the down-plank. Got her contact, of course, but wasted so much time! We needed to be around 27s to be in the placings and we finished in 30.68s.

Combined 3-5 Jumping was the same course the Large dogs had run earlier (and I’d seen Gina’s Rum put in a cracking run and win his class). Kim had a nice run but I just wasn’t with it, I walked it completely wrong for her and she really bailed me out a couple of times. And then I fell over. Somehow, we managed to go clear, but as you can imagine we finished out of the placings. Actually, we finished in 27.68 which put us 6th, and Wyre placed to 5th, so that does give me some hope. There were some really good Grade 5 dogs there and Kim did match them for speed, it was my handling errors that cost us time.

Anyway, last show of the year, we’ll have to see how we do in 2009.

Postal Vote Results, etc.

  By Leanne | December 4, 2008 - 7:40 pm | Agility, Dylan, Flyball, Kim
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Flyball Postal Vote results came back, 92% in favour. Fantastic news, Kim will be thrilled to be over 12″ and Mollie will be exceptionally thrilled to be doing 13″. I said on Monday that I thought there would be a small voting turnout, and I was right: just 31% responded, and 6% of which were spoilt votes. I think the reason for the low response was due to a variety of reasons. I know a few single-dog owners who flyball with us, and I’m pretty sure none of them responded because they’re just not that interested in flyball. It’s a nice hobby for occasional weekends. I have a feeling owners with slow dogs (not old or small, just slow big dogs, like Labradors) also won’t have responded, because they a) don’t appreciate how much of a difference 1″ makes, b) run with a 7″ dog and therefore don’t have to worry about jump height, or c) don’t run with a height dog at all, and therefore will be over 14″ no matter what result came through. Basically, I think the main turnout comes from those people with height dogs (who are in the minority, obviously), or those people who are heavily involved with the sport (ie. Team Captains, trainers, multiple-dog owners who compete every weekend etc). Since people with height dogs are usually those people heavily involved with flyball, that’s not a huge amount who are really motivated to vote.

Oh, and it was a 2 week turn around. I bet plenty of people just plain forgot.

Speaking of forgetting things, I completely forgot that last weekend was Dylan’s last agility show of 2008. Kim is at Wyre this weekend for her last show, but Dylan isn’t entered. We then have Donny flyball on Sunday and we’re done for the year! Still waiting to hear from Jane about the teams, but I’m pretty sure Dylan is in Marsh and Kim is dropping to Nights and running with Mollie. Dylan and Kim are both running about the same singles times at the moment, which is very frustrating when trying to plan teams! Dylan can run 4.8′s without breaking a sweat but he seems to ease off indoors to 5s or so, I’m not sure if he’s just not sure about indoor competitions yet or whether it’s because he’s running with scary Lolly. Kim has been running around 5s outdoors but I know she tends to knock a bit off that when she’s indoors because she likes all the noise, and when she goes to 12″ in January I’d expect her to be running pretty consistent 4.9′s at least. (Maybe more at Sheffield which is proper indoors on rubber matting, where she always clocks her fastest times).

Of course, the other thing is that Dylan might be easing off because he’s not running anchor at the moment, it’s definitely his fastest position but we already have an anchor dog for Marsh. At least that isn’t something I have to worry about with Kim, she doesn’t care where she runs!

Anyway, we’ll see this weekend. Who knows!?