My main goal for this show was to try and keep Dylan relaxed. Partially successful, he wasn’t stressed but his jumping was shocking (stutter striding, tucked jumping) and his contacts were lacking in confidence (although he did the seesaw without an issue, so apparently that has passed?!)
Nice course first thing in the G5-7 Agility, some complex sections and lots of handling options which I liked. Interesting to see that the Aframe had a double back to a tunnel and the Dogwalk was followed by a sharp right turn with a dummy jump ahead, which effectively caught out all the running contact dogs. I’m assuming that was by design of the judge, although it might have just been a coincidence! Dylan went clear, I held his contacts but we were still painfully slow, about 10s off the winners.
The Redmills was fairly straightforward, but Julie Buchanan was judging and she always includes a brush fence and a wall. I said before I ran that I thought Dylan might bail on the wall, particularly if he looked to be hesitant on the brush, and he did bail out the side. I can only assume that his reluctance to jump walls and brushes is linked to his degenerating jumping style in general, because he never flinched at them when he was younger. G5-7 Jumping was in the same ring at the end of the day, similar kind of course. We went clear but a little scrappy, Dyl took the wall with only a hesitation rather than a refusal though. No idea how far off our time was, I imagine miles, but didn’t wait for results. I did borrow part of the course plan for training though, there’s lots to be done with it!
G6-7 was one of the easiest 6-7 courses I’ve ever run, really simple. We technically went clear but Dylan broke his stop on his second contact and then did his backtrack look where he realises he probably shouldn’t have done that. We wouldn’t have been fast enough for the placings anyway, although I was pleased with my handling of the seesaw to Aframe section, I tried to be a bit braver with my choices and work Dylan from a distance to get into position and it worked.
BC Jumping went all to pot when Dylan skipped out on the 3rd jump. I’m pretty sure he was aiming for the long jump and realised he was locked on to the wrong thing at the last minute. Oops.
Rio had a good day, she tired herself out playing with Pogo and meeting people and dogs. She was quite motion-sensitive in the exercise area, any dogs racing around or chasing thrown toys was just too tempting to chase. Having said that, she was really great about recalling off those dogs, but I didn’t want to spend the entire time calling her back. No fun for anyone! She wasn’t at all bothered about watching the agility however, which was interesting. We sat right next to the ring and she was far more interested in politely mugging people for food. I was really happy with her behaviour all day though, she was great with all the other dogs, and although reserved with strangers, she was happy to meet and greet. She does get pushy with those people she recognises though, she’s spent the day with Cat twice and now feels that’s enough of an introduction to sit on her knee and steal things out of her pockets. I’m not too concerned about her being reserved with strangers, it is in the breed standard and so trying to turn her into Miss Socialite is going against her natural instinct and inclination. I’m quite happy to have her just be nice to anyone trying to say hello without attempting to lick their face off.
Since I finally have Flexitrack back I’m trying to make more of an effort to post course plans again. They are from memory so don’t expect total accuracy, especially with spacings. It’s just a rough guide to jog my memory in the future!
I feel kind of nervous starting jump work with Rio, I had the no-agility-til-12months thing drilled into me from the moment I started 10 years ago. When Dylan was a puppy it was very much still the accepted wisdom, but now it’s ok. I agree that it’s ok, but it’s still weird.
