Category Archives: Jet

Tailwaggers #5 April

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Bit of a hit and miss day!

I made some silly handling errors all day, my personal mental management was way off. I looked after the dogs and worked them around the courses, but I made some handling decisions that I really shouldn’t have. Dylan is always very forgiving and bailed me out a couple of times, especially on the Triple A course; Jet is always honest but she was a little bit wild this weekend, and that meant we got lots of E’s.

Dylan’s Novice Plus Jumping was a really straightforward course, a little bit too fast for Dyl and I. We had a bit of a cruising clear, with both of us on auto-pilot, but he surprisingly finished 4th. I think there were a lot of poles from the faster dogs!

Primary Jumping was another very fast, very simple course, and yet I managed to get Jet 5R by using a verbal marker (yes) that Jet doesn’t respond to in the same way as my dogs. Our lack of training together biting me in the ass, and it was a shame as we’d have been pushing for top-3 without it. Bugger!

Novice Plus Agility was a fantastic course, pitched just right. Lots of handling options, lots of handler challenges and no nasty call-offs or outright traps. I had a long argument with Rob when walking the course about whether it was possible to get in front to do a front cross at the end, but I agreed to try it because really, I am a little bit lazy and would rather handle from behind than in front (don’t tell him I said that). Unfortunately Dyl knocked a pole at the start, (#5) and his seesaw was a little slow, but I at least nailed that front cross! Looking at the times, we weren’t fast enough for the placings anyway, which was disappointing but having watched some of the other dogs run, our contacts just weren’t fast enough. A very dark collie bitch (Katie would have loved her!) with absolutely stunning 2o2o contacts won it, with Caddie and Asher in 2nd and 3rd. The collie bitch (Snowy) and Caddie have some of the fastest 2o2o contacts I have ever seen, I aspire to have contacts that good one day!

Primary Agility was another well pitched course, with just an awkward weave entry to put me off. Jet came off the seesaw with too much speed, and instead of shaping her to the weave entry like I should have done, I stood still and tried to let her find it herself (like I would with Dyl). Doesn’t work with Jet! We got 5f there and then I moved across to the Aframe too quickly and she lost me, total miscommunication. Sorry Jetly!

Jet’s Triple A was fairly straightforward but I watched a few dogs run and saw them all have the 3rd pole, and I had a feeling Jet would have it as well. It looked like a straightforward angle from the dog’s perspective but it wasn’t, and Jet did have it down. Bit of a shame again as she had a nice run, but Triple A is not really Jet’s game as the Aframe is her weakest obstacle, she’s too slow (and I rarely saw that about Jet!) Dylan’s Triple A was a similar kind of course, but for some reason when walking it I read pull-throughs where really it wasn’t. I wasn’t the only handler to do that, but it left me wrong-footed throughout, late with my timing, overhandling and generally messy. It didn’t look too bad on the video, and we came 4th anyway, but that’s all thanks to Dylan!

OMG Jumping was a great premise – two sets of numbers, you pick a ball from a bag to tell you which course you run just before you go in – but the courses were a little easy for my preference. Very fast, very easy to remember, and pretty much identical for all levels, except Novice Plus got a set of 6 weaves instead of a jump on one part of the course. I got the Black course with Dylan, which is what I wanted as it had the more spacey part to start. Dyl finished up 7th, out of the placings but not too bad a time. I really wanted the Red course with Jet as she has a tendency to try and bounce everything when she’s opened up, and it doesn’t always work! The Black course had a tighter straight-line finish which tends to be Jet and I’s downfall, but we got the Black course as well. I asked her to collect a bit too much at the end in my worry about poles, and we went into the lead for about 10s before eventually coming 3rd.

HnH April Fool – Go Jetset!

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Superstar Jet gets first billing this time. She had a fantastic first run on a tricky Grade 3 course and nailed it, lovely fast weaves and just a really cracking run. She won by a nose, a 1st and so into Grade 4!

She went clear in the Redmills Open Jumping, and finished up 18th. We had a slow start and I nearly lost her on one of the turns, so a very good result! We also went clear in the Grade 3-4 Agility but I have no idea if she got anything as she came up slightly off after her run when heading back to the car, so I pulled her from her last run. She was sound in the afternoon and when delivered home, so hopefully it was nothing serious.

Kim was slightly off in her first two jumping runs, but nothing to ring alarm bells. But she was really not jumping properly in her first agility, so I pulled her from the last class as well. She was sound and her gait looked fine, but she was over stretching into all the jumps with her front end, as though she wasn’t getting any power from her hind. Even when lazing around Kim extends into her jumps, so I’m not sure what that was about. She’s around due a chiro trip anyway.

Dylan got 4 eliminations and a 3rd in Grade 5 Agility with a really lovely run, his contacts were pretty slow compared to how he has been recently and I’m not sure why, but he ran the course very well. Just 0.6s seperating 1st-4th so a good result!

I was very pleased with his elimination runs as well. I was fully prepared to walk if he broke his waits and he held them all day, hmm! We just had some chilled out runs and Dylan took a few more jumps than necessary in most of them, so I was probably a little too relaxed. I tried to keep him quieter and well snuggled in the queue as well, which isn’t easy indoors, but he did seem less stressed.

Next Hare’n'Hounds is outdoors at Easter. Nice weather would be lovely please!

Back at Drax

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It’s been a while since we last flyballed, and much longer since we were running on grass, let alone at Drax!

Kim was back in Division 6 and the second team, where she belongs! We had hoped to take a strong 5-dog team but unpredictable entire bitches coming into season meant our fifth dog was bumped up to the top team, and we ran as a four. Our team ended up consisting of two Labs and two Lurchers, which was fun, and everyone ran well. We struggled a little at the end of the day and didn’t quite manage our run of wins from the morning, and ended up 2nd. Theme for the day …

Dyl was up with Barneys in Division 3; I ought to point out that I still think of Dylan and I as being subs for this team, but we’ve actually run with them all winter and as Dylan is running fairly consistent 4.8s now, we will likely be staying there until we find some new, faster, dogs and handlers to usurp us! It was very satisfying to smash our seedtime to bits and run an 18.66 fastest time, and we nearly won the Division but lost by a whisker to Sheffield (literally 0.01 seperating us!). All credit to Jet and Murphy, without whom we would have struggled to even break 19s, let alone repeatedly. Murphy was fantastic, running 4.2s ALL day over 12″, and Jet pulled off some equally amazing 4.4s. We finished 2nd anyway!

Dylan ran well too, no stuttering into the first hurdle and only some moments of silly dancing when he should have been focussing. He was generally tight off the box, although wasn’t using his back end nearly as well or as much as I would have liked. Always work to do!

Mollie ran well, as did her team, and finished 2nd. I was on the line for this team and that naturally means I can’t remember anything except they did good.

Back at Drax in a month, lots of agility in the meantime for Dyl, Jet, Kim and I.

Gap Farm February 11

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Excellent flyballing, some very good racing.

Dylan was on brilliant form, the specialised training we’ve been doing recently has been hugely and noticably beneficial for him and a few of the other dogs. It was very cool to see real results so quickly! His boxturn wasn’t brilliant, he is coming away much sharper now rather than turning wide, but he isn’t executing the swimmer’s turn as he should be.

Dylan was also very confident as he was running with his best girls Kim and Jet, and his old Labrador friends Buddy and Lucy. All dogs he feels very comfortable with! Kim wasn’t quite on her usual form, I’m beginning to think that the Gap Farm matting just doesn’t suit her, she never seems to run at her best there. She’s unusual in that respect as I think most teams have found that their teams run equal or better times on the matting. Kim has always prefered very hard ground though, like sports halls or sun-baked turf, so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised. She brought the hurdle height down for the others though, so it was worth keeping her in that team.

Mollie unfortunately drew the short straw. We knew she was going to be unfit and really needed the spot in the bottom team, who ended up running in the second arena. It was more dimly lit than the main arena and although it was perfectly fine for most dogs, Mollie really struggled to see. It was exactly the kind of light she has the most difficulty with, a kind of muted half-light with deep shadows but no real bright spots. She ended up interfering a few times simply because she lost my mother, and she kept mistaking various non-ball objects for balls which caused some chaos as well. We are just going to have to pull her if the team ends up in that arena again, although I think by this time next year it’s unlikely Mol will be running indoors at all as her eyesight will have deteriorated further by then.

Next flyball at the end of March, plenty of time to get Mollie back up to fitness and hopefully work a little more on Dylan’s box.

Hare’n'Hounds Valentines

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I seem to remember saying back in November that I wouldn’t run three dogs again. Well, I did, and it was better – either because I was prepared for the chaos, or because everything just ran more smoothly!

Kim ran her G4-7 Agility first, had a lovely run on an interesting course, and won it. I can’t believe I get to type this, but Kim is now halfway to Grade 7! She has both her agility wins, and she’s enjoying these occasional competitions so much.

Dylan’s G5-7 Agility was a really nice course, but we got called on the dogwalk contact. I’m not sure if he missed it or not, I can’t tell on the video, but he was running a little slow and steady and for some reason, very creepy on the seesaw. Hmm …

Jet ran a beautiful clear on the handler-challenging Redmills C1-7 Jumping, and finished 18th. Which … well, it was a fast course and she was only 2s off the winner, so that’s a good result. She was also the top Grade 3 dog by a long way! We went straight from that ring to the G1-4 Jumping and made a complete shambles of the course, which was a little bit frustrating! It was a very difficult course for 1-4, but nothing we couldn’t handle … or so I thought. The most annoying thing was that Jet popped the last 2 poles of the 12 weaves again. We must work on this!

Kim’s C1-7 Jumping was the same as Jet’s, and she ran a nice clear but we had a silly dithering moment where I was just a stride lazy and it nearly caught us out. Think Kim ended up 6th or 7th, out of the placings either way but she enjoyed the run, a nice stretchy course for her.

Jet’s 2nd in the Graded 1-3 Agility was extremely unexpected! It was a nice course, suitably challenging, but had two aframes and a seesaw rather than the traditional dogwalk-aframe-seesaw. Jet’s Aframe is not her strongest peice of equipment, and she did too acceptable but creepy Aframes and I thought that would keep us well out of the placings. Apparently not!

Dylan had three jumping classes in a row, starting with his half of the Redmills Jumping. It was a lovely big, open course, and Dylan actually opened up and ran it really well. We got E’d, but it was a good run. I was happy! We then went into the G5-7 Jumping. We got E’d multiple times, but I made personal progress by practising what I preach and pretending nothing had happened and that whatever we did was what I meant to do. It worked for Dylan, his confidence was visibly up! We went straight into the BC Jumping and ran clear, he finished 19th.

Kim’s C5-7 Agility was the same as Dylan’s earlier course, and we had a slightly on-the-edge run but managed to get around clear anyway, and finished 4th. Not too shabby! Her C5-7 Jumping was the same as Dylan’s again, and we made pretty much the same mistakes. Clearly I learn nothing from my mistakes.

Dylan’s G4-5 Agility was quite a tough course for 4/5, but ran much better than it walked. I got to watch most of this class run, and wow, the standard of 4/5 dogs was through the roof! Dylan had a decent clear and finished 5th, just out of the placings, but I intentionally took him the long way around the pull-thru so I’m quite pleased with that.

Long time off from agility now, not back until April! I did want to try and enter some in March but it all got a bit expensive with the seminar and Crufts!