Dogs Unleashed

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Leanne

Saturday was flyball day, as per usual for this weekend. We only had two teams in but both were 6-dog teams, which I hate, but as we had some dogs coming back from injury etc it was really the only option.

Kim and Mollie both ran very well, Kim back to her usual self and being her usual Kim-of-all-trades, running in every position, even lead! We were a bit off on the start (0.09) but not too shabby to say we haven’t done it in forever. Think we finished 3rd. Or 4th, I can’t remember.

Dylan did not have a good day, and I ended up pulling him from racing. There was nowhere for me to keep him away from other dogs and so he spent the whole time getting more and more stressed and unhappy, and that was before we’d even got in the ring. Once we were in the ring, we had a minimum-distance type runback (about 70-80ft?) with crowds down both sides, and there was just too much going on. Really disappointed and frustrated with the situation (not with Dylan!) but there was no other option.

Sunday was agility day. Lovely lovely courses all day and loads of room to let Dylan chill and relax before his runs. Because Dyl’s classes were small, I was able to warm him up off lead and then walk him into the ring lead-less, which keeps his stress levels low, and it worked brilliantly because he ran fantastically all day. Super happy and super keen and smooth, perfect. We got a scrappy clear in the Novice Plus Agility but finished 2nd, and then had a nice clear with some wide turns in the N+Jumping and finished 4th, just out of the rosettes.

Fantastic Wicked Weaves course that Dyl and I rocked, except for the refusal on jump 12. I pulled him off too soon and I was kicking myself as we’d have been pushing for first or at least second, but oh well!

Kim was in her first Veteran classes, she wasn’t fully convinced by the Micro height but kicked up the gears in every run. She absolutely loved it, and we promptly got E’d in every class apart from the Circular Jumping where we came 2nd. Mollie picked up a 4th in the same class, and had a couple of high 5f placings as well in her other classes. Love running my old ladies, they’re so much fun.

Photos will be added to this post once my computer stops being a complete arse.

Tailwaggers #5 April

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Leanne

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.

Tailwaggers #4

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Leanne

I still can’t muster any enthusiasm with hindsight for this show. I didn’t like the 2-runs-at-each-course format any better than I did 4 years ago when I last did it, it was still really boring. I’m not convinced it really made me improve my handling; I ran both courses better the second time (who didn’t?!) but I also think I ran the first attempt in a much more cautious way than I normally would, trying to bank a safe clear. Next bit is probably going to irritate some people, but I also really disliked all the little kids at this show. I don’t mind children at agility, I think Juniors is great and a lot of them can beat me without trying. I started out in YKC too. But so many classes were held up by kids/parents trying to bend the rules because they wanted to run a different dog in a different order, or to take on some major ring party duty that they clearly couldn’t do. Arg!

Back to the dogs. I am very pleased with how Jet ran, she was on top form. The work we’ve done on contacts has really paid off, her weaves were spot on and she is starting to flick away from me now on rear crosses, which is something we’ve really struggled with. We finished 2nd in the Jumping with our first run, our second run was much faster, much smoother, but I pulled her off the tunnel too early and we were E’d. The first run on the agility was atrocious, I wasn’t a fan of the course and didn’t know how to run it with Jet. We were E’d at the tunnel, I handled Jet on the right and pulled her over the jump. The second run I actually thought about what I was doing and we did a brilliant run, but I switched sides for the tunnel and pulled in the wrong end. I think the only way we could avoided the E on either run was for me to leave Jet in the weaves, but I’ve never tried it in training with her and I have a feeling she would pop out.

Dylan had better jumping form, nice contacts, solid weaves, but he wasn’t giving me 100% on any run. His Jumping runs were ok, we knocked a second off with our second run, and his second agility was very good. In both agility runs I trusted him to complete the Aframe completely indepdently as I ran on well ahead, and he nailed it both times. Likewise I left him in the weaves and he was great. I think finishing out of the placings in all ours runs hasn’t helped my attitude, we were just constantly getting whipped by the Masters/G7 dogs. I don’t know what else we can do, Dylan can only go so fast and I can only handle this much.

Hoping Hare’n'Hounds will spark my enthusiasm again.

Tailwaggers #3

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Leanne

I would quite like to just skip over recounting the morning classes, but I think it’s probably a good idea for me to try and remember exactly what I did wrong.

Jet’s Primary Power and Speed was an ok course, a little tricky on the Speed section for Primary but certainly not beyond anything Jet and I can do. Jet did lovely lovely contacts for me, her dogwalk especially is looking fantastic at the moment! She ran the Speed section really well, but skipped out on the weave entry. I know this was my fault for not handling it properly but I’m not entirely sure what I did wrong. Need to watch the video back a few more times!

Novice Plus Jumping was a good course, some open runs but some tight sections to test the dogs with plenty of different handling options. Unfortunately Dylan broke his wait, took off way too early for the first jump and took the pole off. We had a good run and I’m pleased with how he handled the tricky sections, it was smooth and tight and his time was competitive, just a shame about the pole.

Dylan’s Novice Plus Power and Speed really was a nice course, very smooth and very fast with enough places to make silly mistakes. Unfortunately we didn’t get that far as we failed the Power section for the first time ever! Dylan’s contacts were very nice, but he splatted on the rising spread jump and did a huge faceplant.

Our recurring one-pole theme continued in Jet’s Primary Jumping, where I did exactly what I did at Hare’n'Hounds and caused her to roll the middle pole of a three-jump run. You’d think I would have learnt by now … Fastest 5f again!

We did come by a slight improvement in the afternoon. Jet and Dylan both had messy clears in their respective Tunnel Troubles classes, and came 4th (Jet) and 5th (Dylan). Jet had an excellent run on the Primary Agility and came 2nd, despite her slightly creepy seesaw and very creepy Aframe, both my down to my handling! She did do a lovely dogwalk to make up for it though, apparently I can train good dogwalks now, after all the work Dylan and I have done.

Dylan’s Novice Plus Agility was a really tricky course and a total shambles, Dylan reverted to just taking whatever he fancied and skipping out jumps, so we called it quits. Can’t win them all, or in fact any of them!

So, progress, despite the lack of rosettes to prove it. Six months ago, hitting any bar would have completely knocked Dylan’s confidence and he wouldn’t have run at all for the rest of the day. The fact that he kept going and hit a few more poles doesn’t worry me at all, in fact I’m pleased that he was willing to keep pushing and not just go into over-cautious mode. It was also really obvious at this show that Dylan cannot maintain his standard of agility without constant training. I was vaguely aware of this before, especially in flyball, but it was very clear this weekend.

Start Lines

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Leanne

Inspired by HippieDogs, of course, and somewhat by my previous musings on whether to get a collar for Kim’s starts.

I haven’t talked about my start lines in a long while. Kim has a running start, because she loves to race and run and waiting is boring and stressful for her. For some courses, having a running start doesn’t work, but there are always bits of every course that you don’t think will work but with a little imagination do. Sometimes, for us, that means setting up for the first jump at an unexpected angle, sometimes even facing the wrong way so I can get a fraction further in front to cross. This is highly confusing to most ring parties and judges, but Kim and I are creative and more often than not we pull it off.

Dylan has a naughty startline. He barks madly until I say “wait”, then he sits and crosses his ears at the back of his head and stares intently at the first obstacle. This is a pretence, because as soon as I move away he starts to slowly creep forward. Sometimes I tell him to down, for variety. It doesn’t make much of a difference. I always start worried, wondering how long I have until he goes. I know this is not a good way to start our runs. Maybe I should start doing running starts with Dylan too?

I have started trying to crack down in competition, but I admit I am too competitive and too anxious to keep Dylan happy to run the “move and lose” technique. We are practising, a lot. We play race-chase games with Mollie, where Dylan has to sit and wait with Mollie sitting and waiting around 15ft behind him. They both know as soon as they move that the chase is on! Mollie is very good at waiting, but Dylan is not. He shuffles and creeps and tries to get as much of a headstart as he can, because Mollie beats him up if he can’t run fast enough. I move him back. We are making headway. He is getting faster and better at waits.

Jet has the best startline. We go and we stand and I wrestle off her collar, because she has a martingale slip and it always gets stuck on her ears. I always apologise, and she always waits patiently for me to get going. I ruffle her ruff, because Jet has lots of spare skin and it’s fun to wriggle it about, and then I walk away confidently knowing Jet will be stood exactly where I left her. She always looks frozen on the spot when I stop and look at her. People think she is going to be slow and pottle around, because she looks so anxious, but we know the truth. I say ok-go, she launches into a madcap 30s of wild unpredictability and barking.

Jet and Mollie are a lot alike.