Tag Archives: HnH

NOFA: Hare’n'Hounds & Waldridge Fell

  By Leanne | May 23, 2011 - 4:30 pm | Agility, Dylan, Photos
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I love Redcar, even when it’s blowing a gale. Best venue ever.

Dylan and I had a terrible half-week though. The best way I can think of to describe his first few runs is out-of-focus … he was clear, or had 5f, but without any speed or drive or focus to speak of. Nothing I could pinpoint but very much reminded of Scunthorpe and the BAA Finals last year.

We finished 10th in the Redmills Open Jumping (doing the 6 weaves twice caught out so many dogs!) and picked up a 3rd in the Grade 5 Jumping; it was still a little drifting with some very wide turns, which was a shame as it was a super course that I thought would really suit Dyl! Being brutally honest though, there weren’t many dogs in G5 and in a normal size class we would have been well outclassed. We picked up 5f for a pole in the other Jumping and I can’t even remember the other 2 agility classes!

Friday, and we had Julie Buchanan’s class first thing. She always uses the Brush fence and Wall in her classes so I was looking forward to that and thought if Dylan was running well we might be in with a shot. Dylan has never bothered with either before, so of course he stuttered into the Brush and ran out on the Wall. And then fell off the seesaw. Not a good start!

Generally it was a similar day to Thursday, with more focus but less confidence. Best run was in the G4-5 Jumping, we finished 3rd and Dyl worked the contacts well and responded nicely to the turn cues so we made up time that he lost on the flat.

Saturday and Waldridge Fell; The KC Novice Olympia was such a nice course and I really wanted to do well! I knew we had no chance of qualifying but it would have been good to see how Dyl held up against the good G5 dogs who were trying to qualify. Unfortunately he was very slow on the seesaw and hesitated before the dogwalk, and never really ran flat out. Compared to how he normally runs I would have said it was a pretty poor run, but it was our best run of the week which probably says something. Finished 12th.

Two jumping runs were ok but not great, we were clear and out of the placings in the more difficult straight G5, and then E’d in the G4-5. Both nice courses that should really have suited Dyl!

Final run in the lovely G4/5 Ag was the absolute worst run we’ve had for years. Dyl was hesitant, stuttered into the jumps, and then totally bailed off the seesaw as soon as it began to tip. We went back around to do it again and he bailed again, finally did it on the third attempt. The only good thing about the run was his Aframe, which was very nice, and that he did the Wall without flinching.

It was pretty obvious that Dylan wasn’t enjoying himself this weekend, at all. I don’t know where to go from here; I can’t ask him to run if he’s not having fun, but I also look back at videos from previous competitions where he is so clearly loving it. I don’t know what was different this time, and I don’t know how to avoid that next time.

Photos on Flickr.
Grade 3 Agility WinnerGrade 3 Agility WinnerRed Tri

NOFA 2011, a set on Flickr.

HnH Easter Thoughts

  By Leanne | April 28, 2011 - 4:00 pm | Agility, Dylan, Kim, Training
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Somebody (think it was Julie) said this weekend that Dylan just can’t let go, and that’s exactly it. He is so much better now than even 12 months ago, but even when he’s at his most relaxed and most confident, he’s still not giving 100%.

If Dylan was a person, he’d be an accountant. He’d have a small but cheerful office and only deal with people by email, and probably have a very safe hobby, maybe like indoor rock climbing. He’d look out of his office window and long to go outdoor rock climbing, but he’d never do it because he’d be afraid of falling down a cliff and having to chop his own arm off.

Dylan and I have a lot in common, really.

Speaking of me, I am useless at cueing turns, if this weekend is anything to go by. I was consistently early with both dogs. I think part of the problem with Kim is that she needs a much, much later cue that Dylan anyway, and I found it very hard switching between them. I have no excuse with Dylan, I was just really early and he responded accordingly. We’re working on the cik/cap turns at home and it’s going quite well, I’m attempting to clicker train it as it’s such a specific action. The jump height is between 15-20cm at the moment. If I can do this right it will make a big difference to how we run courses, so I’m optimistic.

Hare’n'Hounds Easter 2011

  By Leanne | April 27, 2011 - 4:56 pm | Agility, Dylan, Kim
6 Comments

Theme for the weekend? 12 weaves, in every single class. The judges obviously got way too excited about being able to fit 12 weaves in a course again and used them all the time. I love me some weaves but sometimes it’s nice to do a class that doesn’t involved 12 of them. There are other numbers!

SATURDAY
Dyl was apparently quite pleased to be back outside and took advantage of the space to go very wide at all opportunities, but also had to be cautious with the equipment as who knows what’s lurking in the grass? It left us a bit out of sync but we pulled it together as we went along.

Very first run was Kim’s C1-7 Jp, straightforward course but I was sliding in the wet grass and daren’t run properly, but she finished 6th despite me.

Dylan’s C4-7 Ag was another good course, but the difficult start did not go to plan! Kim had the same course for her C4-7 and just rocked it, she powered up the hill away from me like I’ve not seen her do for a long time. Unfortunately she got too far in front, came off the second to last jump (which was offset), saw the timer cables and targeted for her lead. Elimination, poor baby, she was embarrassed about her old-lady mistake.

Nicely pitched G5-7 Jp, Dyl had 5R and then popped his weaves, and then Kim had exactly the same course for hers and went clear, but out of the placings.

Dylan’s G4-7 Jp was another fast course, we had a decent run but had a dither on a push-out and then a spin at the end which I thought would have put us out of contention, but we finished a pleasing 6th.

Kim’s G1-7 Agility was a fast course, just the kind of thing Kim likes and she had a blast around. She stalked the Aframe to the line which made me laugh, and she had a cracking run to come 1st in the G6. That’s our third win towards G7 (and they’ve all been agility wins so far).

Challenging but fab course in the G5-7 Agility, really enjoyed running it. Dyl had a good run and we made up a lot of time with 2 very tight turns but then lost a bit more with a slow seesaw and a wide turn off a tunnel trap. It was a really good run. I then nearly had a heart attack when I went in to check the results as Dylan was down as winning the class! Thankfully (I’ve never been so relieved) it was crossed out and rewritten as some tickets hadn’t been counted, and he finished 2nd. Much better! Unfortunately I don’t have a trophy/rosette for this class, I didn’t stay for the late presentations as we were camping off site and we needed to book in on the campsite before 7pm. When I went back the next day I was told it had been taken, but I never found out by who. If anyone out there has the Large Grade 5 Agility trophy/rosette from April 23rd and can’t remember why, can I have it please?!

SUNDAY
Same G5-7 Agility course for both dogs, Dyl blew his Aframe contact and Kim skipped out on her weave entry (my fault). Ahh!

Dyl’s C4-5 Jumping had an awkwardly angled 12 weave; Dylan rocked the weaves and the first half of the course, and then for some reason he came to a dead stop off 11 and then stuttered very badly into the next two jumps and didn’t regain his confidence even after that. I have absolutely no idea what happened, and he was fine for the rest of the weekend. As it happened, he finished 3rd, which was a surprisingly good result!

Kim had a lovely agility course where we got E’d, Kim plodded around the first 7 obstacles, ducked behind me to take the tunnel again (seriously?!) and then had a short glaring match with me before deciding that yes, she does still like agility, at which point she shot off like a rocket. We finished up by doing her amazing flying aframe and hitting super speed gears I don’t think she’s used for years, and then got Ed a couple more times for luck.

Really thought the G4-5 Jumping was going to be too fast a course for Dylan, we had a lovely run with some nice wide turns but he really enjoyed it, and finished 3rd again. We were on a roll with the 3rds on Sunday.

Kim’s G4-7 Jumping was a very similar course which she equally enjoyed, she came out absolutely ragging on her tug which she doesn’t do much these days (too interested in sausages). We finished 4th, which makes me smile. My little 10yr old girl with her slow weaves, and she’s still walking away with rosettes on pure speed courses.

MONDAY
Monday was the Day of Eliminations.

Kim’s C1-7 Jp at the start of the day was a standard kind of course, jump-weave start which wouldn’t be all too inspiring for Kim, so we just gave it our best short. Cued the wrap at the end way too early for her (are we seeing a weekend theme here?) and picked up 5R but she only had a minor argument with me and then finished up well anyway.

Kim’s G1-7 Ag course was a disappointment to be honest, very nagging with very tight spacings and awkward pull thrus. It also had a jump-aframe-turn to tunnel under aframe start, on the downhill, which is one of those rare situations where a running start and a running contact put us at a real disadvantage. Kim really tried her hardest on this course but it wasn’t to be, I ended up pulling her off a jump and getting 5R and then we were E’d at the end as I’d lost ground. There were only 15 clears overall, and a couple of grades weren’t awarded or were given on faults. If there are only 1-7 classes scheduled then it’s reasonable to assume some will be harder than others, but this was the most difficult course I ran all weekend which just doesn’t seem to balance when Kim was in plenty of 4/5-7s as well. (Rant over).

Dyl’s G4-7 Jp was not my cup of tea, 4 pull-thrus in a row down a line of flickflack jumps, what?! Dylan was raring to go, the most relaxed and focussed he was all weekend, which may be why he forgot to weave. It was a soft entry and they’re not our strong point, but he missed the entry on three attempts and then popped the weaves when he did get it. I should have just walked after the second miss but I wasn’t sure what he was doing, and he skipped out on an easy entry in the next class as well which I think was due to my repeating the mistake in this jumping. Speaking off, the next class was the C4-7 Ag, which he ran well but because of the 5f weave I held all his contacts and he still finished 7th (unplaced). Which was weird, it was a nice course and I thought there would be plenty of clears but apparently not!

Kim had the same course as Dylan for her C4-7 Ag, and it was the only run all weekend where she really seemed a bit ploddy, so I let her blow the dogwalk contact which cheered her up.

Whipped through Dylan’s G5-7 Agility, which was a brilliant course, I can’t remember who the judge was but big thumbs up. Dylan was on super form, lovely lovely Aframe where he jumped the apex for the first time all weekend, and then we had a major miscommunication where I flicked him the wrong way off a jump (bless, he was doing exactly what I cued!) and then I steadied him too much for the tight turn. He finished up beautifully, I’m an idiot! Only 6 weaves of the weekend which was great as Dylan picked up his entry without a problem, case (apparently) cracked.

Doc’s course for C5-7 Jp was fab, challenging with speed stretches and then tighter working sections that still flowed well. I really wanted to get this run before Kim’s C1-7 Ag, so I got Dylan out early and actually ended up running first. I hate running first … we did well though, Dylan worked it and nailed the (12) weave entry with no problems. We had a couple of dithers where I cued the tight turns too early (… again), and then towards the end I didn’t cue one of the wraps at all so he went very wide. But we were both relaxed and happy; a good clear even if it was well off the placings (but the fastest G5 by over 2s so that was encouraging).

Kim’s C1-7 Ag was another good course, and we went clear but Kim was flagging a little. She’s not done a two day competition for a long time (Scunthorpe Aug ’10!) and three days was a bit too much for her. Having said that, even on this last run she came out of the ring happy and targeting her lead for tugs, which makes me equally happy. We actually finished 5th, the second G6, so a good result anyway!

I really have to start doing short write ups, I know nobody reads all that! But I do go back and read old blog entries to find out what are cropping up as consistent errors, so it’s useful for me. Sorry!

Hare n Hounds welcomes you ...Large AgilityLarge AgilityLarge 3-4 JumpingBailey 2BaileyLarge 3-4 JumpingEricAussie Bob (Edited)Large G4-7 Agility

Sample from Hare’n'Hounds Easter 2011, a set on Flickr.

HnH April Fool – Go Jetset!

  By Leanne | April 4, 2011 - 12:11 pm | Dylan, Jet, Kim
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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!

Run & Training

  By Leanne | March 31, 2011 - 5:56 pm | Agility, Health, Training
2 Comments

Run
I have discovered a slight flaw in my well-considered fitness and conditioning plan, in that Kim is too smart for her own good. She now refuses to run for the first toy now, and will only run for the second, meaning Mollie is doing twice as much work. I probably should have seen that one coming, to be fair! Dylan has tried this a couple of times as well, but Dyl is easier to outwit, usually by pretending to have three toys, one toy, throwing it in different directions, etc, whereas Kim doesn’t fall for those kind of mean tricks. Mollie is clueless and still runs after every toy every time.

Kim hasn’t been agility training for 5-6 weeks, partially because we’ve redistributed people at agility training and now there isn’t as much time for me to run 2-3 dogs in the session. As I just have Dyl there at the moment (I haven’t trained with Jet for months now, but that’s the disadvantage of borrowing a dog!) I can concentrate solely on him, but because we only get limited chances to use the equipment, I have to be more focussed with what we do. Less impulsiveness on my part, more planned training.

Because we have more dogs in the session now, it’s also given me a chance to work on keeping Dylan relaxed whilst the other dogs work. Lots learnt in the past few weeks about stress and adrenalin levels, and I’ve tried to spend more time observing what the dogs are actually doing and then acting to encourage them to be calmer. I can’t eliminate stress completely but I do want the dogs to respond in a way that tells me they’re in control of the situation and handling the stress in a positive way. I’ve adjusted the way I handle a couple of things with Dylan and so far so good. It’s been quieter anyway!

Run

I’m just torn at the moment on Dylan’s waits in the ring at Hare’n’Hounds this weekend; at training, I have a strict break-and-you’re-out policy, where we walk (cheerfully) away from the equipment if he breaks his wait. He has 98% solid waits at training, but no wait at all at competitions. I know that I need to follow through with this at shows, and consistently, and I also know that as I want to stay in n G5 for a while yet it makes perfect sense to do this now (at this show especially because I have Kim and Jet so I still get a chance to run some courses). I know that Dylan only does this because of my poor training. But it’s still very hard to do it, because I just tend to counter it with the “well I manage with Kim” argument in my head. Which is a stupid argument! I’ll see if I can be brave enough to walk away this weekend.