Reviewing videos, over and over again. Finding things to be happy about, wanting to share the joy. Be prepared for screen caps.
Jumping. See that relaxed tuck position? That makes me happy.
See that one too?
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Tag Archives: jumping
NOFA: Hare’n'Hounds & Waldridge Fell
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.
NOFA 2011, a set on Flickr.
Hare’n'Hounds Valentines
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!
First Training of 2011
I did not stick to my well-thought out resolutions. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and all that. I had some lovely courses to work on that were well adaptable for all the different levels of the dogs, and would give Dylan some jump workouts and some Aframe practise, which were my main concerns after Tailwaggers. Sadly though, lots of people had to miss training this week so I ended up setting a different course, it was too much hassle to set up the Aframe with only two of us to put it away. I must be stricter with myself next week!
Dylan’s jumping really does look fairly atrocious right now. He’s reverted to taking off way too early, although after a bit of work this noticably improved towards the end of our session. I don’t think this is necessarily a huge regression, it’s just one of the many indicators of us having not doing any training for a while. Think I’m going to have to start getting the cavaletti out with him at home again, and doing a little more homework. It’s sad for me as I’m a generally lazy person, and thankfully Kim has always been a generally lazy dog, who actually benefits from a break or minimal training. Dylan is just the opposite, the more we do the better he is, and when I get lazy, it’s one of those oh-dear type things. I do have a good excuse this time, to be fair, considering the snow and the ice and the Christmas and so forth.
We also did some focussed seesaw work, which went well with both dogs. Kim has never been very confident on the seesaw, but her confidence grows and diminishes depending on what mood she’s in (which kind of makes sense, I suppose). She did some very nice ones for me this week anyway, so hopefully we can keep that up. Speaking of Kim (and seesaws), I think I’ve made the decision to move her to BAA Veterans. It’s been a tough decision, for all kind of reasons, but if I’m honest with myself it’s because moving her to Veterans is a very final, irreversible decision. Once BAA dogs move to Veterans, they’re in Veterans for the rest of their lives, they can’t go back to normal classes. It means I am finally accepting her age, and of course with age is But I think Kim will love it, I’m going to drop her to running over Micro height and they don’t use weaves or seesaws in Veteran classes, which Kim will definitely appreciate. And of course she’ll carry on doing occasional normal classes at KC.
Mid Week Philosophies
Feels like it’s been a slow week. Training went well on Tuesday, and I continued to try and make a bigger point of properly rewarding Dylan. This is such a basic thing, but because Dylan is always happy to continue after a quick toy-throw or verbal positive reinforcement, I get lazy.
Kim would not let me get away with that kind of lazy attitude. Kim is a very firm teacher, she will never let me get away with slacking in training. Dylan is a much more honest dog, and in that special Border Collie way, he continues to try long after Kim would have given up in disgust. Kim taught me to get my ass in gear, and then Dylan taught me that I shouldn’t be relying on my dog to tell me that.
I also ran Jet this week, and we have so much to work on! Jet is very well trained, and I am an ok handler, but together we are not quite working as a team yet. Not only that, but her strengths and weaknesses are almost the complete opposite to Dyl. Jet is brilliant athlete, she is a beautiful confident jumper and can wrap wings so tightly when required. But her contacts aren’t as sticky as Dylan, she has a tendency to see what she can get away with and occasionally be a bit creepy, so I need to watch that. I also need to make sure she doesn’t lock on to a line, since it’s almost impossible to re-route her once she thinks she knows where she is going!
Either way, both dogs were wrapping some excellent 90 degree weave entries and exits. We definitely need to work on the contacts a little more though, as usual!
