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.

All Clear

Posted on November 6, 2010 by Leanne

Dylan officially has the all-clear, as of yesterday, and so I’m looking forward to Tailwaggers tomorrow!

It looks like the Novice Plus classes are going to be quite competitive, they’re double the size of last years so I’m just hoping to get Dylan around the courses with the same enthusiasm he’s been showing lately. I’m not too worried about him as he’s being doing Novice Plus courses for a while, the only difference now is that hs points will count towards the Graduate League tables instead of Novice. When we start doing Graduate Plus courses, then I’ll get worried!

Jet is still in Primary so should have a blast! I’m out to win with Jet, on Katie’s instructions. Jet has already won two Primary classes (one Jumping, one Agility) but because everything is “reset” after the end of the season, her wins don’t count towards progression anymore, so we need to start from scratch.

This is something that I hate about BAA. I actually do despise this rule, it really irritates me! I can understand points being reset for the new season but I think dog’s should be able to keep their wins. The reason I was given for this rule is that it should be perfectly possible for a good dog to get 2 agility or 2 jumping wins at one show if they can’t do enough shows (!). I understand that the points system is trying to encourage “loyalty” to BAA shows, but it really annoys me that because someone can only afford or find time for 1-2 shows a year, they miss out on feeling that they’ve achieved something. I would very much like to put forward a proposal to change this rule, but the BAA is not run by a committee and has no official procedure for proposing rule changes, or any way of members voting on rule changes anyway … which is leading me on to a whole other topic altogether.

End of rant, see happy face.

Midland Counties

Posted on June 8, 2010 by Leanne

mollie04 Originally uploaded by kayanem

Dylan worked his socks off on Saturday. His Primary Tunnel Teaser run was genuinely really fab on a very difficult course, he did some awesome tight turns and although we went a bit messy at the end, I was quite pleased just to get round! We came 1st, which was great, and it gives Dylan his second win towards Novice Jumping.

Primary Agility was another tricky course. Katie and I spent ages walking the 6-10 section and I decided to risk it and leave Dylan to do the seesaw (7) whilst I raced ahead to 9. I wouldn’t have dared to it with another dog as I know they would have flown the seesaw, but Dylan has only ever flown the seesaw once and he’s generally more cautious on unfamiliar equipment. Was a bit of a hold your breath moment, but it paid off and we nailed it (and Dylan nailed his contact!). It was a very good run, the only thing I wasn’t happy with was his dogwalk. He was super confident, but crept down the down plank and then ran his contact without waiting for the release command. Hmph. I let it go and I know I shouldn’t, but I really wanted the 1st and we got it. So Dylan has his second win towards Novice Agility too!

We made a mess of Primary Helter Skelter, and then Dylan had a great run in the Primary Jumping class, lovely and tight on his turns, but Jet came along and had a gorgeous run that was the clear winner! So we came 2nd in that, beaten by Jetly, can’t complain! Jetly actually had an awesome weekend, because she got her first win towards Novice Agility too on Sunday. Plus she’s just so cute!

See more Jetly photos here …

Dylan was kind of naughty on Sunday. He wasn’t listening at all in Primary Jumping, and just drifted off and did his own thing. I held his contacts in Primary Agility and that seemed to bring him back down to earth a little (we still came 3rd though!), because he picked up for Primary TFO. Unfortunately I pushed him out at 11 instead of pulling him in so we went out quite early, but because he had an awesome fast time we still came 3rd. Finally did his best run of the day in Primary Circular Jumping, which was a tricky course that went reasonably well and he came 1st. I won’t nitpick because we won, but rest assured it was far from perfect.

Kim was just fab, she made me laugh all weekend. First thing Saturday was Novice Plus Tunnel Teaser was a wicked hard course and I thought we had no chance, but it had a good straight line start and finish that I thought would be good for motivating Kim, and I could do most of the pull-thru’s as outs which she’s usually quite good at. She ran it perfectly, giving me a few evils towards the end but she was happy and tight on her turns, and amazingly she came 1st! I nearly died of shock. I chose not to run in Novice Plus Helter Skelter and we made a mess of Novice Plus Agility so I let her blast around the contacts. She finished up with a good run in the Novice Plus Jumping, she slammed on the breaks at one point and gave me that look which means she’s considering doing it wrong on purpose so she can go home, but then relented and finished up nicely. It was probably her slowest run but she came 2nd nonetheless, it was a hard course and not many went clear.

Nice run in the Jumping and we came 3rd on Sunday morning, and then we messed up in everything else except TFO. I love TFO, and Kim used to be kick ass at it so I really wanted to run it with her. The course was really spread out; even the fastest dogs were only getting 14 or 15 obstacle, but I figured we’d give it a blast and see how it went. Kim rocked it; she actually took it up a gear for the first time all weekend and I had to do some severe improvisation on the pull-thrus because I was so behind. We’d just started out second loop when we got called for time, and had to run to the opposite corner of the ring to clock out. Kim loved it, and so of course she came 1st, because she is awesome like that.

She does make me smile though. She was cruising all weekend, running at an easy lope, all tight turns and long strides without putting in an ounce more effort than she wanted to. She was laughing at me constantly. We would get nearly to the end of the course and there would be one last pull through, and I would call her round and she’d give me a considering look, a smile, and then she’d go and do the jump I didn’t want her to. She knew full well what I wanted every time, but she’d just say “I’ve done enough pull thrus, thanks!”. (Actually, what she said definitely included a lot more swearing than that, but you get the gist.)

Mollie also ran this weekend, in all the Veteran Jumping (based) classes. She was awesome! I ran Mollie in Tunnel Teasers and we were super cool, and she came 2nd, which is her first ever Veteran placing. Go the Mol! We promptly got E’d in every other class, but she had a blast and was generally awesome.