Should Olympia be everyones dream?

If I owned a cart horse I would not be aiming for the Horse of the Year show.

If I own a fat Labrador as a pet dog should my aim be Olympia?

I normally write about my dogs and my experiences but the recent news on various ABC Qualifiers has made me think about writing about issues in Agility. ABC classes do not affect me, I run 2 collies. ABC classes may effect Dan for the 2013 season, but as it stands at the moment we run 3 collies and a kelpie x (who we have always assumed is crossed with a collie, eventhough she was advertised as a lab x).

There has been much discussion on the new Large 1-5 ABC Qualifier for Discover Dogs/Crufts and I feel it is certainly a valid question to ask ‘why are the grade 6-7 dogs being missed out’? There is now also the ongoing debates about the alteration to Olympia.

If this is a chance to showcase other dogs other than collies why are we leaving out the very best dogs?

Time and time again people are saying well it’s only fair; some breeds will never be able to beat the kelpies and the beardies. Some collies will never be able to beat the kelpies – but we don’t exclude the kelpies from the Novice or the Large Qualifiers!!!

Isn’t the point though to be the best you have to have the best trained dog that is fastest on the day mixed in with a bit of good handling. Why are we penalising those handlers who have worked hard with their dogs and compete at the top level.

I can understand a new qualifier being set up, new rules, a chance to showcase breeds at Discover Dogs and Crufts, but I cannot understand why Olympia - which in my opinion is THE Final to reach and should contain the best dogs around. It is not a showcase opportunity in many people's eyes, it is a final that people have spent a lot of time, money and effort to reach.

It may sound harsh but I believe that competing at Olympia should not be everybody’s dream, at least not with their current dog. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would love to compete at Olympia or Crufts but understand their limitations with their current dog. Why are we lessening the criteria to allow lower standard dogs to qualify for these events?

Last season I competed in several Novice Olympia Qualifiers’, you needed to be in the top 1% in a class of 300, that is a tall order for any dog and handler combination. I would enjoy running in the qualifier classes if I had a dog I didn’t think was good enough for Olympia as the courses always tended to be a little more interesting, but unless I believed I had a dog that was capable of winning that class and gaining me a qualifying spot then my aim and dream would not of been to qualify! (I did qualify at Thames, and we did reach Olympia :) )

I put this theory into practice this season – I ran in 6/7 Olympia and Crufts Qualifers for the first time. My dream is still to run at Olympia again with my dog, but I did not in anyway expect to be there this year as my dog and I were not of a high enough standard now we are in Grade 6. I would not expect to be there as my dog is not of the standard required, I will work towards getting there, and if this means it is with a different dog then so be it. I will not be there ringside saying well this is unfair my dog will never be fast enough.

My point is if you have a dog good enough for Olympia or Crufts you are in the minority, you should be very pleased you can get into that top 1% in a qualifying class and keep working towards being able to stay there. If you have a dog that is just not going to make the grade then maybe it is time to alter your ambitions.

I am in no way trying to say that if you don’t have a kelpie you shouldn’t expect to get to compete in the ABC Olympia, what I am saying is if your dog is not in that top percent of really very good dogs then you can’t expect to get to Olympia regardless of what breed your dog is.

Many people start agility with their current pet dog, I started with my rescued Springer Spaniel 12 years ago. My dream has always been to compete at Olympia as I went every year when I was young as I am also a ‘horsey’ person. I would watch the morning semi-final every year in complete awe of these amazing dogs and wish that one day I might get there. I knew that the dog I had then and my ability as a handler would not be good enough to win at somewhere like Olympia (as it happens he did qualify for the Semi’s one year, the course was a helter skelter as they reportedly wanted the fast ABCs to get through as the course at the semi’s the year before had been really tricky and therefore some slower dogs had qualified and people said that it wasn’t a very good show for the size of Olympia and for showcasing the dogs……….but that is a whole other blog post!). I believe I achieved a lot with my first dog, he had 5 homes before we got him, he was my first agility dog, he reached the ABC Olympia Semi’s, we competed at Crufts several years in Junior classes, he came 2^nd overall in the first UKA Grand Prix Nationals. So although I had a dog I could never win at Olympia with I believe we still achieved a lot and probably more than I could of expected to. I do believe I never once said 'I wish that ABC dog wasn't in the ABC class its too fast, its not fair!' It never occured to me that that very fast dog that was not a collie could be prevented from running in a final they had qualified for (I do remember several times saying that collie shouldn't be in the ABC class, but again that's another blog!).

  Olympia is the place to reach the ABC FINAL, how is it a final if some very good dogs that have fought through the qualifiers and gained their top 10 spot at Stoneleigh but then because they were the 3^rd fastest for their breed they are not allowed to go to Olympia? What also worries me is how the crossbreeds will be thrown into the mix here? I would say Dan will be ok we can register Blade as a Catahoula Leopard Dog X - but there is 8 more of those to join the Agility Circuit next year!!

Maybe the final 10 should get tehir spots and then 5 or so other ABC finalists could be invoted to attend. The majority of the audience aren't aware of what the Finals mean to us Agility people so I highly doubt they'd question, or even notice, if the official placing rosettes were given to the original final 10. This would mean the Final 10 can run in the class they deserve to, but the audience get to see a variety of dogs on the day.

There are a lot of very good ABCs out there, as there are a lot of very good collies out there, but we can't all expect to have a dog that can make the grade to get to Olympia. I do not think it is fair to cut out some of the best dogs in the country just because they are 'sheperding' type breeds. As far as I am concerned there is a Novice Qualifier for 3-5's to enter, a Large Qualifier for 6-7s to enter and an ABC class for non collies to enter - how can we put further restrictions on any of these classes???

I would also start talking about the Medium ABC Qualifer.......... but that will probably just make me even more angry :P

I will get down off my soap box now, and jsut say that i am interested to see how the Qualifiers run next season!

Maybe I'll get an ABC next year.........

The end of 2011 Season

As predicted I ended up leaving a rather long gap between entries as the year went on!

So do I not bother anymore and close the Blog, do I try and be better next year or do I try to remember why I started this Blog and write about things that interest me, mean a lot to me, happen to me?

I have lots planned for the winter and even more planned for next year so it would be nice to keep a record of what I have been doing, but then I could just as easily write that in a word document.

So maybe I should try and write something that incites a reaction from people and get feedback?

Or maybe I should just carry on mumbling away and wonder whether people actually do read it or not!

So my last entry was the beginning of July – oh dear!!!

A quick over-view of the dogs for the rest of the season then………

Major struggles with swapping from ‘old’ spaced weaves to new spaced weaves week in week out – for such a big dog like Cruze it is a big ask to hit some of the weave entries they are expected to get in Grade 6/7 when they don’t where the 2^nd pole is going to be.

The new spacing weaves have helped the boys get much faster, and is obviously more comfortable for them, but switching between the two has caused obvious confusion as to how to stride through them.

Both the boys end on 1 win in Grade 6 each this season and Thai is now Champ Performance and SC at UKA so he can do some Masters next year which I am really looking forward to…………….. oh no wait a minute Thai isn’t my dog next year!

It is fair to say I have struggled in Grade 6 this year, so I did as I told myself I would stay in 6 and struggle and if I was at a small show and going clear then hold my contacts (I was often not clear so not such a problem!). I do not see the point in getting all your grade 6 wins really quickly at small shows – as what do you achieve – a realisation that you aren’t quick enough or prepared enough for Grade 7! I think I’d rather learn that lesson in Grade 6 and know that my dogs are good enough against the better dogs across the country if we reach Grade 7. However Grade 6 wins are hard to come by and I think once you have proved yourself quick enough at a bigger show then why not get a slightly easier win in a small show – mind you have you seen some of the Grade 6 dogs we have in little ol’ South West at the moment?? WOW J

I don’t know that I am disciplined enough for Champ Classes and nowhere near good enough for Crufts/EO qualifiers so what would I gain by rushing to Grade 7? Where as I can gain a lot of experience, confidence and understanding in Grade 6 to hopefully make me as a handler better and in turn help the dogs be better at their job.

I know a lot of people say it’s not about the winning, it’s the taking part and for others it is very much the winning that matters. For me, I’m a little in between I’m not necessarily in it to WIN it but I am in it to do WELL in it – I am not happy if I can’t get round courses time after time, if we keep making the same mistakes over and over again, if I don’t see improvement in myself or my dogs. Agility is fun but it can easily become not so much fun when you are as emotionally involved in it as I am, and you don’t see the results you hoped for.

So Winter training is PACKED full of needs and wants from me! As Toni is well aware of!!!

Dan will be running Thai next year so that we have 2 dogs each to compete, I LOVE my Cruzer and  Miss Phaze more than possible – but competition-wise I’m not sure I got the best deal!! Dan will have Magic and Thai who are amazing dogs and really very well suited to Dan so I think an exciting season ahead of them.

The amazing Magical dog has gone from Grade 3 to Grade 6 this season and up to Champ SC and 2 points of her CSC Title and Senior in performance in UKA. All Dan’s goals met for this season – tick! Magic also reached the UKA Nationals Final in July and also qualified for the Pro-Plan G3-5 Final held at Bromsgrove in September – she came 3^rd overall with a beautifully calm and controlled round just beaten by 0.5 and 0.2 by 1^st and 2^nd place respectively (2 dogs which are Grade 7 dogs and Magic was at Grade 4 at the time). Magic spent a grand total of 7 days at Grade 5 and won into Grade 6 at Chippenham Championship Show last weekend with a clear 1 second lead.

Dan has plenty of Winter planning trained for his 2 dogs as well; Magic’s is based around turning and contact criteria, whilst Thai will mainly be working on weaves. His turns are something to watch and with Dan’s confidence and speed I think he will turn Thai into the dog he should have been 3 years ago.

If I’m lucky Dan will sort out all Thai’s little kinks and then I can have him back for 2013 ;p Otherwise Dan will have 3 dogs to compete in the 2013 season and I’m sure that’s not fair!

For those of you that aren’t my personal friends reading this – we got another puppy.

Completely unplanned, thought fate had prevented us from needing to make a decision but fate (otherwise known as Virginia Harry!) had other ideas and we have another Kelpie x Collie rescue added to the madhouse

BLADE

Dan enquired about the rescued litter as he had always said if another kelpie x collie became available it would be silly not to at least look, he was told the red merle girl had gone and so that was that……………….. until we get to UKA Week and hear a voice say ‘Oh Dan….. come see what I’ve got in the caravan…..’

So first morning at UKA and we now needed to get a cage and some puppy food as Virginia had brought 6 of the rescue pups with her – and low and behold there were 2 red merle girls :-o The rest is history, we have her, she is an absolute nightmare 80% of the time, and the other 20% of the time we remember why we thought it was a good idea to get another kelpie. She is smart, funny, quick, high drive and LOUD!!!! OMG Kelpies are loud!!

It will be an exciting (and loud) 2013 season when 9 of these bad boys and girls hit the Agility Circuit.

So November and the first half of December is full of training days, workshops and private lessons with all the dogs. We are going to Dartmoor Show as well next month, we weren’t going to as it’s always bad weather and orange mud gets everywhere, but Dan would like to see what Magic is like over a Grade 6 course (I personally would liked to have used it as my last opportunity to run a Grade 6 class without Magic being in it! But never mind!! LOL). I was also very excited to pre-order my iSS diary the other day so I need to go out and buy my new highlighters and start planning next season soon.

Diamond Show and ‘Straddle’ ‘Gert’ ‘Clumpy’ ……..

………are some new words that we all learnt this weekend!

Which is fairly suggestive of how the weekend went! I don’t know how a show manages to create certain atmospheres – but Diamond certainly seem to win hands down on the fun and laid back atmosphere vibe. The show is a nice size, 6 rings, with everyone closely camped to the rings and therefore lots of time to watch the classes. This is something I miss at the bigger shows as it is nice to see different people run the courses you are running and to support your friends.

I say support your friends – some people obviously have a different view and like to heckle their friends on the start line! How rude!!

The 6/7 Agility started quite late on the day and it seemed that a fair portion of the audience as well as the competitors had decided to make the most of the lovely sunny weather and very sensibly had a cool drink in their hands to prevent from overheating.

This will be the point at which my lovely friend developed a new nickname for me – of which she chose to share with me and everyone else in the close vicinity as I walked onto the start line with Thai. The words ‘ Here comes Cider Sarah’ could be heard as I walked out – I then had to try and stop giggling to be able to release Thai from the start line – and completed the course fairly well – I can’t actually remember what he did wrong – might have been a pole? Nevertheless he did all the hard opening sequence. I decided to layer a jump which we never really do so he got a bit confused by that but still did as I asked. I then decided to go and get Cruze and rejoin the queue. This will be the point at which my new nickname was amended slightly. I got a little bit lost and as I turned found I was pretty much on top of the DW, I somehow managed to get one foot either side of it and still get Cruze into the tunnel and Pat’s new favourite word was born ‘Straddle’!!.....and I was to be called Straddling Cider Sarah for the rest of the weekend!!

My highlight of the weekend was collecting Thai’s 2^nd place trophy from Barry for his G6 Jumping and Barry asking if Thai was my blue merle and saying his weaves were awesome J I smiled for at least an hour after that J No one ever comments on my dogs and I was so pleased that a judge had said Thai was good – and this was about 4 hours after we had run J

Cruze went clear in the other G6 jumping judged by Andrew Dicker – it was handly in places, blasty in others and a fairly hard left hand weave entry – Cruze was lovely all day long and we both got it right on this course – another 2^nd place J Unfortunately I gave Cruze a late command on one jump where we needed a good turn, a left flick around the outside wing – Cruze landed right, went to come in, heard me say left and did an about turn, looked at the equipment on the outside of the ring and then came round – probably lost me a good second, so pleased that we still came 2^nd.

They were both good in the 6/7 Agility on Sunday as well – this was the sort of course that at the beginning of the season I would of felt over phased walking into the ring and seeing all the equipment so close together and pointing all in the same direction! But I walked it and was happy I could attack it. Thai just had a pole – completely my fault – spatial awareness again and I nearly fell over the wing while trying to push Thai left for the long jump. Cruze missed his see-saw contact – he can’t really work out how to slide a rubber seesaw – which is fair enough. This is the only gripe I would have with the weekend – and it is not directed at Diamond at all as other shows have also done this and I heard several people saying the same thing. I believe that shows need to either use rubber contacts or not – not have half the runs on rubber and half on normal contacts. I think this will really lead onto the fact that there needs to be a decision on whether the KC are going to put in a rule change or not.

I couldn't resist including this picture! My friends are so good at catching Cruze's personality! I am assuming there was a jump behind him - but it jsut looks like he is happy to see the weaves!!

Magic was amazing and had a flying round in the Olympia Qualifier – just unfortunately missing the weave entry which is a real shame as she was working really nicely.

I think Magic was certainly enjoying herself this weekend – she was a bit naughty in Neil’s class trying to do the see-saw, DW and A-frame all as one obstacle! She finally got a clear round last thing on the Sunday in the 4/5 Agility – but never the one to not stick something extra in she slipped and fell on her head and wasted a couple of seconds regaining her composure and working out which way was up! Still she came 4^th J She also had a nice run in one of her jumpings – just slipping in the weaves and missing a pole – she seemed to slip on the grass in places where it was cut and really short – she looked totally surprised and carried on in them but obviously was eliminated.

Diamond is definitely my favourite show of the year so far, it was up there in the top 3 last year and I’m already looking forward to it next year! Diamond certainly chose some bl**dy good judges for their show; Neil Ellis, Andrew Dicker, Martin Cavill, Barrie James and Lee Windeatt all set some really good courses – I haven’t enjoyed being in Grade 6 as much as I did this weekend and Dan enjoyed having some courses to test his handling and all the work he has been doing at training – all the courses were enjoyable and testing and most importantly – do-able!!

Well we have a weekend off this weekend to be ‘normal’ people – I’m sure we will get bored and do lots of training! Then we are off to UKA week the week after.  SWAG sponsors the UKA Nationals and I also have my first judging appointment. We also have 15 runs a day! So I suspect I will need a week off to recover afterwards!!

Forgot how to get into my Blog Account and Broke my finger!

Where have you been??!! I hear you cry!!!!!

It’s silly really I didn’t start my blog during the winter as I didn’t think there would be much to write about without shows taking place. Now I have plenty to write but no time to write it!

So I have missed telling you about SWAT (busy) ,Hinckley (a long way away), Thames (Very WET and broken bones!) and Newton Heath (even further way), Lansdown (Omnipro Final and SUNSHINE ) and then weekend just gone was Tuffley. So there you go that’s what we’ve been up to – see you next week with a write up for Diamond!

Neither of us have been particularly successful these last few weeks – but there has been some brilliance inbetween the C**P for all 3 of the SWAG doglettes J

SWAT was a LOVELY show, although a little too windy on the Friday for my liking! Thank you to the 5 other lovely people who helped hold our tent down! This was our first trade stand of the year – and very successful it was too. We were busy the entire 2 days and when we got home we both said we couldn’t really remember any of the show at all! So understandably neither of us did very well, and we couldn’t really expect any different as the dogs were pretty much abandoned until we shot to a ring with one of them, we also didn’t both go to each run so the routine was upended further. Magic never queues with Dan – she prefers to stand on the sideline with me and screech from there! They all got a place in the 1-7 Jumping and that was it! This is why we don’t do too many trade stands as we know our runs will suffer however we still really enjoyed the show and was also great fun to watch and sponsor Dairin’s Challenge on the Friday and Saturday evening.

Hinckley was a first time for us – another lovely show – and definitely a benchmark show – by this I mean if you want to know where you stand in your grade go to Hinckley and learn a hard lesson!

My hard luck story of that weekend was Cruze in Lee Windeatt’s Large Stakes Olympia Qualifier – clear until the very last jump (a tyre). There was a HUUUUUGE crowd around this ring, lots of people were going wrong in several different places.the 2 tunnels and Dog walk and Aframe were all kind of interconnected in the middle of the ring and you could only go around them not through the middle. I really enjoyed running the course and Cruze was Ama-zing – right up until I pulled him off the very last obstacle - GUTTED – still am actually and it was a month ago! It would have been interesting to know where Cruze stood between all the best dogs in the country.

Thames is usually one of my favourite shows but to be honest this year I can’t really remember much about it – other than it was very very very very wet on the Sunday and I broke my finger Sunday morning (although didn’t actually get to A+E until Monday evening to get it x rayed and put in a splint). This is another reason I haven’t updated my blog for a while as I am now only just able to type properly again and by teht ime I have finished at work the last thing I have been wanting to do is anymore typing one handed!

Newton Heath is another show we really enjoy. We both enjoyed running Cruze and Thai in the EO and Crufts Q’s. Dan ran Thai really nicely in the Crufts run. I was surprised to see how many handlers in this class over managed the weave entry. It was a 180 angle from the right from a jump that was more or less at the last weave (there were 9 weaves) a larger number of people than I expected ran all the way past the weaves called their dogs and gave them a straight weave entry. So I was really pleased that both Dan and I were level with the jump and sent both dogs to the weaves and they both got it! Big Smiley faces J Thai had a lovely run in G6 jumping – quickest by a second……………. And the last pole down! I thought maybe we had lost my fastest 5 faults dog – but there he was again! There were several plastic poles marking a hole/ditch to the left of the last jump just out of the ring – and this is where Thai’s toy ended up – he clocked his toy and was obviously concentrating more on how he was going to avoid the poles to get his toy then where his back legs were currently – another lesson learnt. I have to say I am learning a lot of lessons this season!!!! Along the same lines Magic has started to clock the bucket at the end of runs – or before the end of runs several times this month so something else we need to watch with her.

We would then normally have the last weekend of June off – and to be honest from my performance I probably should of done! I had a small tantrum on the Saturday didn’t want to run anything and refused to run Thai in his agility until right at the end of the class, a nice straight forward course, left Thai to it and just called him for the one turn he needed some direction on, a fast course like that with no pushing from me and he came 3^rd!!!!! Lesson learnt again – work every course and don’t be a baby!

Cruze wasn’t listening on  Saturday and struggled with the heat on Sunday. I enjoyed having a go at Barrie James’ Qualifier. Barrie is fast becoming one of my favourite judges, he provides testing courses but if you work it properly it shouldn’t be impossible. I got them both E’d early on by not calling enough to miss an early jump. I then really tested Thai’s 90 degree left weave entry – he failed – but I wasn’t surprised its something I know he struggles with and I really tested it by not helping him at all just to see what he did, he ran the rest really nicely. Cruze was a monkey and instead of entering the weaves shot back up the dog walk – however every cloud and all that – his DW was STUNNING – completely independent as I was still stood at the weaves, 2o2o and a rather quizzical ‘where are you mum look left to right’ and waiting for release, Barrie said what lovely contacts he had J I then released him, he still had no idea where I was so did a lovely scoop into the tunnel underneath the DW (another thing he is generally not brilliant at!) and then finally spotted me and came and did the weaves!

The reason we were at Lansdown was Dan and Magic had their Omnipro final on the Saturday evening. Dan was last to run and knew he had to go for it to beat the winning dog at the time; Tally and Roy had had a lovely round and Tally is a big powerful dog who eats up the ground. So off Magic went, absolutely lovely until she came out the 4^th weave. Dan carried on and let Magic enjoy her run – she had the fastest time and it certainly would have been close had she bothered to do those two little extra weaves.

Dan is in the process of ‘tweaking’ his contacts and changing how he rewards the weaves at training and hoping to do some environment training with her and go to a few places for some training to try and get Magic over her weave phobia, it is such a shame as this dog is so amazing, foot perfect at home and then just can’t seem to process the weaves in the ring environment.

Weekend just gone was Tuffley, lovely show and lovely venue. The dogs were in heaven – swimming and jumping – their 2 favourite things in the whole wide world.

Best result of the weekend was Magic gaining a 4^th in 1-7 Agility. Proof that this dog can do what we know she can achieve – we just need to persuade Magic now!

I felt sick watching Dan and Magic run in the Olympia Qualifier – she had been getting her weaves so far today………… and she got them in the Q – but she missed the middle part of a snake line as Dan was really pushing her and hadn’t quite given her enough time to pick it up. This was the first weekend Magic had been looking on form for a few weekends so hopefully a few good clears are just around the corner. Sundays Grade 4 Agility and Dan really pushed Magic, she absolutely flew, a second and a half quicker than the fastest dog………….. which would have been enough of a margin for Dan to let her do a 2o2o DW but he asked for a running contact and she missed the contact. Agility is hard sometimes you just never know what you need to do to achieve you goal. Sometimes what feels like your most amazing run will get you nowhere and other times what feels like an ok run could win you a class. You just never know! I stand by my belief that Magic is much better off in 4/5 this season. One of these reasons being a purely selfish one – I don’t want to be competing against her!!

Diamond this weekend. I actually looked at my running orders in the hope that all classes would be combined and I could then persuade Dan to stay at home instead. Unfortunately Diamond have provided us with an entire weekend of graded classes ;-)

So I was told to pull myself together and dive in with some enthusiasm that I have certainly been lacking recently. I am hoping Dan will take Thai for a few classes as they work really well together. I am also hoping Magic will get it together for an entire course or 2 over the weekend. As for Cruze – I just so enjoy watching him enjoy himself! It doesn’t seem like a year ago I lost him at Diamond as she bolted from a very ‘scary’ Deerhound and broke through the windbreak (like a lion in a circus breaks through the paper covered hoop!) and hid in the back of the tent with Dani until I returned! One of many funny events from Diamond last year – but most of the others can’t be written down without permission from other parties! ;p

So here’s to another enjoyable weekend and hopefully we can come away with some rosettes.

Some time to sit back and think

Well no show at the weekend so what do I write about??

The dogs have had a quiet week on the training front as well. We have been busy with SWAG and realised that we had the grand total of about 4 leads and 6 toys in our stock boxes for SWAT show where we have a trade stand this weekend. Cue Dan frantically cutting fleece, me now having repetitive strain injury and Cruze in a strop as he can’t see why he can’t have every single toy that is being made for himself!!

I have spent some of my time reading other blogs and websites and looking on YouTube at various things for inspiration.

I found several things that I thought I’d share with you:

I like this blog; and this post in particular:

Agility - The Chaos Theory - changing your perspective.

I like the tone and I like what the writer talks about and how she always seems motivated to do better and try harder and after reading this entry – I went away thinking she is so right! I want to be good, I want to show my dogs to their best potential – but am I doing enough to achieve this?

I then followed up reading this blog by watching this video:

And coming to the ground halting realisation of Hell no!! I am not doing enough to achieve this!!!!! 

Turns and turning is something all 3 of our dogs need to improve on but not half as much as Dan and I need to improve our ability to ask for these turns.

I know I know this already as this is all Phaze has done – learning to turn. I haven’t done straight lines, she doesn’t go through tunnels in a straight line time after time, I haven’t even begun to think about contacts, and I plan to do 2x2 weaves so we won’t even look at that until next year. However, her wing wraps are getting pretty good, we have worked on rear crosses and front crosses and angles of jumps. She will often train over the same obstacles as the grown ups – ok so the actual order the jumps are taken may not be the same – but they are put on angles, well spaced out, and not ‘obvious’ like you would expect for a baby. A friend of ours said a while ago that they can struggle to get out of Grade 3 as they train their dogs for Grade 7 from the outset as that is where they aim to be. You see time after time a dog that looks really fast over the lower grade classes – but as soon as you start asking for complicated sequences and turns you know that partnership has worked on drive in a straight line a lot more than turning ability (I’m not saying you don’t need a good ‘go on’, as of course you do, but it is not the be all and end all of training).

 I also know that a certain person who is doing extremely well at the moment concentrated on turning ability and understanding not speed in straight lines and this seems to be working out pretty darn well for her at the moment and even the critics are starting to have to sit up and watch this combination in action as they are fast becoming ‘the one to beat’.

I then spent a bit more time trawling the net looking for ideas and those few kind people that like to put up exercise plans!

CleanRun have an archive of exercises from their magazines, the added bonus of this is they aren’t UK courses and therefore force us to handle a little differently – I really enjoy European style courses and the USA seem to have a different style again – I think this is where the UK can seem to fall a little behind on imagination!

Agility Zone also have some fab articles and different exercise plans in their magazines and archives (if you subscribe to the magazine you get access to all the past magazines J ). I like this style of magazine over some of the other choices as it is a lot more about training, new ideas and how other people overcome common issues in agility. Rather than a place to advertise the same things over and over again sandwiched between some write ups of events which happened several months ago and can be seen elsewhere anyway.

So now not only do I now have an Agility Folder which comes to shows with us and houses our registration papers, KC books, R/Os and directions etc (still proud of the organisational skills here!) I now also have a Training Folder in the making with various exercises that we have found useful and to test our handling styles. I am hoping this will give us a clearer idea of the stages we teach things and the way we teach things when our next new Agility dog turns up (it’s not my turn next!! How unfair!!!)

SO I think we are getting there – we know what we want, we are starting to work out how to get there, and hopefully we will see some results – but if not then we will just have to try harder!! 

Just as I am thinking I should give up as it's just not fair on my clever dogs ;-)

I have continued to be slack with the blog as I can’t get my videos to upload properly on the computer and prefer to have some video to add in to each blog. This weekend we forgot the video camera entirely anyway!!

I was told off for my last blog entry as I missed one of Magic’s wins L Magic also won Combined 3/ 4 Jumping at Kernow J There were so many wins I knew I had forgotten something!

Last weekend we went to Blackdown Show, new venue, so a bit bigger and MUCH windier!! The classes seemed a little on the slow side, some of the callers seemed to have an odd idea about what they were calling up to and whether or not they were letting people join the queue – not letting in someone who was 90 something but letting in people that were 190 odd 2 seconds later (and no they weren’t helpers). As a result of this we ended up with 3 grade 3 classes and 2 grade 6 classes running at the same time so 7 runs had to be fitted in at the same time! So it wasn’t appreciated when I then got chastised by a ring party member for being late and not having run either of my dogs in a class that should have been open for around 45 minutes as there were 50 odd in it and had only been open for 20 minutes with no call out that I had heard, I rushed to get my dogs, messed up my runs as I was upset and then proceeded to watch the class be left open for a further 15+ minutes!

Meanwhile Dan was having a better time in the Agility ring and had a lovely clear which he eventually won J So another Grade 3 win under their belt. In fact it was a combined 3/ 4 class again. So that was 3 jumping wins and 2 agility wins for Magic at Grade 3 J and she has proved herself capable of winning Grade 4 twice over as well. Dan is planning on working on his timing and cueing with Magic before his first Grade 4 show at SWAT so here’s hoping they do well there too J

I enjoyed running both my Agility classes; Cruze was clear in the 5-7 Agility and somehow came 4^th – I have absolutely no idea how we managed that as he was a bit exuberant and I was completely lost and also got a fit of giggles half way round as he was just being so funny and I was shouting all sorts of commands at him! From one jump to another I managed to fit in ‘go, back, left, right, here’!!! Poor dog!!!! He does so well to put up with me!! So we wasted a few seconds there – mind you we wouldn’t of made up enough time to beat the winner; Stuart and Tess had a foot perfect, smooth round to win that class. Thai ran it absolutely beautifully, until I ran out of breath for the last turn and pull in and lost him over a jump instead of going up the A-frame. Another consequence of having to run a dog, run back get the next dog and there be no queue/or a queue of 1 or 2 dogs only. So lesson learnt there – I cannot run my dogs unless I follow the set up I am used to; therefore I will not be wasting my runs and running while upset/annoyed/rushed – too hot/too cold/ a bit tired/ a little grumpy ;-) hahahahaha!! I wonder how many runs I would manage over a whole season!

I then waited for several hours for my Grade 6 Agility – and messed up both!! By which point I was more than ready to go home!! Well done to Dani and Lily who very comfortably won that class J 6 and a ¼!!

I have struggled over the last few weekends with no run going how I had hoped, and it does get hard when agility means so much to you and you just can't get it right, but I just have to look at the boys' faces and realise that they were very happy with their runs and that is what really matters.

Dan had another really nice run in the Grade 3 Agility Magic is looking so confident at the moment and they look a good partnership – I wonder how far they will go this season?? Unfortunately Magic was a bit too fast over the seesaw and forgot that it was meant to hit the floor before she left it!

Yesterday was Carn Brae – and the special mention goes to Cruze – never one to let me down – if we both hit it right on the same day on the same course J Mr Cruze has his first grade 6 win J He ran beautifully, nice contacts (I was really pleased with his DW), good turns, a nice rear cross/flick round the outside of a wing into weaves which not long ago Cruze would have ended up outside the ring whilst conducting a turn like that!! So I think I have to officially stop calling him my baby – he is not my ‘tester dog’ for courses that I hope to do well in with Thai, he is my amazing Grade 6 boy with 1 win towards Grade 7 and I shall be treating him as such from now on.

No show next weekend L What will we do??!! I think we should probably use it as a welcome break as our next free weekend will be the 20^th August! 7 straight weekends of camping and competing at the larger shows starts with SWAT on Bank Holiday May weekend.

I am hoping I can use this fortnight to continue to work on my turns and handling style and you never know I may emerge as a calm and confident handler in 2 weeks time, who doesn’t lose the plot half way round a course, if not I will still have 2 of the best dogs in the world who love to spend their time with me playing their favourite game.

The rest of April in a nutshell

I have been a bit rubbish with my blog recently, there are several reasons for this:

q             SWAG has been very, very busy recently – there will be so many colour co-ordinated happy dogs out there J

q             My computer is useless at uploading video and I am not very good at editing video! And I have a short attention span for things like this.

q             My handling has in general been pretty Pants!

q             Did I mention I have a short attention span? I always enjoy things when it’s a novelty – after 5 or so Blog posts – I know see it as a chore! Lol

So we have been to several shows since my last Blog:

Wallingford – I was really pleased with parts of pretty much all courses run by the 3 merlies. Cruze had a clear in 2 classes with a broken toenail (so no agility classes for him) I did not push on any turns or anything as wanted to know that he was comfortable and stayed sound after which he did J  He also went clear with Dan in the Teams which was especially good as I was running Tigger in the same Team (I do so love that dog!) and his Girlfriend Wren was in the Team which I thought might just make the crazy merlie head explode!! Maybe I will have to break his toenails more often as he was clear all weekend!!

Thai had some really good bits and his times were up there with the top dogs when he just had a pole in several classes. Dan ran him in one Agility class – they looked very good together and Thai is rapidly becoming a bit of a Daddy’s boy! Which is nice as we now have 2 each. J Thai seemed much more confident and was motoring around courses – I think this might have had something to do with me trying really hard to handle well and only having him to concentrate on. Nothing still quite came off though.

Magic had some really nice contacts over that weekend but was a bit of a madam in her weaves, deciding she couldn’t do left hand weave entries and that right hand weave entries came up too fast – so she either came out early (left) or missed entry (right).

Then it was Easter.

As usual Dan had put lots of effort in during the week based on the problems he had encountered over the weekend before. This time it paid off!! Weaves all weekend were pretty much spot on J Magic won G3 Agility on the Saturday and is now Grade 4. Magic worked really well over the weekend, with just a pole here and there for most of her runs. She is looking on top form and I think Dan will enjoy Grade 4 classes.

I was useless the entire weekend!! Cruze had done no contacts at all for over 2 weeks whilst his nail was healing so didn’t expect much on Friday. However, he came 4^th in the G6 jumping and 9^th in the Combined 6/7 Agility. Then that was it – I have failed to achieve a clear round since!!!

I really enjoyed running my first 6/7 Olympia Qualifer. The atmosphere was really good, the others rings had finished, the sun was out, so pretty much everyone on the showground sat around and watched, whilst the Show Management handed out sweets and lollipops! How lovely J
The course itself was pretty tricky, I had no expectations of actually achieving anything but using my new found determination to try my hardest in every class (so at least when I don’t go clear I still have something to take away from it!) I attacked both runs.

The start was tricky and dog after dog did not get past the first 6 obstacles without fault. I had decided to handle the boys in two different ways and both worked so I was really, really pleased with that. This course again highlighted my need for work on turns and tighter control. My sheepdogs do tend to bring in a herd of sheep or two everynow and then on a course – which is really disheartening when I finally get a clear but have had 2 huge unnecessary turns and am out of the places. Both missed the weave entry – for 2 different reasons – the weaves were a fairly hard entry off a long jump but it was a right handside entry so I thought if I got where I needed to be I might be ok. Thai took the longjump very fast and REALLY tightly. I expected a leap and a wide turn which would make the weave entry easy enough for Thai, I got a tight wing wrap around the long jump marker pole and he entered at the 2^nd weave as he made it too tight for himself. Cruze I got there to help him turn – didn’t help as he rushed and missed the entry. A common theme for Cruze over the weekend which I thought we had overcome but obviously not.

We then had Cornwall and Dartmoor shows last weekend – not much to say really – the show seemed to have a slightly odd vibe about it and the classes seemed to run slowly we didn’t get home until about 7pm on Saturday and we only live ½ an hour away. We also didn’t get home until late on the Sunday – but that’s because we had to wait for Dan to get another trophy J Magic won her Grade 3 jumping J So Magic seems to be keeping up her theme of winning out of each grade several times over as this was her 3^rd jumping win.

Pat had joked that she didn’t want Dan to leave her behind in Grade 3 when he won out at Easter – so she made sure she wouldn’t be lonely and won Grade 3 Agility with Dooley on the Saturday and Chilli on the Sunday!! Absolutely amazing I have to say! Dooley’s run was one of those runs where you just knew no one would be beating it – it was so smooth and flowing and Dooley’s drive and motivation around the entire course was evident, I was almost clapping along with Pat in the weaves!

I’m not going to say anything about my runs as can’t really remember if I achieved anything – which probably means I didn’t! Oh no actually they both had lovely agility rounds on the Saturday – but Cruze took a dislike to the straight, narrow A Frame with slats in the way of his little paws and Thai did a lovely dogwalk at which I panicked and told him to wait, so he slowed across the top and beginning of the down, crept towards  the bottom and released himself – we got 5f – which didn’t matter anyway as I hadn’t completely ruined his round by slowing him on the dogwalk!

Blackdown this weekend. My main goal?  I really would like to see if I could manage to not be an idiot!!

Well and truly Summertime :)

Well I wrote my blog last Monday after Carn Brae show on the Sunday, and thought I'd sort the videos out and post it........... nope you haven't missed a post......I never sorted the videos out!
Seems a bit silly to give you a page long run down of last Sunday so a slightly shorter version goes something like this:

*LOTS to work on before Wallingford!

Thai was a very good boy, this was effectively his first Grade 6 show, we ran at Dartmoor in G6 but that was an indoor winter show and so don’t really count it. Thai had a pole in the SC, but a good time and came 2^nd in the 6/7 Agility behind Nigel Hughes – who is a man and therefore could run up the hill from the bottom of the ring to the top!! And came 3^rd in the 6/7 jumping behind Toni and Raq and Nigel and Miya again! So very pleased as Raq and Miya are both experienced Grade 7 dogs (shame they weren’t graded!!!!!)

Thai's DW wasn't very impressive - I won’t get away with a slow contact and a 2^nd place at Newbury this weekend so that is my number one training priority this week. I was pleased with Thai’s weaves, Dan has been nagging me to stop managing his weaves so much and trust him to find the entries and although not the hardest of entries this weekend I left him to it and he put in his braking stride and got the entries well in both classes (unlike a certain other merle I will talk about later!!). I think Thai’s highlight of the day was probably his opportunity to come out and spend time with the humans and play ‘catch the piece of grass’. He can be such a clown sometimes and I do forget that he is really easy to have around the rings and enjoys a bit of attention away from the others.

Dan has been training Thai this week - I think they make a really good team and hope they do some classes together this year and see what happens :) 

 

Magic would have had a very good day had she remembered all the hard work Dan had put in with her weave training over the winter.  Eventhough Dan was very controlled and stood still for her entry, marked it, and encouraged – exactly how we have been doing it at training she came out 2 from the end - twice. We worked on this in training last week and think we may have discovered the cause - and hopefully a solution! Contacts were stunning in the Agility - hopefully they can achieve good contacts and a full set of weaves this weekend. Dan ran off down the field leaving Mag in her weaves yesterday - so we would like to think she might stay in them if he is running beside her this weekend - otherwise the person running in the next ring will get a shock if Dan has to recreate his training and proofing of the weaves!!

Birthday boy Cruze was a little exuberant for the whole day. SC was actually ok, I really pushed him on a tight fan and down a straight line of jumps downhill and all the poles stayed up. We then had to turn left tight to take a diagonal across a box; which Cruze stopped for very well; in fact a bit too well and I nearly fell over the top of him as he stood there staring at me and the jump. It always surprises me just how good this dog is at listening to body language and cues, he looks like he isn’t listening at all but you just have to make one tiny move and he is there with you.

Having said that – he wasn’t with me in his jumping or particularly his agility round!

6/7 agility I was really pleased with Cruze’s dog walk speed…………..the course started jump-dogwalk, Cruze flew up the dogwalk and I thought oh good his contact training seems to be paying off……….as I then watched my dog fly off the side and land in a heap on the floor L. I hadn’t really accounted for the fact that the DW was slightly set to the side from the first jump or that it was going down hill, and obviously Cruze did not either!

I put him back over the dogwalk, and although not as fast as the original one to be fair it was still better than last years attempts as he drove to the bottom nicely. I pushed his Aframe and he stopped nicely.

This year I need to remember Cruze is not my baby dog he is now 4 years old and capable of doing some good work and I need to let him show everyone how grown up he is and what he is capable of.

Phaze had another fab day; I think she is certainly getting into going to shows. She thinks she can just get out of the van and throw herself at the nearest available people as 90% of the time that will either be Pat, Dani et al, Claire, Lolly or Chel and they will all be pleased to see her – a few people were a bit more shocked at a puppy coming in sideways at them for a cuddle from behind a van!! Too friendly those Harrjaks!!!!!!!!

This weekend we had no show to go to; Scunthorpe, Bedfordshire or Romsey - all a little too painful on the diesel front! So we had a lovely weekend at home; sun shining, BBQs, a little too much Vodka, some training - not necessarily in that order. We had a lovely walk by the river on Dartmoor today where we discovered if Phaze is no good at agility she could be used as a recovery diver as she decided swimming was too easy and thought she'd throw in a bit of deep river diving in to mix it up a bit and brought out some lovely big stones from the bottom of the river! 

We also got the paddling pool out for the first this year, much to Thai's delight - there are a few things that really excite Thai but a paddling pool is certainly high up on the list (as are tennis balls, bits of grass, tiny tiny sticks and cheese). As quickly as I fill it with the hose pipe Thai throws it all back out again, we went through quite a few soft bottomed paddling pools before I cottoned on to the idea of buying a hard plastic one ;-) Phaze thought this might be fun and I caught her in there later having a go, at which point I'm not sure who threw the most water out of the paddling pool, me or her, while we were playing together :) 

I was thinking about the rules to which we let our dogs live by whilst I was sunbathing and reading a book this weekend. Cruze appeared with a ball and placed it on my lap and I idly threw it for him and so the process began. It made me think about the books that tell you not to let your dog dictate when it's playtime or even to allow them free play of toys as this will lower the value of the toys when you want to use them as a reward. I'm not sure I believe this. So Cruze dictated at that moment that he wanted to play fetch - why can't he suggest this? We are having a lazy day and he is offering some interaction with me - is this a bad thing? Will my dog demand to play at other inappropriate moments? Maybe - but he also understands if I say 'not now' and he will go off and find something else to do or play by himself. I don't think any of our dogs regard their toy in training at any lesser value just because they have been playing with a toy they found in the kitchen 5 minutes ago. 

Our dogs are pets first and foremost and i want them to enjoy life as much as possible. I like to let my dogs have a choice and I enjoy watching them all go about their day, chewing bones, playing in the paddling pool, playing with toys. They all live fairly easy going lives and get the chance to wander off in the field whenever they fancy. Although I use a cage for puppies, once adults they never see a cage in the house, Phaze loves her cage and demands to have her dinner in there so she may be harder to wean off her cage, but she hasn't been in her cage overnight since she was 4 months old, and never in there if we are at home, which is most of the time. I think it is just as important for a dog to learn that even if they have free run of the house they need to learn to settle and rest when they need to or when everyone else is.

I haven't yet had a dog that doesn't have a good recall, doesn't understand the boundaries of 'their garden', certainly none have ever refused to play with a toy with me - even if there is a mountain of toys to chose from sitting on the floor beside them. I think my dogs are happy with the way I have chosen to allow them their freedom and I certainly enjoy watching and playing with them.

The show season has started

Pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaase can I go jumping now?

Well the first show of the year has been and gone! And what a show it was!!!!!!!!

Amazing time, amazing dogs, amazing friends J

Please also note our very nice new fencing in the photo above :) Thank you Feroda Agility

To say we were all a little over excited at the prospect of the NADS UKA show last week is probably something of an understatement; some of our camping group were packed and ready to go by Monday! 3 of the 6 groups camping together were there at 2pm as stated on the schedule and we were all set up by 4.30pm.

I forget how tiring UKA can get, we have 3 dogs competing and run 4 classes a day each, so 12 runs each day, plus I was in the Pairs class on the Sunday 3 times.

Add in a little Phaze time around the rings and we pretty much didn’t stop from 7am until it finished at 6pm each day. So not a gentle introduction into the season but a very fun one!

Thai was a good merlie and won his Senior jumping, his Agility run on Sunday was FAB, very difficult and tight push round a jump for the 2^nd obstacle (which I don’t think Cruze would of actually fitted through!), I remembered my training with Toni and instead of trying to always move towards the next obstacle I looked at the dogs line and used a should turn into weaves, lovely contacts, rear cross the tunnel at the end and pull to a jump to the left, with a jump to the right sitting very close by……….or in my case pull him completely off the left jump and make him run round it!!!! Oooops! I E’d Thai in one of his SC classes as didn’t call him off a tunnel but I was really pleased with how he opened up on that course. Another SC and the one pole-itis monster reared his ugly head for the first and no doubt not the last time this season! Then GAMES classes….I have no idea how to run Games classes – but I wanted to get Thai up into Champ and the Games points is what is stopping me……..and they have still stopped me! We were doing quite well in Snooker, I’d reached the colour sequence section and then let Thai sail over a jump instead of calling him into the weaves and that was the end of that!! Gamblers I am a little more capable of, I seem to be fairly accurate at working out where I will be at the end of the 30 seconds and we got the 15 point Gamble and came 3^rd.

Thai ran pairs with Wren, we were clear in the jumping part but unfortunately Wren heard Tunnel and went for the tunnel, she was meant to hear A-frame but never mind!

Cruze was a little over excited at being at a show, he had started whining on Thursday when we were packing the van and not really calmed down since then!

We managed a very messy clear in the Jumping class, wasted about 5 or 6 seconds, completely my fault, added a switch in to makesure I could get to the right end of the tunnel and ended up getting in the wrong place and making it much harder than it would have been had I not swapped sides!! Ooops again! Cruze was also clear in a SC and came 2^nd J. I was generally very pleased with the speed of Cruze’s contacts over the weekend so hopefully we can get it together this weekend.

Cruze was in the pairs with Magic, Magic competed the Agility section beautifully, baton change and let go of Cruze………………..and he was GONE!! Cue a little hectic screaming from me and being the idiot that I am I lost him as trying to turn for the weaves and he missed the entry L so 5 faults, we qualified these 2 last year for the Final but then couldn’t go so it was a real shame that I messed up this year as we have a very good pair here.

Magic was a little star as always. One of Dan’s goals this season was to get her up to Champ SC; well that goal was comfortably achieved with 2 wins on Sunday, one by 4 seconds! Magic also gained a 4^th in a SC class on the Saturday, some people think UKA is not as competitive as KC but Magic came 4^th in this class 0.28 seconds behind the winner – I’d say that’s fairly competitive!!

Dan has been retraining magic’s contacts over the winter so this was the first chance to see how she was coming along. Some were lovely, some not so great – so a bit more work to do this week. Magic’s agility rounds were lovely, just an accidental extra jump on the Sunday, which was a real shame as she looked very good over a handly course and first try of rubber contacts. Magic took to the rubber contacts much better than either of the boys, Thai slipped as he hit the up on the dog walk and then crawled over it L Cruze tried to slide his seesaw – something I have spent time over the winter training – and came to an abrupt stop L

I also had the privilege of running the very handsome Harrjak Tigger

I ran him in a SC class, where he only had one pole down J My fault as I realised how long he was jumping and thought he might miss the last 2 jumps that were slightly off angle and caused him to catch the pole as I said ‘Tigs’ to get him to check in with me and see the jumps slightly to his right. It was an amazinf feeling running him though! I hope my little Harrjak will be half as drivey as Uncle Tigger.

I also ran Tigger in the pairs class with Pat and Dooley and Tig was FAB and went CLEAR!!!!! It was quite a handly jumping section so I wasn’t sure that I would be able to control Tigs well enough having only blasted him round a SC previously, luckily the really fiddly bit was after the weaves so I had him with me and at a slightly slower pace (well for Tigger anyway!) and we got home clear! Unfortunately Dooley had suffered a slight pilot error so none of the 3 pairs I ran in made it home double clear L but it was a very fun and fast class to take part in! Thanks again to Lolly for letting me run her gorgeous boy – and here’s to the teams in a few weeks where I get to have another go!!!!

After running Tigger at the weekend I am no longer going to look at pictures of the Tigger pup I know of that is available, as I liked him already, but I suggest you all do!!!!!!

So first KC show on Sunday J Carn Brae here we come!!!!!!