So after TAG there was a particular section of the G1-3 Agility course that I really wanted to revisit. The seesaw, long jump, 2 jumps to tunnel sequence. I saw a lot of people handle the two jumps as a pin wheel, staying on one side to pull around the near wing and through the gap.
I prefered to handle it as two front crosses as I did, taking the dog around the far wing which stayed to their natural path and avoided the problem of pulling through the gap, however leaving the tunnel quite open.
However… I was SOO late to front cross and it didn’t run smoothly at all.
Therefore, to work it from behind and still keep to the dogs natural line, while also pushing for tight turns… Serpentine handling!
A serpentine isn’t just three jumps in a row, it is any sequence of three obstacles.
We had a go today! (But without the long jump and tunnel). Training it up from jumps on small, and look how smooth it handles! Success! I had to pause to bring him over the second jump but I still got a good distance ahead once he was committed. However… we didn’t have the tunnel there or the long jump. By handling from behind I am leaving the tunnel wide open, but it’s doable with the right training and commands.
I think this way is quicker, however I should have timed both ways today during training! D’oh.
Woop! It’s great to take away little sections from courses and work on them. If you’re not happy with how you handled something, or you’d like to try it another way, make a note and then go and do it!
Today I was at TAG. My first outdoor show of the season.
5.30am we were up and making scrambled egg for me (on toast) and for Guinness’ breakfast. I’ve been pondering a lot about what to do with Guinness’ meal on show mornings, he often has a bad first run and especially if he hasn’t done a poo, but on the other hand they do need some energy food. A recent discussion on facebook brought up the method of feeding high protein food such as scrambled egg and as I love it too I thought it was a jolly good idea. So with breakfast and poo’s done before we left we set off in search of unknown territory, West Midlands Show Ground!
I arrived before 8am (shock horror) and had plenty of time to get my bearings and walk my course. First up, Grade 1-3 Agility, although a long wait until our running order. I walked into the ring and my stomach fell, first hurdle, a tyre! We have not seen a tyre for over 12 months and the last time we did one in training Guinness ran smack into the bottom of the loop and head-butted it to the floor. He then jumped through it afterwards, but still a concern.
We got there towards the end of the class and had a nice short queue which Guinness happily tugged in! I decided to run start him to help him through the tyre (plus I wasn’t confident with our wait anyway) and I revved him up, aimed him in the right direction and hoped for the best! Hurrah we got through and onto the Aframe. Jumps, seesaw then pull off the tunnel for 180 jumps. A lot of people chose to handle it differently to me, pulling the dog back onto themselves, off their natural path, and I was really pleased with my decision. A blind cross while he was in the tunnel and then dog walk, a tight right angle from the contact down three jumps and then another tight 90 degree angle into the weave. No chance we were getting it, refusal. Second entry and good weaves until pole 11! Too late I’d started running on and we’d had a pole down so time to finish. 2 poles knocked on the 270 boxwork and finish.
It felt like such a messy round, but not too bad. Lovely Ella happened to be watching and videoed us. Watching back it looks a lot more successful than it felt! Of course lots of little things to improve but I am generally pleased with our contacts, handling and overall performance.
A huge break until our next runs and I was given a very appreciated seat, coffee and company from Lou and Deb. G1-2 Agility was set up before lunch and I walked it then sat in the sun with Guinness to eat my sandwiches.
G1-2 Agility was a lovely course, all on one side and very fast and flowing. Jump jump seesaw, I went for another running start, tunnel dog walk tunnel and I saw the judge raise him arm to fault us as we left the dog walk for the tunnel. “What?!” I thought. Guinness never gets faulted on contacts, even when he self-releases his 2 on 2 off he has normally gotten into position. Tunnel to weaves is often a challenge but the weaves were a lovely distance away so I could collect Guinness and send him. Yes! He nailed the entry but then popped out about halfway through and then again at number 11. We carried on for a tight 90 degree and then a 180 and as I stopped still in the middle of the 180 he pulled through the gap to me. Douche, my bad really, second attempt and I kept moving and he turned nicely. Aframe and I held his contact. I expected him to run off and I made it very obvious that I was stopping and expected him to do so also and he stopped nicely! A nano-second passed and then I released and we continued across a box to finish.
Pfft there were my dreams of going home Grade 2 gone! I won’t lie and say I wasn’t disappointed, I was. But I was pleased and having a great day! Ring experience. We said it last year and as this is the first competition away from home of the season we haven’t yet got the experience of new environments. But every show helps and Guinness was running lovely.
Speaking to Lou later on and she had seen our run from a distance and said it looked like Guinness took a very long strides off the dog walk and she wasn’t surprised he had missed it. We had been quick releasing all day and with the tunnel in sight I reckon he pulled off a very un-stylish running contact, otherwise known as not even attempted to stop despite his training! We had a great contact training session on Thursday however it is nowhere near the level of proofing that I am aiming for – gotta keep at it!
Final class of the day Combined 1-3 Jumping. We watched as the Judge laid out his course. There was a tricky section in the middle which looked a little strange but okay, then the Judge wasn’t finished and he changed it completely to something far stranger. Gosh. I hate to be one of those people who complain about a course, especially as I know how it feels to be a Judge myself, but I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t good in my opinion. Sections were nice but the tunnel was a very close trap in more than one place, the long jump was set off at an odd angle, directing away from the dogs path and there was a huge space between the long jump and another jump then onto an angled jump at minimum distance, a bounce for large dogs. 180 degree pull off a flat tunnel and then flat tunnel quickly to tyre ending. Plus I wont even bother trying to explain the funny middle section.
I put my positive head on, decided how to handle it and went for the challenge. We had a lovely time in the queue with no barking collies in sight. Guinness queued next to a male husky which I was a little concerned about (because Guinness can be a dick not because the husky was nasty) but we all kept a nice distance and Guinness stayed calm.
With nothing to loose we went into the ring tugging and I popped Guinness into a down, ready for a wait. I unclipped the lead and walked away backwards, then calmly turned away from him, silently expecting him to break. He didn’t move. Time stood still! Feeling more confident I walked a little further and then released. Ahhhh!!! Hurrah!! (I really need to man up and start pushing my dog more. So what if he breaks and we get E’d?!)
Onto the course and a nice 270 avoiding the tunnel and then into the weaves. Guinness wasn’t giving 100% and spun around in front of them but on second attempt he got in and flowed through 12 weaves in great style. Finally! Only taken 3 runs! Off onto the tricky bit and I’d opted to work it from behind, a little more risky, and I couldn’t pull him off a jump in time. Never mind we carried on and over the long jump and then he flew straight past the next jump. The 180 was superb and then he zoomed out of the flat tunnel and quickly ducked under the tyre. I’m just so grateful that he didn’t run into it! Not wanting to leave on a failure I popped him back over, and he ducked under again, then third and final attempt and he jumped through it.
Day finished! Phew. Three disastrous Eliminated but three runs with positives to take away!
A lovely first experience of TAG and West Midlands Show Ground with a stunningly sunny but cool day!
March and April Can You Dig It Winter Series Show bring the close of Winter and the start of the competing season.
March
Being the numptysaurus I am I haven’t made any notes about the March show, so my account is going to be very brief!
Lou was due to Judge Intermediate and Advanced Agility and I had agreed to Ring Manage for half of the day. Then when Lou was in hospital the week before the show I said I’d Judge for her. We ended up sharing it and Lou Judged Standard & Large which allowed me to run in Intermediate Agility!
I opted for NFC as always and had a bit of a mixed bag of 2 runs. I got a short wait with training and then the dog walk was fabulous! (I have re-watched the video so many times to enjoy that contact). Weaves we didn’t complete more than 10 poles on first run so left them out on the 2nd run, although I had to run him past the weaves to get to where I wanted to go and didn’t call him off them properly. A-frame, he didn’t even think about stopping! (Argh). Seesaw was fine and then finish Serpentine I was mega chuffed with! A slight threadle arm was all that I needed for the middle jump.
A quick coffee and cake break and then back onto Judging duties. It was a pleasure to watch the Advanced classes.
I got into Intermediate Jumping in the afternoon (NFC runs again) and Guinness successful weaved 6 poles 3 out of 4 times from a tunnel! Hurrah!
I gave the Steeplechase a miss as we were both pretty knacked and pleased with what we’d done. March Show finitè!
April
Phew the last of the Winter Shows and spring is definitely in the air! Lighter mornings and lighter nights! We didn’t get home until 8pm but it didn’t feel late at all with the sun only just setting.
I judged the Beginners Jumping and thoroughly enjoyed it! I was determined not to do too much up and down and although it ended up looking quite like a steeplechase, there’s not much you can do to avoid that with jumps and tunnels only.
The course seemed quite well received with only a handful of dogs Eliminated from running ahead over jumps (partly due to lack of handler communication) and there were some fast clears. I blasted Guinness round before we started and lay down a clear round in 24 seconds! (Would have been embarressing if we’d have gone wrong). Our time remained unbeaten! Zoom!
I really noticed was how people shaped, or didn’t shape, their dogs around the top pivot. Quite a few dogs were aimed at wings and left to take the jumps straight rather than aiming for a smooth arc. It’s something I find really hard to be aware of when running with my dog so it was nice to be able to stand and watch other people and get a better idea of how the smoother handling looked.
I ran quickly out of my Judging appointment and straight in Advanced Agility on Standard for a quick NFC run. Big mistake, I shouldn’t have bothered. There were too many traps and I didn’t plan what to do so we flapped around, failed our weaves and self-released off almost every contact. Second run I had a better plan and we did much better, but our contacts were still pants. After reading an article about whether putting your dog back onto the bottom of the contact actually helps I wasn’t really sure what to do when he pinged off, and left the ring feeling a little annoyed.
No time to dwell, straight into Intermediate Jumping and I ran for competition. First run, too busy worrying about a wait, was on the wrong side of Guinness and forgot where to go. Second run, I faced him and walked backwards and he waited nicely! Annoying that it was not a confident wait but a huge bonus to our recent wait failures! Off we went, tough 270 start then straight run of a few jumps before turning into a tricky left hand weave entry (the nicer of the 2 sides though as they have a pole wrap to aim for), steadily jogging along and we got 12 weaves! Front cross and up a line then tunnel tunnel finish! AHHHH! CLEAR ROUND!! AHHHH!
Woooooop. 12 weaves. A wait. No poles. Fantastic weave entry. OMG. First competitive run of the year and everything is falling into place.
We got 3rd!!! 1 second slower than the winner which aint bad considering we’re competing against G3-5 dogs!
Quickly into Steeplechase which I missed walking, messy run but alteast he did another wait, and then time for a burger!
I had a lovely relaxed finish with some cake, a bit of helping on tickets & leads and then packing away. Back at Dig It we were very excited to unload all of the equipment onto the field and set up the fencing!
A great finish to the winter series. I wish I could be feeling a little more confident about our competiting ability but pleased with how our weaves are and I’m feeling semi-relaxed about our waits, as they are normally better on grass.
DogOddity 