Agility Nuts KC Show

Wow..........what can I say?!!

Paul and Pen put on an amazing show :-)  I know that both of them felt the stress a little but didn't let anything show to the competitors, Judges and other helpers.  Our every whim was accommodated!!

That's not to say that the show wasn't hard work - I spent all of Friday being Pen's "Dog's Body" making sure they were walked, fed, toileted, etc, Scribed on Saturday and Ring Managed on Sunday - but my lovely friend's "can't do enough for you" attitude rubbed off on the competitors at the show and we were almost fighting off willing helpers. 

Could it have been Pen's amazing catering that was drawing people out of the woodwork?  I've never been so well fed at a show in my life!!

Sticking to my guns I didn't run Reno in any of the Agility classes even though I'd entered them so this is how we got on in the jumping:-

Saturday's classes are on the video above:-

Combined 3-5 Jumping - Judge: Bob Sharpe - What is it with me and Bob's courses?  I know that they are going to suit Reno and me.  They are always challenging but within our capabilities. Watching the video you can see that Reno actually followed my handling and then lost focus when he realised that I wanted him to do something different to what I was signalling him to do!!

Graded 1-3 Jumping - Judge: Joy Hitchcock - Perfect course for the grades and I worked Reno a bit better in this one although it looks like I actually pulled him away from the weaves.

Kiros was clear but just outside the placings in both of his runs.

Sunday

Graded 3-5 Jumping - Judge: Edna Soames - Another lovely course from Edna.  I look forward to seeing what she puts up as she always manages to make her courses individual.  Reno started well with a lovely angled recall but was drawn to a tunnel entrance in the middle of the flick-flack so E'd.  The next part of the course gave the handler a choice of pull or push throughs.  I opted for the "push" which worked really well.  Then onto some box handling followed by weaves and a bit more handling before the finish.  Reno picked up the weaves and finished the course perfectly.  Apart from the E at the beginning this felt like a great run :-)

Combined 1-3 Jumping - Judge: Andrew Garratt - Regular readers of my blog will know how much I like Andrew's courses.  He is quite unique in that he only runs small dogs but has a great understanding of how to set courses that get the best out of large dogs.  My only criticism of Andrew's courses?  Lots of running!!!  The start of the course was actually quite similar to Edna's (after I've just commented about her individuality!!) but this time the tunnel was a little less tempting and Reno worked it well.  We had a slight miss understanding at the weaves and (I think) we were E'd just after them.  The rest of the course was quite Helter-Skelterish so Reno loved it :-)

Again Kiros was clear in the Helter-Skelter just outside the placings but, this time, E'd in the jumping!!  Not sure why but we occasionally have moments on the course when I go one way and he goes the other :-(

This weekend is NADTC's Fun Day and I'm taking all three boys.  Not sure how Ronnie will do as he hasn't ran a course for about a year.  One thing you can guarantee is that he'll bark a lot.  I'm hoping someone (Ann?) will take some photo's so I have more to post on here.

Next Tuesday Reno and me are on a very timely Anthony Clarke training session.  One thing that is obvious from the video is that, again, I am not running confidently and my arm movements are "wishy washy".  I'm sure Ant will have me "snapping" like a good'n by the end of the session.

Chatsworth Country Fair

A great day out for all the Family!!!

Plenty for Mark and Ade to explore (including 3 Real Ale tents) and Agility for Ann and I.  What more could you want in a Day?!!

The Agility was a Limited KC Show for Large Grades 1-5 (with higher Grades able to run NFC).  Four runs were scheduled and our Judge for the Day was Rosie Pearson.

I've decided not to run Reno in Agility until his contacts are 100% sound in training and was glad I'd made that decision when I saw the course.  It really wasn't for us (more at the 5 end of the scale).

The Power and Speed was a much nicer course.  Reno's first two contacts (A-Frame and See-Saw) were great but he was drawn by a tunnel in the Speed section, releasing himself from the Dog Walk to go into it and getting himself E'd in the process.

He ran the Speed section well and would only of had a refusal on an offset jump which caught out a lot of Dogs.

I really liked the Jumping course.  Appropriate for the Grade of Dogs and well spaced out allowing the Dogs to flow.

It started two jumps then weaves so, predictably, Reno ran past the weaves and into the tunnel!  After that he ran the course beautifully until he got to the last jump. 

If you've been to one of the shows organised by Graham Taylor before you will know that he uses very "traditional" Agility equipment.  The jump wings are almost the size of horse jumps and they tend to have loads of "fillers".  Reno didn't seem to notice any of the other fillers but the last was a brush jump and it caused him to pull up like a horse and practically smack his nose on it!!

Our final run was Team Trio.  A jumping course with no weaves so we managed to persuade Sue to run Faym with Reno and Harley.  The course would have been lovely with normal sized jumps but with the horse jump wings it was quite hard for the handlers to run straight and get to the turns.

Sue went first with Faym so she could use her wait start (she ran well, just going around a few jumps but generally following the course) but this put me at a disadvantage with Reno.  I had to trust him to take the first jump on his own to give me any chance of getting to jump 4 which was a turn but set a long way out.  Reno was a really good boy, completely understanding his "Look" command but unfortunately I didn't quite make it to the top so we got a refusal on jump 4.  After that he ran clear and Harley was E'd on the last jump!!

Exciting news and quite unplanned!!  Ann and Mark now have a new addition to their household. 

Introducing Vee!!!

She's a 7 week old Working Cocker and has been breed by Shooting friends of theirs.  They know and love both of the parents so couldn't resist. 

Indi has accepted her well but Harley wants to leave home at the moment.  My Boys won't have a chance to meet her properly until her jabs are complete.

I'll finish this post wishing Paul and Pen good luck with their first Agility Nuts KC show this weekend.  Hope the weather isn't too bad for us? :-)

Training, Training, Training!!!

Firstly I have to apologise for the title of my previous post..........I really didn't mean to bring Summer to such an impromptu end.

The last couple of weeks have been all about training for Reno and I.

Starting with Tues 23rd at NADTC.  This was Dog of the Month night and Allison had set a lovely competition Agility course.  Reno ran beautifully on his competition run getting and completing 6 weaves and stopping/remaining on his contacts until I released him.  Unfortunately I got a bit over excited and sent him to the wrong jump after the A-Frame. 

For the first time ever our next two runs over the course were clear.

Last Saturday we went on the Training Day with Alistair Bray.  I have to apologise to Alistair for saying I had no idea who he was!!  I have seen him competing before but hadn't heard anything of him as a trainer.  I can't imagine why because he is very good.

I particularly liked the way Alistair managed to keep the day moving. He managed to make it informative and challenging even though he had such a diverse range of Dogs and Handlers attending.

So what did I learn from the Day?

Firstly, and most importantly, it was a great reminder of things that I had forgotten.

1.  I have taught Reno to "look" at the first obstacle but I have to remember to remind him.
2.  My foundation training has worked.  Reno does understand my handling but I need to make it a lot clear for him then I do for Kiros.
3.  I am a consistent trainer/handler!!

Our only real stumbling block was (of course) the weaves.  It's obvious that Reno still finds them difficult and as a result, uninteresting.  Alistair talked about Mirroring to help him develop an even rhythm.  The other thing that he observed was that I had (inadvertently) encouraged Reno to not go into the weaves.  His suggestion was to take him back to the obstacle before if he goes wrong so he not only has to get the weaves right but the entry as well.

As expected Reno's contacts were perfect in isolation but when I put them into a course he still self released.  I think the solution to this is just to remain consistent but to help I have decided not to run any more Agility classes in competition until he can get it right in training.

We're of to Chatsworth Country Fair tomorrow.  I love this show as a lot of my friends from club go and as we all get to park together we treat it as a bit of a party.  We had to miss it last year as Kiros was running in the ABC Semi Final at Stoneleigh.

Good Luck to everyone running in this years Olympia Semi's especially Jo who has qualified Keisha, Ronny and Zippy in the ABC, Grace and Kiah in the ABC and Dave and Rusty in the Senior.

I'd better wish Good Luck to my Kelpie friends as well!!  Anne and Kafka and Jay and Tommy in the ABC.

P.S. Sorry about the photo of Reno - I must get some more taken of him jumping as he's much better now:-)