Monday, 22 April 2013

Back to Blogging!!!

It has been such a long time since I last posted anything on this blog that it would be impossible for me to get totally up to date......so I want to start with my latest KC Judging appointment at Dog Vegas on 16th March.

This was the first time that I've judged jumping classes at a KC show.  I normally prefer to judge Agility as you have to move about more (which helps me concentrate!!) but I found the whole day really interesting and was totally amazed at how many different ways competitors could think of to handle my courses.

My first two classes were Any Size and Veteran Helter Skelter followed by Veteran Jumping.  My initial challenge was how to fit a Helter Skelter into a long, thin ring and then how to design a Jumping course for roughly the same dogs that didn't involve moving much and wasn't just another Helter Skelter!!!!! 

Any Size and Veteran Helter Skelter

Veteran Jumping
I always love to watch the lovely oldies still enjoying Agility and was delighted with the young dogs that did so well on the HS course.

The next course was Graded 6-7 Jumping for all heights.

Of all of the courses I have designed so far this is the one I am most proud of :-)  I'd already tried it out in training (non of the dogs were running it at DV - in fact only one was G6) so had an idea of how it would run.  On the day I decided to put 12 the same side as 10 as I felt that was still a testing weave entry but not quite as hard.

There were some great displays of handling at all heights.  It's often said that handlers at this level don't run jumping courses to win them but I can honestly say that this wasn't the case on this course!!!!  The times of the top Large Grade 7 dogs ranged from Lucy and Ben's 1st place - 30.435 to Ray and Limit's 4th place 30.733!!!  But no-one beat Marc and Dixie's time in Grade 6 - 30.366.

Then onto Large Graded 1-2 Jumping

The majority of faults/eliminations on this course were at the weaves but there were also quite a lot of handlers not working 15-18 resulting in their dogs running past jumps.  Having said that I was pleasantly surprised with how well 9-13 was handled.  I felt that treating it as a serpentine was fastest but it could also be handled with front or rear crosses.

My final course was Large Graded 4-5 Jumping

My aim for this course was to present handlers with two options - a shorter twistier course or a longer straighter course.  The challenge was to decide what suited your dog best!!!  A lot of handlers spotted the choice 10-11 with the majority choosing the shorter route (turning the dog after 10 to take the gap between 10 and 9).  My preferred route with Reno was to turn him around the far wing of 10 to make a fast straight line to 11.  Jackie intended to take that route with Speedy but somehow managed to push him all the way around 9 before getting to 11 wasting time!!!

The other choice was 16-18 with every handler choosing to pull their dog through the gap between 16 and 13 then turn them on 17 (although some didn't resulting in their dogs taking 10 again).  For Reno, I felt this sequence worked better when I front crossed between 15-16 and then pivoted him around the top wing of 16 opening up a lovely straight line to the finish. I really must set this up in training and time it:-)

My next KC Judging appointment is at Empingham in July.  It seems like ages away but I'm sure the time will fly.........I've already got a few ideas for courses and am so looking forward to Judging my first qualifier KC Olympia ABC Stakes :-)

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