Judging Debut

After passing my KC exams in January I was really excited about starting my Judging career at Adams Agility Show on Sunday 12th August.

I'd entered Reno for runs on both Friday and Saturday as one of my judges perks was that they were free.

Both the Agility courses on Friday (judged by Clive Foden) had an A-frame/tunnel combination at the beginning and Reno was consistent in not stopping on the contact so I eliminated him by replacing him in both!!

Unfortunately going into the tunnel too early also caused us to be eliminated in the Jumping on Friday and his 4-5 Agility on Saturday.

His two best runs came in the 1-4 Jumping (judged by Katie) and Karen Miaskowski's 4-7 Agility, picking up a 5r at the weaves in the jumping when he decided to try and get Speedy's attention and just having a pole down in the Agility.

So here are my courses from the Sunday:-)

Large, Medium and Small 1-3 Agility

There were some great runs on this course, particularly in the large, and some very unfortunate "if only's"!!

Medium and Small 5-7 Agility

Again some good runs on this course but I was surprised to see so may handlers take thier dogs through the gap between 4 and 5 to go onto the See Saw at 6.  In my opinion this wasn't a good (or particularly safe) entry onto the contact and I hadn't expected anyone to do it when it was so easy to turn the dog the other side of 5.  Luckily nothing went wrong and it's a lesson for the future.

Large 6-7 Agility

This was the one I was looking forward to......The reason why I wanted to judge at KC:-)  To avoid comparisons in terms of complexity between this and the 5-7 course I decided to make it completely different.  The course was definitely the type I enjoy running - plenty of space to allow the dogs to enjoy themselves (in fact Reno had a pretty good go at it when I set it up the night before, only missing the weave entry). 

I was so proud to see the handlers attacking the course, again some great clears and "if only's".  The only disappointment was seeing Alan Gardner do an amazing run only to find that the timing hadn't worked and to be E'd on the re-run:-(

Something I haven't had to consider too much before is judging position because we don't judge up contacts at Agility Nuts.  This course has made me realise that it has to be more of a concern to me in the future as on a number of occasions I found myself and the handler trying to fit in the tiny gap between the Dog Walk and A-Frame!!  Not ideal - another lesson for the future:-)





Scunny!!!

OK...........after getting up to date with my blog I've now left it several weeks before up dating again.  You'd think I'd be a bit more organised wouldn't you????

I'll start the mammoth up date by pointing out that the major flaw I've spotted in my handling (one of many!!) is that I point at Reno rather then where I want him to go!!  The lack of direction his causing him to make his own decisions or, even worse, slow down.

So at Scunny I started trying to put things right:-)  No clears but much better handling.

July's Nuts and Empingham

July's Agility Nuts show was very special for a number of reasons...........after weeks of wet weather the Sun shone brightly, Reno and Kiros both enjoyed their Agility (and meeting new friends in Reno's case),  Ronnie had some very exciting ball games on the exercise area but most importantly we had a chance to spend a happy weekend with Misty before saying goodbye.

I love this photo because it is a real reminder of how these special dogs - Raffles, Misty, Kiros, Fern and Scully - have changed our lives. 

Sleep well Miss Telling Tales, reunited with Scully and Fern xxxx

I judged both days of the show - Snooker on Saturday and Agility on Sunday.  I can't post my courses here as I changed them from what I'd originally intended but they seemed to work well with some really good runs and plenty of clears.

Kiros is beginning to struggle with turning now.  Having said that he still runs plenty fast enough on a curve or in a straight line:-)  and got two 3rd places and a win over the weekend.

Reno's performance was mixed over the weekend.  Unfortunately his contacts went AWOL but he also did some lovely jumping runs.

Elementary Snakes and Ladders - Judge:- Pen Sensky - I opted for the difficult weave ladder as I wanted to see how Reno would handle it.  He succummed  to the tempting tunnel initially but completed the weaves on the second attempt.  Very encouraging.

Elementary Agility - Judge:- Ann Miller - Eliminated before he even got to the contacts as he spotted a tunnel in the distance that he though he should take(I can't critisize him too much though as I've discovered one of many flaws in my handling!!)

Elementary Jumping - Judge:- Howard Weston - Clear in 18.392 and 1st place!!

Elementary Jumping - Judge:- Iain Langman - Clear in 19.793 and 1st place!!  Really pleased with this one as I had to stop him going into a tunnel after a straight line approaching it.

Elementary Speed and Power - Judge:- Ann Miller - Great clear in Jumping section but naughty contacts causing an elimination in the Power.

Elementary Up and Under - Judge:- Pen Sensky - Clear in 33.889 and 1st place!!

Reno loves running in Elementary at Nuts as the courses let him stretch his legs but I'm thinking that he is now ready to move up to Starters.  We've got one more Summer Show in August so I'm hoping he'll win an Agility at that.

On to Empingham...............In memory of the Misty I have decided to video as may of our runs as possible so Reno's are above (with the exception of one jumping that we were badly E'd in)!!!

I won't go blow for blow through the runs as the video makes it self explanatory.  Basically a few naughty contacts, a couple of really shabby clears and a lot of incredibly poor handling.  Lots to work on!!

Surreal Weekend

When Dog Vegas put out a plea for Judges on the Agility Forum Ann thought why not volunteer and have a weekend away in Norfolk as we hadn't been for over a year.

The first setback came when Ann contacted Gill from The Limes (see 21/07/2009) and found out that she wasn't taking bookings this year.  Luckily she found this lovely little pub in Watton (www.the willowhouse.co.uk) that was more than happy to take us and the Dogs.  Better still it was less than 30 mins drive from the venue:)

Next set back - the weather forecast predicting 2 months rainfall in 24 hours really caused havoc!!  Ann and Mark left about an hour before us and took over an hour and half to get out of Nottingham due to the number of roads that were flooded and impassable.  Luckily, with that knowledge, we were able to plan a route that didn't take us so long.  Eventually they arrived at the venue with us not far behind them, we set up Ann's first course, walked the Dogs then settled in for a lovely meal at the Willow House.

Saturday was Ann's first KC Judging appointment. In total she had 9 different courses to design (some classes including the same dogs) and she did a brilliant job, her courses went down very well. 

My role was to be her scrimer all day.  A job I love to do but doesn't give me much time to think about running my dogs.  In fact I rushed walking Kiros's course and missed a whole chunk of it!!  Never mind, he enjoyed the run and thought he was clear!!

Reno's runs:-

Jumping Graded 3-5 - Judge:- Rebecca Wheetman - Reno struggled with the straight Jump-Weave start, hitting them to fast and coming out at 2nd pole.  Good run after that.

Agility Combined 3-5 - Judge:- Eileen Wischnea - For us this course was a little too hard, aimed at the top end of the grade range with obstacle discrimination and pull throughs etc.  Reno got a bit confused with everything being so close and took the wrong line on a couple of occasions.  Having said that his contacts were excellent and gave me confidence for our next Agility run (I'd already walked the course so I knew it suited us)

Jumping Graded 1-3 - Judge:- Ann Miller - Obviously a lovely course ;-)  Had a slight weave issue.  No idea why so I E'd us by taking Reno back to the jump before the weaves.  From there we ran well until near the end where the box issue raised its ugly head again!!!  Reno started to follow me around the corner of the box but then spied a tunnel entrance and whizzed off to do it!!

Agility Graded 1-3 - Judge:- Mandy Surch - I almost missed running this one!! I could see the ring from where I was sitting scrimming and suddenly realised that there were only 2 dogs left in the queue.  By the time I'd grabbed Reno and ran to the ring the 2nd dog had just finished its run. We went clear with a bit of a wide turn between 2-3 and an almost disastrous turn between 16-17 where Reno turned the wrong way - then back to work on the ring thinking we may just get a placing.  I didn't realise the presentation for this class was taking place until I heard our names read out in 1st place!!

So Reno is now Grade 4.

We'd already decided to have a day sightseeing etc on Sunday and I'm glad we didn't go to the show as it was bound to be an anticlimax after Saturday.

Instead we took the dogs for a lovely forest walk in the morning and visited the St Georges Distillery (the only English whiskey distillery) in the afternoon.

We left the Willow House after a lovely breakfast on Monday morning still not quite believing how perfect our weekend had been :-)