Still a week behind...
After coming home early from Hinckley, I wasn't really 'feeling it' for Thames. I didn't go on the Saturday, instead taking the dogs out for a couple of hours with Laura... Scandal making us laugh with her stupid swimming antics. Once she has got over getting her feet wet she wants to have all the goes to get the toy, and swims like her life depends on it.
Of course it was pouring down on the Sunday of Thames. My asthma had been awful the night before and it had woken me up 4 or 5 times with me not being able to breathe... urrghhhh. I decided to give the 5-7 jumping a miss as it was first on and I wanted a lie in - saw the course and loved it, actually one of the nicest I have ever seen and would have loved to have run it, but in the wet, dogs were just slipping everywhere. Walked her G5 agility which again was lovely but I decided not to run it, really liked her Olympia Q... she was totally loopy for this, and it went jump jump, weaves... she missed her weave entry... great. We then did 2 more obstacles before I decided as she was completely tanking it, we would call it a day and not do any more obstacles - just not worth the risk.
On the plus side I have taught Scandal a trick. If you can even call it that. She goes through my legs and sits nicely. It is BRILLIANT! Nice calm focussed Scandal. However I think I need to train another trick as there are only so many times I can do that one in the queue!
Scandal's mum Ruby won the CC at this show, so now only needs one more before she is an Ag Ch :)
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Hinckley
Hinckley
Ok I am a week behind…
Scandal had her first G5-6 classes. We had a lot of fun. Her first agility she worked really well, turning on my verbal direction and shoulders rather than me having to use her name, she turned nicely away from the tunnel unlike the majority of the class which did a biggg turn. Held her contacts, she ran through her dogwalk and stopped on the floor. Stopped nicely on the seesaw. Then I got her e’d for not collecting her out of the rigid tunnel and she cut behind me over a jump, ahhhh. She was motoring, and we got a couple of lovely comments from people about how much she is coming on. Which I was super chuffed with.
G5-6 jumping and I watched dog after dog get eliminated on what I thought was a not too hard course. Well we got round clear up to about 17… and then Scandal ran past the flat tunnel, as I just ran and didn’t tell her tunnel. Woops. We really don’t like flat tunnels. Me especially :)
She then did a nice clear in the CSJ. As we have already qualified I just ran her quietly and expected her to hold her contacts nicely, which she did, although she wasn’t running flat out. Think she was about 10th or 11th in this.
Honey… hmmmmmmm. The most unmotivated dog in the world! Managed a 6th in the champ jumping and 4th in the champ agility, with her totally not trying. I have no idea how we got those places… she felt so slow. I really should stop complaining about her but I can’t help it! Anyway, these two places put us 18th to run out of 20 dogs… cannot even believe we qualified 3rd top!! I actually found it really embarrassing releasing her from the startline and her just sauntering off, not hurrying in the slightest lol. And… she missed her dogwalk… just after someone had that day asked about her RC and I’d said she hadn’t missed one yet. Jinxed that! Normally I give her the command (go/left/right) but I was so keen to get her actually running I just said go go go go go go all the way down… and she did! She did get 2 brilliant weave entries in these champ classes… not that she was running fast at them, but a huge improvement on a month ago.
She was very embarrassing in the Crufts Singles and ran past the first jump. I say ran, she trotted to me, with a big waggy tail. Extremely embarrassing. Then she missed her weave entry (a nice easy one), dorking around, so we came out took the easiest route possible to come out.
Sunday, Scandal’s Olympia qualifier, she was flying round, it felt amazing, I got through the bits I thought we wouldn’t… and then I forgot to say left, and Scandal ran past a jump. I am an idiot. She also bit me, very hard, which is the 3rd time in two weeks. Not a happy bunny. Scandal seemed to enjoy it though. Must manage her excitement better.
Then I did Honey’s Olympia… I GOT HER TUGGING IN THE QUEUE! MASSIVE ACHIEVEMENT! My achievement was short lived however, when it was our turn to run and Honeys legs turned to concrete when she refused to play tuggy and just sat there, looking bored. If nothing else, she has certainly taught me about humiliation. Anyway she ambled round at her usual “Half Hearted Honey” speed, somehow managed a clear although I thought she had refused a jump. And did a beautiful running dw. Damn that span.
Anyway I wasn’t really in the mood for any more agility after those runs, so we left, did the 2 hours home and then I met up with Laura and we took the dogs out for nearly 4 hours across the Mendips and Cheddar. This was definitely time well spent! I love our long walks.
Imogen did her first training session in 8 weeks with Honey and Tia (yay :)) and both dogs and Imogen were great. We set up some exercises from the Crufts Singles and champ from Hinckley and Imogen made them look easy…same old... Spaniel thoroughly enjoying having her buddy back :) hopefully they will finally get to do their first champ together next month.
Scandal is training well and being very cute and making me laugh lots with her cuteness. I so adore her. I am going to be doing a lot of thinking about how to manage her around the rings, she goes completely overboard sooo very quickly and it is hard to get her ‘alert’ but not completely past listening.
Oh I am hopeless, I forgot to mention that Ricky did an anysize class at Packington, and he won it! What a clever boy. At 12 ½ he is getting rather grey but still very happy, think he still has the mental age of a 2 year old but unfortunately the legs of a dog a bit older! Also strange that he is the same age as Imogen!! He is definitely more well behaved than she is :-P
Ok I am a week behind…
Scandal had her first G5-6 classes. We had a lot of fun. Her first agility she worked really well, turning on my verbal direction and shoulders rather than me having to use her name, she turned nicely away from the tunnel unlike the majority of the class which did a biggg turn. Held her contacts, she ran through her dogwalk and stopped on the floor. Stopped nicely on the seesaw. Then I got her e’d for not collecting her out of the rigid tunnel and she cut behind me over a jump, ahhhh. She was motoring, and we got a couple of lovely comments from people about how much she is coming on. Which I was super chuffed with.
G5-6 jumping and I watched dog after dog get eliminated on what I thought was a not too hard course. Well we got round clear up to about 17… and then Scandal ran past the flat tunnel, as I just ran and didn’t tell her tunnel. Woops. We really don’t like flat tunnels. Me especially :)
She then did a nice clear in the CSJ. As we have already qualified I just ran her quietly and expected her to hold her contacts nicely, which she did, although she wasn’t running flat out. Think she was about 10th or 11th in this.
Honey… hmmmmmmm. The most unmotivated dog in the world! Managed a 6th in the champ jumping and 4th in the champ agility, with her totally not trying. I have no idea how we got those places… she felt so slow. I really should stop complaining about her but I can’t help it! Anyway, these two places put us 18th to run out of 20 dogs… cannot even believe we qualified 3rd top!! I actually found it really embarrassing releasing her from the startline and her just sauntering off, not hurrying in the slightest lol. And… she missed her dogwalk… just after someone had that day asked about her RC and I’d said she hadn’t missed one yet. Jinxed that! Normally I give her the command (go/left/right) but I was so keen to get her actually running I just said go go go go go go all the way down… and she did! She did get 2 brilliant weave entries in these champ classes… not that she was running fast at them, but a huge improvement on a month ago.
She was very embarrassing in the Crufts Singles and ran past the first jump. I say ran, she trotted to me, with a big waggy tail. Extremely embarrassing. Then she missed her weave entry (a nice easy one), dorking around, so we came out took the easiest route possible to come out.
Sunday, Scandal’s Olympia qualifier, she was flying round, it felt amazing, I got through the bits I thought we wouldn’t… and then I forgot to say left, and Scandal ran past a jump. I am an idiot. She also bit me, very hard, which is the 3rd time in two weeks. Not a happy bunny. Scandal seemed to enjoy it though. Must manage her excitement better.
Then I did Honey’s Olympia… I GOT HER TUGGING IN THE QUEUE! MASSIVE ACHIEVEMENT! My achievement was short lived however, when it was our turn to run and Honeys legs turned to concrete when she refused to play tuggy and just sat there, looking bored. If nothing else, she has certainly taught me about humiliation. Anyway she ambled round at her usual “Half Hearted Honey” speed, somehow managed a clear although I thought she had refused a jump. And did a beautiful running dw. Damn that span.
Anyway I wasn’t really in the mood for any more agility after those runs, so we left, did the 2 hours home and then I met up with Laura and we took the dogs out for nearly 4 hours across the Mendips and Cheddar. This was definitely time well spent! I love our long walks.
Imogen did her first training session in 8 weeks with Honey and Tia (yay :)) and both dogs and Imogen were great. We set up some exercises from the Crufts Singles and champ from Hinckley and Imogen made them look easy…same old... Spaniel thoroughly enjoying having her buddy back :) hopefully they will finally get to do their first champ together next month.
Scandal is training well and being very cute and making me laugh lots with her cuteness. I so adore her. I am going to be doing a lot of thinking about how to manage her around the rings, she goes completely overboard sooo very quickly and it is hard to get her ‘alert’ but not completely past listening.
Oh I am hopeless, I forgot to mention that Ricky did an anysize class at Packington, and he won it! What a clever boy. At 12 ½ he is getting rather grey but still very happy, think he still has the mental age of a 2 year old but unfortunately the legs of a dog a bit older! Also strange that he is the same age as Imogen!! He is definitely more well behaved than she is :-P
Sunday, 12 June 2011
Thursday, 9 June 2011
SWAT/Packington
Well what a weekend that was.
This was Scandal’s 2nd show as a grade 5. After her pushing her waits and dog walks at Worcester I was wondering how the weekend was going to go. We’d had two (yes, I managed to train twice – woohoo!) brilliant training sessions with Scandal just being yummy, and me managing, most of the time, to steer her in the right direction.
To summarise… just super, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Suddenly this green baby dog that I brought out last year, has matured like crazy in the last couple of months and we look like more of a team, we understand each other, I am showing/telling her instructions slightly quicker so she knows where she is going and it seems to be paying off...
SWAT on Saturday, I was determined she would stop on her dog walk with me telling her calmly to ‘target’, and she did. Lovely round, and she won it, taking us to grade 6. In the 3-5 combined jumping, bless her socks she fell over coming out the tunnel at the start, and then near the end span before a jump, I was sure the judge had marked it, but we went to have a look anyway as Garth was sure the judge had clapped - she had marked us clear – we came 4th, or 5th, I got a rosette for 4th but apparently they messed up and we were 5th, lol.
Grade 5 jumping, I lurrrved this course. We have been training an ‘out round’ in training and lets just say, Scandal hasn’t quite worked out that you are meant to jump the jump I’m recalling her over. Even if it’s on medium. Work in progress. She will do it if she doesn’t actually think it’s an ‘out round’, so we just don’t call it anything in the ring at the moment Anyway so I decided to recall her to my hand and flick her over the jump, rather than send her round (if that makes no sense it was the 3rd round on the video, obstacles 1-2). It worked really nicely, I raced her on the weaves and she got a lovely entry, which I was pleased about. She went clear and won that too Our last round, 1-7 jumping, we got e’d (by jump 2 lol) but Scandal did some really great work so again I was pleased… and starting to wonder if I’d used up our clear round quota for May as well as June.
Packington on the Sunday, started off the day brilliantly by winning combined 4-7 jumping. That was a COOL course, lots of distance, just the sort Scandal likes (I like it too except the running part). What was more cool was she won by 0.8sec, and an agility champ was 2nd – cooooly.
Then in the grade 5 jumping, Scandal again went clear, and got a 2nd. However I am more pleased that she actually went clear and did a generally good round, if a little switched off at the beginning. I need to have better contingency plans. I gave my lead/toy to the lead person, and off they went. I set Scandal up on the line, and the dog that had finished its run ran back in the ring to stalk us. So I released Scandal away from the jump, but had no idea what to do as I didn’t have my toy. We have such a routine now (although I’m sure it doesn’t look like a routine to most people) that I just didn’t know what to do. Anyway dog caught, Scandal re-set, and I was just leading out and someone noticed the long jump had blown down, and shouted this out. So, once again, released Scandal to me, by now desperately looking round for the lead/toy which had seemed to have grown legs and gone for its own walk. Tried to set her up for a 3rd time and she was stood there air scenting for Garth, completely oblivious to me! Got her back doing some hand touches (the only thing I could think of to re-focus her), and third time lucky, we were off. She felt steady 1-4 but then switched back into speedier mode the rest of the course. But that is progress from last year when she’d have probably been off to investigate another ring if we’d had to wait more than 5 seconds before going
The Purina Pro Plan 3-5 Agility was last and the course was great, just nice and flowy nothing hard. Love these nice courses. Had decided Scandal had to stop (however, if she does a fast dw, I am happy with her stopping on the floor, if I correct, she will then do a slow dw). She did a run to the floor and stop, so off we went, everything else was great. On her seesaw I now run past them, rather than being hesistant, and she braked just a bit too late and slightly flew it, so we re-did it and she did a great one. So I was pleased with this.
Monday (totally worn out after 3 days of agility) was of course Olympia day. Olympia day Olympia day. I was so stupidly excited/nervous I could hardly sleep Sunday night and was wide awake by 6.30 Monday morning, even though we didn’t have to get there first thing. And it was chucking it down. I hate the rain. And, thanks to Scandal tearing a hole in my waterproof trousers, I don’t have any… Although I concluded afterwards that I’d rather have brought them with me and had 1 wet leg and 1 dry leg than 2 wet legs. Anyway I sheltered under peoples brollies where I could, and didn’t get too drowned. Scandal was in part 2 of the class, so watched part 1 and watched people do crazy things that always happens when it’s a qualifier, screaming at them on contacts, running round like headless chickens etc. Actually I do that too, so I best not chuckle too much
Walked the course, I liked it, well I would have if it wasn’t a qualifier. Of course put qualifier in front and I automatically think we can’t do any of it… but normal class and I’d be up for it. Watched Martin Cavill and his lovely young merlie collie go clear and into the lead, and then watched several other really nice dogs go round. We were near the end and it wasn’t raining quite so hard when I went off to get her.
So, off I went, G went to queue and I went to the exercise area to warm Scandal up. Playing tug with her, and a frickin muzzled staffie comes absolutely flying at her, and thuds into her side… to be fair, not full on slam, but enough for my world to practically end in an instant. Poor Scandal was so focused on her toy that it completely freaked her out, I grabbed princess and manoevered myself between her and evil staffie. The woman managed to get the dog back and apologized and at that time it was more important that I calmed down than got in a tizz. Scandal promptly spooked at 2 little diddy puppies that she’d just said hello to fine, hackles up, wouldn’t go near them, growling etc. We did eventually get over that one. I then didn’t know what to do… put Scandal back… ‘calm down’ (which I knew I wouldn’t be able to do, I’d just get more and more angry that this idiot who knew she had an aggressive dog had let it off lead and come and get my dog, who hadn’t even seen this dog, and wasn’t even close).
So I decided we’d go to the rings, but take our time. I had half calmed down, half mad. G dropped back a couple so I could re-focus. That time passed quickly and I set Scandal up on the line, and then great… a horrible snappy barky dog that was running after us was stood RIGHT behind her, as the woman was trying to find her scribe sheet thing with the booker inner (or whatever they are called!). Scandal really didn’t want to sit. It’s the only sit she didn’t hold first time all weekend. Her sits had been rock solid up until then. Then of course I didn’t know what to do – make her sit, or know that it’s just because she’s scared of nasty big dog behind her (which to be fair I would’ve been too if I was her size). I asked her to sit, but ran out to where I wanted to release her so she wasn’t sat for very long. And then we were off, speedy Scandal ahhhhhhhh just lovely! I can still remember laughing going from the aframe to the weaves because we were having so much fun, felt like we were working together and it was going so well.
Ok up to the weaves it had been going well, so now I start to panic (and go into my conscious) – “AHHHH – we are going CLEAR in an OLYMPIA qualifier!!!” Next up was the seesaw. Having seen a multitude of dogs do various things on the seesaw, a couple sideways roll up and off it, lots skid up and slide off, some just bail out, etc. After the sliding seesaw in the dry on the Sunday, I figured if she tried to slide up again there wouldn’t be much chance of her getting any grip… but we had to run all classes me handling the same, so I was just going to say ‘seesaw seesaw’. However, plans and all that… “seesaw seesaw… WAITTTTTTT” a complete shriek which totally threw Scandal and she just stopped halfway up the seesaw like “ok ok, you didn’t need to shout” and then I had to coax her to the end of the seesaw. And the most amazing thing is she still won it!!! Holey Moley! I was so gutted that I’d messed up the seesaw, as I’d seen some great rounds and didn’t think that would be enough to get in the top 3… but it was! Lesson still learnt… I need to trust her, ALL the time, and any time that doesn’t work… more training needed!
As I said on facebook, it actually feels quite surreal. I am terrible in qualifiers as I just seem to completely lose the ability to get round a course, but apart from the seesaw thing, it was actually a good run. This year for me is about being able to say “yeah, that was a great run” rather than “yeayyy, a rosette”, as I want to be able to know that we’ve done our utmost best rather than hmm that turn could’ve been tighter. And this weekend we had lots of runs that I loved! I am so happy with her, 100% solid on her weaves, 7 out of 8 perfect waits, and the 8th I could put a reason to. Aframes were all brill, dog walks were all fast with no self releasing, one ‘oops’ slidey seesaw, one ‘oops’ slow seesaw, her turns are far far better with me now being able to verbal cue her from a distance, and she adding in a check stride. We still have lots to work on, and I’ve got some ideas to help us proof things.
I will write about Hinckley very soon!
This was Scandal’s 2nd show as a grade 5. After her pushing her waits and dog walks at Worcester I was wondering how the weekend was going to go. We’d had two (yes, I managed to train twice – woohoo!) brilliant training sessions with Scandal just being yummy, and me managing, most of the time, to steer her in the right direction.
To summarise… just super, I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Suddenly this green baby dog that I brought out last year, has matured like crazy in the last couple of months and we look like more of a team, we understand each other, I am showing/telling her instructions slightly quicker so she knows where she is going and it seems to be paying off...
SWAT on Saturday, I was determined she would stop on her dog walk with me telling her calmly to ‘target’, and she did. Lovely round, and she won it, taking us to grade 6. In the 3-5 combined jumping, bless her socks she fell over coming out the tunnel at the start, and then near the end span before a jump, I was sure the judge had marked it, but we went to have a look anyway as Garth was sure the judge had clapped - she had marked us clear – we came 4th, or 5th, I got a rosette for 4th but apparently they messed up and we were 5th, lol.
Grade 5 jumping, I lurrrved this course. We have been training an ‘out round’ in training and lets just say, Scandal hasn’t quite worked out that you are meant to jump the jump I’m recalling her over. Even if it’s on medium. Work in progress. She will do it if she doesn’t actually think it’s an ‘out round’, so we just don’t call it anything in the ring at the moment Anyway so I decided to recall her to my hand and flick her over the jump, rather than send her round (if that makes no sense it was the 3rd round on the video, obstacles 1-2). It worked really nicely, I raced her on the weaves and she got a lovely entry, which I was pleased about. She went clear and won that too Our last round, 1-7 jumping, we got e’d (by jump 2 lol) but Scandal did some really great work so again I was pleased… and starting to wonder if I’d used up our clear round quota for May as well as June.
Packington on the Sunday, started off the day brilliantly by winning combined 4-7 jumping. That was a COOL course, lots of distance, just the sort Scandal likes (I like it too except the running part). What was more cool was she won by 0.8sec, and an agility champ was 2nd – cooooly.
Then in the grade 5 jumping, Scandal again went clear, and got a 2nd. However I am more pleased that she actually went clear and did a generally good round, if a little switched off at the beginning. I need to have better contingency plans. I gave my lead/toy to the lead person, and off they went. I set Scandal up on the line, and the dog that had finished its run ran back in the ring to stalk us. So I released Scandal away from the jump, but had no idea what to do as I didn’t have my toy. We have such a routine now (although I’m sure it doesn’t look like a routine to most people) that I just didn’t know what to do. Anyway dog caught, Scandal re-set, and I was just leading out and someone noticed the long jump had blown down, and shouted this out. So, once again, released Scandal to me, by now desperately looking round for the lead/toy which had seemed to have grown legs and gone for its own walk. Tried to set her up for a 3rd time and she was stood there air scenting for Garth, completely oblivious to me! Got her back doing some hand touches (the only thing I could think of to re-focus her), and third time lucky, we were off. She felt steady 1-4 but then switched back into speedier mode the rest of the course. But that is progress from last year when she’d have probably been off to investigate another ring if we’d had to wait more than 5 seconds before going
The Purina Pro Plan 3-5 Agility was last and the course was great, just nice and flowy nothing hard. Love these nice courses. Had decided Scandal had to stop (however, if she does a fast dw, I am happy with her stopping on the floor, if I correct, she will then do a slow dw). She did a run to the floor and stop, so off we went, everything else was great. On her seesaw I now run past them, rather than being hesistant, and she braked just a bit too late and slightly flew it, so we re-did it and she did a great one. So I was pleased with this.
Monday (totally worn out after 3 days of agility) was of course Olympia day. Olympia day Olympia day. I was so stupidly excited/nervous I could hardly sleep Sunday night and was wide awake by 6.30 Monday morning, even though we didn’t have to get there first thing. And it was chucking it down. I hate the rain. And, thanks to Scandal tearing a hole in my waterproof trousers, I don’t have any… Although I concluded afterwards that I’d rather have brought them with me and had 1 wet leg and 1 dry leg than 2 wet legs. Anyway I sheltered under peoples brollies where I could, and didn’t get too drowned. Scandal was in part 2 of the class, so watched part 1 and watched people do crazy things that always happens when it’s a qualifier, screaming at them on contacts, running round like headless chickens etc. Actually I do that too, so I best not chuckle too much
Walked the course, I liked it, well I would have if it wasn’t a qualifier. Of course put qualifier in front and I automatically think we can’t do any of it… but normal class and I’d be up for it. Watched Martin Cavill and his lovely young merlie collie go clear and into the lead, and then watched several other really nice dogs go round. We were near the end and it wasn’t raining quite so hard when I went off to get her.
So, off I went, G went to queue and I went to the exercise area to warm Scandal up. Playing tug with her, and a frickin muzzled staffie comes absolutely flying at her, and thuds into her side… to be fair, not full on slam, but enough for my world to practically end in an instant. Poor Scandal was so focused on her toy that it completely freaked her out, I grabbed princess and manoevered myself between her and evil staffie. The woman managed to get the dog back and apologized and at that time it was more important that I calmed down than got in a tizz. Scandal promptly spooked at 2 little diddy puppies that she’d just said hello to fine, hackles up, wouldn’t go near them, growling etc. We did eventually get over that one. I then didn’t know what to do… put Scandal back… ‘calm down’ (which I knew I wouldn’t be able to do, I’d just get more and more angry that this idiot who knew she had an aggressive dog had let it off lead and come and get my dog, who hadn’t even seen this dog, and wasn’t even close).
So I decided we’d go to the rings, but take our time. I had half calmed down, half mad. G dropped back a couple so I could re-focus. That time passed quickly and I set Scandal up on the line, and then great… a horrible snappy barky dog that was running after us was stood RIGHT behind her, as the woman was trying to find her scribe sheet thing with the booker inner (or whatever they are called!). Scandal really didn’t want to sit. It’s the only sit she didn’t hold first time all weekend. Her sits had been rock solid up until then. Then of course I didn’t know what to do – make her sit, or know that it’s just because she’s scared of nasty big dog behind her (which to be fair I would’ve been too if I was her size). I asked her to sit, but ran out to where I wanted to release her so she wasn’t sat for very long. And then we were off, speedy Scandal ahhhhhhhh just lovely! I can still remember laughing going from the aframe to the weaves because we were having so much fun, felt like we were working together and it was going so well.
Ok up to the weaves it had been going well, so now I start to panic (and go into my conscious) – “AHHHH – we are going CLEAR in an OLYMPIA qualifier!!!” Next up was the seesaw. Having seen a multitude of dogs do various things on the seesaw, a couple sideways roll up and off it, lots skid up and slide off, some just bail out, etc. After the sliding seesaw in the dry on the Sunday, I figured if she tried to slide up again there wouldn’t be much chance of her getting any grip… but we had to run all classes me handling the same, so I was just going to say ‘seesaw seesaw’. However, plans and all that… “seesaw seesaw… WAITTTTTTT” a complete shriek which totally threw Scandal and she just stopped halfway up the seesaw like “ok ok, you didn’t need to shout” and then I had to coax her to the end of the seesaw. And the most amazing thing is she still won it!!! Holey Moley! I was so gutted that I’d messed up the seesaw, as I’d seen some great rounds and didn’t think that would be enough to get in the top 3… but it was! Lesson still learnt… I need to trust her, ALL the time, and any time that doesn’t work… more training needed!
As I said on facebook, it actually feels quite surreal. I am terrible in qualifiers as I just seem to completely lose the ability to get round a course, but apart from the seesaw thing, it was actually a good run. This year for me is about being able to say “yeah, that was a great run” rather than “yeayyy, a rosette”, as I want to be able to know that we’ve done our utmost best rather than hmm that turn could’ve been tighter. And this weekend we had lots of runs that I loved! I am so happy with her, 100% solid on her weaves, 7 out of 8 perfect waits, and the 8th I could put a reason to. Aframes were all brill, dog walks were all fast with no self releasing, one ‘oops’ slidey seesaw, one ‘oops’ slow seesaw, her turns are far far better with me now being able to verbal cue her from a distance, and she adding in a check stride. We still have lots to work on, and I’ve got some ideas to help us proof things.
I will write about Hinckley very soon!
Saturday, 21 May 2011
Last few weeks
Ahhh we've been busy the last few weeks. I will start with Beacon.
Firstly saturday was small/medium day so I had Honeypot. We started off somewhat disastrously in the champ jumping and agility, getting e'd in both and looking like we should be in grade 0. Honey still insisting on missing her weave entries and plodding round... me just being generally rubbish.
The day then slightly improved with Honey getting a 7th in the Olympia qualifier despite having a detour on a jump on a snake, which she really didn't want to do... came to me, then eventually went over the jump, which seemed to take her an hour. She only really got going half way round and then she flew.
And then, my day was topped by Honey deciding in the Crufts 6-7 Singles she was going to RUN and run FAST!!! I have always said that if Honey ran like she does in the ring in training, I wouldn't run her, however this little dog is seriously hot in training, absolutely nuts and sooooo much fun. I want to work out how we can transfer this attitude to the ring. Amy Lawson gave me a couple of really helpful things to work on - thank you Amy :)
Anyway back to the Crufts Singles. It was a fairly fast flowy course, all I wanted was for Honey to get a slightly hard weave entry, and just run a bit faster than she had gone all day. In training she's crazy and you can play fight with her, however try and do that at a show and you'd think you were murdering her. Honey really did not want to play to start with, however much persistance later and we finally arrived on the start line me looking fairly battered and bruised with scratches all up my arms where Honey had turned into a crazy dog. And then she RAN. Woop woop, she was brilliant, I couldn't have asked for any more from her. To make it even better, we came 2nd just 0.3 behind Bernadette and the fab Zaz, and beating a couple of agility champs/ticket winners in the process! Ahhhh that was seriously cool, love the spaniel when she tries for me ;-)
The next day was big-dog (proper dog ;)) day. Scandal had the CSJ agility, Dog Vegas and a 3-5 jumping. Her first run was the CSJ. I watched Sandra Adams do an absolutely stunning round with Pip, Pip has to be, IMO one of the best young dogs in the country, she is amazing. So I watched this amazing round, and turned in to something possessed, I was so determined we were going to get round that damn course, I have wanted Scandal to go clear in the same class as Pip ever since she came out as I wanted to see how far behind Pip she would be, to give us something to work/aim for.
Well, when I put my mind to it, it seems that sometimes we can achieve! Scandal was perfect, she ran faster than she has ever run before (and so did I :) : )) it was a total sh*t or bust run, and my god it felt good :) absolutely thrilled with Scandal for being so fantastic putting everything she had into it.
So later on at the end of the class I duly trawled off to see how far behind Pip Scandal would be, only to find out much to my complete shock, that we had won it!! More AHHHHHHHs. That has actually made my year to date, I was convinced that we wouldn't be able to beat Pip's time, but we did. Yipppeee. I think, for the first time ever, that I now believe in Scandal, believe she is good enough, and believe it enough to dispel any crap that has arised since she came out.
The other 2 runs weren't that grade but some super good bits including Scandal doing a lovely slightly difficult weave entry and trying her little tri and white socks off.
Had a weekend off last week and enjoyed doing totally non-dog things which was great considering my next weekend off seems ages away!
Then today we had Worcester.... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Just one run for Honey, the Olympia qualifier, we worked on what we've been practising all week and Honey was doing her behaviours in the queue but not on the start line (although she did look slightly more lively than usual :)) however it's progress and it's progress that I am looking for.
She ran really well - not of the same speed as her Singles run from Beacon, which of course is what I wanted again, however she ran a much better speed throughout the course (i.e actually started off fairly fast) got a nice weave entry even with me at weave pole number 6 by the time she got there, and was just lovely in general. We came 4th, which I am really pleased with as she's now had 3 top 10 places in a month of running amongst the grade 7 dogs, so can actually hold her own. Of course 3rd would have been even better as top 3 qualify, but we're working on it... it actually felt like we were working better this week and I expected more of her and she rose to it, good girlie whirlie.
Scandal... hmm tis best not to talk about it! Her Adams Derby the spread, bane of my life, put us out of doing the speed bit, despite practising spreads since Shrewsbury which she has no problem with, she couldn't do it in the ring.... and then she self released her dog walk (stopped about a metre off the contact), which she was put back on, but more of a game than just calmly put her back and take her out, all got to be fun for the baby.
Sooo then the Pro Plan qualifier, I didn't know whether to stop or quick release in this. I decided it'd be a stop-go (ie comes to a stop, rather than hitting the contact, but I release soon as she's in position). Well, Scandal decided that we'd do a quick release. In my shock at Scandal again self releasing I couldn't quite decide whether to put her back on or carry on, and sort of did the worst of both worlds by feebly saying "Scandal" to pull her off the wrong end of the tunnel, which she did nicely... running straight past the correct end, missing the tunnel out completely and going for a gap between the tunnel and a jump. All I can say is LOL, because it just shows how silly I am, I must know how to react if she does this (STRAIGHT BACK ON THE CONTACT!) and not change my plans. I can't say I am suprised she is doing it, I have quick released several in the last month and have just started doing a running dog walk in training again, so I did expect a bit of this, but two in the same day was a shock to the system. Will have to have a BIG think about this.
On the positive side her turns were absolutely beautiful and her seesaw and aframe in both classes were yummy :)
In the grade 5 jumping (Scandal's first grade 5 eeeek) we favoured a tunnel over the weaves... several times. She just could not see the weaves at all, definitely something to train, although it probably would have helped if I'd handled and given the correct verbal cues... gosh I need to work on so much. There were parts of the rest of the course that Scan looked awesome on, driving in to me, steadying for turns... and then I actually forgot how to do a pull through so we just carried on like nothing had happened, Scandal was flying though. If I can just operate my brain quick enough she is soooo lovely. Need a fix for my brain and quickly :) magical fairy dust maybe? :) x
Firstly saturday was small/medium day so I had Honeypot. We started off somewhat disastrously in the champ jumping and agility, getting e'd in both and looking like we should be in grade 0. Honey still insisting on missing her weave entries and plodding round... me just being generally rubbish.
The day then slightly improved with Honey getting a 7th in the Olympia qualifier despite having a detour on a jump on a snake, which she really didn't want to do... came to me, then eventually went over the jump, which seemed to take her an hour. She only really got going half way round and then she flew.
And then, my day was topped by Honey deciding in the Crufts 6-7 Singles she was going to RUN and run FAST!!! I have always said that if Honey ran like she does in the ring in training, I wouldn't run her, however this little dog is seriously hot in training, absolutely nuts and sooooo much fun. I want to work out how we can transfer this attitude to the ring. Amy Lawson gave me a couple of really helpful things to work on - thank you Amy :)
Anyway back to the Crufts Singles. It was a fairly fast flowy course, all I wanted was for Honey to get a slightly hard weave entry, and just run a bit faster than she had gone all day. In training she's crazy and you can play fight with her, however try and do that at a show and you'd think you were murdering her. Honey really did not want to play to start with, however much persistance later and we finally arrived on the start line me looking fairly battered and bruised with scratches all up my arms where Honey had turned into a crazy dog. And then she RAN. Woop woop, she was brilliant, I couldn't have asked for any more from her. To make it even better, we came 2nd just 0.3 behind Bernadette and the fab Zaz, and beating a couple of agility champs/ticket winners in the process! Ahhhh that was seriously cool, love the spaniel when she tries for me ;-)
The next day was big-dog (proper dog ;)) day. Scandal had the CSJ agility, Dog Vegas and a 3-5 jumping. Her first run was the CSJ. I watched Sandra Adams do an absolutely stunning round with Pip, Pip has to be, IMO one of the best young dogs in the country, she is amazing. So I watched this amazing round, and turned in to something possessed, I was so determined we were going to get round that damn course, I have wanted Scandal to go clear in the same class as Pip ever since she came out as I wanted to see how far behind Pip she would be, to give us something to work/aim for.
Well, when I put my mind to it, it seems that sometimes we can achieve! Scandal was perfect, she ran faster than she has ever run before (and so did I :) : )) it was a total sh*t or bust run, and my god it felt good :) absolutely thrilled with Scandal for being so fantastic putting everything she had into it.
So later on at the end of the class I duly trawled off to see how far behind Pip Scandal would be, only to find out much to my complete shock, that we had won it!! More AHHHHHHHs. That has actually made my year to date, I was convinced that we wouldn't be able to beat Pip's time, but we did. Yipppeee. I think, for the first time ever, that I now believe in Scandal, believe she is good enough, and believe it enough to dispel any crap that has arised since she came out.
The other 2 runs weren't that grade but some super good bits including Scandal doing a lovely slightly difficult weave entry and trying her little tri and white socks off.
Had a weekend off last week and enjoyed doing totally non-dog things which was great considering my next weekend off seems ages away!
Then today we had Worcester.... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Just one run for Honey, the Olympia qualifier, we worked on what we've been practising all week and Honey was doing her behaviours in the queue but not on the start line (although she did look slightly more lively than usual :)) however it's progress and it's progress that I am looking for.
She ran really well - not of the same speed as her Singles run from Beacon, which of course is what I wanted again, however she ran a much better speed throughout the course (i.e actually started off fairly fast) got a nice weave entry even with me at weave pole number 6 by the time she got there, and was just lovely in general. We came 4th, which I am really pleased with as she's now had 3 top 10 places in a month of running amongst the grade 7 dogs, so can actually hold her own. Of course 3rd would have been even better as top 3 qualify, but we're working on it... it actually felt like we were working better this week and I expected more of her and she rose to it, good girlie whirlie.
Scandal... hmm tis best not to talk about it! Her Adams Derby the spread, bane of my life, put us out of doing the speed bit, despite practising spreads since Shrewsbury which she has no problem with, she couldn't do it in the ring.... and then she self released her dog walk (stopped about a metre off the contact), which she was put back on, but more of a game than just calmly put her back and take her out, all got to be fun for the baby.
Sooo then the Pro Plan qualifier, I didn't know whether to stop or quick release in this. I decided it'd be a stop-go (ie comes to a stop, rather than hitting the contact, but I release soon as she's in position). Well, Scandal decided that we'd do a quick release. In my shock at Scandal again self releasing I couldn't quite decide whether to put her back on or carry on, and sort of did the worst of both worlds by feebly saying "Scandal" to pull her off the wrong end of the tunnel, which she did nicely... running straight past the correct end, missing the tunnel out completely and going for a gap between the tunnel and a jump. All I can say is LOL, because it just shows how silly I am, I must know how to react if she does this (STRAIGHT BACK ON THE CONTACT!) and not change my plans. I can't say I am suprised she is doing it, I have quick released several in the last month and have just started doing a running dog walk in training again, so I did expect a bit of this, but two in the same day was a shock to the system. Will have to have a BIG think about this.
On the positive side her turns were absolutely beautiful and her seesaw and aframe in both classes were yummy :)
In the grade 5 jumping (Scandal's first grade 5 eeeek) we favoured a tunnel over the weaves... several times. She just could not see the weaves at all, definitely something to train, although it probably would have helped if I'd handled and given the correct verbal cues... gosh I need to work on so much. There were parts of the rest of the course that Scan looked awesome on, driving in to me, steadying for turns... and then I actually forgot how to do a pull through so we just carried on like nothing had happened, Scandal was flying though. If I can just operate my brain quick enough she is soooo lovely. Need a fix for my brain and quickly :) magical fairy dust maybe? :) x
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Shrewsbury and Vyne
Went up to Shrewsbury over the bank holiday as it had Dog Vegas and Adams derby qualifiers... well we'd have been better off staying at home as we were terrible! Think we managed to get eliminated in most classes, although did some good bits in nearly all of them. One of the rounds I was sure Scandal was being a total moron, but watching the video back it is quite clear that it is I, that is the moron. Poor Scandal.
The only thing Scandal is definitely being a pain on is her waits. Shuffling, and doing the whole paw-malarky. I actually just need to start taking her out when she won't cooperate rather than it being a battle of wills to get her to sit vaguely upright as I lead out. But I guess it's cooool she is getting keener and actually wants to go!
Vyne on Monday, it was good being back at a big show, loved Brian Auty's G4 agility. Am seriously fed up with crappy courses which have no more than 6 paces between each jump and are just a series of 90deg and 180deg angles... then you get to the higher grades and the dogs can't judge distances properly or find a line of jumps that isn't glaringly obvious, coz they've only had to do straight up n down in the ring. Ahhhh. That was a little rant. :)
Anyway so no clears all weekend for Scandal, and she topped it off by missing her weave entry in her last class on Monday, after I'd been really pleased with how strong her weaves had been all weekend. GRRR!
I ran Honey at Vyne as Imogen couldn't go, poor Honey just isn't ready for champ yet, we have soooo much work to do, finish off teaching her 'come here' command, out, etc etc, I trained her last week as I have not run her for months and she decided she couldn't get any angled weave entries. Dave Hutchinson judged the small champ at Vyne and set up a right hand weave entry... which Honey promptly missed :) she managed to get round the rest of the jumping (and do a lovely fast weave entry easy peasy!) with just 5f and came 16th out of 47. Then in the agility, with no dog walk (where she could normally make up a bit of time over the dogs with stop contacts) she manged to get a 2nd! Hahaha brilliant, beaten only by Bernadettes lovely Zaz. Clever Honey. She managed to take 0.3 off of Alan Bray's poodley, bless Honey. Think she made up all her time between obstacle 18 and 19 where she could just run towards the finish line.... however that cost us in the final when she came out of the flat tunnel, I said weave (right angled weave entry again) and she just said 'see ya' and hared off over the finish... naughty Honey, hehehe. Was fun running her though, and nice to be in champ again. Made me realise how well Imogen has done with her, my god you have to work her, she literally gives the bare minimum (although on her good days she is amazing) and if you put in less than 100%, she's like an absolute slug. I need oxygen at the end of her runs. I hope that as I will be running her a bit more she will start to like me (I can hope) and then she may run a bit faster (again, I can hope) as it's a bit embarrassing when she is completely wedged in to 2nd gear. Aim for this year - Honey to do a whole run FAST, rather than just on the last two jumps :)
The only thing Scandal is definitely being a pain on is her waits. Shuffling, and doing the whole paw-malarky. I actually just need to start taking her out when she won't cooperate rather than it being a battle of wills to get her to sit vaguely upright as I lead out. But I guess it's cooool she is getting keener and actually wants to go!
Vyne on Monday, it was good being back at a big show, loved Brian Auty's G4 agility. Am seriously fed up with crappy courses which have no more than 6 paces between each jump and are just a series of 90deg and 180deg angles... then you get to the higher grades and the dogs can't judge distances properly or find a line of jumps that isn't glaringly obvious, coz they've only had to do straight up n down in the ring. Ahhhh. That was a little rant. :)
Anyway so no clears all weekend for Scandal, and she topped it off by missing her weave entry in her last class on Monday, after I'd been really pleased with how strong her weaves had been all weekend. GRRR!
I ran Honey at Vyne as Imogen couldn't go, poor Honey just isn't ready for champ yet, we have soooo much work to do, finish off teaching her 'come here' command, out, etc etc, I trained her last week as I have not run her for months and she decided she couldn't get any angled weave entries. Dave Hutchinson judged the small champ at Vyne and set up a right hand weave entry... which Honey promptly missed :) she managed to get round the rest of the jumping (and do a lovely fast weave entry easy peasy!) with just 5f and came 16th out of 47. Then in the agility, with no dog walk (where she could normally make up a bit of time over the dogs with stop contacts) she manged to get a 2nd! Hahaha brilliant, beaten only by Bernadettes lovely Zaz. Clever Honey. She managed to take 0.3 off of Alan Bray's poodley, bless Honey. Think she made up all her time between obstacle 18 and 19 where she could just run towards the finish line.... however that cost us in the final when she came out of the flat tunnel, I said weave (right angled weave entry again) and she just said 'see ya' and hared off over the finish... naughty Honey, hehehe. Was fun running her though, and nice to be in champ again. Made me realise how well Imogen has done with her, my god you have to work her, she literally gives the bare minimum (although on her good days she is amazing) and if you put in less than 100%, she's like an absolute slug. I need oxygen at the end of her runs. I hope that as I will be running her a bit more she will start to like me (I can hope) and then she may run a bit faster (again, I can hope) as it's a bit embarrassing when she is completely wedged in to 2nd gear. Aim for this year - Honey to do a whole run FAST, rather than just on the last two jumps :)
Thursday, 28 April 2011
April
Well we are just having toooo much fun. Scandal is just amazing to train, so much fun (as you can see from her dorking around at the start of the vid... what a bad trainer I am letting my dog self reward ;-)) we've made more progress in the last 5 months than we have in the last 18.
Scandal's had 4 clears in the past month and 4 wins. I said to a friend the other week that what I wanted this year more than any win was as many "perfect runs" as I could - runs where I didn't let Scandal down, remembered to cue her, etc etc. Well I think our Olympia run (second to last clip in vid) was getting there (woah I was tired after that run) and then the jumping run (the last clip) was pretty much our first ever perfect run. Wooop-de-woop :) not perfect by a lot of people's standards but boy was I chuffed with it, it's the first time I've ever felt in control and not like my legs/brain were 3 miles behind Scandal.
I'm still going running twice a week, well I say run but it's more of a lumber. We don't run it all but I try and walk/jog/run at varying speeds so hopefully some fat will fall off somehow. Don't think it's working yet but I can still hope :)
Love the fact that the show season is well and truly underway, having sooo much fun. Ohhh and Imogen qualified Tia and Honey for the UKA Junior Nationals in December, which is pretty cool. Tia was great in both classes and got a 1st and 2nd... Honey... hmmm naughty spaniel. Gotta love the spaniels, but I think collies are definitely for me!
Scandal's had 4 clears in the past month and 4 wins. I said to a friend the other week that what I wanted this year more than any win was as many "perfect runs" as I could - runs where I didn't let Scandal down, remembered to cue her, etc etc. Well I think our Olympia run (second to last clip in vid) was getting there (woah I was tired after that run) and then the jumping run (the last clip) was pretty much our first ever perfect run. Wooop-de-woop :) not perfect by a lot of people's standards but boy was I chuffed with it, it's the first time I've ever felt in control and not like my legs/brain were 3 miles behind Scandal.
I'm still going running twice a week, well I say run but it's more of a lumber. We don't run it all but I try and walk/jog/run at varying speeds so hopefully some fat will fall off somehow. Don't think it's working yet but I can still hope :)
Love the fact that the show season is well and truly underway, having sooo much fun. Ohhh and Imogen qualified Tia and Honey for the UKA Junior Nationals in December, which is pretty cool. Tia was great in both classes and got a 1st and 2nd... Honey... hmmm naughty spaniel. Gotta love the spaniels, but I think collies are definitely for me!
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