Monday, 6 December 2010
Time for a break!
Well this weeks agility lesson was an eventful one! The ice had gone and the ground had just turned solid, however, in the hour before my lesson it rained and this turned the top inch of ground to mud! I however had gone wearing my sturdy trainers and due to the problems I've been having with my car I didn't have my football boots with me, but having run in these trainers in the mud before didn't think too much of it, I now know I should have! 20mins into jems lesson I slipped, fell and broke my ankle!I am now in hospital, after having had it manipulated and plastered 3 times waiting 4-5 days for the swelling to go down so that it can be plated and pinned back into place, ready for at least 6-8wks of no weight bearing on it and at least 12 weeks before I will be driving again, and who knows how long it will be before I can walk let alone train the dogs again! Roll on the next few months and please everyone, where sensible shoes when training in this weather!
Sunday, 28 November 2010
Ooopsies, I'm a bit behind!!!
I appear to have forgotten to write on here in a while (although not for as long as some! :p ), so what have we been upto since dartmoor....
We have had a couple of flyball training sessions, both dogs are doing well, we are really trying to work on getting Jem to go straight to the box without wasting time looking at the other lane between the last jump and box, and with Elliot I am working on his speed back, and he seems to be improving (albeit slowly!!), I am also improving on my changovers which is good :)
We have also had an agility lesson, although I can't really remember what happened too well - it has been a long week!! I do remember Elliot struggled quite a lot with the weaves, but we got there in the end :) I also remember that Jem was good at the weaves when we did them in a short sequence but once we put them in the course she struggled as she forgot to break, we managed to improve her though :)
We also went to visit Asher and Gemma's puppies on Sat - they are gorgeous;
Laika:
Steve:
River:
My Jemma, Elliot and Asher were all really funny though, apparently puppies are VERY scary!!! Jem refused to get off the chair and Asher refused to look at them, Elliot was a bit bravier and did think about playing with River, but got a little scared when he ran towards him, I think he was just confused as to why there was such a small dog!! It will be interesting when I eventually get my first puppy - it is clearly going to rule the roost!!
A bit of a pathetic update I know, but if I don't do it now I will forget!!
Monday, 15 November 2010
Dartmoor
What a last show of the season, here is how it went, with videos of all but Elliot's agility round at the end;
Graded 1-2 Agility
Jemma:
Such a shame, I went to do a front cross at a point in the course that meant I needed to run to do it and I spent too long ensuring Jem was going to take the tunnel and jump that I didn't get close enough to the seesaw to do it so she knocked the pole :( apart from that the round was amazing and she remembered all her recent contact and weave training - I couldn't help myself and checked her time - she was only 0.4 seconds behind the winner and I held her contacts a lot longer than I would have had she been going clear, so another win missed out on because of me!! Oddly enough though I wasn't too bothered about it this time because she ran so well and it felt so good!
Elliot:
Wow, he also remembered his contact training - his dog walk was amazing, once he was on it I just ran to the finish line, shouting stop as he was at the top of the down plank, and didn't look back until I stopped and was ready to release him and he flew down to the bottom in the 2o2o position (apparently as I didn't see this bit) and just waited there - yay!!!! :D Sadly he managed to knock the jump before the a-frame as he mis-timed the gap, he also didn't do the weaves first time but that had something to do with me being a muppet and just completely leaving him to it with a very quiet weave command and no help - idiot!!! It is a shame I didn't get his contacts on video, but I am sure they will stay the same and can be filmed next year!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Jemma:
I somehow managed to mess her weaves up - I am not sure what I managed to do, even after watching the video numerous times - I think I kind of stopped/jolted or something weird! She was a clever girly second time though :) Because we were then eliminated (she had taken the jump after the weaves first time round) I decided to put into practise my revving her up and getting her going speedy - it worked well, she was a good girl - the long jump was very big and she just took off a tad too early and landed on it bless her, I then pulled off a jump too early so she came inside it but apart form that she was brill and felt really good to run so a good day for her despite no ribbons :)
Elliot:
He had to queue a long time for this run and was very very excited on the start line! He managed to well and truly take out the first jump - i think this was because he had seen the tunnel and was going to go under it but then at the last minute saw it and tried to jump it bless him. Because I was then concerned he had hurt himself I lost him in the tunnel - the weaves were done right on the third attempt, mainly due to his excitement I think!! The rest of the round didn't really happen - the video shows why - I am still recovering!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNr65O3ik4E
Graded 1-2 Agility
Jemma:
Such a shame, I went to do a front cross at a point in the course that meant I needed to run to do it and I spent too long ensuring Jem was going to take the tunnel and jump that I didn't get close enough to the seesaw to do it so she knocked the pole :( apart from that the round was amazing and she remembered all her recent contact and weave training - I couldn't help myself and checked her time - she was only 0.4 seconds behind the winner and I held her contacts a lot longer than I would have had she been going clear, so another win missed out on because of me!! Oddly enough though I wasn't too bothered about it this time because she ran so well and it felt so good!
Elliot:
Wow, he also remembered his contact training - his dog walk was amazing, once he was on it I just ran to the finish line, shouting stop as he was at the top of the down plank, and didn't look back until I stopped and was ready to release him and he flew down to the bottom in the 2o2o position (apparently as I didn't see this bit) and just waited there - yay!!!! :D Sadly he managed to knock the jump before the a-frame as he mis-timed the gap, he also didn't do the weaves first time but that had something to do with me being a muppet and just completely leaving him to it with a very quiet weave command and no help - idiot!!! It is a shame I didn't get his contacts on video, but I am sure they will stay the same and can be filmed next year!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Jemma:
I somehow managed to mess her weaves up - I am not sure what I managed to do, even after watching the video numerous times - I think I kind of stopped/jolted or something weird! She was a clever girly second time though :) Because we were then eliminated (she had taken the jump after the weaves first time round) I decided to put into practise my revving her up and getting her going speedy - it worked well, she was a good girl - the long jump was very big and she just took off a tad too early and landed on it bless her, I then pulled off a jump too early so she came inside it but apart form that she was brill and felt really good to run so a good day for her despite no ribbons :)
Elliot:
He had to queue a long time for this run and was very very excited on the start line! He managed to well and truly take out the first jump - i think this was because he had seen the tunnel and was going to go under it but then at the last minute saw it and tried to jump it bless him. Because I was then concerned he had hurt himself I lost him in the tunnel - the weaves were done right on the third attempt, mainly due to his excitement I think!! The rest of the round didn't really happen - the video shows why - I am still recovering!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNr65O3ik4E
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
Dartmoor Preparation
This was our last agility lesson before Dartmoor so here is how it went;
Jemma
She did some really good weaving today, and was actually better when I got in her face and right up to the weaves, rather than hanging back and trying to straighten her up!!! She even did them when she was coming at them full pelt from a tunnel along way away!! Her contacts were not to shabby either, not as good as last time but then last time we did them first before she got tired!! We finished on the course and tightening her up round some wing wraps which she also did nicely, so all in all a good lesson for her with not many poles down, I just need to keep my cool on Sat!!
Elliot
His weaves were better this week - it was mainly the entrance he struggled with, and then the middle of the twelve, but then we are unlikely to get steep angles on Sat so hopefully provided I don't do silly things and do work them all the way to the end he should be fine!! Again, his contacts weren't too bad, have been quicker, especially the seesaw but again we didn't do them first today and in competition neither of them have particularly slow contacts!! We finished on the course with him too and his wing wraps were very nice when I got my commands right and worked them properly!
I am looking forward to Sat, just hoping it is not too chilly!!!
Jemma
She did some really good weaving today, and was actually better when I got in her face and right up to the weaves, rather than hanging back and trying to straighten her up!!! She even did them when she was coming at them full pelt from a tunnel along way away!! Her contacts were not to shabby either, not as good as last time but then last time we did them first before she got tired!! We finished on the course and tightening her up round some wing wraps which she also did nicely, so all in all a good lesson for her with not many poles down, I just need to keep my cool on Sat!!
Elliot
His weaves were better this week - it was mainly the entrance he struggled with, and then the middle of the twelve, but then we are unlikely to get steep angles on Sat so hopefully provided I don't do silly things and do work them all the way to the end he should be fine!! Again, his contacts weren't too bad, have been quicker, especially the seesaw but again we didn't do them first today and in competition neither of them have particularly slow contacts!! We finished on the course with him too and his wing wraps were very nice when I got my commands right and worked them properly!
I am looking forward to Sat, just hoping it is not too chilly!!!
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Flyball - team training
Jemma
It was team training this week and she was in the right lane and apart from having a really good look on the first run (but staying in the lane) she ran really well. She was racing against diefer and was good when she was ahead of him and when she was behind him. We had the jump in front of the box and she was good and held her turn very nicely :) So all in all a good session for her.
Elliot
He was running 3rd (out of 3) and ran well, I managed to improve my change overs during the course of the session too and played around with how to release him to make sure he was actually up right when I wanted to let him go (i was struggling a lot in competition to let him go when I wanted for good change overs as he would be leaning sideways or jumping about) - I ended up just taking a little bit of weight off his back legs - i shall spend the rest of the winter working on perfecting this. His turn was not too bad with the jump in, although he is sticking still. I couldn't really tell how well he was running back, but I was using the tuggy again and he seemed OK - Nat was running asher so couldn't really see - so a good session for him too :)
It was team training this week and she was in the right lane and apart from having a really good look on the first run (but staying in the lane) she ran really well. She was racing against diefer and was good when she was ahead of him and when she was behind him. We had the jump in front of the box and she was good and held her turn very nicely :) So all in all a good session for her.
Elliot
He was running 3rd (out of 3) and ran well, I managed to improve my change overs during the course of the session too and played around with how to release him to make sure he was actually up right when I wanted to let him go (i was struggling a lot in competition to let him go when I wanted for good change overs as he would be leaning sideways or jumping about) - I ended up just taking a little bit of weight off his back legs - i shall spend the rest of the winter working on perfecting this. His turn was not too bad with the jump in, although he is sticking still. I couldn't really tell how well he was running back, but I was using the tuggy again and he seemed OK - Nat was running asher so couldn't really see - so a good session for him too :)
Saturday, 6 November 2010
A weave day
Jemma
Her weaves were really good today, she only got them wrong a couple of times when I left her to it when she was too wide to get in the entrance, other than that she did them right and speedy :D We worked on her contacts a little bit and they were really good too, the last time she did them all they were amazing, she was having a bit of a paddy about tugging on the bottom though so just got cuddles instead - I wonder if it hurts her tummy muscles too much tuggy on them? :S We then finished on some speedy jumping with the poles staying up and she was a good girly at that too so all in all a brill lesson for her, just a shame she is spending the evening scared of the fireworks!!
Elliot
He struggled quite a lot with the weaves today, he stayed him them to the end but kept missing the entrance :( He got there eventually though, he was better when I was behind him, I guess this is what he is more used to as I can never keep up with him in competition!! His contacts were good but not as speedy as I would like, but then again he was beginning to get quite tired bless him. I am pleased we have another lesson before dartmoor, it will give me another chance to try and sort myself out with regard to his weaves!!
Her weaves were really good today, she only got them wrong a couple of times when I left her to it when she was too wide to get in the entrance, other than that she did them right and speedy :D We worked on her contacts a little bit and they were really good too, the last time she did them all they were amazing, she was having a bit of a paddy about tugging on the bottom though so just got cuddles instead - I wonder if it hurts her tummy muscles too much tuggy on them? :S We then finished on some speedy jumping with the poles staying up and she was a good girly at that too so all in all a brill lesson for her, just a shame she is spending the evening scared of the fireworks!!
Elliot
He struggled quite a lot with the weaves today, he stayed him them to the end but kept missing the entrance :( He got there eventually though, he was better when I was behind him, I guess this is what he is more used to as I can never keep up with him in competition!! His contacts were good but not as speedy as I would like, but then again he was beginning to get quite tired bless him. I am pleased we have another lesson before dartmoor, it will give me another chance to try and sort myself out with regard to his weaves!!
Friday, 29 October 2010
Training Contacts and Weaves
Jemma
We started with tugging on the contacts and making sure they were nice and speedy. Jem struggled a bit to start with to stay on the dog-walk whilst playing tuggy but quickly remembered the training we had been doing at home on the board! all her contacts were really speedy and I got told I was driving her more than I ever have before (something I have kept being told to do but havn't been doing because of the poles dropping) and she didn't knock many poles. We also worked on her weaves with me reving her up lots before and playing tug after and she was really good when I didn't run off stupidly far ahead of her!! She struggled quite a bit on a 90degree angle entrance because of where she landed after the jump but we eventually managed it :D
Elliot
He took longer to remember that he had to stay on the dog-walk when tugging and kept doing his "go back up the contact turn around, go to the bottom, come off, go back up, turn around, go back down" dance, but once I made the decision that if he came off he had to do the whole thing again and wouldn't get rewarded if he put himself back on he stopped doing it, tinker!! His contacts were also much speedier than before bless him :) He struggled with his weaves again, especially when we added jumps before them, he was also getting quite tired so next time we are going to start with the weaves :)
This "new" training methods definately seem to be making their contacts faster, it is just a shame that I have to do soooo much running!!!
We started with tugging on the contacts and making sure they were nice and speedy. Jem struggled a bit to start with to stay on the dog-walk whilst playing tuggy but quickly remembered the training we had been doing at home on the board! all her contacts were really speedy and I got told I was driving her more than I ever have before (something I have kept being told to do but havn't been doing because of the poles dropping) and she didn't knock many poles. We also worked on her weaves with me reving her up lots before and playing tug after and she was really good when I didn't run off stupidly far ahead of her!! She struggled quite a bit on a 90degree angle entrance because of where she landed after the jump but we eventually managed it :D
Elliot
He took longer to remember that he had to stay on the dog-walk when tugging and kept doing his "go back up the contact turn around, go to the bottom, come off, go back up, turn around, go back down" dance, but once I made the decision that if he came off he had to do the whole thing again and wouldn't get rewarded if he put himself back on he stopped doing it, tinker!! His contacts were also much speedier than before bless him :) He struggled with his weaves again, especially when we added jumps before them, he was also getting quite tired so next time we are going to start with the weaves :)
This "new" training methods definately seem to be making their contacts faster, it is just a shame that I have to do soooo much running!!!
Monday, 25 October 2010
AC Agility Camp
It was a great weekend and I came away having learnt lots of things that will hopefully help my guys, they had four lessons each which covered handling, weaves, contacts and course analysis. By the end of the weekend their contacts had improved greatly, and Jemma was driving much better.
My plans after the weekend for things to work on over the winter are as follows;
Weaves
LOTS of reinforcement after them
Different angles and number of jumps before them
Different angles and obstacles afterwards (although not do them - reward straight after the weaves instead)
Work on back crossing, peeling off and hanging back
Learn to trust Jemma and relax and not rush her
Contacts
Only praise when speedy
Play on the contact and when released - don't just carry on
Work on peeling off, hanging back and back crossing
Break down jumping sequences and reward more frequently
Praise when jumping speedily, if not fast enough try it again
Work on Elliots forward drive without flappy arms
So, lots for us to do, I can't wait to get started!!!
After the weekend I have also made the decision that once one of them has won into Grade 3 I will take Jem up on points if she gets enough before a win as I think it is quite unlikely she will manage to win a grade 3 class but I think she will stand a reasonable chance in grade 4 if the course is tight enough, but I would also contemplate taking her further on points if she managed it. Elliot will however have to go up on wins as he has it in him!!!
My plans after the weekend for things to work on over the winter are as follows;
Weaves
LOTS of reinforcement after them
Different angles and number of jumps before them
Different angles and obstacles afterwards (although not do them - reward straight after the weaves instead)
Work on back crossing, peeling off and hanging back
Learn to trust Jemma and relax and not rush her
Contacts
Only praise when speedy
Play on the contact and when released - don't just carry on
Work on peeling off, hanging back and back crossing
Break down jumping sequences and reward more frequently
Praise when jumping speedily, if not fast enough try it again
Work on Elliots forward drive without flappy arms
So, lots for us to do, I can't wait to get started!!!
After the weekend I have also made the decision that once one of them has won into Grade 3 I will take Jem up on points if she gets enough before a win as I think it is quite unlikely she will manage to win a grade 3 class but I think she will stand a reasonable chance in grade 4 if the course is tight enough, but I would also contemplate taking her further on points if she managed it. Elliot will however have to go up on wins as he has it in him!!!
Sunday, 17 October 2010
BHC - not a great day for us!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Elliot
He was on FIRE in this round, sadly though he had the same problem he has been having recently in training and came out the 12 weaves at number 10 to go on to the next jump, apart from this he was clear!!
Jemma
She was also on fire bless her, she got the weave entrance and went about half way down and then just randomly decided not to do any more, not really sure why but when she still hadn't managed it three attempts later we gave up and left the ring!! Lel did get this one on video so I shall have a look and see if I can see what I did!!
Graded 1-2 Agility
Elliot
This course started jump jump weaves tunnel and so despite there only being nine weaves he came out after about 3 and went on to do the tunnel, I managed to get him back first time but didn't second time and third time he completed them all before carrying on!!! Apart from this it was again a cracking round, his aframe was good, seesaw amazing and dog walk OK but I pushed it by running miles past the end so it made him think too much bless him!!
Jemma
Needless to say I had the same problem with her, she came flying over the first two jumps and then just didn't brake enough for the weaves, I had been made quite self conscious about my "steady" screaming and so had toned it down for this run and the previous one! Second time round she did them and then finished the course perfectly, I made her wait on her contacts which made her slow but it always does, once she has already been faulted she never has the same amount of drive, but she stopped on them all and waited to be released :)
Combined 1-4 Jumping
Jemma
I decided I was going to go back to my screaming "steady" command in this round and it worked, she got the six weaves first time with me miles behind her :) I was really pleased with her because she finished up in 11th place (3.4 seconds behind the winner, 149 dogs in the class) - which for Jem in a combined 1-4 jumping was REALLY good, there were LOTS of clear round rosettes too so it was nice that she made it into the places :) I also know there were places that could have been tighter but I just wanted ONE clear round for the day!!!
Elliot
I messed up this round for him really as it had two consecutive pull throughs in it and despite all the work we have put in I wasn't feeling overly confident about them, I therefore managed to pull off the first jump and then the second jump too soon, and when I tried to straighten him up to send him over the second jump second time round he saw the tunnel and decided to go in that instead - oopsies!!! He then didn't manage the 6 weaves but he was a LONG way ahead of me!!
Brace
This was the first time we had done a brace and so it was pretty exciting!! After all our brace change practise the one thing we didn't practice was with the first dog running into you and the second dog going away in the direction the first dog had come from and this was what we got!! Elliot had the weaves in his half of the course and sadly yet again he came out 1 pole too early (despite their only being 6!!!), he then was a little bugger and refused to do and instant down in the box (he was very good at it at training!!) but once caught I had Jem to run and OMG, she really was FLYING!!! She had a more tricky handling part in her course which she managed fine and she was really driving, she felt great to run bless her!!!
So all in all not a great day, weaves cocking it up for me too many times again!! Hopefully one day I will solve the issue with them - I know with Jem it is mainly me but with Elliot he is just impatient but this should be easier to correct!!! The other main thing from today that I want to work on with Jem is her drive, she showed in the brace she can do it, even when I am hammering it home, so we need to work on doing this in a course normally!!
Elliot
He was on FIRE in this round, sadly though he had the same problem he has been having recently in training and came out the 12 weaves at number 10 to go on to the next jump, apart from this he was clear!!
Jemma
She was also on fire bless her, she got the weave entrance and went about half way down and then just randomly decided not to do any more, not really sure why but when she still hadn't managed it three attempts later we gave up and left the ring!! Lel did get this one on video so I shall have a look and see if I can see what I did!!
Graded 1-2 Agility
Elliot
This course started jump jump weaves tunnel and so despite there only being nine weaves he came out after about 3 and went on to do the tunnel, I managed to get him back first time but didn't second time and third time he completed them all before carrying on!!! Apart from this it was again a cracking round, his aframe was good, seesaw amazing and dog walk OK but I pushed it by running miles past the end so it made him think too much bless him!!
Jemma
Needless to say I had the same problem with her, she came flying over the first two jumps and then just didn't brake enough for the weaves, I had been made quite self conscious about my "steady" screaming and so had toned it down for this run and the previous one! Second time round she did them and then finished the course perfectly, I made her wait on her contacts which made her slow but it always does, once she has already been faulted she never has the same amount of drive, but she stopped on them all and waited to be released :)
Combined 1-4 Jumping
Jemma
I decided I was going to go back to my screaming "steady" command in this round and it worked, she got the six weaves first time with me miles behind her :) I was really pleased with her because she finished up in 11th place (3.4 seconds behind the winner, 149 dogs in the class) - which for Jem in a combined 1-4 jumping was REALLY good, there were LOTS of clear round rosettes too so it was nice that she made it into the places :) I also know there were places that could have been tighter but I just wanted ONE clear round for the day!!!
Elliot
I messed up this round for him really as it had two consecutive pull throughs in it and despite all the work we have put in I wasn't feeling overly confident about them, I therefore managed to pull off the first jump and then the second jump too soon, and when I tried to straighten him up to send him over the second jump second time round he saw the tunnel and decided to go in that instead - oopsies!!! He then didn't manage the 6 weaves but he was a LONG way ahead of me!!
Brace
This was the first time we had done a brace and so it was pretty exciting!! After all our brace change practise the one thing we didn't practice was with the first dog running into you and the second dog going away in the direction the first dog had come from and this was what we got!! Elliot had the weaves in his half of the course and sadly yet again he came out 1 pole too early (despite their only being 6!!!), he then was a little bugger and refused to do and instant down in the box (he was very good at it at training!!) but once caught I had Jem to run and OMG, she really was FLYING!!! She had a more tricky handling part in her course which she managed fine and she was really driving, she felt great to run bless her!!!
So all in all not a great day, weaves cocking it up for me too many times again!! Hopefully one day I will solve the issue with them - I know with Jem it is mainly me but with Elliot he is just impatient but this should be easier to correct!!! The other main thing from today that I want to work on with Jem is her drive, she showed in the brace she can do it, even when I am hammering it home, so we need to work on doing this in a course normally!!
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Much quicker update!!
We had agility training today and both dogs did good:
Jemma
She was much better at her weaves today and only got them wrong a few times when I kept getting in completely the wrong place!! Her contacts were a little slow but she has a sore on her leg and so we wondered if this is was causing some of the problem, it is hard with her as well as she only ever does them slowly in competition if she has already had a pole down and I decide to work them so training her under the same conditions is hard!! She did some really tricky jumping bits very nicely and tight which was good, all in all a good lesson for her, fingers crossed for clear rounds at the weekend!!
Elliot
His contacts have slowed up a little bit (although again they are never as bad in competition) and his first few a-frames were shocking, with him stopping half way down!! His weave entrances were good but the first few times he came out at number 10 again, but if i stayed on his shoulder and really worked them he did them all :) We had to work a little bit more on the jump sequence with him than with Jem as he jumps longer and so I have to handle twidly bits differently with him than with her and I am still trying to work out which is the best way to do it!! We did some work on his left and rights as well and they are getting much better, he is still much more confident with left than right though. The weekend should be fun with him too!!
Jemma
She was much better at her weaves today and only got them wrong a few times when I kept getting in completely the wrong place!! Her contacts were a little slow but she has a sore on her leg and so we wondered if this is was causing some of the problem, it is hard with her as well as she only ever does them slowly in competition if she has already had a pole down and I decide to work them so training her under the same conditions is hard!! She did some really tricky jumping bits very nicely and tight which was good, all in all a good lesson for her, fingers crossed for clear rounds at the weekend!!
Elliot
His contacts have slowed up a little bit (although again they are never as bad in competition) and his first few a-frames were shocking, with him stopping half way down!! His weave entrances were good but the first few times he came out at number 10 again, but if i stayed on his shoulder and really worked them he did them all :) We had to work a little bit more on the jump sequence with him than with Jem as he jumps longer and so I have to handle twidly bits differently with him than with her and I am still trying to work out which is the best way to do it!! We did some work on his left and rights as well and they are getting much better, he is still much more confident with left than right though. The weekend should be fun with him too!!
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Weekend of training
A very belated update from training at the weekend, firstly agility:
Jemma:
She was a good girly, got the weaves (when I got in the right place!!) and her contacts were better than last week. I can't really remember what we had to work on, I think we just played around with the weave entrances. We then did some practice for the brace this coming weekend as I have never done one before and Lel is going to be my handler - I decided to run Elliot first as he drives more to his lead and has a good instant down. We started off very badly but then as I practiced getting the instant down command in at the right time and at getting Jem to go forward - she firstly thought she had to lie down too, then she decided she would pinch the toy and run off with it and finally she went forward but then she sent the poles flying!!! On the final attempt we got it right though so fingers crossed for the weekend!!
Elliot
He was a good boy from what a remember if a little crazy, but then that's nothing new bless him!! His weaves were much better as were his contacts (I think) - I really need to write my blog up closer to training as I really can't remember the lesson that well, I'm just guessing that means there wasn't anything majorly bad he did!!
Now on to flyball training:
Elliot
He was a good boy and was running with the big boys over 12inches!!He struggled a bit when we were doing the speed trials, only in the fact that when going towards the boxes (despite them being quite a way to the left) he thought he had to do them, so got a little in the way bless him. His main problem is that he is still not really driving for the second ball, he seems to put the extra bit of speed in once he is over the jumps - hmm!! He is also still sticking slightly too much on the box for my liking, something else for Nat to think about :P
Jemma
She was completely and utterly manic bless her!! Having two boxes to work on meant she was the same as in competition - looking at the other dog - however, the thing to decide now is what to do about this in training, she did the box every time but ideally we want to train her out of this rather than just letting her get away with it, but what to do who knows?!?!? - Nat will!! hehe!! She also did a good couple of change overs too when people let her go a little earlier than I would have, this was probably because she was still coming towards me, whereas of course when she normally needs to do a change over she will be going away from me, something else for Nat hehe!!!
That's it for now, not that I remembered much!!
Jemma:
She was a good girly, got the weaves (when I got in the right place!!) and her contacts were better than last week. I can't really remember what we had to work on, I think we just played around with the weave entrances. We then did some practice for the brace this coming weekend as I have never done one before and Lel is going to be my handler - I decided to run Elliot first as he drives more to his lead and has a good instant down. We started off very badly but then as I practiced getting the instant down command in at the right time and at getting Jem to go forward - she firstly thought she had to lie down too, then she decided she would pinch the toy and run off with it and finally she went forward but then she sent the poles flying!!! On the final attempt we got it right though so fingers crossed for the weekend!!
Elliot
He was a good boy from what a remember if a little crazy, but then that's nothing new bless him!! His weaves were much better as were his contacts (I think) - I really need to write my blog up closer to training as I really can't remember the lesson that well, I'm just guessing that means there wasn't anything majorly bad he did!!
Now on to flyball training:
Elliot
He was a good boy and was running with the big boys over 12inches!!He struggled a bit when we were doing the speed trials, only in the fact that when going towards the boxes (despite them being quite a way to the left) he thought he had to do them, so got a little in the way bless him. His main problem is that he is still not really driving for the second ball, he seems to put the extra bit of speed in once he is over the jumps - hmm!! He is also still sticking slightly too much on the box for my liking, something else for Nat to think about :P
Jemma
She was completely and utterly manic bless her!! Having two boxes to work on meant she was the same as in competition - looking at the other dog - however, the thing to decide now is what to do about this in training, she did the box every time but ideally we want to train her out of this rather than just letting her get away with it, but what to do who knows?!?!? - Nat will!! hehe!! She also did a good couple of change overs too when people let her go a little earlier than I would have, this was probably because she was still coming towards me, whereas of course when she normally needs to do a change over she will be going away from me, something else for Nat hehe!!!
That's it for now, not that I remembered much!!
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Pull throughs take two
Jemma
The course this week was fun, even if the weaves took us a few attempts - first time I gave her the wrong command, second time I pushed her far to wide and 3rd time I didn't work them all the way to the end, I think we got them fourth time though!!! She worked the rest of the course really nicely and her contacts were much better than last week!! Lel had then kindly set up a sort of circle of jumps with different gaps and traps between the jumps for us to practise our pull throughs - she is sooooo kind :P However, we did much better than last week and we did them both sides as well!! It was my shoulders that were causing us our problems but I worked on them and they got better :) We finally worked on her going out round the jumps and she did this VERY nicely :D
Elliot
He also struggled with the weaves, mainly because he either landed short and so missed the entrance, or I pushed him too far wide and he missed it!! He also then kept coming out too early, again beacuse I didn't work them all the way to the end!! He then struggled with a set of jumps set at a zigzag but that he could jump in a straight line!! We worked on it though and he then got the hang of it bless him!! We worked on him coming tighter round jumps - it basically just involved me talking to him, whoops!! We finished by working on the dreaded pull throughs and we were loads better than last week, yay!!! We struggled a little bit but no where near as much, and when it did go wrong I was able to save it, evenif it was at walking pace!!! Next week we will be even better (fingers crossed!!)!!
The course this week was fun, even if the weaves took us a few attempts - first time I gave her the wrong command, second time I pushed her far to wide and 3rd time I didn't work them all the way to the end, I think we got them fourth time though!!! She worked the rest of the course really nicely and her contacts were much better than last week!! Lel had then kindly set up a sort of circle of jumps with different gaps and traps between the jumps for us to practise our pull throughs - she is sooooo kind :P However, we did much better than last week and we did them both sides as well!! It was my shoulders that were causing us our problems but I worked on them and they got better :) We finally worked on her going out round the jumps and she did this VERY nicely :D
Elliot
He also struggled with the weaves, mainly because he either landed short and so missed the entrance, or I pushed him too far wide and he missed it!! He also then kept coming out too early, again beacuse I didn't work them all the way to the end!! He then struggled with a set of jumps set at a zigzag but that he could jump in a straight line!! We worked on it though and he then got the hang of it bless him!! We worked on him coming tighter round jumps - it basically just involved me talking to him, whoops!! We finished by working on the dreaded pull throughs and we were loads better than last week, yay!!! We struggled a little bit but no where near as much, and when it did go wrong I was able to save it, evenif it was at walking pace!!! Next week we will be even better (fingers crossed!!)!!
Pull throughs – AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
This is the write up for my lesson before I went on hol, I will do the one for yesterday later :)
Jemma
Jem did well, getting her weaves everytime and despite shocking contacts to start with they improved loads and were really nice at the end. The third course of our lesson (shows how good she was as it didn’t take much to improve the first two :D ) involved pull throughs, something which I have always struggled with (don’t ask me why) and I had to do two in succession (this was in the jumping course at the fun competition and we struggled with it). The bit i struggled with to start with was getting her to go to the first jump when i was stood closer to the second jump as she came out the tunnel, anyway it didn’t take much to crack that and then I seemed to manage not too bad, it just took a couple of attempts to get it. So all in all a good lesson for her, I still want to work on her contacts a bit more over winter, although I don’t think she has ever done a slow one in competition, only when she has already been faulted and I decide I will work them properly!! I also think we still need to work a little bit on our pull throughs - I need to be able to get them first time in competition!!!
Elliot
He took a few more attempts at the first course because he kept coming out the weaves at number 10 even though they were the second obstacle and the tunnel was two jumps away and i have it on good authority that i was doing nothing different!! Anyway, we eventually cracked them and he worked the rest of the course nicely and nice and speedy, although he needed some work on a right turn after a straight line and I proved that I think he does know his directions really which is good as it means I can start using them properly!! Because of how long it had taken us to do the weaves we did the third course second as we wanted to make sure I had time to practise the pull throughs with him too – what a good job we did (well sort of!) – it must have taken me at least 30 attempts if not more to get it right and even then when i did it was a bit of a bodge job but we decided after how long it had taken we would leave it at that and work on them every lesson for a while!!! I don’t know what I was doing but my shoulders would insist on pointing the wrong way to start with so I couldn’t get him over the first jump and then once I had cracked that i couldn’t get in the right position for the first pull through, once i cracked that it took me AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGES to be able to be the right position to send him over the second jump to then be in the right place for the second pull through basically all in all i just made a complete mess of it for a very long time and about half way through this mess Lel took Elliot and did it first time just to prove even more that it was me and not him – yeh, thanks Lel!!!
Jemma
Jem did well, getting her weaves everytime and despite shocking contacts to start with they improved loads and were really nice at the end. The third course of our lesson (shows how good she was as it didn’t take much to improve the first two :D ) involved pull throughs, something which I have always struggled with (don’t ask me why) and I had to do two in succession (this was in the jumping course at the fun competition and we struggled with it). The bit i struggled with to start with was getting her to go to the first jump when i was stood closer to the second jump as she came out the tunnel, anyway it didn’t take much to crack that and then I seemed to manage not too bad, it just took a couple of attempts to get it. So all in all a good lesson for her, I still want to work on her contacts a bit more over winter, although I don’t think she has ever done a slow one in competition, only when she has already been faulted and I decide I will work them properly!! I also think we still need to work a little bit on our pull throughs - I need to be able to get them first time in competition!!!
Elliot
He took a few more attempts at the first course because he kept coming out the weaves at number 10 even though they were the second obstacle and the tunnel was two jumps away and i have it on good authority that i was doing nothing different!! Anyway, we eventually cracked them and he worked the rest of the course nicely and nice and speedy, although he needed some work on a right turn after a straight line and I proved that I think he does know his directions really which is good as it means I can start using them properly!! Because of how long it had taken us to do the weaves we did the third course second as we wanted to make sure I had time to practise the pull throughs with him too – what a good job we did (well sort of!) – it must have taken me at least 30 attempts if not more to get it right and even then when i did it was a bit of a bodge job but we decided after how long it had taken we would leave it at that and work on them every lesson for a while!!! I don’t know what I was doing but my shoulders would insist on pointing the wrong way to start with so I couldn’t get him over the first jump and then once I had cracked that i couldn’t get in the right position for the first pull through, once i cracked that it took me AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGES to be able to be the right position to send him over the second jump to then be in the right place for the second pull through basically all in all i just made a complete mess of it for a very long time and about half way through this mess Lel took Elliot and did it first time just to prove even more that it was me and not him – yeh, thanks Lel!!!
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Sunday, 19 September 2010
Blackdown - Grade 2 Seconditis?
Jumping Graded 1-3
Elliot
OMG, he was flying, he managed the 6 weaves first time and was great to run, sadly he had a pole down, otherwise he would have won the class by 0.05 seconds (close I know but still!)!!!
Jemma
Hehe, she was a clever little girl and managed the weaves first time too, and she went clear, finishing 3rd (very good for jembear in jumping!)!!! :) She was only 0.8 seconds off the winner bless her :)
Agility Graded 1-2
Elliot
For some reason he had strong objections to the first jump in this class and so ended up just attempting to do it 3 times and failing and so then I just left the ring with him, the two possible explanations we came up with for this were, firstly that he had both the dog in front of him and the dog behind him going for him in the queue, or secondly the fact that in his first class (the jumping) the first jump was double poled, who knows what was going through his head, either way he didn't get to do any agility!!
Jemma
Yet another one to add to the list of rounds that would have been clear and nice apart from, yup youve guessed it, the weaves!!!! She just didn't brake at all, despite me giving her plenty of warning and not treating them any differently!
Agility Graded 1-3
Elliot
OMG, yet again he was on fire, flying round the course, with a really nice fast dog walk (although releasing slightly early) but then I didn't call him early enough at one point in the course (I could have really done with a "right" command) and he ended up going down a tunnel he wasn't supposed to!:( He managed the weaves first time though and did a beautiful fast a-frame, he did however stop just off the bottom so I just picked his bum up and put it back on!! We then just powered it home (resulting in a collapsed long jump) and he finished really nicely!! I think he probably could have won it as he was definitely quicker than Jem!
Jemma
Well, it wasn't a very jembear course as it was just straight up and down with no twisty bits, however she gave it her best shot and did her 6 weaves first time and ran as fast as her little legs could carry and ended up leading the class (by 3 seconds) until the last few dogs when she was beaten by 2 seconds!! Hopefully this is not the start of Grade 2 seconditis and it is just our one before we get our win, hehe!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Elliot
Aww, bless the little man, yet another flying performance from him, I just nearly lost him again where he could have done with a "right" command, and sadly this meant he was at a really bad angle for the next jump so he knocked the pole! I didn't manage to look at times so I don't know where he would have come, maybe a good thing!!
Jemma
Again, she was flying but she decided to YET AGAIN ignore the "steady" command and so went clear apart from the weaves, AGAIN!!!
So all in all a good day, I was disappointed with Elliot's results but ecstatic with his performance, I had best get working on his left and rights over the winter bless him. As for Jem, I need to work on her keeping the poles up when I am running hell for leather, we need to shave some seconds off bless him, especially if we do make it to grade 3 (and of course those weaves still need some work!!)!!!!
Elliot
OMG, he was flying, he managed the 6 weaves first time and was great to run, sadly he had a pole down, otherwise he would have won the class by 0.05 seconds (close I know but still!)!!!
Jemma
Hehe, she was a clever little girl and managed the weaves first time too, and she went clear, finishing 3rd (very good for jembear in jumping!)!!! :) She was only 0.8 seconds off the winner bless her :)
Agility Graded 1-2
Elliot
For some reason he had strong objections to the first jump in this class and so ended up just attempting to do it 3 times and failing and so then I just left the ring with him, the two possible explanations we came up with for this were, firstly that he had both the dog in front of him and the dog behind him going for him in the queue, or secondly the fact that in his first class (the jumping) the first jump was double poled, who knows what was going through his head, either way he didn't get to do any agility!!
Jemma
Yet another one to add to the list of rounds that would have been clear and nice apart from, yup youve guessed it, the weaves!!!! She just didn't brake at all, despite me giving her plenty of warning and not treating them any differently!
Agility Graded 1-3
Elliot
OMG, yet again he was on fire, flying round the course, with a really nice fast dog walk (although releasing slightly early) but then I didn't call him early enough at one point in the course (I could have really done with a "right" command) and he ended up going down a tunnel he wasn't supposed to!:( He managed the weaves first time though and did a beautiful fast a-frame, he did however stop just off the bottom so I just picked his bum up and put it back on!! We then just powered it home (resulting in a collapsed long jump) and he finished really nicely!! I think he probably could have won it as he was definitely quicker than Jem!
Jemma
Well, it wasn't a very jembear course as it was just straight up and down with no twisty bits, however she gave it her best shot and did her 6 weaves first time and ran as fast as her little legs could carry and ended up leading the class (by 3 seconds) until the last few dogs when she was beaten by 2 seconds!! Hopefully this is not the start of Grade 2 seconditis and it is just our one before we get our win, hehe!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Elliot
Aww, bless the little man, yet another flying performance from him, I just nearly lost him again where he could have done with a "right" command, and sadly this meant he was at a really bad angle for the next jump so he knocked the pole! I didn't manage to look at times so I don't know where he would have come, maybe a good thing!!
Jemma
Again, she was flying but she decided to YET AGAIN ignore the "steady" command and so went clear apart from the weaves, AGAIN!!!
So all in all a good day, I was disappointed with Elliot's results but ecstatic with his performance, I had best get working on his left and rights over the winter bless him. As for Jem, I need to work on her keeping the poles up when I am running hell for leather, we need to shave some seconds off bless him, especially if we do make it to grade 3 (and of course those weaves still need some work!!)!!!!
Saturday, 18 September 2010
A-SIT Fun Competition
Well today was the A-SIT fun competition and everyone had a great time :)
Agility
Both dogs ran this course really well, I messed it up for Elliot by not pushing him out far enough and being lazy the jump after the seesaw and so I then eliminated him by putting him back over the see-saw, apart from that he ran very nicely, he did go off the end of the dog walk a little early but his other contacts were nice and his weaves (10) were brill - they were after the a-frame so he had a nice pause before them :) Then I ran the Jembear and loved every minute of it, she felt great and ran really nicely, she too managed the weaves first time and ended up winning the class :D
Jumping
Elliot was completely off his rocker in this class - he hit the weaves so hard I thought he was going to snap the second pole, however he somehow managed to hold it together and only came out 2 from the end when he saw the tunnel (2 jumps away), he did them nicely second time though, I think I just commanded him too late first time so he didnt brake early enough! There were then two pull throughs after the tunnel and I didn't push him out far enough for the first jump as I was worried I wouldn't get in to position and so we had about 3 attempts at this!! He then ran the rest of the course really well though bless him! Jemma also managed to cock the weaves up, but I think this was my fault, when she got to about weave 6 I thought about the fact I had to run on to get to the tunnel and was just about to go to power off and then remembered that was a bad idea and so did some kind of crazy thing and so needless to say she popped out at 8, did them second time though :) I messed the pull through up for her first time too - I don't know what is wrong with me with them, I clearly still need to work on them!!! As for weaves, I think the new tactic is that I just have to concentrate on the weaves whilst they are doing them and not what I have to do next as this is what I did in the agility as I had to bring them 180 degrees after them so stuck right with them :)
So, as for tomorrow, I just need to keepy my cool!!
Agility
Both dogs ran this course really well, I messed it up for Elliot by not pushing him out far enough and being lazy the jump after the seesaw and so I then eliminated him by putting him back over the see-saw, apart from that he ran very nicely, he did go off the end of the dog walk a little early but his other contacts were nice and his weaves (10) were brill - they were after the a-frame so he had a nice pause before them :) Then I ran the Jembear and loved every minute of it, she felt great and ran really nicely, she too managed the weaves first time and ended up winning the class :D
Jumping
Elliot was completely off his rocker in this class - he hit the weaves so hard I thought he was going to snap the second pole, however he somehow managed to hold it together and only came out 2 from the end when he saw the tunnel (2 jumps away), he did them nicely second time though, I think I just commanded him too late first time so he didnt brake early enough! There were then two pull throughs after the tunnel and I didn't push him out far enough for the first jump as I was worried I wouldn't get in to position and so we had about 3 attempts at this!! He then ran the rest of the course really well though bless him! Jemma also managed to cock the weaves up, but I think this was my fault, when she got to about weave 6 I thought about the fact I had to run on to get to the tunnel and was just about to go to power off and then remembered that was a bad idea and so did some kind of crazy thing and so needless to say she popped out at 8, did them second time though :) I messed the pull through up for her first time too - I don't know what is wrong with me with them, I clearly still need to work on them!!! As for weaves, I think the new tactic is that I just have to concentrate on the weaves whilst they are doing them and not what I have to do next as this is what I did in the agility as I had to bring them 180 degrees after them so stuck right with them :)
So, as for tomorrow, I just need to keepy my cool!!
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Go Jembe Go!!!
Agility with Gail today :)
Jemma
Wow, Jembe was amazing today, it was great to run her and I thoroughly enjoyed my lesson! Yeh she knocked a few poles, and we had to work on her contacts but we did the weaves lots, in the middle of courses, with tunnels and complicated jumpy bits after them and she didnt get them wrong at all, not once!!!! :D For me this was the biggest achievement we could have ever made :D I am really looking forward to the weekend, lets hope I can hold it together for her like I managed to today!! :)
Elliot
His lesson was slightly less successful bless him! His contacts were good in the face that he stopped on them all, and even did some really nice fast ones, however he likes to go before I tell him - definately something to work on over the winter, cheeky boy! He struggled a bit with the weaves, but then once we put them by themselves he was fine, I think he was just tired as we did them at the end of the lesson, hopefully he will do better at the weekend :) I still enjoyed his lesson as I always do, and overall he did good :)
Jemma
Wow, Jembe was amazing today, it was great to run her and I thoroughly enjoyed my lesson! Yeh she knocked a few poles, and we had to work on her contacts but we did the weaves lots, in the middle of courses, with tunnels and complicated jumpy bits after them and she didnt get them wrong at all, not once!!!! :D For me this was the biggest achievement we could have ever made :D I am really looking forward to the weekend, lets hope I can hold it together for her like I managed to today!! :)
Elliot
His lesson was slightly less successful bless him! His contacts were good in the face that he stopped on them all, and even did some really nice fast ones, however he likes to go before I tell him - definately something to work on over the winter, cheeky boy! He struggled a bit with the weaves, but then once we put them by themselves he was fine, I think he was just tired as we did them at the end of the lesson, hopefully he will do better at the weekend :) I still enjoyed his lesson as I always do, and overall he did good :)
Wednesday, 8 September 2010
Back at Agility :D
Well tonight was our first agility lesson in about 6 weeks and boy was it good to be back!!!
Jemma:
Well, her contacts weren't great, they weren't bad but they certainly werent the best I have seen from her! However there were no poles down and she only mucked the weaves up once when I was an idiot and got well and truly in her way!! I was really pleased with how the lesson went, we seemed to still be in tune with each other, even doing pull throughs (when I got them right) and she worked really nicely bless her.
Elliot:
Hmm, well we managed to do the same things with him as we had with Jemma only it only took us 15mins instead of 30!! He was a little star, contacts were fast (although he did keep releasing himself a little early, but he did do a proper stop first) and he got the weaves every time (only popped out the end once when i said good boy too soon the first time). His jumping was still quite hap hazard and he had quite a few poles down, I also had to work a little harder to retune myself to working him but he looked really good and I was so pleased with his contacts and especially his weaves I did worry he may have lost them!!
So all in all two really good lessons and hopefully a promising last few competitions!!
Jemma:
Well, her contacts weren't great, they weren't bad but they certainly werent the best I have seen from her! However there were no poles down and she only mucked the weaves up once when I was an idiot and got well and truly in her way!! I was really pleased with how the lesson went, we seemed to still be in tune with each other, even doing pull throughs (when I got them right) and she worked really nicely bless her.
Elliot:
Hmm, well we managed to do the same things with him as we had with Jemma only it only took us 15mins instead of 30!! He was a little star, contacts were fast (although he did keep releasing himself a little early, but he did do a proper stop first) and he got the weaves every time (only popped out the end once when i said good boy too soon the first time). His jumping was still quite hap hazard and he had quite a few poles down, I also had to work a little harder to retune myself to working him but he looked really good and I was so pleased with his contacts and especially his weaves I did worry he may have lost them!!
So all in all two really good lessons and hopefully a promising last few competitions!!
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Shackerstone
Sadly this was our last flyball competition for this season :( but on the up side the season ended well :)
Jemma was running again (yay!) and was back as start dog for the extraset :) Although she didn't run across to the wrong lane at all, she was looking at the othe lane quite a lot on the way up, however I shall let her off as we still managed to win all our races and finish first with a best time of 20.02 - the same as our seed time :)
Elliot was back on the Rockets and ran well, although I tried him with a second ball for the first two legs and although he seemed to be running for it he wasn't catching it, he was just jabbing it with his nose and so it was flying everywhere! I then went back to the tuggy but Nat said he was still coming back nicely which is good. I shall carry on working on the second ball but I think I shall now start dropping it from lower than I was before and continue working on it over the winter. My change overs were rubbish though, he seemed to be even worse at being unable to stand up straight whilst lining up and so It hink this was throwing me a bit when it came to releasing him, again I guess something to work on over the winter. Rockets ended up finishing 3rd with a best time of 18.74 :)
Jemma has finally got her flyball dog certificate and she is currently on 480 points with Elliot on 910, however the points havn't been updated since daventy on may 23rd so I shall update once the points have been updated for the end of the season :)
Jemma was running again (yay!) and was back as start dog for the extraset :) Although she didn't run across to the wrong lane at all, she was looking at the othe lane quite a lot on the way up, however I shall let her off as we still managed to win all our races and finish first with a best time of 20.02 - the same as our seed time :)
Elliot was back on the Rockets and ran well, although I tried him with a second ball for the first two legs and although he seemed to be running for it he wasn't catching it, he was just jabbing it with his nose and so it was flying everywhere! I then went back to the tuggy but Nat said he was still coming back nicely which is good. I shall carry on working on the second ball but I think I shall now start dropping it from lower than I was before and continue working on it over the winter. My change overs were rubbish though, he seemed to be even worse at being unable to stand up straight whilst lining up and so It hink this was throwing me a bit when it came to releasing him, again I guess something to work on over the winter. Rockets ended up finishing 3rd with a best time of 18.74 :)
Jemma has finally got her flyball dog certificate and she is currently on 480 points with Elliot on 910, however the points havn't been updated since daventy on may 23rd so I shall update once the points have been updated for the end of the season :)
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Found some vids to post!!
I have just found some Agility videos that Lel gave me of my guys, hex and asher that I thought I would post :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXvxfLda4C8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKH6C4Hkdyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFIt08Pwgq0
Enjoy :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXvxfLda4C8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKH6C4Hkdyo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFIt08Pwgq0
Enjoy :)
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
BFA Champs
I thought I would do this as a separate post to stockbridge but if I don't do it now then it won't get done!!
This weekend was very disappointing for me as Jem, although well, had no energy due to her illness and so couldn't race :( Elliot therefore moved down to Extraset so Rosie could move down to Rockets and we didn't have to withdraw any teams!
The actual racing was brill though, extraset had tight racing all day and managed to win three races and finished third, I am not sure of our best times but it would be low 20.??? I think. I was most pleased with the fact I seem to have suddenly got the hang of changeovers and had so many that made us hold our breath but that weren't lights that it was scary but hey, I got no lights and therefore must have been bang on!! :D
I shall leave Nat to fill you all in on the rest of the weekends racing seeing as I wasn't there!!
Nothing now until Shackerstone in 3 weeks, so blog will be quite as I don't even have any training! :(
This weekend was very disappointing for me as Jem, although well, had no energy due to her illness and so couldn't race :( Elliot therefore moved down to Extraset so Rosie could move down to Rockets and we didn't have to withdraw any teams!
The actual racing was brill though, extraset had tight racing all day and managed to win three races and finished third, I am not sure of our best times but it would be low 20.??? I think. I was most pleased with the fact I seem to have suddenly got the hang of changeovers and had so many that made us hold our breath but that weren't lights that it was scary but hey, I got no lights and therefore must have been bang on!! :D
I shall leave Nat to fill you all in on the rest of the weekends racing seeing as I wasn't there!!
Nothing now until Shackerstone in 3 weeks, so blog will be quite as I don't even have any training! :(
Stockbridge
A very overdue post due to me waiting until I had managed to get the videos sorted!! However it does mean I can't really remember the ins and outs of the racing!!
First weekend
Both Extraset and Rockets came 5th. Because of the light system used here we managed to get times for all the dogs and Jemma had a fastest time of 4.430 with an average time of 4.546 and Elliot had a fastest time of 4.537 and an average time of 4.743 which shows just how much speedier Jem is, she is also much more consistent, however interestingly when I did singles with them on the Saturday Jem only managed a best time of 4.61 and Elliots best was 4.59 so she clearly races the other dogs more!!
Here are the video links for this weekend:
Extraset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNnH_Wgcja8
Rockets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeUCDIJ9ovE
Ballistics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad-zG-3gYFE
Pairs
On the Wednesday there was fancy dress pairs that involved the dogs going as a pair followed by us going over the jumps, drinking wine at the box and then coming back, one after the other and it was run in divisions - it was brill! We all had an amazing day despite it being rained off for an hour!! The ballistics managed to do well as a team with Mark & June (Smartie & Rosie) coming 2nd in their division, Mark & Carol (Fraggle!!!! & Luna) came 1st in their division and Nat & I (Asher & Elliot) also won our division!!!! Will definitely be doing it again next year!!!
The rest of the week just involved lots of drinking, dog walking, training the puppies etc and was a very welcome break!!!
Second Weekend
We took some videos of the missiles this weekend, the link is below. Sadly Jem had managed to eat something and given herself really bad sickness and diarrhoea so I had to pull her from racing! I ended up also pulling Elliot from racing so that the rockets and extraset could run together as one team and I could go home earlier as I was coming up to Nottingham rather than back to Bristol. He went down on the Ballisitics team sheet and did a couple of warm ups in the morning, I tried him with two balls but he didn't seem as fast - i took him to the singles lane later to try him again and compare times and I was right as he only managed a 4.9 something although he wasn't as fresh as he had been the weekend before and it was hot but I was still disappointed! The only thing I can think is that when I have his tuggy I call him all the way back but when I was using the two balls I wasn't so I will have to try the two balls but still calling!!
Missiles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9AChf5SNDg
So all in all a good week although I was disappointed not to be able to run the second weekend :(
First weekend
Both Extraset and Rockets came 5th. Because of the light system used here we managed to get times for all the dogs and Jemma had a fastest time of 4.430 with an average time of 4.546 and Elliot had a fastest time of 4.537 and an average time of 4.743 which shows just how much speedier Jem is, she is also much more consistent, however interestingly when I did singles with them on the Saturday Jem only managed a best time of 4.61 and Elliots best was 4.59 so she clearly races the other dogs more!!
Here are the video links for this weekend:
Extraset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNnH_Wgcja8
Rockets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeUCDIJ9ovE
Ballistics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad-zG-3gYFE
Pairs
On the Wednesday there was fancy dress pairs that involved the dogs going as a pair followed by us going over the jumps, drinking wine at the box and then coming back, one after the other and it was run in divisions - it was brill! We all had an amazing day despite it being rained off for an hour!! The ballistics managed to do well as a team with Mark & June (Smartie & Rosie) coming 2nd in their division, Mark & Carol (Fraggle!!!! & Luna) came 1st in their division and Nat & I (Asher & Elliot) also won our division!!!! Will definitely be doing it again next year!!!
The rest of the week just involved lots of drinking, dog walking, training the puppies etc and was a very welcome break!!!
Second Weekend
We took some videos of the missiles this weekend, the link is below. Sadly Jem had managed to eat something and given herself really bad sickness and diarrhoea so I had to pull her from racing! I ended up also pulling Elliot from racing so that the rockets and extraset could run together as one team and I could go home earlier as I was coming up to Nottingham rather than back to Bristol. He went down on the Ballisitics team sheet and did a couple of warm ups in the morning, I tried him with two balls but he didn't seem as fast - i took him to the singles lane later to try him again and compare times and I was right as he only managed a 4.9 something although he wasn't as fresh as he had been the weekend before and it was hot but I was still disappointed! The only thing I can think is that when I have his tuggy I call him all the way back but when I was using the two balls I wasn't so I will have to try the two balls but still calling!!
Missiles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9AChf5SNDg
So all in all a good week although I was disappointed not to be able to run the second weekend :(
Monday, 26 July 2010
Group training
Elliot
We were late (silly holiday traffic) and so I didn't get to walk the course quite as many times as I would have liked but we did OK, only got lost once!! His naughty contacts were back which was good because it meant I could correct him, Lel pointed out though that I have started treating them like I do Jems and running on etc. but he has only just started getting them 100% so I am basically still proofing them but I forgot this bit!! When we did the weaves at the end he was a good boy and did jump, 12 weaves first time with quite a big gap between them!!
Jemma
She was a pretty good girl, we still need to work on her independent contacts as when I ws going sideways she was stopping only half way down the see-saw. She also had a few poles down when I was rushing her but I corrected her and she was better second time. Now then, weaves, these caused us problems again but mainly because I kept pushing her past them, I really need to work on my positioning with them - Lel reckons I am more of the problem than Jem and so she is going to film me doing them so I can see what I am doing when it goes wrong!! Her A-frame contact was lovely though today :)
We were late (silly holiday traffic) and so I didn't get to walk the course quite as many times as I would have liked but we did OK, only got lost once!! His naughty contacts were back which was good because it meant I could correct him, Lel pointed out though that I have started treating them like I do Jems and running on etc. but he has only just started getting them 100% so I am basically still proofing them but I forgot this bit!! When we did the weaves at the end he was a good boy and did jump, 12 weaves first time with quite a big gap between them!!
Jemma
She was a pretty good girl, we still need to work on her independent contacts as when I ws going sideways she was stopping only half way down the see-saw. She also had a few poles down when I was rushing her but I corrected her and she was better second time. Now then, weaves, these caused us problems again but mainly because I kept pushing her past them, I really need to work on my positioning with them - Lel reckons I am more of the problem than Jem and so she is going to film me doing them so I can see what I am doing when it goes wrong!! Her A-frame contact was lovely though today :)
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Caerphilly - very good and very bad weekend!!!
SATURDAY
Combined 1-2 Agility
Jemma - She ran really nicely in this but her contacts felt a little slow, I think after her performance in her last agility I was worried she wouldn't stop but she did and she managed to do the six weaves (2nd obstacle) first time, but all in all she finished 4th, 0.856 seconds off the winner - I should have pushed her contacts but I was happy with her, and we have qualified for the First Contact Finals bless her
Elliot - he also managed the weaves but his contacts were a bit rubbish and he kept stopping on the ground just after the actual contact!! I then didn't work him across a box enough and he went back up the dog walk, oopsies!!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Jemma - she worked this really really nicely but as is typical for her she messed up the 12 weaves - she got them second time though!!
Elliot - I was very ginger with him in this round, I didn't really push it too much as I was worried he would have poles down but he did some AMAZINGLY tight wing wraps and tight corners!! Anyway, yay for Mr E - he won me a dragon and finished 2nd, 1.363 seconds behind the winner so I am glad I didn't push him as he probably would have had poles and I don't think we could have made up that time!!
Team Dash
Jemma - She went first and I cut across a corner too early so she ran inside a jump, she did the rest clear though :)
Elliot - He ran 3rd with Lel and bless him was a little bit hyper and he knocked quite a few poles!!
Graded 1-2 Agility
Elliot - Poor little boy didn't manage the 12 weaves (2nd obstacle) but he did the rest of the course really nicely, he just knocked a pole where I turned him in too tight on it and was then in his way, his contacts were much better though.
Jemma - Well I don't really know what to write about this round, everyone at the show heard about it far too much I am sure!! Jem flew round this course nice and clear and consequently I released her from the seesaw reasonably early and then powered her home over the last two jumps, sadly this meant she knocked the 2nd to last pole which in itself is just annoying because I know this happenes when I do this, however the reason that everyone heard about this round was because Jemmas time was 32.960 and the winner of Grade 2 did it in 35.217 - 2.257 seconds slower!!!!!!!! So we could now be grade 3 if I hadn't been stupid and pushed her - muppet!!!! Ironically though if we had still been grade one she would have come second as their winner did it in 31.225!!
SUNDAY
Combined 1-2 Agility
Jemma - What was wrong with her I don't know, she didn't manage her weaves first time (nothing unusual there!!) but then on the second and third attempt she was just being naughty so I downed her and then just sent her over the last two jumps (missing out a big chunk of the course) as she knows better, she can do weaves from a sit!!
Elliot - His contacts were really naughty (well not as bad as they used to be!) and he had no intention of stopping, he didn't jump though, just ran off them!! He didn't manage the 12 weaves either but did all the rest of the course nicely!!
Combined 1-4 Collie Sprint
I had decided with both dogs that I would just really power it round this course because it was a special class and so we wouldn't get points and as it was a 1-4 on just a big long run I knew we wouldn't stand much chance of a place so I just wanted to push them and see what happened!!
Elliot - He felt a bit slow in this but that was probably because I was running less distance than him and due to the pushing he knocked two poles, he was just over 2 seconds slower than the winner anyway and would have been just out of the placings so I am glad I pushed him as it gives me more of an idea of how much I can push him and the poles will stay up!!
Jemma - She ran really nicely in this bless her but she managed to knock the last pole - not aware it was because of anything I did but it was a shame as the judge had already started clapping when it fell!! She was over 3 seconds slower than the winner though bless her so it would have just been a clear round!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Jemma - She ran this beutifully, even managing the six weaves first time, but sadly as I crossed behind her on the jump after the weaves she turned to see where I was going and knocked the pole - the only fault of the round, I would have likeld to have compared her time to the winners but as this was the last class of the day we left instead, which may well have been a good thing knowing my luck!!
Elliot - Another round I feel bad about, because of what had happened with Jem I decided to front cross before the weaves, however I was not far enough over and as I turned to point him towards the weaves there in front of me was the tunnel - oopsies!! So Mr E went up the tunnel, back down it, then up it again and then down the side and finally into the weaves which he did really nicely and then we just hammered it home and all the poles stayed up :)
So all in all I was a little disappoint with what went wrong this weekend as it was either my fault or weaves most of the time! I don't mind too much about Jem's clumsy poles as she didn't mean to do that, but as for her weaves -ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I don't know what else we can do about them - I am sure Lel will have more ideas though (no pressure :P), the other things I want to work on after this weekend are back crosses and poles staying up when I am powering it :) I am a little sad too because this is my last agility weekend until 17th Sept!! :( We are at flyball for the next 3 weekends though :)
Combined 1-2 Agility
Jemma - She ran really nicely in this but her contacts felt a little slow, I think after her performance in her last agility I was worried she wouldn't stop but she did and she managed to do the six weaves (2nd obstacle) first time, but all in all she finished 4th, 0.856 seconds off the winner - I should have pushed her contacts but I was happy with her, and we have qualified for the First Contact Finals bless her
Elliot - he also managed the weaves but his contacts were a bit rubbish and he kept stopping on the ground just after the actual contact!! I then didn't work him across a box enough and he went back up the dog walk, oopsies!!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Jemma - she worked this really really nicely but as is typical for her she messed up the 12 weaves - she got them second time though!!
Elliot - I was very ginger with him in this round, I didn't really push it too much as I was worried he would have poles down but he did some AMAZINGLY tight wing wraps and tight corners!! Anyway, yay for Mr E - he won me a dragon and finished 2nd, 1.363 seconds behind the winner so I am glad I didn't push him as he probably would have had poles and I don't think we could have made up that time!!
Team Dash
Jemma - She went first and I cut across a corner too early so she ran inside a jump, she did the rest clear though :)
Elliot - He ran 3rd with Lel and bless him was a little bit hyper and he knocked quite a few poles!!
Graded 1-2 Agility
Elliot - Poor little boy didn't manage the 12 weaves (2nd obstacle) but he did the rest of the course really nicely, he just knocked a pole where I turned him in too tight on it and was then in his way, his contacts were much better though.
Jemma - Well I don't really know what to write about this round, everyone at the show heard about it far too much I am sure!! Jem flew round this course nice and clear and consequently I released her from the seesaw reasonably early and then powered her home over the last two jumps, sadly this meant she knocked the 2nd to last pole which in itself is just annoying because I know this happenes when I do this, however the reason that everyone heard about this round was because Jemmas time was 32.960 and the winner of Grade 2 did it in 35.217 - 2.257 seconds slower!!!!!!!! So we could now be grade 3 if I hadn't been stupid and pushed her - muppet!!!! Ironically though if we had still been grade one she would have come second as their winner did it in 31.225!!
SUNDAY
Combined 1-2 Agility
Jemma - What was wrong with her I don't know, she didn't manage her weaves first time (nothing unusual there!!) but then on the second and third attempt she was just being naughty so I downed her and then just sent her over the last two jumps (missing out a big chunk of the course) as she knows better, she can do weaves from a sit!!
Elliot - His contacts were really naughty (well not as bad as they used to be!) and he had no intention of stopping, he didn't jump though, just ran off them!! He didn't manage the 12 weaves either but did all the rest of the course nicely!!
Combined 1-4 Collie Sprint
I had decided with both dogs that I would just really power it round this course because it was a special class and so we wouldn't get points and as it was a 1-4 on just a big long run I knew we wouldn't stand much chance of a place so I just wanted to push them and see what happened!!
Elliot - He felt a bit slow in this but that was probably because I was running less distance than him and due to the pushing he knocked two poles, he was just over 2 seconds slower than the winner anyway and would have been just out of the placings so I am glad I pushed him as it gives me more of an idea of how much I can push him and the poles will stay up!!
Jemma - She ran really nicely in this bless her but she managed to knock the last pole - not aware it was because of anything I did but it was a shame as the judge had already started clapping when it fell!! She was over 3 seconds slower than the winner though bless her so it would have just been a clear round!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Jemma - She ran this beutifully, even managing the six weaves first time, but sadly as I crossed behind her on the jump after the weaves she turned to see where I was going and knocked the pole - the only fault of the round, I would have likeld to have compared her time to the winners but as this was the last class of the day we left instead, which may well have been a good thing knowing my luck!!
Elliot - Another round I feel bad about, because of what had happened with Jem I decided to front cross before the weaves, however I was not far enough over and as I turned to point him towards the weaves there in front of me was the tunnel - oopsies!! So Mr E went up the tunnel, back down it, then up it again and then down the side and finally into the weaves which he did really nicely and then we just hammered it home and all the poles stayed up :)
So all in all I was a little disappoint with what went wrong this weekend as it was either my fault or weaves most of the time! I don't mind too much about Jem's clumsy poles as she didn't mean to do that, but as for her weaves -ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I don't know what else we can do about them - I am sure Lel will have more ideas though (no pressure :P), the other things I want to work on after this weekend are back crosses and poles staying up when I am powering it :) I am a little sad too because this is my last agility weekend until 17th Sept!! :( We are at flyball for the next 3 weekends though :)
Thursday, 22 July 2010
Yet More Mummy Training
Yet again it was me that needed more training than the dogs!!! They both did some very nice work, Jem had some AMAZING a-frames but her dog walk and seesaw were a little bit slow and Mr E did some very nice jumping work - he is really starting to extend now which is lovely to watch (Lel did some work with him ready for her running him the team dash on Sat :) )./ Our pull throughs were much better today which is good :) I think I need to think more about where the dog is going to land (which is different for them both!!) and therefore work on my handling from here!! Mr E did some lovely 8 weaves, but when there were 12 he is struggling, sometimes he got the entrance, sometimes he didnt and then sometimes he would miss the second, third or fourth gap, was all very odd because when there were 8 he was fine!! Bless him, all very odd!! His contacts were good today, they are getting faster and he only wondered off the bottom of one of them!! I think that is it from today, good training all round - thanks Lel :)
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Training Mummy
Well both todays lessons consisted more of training me than the dogs!! I kept not getting in the right position, not doing the right thing, not saying the right thing etc. but by the end of the lessons I was much better :) I was also informed that I am improving in swaping between the two dogs as it used ot take me a long time to adjust to Elliot after running Jem but today it apparently only took me one run round the course :)
As for the dogs, they both did well today, contacts and weaves were looking good for both of them and I was happy with most of their jumping, we worked on getting Jem to bounce two jumps and she got it eventually, the biggest problem I had with both dogs today was a pull through but that is mainly my fault and not theirs!!!
Think that is it from today :)
As for the dogs, they both did well today, contacts and weaves were looking good for both of them and I was happy with most of their jumping, we worked on getting Jem to bounce two jumps and she got it eventually, the biggest problem I had with both dogs today was a pull through but that is mainly my fault and not theirs!!!
Think that is it from today :)
Chilterns
I can't believe Nat has blogged about the weekend before me!!!
Well this was the first time my two were on seperate teams which meant I got to run Elliot :)
Jem was in Extraset along with Jamie, Perry and Sonny, she did really well and ran all day, although our first two races were in red lane and when we then went into the blue lane she ran across to the red lanes box and came down their jumps!!! However I think this was because as I let her go there was some confusion in our lane so I probably wasn't looking where I was going and as Nat pointed out she wasn't being naughty because the other lane weren't warming up so she wasn't chasing anyone, she just got confused which lane we were in. When I let her go next time she veered towards red lane and then realised and came back to our lane (before the start gate) and was then fine when we actually started racing!! The team managed a best time of 20.16 and finished 4th :)
I also ran Sky on Sat in the Missiles and she ran well for me. The division was being filmed (we think for panorama) and they took a particular interest in Fraggle :)
Elliot was in Rockets along with Deifer, Smartie and Bunty. I was a bit worried about racing Elliot as I wanted him to run better for me than for other people but was really scared he wouldn't but I needn't have worried :) His box turns were however shockingly bad, the problem was that he just wasn't braking at all so was just throwing himself at it, later in the day when he was flagging slightly (I am working on his fitness) he did some better ones. He only had two legs all day where he coasted back, he is still not driving back but he tries more when I run him (I think this has something to do with the high pitched screaming which resulted in me having no voice on Monday!!) so all in all I was pleased with him. The rockets managed a best time of 19.00 and also finished 4th, loosing some races on speed and some on lights!!
I am now really working on improving both dogs fitness, but especially Elliot as he seems to tire more than Jem. I am also working on the two ball game with Elliot to try and get him driving back as the tuggy doesn't do it for him when he has a ball and he his getting good at this close up so I just need to keep working on the distance so we can start to use it at racing!!
Well this was the first time my two were on seperate teams which meant I got to run Elliot :)
Jem was in Extraset along with Jamie, Perry and Sonny, she did really well and ran all day, although our first two races were in red lane and when we then went into the blue lane she ran across to the red lanes box and came down their jumps!!! However I think this was because as I let her go there was some confusion in our lane so I probably wasn't looking where I was going and as Nat pointed out she wasn't being naughty because the other lane weren't warming up so she wasn't chasing anyone, she just got confused which lane we were in. When I let her go next time she veered towards red lane and then realised and came back to our lane (before the start gate) and was then fine when we actually started racing!! The team managed a best time of 20.16 and finished 4th :)
I also ran Sky on Sat in the Missiles and she ran well for me. The division was being filmed (we think for panorama) and they took a particular interest in Fraggle :)
Elliot was in Rockets along with Deifer, Smartie and Bunty. I was a bit worried about racing Elliot as I wanted him to run better for me than for other people but was really scared he wouldn't but I needn't have worried :) His box turns were however shockingly bad, the problem was that he just wasn't braking at all so was just throwing himself at it, later in the day when he was flagging slightly (I am working on his fitness) he did some better ones. He only had two legs all day where he coasted back, he is still not driving back but he tries more when I run him (I think this has something to do with the high pitched screaming which resulted in me having no voice on Monday!!) so all in all I was pleased with him. The rockets managed a best time of 19.00 and also finished 4th, loosing some races on speed and some on lights!!
I am now really working on improving both dogs fitness, but especially Elliot as he seems to tire more than Jem. I am also working on the two ball game with Elliot to try and get him driving back as the tuggy doesn't do it for him when he has a ball and he his getting good at this close up so I just need to keep working on the distance so we can start to use it at racing!!
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Training on Fri
I am getting really bad at this whole blogging thing!!
Mum came to watch my lesson on Friday as she hasn't seen Elliot being a good boy!!
Jem was a good girly, she got her weavies most of the time, just struggled with the jumps afterwards where she had to go out round one and jump it towards me and then jump one along side it away from me but there was a big gap between them, we tried this numerous times and eventually got it right, although I think it was mainly my fault but nevermind, this is normally the case!!!
Elliot was actually quite bad for him, he kept running off the bottom of the contacts (admittedly running off and not jumping off but still!!), he then decided he would stop half way down the aframe!! He also struggled with the 12 weaves but as this is the first time we have tried 12 in a course without any stopping or messing about I guess he was quite good bless him!!
Here are a few videos that mum took (sorry about the quality): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGAI8uhnTZg
Mum came to watch my lesson on Friday as she hasn't seen Elliot being a good boy!!
Jem was a good girly, she got her weavies most of the time, just struggled with the jumps afterwards where she had to go out round one and jump it towards me and then jump one along side it away from me but there was a big gap between them, we tried this numerous times and eventually got it right, although I think it was mainly my fault but nevermind, this is normally the case!!!
Elliot was actually quite bad for him, he kept running off the bottom of the contacts (admittedly running off and not jumping off but still!!), he then decided he would stop half way down the aframe!! He also struggled with the 12 weaves but as this is the first time we have tried 12 in a course without any stopping or messing about I guess he was quite good bless him!!
Here are a few videos that mum took (sorry about the quality): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGAI8uhnTZg
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Frimley Park - She did it!!!
Wow, what a day for the Extra Set - we only lost one of our five races and ended up winning the division with a best time of 20.24 :) The team were also pretty consistent throughout the day which was good, nice to see the dogs weren't flagging in the heat and we were keeping our change overs pretty good :) The highlight for me though was that Jem ran in the red lane all day!!!!! Jive was in in the first two legs in our first rave which was in the red lane but she seemed to be struggling a little and was double striding so we had to put Jem in - I was scared because on the warm up she had been really looking over, although she had ran up and back, but I neednt have worried, she was a star!! We only had a couple of wobbles where she looked at the other lane but they were more long glances rather than proper looks!! The only bad thing about this is that I didnt get to run Elliot at all - that pleasure was left to Carol - he was agood boy although still not powering back but maybe he would be better if I was running him, who knows?? Nat helped me with the "two ball game" and so I know where I am going with that to try and get him powering back :) Think that is it for now, all in all a good day for us, especially the Jembear :D Just realised I forgot to say Mr E did some very crazy box turns, his back feet on some of them were over the top of the box!!! He is still hanging on the box though, he takes far too long pushing off!!
Friday, 9 July 2010
I remembered again!!
Just a quick one froom yesterdays training :)
Jemma
She was a good girl, did some very nice fast contacts and stopped (on most of them!!), her weaves were loads better too when I got my position right and I think she is really starting to realise that she is not supposed to knock the poles :)
Elliot
We definately seem to be cracking the weaves and his contacts are already starting to get faster :) he did some nice jumping too, although we really need to get these lefts and rights sorted!!!
Off camping at my first flyball competition tonight, it should be a good weekend as its Nats birthday on Sat :)
Jemma
She was a good girl, did some very nice fast contacts and stopped (on most of them!!), her weaves were loads better too when I got my position right and I think she is really starting to realise that she is not supposed to knock the poles :)
Elliot
We definately seem to be cracking the weaves and his contacts are already starting to get faster :) he did some nice jumping too, although we really need to get these lefts and rights sorted!!!
Off camping at my first flyball competition tonight, it should be a good weekend as its Nats birthday on Sat :)
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Getting Good
I have remembered to update after a lesson, first time in a while!!!! :)
Jemma
We worked on reminding her what her contacts are after her appaling agility round on sunday - she proved that she did know all along really!! We spent a long time working on a wing wrap because despite doing some lovely ones at the weekend she was being a bit dense tonight!! And the thing we worked most on was WEAVES!!! Mainly on me not being an idiot and she only got them wrong twice all night, once when I front crossed before them and tripped her up and the other time when I back crossed by doing a crazy 90 degree angle thing, rather than 45 degress, so yup, yet again me messing them up!! I then worked on running along side her as she does them to encourage her she is doing them right and start getting me doing it right too and worked well :) It will be interesting to see if I manage to do this first time in thursdays lesson!!
Elliot
Lels comment for the night which sums up the lesson nicely I think "I hate to tell you this but your dog is getting rather good"!! First time round the course and he flew round, got all the contacts very nicely and got the weaves first time :) We worked a bit on his jumping, but mainly on his contacts and weaves, we worked on some really tricky weave angles with 8 weaves and with me crossing behind, something I have not yet been confident to do and he only missed them when I wasn't firm enough with my command and consequently he didn't brake hard enough (yup, me yet again!!) but all in all weaves in courses are coming on much much better, it is very exciting!!!!
Jemma
We worked on reminding her what her contacts are after her appaling agility round on sunday - she proved that she did know all along really!! We spent a long time working on a wing wrap because despite doing some lovely ones at the weekend she was being a bit dense tonight!! And the thing we worked most on was WEAVES!!! Mainly on me not being an idiot and she only got them wrong twice all night, once when I front crossed before them and tripped her up and the other time when I back crossed by doing a crazy 90 degree angle thing, rather than 45 degress, so yup, yet again me messing them up!! I then worked on running along side her as she does them to encourage her she is doing them right and start getting me doing it right too and worked well :) It will be interesting to see if I manage to do this first time in thursdays lesson!!
Elliot
Lels comment for the night which sums up the lesson nicely I think "I hate to tell you this but your dog is getting rather good"!! First time round the course and he flew round, got all the contacts very nicely and got the weaves first time :) We worked a bit on his jumping, but mainly on his contacts and weaves, we worked on some really tricky weave angles with 8 weaves and with me crossing behind, something I have not yet been confident to do and he only missed them when I wasn't firm enough with my command and consequently he didn't brake hard enough (yup, me yet again!!) but all in all weaves in courses are coming on much much better, it is very exciting!!!!
Monday, 5 July 2010
Tuffley - Last one at Grade One!!!
SATURDAY
Jemma
I decided not to write about each of this days runs seperately as the same thing happened in each run - she went clear apart from ........... the weaves!!!! How frustrating!!! However, it was pointed out to me that I was being an idiot and confusing her - twice she got the entrance and I just stood there watching her and not going with her and consequently she came out after the third pole and turned to look at me as if to say "am I doing right and going the right way mummy?", the third set she did miss the entrance. Why I did this I don't know but I think it was because I didn't think she would get them and so was getting ready to call her back to start again!! I was determined to do better for her on Sunday as she was trying her hardest, and I was being an idiot and looking at times yet again I think I lost her a top place in the agility!!
Elliot
Combined 1-2 Agility
Wow do we know what contacts are!!! I absolutely loved this round as he went to the bottom of every single contact and just stood there until I said go and I held them quite a while - I think he finally gets it :) This may well be why he got them in the group lesson despite being excited, simply because he gets it!! There were 12 weaves in this class though and he didn't manage them first time and second time came out after 10 so I just popped him back through the last wo so he knew he had done wrong and then carried on
Combined 1-4 Jumping
When I finished this course Lel heard me two rings down!!! Ooopsies!!! Needless to say he went clear AND he did 6 weaves first time with no stopping, calling back or anything, just straight round the corner and into the weaves, and it wasn't a straight angle!! He finished 28th though 3.221 seconds behind the winner - we definately need to work on his jumping style bless him but I didnt mind, he did 6 weaves straight off :)
Grade 1 Jumping
This course had 12 weaves in and this was the only thing he got wrong from what I remember, the one thing I do remember about this course that both him and Jemma did the most amazing wing wrap ever, they had to do a straight line of four jumps and then wing wrap the last to go back up the line and they both wrapped the wing sooooo tight!!! :)
SUNDAY
Jemma
Combined 1-2 Jumping
Yay, a clear :D Sadly for Jem this course just involved four lines of jumps up and down and no weaves so it wasn't very speedy because I wanted a clear and if I had rushed her she was likely to knock a pole, had she had other clears I would have probably tried to push this and seen what happened but I needed at least one rossette for her!! Because of the course she sadly broke my record and ended up with just a clear round, 2.748 seconds behind the winner.
Combined 1-3 Agility
Yay, another clear round for bear :) aaaaaand this course had 12 weaves in :) I worked them just like I do in training and they had a seesaw before them which I held her on, I also held her on her other contacts and so yet again bless her she finished with just a clear round but I was really pleased with the weaves for two reasons, the obvious that she actually managed to do them but also because I worked them properly!!
Grade 1 Agility
What she thought she was doing in this course I don't know, she was like I have never seen her before, maybe she thought she would make the most of her last run at Grade One but she missed both the a-frame and dog walk contacts and just flew on from the seesaw despite me working them as normal and giving her an early stop command!! The judge didn't fault her dog-walk although I assumed he had and by the time we got to the a-frame I had had enough and so put her back on it and held her on it (am very glad he had faulted us for this one otherwise I would have been VERY annoyed!!) She then didn't manage to get the weaves so I just downed her before sending her over the last two jumps (not that she seemed to mind!!)!!
Elliot
Combined 1-2 Jumping
What a nice round from Mr E, stupidly though I spoke to him before he had landed over the last jump and he turned to look at me and dropped his legs knocking the pole - stupid mummy!! Even the judge had started clapping!!! I had to check his time and he would have finished 8th with a time 1.792 seconds faster than Jem!!
Combined 1-3 Agility
Lovely contacts in this as well, although after holding his seesaw for what he thought was too long he decided it was time to do the weaves, sadly because there were 12 he didn't manage them first time and then he popped out one before the end so again I put him through the last gap and then carried on and held him on the dog walk and aframe and for both of these he didn't go until I said :)
Grade 1 Agility
I was bad in this one and said go a little bit before he was at the bottom, especially on the a-frame but he was flying round (after having a little dance infront of the tunnel because he didn't drive on to it as much as I expected) and he then did three jumps after the a frame and then yet again went straight in to 6 weaves and did them perfectly :D Sadly he did the jump after the weaves but then saw the lead bucket slightly off to the right and the last jump was slightly off to the left and I wasn't far enough towards the end to push him over and he went and got his lead running round the last jump!!! Lel said even the judge looked gutted for me!! This is something we shall now be working on in the field, the toy will no longer be in my pocket when we run, it will be on the floor and he will not be playing with it until I say!!
I was so pleased with Elliots weaves this weekend, it looks like we need to spend more time on 12 now than we do entrances, or maybe it is entrances with 12 that we need to do!! His contacts are still slow but they are getting more and more perfect each day :D I feel bad for Jem as I really let her down on Sat but hey that is it for us at grade one so hopefully she is just saving her win for grade 2, we shall see :)
Jemma
I decided not to write about each of this days runs seperately as the same thing happened in each run - she went clear apart from ........... the weaves!!!! How frustrating!!! However, it was pointed out to me that I was being an idiot and confusing her - twice she got the entrance and I just stood there watching her and not going with her and consequently she came out after the third pole and turned to look at me as if to say "am I doing right and going the right way mummy?", the third set she did miss the entrance. Why I did this I don't know but I think it was because I didn't think she would get them and so was getting ready to call her back to start again!! I was determined to do better for her on Sunday as she was trying her hardest, and I was being an idiot and looking at times yet again I think I lost her a top place in the agility!!
Elliot
Combined 1-2 Agility
Wow do we know what contacts are!!! I absolutely loved this round as he went to the bottom of every single contact and just stood there until I said go and I held them quite a while - I think he finally gets it :) This may well be why he got them in the group lesson despite being excited, simply because he gets it!! There were 12 weaves in this class though and he didn't manage them first time and second time came out after 10 so I just popped him back through the last wo so he knew he had done wrong and then carried on
Combined 1-4 Jumping
When I finished this course Lel heard me two rings down!!! Ooopsies!!! Needless to say he went clear AND he did 6 weaves first time with no stopping, calling back or anything, just straight round the corner and into the weaves, and it wasn't a straight angle!! He finished 28th though 3.221 seconds behind the winner - we definately need to work on his jumping style bless him but I didnt mind, he did 6 weaves straight off :)
Grade 1 Jumping
This course had 12 weaves in and this was the only thing he got wrong from what I remember, the one thing I do remember about this course that both him and Jemma did the most amazing wing wrap ever, they had to do a straight line of four jumps and then wing wrap the last to go back up the line and they both wrapped the wing sooooo tight!!! :)
SUNDAY
Jemma
Combined 1-2 Jumping
Yay, a clear :D Sadly for Jem this course just involved four lines of jumps up and down and no weaves so it wasn't very speedy because I wanted a clear and if I had rushed her she was likely to knock a pole, had she had other clears I would have probably tried to push this and seen what happened but I needed at least one rossette for her!! Because of the course she sadly broke my record and ended up with just a clear round, 2.748 seconds behind the winner.
Combined 1-3 Agility
Yay, another clear round for bear :) aaaaaand this course had 12 weaves in :) I worked them just like I do in training and they had a seesaw before them which I held her on, I also held her on her other contacts and so yet again bless her she finished with just a clear round but I was really pleased with the weaves for two reasons, the obvious that she actually managed to do them but also because I worked them properly!!
Grade 1 Agility
What she thought she was doing in this course I don't know, she was like I have never seen her before, maybe she thought she would make the most of her last run at Grade One but she missed both the a-frame and dog walk contacts and just flew on from the seesaw despite me working them as normal and giving her an early stop command!! The judge didn't fault her dog-walk although I assumed he had and by the time we got to the a-frame I had had enough and so put her back on it and held her on it (am very glad he had faulted us for this one otherwise I would have been VERY annoyed!!) She then didn't manage to get the weaves so I just downed her before sending her over the last two jumps (not that she seemed to mind!!)!!
Elliot
Combined 1-2 Jumping
What a nice round from Mr E, stupidly though I spoke to him before he had landed over the last jump and he turned to look at me and dropped his legs knocking the pole - stupid mummy!! Even the judge had started clapping!!! I had to check his time and he would have finished 8th with a time 1.792 seconds faster than Jem!!
Combined 1-3 Agility
Lovely contacts in this as well, although after holding his seesaw for what he thought was too long he decided it was time to do the weaves, sadly because there were 12 he didn't manage them first time and then he popped out one before the end so again I put him through the last gap and then carried on and held him on the dog walk and aframe and for both of these he didn't go until I said :)
Grade 1 Agility
I was bad in this one and said go a little bit before he was at the bottom, especially on the a-frame but he was flying round (after having a little dance infront of the tunnel because he didn't drive on to it as much as I expected) and he then did three jumps after the a frame and then yet again went straight in to 6 weaves and did them perfectly :D Sadly he did the jump after the weaves but then saw the lead bucket slightly off to the right and the last jump was slightly off to the left and I wasn't far enough towards the end to push him over and he went and got his lead running round the last jump!!! Lel said even the judge looked gutted for me!! This is something we shall now be working on in the field, the toy will no longer be in my pocket when we run, it will be on the floor and he will not be playing with it until I say!!
I was so pleased with Elliots weaves this weekend, it looks like we need to spend more time on 12 now than we do entrances, or maybe it is entrances with 12 that we need to do!! His contacts are still slow but they are getting more and more perfect each day :D I feel bad for Jem as I really let her down on Sat but hey that is it for us at grade one so hopefully she is just saving her win for grade 2, we shall see :)
Training
Last week was a bit mental so I didn't have time to do write up my lessons - I think it is because both lessons are now evenings and by the time I get home, cook and eat tea and tidy up after the day I don't have time!!
I shall just do a quick recap of what I can remember of training last week so I don't miss them out completely!!
Monday
This was our first group session at A-Sit and I had Elliot in the first class and Jem in the second. Well, I ran Elliot first because I thought he would mess the course up and it would put everyone else at ease, he however had other ideas and ended up doing the whole agility course - including 6 weaves clear first time!!!! The course started jump weave and he got them without any messing about and his contacts were very nice. We then spent the lesson tightening up bits of the course to save some seconds. He wasn't nearly as wound up as I expected him to be in the group lesson and he only ran off one contact and only struggled with the weaves a couple of times!! Very proud mummy! :)
Jem had a harder course to do and she was bad with her weavies first time and knocked a pole, however I was very pleased with myself as it turned out I had walked and consequently ran the course the best way first time - this is something I have been noticing recently, I have been getting much better - when I do get Lel to check how I have walked a course in competition it is getting rarer that she has to correct what I am doing :) We spent the rest of the lesson tightening things up again and I think she finished nicely, just knocking a pole (again!)!!!
Thursday
We worked on Jems weaves (AGAIN!!) and she was getting better (I think!), I can't really remember much else of her lesson which means there was nothing amazing great she managed to do, but nothing appaling either bless her :)
With Mr E we worked on weave entrances again and managed to get him to do 3 jumps (in a star) before them and he got them twice with a nicely early command before the jump before the weaves :) I also remember he did some very nice seesaws and we finished doing some long straight jumping to try and get him extending better
I shall just do a quick recap of what I can remember of training last week so I don't miss them out completely!!
Monday
This was our first group session at A-Sit and I had Elliot in the first class and Jem in the second. Well, I ran Elliot first because I thought he would mess the course up and it would put everyone else at ease, he however had other ideas and ended up doing the whole agility course - including 6 weaves clear first time!!!! The course started jump weave and he got them without any messing about and his contacts were very nice. We then spent the lesson tightening up bits of the course to save some seconds. He wasn't nearly as wound up as I expected him to be in the group lesson and he only ran off one contact and only struggled with the weaves a couple of times!! Very proud mummy! :)
Jem had a harder course to do and she was bad with her weavies first time and knocked a pole, however I was very pleased with myself as it turned out I had walked and consequently ran the course the best way first time - this is something I have been noticing recently, I have been getting much better - when I do get Lel to check how I have walked a course in competition it is getting rarer that she has to correct what I am doing :) We spent the rest of the lesson tightening things up again and I think she finished nicely, just knocking a pole (again!)!!!
Thursday
We worked on Jems weaves (AGAIN!!) and she was getting better (I think!), I can't really remember much else of her lesson which means there was nothing amazing great she managed to do, but nothing appaling either bless her :)
With Mr E we worked on weave entrances again and managed to get him to do 3 jumps (in a star) before them and he got them twice with a nicely early command before the jump before the weaves :) I also remember he did some very nice seesaws and we finished doing some long straight jumping to try and get him extending better
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Lansdown - Idiot Mummy Day!!
Elliot
Graded 1-2 Agility
Wow, what lovely contacts!! He was very creepy but he stopped at the bottom of all of them, including the seesaw and didn't budge until I told him to go :) I managed to get him a refusal though as I tightened him up on a bit that didn't need tightening and so he came inside the jump, I then stupidly sent him the wrong way after the seesaw so instead of having one jump then 6 weaves I did four jumps then weaves so needless to say he didnt get them first time, second time he did a beautiful set though :) So, first run of the day and I was annoyed at myself as I messed it up twice for him :(
Team
He was VERY wound up by this and he was last, Lel was running him though and the course was really tricky so she just did two jumps and a-frame as we had already spectacularly eliminated ourselves and he ran to the bottom of the a-frame but didn't stop so lel put him back on and then left as she didn't want to break his contacts!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
He made a very baby mistake and ran under the second jump which was on a short stride and before a tunnel. He did it second time though and did the rest of the course nicely, he just knocked a few poles because I messed up the handling (again!!)!!
Jemma
Graded 1-2 Agility
Now this run left me feeling like an idiot and very annoyed with myself all day and still now!! She was flying round, beautiful contacts and really tight turns (confirmed by lel) and then I did the one thing I specifically wrote on Friday that I wouldn't do and I said weave instead of steady and so she missed the second pole, to say I was gutted would be an understatement as I think she would have really stood a chance in that looking at the winners time, what an idiot!! Hopefully though it is enough of a lesson that I won't do it again!!
Team
We went third and she was well and truly wound up and so needless to say didn't get the second weave pole despite me saying steady this time!! The rest of the course didn't go too badly for saying how difficult it was, however I kept forgetting how I had walked it and doing back crosses because I forgot my front crosses, the best one being when I crossed behind the a-frame and jem looked round to check where I was as she was coming over the top and then got very confused as I wasn't where she expected to see me but then I called her, and then she looked so shocked to see where I was bless her, she then trundled happily to the bottom of the contact though :) She then had a little mishap and went out the ring behind a banner (which a lot of dogs had done), however jem managed to get tangled up in all the equipment behind it bless her!!! She did some very nice lefts and rights though :)
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Yay, our one clear round of the weekend :) She finished 8th with a time of 20.482, 1.698 seconds behind the winner, she is never going to do that well in jumping because I cannot get her to really power on because then she knocks poles, so in this course for example on the last line of jumps I couldn't really power it with her, but hey we got our one rosette for the weekend :D
Graded 1-2 Agility
Wow, what lovely contacts!! He was very creepy but he stopped at the bottom of all of them, including the seesaw and didn't budge until I told him to go :) I managed to get him a refusal though as I tightened him up on a bit that didn't need tightening and so he came inside the jump, I then stupidly sent him the wrong way after the seesaw so instead of having one jump then 6 weaves I did four jumps then weaves so needless to say he didnt get them first time, second time he did a beautiful set though :) So, first run of the day and I was annoyed at myself as I messed it up twice for him :(
Team
He was VERY wound up by this and he was last, Lel was running him though and the course was really tricky so she just did two jumps and a-frame as we had already spectacularly eliminated ourselves and he ran to the bottom of the a-frame but didn't stop so lel put him back on and then left as she didn't want to break his contacts!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
He made a very baby mistake and ran under the second jump which was on a short stride and before a tunnel. He did it second time though and did the rest of the course nicely, he just knocked a few poles because I messed up the handling (again!!)!!
Jemma
Graded 1-2 Agility
Now this run left me feeling like an idiot and very annoyed with myself all day and still now!! She was flying round, beautiful contacts and really tight turns (confirmed by lel) and then I did the one thing I specifically wrote on Friday that I wouldn't do and I said weave instead of steady and so she missed the second pole, to say I was gutted would be an understatement as I think she would have really stood a chance in that looking at the winners time, what an idiot!! Hopefully though it is enough of a lesson that I won't do it again!!
Team
We went third and she was well and truly wound up and so needless to say didn't get the second weave pole despite me saying steady this time!! The rest of the course didn't go too badly for saying how difficult it was, however I kept forgetting how I had walked it and doing back crosses because I forgot my front crosses, the best one being when I crossed behind the a-frame and jem looked round to check where I was as she was coming over the top and then got very confused as I wasn't where she expected to see me but then I called her, and then she looked so shocked to see where I was bless her, she then trundled happily to the bottom of the contact though :) She then had a little mishap and went out the ring behind a banner (which a lot of dogs had done), however jem managed to get tangled up in all the equipment behind it bless her!!! She did some very nice lefts and rights though :)
Graded 1-2 Jumping
Yay, our one clear round of the weekend :) She finished 8th with a time of 20.482, 1.698 seconds behind the winner, she is never going to do that well in jumping because I cannot get her to really power on because then she knocks poles, so in this course for example on the last line of jumps I couldn't really power it with her, but hey we got our one rosette for the weekend :D
Friday, 25 June 2010
Bad blogger
I seem to have turned into a bad blogger when it comes to rambling about my lessons!!
Jemma
We have spent both lessons this week working on tightening her turns up, with a very nice effect I must say :) Weaves have also been looked at and have also been improving, I have completely scrapped the command "weave" now and just use "steady" because it was well and truly proved today that weave doesn't work but steady does!! We also worked on her contacts, making sure she is stopping at the bottom when I run on ahead of her and then stop as she was stopping just above the bottom, she was much better by the end of the lesson :) All in all a good week for her so fingers crossed for tomorrow!!
Elliot
His weaves seem to be back, he struggled a bit with 12 on tues when the middle was in shadow but we managed a nice set to finish on :) His contacts are pretty damn good now, he still pops off occassionally or stops just above the bottom but hey, they are better than before, I think we may need to go back a little bit over the winter to reinforce the position to improve it for next season but for now hey I can do a full agility course with him so who cares!! :) Today we tried putting six weaves after some jumps and we had probably an 80% success rate when it was just two jumps into the weaves, but when we tried adding a little course of jumps before them he wasn't breaking enough to get back in the second gap, I think more work is need on where I command him and where I stand as this seemed to be affecting him quite a lot. We also worked on having a second set of weaves at a 45 degree angle after the first (with a gap between) and he was pretty good at getting these, after an initially period of being a bit confused and checking back a lot and so missing a pole!! Again all in all a good week for him too, looking forward to tomorrow - lel had a practise with him tues night in case she has to run him in the team tomorrow, it could be very amusing!!
Jemma
We have spent both lessons this week working on tightening her turns up, with a very nice effect I must say :) Weaves have also been looked at and have also been improving, I have completely scrapped the command "weave" now and just use "steady" because it was well and truly proved today that weave doesn't work but steady does!! We also worked on her contacts, making sure she is stopping at the bottom when I run on ahead of her and then stop as she was stopping just above the bottom, she was much better by the end of the lesson :) All in all a good week for her so fingers crossed for tomorrow!!
Elliot
His weaves seem to be back, he struggled a bit with 12 on tues when the middle was in shadow but we managed a nice set to finish on :) His contacts are pretty damn good now, he still pops off occassionally or stops just above the bottom but hey, they are better than before, I think we may need to go back a little bit over the winter to reinforce the position to improve it for next season but for now hey I can do a full agility course with him so who cares!! :) Today we tried putting six weaves after some jumps and we had probably an 80% success rate when it was just two jumps into the weaves, but when we tried adding a little course of jumps before them he wasn't breaking enough to get back in the second gap, I think more work is need on where I command him and where I stand as this seemed to be affecting him quite a lot. We also worked on having a second set of weaves at a 45 degree angle after the first (with a gap between) and he was pretty good at getting these, after an initially period of being a bit confused and checking back a lot and so missing a pole!! Again all in all a good week for him too, looking forward to tomorrow - lel had a practise with him tues night in case she has to run him in the team tomorrow, it could be very amusing!!
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Training and Golden Valley
This is gona be a long one I think!! There will be vids of some of the runs to follow when I get them :)
At training on Friday they both did a lot better than on tuesday, jem did some really lovely contacts and weaves, as did ellliot, he managed 12 weaves again and 6 with entrances :) We started teaching Ellito wing wraps and Jem an out command too and I was really pleased with both of them by the end of the lesson :)
Golden Valley - Saturday
Jemma
Agility
Very nice a-frame, I ran away from the dog walk and so she stopped just above the contact and just looked at me so I had to go back towards her to get her to go to the bottom!! She did a very nice see saw though :) I then let her down because I umm and ahhed about whether to say weave or steady and consequently said nothing and she she missed the entrance, foolish mummy!!
Pairs
She was paired with Jo's spaniel Fluke who did a very nice clear round, but then jem decided she wanted to do the medium jump straight on after the tunnel and not come right to me to do the larg jumps, the rest was really nice although she did knock one pole but I think this was beacuse I was being lazy with my handling!!
Jumping
This was a really beautiful round (despite us turning up just as they were about to close the class) however the weaves were set at a 45degree angle and I went to straighten her up but over did it and so pushed her wide :(
Agility
I can't really remember this course, but I have a feeling she knocked a pole and then didn't do the weaves!
Elliot
Agility
He ran under the first jump and so I took him back and started again, he then ran off the aframe because there was a tunnel after it but I put him back and he waited nicely, the judge was then very kind and said I could continue but could not put him back on any more contacts, thankfully his dog walk was amazing, he stopped and properly waited, despite there being a tunnel after it (albeit one he wasn't supposed to do) and his seesaw was good too, he didn't do waiting but he went when I said go, which was early because I knew I couldn't put him back! He then struggled with the 12 weaves but got his entrance so I just did the last 3 jumps :)
Pairs
He was paired with Charlie, a BC that Jo runs, and he ended up doing the same thing as Jemma but luckily Charlie hadn't gone clear either!! I had to do wing wraps with him which were really nice (the training on fri paid off!)
Jumping
He knocked pole two but the rest of the round was really nice, apart from the 12 weaves again but I carried on anyway and he finished the course REALLY nicely!!
Agility
From what I can remember (for some reason this course is very hazy!!) he missed the aframe and so I put him back and then on the dog walk a bike decided to go up the side of the ring which he saw so he stopped just above the bottom, when I then tried to encourage him down he lay down but eventually we got there :) He also didn't manage the weaves
Golden Valley - Sunday
Jemma
Agility
I can't really remember this course, I think she knocked a pole early on as I vaguely remember working the contacts, she got her weaves too, first time so we just powered it over the last 3 jumps so she knocked one but I jsut wanted to reward her for doing the weaves :)
Jumping - Combined
Yay, a clear round for the jembe, she even managed a 45degree angle weave entrance and 8 weaves with just a steady command :D and she finished 5th, with a time of 21.764, 1.594 seconds slower than the winner, not bad for jumping for jem :)
Jumping - Graded
Yet another course that she did REALLY nicely but didn't manage the 12 weaves that were the second obstacle!!
Elliot
Agility
He had AMAZING contacts in this course (there was no seesaw) and he properly stopped and just stood there until I said go, it was great!!! He then managed 8 weaves first time with me just calling him back from them and sending him again (ie without actually sitting him) :D
Jumping - Combined
Yet again it was the weaves that caused us problems bless him, the rest was very nice though.
Jumping - Graded
Yup, you guessed it, the weaves caused us problems and he did knock a couple of poles.
So all in all, although we only came home with one rosette it wasn't all bad, and the thing that caused both dogs the most problems was those pesky weaves which is so frustrating as Jem can do them much better in training!!! Elliot on the other hand was let off his weave problems this weekend, especially as his contacts were MUCH better! Lets hope one day Jem manages to sort out those weaves!!!
At training on Friday they both did a lot better than on tuesday, jem did some really lovely contacts and weaves, as did ellliot, he managed 12 weaves again and 6 with entrances :) We started teaching Ellito wing wraps and Jem an out command too and I was really pleased with both of them by the end of the lesson :)
Golden Valley - Saturday
Jemma
Agility
Very nice a-frame, I ran away from the dog walk and so she stopped just above the contact and just looked at me so I had to go back towards her to get her to go to the bottom!! She did a very nice see saw though :) I then let her down because I umm and ahhed about whether to say weave or steady and consequently said nothing and she she missed the entrance, foolish mummy!!
Pairs
She was paired with Jo's spaniel Fluke who did a very nice clear round, but then jem decided she wanted to do the medium jump straight on after the tunnel and not come right to me to do the larg jumps, the rest was really nice although she did knock one pole but I think this was beacuse I was being lazy with my handling!!
Jumping
This was a really beautiful round (despite us turning up just as they were about to close the class) however the weaves were set at a 45degree angle and I went to straighten her up but over did it and so pushed her wide :(
Agility
I can't really remember this course, but I have a feeling she knocked a pole and then didn't do the weaves!
Elliot
Agility
He ran under the first jump and so I took him back and started again, he then ran off the aframe because there was a tunnel after it but I put him back and he waited nicely, the judge was then very kind and said I could continue but could not put him back on any more contacts, thankfully his dog walk was amazing, he stopped and properly waited, despite there being a tunnel after it (albeit one he wasn't supposed to do) and his seesaw was good too, he didn't do waiting but he went when I said go, which was early because I knew I couldn't put him back! He then struggled with the 12 weaves but got his entrance so I just did the last 3 jumps :)
Pairs
He was paired with Charlie, a BC that Jo runs, and he ended up doing the same thing as Jemma but luckily Charlie hadn't gone clear either!! I had to do wing wraps with him which were really nice (the training on fri paid off!)
Jumping
He knocked pole two but the rest of the round was really nice, apart from the 12 weaves again but I carried on anyway and he finished the course REALLY nicely!!
Agility
From what I can remember (for some reason this course is very hazy!!) he missed the aframe and so I put him back and then on the dog walk a bike decided to go up the side of the ring which he saw so he stopped just above the bottom, when I then tried to encourage him down he lay down but eventually we got there :) He also didn't manage the weaves
Golden Valley - Sunday
Jemma
Agility
I can't really remember this course, I think she knocked a pole early on as I vaguely remember working the contacts, she got her weaves too, first time so we just powered it over the last 3 jumps so she knocked one but I jsut wanted to reward her for doing the weaves :)
Jumping - Combined
Yay, a clear round for the jembe, she even managed a 45degree angle weave entrance and 8 weaves with just a steady command :D and she finished 5th, with a time of 21.764, 1.594 seconds slower than the winner, not bad for jumping for jem :)
Jumping - Graded
Yet another course that she did REALLY nicely but didn't manage the 12 weaves that were the second obstacle!!
Elliot
Agility
He had AMAZING contacts in this course (there was no seesaw) and he properly stopped and just stood there until I said go, it was great!!! He then managed 8 weaves first time with me just calling him back from them and sending him again (ie without actually sitting him) :D
Jumping - Combined
Yet again it was the weaves that caused us problems bless him, the rest was very nice though.
Jumping - Graded
Yup, you guessed it, the weaves caused us problems and he did knock a couple of poles.
So all in all, although we only came home with one rosette it wasn't all bad, and the thing that caused both dogs the most problems was those pesky weaves which is so frustrating as Jem can do them much better in training!!! Elliot on the other hand was let off his weave problems this weekend, especially as his contacts were MUCH better! Lets hope one day Jem manages to sort out those weaves!!!
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Agility on Phenobarb
Jemma
She was a good girl today although her dog walks have slowed up a little, shall have to sort that out, although we never have that problem in competition!! Weaves were good when I managed to get myself in the right place for her coming out the tunnel!She didnt knock many poles today and she was doing some pretty nice turns although she seems to be getting her lefts and rights mixed up so need to remind her of them again!! All in all a good lesson from her with help from Gail :)
Elliot
Sadly he had to go on phenobarbitone yesterday for his fits as they had got to be every month :( He was fine in general but he really struggled with the weaves to start with this lesson, he kept missing the entrance when we were just doing them by themselves. He was determined that he needed to go in the second gap but we worked on it and after a few goes he got his weaves back :) we worked on six with a jump and then two jumps before and he managed them really nicely with only one mistake when I was in the wrong place! His jumping was really nice, but he really does land long, I think we need to work on his tighter turns and wing wraps as he went was doing back jumping again! His contacts were OK but not great, he kept stopping with his feet just on the end of the dog walk/see saw and not on the ground and he went off the bottom a couple of times before I said, more work needed again :) All in all a good lesson with him too, thanks Gail :D
She was a good girl today although her dog walks have slowed up a little, shall have to sort that out, although we never have that problem in competition!! Weaves were good when I managed to get myself in the right place for her coming out the tunnel!She didnt knock many poles today and she was doing some pretty nice turns although she seems to be getting her lefts and rights mixed up so need to remind her of them again!! All in all a good lesson from her with help from Gail :)
Elliot
Sadly he had to go on phenobarbitone yesterday for his fits as they had got to be every month :( He was fine in general but he really struggled with the weaves to start with this lesson, he kept missing the entrance when we were just doing them by themselves. He was determined that he needed to go in the second gap but we worked on it and after a few goes he got his weaves back :) we worked on six with a jump and then two jumps before and he managed them really nicely with only one mistake when I was in the wrong place! His jumping was really nice, but he really does land long, I think we need to work on his tighter turns and wing wraps as he went was doing back jumping again! His contacts were OK but not great, he kept stopping with his feet just on the end of the dog walk/see saw and not on the ground and he went off the bottom a couple of times before I said, more work needed again :) All in all a good lesson with him too, thanks Gail :D
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Thames Day 2 - not so good
Hmm, the keeping the posts short thing didnt really work, sorry about that!!
Jemma
Graded 1-2 Agility
Doh - mummy set her up a long way back and so she knocked the first pole :( She then didn't weave first time and it took 4 attempts to get her too - she was after sniffing something on the ground!! I worked her contacts - she stopped just off the dog walk and then stretched her back feet back to get it right!!! Her a-frame was good but I think she went before I said go and he stopped just off the seesaw!! What a shambles!!
Combined 1-2 Jumping Part 1
Another beautiful round messed up by mummy - the cloth tunnel, second from the end wasn't straight to the last jump but I didn't realise this and so just said go and so she nearly ran past it so I paniced and then ended up sending her round and round instead of sticking my arm out or giving her a left command!! - lel got a video of this course so I can get annoyed at myselft when watching it - she was 2.355 seconds behind the winner though and finished 11th - I shall see how much better I could have done had I not been a numpty!! Lel said the person next to her when she was filming was commenting on how amazing her weaves were - two complements in one weekend, they must be improving!!
Combined 1-4 Jumping Part 2
Uft, silly mummy AGAIN!! I forgot to do my second front cross at the beginning and so had to cross behind and play catch up - however she did a really nice and long go on :) I then crossed behind her when she was in the weaves, which I decided when walking it was too risky and I would cross afterwards but I forgot this when running it and she came out of the weaves - not sure if this is why but I shall have a look if the two things coincide and if they do I shall be even more cross with myself - run the course how you walk it muppet!!!
Elliot
Graded 1-2 Agility
I was really twitchy about his waits and so I didn't push this one as far as I should have and so did crazy things at the bottom of the dog walk such as stopping when by the last tressle and so he ran off the bottom, I put him back just on the bottom and he still went a little early but he did wait a while, he then sadly couldn't get to grips with the 6 weaves and after 3 attempts I had to give up :( He then ran the seesaw again so I just calmly led him out the ring!!
Combined 1-2 Jumping Part 1
Another stupid mummy moment - he rocked pole number two and number 3 went splat but then I went completely the wrong way and tripped him up, anyway we made it back on course and did jump tunnel jump weave (with no pause because I thought we would try it after already messing up) and although he got his entrance he didn't get the second gap, I then went to take him back to just do the weaves again but he had other ideas and did jump tunnel jump weaves again but this time did all 6 weaves correct :D he then finished the course very nicely!! :)
Combined 1-4 Jumping Part 2
I pushed his lead out much more this time and he was fine, I also remembered my second front cross however he really struggled with the 12 weaves and so after three attempts I just took him by the collar and made him sit before the next jump, we then carried on and he finished very nicely, only knocking one pole because I was running really fast to give him a nice final blast!! :)
All in all a pretty good weekend, I just wish I had handled things a bit better today but hey ho we had a good day yesterday so we can't be greedy!!
Jemma
Graded 1-2 Agility
Doh - mummy set her up a long way back and so she knocked the first pole :( She then didn't weave first time and it took 4 attempts to get her too - she was after sniffing something on the ground!! I worked her contacts - she stopped just off the dog walk and then stretched her back feet back to get it right!!! Her a-frame was good but I think she went before I said go and he stopped just off the seesaw!! What a shambles!!
Combined 1-2 Jumping Part 1
Another beautiful round messed up by mummy - the cloth tunnel, second from the end wasn't straight to the last jump but I didn't realise this and so just said go and so she nearly ran past it so I paniced and then ended up sending her round and round instead of sticking my arm out or giving her a left command!! - lel got a video of this course so I can get annoyed at myselft when watching it - she was 2.355 seconds behind the winner though and finished 11th - I shall see how much better I could have done had I not been a numpty!! Lel said the person next to her when she was filming was commenting on how amazing her weaves were - two complements in one weekend, they must be improving!!
Combined 1-4 Jumping Part 2
Uft, silly mummy AGAIN!! I forgot to do my second front cross at the beginning and so had to cross behind and play catch up - however she did a really nice and long go on :) I then crossed behind her when she was in the weaves, which I decided when walking it was too risky and I would cross afterwards but I forgot this when running it and she came out of the weaves - not sure if this is why but I shall have a look if the two things coincide and if they do I shall be even more cross with myself - run the course how you walk it muppet!!!
Elliot
Graded 1-2 Agility
I was really twitchy about his waits and so I didn't push this one as far as I should have and so did crazy things at the bottom of the dog walk such as stopping when by the last tressle and so he ran off the bottom, I put him back just on the bottom and he still went a little early but he did wait a while, he then sadly couldn't get to grips with the 6 weaves and after 3 attempts I had to give up :( He then ran the seesaw again so I just calmly led him out the ring!!
Combined 1-2 Jumping Part 1
Another stupid mummy moment - he rocked pole number two and number 3 went splat but then I went completely the wrong way and tripped him up, anyway we made it back on course and did jump tunnel jump weave (with no pause because I thought we would try it after already messing up) and although he got his entrance he didn't get the second gap, I then went to take him back to just do the weaves again but he had other ideas and did jump tunnel jump weaves again but this time did all 6 weaves correct :D he then finished the course very nicely!! :)
Combined 1-4 Jumping Part 2
I pushed his lead out much more this time and he was fine, I also remembered my second front cross however he really struggled with the 12 weaves and so after three attempts I just took him by the collar and made him sit before the next jump, we then carried on and he finished very nicely, only knocking one pole because I was running really fast to give him a nice final blast!! :)
All in all a pretty good weekend, I just wish I had handled things a bit better today but hey ho we had a good day yesterday so we can't be greedy!!
Thames Day 1 - Seconditis strikes again :(
To try and stop my posts from being tooooooo long I have split the two days into two posts :) There will be some videos posted once I get them from lel but I shall just do rambling for now - and proabably some more when I post the vids as my memory is a little hazy right now, especially for the runs on sat :)
Jemma
After deciding to go on points I felt a lot more relaxed running her and she felt much more like she does in training which was good :D
Omnipro Combined 1-2 Agility Part 2
I was generally pleased with this run although I felt her contacts could have been faster, especially the seesaw, however, bless her she finished second yet again, although this is the first combined class it has happened in!! She seems to be getting closer and closer each time though, the winners time was 25.018 and jem's time was 25.471, so only 0.453 seconds in it this time!!! Thank god for being able to go up on points is all I will say!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
She knocked pole number 3, the one before the long jump, not sure why, think it may have been because I was conscious of the long jump and put an extra spurt of speed on?!?! but anyway the rest of the course was AMAZING, she even did TWELVE weaves first time (she did also knock the last pole but this was because I got excited about the weaves too early!!) but the best bit to top this round off was the judge commenting on her "amazing weaves" as I left the ring - Jem ?!?! amazing weaves?!?!? well, what a complement, it shows all this hard work is paying off :)
Graded 1-2 Agility
This was another lovely round for jem but she had to come of the seesaw and do a jump at 180 degrees to it so I was really conscious of her knocking this pole so planned on sending her wide, however because of this she did a proper little detour off to the back jumps and so finished 4th with a time of 26.945, 2.06 seconds behind the winner, damn the little detour!!
3 out of 3 weaves done first time today - :D The difference in me was that I just told her "steady" in a firm voice and gave her no weave command?!?! maybe this is the new trick, who knows?!?
Elliot
Omnipro Combined 1-2 Agility Part 2
The first contact in this course was a seesaw and he ran off it so I put him back over the whole thing and he did it much better :) however the judge then asked us to leave the ring so we didnt get to practise any other contacts, I didn't mind I would rather do this and put him back than let him carry on!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
He went really really well around this course until the corner before the weaves (3 from the end) when I dropped my arm so he went under a jump, he then noticed a bike and so didn't manage the weaves first time, he did them second time, did the next jump but then didn't go over the last one - I felt bad about this afterwards as I thought it was because he wanted to chase the bike (something he normally forgets about when doing agility) but it turned out it was because he needed the toilet because he had a poorly belly, sorry mr e :(
Graded 1-2 Agility
This course had the seesaw first too which he ran off again but he did try to stop and so after a few seconds dithering I decided to carry on as I didn't want to have to leave the ring again without doing the other contacts, this then meant though that he had a pause before the next obstacles which just so happened to be jump weave so I didn't pause him and he went straight into the 6 weaves and did them right first time :) His a-frame was good and he waited nicely until I told him to go, he did then run off the dog walk but it was two from the end with a tunnel in front of it so I let him get away with it so he could have another clear round as a reward for doing such good weaves - bad mummy!! He ended up finishing 17th with a time of 31.292, not that I am that worried about his times at the moment, getting clears is something I didn't think would happen for a very long time and the fact that they are in agility classes is something I didn't think would happen for even longer!!!
Jemma
After deciding to go on points I felt a lot more relaxed running her and she felt much more like she does in training which was good :D
Omnipro Combined 1-2 Agility Part 2
I was generally pleased with this run although I felt her contacts could have been faster, especially the seesaw, however, bless her she finished second yet again, although this is the first combined class it has happened in!! She seems to be getting closer and closer each time though, the winners time was 25.018 and jem's time was 25.471, so only 0.453 seconds in it this time!!! Thank god for being able to go up on points is all I will say!!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
She knocked pole number 3, the one before the long jump, not sure why, think it may have been because I was conscious of the long jump and put an extra spurt of speed on?!?! but anyway the rest of the course was AMAZING, she even did TWELVE weaves first time (she did also knock the last pole but this was because I got excited about the weaves too early!!) but the best bit to top this round off was the judge commenting on her "amazing weaves" as I left the ring - Jem ?!?! amazing weaves?!?!? well, what a complement, it shows all this hard work is paying off :)
Graded 1-2 Agility
This was another lovely round for jem but she had to come of the seesaw and do a jump at 180 degrees to it so I was really conscious of her knocking this pole so planned on sending her wide, however because of this she did a proper little detour off to the back jumps and so finished 4th with a time of 26.945, 2.06 seconds behind the winner, damn the little detour!!
3 out of 3 weaves done first time today - :D The difference in me was that I just told her "steady" in a firm voice and gave her no weave command?!?! maybe this is the new trick, who knows?!?
Elliot
Omnipro Combined 1-2 Agility Part 2
The first contact in this course was a seesaw and he ran off it so I put him back over the whole thing and he did it much better :) however the judge then asked us to leave the ring so we didnt get to practise any other contacts, I didn't mind I would rather do this and put him back than let him carry on!
Graded 1-2 Jumping
He went really really well around this course until the corner before the weaves (3 from the end) when I dropped my arm so he went under a jump, he then noticed a bike and so didn't manage the weaves first time, he did them second time, did the next jump but then didn't go over the last one - I felt bad about this afterwards as I thought it was because he wanted to chase the bike (something he normally forgets about when doing agility) but it turned out it was because he needed the toilet because he had a poorly belly, sorry mr e :(
Graded 1-2 Agility
This course had the seesaw first too which he ran off again but he did try to stop and so after a few seconds dithering I decided to carry on as I didn't want to have to leave the ring again without doing the other contacts, this then meant though that he had a pause before the next obstacles which just so happened to be jump weave so I didn't pause him and he went straight into the 6 weaves and did them right first time :) His a-frame was good and he waited nicely until I told him to go, he did then run off the dog walk but it was two from the end with a tunnel in front of it so I let him get away with it so he could have another clear round as a reward for doing such good weaves - bad mummy!! He ended up finishing 17th with a time of 31.292, not that I am that worried about his times at the moment, getting clears is something I didn't think would happen for a very long time and the fact that they are in agility classes is something I didn't think would happen for even longer!!!
Friday, 11 June 2010
Good training session today :)
Jemma
Wow, she had amazing contacts today, they were all really fast and she was just slamming the brakes on at the end, it was amazing to watch and to run, i loved it :) Her weaves were a little wobbly today but better than they have been recently so that was good too :) Her jumping was good too, apart from at the end when she was tired and when I left her in a long lead out with it starting jump, tunnel (I was past the long straight tunnel) when she kept knocking the first pole - as soon as we changed it to a wooden one she didn't knock it at all, just made a real effort not to knock it!! All in all I was really chuffed with her today and just hope she runs the same this weekend :)
Elliot
We did quite a lot of weave work with him today - he was doing two jumps then straight into six and then on to two jumps :) the first two jumps were also at an angle at one point and I would say we had a 90% success rate :) we then moved on to doing tweleve, on their own to start and then with a jump before and I would say we had an 80% success rate on these but that was mainly because the tunnel was after them so he kept trying to go to that too early, it was good to see though that they don't need much more proofing with such a high success rate in the circumstances. We then worked on his contacts and I worked on proofing these too by running full pelt with him and past the end and he stopped at the bottom EVERY time (despite nearly falling off the down plank of the dog walk first time bless him)!!!!! So again, a good session with him too, fingers crossed with some weaves early in the courses this weekend!!
Wow, she had amazing contacts today, they were all really fast and she was just slamming the brakes on at the end, it was amazing to watch and to run, i loved it :) Her weaves were a little wobbly today but better than they have been recently so that was good too :) Her jumping was good too, apart from at the end when she was tired and when I left her in a long lead out with it starting jump, tunnel (I was past the long straight tunnel) when she kept knocking the first pole - as soon as we changed it to a wooden one she didn't knock it at all, just made a real effort not to knock it!! All in all I was really chuffed with her today and just hope she runs the same this weekend :)
Elliot
We did quite a lot of weave work with him today - he was doing two jumps then straight into six and then on to two jumps :) the first two jumps were also at an angle at one point and I would say we had a 90% success rate :) we then moved on to doing tweleve, on their own to start and then with a jump before and I would say we had an 80% success rate on these but that was mainly because the tunnel was after them so he kept trying to go to that too early, it was good to see though that they don't need much more proofing with such a high success rate in the circumstances. We then worked on his contacts and I worked on proofing these too by running full pelt with him and past the end and he stopped at the bottom EVERY time (despite nearly falling off the down plank of the dog walk first time bless him)!!!!! So again, a good session with him too, fingers crossed with some weaves early in the courses this weekend!!
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Demo
The A-sit blog (link on the right) now has the video from our demo on. The demo went really well despite there being some treats dropped by the weaves :P
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Exams are done so back to agility training :D
Jemma
She was good today, we worked on her contacts and she was doing them all really nicely and really fast once we had sweeties out so, hopefully she will keep this up at the weekend :) She was also just working really nicely in general and really following my body movements :) Her weaves were really good too, she only got them wrong twice I think all session, even with doing tunnel weave and some long run ups to them :) After the tunnel she was doing the weaves the fastest I have ever seen her do them, it was very nice to watch and made me a very happy mummy :)
Elliot
It was really nice today, at the end Gail got to see him run and I think all four of us in the field (me, lel, Gail and Tasha) were proud to watch him :) His weaves were really good - he is really thinking about what he is doig now, he is a little cautious because he is worried about getting it wrong but for now that is good as it is meaning he is getting them right :) He was even doing tunnel weave without stopping in between and after a few goes was getting it right very consistently :) His contacts were also good, he only ran off the first seesaw which was because i commanded him late, oops!! Towards the end of the lesson he kept wondering off the end of the aframe sniffing stuff but I think this was because it was very muggy and he was tired!! He is creeping down the contacts because he knows he has to be careful and stop but for now that is so much better than him jumping off from a quarter of the way down and me having no control - our job for the winter will be to speed these up :) His jumping is also get much better. So again, all in all a good lesson for him :)
We are doing a demo at uni tomorrow for a puppy reunion they have which should be fun :)
She was good today, we worked on her contacts and she was doing them all really nicely and really fast once we had sweeties out so, hopefully she will keep this up at the weekend :) She was also just working really nicely in general and really following my body movements :) Her weaves were really good too, she only got them wrong twice I think all session, even with doing tunnel weave and some long run ups to them :) After the tunnel she was doing the weaves the fastest I have ever seen her do them, it was very nice to watch and made me a very happy mummy :)
Elliot
It was really nice today, at the end Gail got to see him run and I think all four of us in the field (me, lel, Gail and Tasha) were proud to watch him :) His weaves were really good - he is really thinking about what he is doig now, he is a little cautious because he is worried about getting it wrong but for now that is good as it is meaning he is getting them right :) He was even doing tunnel weave without stopping in between and after a few goes was getting it right very consistently :) His contacts were also good, he only ran off the first seesaw which was because i commanded him late, oops!! Towards the end of the lesson he kept wondering off the end of the aframe sniffing stuff but I think this was because it was very muggy and he was tired!! He is creeping down the contacts because he knows he has to be careful and stop but for now that is so much better than him jumping off from a quarter of the way down and me having no control - our job for the winter will be to speed these up :) His jumping is also get much better. So again, all in all a good lesson for him :)
We are doing a demo at uni tomorrow for a puppy reunion they have which should be fun :)
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Mad Mutts - Hearing Dogs
Jem was a bit naughty to start with today, she was really eyeballing the other lane but she didn't run across thanks to lots of shouting from me - apologises to anyone on the line whilst we were racing!! The morning started eventfully with me falling flat on my arse in the warm up and then later in the morning elliot somehow managed to run smack into Lisa and she did a spectacular flip over the top of him - luckily both were OK, Lisa was just a bit winded and Elliot bless him was really confused and thought he had be grabed to do a re-run so went up the lane after jamie, got very confused as to why he didn't have a ball when he got back to the box, but he came back down the lane again without it!! Jem was much better in the afternoon and was running up and back nicely without looking at the other lane :) We gave her some warm ups in the red lane but didn't brave racing her in it - not sure when we will do this, hopefully one day but it is hard to know when as we don't want to subject the other team to her interfering if she does decide to be naughty, but equally we wont know unless we try - unfortunately today both times we were in the red lane the other team werent warming up and this meant she didnt have the other dogs to look at anyway!! Elliots boxes were a bit rubbish to start, but got better after Nat did some turns with him and apparently for some unknown reason they are even better when I run him :) I was much better on my starts and changeovers today as well and jem even did a rerun without eating jamie on his way out, and to top the day we won all our races and finished first :) All in all a great day, and hopefully one of many more for us and flyball :)
Thursday, 3 June 2010
SWAT Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3SsORx68d8
Here is the video of our Agility run, my face cracks me up every time!!
No training this week as I have exams!!
Here is the video of our Agility run, my face cracks me up every time!!
No training this week as I have exams!!
Sunday, 30 May 2010
SWAT Day 2 - A better day!!
Jemma:
Jumping Combined 1-7
I would have estimated this was set at about grade 3-5, with some really flowy bits but also some more tricky bits, well bless little Jem, on the second to last jump I didn't dink her in - I had misjudged where she would land - and so when she ran forwards she ran round the wing!! It was such a shame as we were clear up to then, I felt very guilty - sorry bear!!
Agility Graded 1-2
This course gutted me - it was jump weaves at the start so she managed to do all six of them!!, then came the gutting bit, she knocked the pole on the next jump!! She worked the rest of the course really nicely, although the dog walk and seesaw contacts were quite slow but I think that was because I had decided to work them and so was dawdling and she was confused - the a-frame was lovely tho!! Lel did get this on video on her phone so I don't know if it will make it to the internet but if it does I shall inform you :)
Jumping Graded 1-2
Yay, we did it - our first clear round of the weekend!!! We had one small deviation but other than that it was lovely!
Elliot:
Practise Ring:
I only went in once today and did weaves and contacts, his weaves took three attempts, but then he did them right three times in a row :) We then moved on to contacts and he was good on the aframe (very nice) but ran off the dog walk and seesaw but we sorted this :)
Agility Graded 1-2
Wow can this boy weave!!! I sat him before the weaves but he did not wana wait and so took himself off and did the six of them, super speedy and super correct :D so then off I ran!!! He ran out of the tunnel and I stupidly forgot to actually say seesaw and so he ran past it!! When I put him back on though he wasa good boy and did it nicely, although he stopped with his front paws on the end (rather than on the floor) for a little while until I encouraged him a little further!! I then held him there for a few seconds before releasing him, he was then a naughty boy and ran off the bottom of the dog walk and then aframe (ran, didnt jump though so was happy), I put him back and held him on the bottom of both before releasing him like a good girl!!
Jumping Combined 1-7
He was a naughty boy - He went before I told him (did a beautiful two jumps and long jump before realising I wasn't around!) so I put him back (despite being very tempted to carry on but shhh about that bit!!) and then he decided to do it again!!!! so back he went again, I then went just past the first jump and released him, we just did two jumps and then went to the finish (which he ran under!!!)!!!
Jumping Graded 1-2
Yay again, he went clear too!!!! He was really wide on the wing wrap though bless him - something for us to work on with his jumping at last!!!
Jumping Graded 1-2 Results
As they both went clear I thought I would do a seperate section for the results!! Well, I finished up with 2nd and a 3rd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Elliot had the 2nd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The winners time was 23.527, with Elliot being 0.681 seconds behind this - the wide wing wrap, and also because he got a bit stuck in the cloth tunnel - I managed to catch up and get ahead of him he got that stuck!!, and Jem was 0.176 seconds behind him - the slight deviation maybe?? I was really pleased with these results, especially as last time they both went clear Jem beat Elliot which shows that what we have been working on with his jumping style is working!! The trophies were really nice picture frames with a plaque at the bottom and a voucher for a photograph which you had taken in the practise ring - I had one of both of them weaving :)
Going up
I have decided after this weekend to take Jem up to Grade 2 on points! My fear that Elliot will do it before her is slowly becoming more likely and as the courses are always the same for the two grades I feel it won't put them at a disadvantage - I had to make the decision knowing that I wouldn't regret it and I have decided that I will regret it more if I didn't do it and then Elliot won out! However, because she is going up on points I can't change her grades on the competitions where the entries have already closed, so she I have changed my entry for Caerphilly as this is the only one that I could - who knows maybe now I have made a decision and the pressure is off she might win out!!
Jumping Combined 1-7
I would have estimated this was set at about grade 3-5, with some really flowy bits but also some more tricky bits, well bless little Jem, on the second to last jump I didn't dink her in - I had misjudged where she would land - and so when she ran forwards she ran round the wing!! It was such a shame as we were clear up to then, I felt very guilty - sorry bear!!
Agility Graded 1-2
This course gutted me - it was jump weaves at the start so she managed to do all six of them!!, then came the gutting bit, she knocked the pole on the next jump!! She worked the rest of the course really nicely, although the dog walk and seesaw contacts were quite slow but I think that was because I had decided to work them and so was dawdling and she was confused - the a-frame was lovely tho!! Lel did get this on video on her phone so I don't know if it will make it to the internet but if it does I shall inform you :)
Jumping Graded 1-2
Yay, we did it - our first clear round of the weekend!!! We had one small deviation but other than that it was lovely!
Elliot:
Practise Ring:
I only went in once today and did weaves and contacts, his weaves took three attempts, but then he did them right three times in a row :) We then moved on to contacts and he was good on the aframe (very nice) but ran off the dog walk and seesaw but we sorted this :)
Agility Graded 1-2
Wow can this boy weave!!! I sat him before the weaves but he did not wana wait and so took himself off and did the six of them, super speedy and super correct :D so then off I ran!!! He ran out of the tunnel and I stupidly forgot to actually say seesaw and so he ran past it!! When I put him back on though he wasa good boy and did it nicely, although he stopped with his front paws on the end (rather than on the floor) for a little while until I encouraged him a little further!! I then held him there for a few seconds before releasing him, he was then a naughty boy and ran off the bottom of the dog walk and then aframe (ran, didnt jump though so was happy), I put him back and held him on the bottom of both before releasing him like a good girl!!
Jumping Combined 1-7
He was a naughty boy - He went before I told him (did a beautiful two jumps and long jump before realising I wasn't around!) so I put him back (despite being very tempted to carry on but shhh about that bit!!) and then he decided to do it again!!!! so back he went again, I then went just past the first jump and released him, we just did two jumps and then went to the finish (which he ran under!!!)!!!
Jumping Graded 1-2
Yay again, he went clear too!!!! He was really wide on the wing wrap though bless him - something for us to work on with his jumping at last!!!
Jumping Graded 1-2 Results
As they both went clear I thought I would do a seperate section for the results!! Well, I finished up with 2nd and a 3rd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Elliot had the 2nd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The winners time was 23.527, with Elliot being 0.681 seconds behind this - the wide wing wrap, and also because he got a bit stuck in the cloth tunnel - I managed to catch up and get ahead of him he got that stuck!!, and Jem was 0.176 seconds behind him - the slight deviation maybe?? I was really pleased with these results, especially as last time they both went clear Jem beat Elliot which shows that what we have been working on with his jumping style is working!! The trophies were really nice picture frames with a plaque at the bottom and a voucher for a photograph which you had taken in the practise ring - I had one of both of them weaving :)
Going up
I have decided after this weekend to take Jem up to Grade 2 on points! My fear that Elliot will do it before her is slowly becoming more likely and as the courses are always the same for the two grades I feel it won't put them at a disadvantage - I had to make the decision knowing that I wouldn't regret it and I have decided that I will regret it more if I didn't do it and then Elliot won out! However, because she is going up on points I can't change her grades on the competitions where the entries have already closed, so she I have changed my entry for Caerphilly as this is the only one that I could - who knows maybe now I have made a decision and the pressure is off she might win out!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
