Blackdown 21-2-10 - oh dear!!!

There are videos for you to watch of our actual runs, so I shall just put my thoughts in writing!!

Jemma

Agility

Well, i feel very guilty about this round!! At the end of the dog walk I thought she just slipped off a little bit and so carried on, I didn't understand why she didn't get the jump after it - if you watch the video you will see why she didnt, bless her!! I was then very confused why the judge said it was a shame when she recovered so well, and caught the contact on her way down when I was trying to finish the course!! Anyway, we ended up just bumbling our way out because by this point I had lost the plot - had I seen what Jem had done I would have put her back over the dog walk and left it at that!!

G1+2 Jumping

This was her weaves that let her down, I was annoyed at myself for sending her at the angle I did and not working it so she came back through the gap between the second and third jump rather than the third and the next jump - i was then anooyed with her at not doing them despite making her sit. It was then annoying she didn't go on to the second jump after the tunnel, probably my fault but I am not sure why!!

Helter Skelter

Well, this went wrong perhaps because I was a bit to far ahead of her when she was supposed to past the tunnel, but she was bad because she went in the tunnel despite it meaning that she went behind my back!! After that I think I propabaly pushed her round without meaning to, but she enjoyed taking her own line!!!

G1-3 Jumping

Something else for us to work on - go on after the tunnel, although I think this was my fault for not running because I was being lazy because I knew she was coming back my way, naughty mummy!! Why she then went the wrong way after the tunnel I am not sure, probably because I left her to her own devises and didnt call her, again, naughty mummy!!!

Jems video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSCLE95hBFo

So all in all not a great day but hey she had fun and her mummy learnt lots of things she needs to work on!!!

Elliot

Agility

We didn't do this course as there was no way I could miss the contacts out.

G1+2 Jumping

I was really bad and let him go even though he broke his wait - this meant he knocked the first pole and then we were all out of sink - I had planned the little bit at the end so that we avoided the weaves and I felt he did the flick flack nicely :)

Helter Skelter

Again I was bad and let him break his wait!! I then turned too early which is why he missed three, not sure why he went under a few but I was pleased that I managed to avoid the tunnel with him :)

G1-3 Jumping

Again, bad mummy - I can see a bad pattern emerging here, I need to be much stricter in competition - I guess I can work on this in the agility classes when he isn't going to run the rest of the course anyway!! He is so good in training!! I was shocked that he went under the second jump, this was what he used to do before a tunnel, I guess the excitment just got the better of him!! I also have looked at the videos again and I think I dropped my arms - bad mummy!! I then pushed him round jump 11 so that was my fault too!! I wasn't relaly happy with how I handled this course with either dog but I was very confused when walking it and ummed and ahhed a lot!! What i did, in regard with the tunnels worked, although it was slow!!

Elliots video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhpzwh3dP7k

At least there is plenty for us to work on after today :D And I did learn that with Elliot, when queuing, it is actually better for me to queue with him than to get somebody else to queue and me to wait outside. when waiting outside he does all his tugging and then sitting/lying down outside and then when it he is next we go in but this then breaks his concentration from me and we get the excitement back for going inside but I then have no time to distract/work with him!! - if you watch the video I have a (slightly!!) better wait at the start on the last run than on the other two!!

Agility Training

Jemma
She did pretty well, her weaves were a bit iffy if I rushed her too much, again something that needs work but hey her weaves are a lot better than they were!! Her A-frame contact was nice today, i need to work more on holding her on the contacts, but this is more my fault than hers!! Her dog walk, hmm, it was ok, although I wanted to hang back and she wasn't driving to the end, she would stop when i stopped regardless of where she was - something else to work on!! She did however do some good tunnel/dog walk discrimination :D For our last go Lel said if we went clear we would get our lesson half price, needless to say I rushed things and jem knocked two poles, yet something else for us to work on, dog keeping poles up when mummy rushing!!

Elliot
Well, he was a fab little boy with the jumping that we did. We didn't do any contacts, instead concentrating on the weaves...hmm...to put it politely, he was rubbish!! He was pretty good at the entrance but then would miss some and do the end or do some and miss the end, or just miss one, it was basically really haphazard so we went right back to three, then four, then five and then got back to six and we finished on two lots of these right, although not consecutively!!I think I just need to get over this busy patch at uni so I can go back to doing a little bit each day with him.

Off to Blackdown tomorrow, at least there is a helter skelter so we stand one chance of a clear with mr e!!!

SMART week six

This is a video of them from this week, as you can see they are both loads better and I think next week will be our last time for going every week - Jem only has some tightness in her neck left and Elliot, although greatly improved, still has a lot of muscle to build up and is still in some discomfort in his hind legs.

Agility Nuts 14/02/10 - What a day!!!

Agility
Elliot didn’t go in because I couldn’t make up a course without doing the contacts and had decided after my last few attempts and what he is like in training I wouldn't bother attempting any agility equipment!!

Jemma
Well she did beautiful contacts, stopping on all three of them, although still a bit slower than I would like but then I am picky!!! She did her 6 weaves beautifully first time and I remembered to properly run whilst she was going them!!! The fourth jump from the end was at a really bad angle, I can’t really describe it and tried to draw it but couldn’t so you will just have to believe me that it was hard and that it was my fault she didn’t take it because I didn’t send her to it at the right angle!! She then decided to go up the dog walk again, turn round and come down so I held on the bottom for a while and sent her over two jumps to the end :)

Snooker

Again Elliot didn’t run because I couldn’t do a course avoiding the contacts

Jemma
Again, beautiful a-frame contacts if still a little too slow! However she was really naughty and when she came out the tunnel I was stood between the see-saw and a jump and the see-saw was slightly to the right of the tunnel exit, anyway, as she came out I clearly pointed at the see-saw and said see-saw but she decided to go against all our training and go behind me and go over the jump!! Naughty girl, but hey at least it has given us something else to work on!!

Jumping

Jemma
Really nice jumping, it felt faster and more flowly than before we started going to SMART however she decided she couldn’t weave any more and it took us 3 attempts to do 6 weaves!!! Other than that I was very happy with her!

Elliot
Well we made up our own course that missed out the weaves (although he did look at the weaves and run very focused towards them but I was sensible for once and decided not to risk doing them!) but still included the flick-flack and pull through and he did it beautifully going clear with what I asked him to do :D

Helter-Skelter

Jemma
Beautiful clear round, however there was one point where I meant to do a second front cross (after the tunnel, the first being before it) but forgot so had to back-cross so she finished fourth with a time of 20.837s – 0.638s slower than the winner! :)

Elliot
Well, he shocked me, in a good way, he did a beautiful clear round and I remembered to do the second front cross!! So he finished up with a time of 20.199 – and a place of ... FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so shocked and so happy, his trips to Cardiff have been worth it :P What a clever little man, I am well chuffed and can’t wait until he can at least weave so stand a chance at KC in jumping even if not in agility!!

Flyball!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elliot:
Well it was like he had never been away - run backs were beautiful, again he seemed fast but whether he is faster than he was before he went to the smart clinic i will only know when we get to a competition!! Now box work, hmm, pretty much every turn was beautiful however our problem now is his drive back!! He drives back really really nicely to his tuggy on the runs but when he has a ball he isn't interested, i tried a second ball today but again still not interested, however Nat reckoned that on his first two goes he drove back better than on the others, and for these two i had his tuggy out ( i then put it away because he wouldn't play with it), so maybe, although he doesn't actually tug on it, just having it there is enough to make him drive back to it - i shall have another look at this next time in training (in 4 weeks!!! because we have agility the next two sundays and then I am away)

Jemma:
Hmm, definately the noisiest dog there!! Well i was really impressed with her run backs, there was only the once (when she went first) that she couldn't focus on me but the rest of the time she did really well, even doing a couple of almost proper change overs, I was very proud :D However we then went over to do box work and my proudness went away and the fustration came back!! Last August time I introduced a second ball to her and it made her speed up on her return by loads, however she has no decided that she isn't going to bring the first ball back!! Sometimes she doesn't even try that hard to catch it, other times, when she does catch it, she drops it anywhere between the box and the second jump!!! It is so fustrating because I never had this problem with her before!! We have decided that i am just going to totally scrap the second ball and go back to just getting her to come back to me until she is 100% again, the most important thing for her at the moment is doing full runs!! She was good though in the fact that she didn't run across to interfere with the dog training on the other box, although I made sure I never released her at the same time as them!! My aim for her is to at least manage to get her to flyball dog, she is 130 points off at the moment, having gained the 70 in 3 years!!!

Good Dogs & Bad Mummy

Jemma:
She worked really nicely today, Only thing she did wrong first time we did the course was to come out of the weaves 2 too early and this was completely my fault because I was dithering about the next bit of the course and not trusting her enough to do the weaves with me running. She had really nice contacts, the only thing I think needs more work is her staying on the bottom with me running on as she seems to take the que of me moving to be her release. she also needs work on me crossing behind as she was dithering on the top of the a-frame until i caught up!! We worked on tweaking some of the other parts of the course to make them a bit neater and faster and she finished the lesson with a beautiful fast clear round, I was very proud :)

Elliot:
His jumping style wasn't as good as last week, he jumped most of the jumps tucked up, don't know why though as he was much better at SMART this week, he was as good on the water treadmill as Jem! His contacts were also loads better, we were working on him nose touching the groung rather than the target and he did some really nice ones, finishing on doing the whole a-frame and touching the grass, I was very proud - so this is our plan with him for the next few weeks, to fade out the target and start putting a jump before and after, I also think he will need a lot of work on staying put even if i am moving!! his weaves, well, they were ok i guess but he kept missing out the third one and didnt do that very consistantly but to be fair to him I haven't had time to do any work on them at home since long before christmas so it is not surprising really!!

We are back to flyball tomorrow, am looking forward to, just hope these two manage to control their excitment at being back and actually manage to do some flyball!!