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!!

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

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!!!

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 :)

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!!