Today Mandy kindly drove us up to a training session with Katie Long and Stuart Doughty. We met Jo with Freddie once we got there, It was a 3 hour afternoon session in two parts: agility and jumping. Courses were set out. Jo and I ended up working together starting with the agility course with Katie. We walked and then ran the course (not very well for me and Dylan as he decided to be quite naughty ... all the smells of an indoor equestrian arena I guess). We then broke down the course and had advise on different ways to run each section. We all had a go at each bit. Katie advised me that my dog walk contact needed to be solid before I introduce any words and keep putting him back on. She also advised me to run faster as when I was ahead of Dylan and telling him what to do he was much quicker. The one thing we struggled with was a right round turn off a jump ... Dylan insisted on turning left whatever I told him. He clearly prefers that turn.

Next was Stuart and jumping. I found this much easier and the snake and pull ins where no problem really. I do need to think about where to stand to get the best result for Dylan so he knows where to go next rather than trying to help me by jumping what he sees. We also thoughts about how to speed them up by standing in different places and considering which turn they make. Again Dylan's right round turn off a jump was not the best ... so that needs practice. It is reasonable for dogs to have a preferred side anyway.

Jo managed to capture a couple of my jumping runs. In the first run it took me three attempts to work out where to stand for the tunnel to weaves and also Dylan wasn't keen on turning right round the fence near the end.  The second run was much better - I brought him right round as I new he would be quick!

This week it has been cold and pretty wet as well. On Thursday evening, we went to a chilly training, although by the end I was pretty warm. Jackie sure knows how to keep us moving as well as keeping us on our toes! More practising different fence combinations and different turns. All looking good as long as I move and know where I am going! Still a lot of work to do on the dog walk contact, but we are making progress.

Today we went to the independent show at Keysoe run by Barking Mad, where we get 4 runs, 2 graded and 2 combined where grade 6 and 7 compete against each other. Not too many in each class - potentially 10, but in reality only 7.

Dylan was awesome following my every move, so much so that when we tried a pull in and then I moved to indicate the next jump too soon he didn't pull in .. need to work on timing at speed I think & give Dylan more space as well. That really was the only mistake on my part. Dylan jumped one dog walk, which I put him back on to wait which he did.  Both those mistakes were in the same agility run!

So three clear rounds and fast as well - only a second or 2 away from the winner for the jumping & a clear win for the graded 5,6,7 agility run (which was quite difficult with a sharp turn in to the jump on the right after the dog walk, followed by a pull in - we had an awkward moment then but no faults. Very very happy with Dylan today. All this training is helping, just need to persevere with the stop on the dog walk contact!