Dylan is a star! Well you all know that anyway!
Adam's Agility at Catton Hall was fab - the weather helped of course. Luke finished school at lunch time Friday, we paced the van and off we went to Derbyshire! But I felt lousy - full of cold, a sore throat and really not wanting to have to think about everything not least an 11 year old wanting to take electronics which I wouldn't be able to charge up!
I had 4 runs each day, Sat, Sun, Mon & Wed (Tuesday was a day off - just as well as it was hot hot hot!!)
First run Sat was E'ed - a jumping run. Next two runs were agility and 10 faults for the dog walk (the same old same old & so frustrating!) & one other obstacle but he was quick. Next another jumping and we won! Our first Grade 3 win!
To add to the complication of being at the right ring at the right time I was also Ring Managing for the first time in the afternoon. It was easier than I thought and the judge was lovely. In fact this was the ring I had my win in ... I had left my run until last so I could concentrate on the ring managing job and Dylan just flew round a super course. Very happy girl & dog!!
Sunday saw the same start as Sat - jumping E-ed & then 2 agility runs - 5 faults on each (dog walk) - now I am getting even more frustrated as Dylan's times were great! Then we had another jumping round which was a super clear. A Combined grade 1-4 jumping and we were pipped for first by 0.2 sec!! so a second place!
I need a plan for the dog walk! I woke up Monday thinking I will run to the front of the dog walk and face him - that'll slow him down!! Or I'll try crossing behind him, which we had done once in training and that would be different so might get him thinking differently!
Monday ... started really badly. 2 jumping runs both rubbish! Perhaps I didn't want this badly enough! Time to go in the practice ring because I really wanted a rosette today and that wasn't going to happen with a 5 fault dog walk! Even in the practice ring it wasn't working. Then a nice person (the judge from Sat) said I was rewarding Dylan for missing the contact and I was bending forward making Dylan go faster and so jumping off! She used a riding analogy in that leaning forward makes you go faster and sitting back slows you down. I need to stay upright and not lean! I tried another minute in the practice ring, and made sure I didn't reward the failures. He didn't really get it & I was was out of puff & coughing!
So onto the real agility run CG1-4. As I walked the ring thinking about what to do I realised that I often face the A frame contact (& Dylan gets that) so this facing thing might work & would keep me more upright. The Dog walk was at he beginning & I decided I would cross behind Dylan & see what happened - nothing to lose really! Well it worked and the rest of the run was good too - A clear round - so happy & to top it all we got 2nd!!
Next agility run, same ring but now the dog walk is at the end (this is often worse as Dylan wants to rush home for a finish!). I knew I would have to run fast to beat him to the end, but I was determined to try! It was tunnel, dog walk, so I should have time! He ran well up to the tunnel, through that - perfect - I legged it up the side of the dog walk and then faced Dylan as he belted down - all the way way down to the bottom (yeh!), I turned and sent him over the last jump! 28.786 sec for an agility run - that was quick! YES we won! CG1-3 -
Grade 4 comes in 25 days from the win, so we still have plenty of shows to practice the new dog walk technique & think of what to do when I can't out run him!!
Tuesday - day off - We went to Cannock Chase for a walk!
Wednesday - let's practice the new technique - it worked well in both agility runs, but I messed up some jumping combinations, but was happy. The first run was a complicated jumping CG1-4, with a start where Dylan jumped a fence and then had to be lead away from the one directly in front across the front of a tunnel, missing the next jump and onto the one after that ... Dylan was superb! We ran the fastest time and was only faulted because there was 7 weaves (an odd number is unusual and I had to poke Dylan back through the last weave) ... we came second after the only clear which was still out of the 38 second time limit. We did it in 34.017 - usually jumping runs are quicker, but this was very spread out & complicated!
So Dylan is a star!
and a superdog (thanks to Sian Mapp for this photo)
Adam's Agility at Catton Hall was fab - the weather helped of course. Luke finished school at lunch time Friday, we paced the van and off we went to Derbyshire! But I felt lousy - full of cold, a sore throat and really not wanting to have to think about everything not least an 11 year old wanting to take electronics which I wouldn't be able to charge up!
I had 4 runs each day, Sat, Sun, Mon & Wed (Tuesday was a day off - just as well as it was hot hot hot!!)
First run Sat was E'ed - a jumping run. Next two runs were agility and 10 faults for the dog walk (the same old same old & so frustrating!) & one other obstacle but he was quick. Next another jumping and we won! Our first Grade 3 win!
To add to the complication of being at the right ring at the right time I was also Ring Managing for the first time in the afternoon. It was easier than I thought and the judge was lovely. In fact this was the ring I had my win in ... I had left my run until last so I could concentrate on the ring managing job and Dylan just flew round a super course. Very happy girl & dog!!
Sunday saw the same start as Sat - jumping E-ed & then 2 agility runs - 5 faults on each (dog walk) - now I am getting even more frustrated as Dylan's times were great! Then we had another jumping round which was a super clear. A Combined grade 1-4 jumping and we were pipped for first by 0.2 sec!! so a second place!
I need a plan for the dog walk! I woke up Monday thinking I will run to the front of the dog walk and face him - that'll slow him down!! Or I'll try crossing behind him, which we had done once in training and that would be different so might get him thinking differently!
Monday ... started really badly. 2 jumping runs both rubbish! Perhaps I didn't want this badly enough! Time to go in the practice ring because I really wanted a rosette today and that wasn't going to happen with a 5 fault dog walk! Even in the practice ring it wasn't working. Then a nice person (the judge from Sat) said I was rewarding Dylan for missing the contact and I was bending forward making Dylan go faster and so jumping off! She used a riding analogy in that leaning forward makes you go faster and sitting back slows you down. I need to stay upright and not lean! I tried another minute in the practice ring, and made sure I didn't reward the failures. He didn't really get it & I was was out of puff & coughing!
So onto the real agility run CG1-4. As I walked the ring thinking about what to do I realised that I often face the A frame contact (& Dylan gets that) so this facing thing might work & would keep me more upright. The Dog walk was at he beginning & I decided I would cross behind Dylan & see what happened - nothing to lose really! Well it worked and the rest of the run was good too - A clear round - so happy & to top it all we got 2nd!!
Next agility run, same ring but now the dog walk is at the end (this is often worse as Dylan wants to rush home for a finish!). I knew I would have to run fast to beat him to the end, but I was determined to try! It was tunnel, dog walk, so I should have time! He ran well up to the tunnel, through that - perfect - I legged it up the side of the dog walk and then faced Dylan as he belted down - all the way way down to the bottom (yeh!), I turned and sent him over the last jump! 28.786 sec for an agility run - that was quick! YES we won! CG1-3 -
Grade 4 comes in 25 days from the win, so we still have plenty of shows to practice the new dog walk technique & think of what to do when I can't out run him!!
Tuesday - day off - We went to Cannock Chase for a walk!
Wednesday - let's practice the new technique - it worked well in both agility runs, but I messed up some jumping combinations, but was happy. The first run was a complicated jumping CG1-4, with a start where Dylan jumped a fence and then had to be lead away from the one directly in front across the front of a tunnel, missing the next jump and onto the one after that ... Dylan was superb! We ran the fastest time and was only faulted because there was 7 weaves (an odd number is unusual and I had to poke Dylan back through the last weave) ... we came second after the only clear which was still out of the 38 second time limit. We did it in 34.017 - usually jumping runs are quicker, but this was very spread out & complicated!
So Dylan is a star!
and a superdog (thanks to Sian Mapp for this photo)
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