I had 2 days at Shuttleworth College this week at the RVA KC show. Yesterday was not good as Dylan seemed to have no energy and neither did I! Note to self: Don't book a day of agility after driving back from a family camping weekend in Dorset!! Anyway after a good night's sleep and normal food rations the second day has proved brilliant ...
We are working on the dog walk contact in training and it is noticeable that Dylan has to shorten his stride as he comes to the end to make sure he doesn't jump off. I had practised running with him and then shortening my stride and getting him to do the same and then stopping .... on the flat of course but just before his run! In the ring both time I tried the same thing as we came to the end of the dog walk and hey presto Dylan ran all the way down! Result!
So after a couple of 5 faults in the first agility (A frame contact apparently) and then the Steeplechase (all jumps and tunnels in a flowing course) - knocked a fence down!, we had 2 more runs in the afternoon. Jumping was first and it was just beginning to rain. Nice course with twists and turns - Dylan was fab, helping me out and we won that comfortably with 2 seconds to spare! Next was the agility graded into 1 and 2. We are running at grade 2 until the weekend when we will be grade 3 due to agility win a month beforehand! It was really wet now ....
On the starting line waiting for the scribe to say ok ... I wanted Dylan to wait as the second jump was a wall (he hadn't done a wall before) but wait wasn't an option .... over the jump, wall & jump and then he was going to run past the weaves to the tunnel ... I called his name and he stopped dead, looked and then I sent him to the weaves and the tunnel ... a quick (not easy in the wet muddiness!) turn to jump and seesaw then round right on 3 jumps to the A frame ... good contact and round right again to 3 jumps and another then left to another jump and the dog walk .... running fast to keep up and got to the end of the dog walk stamped to shorten my stride and watched Dylan to the same looking at me ... what next ... go on I said pointed forward to the last jump and then slipped & fell ... still commanding Dylan to go on ... he briefly looked at me as if to say are you okay and then jumped the last jump as I rolled past it!! --- mudd up my legs and bum!! But a clear round and despite having to call him back for the weave entry 2 seconds faster than the next clear ... result - 1st place!
So at the weekend we have Chipping Norton - our first grade 3 show ... wish us luck ...
We are working on the dog walk contact in training and it is noticeable that Dylan has to shorten his stride as he comes to the end to make sure he doesn't jump off. I had practised running with him and then shortening my stride and getting him to do the same and then stopping .... on the flat of course but just before his run! In the ring both time I tried the same thing as we came to the end of the dog walk and hey presto Dylan ran all the way down! Result!
So after a couple of 5 faults in the first agility (A frame contact apparently) and then the Steeplechase (all jumps and tunnels in a flowing course) - knocked a fence down!, we had 2 more runs in the afternoon. Jumping was first and it was just beginning to rain. Nice course with twists and turns - Dylan was fab, helping me out and we won that comfortably with 2 seconds to spare! Next was the agility graded into 1 and 2. We are running at grade 2 until the weekend when we will be grade 3 due to agility win a month beforehand! It was really wet now ....
On the starting line waiting for the scribe to say ok ... I wanted Dylan to wait as the second jump was a wall (he hadn't done a wall before) but wait wasn't an option .... over the jump, wall & jump and then he was going to run past the weaves to the tunnel ... I called his name and he stopped dead, looked and then I sent him to the weaves and the tunnel ... a quick (not easy in the wet muddiness!) turn to jump and seesaw then round right on 3 jumps to the A frame ... good contact and round right again to 3 jumps and another then left to another jump and the dog walk .... running fast to keep up and got to the end of the dog walk stamped to shorten my stride and watched Dylan to the same looking at me ... what next ... go on I said pointed forward to the last jump and then slipped & fell ... still commanding Dylan to go on ... he briefly looked at me as if to say are you okay and then jumped the last jump as I rolled past it!! --- mudd up my legs and bum!! But a clear round and despite having to call him back for the weave entry 2 seconds faster than the next clear ... result - 1st place!
So at the weekend we have Chipping Norton - our first grade 3 show ... wish us luck ...
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