Training

After Agility Club we went for some training with Bernadette. As usual I know have lots of major things to think about!! I have realised that I need to be much more analytical when I am training and think about the finer details much more! Needless to say I have pages of notes to go through now! We worked on speeding up his dog walk again as that is costing him so much time in the ring. We also did a few exercises that will help him to work at more of a distance and drive on ahead of me, and a few to help teach him to collect his body ready for 'out of nowhere!' weave entries. The great thing is that Bernadette gives me lots of excercises and ideas that I can take home with me.





I have a theory about the cloth tunnel. He swept wide around both of the cloth tunnels at Ag Club, which I couldn't understand as he has never had a problem with it. After thinking about it, last weekend I was working on moving his reward further away from the actual contact point. We had an A Frame, cloth, then jump. I was trying to reward him after the jump, but he kept coming around the cloth to get to the toy - so perhaps I inadvertantly taught him to go around the cloth!? Still, easily solved and we did lots of cloth tunnels at Bernadettes which he did with no problem at all. So fingers crossed its a temporary blip!





Bernadette also measured Mannix for us again, and he was 15.5 inches. Yikes!! He is now 23 weeks old, so is slightly on the large side! Hopefully he will end up at the top end of medium. But we can't wait for him to get a bit more coat, at the moment he looks really scruffy!!





Our journey home was horrendous. My legs have still not returned to normal and my stomach still thinks it is on a rollercoaster! I hate ferry travel at the best of times, but honestly this was bad. Can't believe I have to get back on one in just seven days time!! The things I do just to go to agility shows! Is it worth it I ask myself!?!?!?........of course!!

Agility Club

Thursday afternoon we set off for the Agility club show. Sara and Steve kindly let us stay with them on the Thursday night - although I doubt we will be invited again after some of our dogs antics!! Whenever we get together in the same house there seems to be trouble, last time I seem to remember a chair getting broken - this time it was a T shirt and some of Steves prize onions!! Where they live was great to walk the dogs - although I am not keen on English cows. They are massive compared to our Jerseys, and pretty scary when they are chasing you (I will leave you to imagine what happened!)

Friday was my birthday and we headed up to the showground at lunchtime. Anita had really kindly bought me two bottles of champagne and Charlie the caterpillar. So we sat in the sun and had a lovely bbq, followed by cake. Yum yum. Thanks Anita!! A lovely surprise!

On Saturday Smudge had three runs. In the G1-3 jumping he ran really wide around the cloth tunnel so picked up a refusal. In his pairs Bertie went first and missed a weave entry (very strange for him!) but it meant that I could use my run as a training round. I decided to push the distance I could get from him and try to handle the whole thing from behind. It worked really well, so I was pleased that I had been brave enough to push it. If Anita had been clear I would have played it safer!! His last run was agility, and I was really pleased with his contacts. We had already won out of Grade 2 at Thames, so had decided that as I was still in Grade 2 at this show I would train all his contacts and hold them in the ring! And he got every one perfectly as he does in training ! Woo hoo! The only downside was that he was starting to creep down them - and this got worse as the weekend went on. Hmmmmmm............. Still, even with creeping and holding them he ended up in 2nd - good boy!

Maisie had a clear in the G1-3 jumping, and a 4th in the Agility. In the pairs she was withTyke (who she hates!). Anita and I had worked out our change over very carefully and it went really smoothly. Maisie went second, and was so riled up by having watch Tyke run that she was like a rocket!! She set off so fast I couldn't believe it was Maisie! Unfortunately her sheer speed in the weaves meant she headbutted the last pole!! So 5F, but never mind - I was just pleased she had enjoyed herself so much!

Scooby had the worst 'nearly' run ever! In his 1-2 agility he was flying. His contacts were spot on, all the poles stayed up. It was fantastic.....until the last pole. Paul visibly relaxed (obviously thinking 'finally!') and Scoobs took the last pole. Still, the difference in him recently is amazing. In his jumping he was a very naughty boy - he decided it was take your own line! So Paul did exactly the right thing and pulled him out of the ring.

On to Sunday and again Smudge had a problem going in the cloth in the jumping. He seems to be sweeping right around it every time, but I have a theory which I will cover in my next post!) His agility was again good, but with creepy contacts - he ended up 3rd. Finally his Olympia run - in this I decided not to say anything to him on the contacts and just see what he did. Well they were much faster! And he flew across them! In fact he was going really well and then just missed his weave entry - what a shame as it felt really good up to that point.

Scooby (or should I say Paul) finally pulled himself together and got a 5th in the G1-3 jumping. The winner of this class was an amazing little collie who completed the course in 18 secs!! Can you believe it!?!

And little Maisie - she got 4th again in the agility and 14th in the jumping. For some reason in the Olympia run she bailed off the see saw. I think her angle onto it just wasn't quite right and she made a jump for it!!

I am really pleased that we did this show as it gave me a really good idea of how Smudge is running in the ring now. So I know what to work on over the next week!!

For some reason I am having problems uploading video to blogger at the moment. Something to do with the file type. Grrrr. When I have time I will sit down and try to figure it out, but for now - no video I am afraid!!

The West Show

We spent Saturday and Sunday at the West Show. Its an outdoor country show, that basically celebrates the agricultural life of Jersey. We were doing an agility display, but it was great to spend time looking at everything else whilst we were there. It was also a really good socialisation experience for Mannix, as there were tractors, shooting, loud music and generally quite a lot of noise!! Luckily he seems pretty bomb proof and wasn't fazed by one single minute of it, not even when the crowds were really big! Fingers crossed he stays this way, as I love have confident dogs! Whilst we were setting up for our display Smudge and Mannix were tied at the side of the ring, and seemed to attract groups of children. Another good experience for him! Smudge loved it too - he has always loved children.

Paul got to drive round in one of the military vehicles on Saturday as they were short of drivers (he is such a child at heart!)

There were two main arena events over the weekend. The first was the Rockwood Dog Display team, who did obedience, flyball, 'agility', and freestyle demonstrations. I have to say I really wasn't sure about this, I'm reserving judgement!! The hoops you can see below were on fire, and I certainly wouldn't have wanted to send my dogs through there - even if they were trained for it!! They also had a dog doing a fire retrieve (basically through a hoop of fire, picking up a dumbell on fire) which the poor dog just wouldn't do. I think its great that they are trying to encourage people to do different activities with their dogs, but it just didn't appeal to me as a display. And I was really disappointed to see at least one dog wearing what looked like a choke chain to me. Having said that, the flyball and freestyle were real crowd pleasers, and I hope it does encourage people to go have fun with their dogs!

However, for me the highlight of the weekend was The Rockin Horse Stunt Riders. This was such a fantastic display, not only of horsemanship but also a demonstration of the bond humans and animals can have. The riders were obviously experts as what they did, but the bond between each rider and horse was obvious. Each time the riders came close to the cheering crowd, they shouted 'its for the horses, we couldn't do it without them!' which I though was really lovely. The horses health and wellbeing clearly came first. As well as the actual riding, the performance was also very strong visually (as an ex performing arts student I notice these things!) It was very 'Matrix' like in theme, with modern music and was structured in a way that kept you watching to the very end. It would have appealed to a much wider audience than a lot of other horse acts. We saw the performance three times over the weekend, and each was really well done. If ever you get the chance to go and see them, make sure you do! http://www.rockinhorseproductions.co.uk/.

GSD Agility Show - and a wedding!!

Thanks for all your advice/suggestions on the contacts - greatly appreciated!


Saturday was the GSD Agility show. I decided to use the agility course as a training run and really hold Smudge on his contacts - which I am pleased to say he did really well! I took the time to stop and verbally praise him before he was released. He was still in the 4-off position, but it was the first time that his performance in the ring has been consistent with his performance in training. So I guess that is progress?!? At the moment I am swaying towards 'if it aint broke don't fix it!' but that may change. Still thinking long and hard about this one! The only problem we had at the show was missed weave entries (again!). This was totally my fault as I tend not to tell him to weave early enough. Slapped wrists for me! I did video some of his runs, but blogger is doing something weird and won't let me upload video at the moment. Will add it later!! Scooby had three 'nearly' runs. Each time he took a pole, but it was always Pauls positioning that caused it. That will come in time! They are just putting into practise the new things Scooby has learnt since coming back from Lesley, so it is bound to take them a while to iron out the creases! The one thing Paul really kicked himself for though was entering the agility. His contacts were a mess, and now he wishes he hadn't entered. He has changed the way he is doing those as well, and really was not ready for the ring yet. I think it knocked both Scooby and Pauls confidence, so lots of work to do on those now!


We didn't enter all of the classes as we had to leave early - for a wedding! My brother was getting married (how inconsiderate - scheduling your wedding for the same day as an agility show!) HaHa!! So we left the show, dashed home to get changed and went to the theatre! Yes I did say theatre, as the wedding was held in the Jersey Opera House http://www.jerseyoperahouse.co.uk/. This is a beautful theatre which has connections to our family dating back to 1958. My brothers and I were brought up in and around this place, so it had extra special significance. My brother who got married still has connections with it as he works there as a stage technician! It was the first ever wedding and reception to take place there, and although I did wonder what it would be like, the setting was really unique and it worked very well.

Me and my other brothers. I am the oldest of 5, and there is a big gap between all of us! The youngest at the front was page boy at my wedding - he was tiny then but he is starting to look so grown up!

Contacts!!

During my training with Lesley, she felt my problem with Smudge missing contacts in the ring was caused by too much reliance on body language. Basically, although I was getting good distance from him, he was still stopping and releasing on physical cues. Which of course makes total sense now that someone has pointed it out to me!! So as soon as I went in the ring, under pressure my body language changed, and ta-da........a contact issue!!

Anyway, since we have come back we have worked really hard on proofing the behaviour more. And so far it seems to be working. BUT (isn't there always a but!) Smudge is now stopping in a 4-off position. We originally trained his contacts using a target in a 2020, then backchained both the dog walk and a frame. Now he is stopping and targeting, but in a 4-off!! He is almost still on the contact (his tail is still on it anyway!). Paul thinks he finds it difficult to stop at speed in a 2020, and to be honest my gut feeling is that he is right, and Smudge is just adopting the most comfortable position for himself. He is getting the contact at speed every time, and waiting for a verbal release. So my question to you blog readers is - any experiences/advice to share on this?!?!?! This started because a few times I could see he had really tried hard to stop, but had been going so fast he overshot. Silly me gave him 10/10 for effort and still rewarded him. So now I think he thinks this is acceptable and it is easier for him. Do I let this be his contact position? Or by reducing his criteria slightly am I heading into murky waters?? My worry is that the 4-off will start to creep forward. How then will I be able to correct him as without the target there, where should he stop? As far as he is concerned 4 feet on the floor is four feet on the floor - even if he has leapt from the top!!

Hmmmm, questions, questions. Good to get it down on paper and it is something I am going to think long and hard about! We have a show this weekend, so it will be interesting to test his ring performance. And I will film it!!