Paws Agility Show

This weekend we went to Paws agility show. Saturday was not a good day for Maisie, she was not running well at the start of the day. She actually seemed to be measuring each jump (very unlike her) and it was a real effort to get her around the course. I could just feel that she wasn't right. This is so out of character for her that I immediately pulled her out of the rest of her runs. I was worried that she might be relapsing with her shaker syndrome, or that she had hurt her back. So she was on complete rest for the rest of the day and we have called the osteopath to have a look at her on Monday. Even though she wasn't running well she still got 5th in that one run (small jumping).

Paul had a much better Saturday and managed to get 4th in the Collie Jumping and 2nd in the Large Pairs. Slight handling errors and contacts meant he didn't go clear in any other runs, but he was really pleased with how Scooby worked. He is listening well and Paul is learning how to handle him. This time last year it was a different story!

On Sunday Maisie seemed to be much better, so I let her do the second run of the day. I made sure that some friends were watching and if they saw any sign of her not running correctly they were going to stop me. Luckily she seemed to be back to normal. We placed 3rd in the small steeplechase and 3rd in the Take your own line agility. I cannot think what it was that could have been wrong on Saturday. Even though she seems ok now we are still getting the Osteopath to look at her. Better safe than sorry!!

Paul had another fairly good day and got 3rd in the Collie agility and 4th in the Take Your Own Line Agility. I did feel sorry for him as when he gets into competition Scooby can develop a start line wait issue! In the steeplechase Paul set him up, asked him to wait and Scooby broke straight over the first jump and because Paul wasn't yet in position, followed his body direction and took the wrong jump! E'd within two jumps!! The timer was stopped and he ran from the start again anyway. What made me feel so sorry for him was that he then went around clear in a lovely fast time! Oh well, start line waits in competition are something to work on then!!

Paul and Scooby also got judges choice on the Sunday, as they had improved so much since the last time that the judge had seen them run.

Smudge had a good time strutting around at the side of the ring and playing with lots of puppies - one papillon in particular that he took a real liking to!! I did find that he was getting frustrated though. Previously at shows he has not really known how much fun the dogs are having when they run, so he hasn't been too bothered. This time he was desperate to have a turn, and couldn't understand why he wasn't getting a go! He made sure the whole place knew about it by barking his disappointment at full volume at every opportunity!! I did take the opportunity to practise his waits in an exciting enviroment and also to keep him tugging with me, so Smudge did get some attention!

I am now getting ready for my trip with Smudge this week. Bit nervous about taking him on the plane to be honest. I have horrible visions of me ending up in Heathrow as planned and Smudge ending up in Australia or somewhere!! Hopefully it will all go smoothly and he won't be too upset by the plane!

Progress review

Now that we have got back into training, and Smudge has all the 'basics' under his belt, we are starting to see the areas that still need work. So I thought it would be a good idea to write down the main things I have noticed, to give ourselves a clearer plan of attack!

Start Line Routine
This has been going fairly well and on Saturday he did some lovely waits whilst I really tested him (running off, making arm movements other than his release signal, shouting funny words etc). I was pleased with how well he responded.

BUT, (there is always a but!)........when he is in an unusual place and he is really hyped they can start to break down. On Sunday at the sand school he was the maddest sheltie ever and kept creeping forward, and occasionally breaking them altogether! Great practice to see what he would be like in a show enviroment, so lots of work in very exciting situations for us!

Working confidently ahead of me and allowing me to cross behind
Ok, I will admit that this is MY weak area. I have a horrible tendency to try and work alongside my dogs. Maisie works ahead if I ask her to go on, but I will admit that it took time for her to develop this and she kind of taught herself. Smudge will need this from the word go as he is quick, so must concentrate more on sending him away from me down long straights. He is now starting to pick up jumps on his own, and I am getting fair distance between us. This is great as I am not having to 'guide' him as much, I can trust him to pick up the obstacle.

Weaves
Entry....fantastic, Exit.......hmmmmm. (isn't it supposed to be the other way around!?)
Basically his entry is great, but he has just started to pop out of the last two poles. Easily fixed (I hope) so we have gone back a step and slanted the last two poles again, just until he gets the hang of 12!! Di also pointed out that I had stopped sending him on ahead of me and was again falling into the trap of always being either ahead or parallel, so back to lots of send aways through the weaves it is.

Contacts
Going well. Again if he is very excited they can slip, but he is still very young. The only thing I noticed on Saturday was that when someone walked alongside the dog walk (as the judge would do in the ring) he stodd stock still and stared at them! He wasn't nervous, but he just looked at them as if to say 'what on earth do you think you are doing!?' Obviously this is something he will need to get used to! We had a similar experience at Christmas when we trained with numbers out for the first time. He gave them a real telling off! Anything different and he has to get involved!

Jumping up at me
Of all the areas that I have identified, this is one that will stop. NOW! Smudge has never jumped up at me, he has always looked ahead at what he was doing. Very recently he has started to turn back at me when we finish and bite my sleeves. Big no no! But it is my fault. Paul has pointed out that I have his toy/tuggy in my hand rather than on the floor, so straight away he turns to me in excitement, and if I don't happen to have the toy out......well my sleeves are the next best thing! Easily fixed (will always leave the toy on the floor at the end) but if I hadn't identified it now I could have had a horrible 'sleeve biter' on my hands!

Phew,......well that seems like a lot. Although I have pointed out all the bad bits, he really is coming along nicely! Anyone that knows me will know how much of a perfectionist I am, so I am probably being over critical! But at least I know my weak areas so that I can work on them. We are going to England next week for some training, so hopefully having a clear idea of our weaknesses will help us whilst we are there! It is our last training night tonight before we go (there is none at the weekend as we have a show).....so lots to think about!

Smudge is finally becoming a teenager!!

On Sunday we went to a friends sand school to set up the same sequence from Saturday. Unfortunately we didn't have a tunnel so we had to adapt it slightly and use the A Frame instead. Didn't really work as the A Frame makes it a totally different exercise! The A Frame slowed the dogs down. It was the speed they built up in the tunnel that created the problem!! It made me realise how differently a sequence can run just by changing one obstacle though! Maisie was her usual reliable self. If we get faulted it is always my fault. I really need to think about giving her commands early enough. She is quick, so if I am a second late she will be over the wrong jump. I have been putting so much effort into Smudge, and have started to just rely on Maisie getting it right (as she normally does!) but with Crufts coming up I need to really put the work in with her again.

There were a few things that I wanted to do with Smudge that we haven't done for a while. The slalom was one of them. I am fairly pleased as he is fairly tight to the wings and is running quite a good straight line. The first time (where I recall him over the first jump) he is wide. That is totally down to me and I must work harder there. The other times I am sending him over the first jump, and I am happier with those, much straighter and tighter! I need to set him up at a better angle to start with, then he would be even straighter I think. After this we did some pull throughs, then some combinations of both....pull throughs one way and slalom the other. Couldn't get those on film as the battery ran out! I just need to sort out my handling! The poles are down as I had a slight worry about one of his legs. In the morning he had been lame for about 2 minutes when he got up. Although I was fairly sure it had just been stiff I didn't see the point of jumping him just in case. He was still learning the principles, no harm in lowering the jumps! Luckily he has been fine since. I am just a natural worrier! At the end there is a really short clip of Scooby. Doesn't show a lot, but you can see his contact which has improved loads! Paul has been working hard on that!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Well as the title said, Smudge is becoming a proper teenager! A friend of ours brought her entire bitch up to training, and boy did Smudge suddenly find it difficult to concentrate! He has never done this before and it was very interesting to see his reaction. His nose was permanently in the air, he wasn't really as focused on me as normal and he kept coming around jumps! His brains certainly weren't in his head if you I know what I mean!! It was a good experience for him though as he is going to have to learn to work with these distractions around. I was pleased that he did stay with me and carried on, I could just tell that he wasn't 100% on me.

This weekend I also tried removing his target from the bottom of the contacts and asked him to target without it there. On the dog walk it worked fine, but on the A frame he jumped it. Perhaps I have rushed this, so the target is going back out for a while. Trying to run before we can walk I think. I guess if you don't try, you don't know!

I have finally managed to get back out walking proper distances again. Must make an effort to get fit again. Running is a major effort at the moment!!!

A totally different dog to run!

Today was our first day back to club training since Christmas. We started with some weave sequences and I was really pleased with Smudges entries. I haven't yet been able to work out how to upload courses to the blog, which is a shame as I would have liked to put up the second sequence that we did. At first sight it was a really simple exercise, but it showed me how differently I am going to have to handle Smudge over tricky areas! Maisie is a fairly short striding dog, and I can normally beat her on a straight run. This means I can get into position to do turns fairly easily. Smudge is totally different! He is so long striding, and much faster over the ground. I need to run him like Scooby! He really needs me to direct him from behind as I just can't get there in time! I will try to get the section on here somehow as it is a good one to demonstrate what I mean. Paul gave us a really hard time when we were running the small dogs over it. And I was waiting to do the same to him when it was his turn, but I have to eat my words and admit that he did it perfectly! Maybe I will listen next time......I say maybe! Later on I asked my class to run the same sequence and watching them I have thought of even more handling possibilities! So I am setting up exactly the same thing tomorrow and will try some new things! Thats why I enjoy training other people, you learn so much from watching and helping other handlers and different dogs.

All this is not much good if you can't see what it was though is it!?

I also noticed how unfit I have become over Christmas! Its amazing how quickly you can go downhill! Must try harder!

Finally Back to training!!!!

Well as the title says we have managed to get back to training....at last!!! Although I have to admit that over the last week I have been glad not to have to go out as I have been fairly sick. I was intending to start my crufts fitness regime (haha) this week, but between me being ill and Maisie eating a christmas cake (long story!) its fallen behind....a lot!! Anyway, this week it will be different! We are back into the full swing of things!

Last Saturday we went to a friends who kindly let us use her sand school to train in. It was great to get back into training with Smudge and he enjoyed himself!! His contacts are coming along really nicely. I have worked on getting him really excited about targeting at home, and it seems to have translated onto the contacts...so far! I am also not holding him in position for too long, so as to hopefully make it more exciting and give him a really quick release. I am pleased with his release from the contact position as he really powers off which is what I had hoped we would achieve! The 'creep' that he developed at one stage seems to have disappeared after the extra target training - phew!

The one area that I noticed where he was not as strong as he has been, was in going on ahead of me and allowing me to cross behind. I suspect this is because I have been doing so much trick training and close obedience work, he is getting a bit too focused on looking at the handler. He was looking at me far too much for my liking! So its back to send aways and cross behind basics for us!!

Also took some of my 'sick leave' to carry on trick training with them all. Smudge has now progressed onto 'commando crawling' and marching with his back legs (well we are working on it!) Maisie is finally getting there with the elephant trick, although she is so frantic that it is hard to get her calm down enough to concentrate! A friend also pointed out to me that perhaps I should teach this trick to Scooby. It is great for making the dogs 'back end aware' and Scooby doesn't even seem to realise that he actually has a back end at all!! He is notorious for knocking one pole down. I don't tend to do much training with Scooby in the house, as he is Pauls dog, but I might help him out with this one. Then when he keeps poles up, I can take the credit! Haha!

No training!

Well what a start to the year! We were supposed to go back to training on Saturday, but unfortunately most clubs in all disciplines have now shut down as we have an outbreak of kennel cough doing the rounds. What a pain!! It is such a shame as I was dying to get back to club with Smudge! Although I have some equipment that I can use, its just not the same! Still, cannot be helped, and I'd rather that than any of my dogs came down with kennel cough. They are living a very isolated life at the moment my poor dogs!

On the bright side we did manage the metal base weaves this weekend! Hooray! A lightbulb suddenly went on, he found his stride and yay! he was weaving just the same as on my set. Phew! I often remind people to just be patient, take their time and not to panic.......really must remember that myself!!! Now I will work on proofing his entries and building even more speed through them. He enjoys them (you can tell by the barking!) so that is a great thing as I want him to find weaving fun. I hate it when dogs get to the weaves and you can almost see them thinking, "oh no, not these damn poles again!". Fun equals fast - hopefully!

I also spent some time on trick training at home, which he loves. We have recently mastered 'being ashamed' (hiding his nose with his paw), the infamous elephant trick (you can't help but notice it on lots of blogs!), walking tall and have started polishing his retrieve. Blimey thats a lot! Have taken the opportunity to teach Maisie a few new things as well, so we have started the elephant trick with her too.

Booked my holidays today and the boats to England for various trips this year. So far I am away in March for Crufts, June for Thames and August for KC International and DIN. Can't wait!!

Not a good start!

Oh dear, not such a good start to my blog then - no updates since November! To be honest not that much has been going on (its not an excuse - honestly!) Agility pretty much shuts down over Christmas and New Year to give both the dogs and handlers a rest! Instead we have been doing lots of lovely extra long walks with them, and lots of other bits of training that I don't get time to do normally.

The only one I have kept doing a bit of agility with over the break is Smudge. His training has been coming along nicely. I have been training his contacts using a target, and this seems to be working well. If I am being really picky, I would like him driving down to them a bit faster and with more determination, so that is my aim when we go back to training. I obviously haven't taught him that well enough yet! I must do some work on the target again at home with the clicker to get a firmer touch. Its great to look back at video and find things that I can really improve on. The one below was taken when he was just a bit younger. After looking at this video (and with some help from friends - you know who you are!) I have improved on this a lot (well at least I hope I have!).

His weaves have also been coming along. I decided to train Smudge using the V weaves, running ahead to a target and he has picked them up nice and quickly. Each day I have been taking my weaves to a different location and practicing them just a few times. My whole aim has been to get him weaving confidently ahead of me, and totally independantly from the start. So far, so good - I hope! One thing I learnt from Maisie is that having to be near your dog whilst they weave can make for some difficult handling areas, not to mention being slower. Fingers crossed he will have a good entry as you can see he seems to have that worked out. However, we do have one very small problem.........my weaves do not have a metal base (they are the cheap stick in the ground ones!) Now, when Smudge weaves on a normal set, he finds it hard to get his feet right. I can only guess that it is the metal base putting him off. Lesson learnt for the future.....use a set with a metal base from the start! Another training aim to work on then! For his age I am happy with his weaving so far. I feel that he still has a lot more speed in him yet, but I am sure that will come with confidence. Better to be slower and accurate to start I suppose!? Link to video is below. I can't quite work out how to embed it yet, so if anyone has any tips please advise! Have tried copy/pasting the embeded code into the post but I just get an error message! Grrrrrr.

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=4a931645b90e4871e6319a&skin_id=801&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Before christmas we were working on lots of jumping exercises, trying to get him working ahead of me and allowing me to cross behind him, as well as his left and right commands. All in all I am really enjoying my time training with him, and I think he is too. He is really quick to learn, so I hope I will do him justice!!

My only worry with Smudge is his height. At the moment he is borderline (and I mean BORDERLINE) small/medium. If he ends up in medium I think he will stuggle long term ,and I hate the thought of what it will do to his health in the long run. Still, no point worrying about it until he has been properly measured. He is 15 months on the 11th January, so D day will be shortly after that! Fingers crossed that he gets into small.

This morning it was very cold and dark at 7am when I walked, although it seems that once again the snow will miss Jersey. We never get snow - its so unfair!!!!

To finish I just couldn't resist adding these Christmas pics (even if it is a few days late - its not twelth night yet!) There was no way on this earth that Maisie was posing with a Christmas hat on! Worryingly I think the plaits kinda suit Smudge?! Hehe!!!