Avon Indoor Agility Show

Well the show was mixed. Not great in terms of clear rounds (Barney only got 1 clear and Pebbles 2 out of 4) but was good in terms of seeing some of the training we have been doing come to fruition.

Firstly, Pebbles who as a velcro dog has been doing lots os work on trying to work away from me and in front of me more. Although not huge changes in her runs for those watching they were huge for me. On saying "Go tunnel" previously I would have had to go right up to the tunnel entrance with her, yesterday she shot off in front on her own. Fantastic! Also she did 2 rear crosses, 1 on each side. I worked hard on trying to stay behind her and let her go over the jump before I stopped. It worked in that she did the jump but each time she did a spin before turning the right way.

Her runs in summary were:
1. Clear in graded agility. This one I was very tentative and really trying to get her to work in front of me. As a result it was a bit slower than normal so not fast enough for a Grade 7 place.
2. Eliminated in combined 1-7 agility. She knocked the first pole down then preceded to go round the back of a jump instead of taking it from the front. However, fron then on the round was great. Again I was trying to get her to stay out in front and work away from me more. She did this really well and it was a lot faster than the first round.
3. Eliminated in Graded jumping. This was handler error in that I pulled her through between 2 jumps but must have pushed her back too soon and she went back through the jumps and back jumped. Again from this point on she was really starting to work well and really going forward on the gos.
4. Clear in combined 1-7 jumping. This was a nice open course, good for practising her working out on her own. She did this really well. 9th place - yippee!

In summary I was really pleased with her progress although there is still a lot of work to be done and more still to come. And we definitely need work on slaloms and pull/push throughs!!

For Barney it was his contacts. I didn't know what to expect here since we are only part of the way through the dog walk training and we only did a last minute session on the A frame last weekend. Here's how his runs went:

1. Eliminated graded agility. He went right over a jump instead of straight into the tunnel. I have to say this is one of Barney's biggest failures and he did a lot of this last year. Although this time it was pointed out by a friend that had my right arm out and sent him over the jump. As for the contacts he did both but they were very, very slow. I did my 2 "go" commands and treid to work him on the down plank but he was looking to stop.
2. Eliminated combined 1-7 agility by doing the same mistake as above (this part of the course was the same). This time I did not put my arm out! However, all was well with the world because he did something amazing in this round. His dog walk was much better than the first round, still got the contact but went faster on the down plank. And as for his A frame it was amazing. The first time ever he has done a 'proper' a frame. He went up quickly, down quickly and stopped dead at the bottom with 2 feet off and looked at me for the release command. He shot off once I said "go". I was so excited and thrilled. I think with more work and starting to blend the training elements together things will really turn around on the contacts next year :-)
3. 5 faults graded jumping. I pushed him round a jump instead of pushing him out then pulling him over the jump.
4. Clear in combined 1-7 jumping. He did a lovely round apart from my rubbish handling which slowed us down.

In summary, so pleased with his progress on the contacts but again more work to be done. Sames as Pebbles I need to do some work with him on slaloms and pull throughs. One of the most noticeable things was that he didn't really listen to me when the course involved tighter turns. He liked to carry on a do what he thought was the right thing. I think this has a lot to do with us working on getting him to run on more open courses and the concentrating on the dog walk and not much on jump combinations.

So that's it now until Dundee show at the beginning of April. I am really looking forward to the outdoor season and getting the caravan out again.