Well, I have just managed to recover from the first show of the year at Dundee! I was exhausted yesterday. It is a shock to the system doing 2 full days in a row and setting up and dismantling the caravan. It is always the same first trip though!
So what of the agility? Well Saturday was a great day for both Barney and Pebbles with signs that the training done over the winter was paying off.
First up Barney went clear in all 3 rounds of the day which was great. He opened with a combined 6-7 agility which was to be the first test of his contacts. He did a great A-Frame, really fast with a great 'stop' at the bottom - really great! His dog walk was ok and he did get his finish position but he did take a while to get there! More work required in competition there I think! But still really pleased he is getting the idea that he has to stop in his 'finish' position.
He then placed 2nd in the combined 5-7 jumping which was a great result for him and one of his best in a combined class. His round was nice and clear on what was quite a tricky course with a lot of twists and turns. He then placed 2nd in his final grade 6 jumping which was good. Again a nice clear but he can still work on his speed! Barney definitely likes to go at his own pace and can be quite lazy sometimes!!
Pebbles opened with a lovely clear in the combined 6-7 agility, placing 6th which I was really pleased with. I thought she really took on board the working ahead of me and certainly drove to the tunnel and weave entries really well.
She finished 3rd in the combined 5-7 jumping in what I think was one of her best ever rounds to date. She flowed beautifully on a really twisty course and drove forward and ahead. Lovely!
She finished with a another clear in the grade 7 jumping but wasn't fast enough to place. Again I was happy with the way she was working forwards. Malcolm said he saw a big improvement.
Then came Sunday.........!! Not such a good day at all. We started with a combined 5-7 agility for both Barney and Pebbles and the see saw in this course caused all the problems of the day. The see saw was positioned on a slope so it seemed to 'bounce' on touching the ground which was fine for the bigger dogs but for Pebbles this meant it 'bounced' just as she jumped off the end and it hit her in the chest. I did not notice it at the time but Malcolm saw it clearly and said it was quite a big jolt and gave her a real shock. As a result she started yipping at me round the whole course from the see saw onwards and stopped working ahead. She stopped as soon as I stopped at any jump and ended up stopping and yipping at me at a few jumps she would normally have driven forwards over. Not having realised about the see saw incident I was struggling to handle her since it was so different to the way she was working the day before. It was very frustrating although made perfect sense once Malcolm explained what had happened.
The dreaded see saw also seemed to claim another victim with Claire's Islay squealing just before the jump that followed the see saw. First we thought it must have been her hips or a sore leg but afterwards on reflection it makes more sense the 'bounce' might have jolted her too and caused her hip pain. It certainly seems too much of a coincidence that it happened straight after the see saw.
This was only confirmed after Barney ran the same course. Everything went well until the dog walk which came further into the course than the dreaded see saw. On going up the first plank as normal immediately on reaching the start of the middle plank he started doing a very slow see saw type crawl, as if he was waiting for it to tip and was bracing himself. He did this all the way along the middle and last plank before leaping over the bottom as if in fright. Aaaaaaarrrrggghhh, just as we were making progress. It leads me to think he got a 'bounce' on the see saw and didn't like it either and didn't want the same to happen on the similar looking dog walk plank! I am so annoyed and so hope this does not affect his dog walk in future after all the work we have put in it would be so disheartening. I just hope I can get a few sessions in on the full size dog walk and see saw at training before the next show.
Pebbles did another 2 jumping rounds. Both of these she yipped her way round and again refused jumps. I was so disappointed that our progress had been affected by something out of our control. I will just have to work her in the garden and at training again to try and move past this setback.
Barney finished with a clear in his last jumping and placed 2nd in grade 6 jumping. A really good result and a good note to finish on.
It had been a long weekend with the last round on Sunday not until 6pm!!!
Lots more training now before the Kingdom of Fife show in 3 weeks.
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Agility Training Update
It has been a while since I have written about agility but that is because there has been little to report. No competitions, just training in the run up to the summer season.
So what have been working on in training all this time?! I have spent the winter really trying to get Pebbles to work away from me for 2 main reasons. First, to try and get her to go faster, I always felt she was just going at my pace and not running forward as fast as she could. Second, to try and get her to run in front of me to allow me to cross behind and not necessarily have to be at each obstacle for her to do it.
I feel that things have gone really well although whether anything will transfer to competitions remains to be seen! Although for me to just be able to cross behind and send her in front will make a huge difference. It will give me much more flexibility around the course. I have put together a little video clip of Pebbles for you to watch. As you can see she is definitely working in front of me which she has never done before. There are still some bits that don't always flow when she looks round to see where I am or looks at me when she is not sure what to do. In the last run I send her over a jump on my right and I cross behind her before sending her into the tunnel. As you can see she does it but she is still not totally moving forward by herself. However, I think all this will come as the season goes on and we put it into practice week in week out. To even be able to do it at all is amazing for her.
As for Barney we have spent all winter working on his dog walk. This has been our failing for the last few years where I have had no confidence that he will get the contact and it is a hit or miss. I have been using the method of getting him to go flat at the bottom of the contact and rewarding him like mad when he is in this position so that he thinks it is a great place to be. It certainly works in the garden and on the lead he does it brilliantly at speed. Off the lead he is still a bit slower but that is coming on too, especially if I put a fast combination before it. Now all I need to do is a couple of training sessions over the full size dog walk and one on the A-Frame which uses the same principle. Here is a short video clip of a few runs on and off the lead.
So what have been working on in training all this time?! I have spent the winter really trying to get Pebbles to work away from me for 2 main reasons. First, to try and get her to go faster, I always felt she was just going at my pace and not running forward as fast as she could. Second, to try and get her to run in front of me to allow me to cross behind and not necessarily have to be at each obstacle for her to do it.
I feel that things have gone really well although whether anything will transfer to competitions remains to be seen! Although for me to just be able to cross behind and send her in front will make a huge difference. It will give me much more flexibility around the course. I have put together a little video clip of Pebbles for you to watch. As you can see she is definitely working in front of me which she has never done before. There are still some bits that don't always flow when she looks round to see where I am or looks at me when she is not sure what to do. In the last run I send her over a jump on my right and I cross behind her before sending her into the tunnel. As you can see she does it but she is still not totally moving forward by herself. However, I think all this will come as the season goes on and we put it into practice week in week out. To even be able to do it at all is amazing for her.
As for Barney we have spent all winter working on his dog walk. This has been our failing for the last few years where I have had no confidence that he will get the contact and it is a hit or miss. I have been using the method of getting him to go flat at the bottom of the contact and rewarding him like mad when he is in this position so that he thinks it is a great place to be. It certainly works in the garden and on the lead he does it brilliantly at speed. Off the lead he is still a bit slower but that is coming on too, especially if I put a fast combination before it. Now all I need to do is a couple of training sessions over the full size dog walk and one on the A-Frame which uses the same principle. Here is a short video clip of a few runs on and off the lead.
I really hope it transfers to competition, although much of that is up to me to be patient as he is learning and to hold him on the contacts. It would be so good to be able to go into agility runs confident that he will get the majority of his contacts. That would be good progress for one year, the speed aspect can come later.
I must say thanks to Kenny, my agility trainer, who I have really enjoyed working with over the winter and who has really pushed me on and provided all the great ideas for training.
So that is where we are with a month until the season starts :-) I am so looking forward to getting the caravan out in 2 weeks and getting it packed up for the first trip. Fingers crossed it doesn't snow at Dundee like it did last year!
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Yummy New Car!
Well today was a very exciting day with lots to report. First, we went to Edinburgh Airport to meet a couple from Weymouth who had flown up from Bournemouth to buy my Honda CRV that they had bought through EBay. The car had been advertised on Auto Trader for a week with no interest and within 2 hours of putting it on EBay we had 3 potential buyers!
Bye bye lovely Honda!
This couple were really nice and wanted the CRV to tow their new caravan. It was a great car and I absolutely loved driving it for the 3.5 years I owned it. I was sorry to see it go and will miss it :-(. It was a perfect car with great space for the dogs, caravan gear and was very reliable.
However, Malcolm and I decided that it was right on the boundaries for safe towing of our caravan. The kerb weight was really not high enough unless we really limited how much we put in the van when towing. And the actual towing limit of the CRV was 1,500kg which was the same as the MPTPLM of our caravan, so it was a close match. After much reading on the matter we decided we needed to upgrade our towing vehicle to make it safer. Considering all we do in the summer is tow a caravan to agility shows or on holiday, for now and the forseeable future we thought it was sensible.
So that began the days and weeks of research into the best towcar for us, weight wise, size wise, cost wise and running cost wise. In the end we kept coming back to the Freelander 2 which gets rave reviews as a car and a towcar.
We got a great deal on one from Taggerts in Motherwell and went to pick it up today after selling the CRV first thing. We have kitted it out with a boot liner and dog guard to keep those pesky mutts in the boot. All we need to organise now is the tow bar which I will do next week at the place near my work.
It was fantastic to drive home, quite a bit bigger than the CRV and much smoother. We love it!
Hello yummy Freelander!
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Cross Trainer
This year I have decided to try and get fit for my general health and for agility this summer. Other previous attempts at exercise have failed - badminton due to injury, boxercise to due class being so far away, and running because I have done enough of that to last me a life time!!
I decided that the only way I would stick at something would be if it was exercise that was effective that I could do at home that would not require too much of a time committment. So the result is we have bought a cross trainer and put it in one of our spare bedrooms. After much indecision and a lot of research we bought a Tunturi machine (see below) which has a 19" stride length. Apparently the longer the stride length the better, especially for my long legs!!
It has a lovely colour monitor which lets you know your heart rate (through a heart rate belt that you wear), your power output and calories burned. There are also numerous programs that you can follow which I will try once I get a bit fitter!!
Anyway, we have now had it for about 3 weeks and it is absolutely brilliant. I do 3 sessions on it a week which only take me 20 minutes each. Malcolm also loves it since it a great form of exercise that he can do with his dodgy knee. In fact, it has even strengthened his knee considerably which is great.
So now all I have to do is keep my 3 session a week up and I should be in good shape for the summer :-)
I decided that the only way I would stick at something would be if it was exercise that was effective that I could do at home that would not require too much of a time committment. So the result is we have bought a cross trainer and put it in one of our spare bedrooms. After much indecision and a lot of research we bought a Tunturi machine (see below) which has a 19" stride length. Apparently the longer the stride length the better, especially for my long legs!!
It has a lovely colour monitor which lets you know your heart rate (through a heart rate belt that you wear), your power output and calories burned. There are also numerous programs that you can follow which I will try once I get a bit fitter!!
Anyway, we have now had it for about 3 weeks and it is absolutely brilliant. I do 3 sessions on it a week which only take me 20 minutes each. Malcolm also loves it since it a great form of exercise that he can do with his dodgy knee. In fact, it has even strengthened his knee considerably which is great.
So now all I have to do is keep my 3 session a week up and I should be in good shape for the summer :-)
Monday, 2 February 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Current Events
Well, it has been a while since I have posted. There has not been a lot going on apart from the normal work, eat and sleep with the usual daily dog walks in between.
Malcolm and I have spent most weekends clearing out the house which had got really cluttered. We have successfully cleared out the garage and two spare bedrooms. This weekend we started on our latest project - creating a room for the gym equipment! We cleared out the wardrobe in our fourth bedroom and put all of the caravan junk (duvets, pillows, throws, rugs, etc) into the empty wardrobe. This cleared out most of the bedroom just leaving the stuff from Malcolm's Auntie June's house. We are going to invite Malcolm's sisters round in a few weeks to see what they want to keep. We will then put the rest in the skip and we will be left with a clear room - yippee!!
We are then going to put Malcolm's exercise bike, currently in the sun lounge, on one side of the bed and, the about to be delivered, cross trainer on the other side. Our plan is to have a stereo and TV set up in the room to provide some entertainment while we exercise. My aim is to to do 3 x 20 minute sessions per week in an attempt to get fit for the agility season ahead. I don't think Malcolm would be too impressed if the cross trainer went unused so I better get on with it!
I have been going to Kenny for agility training fortnightly as usual and have really enjoyed the sessions. For Barney the main focus has been to get fast, consistant contacts, especially on the dog walk. To achieve this we have been getting him to run over the dog walk as fast as possible, without stopping at the end. This aim of this is to get him going over with speed.
Separately I have been working on a new command of 'flat' to get him to lie down flat with 2 front paws off the end of the contact. This has been done by rewarding him like mad in this position, moving away and going back to give more reward before releasing him to another reward on a tub situated away from the end of the contact.
This way he is still working on speed over the dog walk and not worrying about stopping. The 'flat' command has not been used with him going the full length of the dog walk yet so that will come later. I started developing this technique on the A Frame during the last session which went well. The key to this weekends competition is make sure he goes over the dog walk and A Frame quickly. The 'flat' and hitting the contact will come later for the start of the outdoor season.
For Pebbles the key has been to try and get her to work ahead of me going into and through the weave and over jumps. This has been to try and get her to go quicker and to try and get her to work independently of me. This should mean I can send her over jumps and cross behind.
It has been a long process and sometimes she gets it and others times it is like she can't remember from one session to the next! Still a long way to go yet although I have managed to do some rear crosses at the weave and at jumps. The main problem is that having used the ball to reward her for going over jumps ahead of me she is now looking for the ball all the time when we run a course. This means stopping, spinning and barking at me after every jump!! I am going to stick with it though because as Kenny says she has been working the other way with me for 2 years now and it will take a lot of work to change her way of thinking. I just hope she can show a little bit of what we have worked on this weekend. Then it will be back to more hard work with the ball.
This weekend is the last indoor competition of the year. I am just hoping I see a little something from all the training over the last few months. And of course we will go to have lots of fun if nothing else :-)
Malcolm and I have spent most weekends clearing out the house which had got really cluttered. We have successfully cleared out the garage and two spare bedrooms. This weekend we started on our latest project - creating a room for the gym equipment! We cleared out the wardrobe in our fourth bedroom and put all of the caravan junk (duvets, pillows, throws, rugs, etc) into the empty wardrobe. This cleared out most of the bedroom just leaving the stuff from Malcolm's Auntie June's house. We are going to invite Malcolm's sisters round in a few weeks to see what they want to keep. We will then put the rest in the skip and we will be left with a clear room - yippee!!
We are then going to put Malcolm's exercise bike, currently in the sun lounge, on one side of the bed and, the about to be delivered, cross trainer on the other side. Our plan is to have a stereo and TV set up in the room to provide some entertainment while we exercise. My aim is to to do 3 x 20 minute sessions per week in an attempt to get fit for the agility season ahead. I don't think Malcolm would be too impressed if the cross trainer went unused so I better get on with it!
I have been going to Kenny for agility training fortnightly as usual and have really enjoyed the sessions. For Barney the main focus has been to get fast, consistant contacts, especially on the dog walk. To achieve this we have been getting him to run over the dog walk as fast as possible, without stopping at the end. This aim of this is to get him going over with speed.
Separately I have been working on a new command of 'flat' to get him to lie down flat with 2 front paws off the end of the contact. This has been done by rewarding him like mad in this position, moving away and going back to give more reward before releasing him to another reward on a tub situated away from the end of the contact.
This way he is still working on speed over the dog walk and not worrying about stopping. The 'flat' command has not been used with him going the full length of the dog walk yet so that will come later. I started developing this technique on the A Frame during the last session which went well. The key to this weekends competition is make sure he goes over the dog walk and A Frame quickly. The 'flat' and hitting the contact will come later for the start of the outdoor season.
For Pebbles the key has been to try and get her to work ahead of me going into and through the weave and over jumps. This has been to try and get her to go quicker and to try and get her to work independently of me. This should mean I can send her over jumps and cross behind.
It has been a long process and sometimes she gets it and others times it is like she can't remember from one session to the next! Still a long way to go yet although I have managed to do some rear crosses at the weave and at jumps. The main problem is that having used the ball to reward her for going over jumps ahead of me she is now looking for the ball all the time when we run a course. This means stopping, spinning and barking at me after every jump!! I am going to stick with it though because as Kenny says she has been working the other way with me for 2 years now and it will take a lot of work to change her way of thinking. I just hope she can show a little bit of what we have worked on this weekend. Then it will be back to more hard work with the ball.
This weekend is the last indoor competition of the year. I am just hoping I see a little something from all the training over the last few months. And of course we will go to have lots of fun if nothing else :-)
Saturday, 17 January 2009
Better late then never!
At last, with my Dad's expert help, I have managed to download the video of Pebbles doing her Olympia Semi-Final agility round that she did in September last year.
If you know Pebbles and have seen her run you will see that although she does a lovely clear round she is not firing on all cylinders. She is hesitant going onto the A-Frame and not going as fast as she normally does over the course in general. You can see this by the fact that I am only jogging and still ahead of her.
I have thought about what the cause of this might be and have come up with the following:
1. In August she competed in the KC Agility Festival and half way up the A-Frame she fell backwards down to the bottom. For the rest of her rounds that day she refused to go up the A-Frame until the last attempt when it took 3 attempts to get her to go up very slowly. Since then she has been getting more confident but she still remembers the fall and hesitates.
2. Again at the KC Agility Festival Pebbles was doing an agility round in the main ring with a crowd and a man on a tannoy commentating on the round. During this round she jumped a spread jump and landed right on top of it rolling to the ground. This gave her a real scare and she went to the side of the ring and didn't want to continue. After trying to coax her to keep going I had to eventually carry her out of the ring. Again this shook her confidence - all in the same day! Afterwards in the car on the way home she just slept on my Mum's lap for about 4 hours - I think she was in shock as well as exhausted. But she had given her all. I think what happened at the Olympia Semis was that on hearing the man on the tannoy it reminded her of her fall and she immediately became hesitant about the whole thing. So despite trying her best and doing a lovely clear round she was just not fast enough on the day.
I am still so proud of her for even getting as far as the semi-finals and to go and do a clear round was brilliant. It is all good experience for the future if she should ever qualify again. She managed to finish 13th out of 30 dogs which is amazing for her first full year of agility. What a star!
The first 10 dogs qualified for Olympia in December. However, one woman had 2 dogs in the top 10 and she is only allowed to compete with one so this meant that 11th place qualified too. Then in November tragically the lovely, talented tri-colour Obay sheltie, Zen, who had qualified in the top 10 died from mushroom poisoning. And so this meant 12th place was called in to run. So all in all Pebbles was only 1 place away from running at Olympia!!!
So here is the video for viewing:
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