Heh hum, some shows you like and some shows you don’t. I don’t think I’ll be bothering with Wilton again. It’s too far away, the venue is rough, the show feels tiny and slightly “homemade” despite the 6 rings. There’s something about KC shows (not just Wilton) that just feels slightly archaic to me these days; seeing a row of people writing out the results from ticket piles, the scribes sitting by the ring rope in their own camping chairs with a clipboard, not being able to review results, and a break for an hour at lunch. In its favour, the people there were just lovely, very chatty and friendly, and didn’t see a smidge of harsh handling on dogs or people.
Kim had two rubbish runs, neither of us were switched on properly but she worked some sections nicely so not a total loss.
Dylan was measured, finally, and had his second measurement signed off so he’s a Large from now on and forever. He only competed in his Jumping run however as the Agility was before lunchtime and that’s when he was measured. He went clear but we didn’t stay for the rest of the class, I haven’t a clue if he got anything. Dylan was in total fairyhead mode and was drifting along but the standard of the class was pretty low, it really surprised me. I guess I’m used to BAA shows, and all but 1 or 2 of the dogs I saw run in Dylan’s classes would have been lucky to place in the top 20 of Introductory, let alone win a class. I’m not sure if this is the standard of Grade 1/2 dogs everywhere?
Kim got a big fat 0 AW points so she still has 4 to go, and Dylan got 1 so he has just 199 to go until he becomes Play It By Ear AW(B).
Really just tired now, glad we’re having the weekend off!
We set off very early on Saturday morning for the BAA Finals Weekend. Kim had qualified for the Grand Prix Primary Jumping Final on Monday, and I wanted to get some last points in for her in the hopes of being promoted in Agility as well as Jumping next season. Dylan was there for the experience again, I have to admit I didn’t really want him to get placed in anything because I wanted him to stay Introductory for another year! We all had a fab weekend, the show was a bit quieter than last year but the classes were still big and the competition was still good, and it was nice not having to fight for the best camping spots!
Dylan
Dylan had a weekend of 5 fault runs, but he is still improving so much every time we compete. We’re still sorting out our start line routines and he made a couple of baby mistakes that should be easy enough to fix.
On Saturday he had a so-so run in the Agility, and went clear but with held contacts we didn’t get anything. The Snakes and Ladders course was nice but I thought the shortcut was too difficult for him, there was a very sharp angle to the Aframe and with our creepy contact issue I wasn’t going to risk it. He set off nicely but then decided to try and bounce the jump-stretch and splattered himself in the middle of the stretch instead. Oops! We kept going and he had a lovely run, probably our best so far apart from the 5 faults, and looking at his time he again would have been up in the top-10 even though we took the long way around. Clever boy! He grazed his paw as well when he paddled the stretch and so now he has a lovely bald patch to show for it.
The Helter Skelter was a fair run but we got E’d, not too fussed as it was my fault and he worked nicely. Finally the Introductory Jumping Qualifier, it was a hard course and but somehow we went clear and then somehow we came 10th which meant somehow my little baby dog had qualified for the Grand Prix Introductory Jumping Final! We actually had a daft little spin after the second tunnel which meant we dropped 3s or so off the time.
Somehow we also qualified for the Starters CleverDogs Final, which was a big shock! We ran our CleverDogs Qualifying time back in March at Carlton Towers, the one and only time Dylan has done CleverDogs. He didn’t get much chance to do any more as we drew Kafka (Cories Affka) in round one, and my inexperienced little boy was unsurprisingly outclassed by a Grade 5, Olympia qualified Kelpie! What was surprising was that he kept pace with Kafka until the tunnel where I pulled him off the entry and had to resend him, and then he only finished a hurdle behind at the flyball. Maybe Dylan is faster than I thought! We lost the second leg too and so ended our CleverDogs career, we had fun and in the end came 5th out of the 8 finalists.
Sunday and Monday offered 4 Open classes each, but when I entered I decided not to enter all 8 classes with both dogs because it would have been too much for me to walk and run first thing in a morning. So I entered Kim in 1 Jumping and 1 Agility each day, and Dylan in 2 Jumping on Sunday and 1 Agility and 1 Jumping on Monday.
Dylan’s second Jumping class on Sunday was harder than the first and to be honest I wasn’t sure he’d get around. The weave entry and exit wasn’t the easiest and there were plenty of places to make mistakes. Anyway, he nailed his weaves as he did all weekend, and although his run wasn’t super fast it was clean and clear until the last fence. I don’t know what happened, but he refused and I was absolutely gutted! He would have been up in the top-10 easily. He ran in the same class as Kim for the other Jumping, and we had a refusal at the weaves (my fault!).
On Monday I walked his courses and by the time I’d got to number 8 on the Jumping I’d decided not to run him in it. It was a very UYOA course, constantly naggy and I couldn’t find a smooth way to handle it at all, and I wasn’t willing to knock Dylan’s confidence by trying something so hard with him. His agility was a really nice Open course, but I lost his attention whilst we were setting up and it all went downhill really.
The Grand Prix Jumping Finals were on Monday afternoon. At Finals Weekend all the other rings run in the morning only and then are shut down whilst the Finals run so everyone can watch. We walked the course and I didn’t think it was much of a Dylan course, although I thought we could probably get round. I would have liked to see 6 weaves instead of 12 as I thought the weave entry and exit were really tough for Intro dogs, 6 weaves would have made both entry and exit a lot easier.
Dylan and I ran 5th out of the 20 and we were ok until the weaves. Dylan missed the entry, I think due to a mixture of inexperience and bad handling on my part, and the suddenly realised there were a lot of people watching him! My poor shy boy found that a bit offputting and we ended up making a right hash of the weaves and got E’d in the end. He finished the course beautifully though and did the flick flack perfectly.
My prediction was right about the 12 weaves though, as we weren’t the only ones to make a mistake there. Mabel (Bekkis Masquerage), the hot favourite, also missed the weave entry, and a lot of the other dogs either popped out or missed the entry. Dylan ended up with the 20th rosette but I’m still very proud of him for getting to the Finals at all.
Apparently he really likes rosettes with writing on the tails because that’s what he got all weekend!
Kim
We had a bit of a rubbish day on Saturday, mainly because I wanted to at least go clear in the Primary Agility Qualifier and either just get points or, ideally, qualify. No such luck! Kim missed her dogwalk contact. We had a nice run in the Primary Jumping Qualifier and somehow we came 4th, which was a bit surprising! Equally surprising was her 10th in Snakes and Ladders; we took the shortest route but we had a bit of framegazing on the Aframe and we basically walked around the course at a snails pace. I can only presume nobody else took the shortcut successfully!
Kim came back to a bit of form on Sunday and went clear in both Open classes. Finally a clear in agility, whoo! She finished up 19th in the Open Agility and 12th in the Open Jumping (out of 170+ dogs), not too shabby. Monday was definitely our day though, my dog finally got her crazy back.
I loved James Denton’s Open Agility course, it was exactly the kind of thing Kim likes, a straightforward opening sequence and then plenty of wide open spaces for her to stretch her legs in. She set off well, but after jump 4 it was like the switch was flicked and I got my crazy little dog back with all the running in her legs. She finished up flying, and came 10th in the end, beating a lot of good dogs including her friendly rival Moss.
Open Jumping was her last run before the Grand Prix Jumping Finals in the afternoon. I’d been working ring party on Ring 2 for 90mins in the morning so I knew we had to run clear under 20 seconds to be in with any chance of a placing, it was a big, open and fast course that the Graduate and Masters dogs were blasting. We had a bit of a slow start but finished up nicely in 20.88, I didn’t think we’d be quick enough and I was right! We got a rosette for 28th in the end, but there were 72 clears!
Finally we had the Grand Prix Primary Jumping Finals in the afternoon, and I think running Dylan first took the pressure off Kim and I quite a bit. I walked it the course on my own, and then with Maria who runs Kip, another Medium, and then with Sylvia who runs Molly, a Maxi. We all wanted a wait start to get us into position but I didn’t think I’d get it with Kim, so I walked it two different ways depending on whether we got that wait or not.
I missed most of the Maxi dogs running as I was behind the scribe tent trying to keep Kim cool and relaxed. I knew that Kafka had gone clear as well as a few others, so the pressure was off as I didn’t think we could beat the Maxi’s! As the last few dogs were going I booked in, found out I was going first which somehow didn’t surprise me! I normally hate going first in the Mediums, I always feel rushed to get on the line and go but I’d promised myself I wouldn’t do that this year. I took my time winding Kim up and playing with her, and I actually didn’t feel nervous for once. Maybe I’m getting my head around this Finals lark! Set her up and she bounced straight back up as soon as I stepped away but that’s a good sign normally, so I put her back. She held her wait!
As soon as she set off I knew we were in for a good run. She was fast and responsive and I really did have my girl back, and we were clear until the final turn on the home straight. I was too far behind and panicked, shouted left too early and she spun to check with me before taking the jump, but it didn’t get marked as a refusal and she was clear!
I’m still smiling now, I took her off to play and didn’t watch the rest of the dogs run because I didn’t care if they all went clear and fast and beat us! As it turned out none of the other Mediums went clear so we knew Kim was on for a placing, it would just be which one. Nobody gets to see the results until they’re announced at the presentation so I was more nervous than I had been waiting to run! I was walking about at the back of the hall with Kim to try and keep her quiet and me calm, which wasn’t easy as they didn’t read out our names for 5th, 4th or 3rd! Eventually she got her 2nd, and we went up to collect our trophy and rosette. The wonderful Kafka came 1st.
I have to congratulate everyone else who was there and did brilliantly as well. Vicki and Pippa (Ruffs Kyria Kalli AW(S)) came 4th in the Introductory Agility Final, and 3rd in the Introductory Jumping Final. Our fellow Primary Medium Rasha Beagle (Bonwillan Dizzy Blonde) came 2nd in the Primary Agility Final (go the Mediums!), and Sylvia’s fab little Molly (Molly Coddled) was still in the top-10 of the Primary Jumping Final with 5 faults, she had a cracking run, so unlucky to miss the weave entry! Jean’s lovely little Cav Emma (Baby Boo) also ran her socks off in the Primary Jumping Final despite being exhausted and came 4th, as well as winning the Primary Mini Dog of the Year. Speaking of, we were all rooting for Anne and Moss (May Be Moss) to win the Primary Medium Dog of the Year but she was pipped at the last minute by somebody else, so disappointed on her behalf! Hopefully she can take home the Novice Medium next year. Leah Rumsey also qualified for the Junior Handler Finals, shame she wasn’t there but flyballing at Drax … maybe next year!
Finally, a big congrats to Alice and Sammy who won out of Grade 1 at Dog Vegas on Friday, they won’t be in Grade 2 for long!
Hi! I’m Dylan. My mum has been calling me 22″-at-the-withers-Dylan-arg today in a despairing voice, and this is why.
Here’s a picture of me. I can’t remember what I was looking at but it must have been interesting!
I was really sad and confused as my mum only took me across the road for a second, I didn’t even get time to chase any squirrels or find any golf balls! I did get chance to bark at my friend Alfie though, but I got shushed because people were still sleeping. Don’t know why, there’s so much to be doing!
I was a bit confused later too because my mum put me in the car without my big sisters, and I don’t get to go places without them very often. Kim was shouting all sorts of nasty things at everyone; she doesn’t like being left behind! Anyway, we set off and it took aggggggeeesss to get wherever we were going. I kept waking up and having a look out of the window but no, we weren’t there yet. I think mum and big-mum must have been driving in circles, I’m sure I saw the same tree three times. They were both looking a bit worried, and they were very quiet all the way there so I thought I’d better be too.
Eventually we arrived, and there was agility! My favourite thing, I got quite excited until Mum hurried off to find something called the “secretary’s tent” and she left me in the car, so I sat and waited patiently for her. She always comes back but I do worry sometimes in case she leaves me. She came back a bit later and looked a lot happier because apparently I was going to get measured. After a bit she took me to the secretary’s tent too and had another talk with the people there, and there was a lot of sad-sorry-voices going on over my head. Mum was very unhappy again when she left the tent, she told me I was a good boy though so that’s ok! Apparently I’m supposed to get measured before I can do agility at some shows, and she’d gone all the way to this long-away show so I could get measured. But even though there were some people who could have measured me, they didn’t have any equipment with them and so I couldn’t get measured and I had to come all the way home again.
While we were there we did get to go for a walk and I met my old friend Sammy the Spaniel, he’s loads of fun but he wasn’t allowed to play as he was supposed to be concentrating on the agility. Mum spent a lot of time talking to people who smelled a bit familiar, and it was really boring, I had to jump up at her a few times to remind her I was still there! So she let me play at dogwalks on the benches, I was really good and did my stops even though it wasn’t a proper dogwalk. Sammy was well impressed! Mum told me to have a good look around because I probably wouldn’t be going to any of the Scunthorpe or Dog Vegas shows next year because they don’t have good classes for Kim, so I was a good boy and explored everywhere I could.
Anyway, mum is really busy packing the car for our weekend away so I got a chance to sneak on and tell you what I did today, except I didn’t really get to do anything! Mum and big-mum spent a lot of time talking about how the show and the measurers had been very nice and their hands were bound by the rules, but it’s still silly that dogs as big as me have to get measured, because I’m so big I couldn’t be anything but big! That all sounded really confusing to me so I had to go to sleep again. When I woke up they were still talking about it, and mum is all worried again because I might not be able to do agility next week even though I’m entered in the classes. That would be sad, I love agility!
Mum says we’ll be back on Monday night so I won’t be away too long. That good because I love my Mollie and she’s not coming with us tomorrow, it’s just me and Kim for the weekend. I wonder where we’re going … ?
Towards the end of last week I thought I should really work on reminding Dylan about his box turn, especially because he hadn’t flyballed for some time.
It also occurs to me that I’ve talked about wanting Dylan to have a swimmer’s turn quite a lot on this blog, on the possibly wrong presumption that everyone knows what I’m talking about! So I have illustrated the difference.
This dog has a nice slammer’s turn. The dog hits the box straight on at full speed, absorbing all the of the high-speed impact into his shoulders and front legs. He is also slower as he has lost all momentum and now has to turn and build up speed again over the hurdles. This dog has a much greater risk of developing things like canine oesteoarthritis in his shoulders and may have a shorter flyball career. (He is also going to squish his nose on the box when he tries to catch the ball and so he has his eyes shut in preparation.)
This dog started training at the same time as the above dog, SquishyNose. SquishyNose has been running in Open tournaments for 3 months but this dog’s owner decided to teach her dog to do a proper swimmer’s turn. Now he has a nice swimmer’s turn! The dog has turned into the box on his right and the impact is considerably reduced, whilst the momentum the dog has built up isn’t lost. The dog also has brought his back feet round as a result of the turn and is able to push off from the box to bring him back faster and with a better stride pattern over the hurdles. As well as being faster, this dog will be much less likely to develop shoulder problems and will have a longer flyball career.
Here is Dylan on the box:
He is working on our old Canadian Box here, which is also the kind I have drawn in the illustrations. Dylan is much faster off the Boomerang Box but there isn’t a spare one for me to borrow so we have to make do. Our Canadian Box is a bit stiff and doesn’t fire the balls very well, which is why Dylan has fumbled it, but it’s good practise anyway.
New layout! Hopefully this explains why the site was down all day Monday. I loved my green layout but I wanted to try a different colour and some new techniques for the pages. I know it doesn’t quite work in Internet Explorer, I’m still working on it, but as IE tends to render code totally differently to every other browser I might be fighting a losing battle. Everyone should just use Firefox instead!
Anyway, Leeds ‘Owlers had a fab weekend at the Summer Champs! Barney’s came home as Div 4 Champs and Marsh came a very respectable 4th. I’m loving hearing about everything but it’s a bit tough to listen to sometimes, I’m so disappointed we couldn’t go and it sounds like we really missed out on a great weekend with some fab racing. I’m trying not to wallow in self-pity and be miserable but it’s a bit hard at the moment!
