UKA Waverunners - Sunday 28th March 2010

Now had I realised that I was going to lose an hour of sleep because of the clocks changing, I may not have entered this show. But I won't grumble because it gave me the chance to run in 5 classes, and get an idea of how our weaves would hold up and what sort of consistency we can expect from each other. Ella came off better in the consistency stakes, but then I guess more people would have realised that :-)

Here's what we did, and the order in which we ran them:

Novice Steeplechase II - 1st
Beginners Snooker - 1st
Beginners Jumping - 2nd
Novice Steeplechase I - E (my handling mistake - sorry Elle!)
Beginners Agility - 5 for a knocked bar, 1st jump was a spread and I didn't handle this as well as I could have either!

Aside from my obvious delight at her rosettes, we had 100% weaves over the 3 courses that had them - 2 sets of 12, and 1 set of 6. It seems a bit of belief in her ability to complete them goes rather a long way :-)

Today I am grateful for my friend Bob Kempster who told me exactly what to do in the Snooker course, as otherwise I'm sure we wouldn't have even been placed!

Another busy weekend!

I am feeling quite tired out after a long, but nonetheless enjoyable weekend. Sue was away for an obedience training day so I manned the classes on my own on Saturday. Despite the rain I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as the dogs and handlers were on good form. We are lucky to have some very promising young dogs coming through, and I always find it exciting to watch how they grow and develop.

After teaching that morning I visited a couple for a 1-2-1 with their two rescue dogs, a happy-go-lucky Springer spaniel, and a Jack Russell terrier who's confidence needed a bit of a boost. They were doggy people in need of a bit of reassurance as much as anything, as this was the first time they had had rescue dogs. I'm pleased to report that they were doing all the right sort of things, but perhaps needed reminding that long lasting results quite often take a little time. It's a wonder that I'm any good at dog training at all really, when you consider that patience isn't exactly one of my strong points! :-)

In contrast today was a lovely Spring day, that had me flinging open the windows to let the sunshine and fresh air in. The house is now fairly tidy considering the number of occupants, especially the younger ones - Callum & Diva in particular! They are particularly keen on going through the contents of any bins they can reach - shredding tissues is a favourite for both! :-)

Finally I'm delighted to report that Diva has been allowed short durations of off-lead exercise since Wednesday's visit to the Smart Clinic, something that she has very much enjoyed. I have never known a small dog enjoy getting wet and muddy like my girl does - watching her gleeful runs after Ella has been a sight for sore eyes. I hope her recovery continues smoothly, but I think she's always going to keep me on my toes - only on Tuesday she banged her front right leg and had us worried enough to x-ray her. As Lowri pointed out to me on our visit to the Smart Clinic, what did I expect when I named her Diva?!

Today I am grateful for the signs of Spring time that are appearing all around me, and for the fact that as the days grow longer, the show season gets closer :-))

Lovely agility weekend!

I'm actually going to include Friday in my lovely agility weekend, as I had a great time at the Hand Equestrian centre in preparation of being part of a Severnside Dog Agility club ring party for the World Championships being held there in May. Not only was it nice to go through what we'll be doing and getting familiar with the venue, we were also able to watch the GB squad train - which included Ella's litter sister Wych with her handler Nicky Garrett. I was also introduced to Sheltie expert Bernadette Olsson Bay, who as well as being extremely knowledgeable, it also extremely nice too! I had Diva with me and she kindly took a look at her to chat about whether or not she's going to be Small/ Medium - verdict was Medium, so no joining the Severnside Small team for us! Will have to make up a new Medium one instead, I think we'll just about have enough fingers crossed!

As well as Friday being lovely for those things, I was also able to come to the decision that Ella was safely out of season too. This has been much shorter than previous, probably due to the injections she had to postpone them. I only hope she doesn't decide to have another proper one shortly! Coming to this conclusion opened up the weekend to lots of agility - UKA Hereford, Severnside league match v. Chippenham and a friendly Severnside match v. Dervish. What more could a girl ask for?!

What I can't say I expected was what happened next. Now I had decided to go through the weekend with a 'long game' attitude - that is I know that my biggest weakness is lack of competition experience and whilst I didn't expect to do well after us both having two weeks off , I felt I should just get out there for the experience. It was a good idea and it took the pressure off trying to prove anything.

In our first run of the day I was delighted to find I had my lovely, non-hormonal dog back! I'd forgotten just how good she was, and it was great to see. However she came out of the last two weave poles on a set of 12, so we weren't at our best yet. I realised that her pulling out of the poles was almost certainly due to the way I was holding my breath and creeping nervously up behind her, instead of running flat out to direct her to the next obstacle as I do in training. I didn't really believe she would complete them properly, so I was practically willing her to fail!

This revelation brought out quite a dramatic change in me. I realised that what with how fabulous she is at everything else, all I needed to do was run her like I believed in everything else I asked her to do - and then it would only be a question of my handling being accurate. It took another couple of runs before I had that bit sussed - and to be honest, it's one of those things that comes and goes :-)) Anyway, I won't go on anymore, I'm just going to tell you our notable achievements from the weekend:

4th UKA Beginners Agility (5 faults)
1st Agility (League match v. Chippenham)
1st Agility (Friendly match v. Dervish Agility)
1st Steeplechase (Friendly match v. Dervish Agility)
4 out of 5 sets of 12 weave poles correct (Saturday)
2 out of 2 sets of 6 weave poles correct (Sunday)

So what did I learn this weekend? Easy - that belief is everything and it makes for a hell of a run even when you don't go clear. I enjoyed every single run with my dog this weekend, mistakes and all. If I can mirror her great attitude throughout the season, we shouldn't go far wrong. It took a while for me to realise that's what I needed to do, but better late than never huh!

Today I am grateful that my agility partner has always wanted to play the game with me, regardless of how well or badly I directed her in it. Here's a quote that sums up Ella for me:

“There is real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment” Norman Vincent Peale