UKA Phoenix, Saturday 22nd May 2010

Lovely hot summers day today, almost too hot really although I've escaped my customary sunburn with judicious application of factor 30 suntan lotion throughout the day. I was scrime for Wendy Page who had her first judging appointment today, who set some great steeplechase courses. The beginner one at the end of the day was admittedly quite tricky, but what I found quite frustrating was how handlers kept making the same mistakes, instead of learning from the people that went before them. I guess it's particularly hard if you're fairly new to the sport, to change how you're going to run a course after you've walked it a certain way. However I would urge people to be brave and try different things out if you can see a something hasn't been working - you may be very pleased you did!

Our ring party was great fun, and comprised several of us Severnside members - Brendan Sweeney, Betty & Allen Symonds, Sarah Norman, Caz Hore-Ruthven and Helen Sharp (and partner Phil and sister Rachel). The only downside of today was the heat of the afternoon, and some people's disregard for the fact that we were sweating out in the heat in order that they could run their dogs! It's very rude not to be ready to run when you've been stood around watching the class in progress, if it makes people who have given up their time to run a ring, wait around for you. We all have dogs in our cars that need attending to and homes we'd like to get home to at the end of the day - it would be nice if delays could be avoided by people being a bit more thoughtful! Anyway, rant over, for the most part we had fun and that's what I shall remember from the day.

I saw several handlers who I've trained around the rings competing today, and was pleased by their progress reports. Best of all, Helen Sharp and Hattie won all 3 classes they were entered into - Toy Senior Jumping & Agility, and Toy Novice Steeplechase. Particularly amusing was Helen's comment at the start of the day, that the hot weather wouldn't suit Hattie. I had just 3 words for her - 'Self fulfilling prophesy'. She obviously took it on board :-)
Unfortunately it wasn't a particularly successful day in terms of trophies for Ella and I. Our first run in the Agility was going very nicely - until I pulled her off a jump, durrh! Still, I take a some great positives - she made her weaves and I was able to cross behind them, and her contacts looked pretty speedy too. Then the jumping, going beautifully until the end of a set of 12 weaves, which Ella decided the last two didn't require completion :-) Lastly the Steeplechase, where we had a bit of a misunderstanding about what our 'Out' cue is supposed to mean :-)



My aims before our next show, which is SWAT next weekend, are the following:

1. Get to bed before 12am the night before - put a curfew on the husband!
2. Eat breakfast - who knows what great handling decisions I might make with food inside me :-)
3. Be focused on the show and not the other things that are going on in my life at the moment - they can rest on the back burner whilst Ella and I play 'gility (as my Aussie friends call it!)

Today I am grateful for the blessing of such a good dog, who makes it fun even when it's not all going quite to plan :-)

IFCS World Agility Championships - an amazing week!

Last week was an incredible week for Sue and I. We were fortunate enough to play host to the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand teams in their lead up to the World Agility Championships, at the Hand Equestrian Centre in Clevedon. In fact we also had a short visit from Marilyn Adams and Tia from our British squad too, so last week we saw a lot of impressive agility at our humble training field! :-)

On Monday Sue and I welcomed the Australian team to our training venue for their first visit as they started the process of getting to know their borrowed British dogs. They deserve not only credit for arriving at a World Championship without their own dogs, but also for the way they applied themselves to getting to know their host dogs and their abilities as dog trainers. Not all the dogs were very welcoming at first, but the guys kept at it and used nothing but motivational techniques to win them round. By the time Friday came around it was hard to tell that they hadn't been working together for years, much less just one week! Aside from watching some inspiring dog training, we both feel that we have made some very great friends in the team, so a trip to Oz may be in the offing at some point - who knows! :-)

Tuesday afternoon saw the Canadian team warming up, leaving us both with some good ideas and some jump training of Susan Salo's to follow up. It was great to see them working with their own dogs, again full of motivation, but with dogs who really hung on their every word. Of course the lady I had been hanging out to meet was there - Susan Garrett with her two Border Collies Encore & Feature. They were delightfully naughty, but as driven and biddable as I've witnessed from her DVD's and YouTube clips. Really great dogs, and of course Feature is Ella's half-sister too. Tuesday evening had us along with Helen Sharp, having dinner with the team at Banwell Castle which was a great night, due in part to Nina the Canadian assistant manager plying me with wine all evening!

On Friday we were part of a ring party with Severnside Dog Agility Club, which was not only great fun, but also earnt us tickets for Saturday's agility action. That plus the generosity of our new Aussie friends giving us a 'Groom Australia' pass, meant that I was able to save my pennies for dog toy shopping - something that you'll notice I indulged in heavily when you next see my training bag :-)

There are many, many memorable moments from the week leading up to the World Champs and I am glad and grateful for every single one. I will be a better dog handler as a result of what I witnessed, not just the celebrations of a clear round, but also the reactions from handlers when it didn't go to plan. I am pleased to say I only noticed one dog being berated for an 'if only' round, the rest were praised and apologised to for mistakes that their handlers had made. Because when it comes down to it, any mistakes made on course are the fault of the handler. Indeed, missed contacts, missed weave entries etc. are all only down to the training the dog has received.

I have not always been proud of my conduct in the ring. Whilst I have never hit my dog for poor performance, I have been known to lose my temper before now when hormonal and tired. My frustration is usually at myself, but my teammate has borne the brunt of it. I am glad I have seen such good examples to aspire to and follow, and intend that people will want to use me as their good example in time to come.

Last week and today, I am grateful for the dogs in my life. I'm also extremely grateful Ella didn't get packed into any of the suitcases that left the country on Monday as numerous people who met her had threatened to do! :-) Even whilst she's a bit hormonal at present, she's still my top dog - as she's demonstrating below, supervising proceedings at the training field last week :-)

North Somerset Show, 3rd May 2010

Whilst teaching tonight I found out that one of my favourite Small dogs won G1 Agility at the NS show yesterday! Lacey & Anne Williams started their training with us after Anne began agility training with her lurcher at Severnside and was bitten by the bug! :-) What a great start to the season for them, G2 here they come! :-)

Today I'm grateful to be able to teach agility and the opportunities it gives me to meet such great people and their wonderful dogs :-)

OTHER RESULTS:

Large Graded 1-2 Agility
Grade 2
3rd Sue James - Bryn

Large Graded 1-2 Jumping
Grade 2
1st Jan Sage - Lexi
2nd Caz Hore-Ruthven - Frodo

Small Graded 1-3 Jumping
Grade 3
2nd Rhianna Harman - Jess

Small Combined 1-3 Jumping
1st Rhianna Harman - Abbey!

Small Graded 4-7 Jumping
Grade 4
3rd Helen Sharp - Hattie

Grade 7
3rd Gemma Osmond - Pearl (borrowed briefly from Dave Sweeney - thanks Dave she was fab!)

Dordale Agility Show, 2nd May 2010

Today's show was the first time Ella and I have competed at G6, and I was pretty nervous as I walked the first course of the day. It was a G6 Agility class, and whilst it wasn't easy by any means, it wasn't the nightmare that I'd built up in my head either! We had an early running order and rather than go back to the van with her, we walked around to warm up thoroughly and stop me thinking about it all too much :-) You would think having whipped up through the grades last year like we did, I'd have a bit more faith in us both wouldn't you?! However once I stepped into the ring and put her into her startline down position, I started to feel a whole lot better - the dog that I looked back at was my precious girl, and wasn't going anywhere until she heard that all important release cue. We did a nice clear round in just over 33 seconds, which saw us take 3rd place. 2nd place was taken by one of Ella's cousins, another Nedlo owned by Anthony Clarke - up the Nedlos :-)

I was so relieved for the rest of the day that I was able to get a clear round in G6, that I'm sorry to say we had two eliminations that I know better handling could have sorted. Plus two missed weave entries from a little lady charging at them too fast - some homework to do there. All in all though I can't describe how pleased I am with what happened today. When you start competitive agility you hope that one day you'll be competing at the top of your sport. I'm delighted to find that not only are we close to getting there, but we're pretty competitive too! Not something that will surprise any of my supporters, but then I don't know if they'll recall the fact that this time last year Ella and I were only eligible to compete in Grade 1 classes. I hope they realise that we wouldn't have made it without their support and encouragement, and that we're very grateful to them for being there every step of the way.

Today I'm grateful for the fact that I brought home the best dog at the whole show :-)