Tailwaggers #3
I would quite like to just skip over recounting the morning classes, but I think it’s probably a good idea for me to try and remember exactly what I did wrong.
Jet’s Primary Power and Speed was an ok course, a little tricky on the Speed section for Primary but certainly not beyond anything Jet and I can do. Jet did lovely lovely contacts for me, her dogwalk especially is looking fantastic at the moment! She ran the Speed section really well, but skipped out on the weave entry. I know this was my fault for not handling it properly but I’m not entirely sure what I did wrong. Need to watch the video back a few more times!
Novice Plus Jumping was a good course, some open runs but some tight sections to test the dogs with plenty of different handling options. Unfortunately Dylan broke his wait, took off way too early for the first jump and took the pole off. We had a good run and I’m pleased with how he handled the tricky sections, it was smooth and tight and his time was competitive, just a shame about the pole.
Dylan’s Novice Plus Power and Speed really was a nice course, very smooth and very fast with enough places to make silly mistakes. Unfortunately we didn’t get that far as we failed the Power section for the first time ever! Dylan’s contacts were very nice, but he splatted on the rising spread jump and did a huge faceplant.
Our recurring one-pole theme continued in Jet’s Primary Jumping, where I did exactly what I did at Hare’n’Hounds and caused her to roll the middle pole of a three-jump run. You’d think I would have learnt by now … Fastest 5f again!
We did come by a slight improvement in the afternoon. Jet and Dylan both had messy clears in their respective Tunnel Troubles classes, and came 4th (Jet) and 5th (Dylan). Jet had an excellent run on the Primary Agility and came 2nd, despite her slightly creepy seesaw and very creepy Aframe, both my down to my handling! She did do a lovely dogwalk to make up for it though, apparently I can train good dogwalks now, after all the work Dylan and I have done.
Dylan’s Novice Plus Agility was a really tricky course and a total shambles, Dylan reverted to just taking whatever he fancied and skipping out jumps, so we called it quits. Can’t win them all, or in fact any of them!
So, progress, despite the lack of rosettes to prove it. Six months ago, hitting any bar would have completely knocked Dylan’s confidence and he wouldn’t have run at all for the rest of the day. The fact that he kept going and hit a few more poles doesn’t worry me at all, in fact I’m pleased that he was willing to keep pushing and not just go into over-cautious mode. It was also really obvious at this show that Dylan cannot maintain his standard of agility without constant training. I was vaguely aware of this before, especially in flyball, but it was very clear this weekend.