Tailwaggers #4
I still can’t muster any enthusiasm with hindsight for this show. I didn’t like the 2-runs-at-each-course format any better than I did 4 years ago when I last did it, it was still really boring. I’m not convinced it really made me improve my handling; I ran both courses better the second time (who didn’t?!) but I also think I ran the first attempt in a much more cautious way than I normally would, trying to bank a safe clear. Next bit is probably going to irritate some people, but I also really disliked all the little kids at this show. I don’t mind children at agility, I think Juniors is great and a lot of them can beat me without trying. I started out in YKC too. But so many classes were held up by kids/parents trying to bend the rules because they wanted to run a different dog in a different order, or to take on some major ring party duty that they clearly couldn’t do. Arg!
Back to the dogs. I am very pleased with how Jet ran, she was on top form. The work we’ve done on contacts has really paid off, her weaves were spot on and she is starting to flick away from me now on rear crosses, which is something we’ve really struggled with. We finished 2nd in the Jumping with our first run, our second run was much faster, much smoother, but I pulled her off the tunnel too early and we were E’d. The first run on the agility was atrocious, I wasn’t a fan of the course and didn’t know how to run it with Jet. We were E’d at the tunnel, I handled Jet on the right and pulled her over the jump. The second run I actually thought about what I was doing and we did a brilliant run, but I switched sides for the tunnel and pulled in the wrong end. I think the only way we could avoided the E on either run was for me to leave Jet in the weaves, but I’ve never tried it in training with her and I have a feeling she would pop out.
Dylan had better jumping form, nice contacts, solid weaves, but he wasn’t giving me 100% on any run. His Jumping runs were ok, we knocked a second off with our second run, and his second agility was very good. In both agility runs I trusted him to complete the Aframe completely indepdently as I ran on well ahead, and he nailed it both times. Likewise I left him in the weaves and he was great. I think finishing out of the placings in all ours runs hasn’t helped my attitude, we were just constantly getting whipped by the Masters/G7 dogs. I don’t know what else we can do, Dylan can only go so fast and I can only handle this much.
Hoping Hare’n’Hounds will spark my enthusiasm again.