Tailwaggers #5 April
Bit of a hit and miss day!
I made some silly handling errors all day, my personal mental management was way off. I looked after the dogs and worked them around the courses, but I made some handling decisions that I really shouldn’t have. Dylan is always very forgiving and bailed me out a couple of times, especially on the Triple A course; Jet is always honest but she was a little bit wild this weekend, and that meant we got lots of E’s.
Dylan’s Novice Plus Jumping was a really straightforward course, a little bit too fast for Dyl and I. We had a bit of a cruising clear, with both of us on auto-pilot, but he surprisingly finished 4th. I think there were a lot of poles from the faster dogs!
Primary Jumping was another very fast, very simple course, and yet I managed to get Jet 5R by using a verbal marker (yes) that Jet doesn’t respond to in the same way as my dogs. Our lack of training together biting me in the ass, and it was a shame as we’d have been pushing for top-3 without it. Bugger!
Novice Plus Agility was a fantastic course, pitched just right. Lots of handling options, lots of handler challenges and no nasty call-offs or outright traps. I had a long argument with Rob when walking the course about whether it was possible to get in front to do a front cross at the end, but I agreed to try it because really, I am a little bit lazy and would rather handle from behind than in front (don’t tell him I said that). Unfortunately Dyl knocked a pole at the start, (#5) and his seesaw was a little slow, but I at least nailed that front cross! Looking at the times, we weren’t fast enough for the placings anyway, which was disappointing but having watched some of the other dogs run, our contacts just weren’t fast enough. A very dark collie bitch (Katie would have loved her!) with absolutely stunning 2o2o contacts won it, with Caddie and Asher in 2nd and 3rd. The collie bitch (Snowy) and Caddie have some of the fastest 2o2o contacts I have ever seen, I aspire to have contacts that good one day!
Primary Agility was another well pitched course, with just an awkward weave entry to put me off. Jet came off the seesaw with too much speed, and instead of shaping her to the weave entry like I should have done, I stood still and tried to let her find it herself (like I would with Dyl). Doesn’t work with Jet! We got 5f there and then I moved across to the Aframe too quickly and she lost me, total miscommunication. Sorry Jetly!
Jet’s Triple A was fairly straightforward but I watched a few dogs run and saw them all have the 3rd pole, and I had a feeling Jet would have it as well. It looked like a straightforward angle from the dog’s perspective but it wasn’t, and Jet did have it down. Bit of a shame again as she had a nice run, but Triple A is not really Jet’s game as the Aframe is her weakest obstacle, she’s too slow (and I rarely saw that about Jet!) Dylan’s Triple A was a similar kind of course, but for some reason when walking it I read pull-throughs where really it wasn’t. I wasn’t the only handler to do that, but it left me wrong-footed throughout, late with my timing, overhandling and generally messy. It didn’t look too bad on the video, and we came 4th anyway, but that’s all thanks to Dylan!
OMG Jumping was a great premise – two sets of numbers, you pick a ball from a bag to tell you which course you run just before you go in – but the courses were a little easy for my preference. Very fast, very easy to remember, and pretty much identical for all levels, except Novice Plus got a set of 6 weaves instead of a jump on one part of the course. I got the Black course with Dylan, which is what I wanted as it had the more spacey part to start. Dyl finished up 7th, out of the placings but not too bad a time. I really wanted the Red course with Jet as she has a tendency to try and bounce everything when she’s opened up, and it doesn’t always work! The Black course had a tighter straight-line finish which tends to be Jet and I’s downfall, but we got the Black course as well. I asked her to collect a bit too much at the end in my worry about poles, and we went into the lead for about 10s before eventually coming 3rd.