Dog Vegas July 2012
I was really happy with our runs on Friday. We didn’t have a “perfect” run and that kept us from the placings, but our times weren’t far off.
Most worrying run was in the first class. Sat watching, a few of us noticed that the up plank of the dogwalk didn’t appear to have any slats on. I had a proper look later and the slats were laid underneath the rubber skin, which means that in direct sunlight the slats aren’t at all visible. This was a recurring theme over the weekend and caused no end of problems, lots and lots of dogs mistaking the dogwalk for the seesaw and either bailing off part way up, or “flying” the up plank when it failed to tip, and then landing badly on the top plank and slipping or falling off. I think if it had been consistent (ie. no slats at all, or proper visible slats) there wouldn’t have been a problem, but the appearance of the dogwalk changed in each class. Interestingly, the Aframe had the same setup with the slats beneath the rubber skin but didn’t cause a problem, so it was obvious that the dogs were mistaking the dogwalk for the seesaw.
Disappointing from First Contact, and I hope they change this for the future. I’d personally prefer to see the dogwalk keep the slats (rubber slats?) if only to keep the appearance distinct from the seesaw.
Anyway, Dylan stuttered on the upplank but regained his confidence to finish nicely, out of the placings but considering our rather long delay I wasn’t too concerned. The G4-7 Agility was better, lovely, fast, and confident on all the equipment which made me happy. I made a handling error at the weaves unfortunately, that turned out to be my big problem all weekend!
The two jumping courses on Friday were under the same judge, and were both very challenging. I think I heard that she hadn’t judged Grade 5 upwards before. The courses had some interesting sequences but it was constantly nagging at the dogs, and I actually skipped the final jumping course as I didn’t want to knock Dyl’s confidence with two very twisty courses in one day. We gave the first course a good go (G5-7 Jumping) but he popped the weaves when I ran on ahead, I need to remember to support him a bit more now the new spacing has come in, as it does throw him off sometimes. I was still very pleased with our run though, we had some positive moments in there!
After Friday, I was so happy with how we were working as a team, and Dylan was confident and cheerful and a little bit cheeky. First on Saturday was the G5-7 Jumping had a course time of 35s and Dylan clocked 35.480, so we had time faults. I thought our run was reasonably good, I was able to send Dylan out to jump 9 the way I wanted, and then beat him to the end of the course for the front cross. I couldn’t have done that 6 months ago!
First time I’ve been caught out by a course time with Dylan, I do think it was a bit tight but that seems to be the topic of the moment anyway. We did have a mistake on our run and Dylan isn’t exactly the fastest G6 dog out there. For reference, the G6 winner was well in front of every Grade with 29s, second in the G6 was 31s and the majority of clears were around the 33s time. Surprised by how many people were getting overly worried about the run to Jump 9, lots and lots of dogs popping the weaves as handlers raced on ahead. In most cases, they really didn’t need to; the long jump opened the dogs up and I only saw one or two elect to take the back of 10 rather than 9.
Combined 6-7 Jumping was a super course from Ray Ellerton, pitched just right for the level. I was surprised by how many people made errors or eliminations, particularly at the weaves. Same problem as the G5-7, We had a couple of momentary dithers, one where I didn’t support a jump enough and one where I was a little too far behind. Really happy with this run though, Dylan finished just in the placings at 8th.
After the lovely runs up until this point, I was really looking forward to the Dog Vegas/First Contact G6 Qualifier after lunch on Saturday. I thought the course was challenging but could potentially run well, and I thought we had a decent chance of getting placed. Dylan set off super, we got a gorgeous wrap around 2 and push to 3, had a beautiful seesaw at 4, and then he crashed the 5 really badly. It went badly downhill after that, Dylan bailed the dogwalk twice and I had to lead him over it in the end. He finished well, lovely Aframe and extending through the last line of jumps.
Next run was in C6-7 Agility, very disappointing to see Dylan was over cautious and creeping. We checked him for injury after this run, but he was trotting up and stretching with no complaints, no hot spots or apparent problems. Sunday continued much the same as Saturday afternoon, very hesitant and cautious on the contact equipment and not particularly fluid in his jumping. The last class, G6-7 Jumping, was a bit of an improvement in terms of fluidity but I messed up handling the weave entry so we picked up 5f.
There was a big showjumping show on at Arena UK this weekend as well, which was fun to watch even if it did cause some problems for the agility organisers. At Arena UK, the horse show people definitely take priority over the agility people.
I’m still not sure that Dylan didn’t injure himself in the Qualifier, so he’s on lead walks for a few days as a precaution, and had hydrotherapy today instead of agility training. We have no more agility as August is Flyball month, with our Champs prep at Larden Green next weekend and then the Champs themselves mid-August. I’m at UKA thankfully next time, so hopefully with a bit of training in the ring Dylan’s confidence will be back.