UKA Dig It July 2013 – Rio's debut!
Baby dog is all grown up!
Actually, she’s very much not, which is why I’m taking things so slowly. Rio is an absolute puppy still! I am very happy with how she did in her classes. She held her wait, she jumped well, she picked up obstacles and had lots of drive down the lines. She had a few problems focusing; the photographer was a big distraction on her second run, I think because she moved position as Rio was approaching, and Ri just lost her concentration. Rio also got a little distracted at the end of her runs, (meet and greet time!) but with the Dig It set up, the courses always finish into a crowd of people (behind ring barriers, but still).
I made some really stupid mistakes with her runs as well. I stopped too often to play, which sounds contrary but she does enjoy agility, so getting to keep moving is rewarding of itself for her. I should have been willing to just keep running and let her roll when it was going well. I also didn’t play tug in an effective way for Rio, which also sounds odd but Rio likes to grab on and tug eye-to-eye, she doesn’t like having the tug snatched away from her. That was just me being nervous.
I’ve nabbed the V’s to bring home again and we have been doing some homework. She’s nearly ready to go on to uprights, but we’re taking it easy; there’s no way her weaves would be competition ready for Empingham, so we’ll skip them in courses. She only has 2 jumping runs per day, but she needs the ring experience now and so do I! It’s been a while since I’ve run any Grade 3 courses. Rio is also pretty weak on what I would call the baby stuff, related to angled jumps and stride adjustment. A wide open line of jumps into a tight turn is hard, for example, because she doesn’t sort herself out early enough to make the turn. Likewise, if she doesn’t get her stride right to an angled jump, she’ll duck out or under. I’ve gone back and done a bit of S-bend work with her this week to try and help her with the turns at speed, but it’s really just going to come down to experience!
Dyl picked up a 1st in Senior Jumping and a 2nd in Champ Steeplechase, but he was slow. I’m not sure what’s going on with him at the moment, he’s incredibly happy and relaxed around the rings, confident and keen, but just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere!