EMDAC

Remind me next time to wear at least 600 layers of clothing. It was -2 all day, and the fog never lifted.

Kim

Kim’s first Novice Plus classes! I knew we weren’t going to get anything as N+ is combined Novice, Graduate & Masters (like Combined 4-7 classes, basically) and there were some really good dogs there — including a Medium Ag.Ch., so hardly surprisingly we felt slightly out of our depth!

Actually, Kim looked really good, she was responsive and reasonably fast all day. She didn’t look out of place and I think if we’d got our act together we might have been in with a chance of some placings. Shame the courses were so hard, that kind of ruined the plans! First was Novice Plus Jumping, and even the Masters handlers were complaining. Kim just wanted to run and set the tone for the day by skipping two obstacles. She nailed the weave entry (I just left her to it) and did the pull-thru from 16 to 17 but then backjumped 16. I can’t say I was in the wrong place, but I had absolutely no idea how to handle 16-17-18 without backjumping somewhere, so I just made sure she finished happy.

Novice Plus Snakes and Ladders was actually quite a nice course, but I pushed Kim too far out and she clocked one of the tunnels, which pulled her off course and got us E’d. Novice+ Helter Skelter looked like a great course on paper but walking it we all realised it wasn’t going to be quite that easy! 13 – 15 was a huge run and the dogs were all a long way in front. Everybody wanted to handle 15-16 as a pull-thru but I know Kim has a stronger out command, and so we did that nicely, scrambled through the pull thru at 17-18 and then messed up the very last bit. Oops!

VIDEO: Handling the 13-17 section

I actually really enjoyed the Helter Skelter (and normally I hate them!) but there was quite an audience for the class, everyone wanted to see who could manage the last sequence. I think 4 did it — 2 Large, 1 Medium and 1 Small.

Finally, Novice Plus Agility. The original course was awful, I walked it two or three times and just gave up. I’d pretty much decided to ignore it and just run Kim around and let her have a nice blasty course to finish with when they changed it, thankfully! Kim ran this so well, and then I let her down because I forgot 14 was the top end of the tunnel and not the bottom. Oops again …

So, we finished up with 4 E’s out of 4 classes. We haven’t done that for a while!

Dylan

Dylan was obviously a dog with something to prove, especially since Kim and I were pants.

Introductory Agility was first and it was quite a nasty course, 2 pull-thrus and a right hand weave which caught out a lot of dogs. The dogwalk entry was horrible too, and Dylan nearly lost his balance and fell off. Good things? Well, we got the weave entry and none of the pull thrus were a problem. Bad things? Contacts were slooooowww and creepy, and we messed up the end and Dylan did a weird loop around the last jump before he took it. No refusals in Intro though, so we went clear! We actually finished 4th in the end, bit of a shock! If EMDAC had been running their usual all heights together classes he would have been 6th (there were two very fast Mini dogs).

Introductory Snakes and Ladders was a fairly straightforward course, with an Aframe shortcut and a Seesaw shortcut. Because of the creepy Aframe in the Agility I opted to go the long way around in the Snakes and Ladders, and then did the seesaw at the end. Nice clear, bit slow by Dylan’s standards but we came 3rd. Soooo pleased!

Intro Helter Skelter was a bit weird, quite tight spacings and lots of loopy circles which I know is the definition of a Helter Skelter but I don’t like them! Accidentally pulled Dylan off a jump and then took the next one, and finished up with a cracking run down the last straight line. Only E of the day though!

Introductory Jumping was last, lovely big and open course with lots of room for Dylan to get a shift on! I decided to really push him and see if he came around a bit, he’d done nicely in all the other classes but wasn’t touching on the speed I know he has. He’s a lazy arse and if he can get away with cruising along, he will do. Anyway, he really did take it up a gear although still wasn’t hitting his top speed and we had such a good run, until I forgot to pull him in for the last line and he had a huge loop to come around for the jump. Bit disappointed with myself for that, but oh well!

VIDEO: Introductory Jumping (Mistakes Included)

Technically clear but I didn’t wait for results, so I have no idea where he came.

Normally I love the EMDAC shows, but this time it was slightly disappointing. The venue was still great, there are a brilliant bunch of competitors there, and I really enjoy it. But … things I didn’t like: The courses were way too hard in almost every class. Because BAA works on a yearly progression for most dogs, the courses should be easier at the beginning of the year and get harder as the season goes on. I wish someone would explain this to the indoor judges! Some dogs were getting placed or even winning with 5/10 faults, and none of the classes were small.

New 19″ cut off for Mediums? Completely stupid. This makes me so irritated I can hardly see straight. There was a Whippet running Medium as a result. A Whippet. A Whippet that was nearly as tall as Dylan, but because it had low withers, was a Medium. A WHIPPET. Yes, there are heavy set dogs (like Labradors) who find it hard to jump Maxi height. But Bernese Mountain Dogs and St Bernards probably find it quite hard as well, and you wouldn’t argue that they should be Mediums in a competitive standard class. If you want a heavy set breed who isn’t suited to the rigours of agility, that is your choice as a pet owner, and as a competitor, you should choose to run in Pawsability or Anysize classes. Mollie is heavy set and stumpy-legged, and we long ago accepted that she found Maxi height hard and therefore entered her in Medium in Pawsability classes. We didn’t argue that the height for Medium’s should be raised to accomodate her!

Seperate awards for seperate heights did not work for me. The first thing I did with all the results was see where Dylan had come, and then how many Micro/Mini/Medium dogs beat him (or not). I was so pleased with his 4th, but there were 2 Mini dogs faster over the same course, so really he came 6th. (He really did come 3rd in the Snakes and Ladders though — which is still mindboggling to me, 3rd!!!!!)

Also, the rosettes were a bit cheap and Dylan didn’t get a trophy or anything for his 3rd which was a bit disappointing too.