Dylan at EMDAC & Waldridge Fell
So, what did Dylan do at EMDAC and Waldridge Fell? My little man was not exactly on fire this weekend. I’ll admit I was probably partly to blame for that, as I was so focussed on Kim that I just kind of assumed Dyl would be ok and would give me his all regardless. I should know by now that he doesn’t work like that!
His first run was Introductory Jumping, which was an interesting course; looked a little tricky when we all walked it, lots of mumbling and grumbling, but then it ran really well and there were loads of clears. Unfortunately the agility gods were not smiling on us! After having perfect conditions all morning – bright, breezy, good footing – it began to absolutely bucket it down as we were 2 dogs from the line. The downpour was accompanied by huge gusts of wind that I struggled to run in, so I can’t imagine it did Dylan any good either. Anyway, we finished and 2 dogs later the rain had stopped again. It always seems a bit dodgy to lay blame with the weather, but we did go clear and it was a good run! Dylan came 6th in the end, just a second off the winner, but I do think we could have shaved some time off that if we’d have run in decent conditions.
He did some beautiful contacts in Introductory Snakes and Ladders, exactly what I always want! Fast, driving, fast … I’d made the decision before I ran that I was going to hold all his contacts, and I did, and he came 6th. From the look of the times, if I’d done stop-go contacts he actually would have been placed at least in the top-3, but of course I didn’t! I chose instead to do stop-go contacts in his Intro Agility class, which was a big mistake as his contacts were creeping again. Finished 4th in that one, but I wasn’t that thrilled with the run.
Made a hash of Helter Skelter as I left him to take a jump and he swung around it instead, should have supported it more. Can’t have 4/4 clears!
Waldridge Fell … not a great competition for the pup and I. Dylan was really off the ball – but possibly because I was? – and kind of floated around his courses, not really driving or focussed. There were moments of potential; we were both getting our act together for the final jumping class of the day, Graded 3-5 Jumping, until I lost the plot slightly and forgot where I was going, and then got too far in front of him and made him miss the weave entry. I know he does this if I pull too far ahead, but I did it anyway.
See video below for Grade 3-5 Jumping. You can also click here to view his Pairs run with Cat and Gypsy (first thing in the morning, both of us half-asleep, sorry Cat!)
In 1-3 Agility he was kind of ditzy, and I had just run over the course (different equipment order, obviously!) with Kim so I did forget to cue him for a tight turn. Oops … held all those contacts, and interestingly his dogwalk looked better than usual. Not great, but better! Dylan’s little sister Kai (Kai in Flyte) was winning the class until very close to the end, so congratulations to Natalie for her eventual 2nd! 3-5 Agility was a surprisingly straightforward course, but again handler error; I blocked the jump I wanted him to do and he very rightly went around it. Held contacts again, they were reasonable but not brilliant. 1-3 Jumping was an ok run, he nailed his weaves and did pick up a fair turn of speed around the second half of the course, but didn’t set off in a particularly focussed manner. Surprisingly the winner was 29.??s and Dylan was 31.87s, so not as far off the pace as he felt to be. (Well out of the placings though, as there were a lot of clear rounds!)
Sooo, things to work on. Contacts contacts contacts, always contacts! No problems with him sticking on them, he can’t be persuaded to break them regardless of what I do, so we might experiment a little with that this weekend at Nottingham. I’m beginning to suspect that he’s Turns also need a lot of work, he’s still turning very wide around 270’s and I’d like him taking the inner line around a star/pinwheel rather than jumping nearer the outside wing, which is what we have at the moment.
I do feel like Dylan and I have kind of hit a block in our training, and we’re just not progressing at th moment. I know I said a while ago I was going to look at booking some training days etc, which I will do eventually, but I’m also going to see if I can go and train with Natalie, Orienne and the rest of the Atomic Dog group for a few sessions over the next couple of months, as well as hitting some other contacts for advice. We’ll see if that makes a difference or not!