Olympia
9 years ago
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Agility training
Agility training this week was good, did some slightly more complicated courses which we coped fairly well with. Had some sticky moments where he thought we really should be going one way and i thought we really should be going another... then he likes to stand and bark at me! Was pleased with his weaves, he was doing 8 weaves for the 1st time at training. I'm impressed with his entries but if he's going too fast he will still skip a pole further on down. Rear crosses need some work as he will spin when i cross behind, i've borrowed susan garretts dvd 'Success with One Jump' off my friend so i'm trying to learn some stuff off of that, i'm finding it all very enlightening so far! Also managed some snakes without too much drama and was really pleased with them as he wasn't jumping too long. Talking of jumping long, we do have a porblem with that as he has such a long stride, he can turn on a sixpence but he really extends over jumps which is great for straight lines but not so good for turning. Also when he knocks poles it is generally because he has tried to bounce a jump that every normal, sane dog would put a stride in! Contacts were really good, he still has food at the bottom of the contact but i am pleased with them. Tried one without food at the bottom though and that wasn't so good, he still went to postion but as soon as he realised there was no food he spun round to look at me like 'wheres the food!!'. I'll have to work on that, i have a plan!
Monday, 3 November 2008
Wall training
Since we have decided to change boxes to a flat front style I have begun retraining asher's box following an american technique of wall training. As with everything he took this all in his stride and is doing perfect turns off the wall. He turns completely horizontally and pushes down off the wall which is what I eventually what him to do off the box. We may train some of the team dogs this way but the rest of them I think we will work off a chute and build them up.
Quick update
It's been a while since I last posted but had a lot going on personally and had a lot to think about which unfortunately isn't to do with doggie stuff! Feeling a bit more together now so thought I'd catch up!
Agility wise Asher is doing really well, he's now jumping full height and so far (touch wood) isn't knocking many poles. His directionals are coming along but still need alot more work. His contacts are fab, they are very consistent, he (almost!) always goes straight to 20n 20ff enthusiatically and accurately and never breaks until he's released. He can do the seesaw on his own now but only as a single obstacle as if you give him a run up he goes too fast and slides off the end but he is learning! Weaves need a lot more work, we were having real problems with the channels at club as he was going too fast and not turning his body quick enough so jumping out. We kind of hit a deadlock where every week we would get to the same distance and then he would stop. I tried holding his collar and guiding him through but this didn't work as when he's restained he just switches off. So i've started working on it at home, i've got some tracking poles and started 2x2 training. He's picked this up incredibly quickly and in one wk he can now do 6poles from all angles, finding the entry himself and with me in all positions. He does 'swim' mainly which i'm really pleased about and i'm hoping he has linked it with his channel training. Still loads of work to do though as he still slips a pole or misses the entry if I drive him at the weaves too hard and of course I need to increase the number of poles but overall i'm pleased with the progress we're making. I as a handler however need ALOT of work, I tend to dog watch quite alot which means I don't get in to position quick enough, I also tend to rush turns as I attempt to keep up with him so either end up pushing him wide or pulling him off the jump. Oh well, i'll learn, just don't want to let him down!
Well the flyball season is over, no more competitions until April now :-(, his first season has gone so quickly and I couldn't of asked for more from my little superstar! He hasn't put a foot wrong all year, he won pairs at the british champs with Badger, he won singles at Stockbridge with a time of 3.87secs and he helped our team achieve our fastest ever time of 17.80secs. Since my last post we attended stockbridge and brinkworth. Weather at Stockbridge was glorious, we raced really well but things didn't quite go our way. Brinkworth was fun but ground was slippy so racing went down to best of 3 in the afternoon, again not much luck in the racing but still managed a 18.21secs so we were pretty pleased considering the conditions. We should have also gone to portway but one of our dogs came down with kennel cough so we pulled out. I still went to party with the High Flyers though and had a great time, really enjoyed the racing as I got to be on the line for flyers!
We had a ballistic team meeting last week to discuss training over the winter. We have decided to change boxes to a flat front box which I am really pleased about. I know there are differing opinions but I think if you take the time to teach a perfect turn they will make our team alot faster. We are having ours modified to be as close as possible to an american box. I'm a little bit nervous aswell as excited as I have been put in charge of box training. I have a plan of action (plus a few back up plans) but I'll bore you with that in another post. I'm hoping by the spring our dogs will be perfect!
On a final note, Tess my little princess is now offically retired aged 11.5. She has had a fantastic flyball career and she has given me so much joy over the years. Her first show was 10th July 1999 and her last was 5th October 2008. Now she can take it easy and watch all the youngsters. Hopefully she'll give some of them a bit of advice aswell!
Agility wise Asher is doing really well, he's now jumping full height and so far (touch wood) isn't knocking many poles. His directionals are coming along but still need alot more work. His contacts are fab, they are very consistent, he (almost!) always goes straight to 20n 20ff enthusiatically and accurately and never breaks until he's released. He can do the seesaw on his own now but only as a single obstacle as if you give him a run up he goes too fast and slides off the end but he is learning! Weaves need a lot more work, we were having real problems with the channels at club as he was going too fast and not turning his body quick enough so jumping out. We kind of hit a deadlock where every week we would get to the same distance and then he would stop. I tried holding his collar and guiding him through but this didn't work as when he's restained he just switches off. So i've started working on it at home, i've got some tracking poles and started 2x2 training. He's picked this up incredibly quickly and in one wk he can now do 6poles from all angles, finding the entry himself and with me in all positions. He does 'swim' mainly which i'm really pleased about and i'm hoping he has linked it with his channel training. Still loads of work to do though as he still slips a pole or misses the entry if I drive him at the weaves too hard and of course I need to increase the number of poles but overall i'm pleased with the progress we're making. I as a handler however need ALOT of work, I tend to dog watch quite alot which means I don't get in to position quick enough, I also tend to rush turns as I attempt to keep up with him so either end up pushing him wide or pulling him off the jump. Oh well, i'll learn, just don't want to let him down!
Well the flyball season is over, no more competitions until April now :-(, his first season has gone so quickly and I couldn't of asked for more from my little superstar! He hasn't put a foot wrong all year, he won pairs at the british champs with Badger, he won singles at Stockbridge with a time of 3.87secs and he helped our team achieve our fastest ever time of 17.80secs. Since my last post we attended stockbridge and brinkworth. Weather at Stockbridge was glorious, we raced really well but things didn't quite go our way. Brinkworth was fun but ground was slippy so racing went down to best of 3 in the afternoon, again not much luck in the racing but still managed a 18.21secs so we were pretty pleased considering the conditions. We should have also gone to portway but one of our dogs came down with kennel cough so we pulled out. I still went to party with the High Flyers though and had a great time, really enjoyed the racing as I got to be on the line for flyers!
We had a ballistic team meeting last week to discuss training over the winter. We have decided to change boxes to a flat front box which I am really pleased about. I know there are differing opinions but I think if you take the time to teach a perfect turn they will make our team alot faster. We are having ours modified to be as close as possible to an american box. I'm a little bit nervous aswell as excited as I have been put in charge of box training. I have a plan of action (plus a few back up plans) but I'll bore you with that in another post. I'm hoping by the spring our dogs will be perfect!
On a final note, Tess my little princess is now offically retired aged 11.5. She has had a fantastic flyball career and she has given me so much joy over the years. Her first show was 10th July 1999 and her last was 5th October 2008. Now she can take it easy and watch all the youngsters. Hopefully she'll give some of them a bit of advice aswell!
Tuesday, 23 September 2008
Thursday, 11 September 2008
Imber Court
Tessie!
Box still looking ok!
Me and my girly!
We weren't sure if this competition would even go ahead due to the terrible rain but we bravely headed down to Surrey on the Saturday morning. It was on a sports ground which had amazing drainage so despite all the rain the ground had held up very well. We had three teams in, the ballistics (1st team) and missiles (3rd team) ran Saturday. Missiles were a little out of there depth as we were on a seed time of 22.92secs with Jive in the team. Tess wasn't on top form due to it being a bit slippy but she tried hard and we managed a best time of 23.70secs. It was a 7 team division and we won 3 of our races to end up 4th so were really pleased with that.
Ballistics had an absolutely brilliant start to the day, we ran our 1st race against maple leafs and managed to beat them acheiving a new best ever time of 17.80secs and finally breaking that 18second barrier so we were well chuffed. Won are second race aswell, unfortunately the afternoon went down hill as we lost to the bandits with a light, a late and naughty Sonny running out again. Don't know why he's suddenly doing this again, back to training for him. He was ok in the blue lane against bassetts but they were just a little bit too quick for us. Last race against maple leaf raggers was such a shame, can't remember exactly what happened, we had them on speed but i think we one the first leg, then sonny ran out the next 2, then next 1 he stayed in and we won it. Then on the last leg he ran out, little bugger! We ended up 5th, nevermind if we'd of one the two races we should of won we would of been 2nd, if only...
Rockets ran Sunday, stayed dry pretty much all day which was nice. I got to run the wonderful Perry as Bobbie wasn't there. He is sooo lush to run, he's very tuned in to what you want him to do and he's just a big softy. Had a bit of an annoying day as first race we were a whole second faster but got 3 lights and lost. Then Jive was slipping and running out, then Bunty got her silly head on and started running round the ring, it all kind of fell apart. Once Bunty is in that mood she doesn't run at full speed, thought we had cracked it with her but she does like to keep us on our toes! We did manage to win one race and had the 2nd fastest time of the division of 18.88secs but still came last!
So a weekend of if only's i guess, i'm sure we are due a successful competition soon... 1and a half weeks til Stockbridge...
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Amazing Training!
Just a little post cuz I had an agility lesson with Char Harding on Sunday, was brilliant. Felt like I learnt so much and I have lots of homework to do! Asher was a good boy, he tried really hard even if some bits did blow his mind a little bit, well he is a boy, can't take it all in bless him! I've got training at Clifton tonight so I'll see if i can put some of the stuff I learnt in to place!
Catch up!
Oh dear, it's been ages!
Well we've had the BFA national championships which were FANTASTIC! Loved it soo much! Went up on the thurs night and managed to blag an awning to sleep in instead of faffing with a tent. Raced Tess Friday in division 21, she ran so well all day bless her, we were top seed and unbeaten all day so 1st place :-). It meant so much to me because it was Tess' last championships and we've always had bad luck at the champs, the amount of 6th place rosettes i've got is ridiculous so was lovely to get the little plaque and 1st place rosette! We did pairs with Kristian and Badger, was amazing even though they've never run together before and run on different boxes, badger and asher managed 8.25secs which won us the pairs on friday and i think it was the quickest time of the weekend:-). Friday night was ace, we had a quiz which our team won... what a brainy lot we are lol! Disco was really fun aswell, stayed up til bout 2 with the mad mutts!
Extraset ran Saturday and were really consistent all day but not quite quick enough to beat all the teams, they came 3rd. Saturday night was sooo funny, we had a flyballers that bounce competition where we had to race each other on spacehoppers! We made it to the final only for me to fall off and be beaten by Penny from the Bandits lol lol! Stayed up til bout 4, was a lil bit tipsy!
Sunday morning arrived very quickly and I didn't feel too great! Our 1st team had an absolute nightmare, one of our dogs decided he didn't want to come back over the jumps. He hasn't done this for months so we were absolutely gutted cuz once he's got it in his head it's like a switch has flicked and you can't switch it off so we just went nfc so he didn't get in to the habit of running out. Things got worse when another of our dogs followed suit and ran out straight through ashers path... bang! Think my heart stopped, the thought of anything happening to him doesn't bear thinking about. He also runs at over 30mph and is built like a brick wall so was very worried for the other dog aswell, luckily she was ok. Rockets also ran Sunday, things started badly with a reformed character returning to his old ways so we lost the 1st 2 races. We thought it was just not our day. Luckily he got his act together in the afternoon and they did there fastest ever time of 18.79secs and won two races. Thats nearly as fast as the 1st team, me thinks we might be stealing that height dog! They came 4th. I watched all of Division 1 and it was absolutely brilliant, such close racing, High Flyers defo deserved to win but all the teams were great.
So back home from champs and the the following Sunday morning I drove the 192miles down to sellindge in Kent for the Shooting Stars tournament, we wouldn't usually go that far but it was Kerry and Jason's wedding so really wanted to go. We only took 1 team, a slightly depleted 1st team which ended up being bottom seed in division 1 so we didn't hold out much hope. We managed a fastest time of 18.52secs which is the fastest those 4 dogs have done so that was good and we ended up 4th :-)... unfortunately only because 2 teams went down to 3 dogs but we'll take it! The wedding party on the Sunday night was brilliant, really enjoyed it, had a sweet fight which was totally not my fault lol and I got rather drunk so all in all a good weekend! Also Shooting Stars broke the 17 second barrier with 16.98secs, it looked sooo good and i think they could go faster.
Oh yeah and flyball was on tv in the form of a piece on the one show, they filmed all weekend at the champs for approx. 3 minutes on the tv. Personally I wasn't impressed, it wasn't at all factual and I think if you didn't already know what flyball was you wouldn't have a much better idea after! Nevermind, good publicity I suppose!
Well we've had the BFA national championships which were FANTASTIC! Loved it soo much! Went up on the thurs night and managed to blag an awning to sleep in instead of faffing with a tent. Raced Tess Friday in division 21, she ran so well all day bless her, we were top seed and unbeaten all day so 1st place :-). It meant so much to me because it was Tess' last championships and we've always had bad luck at the champs, the amount of 6th place rosettes i've got is ridiculous so was lovely to get the little plaque and 1st place rosette! We did pairs with Kristian and Badger, was amazing even though they've never run together before and run on different boxes, badger and asher managed 8.25secs which won us the pairs on friday and i think it was the quickest time of the weekend:-). Friday night was ace, we had a quiz which our team won... what a brainy lot we are lol! Disco was really fun aswell, stayed up til bout 2 with the mad mutts!
Extraset ran Saturday and were really consistent all day but not quite quick enough to beat all the teams, they came 3rd. Saturday night was sooo funny, we had a flyballers that bounce competition where we had to race each other on spacehoppers! We made it to the final only for me to fall off and be beaten by Penny from the Bandits lol lol! Stayed up til bout 4, was a lil bit tipsy!
Sunday morning arrived very quickly and I didn't feel too great! Our 1st team had an absolute nightmare, one of our dogs decided he didn't want to come back over the jumps. He hasn't done this for months so we were absolutely gutted cuz once he's got it in his head it's like a switch has flicked and you can't switch it off so we just went nfc so he didn't get in to the habit of running out. Things got worse when another of our dogs followed suit and ran out straight through ashers path... bang! Think my heart stopped, the thought of anything happening to him doesn't bear thinking about. He also runs at over 30mph and is built like a brick wall so was very worried for the other dog aswell, luckily she was ok. Rockets also ran Sunday, things started badly with a reformed character returning to his old ways so we lost the 1st 2 races. We thought it was just not our day. Luckily he got his act together in the afternoon and they did there fastest ever time of 18.79secs and won two races. Thats nearly as fast as the 1st team, me thinks we might be stealing that height dog! They came 4th. I watched all of Division 1 and it was absolutely brilliant, such close racing, High Flyers defo deserved to win but all the teams were great.
So back home from champs and the the following Sunday morning I drove the 192miles down to sellindge in Kent for the Shooting Stars tournament, we wouldn't usually go that far but it was Kerry and Jason's wedding so really wanted to go. We only took 1 team, a slightly depleted 1st team which ended up being bottom seed in division 1 so we didn't hold out much hope. We managed a fastest time of 18.52secs which is the fastest those 4 dogs have done so that was good and we ended up 4th :-)... unfortunately only because 2 teams went down to 3 dogs but we'll take it! The wedding party on the Sunday night was brilliant, really enjoyed it, had a sweet fight which was totally not my fault lol and I got rather drunk so all in all a good weekend! Also Shooting Stars broke the 17 second barrier with 16.98secs, it looked sooo good and i think they could go faster.
Oh yeah and flyball was on tv in the form of a piece on the one show, they filmed all weekend at the champs for approx. 3 minutes on the tv. Personally I wasn't impressed, it wasn't at all factual and I think if you didn't already know what flyball was you wouldn't have a much better idea after! Nevermind, good publicity I suppose!
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