Trial today

Only took Raven to the trial today. Cypher is having a break fo a weekend or two. I had entered Raven in a couple of runs and decided to play it by ear. She was certainly well enough today so we went - it was an afternoon trial again. Her Masters Agility run confirmed how much better she was feeling - she broke her start!!! Wasn't a full on blast past me or anything but enough to creep up to the first bar and then knock it of course...so we finished the course anyway I could tell she was enjoying herself. We did a ripper run in Open Agility, again I can't quite help feeling incredibly lucky every time I run her now. I have to smile as we get to have another go. She ran perfectly and with more of her old speed which led to me being too late with the out command on the distance challenge. We copped a refusal but that was our only fault. I was more than happy and grateful for the glimpse of the old Raven. Her lymph nodes (I felt them today) are now more the size of the stone in a small peach which is great. Her appetite still good (fresh cooked bacon for the trial today) and things are looking normal. She's harrassing her back left toes lately, I think the itchiness is creeping back in, keeping a close eye on it. Back in to Murdoch tomorrow for treatment #3.
I had fun running my other two borrowed dogs today - Dexter, another Rhonabwy BC, in Excellent Jumping for a clear round and first place, his owner Janice was wrapt and then Rumour, the Sheltie, she was a bit put out by the minimal warm up but we finished off clear for not a bad run.
We now have a break, long weekend next weekend which is trial-less and then the next one is on June 10th Sunday. That's the weekend Raven gets a week off from treatment on Monday (meaning the long weekend she gets the most toxic drug in her treatment) . I'm now looking ahead to that treatment hoping fervently that she, in her true Raven toughness, experiences no toxicity to this one. We can but hope.

Raven has a win :-)

Tonight was Perth Training’s Agility and Jumping Trial. We definitely fared a bit better this Saturday than last! Raven was a star again and took 1st place in Masters Agility. It wasn’t smooth sailing in a number of places but her speed compensated for that. We had a brilliant run in Open Jumping apart from the 3rd bar from the end coming down. In Open Agility she kept all bars up I just managed to handle her into a refusal of a jump – my ugly early rear cross move came out. She also managed to miss the distance challenge (easier than last weeks but needing more handling than most people had given it). Masters Jumping was our first run of the night and she was handling like a mack truck on the opening going very wide all over the shop on all the turns, she eventually had a bar down so we stopped, replaced bar and withdrew.
Cypher was like a yoyo tonight – he did a lovely Masters Jumping run first up and was very smooth and surprisingly he ended up with a 4th place (he never feels like he is moving as fast as he could!). I think he is very efficient sometimes, deceptively so.
Next up was Open Agility and I handled a very poor 270 move that failed to execute at all, causing him to treat it like a pull through instead of going round the outside. However he then pulled his same stunt from last week on the weaves! Found the gap just fine on a difficult angle but then just ran straight through the gap past all the poles, now I watched this back on video (yay for Tim the videographer tonight) and there is no reason for what he did. It is quite bizarre. I have to think on this some more and see what to do. He nailed both sets of weaves in Masters Agility and Open Jumping. The entries were easier though so perhaps it is simply the unusual entry angle and I haven’t proofed them enough lately. I shall work on it. In Masters Agility I think he thought – “oh this is the same as the last course I just did” (And the opening did look exactly the same as Open had been nested with Masters) and went straight in the wrong end of the tunnel as Obstacle #2. I took him back and started again, recalling him straight to me then turning him into the tunnel. He then just about tripped me up as he cut me off to do the wrong end of the next tunnel we came across *sigh*. That was quite frustrating I must admit. Nailed the rest of the course quite nicely. His last run was Open Jumping and apart from one wide turn he was extremely responsive and running well. He ended up in 7th place on this one.
I ran Rumour on this Open Jumping course and she ran like a cracker! Unfortunately she just curved in a bit early before going out to a jump and got a refusal but other than that it went very smoothly and rapidly…she was fast tonight. The only other run I had was with the young red and white BC Dexter – I ran him in Excellent Jumping and again it was a lovely smooth run and we came in clear for a 3rd place which his owner Janice was very happy about! Looks like I am handling him at next weekend for the State Titles too so that will be fun.
So no luck on the ADM title front yet for Cypher, still sitting on 2 legs to go. I’m hoping he’s saving it up for the two trials then! Raven is running pretty well right now, I think the swimming has helped her jumping and as long as I can get my directions out clearly enough and early enough (but not too early) we should be right!

Gozzy Trial March 2007

It was a good night all round for us with only one frustrating 3 seconds out of my 6 runs with my two BCs. I ran another Rhonabwy BC tonight, a boy called Dexter for his first time in Excellent Jumping and he ran beautifully for me right up until I got lost! We lost some momentum; he took a bar and came back out a chute tunnel. My fault entirely, we were going great guns up till then! Fun to run!
I ran the Sheltie Rumour in Open Jumping and she did a lovely cracker of a run for a clear round, she was light hearted and happy tonight and it was good to see.
For my two I was very pleased with how they ran and also pleased to note I was more on the ball with their handling. Raven did a blinder of a run in Masters Agility however I just about completely stuffed up a rear cross for her over a bar that was side by side with another bar. We dithered and faffed and I did copious amounts of yelling but eventually she figured out what I wanted (likely no thanks whatsoever to me!) and we carried on to finish strongly. She ended up with a 3rd place which was good as it's another leg towards that seemingly far away AgCh Title. Cypher’s run was before hers and this was the one with the frustrating 3 seconds in it, put it this way I yelled ‘Come’ and he went :P and sucked into a tunnel, his only saving grace was that I didn’t quite give him enough view of the jump before he tunnel sucked and the bar came down. Other than this hiccup it was a very nice run. My aim for training with him this week is to stop repeating myself when I say come on course (and keep having tug toy on me to reward him with a game) and say it once. Huge party if he responds immediately, turn my back on him and walk away if he doesn’t, show him the toy that he missed out on. Can’t hurt to try. Next up was Open Agility and he flew around this course quite tidily. I had told myself to work his contacts (ie insist on the lie down) as I had seen some pretty quick runs from our experienced dogs and knew he wasn’t in the hunt for a placing really. Of course I didn’t stick to this but I still managed to get him to waste time as he ran through the contact; kind of slowed right down in his strides; looked at me to see if I was going to insist and by that time we were right in front of the next obstacle so I just let him go. Bad handler! I was an idiot and I should have made him do the lie down, it *will* happen at the next trial!! He also lay down nice and fast on the seesaw but way too early and I had to move him up a bit to get it to drop. More time wasted. He did a running contact on the aframe and by that time I was just in the mood to keep on running! So I did and he did and we ran clear for about 7th out of 14 quallies. Oh well another leg towards ADO2. He was then up in Masters Jumping straight after this and he ran a clear round but really no thanks to me! I think I was too wrapped up in thinking about where I should be instead of letting him know which way we were going clearly enough. Just about every tunnel exit had him turning the wrong way mostly due to me not saying anything to let him know which way until *after* he was out of the tunnel. Bit late by then really! I had a plan that totally went awry when I ran to places I hadn’t even intended to run to when I walked it. It was just messy and not smooth and I felt like we could have run that much faster and smoother. Never the less he still managed a pass in the top 6 placings so I was happy with that.
Raven’s Open Agility run felt absolutely thrilling, She was blasting through her running contacts, had the first 5 obstacles done before I could say much at all really as it was a fairly straight line. We were on track for a win when she slammed down that seesaw so quick and was off it before I had the chance to realise she had no chance of seeing the next jump which was perpendicular to the end of the seesaw and visible by one thin upright. She curved into me (because I didn’t say anything helpful like ‘Get Out’!) and ended up copping a refusal on the jump as she had passed the plane. Even with the time it took to bring her back round and get her to do the jump she was no more than half a second or so off the first place time. In Masters Jumping I made an assumption that was just simply wrong, I didn’t think she had much of a choice and thought I had turned my body enough to indicate clearly to take a tunnel, she took a jump. Then she came in on me when I layered the tunnel because my arm signal and verbal wasn’t clear enough and then we just had quite a few other off courses after that because I had pretty much obliterated whatever plan we were going for! She had a ball though and got her jackpot for keeping all the bars up. It was a good night! What I was really proud of her for was that we had 3 fast, incredibly exciting runs and she kept every single bar up! We’ve been doing some extra jump work this week and I think we’ll maintain it! It feels good to finish courses even if we’ve had a blip along the way. So now we wait again...no trials next weekend :-( but then we hit April with a trial every weekend and Adelaide at the end! I cannot believe how quickly the time is going...and still so much to do. Must admit it's certainly exciting to look forward to; so far 2100 runs planned for the weekend of the Nationals!

Western Classic Wrap Up

Well it was a mixed bag for my two furballs this weekend. This is Cypher’s first ever Western Classic and I am really pleased and satisfied with how he ran, his runs have been improving every time we stepped into the ring. He went clear in Masters Agility for his 5th pass and he just had a couple of unlucky bars down one in Open Agility and one in Masters Jumping. In Open Jumping I *think* (I didn’t actually see him move) he may have got up at the start and moved closer to the first bar and then sat down again because he knocked the first bar. C’est la vie as they say. He ran very well for me apart from that and I was pleased with his focus which is definitely increasing each time.

Raven did not manage a single clean run the whole two nights apart from her Strategic Pairs run which we did with usual partners Sue and Nifty. That said though I have still been extremely proud of how she worked for me this weekend. Open Agility was a tough one (see post below) and for some unknown reason she ducked behind me on a relatively simple lead out and headed off for the aframe. She didn’t do it but she caused a refusal call on the 3rd jump. We then had an off course after the aframe (I realised afterwards I should have taken the cross behind on the aframe option) and her striding took her over the down dogwalk contact. Then in Masters Agility she was brilliant absolutely flying, did the most spectacular running dogwalk contact I have ever seen her do had to then do a sharp right turn which I cued a bit late for her she still dug in and really fought to do the next jump, amazingly cleared it but by the time I realised what an impossible angle it put her on for the next jump it was too late and she took it from the wrong side. Not her fault at all and I was extremely pleased with what she had done. Masters Jumping I just wasn’t quite in the right mindset with her, she also became extremely hypersensitive to my body position and pulled off the #4 jump probably due to the fact that I had my mind on the next tunnel move and didn’t really give her the usual commitment position to go do a jump. We had a few those hiccups on the Masters Jumping course. It was a nice course though and Cypher ran it very well we just took one bar down on the way home. In Open Jumping we were going great guns till on a slightly pinwheel type turn she face planted on landing from one jump and just didn’t have enough room or time to get up over the next jump though she tried as hard as she could. I couldn’t fault her for that so we kept going and finished the course. Again a lovely flowing course that we just had some bad luck on.

Sunday night was the teams event and I ran 3 out of the 4 dogs on our team, my two plus Rumour the Sheltie. The conditions were not the best in terms of the sun hitting the course badly, if you looked back at your dog on the lead out all you saw was them squinting their eyes badly and trying to sight you. I ran Rumour first and she didn’t want to go near the judge on course which caused a few distractions issues, she popped the 2nd last weaver and also had a couple of off courses. Cypher ran next and did a nice solid clear round, Tag was after him and Robyn ran him for a steady but one bar down (handler error of course! *g*) and then Raven came out. Well she was feeling a bit frisky and feral at this point, so for the second time this year she broke her start, flew by me and then I had to use seat of pants handling which caused her to drop a bar. But other than that she ran a rather uncontrolled but clear course. Onto jumping and Rumour was a bit more improved although again her start was slow due to us running towards the judge, but when I took off on her she came with me!! She ran pretty well after that apart from one off course where I just took my eyes off her for a split second to sight the line home and she was off over another jump! I was happier with her this time though. Cypher again was the team anchor putting in another solid clear round no hiccups, then Raven came out and she was listening well I just didn’t get my line exactly right on the way home and she copped a refusal. Robyn had to run from the showring to the agility ring last night and was the last person to run with Tag. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be a repeat of his clear round in Open Jumping the night before and Robyn got a bit lost! He had a good time anyway finishing off with her. It does suck majorly though when these events clash all the time, you’d think the organisers might think about the fact that Border Collies (the most prominent breed in agility) might be involved with both disciplines and perhaps it would be a good idea to schedule them on different nights! I know I would have entered the show with Cypher and Spryte had they not been on the same night!

Next it was Novice Strategic Pairs and I ran Rumour again for Andrea while she ran Rosie. We had a very smooth run but unfortunately rumour ran under her first jump on her first sequence which cost us a few seconds, we still ended up with 2nd place so that was nice. Then onto Excellent, I ran the gorgeous GSP Emmy for Lisa, who ran Sabra, again it was a nice round; we got an unlucky call on the dogwalk contact so Sabra had to come over and do it however the girls were still fast enough to make the time and there were no other hiccups. Then it was Raven and Nifty’s turn, Raven was more than just feral by now it was like trying to control a severely ADHD/ADD child with high levels of caffeine consumption!! We’d considered this in our strategy I believe which is why Nifty did most of the course and I just tried to hold on to Raven who was dancing around like a jack in the box waiting for our 2nd part! I think Nifty may have had a couple of spins round jumps and Raven was trying to do much more than her share however for the most part it was pretty smooth and we went clear but oddly not in the top three placings which is very unusual for those two to say the least. Nevermind a pass is a pass!! Cypher and Sage were next up and despite me having a blank and not remembering my team mate was the one who started we flew around that course and went clear for third place and our third pass so that was cool. Strategic Pairs is great fun and probably one of the best spectator events there are!

So the last night (Monday night) is the Obedience and I had Cypher in his first Novice trial ever! Raven was also in UD for about her 5th or 6th attempt. As I have been working Cypher's heelwork over the last few weeks I have noticed that he heels well when first grabbed out of the car and straight into work. I went with this strategy at the obedience trial....let's just say the "No Warm Up" approach is not for him! He was happy and up and doing heelwork in some parts but in others he was just away with the fairies. So I just asked to finish with the recall which he did very nicely and we left. We shall aim to be ready for the Novice Obedience at the Royal I think instead! Raven worked very well for me last night and passed most of her UD exercises. Seek back was good (apart from the dropping of the seek back article which she promptly picked up), directed jumping was nice and very enthusiastic as the judge noted, passed her scent discrimination without dropping a single article and we then went into the signals exercise. She actually passed the signals part but failed the heelwork as I had to call her back to heel when we heeled off and she trotted off to the box (for some reason she thought we were working on her box!). She also passed the directed retrieve with the gloves. So all in all she didn't do too badly and that is the furthest we have gotten with the UD round. So there is still hope we may get there one day! So that was it for another Western Classic, not a huge success but some very nice performances by Cy and Rave. We now have to wait till the 24th for our next trial which I have to say is not good!!! We only have about 5 trials left before we head over to Adelaide! ARGH!!!! So much to do and so little time....damn this thing called work!

My JDM Boy!

At the first regular trial back for 2007 Cypher went clear on the Masters jumping course to finish off his JDM title.

He is now Nahrof Quick Change ADX JDM ADO JDO SPD GD at the tender age of 2 years and 3 months old. He is possibly the youngest dog in Western Australia to gain this title. He went from Novice Jumping through to Masters complete in around 8 months of trialling time. Is he a great dog? Absolutely but who has taught me the most about training? The Raven. I believe she was 5 and a half years old when she gained her JDM, it took us that long….wait….it took *me* that long to get a handle on not only how to handle her but to teach her that bars mean something! Without her I’m not so sure I’d be capable of training dogs to reach their JDM so early in their trialling careers.

To top it all off he went clear on Masters Agility as well with a very nice run that ended up with a third place out of 13 qualifiers! He is deceptive with his times though, as I run him he feels like we’re not going anywhere near the speed of some faster dogs and yet when the cards are given out, so far in Masters Agility, all his clear rounds have resulted in top 4 finishes! 4 more cards to go for that title.

Raven had relatively good night although no passes, in Masters Agility I completely did a magic trick on her for her seesaw and as a result we had one of most spectacular fly offs ever (seriously I don’t think the board had even started tipping before she flew through the air with the greatest of ease). It happens when your handler completely blocks it by doing an untidy front cross in front of it too close and the dog goes flying up it thinking it’s a dogwalk and said handler doesn’t think to yell wait just yells “Seesaw” when the dog is already at just about the end of it! Raven must have thought as it dropped out from underneath ‘Seesaw? YOU RECKON??? Could have warned me a bit earlier slow arse!!” So my fault there but it was a nice run apart from that! In Open Agility again handler had slow arse disease (I swear she’s gotten waaaaay faster over the break) and didn’t direct her clearly, Raven went where? I went oh crap you’re pointing the wrong way and yelled Come, Raven came (very nicely pulling off the correct jump) and we copped a refusal on what was otherwise a nice run. Stoooopid handler! Masters Jumping I think I had just started to get more on the ball with my handling and commands and she drops a bar so we left, she had run very nicely apart from that! I’m hoping that I’m more rapidly up to par with next weekend’s trial!

Another success tonight was that I finished of Rumour’s (Sheltie) ADM title with a clear run in Masters Agility. So that was good news, we’ll concentrate on her Open Titles now I think and her games ones. So not a bad night at all, although stinky hot!