Illness begets Evolutionary theories

Today I write of many things for several reasons. Today is Wednesday and it has been 14 days since I took the dogs out to do agility anywhere – training or trialling. We leave Thursday the 8th of June for the Nationals in Sydney. I will get some training in on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. Who knows if this is enough or not – I mean seriously can one ever get enough training in whilst holding down a full time job? I think not. My head hurts, my nose is running a marathon and my throat and voice have decided that the husky gravely sound with the daggers in the back is the best state to be in. The dogs are fine – fully recovered from their bout of Infectious Tracheobronchitis and bouncing out of their skin to get out and do some training. I’m keeping them away for several reasons 1. Cy is probably still infectious although he stopped coughing 5 days ago. 2. I am paranoid that some mutant strain shall reinfect them before we go. 3. I feel sick and would not be a good trainer right now anyway. So the dogs are ok (she says touching every piece of wood in arm’s length)…I am half way through reading “The Other End of the Leash” by Dr Patricia McConnell. Whilst it does not contain anything surprising and new to me it certainly refreshes my “dog’s mind” perspective. I forget sometimes that these furry creatures are indeed not of the bi-pedal human variety. The expressions they convey sometimes are so subtle yet so clear in their meaning that it is hard to remember they are a completely different species to us. It is a good read though I thoroughly recommend it. The chapter on puppy farmers/mills certainly outraged me suitably and refreshed my determination to see that none of my friends and colleagues patronise these establishments – pet shops have a great deal to answer for with this equation as well.

I was asked today if I had any kids. I gave my reply and the next question was a surprised “How come?” I said “Well I’ve got dogs.” The next question was “So are dogs better than kids?” My answer simply was “Yeah they’re easier to train”. I work with teenagers five days a week – it is enough “nuture” time for me. I do not find myself yearning for that baby at all. Maybe I’m missing a gene but maybe that’s evolution…humans are starting to realise that the planet we live on is not endless in its resources. Someday this planet will no longer be able to sustain life and yet in terms of evolution every single species on this planet comes born with the instinct to reproduce life. To me it seems an obvious paradox. “But” I hear those good Catholics protest, “how will you be able to leave your imprint on the world if not through your children? It is God’s will that you have children.” I’m quite sure that it was God’s will that we don’t go around destroying other species, their habitats and generally exploiting every resource on this planet either. Human beings procreate out of pure selfish motives and there is no hiding that, indeed there is no other reason for procreation and thank goodness for these selfish tendencies of our species or else we would not be the advanced species we are today (and I most certainly would not be here.) Somewhere along the line though if theories of evolution are to be trusted then we will evolve to not have an instinct to produce offspring as that instinct will be our own self destruct button. Species who like to live and thrive will, in a restricted space, will produce only single offspring or not produce any offspring at all. But I digress – this train of thought is kind of getting a little weird.

Jon Watts in Perth

Jon with Gina and Indie

Jodie and Caspar

Lisa and Emmy with Jon

Jodie and Caspar

Jon promoting Coke and enjoying the view

Raven doing the "balancing on one hock" act

Jon "train *through* the problem!"

Jody and Nichol set to go!

Jon with Valeta and Misty

The group learning more!

Lisa and Emmy

Valeta and Misty - ready to go!

Jon watching every move we make!

The peanut gallery - always ready for a shocked collective
intake of breath when the banned blind cross was witnessed!

Valeta and Misty - showing the weaves GSD style!

The Good, the Bad and the Infected

Well here we are with less than three weeks to go till the Nationals. We’ve had two trials since I last wrote and Cypher has done very well winning both Novice Agility and Novice Jumping at both trials! Meaning he finished off his Novice Agility title in fine style on the 14th of May in Bunbury. So his fancy name is now Nahrof Quick Change AD JD. On the bad side I suppose (if there ever is one when it comes to the fun of this addictive sport) is that Raven has had only very valuable (yet financially expensive) practice runs!

We’ve had a ripper time with Jon Watts – a youthful UK agility instructor who has been like a much needed kick in the pants and breath of fresh air injected into what was a “starting to smell stagnant view of how agility should be conducted.” He didn’t muck around, didn’t sugar coat anything and made it his personal mission to ensure that absolutely everyone got something out of the sessions. Jon is an up front guy when it comes to being in this sport – he believes that everyone, no matter how new they are to the sport or what kind of dog they have, likes to win and so he focuses on you personally – what do you do in your handling that you can do better. He’d watch us run through a course or a sequence – ask us what we thought of it and then give detailed and individualised suggestions about where we could improve. There were no blanket statements like “You all need to push into that turn” it was specific ie I had to work the turn to get it a bit tighter coming out the tunnel another person needed to be more certain, firm and loud with their weave commands. He also got across and brought home the importance on not training/handling around our problems but rather training through your problems (ie if your dog doesn’t like you working in close to them you train to overcome this, if your dog needs you right next to them to hit their contact then train them to nail contacts with you at a distance, if your dog can’t keep their bars up if you are making a noise train them to understand that they keep their bars up regardless of the noise you are making) There are some pictures from the weekend seminar that I have posted.

Next trial after that was the Bunbury one and Cypher finished of his AD title with a first place. That makes all three of his legs first places – so I am pretty pleased with his progress so far.

For the last 4 or 5 weeks the WA agility community and no doubt the dog showing/trialling scene at large has been hit by a round of kennel cough or rather Canine Cough technical term Tracheobronchitis. Dogs have been coming down with it and have been taking out of circulation/training and isolated at home whilst it has been happening. Unfortunately dogs can incubate this infection for between 3 to 7 days before showing any signs of it – thus unwittingly exposing any dogs they come near to the infection as well.

People here in Perth who are frequent agility trainers and competitors are getting more than a little concerned about it due to the fact that it is now less than three weeks for most of them to fly out to Sydney for the 2006 ANKC Nationals. People seem to be under the misapprehension that if their dogs do not show any symptoms they are fine. This is a perfectly logical and common sense conclusion ONLY if your dogs have not been anywhere near dogs who have had it. If you have multiple dogs living at the same address and only one of them has the actual infection then to be on the safe side you must assume that all the other dogs either are incubating it (and will eventually show symptoms) or carrying it. It can be a real pain in the butt infection to have especially for the youngster puppies – however if people just do the right thing take the right precautions and do not bring their dogs back out to trialling or training until they are absolutely 100% sure their dog is clear of it then it will stop the cycle of the infection. Raven started to cough around 1am Friday morning – therefore I am not in Geraldton this weekend. Cypher has not shown ANY signs of this infection but if I was to still go to Geraldton and take just him, as far as I am concerned I would be absolutely negligent in my responsibility as a dog owner – it would be the equivalent as if I had taken Raven to Geraldton. JUST BECAUSE YOUR DOG DOES NOT SHOW SIGNS OF CANINE COUGH IT DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE NOT INCUBATING OR CARRYING THE INFECTION. Thusly the seemingly “unaffected” dog can be responsible for perpetuating the cycle of infection.

I am keeping both mine home for at least two weeks. Cypher is on the same treatment as Raven despite not showing any signs because I truly believe even if he doesn’t show symptoms he is still harbouring the infection. If I treat them directly now – targeting the infection with antibiotics then I know we shall be clear for the Nationals. Trust me people risking your dogs and other peoples dogs’ health is not worth it for the sake of chasing that 1st place or clear round. Ok here the sermon has endeth. Look after your dogs, because you know better.

Sydney BC National Adventure

Ok time to do my report on the Adventure of Raven and Cypher in Sydney for the very first Australian Border Collie National…I’ve been back a couple of days now and it has taken this long for it all to sink in. This event was absolutely awesome and I will cherish the memories of it for a long time to come. We arrived on the Saturday (22^nd April) at around 6.30am Sydney time after an uneventful flight which took around three and a half hours. After going through the rigmarole of picking up hire van (which ran on diesel, had no ventilation in the back and had the keys helpfully locked inside once we got there!) getting the dogs off the plane and figuring out where we had to go we made it to the trial grounds by about 8.30am. To be honest I wasn’t expecting anything much from the dogs – I knew they would be tired, a bit bewildered by the new grounds and equipment and maybe a little stressed out by all the travel. All I wanted them to do was to have a good time and get used to the wings jumps and new appearance of equipment. The first thing that struck me about the grounds was A)Very very dry B) Very very dusty and C) Very very hard!!! Sometimes not even a hammer would get things into the ground!

Anyway the judging was good, the courses were nice (except the Novice Agility course was particularly tricky I thought) and we got underway not too late. First up was Cypher in Novice Jumping – a little distracted, and giving the odd looking tyre a suspicious stare, we still managed a smooth clear round and came away with his JD title and 2^nd Place. Next up was Raven in Open Agility, I was a little concerned about the seesaw – it was a lot heavier and higher than the ones we do, so I hung back to ensure she treated it with a skerrick of caution – this put me a little behind for the next sequence, thus my front cross was a bit misplaced to start the distance challenge with. She still managed the distance challenge well but she just slightly brushed a bar – which I didn’t hear drop till she was over the next jump! Other than that a nice first round. Next up was Master Agility. This is where Raven felt a bit jet lagged I think – she missed an “out” command getting a refusal fairly early on and then on a fairly basic weaver entry for her she missed it and went in the 2^nd pole…I knew she wasn’t herself when she did a complete face and head plant into the ground (and she discovered how hard these grounds were) after her seesaw – she decided she couldn’t wait on such a slow dropping seesaw and she leapt and regretted the decision immediately when she came up with a mouthful or dry red dusty dirt and skin removed from top of nose where the leather starts. She actually managed to dislodge a very heavy plank from the niches they sat in! I have to say she learnt from that experience because her further 4 runs in Agility that weekend had the best seesaw waits I have ever seen on her – she didn’t dare leap till I said “ok” LOL!! She does tend to learn things the hard way sometimes…So that was Master Agility over and done with. Next up was Cypher in Open Agility and somehow – not quite sure how we managed to go clear for our 1^st leg – in fact he gained a leg in Open Agility BEFORE he gained a leg in Novice Agility….quite bizarre really. Contact on A Frame was a bit dodgy but I was expecting that since I haven’t really settled on a behaviour yet for that one. So then we had a break and the Open Jumping ring was set, as well as the Masters Jumping. I was feeling a bit tired by then so wasn’t sure how any of us would go. Open Jumping I made the same mistake twice (what is the definition of stupid again?) – with Cypher I was worried on the jumps home that he was pointing right at the path of an off course jump. So at the end of the weavers I had to call him around me in a full circle and we got called a refusal – I thought we were far enough away from the jump but obviously not in the judges eyes. Then I try and go do the same thing with Raven and she was no where near as forgiving for my clumsy attempt and her speed just took her straight past the jump. I put it down to being up for 24 hours solid. I really should of tried fitting some shut-eye in there. Next up was Masters Jumping – Raven lapsed back into the “If-you-try running-flat-out-somewhere-I’m-gonna-beat-you” attitude and thus had the third jump down. I stopped dead, she kept going straight into the tunnel, came bolting out looking for me, saw the bar on the ground and went straight into the “Oh crap there’s a bar down” skulking look, she lay down, I replaced the bar and we left the ring. And that was it for her day…last run was Cypher in Novice Agility. It was a tough course, I believe he was the only clear round. I was very happy with his run although again I felt he was a bit distracted but no way was I going to hold that against him. Just getting round a course after such a trip and disruption to his usual routine I was absolutely stoked with how he went. We did what we set out to do and more – get them used to the equipment and used to the ground.

We finally got away from the Werriwa Trial with some time to check in to our digs for the next few days. Then at around 6ish we headed off to Erskine Park to try and catch some of the BC National Opening Ceremony and to set up cabanas for the next two days. We got there and discovered how bitterly cold Erskine Park was in the evenings. Mental note to self (pack extremely warm gear for June Agility Nationals). Next day after a very early start we headed off to the Deerbush trial. It started on the dot at 8.30 which was a good idea since they had over 550 runs to get through that day and ONLY TWO RINGS to do it in! First up was Cypher in Novice Jumping. I was feeling very positive about our run, he was focused and ready to go – he went straight into the collapsible tunnel and the chute ripped away from the drum! He came out the end that had come away from the drum and didn’t seem too upset about it all – but of course our momentum and adrenaline was wasted as we had to wait around while it was fixed so he could have a rerun. That seemed to take ages to get fixed but soon we were underway again. This time there was no equipment failure but definite communication failure! LOL!! There was a u shaped tunnel after a broad jump – pretty much straight on I ran with him up to the tunnel pointing clearly (well I thought it was clear!) at the entry but he must have had his eyes fixed on the wrong entry and that was where he was going – he literally bounced off my leg circled round me and went in the right entry after all! I knew straight away that he should have been called for contact on handler but instead we got called a refusal for the circle round me after he hit my leg. That was our only error and I was really happy with the way he ran. Next up was Raven – in the RQH course – this is a regionally Qualifying Heat, in NSW there are 12 rounds of these in Agility and Jumping. You don’t get any pass cards but you accumulate points based on your performance in them and if you get enough you get invited for the Dog of the Year Competition. I used this round again as a getting used to equipment round. Seems Raven was very used to it because she did a really fast clear round with a prolonged hold on the seesaw mind you (it took me a bit by surprise that she was actually waiting for my verbal release this time!). She ended up clear and in 4^th place out of 114 dogs. 1^st place was Ashley Roach’s little poodleX Jamie who is loving the new heights, 2^nd place was David Paul’s Taylatee also loving the 400 height and 3^rd place was Greg Leek’s Zak, also enjoying the new 600 height. Raven was 36.01 and 1^st place was 34.95 – yay for electronic timing! Cypher, who was very distracted going up to the ring, is withdrawn after the first three obstacles as he is too focused on other things. I’ve made a decision not to let him have a play at agility if he’s not going to be focused on me and what we are doing.

Next run of the day was Masters Agililty and this was going extremely well until she misplaced her paws on the seesaw and came off the side of it. She simply leaned to her left towards me too much and came off the side of it before it hit the ground – I think she misjudged it as she tried very hard to stay on it. We also messed up a front cross and caused a refusal – I was far too tentative with my cross and she came past the jump not quite sure what I was signalling. Other than those two points a nice run. The next run of the day was Masters Jumping, and this was a tricky course. Not so much for the dogs as for the handlers who had two intersecting pinwheels that were not easily visible in amongst other jumps, remembering the course was a challenge in itself. I did an insane attempt at gaining an advantage through distance – I actually got so far in front of her on the course that she lost me!!! And idiot handler here didn’t have the smarts to even verbally let her know where I was heading – she literally came out the tunnel and had no idea where I was! This caused her to get a refusal on a jump….so kicking myself internally I carried on and we managed most of the course nicely – our last turn to the home straight caused a bar to drop so we stopped, reset the bar and left the ring. Next up was Cypher in Novice Agility – again it was a nice run however I didn’t want the clear round so I stepped up to the table and patted him on the head. If we had gained that leg and got another leg the next day that would have been his title and I want him to have a go in at least one Novice class at the Nationals. He was clear apart from my little touch on his head – though he did a weird thing with his contact on his dog walk he’s never done before. He dropped and placed his chin on the plank in the colour instead of going to the ground and doing it. I waited until he did it right and then we continued on our way. Last run of the day Open Jumping – Raven did a blitzer of a run, kept all bars up but just missed the weaver entry – most unlike her and I’m rather at a loss to try and explain why it happened – perhaps it is just “one of those things” that happen from time to time. Cypher was towards the end of the class and was the last run of the day for me. They have rather unusual starting procedures over there in NSW. I’d seen people razzing their dogs up getting them revved by touching them and patting them (after the lead has been taken off) and the judge has simply said “Go when you’re ready” Now I assume once a judge says that you can’t touch your dog (that’s how it is in WA anyway) but I’ve seen plenty of people touching their dog after the judge has said “Go When you’re ready”. So there’s me with Cy at the start line of Open Jumping, I’ve placed Cy in a sit and he’s dropped with his nose in what looks like a suspicious looking damp patch on the red dusty earth. (Someone told me afterwards that a bitch had squatted and peed right there but neither the owner or the steward had noticed – and this was right on the start line!). I’m not going while he’s like that so I try calling him off or waiting him out because I didn’t think I could touch him. Eventually after what feels like ages I look at the judge who shrugs his shoulders and I ask “Am I allowed to touch him?” Judge smiles and nods “Whatever you gotta do”. So eventually I get his attention (think by then he had sniffed to his hearts content) and line him up in a sit to start – and start we do, beautifully hitting the weave entry Raven had missed. The mild elation I feel at him getting his not so easy weave entry quickly turns to alarm when I see him doing weavers in a way I’ve not seen him do before. He’s getting bouncier and more upright the further we go and then “Pop!” out he goes missing the last 2 weaves! I’m just stunned by this but we carry on anyway – he handles the course well apart from a mixup at the distance challenge and I step over the line to help him out. At the end of the run I’m more concerned about his weaves. I figure tomorrow at the Border Collie National they’ll have some stuff up for us interstaters to practice on, as long as I get to put him through some weaves we’ll be right.

So we take off before presentations wondering how the girls have gone at the show that day…and crossing our fingers that the dogs are saving their best till last! The Monday dawns cold and clear, with not a cloud in the sky, promising a warmer day later on. We get there nice and early. Cypher is in the show ring to start in a 21 dog Intermediate class where he is the youngest boy by several weeks! We do the show dog thing with him being his usual noisy self and I have to admit it was with relief that we didn’t make the first cut! He needs show training badly and a few more maturity brain cells about him before he starts showing his true potential in the ring. So off with the show clothes and into the agility gear YAY!!! First up was Masters Agility – it was a lovely smooth flowing and extremely fast course – I knew Raven and I would love it. Raven sure did love it! She loved it too much!! She just missed her down contact on the dog walk by about paw’s width and that was our only fault. 29.5 seconds on a 57 second course….she was still that fastest dog even when you added her 5 second penalty on! Bugger! But I still had a grin when I finished – she looked to be enjoying herself so much. Next run Novice Agility – and there was absolutely NO warm up or practice equipment – so no weaves to run Cypher through. I would wait and see what he did with his weavers today and yep he popped them again – I put him back in them and made him finish them and we carried on. It was a shame but to be honest I was already happy with how he had gone so far this weekend – he already had three clears and a 1^st and a 2^nd place. I didn’t hold out much hope for our Open classes with him, since both had weavers in. I decided to give Open Agility a whirl and if he didn’t pull his weavers off then I would scratch him from Open Jumping – and again that’s what he did. He handled the distance challenge at the start really well though so we gained a benefit there. So I scratched him from Open Jumping. Raven again had a beautiful run in Open Agility – did an absolutely awesome running contact and just ran the course like a star. She edged out the Queensland dog from 1st place to win in 24 seconds. When we finished that course I was elated – it didn’t matter what else we did that day we had just run one of the best runs of our career and I was thrilled we had taken out a first place. Masters Jumping took place after lunch and again it was a very nice course – we blitzed it as well winning 1^st place again! The day couldn’t get much better for us! Cypher was up next in Novice Jumping and we did a very smooth round and a fairly quick time – 21.69 seconds was enough to gain us 2^nd place (just a fraction behind first place in 21.09) I was most proud of my just 18 month old boy who had to deal with so many distractions and new equipment. Raven’s last run of the day and I walked the Open Jumping with my friend Judy Roger from NSW whom I had the pleasure of meeting in October last year at the Nationals in Perth. We walked the course and I gave her an outline of what I was planning to do. Judy goes out there with the amazing Grace (I love that dog and steal her in a heart beat!) and goes clear with a lovely round. I on the other hand – probably still on cloud nine, forget that a shoulder pull is needed and Raven goes into the off course tunnel. No matter she does the rest of the course clean and fast I was wrapt with her. So at the end of the 1^st Border Collie Nationals in Australia, Raven wins the Masters Jumping title and the Open Agility Title. I was absolutely over the moon with her and the way we ran – we truly felt in sync that day and it was good feeling to be so in tune with each other.

So now here I am back in Perth, our next trial is tomorrow morning (Sunday 30^th April) and I am raring to go. We then have a break for a couple of weeks then two lots of weekend trials on the trot. Hopefully in the next few days I’ll have some pics up of the event so stay tuned for future happenings!

Leaving..on a jet plane

Well tomorrow we leave....we fly out from Perth midnight tomorrow and get into Sydney early hours Saturday morning. I'm starting to get all my stuff together to get packed - there's still heaps of things to do tomorrow before we leave. I have three trials and two shows lined up so both me and the dogs are going to be very busy. It will be great to witness over 300 Border Collies congregate at the one place. Seventh heaven for all the ardent admirers of the breed. I am planning on having a great time no matter what - maybe even scoping out potential producers of my next puppy, catching up with those I met at the Nationals last year, meeting new dogs and having a blast on the agility field.
Last time I went to Sydney with Raven was in 2004 and we didn't do so great - I tore a muscle in my calf, Raven had bar issues and all round we were not so hot as a team. This time I must admit I have alot more confidence in us as a team. I need to get a handle on my nerves though - they can wreak havoc at times (in fact last night I awoke no less than three times with heart pounding and the image of me, my dog and agility course and several disasters happening...and this was what I dreamt, how does one tell one's subconscious to quit it?!) I am fine once we have started on the course but up until we line up on that start line my heart is pushing overdrive and my deep breathing exercises, which in every normal situation slow my heart rate, do not have any impact at all! I do have more confidence in us - Raven has shown me on multiple occasions that she has the goods when it comes to working as a team. I know that we can handle whatever challenges the course presents us. We have come along way since lingering in that Open class for three years. I guess the only thing I worry about is my level of nervousness...and I think listening to CDs like Freedom Flight by Lanny Bassham does help me get my head into the space I need to be to cope with all the extraneous details that come flashing through my thought processes. So I will be taking my discman on the plane and listening to that story, and reading simple down to earth advice about dealing with the adrenaline that gets pumped through our body at times like the "Start Line". Cypher - well he's just a young kid still, barely 18 months old and very much a novice still - the only expectations I have for him is that he copes well with the travelling, he has fun in the ring, gets to meet his breeder again and meets as many new people as possible, making a bunch of new friends along the way. When I think of how long it took me to find Raven's style and to work with her on a level that she deserved I know it won't take that long with Cypher but I always keep in mind that no matter how long it takes as long as we enjoy the whole "getting to know each other on the course" process I think we shall both experience success eventually. You can train a dog, many times a week if you want, yet you can never replicate those experiences you get out there competing in a trial ring. It takes many, many trial runs before you can get a handle on each other. Dogs change too - from week to week or month to month - you may find your handling spot on at one trial and then the next trial find your timing is completely off (could be dog moving faster as it gets more confidence) or your dog is just not reading your cues (ie you've changed the way you're giving them). That's why most of the top handlers in the world say it can take up to the age of 4 years to really start to gel as the best team you can be. I've been watching the World Champs from 2005 in Spain....it is good to see the runs that go bad as well as the runs that look as smooth as silk. Makes us humble folk who will likely never get to compete at that level realise that yes even at top levels of the sport things can go wrong for even the most seasoned, well trained and highly prepared competitors. Letting go of mistakes is one of the hardest things competitors can learn to do....some time ago when Raven first started out competing I used to let mistakes from previous runs play over and over in my head with the sentence starter "If only I..." I stopped doing that a few years back now. It certainly has improved us as a team. If I make a mistake on course I no longer give a stuff, if I get lost put her over the wrong jump or whatever I just carry on and work on making the rest of our run fantastic. If Raven drops a bar - we stop as is our rule, she gets "cold shoulder" for a while, and then when our next run is up I get her out and we do a few warm up jumps and have the biggest party when she clears the jump. She and I go to the line like it is indeed our first run of the day. This has helped us alot - who am I kidding? it's helped *me* alot....I remember this every trial I go to now and this weekend will be a good test of this affirmation of my attitude towards this game. Getting excited now!

Great Day at Perth Trial!!

WOW!!! What a fantastic day of trialling I have just had with my 2 very special BC's Raven and Cypher. Bunbury last Sunday didn't go too well - with a silly error by me stuffing up Cypher's chances of a pass in Novice Jumping (I did what can only be described as very bad attempt at a front cross causing Cy to round the jump), and then in Novice Agility he just hit the weave poles very fast and got out of time missing the 3rd weave pole. Raven did nice contacts in Bunbury - but that's about it LOL!! She had a bar down in both Open and Masters Agility. Luckily in Masters Jumping she held it altogether (unlike her handler who stressed out about some mid course equipment failure - ie tunnel came completely out of the hoops holding it when she went through it - I could have ignored that except she had to go back in the tunnel again at that exit point!!!) she was able to find the tunnel entry dodging around the now free standing hoops and ran on well leaving me eating her dust trying to get down the course to tell her where to go!! Needless to say we used alot of our course time up but we managed a clear after all that - good girl!

But today! Today was fantastic - I went back and did some focused jump work with Raven during the week and it has paid off she kept her bars up in ALL FOUR runs today - good girl! She came 1st in Masters Agility, 1st in Open Jumping and 2nd in Open Agility (to her Strategic Pairs partner BC Nifty owned by Sue Hogben so that was good!!). Her Masters Jumping run was great up until we had a lack of communication about a rear cross. Actually I probably was trying to do a rear cross in the wrong place as that is usually what causes these sorts of things LOL!! But she kept her bars up - good girl!!

Then to top it all off Cy boy goes out and wins Novice Jumping again!!! This time the course was a little more challenging but he again handled very well for a lovely run 4 seconds faster than the 2nd place dog. Plus he handles a distance challenge very well in Open Jumping and comes 7th out of 12 qualifiers all dogs who are in Excellent or Masters. What a good boy!! So very happy with my runs today - still got stuff to work on during the week of course but I'm glad with the form we're showing 6 days before we fly out to the Sydney 1st BC National.

The Pattern Continues...

Re this "Winning = Not having fun" idea that some non-competitive people have out there, I'd really like to can this notion. It is, to be quite frank, a load of crap and to be honest I'm not sure what it is about...as in what are the motivations behind the idea. Anyway people may watch my runs and if they watch them all they will see me at some point stop running a course, putting my dog in a down and replacing a bar. I'm quite sure my body language, facial expression and maybe tone of voice at that point will certainly indicate that right at that second I am "not having fun". *Shock horror gasp* I'm quite sure my dog picks up on this very well also. As soon as we leave the ring she gets into the car and I ignore her for a while. There is no rough handling, no physical aversives used but I don't need/want to use them - dogs are smart they know when you're pissed at them. Unfortunately alot of the time they don't know why you're pissed at them so that is why when a bar drops is the ONLY time my dog will get the "cold treatment" as I like to call it. It would be completely confusing for her if I gave the "cold treatment" for any other reason.
I digress - back to the "not having fun" part - agility is a sport and like any other sport there are going to be moments of disappointment, I'm convinced those moments of disappointment are there to make the moments of success that much sweeter. So therefore why should people try to ensure they are "having fun" even when it is human nature to feel disappointment (whether it be a stuff up that you made or something the dog did) - it won't matter to the dog if you try and stay upbeat and happy and carefree because damn straight the dog picks up you are disappointed (I've yet to see a handler who makes an error on course able to completely make it look like there was no mistake and that's just to human perception - dogs pick up on so many more subtle signals). So I say if you did make an error/mistake or whatever then acknowledge it and move on. When you move on make sure you have a plan for fixing your mistake though - don't just think "Gees I'm a crap handler" and have the attitude that you're never going to be able to handle brilliantly and well so may as well not work on those weak areas, because then you would be doing your dog an injustice and be undeserving of his partnership.
I think I've pretty much covered my opinions on this topic except to say that there's an Agility trial tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it, I absolutely love trialling and training. I think Agility is the best sport in the world and without a doubt the "having fun" part is all a matter of attitude.
Cheers
Simone

Starting to notice a Pattern...

I don't know if this exists in *every* single human sporting endeavour or even just any kind of goal setting from the individual to the collective but I'm starting to notice no matter where I go, who I associate with or whatever thing it is I want to do there are always TWO factions/methodologies/philosophies of approach that spring up amongst these things. Agility is no different. There are the people who are not competitive and then there are those who are. Regardless of dog, breed, skill level the handlers/owners of the dog can be placed in one of those two categories. What's more is that there is absolutely *nothing* wrong with being in either camp. However it would appear that according to some that if you are in the 'competitive' camp then you are falsely elevating the 'game' to something more than it is, giving it significance it really doesn't deserve and treating it like *shock horror gasp* it is 'important'. This is apparently the "wrong" thing to do - you must be blaming the dog for the majority of your errors on course and not taking on your fair share of responsibility. One of the more cynical catch phrases that has developed around my agility area (in response to the judgement that being competitive is a negative way to be) is "Those who win are not having fun". Meaning the implication that if you are trying to win then you just cannot be having any fun. People use the phrase round here with a grin and a laugh because those of us in the competitive camp know full well what fun we can have out there whilst still running clean and being in contention for placings. My dad always uses that saying on me "Something worth doing is worth doing well". I choose to give 100% to the sport I love because I truly believe that saying. Agility is worth doing and it is worth doing well - what's the point in doing something half-baked and casually? But that is just my mindset - I am fully aware that there are those out there (in the not competitive camp) who just have a half-baked, casual and dare I say it lazy approach to training and trialling agility. They are perfectly entitled to this approach and I welcome those people as well as the competitive ones to come to the club and trials. But then to have these non-competitive (therefore having far more fun than me apparently) label the competitive as taking things too seriously and ruining the enjoyment for themselves and their dog, (ie blaming the dog for everything) is about as logical as these casual trainers blaming their dog for stuff that goes wrong on course. Observing both kinds of people at trials I have come to realise that those in the non-competitive camp have a much harder time recognising that it was what they did that caused the dog to go wrong than the competitive handlers. Why? Maybe because the competitive handlers actually approach their training and trialling with more dedication and motivation to actually figure out what went wrong and then try and train for that gap in their skills. Logic dictates that this is what you do if you *want* to get better at something. When people say "team" as in "what team is in front of me in the running order" they mean the handler and the dog. The notion that the workload in a team should be 50/50 needs to be thrown out when it comes to agility. The fundamental skills the dogs needs to have to fulfil their side of the partnership do not make up 50% of the workload. More like 20%. The skills I refer to here are the contacts, the weaves, the start stay, the jump skills and the side changes. Once these skills are taught (and taught well from the smallest starting step to the full chain of the behaviour) the handler has the biggest load. As it has been said 80% of agility is between the obstacles. It will not matter if your dog has never missed a weave or a weave entry, has never popped a contact or broken a start ever, or just does not drop bars at all - all that will be irrelevant if you cannot learn how to handle your dog to give them the best directions you can on a course. Competitive people that I have observed for the most part know this - indeed I witness non-competitive people as well being aware that their directions on course were not timely or out of place. The difference is the competitive people will take that sequence that they had problems with, or focus on that skill that has a weakness and focus on fixing that weakness or difficulty during training the following week. Non-competitive people are not that fussed about it - so what if that same problem crops up weekend after weekend in trials we're just doing this for fun anyway...good for you do it for fun I say! But don't come moaning to me about the fact that you're never going to get out of Novice or Excellent if you don't approach your training in a methodical, logical and focussed manner. Wow this entry is long - I shoud probably stop here as I have to go to work....but I don't think I'm finished, there will be more to come.

Cypher's First Trial

Well today was the day...16 months I've been waiting for this day, and boy was it great fun!! I am just so proud of my little man - all grown up and still such a puppy head he managed to do us both proud by winning his first ever trial. Novice Jumping - he did absolutely everything I asked of him and I am chuffed to say I handled it exactly the way I wanted to. It was a lovely course (thanks Judge Yvonne) and he ran round it in 21 seconds. Old enough by 2 days to start trialling making him the youngest dog in the class he didn't put a paw wrong.

When we lined up for the Novice Agility course I gave him a quick pat on the head on purpose after the judge said "Go" and then ran that course like we meant it. I had deliberately accrued the penalty for touching my dog as I was out there getting ring practice for him. I want to compete in Novice at the Nationals in June so that was our plan. He ran this course really well too - and started getting some distance on me towards the end - this caught him a bit by surprise I think so we gained a refusal anyway on the last bar. I didn't care I was just grinning at the way he'd run - there's some real speed in this boy that I caught a glimpse of today.

He also ran in the new distance challenge classes Open Agility and Open Jumping - these classes are set at an Excellent level of difficulty and so I mainly just put him in it for the ring experience. The agility was definitely too difficult for him but he managed to pull off a clear in Open Jumping instead. What a star! His big sister Raven redeemed herself in this class too - going clear for a 3rd place. Her Masters runs however are probably best forgotten *lol* Oh well there's always the next trial...which happily for us is tomorrow.

We got some good shots today, great to have these memories.

Raven has a go at Pairs!

New Games...Strategic Pairs Rocks!!!

What fun it was today! After having three days of full on agility handling seminars with US Instructor Rob Michalski (which were fantastic and I learnt a heap as usual) today we got to have a go at Strategic Pairs (Pairs for short), Gamblers and Snooker - it was great fun - I actually ran 5 times in the Pairs - once with Raven, twice with Cypher, I ran Deb Hyde's Jasper once and then helped Andrea out with her Shelties running Rumour whilst she took Rosie on. I partnered up with some great dogs - Sue's BC Nifty, Cathy's Toller Alex, Nicola's BC Sage and Deb's Aussie Brooklyn. It wasn't that hard and it was good fun...gamblers Raven did really well again gaining a clear round, 2nd time we did it on 600 and she dropped a bar in the Gamble. Cy had a ball running the Pairs course a couple of times but was all done in by Gamblers so was a bit distracted. I have posted some pics of his A Frame, Dog Walk, a tyre and a jump pic. He may not be as fast as Raven but he sure is goodlookin'!! LOL!! And he is fun to run as he'll have a go at everything. Snooker I tried with Raven - still waiting for a good course design on this game as it is rather integral to how exciting and interesting the game is! I'll be posting next weekend for sure to report back on Cy's first trials and Raven's first bash at the *NEW* Open class.

A Quote I like...

Caught this quote whilst reading a tribute to a late Agility dog:
"To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
It's by Ralph Waldo Emerson - an American (and a surprising one at that). I guess I liked it because it sums up simply what I feel everyone in their lives should strive to achieve, it is not a life wasted if you have done any of those things above. Call it cliche if you want, or the typical commercialised sap of the comfortable idealistic westerner but there comes a point in everyone's life where they ask of themselves 'Why am I here?'. If you cannot answer that question in any meaningful way (ie. 'I'm here to be a mindless drone who pays government taxes' is *not* a meaningful answer) then I think that's when people start to get depressed, to engage in self destructive behaviours and to no longer be healthy in both mind and body. To see that question answered so simply and beautifully is quite frankly enlightening and inspiring. Sometimes inspiration doesn't have to be the earth moving type.

Gosnells Jinx Broken..

Yay! We broke our Gosnells Club voodoo last night....we finally managed a clean run in the Masters Jumping Class...and it was a not too shabby 2nd place as well (1st was 22.83 seconds we were 22.91 seconds). We have never in Raven's history of trialling at these grounds cracked a pass, and we did it last night! She did a lovely Open Agility run too just missed the contact on the dogwalk, Open Jumping I realised too late that the turn we needed to make was pretty sharp - called her and she dropped a bar so we stopped. In Masters Agility there was only 1 qualifier and we were not it, we did not make it pass the first 5 obstacles (there was a call off from the A Frame which she thought was "run two strides on and *then* return to mum") and then she dropped a bar so we stopped. Overall very happy with 3 out of 4 runs - she really paid attention. Now we have another 2 weeks till our next trial but to tide us over we have Rob Michalski coming out from the US and I am getting instruction from him on Thurs, Fri and Sat next week and then we have a Show N Go on the Sunday for games.

Western Classic 2006

Well the Classic is over and done for another year - we had some very nice judges over for the agility - a Mr Michael Vigor, Brian Fielder, and a Mr Des Coyles from South Australia. Raven held her own again and won first place in Open Agility - 32.43seconds on a 59 second course. The Masters Course in Agility was extremely controlled and whilst we managed a hard part she popped the last two weavers - I certainly wasn't disappointed though as literally only 2 dogs went clear out of the field of 50. Masters Jumping we stayed the course but she knocked two bars. Open Jumping we knocked a bar just before the weave entry. So luckily we redeemed ourselves in the Open Agility. The Teams event - well I completely stuffed our chance in jumping - she dropped a bar and I just completely forgot the course at that point - went literally blank in the head! We got through to the finals in Agility - she decided that on the table the judge saying "1" was just as good as the judge saying "Go" so she left and we had to get back on the table - we ended up 6th out of 19 teams so not too bad. She was pushing the envelope the whole way with me over that event though - not doing two on two off, and pressuring the table count. I find it hard to fathom how a 6 year old fluffy black and white 16 kilo wisp of a girl Border Collie can intimidate me so much - I feel her eyes just staring straight at me daring me to look her in the eye so she can wind herself up even more and break her table! Anyway three more weekends till our next trial now *sigh*

First Official Trial 2006

I just have to post today....last night was a historic moment in the agility career of Raven - she kept her bars up in ALL FOUR runs!!!!!! Woohoo!!!! Fantastic!!! I was very pleased with her - she came 2nd in Open Jumping and about 7th in Masters Jumping - yes a low placement I know for her. I would have thought she would have got a refusal as we did a small lap inside a circle of jumps and this cost us alot of time. Judge called it clear though. In Agility she ran well - Open she came off the table too early (her bad!) and we got called on a seesaw that I knew she got so I was pleased with her in general in the way she ran. In Masters we missed the down on the dogwalk contact - (her bad again!) but that was it. Whilst we came away with no 1st places or points towards teams selection I was absolutely thrilled with her - a great start to the year.

Cy does the Show Dog Thing..

January 27th/28th 2006 - Well figured we're going to the first ever Australian BC Nationals in April and we've got to get back into the swing of showing. So promptly finished work Friday arvo and came home and got the boy ready. The pic below is of him in his show clothes straight after his bath.

He has certainly got a full coat for a 15 month old. Anyway I was overall generally pleased with him. On Friday night he was in the puppy of the year competition and basically had 3 different judges go over him. He stood very well for that. It was undercover and he didn't move his best though - he scored a 39 - the 1st placed puppy scored 44 so he wasn't too far behind. On Saturday night he was in the Junior dog class by himself and he was very well behaved for that - standing stolidly while the judge went over him - he moved a little better but I don't think I wore him out enough as he still felt frisky enough to flirt with the girl behind him for Junior of Breed, which of course means the tail goes up! Needless to say he didn't actually win that one! But overall generally pleased with his progress at standing and staying. Still gotta work on the moving!

2006 - Let the Fun Begin!

January 21st 2006 - a Saturday. Yahoo we're back into the swing of the trialling year. Fun Agility teams event at Cloverdale Canine Companions tonight and it was great fun. Raven did 2 ripper runs in the advance agility course. She got called on a contact on the dogwalk (which I know she got so I didn't care) but I'm calling it a clear run. She kept all her bars up - let me do the lead outs I wanted, stayed on the table, did her A Frame contacts beautifully both times. The second run was the same course I assumed that she knew where we were going, this time I wanted to get my front cross in at the end of the dogwalk with room to spare so that she would get the 2 on 2 off position. Well she decided that the word "Touch" sounds alot like "Tunnel" and she layered a tunnel beautifully for me in an off course move that also cost a refusal! LOL!! So back we went and did the the dogwalk - we had a very nice 2 on 2off at the bottom with a wait as well. I was very happy with her - I was expecting to hear a few bars rattle as the grass was spongy and she was travelling at maximum velocity however I am pleased to note - not a single toenail connected. It was a good start to our year. Our next trial is a 'real' one, it's a week from next Friday. It will no doubt be a tricky course (this judge is notorious for it) I just hope I warm her up just right to get that edge off her. Cypher also came tonight - we worked on his start lines, and did some single bar work - he was very focused I was happy with him. Also got him officially measured! And he is 50cm at the shoulder so he is just on the lower side of the standard. I'm happy with the height he has turned out to be - means he won't be one of the bigger heavier BCs out there competing in agility.
That's all folks!

Last Trial of 2005

We certainly did not finish the year on a bang but I'm hoping that means we might start it next year with a bang. Four runs and no quallies and only one run being my fault really - maybe 2 if you count the not so great front cross I tried to put in on the Masters Agility course. Masters Jumping too much of a hurry and knocked a bar, Open Jumping again too much of a hurry and she dropped a bar, Open Agility my fault I called Tunnel Come Raven instead of Raven Come Tunnel LOL!!! So no exciting runs in this one. She's now on a break from Agility for at least 3 or 4 weeks. I will focus more on her UD training over summer. Cypher will be working on little bits of everything! He's 14 months now can't believe there is only 4 more months to go till he's trialling!

Southern River Dog Club Trial

Last night we had the SR Dog Club trial with the company of thunder and lightning but thankfully only a very light amount of rain near the end. Certainly freaked some dogs out though - luckily Raven wasn't one of them. Far as she's concerned the sky is NOT allowed to make such rude rumblings and she'd be the first one there barking at it in reprimand. If anything she gets a bit more excited than usual. Our first run in Open Agility started well - 1st half was good, stayed on table - good girl and then got pinged for the down end of contact - I was too slow to see and by the time I got in the right spot she had pulled into the wrong end of tunnel *sigh*and then she had the precociousness to take an off course jump on the way to the see saw after I had clearly said COME! More like yelled than said really. So she had to put her little body back on the A Frame chill out for a few seconds in the 2 on 2 off position while I reminded her I was the one who knew where we were going. Then we finished the last 2 obstacles fine. Masters Agility was much better - she listened well did her contacts nice and we went clear for a very close 2nd place. Her time 35.71 - 1st place 35.23. We could have perhaps saved some time getting into the off entry tunnel - I left that call a bit late and she came almost to a complete stop as she looked at me to say 'well where then?' when I said Come. Other than that it was very nice. Open Jumping was a sublime run - I'd seen Yvonne's Ceilydh (Welsh for Kay-lee) run clean and very fast so I thought right we're going to push for speed on this one. She responded fantastically and I pushed myself for speed and was every where I needed to be for her. On the home stretch we dropped the 3rd last bar - which was a shame we were a whole second faster than Ceilydh. Nevermind I was really pleased with her run - the striding between those last bars was a bit unusual and if I had just taken the pedal off the accelerator for a fraction she may have cleared them - but then would she have been the fastest as well? Hard to tell.
Masters Jumping she got called a name by me as in "You are such a little mole" when she decided that 'come' (yelled quite loudly and several times) meant 'hang on let me just do this OFF COURSE jump and then I'll get back to you'. And then she knocked a bar off which I spoke to her quite sternly about as we reset it and continued on our way. So 1 out of 4 clear - but I am glad it was the Master Agility that was the one that was clear - it's been a while since we had a clear in that class.
One more trial left in the year now - the Dobe Club on December 10th.

Third Last Trial of Year

Well last night was the West Coast Rottie Club Trial and there were some EXCELLENT courses to run in both Masters and Open. Raven and I ran in Open Agility first and she did a blitzing round doing a complete running contact off the dog walk - to win 1st place - 33.23 seconds on a 57 second course. Next up was Masters Agility and we got round that beautifully until the third last bar which she dropped! I just said "Bloody hell" and kept on to the finish. She knew what she'd done...Open Jumping up next and a very smooth flowing course. I gave her a crap angle onto a series of jumps and being the dog that she is she dug in to correct her path to get over the jumps - instead of a nice straight line though she ended up zigzagging which cost us time. She still came 2nd though so I was well pleased with her efforts. Masters Jumping and she dropped a bar on a rear cross - which in all respects was due to me not being brave enough to do the lead out I wanted so we didn't HAVE to rear cross! Still she knows enough about rear crosses to keep her feet up so we stopped, replaced the bar and left the ring. So 2 clear 2 with bars down - much better than the last trial so happy with that.

Mostly not agility related...

I know this is not strictly an agility/dog/training related post at all but just had to share my latest on the best books out there that I have read recently.
#1 Peter Hamilton's latest Sci Fi - Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained -these are an edge of your seat read with a rather inspirational look into the future - I like the sound of "Rejuvenation", I'd like some of that please!
#2 David Pelzer's series which I have read out of order - I read A Child Called It and A Man Named Dave - still haven't read The Lost Boy yet and I saw in Dymocks yesterday there are a couple more out. There is a kind of slightly macabre fascination for what happened to him (true story of childhood abuse) and you share with him his sense wanting an answer of what makes any mother do that to her child. It sounds like it is all very real and very depressingly sad it does however has just as many moments of his triumphs in there so it does not remain dark all the time.
#3 Jasper Fforde's series - which I have read through completely once and am looking forward to going back to the series - The Eyre Affair, The Well of Lost Plots, Lost in a Good Book and Something Rotten - focus is on a character named Thursday Next. I now have his next instalment - similar universe brand new characters - The Big Over Easy. I shall let you know how it goes.
#4 Tour De Force written by Daniel Coyle and about Lance Armstrong's 2004 Tour De France campaign - I have had an interest in Lance ever since I read - Its Not About the Bike and Every Second Counts - the stories that talk about his cancer and his bike racing and his recovery. He is an intriguing person who certainly has an approach to life that is amazingly disciplined. He is certainly inspiring to read about. I have only just started this one and it has already grabbed me.
#5 I guess I can make this dog/training/agility related - one of the best books to come out on the subject of training is actually a recount of the training of a very nutty Border Collie named Buzz. Called Shaping Success and written by Susan Garrett who is currently competing in the USDAA Nationals as I write this. She tells the story of the incredible journey she had coming to terms with Mr Buzz's breakneck attitude for everything - how she got him to learn some control, taught him restraint and how immensely frustrating yet ultimately exhilerating it was to have an agility dog like Buzz. Along the way she gives detailed exercises of what she did with Buzz to train certain behaviours. Very clear and very easy to follow.

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Sunday Afternoon Frolick

First November Evening Agility Trial

Well tonight's efforts were marginally better than Northern Suburbs a couple of weeks ago but no clear rounds despite this. We were in Open Agility first up and after judge Gail had a bit of a chuckle at her seesaw SLIDE we got called a fault on that. Then she missed her dogwalk contact - so she and I stopped, I told her to get on that contact and to wait. We then proceeded - she of course also had to knock the very last bar on the line home. Masters Agility we were doing fine until she was a slack ass again and knocked a bar around half way through the course - thus we left the ring. Masters Jumping - she knocked the very FIRST bar, I looked at the judge and went "Well that was quick!" and told Raven to lay down while I replaced the bar. I then asked the judge if I could have another go - a non counting round of course and we did. She took a jump the wrong way and I let her take the wrong jump on the way out at the end. Open Jumping felt like an excellent run - we were working really well , she came speeding out of a bendy tunnel and I threw in a "Steady" command to warn her for the last four jumps home. She cleared the first one out the tunnel and I kept running - as we were going over the 2nd last jump I hear "awwww" from the crown and "FAULT" from the judge as the bar from the first jump out the tunnel finally dropped. I had to turn around and look cos I hadn't seen any jumps drop! She had literally gone "jump, jump and as she was taking off for the third jump the first bar dropped!" It was a ripper run though and an unlucky fault as I really felt she had cleared that bar. An altogether unsuccessful night I must say. Three more trials to go this year and I think we shall work very heavily on our contacts and bar work again.
Some great runs though seen by Sue H and Nifty in only his 2nd Open trial - he took 1st place very easily in Open Agility, Gina O Keefe and Indie ran a very nice Masters Agility to win first place there, Amanda and Sonny took 1st place in Masters Jumping with a very speedy run and Jules with her Scottish BC Samroc took 1st place in Open Jumping.

A Pictorial Representation

Here I present a photo of Raven (aka pretty damn amazing dog) and some of her winnings from the State and National Titles weekends - we got a heap of lovely sashes, some beautiful State trophies in wood and some very classy glass trophies from the Nationals. Plus some blankets, a sports bag and cash. I felt it only fitting to do a pictorial display of her efforts those weekends - she performed her little heart out for me.

Cypher report

Yay I got my tunnel today! An early Christmas present from my parents - yes they think I'm crazy! It was delivered from Queensland and sitting on my doorstep when I got home from work. On to the backyard dog exercises from the Clean Run magazine. I haven't got any decent pics of it yet but plan to get them this weekend. Very impressed with Cypher's weaving this week - he still double foots them which is fine by me - doesn't seem to be slowing him down much. Here is a pic.

Yes I know my weave poles leave alot to be desired - that's next on my wish list - a decent set of 12 baby weave poles. I have posted a pic of him taken in the show pose with him all bathed and brushed and looking handsome - he was 10 months there - he turns 13 months tomorrow.

Guess I should get around to taking some more recent ones soon. Think I will start biking him this weekend. I've got to start training him to behave properly in the show ring somehow. He has got most of it - he knows he needs to stand still while the judge goes over him and he is not hard to set up or stack for the ring . Good at standing and watching. What we need to get through to him is the gaiting part - he has overcome his desire to race around the ring at a 100miles an hour we just need to figure out that he is working now and to move with purpose. We think biking will help with that. He has all the elements of a very nice show dog - great attitude and temperament, lovely angles, nice coat and completely animated expression with a sweet face. It would be a shame not to show him!

A Note about the Raven

Raven is an intensely driven Border Collie girl who at 5 years of age is just starting to get it all together in the agility ring. She has given me many highs - winning at major events like the Western Classic and our State Agility Titles plus many first places at trials around the metro and country areas. We also had a weekend of success at this year's Nationals here in Perth - winning three classes and coming 2nd in the highly competitive Open Jumping Final. We got our Open titles last year (with a little help from our friend Robyn Evans of Winpara Border Collies) after a number of years(yes you read that right - "years") of trialling in the Open class. Our control issues are being whittled away however our bar knocking issues are something that will be with us for life and I believe this is due to my lack of knowledge when it came to teaching the basics. I will never give up trying to solve this issue. Never having owned an absolute speed freak before,Raven has taught me so much about agility and has allowed me to experience what the ultimate agility team of dog and handler can be like.Thanks Ravies - you're the best and I love you to bits. Let's go have fun in Masters now! Below is a list of her more notable achievements:
1st Place 2002 Western Classic Novice Agility
1st Place 2005 Western Classic Open Agility
1st Place 2006 Western Classic Open Agility
1st Place 2005 National Qualifying Trial 1 - Master Agility
1st Place 2005 National Qualifying Trial 1 - Open Agility
1st Place 2005 National Qualifying Trial 2 - Open Agility
3rd Place 2005 National Qualifying Trial 3 - Open Jumping
2nd Place 2005 NATIONAL FINAL Open Jumping
1st Place 2005 Rockingham Dog Club Trial - Master Agility AND Master Jumping
1st Place 2005 State Qualifying Trial - Open Agility
3rd Place 2005 State Qualifying Trial - Master Jumping
2nd Place 2005 State Qualifying Trial - Open Jumping
3rd Place 2005 STATE FINAL - Master Jumping
3rd Place 2005 STATE FINAL - Open Jumping
Qualified equal 3rd out of 6 for WA State Team 2005
Member of 2005 3rd Place WA State Team at Nationals

Training Log

All the "professionals" recommend you keep a training journal when starting a dog in agility. Guess I haven't been too disciplined about that but since I'm bored and not ready for bed I thought I'd compile a list of all the skills Cypher has at the age of 12 months - all agility related I guess but some could be transferred to obedience eventually. Let's see:
1) He knows the word WAIT and will wait before coming out of his kennel, out of the house to get in the car, before he gets out of the car, before going through the sliding door to the backyard, in front of a jump, a tunnel, a tyre, a table, dogwalk and the weaves.
2) He will wait in a sit or a down and will move between those 2 positions from a signal from me at up to 20 meters away.
3) The word OKAY to him can mean one of several things - OK to go and eat, OK to move forward to my side, OK to do an obstacle, OK to release off a contact, OK to let go of tugtoy, OK to run and get tugtoy, OK to come and play tug with me. OK to go through a door or get out the car.
4) The word CONTACT when said in open space with no visible target means a fold back down, chin on the ground between front 2 paws,
5) when said (not always) whilst on down plank of dog walk means do a drop at the bottom of contact with bum and two rear paws on contact, front two paws on grass with chin on the ground. Automatic wait for release word of OK.
6) Knows the words sit and down.
7) Will sit or down on the table.
8) Turns to his left on the word 'SPIN' and to his right on the word 'TURN'.
9) On the word CLOSE comes to heel to whatever side my shoulder is turned towards him on.
10) Can do 12 weavers from either side with me far behind or with him or just slightly ahead. Working on a recall with me at one end a couple of meters away and him left just a meter away from the start. I can be on either side of weavers.
11) The word OUT means run away laterally from me dependent on which body cue - ie I lift my arm and hand out on my right hand side and he moves away from my right and vice versa for left.
12) Will recall on COME 8 out of 10 times, will give eye contact on hearing his name.

There's probably more but I can't think of it right now...here's a pic of him on the table.

The Rules...whenever

ANKC Agility is overdue a rule change - so at the end of last year and the start of this year every State in Australia made submissions for rule changes - the big one being a change of heights and more height categories to give longevity in the sport to our large dogs and to give the mini and toy breeds a chance to have a go. These submissions all went before a conference of all state delegates in January this year. It is now nearly November - and we still don't have our new rules. Latest news is that they will not come in till July 1st 2006. This is a huge disappointment for many competitors. Unfortunately it came down to a few people who caused this to happen. There has been a lot of traffic on the agility lists here in Australia about this - and there are many frustrated people out there. All we can do now is sit tight, hope that the motion that passed at the conference to not bring them in till July next year can be rescinded or ammended or whatever the hell they do to motions to get them changed so that our large dogs can enjoy the sport longer and our tiny dogs can enjoy competing...such is life when you're involved ina a big organisation I guess. Patience is required...

Cypher's Hips and Elbows...Lookin' Good!

Heydiho!
Cypher got his hips and elbows x-rayed for scoring around the end of the school holidays and I sent them off to a Dr Wyburn in Margaret River for scoring - I got the scores sent back to me in a very timely fashion. His elbows were perfect 0:0 and his hips were 1:4 - a very low score so this is one happy Cypher owner! This gives his hips the Australian Grade of 1 and International Grade B. Woohoo! If anyone wishes to use him later on at stud he certainly meets the health criteria most breeders would set. He has also, quite some time ago now, had blood taken for testing for CL (Ceroid Lipofuscinosis - a storage disease) and CEA (Collie Eye Anomaly) and he has resulted in Clears and Normals for both. So for what are considered the most common health issues in the BC he is free of them.

Right must go and tell all dog friends who appreciate a good hip score!

The Sunday After...

Monday 24th October 2005

Well Raven brought me back down to earth with a thud at yesterday’s very small trial (100 entries over in 2 hours!!) up at Carine in the afternoon. She kept her insanity under wraps right up until she crossed the start line of her first run in Open Agility. It was a straight run of 3 jumps and you then had to pull them through for a threadle. She decided to keep going after jump 3 despite the very firm verbal to “Come” and nearly caused us an off course. Then she decided to finish it off – she did the threadle jump and went straight in the wrong end of the tunnel – so after that it was “you are going to give me 2 0n 20ff girl!” on all the contacts – needless to say she did every contact at a flying run and did the next couple of obstacles while I was still standing by the contact waiting for her 2o2o position – she did a nice handstand on the table so she didn’t fall off at least but she seriously shouldn’t have been going that fast off a seesaw anyway! She popped the weavers despite me facing her and giving her the strong command to weave at the end (I had noticed several dogs had popped the weavers and made sure I was very clear about her doing all the weaves but she still popped them to go to the tunnel – cow!). So needless to say I called her back to redo the seesaw and redo the A Frame and made her wait. It wasn’t a pretty run by any stretch of the imagination and she was quite aware of my displeasure with her LOL!! Thankfully by the time we got in the Master Agility ring she had reigned in some of her insanity and gave me a beautiful run with a completely running contact on the dog walk which the judge called us for unluckily – I had a look on the video someone took and it was quite clear that she got it there. Never mind eventually our judges will get round to appreciating running contacts. I was happy with her run. Open Jumping we ran clear for 3rd place and Master jumping we knocked the 3rd bar and left the ring – so 2 out of 4 runs were pretty good. Just wondering if she is now in the mode of needs lots of runs to get any kind of sanity. We shall see at her next trial in a couple of weeks.
I took Cypher with me and in between runs and at the beginning and in the afternoon at the end and we practiced doing 12 weave poles in many different ways and he was fantastic, very enthusiastic and getting quicker all the time. Very pleased with his weave pole progress.

The National Agility Trials

Monday 17th October - aka Recovery Day
Well it's all over red rover - Perth has held it's very first Agility Nationals and it is all said and done. I am very chuffed with how it all went and the comments I have heard from everyone have been highly positive and very impressed. Please to say also (not that I'm biased) that Border Collies took 5 out of the 6 finals and of those 5 finals 3 of them come from show bred Border Collie lines. The other 2 were a rescue BC and the other was a working BC from Blue Moon Border Collies in the ACT.

I was worried I'd be on a bit of a downer now that it's all over but having today to relax and recover and just reflect and digest all that went on has made me realised I am glad that it is all over but that I certainly had a ball and that the whole thing lived up to and even exceeeded my expectations. Tim took some fantastic photos of so many dogs and he got some great ones of the Raven that I will cherish for a very long time.

This being our first time competing in such a highly acknowledged and competitive event I was content with just making a final. To win 3 events, come 3rd in another event and to come 2nd in a Final was far more than I ever expected and to say I was thrilled would be an understatement. Raven excelled this weekend and it seems the more runs she got to do the better she went. I was so proud of my little speed freak...and I was especially proud to have other handlers who I considered particularly good, come up and comment about her to me. This event has definitely confirmed for me that I will be there next year in June in Sydney and will be especially pleased to run her and Cypher.

We only have 5 trials left in the year now and all of them will be a bit like a country trial after such a weekend but she loves this game so much I will try and keep my handling up to her demanding standards!

GSDA West Coast Challenge Double Header Trial

GSDA Double Header Trial Sun Oct 9th Trial 1 (MORNING) - Trial #38 for the year. Well that theory I have about her being better in the afternoon after she's got the little bit of mania out of her system in the morning was blown out of the water today. First run up was Masters Jumping - we had a tiny wobble to get her over a jump however she did run clear and won 2nd Place Master Jumping! Next run up was Open Agility -It was a nice flowing course and I had a ball and so did she, we blitzed this course and won 1st Place Open Agility. Next run up Open Jumping - no wobbles this time and we absolutely nailed it - tiny flaw in my front cross meant she had to brake quite hard to get around me which may have cause us to fall back into 2nd place by 1.5 seconds. No matter I was happy she won 2nd Place Open Jumping - 3 out of 4 runs all clear! Masters Agility course was very hard for the fast dogs and she took a jump from the wrong side - but I hadn't really expected to go clear so again I was happy she kept every single bar up.

Trial #39 GSDA Afternoon Trial - Absolutely NO clear rounds here this afternoon. However I take responsibility for 3 out of theose 4 runs - I caused refusals to happen on both Masters Jumping and Open Jumping and also Open Agility - she kept her bars up in all three and my handling didn't come up to her standards again. Masters Agility - well that was my 2nd heartbreak for the weekend (afterthe Open Agility State Final). It was a lovely course and I went for broke - we have all our titles and I have complete confidence in her bars now so I pushed her for speed to see if she had any more gears to move up. I ran with her from the start instead of leading out and we had a ball! I handled her really well all the way and she raised her speed several levels and we were on the home stretch - just the weaves and a single bar to go. She just taps that last bar as we cross the finish line - ARGH!!!!! The judge had the decencey (or perhaps indecency!) to come and tell me she was his fastest dog by about 10 seconds on that course ARGHH!!!!!! As much as that last bar hurt I could not take anything away from the run - it was an absolute thrill and great to know how she responds to me upping the speed ante on her. Good to find this out before the Nationals next weekend!

WA State Agility and Jumping Titles

Trial #36 Morning Qualifying Trial for State Finals - Sat Oct 8th. What an absolute star! Our first run of the day was in Masters Jumping and given the number of rear crosses required I kept my mouth shut and hung back alot and we went clear!! Raven gained her JDM title with a 3rd place WOOHOO!!! The run also gave us a spot in the 10 dog final in the evening. Quite surprised by how high up she was as we were playing it very safe and she felt very slow for a Raven LOL!! Now we just run for the absolute maximum speed now! Our next run up was Open Agility - this one she also blitzed and won 1st place Open Agility beating alot more dogs than usual as we have a number of Eastern States competitors here for Nationals next week. This also gained her a spot in the Open Agility Final. In Masters Agility unfortunately she had a bar down so we stopped, reset the bar and left and in Open Jumping she was in too much of a hurry on the home stretch and flattened out over the 2nd last bar.
Trial #36 Afternoon Qualifying Trial for State Finals - Sat Oct 8th. Again Raven was the star! This time we managed a clear in Open Jumping for a 3rd place and a spot in the 10 dog final, and she did it again in Open Agility going even faster than the morning's run to win 1st Place Open Agility - it was looking great for that final! Unfortunately we had a bar down again in Masters Agility and we copped a refusal in Masters Jumping because I turned her off a jump (deliberately to correct her line to the next obstacle) however she kept her bars up in 3 out of 4 runs so VERY happy with that!

State Title Finals - Sat Evening Oct 8th: Well we qualified for 3 out of 4 finals so I was elated with her regardless of how she did in the finals. Open Agility was the most heart breaking for us - a very BAD count on the table (no timer) by the judge had Raven jumping off just as he said GO and he called her for it - video shows her 5 second count on the table was about 7 seconds at least - very unfair and so unfair for her that I was absolutely seething and we blitzed the rest of the course as I handled like a hell cat and she rose to my indignation at her treatment. In the end I was so proud of her I didn't give a toss about the judge. Open Jumping and Masters Jumping she was an absolute star and did absolutely everything I asked of her and gave me more.We were the only WA Pair to go clear in Masters Jumping and my mistake in being on the wrong side at one point cost us dearly and all we managed was a 3rd. In Open Jumping we were the highest placed WA pair again and this time I was up to her standards and we didn't put a foot or paw wrong to gain 3rd Place. This was around 8.30pm in the evening and after such a long day to be keeping her bars up and still be the absolute speed freak she was I was throughly impressed with her.I did indeed take the best dog home that night and I feel incredibly lucky to have a dog like Raven.