And then today I had the excitement of our first agility trial in England, a UKA trial. Like in Aus, while The Kennel Club is the main trialling body, there are other agility organisations with their own rules and competitions. UKA being one of the larger of those, run by Greg & Laura Derret.
UKA has 4 levels (grades) of progression.. Beginner, Novice, Senior, and Championship. They also have a Casual grade which is run at a height lower than the dogs usual height, and while competitive does not count towards progression.
Likewise they have 4 heights.. Toy 300mm (shoulder height <350), Midi 400mm (<430), Standard 550mm (<500), Maxi 650mm (any height of dog).
There are agility, jumpers, steeplechase, and games classes. Like with KC agility progression in agility, jumpers, and games are tied in together (ie if you go up to the next level in agility you also go up in jumpers). I think progression in steeplechase is seperate though.
Unlike KC classes, progression through UKA is mainly based on points. By far the most points are earnt for 1st places, but you dont need to win to go up a level, especially the more consistant dogs.
So today we turned up to the trial not knowing what to expect, but had a fantastic time. The trial was smaller than the KC agility shows I had visited..having only 6 rings running!!! Not many at all..
The courses werent too different to what would be expected in the corresponding levels in aus. Steeplechase involved a course of just jumps & flexi tunnels. There are weavers in jumpers, but an optional number, and all the courses I ran today only had 6 poles. There are no tables in agility classes over here, but the seesaw is in all levels. With snooker there is a start & finish jump, ie you have to take that jump before starting the opening sequence and after finishing the closing. And refusal are counted in snooker here.
I had Tooheys entered in Beginners agility, jumpers, steeplechase & snooker and Hollie in Casual agility & jumping. However dogs have to be measured on the day of their first trial, and somehow (?!) Hollie measured as Midi meaning she only has to jump 400mm. The club was quite flexible allowing on the day changes so I switched her entries from Casual to Beginners, and also put her in steeplechase. Unfortunately beginners snooker has already been run by the time she was measured, and that was the class I really wanted to run her in.
We had varied success today, but in general the dogs ran well it was me that stuffed them up.
* Agility - Tooheys had a beautiful round, especially given that agility is usually our weakest class where he likes to argue with me, but he knocked one pole. It was a shame as he had the fastest time in the class, but he still got 3rd. And I'm happy knowing that he is fast enough to be at least a little competitive in the lower classes, and have some chance of progressing.
Hollie ran a good round only to have me pull her off a jump. Her speed wasnt as fast as it could be though.
* Jumping - I caused Tooheys to get E'd by pulling him off a jump and then causing him to back jump it, but it wasnt the tidiest round anyway..he blew his start line (and he had been so good lately!) and gave me some argument because I was then out of position.
Hollie on the other hand had a lovely clear round & got 4th place.
* Steeplechase - All I can say is both dogs needed a new handler!! I sent Tooheys over a wrong jump, and pulled Hollie off a tunnel entrance before she had commited.
* Snooker - I really wasnt looking forward to running Tooheys in snooker as when he has no direction on a course he gets silly, but he suprised me. He got maximum points in the opening sequence, but in the closing sequence came blasting out of a tunnel & missed the entrance to the weaves (no 6). Bearing in mind that refusals count we had to go straight to the finish jump. He still managed to get 4th place though.
Now looking forward to my first KC show in a few weeks to compare....
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Wimbledon
I've had a jam-packed weekend and am a little sleep deprived so I apologise if this is less than coherant.
Yesterday a few of us spent the day at Wimbledon. After getting to the grounds at 6.30am (which involved getting up at 4 to get the first train into London..) to join 'the queue' to buy day passes, we then had a several hr wait before the gates opened at 9.30, and even then it took another 45min to get through the gates. I was definately worth it though. It was the perfect weather for a day outside watching tennis!!
Yesterday a few of us spent the day at Wimbledon. After getting to the grounds at 6.30am (which involved getting up at 4 to get the first train into London..) to join 'the queue' to buy day passes, we then had a several hr wait before the gates opened at 9.30, and even then it took another 45min to get through the gates. I was definately worth it though. It was the perfect weather for a day outside watching tennis!!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Proofing
What do you do when you havent proofed your training as much as you thought?....
I thought I had done a reasonably good job of proofing Tooheys weavepoles - different sized poles, different length of poles, different spacings and angles, poles with stripes on them. Now his footwork still needs work, and we havent worked as many angled entries as I would like, but I thought I had prepared him for more than what he would see in competition..
Yesterday was our first night of agility training at North Cray & Sidcup AC . This is the first time Tooheys had trained in a proper class, we had a good time & thoroughly enjoyed the class. All except for the fact Tooheys had seeminging forgotten how to weave. He would hit the entries correctly and then either pop out & look at me, or skip every couple of poles. Now I would be lying if I said I wasnt at least a little disappointed but I was more puzzled as to why it was happening. All I could think of was that he'd lost the muscle memory from having a couple of months off with no training, and that we were training on sand which is a new surface and may have been throwing his footwork off.
It wasnt until we were packing up at the end of class and I picked up the poles that it struck me. 1) The poles were coloured, an 2) the poles were wood (so solid and inflexible). And these are whats routinely used in competition over here rather than white PVC. So we havent proofed beyond requirements of competition after all! Back to the drawing board we go....
I thought I had done a reasonably good job of proofing Tooheys weavepoles - different sized poles, different length of poles, different spacings and angles, poles with stripes on them. Now his footwork still needs work, and we havent worked as many angled entries as I would like, but I thought I had prepared him for more than what he would see in competition..
Yesterday was our first night of agility training at North Cray & Sidcup AC . This is the first time Tooheys had trained in a proper class, we had a good time & thoroughly enjoyed the class. All except for the fact Tooheys had seeminging forgotten how to weave. He would hit the entries correctly and then either pop out & look at me, or skip every couple of poles. Now I would be lying if I said I wasnt at least a little disappointed but I was more puzzled as to why it was happening. All I could think of was that he'd lost the muscle memory from having a couple of months off with no training, and that we were training on sand which is a new surface and may have been throwing his footwork off.
It wasnt until we were packing up at the end of class and I picked up the poles that it struck me. 1) The poles were coloured, an 2) the poles were wood (so solid and inflexible). And these are whats routinely used in competition over here rather than white PVC. So we havent proofed beyond requirements of competition after all! Back to the drawing board we go....
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Hadleigh Country Park
This morning we went for a 2hr treck through the Hadleigh country park, which is a beautiful area of open land and walking tracks on the SE corner of Benfleet. Unfortunately we ran in to lots of other dogs of lead at the start of the walk which got my 2 wound up, but the further we went the more we had the space to ourselves and hikers.
I cant work out how to label the photos, but they are: 1) Entering the park, 2) Overlooking Thames Estuary, 3) Path, 4) Overlooking Benfleet, 5) Overlooking Canvey, 5) Hadleigh Castle Ruins, 6) Looking west across the park
Southend
Yesterday I decided to go for a drive down to Southend-On-Sea and see if I could find a beach for the dogs to go swimming on. And if not to go for a walk along the southend pier. Now I know that England beaches arent exactly renowned, but I still wasnt prepared for what I found. A huge 'beach front' esplanade, amuzement park, food vans, sea-wall walk, masses of people out for a nice day, and then what could only be called a tidal plane. I'm afraid that even if I had of found somewhere to let the dogs off, I wouldnt have been game to let them into the water.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
The dogs are here!!
They flew into Heathrow last saturday, seemingly none the worse for their long trip. I was worried about how Hollie would handle the flight, but they both trotted out quite happly when the attendent brought them through. Although they were absolutely exhausted saturday night!
Friday, June 6, 2008
PETS Passport Scheme
The dogs are on a plane on their way over as we speak, so it seems appropiate to cover requirements for travel between Australia & the UK since I have regularly been asked about quarantine etc.
Basically, the dogs are travelling over under the Pet Passport scheme. The PETS scheme was set up for travel of animals between the UK and europe (EU countries) without the requirement for quarantine but some years ago it was extended to include several other countries including Australia. Full details for the PETS scheme are found on the Defra site. Under the PETS sceme there is no quarantine heading into the UK when they would otherwise have to spend 6 months in quarantine.
The pet passport requirements take about 8 months prior to travel to complete. The dog needs to have 2 rabies vaccinations a month apart, a rabies titre blood test a month after that, and then wait for 6 months. In Australia, the vaccinations and blood test have to be done by an AQIS accredited vet. It can be arranged for it to be done by your normal vet who would act as a third party for Aqis but it is more paperwork on the vets behalf, and they will probably not be aware of where to start (I know I wasnt!).
One query that I had early on was whether there was a maximum time frame for the requirements being done. This was an issue for me as I wasnt sure when I was going to be travelling, but it took a while to get a straight answer. But put simply, if the dog has rabies vacc annually 12 months after the titre test then it will all still be valid.
6 months after the titre, the dogs are just about able to travel. They need to be vet checked by AQIS, wormed, tick prevention etc within 24-48hrs of travel and will be issued with a permit for travel. There is alot of paperwork involved in the final weeks, and the dogs can only fly into the UK on specific flight routes into Heathrow. My best advise is to use a pet transport company to fly the animals and they will take care of all this for you. I think it would be extremely difficult and stressful to try and do everything that is required by yourself. I have used Dogtainers Canberra and they have been fantastic. I warn you it is far from a cheap process though.
So here we are now, however many months later, and the dogs will arrive at Heathrow early tomorrow morning. I just hope they handle the flight ok!
Basically, the dogs are travelling over under the Pet Passport scheme. The PETS scheme was set up for travel of animals between the UK and europe (EU countries) without the requirement for quarantine but some years ago it was extended to include several other countries including Australia. Full details for the PETS scheme are found on the Defra site. Under the PETS sceme there is no quarantine heading into the UK when they would otherwise have to spend 6 months in quarantine.
The pet passport requirements take about 8 months prior to travel to complete. The dog needs to have 2 rabies vaccinations a month apart, a rabies titre blood test a month after that, and then wait for 6 months. In Australia, the vaccinations and blood test have to be done by an AQIS accredited vet. It can be arranged for it to be done by your normal vet who would act as a third party for Aqis but it is more paperwork on the vets behalf, and they will probably not be aware of where to start (I know I wasnt!).
One query that I had early on was whether there was a maximum time frame for the requirements being done. This was an issue for me as I wasnt sure when I was going to be travelling, but it took a while to get a straight answer. But put simply, if the dog has rabies vacc annually 12 months after the titre test then it will all still be valid.
6 months after the titre, the dogs are just about able to travel. They need to be vet checked by AQIS, wormed, tick prevention etc within 24-48hrs of travel and will be issued with a permit for travel. There is alot of paperwork involved in the final weeks, and the dogs can only fly into the UK on specific flight routes into Heathrow. My best advise is to use a pet transport company to fly the animals and they will take care of all this for you. I think it would be extremely difficult and stressful to try and do everything that is required by yourself. I have used Dogtainers Canberra and they have been fantastic. I warn you it is far from a cheap process though.
So here we are now, however many months later, and the dogs will arrive at Heathrow early tomorrow morning. I just hope they handle the flight ok!
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