I'm afraid yet again we didnt have much success. I only had 2 runs each day with Tooheys plus a run with Hollie in anysize on saturday. The rest of the classes offered by the club were pairs & teams classes which were qualifiers for crufts. The pairs basically consisted of both dogs running the same course one after the other with a baton change in between, the teams was the same except with 4 dogs.
It was a large trial with 12 rings running, my classes (grade 3, and grade 3-5) being divided into 2 or 3 parts with 200+ dogs in each part.
Of all the people there, today I ran into the Staniforths who were over from Vic on holidays, and decided to visit a trial.
Saturday Tooheys agility run was a disaster. He blew his dog walk contact, got a refusal on the tunnel, and then ran out of the ring when I thought he was in the tunnel (bad handler taking my eyes of my dog!!!)..thankfully as soon as I realised he had gone he panicked & ran straight back to me.
His jumping run faired much better. I released him off the start line before I was ready (reminder that I have to go back to training start line stays in the ring!) which left me flat footed and he ran past jump 2. The rest of his run was beatiful and he sent out beautifully over jumps 6-9, but he then demolished jump 14 by wrapping the wing too tightly as he turned. I really cant complain about that!
Hollie redeamed my by running clear in anysize, but that class was for clear runs only.
Today both my runs were at the end of the day by which time it was disgustingly hot, definately not the ideal day for running agility.
I missed walking our jumping course, which was on the difficult side for grade 3-5 combined. I had no idea what Tooheys was going to do, no idea where I was supposed to be, and expected everything to be a disaster. Tooheys suprised me though by having a lovely run, his only fault missing the 12th weavepole. This is something we have had problems with over the past few weeks, so really need to go back to basics. I'm finding if I get in front hes likely to pop out early, but if I hang back behind him he is weaving nicely by himself.
By the time we got to the agility ring my heart wasnt in it & I dont think Tooheys was either. Again I sent him off too early from the start, he was headed for the wrong jump and didnt have time to correct & take jump 2 properly. He also ran past the chute tunnel which caught me off guard.
I had every intention of getting this weekends runs videoed to show what things are like, but missed out yesterday due to technical issues (yes the lens cap has to come of for the camera to work ;) ..) and then the battery ran out on us today. Hopefully next time. In the mean time I have tried to replicate the courses again, but these are far from exact!!!
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