Jake's Progress

Broxburn's November show, and our first indoors agility show since last winter. In fact our first show for a couple of months.

Ah, the excuses start early ... you can probably guess where this post is heading.

Excuse 2: Torrential rain meant that Jake hadn't got the fidgets out of his feet - he very grudgingly trudged round the park before we left.

Excuse 3: The indoor venue, the Scottish national equestrian centre at Oatridge college, meant that Jake was pumped up by what I call the "horsey sand agility" factor. "You've brought me to agility! And it's on a beach that smells of horses! Wahey!" What this means in practice is boundless enthusiasm, more speed and less focus than usual.

Long story short - Jake had a whale of a time, and we were eliminated in both our runs. The highlight of my day was when he ran amok in the pay-as-you-go ring - check out his loopy lurcher lap of honour as I rebuild the jump he just demolished. If I ever need cheering up I'll be watching this:



Luckily others were less thrown by the move indoors - clear runs from Team Loki & Team Glen, and for Team Poppy, a 1st place in Jumping and a 4th in Agility. Woohoo! There are some videos on Youtube but (sorry) we missed the clear runs.

Labels: Agility shows

I’ve just taken a box of muffins to agility class as there was a hasty rule change this weekend – you’re supposed to bring in cake when you get a 1st place, but the rules were rewritten as we got two 2nd places this weekend at the Kingdom of Fife show. Our most consistent performance yet - only one elimination on seven runs!

There was a last minute change of venue as the original was rained off – I have to say we ended up in a great venue, last minute or not. Plus the lorne sausage rolls from the van in the car park were tip top.

For once we didn’t mind arriving at 8 am to walk a course and then hanging round for 2-3 hours before we ran – it was tipping it down. We nipped out in our waterproofs to video our pals’ runs (check out the brollies in the background). By the time we came to run a graded 1-3 jumping class, the rain had let up but the ground was a bit slippery. During the run, I didn’t feel I could tank it past the tunnel to change sides as planned, so ended up fumbling a rear cross. Not the most graceful handling, but we went clear and placed 2nd (0.2 seconds behind the winner of the class).



We had two agility courses as well on Saturday, and I was pleased with how we ran them - BUT Jake jumped over the on-contact on the dog walk both times! So that’s what we need to practise before our next show.

What was really noteworthy was that we had finished our runs and were driving away from the venue at 2.30pm! Jake promptly took to his basket.



On Sunday the weather was much better. We had four runs, three within the first hour or so. We ran another graded 1-3 jumping class (our 2nd 2nd place). I walked out to jump 4 before signalling Jake to start, by which time he’d already decided I was taking the p*** and had started anyway. It was the one startline stay he broke - I was pushing it.



But for me the triumph was going clear on the ABC combined 1-7 course. Jake didn’t even look at the tunnel trap, his lefts & rights were really good and he got his contacts, eve though we lost valuable seconds in the process. I bottled out of a more efficient route round the top left corner before the dog walk. Another time … We were about 4 seconds behind the dogs which placed. A lurcher came 2nd! Go lurchers!

Labels: Agility shows

We swallowed hard and went to one of our local shows - East Lothian - for the full two days. Even though it was a huge show, it didn't feel like it - the layout worked really well. And I always love an agility venue with a caff and plumbed-in loos. Plus we were on the Prestonpans battlefield.



We were only eliminated once in eight runs! Although technically two out of the eight were TFO so you can’t *be* eliminated. I made a point of jotting down the courses after I’d walked them and it really helped me fix my plan (and plans B & C) in my mind. Jake was focused and fast – and didn’t break his start line stay once!

We actually got right round the combined 1-4 TFO course on Sunday. I think we were helped by Jake being a little slower on the 2nd day of the show. We’ve never got so far on that kind of course – in fact I hadn’t thought through getting back to the start, from the penultimate jump and so I faffed and Jake was puzzled and the whistle blew… still, I was really pleased with how this run went.



We got a 2nd place in grade 1 agility on Saturday – just over a second behind the winner. There were a couple of interesting spots in the course, and I had to decide where to turn and change sides. Fortunately it all came together, though the interesting bits are lost on this video, hidden behind the A-frame.



We placed 7th in a grade 1 jumping course. I loved this course – the two tunnels twice, approached differently each time. Jake was tired – it was like running Jake last year. It’s not often these days I’m running ahead of him.



Teams Loki and Glen did really well too – so it was a good weekend all round.

Labels: Agility shows

We were at the Prestwick show last weekend. We ran in two agility & two jumping classes on the Saturday, and even though we were eliminated in three out of the four, I was pleased with how chilled Jake was round the rings, how focussed & fast he ran throughout the day, and even (gasp) with some of our pull-throughs. (The retraining is starting to bear fruit.)

I made some silly errors as well - we were E'd in one class because I didn't wait till Jake was committed to the tunnel before peeling away to the next obstacle, so Jake went in the wrong end. And Jake popped out of the weave in one course, something that never usually happens. Weave entries were of course FINE with my new shameless policy of "guide him through while in the ring."

Just a couple of vids to dissect here & now (the full horror is on YouTube, along with some runs by our pals Loki & Glen. Though we seemed to miss both Loki & Glens' best runs of the day!

Grade 1-2 jumping



It was going so well! Jake didn't fall into the first tunnel trap, our weave entry & turns and "out" were fine, and "left" and "rights" along the top of the course were going fine until he got distracted by the second tunnel and I was in the wrong place ... Eliminated!

3rd place in grade 1 jumping

It all came together! I can now see where I might have changed sides and not caused a moment of hesitation just before the tunnel, but really - am very happy with this

Labels: Agility shows

We just got in from the Scottish Kennel Club (SKC) show in Ingliston, right by the airport. I still find it weird to look up from an agility show & see a Ryanair jet taking off or landing. Makes me feel a bit over threshold.

As at the SKC show last August, we were in a field well away from the main conformation classes. We had our own entrance & our own car parking. I only walked down to the conformation rings once, to check out the shopping, and noted that the agility handlers are much scruffier than the pedigree people. And the agility people are more likely to be gesticulating to an imaginary dog as they rehearse some manoeuvre for their next course. It looks bonkers. (I wasn’t the only one doing it.)

How did we do? Once again, I’m trying to accentuate the positive here à la Agility Nerd.

Graded 1-2 Jumping
Our first run of the day. It went really well until the weave entry. Doh! What went well was Jake’s start line stay; the sequence at the tunnel and I got my turn in so he was on my left as we ran the diagonal.



Graded 1-4 Agility
This had a very narrow gap to pull Jake through, and as I know pull-throughs are still a work in progress, I devised a Cunning Plan. It wasn’t going to be as fast as a pull-through (purple dotted line below), which is obviously the best way to handle this section. I decided I would try taking a right hand weave (that in itself shouldn’t be an issue for us), then pull Jake round the wing and push him over the jump onto the dog walk. (My path in the sketch below is the black dotted line.)



Guess what? Jake missed the first weave pole, so we were eliminated there instead. I then proceeded to fluff the Cunning Plan. On the plus side, our distance work is getting better, we made the contacts, and it was a perfect start line stay.



Combined 1-2 Agility
Dearie me. We should have gone clear on this. Where to start? Bumbled turn -> dog walk on-contact, missed the off-contact, fluffed weave, wrong tunnel entrance … we can do that stuff! On the plus side … I’m seeing shoots of hope that Jake is starting to work ahead of me. A little bit.

So … for both me & Jake, practise for weave entries & contacts. And I need to restart building some “body memory” by practising turns & pull-throughs without the dog. I remember from last year that the hall at home and er, work corridors are good places for this. You’ll come & visit if I’m sectioned, yes?

Labels: Agility shows

We’ve just got back from the Woodside DAC show in Biggar. We only went for the Sunday, and like last year, it was a b i g show, with six rings. The weather mostly held, though there was a biting wind. Compared to the previous year, I appreciated the extra space we had for exercising and car parking.

Team Jake is getting much better at Being At Agility Shows. We managed Jake and the day so that he was “below threshold” for the whole day. He was chilled in the queues and he ran focussed on me, doing what I asked. It wasn’t his fault if I was sometimes in the wrong place or if I directed him wrongly! Good boy.

In the notes that follow I’m trying to consciously follow Agility Nerd’s suggestion that we record the minor triumphs instead of / as well as the highs and lows.

Graded 1-2 jumping:
We started out well – Jake held his stay and we were fast. He overshot the weave on the first attempt – my fault, I didn’t time my “steady weave” right. I had planned to change sides with a rear cross once Jake was in the tunnel, but didn’t – and so was too far behind to keep up with his momentum. I then ran up to the wrong jump and of course he took it! After that we both lost the plot. Must teach Jake to a) count and b) read to make up for handler inadequacies in that area.



Graded 1-2 Agility
This sort of course is usually a gift for us and we started off fast and accurate. I had a plan – to change sides after my “out” so we could take a right hand weave and so save valuable microseconds. (We have missed first place by microseconds more than once). Unfortunately I mistimed the “out” - I shouted it after Jake had already lined up to take the jump – and he obligingly went out to the next obstacle, the dog walk! ‘Tis a pity as we were running well until that point. Contacts continued to be good and we ran the second half of the course well even though we were justifiably eliminated. Jake of course had a whale of a time: two dog walks in one course! I believe that’s called self-rewarding.




ABC (Anything But Collies) Large Grades 1-7 (Olympia Stakes):
After last year’s memorable moment where Jake decided he’d rather check out the burger van than finish the course, my aim on this course was to simply get round it. Given that the course was aimed at much higher grades than us, I was really pleased with how we ran. Okay, we need to work on our down contacts and pulling Jake in between two jumps – I knew that. But lots went right, not least the sequence in the middle where the tunnel is taken twice. When walking the course I kept lining up wrong after the 2nd tunnel for the weave. But I learned a lot from watching more experienced handlers and copied their trick of staying put at the tunnel mouth and just picking Jake up on my left, ready to push into the weave. It was also great to see that I’m not the only nerd who scribbles down the course after walking it (we don’t get course maps issued in UK Kennel Club shows). This is so I can practise running the tricky bits in my head when back at the car. Also because I have no memory …



Things to practice:
• My positioning when changing side
• “In”
• Down contacts

Watching the really good teams – or when it goes to plan – I really see how much it’s like an elaborate pas de deux. When I think how we were running just a year ago … we’re evolving!

Labels: Agility shows

Another fairly local show for us - only 50 minutes drive over the bridges on a misty Saturday morning. It was a small, relaxed and very well organised show, with only three rings which ran like clockwork for grades 1-2, large (that's us) and grades 1-7 for the small and medium dogs. We got a brilliant ringside pitch and tried out our new windbreak to create a little safe haven for Jake. It worked - he relaxed a lot more and didn't feel the need to scan the horizon for incomers. We parked right next to our black lab pal Loki and his support team.

We had four runs, spread nicely through the day. After the Scottish Border Collie Club show the previous weekend I was a bit worried we'd lost our agility mojo but I was really pleased with how we did - we felt fast and confident and like a team. Woof!

In graded 1-2 agility we were eliminated because Jake went into the weave on the wrong side. He never usually does that - my fault - I was in the wrong place and didn't get my "steady-weave" command in at the right moment. The crowd groaned ...



Another muffed weave entry in graded 1-2 jumping - though I was pleased with the rest of the run.



So it was a great relief to go clear in the two combined grade 1-2 classes. We even placed 7th in agility and 10th in jumping (in a class of 93 dogs). Lucky for us it wasn't a combined 1-3 class or we'd have no ribbons on the mantelpiece and very few points in Jake's record book. I like this new trend for dedicated grade 1-2 classes. ;-)

Labels: Agility shows

On the morning of our first agility show this year, Jake and I took our dawn stroll in a winter wonderland. Well, it was frosty. We had to scrape the windscreen. Still, it was only a short drive to the Scottish Border Collie Club trial at Lanark Racecourse and our running orders were pretty good. We only had one course to walk first thing and our run was about an hour in - so enough time to remember the course, and to get Jake warmed up. We met up with our pals, got our chairs etc installed, though we were less happy when we realised we'd set up right by a pile of horse dung. (Jake of course was delighted.)

In our first class (combined agility 1-3) we fell right into the trap at the start of the course: an enticing A-frame placed just in eye shot of the start line ...



I put Jake in a wait and walked to jump 2 - Jake took the first 2 jumps and veered off towards the A-frame, and though he came right back when I called him he took jump 2 again in the wrong direction - ELIMINATED! Another time I think I would run with him from the start, and get my cry of "come heel" in as he starts to take jump 2 ...

By the time we came to run our next class, the temperature had risen to 19°C and the queue for the portaloos was full of people desperate to remove their thermals. Jake was pretty hot but he ran the course beautifully - apart from running past the weave! Finally we "sightread" the graded 1-2 jumping class. It's never good to miss walking the course. Bad handler. So we tried to work it out by watching others running and but for another fluffed weave entry we'd have gone clear - that's karma.

I don't know what's up with Jake's weave. Maybe my timing of the weave command - he'd had no trouble with the weave the day before at training. So that's the practise plan for the next week or so ...

It was great to watch the champ classes though - to see how it should be done!

Labels: Agility shows

Running orders were in our favour at the Woodside December show. We didn't need to arrive to walk our first course until 9.30 am - an unheard-of lie-in for an agility show, particularly as the venue was only half an hour's drive away.

We had three runs. Luckily for us we had the combined grades 1-3 jumping class first, so Jake could get any first-run skittishness out of way with minimum impact. Although in the event it was entirely my mistake he took the wrong 3rd jump - I wasn't best positioned and I didn't bring him in sharp to my side after jump two. Apart from that little matter of elimination, I was pleased how the run went - the first tunnel went entirely to plan, he took the unfamiliar wall obstacle without a hitch and I called him away from the final tunnel trap.

There was a tunnel trap in the graded 1-2 jumping class as well, but I called him away in the nick of time. That nick wasn't quite small enough - we missed first place by a tenth of a second. Still, very pleased with 2nd place.

Based on recent experience, I expected us to come unstuck on the contacts in graded 1-2 agility , but actually they went fine. No, our undoing was the long, gentle curve of jumps round the outseide of the course. Jake was well ahead of me (even after a successful start line stay) - and I didn't get in my voice/hand signal as I struggled to catch him up. He ran past right past one of the jumps and knocked a pole, most unlike him. Distance work to be practised, methinks.



There were four of us from our club at the show. For Jake it was great to have his agility pals there - see seemed visibly more laid back (or was that me transferring?) Though one to watch out for - he was a bit protective of Loki.

Labels: Agility shows

An hour's drive west on the motorway and we're at the Ingliston Equestrian Centre, by far the swankiest agility venue we've ever been to. None of that freezing our backsides off in a grassy field. No, here we had three rings inside, with a cafe and a bar and a restaurant. Have to say it all made the hanging around much more bearable.

Which was a good job, as we had a 12 hour day. We were up at 5.30 to get there in time to walk the first course. Jake's first run was a total write-off, as he hit the course like a dog demented. Of course, I should have foreseen that his first run of the day (always a bit prone to high-speed) would be accentuated by being on sand. You could almost see a thinks bubble. "Agility! On SAND? I'll find my own way. See ya!" (zoom zoom, zoom). Tragically I had a really good plan for a quite tricky course, and though we did run most of it to plan, it wasn't before we'd got ourselves eliminated. Learning point - be ready to handle the first-course-on-sand-zoomies. It may be as simple as roaring STEADY!!! or LEFT!!! as he rockets down the A-frame.

Things were a little calmer in our second run, a combined 1-3 jumping course. We were first out, and so everyone hung around to watch how the course would run. And somehow we rose to the occasion and went clear. But in a class of 220 dogs we were unlikely to place. Thanks to Gleniffer AC for providing clear run rosettes, we didn't go home empty handed.



There was then a lengthy wait until the next classes. Have to say I really liked being at a smaller show with a mere 400+ dogs and three rings - it was relaxed, there was plenty of room - and Jake was very chilled round the other dogs. We did two more runs - another in the ring where he had already run amok - and he did the same, back in the ring on sand again after several hours away. We almost went clear in the final combined grade 1-3 agility class - but for a missed contact on the final A-frame, and that was my fault, I should have steadied him down. Ah well! Look how happy he is to run.



Our classmates Kenny and Glen were there too and they fared very well - two clear rounds in the graded classes, so two 2nd places! (I really must have a quiet word with Jake about only going clear in the huge combined classes...) Glen is much steadier than Jake. I sometimes feel that I've got two agility dogs - one is steady and reliable and runs clear. The other is like a whippet on speed. The few times I've channelled the speed demon we've done really, really well.

Labels: Agility shows

Jake was given a rosette for his most recent success. But I know what he really wanted was this empty egg box he nicked from the recycling. So I have included both in the glory picture.

It was a great day for our agility club. We aren't formally constituted or affiliated to the Kennel Club or anything like that. Our teacher set it up about three years ago. We run in all weathers outside, and I mean all weathers - except perhaps the hot sunny ones which are so last century in these parts. Week in, week out, we set up the equipment, practise and take it down again in one of Edinburgh's public parks, alongside the football and rugby pitches and once (memorably) a troop (troupe?) of Brownies having a sack race.

As regular readers know, Jake and I started competing this year, and this weekend we were joined by Kenny and his border collie Glen. Both Kenny and I have been going to this club pretty much since day one. Both Glen and Jake were unwanted strays adopted from Edinburgh Dogs' Home. So you guess how chuffed we all were at the Scottish Kennel Club show on Saturday when Kenny and Glen scooped 1st place in grade 1 agility and Jake and I came 2nd, half a second behind!

Not that Glen and Jake should sit on their laurels - or their eggboxes - but for a couple of injuries, we'd have been joined by two more hopefuls from our club, Loki (black lab) and Milly (border collie), so paws crossed for success in future shows. Four of us from one club? Better keep our heads down. That's enough humans to make a ring party. :-)

Labels: Agility shows

Scottish Beardie Show
Non-dog-nerds (what are you doing here??) - beardie is short for bearded collie, we weren't at a folk festival. :-)

We spent the 2nd day of our Aberdeenshire holiday at the Sunday of the Bearded Collie Club (Scottish Branch) agility show. It was windy! Intermittently rainy! In a field with really uneven ground! That said, I enjoyed the courses we ran. We're best at competing on cold grey, rainy days - it's how we train most weeks. We even came 3rd in a grade 1 agility class.

Best bit: getting round a twisty-turny jumping class FAST: I walked backwards from the start line so I could push Jake over the third jump, got my turn in just after the tunnel and even (just about) managed a rear cross - only to fluff the weave entry! But check out the wind sock and the scribe's tent flapping in the wind at the start of the course.



Worst bit: I ran into and demolished a whole jump! On a slalom I glanced back to see where Jake was, but kept running forward... crash. Not my most graceful piece of handling... Of course we then went on to complete the difficult parts of the course without a hitch.

Nul points at Granite City agility show
One week later: oh dog, it was too hot, probably in the high 20s (celsius). We're just not used to it. And we were too relaxed at the end of our holiday. I was s l o w. But we learned that isotonic drinks help keep a pup hydrated on a long, hot day. If they weren't chicken flavoured I'd have tried one myself.

Labels: Agility shows

We only went to the Sunday of the East Lothian show. Any initial smugness about having a lie-in because it's just down the road was forgotten when we pulled onto the city bypass and saw the electronic boards saying ROAD CLOSED FOR REPAIRS... We j-u-s-t managed to get to Tranent before 0815 in time to walk two courses, ugh. (We don't get course plans which I gather are the norm in other parts of the world.) As it was the queues were full of people fretting (or philosophising ) that they hadn't walked the course ... alongside the campers who had terrible hangovers from the Saturday night party in the sports centre hall. 'Tis said that someone we know was trying to climb poles in the marquee at 2am.

Our goals for this show were to try to go clear / place in one class, and (more importantly) to make sure Jake had a calm, non-reactive time around the show and in the queues. Mission accomplished! Maybe in another post I'll write some more about how I've been trying out some of Leslie McDevitt's ideas from Control Unleashed.

Our best run was our first: graded 1-3 jumping class. I was in a good place - keyed up enough to have some adrenaline, but not too much. Jake was focussed and FAST - like he'd been fired out of a rocket. All that practising OUT routines in the park paid off. We came 2nd in the grade 1s, yay! And if I hadn't fluffed my final turn, who knows?



Then we tried our paws at a combined grade 1-4 TF&O class. We were never going to win anything running against grades 2-4, but get us - we managed a whole 9 obstacles before Jake entered the weave on the wrong side, the whistle blew and we had to hare to the finish - better than the last time we ran a TF&O, when we achieved a whole two obstacles before Jake knocked a pole and the whistle blew. I'd have liked to have run the whole course as an agility class, it was fun.

Next up was the Graded 1-3 Agility class - I'd walked the course just once before we had to clear the ring. Still, I'd been watching others, and thought we should be able to do it. Unfortunately for us, the dog immediately before our run was a speedy, vocal border collie, and as as we waited for our turn Jake transformed from chilled-out, focussed pooch into let-me-at-that-agility-course aroo! aroo! hyper-dog . He broke his stay at the start line so there was an undignified scramble to complete the star in the right order, followed a little later by me fluffing a turn just before the see-saw, losing track of Jake, nearly falling over him and in the tangle of legs, stepping on his paw ... Yelp! went Jake. Aww! went the crowd. He was fine and once I'd established that, the judge let us finish - but we were both all over the place by then - muffed turns, Jake running under a jump. Ah well. How were we eliminated? Let me count the ways.

On to the combined grades 1-3 jumping class which I hadn't even walked in advance - I was all set to call off as it was midday and getting really hot. Until I realised our agility teacher was in the ring party, so there were no excuses! I watched several people run from various vantage points and then gave it a whirl. Halfway round Jake spotted Rod filming on the sideline and decided he'd had enough of all this running on a hot day and ran off course to say hello ... I got his attention again and we did some OK turns and a good weave (ignoring the tempting tunnel just in eye-shot) - but I then lost my way in the final box sequence. Fortunately the ice cream van had arrived on site by then so all material concerns were forgotten. Three Mr Whippys, please. Jake? Spoiled?

Labels: Agility shows

Maybe it was the faboulous steak in the Buccleuch Arms the night before. Maybe it was having a day out / restful evening instead of a gruelling day at work / frenzied preparation / early start. In any case, we had one of our best shows yet, getting clear runs in three out of the four courses we ran and even placing 5th in the graded 1-3 jumping class. Wow!

Not that we're complacent - we did some of the slowest weaves ever (I forgot to hissss) and there were some great scrambled moments. And our rosette-winning run was preceded by a lot of stress in the queue. Oddly enough I was proudest of how we ran the course in which we were eliminated - a graded agility 1-5 class that was by general consent more at the grade 5 end of the spectrum. I had a split second of forgetfulness about how I was going to handle a particular section and froze thinking must send him 'out' - so in the absence of any direction, Jake took the first jump in front of him ... Have to say I was elated that we ran the course as fluidly as we did; I had never expected to get round it. Once the adrenaline ebbed, and I saw the results (only three grade 1s got clear rounds, so even with faults, teams were placed) I started to think rats! we were sooo close. But that's one of the fun things about agility. It can go well, it can go badly.



This week we'll be working more on that pesky OUT command. It's been our undoing more than once now.



As the rosettes and points are definitely more for the humans than the dogs, Jake got some new toys from the stall. Current favourite is his small honking pheasant, a reminder of the full-size live pheasants that stolled round the garden in the B&B without so much as a by-your-leave.

Labels: Agility shows

The Scottish Kennel Club May show runs for several days, only one of which includes agility. But what a treat having a show in Edinburgh! A mere 20 minute drive! That meant we only had to get up at our usual weekday time and fitted in our usual morning walk and then (luxury) had bacon rolls for breakfast. (Jake says - can't all the shows be in Edinburgh?)

We filed into the Royal Highland Showground (no pressure) at 0800 with many, many other dogs. For us, it was weird and wonderful to be rolling up at the same time as the gundog and utility breeds. We saw Clumber spaniels, Munsterlanders, English pointers, poodles parcelled in protective plastic and chow chows wearing bibs. The conformation classes were held in a range of upmarket marquees - and there we found aisles of posh catering and doggy shopping. Not the usual burger van and one or two stalls selling training gear and treats! No, here we had paw plungers, extreme crating options, doggy pushchairs, our old friends Dorwest Herbs, professional grooming equipment and organic food supplies - and for the humans, steak baguettes. "Are you here for the agility?" asked one vendor. When I (only slightly sarcastically) asked how he knew, he said "Well, you're dressed more like agility people." Humph.

The SKC won't allow any dogs to be left in cars so that meant a hike to the agility area with chairs, bags of provisions, crates and anything else we could carry. There were a couple of tents where people could leave their dogs in crates, but we preferred to keep Jake with us. He spent a lot of time snoozing ringside. Our trainer had two of her dogs with her, and one ripped his way out of his fabric crate in the marquee while she was running her other dog. Whoops ...

The other weird thing was that the showground is on the perimeter of Edinburgh airport, so when facing in one direction, you'd look up from Champ Agility and see a Boeing 737 trundling past on its way to Malaga.

Anyway! Jake was very chilled on this occasion. We entered three classes, and as usual, it was the last class where we did best - Rod reckons it's a conspiracy to delay leaving the show.

Graded Jumping 1-2 - we arrived, I walked the course, we ran it - blimey! On reflection, I don't think I like being drawn to run 9th in our first class of the day. Jake popped out of the weave - and watching the video I see it's because I took my attention off him for a second to take in the next obstacle. I can trust him with that when we're practising, but it's a different story in the ring! Apart from that it was a nice run.

Graded Agility 1-4 - I loved this course. It was a pleasure to run - flowing, with enough little catches to keep us on our toes. We did lots right. We got faults because I should have taken a couple of my turns more tightly (so Jake found himself in the wrong place, or ambiguously signalled) and then we completely lost it in the final stretch. But I learn so much from these not-so-great runs - what we need to work on, and ways to (try to) recover when the best laid plans fail. If only we could have run it again, we'd have nailed it. :-)

Combined Agility 1-2 - we went clear - even though Jake nearly started sniffing the ground halfway through the weave! He was tired, and hot - it was 1400 and he hadn't had his usual mid-morning nap. Still, a clear run! If it had been a graded class we would have placed, but that's life. It's all points for Jake's record book - we're progressing slowly towards grade 2, and maybe one day Jake's bronze agility warrant. S l o w l y.

Labels: Agility, Agility shows

Not a bad spot for a show! And in spite of the forecast (and the ominous skies) there were only the lightest of showers all weekend.



Very soon after I took this picture, back in the exercise area, I saw Jake’s shoulder go down for a roll ... I dived for his collar and pulled him out of a cow pat just in time. Only to step in it myself! From that moment my left shoe was irresistible to the other 800+ dogs in the show. I called him Green Paw from then on but strictly speaking, the name applied to us both.

Anyway! I'll try to be brief with show notes.

Graded 1-2 jumping class: we should have been OK on this course, but Jake was Mr WAAHH-IT’S-AGILITY: broke his stay, got ahead of me, was deaf to my direction command, took a wrong turn… oh well!
Then we headed for the ABC combined 1-7 class. The ring was parallel with the the burger van, and Jake walked to heel with his head at 90 degrees as though he was passing the Queen. The ABC course was (as expected!) well above our level, but it was fun to walk and plan. Jake and I got round the first section of the course with only one muffed contact, and then, as I did a pull through in the far corner of the ring Jake found himself facing the burger van – and nipped under the rope to investigate!

Then onto a combined 1-4 agility class. It was entertaining walking the course with 270 other people! Luckily for us we were drawn to run in the first 30. Jake was a bit more in his stride by then, and I was really pleased as we navigated the tricky parts as planned - Jake held his stay - and went straight into an opening slalom, correctly ignoring the enticing dog walk right in view - - entry into the weave was great, even after a stretch of running / jumping at full pelt - we got the tricksy tunnel sequence – yay! BUT we were eliminated over a simple thing - (again) down to my handling. C'est la vie!

Apres-show, Jake enjoyed a few mouthfuls of very excellent local delicacy : Scotch Pie.



On Sunday we had a much better day. Jake was steadier and more focussed. Jumping combined 1-3: I thought we might go clear, but we fluffed the weave entry. But check! we got the box work right. Check! Jake was taking "left" and "right" commands brilliantly.

Agility graded 1-2: We got a clear round and came 2nd - blimey! So we scooped another tartan rosette and our first trophy. Much excitement and a hug from our teacher!



Jumping graded 1-2: So much went right with this course. But the now-traditional fluffing of the weave entry (oh, and a knocked pole) was our undoing. But check! Stay held until 3rd obstacle. Check! A turn I always find tricky executed properly. Check! Right turn (away from the jump straight ahead) into a snake. The two parts of the run either side of the doomed weave felt really fluid and FAST, Jake and I watching and reacting to each other so quickly we weren't really thinking - what a buzz. That's why I love agility.

Labels: Agility, Agility shows

We’re off to the Woodside show in Biggar this weekend. Rod had the following conversation at work:

Labels: Agility, Agility shows

We left home sooo early to arrive in good time for the start of Saturday's show as measuring (for dogs new to Kennel Club competition) was scheduled for the start of the day. The downside of that was we had a long wait until our turn to run, but that gave us plenty of time to scope out the venue, stroll round the five rings, watch friends running their classes, give Jake a romp in the exercise area and eat lunch far too early. Next time we must pack two lunches, one for mid morning and one for actual lunchtime. The show was outside and in spite of the mud-bath feared at the start of the week, we had cold but sunny weather and the ground was good to run on. Our agility teacher was camping so we had a much-needed cuppa in her caravan.

Jake was much more relaxed at this show than he has been in the fun shows in an equestrian centre this winter – being outdoors must seem a much more familiar setting for agility, even with hundreds of people and dogs milling around 5 rings.


We entered three classes:

Graded 1-2 Agility
This was a nice straightforward course and if I’d been a bit quicker with my command sending Jake out to a particular jump and timed my own turn a little better we probably wouldn’t have got 5 faults. The other 5 faults were down to me not timing my weave command right, so he missed the entry – fixed that in the other courses we ran. What was really weird was that Jake (and several other dogs – but not all) were very distracted by smells on the ground and on the equipment. And I’ve never, ever seen him stop for a huge sniff halfway down over the A-frame. I’m used to having to steady him off the A-frame, not coax him down! Had some beasties been scurrying on the equipment? Had some previous dog pee’d? Something on the A-frame smelled wonderful. All in all, 10 faults and an OK time. I was pleased with lots about this run – as usual, the main problem was operator error!


Combined 1-2 Agility
We went straight on to our next run. With hindsight we should have cooled off a bit and warmed up again – Jake’s adrenaline must have been pumping! We didn’t get off to the best of starts - Jake broke his stay and knocked a pole off the second jump (Rod and our teacher reckon he started and then got confused cos he realised I hadn’t yet given him any signals …) – somehow I still managed the much-practised pull-through to jump three. I really blew it further along the course on a three-jump star – I pulled Jake to me instead of sending him out, which he obligingly did, so we were eliminated for taking the jump in the wrong direction. Whoops! All in all, in spite of the start and my fluffed star I was really pleased at how most of this run went. Jake’s speed, contracts, weave entry and focus on me (after the start, ahem) were all really good.


Graded 1-2 Jumping
This class was really late in the day, so late we were losing the will to live - we so nearly left early and missed it. Good job we didn’t, as we came 3rd! The course began with two jumps and a weave, and I decided to start well past the first jump and WALK alongside the 2nd jump, the idea being this would steady Jake towards the weave. It worked! The rest of the course was basically a spiral RUN – much less twisty-turny than I feared. Watching the video I see that towards the end I’ve run out of breath to shout anything but the final “over”. The two fastest dogs were ahead of us by 5 seconds – two fleet-footed (border) collies that barely touched the ground. We would usually go faster than this – Jake is usually ahead of me on this sort of run - but we would never, ever have shaved 5 seconds off our time!

Here's the video evidence.

Labels: Agility, Agility shows

Well, we went to our first show of the year. The Fun Dog Shows in Fife have run every month through the winter - a great opportunity to practice the experience of being in the ring, standing in the queue to run (etc) before we start on KC shows.

We had a whale of a time, though technically it wasn’t one of our better outings. Unlike our November show, we didn’t manage a single clear round! We entered four classes, all for the large dogs grades combined 1-3:

1st Jumping Class – notable because I sent Jake over the wrong jump at the end of the course. Operator error!

2nd Jumping Class – notable because Jake spotted an A-frame off-course (just behind the course fence) and he nipped round to run up it anyway. Great contacts!
“Awww…” went the crowd.
“Eliminate,” went the judge.
Watching the video clips, it’s clear I didn’t call “over” to reinforce my hand signal to the jump.

1st Agility class - notable because it included the one pull-through I have a mental block with … I can do 3 out of 4 possible approaches and guess which one was on the course. Waaah.

2nd Agility class – notable because we had successfully cleared our bête noir (over-running the weave after a jump) and I like to think we were well on our way to a clear round – when Jake spotted Rod filming - and promptly ran off-course to say hello … What's great about this happening is that everyone starts to tell you their horror stories of when their dogs ran amok / away. That's probably another post in itself...

Here is the glorious moment where Jake votes with his paws. At the very start, see how he looks right at the camera, as if to say “I’ll be over in a moment.” And then I’m left standing in the ring clapping like … like a woman whose dog decided he’d had enough!



What did we learn?
1. To take it easy the day before – we’ve been watching out for Jake but not so much for the human team member, who'd had a gruelling day at work!

2. To watch out for changes to our usual morning routine caused by the early start – all the toilet and walk and feeding routines being out of kilter can affect the Sensitive Dog. We are getting better at this, and this time I got up really, really early to give Jake his usual dawn walk & breakfast before we set off.

3. To run off some of Jake's steam on portable kit or in the training area before we go in the ring – it might just help him get some focus before we get in the ring and see the equipment for the first time. Did I ever mention lurchers are fast?

4. To make sure I have the toy du jour and not last week’s toy. I had pocketed the wrong tug and got a look of utter contempt from Jake when I produced it. “That toy is dead to me,” was the implication. Not that Jake particularly needs geeing up in the queue to run …

5. To make sure Jake is used to Rod filming on the edge of an agility course! Jake’s much more focussed when he’s used to his proud family being on the sidelines, which we have practiced in the past. We just didn’t practice before this show and we paid, we paid …

6. Jake LOVES to do full runs, but in practice we tend to break things down into components. We need to practice the thrill of a new, full course in the hope Jake steadies a little.

7. It’s only a game! Looking back at the videos I can see we were both having great fun even though we didn’t do as well as we sometimes do. I remember coming off every course (except the last) absolutely buzzing.

8. Every show is less scary than the last. Though I reserve the right to be really properly scared before our first KC show, coming soon.

Finally, here's more advice for people new to agility shows.

Labels: Agility, Agility shows

Last year we went to Crufts on the Saturday to watch our agility teacher compete in the agility team competition ... we had a whale of a time. They didn’t qualify for Crufts this year, so we stayed in Edinburgh and watched the TV coverage. The BBC coverage was a big improvement on 2007, with a full 30 minutes from the agility ring on Friday night’s extended coverage (press the red button). The camera work feels most unusual when you’re used to watching agility runs on YouTube home videos – the BBC had lots of cutting to different cameras to follow the dog round the course, so you see how the dog takes the obstacles very clearly, but you can’t really get a feel for the overall course or how the handler is working. Imagine what it would be like to have more informed coverage – they could start by showing you a graphic of the course layout, complete with the obstacle numbers. And much as I like Peter Purves (I grew up with him presenting Blue Peter), really the commentary should be from an experienced agility handler or judge. They take that approach for the conformation classes, where breed and group experts are allowed to do the commentary.

Still, Crufts took up 7 hours on BBC2 over four days plus an additional 4 hours of extended coverage via the red button. And on Sunday, there was a whole three hours! Take that, football, rugby, athletics, and every other tedious sport in which I have no interest but which fills my TV schedules.

And Jake? Jake doesn’t really watch telly. He gives the impression it’s beneath him.

Labels: Agility shows

Once again we were up at the crack of dawn, driving over the Forth Road Bridge as the sun came up. Another exhausting but entertaining day at the Fun Dog Agility Show in Fife. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly.

We came back over the bridge rather stunned to have scooped a 6th and an 8th place in the grade 1-3 agility class. We had a run-off to settle 5th and 6th place (5th went to a super-speedy grade 3 black lab who took 2 seconds off her round in the run-off … we were just pleased to go clear!)





Not bad for our second show, up against grades 1-3. Not bad for the Seafield graduate and his unsporty handler. We’ll just draw a veil over the greyhound-out-of-trap on the jumping class (jump-jump-race-past-weave whoops… ). Need to think of a way to channel all that first-run-of-the-comp oomph.

(I’ll add the courses when I’ve finished the transfer to my new laptop and download a non-trial version of Course Designer.)

Now Jake is sleeping the sleep of the just on the sofa, roaching like he’s never been threatened with micro-briefs.

Labels: Agility shows

It’s some time since we updated this blog. In that time, Jake has been to his first agility show. It was great day, though the killer early start threw us all. (On the road out of Edinburgh at 0650 on a Saturday morning in the pitch dark?) Next time we’ll be much better organised for all our meal and toileting needs. (TMI?) Anyhoo, it’s a good way to see if we like this agility show lark enough to start entering Kennel Club competitions and using Jake’s KC Activity Register name.

In the first jumping class, Jake was so hyper and I was so in-a-strange-place that he ran amok and we aren’t sharing the video evidence.

Then we ran an agility class. I completely missed one of the jumps! Sorry Jake.




We got better as the morning wore on and we found our feet on the second agility class.



There has been a lot of practice in the autumn dusk since then … weaves and turns coming on a treat.

The other side-effect of Jake’s new show career is that the videos were so useful in seeing why we were eliminated and what we needed to practice that Rod went and bought a long-wanted camcorder. Chalk that up alongside the car as Things Jake Made Us Buy.

Labels: Agility shows