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At the start of each new agility year I set myself a few goals. This year’s were:

• Increased independence in Rik’s weaves. This was a huge sticking point for us as she used to stop and wait for me before she entered, and then stop after every two poles to check if she was done yet. Quite often she would bail right at the end because she couldn’t see the last pole in her peripheral vision while she was staring at me – very frustrating! My goal was to have a weekend with a 75% success rate on completing the weaves without stopping in the middle. We achieved this at each of our last 3 shows of the year.
• Get Rik comfortable performing the seesaw on courses. By the end of 2017 she was happy on the seesaw at club, but would bail off the side when she met it in an AD trial. We aren’t all the way there yet – she’s got a 50% success rate from her recent seesaw encounters – but she is actually flying off the end now rather than jumping off before it tips. We got our first clear round in AD recently because of the work I put into this.
• Win out of Starters. We’d had a lot of really nice five-fault runs in Starters, but only one win. This was obviously closely related to my goal to fix our weaves. We never managed that second Starters win, but a surprise Novice win in March put us up to Novice/Intermediate level.
• Earn 10 clear rounds in Jumpers B. We’d been enjoying Bs in 2017 but I wanted to see an improved consistency. We fell short of this goal with 7 clear rounds, but I think we would have got there if we hadn’t spent four months out with an injury. I would still like to see more consistent results in 2019 though.

Onward to 2019

Rik is now seven years old. She injured her toe this year, and could have suffered other wear and tear from her former life as a working sheepdog. She is currently fit and keen to run, but I don’t know how much longer her career will be.

That has steered me a little more towards outcome goals this year. I definitely want to improve a couple of our weakest areas, but I’ve realised that we are running out of years to achieve everything and I would like to

With that in mind, our 2019 goals are:

• Conquer early commitment to wraps. Rik is more of a “velcro dog” than any of my previous dogs have been, and she finds it very difficult to commit to wraps. I have been working on this since the NZDAC and there has been some improvement – I was really happy with today’s training session. My biggest goal for 2019 is to wean Rik off all the help I have been giving her on course, and achieve a 75% success rate for independent performance of wraps by the end of the year.
• Pull off a rear cross on the weaves in competition. We worked hard on this last summer and we are fairly successful at home, but much less so at club. I’ve tried it a couple of times in the ring recently and she’s still not confident enough to keep driving forward through the poles when I disappear from view. We are close though so 2019 is going to be our year!
• Earn 5 clear rounds in Intermediate. We made our Intermediate debut in July, and have one clear round so far. Most of our runs have been better than expected, although there has been the odd disaster. Our teamwork and connection on the course will need to improve to achieve this – most of our mistakes are caused by the human member of the team!
• Earn 10 clear rounds in Jumpers B. I’m going to carry this goal over from last year and see if we can hit it in 2019. Again, our teamwork is the biggest area we need to work on.
• What did you and your dog achieve in 2018? What are your goals for next year?

Before you can compete in agility, you need to have your dog measured. For a lot of dogs this can be quite stressful, particularly if they find visits to the vet scary. It’s a similar scenario – a stranger leaning over them and touching their shoulders with a metal object.

How Agility Dogs are Measured

A dog’s height is measured at his withers – the point bit at the top of the shoulders. We use a metal stick (basically a metre ruler) with a crossbar which lowers down onto the withers. Depending on the facilities available and the size of the dog, the measure may be taken on the ground or on a table.

There will be two measurers (and sometimes a trainee), and they will both take several measurements each. Most dogs are a bit edgy at the start of the session and will take a few minutes to relax.  It often takes a while to get a consistent result – your dog may appear to keep growing or shrinking as the session progresses! It normally takes 10 to 20 minutes to measure each dog.

Continue reading “Preparing Your Dog for Measuring”

This weekend Rik and I went to Taieri’s champ show. As usual, the South Island agility community got into the festive spirit with judges, competitors and even the equipment dressing up for the occasion.

The highlight of the weekend was the very entertaining strategic pairs class on Saturday evening. One team managed to get round without mishap but some teams took several minutes to finish and had the audience in stitches!

Rik and I had a successful weekend with a win in Novice and our first AD clear round. I was very pleased with our other Novice run too, especially her confident drive into the weave poles while I was miles behind.

How was your weekend? What was your dog’s best moment in the ring?

It’s common for new competitors to feel nervous when they step into the ring for the first time. For some this becomes a downhill spiral – they start worrying because they’re “too nervous”, which makes them more nervous, which makes them worry more …

When you’re about to run a course, your body will prepare by releasing adrenaline. Adrenaline enables you to run faster and also heightens your awareness of what is going on around you. These are very useful things when you’re trying to steer your dog around the course!

Continue reading “Nervous or Excited?”

This was my first weekend off from agility in a while. Today was also the first warm sunny day we’ve had in Waimate for about three weeks! It was nice to see blue sky for a change.

I had booked the Rug Doctor from the supermarket for today, as I wanted to tackle the stains from the Epic Upset Canine Tummy of September 2018. We spent the lovely sunny afternoon inside doing housework rather than going for a nice walk somewhere – Rik was much happier with this plan than I was.

It was drizzling by the time I finished, but we did go for a stroll round the park, and then I set up the Jumpers B sequence that we struggled with last weekend so we could practise it.

What did you and your agility dogs get up to this weekend?

Voting closes tonight to choose the 2018-20 Agility Committee, and we’ll soon have a brand new committee to run our sport. Before they go, I thought I’d take a moment to thank the outgoing AC for all their hard work. I’m especially grateful for the following changes to our sport that have been made over the last two years:

1. The Club Trainers Subcommitee – I think this is an awesome initiative to help support and grow our clubs. I’m looking forward to seeing what the subcommittee achieves over the next couple of years. 
2. Taking AC meetings on the road – It’s a super idea to make the agility committee more accessible to people around the country. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the Christchurch meeting, but maybe next time! I hope the incoming committee keeps this up.
3. Consultation on Starters and AD classes – Personally, I think our agility graduation system needs some revision. The survey revealed that I’m in the minority there, but oh well. I’m so glad that we had the opportunity to discuss graduation and have our views heard.
4. Funding the Ian Gray history project – Many of you will have seen the discussion about this on Facebook. What you may not realise is that Dogs NZ and our AC have each contributed $500 to this project. Ian was the “founding father” of agility in NZ, and it was thanks to his efforts that agility became a Dogs NZ recognised sport in 1987. I can’t wait to see the finished project!
5. Requiring voters to be members of an agility club – Prior to this change, any Dogs NZ member could register for the agility voting roll. This opened our elections up to interference from outside our community. I’m not aware of anything untoward happening (hopefully most people have better things to do than meddle in our elections!) but I’m glad to see this loophole removed. It also sends a message that people who compete in agility and want to have their voices heard should belong to an agility club. Personally I think this should be a requirement to compete at all!

Thank you to all the outgoing AC – Carl, Sallie, Bevan, Diana, Chris, Steve, Wayne and Joanne – for your hard work. Thanks also to the other volunteers who keep our sport running – particularly Pete (website), Cam (permanent numbers) and the heights review-subcommittee.

What was your favourite decision made by our outgoing Agility Committee?

AD and ADX Advanced trials are the agility equivalent of sex. A lot of new competitors have questions about them, but they’re usually fobbed off with “don’t worry about it now, you’ll understand when you’re older”.

If you’re new, all you probably know about them is that you’ve been told not to enter them, but the online entries system keeps trying to sneak an AD entry onto your bill. Today I’m going to attempt to explain what they are and how we finished up with them.

Continue reading “What are AD and ADX Advanced Trials?”

Yesterday I went to Cromwell with the 2019 NZDAC committee for a tour of our venue. The southern South Island has had a huge amount of rain over the last month, and the good news is that the grounds at the racecourse have held up to it very well and it was nice and dry underfoot!

I stayed the night with my friends Flip and Gaz in Arrowtown and went to the Queenstown club’s ribbon trial today. It was a long day but we were fortunate enough to stay dry all day, and it was great to see the newer Queenstown competitors have a go. Rik and I did weren’t quite on form today but we did have the odd moment of brilliance – I was very impressed with her send to a backside in Jumpers B from a long way back!

What did you and your agility dog get up to this weekend? What was your favourite moment?

Almost every agility run begins with a lead-out. This a chance for the handler to move into position to handle the first few obstacles while the dog waits patiently for her turn. Or that’s how it’s supposed to go, anyway …

Breaking or creeping during lead-outs is one of the most common bad habits in agility dogs. My last dog Spring was one of the guilty. I had a lot of trouble getting a decent stay out of her in the first place. Within months of her agility debut the rot had set in – she started crawling along on her belly while I was walking away. Once I turned around to see her lying on the wrong side of the first jump, which she had crawled right up to and then underneath!

Why Do Dogs Break?

There are three common reasons why dogs break:

Continue reading “Sit, Stay, Walk Away”

So you’ve been training for a few months and you’ve decided to have a go at your first ribbon trial … but which classes are you actually supposed to enter?

Agility and Jumpers Classes

We have two types of agility competition in New Zealand. “Jumpers” courses only contain tunnels and jumping obstacles, including the tyre and long jump. “Agility” courses which also include the weaves and contact obstacles – dogwalk, Aframe, crossover, and seesaw. At most shows there will be a mix of agility and jumpers classes offered.

Continue reading “What to Enter at Your First Ribbon Trial”