Five Fault Club

Last month I went to a seminar by American agility trainer Tracy Sklenar. It’s been a few years since I made it to a seminar due to various life events, and I really enjoyed myself and came away full of new ideas. This is the first of probably several posts inspired by Tracy…

When you are running a course in a competition, your goal is usually to get a clear round in the fastest possible time. Most handlers will take some small risks in an effort to save time – but they won’t do something that is very unlikely to work unless they feel like they don’t have any other options.

When you are running a sequence at club training, your goal is probably to improve. For maximum improvement you need to push you and your dog to the limits of your current skill level, then figure out how to extend those limits. If you turn up at club and run the same safe handling strategy that you would at a show, you are not going to improve as quickly as someone who experiments with new techniques to see what works.

Continue reading “Train Like You Want to Compete”

Running order boards are read left to right and then top to bottom. Each call steward has their own unique way of doing things, but the general conventions are:

• A cross (two diagonal lines) or a scribble over the dog’s number – the dog is scratched and won’t be running in this class.
• A dot above the dog’s number – the handler and dog have checked in and are waiting nearby.
• A single diagonal line through the dog’s number – the dog has already run.
• A circle around the dog’s number – the handler may not turn up because they have a clash with another ring, or they’ve missed their turn because they didn’t arrive at the ring in time.
• A circle with an arrow – the dog has been moved to avoid a clash.

Continue reading “How to Read a Running Order Board”

This weekend Rik and I went to the CCATS jumpers show in Christchurch. This was a very large show, and it seemed that some people had travelled a long way to have their first runs at the new heights. All of the C and B classes were split which is very rare for a South Island show!

Our runs on Saturday were a little wild at times, and the teamwork could have been better, but we went clear in one of them and picked up our second Jumpers B win. On Sunday we were working together much better and had two really nice runs with just one little mistake each … we were lucky enough to get a second placing even with five faults though.

Sunday was a warm day, just perfect for a wetting. My clubmate Natasha obliged by getting her last challenge to make her dog Pascalle up as a Jumpers Champion – well done! Pascalle is an extremely keen agility dog and it is not always easy to control her enthusiasm so a lot of hard work has gone into this title.

This weekend Rik and I made the trek south to Invercargill for our first agility show of the year. It was great to catch up with some of our southern friends and I enjoyed the more laidback atmosphere that comes with a smaller show.

The courses this weekend gave us lots of opportunities to test out our wraps, and showed us that we still have a lot of work to do before we can nail them reliably. We had a couple of nice runs, particularly today’s Intermediate where Rik did some great distance work and didn’t put a paw wrong until I got in her way at #19.

What did your agility dogs get up to this weekend?

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?