Took the boy training again. Still a bit bonkers, but settling. I'm sure it must be doing him good, and I look forward to a bit more focus. He failed to do a couple of things I know he can do, but he also did lots right. So essentially we are in a position where we are training inside, under the bright lights. He was quite sociable outside the training rings too.

Towards the end we were right by the end of a course, and he was doing his "look at me" very well.

Just one moment which I was not happy with where I turned my back on him, and he ran off and herded another dog that was running. Just shows I will have to be careful about that. He didn't do much other than try to get the other dog to play, and he recalled straight back to me.

We had a good show at NAWS. Didn't win anything, but given that Willow was (very slightly) lame 4 days before and that Spike is as mad as a turnip, we did OK.

Willow got a clear in each jumping round and jumed nicely. She ran round the first jump in the first agility, I must have set her up wrong, she was clear after that (but it still does not count as clear). I'm not quite sure what happened in the second agility, maybe we missed the DW contact. I have a memory of missing one at some point, so that must be it.

Spike got 5F in the jumping, he knocked a pole. He did it in a very quick time and we might have got a good placing apart from that. The first clear in NAWS still evades us. The second jumping was amusing, jumped a couple then ran the full length of the course and went in the tunnel; he does love them! then a few other little errors. I gave up on that round.

He did OK in the agility. I know a couple of the things we got wrong, and will work on them. The good stuff was, Good waits, good contacts, good directional stuff and call offs, good focus and attitude. We got a special rosette (I think this is for good potential or best improver or such-like, it was like being back at school). He is, of course, special; I have always thought that might not be obvious to anyone other than his owner(and MIF of course).

Oh yes, and the courses were really nice in the B grade, and the show was run efficiently and cheerfully.

Willow seems to have damaged the bottom of her biggest pad. She is doubtful for the next competition sadly. Still Spike will have a go. I am going to learn how to scribe, basically writing down the judge's descisions.

Willow got a minor toe problems (looks like she injured one on something). So no training for her. So I took Spike. His behaviour was much better than it used to be and, of course, he did his agility very well. He is really shaping up. The contacts were really nice, he stopped nicely even with me running on a little. The only one that is not great yet is the seesaw, but he seems to be finding a method that suits him. We seem to be settling on 2o2o. I was told I am racing him a bit over the jumps, so I need to look at that, because I can't win!

Snow stops play

Training has been off for the last couple of weeks. Outdoors fields are covered in snow, and indoor venues are not safe due to ice and snow in the yard. I was lucky enough to be able to attend a session with someone north of Leeds. So although I could not train 3 miles up the road, I was OK 40 miles away! I took Spike and was one of 6 BC/WSD teams training for 3 hours. Did some relatively complex stuff for Spike and me, it went well. Some things to work on, but we did OK.

We had a nice time training. Spike was very well behaved, he had a play wih some other dogs and watched agility without finding it over exciting. He was focused during the training.

We did some weaves, he misses the entry sometimes especially when we arrive from an unusual angle, or at speed. I have to shape him into the entry, but that is not too bad because he really seems to respond to being steered. I time I want to be able to stand like a lemon and give a weave command, and for him to do them independently. He still does them fast!

We also did some work with a tunnel and he was a little slow to respond to commands when he popped out of the straight tunnel, he just went straight over the jump in front of him rather than going left and "down the line". Then he made something else up across some other jumps. We worked on earlier commands, talking to him to keep contact, and repeating commands. I found that if I run further in towards him and gave the left command he responded better (it may have just been the surprise of me not being where I was on the last run). I also made sure he did not enjoy his made up extra bit too much; I've seen enough of people with dogs that do that and find it hard to get control back.

We were in a competition recently and Spike did a couple of things that needed work:
1/ running round the outside of jumps. We will get better at this, but today there was an oportunity to train him a bit on this. He was also layering a set of 12 weaves today, which is good.
2/ Seesaw. He nadn't really seen one in training much. I told him steady on the first round and he was cautious, so I didn't bother on the second. He launched off the end of at speed, and we lucky not to get injured.
3/ Running off the end of contacts. Even though he stopped at the end he did it four off standing rather than 2o2o. He was better in training today. Partly it is judging the speed, and partly over excitement. I generally train on a "toy" a frame, so when we hit full size equipment in a spacious ring he can go much faster. Anyway he was solid in training, so I need to eforce it a bit in the competition ring.
4/ He was distracted by the sodium lights. Not much I can do about this except train where there are similar lights.