instructing

At our club we don't exactly do instructing any more. We all understand the safety issues and get on very well so we just set courses and all make suggestions for each other. It works pretty well, although I suppose we might want experts in from outside from time to time.

I had the job of setting some courses last lesson, so in the age old tradition I nicked some ideas from the internet and the last competition I had been on.

The top diagram shows some exercises. The top part is nicked from NAWS on Sunday, and people got on well with it, finding it flowed nicely. I had particular problems with the weaves, but the dogs were just out of practice.

The bottom bit confused people a bit. It was supposed to teach positioning, and it did. It's just that there was a huge variety of ways people found to run it which worked in varying degrees.

The bottom diagram was a quick alteration to create a course. The a-frame part of it is much simplified, but they get onto it at speed from slightly off centre. Still the people that ran it found it OK.

Last NAWS

We managed a record breaking 8 Es in NAWS! Spectacular! Some understandable stuff, and some laziness on my part. However, I think we are set up for a good year, with Ben stopping on his contacts and really trying hard. Still goes into a spinning flap from time to time, but I just down him for a second to calm down and things pick up after that. Spike blew a contact or two, and nailed the rest with me running.

They both popped out at 10 weaves continually. I think we have failed to practice it and need a bit of repetition, we are normally fine on weaves. Judge suggested maybe I turned in and put them off, but last run I was perfect on shoulder direction and Spike still popped out. We just need a session or two with lots of weaves. I have been meaning to proof their weaves with me running diagonals and behind and in front, as well as teaching them 2x2 entries, but have not got round to it. There's a lot of work there and I don't want to flatten them too much.

Instructor training

Last weekend I went to an instructor training course. It was very well run and I learned loads from it. I would love to run an agility basics course because I have benefited from other people running them and I believe that Spike's good performance is due in the main to covering the foundation thoroughly before trying to run segments of courses. The course covered from basic foundation up to some simple straight line jump exercises, contacts and weaves.

A couple of issues came up, these are things that occurred to me, not from the course as such:

1/ People expect a lot from their first agility classes. They come in expecting to show how their dog has some intrinsic ability to do agility, and to get it doing everything on the first lesson. The trainer wants to leave it 4 months before they even go over the contacts. There is a tension here, and I think if I were running a solid basics class I would have to find answers for people as to why this is.

2/ Any instructor is going to have to stick to their own comfort zone as far as methods go. For example, I train a stop and back chain it to complete the contacts. The course got us teaching something similar but with a touch to a target and continuous touching until the release command. Neither uses a touch command, and there is an emphasis on not doing the whole piece of equipment too early. Very similar you would think, but even that difference caused me some difficulties as I could not answer much concerning the targeting part of it.

Similar with the weaves, we were taught to use channels (which I don't like) and always to use 12 weaves (I would start with 3). However the methods were less technical and this presented less problems than the contacts method.

I really liked all the basics, circle work, rear end awareness etc and would love to teach this as a semi-trick class, come agility foundation.

I'm still mulling over what we learned, and I expect I will put other stuff up here later.

Great training

Ben seems to understand contacts (A-frame and dog walk anyway, the seesaw did not come out last training). He is sticking them and tolerates a certain amount of movement from me. Great! I'm still pulling him inside jumps sometimes (my fault). The new surface at training is good, and the poles are not being dropped so much by either dog. We had a very hard weave entry, which I have been working on, but have only just started.

4th Height

I cannot believe the arguments on the agility forum about this. Two immovable objects banging heads like stags at rutting season. It is annoying because it obscures the debate. And a "global moderator" involved too, taking sides. Not right surely. However since the forum is only lightly moderated I suppose it is tolerable.

What do I think? Well, Willow would have benefited because although she was always very fit something about repeatedly jumping large was making her unhappy. She could jump much bigger things if they got in the way of her walkies, and smaller heights repeatedly. So the question is does that mean that competitions should be changed to accommodate her or that I needed to get a different dog? Lots of collies her size could jump large just fine, but we have many other breeds in agility. Even if springers were accommodated, there would be other breeds that were not (very little dogs for example). Is the sport meant to be totally inclusive or a showcase for well suited breeds?

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs and technicalities, what about the decision making process? I've never been to a KC meeting, and turning up just to argue the corner of one issue seems a bit disingenuous. However I have been involved with some of the forum discussions. The KC process has come out against the 4th height proposals and with some rather strange reasons. Reading between the lines my impression is that people can't be bothered because it's better than it was and there must be some cut off point for fitness (for agility) in dogs. The voters almost certainly do not represent the wider agility population. The "nasty" forum is just not a nice place to discuss this as both sides have people who fail to remember that the forum is populated by people and not hypothetical devils advocates, and some people cannot stop themselves being hurtful. I am not getting involved this time, although I do feel I could contribute. The "nice" forum is much nicer about it but still there is no consensus. I would be genuinely interested in an investigation about what people think on this issue (all attempts on the forum have been invalidate by arguments about the methodology). So all you vet and animal related students an interesting dissertation for you.

So what can be done? Well I have to admit I am waiting for the independents to develop. I hear that they had a big fight to gain acceptance in the early days because people who entered them were banned from entering KC events. Karma demands that the KC should be forced into second place for this :) Personally I will probably keep on with the KC shows, they have the biggest entries and are therefore the most meaningful in terms of competition. However I would switch if this changed. I will probably do some of the larger independents this year just for the experience, and who knows I might switch. I don't currently have any small larges competing, if I did I would switch straight away.

NAWS January

A nicer day today, no snow but still quite cold. Driving a courtesy car as my van is having £500 worth of work done. Ford Focus, might get one when I have a job.

Ben was too excitable again, we need to proof everything against this and do more jumping.

Spike was OK. Probably mishandled, but made some errors of his own. We are just a bit rusty with lack of practice I think. We got a 3rd in Agility in the end. Was a nice course except for the entry onto the dog walk which was bordering on unsafe (tunnel, offset 90 degree bend onto up plank with a need to run it for handling at the end). Ben nearly skidded off the wrong side first time, second time I shaped him onto it. Spike refused it first time, probably realising he might hurt himself as I had not set him up well for it. Spike is 2nd in the league for C which is nice.

NAWS

Not a good start to the day as the van would not start. However, maggie has gone off to Canada leaving behind a perfectly servicable car. So cages into it and dogs loaded up, flask and the other stuff transferred we set off 1/2 hour late. Then her racing tyres could not get me up the centre car park. However from there it was a good day.

Ben still way too bouncy, but no silly contacts again, so we are getting there. I think I might still not be running past the jumps enough and he pulled off a couple. I think I run him right in training, but not in shows. Also the level I have put him in at is too hard for him, we would have done better on G1/G2 courses. Min you we would probably win out quite quick 'cos he is fast. His wait was rubbish, and then he skipped round the first jump, and under it on the second run.

Spike was good, we did a good round but somehow got the last pole down, then got 2 down in the 2nd run. Agility with Spike was faulty, and he pinged his contacts, so we need to do more proofing. He even got faulted on a contact, BAD! Spike got 5th place with 5 faults for the jumping and none of the other rounds got anywhere. He had the 2nd fastest time (to the 4th place which was also 5f).

We had fun though, and at least we got out on a not too promising day. With the snow and reduced attendance the show was finished quickly and we got back in time to do our local walk, which is always nice.

Wilmslow

We went to the Wilmslow show at Myerscough last weekend.

Spike got a 12th in jumping, and we got 5 eliminations to go with it.

Ben is really trying his hardest, but too eager and needs better, more careful handling from me really. E.g, jumps one and two straight up the A-frame. I could have stopped him and got him over jump 3 instead just by calling his name. Of course with Spike I would have had a longer lead out and it would not have happened.

Ben is grade 3 and Spike grade 4. They only shared one class, and that got split due to numbers. So I have 6 different courses between the two of them. Spike blew his weaves twice which was unexpected, but in each case the weaves were set very close to the netting. I really thought he got them on the second failure and would have been a good run, but talking to someone who was watching it sounds like he came out of the wrong side (RHS), so must have gone wrong somewhere.

Ben did not do any silly flying contacts, and got them all, albeit some he ran just off the end of. He also had weavie trouble, but then he has not seen 12 weaves much in competition (or at all in fact). The others were only 6 and he ran down the side of them, schoolboy error due to the excitement I think.

The unsnuggleable, snuggling(ish)

Willow has become amazingly tolerant of Ben. Amazing for anyone who saw what she was like with Adam. She is pretty tolerant of Spike too, which is also great, but I think seeing Ben grow up has made her kinder towards him.

Ben's getting there

Ben is getting quite good.

Contacts are pretty solid now with very little running off the end (barely none). See saw is ok, but less good that the other two, will have to watch he does not fly this as its the most dangerous contact.

Weavies are good. Can do 12 now. Not the fastest, but that will come I think. I sent him into 6 and ran off perpendicular to the first pole, and he carried on so with a bit more proofing I think he will have independent weaves.

Jumping directions. A bit squiffy at times, not being picked up properly etc. front crossing OK, and working ahead and rear crossing on courses (but not in my training drills!). Pull through/ flick flack not quite great, but improving. He jumps the jumps ok now in most configurations, but goes under the odd one. If he goes wrong he bounces over a couple of random ones trying to make up for it. getting the hang of verbal directionals. has a very tight turn. the odd back jump though.

calm

I'm going to be calm at the next training. Any problems are my fault and not the dogs, either in lack of training, or bad handling. Ommmmmm!

frustration

I had a not so good show last weekend. Spike appeared to be trying quite hard, but failed to go clear in all but one round. Strange things happened like knocking one pole (we had a period of fivefaultalitis earlier, but thought it had cleared up), or not sending out (Spike not sending out!!!). but thinking about it maybe it was me. Further confirmation arrived last night at training, I am getting him too hyper and he is not thinking. Ben provided even more proof by behaving like a hooligan, not waiting, bounding over things that just happened to be there and charging up the dog walk only to run straight off the end. I think I need to go back to basics again, in fact I wonder if the best training for a handler and dogs at my level is all basics.

post holiday

We went to Canada over the last 2 weeks, very nice too. Met a nice collie called Pippin (rough collie).

The dogs were in kennels over that time, which I hate doing. However, they seem fine; certainly healthy, but maybe a bit clingy.

Spike has developed eye problems again, not to do with kennelling. Going off to the v e t later. May be an overreaction, but last time I didn't take him and it got worse quite quickly (overnight). He has to wear his collar until we go. So no agility tonight, might be able to take Benny though.

Spike now g4

Spike won an agility class at the weekend, putting him up to grade 4 in 25 days time.

They called to the end of the class when I though they had quite a while to go (their board said they were calling to 220 and I was 204, but with 240 in the class I thought they would change the board). They must have announced the calling to the end, but I didn't hear it.

Anyway rushed about and got him to the line having done his ablutions. The ring party did not seem quite sure if the class was closed, but there was a dog on the line when I got there, so I don't think it can have been. Anyway they let me run and we had a great round. Maybe because I didn't over analyse, or because we did not have to queue, no idea.

They told me straight away I had won, knocking one of the ring party down to third (oops).

We also got 8th in a 3-5 combined and a 14th in jumping. I got lost in a few classes, need to be more careful walking them I think. It was the relatively straightforward ones I got lost in which points towards overconfidence I reckon.

Ben's progress

I have been steadily training Ben.

Contacts

I have been training a 2o2o on my little trainer. Seems good except he either over runs and does a lovely 4o, he does not get rewarded for it, but he still keeps doing it. I'll just keep b*****ing on with that. the alternative is he creeps into the stop position, thus is very slow. I doubt this is the version I will see in shows, so not worried at the moment.

We saw our first seesaw last night, and it did not bother him, though his stops are not very good on it.

Weaves

good. trained by just keeping on trying and going in a big happy circle back to the start if it goes wrong. There are enough successes to keep it happy. thrown ball is the reward, and for Ben there is nothing better. We started with three poles and jump wings (and a hedge to start with) blocking the exits. He looks at me for confirmation a bit, but not too much. This faded with Spike, and hoping for same with Ben.

jumpies

Now able to cross a bit, front cross looks OK. still runs out/in and misses from time to time, but it's early days. He seems to understand the tyre jump now, though still goes under sometimes (50%). Have not got much space in the garden for this, but if I am careful about setup I can teach the basics of stuff, and a box or star is possible.

Wait

Getting much better. Quite hard for him as he is very keen. I can wait him three jumps back and hold up my hand most of the time. He only comes forward on his name. Hoping for a wait similar to Spike's which is very good.

Speed

Someone said last night that he looks faster than Spike, which is exciting and worrying in equal measure. He will turn much tighter for jump wraps I think, so I had better get the distance work sorted for him, or start sprint training (maybe both).

Ben excited

Ben gets very excited at agility with others. We had a different instructor last time, and she got us all to do a bit of obedience for control. Seemed quite good timing for Ben, as he is a bit scatty due to over-excitedness. I'm sure he will settle, but this will help transfer the KC GC calmness (relatively) over to the agility arena. He jumps what I direct him over now, though only one jump at a time. I hope he will work well at a distance, like Spike does.

Spike was running nicely, but knocking poles. I stopped when he knocked them, and his success rate has improved. I noticed he knocked one that was at small height, so it not physical, just a misunderstanding about the relative importance of speed and accuracy. He worked away nicely, doing a reasonably complex course of 10 jumps without me moving. He pinged a couple of contacts (running off them, not missing them). So I went back to basics for some good stops, which he did without complaint.

Springers

A fun show in a nice location. Interesting route there due to GPS being on scenic setting!

Willow got 1st in biddy agility and 2nd in buddy jumping. We got a nice glass photo frame for the 1st, so I got a nice photo from the photo people of her starting the jumping course.

Spike got a 3rd on an agility course I had not walked. I got in his way once which probably cost the win. Second run I didn't get in the way and found a faster handling route, but it didn't count 'cos he knocked the first pole. Probably due to me setting him up wrong, but maybe we will do some practice so that he is more tolerant to my rubbish handlerness. I also want to try giving him directions while he is jumping to get him used to it, since I am rubbish at eliminating my own bad habits.

training ben

I'e been training Ben a little each day this week. I thought it was time Sparky stopped making him look silly.

He has been doing well. He is obviously very keen, but has learnt nothing happen if he just launches off on his own, the foundation of a good wait if you ask me.

He will happily do two jump, tunnel, two jumps. OK so sometimes he goes in the wrong end, and sometimes he goes round the jumps, but much less as the week progressed.

He goes on the a-frame for his own entertainment, and stops cos he seems to get rewarded for that, he just doesn't stop at the right place. He will though, cos he's trying to work it out.

He goes through the first two weavies if you keep trying and have a big pile of jump wings and a hedge to stop him running round. He is getting the idea that the ball only appears if he goes through. Lots of time needs spending on this, but he looks up for it.

All in all the chap is doing well.

Rob.

Ben progressing

I've already forgotten about getting Ben to jump a single jump and we are doing bits of courses. I'm finding it hard to judge what he can and can't do, so we are progressing slowly with lots of me not realising that he will run round the back of me barking or whatever, and him having a whale of a time, but not really knowing what he should be doing. One or two really nice bits when he does it right, and gets lots of praise for it, and a few laughs as something fails to sink in and he tries various different things. We're behind Sparky, but that's not a problem to me.

Willow had a nice little plod round and will be in good shape for running vets at Springers and NAWS.

Spike's weavy problem seemed to have gone away yesterday, with him driving through them from both sides and making lots of nice weaves entries. long may it continue. He was also really nice when waiting his go and reasonably tolerant of all sort of shenanigans from others.

Spike gets a rest from obedience for a little bit now, as he got his silver GC last week. Ben is next to move up I think, also for his Silver test. Perhaps sometime in the early summer. And maybe Willow to try for Gold.

Looking forward to the clocks changing and evening walks and training.

training all three

I've been successfully training all three in weekend agility, and midweek obedience. I keep swapping about and leaving the non working dogs in various places (either in my vehicle or in a cage). Ben is taking to being in his cage quite well though he still makes a fuss if I am working Spike at agility.

Ben is starting to get quite interested in agility, and I can already see he will be very fast. He will also be highly manoeuvrable, he seems to be able to accelerate from nothing and come to a stop quicker almost than I can see. He can also "turn on a sixpence". Right now he does not wait very well, but if I can get Spike to have a good wait then I guess I will manage with Benny too.

Spike got his silver KC award earlier this week, which is great. It took 6 weeks to even get him into the room when I first took him. He even played with one of the collieish dogs there and was quite nice in the breaks where lots of dogs are gambolling randomly. Spike continues to be an agility star.

Willow is not taking retirement lying down. she had a couple of runs round at agility training and was running very nicely. I might investigate rally-o for her at some point, she could be quite good at it and she loves obedience.