A bad day......

Irritated,annoyed,sad,disappointed,angry....just a few of the emotions I felt at the last open show.
I wont be going into details regarding my results, courses were crappy and it was a very unpleasant day.

We had a learner judge ( which I understand can make mistakes) and her courses were terrible. They were courses where it made her smile knowing that almost everyone in agility 3 dq'd. Now I am all for nice,flowing and challenging courses but having a weave entry 180 degrees from coming off the see saw is just not according to the guidelines we follow. Wasn't there an over seeing judge you may ask, OH YES there was but she never made it onto the field once to look at what was put out. Now in my opinion how can you crit or "judge" a judge by sitting in your car and watching round after round. Anyway last time I run any rounds under this judge.

Another thing, toys and leads. OMW this is all becoming a joke. I understand there will be new rules coming in affect in April, hellooooo its only FEB. But apparently we need to get used to the idea so this judge has decided to enforce this rule now and then sommer for agility too!! We had a bucket a few meters behind the startline to put toys, leads and whatever else we had with us. OK fair enough. However we were not allowed to take our dog to the actual start position on lead and if we did and chucked the lead behind us, a time keeper was told to fetch it. This meant the time keeper "creeping" up behind the dog on the start to move the lead 1 meter away. What disadvantage is there if my lead is lying behind me over the rope....who knows!! So, handlers get to the last jump and their lead, toys etc are now in a bucket behind the start jump. This means handler needs to manouver their dog around the scribe table to get your belongings while another person is trying to get their belongings in the bucket before heading to the start line. I am all for having a bucket....but PLEASE make our stuff available to us after the last obstacle. This brings me to another gripe. A grade 2 dog had just run a lovely DJ round, collected their belongings and made their way to the side of the field. The dog had the ball in its mouth and in the process of going to the gazebo literally put 2 paws into the ring on the far corner. At this time the judge was eyeballing them to see how she could nail them. BAM....you are eliminated she shouted. After some discussion this decision was not reversed. The corner of the ring was cluttered with jumps, cross bars and the trailer....the only way to get off the field was to "cut the corner". EISH shame this judge must have serious issues.

Then my poor dogs…. They are quite sensitive to bad things happening. If mom is sad, upset or cranky they know, they feel and they don't enjoy it. I had just jumped one of my dogs and of course our lead wasn't nearby. I tried to walk him back to the gazebo but he kept wanting to take the quickest route back which was going across the ring. The more I called him, as I knew the judge was eyeballing us, the more he went onto the field. I then tried to carry him, eish too heavy. Next option was to try walk him by the scruff of his neck, he isn't used to this and lay down thinking I was mad with him. I would never ever manhandle or be nasty to my dogs and seems that I had to be a bit firm just to avoid us being "punished". My friends eventually tossed me a lead and we headed back to camp.

I was hoping for an enjoyable day out with my dogs but sad how one person can spoil this.

I know that not many people will be supporting this judge again, I for sure will never enter under this judge again, hope the clubs hear our pleas....otherwise unfortunately they definately wont have a good turn out.

Open shows.....and things that grate me

So Saturday morning we headed off to the first show of the year. We had AG,NC and DJ on both Saturday and Sunday. The weather was superb and I was in a good mood.....hehe dont get that often, so I was looking forward to a day of running my dogs and seeing where we are in our training.

We started with agility and it didn't go too well. The courses were quite nice but lets just say I eliminated with all 3 of my dogs and we will leave it at that. Brandi's contacts were great, but I didn't get into the correct position after the dogwalk and we eliminated going into the wrong side of the tunnel.

We had some lovely NC rounds. Brandi ran a lovely clear round winning grade 3 and Roxy in her first time in grade 2 had a cracker of a round and then knocked the last bar....eish!!

Then we started DJ. Now the entire morning during NC and AG I did the same thing with all my dogs. We tugged or played with the ball to the start line, take the toy, toss it behind me and walk into the ring to start. This was fine until our DJ rounds. I took Brandi to the start, took her frisbee and tossed it behind me, put her at the start and waited for the judge to start me. Something was mumbled to me which at first I couldn't hear and didnt know what the problem was. I then realised she was saying "please put your toy out of sight" . Now my toy was BEHIND me and my dog and neither of us was even focussing on the toy that was lying 3m away from the rope. We were clearly not going to start until my toy was moved, my training buds moved it an inch and the judge was then happy to start.

Now I am not sure what the problem was as we had the same judge all morning. I ask myself what is wrong with taking my dog to the start line happy and eager to go out there and work to our hearts content. Oh yes its the word HAPPY, some people just dont seem to get it. I have watched many rounds taking place overseas and having a tug or toy with you, to the start and sometimes even in your pockets is the norm. Are we not wanting to follow these great agility handlers? Because if we do we are clearly not doing it right. I don't see them yanking their dogs on the lead to the start, screaming at them to get into position and then shouting all the way around the course.SO on the topic of rewards. Another handler on the day decided she would place her toy 10 meters ( that is what was requested ) away from the ring in a direct line from the last jump. The dog took the last jump with the handler encouraging the dog to GO GO . The dog took the last jump and screamed straight ahead to fetch the toy.....BAITING??? I am not a judge but in my opinion that is baiting. But according to the judge on the day...THAT WAS OK!

Sunday was a different day and the judge on the day actually had a brainwave or should it be the norm? During our briefing we were told we could tug or play ball to the start, place our rewards in the bin provided and assume our position to start. After our round we could charge off to the bin, grab our toys and reward our dogs off the course. WOW.....that worked like a dream and not 1 dog was distracted or had an unfair "advantage" by having their toy in the bin.

All in all I was happy with most of my rounds from the weekend and have an idea of what we still need to work on.

And in 2 weeks time we do it all over again.....with the same judges!!

A new Champion

Last weekend we headed off to the annual Grahamstown shows. Rush was entered in breed and to avoid too much running around between rings, I got a handler for Rush and entered him in 2 Dog Jumping rounds. Brandi was entered in all Agility and Dog Jumping rounds of the weekend. My goals were just to have fun and enjoy the rounds with my dogs. Saturday first round of the day was Dog Jumping. Hmm so that threw my plan out of the window, as breed was on at the same time. The dog jumping course was quite nice, definately a running course. Brandi had a lovely clear round but then eliminated in the jump off. In the breed, Rush managed a RCC and I ran off to grab him for his DJ round. Again it was a nice but challenging course. Rush went clear and had a clear round in the jump off and was placed second, missing a qualification by 1 second. I was extremely happy with both his and Brandis rounds.

 Next was agility and we started with non contact. I must say the entire weekends courses were quite nice and I really enjoyed running them. In this course there was a pull through ( our weakness ) and I knew we could do this course, as long as we get the pull through right. Well we did....and we won that round earning Brandi her 2nd QC....so we were 1 away from that Champion title. The contact round didnt go as planned, but I have lots of training to do with contact rounds and I think the main thing I am working on is confidence...both with Brandi and myself. So day 1 done and we headed off to our accommodation to relax and have a brandY.

Sunday morning started off earlier and Dog Jumping was our first round, table B. Now whether table A or B I run to the best of my ability. I want nice awsum rounds, so will never run carefully just to get into a jump off, although not sure my dogs know how to run carefully. Brandi managed to win our DJ round which gave us our 1st DJ QC. I was extremely chuffed. This weekend was proving to be a good one. Rush won the DJ round giving him another DJ qualification.

But what happend next was the cherry on the cake. Ok maybe the cherry,the icing and a sparkler. Brandi won her non contact round to give us our last needed QC....so Brandi was a CHAMPION. I couldnt have been prouder and Grahamstown will definately remain a special place for me. All in all a superb weekend....and we went home with huge smiles on our faces. Brandi and Rush worked extremely well and I couldnt have been prouder that weekend.

A Bounce update

Bounce is now 14 weeks old, missing a few baby teeth, weighs 5.6kg and measures at 33cm. Apart from this she is a bundle of energy, loves her new brother and sisters and lives up to her name. OH and her voice is absolutely piercing. BUT with all this said she is an absolute joy and she works like a little demon. Just what I want!! We are doing lots of baby / puppy stuff. Go arounds, wing wraps and the tunnel. She absolutely loves the tunnel :)

Here are some videos of our training

Some Go-arounds

 

Learning the "wait"

The target



Jumps and tunnel



11 weeks

Today Bounce is 11 weeks old. We are thoroughly enjoying our puppy training. She is such a pleasure to work and has amazing toy and food drive.

Here are some recent photos of her taken at our training grounds

Thank you Nadine Shortland for the lovely photos

Introducing........

For a while now I have been considering a small or medium sized dog, and I've been torn between breeds...Which breed suits me? After all, we have years of working and living with the dog, and I needed something that would suit my lifestyle, personality and also have the go to work.

The Miniature American Shepherd really caught my eye. The few that I have seen working around the country have awsum drive and you can see they love to work. I spoke to a breeder regarding adding me to the list, for a puppy in the future. I was so suprised when I heard that there was 2 litters in the pipeline in the next couple of months and that I would be added to the lists. I had already decided I would not be choosing sex or colour, but preferably wanted one that really showed some spunk and nice working drive.

In the first week of May, 8 pups ( 4 from each litter ) were born. There was a little girl with lots of white on her face and I really didnt take to her. A friend asked me, if this is the puppy for you would you take her. My answer was, I really dont like her. Well as time went on the pups grew, markings changed and their personalities developed. It turned out this little girl was a little terror. She was busy, busy, busy , just what I wanted

After hearing about personalities and what they were getting up too, I started falling in love with her. I had left the decision up to the breeder as to which puppy would suit me, but deep down I was hoping she was the one.

To cut a long story short, she WAS the one.

Bounce arrived in Port Elizabeth on 7th June 2013. She has settled in nicely and is a really special little girl

Keep checking back to see her progress and follow her journey through life and training

Thank you Nadine Shortland for capturing these special moments

SADAA Weetern Province trials

So last weekend, car packed, dogs in and we headed off to Cape Town for the Sadaa regional trials. I was looking forward to the weekend and especially as it was Rush's first agility show.

Friday we had 2 rounds of snooker and gamblers. Brandi ran well and we missed qualifications in all 4 rounds by the skin of our teeth. The first gamblers we accumulated enough points and she did the gamble perfectly, except I stood on the rope....1st qualification gone! Then our first snooker of the weekend went well, she gathered maximum points in the opening sequence and then knocked a bar in the closing sequence, we missed a qualification by 2 points. Disappointed but happy with how she was working. Our next gamblers we again accumulated enough points but we were stuck on the dogwalk when the whistle went and didnt complete the gamble in time. And then our last snooker round, also accumulated enough points but we attempted the A frame twice as Brandi was adamant she wanted to go into the tunnel instead. So we ran out of time and again missed a qualification by 2 points...I was happy with how she was working and couldnt wait to start with the trials.

Saturday we ran 2 agility and 2 jumping trials. Brandi ran well, 2 rounds we had some faults with me not giving good enough queues. We got 1 jumping and 1 agility qualification. Very happy with how she was working

Then it was my boy's first round. Nervous as expected but I knew that no matter what we were gonna have fun. His first round started off well, knocked some bars and then ran right passed the weaves, I know I didnt give him the correct line. Shame poor boy has to cope with me doing odd things. Rest of the day went well. I was happy with his contacts, bit slow but I know the speed will come with confidence. No clear rounds but very happy with his first shows

Sunday we had 1 agility and 1 jumping round. Brandi went clear in both moving her up into contact 2 and needing 1 more jumping qualification to move up. Again very happy with how she was working, I can see her confidence is much better. Rush had 2 lovely rounds, again some knocked bars but overall very chuffed with my big baby boy.

I really enjoyed the weekend, dogs worked well and inbetween rounds they had some fun playing frisbee.

We also had a small reunion with 7 Mackland dogs been at the grounds :) Nice for them to all see each other again.

Next up is Graaff Reinet regional trials in 3 weeks time, looking forward to some nice rounds with Brandi and Rush

Here is Rush's videos of the weekend