Both myself and Ann had toyed with the idea of running contacts in the past.  But they need a lot of repetition, plenty of spare time and bucket loads of patience.  Where we had trained previously didn't allow us the time and access to the dog walk that we needed, but now being based in our current location and having better access to equipment it seemed like as good a time as any to take the plunge.  We had already taken several of Silvia Trkman's online courses (which are brilliant) and so when a new running contacts class was starting we decided to embark on the running contacts journey with several of our dogs with Silvia's guidance and support.

Ann enrolled Connie and Dougie on the course and I signed up Fergus and Orson.  It seemed to make sense for these four dogs to be our first running contacts dogs, for both Dougie and Fergus they were just at the start of their agility careers so were blank canvases.  And although Orson and Connie were both already competing, contacts weren't their strong point - for Connie stopping on the end of the contacts gave her a chance to worry about things and for Orson it gave him a chance to lose focus (it doesn't take much!).  We were hoping that for Connie and Orson running contacts would keep the flow of the course better so they'd be less chance of them shutting down or for their minds to wander :-D

The first part of the course is probably the hardest (although it sounds so easy), it's about teaching your dog to really run.  You need to carefully study their strides so you can see what their stride looks like when running flat out.  The dogs start off running on a length of carpet to a thrown ball.  You would not believe how difficult it is to throw a ball in a straight line and low, while running yourself and trying to watch your dogs stride!!!  I'm sure our dogs would have progressed slightly quickly at this stage if we could have perfected our throwing skills.  Once your dog is running well, you then mark off on the carpet what would be the contact area and start rewarding for when the dog hits the contact area.  Your perfect hit would be a front foot (or 2) followed by two rear feet - but for most dogs this will not be possible so 2 rear feet with good separation between the back feet is what you will be aiming for and clearly in the contact area.  You set the dog up to succeed by altering their starting point, when a dog is running well their stride will be pretty consistent so it's just a case of doing slight adjustments to the dogs starting point so their feet fall within the contact area.  It all sounds so simple in theory!!!  

From running on carpet you then move to two dog walk planks, gradually raising the height; and then you add the third dog walk plank so you have the full dog walk only really low.  With each change of set up or increase in height you'll need to again do a bit of experimenting to find a good starting spot for each dog.  And then you need to start adding in obstacles (a jump or tunnel) after the dog walk; teaching the dog how to turn off the dog walk; fade the toy that they are running after; start adding the dog walk into sequences once you are nearly at full height and of course teach the dog a running A frame!!!!!!!!   As you can see it's not a short process and it really is a roller coaster as you'll go from one session where you are absolutely exhilarated at running full pelt alongside your dog on the dog walk and them getting beautiful rear feet hits in the contact area to the next session the dog missing or leaping the contact.  And it really does make you appreciate how individual each dog is as they have all encountered problems on the way.  As Connie is very sensitive often when there has been a raise in height or something else has changed in the set up it has knocked her confidence and she has gone from running flat out to running collected and cautious which then means she is missing the contact causing a drop in Connie's success rate.  You are ideally looking for the dog to be getting between 80 - 90% good hits in a session before you either increase height or add another difficulty. Fergus was doing really well until we went from raising the height of the dog walk from 75cm to 80cm, he went from having 100% success rate to 0% and no matter what we tried the success rate really wasn't drastically improving so we had to go back down to 75cm for a few sessions to build Fergus' confidence back up.  I am pleased to report that we have now managed to work through the tricky 80cm height now :-D  It's been invaluable having Silvia's advice along the way especially when we've hit problems.

All the dogs are far from having their running contacts ring ready yet, but hopefully next season we'll be ready to try them in the ring and I'm so excited about it.  Here are where Orson,Fergus, Connie and Dougie are up to with their training.

https://vimeo.com/222801358
https://vimeo.com/222499158
https://youtu.be/6wWkd6DCePI
​https://youtu.be/N37zM8basxE        

Oh and as a bonus Sneak has been following all the training too, and this is where she is currently up to.

https://vimeo.com/222803031

Well, where to begin?!

It seemed only yesterday that our club was beginning our winter training and already it is spring and we are back competing again.  We were also going to spend the winter updating our website and taking photos of our dogs but we seemed to have blinked and the winter has gone.

We were very organised with our training - we didn't go to many shows over the winter which meant handlers could concentrate on learning new techniques and mastering old techniques properly.

Right from the first day when somebody new joins us, Julie and I are very exact with how we want them to handle and initially it must seem so slow to them as we don't even use jumps - just jump wings without poles, and tunnels and getting the dogs happy and running and chasing, and the handler learning which arm to point with and when to run. The more handlers and dogs we've trained, the more we know this is the quickest way to move forward. 

And for those that have been with us for a while we pushed on even harder and 'round the backs of jumps', 'blind turns' and European turns have become the norm.  I can actually see their smiling faces and hear them saying 'I can't believe I did that!!' week after week.   

And because we teach them every handling technique we can think of from day one, these moves become natural to them and their dogs, when even only a couple of years ago these moves where hard for us!!  

It all seemed to fall in place the other week when I set a small course up and told the class to walk the course by themselves - up to this point I'd always walked it with them discussing what to do.  This group only started last summer and I was listening to them as they walked the course (trying to keep my mouth shut!) and I could hear them say - oh this is one of those European turns here (a Ketschker turn), and they were right and they handled it perfectly.   I just couldn't stop smiling knowing that this group of people and their dogs, were now becoming agility handlers and agility dogs.

And because we love watching our students handle so well we realise we sometimes forget the 'boring bits' so we've made a big effort this winter to concentrate on weaves and contacts.  They aren't really boring, I actually love weaves - its just that they are so time consuming and exacting to teach.  Week after week, Julie and I seem to have spent longer hammering those pegs in for the weaves then actually teaching them, moving the weave poles closer inch by inch, but we know its paid off as bit by bit, more dogs are beginning to weave properly, which will enable them to compete in proper Kennel Club classes rather then just fun classes.

Which takes me onto the first shows of the year at Easter and the amount of 1st places our small club has had has been unbelievable.  Several handlers have had 2, 3 and 4  1st places and I think one students had 5!!! And this was with a dog that had totally shut down before she came to us a year ago, and to hear this handler say - oh she won all her classes - was amazing!  

And as these handlers have gradually become friends, we know they are just like Julie and I - that its not about winning at all - that's just the icing on the cake - its about all the fun that goes into every day living with your dogs and making that relationship even more special by training, getting themselves and their dogs fitter and being inventive in finding places and equipment to train their dogs on when they aren't at the club and just having fun.  Many a living room and back garden is now an agility obstacle course!!

And the excitement is getting contagious - handlers' families are now getting involved as they realise what a lovely atmosphere the agility shows are, especially the beautiful countryside the shows are often set in, and caravans have being bought as whole families come along!  In fact a few people have said to us we have changed their lives, which is such an honour.  And these handlers are also encouraging other club members to enter their first show and I just can't wait to see them competing.

But what of Julie and I?!  Well, our training has come on in leaps and bounds, mainly as we have been taking on-line classes by our long-time agility inspiration, Silvia Trkman.  This is the best training we have ever done - the feedback we get from Silvia is very detailed and individually tailored, and our understanding of what and why we are doing things has become so clear.  Our young dogs have come on much quicker, with seemingly so little training as in every next training session, it is a tiny bit harder, never repeating things we can already do.

Plus the on-line classes gives you access to all the other students and their videos  world-wide who are taking the same course, enabling us to learn even more.  

So, we've had a good winter in lots of ways, but I've also had a sad winter seeing the gradual deterioration and death of my beautiful collie Whisky, who it seemed such a short time ago was a puppy in his first ever puppy agility class along with Julie's dog Winnie (who is still beautifully fit and going strong and is as competitive as ever).   He started going lame a couple of years ago and even after numerous tests nothing was ever really diagnosed except some sort of neurological spinal degeneration and he went from a big framed very handsome lad, to a dog riddled with arthritis with no muscle left at all who could hardly walk.  He was only 8.

To me he was everything and I feel I'll never have another dog like him.  He had so much drive and talent, always happy and always wanting to work or just being with me, sat by my side.  He will always be remembered though as he is on our logo, along with Julie's Winnie, as it was our achievements with these two dogs  - winning up the grades and competing in grade 7 and Championship classes together - that started off our whole adventure of teaching and forming our club.  We used to have such fun walking the harder courses together, laughing as we planned our runs, knowing that Winnie would probably be foot perfect and Whisky probably wouldn't be (he was usually too busy squealing his way round the course and didn't always listen!) but it really didn't matter as we so enjoyed that too-brief time together which went in the blink of an eye, and I just wish I could do it all again.

So even though things will never quite be the same again, more memories are now being made and I feel very privileged to have met the people and the dogs  we teach and the lives we are involved in.  
​

Don't take the lack of blog updates as a sign of nothings been happening, in fact completely the opposite is true; we have just been so busy we just haven't had time to update the blog.

I promise updates to come very soon including the start of teaching running contacts, updates from classes, welcoming new members to The Agility Dog canine team and saying a very sad farewell to one of the reasons behind our club, Whisky xx

Well I have just finished reading the fourth book in Dog Sports Skills series by Denise Fenzi and Deborah Jones.  I cannot recommend them highly enough, they are very easy to read and although science-based are written from a point of view where the authors understand that you are training your pet dog in amongst busy everyday lives and that as humans we make mistakes.

The whole series of books although aimed at competing with your dog in dog sports doesn't actually cover any dog sports exercises, it totally focuses on relationships, play and building a strong attachment between dog and handler.

I know both Ann and myself have seen huge improvements in Grace and Nancy's focus and level of engagement by following the various exercises in the books, rewarding those moments when the dogs ask to work with us and accepting that they have the option to call time on a training session too.  It has also helped us to understand better each dogs personality and know what situations the dogs will struggle to train in.

In the closing paragraphs of the book it sums up so nicely what we keep saying to you all about keeping your dog happy and enjoying agility and the wins will take care of themselves.  The book explains when you have a good relationship with your dog and he/she feels "happy" working with you, the dog will work hard for you even when you might be doing a less than spectacular job as a handler ;-) and that the joy "lies in the process of training and the relationship which is developed as a result, not in the end goal". 
      

The Agility Dog celebrated it's 2nd birthday at the beginning of October and to mark the occasion we had a fun competition.  It's been an amazing 2 years, I don't think when we started the club we could've imagined what it would grow into and how many fantastic people and dogs we would end up teaching.  But more than that it has pushed both Ann and myself to a new level with our own dogs training and it's put a new enthusiasm into agility for us.  It was lovely that so many people bought friends and family along to watch, it created such a nice atmosphere.  Thank you to the helpers on the day, especially Alan, Simon, the entire Scott clan and Ann's parents, and of course thank you to all the people that contributed to the beautiful buffet afterwards.

Well done to everybody that won on the day, there were some brilliant runs and as always with agility some "oh so nearly" runs.

Best get our thinking caps on as to how we are going to celebrate our 3rd birthday.​      

Well, this blog has been a long time coming as I haven't had the energy to know where to begin.  Grace entered her first few shows at the beginning of summer and she went from bad to worse!!  She went from being a bit shell shocked and only able to do one or two jumps, to sort of being happyish and doing quite a few obstacles, to running amok, doing zoomies round the ring, and finally leaving the ring for the nearest food stall. 

So I spent the summer alternating between thinking her very short agility career was over, to really really going to try hard with her, to me storming off the field and never ever going to train her again as she disappeared yet again into blue yonder with the latest toy!

But then I would feel quite sad as I know when I clicker train tricks with her she will push the rest of my pack away (all collies) to work with me and will work for longer then them if food is around, and I really like her funny goofy ways.

At the same time Julie, my training partner, was reading a lot of Denise Fenzi books on dog training, playing and engagement, and we realised that Grace is not a willing participator in our agility training - I end up begging and pleading and following Grace around the field to bring the toy back and do a jump etc. rather then her leaping all over me, wanting to work.

So, following Denise Fenzi's idea of rewarding for doing absolutely nothing but focusing on the handler, I went onto the agility field and let Grace off the lead and watched her wander off and sniff the ground.  It was so hard not to call her name, shuffle, rattle the treats or run away. Julie had to keep glaring at me to make sure I didn't talk to her!  Eventually when Grace found nothing interesting, she bounced off to annoy Julie and her dog Nancy (who was also getting rewarded for doing absolutely nothing and was ignoring Grace, as Julie was more interesting) so Grace finally decided to saunter over to me, and I clicked and treated about 9 times and told her how good she was.  The 10th treat I threw away from me and just waited - Grace bounced over to eat it, and came running back to me which was an amazing feat in itself!  Then something really weird happened.  Grace spotted a tennis ball on the table next to us, she went to grab it, ran off to show Julie and Nancy, who were still ignoring her, then started to run away with it, stopped and looked at us all, realised nobody was chasing her and brought it to me.

That might not seem much to some people, but I nearly fainted on the floor as she has never ever brought me a toy before!

From that moment on I have felt so energized about Grace's training and it is fun again.  We aren't even really doing anything except walk onto the field, let her off her lead, click and treat for her focusing on me, ask for a bit of fun heelwork or tricks such as spinning, maybe standing next to a wing and seeing if she'll offer a wing wrap (which she is!), a few more fun bits of focusing, and that is it!  It doesn't feel exhausting and draining anymore.  And if she doesn't want to play/focus, that is fine, I just put her away and she can come out later.

Since then, we've done the same sort of thing at a show in the exercise area, and she's focused perfectly on me, so I took her round the rings and the difference since the last time I took her round the rings at an agility show is quite unbelievable.  Before I started the focus work she used to nearly drag me off my feet near the rings, wanting to run and do zoomies, and the thought of letting her off her lead was really scary! whereas this time, she was super focused on me and I even dropped the lead whilst we did some heelwork.

And bit by bit I'm finally doing tiny bits of agility, eg 2o2o on the end of a dog walk, or a wing wrap.   To reward her away from me, I'm using treats placed in dog bowls and racing her to them.  Already she will go through a tunnel backwards and forwards to the dog bowls, and last weekend, she actually did a sendaway through a tunnel and over 3 tiny jumps to a dog bowl.

I feel it will be a long time before or if we're ever ready to compete, but I'm now enjoying the journey with my funny goofy girl!

Not often I want to brag but why not!   Otley show saw the first outing of our club's very first t shirts and they looked amazing.  The colours are great, the logo is great - showing Julie's and I's best ever dogs, Winnie and Whisky (but don't tell our other dogs!) but most of all what I love the most is all the smiling faces of our club members when wearing them.  Really proud of how far our club and its members have come.  We also were ring partying and the agility equipment (supplied by Longfield Agility Solutions) had been painted to match as a surprise for us!

So after the success of Easter, we had a good turn out at Scunthorpe although the sun seemed to forget to make much of appearance!  As I come to write this blog post Scunthorpe seems like an age ago and I can't actually remember how everyone did (senior moment, sorry), I know I didn't exactly clean up.

A few weeks later we headed off to Lincoln, I was more than a little excited about this show as it was to be Orson's agility debut, the youngest of my Crested Critters.  I wasn't expected big things as although Orson never lacked enthusiasm or speed, steering at times could leave a little to be desired, he could still occasionally run under a jump and up until the point of running his first course at Lincoln, I don't think we'd actually run a full course (we'd run lots of sequences and a course is just several sequences put together after all, but we seemed to somehow not to have run a full course).  Still I knew that whatever Orson did on his debut, one thing that was guaranteed was that he would make me smile, as he is the world's most impossibly happy dog.
 
Ann did her best on Thursday evening to thwart anyone's chances of walking again, let alone running by serving us all the biggest slices of chocolate cake (thank you Cassie for the cake, but you need to supervise the cutting of it better - serves 24 does not mean cut into 8 doorsteps).  Friday dawned and I think most of us had managed to recover from chocolate overdose, Nikki had come to terms with the fact there was no electric hook up and I was still reveling in the luxury of having a water point in my garden.

Well done to Ann with Connie who won Grade 3 agility, making her Grade 4.

Orson's debut arrived, he flew round his agility course, just a refusal at a jump (where apparently he was going too fast to turn for it :-D) and he only wins.  Not to be outdone his big brother Hector picks up several wins taking him to grade 5.

But the weekend had to belong to Nikki and Zac who went from their first rosette, to their first win (with faults) to an agility win which was clear and grade 2 here they come. I'm not sure who was more pleased - myself, Ann, Kenny, all the other club members or Nikki (I wonder if she's stopped smiling yet?).

The club league points table is being updated all the time (thanks Cassie), with everybody's latest results.  Lizi and Ozzie have now won to grade 2, and Kerry and Luna made their competition debut and won.

And of course the club t-shirts have now arrived, everybody looked fantastic in them at Otley - we got lots of great feedback.

    

Easter is the start of the outdoor agility season, and as many of you headed off to shows myself and Ann took time to catch up on other things - friends; family and housework! However our Facebook page was alive with results coming in thick and fast, it was a great feeling to see how well you were all doing and to watch the videos and see all the happy handler and dog photos; you all did us proud.  Really well done to Jacob and Pip on your 2nd place - Jacob has worked so hard with Pip over the last couple of months and it's great to see all that hard work paying off.  Lizi and Oz managed several 1st places making their debut in grade 1; the start of a very successful agility career I think :-) Well done also to Ann-Marie and Jemma; Jackie and Izzy; Jason and Ruby; Annelies and Floyd; Alice and Jet; Elise and Darcy and Sharon and Millie who all had some amazing runs too.  ​It's great to be at the start of the season and being able to watch so many fantastic agility partnerships on the start of their journey, it doesn't seem that long ago that me and Ann stood in a field Beverley waiting for our first ever class to begin, with me musing that wouldn't it be great if one day someone we'd taught was out there competing......

    

Well, I thought Grace's third show was worthy of a blog!  She'd had one run at her second show which was an agility course and she was happy bumbling alongside of me carefully doing all three contacts and a variety of jumps and tunnels and finished the course nicely but with no real urgency.

So her third show came along and I walked her first class which was a huge agility course.  I looked at it and felt exhausted at the thought of attempting to run Grace and wondered if her agility career could end here - we'd had a go and maybe she was quite happy living her life just being Grace!

But, I wasn't ready to give up without a fight - and I was so pleased in the end.  It was a really spread out European style course which sort of traveled from one side of the ring to the other and back again, with tunnels strategically placed to help the dogs drive on, and Grace loved it.  She did nearly everything I asked of her, seamlessly bypassing the middle of the course and the weaves and she finished as happy and as bouncy as how she started which is all I'm aiming for, and she actually did about 13 obstacles.

Then it was time for her jumping classes.  Well - in the queue we bumped into the lovely Helen and Colin with their gorgeous greyhound cross Milo - Grace's partner in crime!  They had such a lovely time playing like only sighthounds can eg pretend they aren't on leads and run round  in circles at 100 mph, that we ended up causing chaos in seconds, she slipped her collar and I had to rugby tackle her to stop her doing zoomies around the rings!  So when it was her turn to compete she was still a tad giddy and ended up doing zoomies anyway (video to follow!).  I'd told the ring party that we couldn't do the weaves and I was taking my own line, so they kindly told the judge for me.  Of course, it was pointed out to me later that I'd forgot to mention that we couldn't do jumps or tunnels either!!   But to me the fact she was happy and enthusiastic is a huge step forward.  Naturally  I would have liked her to do one or two more jumps then she did........!!

I thought I was going to miss her last jumping class as it was at the end of the day and all my other dogs needed a walk, so the walk came first which included Grace disappearing into the woods at 100 mph - strangely followed by her partner in crime again, Milo!  So by the time I got to the ring I was about the last person left to run and I thought Grace would be exhausted.  It was a lovely course for her - straight up and down to tunnels and ........ she was brilliant (only those of you in the sighthound world will probably understand!)  She actually drove on ahead of me.  She only did about half a dozen jumps and 3 tunnels but to me it felt as great a high as though we'd won!  

Loads to work on but it seems those 30 seconds at a time of training are working.

Thank you Helen for filming - I'm still grinning!