Well it hardly seems like five minutes since I bought Hector home for the first time, he was that tiny that for a good couple of months he fitted in a cat carrier and yet here we were at his first ever competition, and yes I was more than a little excited.  Hec learnt a lot of his agility foundations in my living room; turns were practiced round cones; waits were practiced with the carefully engineered distractions of my other dogs (well that's what I like to think of them as); his contacts were trained and proofed on a contact trainer and after finding that I had enough room for six weaves in the living room he learnt to weave there too.  We supplemented that with whatever training we could squeeze in before classes started, but those 5-10 minutes each week at the agility field soon started to add up.  Along with agility training, Hector learnt lots of tricks, some obedience exercises and practiced how to run as fast as he possibly could on walks and obviously get himself fit.  So that was it we were ready for our first competition, Hec handled the noisy atmosphere without a care in the world; all his foundations were solid, he waited on the start line, listened to all his commands, his contacts were perfect 2 on 2 offs and he even managed to weave!  We didn't manage any clear rounds mainly because we are still a new partnership and I am learning where he might need an extra bit of help but to say I am pleased with his debut is an understatement, I can't wait for his next competition.

Running five dogs in competitions was exhausting, especially when one of them is Rufus who seems to require so much more energy than anybody else!  Nancy gets better with each competition, and thrives on the noisy atmosphere of indoor arenas, sadly this is the opposite to Connie who finds the whole atmosphere very stressful.  Connie did a lovely run in her first jumping course but found the enclosed environment difficult to focus in for her other runs.  Still we have a plan to help Connie cope inside so hopefully at Connie's next show she'll be back on form.  Although Connie and Nancy are both at a similar stage in their agility careers and have trained together since they started their agility foundations, they are both very different dogs who have different needs, so need to be trained and handled differently.  Please always remember that your dog is an individual and so what might be appropriate for somebody else's dog, may not be right for your dog.

I remember saying to Ann when we first started up the club, that wouldn't it be fantastic if one day we'd have handlers/dogs trained by us that were competing.  Well a few of you have already made your debuts in unaffiliated shows or anysize classes, and now we have several of you entering your first grade 1 show.  I guess I'd better start thinking up some new hopes/plans, as that one is firmly ticked off the list.  And we've got lots more agility debuts to look forward to over the next coming season.     

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One year on from our last visit to South Durham and what a lot has changed - both good and bad.  The previous year I had nervously stepped into the ring with Nancy for the first time; a year on with a bit more experience under her belt she collected a 2nd and 3rd place in grade 3.  Connie is now old enough to compete too and also managed to gain a 2nd place.  Both Nancy and Connie narrowly missed out on winning by hundredths of a second but we're more than happy with that as both the young girls still have so much more to learn and work on for now and they both need to build up their confidence so the nice flowing courses that they "should" get in grade 3 are perfect for them.

Sadly Winnie was missing her partner in crime Whisky since his retirement, although he did come and queue with her just for old times sake.  Winnie is my comfy pair of slippers when it comes to agility, we just seem to get each other and she makes me so proud.  We managed 2 out of 3 clears including a 4th place, and I'm sure we'd have managed 3 out of 3 clears if Winnie's handler hadn't had a brain fart at obstacle number 17 and directed her over the wrong jump!  Gertie was back on form after some time off with an injury and managed a 1st and 4th, it's great to have her back competing especially as she's nearly 9 years old now and I always worry that any injury might be an injury that she doesn't get over so I'm especially enjoying every mad, noisy run we have together.

Glen and Rufus are probably our most difficult dogs to run, not that they both aren't talented or good at agility, but they both seem to be the most unpredictable - each of them have been known to like throwing you a curve ball every so often, still at least they keep us on our toes and if we do manage to get them round a course clear it always feels well deserved if we end up gaining a placing with them.  Sadly neither of them managed any clear rounds but they did work fantastic and Rufus even managed a 7th place with 5 faults.

I managed to leave the fitness app on my phone switched on all day while at the show and reached a new high as far as my daily step count was concerned, 22338 steps 16.02 km walked, no wonder I feel shattered when I get home from a show.  So apologies to everyone in our classes on Sunday if we seemed a little weary.

We're really trying to make sure that you and your dog have a really solid set of foundation skills as far as agility is concerned, so excuse the fact that we keep nagging at all of you to get your commands right - that commands are clear and are said in a nice voice; to make sure your contacts are solid; that you don't use your dogs name all the way round the course but only when you need their attention and most importantly that you build that relationship with your dog - your agility partner, so when you step on that start line of a course your dog is working with you.  You won't go clear on every single course but if your dog is working with you and having fun, then at least you haven't got to worry about whether your dog will stay with you in the ring or will they go chasing the dog in the next ring; will they sniff the floor looking for rabbit poo or will they go and investigate that nice smelling catering van just on the edge of the field.   Your foundation skills are so important, there will always other skills and techniques to learn but if your foundations are solid they're what you will fall back on time and time again, the nuts and bolts of your agility.  Some of our previous agility dogs had gaps in their foundation skills and we are really trying to make sure that you all don't have to battle with those gaps in your foundation skills too.              

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On Friday we headed off for our first weekend show of the season. The weather on Friday was glorious I was merrily wondering if I'd packed enough vest tops and should I pack my shorts; I cheerfully flung my thermals back in my wardrobe and frantically searched the house for sun tan cream. Well the weather gods certainly had a good chuckle as we woke up Saturday morning to rain, high winds and generally freezing conditions.

As it's the start of the season we both felt a bit rusty but we both had some good runs and some not so good ones, pilot errors! All the dogs were looking really good from our older more experienced dogs who showed they still haven't lost any speed or enthusiasm to the younger ones who at times showed their inexperience but also showed how much potential they have with a bit more ring craft under their belts.  Ruth and Morse competed on Sunday in the Anysize classes and did really well, they're nearly ready to make their Grade 1 debut!

As expected when you take away three dogs that have never been camping before we had several garden breakouts. Although the prize for the best escape has to go to Grace, who not only escaped the garden fencing but then appeared to be struck by temporary ear failure and couldnt hear any recall commands as she merrily danced her way through the camping area. And then as Ann opened the gate to go and fetch Grace, Connie, Whisky and Glen made a bid for freedom too and headed off to the exercise area too :-D Sighthounds are the naughtiest creatures on this planet, as Rufus proved when he couldn't stay on the exercise area but had to find a small gap in the fence and take himself off for a few laps of the neighbouring field just because I wasn't paying 100% attention to his antics.

Good luck to Caroline and Rex who had heading off to Lincoln this weekend for their first taste of competing.

What a perfect start to the New Year for our agility club

Several of us went to Dog Vegas show at Bishop Burton on Saturday (3rd Jan) and the red rosettes came thick and fast! 

Firstly Pauline - she had two first places in Grade 4 with Harry.  Her handling was so good, with clear and positive instructions to Harry who thrived on it and in the jumping class that she won, her handling was near-perfect winning by about 5 seconds I think. Pauline looked and sounded much more confident and the couple of times Harry 'did his own thing' and ran past the weaves, Pauline felt able to bring him back and do the weaves again.

Then secondly Ruth, in only her second show with Morse, came 2nd in the anysize jumping.  Well done Morse.  Much more to come!  Tig, Ruth's older dog, also had a run in the anysize and enjoyed it so much he took in an extra jump.  Well done Tig!  Although I think Tig enjoyed the queueing and meeting his adoring public more than the agility.

Julie got another win with Rufus in Grade 4 agility (he won 2 weeks ago too) and 1st with Gertie in Grade 7 agility and possibly another win but I have lost count by now!  Plus 3rd with Nancy in the anysize (and that included a detour as she said hello to the judge!).

Then I won Grade 5 agility with Glen (first of 3 wins needed to take him to grade 6) and 4th with Whisky in Grade 7 agility.  I wasn't expecting or looking for any wins - I was just hoping that Glen and I handled well together, which we did and are feeling like a team now, and that Whisky wasn't too silly, which he wasn't at all.  I loved running them both.

The day was so good for us all, and it wasn't the winning that was important - that was just a fantastic bonus - it was the fact that our training for ourselves and others is working. For Julie and I, our competing dogs have had literally 5 minutes at the end of our Sunday afternoon classes often in near-darkness, but because we've been super-focused, kept our dogs fitness up on their daily walks, kept their minds focused and happy by teaching tricks, its all working!

And we're so proud of Pauline and Ruth.

It's a tradition in agility to bring cakes to training to celebrate wins, so we'd best get baking :-) 

A trip up to Middlesborough saw a full complement of dogs competing after Whisky had recovered from his cut pad that prevented him competing at Gillingham.  Nancy was entered in an any size classes.  These are for dogs either retired from normal competitive classes; dogs coming back from injury or for inexperienced dogs.  Dogs are able to jump lower than their Kennel Club height.  Nancy showed that she's nearly ready to make her competition debut with a clear round to start the day off nicely :-)

Gertie, who runs at grade 7 medium, ran her little socks off, as usual barking her way round the agility course and had a win and a 3rd (she was only slightly hampered by her handler forgetting the course).  Whisky, competing at grade 7, didn't get any clears, but as I've felt 'out of sync' with him for a while due to lack of proper training, all I was hoping for was us to have fun together again and in his first class of the day - Doc's grade 4-7 agility - he had the first two poles down which I ignored and then he worked the rest beautifully, and I even did a blind pick up on a longish straight which worked like a dream. I even had time to hear Gertie barking at the side of the ring enthusiastically encouraging her playmate along!  Winnie got at least one clear in a twisty jumping class (as usual Winnie the lurcher beat Whisky the collie for clears!) but the star of the shows, in our eyes, belonged to our baby boys.

We should stop calling them our baby boys really, as Rufus and Glen are both 3 years old but we can't help it.  Glen has been having a lot of poles down recently - I've had him checked out at a canine massager and his neck was painful, but he's fine now - and I've finally realised its because I give him too many commands, especially when he's in mid air when its too late to give a command and he can't do anything about them and it makes him drop his back legs.  So I planned my course and ran him virtually silently with a couple of directional commands when he was on the ground before a jump.... and he felt brilliant and went clear and came 4th in Grade 5 agility!   What a star!  In his next class he only had one pole down and took a jump from the wrong side as I commanded him too early - so I praised him anyway!    And Rufus the lurcher is actually starting to use some of that whippet speed.  Up until now he's been running courses in second or third gear but I know we have fourth and fifth gear and of course whippet warp speed that we haven't unleashed yet.  I think we finally hit fourth gear and it actually felt like running a proper agility dog and the 4th place in Grade 4 jumping was an added bonus.  Watch out for when Rufus unleashes whippet warp speed as they'll be no stopping him.

And, as usual, we had some excitement on our end of day walk around the lake.  Glen fell in and couldn't get out (everyone else managed to!) and I nearly toppled over dragging him out.  Oh and Connie somehow managed to get filthy black legs!!!