With my parents still away, we hitched a lift with Emma and Bailey (thanks v.much Ems!) and they came to crash our house Friday and Saturday night.
Saturday
Neither me nor Emma were really “feeling” agility that day, we couldn’t really get into the right frame of mind and it didn’t seem like we were at a competition at all. It was really relaxed and none of the usual pre-run nerves!
First run was combined 1-2 Agility. It was a nice course, a few call offs and a tunnel-weave entry. The only bit I got a bit stuck on whilst walking was a pull through and tunnel call off. The trouble was, Jet would be so far ahead of me that I wouldn’t be able to get in position for what a lot of people were doing. Anyway, in the slight daze I was in, we gave it a bash and went clear! It was pretty messy on the pull through, and her contacts were SLOW SLOW SLOW – coming to a stop on the aframe down plank, even after charging up it. Arggghhhhh!! We had worked on the dogwalk at training too, but not the aframe. We really need to sort this out, and we WILL. She came 5th in the end, even with all that messing around, which gives me confidence that she can easily get out of grade 2!
The next run was graded 1-3 jumping. The course was ok, a bit of a twisty one, but she got a lovely weave entry. I moved off too quick and she popped them for the first time in ages, we finished the rest of it in a messy fashion and were a bit disheartened!
We also ran combined 1-3 agility, but I can’t remember what happened! I think she knocked the first pole which is very unusual for her.
Sunday
In a much better frame of mind that day and it seemed to go a bit better!
We started off with Pedigree Pairs, Jet seems to have been appointed the lead dog of our “pair”…and she was very excited at Leanne winding her up on the line. She set off like a rocket, doing the first 4 obstacles and it going rapidly downhill from there. I went into panic mode and there was a lot of “Jet, Jet, JET, JET” on the way around. It wasn’t our best run by a long shot! As part of Dylan and Jet’s secret pact never to go clear at the same time, Dylan put in a lovely clear.
Combined 1-3 Jumping was a fab course, I really liked it. It was really blasty but still technical enough. Jet flew around, having a little “spin” or half turn thing at one point as I didn’t get my left command in early enough, but she was such a good girl. The final 5 obstacles was a long line to finish. She flew ahead of me, racing each other to the end, but she knocked the second to last pole as it was downhill. Her time would have put her 5th or 6th (can’t quite remember), even with the little spin, so I was really pleased as it was a very fast running course.
The next combined 1-3 jumping was a bit of a disaster! Talking to Suzanne afterwards, Jet made the same mistake as Bailey by charging ahead after the weaves and taking the wrong jump. My fault really, as always!
Next run was graded 1-3 agility. The course was really straight forward, a bit sick of pinwheels, having had one in every class so far that day, but the course started out with one. She ran it really nicely, excited the BL**DY AFRAME!! She stood on it for about 20minutes while she had a cup off tea and nipped off to the shop, I swear I was so frustrated. The dogwalk was a bit better though. Anyway, I thought I’d be lucky to get in the top 10 as I thought we’d wasted so much time, so didn’t even bother looking at the results. Then we heard the presentations walking across the field and OMG JET HAD WON!
Good girly!
The last run of the day was the ABC Olympia qualifier. We’d watched Emma and Bails run the same course in the morning, and thought it was a toughie. I walked it thinking we’d never get anywhere in a million years chatting with Em we decided I should just concentrate on her contacts as we’d never get anything – think Jet heard that! After getting very wound up with a pointer in front of her, she set off like a ROCKET. She flew up the dogwalk and straight down, we had a near disaster at the top as she nearly didn’t do the pull through, but we got her back. She had a lovely angled right hand weave entry that was throwing loads of dogs off and she did the best seesaw I have seen her do in ages. (I even heard someone say at the side of the ring “bloody hell that can shift! Made me laugh!). She hung on the aframe for a little bit, but not as bad as before. I finally had the Jet I have at training! I was so pleased. She ended up 11th in the end, 0.2s off a grade 6 dog, and 1.6s off the winner (not bad with the pull through issue and the aframe hang either!). The only ones to beat her were G6 and G7, and she beat a load of G3-6 dogs in the process. That was our best run of the weekend, though not foot perfect. It gave me a lot of hope for what we can achieve one day.
So Jet ended the weekend grade 2
Good points – weaves were fab, all entries all weekend from everywhere! She was a speedy girl even in the heat and we had fun!
Bad points – Contacts, pull throughs. We need to work on these majorly!
We have channel weaves, and when they are straightened she goes through at such a speed that she sends them flying. She has bent a few out of shape, so now any that aren’t in line she will skip out of. She also decided to run alongside a few of them without the action of weaving (ie swimming and waggling her bum) but not actually going through the poles. Hopefully this will be better when we get proper competition weaves or I might just have to cry.