mixed weekend

Sing and I had a mixed weekend.


Saturday - Thames agility show

I was so happy to be back doing agility again after a long time spending on Flyball. I know I am rusty but I am still as keen as I was before. The boys were in the same classes, Saturn in Grade 4 and Sing in Grade 5.

We had an early start of the day, the Eukanuba mini/midi pairs and Combined 3-5 Jumping were the first classes in the morning. I was still tired and lack of sleep being puppy watching. Bless is doing well, he is a real time waster, I love sitting there watching him twitch. LOL! I tried to remember the two different classes hard as they are not easy flowing courses, they both need handling. As we were nearly towards the end of Part 1 in the Eukanuba pairs, so I have to do the Jumping first.

It was very funny, there is no queue in the Jumping (very unusual for medium!!), eventhough my running order with Sing was in the middle and Saturn at the end but I have to go in early. After watching a few people ran their dogs (all had faults!), I got very nervous. I shouldn't have watch people ran their dogs really. This Jumping course was very tricky, lots of snake, push through, pull through ... at the end, I think I will forget what to do, pull or push?

Sing ran before Saturn, I know he is not a fast boy and I could keep up with him, so hopefully we can managed a clear round. I don't like the beginning, I have walked the beginnig two different ways, either a front cross or pivot turn (like I did with the boys). The front cross maybe ok with Sing but it would be very tight for Saturn because jump #3 was in a tight angle. I decided I will try pivot with Sing, hopefully he will not take the finish jump which he almost did but I managed to get him back, so he turned very wide on that jump. I have to say I am very please with the rest of the run, he did the snake, the push through and our last three jumps of two pull throughs, I am more than happy we did it clear and smooth.

I did the same with Saturn. His pivot turn from jump #2 was tight, so there is no problem there. My worried was the last three jumps of pull through. I thought of doing a push instead of pull with him as I know he is faster and I maybe standing in the wrong place and I did stand in the wrong place of the last snake jump and I wasn't quite there for a pull through and I didn't stand my ground so he missed the second last jump who cost him a refusal, or else his time would gives him a lovely trophy! Arrrrggghhh ... more work on pull through!!

BTW, there was only 7 clear round in the Jumping course!!!

Our second run was the Eukanuba mini/midi pairs. It is a shamed that Eukanuba is not sponsoring agility anymore, this mean we will not qualify for Crufts! Hopefully some other company will continue sponsoring this event. It is always a good event. I only started to do this pairs towards the end of last year and we only did one heat. This was our first one of this year.

Sing was pairing with a gorgeous Blue Merle sheltie Kodak. Saturn was pairing with his usual partner, the pocket rocket Bracken. Again, this is a little bit tricky course, you have no choice to stand where you suppose to stand, this means handling needed. You can see from the video, I have to run outside of the box which I do not mean to do that. I didn't walk it that way either!! To be honest, I didn't even think of walking that way, I have two different options working in the box, the Sing way and the Saturn way but I didn't run it either way at all. I was surprised by Sing's speed which I have no time to go in the box, so I have to run from outside and he was a good boy to take my cue "around" (means going around), and he got his weave entry which was very good for him. He went clear on his part. Kodak started off very nicely until Amanda knock the bar down, then I think they haven't have time to pull themselves back so Kodak went into a wrong entry that gave him another 5 faults. This is our first time pairing and I really enjoyed that. Thanks, Amanda.

Saturn was pairing with the little dynamo Bracken. She is a pocket rocket, she went like a flash, if you blink, you will miss her. Saturn did a smooth clear round too, not a fast one like I wish. I also handle him from outside of the box and got to switch behind the weave. Do I have to say anything about little Brax? I can tell you this pairs finished in a very good time and put us in the 2nd place out of 115 pairs! Thanks to Matthew for pairing with us.

I nearly miss walking the Combined 3-5 Agility course! By the time we finished the Eukanuba pairs, I quickly walked over to the Agility ring and the judge was clearing everybody out of the ring in order to start the class. I told her I just got there if she could allow me to walk it. Thank God she was a nice kind judge. I only got to walk the course ONCE and in speed because she asked me to run. Luckily it was an easy course, not too much of handling but there is one bit that I wasn't sure what to do. I thought I will watch a few people do it before I run my dogs. Sing was in the middle of the running order and Saturn was last. Again, there is no queue and I have to run Sing very early. I thought let's blast it. I put Sing on stay but he released himself before me so I have to catch up. The A Frame to the jump was a slight angle and from the jump to weave is another slight angle. Luckily Sing is a technically good dog, he will take anything in front of him. So, Jump-A Frame- Jump-Weave, no problem. The only problem was he got caught in the 3rd pole that slow him down in the weave, I think it must be the speed that he came down from the A Frame then jump then weave that he has not been able to control his speed. The bit that I was worried was the three jumps after the see-saw. I am hoping to be able to stand on the right hand side of the see-saw (so Sing is on my left) but then I am not too sure if he will stay on the see-saw if I am from a distance, so I decided to do the front cross in front of the see-saw and I am on the left. I now have to trust him to go around (outside) the jump (flip) before the dog walk and not to take the other jump. Thank God he listened when I told him "walk on" when he took the jump, he just ran straight up the dog walk and yes, he did a beautiful running dog walk, two front paws hit on the spot. YEAH! My last worried has now clear, we can just ran straight home!

After Sing's ran, I sat there to watch the others ran their dogs before I ran Saturn. I saw so many people did a different ways to me and that made me think did I handle Sing the correct way? Anyway, I thought I've ran Sing and that's it. As I was "hiding" underneath a tree to get some shed waiting to run Saturn, Lin who was ring party in the ring came to tell me Sing was on the lead. I thought he won't be on the lead for long as I saw so many fast dogs on the queue. Then, one by one, they all got fault ... even the most reliable fast one got caught on the weave entry. OH! I don't really want to win NOW, I am hoping to do the Kennel Club International Festival Novice Cup with him!! If he wins, he won't be eligible then. Unless Saturn beat him! Well, we all know it is impossible. I thought I will try to push Saturn so it made Saturn's run worst. Maybe I was handling him in a different way, he decided he will stand on top of the A Frame and he pull out at 4th pole! Tough! Sing is now up to Grade 6. I am very proud of him. I never dream he will be a Grade 6 dog, let alone beating all 88 dogs in the class with 28.561 seconds. I was told he was 2 seconds faster than the 2nd place. WooHoo!

Our last class was Graded 3-5 Jumping. After walking the course, I got Colin to bring the boys to me so I can ran early and go home to Bless. When I've got my dogs, the ring party told me it has to run by Grade, so Grade 3, then 4 then 5. Our car was park very far away from the ring (10 minutes walk) and it was roasting hot. I decided to keep the boys with me. We sat under a tree to stay cool, Saturn was very excited. I tried to calm him down but he just wouldn't clam down, by the time for his ran, he actually got very tired (we were waiting for 30 minutes). I thought is it worth running him now but I did ran him and he wasn't running properly. Sing was ok until he got his leg caught on the bar (the jump after the weave but the bar didn't drop), then he slow down a bit, afterwise, I think he was good.

Basically, me and they boys had a great time!

here are the videos of the day:

Sunday - Flyball tournament at RSPCA Southridge Animal Shelter

Sing had a VERY BAD day at Flyball. I can't believe he ran off every single legs in the first race. That is not like him! He has never make a single mistake since I started racing with him. He wasn't racing at all yesterday! Flyball is Sing's everything, he will do anything for it and I can't understand why he did that. On the first leg, he was eyeing on the last collie on the other team, by the time he realised he has to run back, he already passed the first jump so he ran all the way outside to come back.

The 2nd and 3rd legs, he seems lost. He again, ran back on the outside, he ran all the way to get pass the ring, I wonder if he is looking for Colin? Luckily there was somebody try to catch him for me. This is very unusual for Sing. He has never done that before and there were no dogs around there.

He was better in the 2nd and 3rd race but ran off again on the 4th race. The last race, he was a good boy again.

Sing's box turn