Agility Withdrawing Syndrome

I think I am at the edge of Agility withdrawing syndrome!! That is not a good sign as WAO is so close now! As Sizzle is my only competing dog at the moment, due to this unknown problem, we are resting him for WAO. I've entered him for GT UKA, Vyne Champ and Beacon Champ in the next two weeks, I thought it would be a good last minute practice before WAO but I don't see we are going to any of them now. Also, my stamina has gone down hill. Don't know why but I have been puffing a lot in the last 3 weeks. I used to be able to run a full course without any problem.

Sizzle is doing great at the moment. Although I have to keep him quiet, lead walking only, he is actually doing fine. No crazy moment. I can see that he is very jealous to see me working Sonic and Sipzie in the garden but when I got indoor, I do tricks with him, so we are still bonding with no actual running. I don't think he appreciate that, he rather do Agility :)  Hopefully he will save up all his energy for WAO!

I am sure some of you will ask why not competing with Sipzie? Well, we have a little set back with her. Her re-train Dog Walk (from running to 2o/2o) is not perfect yet, so I rather not doing Agility with her at the moment. I need her to at least understand the criteria before I even practice that at UKA. Her weave is getting better but when she gets all hype up, she lost her plot and do whichever poles she will go in. I have tried exercise her before the runs, so she gets to calm down a bit, that didn't actually help. I think she is an excitable dog in general. Having said that, when she sees treats, her mind just blew! She will start drooling at the queue just watching other dogs got treat from their handlers. I've tried taking the crate with me, Phew! That proof a bit too much especially when I do Day Parking. If Colin is with me, I can stand in the queue while he takes her away from the queue until we are about a couple of dogs on the line. That works a little better but when she got back to me, she got really excited. She sounded like "separation anxiety". If I show her treat, she starts out slow and maybe speed up later but then she becomes very gluey. Unless I can run super fast, otherwise, I sometimes get a very frustrated Sipzie as I am slow and she will try to bite me in excitement! So, now, we practice a lot of little things like startline wait. Her startline wait was pretty bad, she broke her wait or released herself before I release her. We have been doing a lot of that lately and she is getting very good at it now. I've also practice a lot of weaving at home with her. As the V weave is slightly open for Sonic, so I gone back a step to train her with the V and she massively improve. Her weave entry is so much better. I think our only problem is she hasn't learn to collect herself on the 2nd pole, so if she is fast (she is!) from an angle, she will take the entry and then missed the 2nd pole. I have the guide wire out, so hopefully we can crack that problem soon. One thing I have noticed is with the new weave spacing, she weaves better. 

I haven't enter Sizpie in any KC Open shows but I am hoping to get her to do UKA, so we can start doing some Jumping along with the Steeplechase classes. She is due to come into season, although the boys show their interest in her but there is no actual sign yet. I so hope that she is on time (last week), so I can leave her safely while we go to WAO but at this rate, Mmmm ... she better wait until I come back!

Good thing that Colin is off work (not really) so he can video our training and any other runs that I've practice, so I get to study the videos and see the "problems/mistakes/errors" to improve my handling. 

Here is Sipzie at training. She is so much happier now.

Super Sonic has a lot, a lot to learn yet :) I've found that he is not a tunnel driven dog. Even at home, in the garden, I struggled to send him into a tunnel. His send on is ok-ish. I think I will have to struggle if we come across a straightline jumps home, I know he will not run fast ahead to finish. Well, I think I only have 2 dogs so far that is able to do at least 4/5 jumps home, that is Saturn and Sizzle. Sipzie will do 2.5 jumps then if I am left far behind, she will stop or even come to me. I don't know about Sonic. I must admit I haven't done a lot of sending him to a static/dead toy. I am rather disappointed that he is not driven to a tunnel. I think that is quite a big disadvantage if a dog is not driven to a tunnel, this means I have to run a lot more, take more steps towards the tunnel instead of positioning myself to the next obstacle. I swear, I done a lot of tunneling with him at home but he is just not a tunnel dog :(

Sonic at training:

pup-date:
I've received two little videos from Chloe and Tye (aka Scampi), isn't he fab?