Mr Refuser!

We were at Rugby Championship show this weekend. This is a new venue at Cotton Hall, Derbyshire. The old venue is only 3 miles from home (BooHoo!) I originally booked camping, as our Club now took over to organise the Rugby Championship show and all club members are down to help at the ring. The weather is seriously too hot (for me) to camp. Even with shade and shelter, I don't think the shelties will get very comfy expose to the heat all day. The organiser was great. There were paddling pool in every single ring and some extra ones everywhere. Dogs can hoop in and out to get cool. What a great thinking from these great people!

We ended up travel each day. Sonic has 3 runs each day and I've entered Sizzle in the Champ on Saturday and Team & KC Olympia on Sunday. Sonic finished all his runs by 10:30 on Saturday! I've got Sizzle eliminated in the Champ Jumping, so I voted not to run in the Champ Agility. He didn't run well in the Champ Jumping, it was very hot and he was unwilling to run :( So, we were home by 12:30 noon! All dogs and human were lying down on the tile floor to cool off. Thank God we have quite a big area of tile flooring. Oh dear! It was hot!

Sonic earned a new title on Saturday, MR REFUSER! In every single class, he refused a jump or two or even three! Hmm ... I've been doing a lot of practising sending him on to a jump from different angle and through tunnel and he was getting better before the weekend. I knew this is his weakest link. He did some lovely work but ALWAYS, there is a jump he refused! Sometimes, I get a big frustrated. I tried so hard to train him to take any obstacle in front of him or sending him to the next obstacle without me near the obstacle. He is getting better at training but when come to competition, we fail :(

Saturday:

In this run, he refused the jump after the tunnel, this is his usual problem, he's too busy looking at me, barking at me. I think it's probably my problem when training him when he was younger, I always have a toy in my hand and he's always look out for his toy. Since I moved here, I have noticed the problem and no longer have toys in my hand (occasionally I do), I either put it where I wanted to reward him or give it to someone else to throw it for him after he finishes a sequence.

Saturday, Combined 1-4 Jumping:

Our second class was the graded 4-5 Agility. Again, another refuser to the jump after the tunnel :( The other problem we have this weekend was the weave. We had two very difficult weave entry on the Agility course this weekend. He got both the entry the first time and I praise him "good boy" and he came off the weave! In this class, there was the long jump lying very close to the weave (you can't really see that in the video but the long jump is a trap). I was very pleased with his effort of getting the weave entry. He amazed me :) And, of course after the weave, I forgot where we were going! I was probably thinking I am running a different course. Oops!

Saturday, Graded 4-5 Agility:

This was his last run of the day, again, another refuser here! Sigh ~ I thought the weave entry is rather challenging for Grade 1 and 2. The angle is pretty bad, unless you did a front cross. I didn't want to do a front cross after the jump #4, then have to cross behind the weave again (lazy me!) I know pulling him into the weave will create quite an issue :) but this will become our homework this week :)

Saturday, Graded 1-4 Jumping:

Sizzle didn't run well in the Champ Jumping, I wasn't sure if the heat bother him or he is not well (again). The Champ Jumping was quite an interesting course. When I first walked it, it looked like a difficult course but after I walked it a few times, it becomes flowy. There is a lot of running there and the dog needs to extend but poor Sizzle isn't extending at all. He took a lot of short striding and when I saw him weaving, I knew he wasn't right. We got eliminated anyway, so I voted not to run him in the Champ Agility. We packed and go home. 

Champ Jumping:

Sunday:

I saw our physio Sally was there too and she was kindly to look at him for me, his back was pretty poor. I told Sally I need to run him in the Team (as there is no reserve). I pulled him out from the KC Olympia run. Sally worked on him for 45 minutes, he was much better and he definitely WALK better after the treatment. I was holding my breath whether he will "run" in the Team. His run was the last class of the day, so he has plenty of time to rest and recover. 

Mr Refuser was a bit slow on Sunday, not sure if the heat or tire or what but I definitely noticed he isn't as fast as his normal self. In the Combined 1-7 KC Olympia, I hadn't realised he missed the jump after the DW. The jump was a slight angle and I didn't want to tell him "right" just in case I pulled him off the DW too early and also, I've noticed he put extra 1.5 stride on the DW, this is why I said I have noticed he's slower. There is a difficult weave entry to this course. Tyre to the weave. Sonic got it the first time and I thought I praise him a bit later and he pop out soon he heard me saying "good boy". Duh! I've edited the part where I resend him to weave and he cause a bit of scene, taking too long! Yuk! His gobby self was back again :)

Sunday, KC Olympia:

We ran straight from the KC Olympia to this Combined 1-4 Jumping. I didn't really like this course in particular, I thought the spacing was a bit tight for my liking. I like spacey course where I can run and my dog can run that I don't have to bump into any obstacle (knowing how clumsy I am!) But, watching the video, I thought we ran pretty smoothly :), no gobbiness, no refuser, what a treat!

Sunday, Combined 1-4 Jumping:

Later, he ran in the Graded 1-4 Jumping, although not very smooth when he has to run out to an off angle jump, we managed to scrap a clear round. Hehehe ... 2 clear rounds in a day, bonus of the day, 2 x 2nd place :) that gives me hope again :)

Sunday, Graded 1-4 Jumping: 

After a good treatment, Sizzle is a totally a different dog again! He ran so well, he was so fast in the Team that he doubled up in the weave that cost him 5 faults but I was really happy to know that it's not the heat but he wasn't well. I so wish I can take my lovely physio Sally to me to everywhere show!

Sizzle with Team Little Bitz, as you can see he ran differently to Saturday :)