It takes balls to run Pikachu

Yes, literally it takes balls to run Pikachu.

Its been a strange and at times very sad year for us. 

Everyone grieves differently and for me some things I like to keep very private so forgive me for not commenting further. Instead I will focus on our dogs progress since my last blog.

The last blog was about Chic aka Miss Perfect Paws as she continues to be. It'll be a while before she competes so as usual there is not much equipment training going on in the Laker scheme of things. Here a little clip of one exercise we have done.

Chic jumping exercise clip

It has been said to me several times that Pikachu will make me a better dog trainer. My reply is often I don't want to be a better dog trainer I just want a dog I can do agility with. Looks like Chic is not going to help my dog training skills ;)

So how is Pikachu doing? Well I mentioned that I had found the key to motivation with her and about her tennis balls. I just needed to find a way to put that to best use and develop a love of agility with me through being rewarded with her balls whilst not ruining our relationship by fighting with her to get them off her.

This is easier said than done, but the result is I have a dog that loves coming out to train with me and even more relevant will stay in the ring at a show, or better still enjoys competing. She can still get a little distracted on the start line and wonder if the person that has just taken her lead has also got one of her balls which needs a bit of work. TBH I'll just have to get even bigger pockets and tuck her lead in there too so she needn't worry. 

The other BIG thing is that I was struggling to feel we were together in the ring. I apologise to small dog handlers but I thought it was purely a size issue and the distance from my eyes and hands to her compared to previously running large dogs that I could touch without bending down. I wondered if I would ever feel that connection. I often can't see her!

She's behind you clip

Happily this is not the case and I can feel her commitment and drive (yes drive yippee) equally the same as with Rhyme. Admittedly not all the way round yet. I'm confident it will grow as she is a smart little cookie and has found the joy of running round an agility course together. She has a lovely turn of speed too so I think we will be able to look to getting up the grades...if I can understand how they work next year.

The time spent this season just getting her to thrive on my attitude to competition has been well spent. I now need to capitalise on this by developing fast reliable contacts and weaves over the winter ready to attack courses with a winning mind next year.

I am also on the search for a replacement for the balls in a toy that she will give back without a struggle but produces nearly the same amount of excitement. So far we have found she also loves one of these cut down a bit and will bring it to me to tug with!

Yep so if I can't find something better I'll be replacing the balls for something that will look no less dodgy stuffed in my pocket and earning comments like "are you pleased to see me or is that just dog toy in your pocket!!"

Timing is Everything

Wow the season has definitely started here in the Laker household.

After a couple of back to back seminars my own Sports Psychology skills have certainly been revised.

Our own dogs have started the season looking amazing. Even though Crufts didn't go to plan the boys looked very fit. (Searched 'looking fit' on google and thought yes this will do 😉)

Mark and I both have young dogs at the same time which is something we haven't done before. Plus with one in a different height there is loads of learning to do.

On top of that I started judging last year and have had a couple of judging appointments this year already. 

I know the rules and keep abreast of any changes for myself as a competitor. It is a different ball game for me to focus on these rules whilst watching 100's of dogs for a whole day.

Becoming a judge involves a couple of days training to earn your certificate. With quite a few others attending there is no way to practice or test the mental stamina that is required.

And then there is the things that you couldn't anticipate happening and how to deal with them. 

Lastly there is nothing to prepare you for the slating that you will receive on social media if you do happen to make a mistake.

Luckily I had two appointments back to back and was able to experience a more normal judging day with good decisions this weekend. That has strengthened my resolve to become a good judge.

I have spoken to a senior, experienced, long standing judge about my decision at Wyre to restart the class due to a timing issue and allow the first few competitors to re-run from scratch. Once I explained the situation she totally agreed with my decision. 

Whether the decision was right or not matters a lot to me - I would not deliberately do anything to give any competitors an unfair advantage.

To be fair in the grand scheme of life if the decision had been wrong bleating about it on Facebook is not the way forward. Any judges walking the course could have easily approached me about the timing gates BEFORE the class had started or somebody could have recorded it in the incident book for future learning.

An Honest Mistake

I would rather it hadn't happened but I am trying my best and learning with every appointment. The worst that happened was one person qualified for an event that their first run might not have. (I say might not as they only had 5 faults the first run and a dog with 5 faults did qualify anyway) 

What a lovely bonus for them to have a second chance after doing a near perfect round with one jump down on the first attempt. 

What a bonus for a few people to have another go at the course. Who can begrudge a few G1-3 handlers having another chance? 

Hats off to the ring party who dealt with it all so well too.

Those capable of qualifying will no doubt have other qualifiers this season and if not I do apologise as I would have to your faces had you spoken directly to me.

This weekend we had the opposite where a lovely lady and her happy dog did a beautiful clear only to find out the timing didn't work. On her re-run the dog had the first pole down. She was disappointed as anyone would be. We're hoping her bad luck with that will turn around for good luck next week in a qualifier she's going to. Meanwhile they did another beautiful run in a later class gaining a high place and I'm confident we'll see more of that partnership.

My forte in judging is my course design. I love setting a course that will assess a dog's key skills and the handlers understanding of the dogs path to get the fastest route.

Wyre was a real challenge as the rings are quite a bit smaller. I spent hours setting up our own equipment in our field, moving it around and running various dogs around it or parts of it to get it right.

I needed a course that met the new distances, all the other KC rules and was of course safe. 

On top of that minimum movement of equipment to keep the different classes running through smoothly. 

Ring party, show organisers and least of all competitors do not really want to be at a show past 6:00pm at the latest. 

Those that thought I should have rebuilt the course and got everyone to re-walk it may not have appreciated that I simply did not have another planned G1-3 course ready to fit all the above criteria and it would add at least another hour  to the end of the day. 

As one of our friends likes to say - 300 million people didn't die. However if I was not such a determined person then my judging career could have.

Luckily for me this weekend at Agility Nuts Show my courses ran as I'd designed them and I received many compliments on my courses. I felt I kept my focus for over 90% of the time and am confident my contact calls were right. 

I had 2 scribes that were also judges that if I had any blips of confidence were there smiling and encouraging - thank you Natalie and Anne. 

We had a dog walking over the long jump that we looked in the book to clarify our decision on and I know that one for next time too.

I've still got 2 judges appointments to do this year and I'm looking forward to them.

How our dogs did will need to wait for another post now but I'm very happy to report Torro got 3rd in Veterans, Rhyme got a 2nd & a 3rd in G7, Devo got 3rd (when I was 2nd oh yes!!) and a 2nd (when I was 3rd normal business resumed), Moog got more and more experience and oh yes, Pikachu went clear and won the class.

She's smashed my targets for the year though so I now need to sit down and write some more or sit back and let the rest of the season drift about to see where it gets us ;)

Be more Pikachu

Well Pikachu is nearly 6 months now and it seems like she has been with us forever.

She is always happy and always ready to get into mischief. Of course she doesn't know that climbing on the table is mischief, she doesn't know that getting under the gate is mischief, she doesn't know that climbing on agility equipment she hasn't been taught to do is mischief OR does she?

I often admire her positive and can do attitude and being so excited about the smallest things. Then I realised that these are traits I do luckily share.

My positive,if a little naive thoughts, about the changes the KC are making.

When something has to be done then I do usually find a way to get it done.

I even still get excited about many things like Rhyme's first Champ class coming up this weekend, doing the judges course, competing at Crufts, training in a new environment with Rhyme, having new customers etc etc. Yes when it comes down to it I am more Pikachu than I first thought :) 

Here's a few clips of how she is doing with some little training sessions we did this afternoon.

Training session various

Pikachu training sit wait to a toy

Pikachu down with treats

Pikachu learning to help with putting her harness on