It's our game - not the dogs

I do agility because I love spending time with my dogs and with Mark and agility combines both. Our dogs love to do agility and spend time with us too. An added bonus is the lovely people that we train and know though competing with them. As an instructor I also get pleasure from helping people enjoy training their dog and the sport more.

At the KC International Festival an awful incident has made me question what it is all about. Do our dogs really get the most out of life by doing agility? Do we improve our relationship with them by training and competing with them? Or is it all really about our own desire to compete?

I do not know what upset me the most, the sight of a dog so out of it's mind that it attacked it's owner or the fact that somebody said she came back from hospital and competed with her other dog in the afternoon - sorry BWTF. Surely the dog that attacked her needed to be taken away from the show to somewhere peaceful - is competing at agility more important than your own dog's welfare?

Maybe the lady had her reasons (as the dog had it's for doing what it did) and as I don't know the whole story I'm not in a good postion to comment on her actions. I do know I do not want to see of that kind of frenzy again. Hopefully there will be an explanation of a long stream of events leading up to the incident and valuable lessons will be learnt.

For my part I will be more mindful of my own dog's stress levels and ensure they are enjoying the competition as much as I do without loosing control.

Talking of control Ruth has hatched a plan for improving Inka's focus from an training method used in Leslie McDevitt's Control Unleashed. It is early days but already shows huge leaps of success. I will let you know more about how it works as it progresses.

Talking of progress - Rhyme actually played tuggie with me around the rings at the KC Festival. We walked around quite a bit and I got focus and play in more than one place. Once even when his Dad Reef was running :)

Talking of running - I must get a move on with other things now :) :)

A short clip to help relax after all that stress

Any wind is favorable if you don't know what port you are sailing to

I tend to be very lucky in life and have got to some very good places by just going with where life takes me. I'm also lucky in that Mark does do planning so generally it's his wind that is favourable LOL.

We are in the process of taking stock of what we have and what we want for our future (our ten year anniversary in February or somebody's milestone birthday can have that effect). The result could lead to some big changes and we are putting our bungalow on the market. I know, all that work we did to make it easy to maintain and energy efficient so we could just enjoy our weekends and now we maybe embarking on another project. Keep your fingers crossed for us and I'll fill you in once we get a buyer and our offer accepted on the house we've seen.

It's also a good time of year to take stock on how we're doing against the plan with our own dogs.

Those of you who follow Mark's blog know he's where he wants to be regarding Devo. Kodi is still not back to full strength and at nearly 9 we are not confident he will ever be. He still enjoys his agility though so we will keep him ticking over.

Torro is a brilliant dog and I am frustrated that I can't seem to harvest his speed in the right time and place. He is such fun to run though and I will keep trying.

Rhyme - now what can I say about that cheeky little monkey :) He is growing up nicely and did some lovely stuff at Anthony Clark's Puppy Camp. He also got over excited and decided to join in everyone else's game - sorry least they can be confident their dog is good with distractions.

Ant was great though and put Rhyme on a lead and got me to do some recalls so Ant could control him if he went off. Needless to say recalls are still our main priority. I have many games to offer him distractions. I get him to ignore food on the floor, toys on the floor and Flint to come to me. He is very good with those now I just need to add Kodi, Torro and lastly Devo to our dogs as a distraction then move on to other dogs playing etc.

His play is continuing to build with every time I go near him us playing tuggie. It is strange to me that some dogs are totally obsessive with tugging (e.g. Kodi & Devo) whilst others need to develop the joy of it. It may be something I do as Torro wasn't toy driven as a pup. Even now he is not one to take the toy away and play on his own preferring instead to bring it to me so we can play together. As an instructor that is a good thing as there is considerable time wasting in a lesson with people who can't get the toys back off their dogs or even worse reinforcement opportunities wasted because people aren't prepared to present the toy as the dog won't share.

I generally avoid the agilitynet forum but a recent post wanting to ban tuggies from shows was unbelievable. Some guy whose dogs were not in control and even attacked another dog blamed use of tuggies by others.

I will do all I can to help Rhyme want to tug with me rather than interfere with other people and their dogs (even though his version is to lick people and want to play with other dogs) and if I can't then I won't put him that situation and I certainly won't be using any form of punishment.

Dania Cup

Back home and all dogs back together. Great that Michelle looked after Flint and Karen after Rhyme but hits home again that Christie is no longer with us :(

We had an amazing weeks holiday, combining a trip abroad with agility - perfect.

The trip started with a detour to De Warre in Belgium the venue for next years WAO. It is a spectacular venue and is a good motivation for trying to get in the Team. We then met up with some friends in the evening. It is always lovely to meet new people and even lovelier if you know you've found a new good friend too :)

The house in Denmark was absolutely beautiful with sea views and a short walk to the beach. With course walking at 7:50 and prize giving (everyone attended) not finishing until around 7:30 we probably did not get the full benefit of it.

The competition it's self was great. There were a few differences to get used to like remembering to take your collar off and strict running orders but once we got used to that it was good.

I really enjoyed the courses with judges from several different countries including this years FCI judges putting out courses of all kinds.

Torro was enjoying himself and travelling at the speeds we managed on the Autobahn but my reflexes and body were not. We did manage 3 top ten places, a fastest five faults and one podium place of 3rd along with quite a few eliminations. It was great to take the flag up and stand in front of the crowds if a bit embarrassing. When Detox got made up to a Danish Agility champion they played "Stand Up" and everyone stood up and clapped - even Greg looked embarrassed. He also got a bottle of Champagne. It did make me think what an anticlimax it is to win a ticket and even more so to win the last ticket to become an Agility Champion. Often the crowd is left wondering who won and reliant on Facebook to know when it makes that dog a Champion. As the ticket class is so much more expensive than any other it surely could have more show made of the end results.

Back to Denmark and the Dania cup. Another big difference is that people bring tents and put them up beside the rings to sit and and have their dogs in. Great for the rain and shady when sunny plus no long walks to the car park or camping area to get dogs. We did see several dogs go lame on the courses which makes me wonder if that distance to get our dogs is actually a good thing to ensure our dogs are warmed up for those people who do not understand the importance of it. Despite the running in order and therefore more accurate times of when you would run we did not see many people warming their dogs or themselves up.

Despite the different course styles to what we're used to the British appeared at prize giving a lot. Bernadette with Zaz winning 4 classes, Greg and Detox winning 4 and becoming a Danish Champion, Amy and Fudge appearing on the podium for 2nds or 3rds 5 times, Mark and Devo getting 2nd in SP3 jumping and Torro getting 3rd in another class. Jo and Bitz were regularly in top 10.

The prize giving involves podium for top 3 with winner being called up first and everyone shaking their hand as they go past. Then in the larger classes up to 7th place being called up to stand beside them. Then the remaining places (about 10%) get called to go"straight to the table". As you are called up the top 3 got medals plus a card with a number on. Before the lower places get called you're led to a table with an array of many different prizes to choose from. You have to choose in order so winning get want they want. Detox won Greg a few cases of lager :)

We got 2 shirts, a suitcase, a few sacks of dog food and a voucher for a massage.

Bernadette kindly chose some sting relief spray for me when I got stung by a wasp. Strangely the was the day before Torro got 3rd - slightly different version from a kick up the backside LOL

Agility in another dimension - well country

This is were we will be staying in Denmark :) :)

It is a short walk to the beach and half an hour form the show.

It is very exciting to be going abroad to compete with the dogs - if a little daunting, but we figured that as we don't like leaving our dogs to go away that best option to see the world is to take them with us. Even better still to fit in an agility show.

Lee Gibson is judging on one of the days and he is a regular competitor over there so we won't be entirely in the dark.

Excitement is not the word - will let you know how it all goes :) :)

Rhyme needs a reason :)

Rhyme is now 8 months old and filling out nicely. He is the most gorgeous dog in the world and works hard with his responsibilities relating to this i.e. he has to go and see everybody and dog to give them an opportunity to see him.

Recalls at home at excellent and fully understood by us both but I clearly don't understand that coming back on a walk is not good. Treats and toys in no way measure up to FREEDOM and RUNNING. Devo too had a problem with this I've been told it's a Devongem thing :). Luckily I live near the polo fields at Tidworth. A massive area of flat grass and mostly enclosed with a good view of anything else around so I am gradually helping Rhyme understand that FREEDOM & RUNNING are allowed and coming back is just part of it all.

Today was a good experience. Firstly Rhyme is not allowed off with the others until they've let off steam and he's chosen to eat the treats offered for loose lead walking.This can take a while but he is not allowed off until we get that. He is then allowed off to run and be a dog with the others. Throughout the walk everyone is asked to lie down and given rewards - Rhyme likes this game and finds it easy especially as once everyone has had treats they are all released and race - RUNNING :) :)

When we get near the trees I call him back regularly to give him a stick. I never throw sticks for my dogs but both Devo and Rhyme love to carry them. Once he has his stick I say ok and then he can RUN with the stick. Today we also jumped onto a tree trunk and stopped to pose for a photo. It's his choice to be with us and he happily stayed for the picture above.

So far so good - then in the distance coming towards us I saw somebody with a dog. No problem loads of room so I walked across the field. Rhyme looked then chose us and came back for a reward. Rhyme looked again and once again chose us and the reward. Rhyme looked again and the lady threw something for her dog. Rhyme chose the dog. We chose to run in the opposite direction. As he reached the dog the lady whistled her dog and I called Rhyme - he came running and stayed with us :) :).

A stumbling block is approaching the van as he knows that FREEDOM will be over. I decided to forewarn him of the fact we were "going to the van" to see what would happen. He just ran off in the opposite direction as soon as I had spoken - no hesitation. Perfect understanding of speech -he is so clever. I did what everyone advises not to, laughed. I couldn't help it. He went back to the water trough and led down. I just continued walking towards the dreaded van. When I glanced over my shoulder he sat up and looked at me. I called the other dogs and asked them to lie down. Called him once and he ran and led down very dramatically too, took his reward and happily let me put his lead on and walked beside me back to the van.

So Rhyme needs a reason to come back - not a toy but something to do with no fuss. I've cracked the recall nut - just need to try it with distractions LOL

The King is Dead. Long live the King.

Well May is nearly over and tomorrow is 1st June and summer will be here.

May disappeared into the World Agility Open - the final preparations, the event and then the packing away and clearing up. Back to normality or maybe not. I always puzzled at the expression The King is dead. Long live the King until it was explained that with the death of one King there becomes a new King. Well World Agility Open is over but heyho long live The World Agility Open. Mark, Greg and Monica are flat out planning ready for next years event.

We've had our friend Naomi and her dog Pan staying for a while - it's very quiet now :)

Our dogs are fine and t's great to be at competitions with them. Torro had his first Champ and I amused all the Champ handlers by being so totally excited. There was no cool in my enjoyment. It was brilliant. We got eliminated in both the jumping and agility but were not out of place and did some lovely, lovely bits including a great weave entry that caught many a more experienced and cool handler out.

Rhyme is such a lovely dog and his play and recall are improving.

Christie is still escaping out of the garden at shows determined to show she is not ready for that trip to the vets. It was very sad to hear of Harvey. He has had many medical concerns so Michelle and Stephen were brilliant to be able to keep him enjoying life as long as he did.

Sorry I guess blog writing or keeping up with blog writing is an art.

So much has happened, first the awful shocking and worrying episode of Kodi who is perfectly well and raring to go now, then the successes at shows:)

Mark has his goals with Devo and as usual is on track, winning into Grade 6.

I had my goals with Torro but due to last years ankle breakage they had gone off track and to be honest I was a bit bored of putting down the same as last year. The key to goal setting is to monitor and adapt to ensure they are the right for you at that time (apparently) so not being able to fulfil my goals for Torro last year should not have been a surprise. Luckily we got our last win at Grade 6 to go Grade 7 last weekend so are now back on to reset our sights on other things for this year :)

Mark got a new camera and has taken some stunning photos already so hopefully there will be plenty of good pictures to decorate the blog :)

I love this one of Flint recalling from me to Mark with the camera. Flint looks so happy and fit. He is such a special dog.