Those Damn Weavers and a Blind Cross

Well we had our first trial last weekend since coming back from America. I didn't have Dancer entered it was just Epic, so a nice relaxed day with two runs :-)

Masters Agility was gorgeous. Open and flowing ......... and yet with only 2 passes, handlers were caught out :-) Our downfall was ...... OMG ........ you guessed it ...... WEAVERS!!!

Epic has had a full month of not doing any agility. I thought the break would have done her weaver "issue" the world of good ....... apparently not!! LOL

So my next thought was, is she sore?? So she's been to Deb Nook this week for accupunture and chiropractic work and fingers crossed she feels much better.

Masters Jumping was a similar course to the Masters National Finals course that was set up this year. And Epic was a little star and went CLEAR!!!! :-)) AND I did a blind cross on a jump!! :-) Well thats to say I walked it as a blind cross .... and I had every intention of doing a blind cross ..... and I'm almost 100% certain I DID DO a blind cross :-) But you know how when things happen sooooooo smoothly and quickly and then you have some self doubt sneak in? Well I have had a moment since the run where I've thought, that went WAY too easily, maybe I did a front cross and didn't realise!!! LOL And I don't have any video to check ...... though I'm pretty confident I did it the way I intended :-)

Now those of you who are shaking their heads and going blind crosses are B.A.D, well they're not for everyone :-) And yes if you do Greg Derrett down to a tee, I'm pretty certain a blind cross should NEVER be tried, BUT in Linda Mecklenburgs system they are "allowed" YAY because they are sooooooo much FUN!!!

AND if you look at the Europeans, they do them EVERYWHERE!!! AND are incrediably successful at agility.

SO for those that are interested :-)

Blind crosses encourage extension :-) (my favourite thing for Miss Epic) they should also only be used when your dog doesn't have a choice in which direction it is going to take. Which means the cross needs to be completed before the dog completes the obsticle, whether it is a jump, tunnel or weave poles.

I'm the first one to admit that I felt completely disconnected with my dog the first time I tried it, but I felt it was a skill I needed to learn even if I didn't use it. But I love them now and I'm very grateful and thank you to Karen Holik for teaching me this skill!!!!

Saying Goodbye To America :-(

Camp 2 is all over :-(

My trip is almost to an end ..... just a 2hr drive to Minneapolis tomorrow and then I fly out first thing on Friday morning.

Well the last three days have been full of highs and lows.

I'll start with the low first. Jestah my old boy, became quite sick on Tuesday afternoon. He was apparently fine right up until 3.30pm, then went downhill rather suddenly :-( Vomiting up his dinner that he had had the PREVIOUS night (what the!!) and he was as flat as a tack. So as you can imagine I was FREAKING out ..... particularly being sooooooooooooooooooooo far away. I even started thinking that I would need to look at leaving camp early and try to catch an earlier flight home :-( He was started on antibiotics with the view to see how he went. That night he continued vomiting and was very restless. Mum took him to work to see Dr Louise on Wed morning and he had bloods taken. By Wed night the bloods had come back all normal and he was much brighter. No more vomiting and he was interested in food again. PHEW!!! Today he is back to normal .... though tired. I can't tell you how relieved I am!! And I can't wait to give him a GREAT BIG hug when I get home :-)

The highs have obviously come from the agility camp :-)

Camp 2 .... for me was MUCH harder and more challenging overall. I have discovered my timing for "trained cues" vs "natural cues" is pretty much CRAP!! Scream is an amazing dog to run, he really helped to perfect my timing. If I was slightly out he responded appropriately by pretty much taking the wrong jump!! LOL

We delved more into motion cues, forward motion front crosses over jumps as well as on the flat. My favourite day was today with Ann Braue. She had a course up that REALLY challenged us as handlers. There was one part where you had to send to a tunnel and RUN!! No really you had to run for fear of having a collision with your dog (there was a jump forcing convergence with your dog) So it was EXTREMELY important to get ahead to cue the slight turn OR you needed to "ABANDON SHIP!!!!" LOL I am proud to say I made it with Scream :-) Though I will not be shy in saying that I'm pretty sure my face went white when I could see him flying towards me out the corner of my eye!! It definately got my adrenaline going!!

I'm all pumped to play around with Epic when I get home and I can't wait to see how much Liryk has grown!!

I also can't wait for Ann to come to Perth in December :-)

The photo above has the three dogs that I ran over the six days. From left to right is Sydney, Sizzle and Scream. The people are Eric and Karen Holik, Me, Ann Braue and Jenn Crank.

I can't believe I've had this opportunity for a second year running. I feel soooooo lucky!!! What a buzz!!!

ABCTC Camp 1

Wow I can't believe I'm back :-) When I was on the road leading to the complex it felt like I'd never left.

This time round in Camp 1 I've run multiple dogs. The picture that I've up loaded is Sydney a border collie owned by Karen Holik and her partner Eric. I've also run Karen's sheltie Sizzle and Ann Braue's Scream.

It's been great, though challenging for my handling, running so many "different" dogs.

Sydney for example has quite a late commitment point which forces you to support the bar longer and occasionally take a deeper step into said jump ....... the down side to this is that Sydney is EXTREMELY fast!! And so makes it challenging to get to the next obsticle. LOL

Scream on the other hand is very much ..... you point and shoot :-) Don't think though that this gives me more time to get into position. He is incrediably powerful and feels like a steam train coming towards you!!!

The sequences and courses have been great for handling. We've covered things like forward motion front crosses, threadles, pushs for a tunnel discrimination (HIGHLY stressful for one who has broken her leg, especially "seeing" the dog running FULL speed at you!!) and we've done a blind cross on a jump!!! YES !!! you read right a blind cross!! Even to one that does blind crosses all the time on tunnels it felt weird and as though you're disconnecting with your dog. Karen Holik assures me I'm not :-) So we'll see if it feels more natural by the end of Camp 2.

This year there is a new instructor, Jennifer Crank. WOW for someone so young she is a WEALTH of information and has left my head spinning. I'm glad I have a day off today before Camp 2 starts tomorrow ....... though saying that I can't wait to do it all over again!! :-)