Monday Night Training

Had a brilliant training session tonight with both my lads, i wasn't looking forward to going tonight as well because for the last few weeks it has been to crowded and i have went away feeling that it was a waste of my time

But tonight........

gee was his normal self but better he was rapid and had super tight quick turns all night.

I brought tweed in bout 10 minutes before the end, and he was f**king awesome (not just regular awesome)

That dog is icon status like i dont think there is a better dog on this earth.

and anyone who thinks there dog is better in the the words of Mr T "I pitty the fool".....

I live in hope that i'll have the chance to get a dog that is half as good as him again.

Running Contacts (Crufts)

Right, I have been watching the agility on Crufts tv via internet over the past 4 days

I have watched the dogs competing in the internationals, the senior and the champ final watching some of the best dog and handler combinations in the world. I have come to an conundrum

The one that is fresh in my memory is the champ final from this evening. Everyone in that final ran the dog walk contact, I know the handlers and dogs that ran in the final and I know for a fact that all of there dogs are trained to stop at the end. But off course I understand that in a final you want to go for it and you don’t want to be there just to make up numbers so you release the dog earlier than you would normally.

So I have had a few theory’s running through my (small but efficient) brain (I won’t displace them on here) but i am wondering what if you trained your dog to run the dog walk all the time. In theory this should shave vital time of your overall round BUT……………….

The question is

Is the RISK worth the REWARD?

What I am on about is,

Is the risk of training running contacts worth the reward of winning?

Running Contacts Risks

Can sometimes be inconsistent
Alot of judges cant mark them properly
You have to be mentally on the ball as the dog is always driving on to next obstacle and in more cases than not is in front of you. (How Quick Are You)

Rewards

There is only one main reward for doing this and that is you increases your chances of winning


I know a lot of English judges are aware of fast running contacts, so they tend to only mark the down contact neglecting the up. They don’t do this so much in Scotland (but Its only a matter of time).

I know this for a fact as I already have a dog that runs contacts.

And I know there is no way on earth that the judge is going to get a good clear view of both my up and down marks unless the judge is standing well back and has the hole contact in there peripheral vision as its over in a matter of 1.2 seconds so what happens when they cant get a clear view you get 5 faults because the judge doesn’t believe you could get a contact going that fast.

It has took me over ten years with that dog to prove to people that he gets the contact every time.

These are the risks that you have to take so the question still is………………


Is the RISK worth the REWARD?

Building Jumps

Was building myself a new set of jumps today for up the field got our mate Davie to cut all the bits of wood for us so have been round at his putting them all together in the rain and snow (that’s commitment)

I was freezing by the end of it could not feel my feet.

Lol Davie said that the last 3 jump wings he screwed together he struggled to pick up the screws his hands were that cold, I had gloves on ha ha

My knees were knackered by the end of it though because Davie had the only set of knee pads the bastard.

But that’s them all made now so its just the horrible task of painting them now.

Think we have a wee compressor spray painter in the shed so ill do it with that and it shouldn’t be so bad

Dog Walk Training (is pissing me of)

I went up the field today with gee about 11 to have a quick few shots of the dog walk,

for the last month and a bit i have been trying to work on turns and my handling, neglecting the dog walk as we trained this over the winter period

so that's what i have been concentrating on is getting gee and myself fine tuned to be ready for the start of the season because i believe in all great teams/combinations there must be a great bond, so me and gee can work with each other me knowing what hes going to do and him know what i am going to do.

so have not done a dog walk with gee for about a month.

anyways i took a set of timing gates up with me and set them up either end of the dog walk to get my time across it i am hoping to get him 2 sec under for his dog walk with a stop

and the thing that is annoying me about it is that he is so inconsistent across it time wise

first run 2.6sec rubbish

2nd run 1.7 good

3rd run 1.8 good

4th 2.2 sec rubbish

5th 2.4 rubbish

then out of no where a 1.6 sec

i looked at him like where did that come from ya little shit, he just look up at me with a cheeky grin ha ha ha.

was about to stop on that cos he was looking abit tired but i done 1 more (big mistake)

2.8 sec nightmare

so i stop there and came back down the road unhappy where as if i just left the run before i would have went down the road happy as Larry.

moral of the story is i am a twat and so is gee (dog are like there owners)