CPE agility trial.
I finally got brave enough to enter Murray in his first agility trial. The main reason I hadn't was that he has a habit of clipping jumps. We have been working on it, but he seldom has a totally clean run. I've come to the conclusion that the very thing that he has gotten praised for is the main problem: he watches me very closely. You wouldn't think that would be a problem, but it takes his attention away from the jump, especially if he gets a little ahead of me. Very frustrating. He is just over 11", so in CPE he would jump 8" which is what we usually practice at. CPE makes an exception for some short legged deep chested breeds including Corgis and they can move down to the next lower height. I felt kind of silly jumping at 4", but was advised to do it by several veteran agility trainers. I was glad I did, as it really took away a lot of my nerves not worrying about knocking jumps. There's enough other stuff to worry about.
Anyhow, after an initial bout of nerves (me, not Murray, he was unusually calm ), we had a great time. We had 5 runs in one day, got 4 Q's and 4 first places ( not so hard when you're only competing against 1 or 2 dogs in your height category). His only faults were a couple back jumps due to my poor handling skills. His times were all among the top 3 in all height categories in Level 1 including beating the times of many of the Border Collies and Aussies. He had the fastest time in the Standard Course. The one DQ we had was again due to my bad. He stopped at the end of the tunnel to munch some cow poop that had apparently been kicked into it by the previous dog. Without thinking until it was too late, I stuck out my foot to encourage him to move on when telling him to didn't work. Who knew that kicking your dog wasn't allowed???? Actually I didn't touch him, but knew immediately that I had screwed up. I have been practicing with him to get him to back up to aid in "hind end awareness" on the assumption that it may help with his jumping skills....he will take a few steps backward and then sit and scoot back and if I touch his butt with my foot he stands back up, so I guess I had kind of gotten used to guiding him with my foot!
All in all we had a great time and I am very proud of him. His accuracy and speed, and distance work were pretty amazing and nobody has more fun than Murray. Now...back to practicing his jumping skills......
Comment
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Comment by Judith Andre on November 28, 2011 at 10:59pm
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I have done both those exercises quite a bit and continue to do them, but I think the problem is not nearly so much with the mechanics as it is with his attention which is often not on the jump but on me and/or the treat if I have one. It was not a problem when we first started as he went slower and ran beside me. I am now trying the "look" command to try to get him to focus on the jump ahead. Haven't been working on that long enough for him to "get" it. Another problem is that I live in a downtown apt with no yard so have to drive across town to the club building every time I want to practice. I do have some folding jumps, but very limited space to use them. By the time I load everything up and take him to a park to (illegally) practice, I might as well drive to the practice building where the facilities are so much better. Baby steps..,
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Comment by Sandy Stickney on November 28, 2011 at 2:01pm
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Congratulations! I love to hear about everyone's agility experiences, as I hope to get into agility with my pups one day. They seem to be have the ability to learn the equipment, but I am afraid I will never be a great agility trainer.
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Comment by Beth on November 28, 2011 at 12:06pm
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Jack probably would not have continued if he found cow poop. *sigh* That is our biggest problem: trying to find something that he likes better than what he can find on the ground to eat.
We did some gymnastic exercises to work on not hitting bars and it helped a lot. You set up a line of jumps with no strides in between (dog jumps, lands, takes off again). It's used for hunters and jumpers in the horse world, and it does the same thing for dogs: it teaches them to gather their hind end under them and push off from the back while picking their front end out of the way. We also do work where I straddle a jump (one leg on each side) and go back and forth over it. I only give treats if he doesn't knock it.
Jack is 13 inches at the shoulder and we jump at 12" height. Low jumps he sometimes sorta plows through. He is a very fast dog (when he's not eating) but not always a careful dog.
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Comment by Kara with Dasiy & Scout on November 28, 2011 at 1:08am
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Yeah for Murray!! I have entered Daisy in 2 CPE trials and she did great too. Our next one is Dec. 9-11 and I can't wait! It has been a blast for me and Daisy!
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