Summers' Flying Squirrel

Following my earlier post today that mentioned Summers' favourite toy, "The Flying Squirrel" ... I thought the following photo's of Summer with her Flying Squirrel Frisbee would be appropriate.

Here she is, enjoying her play after some neat weaving practice ...

Training with Summer

It’s all starting to come together … last night at training I had someone video Summer and I on a little jumping course. This is the first time I’ve put more than 6 or so jumps together with her and she handled it very nicely, staying focused and willing for the whole course … with her favorite “Flying Squirrel Frisbee” jackpot at the end, she pranced around proudly with it as if very pleased with herself.

It was nice to get an idea on how we would “feel” moving together and she didn’t disappoint me at all … she really likes to stretch out when running and seems to do so quite gracefully (I can’t promise that I’ll be able to compliment her in this way!) however she can still come in and work nice and close too. Obviously her preference is to stretch out so close work will need more practice than the other.

Her contacts are coming along nicely … I want 100% reliable contacts (just like Cash has) and I "know" it’s possible so I’m not going to accept anything less … she is still guessing a little bit so we need to keep it simple for a while longer.

The “penny dropped” last week on the weaves and she is now doing her full 12 weaves and already showing rhythm and adding her own speed.

Even though I hadn’t planned to train Summer early on and circumstances made it predestined, I am actually really enjoying training her now … it’s such a pleasure to have a dog that is motivated by toys rather than food, and a nice change to not need bucket loads of food to get through a training session!

Tonight: Friday 14 March = Weave Pole practice on the agenda.

That’s all for now,
Helen

Western Classic ... been and gone!

Well, we’re midway thru March and Ticket & I have only had three agility trials since the start of the trialling year (Feb). There have been a few country trials but with many other dogs at home, kennels, etc., we rarely make the time to travel to them.

Our last trial was the Western Classic, two weeks ago, and Ticket managed to do some serious bar-knocking … she seemed very distracted and concerned and kept wanting to run off to the show arena, where the conformation showing was happening … it dawned on me that she was searching for Mum and Rene, who had arrived at the grounds later than me, dropped in by my car and then disappeared off to do their showing. After her first three runs we had a break, so I took Ticket for a walk over to the show rings, where she was so relieved to see Mum and Rene … we stayed for 5 minutes and came back to the agility rings … she was much calmer - phew! We won’t let that happen again!!!

For her last run, Open Agility, she was a little gem. On walking the course I doubted that she would actually perform her A-Frame properly, seeing that it had to be layered outside a very inviting tunnel entrance and was in the exclusion zone … she did it beautifully and Qualified in 4th Place!!!

I’m pleased with our record so far this year – we’ve qualified once at two out of three trials – let’s see if we can keep the Q’s coming.

On the show scene, Rene handled Chilli for Best of Breed Malinois at both shows and the following night she took little Satu (her Baby Papillon) thru to Best Baby in Group 1.

So quite a successful weekend all round.