...ready for action !

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Baby Dogs!

Last night Tink and Red Dog had their debuts at the Western Classic.. and I was pretty darn close with my predictions! Red Dog was up first in NJ which was quite a nice course, a couple of turns but lots of sections where they could stretch out.. very appropriate for novice dogs just into the ring.
Red Dog tried hard and I was very pleased with her. As predicted, she had a couple of bars (including the 1st jump that she completely misjudged and landed ON, obviously some more work needed there), but she stretched out really well and more or less went the right way. Vid below:




Ink then had her go in NJ, and did a slightly better job than I was expecting, with a little more stretching out (especially into the tunnels). She was *very* nearly clear but brought the last bar down (a spread, bad trainer then realised *neither* baby dog has ever seen a spread.. oops!)
NA was much much harder. It was very similar to the masters agility course with a few obstacles taken out. I wasn't happy, Ink is very soft and I was hoping for nicer courses to encourage her to stretch out and not get all worried. So I was very surprised when she ran it clear, not even looking at the many off course obstacles. Not as fast as she was in jumping (given the course not a surprise), but she didn't look too worried. She put lots of feet down on the DW, which was good, and her AF was also pretty good. Came 3rd to a couple of much more experienced novice dogs, so was happy with that. Need to work on her driving down her contacts more, and forward drive as per usual. Vids below






Terra and Shim... well I think they both had fun, which was the aim. Terra stepped on something in the park and hurt her pad, so she only did 1 run, but she barked at me a lot so I think she enjoyed it. Shim had a crack at MJ where she was WAY faster than I anticipated (and also a little off course.. haha) but we both enjoyed it. Then in EA (almost straight afterwards), she was off with the fairies. Jumped off her DW, ran past obstacles.. unsure what was going on with her. But she still had a great big grin on her face, so that was mission accomplished.
Tonight is teams, and hopefully will help give Ink a bit more ring experience and confidence. Then we won't be trialling again until the states.. where hopefully the Red Dog will have an A-Frame and be ready to go for real!

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