Tuesday, April 21, 2009

catching up ...

I was feeling poorly last week, my whole body ache and my migrane is bothering me, I am not coping well when the weather turns hot! Isn't that sounds funny to you, I came from a hot country and I am complaining HOT when the temperature hits 20c? I am living on ibuprofen but my migrane just wouldn't go away, so I am hiding indoor during the day. This means I am not enjoying the lovely sunny spring.
I didn't do any training last week with the boys, it was humid and wet and our club training was close for Easter break. I enjoyed a bit of agility break. Well, maybe I was too relax about it and I did terribly at Wallingford on Sunday. I have entered Saturday and Sunday and even got a camping pass from Marion but Friday was pouring, so I decided not to go camping. On Saturday morning, my migane hit me again, so I told Colin I want to stay in, not going to agility. Colin thought I must be seriously ill as I am always energetic about agility and I guess he was right. My headache wouldn't go away, after dropping my nephew at Pryford to play golf, we took the dogs to the swampy Wisley Common for a walk, both Sing and Sizzle loved the puddles and water ditch, they even tried to swim, that was so funny.
I was feeling a little better on Sunday, so we went to Wallingford. We didn't leave home until 8am, it was a funny feeling, normally we woke up before dawn and set off to the show before the sun comes out but Sunday was very leisure. I gave myself plenty of time. There were about 200 dogs before us, so I thought two hours after the show starts should be the right time. We got there around 9:30am and our first run was at 1:20pm! And yes, both Agility and Jumping started at the same time, so after four hours' wait and we were done in 30 minutes (including the queing time)!
I had 2 runs each with Sing and Saturn and I had four eliminations! We started with Agility. I like Carlos's course, he always set up some nice challenging courses which needed some handling, I was running a few of his courses last year and I really love it.


this is the Grade 4-5 Agility course (just a draft from what I can remember)


My worried was the #5, #6, #7, #8 bit. I know I can trust Saturn to find the weave, so I challenged myself to turn him in between #5 and #6, then push him to take #7 and asked him to weave. He did that beautifully. His only problem was the contacts. First, he ping off the dog walk, then he ran passed the see-saw and A Frame! With Sing, I did a front cross after #6, so that give me a better position to stay behind #7 to send him into weave. He is not a great weaver so I have to watch him but somehow on Sunday, he kept pulling out from the 10th pole (both in agility and jumping) and that gave us the two e'd!

I being very stupidly handled Saturn in the Jumping class. He should do well in that course but I was moving when I sent him into the weave, so he went in the 2nd pole but I carried on and that gave us the e'd. It wasn't a difficult weave entry but I was being too careless. I am hoping to do more UKA shows this year to improve Saturn's contacts.

Back to little Sizzle. My long waiting custom made hit-it board arrived today! I was a bit disappointed with it, the size and colour is perfect but the beep isn't working too well for Sizzle. I remembered on the CleanRun website, there is a section you need to fill in was "how heavy is your dog", so when I emailed NoseTouch, I told Mary Lou that the weight is between 4.2kg (Sizzle was 4.2kg when I ordered the board, now 4.5kg) to 8.6kg (Sing's weight). I know nothing about the mechanism, but when I put Sing on the board, it beep but when I put Sizzle ON it, it doesn't beep at all, so I try running Sizzle on it and it doesn't beep either!! I guess the board needs a bit of a loosen job?

We have tried out the new hit-it board, after a couple of months break from the Dog Walk, he is keener than ever, so here we go ...

woohoo ... I am flying!


and this is better ...

I am still trying to play with the board, first I put it closer to the bottom end and he jumped over the board A LOT; so I tried moving the board further up to see what will I get out of it, here is the first attempt ... nearly miss!


wee ... here I fly!

then, I started to put his toy closer to the bottom of the DW

I think he starting to get the idea, I put the toy further from the contact and that is so much better.


I will keep experimenting for the next couple of days to see what outcome I have so I can fix up the training method.

small note on our weave: we are still working on our entries and I have also tried different combinations of things, one thing I am glad with is when he weaves, he is always put his head down and focus.

6 comments:

Hooch and troops said...

Ah you had just as much stress at Wallingford as i had waiting all morning then having 4 runs to run at once!! like u i got mostly e's...things can only get better!

Hope u r feeling better soon and maybe we will have a chance to catch up at a show soon!

p.s. i like the hit board...i am using a bit of matting but think it is the same principal..just need a piece of contact equipment now!! hee hee

Sara said...

I'm sorry you haven't been feeling well. I get migraines too, so I know how they can really wear you down.

Hope you are feeling better soon.

ann said...

Hope your feeling better soon Lian we still need to do that walk.x

Diana said...

I hope your head feels better soon. I like the size of your hit-it board. Mine is smaller that that. I know I had trouble with my board when i first got it. They finally had to sent me a new box that beeps. Now it works fine. But it seems that if the hit is near the outside areas, it sometimes doesnt beep.

Vonnie said...

Good to hear your feeling better - I suffer from Migraines too So have every sympathy as to how it affects your life!

Shame the bleep isn't going off when Sizzle hits it! Hopefully you'll be able to get it sorted! The pics are great!

Chris and Ricky said...

Sorry to hear you haven't been well - mom used to get a lot of migraines so she really sympathizes with you!

I know Sizzle isn't supposed to fly off the end of the DW but those are our favorite photos (and also the great one of him weaving!).