Lulu & Minnie

The April qualifications, third ones. Judge  Juraj Ruza. I liked the courses, they seemed to flow very nicely. 1st course. Jumping. Im still in a state where i feel that 7 minutes is not enough for the course walk. So I messed up 4x. 1) On already 4th jump, i was slightly confused where to go, that caused delay in my actions, that meant i was late for 6th. DSQ in a place that I didnt anticipate. The part that I was nervous about I managed very well. 2) I forgot where to go in a place where I constantly already messed up while walking... 3) i did not call Minnie where she needed to change the line - I know in theory that I have to do it... 4) To the last tunnel - my body already turned and late with cues...so you cannot expect anything else from Minnie, but to follow me.  2nd course. Already when course walking i knew that it will not be pretty. We got DSQ already after 2 obstacles, where Minnie went to tunnel. I did not do a good job in turning her. Now thinking, I should have...

Back to agility competition this weekend. Still in grade 2. Place was Vastse-Kuuste and judge was Laura Grosser (GER). 1st agility course . When course walking it seemed pretty good and simple. When running, it felt the same. maybe in couple of places I could have been faster with the commands - she had time to slightly look at me :) But anyway everything went smoothly and clean run with 1st place . Speed 5.63 m/s.  2nd agility course. Much more challenging. There were 3 moments on the course that I found challenging while course walking. First moment was after slalom and it went well for us. Only the joy of success caused me to miss the plan after that. And we got a DSQ from a jump before see-saw. She went to the back side...Then after tunnel I was miserably late by watching her so she went out from the line. The second challenging moment was after dog-walk and tunnel, where the dog had to come to the inside of the jump. My plan was to stop but in reality I did not stop not I tu...

 We went again to try out rally obedience. Judge was Vivian Ainsalu. Grade 2. First course. Short course, no temptation, no spirals, no jumps...very pleasant. Out of nowhere i got this "brilliant" idea to put a ball in the finish. Was I not concluded after last competition that she cannot see or play ball before the obedience course - its too exciting? So I dont know why now I thought that it was good idea...well it was not. This ball was distracting her when we passed it at third sign. And she was first time ever vocalizing her impatience :) Then at 7th sign (double 180 degree turn) she got distracted by the judge, also then missed my turning. Result was -10 because she got more the 90 degree angle from me. I should have been taking her with me more carefully. Then it was quite nice for a while. She didnt wait until called at the left turn (but no minuses). And then at the last sign she got really impatience because of the ball in sight. She was barking about 3x. That earne...

 All march was a super spring. It must a be record early spring. It was mostly sunny and just invited to go out more.  Little fun at agility training :) Even a video from a training course:  Also the every week Wednesday orientating started again, that we are taking part and that it lots of fun. I think Lulu is enjoining this the most.

Finally back to grade 2 level. Competition was at Vastse-Kuuste and judge Anastassia Tamm.  1st course . Jumping. I was worrying about some turns and "traps" but as we started to run it tuned out that they are not a problem at all :) We got clean run - that was our third one - so we also got a right to move to grade 3. It was not the fastest time and we got 2nd place ! 2nd course. Jumping. I was more confident in running and actually enjoyed it a lot! I even had time to cheer Minnie! Great feeling. Again smooth sailing and clean run with 1st place . 3rd course . Agility. Same thing. I felt good! Clean tun and 1st place! 4th course. Agility. Same same. At first I was not sure how to do second jump. But then I did it like everyone else. In the end, the jump before see-saw, I was very happy how I gave "cross" command (jump and turn away), but saw that Minnie still starts to turn to me after jump - but then changed her plan and actually tuned away from me! beautiful!...

Second tryouts for Estonian AWC team. This time in Vastse-Kuuste. The course design was done by Reetta Pirttikoski (FIN) but judged by Anastassia Tamm.  1st agility course. I think the fist half went quite well. I was worried about the slalom entry but it went well (probably because I was confused jut before that part) :) But everything worked out as planned.  Then after jump no.9 (jump after long jump) she did a sharp turn away from me and took the wrong jump- DSQ . I have no idea why she came up with this plan :) On the second round passing the same place she thought that she knows exactly how the course goes :D. Overall i´m happy of our good 9 first obstacles :) 2nd agility course. The DSQ came area at 4th jump. She went behind the jump. She is in the stage where she follows her line very well - and the line went behind the jump. Anyway the jumps 4 to 6 was very difficult for us. Next impossible line was 10 to 11 (tunnel under A-frame to jump and not going to slalom)...

I made my (and Minnie made her) debut in Estonian AWC (Agility Word Championships) qualification competitions. Our qualification system currently is that dogs (from A3 and A2 grade) will run 12 courses divided in 4 different weekends from February to May. All clean runs or -5 results will give points and 4 most point collected dogs will be Estonian team. Since Im curios about the courses and we are allowed to participate then I decided that Minnie will also participate. Of course, as she is 2y3m old then we do not go there for "results" but we go to get experience.  On 21 February we had first qualification competition. Judge was Anastassia Tamm. There was 27 medium dogs participating :) 1. jumping course . Course itself was noting very difficult, with a good flow, I would say. Most difficult part for us was entry and exit of the slalom. And she did not see  the slalom entry (did i block it or she did not look for it?) and took the obvious jump. DSQ . But she worked very well...