Lulu & Minnie

In October, we admired nature changing! My favourite time of the year! But we were also home, lazy on the couch :) But actually we were training, competing and travelling quite a lot!

 A long weekend of competitions with judge Jordi Boix Baró in Vaste-Kuuste. Saturday 1st AGCACIB course:   Quite difficult course. But to my surprise, it went very well, until there was a slalom-tunnel choice, where the correct one was the tunnel - she loves her slaloms! I should have called her, but I did not, so she went to slalom, and we got DSQ .  But I have a feeling that we would have got DSQ anyway after see-saw, because my posture was showing badly on the jump there.  2 jumping courses. We got both clean runs and 3rd place s. But overall impression was that I was lacking confidence, and we lost a lot of time on handling.  I was surely happy to get results on difficult courses! Sunday We finished the previous evening at 19 and started driving back to the competition little after 9. I felt that it was not enough rest. All 3 courses were DSQ . They were all very complex courses, and overall I was happy that they were generally very good, and our DSQs we...

We went to try rally obedience again, still in RK2 class. We are not in a hurry to move on just yet :) The judge was Iris Harju (FIN). The dog hall was different from what Minnie has been used to. Blue tent-like, where walls were moving in the wind...this is something to get used to, for sure.  1st course: nice start. At 3. Sign (sit-stand-move around the dog) - she moved the back feet...-3p. Next was stepping back, where she stepped on my toes 2 times and hesitated to sit at the end (-4p). Then turning and slalom was nice. After that, it was a turn, but Minnie missed the stopping part and had to turn back (-10p); otherwise, very nice turn :). 270 turn was very nice! After that a jump. She got surprised by this jump :D -3p. Finally we lost 2p in a spin. And one after the finish, because I turned to exit too sharply, causing her to jump away.  But our typical mistakes were all there: spin doesn't work on the first try (it only happens during competition!), she misses my stop a...

A day after I ran my first-ever half-marathon, and on my birthday, we had our third competition at the A3 level. The judge was Peter Pupik, and it was held in Vastse-Kuuste. 1. jumping course . There was a difficult choice of 3 tunnels in the course! And we managed this! I was very happy. Before the end, I planned to blind, but I was late for that, and then I was in the wrong position for flick or an out, and Minnie was already about to jump - but then stopped right before jumping, and I was able to guide her to the backside - no refusal for this, and that meant a  clean run! And 1st place ! 2. jumping. The course went quite well for us until after slalom, so the jump no 13 was unlucky for us. I wanted to layer a jump, but I was not handling the layering well, and pulled Minnie towards me. She did come like a perfect pup she is :) I was not able to repair the situation, and she took the correct jump from the wrong side - DSQ . Actually, my fear of the course was still coming, and ...

 In September Lulu started with orientation again.  After its relaxing :) Minnie is living hard working-dog life where training and completions are everyday life :) And then she also have to manage the remote controls at home :) On 23rd September, Lulu had a birthday ! She is now 6 years old! She got a break on her diet so she could have ice cream and new toys! And at the end of the month, we were nailed to the screens as the biggest agility event of the year happened: World Agility Championships! 

 Second competition at grade 3. This time in Vastse-Kuuste. Judge Rene Blank. 1st course. Agility . There was three moments on the course that could be a problem. On first (sending to the slalom) I completely over handled the situation. But lost only time. Second moment also, Over handled and lost tiny bit of time. Third moment - not a problem :) Results was clean run!!! yepiii. And first place . I was very happy! 2nd agility course . Minnie took off after dog walk towards the tunnel - I dont know if she thought that it goes the same as the last course :), but I managed to stop her before entering the tunnel. We were able to execute the layering the slalom, it worked beautifullllyyy!!! Trouble was on a jump that I did not see it coming. I did not realised that the dogs line goes passing the jump, therefore I did no effort on correcting the line - and Minnie went behind the jump. DSQ. After Minnie was going to tunnel, the juge instructed to go back where our dsq started. This time...

 After 1.5 month competition break we starter the season and in grade 3!   It was held by TAKO in Männiku. Judge Christl Faltner. 1st course . Jumping. Quite challenging. A lot of traps on the dogs line. We almost got it! Excapt at the one hurdle before last. Where I did not call Minnie...was thinking about the clean run :) And she went straight (not turning with me..) and DSQ .  2nd course. Jumping. Got DSQ quite early, on 5th jump, where she did not turn enough and took the wrong jump. It was not the "last" DSQ for us :) I was struggeling to keep her on the correct path.  3rd course . Agility. The same. Got did not manage to keep on on the good track. DSQ.