Lulu & Minnie

January was cold, there was regular sleeping in the house activities :D Of course training, fitness and some competitions Minnie got herself shoes. She was of course wearing them like she would have had boots all her life!

After a month long break we are back in agility competition. Still on our "home-turf" in Vaste-Kuuste. Judge Esa Muotka. Still in grade 2. 1st course. Jumping.  In all four courses there was the same 3 tunnel positions. And the course went a bit in 8 shape. I was late after slalom. And then I forgot to change hand in a quite critical point. I tried to recover from this with rear cross before tunnel. But I was too confused to handle the next jump well. My right hand was up instead of down (sending the dog behind the jump - that she perfectly did). DSQ .  2.nd course. Jumping. Now the start was straight line to trap jump (after long jump). I was quite sure that she will take the trap, because the tunnel was in the way of avoiding going straight. My plan was to stop and call the dog. Did I do it? Nope. I just kept moving - and so did Minnie - and took the trap: DSQ .  Then in one of the turn (where now I did not forgot to change hand) Minnie turn was so wide that she went tr...

Second weekend in a row we went to Tallinn to participate Rally obedience competition. This time we were in grade 2 (RK2). Judge was Zaiga Elibird Zvirbule (LV). For Minnie it was new dog hall to be.  1st course. The course had a big stuffed dog - witch was not a distraction but a scary thing. It was a bit smaller than Minnie. I personally find that the items in distraction 8 should not be potentially scary for the dogs. Anyway Minnie was in a good mood and up to the distraction 8 we only lost 2 points (because of 2x not sitting straight - that is a typical thing for Minnie). Half way in the distr 8, she saw the dog (-3p), it was disturbing her until the end. Still she did a good job with me. We got -10p from the  spin after the distr 8, fully my fault i was too fast with my signals. in the next sign we earned -1, -1 and -3 points, she was not sitting straight, looking behind and staying behind from me (looking behind again). The on the turn around we got -2p, not good s...

Very first official Rally Obedience competition, although last summer we went to an exam. This time it was held near Tallinn and the judge was Karin Lassmann.  I started to drive from my home already at 6.30 in the morning. The condition of the roads were not great. Anyway I arrived well. Minnie was participating in grade 1 (RK1) and was first in the startlist. I like to be first in obedience.  1st course. Minnie was great. Good contact with me. In the second half of the course I made a handling mistake by not making sure that she is ready to come with me after laying down - she was convinced that I should give her some treats after this nice "down" :) So we earned -3. After that at the next sign, she needed some extra convincing to sit. There came also -1. But rest of the course was good. I was not giving any treats as I know that it might create more possibility to loose points and Minnie can work the course without it...or well - we lost 4 points because of it :D. Minnie ...

 December in pictures: The end of the year is also to make summaries: Minnie started to compete in agility and in rally obedience. In agility we made in total 49 starts (with 21 clean runs).  It was done in age of 15 to 25 months old.   4 was in grade 0 (with 3 clean runs); 25 was in grade 1 (with 12 clean runs); 16 was in grade 2 (with 5 clean runs); 4 was in open grade (with 1 clean run). The most memorable was to compete in the IPAC and get a clean run in open course and the 2nd place of medium/large teams when she was just 20 months old! We also quite unplanned, participated in some rally obedience competitions (1 official and 3 unofficials; grades 1-3). That went always surprisingly well.  I plan to continue this side activity in the next year. 

Week ago we went to our last agility competition of the year.  It was held in Vastse-Kuuste and judge was Stefi Praakli. Grade 2 Videos form all courses: 1st jumping course: I thought that it was pretty good and manageable :). For the reasons unknown to  me, Minnie came out from he slalom and took the jump that was next to it. Did I hesitate? I didnt think so... Anyhow, DSQ. Then My plans after didnt work at all. I was late to blindcross that lead to me giving the wrong command (simple left turn), and her taking a left turn anyway...Before the end there was a trap of wall after tunnel. I really wanted to see how it goes...I tried to call. But although she looked at me after tunnel, she still went for the wall :). Maybe too little information to her? Maybe I hesitate, didnt turn myself away enough..? 2nd jumping course: Here we were pretty smooth until the second tunnel. where in the exit I was late, and there was miscommunication about the direction of the turn.  Becaus...

We went to try in an unofficial rally obedience competition, we participated in RK3 grade, that is of course a bit too difficult. Or that I was thinking. Last time we participated in unofficial grade 2.  Judge was Svetlana Kulda and it was held in Pärnu. 1st course . Minnie showed such a nice heeling! We had some hiccups at half of the signs where i was too late with sit command. Or too slow with my handling. Overall we got 91 points. And that was worth of 1st place! 2nd course. She was in a perfect mood again! We made a mistake at 7th sign (side change in the front, where she didnt do the spin :)) -10 points. But I dont blame her because we just started to learn the front cross without the spinn and she was so great and remembered the lessons. At the sign 10 (turn around she managed to lay down in addition to sit. Judge was very generous and gave only -5p. After that we had -6p worth of little miscommunications, mostly about sitting :). Altogethe r 79p - and still 2nd place :D H...