Lulu & Minnie

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.

In august we rested a lot. Just a bit of training, But mostly resting :)  

 The competition were held close to home, only 20 min drive. Judge was Linda Wiksten (FIN). We were competing in grade 2. 1st course. Somehow we lost 4points in start. She sneezed? Then at first sign we lost 8p, because she were sniffing hard 2 times even.  It went a bit smootly then, but I didnt manage to make her spin on time, -10p :(. After that she was good, but before the end, on the last turn, she lost focus - turned to me (-10p). So overall basically 3x failed signes + somehow deductions in the start = -33p. In total 67p.   2nd course . On this course we managed to get on 4 signs -10p, one from them was on me - I turned to the wrong way, and one was again spinning too late. Uhh. But also some sniffing and distractions cost us about -15p. So this time it was only 45 points left for us. It was quite disappointing and not encouraging :D But still got 3rd place on both courses :) But I have to admit that we had no training for rally at all for a month. We will try aga...