Lulu & Minnie

Time for outdoor season. Our training moved outside just this week. So we had a outside raining in this week earlier. The competition was in Viljandi and judge was Einari Pekkala from Finland, we are still on grade 2 level. On the way to the competition I received very sad news that my grandma has passed. So it was mentally more challenging than in other competitions.  1. course. Jumping. I think it was pretty easy course. There was couple of tunnel traps and maybe some thinking what would be the best slalom entry. Minnie slipped two time on the course. I think it was the "new" surface. Everything went by the plan except I planned to blind cross before tyre, but in reality I ran too much into the jump and ended up rear crossing. But all went good. Clean run, speed 5.48 m/s and first place!  2. course. Jumping. Again very smooth course. There was one tricky place. Just after first tunnel. I made plans to try to blind cross to be safer. I managed to blind quite easy for my su...

 Well, 4th qualifiers for AWC. This time judge was Anna Schönenberger.  1st course . Agility. While course walk. there was 2 obvious moments where I would have problems. Slalom entry and tunnel exit after dog-walk.  So for slalom I managed to blind and slalom entry was successful. I was very happy of that. After dog walk I did extra 3 steps towards the jump. That made me being late for the plan to blond cross after tunnel. Of course when Minnie entered the tunnel and I saw that Im only on the mid tunnel, I realised that I will not make it. But I still tried to make the blind...why? dont know. Of course I should have stayed behind an call her....but since I dint then she took the long jump instead. DSQ . The rest of the course went very smoothly. I actually was very happy with the run!  2nd course. Jumping. Difficult for us. Lots of obstacles very close with each other. Many sharp turns needed. I was not 100% sure of my plans. And in addition to that, Minnie wa...

 Both dogs god a short hair cuts for the summer! Minnie still with long hair: Pärli and Lulu watching TV: Minnie preparing for the next skiing season :) Minnie at training: Hedgehog season started - everyday guests unfortunately. Minnie is okay with them but Lulu goes frantic and is a daily rescue mission. Lulu got her teeth on Minnie favorite ball...time to get a new favorite.. 

Because Minnie started heat, then we had to change plans and cancel planned rally obedience competition and we could register at last minute to the agility competition instead. Judge was Alejandro Salas from Spain. 3x agility courses at grade 2. 1st course. Not the easiest courses for sure! The most tricky moment was the sequence after see-saw. I think my plan would have worked put I stayed to check on her on the jump after see-saw (it was inside). On that spot I kinda knew that Im in trouble for the next one (the critical one). And I was right - I was super behind and too afraid the wall, so called a lot and she was very good girl and took the jump (should have too ik from outside). DSQ . My line was not very good when sending her to the tunnel after, therefore Minnie was also mislead about the direction = massive time loss.  2nd course. It was not that tricky for us and I tried to keep in mind to be bolder on my run. I did that and everything worked well! Clean run, 1st pla...

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 ha...

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...

 On third of February it was anniversary of getting Minnie. 2 years for now she has been on my side.  Minnie watching Olympics:

In the weekend again agility competition at Vaste-Kuuste. Judge was Stefi Praakli. Grade 2. 1. jumping course. Nicely flowing course. Not too "straight -in-your-face" traps. I managed to not mess up handling and result was clean run, speed 5.56m/s and 1st place . 2nd jumping course. At the start I did not left her enough behind, that caused me to be late for the jump after tunnel,that caused me to be late for blind cross after the jump :) Somehow still the turn worked.  Then for a while tings went smoothly. She did turn away from me when should have taking the wing on my side. Maybe that caused me running so much out after the tunnel..anyway my certain plan was not to go further than the tunnel end. But in the video its seen how Im going actually a lot after (1-1.5m).... this caused me to be very late at the next jump (0.5m). And that meant that I could not turn her to the correct line for the next jump... DSQ .  1st agility course. The course demanded some more skills fro...

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