Beacon

On Sunday at Beacon we got there a bit late and had missed walking the Combined 6-7 agility, which we then made a right hash off, we looked as though we had never done agility before, it was a course that needed walking!  I took him in the training ring and realised his contacts were awful, he was back on rubber and was struggling to cope, he was going so slow and stopping short, so I got his toy out and worked on some encouragement.  

We then ran Graded 6-7 agility and I ‘quick released’ his contacts, I say quick release as his contacts were quite slow but once in position he was released.  We had a lovely round and a refusal at the second to last jump – gutted!  I just didn’t hold my position long enough.  

Finally Graded 6-7 Jumping and we made a right hash of that too!  I don’t know why but he just seemed really down today and a bit ploddy in the ring, very quiet, not his usual self.  Whether he missed not having another dog with him or whether he was tired from yesterday I am not sure, will have to see how he goes this week.

One thing I do think I am losing are his waits, I can see it happening, I really need to sort it but am a bit scared of taking the mick in the ring and don’t like to mess about keeping the judge waiting.  I don’t want to remove him from the ring as it will just knock his confidence completely so am not sure how I will tackle this one.  I am also really struggling with grade 6 with him, when we won out of grade 5 I only ever did a couple of grade 6 classes before I took a break, I am sure that we had a lot of 5-7 classes but now they seem to all be 6-7 and I am noticing courses are a lot harder, I don’t struggle as much with Ember so I think it’s a lot to do with his striding and how much longer he is jumping.  I need to work on tightening turns with him as I have done too much work powering him on he is.

Here's his graded 6-7 agility, slow I know!!