Some fun agility practice this weekend!

We got in some fun agility practice this weekend - on a full course! Can you say, 'saaawwweeettt'!

First we started on a little nasty jump grid to warm up a little. We never made it through the entire thing clean, so much twisting and turning, and I was hyped up and running wide, but it was a fun little challenge for warm up.

Then it was off to the full course, a nice flowing one at that, with just a tricky spot or two.

What we wanted to know most are the following:

1. Can we both run a full course after being off agility for quite a while?
2. How's my running dogwalk training and frame coming along and proofing on a full dogwalk?
3. Have I sped up my teeter, and how are my weaves now that I haven't done them in a couple of months?
4. Can Mum remember how to run a course still, BOL!!!

We found out a few things:

It's still true that my first few runs of the day are the speediest. It was a little hot on Saturday, not too bad - sunny in the low 80's. My first two runs were much speedier than my last one.

My running dog walk is pretty good on speed clocking in at 2.25 for the first one and 2.51 for the second. Not my fastest running dog walk, but not bad. And I was much more consistent than in the past. But I'm still not running deep enough into the yellow, not taking three strides on the down plank like I should be. I only bailed it once when Mum got 10 feet ahead of me at the end. I didn't bail at all when Mum was next to me or behind me.

My frame is still looking pretty good, clocking in at 1.56 for the first one and 2.01 for the second. Mum would like to see me run a little deeper in. Again not my speediest, but close.

Teeter? Well my first one was my best ever! Probably because I thought it was the dog walk since they were parallel, clocking in at 1.59. My second one was my usual speed, hesitating at the mid point at 2.48. Much more work needed there.

My weaves are just kind of slow. These were 20" on center poles which I always do more slowly. The first one was 3.56 and the second 3.96, ouch! Was it just because I haven't seen weaves in over three months? Guess we'll see.

Here are past times (from December 08) with new times from Saturday:

Johann:
DW avg. 2.567 (4) 2.33-2.94 New Time: 2.25-2.51
AF avg. 1.594 (5) 1.23-2 New Time: 1.56-2.01
TT avg. 2.326 (5) 2.13-2.67 New Time: 1.59-2.48
WP avg. 3.285 (4) 3.2-3.79. New Time: 3.50-3.96

Here are some comparative times from our friend Ellen in a post a while ago. She timed some of the top world class dogs from AgilityVision website, running in 2007. Always a good reference point:

Dogwalk 1.87/1.90
Aframe: 1.35/1.42
Teeter 1.01/0.99
Weaves 2.82/2.85

So did Mum remember the course? Yes, she did, very well as a matter of fact. But how did she run? She was breathless after each run. Of course we didn't have the adrenalin rush like we would at a trial. But she isn't very sore today as she was when we went to practice on a full course a month or so ago. So there's improvement. All those 3 & 4 mile hikes we've been doing at least four times per week are paying off for her, as well as keeping me and Gracie in shape.

We want to thank our friends at Anything's Pawsible for having a nice fun play day and inviting us to come run at their facility. Thank you!!! We had a blast. And super thanks to Angie for video taping us.

So here are snippets of the two runs and some of the nasty jumpers grid, enjoy!


Now for Gracie!

The biggest thing we wanted to work on with Gracie is focus. Or maybe we should say, will she stay focused for an entire course? Answer is no, still not yet. Gracie did two full courses, and midway she lost her focus on both.

But the nice thing is that Mum got her back every time. One time it took a while, the next time it didn't take but a few seconds. Still, we need more full course practice with Gracie so that she can work on staying into it the entire course. After Gracie ran a couple of courses, Mum worked with her on sequences and she did really well with those. Very focused, very speedy, very accurate.

Her weaves are looking pretty good, timed at 3.12-3.37, faster than mine! Her dog walk was timed at 2.42-2.5 and 2.7, not bad, but like me she can do better and she also needs to work on getting further into the yellow on the downside.

Like me she thought the first teeter was the dogwalk and it clocked at 1.59 (same as mine). The next one you can tell she was hesitant. Something else to work on. And her frame comtines to be pretty good, clocking at 1.67-1.87, but she is really close on the down contact. She's never completely bailed the contact, but she is so close sometimes. Something else to work on.

Gracie had a great time and when she worked on a modification of the jumpers grid as a warm up, Mum sent her to the tunnel from 20 feet away, and she was taking jumps ahead of Mum and at a lateral distance. So her distance work has been paying off. Nice job Gracie!

Here's Gracie runs, enjoy!