How ponies cause sleep deprivation... oh and the whole World Champs thing...

Yes, I am writing to you from a sleep deprived state, so if the ramblings are a bit dis-jointed... blame the cat.

A little over a month ago, The Nerd (for those that have only started reading the blog recently, we lovingly refer to hubby as The Nerd) discovered a small pony (disguised as a cat) on their campus (that is what the insiders call the massive office complex where he works).  I wouldn't call her a stray, strays don't come running full speed to anyone that calls her.  A stray doesn't go willingly into a travel crate.  I stray doesn't beg random passers by for a belly rub.  I am sure Madam V2.0 used to have a loving home, but she had no microchip (she now does, courtesy of the Reed household) and no-one responded to the adverts.  Now she has a new loving home.

So after inoculations, chipping, de-worming/ticking and fleeing and 3 weeks of 'quarantine' (which implies a room with a double bed, a sun spot for those late afternoons, and an all you can eat buffet), I started the slow and painful process of introducing a new adult cat into our household.  I won't bore you with the details, however there is one specific behavioural problem that we are struggling with a slight bit.  My Little Pony believes that all, all, all, all, all pillows in the whole, entire, wide world, belongs to HER.  I pretty much think I have figured her out:

Satyr's (all our cats have names that derive from mythology) Super Secret Plan to show Human People she owns ALL pillows in the world:

1.  Wait for human person to achieve REM sleep.  Position self next to head of human person (that is occupying my pillow property).  Lightly tap human person on the head with your foot (be careful to keep nails in at all times).
2.  If human person does not respond, start tapping harder, slowly build up the force of the attack, if necessary smack human person against head as hard as you possible can.  Be careful to keep nails in at all times.
3.  If human person STILL does not respond, lie on their face.  Asphyxia is a relatively reliable way of ensuring that human person wakes up.
4.  When human person sits up, gasping for breath, ensure that you assume position on pillow immediately.  Be sure to stretch out as big as you possible can, so their is no space for human person head.
5.  If step 3 fails, it is time for desperate measures... proceed to jump on nightstands, knocking off as many books and alarm clocks as you can.  If there is a glass of water, ensure that you knock it over in the direction of the human person and not on the floor.

In case you didn't get the memo... I know yesterday was supposed to be my birthday, but I really just don't have the time at the moment, so I have decided I will just age two years in 2013.  I WILL however enjoy my biggest birthday present EVER... a trip to the World Champs with my boys!


All jokes aside... this time next week, we will be on our way from Germany to Czech Republic.  But as in really now, no jokes!  As in me and the Stein and the Spaz will be driving around in Europe on our way to compete at the World Champs!  Going to the world champs is not easy... after you qualify for the team, you have to start training... that involves building lots and lots and lots of courses from the World Champ judges. You phone 23 different venues and beg to use their astroturf to do some training... get told NO a lot of times (sometimes quite rudely).  When you eventually find a place that will allow you to train, you have to drive far and pay some bucks to be able to train.  You have to keep dogs fit and conditioned, being very careful not to over-do or under-do anything.  You have to get a visa, which involves submitting your whole life history in the form of print-outs.  You have to drive FAR to hand in all these papers, then drive FAR again to pick up your passport (or get someone else to drive FAR for you).  You have to get titre tests done and then... when they make a mistake on those titre tests... you have to drive FAR to go and have it fixed!  You have to speak to a million vets/state vets/departments of agricultures in many countries to make sure you have the paper work in order for the dogs.  Then you have to drive FAR to hand in all that paperwork to the state vet (or get someone else to drive FAR) for you.  You have to find crates, water bowls, water bottles, crate liners (light weight ones mind you).  Of course there are travel arrangements with team leader and rest of the team.  You have to check the websites of the World Champ judges on a regular basis, to make sure you keep up with their trends.  You always have to try and do better.  And because we don't receive any real financial support, you have to work hard, take on lots of clients  and save lots of money in between as well!

Believe it or not, I am not moaning, I can't believe the culmination of all that hard work is so close now!  Next week Thursday we board the plane to Frankfurt.  I am of course a bit worried about the dogs flying, I KNOW they will be fine, but I will always worry about my boys.  We are competing at a 'normal' show in the Czech Republic on 30 September as well... really looking forward to that too.  I can't wait to meet new agility people, see new things, learn new moves, see amazing dogs.  And of course I can't wait to run with my awesome boys!

Of course with the time fast approaching, many a person has asked me what my goals are, how I feel about our chances, how I feel about our team.  All I can say is I feel ready, I feel I have really done all I could to prepare.  Whether I have the potential to 'win' is irrelevant, because I am going to RUN to win.  I just want to give it my all.  I want to give it my all for my boys, they deserve that.  I love those dudes!

It is a slightly bitter sweet moment... the last time I competed at the World Champs was with Echo in 2003... and I lost my amazing 'first born' child at the beginning of this year.  During all my preparation, I couldn't help but be nostalgic a few times.  But I am sure he will be cheering me on at the top of his lungs where ever he is.

I shouldn't actually be sitting here writing this post, I have WAY too much to do, but I just had to write this, to say thank you to the amazing super awesome of the fantasticness husband, who has done so much to make this possible.  Thanks to all my friends, who have supported me, who have been honest with, who have helped me and who is rooting for me.  Thanks to all the supporters that have been behind the South African Team.



I will try to update Facebook/the blog from Czech when I do get the chance, but no guarantees.

If you are going to the World Champs this year, please come and say hi!  Just rock up at the South African section, sure you won't be able to miss us!  Would love to meet all of you.

Ain't no killin', just some livin' and vicious circles...

This subject has been whirling around my mind for a while now, Hurricane Alett busting away at my skull... maybe I am just a bit tired of the self-entitled feeling that buzzes around Agility, but here is the kicker ladies and gents, it is NOT just around Agility, it is in everything in life!

I have been reading a ton of forums and articles and FB status updates and basically a whole load of internet moaning and groaning about 'is ___________ (fill in current contentious issue here) killing agility?'.  Not only have I been reading this, but I have been hearing a lot about it too IRL.  I have heard it all... that measuring, jump heights, course speeds etc etc are 'killing Agility'.  I have bad news for these doomsday prophets... nothing is killing Agility!  It is alive and kicking, I promise... otherwise all us addicts wouldn't be getting up at cock's fart every weekend , driving thousands of kilometres (or miles, your choice), spending thousands of Rands (or dollars or pounds or euros) to DO Agility.

Unfortunately there will ALWAYS be cases of borderline dogs (height wise), some of these borderline dogs will struggle with the jump height, others won't, they will kick @$$.  I am a judge, I have measured tons of dogs, do you have ANY idea how hard it is?  No judge will intentionally 'measure a dog into a wrong height category', but I, myself have measured dogs to vary by 1 or 2cm depending on how they are stacked or the surface used to measure or five million other reasons.  This doesn't mean measuring is killing Agility.  There will always be dogs that just can't make the course time, the same way there will always be dogs/breeds that are just not suited to the sport.  If you create a fourth or fifth jump height there will STILL be borderline dogs, there will STILL be dogs that struggle with these new jump heights and there will STILL be people moaning.  If you lower course speeds, there will still be dogs that just can't cut it and then THESE people will still moan for lower speeds.  This does not mean speeds and jump heights area killing Agility.

There will always be those guys that just don't make the time for the Comrades marathon too.  There will always be that guy that finishes fourth in the Olympics, just out of the medals.  There will always be a goals awarded in soccer that should not have been.  There will always be controversy in sport, a woman's sexuality questioned, a man's prosthetics be accused of giving him an advantage against able-bodied athletes.

Controversy and sport go hand in hand, because sport is all about passion... that I can understand and accept.  It is the self-entitlement and downright blinkered selfishness that annoys me.  All of us don't feel that we HAVE to be able to win a medal or the Olympics, win the Boston Marathon or play International Football.  People are happy to accept their range in other sports and participate casually.  Unfortunately in Agility it seems many (obviously not all) handlers feel that everyone HAS to be able to achieve the highest accolades/titles and wins in our sport.  And if they can't achieve that, then something is 'killing the sport'.

Us, as Agility handlers are still so much luckier than any other sportsman... we always get to take the best dogs home!  I mean I have never seen Volt give a crap about getting time faults, he couldn't care less in fact.  Chaos has never caught a depro by getting a spectacular dq, okay wait maybe that once when I tripped over him and fell on my face he was a bit upset.... with concern for ME.  I mean how cool is that?  How many people get to enjoy a sport with a partner that really does not CARE about the outcome, as long as they get to slobber all over your face when you wake up (or more often slobber all over your face UNTIL you wake up).

Having said all that and confirming that nothing and no-one is killing/murdering/massacring Agility, I am ALL for trying to optimise the sport and making adjustments that truly benefits Agility as a whole (as opposed to for one or two dogs, don't laugh by the way, here an entire jump height was added for TWO dogs).  So if you truly believe in your cause (being it an additional jump height or different qualification procedures), fight the good fight... if you have honest motivations and factual evidence (tons of it) to back you up.  Just accept the fact that life is life and it will never be perfect.

In 21 days exactly (3 short weeks), we are flying to Germany... in 28 days (4 short weeks exactly), we will be competing at the World Champs.  Nervous, excited, stressed... running around, visas, dog flights, making sure I HAVE everything.  Training on astroturf, training on AWC judge courses, conditioning dogs, trying to get fit myself... ladies and gents, this is REALLY happening!

Judging some dogs...

So I have been terribly horrible about updating the blog... I just haven't done it.  So in between my last post and this one, we have had tons of shows, an indoor weekend at WODAC (World of Dogs and Cats), some training for AWC, a weekend in Bloemfontein, a ton of ups and downs... but that is not what I am going to be blogging about today...

I am going to be writing about judging... yes, remember, I am still an agility judge too, I also 'almost' forgot... since I haven't judged in a year!  But in the past three weeks, I had some judging appointments.  It is very hard being a competitor and a judge, I really do enjoy judging, but if I HAD to choose, I will always rather compete.  Can't do both at the same time now, can I?

Why do I judge?  Well definitely not for the fame... or the infamy.  Around here judges don't get paid, so it can't be that.  Agility judges has an absolutely unique role, compared to any other judge/adjudicator/referee/umpire in any other sport. In most sports, with the exception of Show Jumping (but I will get to that), the sole purpose of the judge is to... well do just that... JUDGE that all the players/competitors are following the rules.  In Agility, the judge has one (very HUGE) extra responsibility... the judge actually sets the challenge within which the rules need to be followed.  Unlike athletics, soccer, triathlon, rowing, fencing, weightlifting, where the competitors will always perform the same task.  And also unlike gymnastics, synchronised swimming, competitive dancing, freestyle dressage, where the competitor has guidelines, but still their choice of routine.  In Agility and Show Jumping, the judge sets the actual challenge and chooses the skills which they want to test.  And the complexity of this challenge in Agility is much higher than in Show Jumping, where striding (collection and extension) forms the major part of the test.

The options available to an Agility judge is basically infinite, which is why we don't have to wash/rinse/repeat courses week after week.  So back to the question of why I judge... I like being part of this unique relationship with Agility competitors, I like setting challenges and seeing handlers and dogs succeed.  I believe that judges have a huge responsibility to the growth and improvement of Agility.  How many times have you struggled with a section on a course and the very first thing you do when you train again is set that up?  How many new handlers have been discouraged to continue competing in Agility, because the courses are not level appropriate?  Why would we train proper contacts if contact faults were never called?

Judging and designing courses for smaller classes (in smaller countries, like South Africa especially) is especially challenging if you know anything about statistics... it comes down to the simple concept of the less dogs run, the less clear rounds you will get... so if your aim is to have 10% clear rounds... and you only have 10 dogs running, you are only aiming at 1 clear round?  This can be very discouraging for a judge let me tell you.  Having said that though, I also don't believe in 'giving' QC's (Qualifying Certificates or Champ Tickets away) JUST because there are less dogs.  I really believe in having a set standard and sticking to it.  Of course not unreasonable standards (Yes, I also hate walking courses and just going WTF at the end of it), but SOME form of standard.  But I also detest easy courses (with no challenge whatsoever) being set up because the judge just wants loads of clears.... after all Agility is a test of skill AND speed, not just one or the other.

Of course each judge (especially competing judges) have their own preferences and trademarks, regarding everything aspect of course design.  I know some judges that like designing from the start to the finish, others do it in reverse, some judges draw a doodle/course path first and then put in obstacles (I always find this one a bit odd).  Personally I normally have one specific sequence I want to test and design the rest of my course around that.  Some judges always have a hard weave pole entry or tunnels under the contact or a tunnel discrimination where all the tunnel entrances face in the same direction.

Now I have to have a little gripe though, which just by the way I actually try to never do, since I KNOW the challenges and hardships of judging.  In the last while, I have just noticed too many judges not taking their responsibility seriously and it bugs me... it bugs the JUDGE in me more than it bugs the competitor in me.  First of all, being the kind of judge that literally spends hours designing and tweaking my courses, I am very frustrated by judges that re-uses courses week in and week out.  Very sorry to say this, but if you don't have time to design a course, then rather not accept the judging appointment.  Re-using a course a couple of times in different parts of the country/world, that is not an issue, but not even bothering to design a new course for a judging appointment two weeks apart at the same show grounds?  Second issue I have is judges being too lazy to move one jump in between grade changes just moving a number here and there, often making it more difficult for lower grades.  While I do understand that for non-competing judges especially, it is hard to see what could be challenging for lower grades, this does not mean you have to be lazy.  Now given that I am sure it IS possible, I just have to point out that I have never, not once in the 12 years that I have been a judge, have I been able to design a course for grades1, 2 and 3, where I have not had to move at least 2 or 3 obstacles and keep the challenges fair to each grade.  The last while, I have to say the majority of the courses I have run with my grade 3 dogs, have been TOO easy.  That is just a personal issue of course, the judge's design is their design and while we can comment, it is STILL the judge's decision.  However... earning a title should be an achievement, NOT a given.  My next issues are all on the actual judging... number one, the lack of refusal and handling calls, of course all judges make mistakes and then you have to consistently judge the rest of the class in the same manner.  But seeing dog after dog pass every refusal plane on the course or spin 7 times right in front of an obstacle or dogs being shoved around the course with knees, arms and feet is very frustrating.  My last gripe for now involves contact judging.  I am very sorry (and yes I have tested this theory many times, using a video camera to test and prove it), if you live in a country, where you have to judge ALL 6 contact zones (A-Frame, Dogwalk, see-saw/teeter - Up and down), it is physically impossible to ACCURATELY judge all of that while standing dead still in the middle of the course.  And I am not budging on that one.  A friend of mine has very fast 4-on-the-floor contacts (I am talking about a 1.6 second dog walk here) and he constantly gets called on his contacts because the judge is standing a mile away at completely the wrong angle... while photos and videos prove that the dog doesn't just have one toe in, but 2 or 3 feet!  And please understand me, I KNOW how hard contact judging is, I really, really do.  But unless you are standing right there staring a hole into the contact zone, you cannot ASSUME that the dog touched or missed anything.  If you are not physically able to do this, then get yourself an up-contact judge or just don't accept a contact judging appointment.  I actually know of quite a few judges that just leave the dog walk out of a course, because the can't judge it?  Also not right if you ask me.

Okay gripe over and done with.  So just a note to all judges... yes, when judging you have to be strong, deal with a lot of crap and remember you are the JUDGE, but that doesn't mean you can't accept advise and input from people, it definitely doesn't mean you are out there to nail competitors.  It does mean you have a responsibility to the sport and the competitors to do your utter best in every aspect of the sport within the rules which you are judging.  Haha, yes, it really IS a thankless and hard job.

So on to my actual judging... finally.

In Bloemfontein I set up this course for Agility 3:

I am happy with how it ran, I think I handed out 2 QC's on this course, I think our results website is down at the moment, since I can't access it.  I had lots of handling faults between 10 and 11 and a lot of refusals between the dog walk and 18 (not one handler handled this section like I would have).  I also had a lot of screaming between 15 and the dog walk, but very few faults, so not really understanding the screaming.  Due to time constraints and the large entry, I unfortunately did not have the opportunity to run this course with my dogs, but I will definitely be setting it up for training at some stage.  I set the course at 4m/s which is higher than our minimum 3.5m/s speed limit... this DID cause some moans and groans, but I definitely don't think it was unfair.

A week later I was judging both Contact and Non-Contact (Jumping) back in Gauteng.  My contact courses:

This will henceforth be known as the day of 'almosts'... possibly one of the most disappointing judging appointment ever without being disappointed?  There were so many great rounds, that missed out on a signing due to one bar or one missed contact or one mis-calculation.  I got up at cock's fart to set up the course early, so I could run my own dogs on the grade 3 course.  Both of them ran clear well within my course time and I really enjoyed running it... haha and NOT because it is my own course, I promise!

Round of the day goes to Sassy on my grade 3 course with a fantastic round, but only bar 15 falling...  a heart-breaker, but still an awesome round!

On to the jumping, I did get comments that it was 'too much' for one course, while I didn't have the opportunity to run it myself, I really don't feel it was, but of course I can't fairly comment on that.  I DID finally manage to hand out one QC on this course though:

I will definitely be setting up these as well as soon as I have a chance.  On my grade 3 course, the biggest problem by far came from 12-14... either handlers not hanging on to their dogs long enough for the pull-through or handlers managing to pull their dogs through 13-14.  Round of the day goes to Stardust on my grade 1 course.  Super cool to see a handler that has been SO committed and worked SO hard to get it right and get a signing!

That is me over and out til next time ladies and gents.

Speedy Agility and Agility on Paper... (and some mention of Superheroes)

I am about to stick my head into a bee's nest... probably.  I read on of those funny picture thingies on the internet today, which is probably applicable to me... 'Now aren't you just a funfilled lollipop triple dipped in psycho'.  Or maybe I just liked it so much that I felt compelled to post it on my blog...

Anyhow, back to the matters and the bee's nests at hand. And where to start... I guess a good place is the event that re-ignited the idea for the post in my head (please note the RE-ignited part)...  Of late some of the UK Agility followers/competitors/addicts/players/handlers/judges/stalkers/critics/lovers etc, have had a slight spot of a debate regarding The Kennel Club's speed guidelines for the different agility grades.

Now this is not my first 'speed' party.  This discussion, debate and argument have come up many times before, both locally and internationally.  Now first of all, let's keep in mind that the only way to REALLY accurately measure your dog's speed would be to measure your dog's EXACT path for each round... if you are able to do that, it would pretty much make your Superman or Wonder Woman (whatever rocks your boat).  You would have to slow the world down to slow motion (or speed up until you are moving so fast that the dog appears to be moving in slow motion) and spray paint the route of your dog behind their tail.  I suppose you could attach some form of paint behind their tail?

Okay I am getting off topic again... so anyhow, judges all over the world have to measure the 'average path' of the dog.  So in modern agility, where there is better and faster and tighter and more super awesome dogs being born every single day, you tell me what the average path is please?  For example, I am one of the judges that can always hear taunts of 'too tight' and 'my dog is not Elastigirl' or 'no dog can turn that tight'... which ofc are not too true, since my dogs CAN really turn that tight... and so can a million other dogs I know.  BUT (and I have tested this theory)... I can measure a course, the SAME course) to differ by 20m (or more) within apparently 'acceptable' ranges for a majority handlers and judges... now if you take 20m and let's say I would set my course at 5m/s (which quite frankly is FAST and I would be crucified if I tried to set a course at that speed around here)... that would mean a FOUR second difference.  Do you know how much FOUR seconds is in Agility?

To illustrate the point:

So in this scenario with only THREE obstacles, I could potentially make a difference of 1.5m and there for a difference of 1.18 seconds to my Standard Course Time (SCT) if I set my course at 4m/s.  That is over THREE jumps... now imagine that over the whole course???  Sit there, close your eyes and imagine the exact path your dog/s would run on those three jumps...  I have personally seen a judge at the World Champs measure to the centre of a jump and then (instead of measuring the 180 around the wing) turn around right there and measure the path back (does that even make sense to you?).

Anyhow, so my point is, that your 'speed' (okay your DOG'S speed, if only we could run that fast right?), is relevant to the actual measuring.  Sometimes that measuring is pretty damn accurate in my opinion, according to my dogs... you, yes YOU behind the computer screen there, might completely disagree!

Does this mean I am AGAINST set speeds for courses?  Oh quite the contrary!  I am 100% for it... perhaps at this point I should explain (again - so if you have bee a regular reader of this blog for the last few years, you might want to skip this paragraph) our situation.  Agility-wise we are  a SMALL country, very small... so in the past it worked like this... to get a QC or Qualifying Certificate (Champ Ticket (well kind of), point towards your Championship Status, Qualification etc) you had to win with a clear round only if there was a minimum amount of dogs competing... yes, there were 'guideline speeds for judges' (which were hardly ever followed), but there had to be a certain amount of dogs competing.  Then the rules changed... now, even if you are the only dog in the class and you go clear you can win that QC... BUT the judge HAS to use a minimum speed set in the rules (3.5m/s for Agility and 4m/s for jumping... there are no maximum speeds).

Is this an unfair system?  In my opinion, not at ALL... I do feel our minimum speeds are WAY too low and not even close to international standards, but it is certainly not unfair.  We do generally have more than enough large dogs (well in the province where I live in anyway), the problems come in with the small and the medium dogs.... so since that is the case, let's use my own Voltenstein as the example... At the SA Champs, he won both jumping rounds and both times he was faster than the large or medium dogs... so he is not a Slow Sally... if we still had the 'minimum dog' rule in place, he would not have been a champion in Jumping yet... in fact, he would have had only 30% of the QC's that he HAS won this year.  I always run ALL OUT and never play it safe for a 'win', but that is a whole other aspect of the 'speed' argument that I will have to deal with in a separate post...

Is it an accurate system?  Hells NO!  Since there are so many judges and competitors out there that is against this system, measuring is seriously questionable sometimes.  That is for the judges to justify to themselves.

In fact to check out the erm... shall we call them 'differences' in my dogs' recorded speeds for this year, you are welcome to go to:

http://gauteng-agility.co.za/php/results.php

And type in Chaos (dog) and A. Reed (handler) or Volt (dog) and A. Reed (handler) in the search options... now ofc not all of them were 'good' clears, but you will certainly get an idea in the discrepancies in my boys' so-called 'speeds'...

My point is, that you can argue all you want and you can try to make the exact science from it all you want, but using the 'speeds' derived from running agility competitions is NOT an accurate way to judge YOURSELF and YOUR DOG.  Are these speeds necessary as a part of our sport? Oh definitely, we could not live without them!  But it is not the be-all and the end-all... so when you see your super duper awesomeness fast doggy running at 'apparently' 2.5m/s... don't have a heart attack or contemplate suicide (in both cases you would not be able to run your super duper awesomeness fast doggy again, which would really suck).  So ladies and gents, let's take it all into consideration and think of the bigger picture...

All pictures courtesy of Melissa Wilson.

The Value of Little Things...

WTF Chaos, does your tongue not turn with your body?

Before I start, the theme of tonight's photos are WTF...

Life goes on... REALLY?  It is amazing how much I invested in one little weekend, one little dream of making the team.  The crash afterwards, before the preparation for the World Champs start, was not pleasant... well that is putting it mildly.  My dogs, just by the way, don't like breaks... and YOU try explaining to them they actually need a rest now and again.  They were driving me absolutely nuts and offering the most insane behaviours to try and get me to do something with them.  Apparently walks and playing with the ball is just not good enough.  Oops, I think I might have created workaholic dogs?

We have had a few shows since my last post, some ups and downs and good and bad... the boys are keeping their stats up, got some clears, but you could see that we had not been training.  I was sloppy, out of place, oh hat and the TIMING... *bows head in shame*.  I will make a compilation at some point in time, but I have other things on my mind first...  actually I have LOTS of other things on my mind.  It is one of those times that I could write 70 blog posts one after the other, but then I am pretty sure all of you would click the 'unsuscribe button' before I get to the 5th one.  So I will just start off with this one...

WTF are you looking at Stein?

I started Agility like most people... absolutely clueless.  I did what I was told to do.  Training was different then, I would say that you 'taught' your dog to do each obstacle, but I would be lying.  You basically put your dog on lead and by way of repetition, the poor dogs eventually got the idea of what they were supposed to be doing... well kind of and in most cases.  Once they had the basic idea, some dude or dudette that was the 'trainer' would stick up a course and off you go.  That was training.  So my first dogs all thought 'training=running full course'.  Also while my first dogs didn't do too badly and got around courses, I can honestly say 'my first dogs = sucky (actual) Agility skills.'

Now while I won't deny the obvious advantage of occasionally training full courses, and while I assure you that part of my preparation for the World Champs will definitely involve training some of the judges's courses, I do think that a very large percentage of Agility handlers under-estimate the value of training 'little (oh so big)' things. And definitely over-estimate the value of training full courses the wrong way.  Want to know when Volt ran a full course for the first time?  Erm, well at his first show... Want to know how many full courses Volt has run since then?  I don't know, how many shows have we had?  He has had one actual training session on a full course.

WTF is that expression Spaz?

I believe in training skills, as in one skill at a time.  That is after all what a course is... a load of small individual skills, stringed together.  I have witnessed so many training session on full courses, where said handler and dog, would 'get around' and keep going, but not get one actual part right (I am a bit of a perfectionist, when I say get it 'right').  I have seen handlers struggling and struggling with one small aspect (let's call it a pole entry), eventually get it right and then... *shakes head in frustration*, because there IS a 'rest of the course' they will go on, instead of rewarding.

Get those one or two jumps that you have at home out in the garden ladies and gents!  Absolutely endless skills you can teach, without running a full course!

WTF is up with all that drool Spaz?

Another example of a little thing that can make a HUGE difference is that of... you guessed it... the verbal marker!  And that one is pretty useful WHILE training a full course, just by the by.  Scenario:  Alett stands next to show ring, handler Thingamabob runs, Thingamabob's dog misses the pole entry... then misses the pole entry again... and again... and another time (by this point Thingamabob is normally whispering threats of starvation and 'free to good home' under their breath), each missed entry is followed by a 'naughty' or a 'are you stupid'... wait Thingamabob's dog misses the entry yet again (at this point Alett looks away, cos she can't take it anymore).  When Alett looks back, the dog misses ANOTHER entry... But then, all of a sudden, pigs fly and clouds are made of cotton candy and Thingamabob's dog actually GETS the entry... so what does Thingamabob say at this point in time... NOTHING and then to make it worse, they just continue running the course (or normally attempting to, since Thingamabob's dog's brain is fried from missing 13 pole entries in a row)... so poor Thingamabob's dog has no clue that it was now RIGHT, correcto mundo, successful, on the spot, got an A...

Verbal markers are absolutely wonderful things ladies and gents, it's something that dog's VERY quickly learn to understand if you just USE them...

My point being, look for the little things in Agility, they are what maketh the dog and the handler and the course and the game and the everything...  A little thing is what will win it or lose it!

WTF was I doing? Javelin?

We did it? Really?

I am back from my 'happy world place', where I have lived for the last two weeks... it involved lots of motivating conversations with myself, music and moments where I just tried to clear my mind.  So before I get into all the boring stuff, let me kill the suspense...  Both the Spaz AND the Stein will be travelling (and me too, I guess) to the Czech Republic in October as part of Team South Africa!  Yup, we made the team, the boys (as always) were awesome and I kept it together enough to secure my spot.

The weekend was one of ups and downs (well they FELT like downs, even though they weren't REALLY).  I left in the pitch darkness on Thursday morning to Pietermaritzburg... my favourite time to drive.  No I am not kidding, I am a bit weird, I really like driving in the dark.  The boys apparently too, since they just slept through the blaring music and my very tone-deaf attempt at singing along.  Soon it was clear what my 'power song' for the weekend would be... you know that feeling, when you just can't stop repeating a song?  Friend J tried to mess with this, by BBM'ing me another very catchy (and currently favourite song), but my song won in the end.  And no I am not going to tell you what the song is, because I made my SA Champs video to it, I would rather force you to watch that...

We were staying at a lovely guestfarm and I was lucky enough to stay with friends that understands the meaning of 'head space', and would cope with me being a raging b**** if need be (turned out it didn't 'need be', but was good to know regardless).  Took the dogs for a bit of a stroll and very glad that M took some pictures to prove that both boys were actually REALLY clean at the start of the weekend.

On the way to the practise session, I decided to test how well my fellow competitors could 'correct an almost off course' on the road.  I am happy to report that everyone aced the test (although I apparently DID give N hot flushes with that move).  I think they may have lost some faith in my navigational skills though.  One minute to practise seemed A LOT shorter than previous years.  This might have something to do with the fact that the see saw was REALLY REALLY heavy (especially for a 4.5kg Sheltie, who could finish a nice cup of tea waiting for it to drop).  So that took up like half your minute?  Or maybe my brain was just in fast forward mode, while my body was stuck in real time?

After the practise session we went home for a quiet and very civilized dinner, which for me is quite odd I suppose, normality is not something I see a lot of.  I guess the stakes were sinking in.  Friday morning started with another long walk for the boys.  They had an absolute ball, two farm dogs and a Sheltie tearing across the field like hooligans, they really couldn't give a damn about what was at stake, although sometimes we really expect them to, don't we?  They were more like 'Dude I am so going to run faster than you' 'No dude, you are so not going to beat me', followed by a Sheltie 'Wait up for me you buggers, my legs are like 3 times shorter than yours'.  Ah if only life could be that simple hey?

Most of the competition is a bit of a blur, probably because I spent a lot of time sleeping in my chair.  I am still not exactly sure how I managed to do that, but hey, who cares it worked.  See when you have friends that kind of deal with everything else for you (like results and draw orders and filming and all those pesky little things), it is pretty doable to get your head in the game so much that you can actually fall asleep at very noisy, very public showgrounds, pretty much right next to the speakers.  I am not going to go into each round in major detail, I mean if you think you are bored now, just imagine how bored you would be if I did that?

Chaos had some disappointing knocks.  I mean really?  The one thing I have not been worried about... in fact they kept him from being in the medals for the SA Champs too.  He clocked some phenomenal times I have to say.  However the bars just weren't staying up... well not as much as I would have liked anyway.  In fact, since I hadn't looked at the points once through the entire weekend, I walked off after the last round absolutely convinced that we just hadn't been good enough!  I was absolutely broken and couldn't understand why people came over to congratulate me. In fact I argued with the congratulators (Sorry, congratulators) and only when friend J went over to check the actual results and confirmed that YES, I HAD made the team would I stop pacing like an hysterical chicken on LSD.  I don't know what the other dogs did, because I didn't really watch any of the other dogs.  In fact, the whole weekend I can honestly say there are only two dogs that I DID watch.  Not because I am a super-sucky friend and not because I didn't WANT to watch, but I knew from the beginning if I was going to do this, the weekend would be all about me.

Now that it is all over and done with and I have watched myself about a million times over, I can definitely say I am proud of the fact that I RAN.  Oh hell yeah baby, I ran my little heart out.  There was no playing safe, no doubting my dogs, no doubting myself, I really did ATTACK.  It felt pretty damned good and I think I am going to try this whole attack thing on a permanent basis.



I am especially happy with the little Steiner Weiner.  Stein won both Non-Contact (Jumping) rounds, not only did he win the Small category, in both rounds he clocked the fastest time of all heights and all dogs... eat your heart out Border Collies, watch out for the Sheltie Machine.  Considering he is still 3 months away from his second birthday, I could not be more happy with how he handled his first real 'big event'.  Seriously, nothing can phase that dog.

So Chaos will be running in both individual and team and Volt will be running in the Small Team.  Go go Team South Africa!

The boys will be getting a two week break from training and then the slow build-up towards the AWC will start... me?  I will be getting no break.  As you may imagine, a trip like this, travelling halfway across the world to go and run some Agility courses, costs a pretty penny and other than a small discount on the dog flights, each handler has to cover their own costs.  So I will be working my pretty little behind off over the next few months.  I am sure it will be worth it though.

So there you go, we did it, we really did it!

All photographs courtesy of Melissa Wilson.

Where's YOUR head at?

Last weekend (what happened to this week?!?! ) we were off to Durban for a weekend of (very slow) agility shows.  This weekend has always been a big deal to some people, especially seeing as it is normally 2 weeks before SA Champs, so most of us use it as dress rehearsal.  You have to remember that our SA Champs is also our World Team Try Outs, so a pretty big deal you see.  The problem with this Durban weekend, is that it CAN be a maker or a breaker.  Well if your mind is not right.  If your head is not there.

At the end of the day, it is JUST a dress rehearsal, nothing more, nothing less.  If you happen to make a mistake somewhere in the weekend, the secret is not getting all hung up on it.  I have seen it time and time again.  People have a bad round or two and the whole machine just falls apart.  Luckily for me, there was falling, but no falling apart...

My weekend started of rather fun... with Chaos ankle-tapping me, see he was 100% convinced that we were on our way to the poles.  I was convinced we were going to the jump next to the poles.  And if you have any knowledge of physics, you will know that it is a physical impossibility for two objects to occupy the same space at the same time.  So I went flying.  My fall started at the beginning of the poles and almost made it right to the end.  It was friggin hilarious.  AND to make it even better, I managed to get up and clear the rest of the course.  Now I wasn't the only one to have a 'moment' over the weekend (although I DEFINITELY win the first prize), so I decided to make a video diary of the moments... please enjoy.  And I promise that I give you permission to laugh and other than a few bruises (including some bruised ribs), I am fine, so laughing is in order.



Now wipe the tears of laughter from your face and FOCUS again.  Do you know how good this was for me two weeks before the SA Champs?  It was BRILLIANT!  Because now I have confidence I can recover from anything, any mishap and still get it RIGHT.  Considering our qualifying system that definitely favours consistency over brilliance, this is the best confidence booster I could get.

All in all my dogs worked very well throughout the weekend.  I am in such a good place right now, where I can trust my dogs and I know I can walk out on any course out there and get around it.  I finally know what the words 'quiet confidence' means, how cool is that.  Of course SA Champs will be a completely different story, with added nerves, much bigger stakes and all of those wonderful things.  But I will be living in my own little happy place for the next 10 days, so until then, cheers!