In Spring a Girl's Fancy turns to ..... Rubber!

So now that the weather has warmed up a little, it's time to finally get those bags of rubber out of the shed and start sprucing up my contacts.

Originally I wanted to do something really girlie like purple with pink contact areas, but thought that might be tempting fate with the macho kelpies - especially Atilla who usually only gets one paw in on most occasions - so I went with generic blue and yellow instead.

I couldn't decide which shade of blue I preferred so in the end I gave in to my indecision and went for both.  I am really happy with the result as I think they look good mixed together ...... kind of like highlights in hair rather than the one flat colour.

The weesaw - just waiting in the shed to have the sides painted in their new matching colours and then we're good to go !

We ended up doing what all the clubs here have done and just trowelled the stuff straight onto the contacts.  I would still like to experiment with making a skin at some stage as I believe this would give a better result, especially on the edges.  However having to add acetone to work the rubber into a skin and being stuck in a fairly average ventilated area to do the job just didn't do it for me, so for home use we went with the 'easier' option, even if it doesn't give the best result.

Having said that though, I think the results are still pretty good.  Although it took quite a few sessions to get the job done (and the dogwalk is still not complete) I think just having two of us working on it actaully gave a better result than doing it at club with 5 or 6 people.  With one person doing the trowelling and smoothing, the end result was more consistent in regard to the amount of pressure applied, if that makes sense - we seemed to get a lot more ridges and uneven surfacing at club. 

I also found that adding a little less binder than the amount recommended to me gave a better result.  The less sticky the rubber, the easier it is to work with, so providing you have it all just coated, it still dries just fine.  I ended up going with 'feel' rather than measuring the binder after the first few 'mixes' and am happy with the results.   The A Frame was completed with different amounts of binder in the mix and you can't see or feel the difference at the end.

So, my Top Ten 'tips' :

1. Use good quality clamps (metal screw ons) to hold the wooden edging on while you are working rather than those cheap plastic trigger type things. Keep pressure on the wood and slide it down and off when you have finished.

2.  Choose a working spot where you can leave heavy equipment like the A Frame in place to dry instead of having to pick it up afterwards.

3. Don't spend money on nitrile gloves from particular big hardware chains.  Woolworths carries them at a fraction of the cost.

4. Don't stress about any bits that are less than perfect - you can go back and do a 'touch up' once the rubber is all applied.  However it is eeasier to do this while the rubber is still wet.  We made the mistake of trying to touch up a couple of bits on the seesaw a few days later and it did not go well.

5. Trowels and wooden edging clean up really easily with a rag dipped in a little bit of diesel.

6. Mixing 2 shades of the one colour on the bigger areas is a 'winner' in my opinion !

7. A flat metal bar gives a better result for smoothing  than a trowel any day.

8. Don't worry about cleaning out mixing tubs at the end.  If you leave them to dry the binder and rubber granules will just peel out like a skin.

9. The fewer people who do the 'flattening' the better, as you get a more consistent pressure and better results.  We had quite a number doing it at club, and the surface is more uneven compared to what we ended up with at home.

10. Just do it - your dogs will thank you for it, believe me!

Another Girl's Road Trip

Last week we made another journey to South Australia to repeat last year's 'Girl's Road Trip' that was so much fun.   This time there were no trials in Adelaide to coincide with the timing so we drove all the way to Whyalla - what were we thinking ??????
It looks not too far on the map, but after spending the whole day driving to Adelaide, another 4 hours on top of that the next day felt like another 14 hours ...... glad I went and we all had a good time but I won't be repeating the experience unless I have a couple of weeks to do it in next time.  My poor butt feels like it has done a lifetime of sitting in one trip and is still paying for it !

Some photos of the 'Whyalla Experience' :

Port Wakefield was so pretty - a town full of historic sandstone buildings that were beautifully maintained.

 

150 year old Peppercorn tree in Port Wakefield - visions of Treebeard from Lord of the Rings





Fields of canola were the most common sight through the car window

View over the trial ground.  A lot of patchy red sand areas, but mainly grass and in reasonable condition.
A bit challenging for the judges on the second day afer someone put a stake through a water pipe when securing
the weave poles, creating a little swampy area which had to be covered by the dogwalk,
resulting in some very quick thinking course design

An interesting and cost effective solution to rubberising contacts - rubber gazebo matting !

This is the underside.   Matting was glued down tight and then the contact area painted on.
Must admit I had my doubts when I first saw it, but most dogs had very little issue with it, and it did the job
for a fraction of the cost of wet pour rubber.   Very innovative !

 

 We had some mixed runs over the weekend - a few nice ones with just bars, one with a broken start line that I went back and reset, (and then of course it was a ripper run after that !)  a couple of Masters Jumping runs where I enjoyed the courses a lot but found them very challenging to get into correct position with a fast dog, (although the courses themselves were probably not as technical as we tend to get in Vic.) plus we did manage a first place Qually in ADX on Saturday, which was very nice after having so long off agility to work on that dratted A Frame.  (And which I am now revisiting yet again, but I won't go into the fact that I am a sucky A Frame trainer in this post - that probably deserves a whole post of its own !)

And Ivy's BFF and travelling companion Zee also had a first place Qually in ADX on Sunday, so at least the Vics managed to fly the flag in Excellent Agility for the weekend, LOL.

 

We didn't enter Sunday afternoon's trial so we could spend some time at the beach before driving back to Adelaide.

 

Ivy's buddy Zee waits patiently to be allowed out of the car to hit the beach

Success !   Now throw the damned ball !

 

The tide goes out a loooooong way at Whyalla.  Perfect for ball loving dogs !

 

Did I mention about throwing the damned ball ...... like now !

 

And again - I will stare you down until you comply !



There were dolphins playing near the marina, but my zoom isn't good enough to capture a photo

 

And so finally back to Glenelg and our favourite motel ......

........ and finally Ivy's travelling companions appear almost tired out - almost anyway !

Way too tired to photograph on the drive home but I couldn't resist stopping in Kaniva just over the Victorian border - obviously a town with a sense of humour.  The sheep and kelpie are from an Arts project celebrating the role of the woollen industry in the district and the sign is proudly displayed outside the local pub.  Enjoy !

 

 

 

 

 

 



Nationals Wrap Up

After having a lot of reservations about actually going to Nationals in the first place, I can definitely say that I'm glad I made the decision to go ahead as the positives certainly outweighed the negatives. 

Ivy finally has that last pass we needed for JDX - gained in her first heat and qualifying for the final as well which is not something that I was expecting to happen.  She's a great dog and definitely right up there for speed when I get it together, but we have had so many 'one bar runs' lately that I think it was starting to cloud my perception of how competitive we might actually be.  And the best thing was .... 2 bars down in total in 7 runs - 3 jumping and agility heats plus the jumping final.  If we managed to reproduce those statistics every time then I would be very happy indeed. (We won't mention her Novice Gamblers run where I totally forgot where I had intended to go with the result being not pretty, especially when she almost took out the judge after taking the spread backwards !)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUoKi7XQQqo
Here is a link to her final's run.
She jumped off her line on the jump before the run by (or the line I was anticipating she would take anyway) and it all seemed to happen so quickly that I didn't react and try and correct it.  Plus looking at video I think I took one step slightly into her line which in turn pushed her line out a bit too much, but hindsight is a wonderful thing and I am very happy with her run and the time that she recorded. Beautiful course too (apart from where he put that one damn jump - LOL) and we both had a lot of fun running it.

Our Nationals road trip (aka Julia and Ivy's Excellent Adventure) started a few days beforehand when we left for Canberra on the way to Sydney. 

Lovely Winter weather for a drive up the Hume and we stopped off in the tiny little town of Jugiong, which is one of my favourite places.

How awesome is this - local artist has filled an old road house site with a a whole lot of these sculptures and they look amazing.

So on to Canberrra which was also an amazing experience, but not for the same reasons as Nationals that's for sure and not a place I intend to return to trial in a hurry. I have always enjoyed trialling interstate, especially going to Adelaide last year, and the couple of times I have gone across the border to Wagga, but I can't say I enjoyed running in Canberra.  Let's start with the catalogue.

 
This is a $9 catalogue ....... 5 photocopied pages stapled in the corner with writing so small you could hardly read it anyway.  And I had to ask for a copy as it wasn't provided at check in even though I had paid.  I mean come on guys !  $9 ?  To produce a cheap photocopy with  a staple in the corner ?
Especially when it was available free online and the only reason I paid for one was because I knew I wouldn't have access to a printer while I was away and wasn't sure how far ahead it would be downloaded.

Moving on to the contact equipment.  We are definitely spoiled in Victoria with our rubber contacts in the majority and although I don't especially like the way it seems that some clubs are almost held to ransom if they don't provide them I must admit I love having them.  But even when clubs don't have rubber, the general standard of the wooden equipment is usually fine, unlike what was used here.  I pulled Ivy from all her agility runs both mornings as the equipment was still wet with condensation and there was no way I was risking her on it. Slippery and bald were two words that came to mind.  In the afternoons I still avoided the dogwalk (which was definitely the worst of them all) and just ran the rest of the course, leaving it out, so I could at least get some A Frame practice.  Watching fast dogs slip and slide all over contacts is not my idea of safe trialling and I can't believe it is acceptable equipment for trialling there.   Think I was the only person who 'voted with her feet' though, but so be it.  I won't risk my dog's safety for anything.

Canberra also wins the award for the unfriendliest triallers ever.  I was pretty shocked at this on the Saturday and thought maybe I was imagining it, so after relaying the day's trialling to a friend who came up on the Sunday, she decided to test my theory and say 'hello' to everyone I had tagged as having a face that might crack if they smiled.  Well all I can say is that the theory was well and truly upheld as not one of them even returned her greeting and all turned their faces away and ignored her - too funny.  Geez, they go on about how much they hate Victorians but we're not that scary, surely. Especially when people here always seem to go out of their way to at least greet 'strangers'.   On the flip side, we met some lovely people but all turned out to be from Sydney !   Canberra seems to have this weird kind of Stepford wives vibe about it where if you an outsider you are not encouraged to make any sort of eye contact (unless they deem that you are 'someone' in the world of agility and are worth the bother of speaking too) and the general impression is 'we just want you to piss off back from where you came from'  ...... don't worry, we will be !  Not an experience I ever intend to repeat that's for sure. 

Just as well our time in Sydney well and truly made up for it.  Met lots of lovely people and dogs and was very happy with all our runs.  It was enjoyable watching dogs from all over Australia and New Zealand compete and to see the standard of some of the runs too as it most definitely inspires me to raise my level of handling and to keep working hard.  Loved watching a number of 'Ivy relatives' and some absolutely brilliant kelpies as well - there were quite a number of these.  Not to mention the variety of breeds competing, some that I have never seen doing agility before.

It was a great experience to run in the indoor arena, especially stepping up to the line on finals day which was an unexpected bonus.  Sure, there were some problems with the venue, with not much space for crates indoors or gazebos outdoors, everything being so spread out, not to mention walking up and down all those hills from the parking lot, but the general impression is that the good definitely outweighed the bad and it was an amazing venue to compete in and I am thankful that I had the chance to do so.

Ivy certainly enjoyed herself too, especially being allowed inside in the dog friendly motel and not having those annoying kelpies around !  (So she says)  We had a 'day off' mid week, as I didn't enter any of the Open events in the evenings due to having an hour drive to the venue, so spent the afternoon at Bundeena, a lovely little 'outer suburb' of Sydney right on the beach.

The beach was lovely, as was the sunshine and the outdoor (dog friendly) cafes.  The whole place had the atmosphere of a quaint little 'artists village' (think of a smaller scale Warrandyte in Victoria) where everyone waves as they walk or cycle past and there is a real community feel about it.  I imagine it would be a nice place for a holiday with dogs - just a pity it was a bit far from the Nationals venue as it was the original place I was thinking about staying.

I didn't get to watch too much Finals action as I left straight after our jumping final to get most of the driving home done in daylight hours, but there were some wonderful runs and it certainly felt like a privilege to be part of it.  We may not have been 'successful' in regard to medals but we managed to achieve a few personal goals that I had set so our final run was just as successful in my eyes - and it was exciting to have to move on and set some new goals, which I have now done.  Thanks Ivy for being my very willing partner and giving your all - I might whinge about the fact that you run like a crack addict a lot of the time, but I admit I secretly love it and you are such fun to run, I wouldn't have it any other way.   So time to move on to Masters jumping and kick it up another notch - and my handling a whole lot of notches.   Hopefully we get to repeat our 'excellent adventure' in Brisbane 2014, we can't wait !

Quick Catch Up for the Birthday Girl

Ivy turned 3 a few days ago which still doesn't seem possible.  This year I went with an 'ivy' theme for her cupcakes.  It took ages to make all the ivy leaves out of fondant but I was happy with how they turned out - not so pleased about the colour though and next time I will try a different method of colouring to get them darker.  Originally I wanted dark green on pale yellow but it wasn't to be .... thank goodness for Plan B. They did get a big paws up from all the dogs though.

Happy Birthday gorgeous girl !

We leave for Nationals in the morning, driving to Canberra first (I am ignoring the weather forecast which appears to have lots of minus signs in front of all the numbers) and then heading up to Sydney on Tuesday.
It's going to be a bit lonely, as most of my friends have pulled out, but I am still looking forward to having a good time with my girl.  Looks like it's 'Boys Week' at home for Liam and the kelpies ..... I am not thinking about what the place will look like when we get back.

I feel totally unprepared for these Nationals - not helped by no training for a week due to the weather here - but strangely enough I really don't care.  We will be winging it with our A Frame (one session at full height and no box does not make for a good A Frame performance) but that's just the way it is.  Canberra is my 'let's see what the hell she will do in a trial' run and if it is too awful then I have no problems pulling her out of agility at Nationals and just running jumping.  Planning on doing the A Frame as many times as humanly possible in Gamblers too.  So while preparation has been nothing like I planned and has almost been non-existant, at least it means that I will be more relaxed as I am not expecting to be competitive at this stage. I am hoping that the experience gives me an idea about where we want to go from here in the next stage of our training and some more goals to work towards.  Also looking forward to seeing some awesome dogs from all around the country.   I will try and update from Sydney if I get the chance.

We had our club trial a couple of weeks back, this is the smaller club that I belong to, still a fairly new club with very few members, and it was awesome to see our small trialling contingent do so well.

From left to right : Dean and Koto (3rd place Novice Jumping), Emi and Niah (1st place Novice Agility), Col and Cindy (Masters Jumping pass), Lynn and Ace (2nd place Excellent Jumping) and me on the end with Atilla (3rd place Masters Agility) and Ivy (1st place Excellent Jumping)   I think Liam needs to learn how to use the zoom on the camera though !

Very happy with both Ivy's jumping runs - we had two bars down on the one before she Q'd - one before and one after the tunnel, which are pretty common bars for her to take and something we are working on, but I actually thought it was a better run.   Plus it was a full second faster than the qualifying one too. No video this time though so will just have to go with my feeling that it was better.



Ivy guarding her 'loot' - especially the edible part !

Have had a big blonde moment in regard to her passes though - thank goodness I sorted it out the night before the trial or I would have been really disappointed.  I was sure we only had one pass to go for JDX, as according to my trial diary we had 4 already.  When I got my cards out to check, I could only find 3.  So after a lot of 'what is going on here ?' and hair pulling (mine not Ivy's) I finally found a Novice Agility pass paperclipped behind one of her Jumping certificates that I had mistakenly recored as an Excellent Jumping pass.  The embarrassing thing about this is that I now have 4 Novice Agility passes and after all my whinging last year that I was never going to get out of Novice Agility ..... well I actually did have 3 passes a couple of weeks before I thought I did, oops !   I have never done this before ... alternatives must be :

1. I am getting old and forgetful.

2. Ivy has had so many one bar down runs where she still came 1st (both in Novice Agility and Excellent Jumping) that it starts to become confusing about which ones are passes and which ones are not.

Hmm, lock in number 2 Eddie !  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

We're Off and Running

Trial season 2012 is now well  underway, although we haven't entered all that many to date.  Some lovely jumping runs and 3 First places in Excellent Jumping - although unfortunately only one was actually a Q.
Those damn 'one bar runs' are becoming the story of our lives at the moment .......... the strange thing is she actually seems to me to be jumping a lot better, with a greater degree of control and improved judgement in regard to appropriate take off point - and yet we are pulling more bars.  Another of agility's little mysteries !

That last JDX pass seems to be a long way off at times and although I am in no hurry to be competing in Masters with her just yet, it is still a frustrating experience on occasion.  She is just so responsive to every little thing I do and I know that this is having an effect on the bars coming down.... whether I am putting unnecessary pressure on her line or not transitioning smoothly between deceleration and acceleration.  I am indeed paying for my less than perfect handling at times, that's for sure.  But it's fun to have a dog that keeps me on my toes and inspires me to become better at this game we play together.

I had hoped that we would be back competing in agility by now and not just entering jumping, but the running A Frame training has not progressed how I had hoped.  Cruz adapted to the box method so easily I think I just expected Ivy to do the same ....... silly, silly me !  For one thing, her natural stride is so different to his, not to mention that damn BC crouch thing that is so hard wired in her.

Damned A Frame - my new least favourite piece of equipment, following the stupid weesaw of course !

Her foundation work on the ground was lovely, perfect hits into the box plus even more perfect hits with the grid.  But once we got onto the lowered A Frame, her 'bounce' footwork totally disappeared and she went back to single striding, which was how she was getting into 2 on 2 off to begin with.  After revisiting the foundation on the ground and a lot of video, I decided to go with this anyway, changing the criteria to a single front foot hit into the box to mark, followed (hopefully) by her running through it.  Problem is I just can't decide if this criteria is clear for her or not.  I have gone from removing the box (it made her footwork a little more 'creepy') to putting it back on again choosing clarity over speed.  We are almost at full height, but still have around 10cm to go and I am really taking this last bit slowly.  She is fairly consistent running through the box, but still occasionally leaps off if I accelerate ahead full steam. 
I had hoped to return to running agility at our club trial this weekend, but it isn't to be.  I really want to get this right and not rush her.  Unfortunately the trial at the beginning of next month - which was my next 'target' for returning to agility - has been cancelled, which means I now have no chance at trialling agility before Nationals. 
So even though she has been entered in agility at Nationals, we may very well only be doing our 3 jumping heats as the idea of making our excellent agility debut at this level doesn't really thrill me..... not ruling it out though as it certainly doesn't bother me using Nationals heats as training runs and I don't think it will bother Ivy somehow or other.  It's just important to me that she is working on a full height A Frame and I have at least made some attempt to fade the box before I enter her again.  I don't expect 100% accuracy first or we will most likely be out for the whole season !

Anyway, what looks like amounting to half the trial year out of agility because I decided to retrain her A Frame contact is not looking like so great an idea at the moment.  But we've come this far, so I really don't want to write it off as a mistake and go back to 2 on 2 off - not just yet anyway.

I spent a couple of days helping to rubberize our club's contact equipment a few weeks back so have now become inspired to do my own, once I decide on colours.  Very tempted to do pink girlie contacts for Ivy, but as this might not get the paws up from the macho kelpies, I will probably end up going for something more boring and conservative.
Photos to follow when I get around to it, plus hopefully some A Frame video as well.

Paparazzi

http://www.standard.net.au/news/local/news/general/jumping-through-hoops-in-warrnambool-an-art-form-for-clever-canines/2484383.aspx

Ivy makes the local paper after trialling at Warrnambool last weekend.

Greg and Laura Derrett Seminar

Ivy had her first working session at a seminar a couple of weeks back - double box work with Laura Derrett.  I was very happy with her focus and enthusiasm.  At the end of the day she was one of the few dogs still fronting up wanting to go and still tugging like a maniac as well.  (Which certainly scores you 'points' with the Derretts, LOL)  The joy of a dog that you don't have to convince to tug !  And to top off her tugging frenzy, I was fortunate enough to win the raffle and as a consequence a big parcel of new toys will soon be winging its way down here for the flying feral's enjoyment. 

Summer seminars should always be followed by a good hosing, according to Ivy

The seminar was as awesome as always and I learnt heaps.  I audited the rest of the days - even though I was pretty sure she would be keen to keep working.   I have seen a lot of dogs disconnect in a seminar environment, there are certainly a lot of very quick transitions to working and resting over the day, way more than at a trial, and I can't say I was 100% sure she would handle this.   Now I have no doubts for next time.
Anyway, I like to get in at least one or two audit sessions as sometimes I think that I take more in when I am not fussing around with warming up my dog, cooling down dog, checking on her crated, etc. etc.

Did I mention how  much I like the hose ?

The timing of this was perfect for me, following on the heels of their e-course that I just completed.  Now that I have some more personalised feedback, I intend to go back to the beginning and work through the lessons again so I can pinpoint particular things that I need to work on.

The big one for us would be deceleration - she's great on the flat but once jumps come into the equation then she sees absolutely no need whatsover to do anything at less than a hundred miles an hour.... and as for adding extra strides, why do that when you can jump BIG !   I don't call her my 'Boots n' All' dog for nothing.   In the words of Tania Kernaghan :
'If you're gonna do it, throw your heart into it, No holding back at all....' This sums her personality up perfectly and definitely carries over into her agility runs as well. 

Gotta love a boots n' all dog !  Don't be fooled by the calm exterior.

So we have some decel exercises to work on over the next few months, along with some other things about my handling that I would like to tidy up a bit.  Greg also had some very thought provoking things to say about bar knocking in young, fast dogs ...... another benefit of auditing is that you get to ask questions and also just have a chat at times.   So to balance my decel training I also have an acceleration exercise that he suggested to work on and a couple of very specific things to look for when I review her jumping videos.

Hot, Hot, Hot followed by Wet, Wet, Wet here at the moment, which is not very good for training.  First of all the dogs were collapsed on the floor inside due to the heat, then the rain set in which turned the dust outside into mud. 

A brief period of 'cleanliness' in between the rain, mud and dust

We have our first trial of the season on the weekend. (Which will most likely be last weekend by the time I get this published)   I have entered one day only (it's a double) and just jumping.  I was so looking forward to getting back to agility again now that our 'weesaw' is sorted out.  But the Derretts inspired me to really look long and hard at my contacts so weighed, measured and the A Frame has come up wanting ! I like her end behaviour on the A Frame but I don't love it and I want to love it so time to bite the bullet and retrain a running A Frame. I have started on the groundwork for Rachel Sander's box method as I have already trained it with Cruz and I am pretty happy with the results.  I figure if a big striding 600 kelpie can do it, so can a more compact 500 BC - that's what I'm hoping anyway !  It probably would have been a lot more convenient to make the decision in December and train it over the break rather than start now.  But who wants to do things the easy way, not us obviously.  So no agility for us for a bit, at least until we get the box onto a full sized A Frame anyway.  My goal is to get the box onto a lowered A Frame by the end of the month (fingers crossed) and then we will see what we have and it takes however long it takes.