Great To Be Back Trialling - See You In 2010 !

So our favourite trial of the year has now been and gone - and as Atilla is determined to chalk up those never ending battle scars, our trialling year has now also been and gone.
At least Warrambool trial is usually a good note to end the year on and this year was no exception.

No prizes for guessing what the highlight for both kelpies was ............... here's a clue : it involved a ball and a beach. Just look at the anticipation from both of them.

Atilla waiting patiently for the ball to be thrown - preferably in the direction of the water.

And then trapping the ball between his feet so that Cruz can't get to it at all.

Cruz knows there's a ball around here somewhere, but is not quite sure where it went.

We stayed in different accommodation this time as our 'usual' B & B was sold - this new place was a great find, reasonably priced, only 15 mins drive to the trial ground and the dogs were allowed inside which is always a winner.

Atilla had a good day on Saturday with 3 Q's and another clear round in Masters Jumping that was one tenth of a second over time. Although I was really happy with his work and especially his focus I was disappointed with his lack of speed. Every now and then we have a day like this, but usually I can tell before he goes into the ring that he's distracted for some reason or other and our speed will probably suffer as a result. Although it's disappointing, especially compared to the speed he gives me at home and at training, I have learned not to worry about it too much and certainly not to dwell on it. But this time he was so revved up before he went in that it didn't make sense. I asked a couple of people to look at him in case he was carrying an injury, but both seemed to think that he was jumping fine and moving well - he just looked slower than usual between obstacles for some reason.

We had 2 Open Jumping passes, one with a nice 3rd place, and a Masters Agility pass with a 5th place out of 8 behind some pretty speedy dogs. I was especially happy with the distance work he did on the Open courses but still mystified as to why he wasn't working at his usual pace - we're not super speedy by any means but we don't usually struggle for time in Masters, even when he gets into one of his 'go slow' runs.

On Sunday morning L. went to lift him out of the car as he had parked in a spot where there was some broken glass and when he picked him up he let out a yelp. We looked all over and couldn't find anything until we turned him over and discovered that his grass allergy was back - but under his front legs this time (do dogs have armpits cos this is where it was) and it was back with a vengeance. Poor thing - it must have been absolutely killing him to run as he was red raw, no wonder he was slower than usual. So he got scratched (no pun intended!) for Sunday much to his disgust as he was still wanting to go into the ring.

By the time we got home late Sunday evening it had spread down his legs and on Monday it had gone all over his face. Although he often suffers from patches of grass allergy around this time of year, we think that there was some plant in the yard at the B & B we stayed at that may have set it off - both kelpies were out there for a bit on Friday when we first arrived and of course they stuck their noses into everything. Poor thing was so swollen he looked like a red balloon with slits for eyes. So he has spent close to the last 3 weeks as an indoor dog due to the unseasonal heat we have had - he would have burnt to a frazzle outside. Although he's all healed now, he still has no hair around his eyes and he looks like a panda. The hair is starting to grow back a bit more around his mouth and on his legs and paws but he's still a bit of a hideous sight at the moment, poor thing. So no more trialling for him for the rest of the year - which is nearly over anyway I might add.

Cruz once again exceeded my expectations - poor dog, do I have no faith in him as I always seem to be saying he has exceeded my expectations - note to self : get some higher expectations for Cruz ! He's a good boy.

I only ran him in jumping as I thought the overcrowding at Warrnambool might be a bit stressy for him. He ended up being first dog in the ring for every run so I didn't get to warm him up and get him focussed on me to the extent that I would have liked. Surprisingly enough, it didn't seem to bother him as much as I thought it would. We ended up with 2 more Excellent Jumping passes - only one more leg and he's in Masters with his big brother. Again I was very happy with his runs, although he's still got some juice in the tank and is not opening up and running as fast as he can consistently. There were some sections on each course where he sped up and we managed a 3rd place and a 4th place - he had his 600 butt well and truly kicked by manic border collies each time - they put down some cracking times so I wasn't too disappointed. Suddenly agility here has become inundated with a ton of 400 BC's - and they are proving very hard to beat. And on they march towards Masters - eek !

As I didn't run Atilla on Sunday, I decided to pull Cruz out too and go to the beach.

I have also decided not to enter Warringal with Cruz - may as well make it the end of the season with both dogs. On the one hand I would like to try to finish the last leg of Cruz's AD title - especially as he is now so close to JDX - but I don't want to fall into the trap of thinking of agility in terms of titles and I'm quite happy to take the long way round. He will finish it when he finishes it.

So now for training talk - stop reading at this point if you're not another mad agility tragic as it will bore you silly. I have made the decision that I am no longer going to ask for a stopped contact on the dogwalk for Atilla. I honestly think he was happier (and faster) last year when we were running them - I only cracked it and went back to 2on 2off after he happened to blow 2 contacts on 2 good runs at Nationals. If I am honest with myself I think that if it had been a 'lesser' trial it wouldn't have bothered me all that much - I would most likely have just pulled him out of trialling for a bit and worked more on getting a more reliable running contact. I hunted out my old touchboard and he's hitting it every time, although his speed has been compromised from stopping - probably cos I'm a crap trainer and haven't been able to make the criteria clear enough for him although lord knows I've certainly tried. Now that he has finished his Masters titles and I'm not interested in qualifying for Top Dog run off with him - I am realistic enough to know we don't enter anywhere enough trials to get anywhere near the top ten point scorers- I am going to try a few different things with him. I don't intend to compromise my handling system or cut corners with his criteria, but there's still some room there for a bit of experimentation.

Cruz's 2 on 2 off on the dogwalk is lovely most of the time - I did a way better job with him. But our A Frame is a disaster. After competing with the variance there is in A Frame height here, he has totally lost his confidence. He was almost sliding into position for a bit until he scraped his pads so now he's creeping down to position and I don't seem to be able to speed him up. Last week at training I started early releasing him (yes I know, bad trainer) and I couldn't believe how happy he was not to be stopping - on the other hand I would have trouble getting him not to stop on the dogwalk as the position is really ingrained. So I have decided to go with it and will play around with going back to a running A Frame for him over the break. I videod his performance and he's currently averaging 1.9 seconds without a stop - but his up side is pretty fast and the down side is where all the time is taken. Plus he's a '3 hit dog' and I want him to be able to get down in 2 considering his long legs. I am going to give Rachel Sander's box method a go this time as it's a way of regulating stride on the ground that makes a lot more sense to me than stride regulators on the actual A Frame do at this point.

I made my box (yes, PVC really is a girl's best friend) and have had 3 sessions on the ground so far, trying to teach him to jump into the box with all 4 feet touching. We are up to 60% accuracy so still have a bit to go. When he makes an error, so far it's the same one each time, which is totally jumping over the box when he's revved up for a toy.

Pretty typical for kelpies - all or nothing !

The thought of all the training (or retraining, which is worse) this is going to take scares me a bit, but I really want to give it a go so I will keep our results posted. Plus I figure that whatever I learn along the way with Cruz will also benefit Ivy when I make the decision as to what behaviour I will teach her on the A Frame. I have come to the conclusion that I suck at A Frame training and don't seem to be able to train a really good one no matter what the method. So far, 4 dogs out of 4 all have , or have had, sucky A Frames.

Cruz is also going back to circle running over the break - when you have a 5 month old puppy that runs way better (and I mean way better!) circles than your 3 year old kelpie... something needs to be done.

On The Road Again

The most noteworthy things from the last few weeks have been :

1. The amount of rain we've actually had - it's looking green here for a change and I have things that I'm sure must be flowers growing in my garden, competing with masses of capeweed of course. Our tank is full and even the smaller dam has some water in it ,which the frogs are very happy about if the level of noise they make at night is anything to go on.

Mmmm - I can smell the lavendar now that the nights are getting warmer. I know my Grand mother would have called it a weed, but I'm a sucker for purple flowers in any shape or form.

2. And the most exciting thing of course... drumroll please ........... tah daa....... after 13 weeks with no car, I finally have wheels again. It's a used Honda Odyssey (which L. has dubbed the catholic mother's car ) and I am in love with it. Now I just have to organise getting some barriers built into the back so the dogs can travel safely and I will really feel that I am back to something resembling normality in regard to cars anyway.

The kelpies like it too - they have christened the back with a trip up and down the driveway, christened the front wheels as only kelpies truly can and have enjoyed me christening the CD player as well - with the "Sunny Cowgirls - Kelpie' of course !

And the best thing about having a car again is that I can actually enter some agility trials.

So after 3 and a half months off trialling, I ran 2 in 2 weekends to try and make up for lost time, something that I rarely do. We went to Sale a couple of weeks back - not a trial that I normally run as it is so far away and I don't like the grounds there at all. You could tell I had trial withdrawl when I ignored my dislike of the set up in general and sent off my entry for that one, plus it was confirmed when I got up at 3:30 am in order to get there in time- generally any trial that would see me up before 5am wouldn't get a look in as a day trip. Atilla had 6 runs and I think they were the 6 hardest courses I have ever run before - often you get one or two that everyone whinges about - what was the judge smoking ???? - and then the rest of the day makes up for it, but not this time. We did manage a Masters Jumping pass that I worked my butt off for so was pleased with that. Plus we revisited the never ending list of a ton of things to work on again, especially after so long off.

The next week was Ballarat and I entered Cruz this time. Atilla got 2 Masters runs just so he didn't sit around doing nothing, no quallies but I was really happy with the way he ran - certainly a lot more speed than the weekend before. Cruz was an absolute little star which I wasn't expecting after so long off, with 3 passes off 4 runs. He put in a lovely Novice Agility run for 1st place, then qualified on both Excellent Jumping courses, with a 2nd place on one run that I was delighted with - there are some extremely fast 500 dogs coming up through Excellent at the moment and poor 'stretch' has to jump 600 after missing out by literally a 'whisker'. Me having a mental blank right near the end of his 2nd jumping run pushed him just out of the placings as I forgot where the course went (um, the tunnel right in front of you !!!!!) and had to stop and look- and Cruz being such a good boy stopped to look with me, unlike Atilla who would have just continued on to the tunnel and said' get out of my way, I know where I'm going ,' in which this case he would have been right.

The last Novice Agility run saw some shut down resurface at the start line where he got up and walked past the tyre. I took him up the back to the dogwalk, around the half way point in the course, did a bit of collar restraining to rev him up, then went on from that point and of course he finished the last half of the course like a rocket... but again I was very happy with that. I was also very happy with the speed that he completed the weaves on both courses as this was the first time I think I pretty much got 'home speed' in a trial setting.

So lots of positive things from Cruz overall and lots of things that I now want to work on with him before next year's trialling season. Loads of serpentines and threadles seem to be the flavour of the month in Masters at the moment, so when he gets up there I want to be ready for them.

This weekend is Warrnambool trial - one of my favourites. Not necessarily my favourite in terms of the way the rings are set up -almost on top of one another with tents and gazebos right on ropes due to very limited space. A nightmare for trying to get in and out of rings for your runs, plus usually there are dogs in crates right at ringside going off their nuts when other dogs are running. I think Cruz is going to find that a bit challenging. I have only entered him in jumping this time. The inevitable clashes from running 2 dogs does my head in sometimes so after only getting 2 runs at Ballarat, this is mainly Atilla's turn. But this is still my favourite trial in terms of the atmosphere and location. (Someone described it as 'party trial' once which was a pretty good description.) Plus lots of runs along the beach, walks around the town, great pubs, great fish and chips and even 4 of my favourite judges....... so Q's or not, who cares, bring it on!

Another Frustrating Break from Trialling

So once again another trial season with a big amount of 'non trialling' in the middle. Poor Atilla - at 6 years old he has yet to run a full season - usually due to him being injured, but all my fault this time.

At the end of July I had a car accident coming home from work. Luckily I wasn't injured but my car was a write off and the 'quest' to find a new one has been frustrating to say the least. I have always had a high opinion of my credit union when it came to having to borrow money, but all of a sudden there appears to be a ton of red tape if you are self employed. Although I'm not, L. is - the fact that he's not the one paying the loan back doesn't seem to make any difference to them. So after many weeks of jumping through hoops finding documentation for them, not to mention trying to juggle one car when you live in the sticks with no public transport it all adds up to a load of stress ......... I am about to buy any single car that I can afford at the moment which is not much - what do I care what I drive providing I can fit dogs in the back, the Number 1 condition for a good car in my opinion.

And of course the worst thing about not having a car is not being able to trial. Neither of the kelpies has trialled since July. Cruz ran at Sunbury and gave me three outstanding runs - very little sign of any stress and the most speed he's given me trialling yet. We had an error on both Novice agility courses - both were extremely tough courses for Novice. It was wet and slippery for both our runs - first one he was going so fast on one section of the course that he actually face planted after trying to turn tightly from a jump, got up and ran past the next jump before I could even react. I was over the moon with his speed - especially when I heard that in the judge's briefing for Excellent agility he cautioned the competitors about how slippery it was for the 'very fast kelpie' in Novice - yes!!!!!! Fancy being delighted that your dog face planted..... what a dreadful mother I am.

On the second Novice agilty run, we had a similar episode - on the run home, he was going so fast that he didn't see the weaves until he was almost on them, collected to try and make the entry and slid around into the wrong side. I take total blame for that one - just assumed he would make the entry in the rain with me running full blast ahead and not slowing down........ bad mother and bad handler. (And bad trainer - note to self: more weave training in the rain!)

We only ran one Excellent Jumping round - an extremely difficult course that he actually handled very well for a green dog. We missed a tunnel discrimination (there were 4 of them all up and he nailed the other 3) that in retrospect was totally my fault again.

Atilla ran at Berwick and gave me some pretty good work, although we suffered from major tunnel suck again on several of the Master's courses. He still managed another Master's agility pass so was pretty happy with that. He also had a lovely Master's Jumping run on a course that I didn't put much effort into walking as it clashed with Master's Agility and I thought I had more chance with that one. So after only walking what was a difficult course twice, he went out and ran beautifully - until I forgot the course at about obstacle 19 and stood there like an idiot while he continued on taking jumps - not the correct ones unfortunately.

So.... how boring you say....... who cares about trial reminiscences unless it's with your own dogs? True, but I am having withdrawl from trialling so need to live vicariously through past runs !

And just to complicate matters and add a bit more stress ......... I have a new puppy. (You can read all about her in 'Ivy's Blog' - this one is for the kelpies, after having to share stuff with her all of a sudden they at least need a blog that's just for them)
Atilla doesn't seem to mind her at all - even when she jumps all over him. Cruz is a bit more wary and prefers a quick 'hello' but then to keep his distance.
Time management is interesting - now I have to divide my time between all three of them when it comes to training - maybe it's just as well we are having a break from trialling.

I'm trying to keep part of my agility area clear for circle running with puppy at the moment, so have been working with the kelpies on things that don't need much space in regard to equipment. Good excuse for all those jump grids that I've been putting off and have spent some time planning out today ........ although listening to the weather outside at the moment, it won't be tomorrow ! Keep planning detailed training sessions like this and I could break the drought.

Just Because I Think She's Cute !

A friend found her 4 month old BC intently studying up on the finer points of GD's handling system and sent me the photos. Couldn't resist putting a couple of BC's amongst the kelpies.

"What's this? I distinctly heard a BC bark coming from that funny box. Better lie down here on guard. Then I'll corner it when it finally comes out the back of the box and teach it to come into my lounge room uninvited. "

" Hang on a minute...... this is actually good stuff. I knew it - you're not supposed to just run around flapping your arms all over the place while you expect me to read your mind and know which jump I'm supposed to take. Mum ! Mum.... are you getting this? You have to have your body facing in the right direction......... MUM ! Get in here ! You need to see this right now - before too long I'll be finished with my foundation training and then I'm going to have to know all this. Where is that woman for goodness sake? I'm never going to remember all this. MUM !!!!!!!!!!!! ""I'm going in for a closer look now. This bloke actually seems to know what he's talking about ! Hope he gives me a run next time he comes to Australia. Yoooo Hoooo Greg - can you hear me? It's me, your new Number 1 Fan. Aw dammit - this threadle thingy is complicated.... should I be taking notes ? ""And he also has really cool tug toys and lets his dog play with them at the end - think I'm in luurve........ That is one lucky dog right there. "
"Hah ! Friggin' suck of a pup. Don't you just love the ones who always have to sit at the front of the classroom so they can cosy up to the teacher - NOT ! And it's always those common black and white ones too in my opinion. "

"Anyway, check this out. What makes you think you're even going to get a go at this agility thing when she has ME to work with. Look at this, brains and athleticism as well as beauty ! Eat ya heart out puppy............... You can kiss my furry butt any time."

And apologies to my friend who actually has spent a lot of time studying the finer points of all the GD DVD's - and doesn't run wildly around flapping her arms on an agility couse. (Well, no more than I do anyway!)

Working Those Weaves

Over the past few weeks I have been working to proof the kelpies' weaves a bit more - especially Atilla's. Although his weave pole performance is usually pretty reliable, he occasionally pops out at a trial when we happen to get a set that are particularly 'bendy' - he's not very tolerant at being hit in the face by them. When this happens, he tends to weave slower to try and avoid touching them and this appears to throw his footwork 'off.' Due to the lack of bend in his wrist, his weave footwork is quite bizarre since returning to agility - especially when compared to before - and he doesn't cope well with any disruption to his rhythm.

So the first thing I did was to set up a really bodgy set of weave poles. I used a mixture of jump bars (these were too big so they rattled around on the holders) and electrical conduit (very bendy and great face slapping material). Then I put them in the roughest area of the yard, away from the usual training area and moved them really close to the cyclone fencing of the dog run so that he was almost weaving into a barrier.



There's actually grass in this area now, but when I first set this up, he was pretty much weaving on dirt. I started off using really high value rewards, both toy and food, and jackpotted him several times for staying in when the poles hit him in the face. Then I worked on running alongside for the first half of the poles and then gradually slowing down as he approached the end. This one was interesting - I had proofed running along the poles and stopping at various points before he completed them beforehand and he managed this really well - but when I ran alongside and slowed down toward the end, he actually popped out the first couple of times. So although I proofed stopping, I had assumed that slowing down was the same and had never really proofed this before. So Cruz also got the benefit of this lesson.

Then I brought out the big guns of distraction - a few bones scattered around the poles as they weaved (although I questioned this wisdom after almost twisting my ankle on one!) building up to the two old dogs actually chewing on the bones beside the weave poles as they weaved.


The 'distraction crew' thought this was the best agility training they had ever been involved in.

And I'm also pleased to report that both the kelpies passed this one with flying colours.

I've also been taking some 'stick in the ground' poles down to the local oval every now and again and sending them through these in between our circle running and kong throwing.
Overall I am pretty happy with their weave pole work - although Cruz's entries, trained with 2X2's, would leave Atilla's for dead. I am so impressed with these, and can't wait to actually teach a dog 'from scratch' using this method.

I found this exercise scrawled in one of my notebooks - no idea where I got it from though - and have been working this over the past week.


I really enjoyed running this as there were a lot of different combinations - we mainly focused on working the 'figure 8' using the weaves and the jump but mixing it up by including the tunnel every now and then. Neither kelpie had any problems with making the right hand weave entry (pictured on the left) but the left hand entry was a real problem for Atilla if I didn't babysit it. Cruz was amazing - he actually straightened himself up by going past the first pole and turning himself around (which we trained in the 2X2 sessions) but Atilla kept continuing on the angle after slicing the centre jump, made the entry every time, but could not bend around enough to get the second pole when he hit the entry at speed. He has a very limited understanding of collecting and bending around the poles compared to Cruz - which is totally my fault (at least on his 'good side') as I never taught him to do it. He still does the 'see poles run fast' from the channel method.

There have been some interesting weave pole challenges in a few of the Masters courses lately. This one was actually set by two very different judges - the rest of their courses were totally different but the weave entry was exactly the same.
On both courses the challenge was coming from the lower jump with a tight left hand entry to the weaves - and an off course jump staring you in the face. Atilla missed the first time and took the off course jump. This was a fast and flowing course for the most part and he got too far ahead of me before the weaves so I wasn't there to handle it. On the second course he had no trouble with it - but this was a tighter course with a lot of turns and I managed to be slightly in front of him before the jump so it was much easier to direct him this time.

The other interesting challenge - which I couldn't believe how many had trouble with it - was on an Excellent Gamblers course that we qualified on.

The weaves were at the beginning of the gamble, but because of the way the line was set up, your dog actually had to weave away from you. (Imagine the distance line going straight up for the rest of the gamble - couldn't figure out how to draw it . This is also showing the first 2 obstacles only in the gamble - the last two were a single bar jump and the broad jump, slightly offset after the tunnel ) I found it really surprising that most of the dogs running were Masters dogs but very few completed the weaves.

Hopefully our proofing sessions - which we will continue with - will help both kelpies understand their job and stop me stressing every time I see a set of bendy poles. The thing that's impressed me the most with Atilla's weaves lately is his improved confidence. Last week at training he went through the weaves so fast that he actually hit a pole really hard and pulled it out of the holder. This would have freaked him a couple of months back but it didn't bother him in the slightest - plus he got the mother of all jackpots for staying in. Weave on !

A Quick Update in Photos

So what's been happening over the past few weeks ? (Mainly non-agility related)

RIP Ryobi ................................



L. found him dead in the loose box a couple of weeks back when he went to feed the horse. We think he died in his sleep, possibly from old age. I googled how long goats live (11 years on average) and we have had him for 6. He was a 'rescue goat' and we think he may have been 5 or 6 when we got him, so that would add up. After being head butted many times I didn't think I would miss the cranky old thing, but I actually do. And the kelpies sure miss moving him off the fence whenever he dared to come too close.





The oak trees gradually started to change colour and a seemingly permanent flock of cockatoos moved in to attack the acorns. Cruz chased them off whenever they landed, but Atilla was fascinated by them. If they flocked on the ground in a group, he stayed in 'watching and silently stalking' mode, but if they separated at all it obviously offended his kelpie herding instinct so he scattered them and then backed off waiting for them to return and the fun to start all over again.

Now Winter has moved in, the remaining leaves are starting to scatter all over the agility area and the mornings are freezing ........

....... but on the clear days the sunsets are still pretty spectacular.

Bosnich turned 10 - that can't be possible can it ? Although I can't imagine my life without kelpies any more, it still only seems like yesterday when we brought this little bundle of fluff home - and not a kelpie on the horizon at that stage.

And finally back to the kelpies ...... Atilla managed that last pass we needed for his Jumping Dog Masters title. For once we didn't suffer from 'last pass syndrome', after gaining our 6th leg, he finished his title at the very next trial on his first run of the day, then followed it up with another Masters agility pass for good measure.And what about Cruz you ask? He has had 6 weeks off trialling as I decided that I wasn't going to put him out there again until he gave me some more consistent speed at training - after all if he can't do it at training then he isn't going to do it under trial conditions. The strange thing about making that decision was that he immediately started giving me a lot more speed off the ground at training - even when stressed by other dogs in the class barking in line. (That's a huge turn off for him)

So last weekend I entered him in 2 runs only in the morning and both his runs were beyond any expectations I may have had. First run was Excellent Jumping (his first time) and he put in a beautiful fast run - only my sloppy handling costing us a pass - I was actually unprepared for the speed that he came around a pinwheel and didn't get to positional cue for a front cross as a result. Crossing out of position actually put me behind for the next bit and I got a 'run by' on that jump as I didn't cue him to turn soon enough. But I was delighted with his run.

Then on to Novice agility where he put in another lovely run and qualified to win the ring - coming in 10 seconds faster than the second placed dog even though I held him on his contacts and on the table for a bit. So I am a proud kelpie mum once again at the moment - although I am not under any illusions that trial conditions no longer distract him. We will continue to work on this by trying to practice in unfamiliar environments as much as we can.

After L. mowed the lawn this morning (yes, I actually have grass again) I was looking forward to a good training session with both kelpies this afternoon, but ended up spending most of it driving around helping to look for my neighbour's dog, which they eventually found. As he doesn't bother containing the dog on his property, it runs onto the road (OK, it's a dead end, but still gets some traffic) and chases joggers, cyclists, etc. and this time must have continued to follow a couple of cyclists down the road. I would have little sympathy for him - he sees the dog as a farm dog and not a pet in any way - if it wasn't for his new wife who loves the dog and has constant arguments with him about not securing fences and gates. She would dearly love the dog to be allowed inside but he's not having any part of that ....... so we have ganged up together and are going to work on him - starting with the fences and gate.

The Great Handling System Debate

This topic seems to be the flavour of the month on many agility related forums at the moment - to the point where some have almost adopted an 'us and them' mentality.

Personally I don't care which handling system, if any, anyone chooses to adopt. I quite like the fact that on any one course you will see many different handling choices, some successful and some not. But what really pushes my buttons is the amount of people mouthing off about why a particular system sucks when in reality they know next to nothing about it, apart from a pack of misconceptions spread about by followers of the 'other system'

Sometimes I almost wish for a return of the 'good old days' when I didn't have a system, wasn't aware that I needed a system and in fact didn't even know what a system was - Yasser got along just fine without one when he was running in agility.
But as dog training further develops ,the bar is raised (no pun intended) and now we're all looking for those things that can make us consistent, faster and more competitive and training a system would probably be pretty high on the list in regard to achieving those things. Plus we're bombarded with information about systems in agility magazines, seminars, forums and even in general discussions around the ring so it's pretty hard to avoid. And never has any topic since politics and religion caused so much dissension between so called mature human beings. Pretty funny really, when all people are arguing about is basically a bunch of cues used to get around a course - albeit combined in different ways and given different priorities depending on which system you follow.

So after initially training Atilla with a whole bunch of different things that I picked up mainly from overseas presenters - some of which worked brilliantly and some that didn't- I have now jumped on the system bandwagon (well about 2 years ago to be exact) and am trying to adopt a more consistent system of handling.
These were the things I considered before I decided :

1. Will this system fit with how my dog works and my physical ability?

Funnily enough, I began training the Derrett system with Atilla when he was starting out, but was persuaded not to continue by many who told me that I wasn't fast enough to be in front of him all the time. This is a huge misconception about the Derrett system - in fact you could run a course using all rear crosses and still be handling within the system. But as time goes by and you get more experience and can work a little more lateral distance, it also becomes easier to be in front of your dog. In fact the only difficulty I have now is recognizing when it is feasible that I will be in front and when I probably will not, and planning my handling strategy accordingly. I still screw this up on occasion.

2. Will the handling system fit within the typical course design of the organisation I am trailling in?

This is probably the consideration that turns a lot of people away from running the Derrett system in Australia - or in Victoria anyway. Quite a number of judges set courses that are very difficult to handle without breaking the rules of the system. In fact it's even been suggested by some cynical people that they do this on purpose. I have decided to bite the bullet when it comes to this and if I genuinely can't find a way to get around that I am happy with, then I withdraw or make up my own course. At first I was scratching maybe one run every month, but as my course analysis skills gradually improve (about time, say the kelpies) then I find I am having to do this a lot less - only one run so far this year.

3. Does the system fit with my training philosophy?

Personally, I hate the idea of 'punishing' my dogs for dropping a bar and missing contacts - to me that's a training issue so if it happens then it's my fault and I need to do more training. As one system promotes this and the other doesn't, that was an easy choice to make.

4. Does this system make sense to me?

One makes total sense, even if I don't always execute it properly. The other confuses me, so in all likelihood if I am confused then my dogs will be too.

5. What support is available to help me train this system?

This one was also hard - especially when very few people you train with are familiar with what you are doing. But I am gradually building up a 'network' - and the internet, DVD's and seminars are wonderful things. Sometimes it's hard to have the courage to try things when you're not sure if you're doing it right, but if no one ever tried things out, then I guess systems wouldn't have been developed to begin with.

6. Do I really want to invest the time and effort to retrain into a system?

This one was also a big factor - it took a big commitment to decide to retrain, especially when Atilla had already had a year out of trialling due to injury. But I feel as if I owe it to both him and Cruz to be more consistent with my handling and to put the foundation into training positional cues with them. And kelpies definitely do better with things in black and white rather than shades of grey and the consistency of the Derrett system was the final deal clincher for me.

So that's my system of choice and the reasons why I chose it. For me it makes a whole lot of sense and gives me guidelines to choose between the different options available for handling a course. This is one area that I especially want to improve on this year, as I believe that at least 75% of the time when I don't Q it's because I made a bad decision on how to handle a section of the course.

So I guess different systems suit different people and whatever you choose has to 'sit right' with you and I don't have a problem with that - but I'm seriously considering bringing along my i-pod for future course walking so I can tune out the comments relating to which handling system gets the job done better.