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.

I Confess - It's a Shameless Brag !

Although I never wanted this blog to represent a blow by blow description of every trial result - I can't resist posting this one. (And I will make more of an effort to get back to documenting my training after this, I promise!)

Last week at Moorabbin Atilla finally got the last pass we needed for ADM - he also managed a Masters Jumping pass and an Open Jumping pass just for good measure. On the weekend just gone we had our Club trial and he clocked up another Masters Jumping pass so we are now almost there in regard to that title too.

It might not seem all that special - many dogs gain Masters titles - but for a dog that suffered a major injury 3 years ago - to the point where it did not seem he would ever return to agility - then missed a year of trialling, then put up with my overprotective handling for the whole of the next year until I learned to relax again, and still runs with minimal flexion in one wrist joint (which inhibits his turns in one direction quite a lot) well, it is very special to me.... and something that I thought may never happen. So I am very proud of my 'heart dog' at the moment.

And of course Cruz did not want to be outdone. On his second ever Novice Jumping run at Moorabbin he won the ring in the morning - he also had a lovely run in the afternoon where I deliberately ran wrong course as I didn't want him out of Novice all that quick.
That run was probably our fastest one so far. Moorabbin is a nice ground with very few distractions for an ADHD kelpie. (Look at that! What was that?, Who is that and why is he in the ring? etc.)

He then gained his last pass for his Jumping Dog title at our club trial on the weekend - although he didn't give me anywhere near full speed as L. and Atilla were standing right outside the ring for a distraction, which they certainly were.
But a giraffe like kelpie can run with one eye on me, one eye on them, and still come in 4th place on a course with 11 passes - and of course now that I know how much of a distraction L. is - he is banned from all future trials !

So I couldn't resist having a little brag and posting their photo - what smug looking kelpies don't you think ? And after getting rump steak, they should be very pleased about their respective titles too.

And unfortunately, as much as I am allowing myself a brag - well I still have a long list of things to be worked on over the next few months with both of them - not to mention my handling as well.

Some Valuable Agility Lessons - From a Kelpie

I couldn't wait to get back to trialling again after the Summer break.
So much so that I drove 3 and a half hours to Warrnambool for 2 half day trials - 3 runs on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.
As I had a devil of a time trying to get accommodation (Warrnambool was obviously where it was all happening over the long weekend!) I didn't enter Cruz. At one stage it looked as if I may have been sharing accommodation with a number of other people and dogs and I didn't think it was fair to rock up with more than one dog. Anyway, we ended up getting a tent site for Saturday evening only - 2 people and 2 kelpies only just fit into a 6 person tent by the way. Obviously to get 6 people in you have to sleep in 2 layers. Luckily my 'old boys' are happy sleeping in the car.

I'm not sure if it was the long drive or the warm afternoon, but on Saturday I just couldn't get connected with Atilla. Our first run in Open Jumping wasn't too bad but thanks to another 'blonde moment' I ended up doing an extra circle of a pinwheel before the run home. (3 extra obstacles and we still made time!) I haven't forgotten a course in quite a while so that should have served as a warning for what was to come - two of the worst Masters runs we have had in a long time. I can't even remember agility, and Atilla got so fed up with me in jumping that eventually he took off and made up his own course. (Very frustrated 'kelpie-like' and rightly so!)

Sunday was a lot better, the connection returned and we had two good runs in Masters (on two beautiful courses that were very kelpie friendly) with just one small error each time. Later on when talking to a friend, he commented on what a wasted weekend it must have been to travel all that way without a pass.
Well if that was what I measured a successful agility weekend on, I would be disappointed a lot of the time!

There were so many things that I learned over the weekend that I have decided to list them here in the hope that recounting them makes me truly learn these lessons and benefit from them.

Firstly, this was the trial weekend for my new lead out procedure - no more looking back and running to position instead. It has been working well at training with both dogs but this was the first time I have done it in a trial situation. 5 runs, 5 lead outs held and none of the stress signs that I was sometimes seeing before - even when I went out to the 5th jump in Open Jumping and 'arm changed' to handle the serpentine in the distance test, which was at the start of the course. So a big tick for this one and I will definitely keep on doing it. Not sure why running to position appears to work compared to walking, just happy that so far it is!

I'm usually pretty relaxed running Atilla but when things came unstuck on Saturday I tensed up and handled accordingly. Although I would put verbal cues down near the bottom on the priority list of how I handle, for some reason when I tense up I become a lot more verbal.
I think kelpies really hate this. Not that I see the need to run totally silent (although I think this is an excellent training exercise to really get the focus on your body cues) but maybe shutting up a lot more and letting the kelpie actually get on with his job would have been a better handling strategy.
Something I am going to try and be a lot more aware of from now on.
I also noticed that the more verbals I used, the more he started to ignore me, so maybe being a little quieter would give an improved response to a verbal command when I do give one.

One of my favourite quotes ( can't remember the author or where I read it though) is written in the front of my training diary as a reminder:
'What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.'

This is a hard lesson to live and I don't think I have been able to totally hide my disappointment on other occasions when things haven't gone well, but this time I think I went closer to getting it right. After I left the trial on Saturday, I took Atilla to the beach - we still had 3 hours before L. was due down with the other dogs. This would have been the first time in ages when we got to run on the beach together, just the two of us, and it was a good 're-connecting' experience.
Atilla found a dog toy that had washed up - and of course a 'freebie found' is way better than any toy I could buy him. So for the better part of 2 hours, we ran played 'tug' and 'retrieve' with the toy. When we were both really tired, we walked along the sand for a couple of kms.
A happy kelpie face is a great pick me up so the disappointment of our runs was soon forgotten which I believe went a long way toward the much better performance on Sunday.
In the past I would have probably put him in the car, gone home, and stressed about all the errors I had made which is totally counter productive. Especially when no one else remembers or cares about your runs except you - including your dog!

Other things I learned on the weekend :
*There will always be some fallout as a reformed 'flicker'. (GD handlers know what I'm talking about) Accept it, continue with 'anti flick' training - which in all likelihood will never be 100% effective, and move on. Smile as your kelpie flips you the paw and disappears into the far end of the tunnel- you taught him to do it in the first place.

*I can actually have 2 good runs with L. standing right outside the ring. Apart from some initial head turning on the startline, Atilla didn't look at him once.

*Listen to everyone's advice, even if you don't take 99% of it on board - it's that other 1% that can sometimes make a difference.

*Sometimes very successful weekends, pass wise, mean that you don't learn all that much from your runs. So which weekends are really the most successful in the big picture?

Bed Etiquette - Sleeping with Kelpies

I've just walked into the living room to hear L lecturing Cruz about 'bed etiquette.'

Our rules regarding sleeping arrangements have evolved as the number of dogs has evolved. Their first 12 months were spent crated at night, beginning in the laundry and then progressing to the bedroom.

No more than 2 dogs on the bed at night - this one has actually worked out well. Originally we had Yasser and Bosnich on the bed. By the time Atilla progressed to the crate in the bedroom stage, Yasser was too old and arthritic to get up on the bed any more and preferred his bed at the foot of ours. So Bosnich and Atilla had bed privileges.

Late last year, Bosnich decided that he too was having difficulty jumping up on the bed and would prefer to sleep with Yasser. So now the kelpies have the bed privilege - providing they get off immediately if I tell them to do so, which they both do. Just so they know they share our bed, rather than us sharing theirs !

Bed etiquette has never been raised as an issue with any of the dogs before Cruz - all of them prefer to curl up at your feet and don't move. Cruz on the other hand has no bed etiquette, as L is delighting in telling him.

No end of the bed for him - he's a snuggler through and through, whether the temperature is minus 2 or 35 plus. And he doesn't curl up in a ball like the others, he prefers to stretch his long lanky legs and giraffe like neck as far out as he possibly can, which is usually digging into my back, legs or head. And he doesn't keep still. It's not uncommon to wake up in the middle of the night with his butt on the pillow and his tail across your face. And if you happen to get up in the night you know he's going to be in your spot when you come back, looking up innocently with one eye - you don't really expect me to move do you?

And his reaction to the bed etiquette lecture ?

Victoria Burns - A Black Day

This is the usual view from my verandah - something that I love to sit and look at most evenings with the kelpies by my side, as it gives me a feeling of peace. (Especially after a typical day at work. )This is Mount Disappointment, with Wandong just to the left of the picture and if you continue to travel to the right of the picture and face east instead of north, you can see the mountains of Kinglake in the distance. (You'll have to take my word for it)


The photo below is the view from the same spot last Saturday- one of the most tragic days in Victoria's history. The fire front travelled from Kilmore East, just above Wandong, right across Mount Disappointment to the foothills at Glenvale -only 5 minutes up the road from here. Once the smoke finally cleared in the evening when the cool change moved in, you could actually see the flames. It looked as if the whole of the mountain was on fire, which it probably was. Although I took some photos of the flames visible from our place, I couldn't bear to post them- in fact I ended up deleting them all except for this one, which is defintely the least sensational of the bunch.

From Glenvale, the fire moved across the back of Whittlesea to Humevale, eventually joining up with the fire at Kinglake - and judging by the number of international phone calls we've had the past couple of days, I think the whole world knows what happened after that.

My grandmother always used to say 'there but for the grace of God go I' and it pretty much sums up how I feel at the moment. We were put on ember alert mid afternoon and then upgraded to urgent threat later in the afternoon, but the direction that the wind was blowing meant that the fire front narrowly missed us for which we are thankful but also terrified that this was probably due only to chance.

Two former work colleagues lost their homes, and one also lost her favourite kelpie which I can't even bear to think about what that must be like. Another evacuated and returned home to find hers was the only home on the road standing - another instance of Russian roulette fire style.

Many dog breeders have lost properties and dogs - one lost every single one of their dogs which is so heartbreaking to hear about.

Such is the enormity of this tragedy that six degrees of separation goes out the window - I think just about everyone in Victoria knows someone who lost either property or family.

It makes me wonder how many of us living in semi rural areas actually have a realistic fire plan? Or think that we actually need one ? Coming as close as it did terrified me and we were never in any real danger - I can only imagine the horror of seeing a fire like that literally on your doorstep. Thoughts that I'm trying to push out of my mind now.
Our so called plan was originally to stay and fight if the fire got any closer, then when L came home from work he decided that I should go and take the dogs while he stayed. (Don't know if I could have lived with that or not?) The next day, after the relief turned to disbelief and shock from the amount of devastation and lives lost, we realised that if we had lost power, which is pretty likely in a bushfire, then we wouldn't have had any water to fight fire with anyway as the pump wouldn't have worked. So what dumb bunnies are we!
I think a generator is going on the latest 'wish list'. Plus a more serious attitude to actually developing a plan that is a bit more realistic. Most of us only think of the CFA once a year when making our annual resident's donation. An attitude that is probably going to change for a lot of people now.

My case was packed and ready to go at one stage and when I unpacked it later, I realised that just about every single thing in it was agility related. (What a tragic am I! )

So tonight I am thankful that I have still have my home (even though it's only property in the scheme of things), that my beautiful dogs and horse are safe - even the cranky goat, and all my friends and neighbours are also safe - we were a bit worried about one of them for a while.
I am so sad for all the lives lost that I am still numb all over- and I don't think I will ever feel the same about looking out over the mountains again.

And that makes me feel cheated, as selfish as that might seem - something that I loved has now lost the peaceful feeling that I always associated with it and I don't know if I will ever get that back again.

Time To Get Back to Training

Atilla has finished his treatment for a strained hamstring - diagnosed during his muscle therapy session - we've had a month off jumping, well, pretty much a month off everything, so time to get back to work.


We're going to run very short sequences for the next couple of weeks, training no more than 4 times a week, and then start building up from there. I still want to continue with some shaping plus work on his fitness - and mine- on the days we're not specifically doing agilty training.


Today I chose a sequence from the new Greg Derrett DVD - which was actually taken from the middle of a course diagram, but I wanted to focus on something that incorporated the cloth tunnel/chute. The training exercise on the DVD focused on which way to turn your dog after the jump before the tunnel, so we worked it with a front cross and also with various lead outs.

I worked it with a diagonal front cross between 2 and 3, then a threadle from 4 to 5. Also worked it with a lead out pivot on the close side of 4, then a push through at 4, plus with a lead out pivot on the far side of 4, turning around the opposite side of the jump than before.

Also tried it running from the start and a rear cross between 2 and 3 which actually worked a lot better than I thought it would with Atilla. Didn't try that one with Cruz as our rear crosses still need a lot more work driving down a diagonal line. My fault entirely as I haven't devoted a lot of training time to rear cross work, something that I will rectify this year - in between the hundred other things I want to do with him.

I have really missed training, even though I think it has been good for both kelpies to have some time off.

I am so looking forward to the Greg Derrett seminar next week - although the very high temperatures forecast make me glad I didn't apply for a working spot this time.