Peter Holmberg visiting Tartu

Last year when Peter was a referee in Tartu, it went really well for us and we got in to A3 level. So I hoped that it will go as well this year during the competition.

Additionally we had a simple classroom seminar two days before the competition and a day before a training seminar with a quite difficult course. Last year he only did the training seminar, but I didn't take part in it with Erk. I only watched how they trained and listened what he said. To me, I think he probably explained the best how the handler and dog cooperate in the course. How the handler should move, use his/hers body position and so in every individual case. In his classroom seminar he showed different crosses and how to solve them in the course for clean and quick run.
I add a video of the run of the whole training course here. There was a small mistake at the end, but overall it went really well. Also there are some additional videos of our training in my Youtube channel (Marko Visse). I add the links below.



Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4
Video 5
Video 6
Video 7

Back in our usual routine

We have jogged and trained quite regularly, but Erk is still acting like crazy when we go to competitions. And to prove my point, I give two examples. We had one "Säde"-cup again at the beginning of April, where we got DSQ twice out of three runs and a week later at official competition in Maardu we got DSQ once and the other two runs 15 points and 10 points. It was like a disaster. So we waited for the end of the April, when Säde organized a bigger competition where the judge was Peter Holmberg (NOR) and that was our first international competition, where they give the CACIAG sertificate. But that went like all the previous April competitions. Two DSQ's and one third place, that was not very satisfying.
For a better overview I write a little about the competitions.
At "Säde"-cup our judge was Keida Tirmaste and all the courses were A1-A2 level OPEN courses. First one was jumping course, that went quite good until the final hurdle, where we dropped a bar. And because of that 4th place with 5 points, but our speed was one of the fastest. Only Erk's sister Edha was about 0,4 sek faster and she also dropped the same final bar. Next came two agility courses where we were disqualified. Unfortunately I do not remember exactly for what, but in one run there might have been a problem with see-saw, that I let Erk to do twice or more, because he forgot 2on2off and jumped off of it. But in general, there was probably bad handling from my side.
A week later, dogclub TAKO organized a competition at Maardu, where the judge was Monika Põld. It did not go so well there and our three courses went down the drain. In the first run, jumping course, we took down whole lot of bars and got 17th place with 15 points. Dispite of that our speed was second fastest after Marje and Süsi. My main mistake running this course was that I was standing in Erk's way (obstacles 3-5) or not in time with a frontcross (obstacles 8 and 14). I should have done two rearcrosses in obstacles 3-5, but instead I ran on the right side of the obstacles and got in Erk's way and took down the bar of hurdle nr 4.

In second run, that was agilitycourse, we got DSQ right at the beginning where there was dog-walk and tunnel choice. Of course I managed to choose wrong solution for the first three obstacles and led Erk to tunnel. But going on that dog-walk was really dangerous because of the sharp corner from obstacle nr 2. Dogs trajectory with its speed that it has gained is not going to the dog-walk but straight over the tunnel and many dogs just ran exactly like that. They stepped once on the beginning of the dog-walk and then jumped straight over the tunnel or some stepped on the tunnel and then jumped to the other side of the tunnel. That part of the course was very dangerous for the dogs and fortunately noone got hurt.

Final run, second agility course, went a bit better than the two previous runs, but we still dropped two bars and lost lot of places with the 10 points and we came 12th. Our speed 5.18 m/s was almost the best, only one dog was faster with 5.19 m/s and we lost to that dog only with 0.05 sek. I think that is good enough.

I try to write about the Säde competition where Peter Holmberg was the judge in a new blog entry.

Fortunate jumping course

A week later after our disastrous audition at the "Säde"-cup, we went to Maardu on 12th of March to a bigger competition organized by TAKO. The judge was from Hungary, Zsofi Biro. She made totally different courses than we are used to. There were very sharp corners and in two courses double tunnels in U-shape. Only problem was, that she built them so slowly that the competition schedule went overtime quite a lot.
Going on with the competition, it started with an agilitycourse where we got DSQ in the very beginning. I was just too slow reaching between the 3rd and 4th obstacle (two tunnels), that you can see on the scheme below. From there on we just ran through the course. But the small mistake between the tunnels almost cost me my legs. You can see it on the video.

Second agilitycourse was a bit better than the first one, but we still did two mistakes - one bar and one major mistake. Namely Erk ran past the see-saw and then we did a circle around the see-saw and lost lot of time as you can see from the video. There you can actually see how badly I handled all the course. For that we got 15th place with our 2 mistakes and bad time.

Now going to the third run, that was a jumping course. We almost lost it in one place, where I forgot where the course is going and ran too far out, but still managed to pull myself together and handled both of us to finish. Thanks to that we had a clean run and 1st place. With that victory we are able to apply for an Estonian Agility Champion title, because for that we need three 1st places with clean runs and we already had two victories from agilitycourses. Basically you can apply for the title when you have won three agilitycourses or two agilitycourses and one jumpingcourse. Either way is allowed. Of course you have to win with a clean run. Enough about that and more about the jumpingcourse itself. It wasn't so bad, but in some places we could have been faster. Next dog, Hacker, was just a half a second behind.

Slight drawbacks, but we try again...

New year started pretty good for us, but in February when we wanted to compete in our own "Säde" dogclub competition we had a slight problem. Just few days before the competition Erk managed to cut a small piece off of his front leg metacarpal pad. Luckily the cut was so smooth and round, that we didn't even go to a vet. But despite of the luck, that the cut wasn't so deep, we still couldn't compete, because with a bandage it's not allowed to compete. Of course Erk is always ready for agility and near a agilityfield/course he forgets any pain he has. I was quite disapointed about the fact, that we couldn't take part in that competition, because I was waiting for it for a long time. The reason was, that Zeljko Gora was the judge, who is Erk's father, Tip, owner. At least I could see the A3 courses when I helped the organizers around the course.
Next disapointment was at a small competition, "Säde"-cup, that our dogclub organizes for beginners and higher classes for practising starts and competition situations. The judge was Inge Ringmets and we ran 3 courses. Two of them were jumping courses and one agility course. The difficulty of the runs were more or less A1-A2. In first run it was basically whole time running and very fast course, but it showed the difference between Erk's siblings. Erk's sister Ettie was over half a second quicker than we and one other sister, Edha, was over half a second slower than us. Sure it's not a good estimate, but it shows that our turns are wide and when I slow down Erk also slows down and doesn't run in full speed. That is good in A3 level with difficult courses where you need to change your speed and lead the dog in tight spaces.
In second jumping course we were disqualified for my sloppiness and bad positioning. That happened quite near at the end of the course. About 5-6 obstacles were left, but Erk stopped listening me and just took every obstacle that was around us to every twitch that I made. Finally, after about 10 seconds when we calmed down we could finish our run. In the third course (agility) we managed to do lots of stupid things also. I solved one situation quite badly and we lost many seconds there. Next misunderstanding between us was when we ran in a straigth line and I said Erk to go to A-frame but he just came past it with me and started to enter into tunnel, that was crossways below the A-frame. So when I finally saw that and stopped, Erk had put his nose already into tunnel, but quickly took it out again. For that we should have been disqualified, but we only got a refusal and ran to finish. In this course we got 10 points and very bad time and speed.

New year (2016) and high hopes for this season

First competition in 2016 took place near Viljandi (Heimtali stables) on 16th of January and the judge was from Lithuania, Jurate Miliunaite.
It was extremely cold that day and basically at that time were the coldest weeks of this winter. In many nights the temperature fell below -25°C. Funny thing was, that I was ill and had very high fever, about 39°C, and didn't even notice it for three-four days. I was a bit feeble and had slight cold shivers, but it didn't bother me. Just went on to competition and the next day we had a training and so on, until I took my temperature and was amazed. Luckily I got well in a few days. But enough about me, lets go on with the competition and results.
To my suprise we weren't so bad after such a long break, about 1.5 month since the last competition. There were some problems and lack of cooperation in some cases, but I blame it on lack of training, because we had training time only once a week for a long time. Thereof most of the turns were wide, speed was low and some bad contacts. The last ones were not directly mistakes, but just not well performed like we practiced.
First run was excellent, clean run and speed more or less ok (4th speed). Definitely we have to take in to account that first run is usually very problematic to us. Either we break down the course or do something else stupid. This time we got 4th place with our clean run.
Second run was DSQ, nothing much to talk about it, because don't remember for what we got DSQ. Probably bad leading and my body position.
In third run we were 10th with a bad speed and 2 faults.
To sum it all up - more training, more everyday running and activities to get the weight down a bit and speed up again. Anyway, I think we are getting better and head for the podium places.

Jeeiiiiiiiiii!!!!! We won a course... and a second one

This time our own club, "Säde", organized a competition on 14th of November 2015 in Tartu and the judge was Lidia Belyaeva (LV).
All the courses were not so difficult, but like always Erk demolished everything on the first course. He ran all over the place and didn't notice my signs at all. Adventually, when he just jumped in to my legs I took him of the course and looked at him with a very mean look. Some cautionary words were also mentioned, but just a little bit. All that improved Erk so much, that we ran the second course so well, we even won it with no mistakes. That felt very good, specially the clean run. Our speed was a bit slower than Dints and Marje had, but they made one mistake (don't remember if it was a bar drop or jumping of the dog walk).

A part from the first run that went sooooooo badly, we manadge to got disqualified in the third run also. I don't remember anymore for what, but probably I sent him to fantasy land (bad body position). I guess we put all our strenght to that second run :-D

Two weeks later (28.11.2015) we went to Maardu for a competition where Zsuzsa Veres (HUN) was the judge.
She did excellent courses with many turns that needed precise handling and what I enjoyed most was that we won again one course with a clean run. Though our two other runs went as usual. From the first run we got 15 points (bars again) and 11th place, but the speed was quite ok. We would have done much better and you can see it from the video below.




Second run we won and our speed was in top three, but other competitors had some faults (look at the table below). In the third run 14th place with two mistakes, but speed was super and we were the fastest. Never mind the faults. Sure I'm a bit dissapointed that we didn't get to podium with the last run, because they have very good prizes at Maardu competitions, but thats our problem and my handling. Hope to do better next time.

Speed is improving, but the bars are still dropping

Until now, we haven't had any competion, where we haven't been disqualified. So on 27th of September 2015 at Maardu we had our first competition (judge Inga Järv) where we managed to run all three courses without DSQ. Only problem was, that we dropped too many bars and did some other mistakes like false slalom entrys and probably something else. Results were not promising (places were 6th, 8th, 15th).
A month later we went again to Maardu and did a competition without DSQ's. This time the judge was Svetlana Kreslina and the courses were pretty good and slightly difficult in some parts. Again, we had many faults (mostly bars) and our places in the three courses were 6th, 8th and 11th.