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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
After the Estonian Championship and Kuressaare agility competition in Saaremaa, the next big two day event took place in Viljandi on 5th and 6th of September. I enjoyed that weekend very much and I'm sure that Erk also did. We ran 3 courses on Saturday evening and 2 courses on Sunday morning. Judge was Blaž Oven from Slovenia, who made quite difficult courses, but they were doable if you can handle yourself and the dog. I'm not too confident jet and my bodylanguage needs improving, so that Erk listens and sees where I'm sending him.
About the competition I can say that we had ups and downs, mostly downs. On Saturday it was raining like it was monsoon and the football field where the competion was held was untended. The school had forgotten to mow the lawn. Anyway, on the first course we were 6th with 5 points. Second course like a regular thing DSQ and third jumping course 12th with 10 points. The times were not so good compared to the top dogs like Süsi, Lista, Tuffy, Ettie.
On Sunday there's nothing much to say because we got both courses DSQ and I was responsible for both of them. I just guided Erk to wrong places. Stupid me.
We have the first course on video thanks to Mariann. There you can see how clumsy and controlling I'm.
Some pictures by Martti Vaidla from the competition.
It has been quite a long time since I have written anything here. I try to make an overview what we have done in this summer (2015).
So, in May we transvered to A3 level and started competing with the best Estonian agilityhandlers/dogs. Our first competition where we went was in Pärnu (Tahkuranna), 27th-28th of June; judge Svetlana Zolotnikova. It was two day event, but I only took part on one day in three courses. Unfortunately I don't have any videos from that competition, because noone filmed our runs. Maybe it's even better that way, so noone could see our mistakes : )
Anyway it didn't go so bad and we even would have won our first official A3 course run if I hadn't fell and Erk missed a tunnel (5 points, for refusal). I forgot to change my shoes and ran with smooth shoes and not with football shoes. Still we got 4th place and our time was fastest. Second run we got DSQ right at the beginning (3rd obstacle) and in third run we demolished the course (took 3 bars down) and were last with 15 points. Dispite that, our time was 3rd fastest. Overall I was a bit dissapointed that we didn't get on the podium, but I have to take in to account, that we are still beginners at this level.
Next time I couldn't manage to go to the competition, because I was at work and Helen took Erk to Saaremaa, where there was AgilityPaw 2015; judge Rene Blank. Our coach Stefi ran two courses with Erk: a jumping course and an agility course. As I understood, Erk was totally mad in the runs. In the first course he got 20 points and in the other DSQ. From that competion we have even videos. I would say that Erk was much faster and better with Stefi than with me.
Then there was our own club "Säde" competition in Lohkva on 18th of July; again judge was from Norway, Jan Egil Eide. I liked those courses very much even though we had minor mistakes and in one course DSQ.
Erk in action (part time flying dog) and sometimes he even gets over the longjump, like in this case. (photo by Martti Vaidla)
I have two runs (courses) on video, so you can judge yourself. On jumping course we got 5 points and in one agility course also 5 points. In the last mentioned course we had the best time, almost 2 seconds better than the next dog. Sadly we dropped a bar and possibly lost a chance to get the first place.
Going forward with our agility journey I have to mention, that there are so many competitions that you just have no time to rest. Basically every weekend there's an agility event in some part of Estonia. Eventually you can't make it and need a break from all of this. After the "Säde" competition, we did that, and took a longer period off (about 2-3 weeks) from everything. So the next place where we competed on the 8th of August was our well known Jõulumäe Sports Center (Pärnu) with its excellent football field. It was very interesting to see how will we do after the vacation break. I thought that Erk will demolish the course, because he is so eager and wants to run and probably doesn't remember most of the orders that we have learned. Anyhow it wasn't so bad, just a bit of poor/sloppy leading and one over excited dog made all together one 3rd place on the podium. That was our first time in A3 when we got to the podium. Happy-happy-happy, but a bit dissapointed, that the mistake was probably in slalom and we lost quite a lot of time there. To sum it up, we ran 4 courses in Jõulumäe. In one agility course we got DSQ, in one we had 15 points and were last (still the time was 5th fastest), in third agility course where we got our podium place, we had 5 points (time was 3rd fastest). In jumping course that was actually the first run, we had also 5 points (don't remember what mistake we made)and overall 8th place, but Erk's time was still 3rd fastest. Unfortunately no videos from that competition.
Of course I have to mention that the judge Minna Räsänen (FI) made very interesting first course (jumping course) with various bar heights from 50-60cm (or even to 65, don't remember anymore).
Waiting... or not..., Erk watches other dogs competing and slowly crawling closer to the field. He is just so eager to run. (Photo made by Rainer Olbri a.k.a."Metsakutsu" or Ülli Saar, don't exactly know. THANK YOU for the beautiful picture)
Continuing with the story, we went to Saaremaa where they held this year's Estonian Agility Championships (22.08.15). It was very big event and lots of dogs. Of course there was a regular competiton also (22nd and 23rd of August), because championship's have only two courses and times added together. So, after the championships they started with the Kuressaare agility competitions and we had one course on 22nd of August and 3 courses on the 23rd of August. Also they had one stage of 2015 Tunnel Cup, where we could run 2 tunnel courses. To combine the two days, we ran all together 8 courses. It was our biggest competition ever and the weather was hot (for the dogs and humans).
.....
