Pleasantly surprised

We had a big weekend of agility last weekend. On Saturday we had a double header with Gosnells dog club and on Sunday another agility trial – fundraiser for the nationals. Yes I actually trialled - woohooo!!!!

Photo by Gillian Self -
www.flickr.com/photos/gillianself
We rocked up to Gosnells trial on the Saturday morning and our first run wasn’t until the second half of the morning so we pottered about and watched others do some spiffy runs and others doing some specky stuff but with hard luck stories, then it was our wee turn. We went into excellent jumping first. It was Richard’s course and such a lovely course too. Anyhoo, we get to the start line and Mini’s her usual “barky” self. Little scab broke her start before I was in place but she done brilliant. If her handler wasn’t such a baboon she would’ve got around clear. The novice agility again was a great wee attempt on Mini’s behalf. Vicki was judging and set which I may add a challenging section in the course for novice dogs – wee Mini managed to get it (although I nearly stuffed it up with a “late” front cross and she had to jump out the way of my fat ass, lol). The last 3 obstacles to go were “jump, spread and jump”. Mini has a problem with straight lines and will tend to run around them (she wants more of a challenge) I think it’s just a novice thing – although I’ve been told it’s a Koolie thing. So she does the jump, starts to veer off the spread, I stop to pull her back onto the line of the spread, she’s taking off and crashes the spread – why oh why did I stop?????? Aaaaaarrrrgggggg. Sorry Mini. Was way happy though – she got her weaves and contacts (which we are very novice at and need lots of practise with) – go the minxter!!

Gosnells PM trial – well I was over the moon at Mini’s performance from the morning and although no qualifier I was still on a high. We went into excellent jumping, Cindy had set up an awesome jumping course – again if mini’s handler aka me could actually handle we would’ve gotten around the course – kick me!!!! Oh well she had fun and barked all the way around.


Novice agility was judged by Nic Forde – again a lovely novice course. Wee Minmin got all her contacts, her weaves and actually got around clear – yay Mini – to top it off she won – woooohooooo!!!!! (Hence the photo at the beginning with the quail card and Rosette – thanks again to Gillian Self for the photo). On a high doesn’t even come close.


I did notice something though – Mini needs a lot of help on the course – I think after going through all that stage with diva and now having a more confident dog and well basically a dog that’s been trained lol I have been not lazy but expecting too much of wee Mini. I have to take that extra step or tell her “jump” at that point – she needs that extra helping hand at the moment. This will differ as her experience grows but I need to “baby” her at the moment. Glad to have found it out now though than stuffing her up. Feel free to kick my butt if I’m slack with Mini and not helping her out.



So we had it all to do on the Sunday again. We rocked up to CAWA for the fundraiser trial and had excellent jumping first. Cindy was judging again and set up a great jumping course. Wee Mini goes in – on the starline and “woof woof woof woof” – I wasn’t confident on the start at all. I wanted to get into a spot and do a front cross but released her and wasn’t even in the spot to do a fc so we done a rear instead (Mini’s learning rears and picking it up not too badly) – anyway she was listening to me all the way around and – yep we got clear – OMG Mini got clear in excellent jumping – guess what – guess what else – she won it!!!!!!!!! Yippppeeeeeeeeee. Way to go Mini.

We had novice agility next and she done really well up until the weaves – owwwwww she went into the wrong entrance side – she really tried though. All we had left after the weaves was table and jump – nearly Mini – she tried soooooo hard too. Great effort mini well done wee chicken.

Don't have much video footage of mini but managed to capture some on the weekend and have her runs from the classic in march (lol - if you seen it you'd know :-) ) So I'll have to put together a wee movie for Mini with her runs on it.


I'm pleased at how mini is coming along - especially with our lack of training. Mini is supposed to be a 400 dog in CAWA but we now jump 500. She can cope easily. She's obviously much slower on 500 than 400 but I have confidence that she will speed up. I'll let her do that in her own time though and make it as fun as possible along the way. Sure we're gonna have some hiccups and setbacks but that is the game of dog training. It has to be fun for her and I have to make it fun. Afterall I have to remember she's doing it for me.


Thank you Mini xxx