Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. - Douglas Adams
After a great summer holiday with a lot of new impressions, a relative understanding of the concept of balance and a expectation on doing some good agility, we had signed up for the competition in Nordhordland with the judge Jan Egil Eide.
Since I still had some vacation before getting back to work, I started the trip to Bergen early friday afternoon and arrived in Os at Simon and Dorte around 17.00. Luckily I wasn't going any further, as there had been a major accident in downtown Bergen, causing big traffic jam.
On saturday morning I started with A2 and had a great course walk, my only problem was that I was trying to incorporate things I don't master yet, which ended badly for my part.
My expectations for the weekend felt like something crashing, kind of like this:
I haven't talked a lot about my goals, but I've mentioned my ultimate goal of having fun. However, when you do something, anything actually, you always want to do your best.
My goals is something we can come to on a later time, but what's important to know now, is that I did not live up to my expectations on the runs this weekend. I will be the first to admit that my thoughts can get in the way of everything sometimes, and this can be both positive and negative.
Story of the weekend was in general just like a movie title:
Tommy trying stuff he doesn't know!
Anyways, let's get on with the courses.
A2:
It all went super good until obstacle 11, where I wanted to try wrong-sided weaves. It gives me a fault in there and we just continued. This gives us a DQ in this run. Results are below;
Second run of the day was Jumping. It was a fun filled action course, which demanded 100% focus on every turn. Unfortunately I did not manage this. My timing was not up to par, turning was crap and directions for the dog was not present. As a result of my poor handling, Leija actually refuses a tunnel and jumps over the long jump. Luckily she wasn't injured, as the long jump had the #5 bar standing in the course as well. Ah well, a DQ written down on this one as well:
Video link below:
As always, it seems my Youtube does not want to cooperate with my blogspot, so I have to put the links to youtube only.
This was a super fun course. Even though my head weren't on it's place, we had fun none the less.. Leija closed her ears from obstacles 2->3 and had a wide turn. My body posture was all out of place, and I started her in the wrong place. Still, Leija had a great speed and we came back from the tunnell and took #4 without problem. But then Leija somehow decided on going on the outside of #5 and jumped the long jump the wrong way, giving us the DQ.
I am super happy with the speed of the weaves, we had a good turn on #8 -> #9, even if I slipped because of my bad body-balance.
Third and last run of the day was the open jump course. Here we atleast managed to get a finish, even though we had a refusal, we finished with good speed and okey handling.
Movie of the can be seen at the link below:
If I look at the course compared to my handling, I see a few timing mistakes and I could also improve the turning during the course. My biggest point, however, is that I seem to be a bit slow in my running. Leija has a speed, with the refusal, at 4,40 m/s. Could I maybe become faster if I run faster, or do I loose control?
Well, let's move into Sunday.
Sunday started with alot of confusion and loss of focus for my part. During our trip to the competition, Simon and me drove past a accident which happened to be a contestant that we knew. The entire car was destroyed, but luckily both her and her dogs was okey. Someone had a guardian angel in that crash....
When we arrived, the course walk for grade 2 agility had already started, but the judge was so nice that he gave us some extra time to walk it. Unfortunately I couldn't manage to reset my mindset and it was a "half-ass" effort by myself.
Course was a SUPER FUN course. It should have been easy.. Should have!! - That is one of the most annoying comments I ever make. "I should have" is always the start of something bad for me, but then again; I should have been on the other side.
Luckily I didn't get this course on film.
The second run for me was the Grade 1 debut with Niili. I had no expectations what so ever, and my entire goal for the debut was just to check how she would react in a competition setting.
However, she actually went above and beyond any expectations and won her class. Granted, she was the only dog that managed to complete the course, but that shows me that she was better than all the rest :)
Video link below:
The result of this run was the biggest point of happiness for me this weekend, as it showed me that Niili might have a great future in the agility ring :)
Jumping grade 2, the last for me and Leija this weekend, ended as the rest of the weekend. With a devastating DQ because of Tommy trying things he doesn't know.
Video link below:
But then again, how can one improve without trying new things???
So, all in all, a lot of new things that needs focus and some things that need to be practised. How do we do that? WE TRY NEW THINGS!!!
Tune in for the next post competition post, showing Tommy doing things he doesn't know!
Tommy & Leija
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