Belfast Training & Judging - Friday 4.45am

Hello.

After finally going to bed about half 4 after a good night out in Belfast, most of today has been spent relaxing.

Yesterdays training sessions was really good. I had some really good feedback and I think everyone went away having learnt something and understood some of the key points I made.

I made a point of thoroughly explaining the contact foundation work, and the importance of sticking to the key concepts and stages to achieve consistent reliable contacts. I use my training with Scott as bases to work/talk through the stages.
Here is a small selection of photo’s from yesterdays training session.



I am setting up my courses later today ready for judging tomorrow, rain is forecast apparently!

All the best - Lee

Belfast Friday 2.50am

This afternoon and evening have been very busy. I trained two groups for 3 hours each, we did loads of work on turns and contacts. A certain handler who goes by the neame of Louise, did very well, and I told her that if she tried a little harder, she could do a bit better!!

Full report to come tomorrow + pics.

I have been out in Belfast City this evening :)

Thursday 10.30am

Arrived safe and well in Belfast. Am now taking a power nap before training at 2pm. I have the group lists and information.

The people I am staying with seem lovely, I had the biggest breakfast ever (yes I have had two today) and have a pot (yes a pot not just a mug!) in my room... Bliss!!

The venue this afternoon is indoors, but the weather here so far is great. Am hoping to do some turn work and motivational work also this afternoon.

Am heading out into the city this evening, not sure how im getting back yet!

Sleep time now, and then an "ulster fry" at 12pm... I await with interest :)

Belfast Training & Judging - Thursday 6.30am

Good day,

Sat here with bacon roll and a tea (what else!) waiting to board my flybe flight to Belfast City. Was a 3.30am alarm call this morning, so I am hoping for a sleep or so on the plane and where I am staying before training kicks off today at 2pm. I am hoping to do some good work with the groups, giving them an idea of the key issues I believe are important (what I train at LGT) and help improve the training methods used.

More updates soon. Now I have a plane to board :)

Lee

Dashin Dogs Show Review

Well this is definitely one of the more upbeat LGT blog posts. Scotty won two grade 4 agility classes at Dashin Dogs last weekend. He was fab, and worked really hard to keep the poles up.

Over the whole weekend we only knocked 2 down, and all the runs showed composure one some hard courses. Our clear round percentage was also 50% again, which is pleasing. One of the agility courses had a tough dog walk entry, but Scott (with the help of me putting him out a bit!) was fine onto it. Looking back at the video I am so pleased with his contacts, as I really can just leave him on them. It gave me several advantages in the two classes we won.

Jack and Che also did very well in their grade 7 classes, having 4 top 3 places in total. They were some hard starts which required a decent start line wait, something Jack and Che are very good at, which enabled me to recall through a gap to the far side of a box! (Jacks run is on the end of Scotts video)

Last week I also did a lot of training with Scott. I decided to actually work really tight to him, to practice him keeping his poles up. We did several push rounds also, something I will develop further over the coming months. However I decided to do some tight pushing handling on some of the jumping courses, and Scott coped really well, no poles, just one missed weave entry.

I am off to Belfast this weekend, I fly from Birmingham at 7am Thursday morning, where I will conduct a training seminar Thursday afternoon/evening, and then judge Saturday & Sunday. I intend to take my laptop with me and update what I’ve been up to, I’m not taking any dogs but I think it will be good fun.

Scott’s video of his weekend and two wins is below. Gina and myself spent another day working on an exciting media project yesterday... more will be revealed soon!!



All the best, Lee

Bromsgrove Agility Show Review

After the events of last weekend it was nice to focus on the agility rather than the journey. Bromsgrove show is only 42 miles away so we did it each day, rather than camping over.
I was intent on improving Scotts clear round percentage this weekend, and after a positive weeks training was in a confident mood that we could get round some courses clear. This proved to be correct and a 50% clear round rate (3 from 6 runs) was a good return.

Scott won grade 3 jumping by 2.4 seconds, and had a 5th place in the open agility. Both runs were technically excellent in my opinion. The second box in the grade 3 jumping class was set so that it really only one chance of working it neatly. As long as I shaped the approached and timed the left and right commands okay, I thought he should do it, and it worked really well. I was very pleased with him and myself for standing still long enough!

The agility class was also pleasing, with two lots of weaves. Watching the video back I am also pleased with the shaping over jump 5 into the second set of weaves. Watching the video (below) back though, I was rather lax working the approach to jump 9, and Scott really recovered well considering. I do need to focus all the way around as we easily lost 0.6 at least there. The grade 3 agility class was nice also. I know for a fact I didn’t give a left weave command, which was defiantly needed. Because he had slightly come off the seesaw, I moved back, and then of course I was moving as he came out of the tunnel, and he looked at me because all I said was ‘go weave’... no directional (big slap for me!) although this was the only missed weave entry all weekend, 6 out of 7 weave pickups is pleasing.

Sunday proved to be more of a reality check, but still had some pleasing elements. We came 5th again in the open jumping class, 0.6 behind the grade 7 winning dog and Scotty also beat Jack, who came 9th 0.8 behind Scott’s time. However what then happened was not quite as pleasing. The grade 3-5 jumping class was technically difficult in two places, Scott worked these as well as any dog, but he knocked three (two consecutive) poles before the weaves. I know his confidence was high, but the manner in which he knocked them proved we still have plenty of work to do.
Our last run in grade 3 ever was in the agility class last thing on Sunday. I admit I did want to win it, and Scott was on course to put in a decent run until he knocked a pole midway round, so I trained the dog-walk and finished the course.

The video is below (thank you to Gina for all your hard work!)

Jack and Che were also running this weekend. Jack had a 9th, 6th and 3rd in grade 7 classes. Che had a 13th in grade 7 agility and a 10th in the open jumping, but also showed some rather poor contacts. Rusty, more like totally memory loss!!

A huge well done to all the LGT crew who had places this weekend: Joyce Lewis, Gina Graham, Wendy Williams, Ceri Jones, David Russel, Lyn Gibson, Christine & Alice all had places and well done :) to you all. If ive missed anyone... apologies again. I struggle to remember my own runs!!All the best, enjoy Scott’s video. Grade 4 up next for Scott at DashinDogs show next weekend!

Training Event 1st November

Hello.

Ive been training for 4 hours today, and have another 2 hours this evening. I have set up a popular start sequence this week, 2 jumps into a pull through and on to the dogwalk. I have been practicing with Scott today. He was doing well, and we have also done some more weave training!

Ive updated the training day page of my website. I am holding a Training day on the 1st of November. Click here for details

All the best, lee