"Too competitive" ??

Well, for the first time in my entire life I have been accused of being too competitive. Me? Competitive?? Well maybe!

Since starting agility with Obi I have gone from non commital to taking great interest in the sport, Obi has proven to be so easy to teach and quick to learn that it has all seemed quite natural to go from "we'll never bother entering a competition" to "lets book time off for 6 UK shows"!

However, Obi may be a natural, I on the other hand, am not! I can clearly remember Louise patiently trying to teach me front cross footwork in the early days at Paws, I just couldn't seem to get my head round it and ended up fed up and frustrated, poor Louise probably wanted to thump me haha! Luckily enough I had been bitten enough by 'the bug' that I went home and practiced it on my own, without Obi, until I got it right. It took ages and it was so annoying that I had to work so hard at it when everyone else could do it without thinking. I guess my brain just works in a different way (!)

Anyway, back to the 'competitive' accusation. Is there actually anything wrong with being competitive? Surely few people take part in a sport like this if they don't want to win?

And if you want to do well, and more importantly play fair to your partner, you have to be consisitent so your dog understands exactly what you want him to do. It is no good giving him the hand signals for something without teaching him what they mean.

I was reminded this morning of a lesson where we were being taught 'pull throughs', we had never done them before and I was shown the instructors' handling technique and told to do the same thing. It didn't work, funny that as Obi had never been taught what that particular handling meant!

So we have been practicing, and will continue to do so throughout the winter. I have only two jumps but it is suprising what you can do with such limited equipment. Over the last week we have worked on front crosses, serpentine handling, pull throughs, 'go on's, waits and 'bounces', and I can see improvements in both of us already.

Obi and I are both enjoying playing this game together very much, even when it all goes horribly wrong, Obi has even started doing his 'ball squeek' on courses which tells me that he is enjoying himself very much indeed :o)

So here's to 2010, onwards and upwards (hopefully!) :o)

What next?

Well, as it turns out, I am not a natural born blogger! This is my first entry for absolutely ages and I am writing it really to sort things out in my head!

Obi's training has been coming on well, I think. His contacts seem to be back on track and I'm really pleased with his jumping, the poles actually stay up more often than not these days :o)

Last week Obi won his first red rosette at the monthly comp-nothing for most people to get excited about I guess, but I was thrilled :o) He also won the 'Best agility Gundog' trophy, (jointly with a lovely lab named Chase.)

So all in all, things seem to be going quite well..........but...........

Looking ahead to the UK shows next year I'm having a bit of a crisis of confidence.

Clueless as I am, I didn't realise that most shows do not hold Grade 1 classes.

I know I am very lucky with my agility partner, he is fun, intelligent, easy to train, and an absolute joy, in agility and in everything he does. He is a wonderful dog and I wouldn't swap him for the world.

But, trying to look at it objectively, are we going to win an Agility G1-3 class? Really? Almost certainly not.

For whatever reason (?) graded jumping classes seem more common, but jumping is not our strong point as Obi is not the fastest over the large jumps, the best we have done in the UK at jumping was a 20th place (we even got a rosette for it lol!)

So, what it boils down to is , looking at the list of shows for next year, do I choose shows that I want to go to? Or shows where we stand a better chance of winning?

It would be conceivable to find a little show in the back of beyond and try to win out there, but considering that we have to come all the way from Jersey to find this show, is that what I want to do? Or go to the bigger shows, knowing there is little chance of winning, and enjoy ourselves.

The answer would seem obvious, go and enjoy ourselves, life is too short etc etc. But I have been bitten by the competeing bug and I WANT us to do well!

The other option is to stick to Jersey shows, and maybe the Kennel Club International just because it's great fun, and spend the money I save on a real holiday, to somewhere hot lol!

Hmmm..........

Well, I have now mulled this over for 24 hours, and have decided to get over myself, and go for it :o)

Obi loves agility, I love agility, so we'll work hard over the winter, get fabulous, and go and kick some collie butt! (In a nice way obviously haha!)

Can we win out of Grade 1 next year?? In the words of such greats as Barack Obama and Bob the builder- "YES WE CAN" !!