We are very lucky that our instructors are friends with Dave Munnings so occasionally we get the opportunity to do workshops with him at Paws at Play.

Tonight he did 2 x 2 hour sessions and I had decided to book both of them - the first one with Pepper and the second with Ruby. 

The first session was focussed on handling foundations using Dave's Q-Me and Turn Me techniques. We did work using wings and jumps and finished with a little course of jumps and a tunnel to put it all into practice.

Pepper worked really well and I was pleased with how she was starting to drive into the tunnel. I need to do more work on wing wraps and getting her to be more independent but overall it was great.

The second session was on contacts. We started by doing a run over the dog walk so that Dave could see the level of our dogs - I had warned him that Ruby's contacts were not at all reliable! She ran over the dog walk and stopped perfectly in her two on, two off position! Little monkey!

We went on to work on foundation contact training and it is clear that I need to do lots more work on the basics with both dogs. Ruby knows what she is supposed to do but just doesn't do it 100% of the time and I know from the competitions I have attended recently that she will jump off from half way down both the dog walk and the A-frame!

I really need to paint the plank that is sitting in the garage so that I can start working on this with them at home!

All in all it was a great evening, despite the cold!

We attended the final round of the Pachesham Winter Series today! 

I ran each dog in the Agility NFC as usual - Ruby's contacts were not good - she leapt off the dog walk and the A-frame, but Pepper was really good!

Jumping - Pepper was first - she did a good run but missed the first entry for the weaves. She completed them fine on the second attempt and finished with 5 faults! I was very surprised to find that she was placed 8th with her 5 faults! Ruby was next - she started off OK but got ahead of me and made up her own course!

Steeplechase - Pepper was first again - she was doing a stunning round, but just before the end of the course I confused myself - I had planned to do a front cross to pick her up out of the tunnel and take her to the last 3 jumps but forgot and panicked! Unfortunately she knocked the second to last pole down - such a shame as she had done a good time and it was completely my fault! Ruby was next - she was much more focussed on me for this run and I managed to get her round clear but sandly she wasn't fast enough to be placed!

I know that I need to be much more assertive with Ruby and today I just didn't do enough to help get her round the courses! More to work on!

I booked to attend this workshop with Karen Fox-Williams and the lovely Rufus. 
 
A snake line is a set of three jumps in a line and is often used by course setters. They can be quite tricky to handle and there are lots of different ways of completing them.

There were 8 of us in the class with mixed abilities - a few of them were already competing at quite a high level! After an introduction we all had to show Dave how we would handle a Snake Line - thankfully one of the more experienced girls went first so I was able to copy her! It went OK, phew!

We were then split into two groups and unfortunately Karen and I were put into different groups so weren't able to video each other, or even really see what the other was doing. Dave broke the different ways of handling a Snake Line down and we had the opportunity to practice each one! Ruby was pretty good - quite focussed and I was pleased with how she responded to some new ways of working.

I really enjoyed the session and hope to be able to go to more in the future!