Dog Handling

TRAINING FOR AGILITY WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO GET RESULTS

Every now and again someone comes through the Dog Training ranks who turns out to be extraordinary. The team of Sue Thomas and Girl are pretty extraordinary. I like to write about some of our wonderful Agiliteers because I think they are inspirational. I am continuously inspired by Alex Jones and Debbie Trimbach. As Club role models they take some beating.

Sue came to me 18 months ago with a little Eye dog bitch pup called Girl. Apparently she came from a bit of a strange background and she was quite a reserved pup with people. Loved other dogs though. Her head was all over the place, obviously wanted to know what was happening everywhere at once. Sue and Partner Rob are part of the Management Team for Sumner Farms which is next door to our training grounds for Dog Sports. Because she was part of a Farm team, Girl's career was already mapped out as a sheep and cattle dog.

Sue didn't know what she wanted the dog to do as a 'Dog Sport' but she wanted to be able to get the dog responding to her with the usual sits and stays and downs and stands and recall and of course in her farm job, sendaways. So we set about doing her puppy stuff and Girl spent a lot of time working other dogs and puppies that came into her eye. She spent a lot of time dropping her favorite tennis ball at someone's feet in the hope that they would biff it for her to retrieve and drop back at the same feet. With this going on there was no way that she would return to Sue when there were fun and games to be had all over the Dog Sports Park. Never mind said I it is just young dog stuff, yeah said Sue and shrugged her shoulders and let it all happen.

While we were waiting for Girl to decide to come back and try some more work with us, Sue and I chatted a fair bit. Sue had never trained a Dog before, she is a 60 something year old and she confided in me that she could never run an Agility course as her back was pretty shattered due to a most unusual childhood injury. I am sure she will share it with you if you ask nicely. Sue wanted to know if Girl would ever get to the point where she could concentrate long enough to do any jumping or running in the right direction, or at least in the direction we wanted her to run in rather than where she wanted to run. I asked what her plans were for Girl in terms of her maturity and the need to spay. Sue hadn't really thought about it. I suggested that early spay for this pup might not be the wisest thing. I often find that bitches that are a bit silly and lack concentration get stuck in that mode by early spay. They never mature. (I can hear all the people jumping up and down saying the world doesn't need more pups and all dogs not used for breeding need to be neutered ASAP). Yep absolutely but I still believe that one or two seasons and a bit of time to let the hormones do the work that they were designed to do, makes a heck of a difference to the demeanor of the dog especially a dog that is going to be a working dog on a farm and perhaps even a bit of an Agility worker. The brain needs to be somewhere useful. I frankly thought Girl was a lovable airhead.

I sort of decided that with her love of Tennis Balls and her sendaway capabilities Girl would make a good Flygility Dog. On top of that with Sue not able to run it was probably the safest thing to get her involved in. Sue had absolutely no idea what Flygility was but we persevered and within a short time Girl was hitting the box .

By now Sue had eyed up Agility and decided that she wanted to have a go. So she joined the Junior Agility group and learnt all the pieces of equipment and some of the sendaway moves and how the weaves work. Nothing could stop her. Sue was at the Club at every opportunity. In her own words,

“I have a full dog training system right next door to learn a sport I absolutely love. The cards are stacked great for me�.

Over the last six months Sue has competed in Flygility and won ribbons and points, Agility and won ribbons. She is the top learner dog at Dog Sports Club currently. Partner Rob is totally rapt that Sue and Girl have such a great working bond and how is her farm work? Absolutely amazing. She is fearless with the Hereford Bulls, gentle and caring with the sheep and lambs and would work till she dropped. Sometimes she gets to agility with just about all her energy used up but she puts on a happy face and turns out some beautiful course work. Her Obedience and CGC work is awesome as well.
So she has matured into a beautiful happy hard working dog, who still drops her tennis ball at anyone's feet that she thinks might be good for a ball throw. She loves children - they throw the ball a lot and has a good feel for other dogs, a bit bossy as she is an entire bitch, totally normal playful lovable reliable dog.

Now the moment has arrived, when she comes into season next month she will be in the mood to be a mother. Sue Rob and I have decided that Girl should be a Mum. She has tons of lovely traits to pass on to her pups, she will mature even more and then she will be spayed and come back and complete her life in Agility, Fly and working on her beloved Farm chasing the farm bike up the hills.

We have a candidate for Fatherhood and there are others around if that doesn't go. She will be mated with another Farm dog /Collie cross/Eye / Heading dog type who is not related to her and we hope that people keen to improve their Agility opportunities will want to buy her pups, or they could well go to be working farm dogs. Girl is a Measured Medium sized dog by Agility Rules we are hoping to mate her with another Medium dog so that the pups are smaller. Sue and Girl have been a joy to train with to here. This is how Girl got so good at Dog Sports in such a short time.

1. Puppy Class, play to learn 2. 11a.m. Saturday Control and Obedience plus tunnel and hurdle work on Saturday 3. Monday night Junior Agility class 4. Tuesday night Obedience and Directions 5. Thursday night Club Flygility with Juniors at 4p.m. for Sendaway Recall 6. Friday night Canine Good Citizen. 7. Girl and Sue completed their Weaves Clinic and learned to weave 12 straight poles 8. Attended all Club Competitions since they started learning Agility. 9. Attended all the Competitions within easy driving distance to watch the rest of the Club competing in Kennel Club Events and NZFDA Flygility Tournaments and therefore getting both of them ready to compete. 10. Joined National Agility Link Association (NALA) to get more experience at course running.

Sue and Girl put in the time money and effort to make sure that they could reach the standard Dog Sports Club expects before they can compete in National Competition. It would be easy to say ANYONE CAN DO THIS. That isn't true, it takes a lot of grit and determination. A will to make it work and the ability to put pain to one side and do the best you can. An awful lot of people come to me wanting to ‘do Agility'. Very few actually go the distance. Sue and Girl can well be proud of their achievements to date and there will be many more.

Club Captains Report

Winter is starting to give up to nicer days and longer daylight which will mean better outdoor training from now on. This newsletter is a little late due to my being a bit 'Off' following my arm operation a few weeks ago. During my lead up to the operation and for the weeks following I was unable to attend much club and unable to be Club Captain, so over that period Alex Jones and Pam Sharp did all the necessary work and I thank them very much for letting me have that break. When the Team is as good as the Dog Sports Committee, the support is there for us all when we need it.

At the last Meeting Alex presented her Code of Behavior Protocol and it was passed with the status of Club Rules alongside our Constitution. It is attached to this newsletter for all to see. Just occasionally it is nice to have a reference point or a line in the sand that says 'this is not respectful Club behavior'. There have been a couple of mild instances where people find they don't like someone else in the Club and it has overflowed into the greater Club arena. This is not what we go to the Club to train our dogs for. The Committee now have the teeth to simply step in and solve the problem. Previously this was not the case. It is the growing pains thing. When you only have fifteen members it is a lot different to having 40 plus members. Please remember our Club Meetings are Open meetings. They are Club events everyone brings a plate of finger food and we all share before the meeting. Meeting last one hour and everyone who is a Club Member can participate in the business. The next Club meeting is 16th October, we would like to see you there.

Adding Value to the Club is the job for all Members. There is an upcoming Fund Raising Barbecue at Bunnings on Saturday 28th November which we desperately need helpers for as it clashes with a major Club Agility Ribbon Outing which used to be held on the Sunday, which would have been the 29th so we were confident even with class day on the Saturday that we could staff the Barbie. Now EBOP Dog Training Club have reversed their events holding the Ribbon Trial on the Saturday and the Jumpers Champ on the Sunday. If you can help please contact Jenny Williams, me or Raewyn or Pam Sharp. Thank you.

We are always looking for one off Fundraisers so if you have a particular talent and would like to share it with the Club then please feel free to let us know. Like what? Running a cooking class in the Club Kitchen and charging members for attending, doing a poetry reading or a standup comic thing, anything that we can charge people to attend and make a little profit from. If your thing has outgoings then the Club should be able to help with those, such as photocopying or ingredients.

We are still short of people to clean the Clubrooms and would like volunteers to roster on to small areas such as the entrance porch and washing the towels, every little helps.

Happy training

Debbie Trimbach -DSR Club Captain.