Saturday
I went to Doncaster with my Mum to captain and generally help out. My little team were super and Lucy, Kim, Stripe and Chip clocked 20.03 (although it has to be said, Chip did put in a fairly crazy fast run!)! Even though it was getting hotter, they were staying around the 20.90-21.20s mark most of the day - fantastic! They came 4th in the end, but similar to Rotherham, they probably should have won the division - tiny mistakes, lights by fractions.
Sunday
Jet's turn at Doncaster, running in div.3 on a declared time. We had our super subs from the second team, in the form of Dylan and Buddy. We ended up coming 3rd. Jet ran all day, except for 2(?) legs and when she ran lead in the last leg of the day, she wasn't great. For the rest of the time she was ok, and had some good runs, but she hadn't run over 14" for quite a while. It was hot I guess, but I came away feeling like Jet wasn't quite herself. I had her checked by Kath just to be sure there wasn't anything wrong in her opinion...nothing. I think sometimes I am maybe just a bit harsh on the poor dog.
Monday
Away from flyball and back to agility, I found out on Monday that Jetly has qualified for the British Open Championship class at Asfordby in July. I had no idea, but a few weeks ago when she got her two wins she amounted enough points to go through - who knew! Anyway, according to Leanne, there are jumping/agility rounds, just like a real champ class. It should be exciting anyway!
Tuesday
I came home from university for the night, partly to have my hair done (good god I feel BLONDE!) and also to bring back some junk....oops, I mean very important items of high value. Having clearly lost a few brain cells with my hair going several shades lighter, I thought it might be a good idea to go to agility with Jet. First off, we helped Emma with one of the new beginners whilst Leanne did some work with my Mum and Chip before the weekend. Seeing as we were very quiet (unusual at the moment!) I decided to bring Fly down to soak up the atmosphere....goodness me she was driving me mental! "Arhooooo" and throwing herself about like a total monster watching Chip. That and trying her damnedest to throw herself over any jump we walked near, safe to say she was put away before Jet came out.
Jet did some nice work, she was neat and tidy, but her seesaw wasn't great. To be honest, her seesaw needs work, but I just haven't had the time. In the ring she doesn't seem slow on it and *touch wood* never flies it, but at training she's quite creepy. I tried everything from quick release to having Leanne with treats at the end, throwing a toy....she just wasn't having it. Ok, she did marginally improve, but I didn't want to push it and put her off completely. She did a couple of reasonable ones, so she got a lot of praise and left her at that.
Wednesday
Back to university, oh I do love motorway driving....almost as much as putting petrol in my car everyday...grrrrrr! Well, to be honest, I do really like driving, I just hate paying for bloody petrol. I saw that we had 4 hours of lectures of behaviour and hoped that it would be interesting...and it really was. It was a bit of a revelation to be honest, as a lot of what I thought I knew was pretty much send out of the window. All four hours was on dog behaviour and it was great, but it really did make me think. Anyway, through one thing and another I have come to the conclusion that Jet is actually quite an anxious dog at home. Everything that I thought was confident about her, is probably actually a diffusion behaviour...I make her worse with some of the things I do. I don't want to bore anyone with the details, but it definitely made me think. I keep considering getting her a DAP diffuser, to try and ease things as well as me changing? Answers on a postcard.
Thursday
I came back from uni for the summer, all my stuff packed into the little car. I arrived just in time to set off to flyball training. I did some stuff with chasing Jet off the box, but she kept ball spitting the little git. It was kind of like the toshy thing, and I had Jane release her and me running after her....she was quick, I'll give her that, but she spat her bally out every time. Hmph. I asked Jane if I could train her over 14" as I felt she was struggling a bit with it, she was good and her box was nice but she slowed quite quickly. I'm in two minds about this really, as she is a very fit dog. Now, I keep asking myself, is she a) unfit (unlikely!) b) struggling with 14" due to her stumpy legs (possible, but she did a season of sub4.6s over 14" not too long ago!) c) just not giving it her all, as she was running lead and needs winding up d) has an underlying injury. I feel like I'm so totally overanalysing (congrats if you're still here....welcome to my musing!), but I think it's possibly option C, as she just doesn't get wound up going lead....
However, I can't help but feel like there is something else. I watched Jet walk as she got out of the car when we got home, and there was just a small amount of stiffness in her right fore...she also occasionally skips one of her back legs. I don't know if I am being overly keen, but I keep thinking she's maybe just one tenth lame. I have kept her on yumove (double dose after training) and she wears boots, and she is checked regularly by Kath! I have recently changed her leg supports to some which we bought from the USA, as her Dog Boots Active ones have lost the stickiness of the velcro. I will revert back to those after getting my Mum to re-velcro them. Might be worth considering.
Anyone still reading now will think I'm totally neurotic, which I am. Also, anyone that knows me will know that I'd never ever tell/show to Jet that I wasn't pleased...she's my little sweetie.
This weekend we have Dogs Unleashed and on Tuesday I drive to Bristol to meet up with Nat for the Euros....exciting times!
