Distance Control – “Go On” and “In”

Posted on April 19, 2009 by Susan

Beanie really seems to be enjoying agility again, so I decided it was time to start trying to move things forwards a bit. When we started working on distance control in classes it put her off agility all together for a while. She just loves us to run the course with her. But sadly we’re just not fast enough to keep up with her.

Inspired by watching Janie training her squad of collies in the barn the other day I decided to try Beanie with “Go On” and “In” commands.

“Go On” basically means “keep going away from me taking every obstacle in your path until I tell you otherwise”. “In” means “come towards me taking every obstacle in your path until I tell you otherwise”. These two simple commands can provide you with lots of opportunities to send a dog away on it’s own to do bits of the course while you take a short cut.

How hard can it be? Surprisingly (given we’re talking about a wayward Beagle) not hard at all! Here’s the video footage:

More from the Agility Beagles

Posted on April 16, 2009 by Susan

We took Beanie and Biggles to the agility barn for a practice session today. Biggles is still only 8 months old so we’re keeping the jumps on the floor for him and avoiding anything he could fall off. He loves it and is doing great. As for Beanie….what a little star – her weaving is perfect every time and getting faster!

Here’s the vid (YouTube muted the original soundtrack I’m afraid!):

Notice how mum (the slow part of the team) is running around the OUTSIDE of the circuit and covering a greater distance than speed demon Beanie! I think that bit needs a re-think! In fact, I’m doing just about everything wrong yet Beanie is responding to me a lot better than she was when I was going to classes and trying to do things right! I guess the reason is that I’m now focussing on her and doing what I think is necessary to keep her moving in the right direction. When I was trying to do things the ‘right’ way I was so focussed on what I had to do that I wasn’t really paying attention to her. Hopefully if we keep videoing our training sessions I’ll gradually start to fix the things I’m doing wrong. It’s certainly more fun for us both doing it our ‘special’ way !!

News – A Big Event and GPS Tracking Collars

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Susan

A couple of bits of info that might be of interest…..

The Best Beagle Event of the Year – Sunday 3rd May 2009

Firstly (in case I’ve forgotten to tell anyone personally) the Caledonian Thistle Pedigree Whippet Racing Club are holding Scotland’s first open race on Sunday 3rd May 2009. It’ll be attended by Whippets from across the UK and it sounds as if there’s going to be TV coverage!

The club have had a Beagle division for the past few years. We think this is the only Beagle racing club in the world! If you need a reminder of how much fun Beagle racing is for Beagles and owners alike take a look at this montage of clips and images from the 2008 season:

By popular request (from the Whippet owners!), the club are including the Beagles in their special event. No experience necessary, and as it’s a handicap race every Beagle that enters has a chance of taking home the trophy! So anyone that’s already been to the racing make sure you sign up for the big race (contact Maggie on 01236 830 273). And if your Beagle has never raced but you’d like to give it a try get in touch with Maggie!

You’ll find more information about Beagle Racing on the Scottish Beagle Club website or the Caledonian Thistle Pedigree Whippet Racing Club website

GPS Dog Tracking Collar

The next bit of news is that we’ve finally got hold of some GPS tracking collars for Beanie and Biggles. The collars are lockable and made of kevlar so can’t be removed by dog thieves. If the dogs leave a preprogrammed perimeter (e.g. our garden, or a safe area of a park) or go out of sight during walks we can track them on special OS mapping software on our mobile phones. Hopefully we’ll be in a position to post up a review within the next week – so watch this space!