Sunshine, Showers and Scruffts

Yesterday was a good day for Mina and me.  After all the recent rain, we awoke to blue skies and radiant sunshine, all of which boded well for our visit to the 128th Lincolnshire Show.

The Lincolnshire Show is a major event on the county's calendar.  It started life as an agricultural show and has grown over the years to become a major tourist event and family day out.  However, until last year there was one member of the family that wasn't allowed to attend - those of the four-legged canine variety.  2011 saw a change in the rules and pet dogs were finally allowed to come to the show and not only that, the show introduced the dog ring and regional heats of Scruffts - the Kennel Club's dog show for cross breeds.

So, this year I decided to enter Mina into the Golden Oldies class.  This class is open to dogs over the age of 8 and as Mina is 10 she more than qualifies as a  golden (and gorgeous) oldie.


But, I hear you cry, surely Mina doesn't qualify as a cross breed? Isn't she a Greyhound? Well, even though I call her a Greyhound, technically speaking she's a Lurcher. Mina isn't tattooed in either of her ears and she's never raced. If you look really closely you can see that she doesn't look 100 percent Greyhound. Well, as it happens, I'll soon know what breed(s) Mina is crossed with as I'm waiting for the results of her Wisdom Panel DNA results...but that's for another blog post!

Mina 'reflects' on her win & huge rosette

So, back to Scruffts...the weather remained warm and dry (Mina got through about a litre of water during the show) and we entered the show ring where Mina won the Golden Oldies class! This means that we will be off to Discover Dogs in November to take part in the Scruffts grand final. Wouldn't it be fab if a sighthound won? We'll definitely be keeping our fingers and paws crossed.

As well as winning Scruffts, I had another reason to be proud of Mina - the show was super busy with lots of people and dogs and years ago she would have struggled and reacted to all the dogs. Fast forward a few years, lots of university learning and way more training and understanding of how dogs learn and Mina behaved impeccably. We even took some time just to chill out with Mina enjoying some belly rubs.

Today, was a bit of a washout at the show and I'm very thankful that I chose yesterday to visit and participate in Scruffts. I spent most of today in a marquee serving drinks and for my lunch break, I had to don waterproof trousers & wellies before venturing out. I managed to make it across to the dog ring to watch today's Scruffts heats where I bumped into one of my friends and her dog, Flo. They had entered the Prettiest Bitch category and although they didn't win, in my opinion - "they were robbed!"

Beautiful Flo

The Greyhound Agility Diaries - Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Our agility training continues apace... The weather has taken a turn for the better (long may it last) and as well as our regular 1-2-1s, we've joined an agility club (more of that later). The lovely Jennifer from Never Say Never Greyhounds has provided us with some great insight and ideas for rewarding Mina - thank you Jennifer - and both of us are enjoying being out on the agility equipment.

Last week was particularly exciting as I took delivery of our rigid agility tunnel (I don't get out much any more - so to me, this is exciting)! It arrived on Wednesday, a university day, which meant that I had to wait until 9pm to try it out.  I managed to remain focused on the lectures but come 9 o'clock I was out of the virtual lecture theatre and into the garden.

Mina had tried a tunnel at college and, at the time, needed a lot of encouragement and positive reinforcement just to put her nose and feet inside it.  Fast forward a few months, a heap of training sessions later (and more lessons learned for me) and you can see the result in the video clip below.

"Look at That! " We've joined an agility club

Tonight marked another first for Mina and me - we went along to our first ever dog club.  Mina has been (and occasionally still can be) a reactive dog. She is a definite DINOS (dogs in need of space) and now I understand more about dog behaviour, I've worked extra hard on helping Mina become more relaxed and comfortable around other dogs.

I live in a very rural part of England, so we don't always get to see other dogs on our daily walks. I make a real effort to take Mina out to see other dogs and to keep her sub-threshold - that is not reacting (barking, lunging at other dogs).  With all this in mind, I decided I'd give the agility club environment a try.

I knew it would be a busy environment - lots of other dogs along with lots of action and movement (sure fire way to spike a sighthound's interest) - but I was confident we would cope.  So, I arrived at class with a vast array of treats - chopped cocktail sausage, homemade liver cake, cod bites, venison sausage and chopped chicken thighs - and my clicker.

The class was in an open field with zero fences, so I wasn't comfortable with having Mina off lead. My main aim for the lesson was to get her relaxed enough to function around other dogs and by using Leslie McDevitt's Look At That! technique, slowly but surely Mina relaxed enough to focus on me and on doing some jump and tunnel work.

Mina - just before flopping on to her side for a belly rub

Admittedly, the grid work and jump/tunnel combo were all done on a very long line but Mina completed them with gusto and drive.  I have to say (although, I'm extremely biased) her startline stays were rock solid and by the end of the night, she'd relaxed enough to lay down for some belly rubs.

I did have to reassure the trainer though - as she didn't think we had got much out of the class as we hadn't participated as much as the other class members! To me, the class was a great success (and I told the trainer so). Mina was sub-threshold for 99% of the class and when she was over threshold it was minor barking and a quick recovery.  We completed 4 reps of the grids and 4 of the jump/tunnel/jump combo.

Baby steps, maybe, but certainly steps in the right direction...we're both tired out now. Mina's been sleeping ever since we got back and I like to think that if she's dreaming, she's dreaming of a fun time at agility.