Is my freestyle mojo back ?

The last couple of months has seen me really not be as enthused as normal about freestyle. Normally by now i have all the props and routines worked out for next year but for various reasons i haven't got round to it. I of course have been doing a lot of displays of the entertainment show which means after a weekend of doing that you don't feel like doing much.
Anyway i think i have now finally decided on both pieces of music for Pogo although the HTM one might change but i think we should be ok. I eventually found the props that i needed for the freestyle routine and now i just have to make sure they fit in the van!! Plus i need to get some other props made but having rigged up the props as a trial Pogo seems to work ok with them.
I have been doing a little more with Whizzy as she has a competition coming up but i really need to listen to the music a bit more. Fingers crossed she behaves herself and unlike the May competition i hope my handling is better as i feel i let her down.

Is it freestyle or a trick show ?

Recently i have been contemplating what freestyle should be and what i think it might be turning into. When i first came into the sport there were routines where the moves were all relevant to the theme or music. Nowadays it seems that routines are turning very much into a trick show with not that much relevance to the music. You might have a costume on and do a couple of relevant moves but really is that good enough interpretation of the music ?
Now you might think that i am having a go at others but i will hold my hands up and say that i think some of my routines fall into this category. Why have i done this well its probably because in order to get good content marks you seem to have to do loads of moves. The trouble is i think some judges are marking down how many moves are being done and giving a mark for content on that. Whereas we should be looking at whether that move is relevant to the theme and not just registering how many tricks are performed.
So if judges do judge on the amount of moves performed and not whether they fit with the music then how are things going to improve. If you want to be competitive under these judges you have to make sure you have the content so it becomes a vicious circle.

Not a good lesson

Well no matter what dog training discipline you do you must have had one of those sessions where you find yourself saying"why do i bother". Then following that you wonder why you are doing this and basically feel rather glum. Well this was the feeling i had after Pogo's last herding lesson with the sheep. I even stopped on the way home for some well earned comfort food, some might say i should have more bad sessions if i actually ate something as everyone is always telling me i don't eat enough!
The previous two sessions Pogo had done well but this time she was just wasn't listening at all and it felt rather like a step backwards. Now if i wasn't a dog trainer of other disciplines i could see how people give up but after the initial glumness i looked at things from Pogo's point of view. At the moment there is at least a few weeks between seeing the sheep, so if she saw them on a regular basis progress would be much better. Also my ducks have been too young to work her with and we have only just started to condition them to be worked so Pogo really has not had much work since the last lesson. As we all know if you don't keep things going on a regular basis then faults can creep in which in the case of Pogo is not stopping when told.
It is easy to forget how far she has come from never having seen sheep at four and a half years old to being able to round up a group of sheep or ducks and be able to move them around, perhaps not good enough for trials but good enough for a farm dog.
On the positive side Whizzy loved her second attempt at sheep work and is getting stronger although her attention span is not more then ten minutes at the moment. Since the lesson we have had small training sessions with both dogs on the ducks and they have been really good so fingers crossed its just a blip.

A nice weekend

The first weekend in July saw us making our way to Ardingly as we had been booked to perform at the Smallholders show. I was looking forward to this event as i am now the owner of four ducks and was eager to get some good advice.
Just like the previous weekend the first day was very hot and not the ideal conditions for running around doing routines. After the first display is was time for a well earned Pimms to quench my thirst. Whilst relaxing between displays it was nice to meet Mo with Breeze and Topaz who anyone that competes in HTM will know from the show circuit.
The weekend went really well with lots of people coming up after the displays to meet the dogs and tell me how much they had enjoyed it. The rest of the show had everything and anything to do with smallholdings and i resisted the temptation to come away with a few chickens ! There were plenty to choose from with the ones that look like a fuzzy white dish mop being one of my favourites.