Malaysia Dog Day - 28 June 2009

Place: Stadium Chin Woo, Kuala Lumpur

Date: 28 June 2009, Sunday

At first, it was great to be in indoor environment for competition as to train and to expose Shadow into alien places apart from the normal green fields.

Last Sunday, we participated in the Basic Jumper for the start to 'test the water' on his performance. Basic Jumper basically are for beginner and most of the standard obstacles should consists of mostly jumps i.e jumps/ hurdles, castle, broad jumps and tunnel. However the standard of the competitions is highly debatable especially where safety is concerned. The ring are parqueted badminton courts which were not carpeted and this makes it slippery and dangerous. Dogs running at fast pace may get itself hurt or worst, broken bones if one is not careful.

On the layout course, it was funny to see that dog walk, table and 4 weave poles (just weave in out, in and there you goes?@@) are being set up in this Basic Jumper. The layout was simply insulting the intelligence of the participants and contradicting the meaning of 'Basic' Jumper. Being a training school, they should know well the meaning of Basic Jumper and I personally do not see why dog on leash and toy/treat is not allowed. Rules were written in website and not honoring it? Anyway, this is not Novice or Pre-Novice competition where all dogs goes off leash and treat/toy are forbidden. I was blowing steam upon hearing this and even redder when the organiser mentioned if you think it is slippery, just walk your dog. If they know the meaning of agility, it is a fast, swift and actionable sport and this mean you have to make the place safe for the dogs to run. We don't see dog walking leisurely from one obstacle to another in agility dog sport.

After much debates, it was concluded that they are changing back and honoring their original rules. So much so, it took more than half an hour to get everything settled and taking out unrelated obstacles bringing the numbers of obstacles from 14 to 13. I observed that they were fully utilising the space stretching13 obstacles as far from one another.

Assessment:

The course plan laid for Basic Jumper after the revision for what I believes it is a real peanut to Shadow. I regretted bringing him too early too soon for the competition as I am not aware that the Basic Jumper had been rescheduled from morning to afternoon. The 6 hours waiting had taken a toll on him and Shadow is out of energy when the time comes.

The place is too crowded and smelly and a lots have been his cause of distraction. But I would say his performance is good eventhough he managed the first run on leash with a few hesitations. Shadow had his trust on me when he hesitated to jump the castle (no.4 obstacles) . He looked up at me but he struggled a jump over (in fact, he was crawling over the top).

When he ran away to his resting area on the 2nd run off leash, I know that Shadow already exhausted and needed a rest.

I did not have the chance to stay to see the rest of competitions and the layouts. If Basic Jumper turned out at such, I am expecting the worst for the others.