When all is said and done....

Im having fun, and that is , after all, what agility is all about :) i have recently only been taking part in small UK agility shows, which are exactly what shows used to be like, laid back, enjoyable and a little less competitive! of course the competition is always there, it wouldnt be a show without rossettes would it ;-)
My little red head has done very well just lately, Naarah a junior handler from our club, and a friend, has been running her in some shows, as we have been concentrating on running the tail-spin trade stand, and between Lydia, Narz & Harry they are all runnng zig at shows :) ( i rarely get a look in now!!) ZIg has now won enough points to move up to Senior in steeplechase, whilst she needs a few still in performance to move up there too.
Meg is working really well, and now i have my own training area we will be working on getting some better handling from myself to get the decent runs even better :) i cant wait!

Terra gave the biggest surprise from the weekend, a spur of the moment entry with naarah into casual agility ( as she gets to jump slightly lower) and she actually had a CLEAR ROUND! you have no idea how long this day has been coming! no spinning, only the odd bark, no ducking the jumps or running past!!! She WON the class by 4 seconds!!!!! Amazed and super pleased!! Again, now i will be able to train more, i hope to see her working at kc shows soon!!
Daizy , Chase & Loki all did some ring wandering and playing, and also in the tent, we worked on some tricks we have been perfecting, it is definatley helping them with their learning, and daizy especially, although she was still a little barky around the rings, she was much more focused on doing 'stuff' instead :)

Holly update!! She is recovering really well and has even been camping with us, she wears a jumper when in the tent as the temp does drop alot over night, and she is feeling the cold, but her facial swelling has pretty much gone, and her coat is falling out like no ones business but that maybe the weather more than the snake bite :)

Im really enjoying my dogs right now, the courses we work on at shows are definatley trickier than my little brain can cope with, and i only hope judges dont look at us in despair when we attempt to run, as i feel thats the case alot of the time, sometimes people need to know the stories behind the dogs, and how far they have come, and maybe soon we will find the perfect courses to get some clears on :-)

all 8 waiting for narz to move :)

oh dear.....

The most handsome chase :)

Zigs last few weekends winnings!

why me???

its about time i won the lottery - im well past some good luck happening!!!

This week Holly was bitten by an adder, on the nose when we were out walking on wednesday evening, the other dogs backed off when i told them too, unfortunatley i was too far away after picking up some poo to help holly who hadnt heard me :( she was rushed straight in, i took a photo of the snake using my phone as was better than me trying to remember what it looked like!
She spent the night in the emergency vets on fluids, steroids, anti inflammitories and anti biotics, and came home yesterday morning, with a very swollen and puffy muzzle area aswell as a fluidy build up in her lower jaw and neck on the side of the bite, inside her lip is also badly bruised and looks nasty :( poor girl, she is so brave, and hasnt complained once, although, the vet said she decided at 3am to remove her catheter in her leg so they had to re-do it all :)

So if you walk in grassy area's/ heath land, please watch out for these!

Just Dogs

This weekend saw us going very locally to Feniton, for just dogs' first show, i think i can safely say it was a success, no drama's from what i could tell :-) well done on a well run show, i hope you put on further shows in the future!!!
We came away very pleased :-) Zig was a superstar! 1st in Snooker, 2nd in gamblers, which was fab as 1st ever time in games classes! i figure i have to do them at some point, why not have a go...so lydia did it lol!!! Meg had some lovely runs, as im mid process teaching a new wait, ( yes again!!) we had running starts which isnt great i know, but she is 8 now!!! We came away with lots of nice rossettes which im obviously really pleased about :-) our last 2 runs i was really pleased with as we both seemed to work well together :-)

Lydia took Daizy in Nursery, and got 5 f, they also made use of the enclosed practice ring and did some nice jump work on standard height, and some contacts, and didnt sway from the course too much!
Naarah also ran terra in nursey, at standard height and had an E for the wrong end of the tunnel, but that was it! all the jumps, both contacts all fine! so she is coming together nicely!! :)

Chase had a play around rings, and is getting more focused, altho does like to make a nice high pitched noise when it gets REALLY exciting! but was concentrating and doing some tricks and bits around the dogs working which was good! Loki went out and about several times with harry too, and was enjoying playing tuggy, and doing some general socialising around the rings, and helping draw people into the tail-spin trade stand too!

All in all a lovely weekend, nice walks, nice ground ( naughty rabbits in some places refreshing the filled holes in the rings!!lol)

At home things are going ok, would be better if James could find a full time job, but until then we have to make do! The dogs are happy and responding well to new routines i am doing with them all, which im hoping will increase their performance as well as my own!! Clicker training is coming along well, im learning much more about it, as when i have tried in the past my understanding was quite limited and i dont think i tried to give it enough of a chance :( so im back on it! It means my training plan has changed slightly to accomodate this, so i can give it all a chance to work for me & my guys