Well done to Rave :)

Well done Rave, Harrjak blink and you'll miss it,

He qualified for the Alpha Agility Challenge Final to be held at Malvern Autumn show in September

would you believe it...

i/we have actually done some training!!!! and video'd a little!!!

meg and zig worked on contacts & weaves, and turns on jumps with harry, then dai and terra did a little of all sorts, chase and loki did some low work, and chase then some boxes at std uka height :) he is quite wide still on turns but does respond well, he is faster over straight lines!!

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

The only way is up?!?!

Friday evening we made our way to SWAT show, lovely show, I missed last year has i had meggie puppies :) SO was looking forward to this year....although there was no T-shirts for helping this year!!!!! ( tut tut!!) that was the bit i was looking forward too!

My weekend did have some upsides - im not all doom and gloom i promise :-)
Daizy has been in the ring now a grand total of 2 times, and on saturday with lydia stayed pretty focused and got around the anysize jumping course! CLEAR! so i was dead chuffed for her! Lydia then went on to do the double and got a clear in the 1-7 jumping with ziggy, unfortunatley just out of the placings, but never mind!!! The following day saw Harry ( for those who dont know harry he is my 10 year old son) had his first ever clear round with ziggy too!!! again in 1-7 jumping!!! so zig is at least getting consistant again and will hopefully gain a few places in this year, possibly her last before retiring down to anysize :)

A big well done has to go out to Claire & Wren, Winning Grade 4 agility by miles!! - ok by seconds to put it in more realistic in agility terms!!!

Lots of positives from this weekend, chase playing by the rings, loki out and about meeting more people, and also coming home to do more training with harry ( see her makeshift tunnel in the video!!) i got to catch up with Karen & Selena too, and a few pups! And met some online friends i havent met in person before too! Meg had some nice moments, so much to work on, im only hoping we can get there before she is too old! Chase had his first runs in anysize, and well, the good point was he had a good wait, and stayed in the ring.... i shall leave it at that lol!!!!
My handling leaves a lot to be desired. soooo much to work on when watching back what i do, absolute nightmare, ive really gotten to be a lazy rubbish handler, when did that happen!!! So lots to work on for myself, not just the dogs!! SO! back on to action plans, and getting stuff organised, as i try and take on too much in general, i must cut back on how much i do for everyone else, and concentrate on myself for a change!!!!

Really looking forward to the next couple of weekends, 2 UKA shows in a row :)

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1969266463996 - chase waving

R.I.P Welly bun

This weekend started off a sad one, we had to say farewell to our big welly bun, yes she may have been a bit of a grumpy moo at times but she has left a HUGE bunny shaped hole :( She was a bit off colour so i booked her in for a check up at the vets, later that evening when getting her out of the run we noticed a small amount of blood near her back end, but couldnt determine the source. So then another call into the vet, who said if she could be persuaded to eat, she should be ok to wait until morning to be seen as no more blood was forthcoming. i offered her some apple and dandelions mixed up which she did eat, her pellet food was turned down, but non-theless, she ate. So next morning off we went, only to find upon sedating her she had a massive tumour in her urinary tract, which unfortunatley was inoperable, so upon the vets advice the kindest thing for her was to say good bye. She has been buried in a nice spot in the woods opposite where we live, close to wade the oap hamster, and parsley the lionhead bunny we lost at a very early age. Harry is also obviously very upset to have lost her too