in it to win it??

Holly chilling at kernow

hmm well to start this blog i shall moan! id love to know what goes on in some peoples minds at times i really would! we had a good weekend at kernow, lovely weather, friends and dogs, as you would expect from a show in cornwall :) but i had a couple of dampners really :( a comment made to a friend as she left a ring, saying 'i dont know why you bother running a dog like that'
now to me, thats down right rude, i personally would have given said person the lead and said come on then, practice ring now, show me how it should be done!! but what people dont realise is how hard the fast and the furious are to handle, until you have experience in it - please shut the eff up!

Well onto nicer things :) chase is now less a couple of dangly bits! he was a bit sorry for himself for a few days, but is now back to his normal self, im using this time to teach him a better nose touch to a target, as he has a fab hand touch, just weaker on a target.

Loki has been doing some foundation stuff with harry who is enjoying training her, but she is no easy puppy! she is quite motivated by food, but occasionally her terrier head comes on and she will also play, so im hoping he wil have the best of both with her :) although today she is poorly so has come to sit in the van at work, but is howling right now!!!

Meg & zig had a good weekend show wise, no wins to brag of yet, but zig had a clear with naarah in a jumping, but was a 4-5 so was too slow for a place, i plan on doing some runs with her myself to see how we go at the next few shows too. meg had good contacts and weaves, 1st run each day was bad on poles, so i think we have a pattern there too!
Terra had a few runs in grade 1, as she is registered to James i cant run her, so naarah and lydia both ran her, and had some not too awful - for terra, runs!!

Also had some good advice to help daizy with her toy drive and had her playing by the rings, so hopefully when she decides she is ready to compete we will have more focus from her!
I have training planned for this weekend, as i have no shows til blackdown, so much to work on!!!

Tigs

Saw several Harrjaks working this weekend,Tigs, Missie, Popi & Wren, nice to see them all, and pups looking all grown up! meg litter with reef are now a year old and looking lovely, some pups from that litter had some chase issues not seen in my line before, which is now being worked on by their owners, i think the match of those two were definatley extreme! Watching Tatty playing and interacting with joy around the rings was fantastic, and i know how hard she has worked to get that focus around fast moving dogs, its great to watch, well done Joy :)
I caught a brief look at jack on friday when i was scriming for Don, He is taller than i thought, but his face is similar to daizys litter, and caught up with mickey on the saturday, who is looking handsome as ever :0)

Saw some of the daizon pups too, they also are fab, so so pleased with how that litter is turning out, they are gorgeous! Sue's Holly however managed to scare a few of us by disappearing on friday for a little while! monkey!

Maid & meg, or is it meg and maid??

To finish this post, agility is, in my eyes, fun, i choose to do it as my dogs enjoy it, it helps keeps them busy, and mentally stimulated, as well as fit of course, and because i enjoy it, no better way in my eyes to spend a weekend sat about of an evening with friends enjoying a drink and chatting about how the day went, there isnt so much of that nowadays as everyone is always so busy to notice the time passing, but we did manage a few moments this last weekend which was nice and makes it even more worthwhile :) lets hope there is many more to come x as the title of this post says in it to win it - im not sure what some may class as winning, but i have fantastic dogs, fab family and friends, so in my eyes, im a winner, i dont need trophies to show me that :)

Dai playing ball in the field

Meg

Josie - mum of the first litter of harrjak's , almost 16 years young :)
We went to visit her in the school hols :)

Maybe, just once, someone will call me 'Sir' without adding, 'You're making a scene.' Homer Simpson

I thought id use a quote seeing as i havent in a while now :) this one inparticular is for my wee man chase, who is soon to be a pair of furry plums lighter than before :( he isnt going to feel that great about it i know that!! But i feel he is definatley at the point, where the sexiness needs to have the edge taken off unfortunatley!! Plus when any of the girls are in season i feel so mean sending him off to stay with aunties, not matter how much they love him!!lol!! So next week the deed shall be done as ihave a week off :)

Now then, what to update, well im still a crap overweight handler, so my dogs arent winning, however, we are all improving so there is a little glimmer of hope far far away!!!

This week has been a little freaky actually,I was on tv, yes really!! and not for anything bad or stupid ( night cops no longer film exmouth!!lol!!) bbc spotlight rang me about being interviewed on woodbury common about ticks and my dogs and we spent about 2 hours filming for about a 30 second part, but hey ho - harv was brilliant and was quite happy to throw himself into bushes over and over to show 'a dog in undergrowth'. He was my little star :) well done harv mate!
Daizy has an injury to her tail, and had a slight infection which had healed nicely, but is now waiting for some hair to grow back! we arent sure the exact cause, but a certain small black dog does like to catch her tail when they run together ....hmmmm. I have a cold AND a bad back this week, but have still been uber busy, new classes started for tail-spin, as i had some regular 1-1 people who have new dogs and wanted a class, but no where local is very good at the moment and people arent wanting to travel as far as the better classes, so hopefully i can fill the small exmouth niche in the market there.
I also had a fab 1-1 with toni again, well for what i could manage, naarah and harry ended up with most of the lesson, BUT we did get daizy onto some full height jumps, and terra too, and worked on weaves with them both :) both are coming along nicely, terra more so, as dai still struggles with that pain in the bum thing called FOCUS! but she is getting there, when she looses focus, she will run around a jump, not awful, she doesnt leave the ring etc, but still proves she needs more before our first show soon!
Chase is nicely working medium height, and has been working on grids, turns and tunnels. He is 17 months now and i deliberatly havent rushed him as he is a very tall leggy boy, it makes me sad to know people are jumping dogs as young as they do, there is simply no need for it :( especially as majority of those people will have to retire them early later on, i feel for the dogs, not the owners, they will probably rehome them on after they have worn them into the ground.
Loki is doing more learn to earn, as at 6 months, she isnt the baby she makes out to be, she has good all round obedience, she doesnt like downs, however ! we are working on wait, and getting her working to a target, which at the moment is a big floppy frisbee which she is really enjoying ( thanks for the tip toni!!) she has had her first lesson with harry doing some foundation work, just recalling through jump wings and feeding her after putting her feet on a low dog walk too, Harry has lots of homework to play with too with her, all of which he has started, so thats good :)

Meg & Zig had a good jump training session, we have another tonight, weaves too, so im hoping it stops raining soon!!!

We met up with Graeme and Rib (2nd meg xboo litter) and claire with wren, and went for a stroll on the estuary last night which was lovely - although having your mother tell you off when you are an adult must be embaressing, so meg was true to form and told them both off for not visiting sooner :) lol, they didnt seem to mind too much tho, and all were soon bombing about having a blast ( pics on facebook)

I think the only one missing from this blog is my dear old holly, so i will mention her :) she is coming up to her 14th birthday, she isnt as fast or agilie as she used to be, but as pics on my last post show, she still enjoys life and is as fit as she can be at this age and spends best parts of the day working on the best sleeping position to be in :) Loki adores her and will snuggle up beside her, which i think holly like too :)

All my guys are so quirky and unique, i love them to bits x

Light at the end of the tunnel maybe??

Exciting times ahead for us here at Harrjak, Tail-spin is just about to start a new venture, training classes!!! arrrgh! So nervous yet so excited! I get sooo many enquiries for puppy classes in Exmouth, there is a real shortage of decnt training in the nearby area, more so now Devondogs have moved out to newhall, so i have decided to get things going! I have been doing 1-1 sessions on and off, aswell as some pet minding, and some 1-1 people have asked about group classes, and when out on walks we have also been asked about it, so decided now is the time, i think the distraction will also help :-)
Im also on a mission to find myself a training area for my own dogs, they give me so much pleasure that i feel i owe it to them to try harder to find somewhere so we can all do better and enjoy ourselves, as we all love agility :)

I have a lovely group at Honitondogs on a friday evening, they are coming along so well, so i hope they are a nice new group of hopefuls for the future, they certainly have the right attitude :) I love seeing new puppies coming through and gaining experience too, Selena has Otter, Naarah has Sassy & small puppy Berry too, all lots of hopes for the future.

My little pack are happy and healthy, they are loving life, and we are loving them, yes they are naughty at times, but they are my naughty babies none the less :-)

Alot has happened in a small space of time here, Jak is definatley living on in Chase, and Harvey, and not a day passes where i dont look for him, and realise he is no longer here, the pain is still hard to deal with , but at the same time, i dont want it to pass, as he was just so special. I have a tattoo with his name to remind me of him every day, i dont need it, as there is no way i will ever forget him, nothing is the same any more... love your dogs every day, unconditionally, take photos to keep the memories as much as possible, and most of all cherish what you have while you have it...

and so it begins...

Well i finally did it, a group show without my best boy :) they were little buggers trying to get it though, loki doesnt know 'wait' yet little minx!!

We have had season's latley so we havent done much training with terra recently, just a little at home, dai has now come into season too, so she is also now not training at club :)

This weekend see's our first Camping show of the season, i cant decide if im excited or just nervous, i dont want to look silly in the ring with dogs flying here there and everywhere, so i have entered meg and zig in 4 runs a day, terra and maybe chase will have a play in nursery so i can see if chase can use his teeny brain, and if terra can do some decent work.
Naarah a friend and trainee ( also the breeder of Loki) is also coming along, and is competing for the first time with little Maud, an older sister of little loki, im really looking forward to seeing her working on grass!! she will be a little star!!

Chase has been to stay with Auntie lolly while terra was in mid season, I think he enjoyed himself, Lolly certainly had an experience! I am thinking i may try and get him use to a headcollar soon, i have hesitated as im not sure if it will cause his teeth to rub his lips or gums, as his jaw is twisted slightly from being so overshot, so obviously dont want a headcollar to hurt him :) but he is so lanky and OTT

anyway, wish me luck for NADS, Id love a few clears, would set me off to a good start to the competing season!! I think Luck is well overdue for me :)

Im looking forward to meeting Jay, a prospective girlfriend for tigger, his pups from other litters seem so fantastic, really proud of him for having such gorgeous babies! If anyone is interested in a tigger pup, please contact me on harrjak@hotmail.com and i will put you in touch with respective owners/breeders :) Lots of Tigger pups to see this weekend too, as well as a few full Harrjaks :)

I had a nice few pictures from Patricia and Peter of Zephyr from Daizy x Lennon litter in Sept last year, he was in the litter called sexy rexy, and what a stunner he has turned out to be :-)
I am really pleased with this litter, they are a really nice mix of both lines, their structure is nice, the girls arent huge, which i had expected as Daizy isnt big herself, but they have a nice amount of bone to their build, unlike alot of the agility dogs being bred at the moment, which is soon going to be too brittle to work IMHO! I know im biased and i like what i breed, i choose parents carefully and put a lot of effort into raising happy healthy babies :-)
I love recieving all the reports on how they are doing, and telling me off if i get a result wrong ( graeme!!Lol)

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all Harrjak babies a fantastic season ahead, lets make it a good one!!! x

Jak Compilation

here is an old video compilation i made when jak first retired down to anysize classes,
He has been gone a week tonight, i miss him so so much, i hope he knows how much we love and miss him x

Sleep well my boy x

Thursday night we had to make the hardest decision, and say goodbye to my first true love, sleep well Jak, we love you so much, my heart feels like it's been ripped out without you here, you will be so greatly missed old boy, go find grandad at the bridge x I love you x

it never rains...it blinking chucks it down for me :(

Well im knackered! thats all i can say really, Jak started to pick up, he has now started to be a bit unsteady again, mainly on one back leg, but he is on metacam now and hopefully will be a bit happier. Holly decided it was her turn to be ill! she has ulcerated colitis! she haid a full 24 hours D&V and ended up containing a great deal of blood from her bowel, she was getting dehydrated, to the point i had to syringe Rehydration fluid into her, and the following day she was admitted onto a drip as it wasnt enough. Holly is 2 months younger than Jak, so also 13, knocking on 14, and has a touch of arthritis in her legs but mainly in her front feet, so is a bit slower on lead walks than him. She prefers off lead ambles, but can still do a runner after the elusive pheasant or rabbit :) SO if anyone has any nice poweful healing thoughts for my lovely oldies, please spare us a few x

back to the others, meg and zig are working well at training, we are doing alot at the barn, and a few bits out with Toni, and harry is coming along well too, learning how to handle basic courses now, so he is really coming along, its nice to have someone so nice show him what to do and when, thanks Toni x


Chase is woking on general bits n pieces, he is very gangly still and reminds me of a teenage boy! But he is keen and happy doing everything we ask of him so far :)
Dai & Terra, both are working nicely on jumping, terra is even doing some full height work, and her teeny brain is coping!! yay! although the rate she is going she will be competing in veterans!!haha! Dai is still an onward challenge, her focus is never fully there, she is FAR better in a group now than she was, although is noisy while she is waiting! she is happy playing or using food rewards, and her weaves are coming along well, she is starting to speed up now, so we will start on independance & entries soon!! I will try and get some videoing done this week at training :)