Tia: Day one!

In a nutshell what a palava! I fell over and hurt myself, therefore didn't run much the rest of the session as my knee and arm were killing. Must not train in trainers again!

Then, when giving Tia a break, I decided to set up a jump grid, having never done one before but thought it looked interesting. I decided I would 'try it out' on Ricky as I heard they were useful for teaching dogs to look at the jump and think about where to take off, rather than crash through it. Ricky, having never been a very good jumper, seemed the ideal candidate. Well I tried to make him go slowly through it but Ricky thought he knew best and crashed through the second third and fourth jump and ended up with his mouth pouring with blood! Poor Rixter! I had a squirty water bottle with me so cleaned his mouth out with that as I couldn't see where the blood was coming from and thought he'd knocked some teeth out, but no, he has put 4 (fairly small) holes in his tongue! I feel so mean. But now I don't know whether to try and work on it, or just to leave it? Hmmm.

And on to princess Tia. She was really good. It suprised me as well as she only barked twice the whole session, where as normally she won't shut up. I always know when she's going her fastest as she doesn't bark, so maybe that's why? Had a bit of problem with the seesaw as I can't get her to stop on it if I am infront, but we'll work on it. I'm planning on going back to 4off on the dog walk once she has regained fitness, as I think it will be too much pressure on her legs and back to do the sharp braking required. Think the 6" jumps were too low for her as she was just galloping, so next time they'll be on 'small'.