6 months ago...

6 months to this day was Tia's last agility competition - there have been times where I've thought we'll never get her back in the ring but the last few weeks she has been totally solid and her jumping has improved 100%. She's going well at Lowri's and hasn't needed accupuncture for about 2 months now. Her back is no longer sore when she has a checkup every two weeks and she is doing her stretching exercises at home really well. She is looking really good on medium height and on walks we jump over benches and she's now extending 8 times out of 10 while turning left. I am hoping to enter WBSDS in April (so a year since her last show) and that's what we are working towards. She's doing all the other equipment minus the aframe, so it's just a case of building the jump height up whilst still maintaining the extended jumping action. I am so pleased with how she is coming along, I just have to make sure I don't rush her too much and take time to build her up to full height.

Cute pup

No I am NOT going to have one!! But Lolly's Tigger and Pat's Becky (Dobby's mum) have had a stunning litter of pups - I just love this red boy, he is soooooo cute!

Haven't done any blog updates for a while as don't really know what to say... nothing too exciting has happened... some of you know already but hopefully there should be the patter of tiny paws in 48 days... not that I am counting hehehehe.

Tia is making progress, we are going to Lowri's every other week, we went on Thursday and physically she is looking very good but she isn't weight bearing very well on her left leg (injury in April), Hannah put an armband on her right leg when she was in the water walker as this makes her keep her left one on the ground for longer and this evened it up, but she's still not right out of water. I don't actually know if she ever will be. She is on medium height but we are still having problems getting her to extend on left turns, I think it is such a bad habit now (as is the non-weight bearing) as there is nothing there to cause her pain. It's just a case of her re-learning, which could take a long time. I am hoping to enter WBSDS with her in April (assuming they have it) in 09, I think I will be able to have her up to full height by February. Her weaves and contacts are great, it's just the dam jumping. I must get a vid of the new exercises we are doing to strengthen her abdominals, they aren't the type of thing you would think of doing but she finds it hard so I guess it's working!

Elm Park/Thurrock weekend

Well we didn't do any good results wise, but I have finished on a high... she worked beautifully on Saturday, just missed the sit position in heelwork so we came out after doing a bit more, so I could reward her for doing it right. Sunday she was an absolute dream in the ticket and couldn't have done better if I'd wanted... unfortunately the judge didn't like her and hammered her, but never mind it's a learning curve for us both and after a while you get to know which judges will like your dog and which won't (bit like breed shows I guess).

Saturday I was pretty sidetracked for most of the day as I got some wonderful photos of Tia done by Nick Ridley... here are my favourites.

That's it for us shows wise now - I am going to put the above photos on my wall and on my wall I am also going to put two words... motivation, and drive. Those are the two words that if I work hard enough on over the winter will help us succeed next year. I have to stop getting on at Tia when it's not going our way. We are getting better, but still need improving. She was a million times better on the weekend, and if that's after only a week of ultra motivating training, who knows what she could do after 5 months of it! I am going to try and do one training day per month now between now and the spring, so I don't lose focus on where we want to be heading.

We did some agility training tonight and she was AMAZING. Yippee. I think this is the first training session (small/medium height) where she didn't tuck up at all and that includes left turns on medium height. She was working soooo well and I am so happy with her.

Also trained Jess with her spaniel Copper and Lee and collie Toby, Copper was just FAB, everything we throw at him he takes it in his stride and just gets better and better each week. He is 14 months now and is on medium height, I can't wait until he starts competing. Lee's Toby was hugely better too, for a collie he is very moody and if he doesn't want to train... he doesn't! However tonight he was very co-operative and we got some good stuff out of him. I think the show atmosphere (he WILL compete eventually Lee!) will really help hype him up as we all know he has it in him, it's just finding what that key is, boy he is hard work though! Need a good sleep after training J&L hehehehe!!!

So I am much happier with the dogs than last week, and am looking forward to a nice long rest over the winter!