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!