Thursday 31 December 2009

Xmas and New Year

Love having all the time off over Xmas, dogs have had loads of really long walks and more training than they usually get. They are loving it too :)

Went to Dawn's for a lesson on Monday. I was not impressed with Scandal! The first exercise, she TROTTED into the tunnel. She (and I) improved after that (not that it'd be hard) but I was just so mortified at how slow she was. Nothing like what she has been like lately.

I have set up in the house a tall bag that is like a cone, so we can practise our wing wraps. I taught Scandal these when she was younger, then haven't done much with them since, practised the other day and they were rubbish, guess I just thought she'd remember them. She has been going wild while we've been doing them at home, so hopefully will have the same attitude when we do that at the field!

Trained her today and, back to princess Scandalina. She was brilliant. I did a low aframe for the first time and she was great, running right to the bottom which at this stage is what I want. Only thing is when she was going over it with a run up she wanted to only touch the contact on the way down, and I want her to touch at the top, and touch the contact. So we went from closer up. Have just started doing her left and rights on it too and these were good.

Did targets on the dogwalk, haven't done them for aaaages as running so much more fun, she was good, didn't think for one moment about doing a running one. Mainly did them with her going from half way along the dog walk, dont want her doing many full ones at the moment.

Introduced another set of 4 channel weaves. So she does a set of 4, then there is a gap of about 2 metres, and another 4. She did this really great and then somehow got a little confused and started missing bits out of the first or bits out of the 2nd. We then got a couple of good ones and I left it at that. Pleased with her first attempt on 8 weaves. Really cool to see her action start to come together.

Didn't do any jumping. There just seems to be soooooo much to train, and I only like doing it in small sessions, so will have to do jumping tomorrow or the day after. She was a keen bean today, just have to get her like this at other venues now!

Happy New Year everyone :)

Tuesday 22 December 2009

Scandal video

Scandal at 12 months old.

Sunday 20 December 2009

December

Seem to have had a bit of a break through with Scandal's jumping work in the last week or so. I have found myself getting much more enthusiastic about training her, and the result has been showing, she is getting more keen, and seems to be enjoying it more. Weaves are looking nice, going to add another 4 this week hopefully. Just got to dig them out of the grass at home, and transfer them to field, much easier now I have a van they can go in, rather than trying (unsuccessfully) to get them in my Fiesta. Contacts were a total disaster today. I got Laura to film them (thank you) as I wanted to see what they were like on video, yesterday Scandal did 5 - 4 perfectly and 1 a little high. Today she seemed to be rubbish on 99% on them. It's the first bad session she has had in ages so am not going to throw all toys out of the pram just yet, but it is a bit frustrating that it all went to pot.

We had a lovely walk on the Mendips for 1.5 hours, the dogs love it, it's so great for their balance work, couldn't get a more uneven place to walk them! I never seem to take many pics so took lots today. Most of it is of the scenery which is very pretty!
















Tuesday 15 December 2009

Scotland and Woodside

We had a lovely weekend up in Scotland. It is very cold up there, I think it was below freezing for the entire 3 days. It didn't rain though which is much better, and the dogs stayed very clean. We drove up with 2 dogs and returned with 2 dogs - Scandal didn't run off at all which was great. Both she and Tia were very well behaved, apart from Scandal's behaviour at Woodside, which was less than good! We stayed in a lovely cottage in Alva, Clackmannashire. On the Saturday we walked around Loch Katrine in the Trossachs, which was stunning. Some piccies below! Went to friends for dinner on Saturday night and then back to watch some of the Xfactor - perfect!






Woodside
Lowri had suggested keeping Tia rugged when we are at shows where it is cold - this I did. I don't know if it was this which made a difference, but she was A-mazing! Completely wild, but a lot of fun. I had her on the startline and she was whining and barking, complete fruit loop. I stopped her very briefly (ie so all 4 feet hit the floor) on her dog walk, and front feet hit the floor on the seesaw, before releasing her, and she ran her aframe beautifully. We got 4th in the grade 7 agility, her first clear at grade 7 :-) Imogen did really well with Tia in the junior jumping, especially considering the fact that Tia was REALLY pushing her luck and was refusing to wait on the startline, but Imogen held out and insisted, and so eventually Tia decided to co-operate. It was just Tia's fruitloopiness of not running in a straight line and wanting to cut up Imogen's path that got them an E, but Imogen handled like a pro and Tia looooves running with her.

Scandal... hmmm. I wanted to get her to the seating area, which meant walking through the rings, so she went completely ballistic doing this. Then we had nice calm Scandal when she sat very calmly while I treated her, she could just see the rings, so I guess this is progress. Then on the way out, she decided she was going to dive on to the orange fencing and bite/claw it, so I had to prise it out of her paws, which was a bit embarrassing, as at the same time she was doing her best screams which meant everyone turned round to look at us. I ended up carrying her out as this was a lot easier than walking with a total idiot at the end of the lead. I have no idea what will happen when we start competing but it is going to be hard work if this is what she will be like to queue with!

Trained on Monday and Scandal was great, lovely dog walks and I have just moved the dog walk up to full height now, we are going from half way along the dog walk again. 4 channel weavies were perfect... didn't do any jumping as I was bored by then :-D Tia did some training too and was great, what clever dogs I have :-)

Happyyyy :-D

Tuesday 8 December 2009

Flying Scandal

Just a short post...

I thought Scandal had wings today... have been using food for the dog walk as have been doing lots of work on her adjusting her stride, so thought I would use her bally and see what they were like when she was going faster. As I described to Katie, I sometimes find it a little frustrating that I haven't yet worked out what the key is to really get Scandal to drive, I am sure it will come with time, but I like things NOW :-D I find it more frustrating as Scandal is sooooo super fast but saves the super fast button for when she is chasing something, ie deer. Well, on the dogwalks today, you would have thought Scandal was going after a whole herd of deer the speed she was going!! I just thought "oh my god, slow down princess" as the speed of it was quite scary. I am not sure I even like her going that fast! It all looks very reckless!

Her channel weavies were perfect today, as were her wing wraps and go rounds. I am finding there is soooo much to teach, we didn't even do seesaw or other jumping stuff today. Hopefully training on Friday before we go, and then Monday when we are back. Must start training regularly again!

Monday 7 December 2009

Rujaff Birthday Party

Yesterday we went to Swindon for a birthday party that Jackie had organised for the 8 pups from Ruby and Jaff. I was looking forward to seeing her brothers and sisters again as have only seen a couple of them, and that was back in June/July.

They got on really well and we let them have an offlead play in the barn, was great to see them all running round with each other! We did a little sequence of 3 jumps - tunnel - 2 jumps and I was convinced Scandal was going to be slow, forgetting that it was the first time she had worked around other dogs, anyway she went like a little rocket and bounced them all, bless her.

For those not on facebook here are some piccies of her sister and brothers.

The pups from left to right
Pepper, Robbie, Rave, Scandalina, Rocky, Chilli, Che, Nell


Nell, the r+w girlie




Che (was Squiffy)



Rocky (was Fish)


Robbie and Rave


Robbie


Rave Chilli and Scandal


Pepper (was Spot)


It was a lovely afternoon, Scandal was on her best behaviour, apart from one occasion when I was sat on a bench watching the pups do some training, she tried to climb onto the table to get the box of peanuts, so I caught her, and was going to have a cuddle with her on my lap, only Scandal decided against this, and wanted to get down IMMEDIATELY and then proceeded to climb on to my head, and in my mad scramble not to let her fall off my head (in hindsight, she'd probably have landed a lot better if she had jumped!) I fell off the bench backwards and we both landed in a heap. My bum is killing today! Naughty puppy! I do have some video but it will take aaaages to upload so not sure when I will get it all on.

Went jogging again with her tonight, she loves seeing the world at a faster pace!

We are off to Scotland on Friday, I can't wait, soooooooo excited!! I think Scandal will love it :-)

Saturday 5 December 2009

Happy 1st Birthday Scandal

I cannot believe it that a) time has gone so fast, and b) Scandal has survived her first year with the amount of stupid/mad/crazy things she has done.
It has been an up and down year, Scandal contributing to both the ups and downs, but most definitely more ups!


This pic was taken of the guys on the mendips a couple of weeks ago... love it there!


Scandal celebrated her birthday by rolling in fox poo, and then having a cold hose + fairy liquid to get rid of it, gross!! I am glad my dogs don't roll in it as a habit, I think that is only the 2nd time Scan has done it, it's grim, and turns my stomach every time!

Friday 4 December 2009

Clever Scan

Pup was awesome today, sooo much better than Monday when I gave up and put her back in the van!

She was really up for it, we did 2 half dog walks and then 2 full dog walks at running, which were perfect, and then 2 half dog walks with the target and again they were lovely.

Channel weaves (4poles) were great, I am working on saying 'poles' then running still towards them but at a different angle, to make it even harder for her as her chase drive kicks in when she sees me running, and she wants to leave the weavies to come and catch up with da mumma. She's probably 100% with me standing still from any angle, but drops to 70% when I add me moving/running too. Loving shaping them, if she gets it wrong, ie goes in 2/3 pole, I just wait for her to correct herself, and yesterday she went through so many variations before working out which way in was the right way... she was perfect after that so I think it must have sunk in as she was working it out!

Was really up for jumping too, and powering off into the tunnel, didn't herd any jumps (she was getting really bad at running round, esp the first one) and was sooooo responsive to what I was saying. Clever little cookie.

I think it's a record and hope I'm not speaking too soon, but Scandal hasn't jumped up at ANYONE this week while we've been out on a walk. Or run off. Progress :-)