SWAT

I decided not to do SWAT on the Saturday as last week Tia took it upon herself to a) jump in her top cage of the van whilst the door was shut and b) run into the patio door whilst trying to get away from golf ball sized hot air balloon in the distance. She was a little lame after (a) so I gave her the week off any agility.

Then I had some kind of food poisoning on Saturday night, however as I ate so much food that day it was hard to isolate the thing which caused it. So I felt really rough on the Sunday morning, plus I'd heard that the ground at SWAT was a bit bumpy, Tia, agility and bumpy ground really don't mix, her class was on first thing so would have to run on wet grass = decision made, stay in bed.

Did a fair amount of revision, then heard from Garth that Imogen had her first grade 4 classes and had won the 1-4 jumping by a couple of secs. She trained her agility but Honey was 100x better than the last couple of weeks, stopped on the dog walk and Honey slightly came off her aframe but reversed back on. So Honey's now partway to G5, eeek, not yet!

Laura also won the G2 jumping with Be on the Saturday, woop woop am so proud of them :-) only their 2nd show.

Jess and Lee had Rix over the weekend so they could run him in veterans, however veterans was on so late that in the end they didn't run him in either class, still, Rix enjoyed his holiday. Tia and Scandal have been total pains the last week, Scandal has SO much energy, and doesn't think that me sitting down revising is good enough, and spends her time either dropping things in my lap, trying to lie across my papers, or play fight with Tia making so much noise that I cant concentrate.

So yesterday afternoon as it was such a lovely day that we took Scandal Tia and Honey for a walk near Chew Valley Lake. It was a 6 mile route that looked out over the lake with stunning views, going through several lovely little villages too, the dogs loved it. Tia and Scandal were tired when we got home :)

Scandals 1st win :)

Scandal was sooooo lovely at UKA Phoenix. She was like a different dog, so much easier, we had NO BARKING between walking to the van, queueing, running, and going back to the van. AMAZING progress :)

She won the beginners steeplechase out of I think 60 dogs. I trained her nursery, it's the first time I've asked her to dog her stop dog walk in the ring, and as you can see, she was a bit like "wtf?" But then the 2nd and 3rd time was lovely, and she did a lovely running contact too. Her training has gone really well this week, she has been very enthusiastic, we are looking forward to seeing Dave next week, hopefully he will think she has made a bit of progress :)

Blackdown and Leamington

Still behind but hey getting there :) am trying something different with the videos so it's not cutting out half the vid, so hope it will work!

Blackdown

Well Tia had a pole in her 6-7 jumping but did a BRILLIANT weave entry :D she took the pole before the weaves, coz I came to a halt to give her space to find the weave entry herself. So pleased - its the sort of entry I train but then in the ring bottle it and make sure she gets it, rather than letting her find it herself. But now I'm making an effort to test the things we do in training. Good T :-D

5-7 jumping - OMG, one of my favourite courses ever. Soooo hard, tested lots of skills, but if you handled it right (ok, I didnt :)) it flowed superbly, we had a ball, Tia was brilliant, listened soooo hard, which after the last few weeks where listening skills have been optional, it was appreciated we had them back :) we got e'd, but got e'd quite late on, which I was pleased with, as there were about 100 places we could have done, but just about managed to save most of them :)

Agility, Tia had a pole, but perfect contacts, straight down into position, so again very happy :-)


Indian and Honeypot won the 1-3 jumping by a couple of seconds, and then had an abolutely storming run in Neil Ellis' SUPER G3-5 agility, prob the hardest course Imogen has done in the ring, she and Honey were fabbo and did a super clear to win it, they would have won the G4 and G5 parts by 8 and 9 seconds respectively :O only problemo is Honey now appears to think she has running contacts, which are getting progressivey higher each week, lol. Back to training them in the ring next month I thinks :)
They have now got 20 wins in KC competition in the last 2 months :O


Leamington

Tia only had 1 run - 1-7 jumping - as I said 'go' she went to go over the jump and then stopped, think she thought I'd said a test word (green, gas etc) so I said 'go' again but poor T was right under the jump and only just cleared it. You had to do the straight tunnel twice and the 2nd time Tia fell over in it at the end - not sure what it is with her falling over in tunnels at the moment? She was really good bouncing jumps, no poles, and not too much barking either, came 4th, good T-bag.

Imogen and Honey had 2 3-5s, Honey broke her wait and missed her aframe, naughty wait, but Imogen said "come on" on her aframe and Honey obediently did, lol. Then had a 2nd in the jumping, and then a 3rd in 1-7 jumping which was great. Honey didn't seem quite 'with it' a bit of a sleepy spaniel I think!

Also had a practice ring so I took Scandal in and they were really nice people, very generous with the time as no one was waiting, I took her in twice, rewarded loads for brilliant waits, only one aframe she did was a little high, we also did left and right turns after the aframe which she did nicely, jumps wise she was great but she is bouncing everything tho - scary! Also did a couple of seesaws which were good.


Only letting her weave at home atm - still got the first 4 as channels and the next 8 as uprights - she's starting to power through them now, yay, head down and swims them nicely. Hope this week we'll go onto all uprights - eeek! Phoenix on Sat then her first show is Hinckley **faints**

:-)

Handling

Ok running a week behind so here goes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzJrmTXpnJo

Did UKA at HJ Agility on Saturday. It was a really nice show with lots of thanks on the tannoy for everyone who'd given up their time to help, rather than moans/threats about people not helping, which made a nice change :)

Scandal had 2 classes, nursery agility and steeplechase. In the nursery we did our own course, the aframe as the third one. She got the contact with a front and 2 back paws but at the moment is a bit doubtful when she comes over the top of the af so isn't going as deep into the contact on strange af's. However I think the more she does, the more confident she will get.

Still have a problem on strange dw's - the first dw she did she got the contact but it was high, so we did it twice more and she was much better. But we don't get 2 trys in the ring - ahhhhh! I don't know what to do for the best as no point stopping at the moment as she'll do the 'fine, I won't bother' rather than enjoying herself like she is right now. Oh, and I couldn't remember my wing wrap commands, and was all over the place... idiot.

In the steeplechase I opted to train it again. Oh dear my handling is appalling. 3rd jump was slightly offset so I turned my shoulders to make sure she didn't run round... except I should have done this on 2, not 3, so on 3 she had no idea if I wanted her to run in a straight line or turn, so she bounced the jump but knocked it, poor Scan, she hates knocking poles, can just imagine her thinking 'wtf are you doing mum, idiot!!'

Pleased she turned tightly after the straight tunnel, see, she isn't always WIDE ;) then the next bit she picked up nicely, but then the only slightly harder thing, ie the 2 jump snake, I screwed up, wtf was I even doing? No wonder Scandal didn't have a clue, I don't have a clue what I was trying to do either! And she did the sequence much better when I worked her from behind the 2nd time. Guess I am too obsessed with trying to get in front/handle like I'm working Tia, which I don't need to do. Just my comfort zone.

End result = Scandal gone up another gear in enthusiasm stakes, Char gone down a level in handling abilities!

Proud :)

Lee and Rix at Shrewsbury in anysize, coming 3rd... Rix is 11yrs 3 month and I'm sure he's running faster than he was a few years ago!


Jess and Cop at Shrewsbury, just 1 pole


Winning Grade 1 agility by over 2 secs :D


3rd in Grade 1 jumping (lol at Lee's comment at the start :))


Laura and Be in their first KC show




I'm proud :D

Shrewsbury, North Somerset and training

Just a small update as I am meant to be revising!

Had a nice weekend at Shrewsbury, Tia was mad, and very hard work, arguing lots and taking 1 pole per run, barking way too much and not really listening. There were some nice bits she did in each run and some bad bits!

Then at North Somerset she had a lovely run in Graham Partridge's 5-7 agility and won it, she did a lovely run apart from a deviation when I said "weave" instead of left, weave, she carried on in a straight line and went round the ring pole, and then into the weaves. But she barked a lot less and it felt like she concentrated a lot more :) in the jumping she had a pole near the end and then I called her too early before she went in the tunnel, so she span. But again felt like she was working a lot better. Then in the other jumping the beginning and end were good, just a bit in the middle was a bit rubbish!

Imogen and Honey had their first grade 3 classes and ended up with 6 wins and a 2nd, all fantastic runs, they had 2 other classes with brilliant 5fs, Imogen is working much harder with her now and it is showing, as Honey is so much more up for her runs :)

A big big well done to Jess and her springer Copper for winning the large grade 1 agility by over 2 secs, and a 3rd in the jumping, 0.1sec from 1st. Laura and Be had their first KC show just in jumping classes and did 2 stunning E's, both E near the end, but amazing stuff, perfect front crosses, Be working fast and very tight, lovely weaves and lovely send ons. Made me very proud to see them working so fabbly!

Scandal was super all weekend, very little barking, and if she did bark, it was really easy to get her attention back on to me. She is 16 months old tomorrow - eeeek! We did some training tonight and I think it was our best session to date, she was uber up for it and worked soooooo well, boy do I love her :) well, most of the time :) have been up on the Mendips for an hour chasing rabbits with the 3 dogs, they are all very tired now, especially Rix, poor boy, he didn't stop running the whole time, don't think his legs appreciate it afterwards!