Imogen and Honeybear

I'm so proud of this pair, they came to me this time two years ago for their first lesson, Imogen had just turned 10 and was such a shy little girl who would barely say a word to me, let alone to Honey. Honey was 2 years old, with a very strong hunting instinct, I remember at the end of the lesson talking to Garth and Imogen and saying 'where's Honey?' she'd gone through the fence and had run down into the valley after pheasants. I gave Imogen lots of homework each week and Ims was always the perfect student coming back having perfected everything that I'd asked. They did a few shows in the summer of 2009 but hit problems with Imogen being even quieter and shyer in the ring than at home, sometimes managing to do the entire course without talking to Honey - Honey responded being the sensitive little soul that she is by trotting round next to Imogen's side and occasionally stopping for a sniff or a wee mid-course :) towards the end of 2009 their ring-confidence started to grow and Honey had broken into a canter, they won a couple of jumping classes in August and then at Dashin Dogs in September won several classes including a 1-3 agility taking them out of grade 1.

2010 and a couple of small limit shows to prepare them for Crufts, Honey more speedy and Imogen louder. Crufts came and went, Imogen getting a 4th in the semi final (top 3 go through to the final) their downfall being Honey didn't understand a quick release in the ring having never done one before and didn't want to release from her contacts!


Two weeks later and Honey was hit by a 4x4 the first time I'd taken Imogen to a show on her own, she ran off chasing pheasants - the screeching of brakes and her screaming as she took off in the opposite direction to where we were will stay with me forever, as will the comfort in so many people immediately coming out to look for her and the relief when I was 'tresspassing' through private property with big 'keep out' signs when she came happily running towards me through the reeds, seemingly completely fine. She went to Lowri's and was pretty much ok apart from some bruising, we think she must have bounced off the car rather than being underneath it.

Their agility success continued and they won out of grade 2 the following month and then grades 3, 4 and 5 pretty much each time they became eligible for the next level. They hit problems in June/July with Honey being in season and deciding she wanting to naff all to do with agility and it was as much as Imogen could do to get her off the start line let alone run with any enthusiasm. This continued all through July and poor Imogen accounted for all of their efforts in the Agility Club Starter finals and the Agility Club Junior finals where Honey wouldn't have looked out of place back in grade 1. Imogen had luckily gained confidence ten-fold and had no problem giving Honey loads of encouragement in order for Honey to donate any energy that she had to running the course.

Finally at the beginning of August with Honey having the enthusiasm of a dying fly, I decided that action was required! For those of you that can remember dad's Bex before she was spayed, she was incredibly hormonal and did not want to be anywhere near agility after her season. Last August dad got her a vitamin jab and she was a different dog, absolutely flying, in fact dad couldn't keep up with her! So Garth took Honey to the vets and gave her the jab a week or so before KC fest.

Well, that's certainly something worth remembering if anyone else has a similar problem! Imogen and Honey had the most succcessful month in August, at the KC fest they won the YKC Jumping Semi Final qualifying for Crufts, qualified top for the KC Novice Final although Honey broke her wait so they were e'd on the 2nd jump in the final! But better than the previous month where Honey did not even want to go! They also qualified top in the International Junior competition as well as winning a grade 5 agility. I think one of Imogen's highlights will be beating Bernadette in the KC novice cup jumping, I think Imogen had a 2nd and B and Itz were 5th, Imogen was soooo thrilled as Bernadette is one of the few people that Imogen will always spot from miles away (or maybe hear the shelties yapping hehehe) and want to watch, so it was great for Imogen to realise she could be competitive against her if she really put her mind to it.


We followed this on to Dogs in Need where Honey was just fantastic getting a clear in all the classes she entered and I think she had a top 5 in all these classes. The icing on the cake was Imogen winning the DINAS Junior Under 12 final with Honey doing a brilliant run and showing what they were made of.

Grade 6 certainly hit Imogen hard with Imogen realising she had no time to let Honey break her waits, and Honey was now giving Imogen no let up and 'breathing time' to remember the course mid way round! They got their first win towards grade 7 mid September and then had a couple of close calls with 2nds, one of which was absolutely stonking and probably the best round they have worked in terms of difficulty... with Honey breaking her wait at the start and catching Imogen off-guard - Ims certainly realising that there was no room for error with just 0.1 between her and 1st!

We then had Honey spayed in October as can't be doing with those horrible moody seasons! Honey is looking fantastic now and has lost a lot of weight as she was looking rather porky by September. Much to my amazement she also has lots more self control with Garth able to call her off a pheasant which is rather remarkable considering last year she had no recall regardless of whether there was a pheasant there for temptation or not, lol. Imogen has qualified for 3 classes at Crufts 2011 - YKC ADOTY, YKC Jumping and YKC Small Agility. We've not been able to do any agility because of the snow but I know Imogen is looking forward to her lesson with Dave on Thursday and then we've got a couple of training days booked in with him over the next couple of months.

All in all it's been a fantastic year for Imogen and Honey and I am just so proud of them. Imogen's now Miss Confident (and Miss Argumentive too at times ;)) which is a huge difference to the little girl I first met two years ago who wouldn't say boo to a goose. 2011 will hopefully be a great year for them and I can't wait to see how the pair develop in grade 6/7.

First weekend back training

Scandal's had almost 13 weeks off agility and I thought what better way to celebrate her 2nd birthday than to do some training - didn't bank on lots of snow and frozen ground though!

We did some training yesterday on an almost flat plank and I am thrilled (not) to say that Scandal seems to think that the contact is electrified and should be leapt over at all costs. Something to work on at least!

We also did Honey's first training session since she was spayed 7 weeks ago in October. She faired much better than Scandal and was pretty much 100% with her contacts. Vid of her below.


I also uploaded a viddy of Scandal training in the ring in August doing her contacts how she is meant to - soon as I take the toy in the ring I am miss confident so Scandal is too. At least it gives me hope we may get there.


Today it was a beautiful day and the ground finally defrosted completely. We did some hill running this morning - this is fast turning out to be Tia's favourite game in the world - she squeals like crazy racing Scandal up the hill to the tennis ball, bless her. This afternoon we did the balance grid - we back chained starting with rewarding after 2 jumps, then 3, then finally 4, to which she could not decide for the 4th whether to bounce or clear both the 3rd and 4th in one go. She did not make the decision quite quick enough so went for a combination of the two and landed on the 4th one, ouch. After that she was fine and jumped beautifully, but I think we have a long way to go :)

Lee and Todd

How awesome do these guys look - Todd is Lee's first dog, such a lovely team :)

Love my Scandal

Loving Scandal... not loving autumn/winter and the short days!


Thank you to Cat for the lovely pics :)

Today I met up with Laura and Be today and we took the all dogs out for just over 2 hours, including some hill running. Scandal and Be looked great and although tired were not overly so, however I think we nearly killed Tia (she is fine ;)) so I am going to have to scale it back a bit with her as I don't want her damaging her cruciate again. Although it's brilliant exercise for them, and me, my legs are aching now, maybe at this rate I will get fit too :)
Walked 5 miles with all 3 dogs yesterday and they all did great, Scandal especially, her hind leg seems to have settled now and no problems at all, so the proprie stuff seems to be working.

Really want to start training Scandal again now but am determined to hold off until December to give her a proper break. Plus, as soon as it starts raining I'm sure I'll lose all enthusiasm for it, so just a matter of time!

SMART

Scandal went to SMART for a few days last week. Hasn't been lame or anything but in my paranoidness I am always sure she is breaking or about to break.

I have been awfully lazy with doing her proprie exercises lately... infact we have hardly done any in the last 5 months. And it shows.

Scandal doesn't use her abs, which isn't really suprising considering I have done nothing to get her to use them since 5 months ago. So she is not weaving/jumping as well as she could (well, was not... she hasn't jumped since mid Sept).

So Lowri's given me some exercises to do with her and I've been thinking of a few of my own. Scandal loves working again! She really struggles with 'crawl' - this just happens to be something Tia is a total pro at (one of the few things!) so Tia gets to play too :-) so we are working on that... her crawling with each individual foot rather than jumping with her back legs and somehow her front legs under her chest (so you cant see her feet) with her head on the floor, not the best way to crawl!

Also doing some skateboard work, which I can't say Scandal's entirely convinced by, and the balance ball and wobble cushion. And some handstandy stuff but not against a wall, against a sofa so it is lower, but is involving her using her front end.

Oh and we are doing hill sprinting (Scandal, not me, so she, not we ;-)) twice a week.

Ohhhh and to top it allll off Munnings is moving to Newbury - how BRILLIANT :) I am so happy that he will only be an hour away and we won't have to tackle the M25!

I am actually looking forward to starting agility again with Scandal in December, I think I'm going to get a much more mature doglet than a few months ago. Well - I hope!

Scandals 19 months

Made this vid a couple of months ago but forgot to put it on here. Scandalbabyyyy.

The good and the bad...

Well we've only got one more show to do this year, and 2 more finals.
Everything kind of went a bit pear shaped after June... having no lesson since May is definitely showing, my handling has gone t*ts up! We didn't have a clear after Weardale until DIN where Scannie won G4 jumping.

We only competed 1 day of KC Fest as Scan escaped out of the garden, ransacked someones caravan/bbq/other food source, burning her nose and getting the worlds biggest belly in the process, was really sick, and took a few days to recover from it, poor girl.
Edited to add a nice pic taken by Cat Clark :)


We had the DV final at the end of August. Scandal was superb, Lee was judging and having won a couple of Lee's semis/finals I was keen to win this with Scandal ;) well she flew round, and then Char = wally, panicked at the end instead of holding my ground just ran at the last jump, and Scandal ran round the penultimate jump, a wall, which she'd never seen before. She crossed the line in 33, the winner was 34. Was really chuffed with her, she was soooo good, I just couldn't quite hold my nerve.

The weekend just gone we had the Olympia semis, didn't get off to a good start as Scandal hated the big wings, running round jump no 3 like it was going to eat her and doing a huge jump over the next (the joint aid jump), she then ran awkwardly and kinda fell up the aframe, somewhere over the course she managed to split her dew claw. I vet wrapped it, and she then decided she would act like a frog and could only walk in leaps, so that had to come off for the final, luckily it wasn't a bad split but of course poor Princess I just wanted to wrap her in cotton wool :)

In the final Scan was great, just me again not holding my nerve, I walked the course and just lost every ounce of faith that I had, normally I walk a course and even if it is hard, I am excited about running it but all the excitement just melted away leaving me dreading it and not looking forward to running it, I have never not looked forward to running Scandal. After the weaves I didn't pick Scandal up correctly so she didn't have a clue where she was going, and got a refusal at the next jump. A 5 would've got us in but she made sure we didn't by taking a pole... she's only taken one possibly 2 poles in the last 2 months of competing so I guess fate just has a way of making sure :)

I was really gutted, and actually cried like a right baby about it that evening... not the fact we didn't qualify, but the fact that the last 2 weekends I have let Scandal down sooooo much, and made her look absolutely rubbish, when in fact she is not. However looking on the bright side, it has taken all of the pressure off as I can now give her 3 months rest, and don't need to worry about keeping her in peak condition when the hours are short, and I won't be getting home from work until it is dark. I am still not happy about her hind leg so hopefully we will be able to work on this over the winter so she will be fully weight bearing on it next year. And of course next year she will be more mentally mature, and I won't have the thought of a massive final bearing down on me in the next 3 months which I am sure would not have the greatest effect on either me or Scandal!

Hopefully I will update this again soon when I have more time... just very rarely on the PC now I have internet on my phone, I can check my emails on the go and so don't go on anything else!
Ohhh one last piccie of my Princess :)