Agility & Obedience

Firstly, I'm pleased to say that my handling held it's own at the MBCC show and although we didn't get any clears I was thrilled with our performances in all 3 classes so progress is definitely being made.

Amy and I have been going to Jo's for our Sunday afternoon workout !!!!! and what a workout it is. I have attached a couple of video's from this week, they were taken halfway through so you will have to forgive the tired legs and my panting through Amy's video.

I hope you'll agree Summer and Amy are really starting to look good, it's such a vast transformation from this time last year, we are really looking forward to the 2012 season. Jo mentioned Rupert and I could easily be in Grade 6 by the end of the season GRADE 6!! I hadn't ever given that a thought, I was hoping to be on the way to grade 5 possibly, I can tell you the thought of walking into a grade 6 ring to walk frightens the crap out of me!

Rupert and I went for our first Obedience lesson with Mary Ray last week, it was brilliant, she picked up on two things, I need to teach Rupert to walk and trot, he is lovely when following my outstretched arm but he tries to hard to keep the position in Close and ends up hopping or limping! and also I need to work on his final postion, I've always had him in quite an upright position but he would be better in a wrapped around lower head position, so thats my home work before the next lesson at the end of Feb... Plenty to do. I've also had my draw for Crufts, I'm 20th out of 20 which I think is a really good place to be, plenty of time to watch the others and plenty of time for the rescue remedy to kick in!

Exciting year ahead

both Amy and I have now started our 2012 training, Amy with Joy Costello andboth of us with Jo Hyslop (and boy is that a workout!) but today I'm going to talk about my dogs and me.....

Rupert is looking fantastic in training, he is easily doing all the difficult exercises Jo sets for us, so on that note I am totally thrilled, he is exactly where he should be at the beginning of the season. However I'm very worried about my handling and whislt I am nearly spot on at the training field I know I'll let us down in the competition! my aim at the moment isn't a clear round but to feel pleased with MY performance at the end of the course - so this weekend I shall try to be better prepared before I step onto the start line, leave the nerves in the car and help my boy to do a good job. wether I achieve my goal is another matter, but I'll let you know.

2012 hopes, fears and dreams

We had a relatively quiet New years eve, just a few games and glasses of vino at home with our dogs for company. We are looking forward to the year ahead, I actually like to get past Crufts so we can really enjoy Agility competitions with our K9 friends. Last year was very interesting, and I really learnt a lot.

Maisy and I have had quite a good season she is now 8 years old but still behaves like a real youngster, my decision to only do jumping has paid off and she has given me some fantastic rounds leaving us with only 1 more win for grade 4, I guess my hopes for her are theat she will get to grade 5, but in reality if we get any clear rounds I'll be truely happy. My highlight of not only this year but in all our agility years has to be running in the laser pairs at Dashing dogs with her best mate Ronny, they were on fire that day, in fact that show was to be Ruperts highlight too.

Rupert came out and after only 7 weeks won 2 agility classes - there are some really funny folk around when a so called friend heard the news her reaction was "was it a good run?" well he beat over 200 dogs on both runs so I suppose it was ok!! it is very odd what people will say when a simple well done would do, although on the other hand I had some super comments from people around the rings after both wins. I'd love to go on and on about how brilliant we are going to be, but the truth of the matter is, no matter how much training you do if you're handling in the ring doesn't come up to scratch then there's little point. I have felt my competition handling lets me down again and again, so I will be working very hard on that over the next few months, I have some good training planned so hopefully running my dog will become more natural than the ridiculous standing still or worse still queing my dog over the wrong fence while I stand by and watch it all go wrong will eventually be a thing of the past.

Summer and Amy have had an amazing year, and we are really excited by what 2012 will bring. Amy will be starting back training with Joy Costello next week, Both her and Summer really enjoyed her training last year. Summer has really grown in confidence, she still has an occasional spook at a Judge or gets a scent and puts her head up, but if she comes around a corner with her tail in the air I know Amy is set to have her hands full as a very cheeky Summer zooms off making Amy use all her skills in one go.. It's exhausting to watch so God only knows how Amy feels!

Just a few thank you's

As always Jo Hyslop who has gone so far beyond the call of duty helping me train Rupert and walking courses, what am I going to do without you whilst you work through the Olympics?!?!?

Anne & Gloria - OMG you have made me so proud this year, what an amazing partnership you have become

Of course Amy - thank you for everything

Rupert & Maisy MWAH

And to all my agility friends who keep us entertained at every show to many to name but you know who you are.

Updates

It's been ages sine I updated our blog and have so many things to report. We had an amazing time at the Newark YKC weekend with Amy qualifying in all three of the events she entered, I managed to hold my nerves just long enough to qualify for the finals of the Special Pre-beginners stakes and Amy finally got the letter saying her and Summer had qualified for the senior agility! So from not having qualified for anything at the beginning of October we have now stacked up 3 days of competitions and a very busy Crufts 2012.
Christmas is only a matter of hours away but after that we really have to get down to some serious training, it will have to be a balance of Agility and obedience for all I think, looking at some of the 4-5 agility courses I have a feeling 2012 will be a year of experience building for both Rupert and I, Maisy will go into 2012 with 1 more jumping win needed for grade 4, she's hardly knocking any poles at the moment so fingers crossed we can get that over with earlier in the season, and Summer and Amy have had an amazing agility year and have really had some fun especially when Summers tail goes up, we just know thats going to be a cheeky round!
Merry Christmas everyone and a lucky 2012 XX

Crufts 2012

Amy and I had discussed the posibility of a quiet Crufts in 2012, where we could just go as spectators and enjoy the show, however our dogs seem to have other ideas! Newark YKC activity weekend is always a bit of fun and the last chance to have a good catch up with old friends before the winter sets in. Amy had decided to enter Rupert into Dogstable this time as Summer has won it at Crufts for the last 2 years, and he didn't dissapoint, although not quite as sharp as Summer he had a lovely clear and has qualified.

Amy took Maisy into the handling training on Saturday morning and she was a complete Nutter, Barking and leaping about all over the place, so the handling class in the afternoon was going to be very interesting indeed! but she seemd to calm down a lot and get on with the job in hand, a couple of over the top moments made sure Amy had to prove her handling ability, especially when Maisy decided the motorised wheelchair might need chasing! but they won the class meaning Amy can now take any dog in the ring at Crufts.

Then the obedience, both Summer and Rupert were entered into Graduate all stays were at 10am and then we had been told it would be about 20 minutes before Graduate would start, so decided to wait in the hall, unfortunately the wait was considerably longer than that and Rupert was getting rather bored, eventually they called her into the ring and he seemed to spring back to life, putting in a brilliant round with just a little blip when the steward nearly sent them into the wall! but Amy came out really pleased with him so it didn't matter if he was placed or not, Summer was to run right at the end, she was getting a bit spooked by the wind blowing and the echoing of the indoor venue so Amy decided to train her round and was really pleased with a fantastic recall and retrieve. then the scores where in and to our suprise Rupert had won so another qualifier for Crufts.

What clever puppies.. I've just sent Amy's agility book off the the YKC to see if she will qualify for the senior agility with Summer and I still have my Semi finals in 10 DAYS so it could be an extremely busy 4 days.

Winter training

Well for now Rupert and I are concentrating on Obedience, Obedience, Obedience!! we have qualified for the KCGC Special Pre beginner stakes semi finals which are held at Discover Dogs at Earls court on Saturday 12th November. Training is going very well at the moment, I've been taking him up to the local retail park after work to work him with the distractions of different lights, sounds and people using the shop windows as mirrors. I do get the odd funny look, but Hey ho!

Amy and Summer are still enjoying their agility training with the Chipping Norton club, and we hope to really get stuck into running contact training over the winter, we have just taken delivery of our Plastic A Frame with Rubber contacts so we are set to go and I've been using Dawn Weavers interactive online training which is brilliant, She emails you the links to short training video's and you email her back video's of your progress for her to comment on which are available from her website www.dawnweaveragility.com . We've also had to have our weaves altered to the new 2ft spacing so we can get plenty of practice at those over the coming months.

So much to do, I really cant wait to get stuck in.

So much to report

Well the first two most important things are that Amy and Summer won into Grade 2 at the Chipping Norton Show, not only coming 2nd in jumping on Saturday but winning both Jumping and Agility on Sunday, so doing very well indeed. Then this last weekend Rupert and I managed to have a lovely clear in the grade 3 agility winning by over 2 seconds, following that on Sunday he went on to win the combined grade 3-4 agility, so he was a really clever little man who I am very proud of. There is plenty to update about, but I'll leave it there for the moment, now that i seem to have sorted the Gremlins out!!