Happy Birthday Ben

Today is Bens 7th Birthday.. bless him, yesterday we took him and Summer to the pasrk for a play, Amy messed around having a game with him and also did a little obedience training with Summer.

Bens Birthday

Well on Saturday 31st January it will be Ben, Ben's birthday, and the dilema is what do you buy the dog with everything?? I think anyone would be justified in saying both Amy's dog's are thoroughly spoilt, they have enough collars and leads between them to walk the inmates of Battersea dogs home. So Amy went off birthday shopping for the boy today, I can't wait to see what she brings home!

This weekend Jo is bringing her dogs and Paul & Sheila over for some team flyball training, I was hoping to have our new team shirts to show her but for some reason they seem to be stuck in customs!! fingers crossed they are ready for the Judging day on 14th Feb. lots of pics to follow.

Summer is loving her training at the moment, she get so excited when I put the other dogs away, I always start with a game of fetch with her tennis ball to really wind her up, she is so funny racing around the living room with her bottom tucked in, then I exchange the ball for her Dumbell and fingers crossed she is completing a near perfect retrieve, if I was going to be the slightest bit picky I would prefer a more solid hold, but from a judges perspective they would not be able to mark it as she appears to have a good grip, but I know she could do better! after a few goes she moves on to distance controll games, although this exercise is not required yet, it's a game Amy started with her at a very early age so just using it as a game to keep it in her head will be very useful for the future. after all that as a reward she gets to race upstairs to wake Amy up with lots of wet kisses - I think Amy loves that bit the most....

Training Cancelled!

Unfortunatly Yvonne had to cancel training this morning due to a severe ground frost. I took the opporunity to paint my A Frame, Amy had decided on Flamingo Pink!! no suprises there really.. I must admit it looks really great. I took all my equipment to the paddock this morning and trained Maisy's weave entrances, I did one of Lee's execises and set 2 jumps up at angles facing the weaves, Maisy worked really well and was even taking very sharp angled entrances in her stride, I also practiced directional commands and it seemed Maisy needed reminding what "Right" meant, I want her to take the turn even if I am on the other side which would normally turn her the other way, I have learnt that I still need to give her some body signals to help her decision making, even if it is just a turn of my shoulder. I shall take her up again tomorrow after my classes, I wish the evenings were brighter, I might try to get down ther before work a couple of mornings this week too.

Getting Better

Maisy seems to be on the mend, this morning she was bouncing all over the Kitchen racing from one bed to the next as if to tell me she could be let off the lead now! so thats exactly what i did, I usually walk her and Dylan together leaving Summer and Ben for Amy to walk later in the day, this morning was no exception, both dogs were very eager to get to the field, and once there I let them off, keeping hold of their ball for the first 100 yards so i could watch Maisy closely for any signs of lameness - she seemed fine so I threw the ball, if Dylan gets it he runs round and round with Maisy hot on his tail, but if Maisy gets it she brings it back to my hand for another go. they had a great time playing tuggy with each other on the frosty ground, and it was soon time to go back home for some well earned breakfast.

So much to do so little time!!

Is it me or are the weekends getting shorter? no sooner have I left work on a Friday afternoon is my alarm waking me for work on Monday morning!

Yesterday at training Maisy looked a bit stiff behind so I'm giving her a few days of lead walks to see if it eases, it may just have been that she was cold when i got her out of the van and i probably didn't warm her muscles up properly before training, but to be sure I'm not going to agility tonight. We seem to have very limited days off in the run up to Crufts.

Agility competitions have filled my diary this year, something we're not used to, Amy and I usually just do our own thing trekking around the obedience circuit with a few flyball shows entered into the mix for good measure, but we have entered into the whole community that is agility! Actually Amy isn't that bothered about Agility, she's still hooked on Obedience which is great news as this is what Summer enjoys the most.

Lots of training for Crufts too - Amy has qualified for YKC Flyball and 18-24years handling finals. This is the first time Amy has been to Crufts and not been in the Obedience, but now Summer is ready to go we have high hopes she will qualify for 2010.

I'm looking forward to Saturdys lesson with Yvonne -hopefully Maisys stiffness will be gone completely by then and there may even be a video for the blog, should give you all a good laugh to lift the spirits if nothing else.

Markfield Starters & Intermediate

It was a strange feeling leaving home without Maisy, but we had entered a starters and Intermediate team at the Markfield tournament. After getting slightly lost we found the venue which was a state of the art boarding kennels complete with indoor matted arena which we were very grateful for at this time of year. Kody & Summer were in the starters team along with Boxer Diesel and Springer Jess, Starters have netting to stop the dogs from going wrong and to hopefully stop dogs from another team interfering and crossing into your lane. we started well, however, Kody soon realised it wasn't granny on the box so we had to make adjustments so Jo could load his ball, and Summer was spooked by a dog chasing her down the lane!! however they soon got back up to speed and the the cosistency from Diesel and Gemma we managed to complete all races unscathed, and a real enthusiasm for the next one. In the intermediate team, we had a great morning winning 3 out of 3 races, leaving the most difficult races still to come, Alice and Smartie had a great day, he is turning into such a wonderful boy, and the relationship growing between the two of them is lovely to see, I cant emphasise enough how pleased I have been with these Darian Puppies. Louise and Hamish, Mary and Rags and of course a special mention to Chris and Shimmer who all worked their socks off to come 2nd, you all did me proud.

Today we had our normal classes to take, we arrived at the field nice and early so we could run our mob before the puppies arrive, somehow I managed to get my car stuck!! The classes went well and flyball was particularly good, Jo came with the Mali's so Amy could train for the Junior Crufts team, as always he was a star, I think he has a soft spot for her and although he always gives 100%, he seems to do it with a gentle smile on his face, just making sure he looks after her. Jo has agreed to let Amy use him for the Junior Handling class at Crufts this year so quite a bit more training is needed before they take to the green carpet.

Starters Coming up

This week seems to be going so slowly, Walking the dogs this morning through a heavy frost towards an early morning sunrise through the mist was spectacular, Maisy and Dylan oblivious to the stunning veiw, just eagerly waiting another ball to be thrown far enough away to have a race was just what i needed to raise my spirits. I was a bit down after last weekends agility show, not with Maisy, as she really was listening, unfortunately I wasn't giving her clear enough signals, but I guess after having had such a succesful show at Moreton Morrel I think I had let myself expect a bit more - so a lesson is learnt. The week started with agility class on Monday night, Maisy was in one of her Mad moods and as soon as I realise this I should just get back into the car and go home!! may sound a bit drastic and there will be those among you who might think you just have to work through it - all I can say to you is, walk a day in my shoes with Maisy before you critisize!!! I love to watch people who have the luxury of running steady dogs thinking they can do a better job than the people who have highly strung dogs, the truth is you will never know the excitement they bring to our lives or the required skill needed to pull it all together, a skill I am yet to learn... however my highly strung girlie, is also very obedient and fortunately if anything a little too obsessed with my whearabouts which is why i struggle, the slightest body movement or a sloww or early command is all that's required to take her off course, we are learning together, having fun and have the determination to succeed (these may be famous last words LOL).

Summer and her Pal Kody (Mali-Mania) are racing at markfield on Saturday in a Flyball Starters competition, Kody has been training really well and the team have high hopes for him in 2009, Summer on the other hand has a lot to prove, at last Sunday's training she decided to sit by the car watching instead of joining in the action, Amy has always said Summer will NOT be a flyball dog, and she may well be correct, but we have decided to see how she goes when she is on her own without the distraction from the rest of the pack, if she still refuses to take part then we won't push her, she has proven that she loves the one to one interaction she gets from obedience and that's what Amy loves too, they had a great first agility show last weekend which is something Amy will continue to dabble with in her own time - just how it should be, no pressure just a girl enjoying her dog.

I have an agility lesson with Yvonne again on 24th Jan, Amy is comming to video this time, I can't wait for lighter evenings and a bit more spare time at the weekends to practice at home, I have plenty to do if I'm going to catch Kathryn and Jess up, would't that be nice winning into grade 2!!!! still you gotta have goals.

Preston Agility

Summer had her first ever agility runs at Preston, in the first two classes she was a little nervous but was a real little star in her jumping class, she has so much drive and enthusiasm, hopefully she will keep going from strength to strength in whatever Amy decides to do with her. Maisy had a good day and was let down by me AGAIN she is so responsive there is very little room for handler error, but she just gets better and better each time we do it so I'm sure one day we will pull it out of the bag.

Kathryn & Jess had a brilliant day, they got a clear in the 1-7 agility which by all accounts was a nightmare of a course, and then only went on to Win Grade 1 Agility - We are soooo proud of her, both boxers had a good day even Jim Jam really enjoyed herself, and was really flying.

Clare & Charlie had a lovely clear inthe mornings agility, sitting in the lead for quite some time, unfortunately she ended up 3rd and then had the most super jumping round in the afternoon, I don't think I have ever seen Charlie move so fast!! our new tac tics seem to be working.

2009 so far so good

We all set off to Wilmbledon Common bright and early yesterday morning, both the Brickyard Bandits and the Boomerangs were racing yesterday. the Bandits were in division 3 and Jo had bougt Kody to give him a bit of lane experience in advance for his debut in a couple of weeks, he was a little star and by the end of the day had managed a full run despite not hving seen proper jumps for a good while. The Boomerangs were in division 6 with 2 brand new dogs being Diesel the boxer and Jess the esp. the team all worked really hard, especially Diesel, who ran the best leg of the day in the last race, helping the team to gain a 2nd place, Hamish, Raggs, Diesel (BC), our very own Ben with Diesel and Jess made me extremely proud.

Ronny, Maisy, Keisha and Dylan once again ran in style, we got another personal best 19.79 seconds. Halfway through the day Amy mentioned that Maisy was not running very well so we decided to swop, having her mum back made all the difference, and she ran smoothly again, just shows how much she loves her mummy!! it all came down to the last race, in the past we have tried to hard and made silly mistakes, this time all the dogs and handlers remained calm and we took it 3-0 meaning we had won the 3rd division. Wimbledon was a lovely venue, with plenty of space for exercising dogs, hopefully we will be back again soon.

As you can see baby Zippy had so much fun but he just couldnt keep his eye's open so he just had to dream about racing with his Daddy, it won't be long before he can do it for real.