Mid Season Time Off

I'm not sure if this Mid season month off has come at the right time?! just when Maisy & I seem to have got our act together I find myself with a month off. For the past 2 weeks we haven't done any agility at all, I've been a bit off colour and Maisy has been having a very well earned rest. Yesterday Amy took her for a flyball practice before the YKC qualifier on Wednesday, I'm not sure why I agreed to letting her do it again, but she really does enjoy it and should they qualify it will be the first time Amy had run her at Crufts, But it will deffinitely be the last time and she won't be doing any hard training in preparation, hopefully she can just go as a reserve for the big day. Summer and Amy also have been having some time off, Summer has really turned into a cheeky monkey, at home and in the agility ring, I'm really looking forward to watching her at the week long Dashing dogs show, we just want to fine tune her offside weaves and who knows what results she might come home with?!?
Summer and Rupert are getting ready for the show ring, actually all Summer needs to do is put on some weight, and I think I've now cracked it with a new food and a new feeding regime, but Rupert is in dire need of some Ring craft training!!!! I'm quite glad I won't be there for his debut as I'm sure he will be a little over the top!! poor Amy I think perhaps she might need to get in some cramming before Bournemouth, however his other training is coming on really well, he had about a week off training while I was poorly but this morning I started to tighten up his heelwork, working on his close position, taking a side step and clicking his effort to remain in position, after only a couple of goes he is already thinking its a great game to push on in anticipation of the click! I was looking at some pictures of ticket handlers during heelwork and think Ruperts natural position will be quite a high head as opposed to the wrap around style, I will be happy with either and haven't really pushed him towards either but I am sure once we really start to motor forward he will have to adjust his head carriage accordingly so I suppost a high head at this stage is better - Just to reiterate, training sessions are only a few minutes at a time, their is plenty of time for stamina training, he is just coming up to 7 months and I don't anticipate him being in the obedience ring before next season, so he is set to have a very busy winter what with his agility training with Jo and Obedience training, I'm not sure where all the time is coming from!?

Maisy does the Double

Well, finally I have some good news for Maisy and I - On Saturday we went to Bretford and after an appalling Agility round we somehow managed to pull a clear round out of the bag in the jumping, we had one wide turn but appart from that it was faultless giving us the last grade 1 jumping win we needed by a good couple of seconds. Summer also had a lovely clear round finishing in 6th place, and if it hadn't have been for a naughtly pole in the Agility may also have been celebrating Grade 2 success. Yesterday we found ourselves at different shows, I had booked to go to Chipping Norton and Amy was again at Bretford, Maisy was again extremely naughty in the Agility round and just shoots off without any thought to a contact just trying to get to the next obstacle as quickly as possible, to be honest I'm getting a bit fed up with having to constantly put her back on them! from an onlookers point of view it must look like I have never trained them but at home and in training she is very good, so much more work is needed, however then we had the graded jumping which was being judged by Sue Frazier a good friend and I really wanted to try hard to look as good as possible in front of her, I was first on the line and there were plenty of draws ahead of us, but appart from a slightly sticky moment we managed another clear! not only that but Ellen and Hamish also went clear, at the end of the class it turned out I had won the grade 1 and Ellen had won Grade 2, brilliant, Sue told me I had won by over 3 seconds and it had been a brilliant run so I was elated.
Jo and all the Mali's were at Diamond show this weekend and now has 3 dogs in Grade 6!!! Kody just won't be left behind - Clever boy. So congratulations all round.
Amy and Summer had some brilliant moments over the weekend Summer has suddenly found her bionic feet which is on occasion taking Amy by suprise, they are lovely to watch and the transformation just seems to be happening right in front of us with each competition giving them a little more confidence, we are both really looking forward to our "Holiday" at Dashing dogs now, we have no pressure so can really enjoy the week.

Rupert learning contacts

So I have begun to start training Rupert's Contacts, after the few weeks I have had with Maisy there is one thing for sure Rupert will never get away with breaking his wait on the start and he will never know what a naughty contact feels like (well thats the plan). After only a few times of showing him the contact using the clicker he got the hang of it, he isn't quite stopping in the 2 on 2 off position yet but I think thats down to my timing rather than his understanding but I will work on that in the next couple of sessions along with his send away into the tunnel. I am really pleased with him so far and have attached a short video so any comments are welcome.

Maisy has had a rest for most of this week, as I am hoping that some last minute cramming on Friday evening will stick in her mind for the weekend ahead, it's going to be really nice as on Saturday we are only at Daventry so my parents can come to watch, the best bit is Mum will bring the camping stove and keep us topped up with goodies throughout the day whilst Dad pretends to watch from his chair while all the time he is actually fast asleep!! mind you at the moment that's probably the best way to watch Maisy and I in action.. Amy and Summer are with us on Saturday but we have somehow managed to be at two different shows within about 2 miles of each other on Sunday, Amy is on the hunt for more points so that hopefully she and Summer will qualify for the YKC agility finals in 2011. I'll hopefully get a few videos to post this weekend.

Another bit of news is that we have a new addition to the family, his name is Bill, he is a Bailey Olympus 624, Steve and I decided that if we were going to have more weekend breaks in the caravan we wanted a bit more luxury, so along came Bill, he has a fixed bed and a lovely end bathroom with plenty of room for unexpected visitors if necessary. He is a fair bit bigger than the last one, and I took him to Oswestry last weekend and had no problems towing or setting up so it's all good, appart from the dogs are not allowed inside so that will take them (and us) a bit of time to get used to although Maisy & Rupert didn't seem to mind last weekend they even stayed outside when I had the door open so it look like it might be OK.

Dashing Dogs

On Thursday evening we collected our new Caravan (Bill) this one has a lovely fixed bed so no more making up the bed after a long agility day, however it is a fair bit longer than our old one so I was a bit dubios about towing it all the way to Oswestry on Friday evening during rush hour! I shouldn't have worried, the trip was easy and the traffic on the motorways was very kind, so I was set up in no time, we had a brilliant pitch right at the front with a great view of all the rings. Our first class of the weekend was the knockout pairs, Jo and Zippy went first with a lovely clear and maisy took a pole and missed her weave entry but as time is added not faults we won and were in the 2nd round, we then took a double clear but just missed out by a whisker to the oposing team, it was brilliant and we can't wait till the next one. after that the weekend was amixed bag, there were some brilliant moments and some mad moments but the worst of it was waiting 6 hours on Sunday for the grade 1 jumping, it was the last class of the day and to be honest a very unfair course (IMO) to cut a long story short we were E'd on the 6th fence so a really crap day turned out even worse! I got home at 9pm and the drive was just long enough for me to re-visit the posotives from the weekend, I'm beginning to think we will never get our act together!
Luckily it wasn't all doom and gloom, Amy was at Wellingborough with Summer, thankfully Amy is finally feeling a bit better and they managed to come away with a 5th in jumping and another couple of clears so some more points for their record book. Summer seems to have really blossomed in her agility this year, it must be all the fun she's having, I'm really looking forward to watching her next weekend at Bretford.
Jo had a fantastic weekend, all her dogs appart from Ronny who like Maisy is keeping her feet on the ground!! Zippy is amazing he is destined to be a star in the future and Kody won practically everything he was in! I'm not sure how she managed to get home with the weight of all those trophies!!