Yearly round up

Well what an amazing year 2010 turned out to be. I never thought I would be approaching 2011 in grade 3 nor did I know this time last year I'd have another puppy!
Maisy, Summer and Rupert have had a brilliant 12 months, we have seen Summer mature into a lovely all round dog and Amy has really started to enjoy the partnership she and Summer have developed on the agility front, especially now she has found a trainer that really suits them, if only this snow would clear up so that they could continue with it. Summer was the star of the show at her first ever Crufts winning the Dogstable title and followed that up by taking the title again at Discover dogs, once again qualifying them for the YKC ring at DFS Crufts in 2011. throughout the year their agility confidence has grown and Summer now works confidently away from Amy and you can even see a cheeky twinkle in her eye when Amy isn't quite quick enough or seems a bit flakey with her commands, it makes for a great spectator sport!
Maisy of course has just been the most brilliant girl this year, we got off to a really slow start while I honed my handling skills, but once we got going their were some fantastic rounds which obviously gave us those all important wins, again finding a good supportive club towards the end of the season has really helped and over the past few months training with Jo has really started to make a difference and I actually feel confident to run Maisy from behind and try things I would never have even thought of before. I can't wait for next season, I know we are still going to have some wait and contact issues but hopefully we can remember to enjoy the fantastic moments from each round which so many people forget about.
And Finally Rupert - When he arrived I remember saying that as I hadn't expected him I had no aspirations for him! I must admit I never thought he would turn out like he has, for some reason I thought he would be a steady dog who would learn speed with confidence, but it seems thats not the case, practically from day one he has insisted I run him from a distance, again without Jo's help and advice I'm not sure where we would be, she had really devoted a great deal of time and energy into starting us on the right track and I cant thank her enough, hopefully we will repay her later next year by not showing her up too badly in the ring. I must also mention he has qualified for Breed at Crufts 2011 - I'm not sure the Judge on the day will like his colour but he will go for the experience and he will also be in the YKC handling if Amy ever does any training with him LOL.

Aspirations for 2011 - I guess I really want to improve as a handler and step away from being a one handed beginner to a multi tasking think on your feet type of handler. I already feel much calmer and in control in the ring, and at times I even seem to have time to watch Maisy instead of chasing her around praying she takes the right course!. I would like to continue with Rupert in exaclty the same way we are going at the moment, training with a plan in mind and taking the time to evaluate where we are and how he is coping with what we are doing at regular intervals, letting Rupert set the speed at which we progress, it seems to be working at the moment so I can't see a reason to change. And for Amy and Summer, enjoy Crufts with nothing to prove to anyone, and hopefully manage to attend a few more agility shows if time permits, I know she will be attending Mary Rays week again this year so watch out for more funny costumes and dance routines. Now that I have a few days off work till next year I'll try to take some good pictures of the dogs to post.

Although 2011 is set to be another hectic season seemingly living in the caravan for most of the Summer, I plan to take a bit more time out this year spending some time away with Steve.

Lastly I just want to say a huge THANK YOU to Jo Hyslop, your friendship and help over the past 12 months has been fantastic, I'm really looking forward to pairs next year Zippy & Rupert are going to be hilarious.

Good Luck to everyone for the 2011 season & MERRY CHRISTMAS

Rupert the Star (no really he was a Star)

So Last night was the Chipping Norton DTC Christmas party, I had decided to take Rupert along instead of Maisy to see how he managed concentrating with the distractions of other dogs and people. He went dressed as a Star! and a very handsome star he made. The club had set out two courses, a scurry which was 6 jumps and a tunnel and a twisty jumping course. We waited till the jumps were on Medium and had a go at the Scurry, He had a nice wait but on his first attempt I sent him into the far side of the tunnel clocking up the seconds so on the 2nd attempt I opted to run on the outside of the jumps and he took the better entrance and flew down to the finish without hesitation. Next we did the jumping, again just jumps and a tunnel, there were 2 cross behinds and a pull in - Rupert ran it brilliantly just taking a pole right at the end when I panicked a bit but apart from that I was so chuffed with him, and it was really lovely to hear some nice comments from the other members. It was a brilliant evening all round.

Expecting too much can leave you dissapointed!

Yesterday Jo and I took our naughty children Zippy and Maisy to a start line wait training day, I had been really looking forward to this seminar and I think I was hoping for a miracle cure! unfortunately I was disappointed, not necessarily with the training itself because there were some useful bits, my problem was that when I had called and described my problems I was told how the trainer had experienced the exact same issues and that now her very reactive dog was brilliant! unfortunately she told a different story at the beginning of the session saying that she was only able to leave her dog for 1.5 jumps before he broke! at our worst last year I couldn't take my finger out of Maisy's collar before she was off! so we were off to a bad start, also the trainer had her own dog in most of the training sessions, who insisted on barking and demanding her attention making it very difficult to hear anything she was saying and she was saying quite a lot! however on the plus side, I can see that with perseverance the method she used would have it's benefits and is definitely something I will work on with both Maisy and Rupert, even though Rupert has a lovely wait I will use the techniques around the rings so maybe the benefits of this course will be slow developing. I'll keep you posted.
I'm really enjoying Agility training with both dogs at the moment and have decided next season to work on my handling in the hope that when Rupert finally comes out in July I'll be giving clear confident commands so he can just enjoy the experience.

Maisy

Maisy training

Rupert agility training 2

Rupert agility training

Minus 11!!!!

Friday night was Harry Potter night, Lucy and I had a lovely meal followed by the Film, it was really nice to have a night out. When we came out of the cinema we were greeted by heavy snow! driving home was quite worrying, no sooner had the car in front made a track in the snow it was covered over again! Amy was babysitting in the next village which you get to via a single track road with a steep incline so we waited for a stranded phone call, however it didn't come, she managed to drive safely home on her own. Saturday morning I was expecting to wake to a good covering of snow, but not at all, it must have warmed up during the night making way to a slushy mess!





It's been so hard to find the right time to do any training over the past few weeks, But luckily I managed to get over to Jo's on Sunday and the ground was actually quite good! We started training Rupert front and rear crosses, he is very sharp so it took a few attempts to get my body language just right but once we did he was a dream.





We worked on no vocal commands with Maisy, which means she has to be more aware of where I am, again this seemed to work really well, she hardly took a pole and really tightened up her turns, it also helps me out as I don't have to even think about what is left or right just clear body language, so all in all Sunday was a brilliant training day.



Videos posted lower down, as I'm having trouble posting vids at the mo!