Consistancey

So not written much recently, but we're just back from 5 days at Dog Vegas and have had a great few days. On Friday Jo was judging and I was down to scrime all day for her, and when you are committed to working all day it does take your edge off a bit, although I was really pleased with Ruperts runs, the wind and rain made it hard going!, Saturday arrived and so did the sun, we had a much better day gaining a sticky clear in one of the jumping and a lovely one in the other jumping affording us a 1st and a 2nd place (so a bit closer to grade 7).  Sunday was my birthday, I woke with a headache that remained all day, this is probably what hampered my performance as Rupert and I didn't have a good day at all, there were some great bits but we couldnt get it together at all.In the evening Jo and Rich invited me to dinner which was lovely and then we headed to bingo where we met up with Lucy - I think i heard the birthday song about 9 times in total and then a suprise cake! we had such a laugh so thank you Jo & Rich, it was lovely :-) Monday came and we were back on top, another great clear in the agility with just a little detour between the 2 tunnels resulting in another 2nd place, and then the rain returned on Tuesday I had 2 nice agility classes, making silly mistakes and then I stayed for the jumping, the rain really started to come down and I was regretting my decision to stay, but Rupert was brilliant again just taking a pole on a tight turn so I drove home extatic with him.  It was also really nice to hear some lovelty comments from people saying how good he is looking and like he is ready for grade 7! I just need to catch him up. Cant wait till Hinkley on Saturday - bring it on..

Wallingford

What a lovely spring weekend, Sun shone and we arrived looking forward to our pairs with the Mali's, Rupert and Zippy went first and Rupert was splendidly E'd LOL , Summer and Keisha got through to the 3rd round as amazingly did Ronny and Maisy who were the most fun out of all of them, they are so funny as soon as they get together they just go even madder than normal!
Rupert had a couple of good runs, he is really trying to keep those poles up, in his agility I got him E'd for not getting in place quick enough and he took 2 poles in his jumping, again down to me for over commanding him. Summer didn't get to run her courses as we had to get away early but she had a great time in the pairs event and ran really very well.
Sunday was an exhausting day, both Amy and I were really tired even before the day began, so a quick stop off at Maccy D's was needed. again we had the pairs, only today we were the only ones in the ring as it wasn't a knockout. Summer and Keisha set the pace with a lovely double clear, although did run an alternative route which made us laugh! Maisy and Ronny had another great time, Ronny took the first pole and Maisy had a pole and then we totally missed a jump LOL and it was Ruperts turn to go clear, with Zippy taking the wrong end of the tunnel, one day those two will get it together and will be amazing!! just not this weekend. Rupert also ran a brilliant agility just taking the last but one pole, still not quite quick enough, I've spent so much time working on his jumping I now need to re-visit those tight turns, we had just under a second to make up, and we had a clear in the jumping, albeit very messy, I nearly lost him 3 times in my state of panic! but a clear is a clear and I was over the moon with our consistancy.
Summer was again brilliant in the pairs, and had some really lovely moments in her other 2 classes but she still seems a bit off, not sure how to explain it but she just isn't her normal self, so she will do the shows she's booked and then take some time out, perhaps do a bit of obedience for the latter part of the season.
Amy took Maisy into the grade 3 jumping, all I can say is LOL!! for a 9 year old collie she was certainly running rings around the set course, very well done Amy for piloting her around, I can only describe it as a hurricane in a tin can.... if only she had managed a clear I'm sure she would be grade 4 now.
Brucie came for the ride and had a great time playing with his friend Rumble, he is back with Dave Munnings on Friday so hopefully he will see how well he is progressing.
We have a weekend off next weekend and then we are off to Shrewsbury for the show and then a few days holiday, I cannot wait.

Not so sunny Shuttleworth

We arrived on site at about 5:30pm after driving through intermittent torrential downpours!, We found a camping spot and began setting up - the ground was VERY wet as were my spirits.  After setting up and walking the dogs we decided it might be a bit cold for Brucies first night in the awning so ended up with all 3 of them in the caravan! we didin't get much sleep.
Saturday morning came all to quick, we had 3 courses to walk each and I was down to Scrime all day for Lou. It was a bit of a rushed morning and although Rupert was working well, I let him down by either over commanding or rushing where I didn't need to so although we got 4 spectacular E's I was actually quite pleased with some of the work we had done.  Amy and Summer had a difficult day, I only got to see one of her runs and she was just not herself, we put it down to the shooting that was going on not to far away, but no clears for her.
Sunday was a different day, we woke up to sunshine!!! although it was quite blustery there was no rain Woopeeee. Again I had 3 courses to walk! and Amy had 2, they were nice courses with some tricky elements, not too naggy or stupid.  Rupert was listening much better, and we only had 1 pole in the combined 5-7 agility, my fault as I didn't que him well and he had to make his own decision but apart from that I was thrilled, he also only took 1 pole in the jumping class, right near the end just as he came out of the tunnel, again I rushed off when I really didn't need to so I was actually very pleased with him. He actually was placed in the agility class - 15th with 5 faults and a long held dog walk contact! Summer again was not working well - she was choosing to skip around some of the jumps so we thing she is probably under the weather! so this week she is on light work only, and having a lot more Amy time :-) we'll see how she goes next weekend - we gave her a lovely massage last night, which she really enjoyed.
Brucie had a ball, wondering around, meeting up with his sister Luna, playing with his mate Rumble and generally enjoying the fresh air, he does need to learn that you sleep in the caravan when the lights go out not fling your toy around your crate!! I have a feeling he will definitely be in the awning at Shrewsbury.

Bretford Update

So the show went ahead, albeit indoors - I really hate indoor shows but as Amy reminded me it was better than no show.  We decided that we would still take the caravan as we wanted to take Brucie and have a trial run before the main show season gets underway, but it was freezing, not so much at night, as we were well equipped with hot water bottles and our onsies.
So Saturday was a bit of a blur really, Summer was brilliant and ran extremely well gaining 3 nice clear rounds just out of the places, Ruby came for the day and had an amazing jumping round going clear in a faster time than Summer, Amy even said she felt like a "proper" agility dog! bless her labradoodle socks. But Rupert was - Well - a bit predictable, he had 3 okay runs but was very naughty in the final jumping just being lazy and taking most of the poles ending up with me taking him out and back to the car PDQ! so I was dissapointed. Sunday morning came and we had thick ice on our windows - it was a COLD day.  we had a combined 4-7 agility course to walk first thing and were happy with the course set, Rupert was a very good boy and had his listening head on, as the course progressed he wasn't touching any poles and before I knew it he had gone clear, what a clever boy. Jo told me we were in 2nd place at that point so I was very pleased with that, Then Amy took him in the Drontal class and he had another clear round! again very good, and I think he only had 1 pole all day  - at the prize giving for my agility class I was getting ready to collect the 2nd place but to my amazement I had actually won the class and Jo and Amy had told everyone not to tell me!! they are devils! so we had our first grade 6 win :-) Amy also came 4th in her class with him and Summer was again really excellent and got a 2nd in her grade 4 jumping WOW a brilliant day.
We actually took the caravan home on Sunday afternoon meaning we would drive up on Monday, so after a great day yesterday what would today have in store - well as exppected Summer was tired and it did show although she still manages 2 clears, just a bit on the steady side, Rupert had a brilliant agility round just taking 1 pole where I panicked a bit and had another clear in his jumping finishing 3rd. ion the other two rounds I was a bit crap! sorry Rupert... but he was really consistent so I'm a very happy easter bunny.  I think the total weekend tally was Summer 6 clears and a 2nd place and Rupert had a 1st a 3rd and a 4th. Fingers crossed we can keep it up.

March Freeze

25th March and it feels like -6 outside with the ground covered in snow! we have our fingers and paws firmly crossed that the ground clears before the weekend, however I doubt it will and i'm afraid the Bretford will probably have no choice.
We took Brucie and his little friend Islay to their first Dave Munnings course on Friday morning, it was seriously cold (well for me as a spectator) but they were both little stars, and so much fun to watch, they saw lots of new things and both Amy and Sally came away with lots of homework before the next on in a months time.  We spent the rest of the weekend at the training barn, Saturday was our club match, we had entered 3 dogs, Rupert, Summer and Ruby, Both Ruby and Summer did really well, with Ruby gaining a 2nd place in the steeplechase and Summer comming 4th in the agility.  Rupert although was brilliant in most ways was knocking more poles than normal, perhaps the lack of training over the past few weeks has made a difference but I have to admit to being REALLY dissapointed.  Sunday was the Barn show, again Summer and Ruby were really good, just having the odd pole here and there, and again Rupert knocked lots of poles!! but I had taken Maisy who was a star, I had forgotten just how mad she was, and at 9 years old I couldn't ask for more, god that dog can shift.
Lots of fitness training this week for Rupert, we then have a 3 hour session with Dave Munnings on Thursday and then we may or may not be heading for the Easter show.

Blinking Weather

Rupert is all back to normal now after his op, so we are starting back to training this week.  We have a match on Saturday and a little show at the barn on Sunday which Maisy is going to LOL that could be fun! 
Brucie is growing really fast, he's on the floor now, getting into mischief.... but such a lovely young man, Amy has started her local puppy classes, it's the 2nd one tonight, and she has her first foundation class with Dave Munnings on Friday, so there will be lots to talk about after the weekend i'm sure.
We went to the last Bitz and Bobz show of the season yesterday, Amy took Ruby and Summer, both dogs ran quite well, Summer has some blinding moments of brilliance followed by plenty of can't really be bothered moments! which is obviously frustrating for Amy, however we are looking forward to taking her to the outside shows, so long as they don't get cancelled, I just have a gut feeling we may be staying at home for easter if this Blinking weather doesn't buck it's ideas up!! very depressing....

Playdates

Brucie had his second playdate with his new girlfriend Islay, she's a lovely blue merle collie who's just 1 day older so an ideal play pal.  After a lovely play session they almost stood still long enough to get some pictures, here is our favourite one, he just looks so cute.

Rupert had his op on Tuesday and all went well, I keep checking and he doesn't seem to have any infection, however we have an appointment at the vets tonight for a check up and then again next week.  Apart from him being a bit peed off with me on Tuesday evening he seems to have forgiven me now :-) so he's getting a two week holiday from training, means he'll miss out on the next Laura training session, but i'm sure we'll catch up.

Training starting to pay off

Brucie is now 9 weeks old and everyone seems happy about his presence.  Summer and Rupert have decided he is quite a good little playmate, we just have to watch he doesn't get too bedraggled by them.  Above is him (centre) with his litter sister Jess (left) and Luna (right)  taken yesterday at Bitz and Bobz show.  He had a great day out having lots of cuddles and meeting lots of people and puppy friendly dogs.

We have done quite a lot of training recently, trying to concentrate on a more in front style of handling - which I like A LOT. seems to suit our partnership.  Amy had a 3 hour training session with Anthony Clarke on Saturday and I went along to watch, Now Anthony is a 21 year old young man, who quite frankly puts some of his peers to shame!, he is knowledgeable about his subject and gets the message across without patronising you or feeling the need to spend time describing how wonderful he or his dogs are, so well done Anthony, and also Amy and Summer who worked brilliantly all afternoon came away feeling very positive.

Yesterday we had decided to take Summer and Rupert to the Bitz and bobz show, the first agility course wasn't good for me so I decided to train my contacts and Rupert was very good, Summer was great apart from a couple of silly mistakes, in the jumping Summer was spooked by something, it did appear they had moved the horses but whatever it was she didn't like it, still trying for Amy her mind not on the job, however she certainly pulled it out the bag in a tricky 4-7 agility class going clear and coming 4th (clever girl) Rupert had a couple of poles in the jumping and although I gave him mixed messages in his agility he worked fantastically well on the difficult jumping sequence and I came out thrilled with him, he then went on to have a lovely clear in the steeplechase to end in 2nd place, just a couple of late commands by me took the win away, so we came home very happy.
Tomorrow Rupert is being castrated, although I still have mixed emotions about it, it IS the right decision, his temperament just isn't right and there are plenty of stud dogs in the world so I think he will be a  much happier dog in the long run, so he is now on a training holiday, I'm not sure how long for this will be determined by our vet. 

Motivation

There's nothing like a new puppy to get your training head motivated, Brucie is an absolute joy, he sleeps at night plays hard and his little puppy training is just easy peasy, so far he has learnt, sit, down, hand target and the ever useful Wave..... and on top of all that he's as cute as a button. He went to the vets for his first injection yesterday and got the all clear healthwise, the vet mentioned more than once that he had big paws!  she obviously never met Rupert as a puppy..
Ruperts training is still going very well, we were at Chippy again last night and once again he was very good on the course but a right handful waiting for his go, even snapping at an inocent labrador on his way out! not sure what that was all about but he has now been booked in for his castration in just over a week so that might help a bit - we shall see! but he is really listening to me and was executing some difficult parts of the course with apparant ease.  I just let him down on a couple of occasions but me I can work on.

Pupdate

So Brucie arrived with us on Saturday morning at 7 weeks old.  He seemed to know us when we went to collect him and has just settled right in, he has slept well at night and is just so scrummy, some very exciting times ahead.

Rupert had a great training session again on Thursday, I'm really enjoying training at Chippy, everyone is so helpful and I'm really using it to push my boundaries, trying things I might not do normally, and Rupert is stepping up at each request.

Yesterday I judged the jumping at the Barn so was able to run Rupert in the agility and the steeplechase, I'm pleased to say we only had 1 pole in the agility  and although we had a couple more in the steeplechase I had wanted to try to turn rupert away from me before an offside in! probably sounds easy but at the speed he was aproaching the turn it would normally of meant me panicking and him taking the pole, however it was a great success not only did I que in time, he executed a fab tight wing wrap away from me without taking the pole so that was my goal complete. after that I judged 3 jumping classes, my courses seemed to go down well and appart from 1 man getting his little collie caught up in the weaves it was a pleasure to judge.

Later in the week i'll get some brucie pics, he is just the cutest thing i've ever seen.....

highs and lows

Rupert and I have done quite a lot over the past few weeks and I have really begun to feel his silly pole knocking was a thing of the past.  Again at Chippy training on Thursday we only had one pole all night, and that was on a tight turn where I over commanded, I wasn't at my best, making silly mistakes which sent him off in the wrong direction but overall I was looking forward to the Bitz show on Saturday.

Now although I love these indoor series I have not really been a fan of taking Rupert, mainly because of the close proximity of the dogs and lots of novice handlers that walk around with their dogs on long leads not even noticing what the're doing, and the tighness of the rings, however as our training has been going so well I thought I'd do some training in the ring.  His start lines are excellent, he is really calm which gives me the time to concentrate on the course rather than worrying about what he's doing, his contacts were fine, he even had a brilliant first time see saw which I was thrilled about, but poles and my handling was a bit pants!! Unfortunately as sometimes happens one of the judges really hadn't thought about the room she had in her ring and had a fast flowing jumping course with very mismatched distances, not ideal for a dog with pole knocking issues!! so I decided to work on a flick away from one tunnel to the next which I am very pleased to say worked beautifully :-))  Amy gave me a little pep talk before the last class as my handling had been a bitt off (for a few days really) and I still wasn't feeling quite right on the start line of the steeplechase. I can't quite put my finger on why?? but anyway we had a very nice run, I managed to get into the positions I had wanted and we only had 1 pole which I knew he would as he was approaching it, I was in the wrong place and spoke to him as he was taking off! so he didn't really have a choice. But we came away with lots of posotives.

Just a little rant!  In obedience you cannot take your judges exam untill you are in Novice (same as grade 3) why is this not the same in agility, just as an example - if you run only small dogs and you are in  grade 1 how can you judge a higher grade in large? yes the judging system is the same (a fault is a fault) but where does your course design experience come from? 

On a lighter note LOL  yesterday we had RAIN and lots of it, I stood in it for 3 hours and spent a lovely hour just me and Rupert, I back trained his dogwalk again, we looked at forward focus and we had a game with the target stick, what a happy dog I have to be so focussed in the freezing rain, he then rewarded me by rolling in somthing unmentionable!  one very smelly happy dog.

We are now on countdown till little Brucie comes home, Amy will be collecting him on Saturday morning while i'm training and then I hve puppysitting duties that evening so I can have him all to myself!..

Laura Chudleigh Training

So last night I took Rupert to my first training session with Laura Chudleigh at the dog training barn in Middleton Cheney.  There were 6 of us for an hour session which started at 9:15pm!  Firstly we waited outside for 20 minutes (not Laura's fault) but by the time we got in I for one was absolutley freezing cold, luckily Rupert has a nice big coat to keep him warm.  We started with a simple warm up sequence where Laura pointed out Rupert was releasing from my body movement! to be honest this is my fault for being lazy as he has a good solid wait and when given the correct signals from me will wait for any distance confidently, so it just goes to show the things we take for granted, we have been given some homework to practice which should help with improving the understanding.  We then looked at contacts, I've been fiddling with Ruperts trying to get a running, but he just won't release and I think I've confused him somewhat, so I'm going back to 2o2o and will back train it again from the floor to try ang get back some more speed, however I really like the running method and think its going to be the only way to get a win in grade 6/7 but thats a different story... and then we did some front crosses, which seemed to go well - so all in all I think I got plenty to take away and work on till the next session in 3 weeks time, only problem was it took me all night to get warm again!!
Im back at Chippy training tonight and then at the Bitz and Bobz show on Saturday then its only a week till Amy collect Brucie, we had a visit on Monday evening and he is turning into a really cheeky monkey! The whole litter is gorgeous and I wouldnt be dissapointed with any of them, really happy healthy confident puppies, for a first time granny Lou and her family have done a brilliant job.

Training

This winter has been a bit difficult on the training front, we've only managed to get to Jo's twice due to weather and other commitments so I decided to get back into the indoor training with Chippy Club.  Unfortunately due to the location of their school we have had to miss two weeks so I wasn't sure how Rupert would be, his first week although he ran brilliantly he was so hyped up waiting his turn it means I can only concentrate on him and nothing else, but last night was different, he was still hyper but no where near as bad and again he ran really nicely, we negotiated some tricky courses with apparent ease and had some lovely comments from our trainer Sarah.

Tomorrow I have a mamouth training session at our paddock with 2 classes and 3    1;1's  so I'll try to get Rupes out for a few minutes here and there, or we might just settle for a nice run accross the fields later on.

Amy and I are off to see Brucie again on Sunday, he'll be 5 weeks old so a lovely age to play and engage with.

Blogging

It seems that over the past 6 months or so I have neglected the blog! i'm not sure why but I'm going to do my best to get back into it.
We had had a nice relaxing break over Christmas and New Year, I have started my new job and am looking forward to the season ahead.  Amy has some exciting news of her own, she will be getting a puppy on 17th February, funnily enough it was born on Ruperts birthday so we're taking that as a good omen....
We have for a while been looking out for a puppy for Amy, her lifestyle will probably be changing over the next few years, she hopes to move out and take Summer and the new pup with her so she wants a dog to compliment Summer rather than be a finely tuned athelete (that will be a bonus) so we went in search of a lovely dog and we more than found that in Bo (Gunran Chasing Rainbows) Funnily enough we have known her mum Lou for quite a few years and it wasnt till we heard she was having a litter that we both thought what a nice dog she was. Luckily it didn't take much persuasion for Steve to come round and after visiting the litter Amy chose Brucie who's KC name will be Follyfleet Moonshine. I have to say a huge thank you to Lou and her family, they have been so accomodating and understanding of our needs and we really can't wait to go on this journey with them, Lou is keeping the red girl from the litter so it's going to be great fun times ahead.

Rupert has had a few weeks off training and competitions due mainly to the heavy snow and then the horrid wind and rain, but we are back at training again tomorrow night so i'll be able to gague how the time off has affected him - or not!  I have also enrolled on a training evening with Laura Chudleigh,  it starts next week and is then every 3 weeks.  At the end of each session you get homework so i'm hoping to get my teeth into that over the next month or so.

Amy has already enrolled Brucie in puppy training with Dave Munniungs once a month and will be taking him to weekly puppy classes with Laura Wylie in Daventry so i'm sure there will be plenty of puppy news to fill this blog over the coming months