Monday 31 May 2010
Wednesday 12 May 2010
Funny little shelties
I am so glad that we have two shelties. Even though they get on with our other dogs brilliantly they do love to play together. Because they are the same size they can have a good game without our worrying that they will hurt each other. When they play with the collies we are always a bit anxious that they'll get injured somehow.
Kizzy likes to tug on her lead on the way back to the car and sometimes I get bored of that so today I handed over her lead to Zeki and they had a great game with Zeki hanging on to the lead.
Kizzy likes to tug on her lead on the way back to the car and sometimes I get bored of that so today I handed over her lead to Zeki and they had a great game with Zeki hanging on to the lead.
Tunbridge Wells
Just a very quick update on Tunbridge Wells show as I haven't got any photos or videos. This is because Andy stayed home. His leg didn't heal properly due to the surgeon not stitching it properly and hence he ended up back in hospital as it was opening up and becoming infected. I am happy to say that it is now on the mend.
It was good to see old friends Jackie and Terry for their first camping trip of the year. That said I'm actually quite glad we chose not to camp as it was so cold. I didn't run my dogs at all well. Niamh did go clear in the KC qualifier but once again it was a very quick course with little handling and we ended up in 24th place. Just 19 places out of qualifying LOL!
I ran Zeki very badly and once again had a bad A-Frame. I did stop her and tell her that she was a bad wicked evil sheltie but then I failed to put her back over the A-Frame as I get too embarrassed asking the judge if I can do this. Oh dear I must get myself together on how I am going to deal with this properly in the ring.
I didn't walk one of her courses and the judge kindly held the class for me as I hadn't even realised it was up and running let alone about to close. We had a reasonable attempt at the course with a bit of a scary moment where I forgot to cue a turn and so Zeki went one way and me the other. By a miracle we ended up in sort of the right place and got 5th in the class.
I have to report that NN has had her first ever Agility ASBO. Her startlines have been deteriorating as I haven't trained them enough. Instead of sitting nicely her chin is almost on the floor and she has started quivering and shaking. All good because it means that she is keen but the downside is that I kind of knew she would break at some point. Being Niamh she did this in style and came thundering across the dog walk past me. I was rather shocked. Annoyingly she did a really wonderful dog walk but I did give her a little bit of "feedback" shall we call it as she ran past me so she kind of knew I wasn't best pleased! I took her out and asked the judge if I could reset her which he agreed to. I put her back on the startline and walked out to the dog walk again, this time she didn't budge so I released her back to find her toy in the bucket so she got a reward for not breaking. What a nice judge, thank you Roger Griffin! I did have to take a bit of stick from a couple of people for 'punishing' a beautiful dog walk. I agree with them; it was a tough choice but I can't stand to lose my startline.
So what with that and Zeki's A-Frame both my girls are on Agility ASBO's. Lucky I have a sense of humour and love them both so much :o)
It was good to see old friends Jackie and Terry for their first camping trip of the year. That said I'm actually quite glad we chose not to camp as it was so cold. I didn't run my dogs at all well. Niamh did go clear in the KC qualifier but once again it was a very quick course with little handling and we ended up in 24th place. Just 19 places out of qualifying LOL!
I ran Zeki very badly and once again had a bad A-Frame. I did stop her and tell her that she was a bad wicked evil sheltie but then I failed to put her back over the A-Frame as I get too embarrassed asking the judge if I can do this. Oh dear I must get myself together on how I am going to deal with this properly in the ring.
I didn't walk one of her courses and the judge kindly held the class for me as I hadn't even realised it was up and running let alone about to close. We had a reasonable attempt at the course with a bit of a scary moment where I forgot to cue a turn and so Zeki went one way and me the other. By a miracle we ended up in sort of the right place and got 5th in the class.
I have to report that NN has had her first ever Agility ASBO. Her startlines have been deteriorating as I haven't trained them enough. Instead of sitting nicely her chin is almost on the floor and she has started quivering and shaking. All good because it means that she is keen but the downside is that I kind of knew she would break at some point. Being Niamh she did this in style and came thundering across the dog walk past me. I was rather shocked. Annoyingly she did a really wonderful dog walk but I did give her a little bit of "feedback" shall we call it as she ran past me so she kind of knew I wasn't best pleased! I took her out and asked the judge if I could reset her which he agreed to. I put her back on the startline and walked out to the dog walk again, this time she didn't budge so I released her back to find her toy in the bucket so she got a reward for not breaking. What a nice judge, thank you Roger Griffin! I did have to take a bit of stick from a couple of people for 'punishing' a beautiful dog walk. I agree with them; it was a tough choice but I can't stand to lose my startline.
So what with that and Zeki's A-Frame both my girls are on Agility ASBO's. Lucky I have a sense of humour and love them both so much :o)
Dordale & Vyne
I've fallen behind with the blog. We are so busy at the moment that I don't really know whether I'm coming or going! The studio is really coming along, Andy's exams are approaching, work is busy and of course the agility season is now in full swing. We also have Boot Camp upon us this weekend and that involves a huge amount of work before let alone during the event.
So here is a rather quick (for me) update from Dordale and Vyne. We were very lucky with the weather at Dordale as it rained hard both Friday and Saturday night but the days were dry. Saturday was pleasant and we were able to sit outside the caravan albeit in our coats! Sunday was much colder but still dry.
Resting in my favourite bed
Back with my special person, I don't want to run with HER anymore!
Andy was unable to run Kizzy as he had a small operation on his leg and still had stitches in. It wasn't a very good exercise as Kizzy really didn't want to run with me and would only go at half speed. Not something I think I will repeat! Zeki was great and got 2nd place in a 4-7 agility sandwiched between two border collies. I was very proud of her as this is probably her best result to date. It was a good course and not just straight lines. Most of our other courses for the weekend were pretty simple and so we didn't really have much chance against the grade 7 dogs. Most of our classes were combined 4-7 at Dordale. That said Zeki was fantastic and on a couple of very fast courses (jumping and agility) she came in between 3-4 seconds behind the border collies. I know the margin is huge in terms of agility times these days but in the medium world where other breeds struggle against the small border collies I find this very encouraging. The nice thing for me was that she maintained this margin in the jumping class which Tasha and Dizzy won. It's not always realistic in the agility classes if people work their contacts but the same can't be said for jumping rounds!
Naughty Niamh was great and did some lovely rounds, a few mistakes here and there but some good places also. On Sunday we ran a tricky G7 jumping course with tunnel/weave discrimination and a very tricky weave entry. She ran the course really well and I was thrilled to find out that we won the class. This is her first G7 win and I was so pleased with the NN! Typical that we didn't get that round on video.
Andy had a relaxing weekend helping on the rings and just chilling. Dordale is good in that everyone who camps has to do 1 hour's help per day. Andy did my stints as I was running three dogs. He got lucky on the Sunday; when he went to report to the ring in the afternoon for my slot, the ring had finished and in fact was no longer there!
Then it was off to Newbury to overnight ready for Vyne on Monday. What a difference in the weather. It was so cold when we got there. We just put the legs of the caravan down without putting up any windbreaks so we didn't have too much clearing up to do the following day. We took the dogs for a nice walk and then settled in for the evening to get out of the freezing wind. Bernadette and Itzy came for supper and we had a good catch up. The dogs were all very cosy tucked up with us in the caravan. They are so good that it's hard to believe we had three people and seven dogs all inside one small space!
Vyne itself was a bit of a mixture for me. Niamh did two lovely runs in the champ class but unfortunately knocked a pole in the jumping round so that meant we didn't get to the final. I loved Amanda's courses and would love to have been in the final. Never mind, onwards and upwards. I completely blew out on her KC run because I just hadn't walked the course properly. It was walking at the same time as the champ jumping and having gone clear in the agility I wanted to focus on that. When I got on the line I just couldn't remember how to handle the course. Oh well, never mind we wouldn't have been quick enough anyway as it was a pretty fast course. At the end of the class there was a horrible incident with a stupid person driving too fast. I will write about that in another posting.
Niamh in the champ jumping at Vyne.
I love this photo that Graeme MacGregor took. Her little face is so serious as she concentrates on her job. I do love her!
At this point I would like to say well done to Karen and Todd for gaining the RCC in the medium championship class. Was a helluva run!
On to Zeki. Well we didn't have a very good day at all. Again I think this was mainly down to my concentrating on the champ class. I am finding it quite hard being back in champ classes. Hopefully I will settle down and be able to concentrate on other things the more that I do. I am not looking forward to Nottingham as this will be Zeki's first chance to move up to G6 so I will be nervous about her runs plus Niamh has a champ class. I keep reminding myself this is supposed to be FUN!
Zeki's A-Frame started to deteriorate at Dordale (as you will see in one of her little videos.) This pattern continued at Vyne and sadly to say also at Tunbridge Wells. I think she has only actually missed one A-Frame which is the one in the film from Dordale but she is taking a leap rather than coming down that extra stride. Homework definitely required.
Our three rounds at Vyne were pretty awful compared with what he had been achieving. I was going to scrap the videos but then when I watched them it actually made me feel better because there were lots of positives, the main one being how much speed she is picking up. I think bad rounds often feel worse at the time than when you look back. So, I have been brave and put them on the blog so that I can take out the good bits! We had our first competitive weave failures as well as our not so good A-Frames. Looking at the videos I do think some of these little issues are connected with her getting faster so hopefully nothing insurmountable!
Oh boy were we tired when we got home and it's only the start of the season!
So here is a rather quick (for me) update from Dordale and Vyne. We were very lucky with the weather at Dordale as it rained hard both Friday and Saturday night but the days were dry. Saturday was pleasant and we were able to sit outside the caravan albeit in our coats! Sunday was much colder but still dry.
Resting in my favourite bed
Back with my special person, I don't want to run with HER anymore!
I can't resist taking pictures of Zeki in her little bed. She looks so cute. I am so glad I bought it for her as she really does love it.
Andy was unable to run Kizzy as he had a small operation on his leg and still had stitches in. It wasn't a very good exercise as Kizzy really didn't want to run with me and would only go at half speed. Not something I think I will repeat! Zeki was great and got 2nd place in a 4-7 agility sandwiched between two border collies. I was very proud of her as this is probably her best result to date. It was a good course and not just straight lines. Most of our other courses for the weekend were pretty simple and so we didn't really have much chance against the grade 7 dogs. Most of our classes were combined 4-7 at Dordale. That said Zeki was fantastic and on a couple of very fast courses (jumping and agility) she came in between 3-4 seconds behind the border collies. I know the margin is huge in terms of agility times these days but in the medium world where other breeds struggle against the small border collies I find this very encouraging. The nice thing for me was that she maintained this margin in the jumping class which Tasha and Dizzy won. It's not always realistic in the agility classes if people work their contacts but the same can't be said for jumping rounds!
Naughty Niamh was great and did some lovely rounds, a few mistakes here and there but some good places also. On Sunday we ran a tricky G7 jumping course with tunnel/weave discrimination and a very tricky weave entry. She ran the course really well and I was thrilled to find out that we won the class. This is her first G7 win and I was so pleased with the NN! Typical that we didn't get that round on video.
Andy had a relaxing weekend helping on the rings and just chilling. Dordale is good in that everyone who camps has to do 1 hour's help per day. Andy did my stints as I was running three dogs. He got lucky on the Sunday; when he went to report to the ring in the afternoon for my slot, the ring had finished and in fact was no longer there!
Then it was off to Newbury to overnight ready for Vyne on Monday. What a difference in the weather. It was so cold when we got there. We just put the legs of the caravan down without putting up any windbreaks so we didn't have too much clearing up to do the following day. We took the dogs for a nice walk and then settled in for the evening to get out of the freezing wind. Bernadette and Itzy came for supper and we had a good catch up. The dogs were all very cosy tucked up with us in the caravan. They are so good that it's hard to believe we had three people and seven dogs all inside one small space!
Vyne itself was a bit of a mixture for me. Niamh did two lovely runs in the champ class but unfortunately knocked a pole in the jumping round so that meant we didn't get to the final. I loved Amanda's courses and would love to have been in the final. Never mind, onwards and upwards. I completely blew out on her KC run because I just hadn't walked the course properly. It was walking at the same time as the champ jumping and having gone clear in the agility I wanted to focus on that. When I got on the line I just couldn't remember how to handle the course. Oh well, never mind we wouldn't have been quick enough anyway as it was a pretty fast course. At the end of the class there was a horrible incident with a stupid person driving too fast. I will write about that in another posting.
Niamh in the champ jumping at Vyne. I love this photo that Graeme MacGregor took. Her little face is so serious as she concentrates on her job. I do love her!
At this point I would like to say well done to Karen and Todd for gaining the RCC in the medium championship class. Was a helluva run!
On to Zeki. Well we didn't have a very good day at all. Again I think this was mainly down to my concentrating on the champ class. I am finding it quite hard being back in champ classes. Hopefully I will settle down and be able to concentrate on other things the more that I do. I am not looking forward to Nottingham as this will be Zeki's first chance to move up to G6 so I will be nervous about her runs plus Niamh has a champ class. I keep reminding myself this is supposed to be FUN!
Zeki's A-Frame started to deteriorate at Dordale (as you will see in one of her little videos.) This pattern continued at Vyne and sadly to say also at Tunbridge Wells. I think she has only actually missed one A-Frame which is the one in the film from Dordale but she is taking a leap rather than coming down that extra stride. Homework definitely required.
Our three rounds at Vyne were pretty awful compared with what he had been achieving. I was going to scrap the videos but then when I watched them it actually made me feel better because there were lots of positives, the main one being how much speed she is picking up. I think bad rounds often feel worse at the time than when you look back. So, I have been brave and put them on the blog so that I can take out the good bits! We had our first competitive weave failures as well as our not so good A-Frames. Looking at the videos I do think some of these little issues are connected with her getting faster so hopefully nothing insurmountable!
Oh boy were we tired when we got home and it's only the start of the season!
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