Bluebells!

The obligatory annual bluebell shots ;)

ASBO

Anyone who knows Ember will know her nickname is ASBO as she barks A LOT!

For agility I started with a bog standard collar and lead, then found it took me ages to find the D ring to clip her lead back on due to all her coat! We moved to a slip lead but I ended up managing to choke her half the time, or rather she did when she wanted to go somewhere suddenly! Then I got a fleece dog games harness which was great but a bit of a faff. I had noticed loads of agility shelties wearing a certain sort of harness and always wondered why they were so popular and then I saw them at Crufts and realised how easy they were to take off and on - just one big clip and slipped over their head - dead easy. I didn't want to go with the bog standard princess/diva/agility on her tag so I saw a link to a great site that does personalised tags from Bernadette's blog:

http://www.dogstoppers.co.uk/

So here she is in her harness and new personalised tag :) Thanks Bernadette (for sharing) and Michael (for making).

Agility Addicts

I was judging in the afternoon, so the dogs only had runs in the morning. Started off with rain but the afternoon was lovely, here are the dogs looking a bit windswept - Broseley is a lovely venue but quite high up so it is windy up there!

Rum started with Open Jumping and in both rounds missed his weave entry. Rum and I are struggling at the moment as he is getting stressed out of his mind when he trains in a group but when I go for a private lesson he completely switches off. So we are struggling at the moment as are only training at home and the garden isn't that big. Though he had a lovely round in Open Connector and came 2nd (to Cas).

Cas had a pole in both Open Jumpings, the first time was when I fell over!!! The second time was me rushing her. Then she had a lovely round in Open Connector and won.

Ember also missed the weave entry the first time in Open Jumping but the second time had a fab run but just pulled round the back of a jump as I was so far behind! She tested my Open Agility course and her contacts were lovely, her waits have been good today also :) Sarah Childs ran her in my Open Connector and had a lovely run but Emz knocked a pole then started running over to someone watching as she thought it might have been me even when I was standing right behind her - god her eyesight is bad! Lol. Emz runs really well for Sarah as she can run very fast :) not like short arse me ;)

Sugar Plum Fairy

Thank you Rivergate who took some fab photos of us Saturday :)

http://www.rivergate.org.uk/

Westglen HTM

Rum hasn’t done much HTM, we competed in 2007 and he had enough points to move into Novice but towards the end of the year he was frightened by some speakers that fed back really loudly and he was right underneath them! The following show I could hardly get him in the building let alone the ring, so we worked for several months on positive association with HTM let alone the ring. I did a really simple routine last September and he was brilliant so I thought I would teach him some more heel positions and enter him in another show.

Well he was brilliant, he was freaking out a little before we went in as the dog before had been barking & barking dogs are scary! I thought we might end up training and my mum was poised with a tuggy! But now he was fab, the first half of the routine he worked amazingly and the second half we had a couple of moments where he looked a round a bit to make sure everything was okay, I was disappointed with his finish as I just didn’t steady him before he came through my legs – disappointed in myself not him. Otherwise though I couldn’t have been more pleased with him as he was happy and really accurate to start, I just need to do more with him now so he gets used to the environment.

UKA Agility - Sun

Rum was really difficult today, he was really stressing in the queue yet yesterday and Friday he was really chilled. The only thing I can think is on the 3rd day of competition the adrenaline levels have just got too high for him to cope. We had a messy clear in Novice Jumping, ending in 5th place. I trained his agility and the steeplechase classes he just wasn’t committing to things and pulling off really easily. So I am really a bit down about him again, he has found it really hard to cope today, thankfully my mum did a lot of queuing for me.

Cas was a little star, clear in Senior Steeplechase with a messy moment and she won, I was really pleased as she did a flick round to the tunnel near the end and this is something I have never really taught her. She demolished the first pole in Novice Jumping which was my fault as I didn’t steady her. In her second steeplechase she just had a pole down as I called her too early. In the final steeplechase she had another nice clear, don’t know if she got anything as there were other nice fast clears.

Finally Ember, started with Novice Jumping and she put in an amazing round, I was sooo chuffed with her – crossed behind weaves, flick away to last jump, pull through and flick round and send ons – she has come on so much, she won the class. In her first steeplechase we made a mess of the start and tunnel entry but did some lovely send ons. I trained her agility as I expected her to push her contacts after yesterday and she did! In her second steeplechase she was fab, lovely send ons but dropped a pole. In the last steeplechase she dropped a pole and started to fight me so I took her out as I don’t want that starting again! She has been dropping more poles than usual this weekend so I think I will have to do some more jumping exercises.

I had entered tomorrow but I won’t be going as it is too much for Rum and Cas only has one or two classes and my back isn’t great so I’m going to give it a miss.

TAG Agility - Sat

Rum had team first and put in a lovely clear, it was fantastic to watch him power round a big course. Then in his first agility he flew his dogwalk so I put him back on it but the rest was lovely, in his other agility he ran his A-frame so I put him back on.

Cas had veteran jumping again and ran well with just a pole down.

Ember ran team first and was the only one to be faulted with a pole down, we would have been 4th. Then had C6-7 Agility and took a pole out early on so I reinforced her contacts. Followed by C6-7 Jumping and she ran it well as it was a difficult course she had the 4th to last jump down as just got her take off completely wrong. Lastly G6-7 Agility and we got a nice wait and I thought being the last day of KC competition I would push her contacts, it paid off as we won! 1 down 3 to go! I looked at her times for the two C6-7 Jumpings where she just had poles down and she would have been 2nd in both. She is working really well at the moment, just knocking a few poles which is down to me trying to tighten her up!

TAG Agility - Fri

Rum ran 3-5 Agility first and he broke is wait so I put him back instantly eliminating us. He then flew his see-saw so I put him back on and ensured he got his A-frame and Dogwalk - he is still not back to his old self where contacts are concerned, at least he is going into position now even if her is self releasing. Then 4-5 Agility, he was going lovely so I made sure we had an E as we were well on our way to an E, shame but I don't want to risk moving up while his contacts aren't rock solid. He did a lovely recall through the weaves and some lovely send ons but was nice and tight on his turns.

Cas just had Veteran Jumping. She has been retired from agility classes for a while and at this show she would have only had one combined 6-7 run so I thought she may as well enter veterans, would rather do that as I don't want to push her too much in her golden years :) Anyway she had a fab run and really enjoyed a blast only to win it, which I was surprised about as there were some fast dogs in the class.

Ember started with C6-7 Agility and I knew looking at the course there was NO WAY we could get the weave entry so we just went in to train contacts and she did all three lovely! Then G6-7 Agility and her contacts and weaves were fab but she turned the opposite way I expected her to which put me out of position for the next bit and she got E'd going into the tunnel grrr! Finally C6-7 Jumping and she was AMAZING, tight turns, lovely go ons, but she had a pole down, another grrr!

Dogs have worked really well especially Emz, just been little mistakes.

Wye Valley

Just Ember at Wye, it was really nice to concentrate on one dog. I took the car and couldn't be bothered to tidy out the boot so she was clipped onto the front seat in her harness. She was really happy apart from when I started singing and dancing and she thought I had gone mad - she can talk though!

Anyways our first one was a quite straight forward Graded 6-7 Jumping, Ember went clear and I was really pleased I managed to cross behind her weaves, followed by a flick flack and two pull throughs which weren't the tightest turns she has ever done and we had a bit of a twizzle before the last jump as I was on the wrong side, we finished 3rd. Then Combined 1-7 Circular and she had a mega wide turn so I tried to tighten her for the second turn only to pull her through, shame as the rest was fast and tight. Then Graded 6-7 Agility, she did fab wrong end of tunnel, pull through and flick round, onto dogwalk, lovely contact, really tricky weave entry she found herself! Then she had a pole down so I trained her contacts for the rest of the round. She has worked so nicely today I am really pleased with her.

Cancer

On 17th June I will be taking part in Cancer Research's Race For Life. I am taking part as part of a group from work.

Cancer has touched most of us during our lives. For me, my two grandads, one grandma and great uncle have died from cancer. My uncle has also survived cancer. It is therefore a cause very close to my heart and I feel I am going to help make a difference by running the Race For Life. I would be extremely grateful if you could spare a couple of minutes of your time to sponsor me. All monies go direct to charity, click below to take you to my sponsorship page - GHOS.

Those special people who can touch our lives,

Are like precious jewels amongst life's treasures.

They shine on us and leave a lasting impression;

An unique mark on our heart;

A gift without measures.

Many thanks :)