Returning to Agility!

So I decided to enter a few agility shows with the ginger ones, really to get myself prepared better for when Sweep comes out as my handling is a tad rusty (understatement of the century!).  I entered Rum as well as Ember hoping that the weather would be cool as I will struggle to run him if it is hot as it does bring on his collie collapse quickly, though UKA shows may be a possibility as there is not normally much of a queue and the environment is less stressful – we shall see.

So Shrewsbury came round and the weather was overcast and a bit wet – hoorah!  I love my Rum dog and was excited about running him, having not run him at a show for probably 3 years.  First class was grade 6 agility and he had a fab run, just knocked a pole simply because he isn’t as jump fit as he could be – he was so good and listened all the way round, he actually came 5^th, would have been 3^rd without the pole.  His other classes we had silly mistakes in but he was amazing, he is sooo good, it is so nice to have a dog that listens!  Ember had a clear in a really easy grade 6 course so was out of the placings, she is going a little deaf so I really have to baby her everywhere now.  She is still fit as a fiddle though, but a little slower in her older years!

Hatton agility show and overcast again.  Rum was a star and had a lovely run round grade 6 agility but I messed a turn up (rusty handling!) and we lost a lot of time, think he ended up 4^th but they only placed to 3^rd.  He had a pole in another run and I completely lost it in the last run as he stepped up a gear and I couldn’t catch him lol!  Ember had one of her Ember days and went off when I didn’t want her to and didn’t go on when I wanted her to! 

We haven’t entered any KC now, only a UKA in June to get Sweep measured as I am pretty sure he is standard, so it would be nice to start him in some standard steeplechase classes later in the year.  I really feel like I don’t know what I am doing in the ring at the moment, am so rusty so I need to sort myself out!

Dave Munnings Training

Doesn't seem that long since our last session, our March session has been postponed to April too so it's going to be a long time before our next one!

Sweep seemed to be flying today, he felt awesome, he did at one point forget how to do a wing wrap with a ketschker though but I think he was just trying to take the easy option!  A few little reminders and he was back doing them - little monkey.  You do forget they are only puppies and sometimes they get a bit bored of doing something or take a bit of  step back, so you do have to take them back a step.  Cas had not even started agility at his age and still turned out to be a good dog, am not going to rush him but it is good to do all these training days so I know what I need to be doing.  Dave is great as he still keeps things really good fun for the pups.  

I need to find something to do with him in March now - April is too far off!

Toni Dawkins at Deena's New Venue

A space came up in the foundation class with Toni Dawkins at Deena's new indoor training venue.  The venue isn't far off the M1 in Daventry.  For me it was a bit far as I seemed to sit in traffic all the way down the M1 and most of the way down the M6. It would be fine on a Saturday or Sunday but during the week it was horrendous so unfortunately I won't make the journey again.  However the venue itself is great as it is so nice to have a heated, clean venue and not worry about the dogs getting sand in the car etc.  There was also lots of room to take crates in and you could make yourself a hot drink and have some cake or biscuits :)

Training was great although Sweep slipped a lot on the astroturf.  We were only doing the basics like wing wraps and tunnels so didn't do anything involving a lot of flat out speed.  Sweep was great and listened to everything I told him to do, have to work on my arms and handling!  Learnt a lot :)

Flyball!

So I thought we should try a bit of flyball, just to see how he is in an even more hyped up enviroment and seeing as he comes from a flyball family! 

He loved it, he flew down the line of jumps to his tuggy getting faster and faster the more he did.  We had a go at the box and only needed to be shown what to do once so we were allowed to progress to picking up the ball.  Again he did it perfectly, grabbed his ball, brought it over a jump and latched on to his tuggy.

Would love to do some more with him, just need a club a bit closer as we went to Shrewsbury for the taster.  It's a bit of a distance to do regularly.

Dave Munnings Training

We popped down to The Dog Barn this morning for some training with Dave again - I hadn't realised it was a Monday morning this time so had to get up super early to get there in time.  Took me a lot longer than in normal traffic.  Worth it though, we had great fun and I saw a real improvement in Sweep - so did Dave.  His drive and 'go' was a lot better than last time, we have been working on it away from agility.  I do now need to work on drive to just one jump and do a bit more.