Dig It Dogs

I decided to do the Dig it Dogs UKA on Saturday despite having entered Beacon, I wanted to be able to do some ring training.

The dogs were on fire, Ember had a win in Novice P&S & a win in Senior Steeplechase.  I am not talking to her on her contacts and she got them all in her agility and all in P&S – something of a first!  The Novice courses were the same as beginner so I must admit we struggled as she doesn’t do go ons down long lines of jumps lol!  Such a shame in her other senior steeplechase she just knocked a pole as I front crossed to early.

Rum was absolutely flying, I trained his Senior Agility and competed in Senior P&S which he won.  His contacts were soooo fast they were awesome, he was on non-rubber though so he did have a bit of a skid on the dog walk.  He also won Senior Jumping.  Unfortunately we didn’t do very well in either Steeplechase classes as I had to run and get him having just run Ember, so we didn’t have chance to settle by the ring, I ended up taking him out of the second steeplechase as he had just wound himself up too much.

Cas stayed at home but here's a lovely pic of her I took on my phone, she's much better than a pot of gold!!

Pedigree JointCare+ Day 1

Dizzy was selected by Pedigree to take part in their JointCare+ trial.  I am looking forward to trialing it as Dizzy does suffer with quite a lot of stiffness in her hips and shoulders.  Today was day 1 and she happily munched her chew.

TAG Show

We entered two days of TAG show and I think we chose the best two days weather wise - Friday and Sunday.


Rum - he was a very good boy and we made silly mistakes all through our classes!  Mark came with me so he queued for me so I could keep him calm.  His contacts we spot on and I pushed them and was working them from a distance.  His waits went a little bit in the last class on Friday but I got them back on Sunday.  The one jumping class on Sunday was really tricky and we did it all lovely apart from him knocking poles which is not like him and I think it was just due to the small spacings as all his other classes had used up all of the ring and he was really having to extend.  I was a bit disappointed we didn't have a clear, we were so close to one on several occasions, however it was nothing he did and I was pleased with how he worked.


Ember - She had a clear coming 5th in Speed and Power.  Her contacts otherwise on the Friday were horrendous and the one agility class she made it look like we had never done agility before!  However when I looked back on her one agility class I realised that I don't think she actually understands her contact position.  Stop should mean her position at the end of the contact.  With Rum he knows that stop is 2on 2off and a nose dip, I will tell him wait if I want to hold the contact.  Ember I never trained the wait just the stop.  Looking at her on Friday I thought she looked like she understood 'stop' to mean wait where she was then leave the contact from there.  On Sunday I thought that I would try not saying anything to her on the contacts, low and behold she got them pretty solidly!  I couldn't believe it, unfortunately I had also stopped giving her a command to walk on so she had a refusal lol!  


Cas had fivefaultitis in her veteran and anysize on Friday.  On Sunday she had a pole again in anysize and a clear in veterans.


A few of the classes had 90 degree angle weave entries which Ember has never been able to do and Rum I had to take him into it, so that's something we need to work on.  With Ember's contacts as soon as I say anything to her on the contact sbe stops where she is so I am just going to try and train without saying anything and just giving a 'go' as a release.

Baughton Show

I decided to enter Baughton show so I could train the agility class with Ember and Rum.  Although I said I wouldn't enter indoor shows  with Rum I had done this one in the past and knew that you entered the rings at the entrance to the school so there was no queuing inside nor fighting past other very wound up dogs in a confined area.  It turned out to be a boiling hot day so it's a shame it wasn't an outdoor show, but then weather like this is a bit unheard of in March!!


Cas was entered in anysize on medium so she was clear round only, she had a fab round in the 5-7 jumping but had a bit of a loopy moment in steeplechase - merle brain was taking over a bit.  But she had a fab time and was so happy to be doing agility :)


Ember had a lovely clear in 5-7 Jumping and results were combined with all sizes, she came 6th.  In agility she sort of lost me after the tunnel but we were training anyway so I put her back over the A-frame, although she did get her contact she jumped off too early.  Then she had a fab round in Steeplechase and came 2nd.  Was really pleased with her as she really listened to me.


Rum I was really pleased with, the jumping class is quite a tight course at Baughton so he did struggle shortening his stride as you can tell by his jumping style!  But otherwise he worked really well, I tried to tighten a right turn in jumping and he pulled off a jump as I directed him too early - with the bitches I am directing them before they take a jump but with Rum he doesn't commit as early and will normally turn as soon as I tell him and I forgot this!  In agility I took his toy in just to make him realise he doesn't have to worry too much about his contacts so I was really pleased he was a bit speedier especially on his dogwalk.  In the steeplechase he took the tunnel when he shouldn't have which was just down to where he landed it was the obvious option and I didn't really expect it so wasn't calling him.  


So otherwise a good day and I was pleased with how they worked, Rum stayed calm especially when he went wrong I just did not make an issue of it and carried on like it didn't happen otherwise this again worries him if I make too much of an issue of it.  

Lungworm

Well to cut a long story short and thanks to Julie Adams it seemed Rum had lungworm, we treated him before we went on holiday and a blood test last week showed his blood is back to normal.  So again everything happens for a reason, if they hadn't fought then we might not have found out until they were all seriously ill!


The wedding and holiday was absolutely amazing, we've both been back at work for a week so it's back to reality and am off to Crufts tomorrow to watch Lee Gibson in the champ class - good luck Lee!  Rum hasn't done any agility for a while so we're hopefully training next Saturday as  we then have a unaf. show the weekend after - having watched Crufts online and raring to start the season!!


Here are some pics from St Lucia:

Rum

My poor lad has been in the wars. He and Missy (my fiance’s shepherd) had a fight on Sunday. Rum seemed fine and his wounds looked okay but Monday evening the one wound on his chest had formed what we thought was an abscess.


Tuesday – a visit to the vet who said the abscess needed lancing and his foot x-rayed as it felt like he had splintered a bone.


Wednesday – he went in for the op. The vet tried to lance the abscess and found it wasn’t an abscess but a tumour, he also found a lot of bruising on Rum and said that his blood isn’t clotting properly so he needed to do a chest x-ray to make sure he had no internal bleeding which thankfully was clear. He couldn’t remove or take a biopsy of the lump as he would have bled to death! So he took a blood sample to look at platelet levels etc. He didn’t do an x-ray of his foot as he says if it was properly broken he wouldn’t be able to bend it and it is probably splintered which they can’t do much for anyway.


Thursday – the results of the blood test. I knew it was bad news when the receptionist needed the vet to speak to me. His red & white cells and haemoglobin are low and he has said this hopefully is the result of him losing blood from the fight as his blood wasn’t clotting. He is also very anaemic so is on strict rest as there is a risk he could faint. As expected his platelets are low which is what is causing his blood not to clot properly.


So next week he goes for another blood test to make sure his cells are back to normal levels as otherwise there’s an underlying reason. He will always have the problem with his blood not clotting properly so I just have to be aware of this in future.


My poor lad, I still don’t think I have taken it all in. He is quite okay in himself, just very lethargic and his wounds are starting to make him scratch and are aggravating him. To look at him though he doesn’t look that ill and I just hope his bloods are back to normal next week. In a way I am glad that it happened as now we know about his blood then I can be more aware if he ever is wounded in the future but I can’t believe all the problems it has unearthed!! I personally think the lump is like a mass of blood rather than a tumour as it wasn’t there before but is that just me not wanting to think about what it could be? If it hasn’t reduced in size the vet will look at removing but it is a risk because of the problem with his blood!

So at the moment he is wrapped up in cotton wool and being spoilt rotten.

It's Been a While!

It’s been a while. I made the decision not to do any shows over winter:


1) Rum doesn’t cope with indoor venues, I don’t want the stress behaviour to return so it would be long journeys for just Ember to compete.
2) I have a wedding to pay for!
3) It’s cold and dark and miserable.
4) I only have a normal car so wet muddy, indoor school surface covered dogs aren’t really suited to it!
5) I want to get the dogs (and me) up to a better standard.

So we are training every other Sunday to see if we can better our standard as we were all over the shop this year, having too much fun and not concentrating enough! Next year I want the dogs back up to a competitive standard but still enjoying it and I still think we will stick to smaller shows as I just can’t ever see with Rum ever coping with the bigger shows. My fiancé has said I could use a caravan next year but the trouble is this would cause Rum even more stress and we would be back to square one so we will just be sticking to local shows as well.

Training is going well especially with Ember, I have always struggled with things like pulling off jumps, pull throughs when she’s ahead of me and allowing me to cross behind so these are the things we have been working on and she is picking it up well this time round, before I have never seemed to get her to really do it. Also she didn’t like the wider spaced weaves so we have been working on those along with entries and of course the usual contacts!

With Rum he is starting to push me a little in terms of contacts and waits, he is self releasing off contacts and pushing his waits a bit. So I think we might start with some UKA shows and take a toy in. His control, jumping etc is still fab and he listens every step of the way.

This weekend we hadn’t trained for long when the wind and rain set in so we had to call it a day which was a shame.

Cas will be 12 soon, she’s still fit as a fiddle and very healthy, to look at her you wouldn’t think she was that old! Her only problem is she can’t eat dry food without almost choking and the vet can’t see anything wrong so it’s a bit worrying but when we soak her food she is fine and she’s been like this almost a year now and it hasn’t worsened.



Dizzy is 13 next year and she has her good and bad days, her back legs can be very wobbly and her one front shoulder does cause her some pain however she recently had an MOT at the vets who said she was very good considering and she had a blood test which just showed her kidneys are slowing down a bit due to old age but other than that she is fine.

Mum and I have tickets to Olympia on the Saturday for the evening performance so am looking forward to seeing the agility. I was always a bit disappointed Rum never qualified for the Novice Olympia, we never seemed to get clears always 5f here and there, two runs stand out where he had the fastest time and I could have kicked myself for making silly mistakes. He would be fab powering round that course however looking back it is a good thing he didn’t as he just would not have coped with the atmosphere at all, it would have completely blown his brains! I am a great believer in that everything happens for a reason.

Wow that’s a long post! We’re in New York over Christmas so I probably won’t blog again, Happy Christmas to you all!

It's a fine line

It's a fine line between a dog not worrying about doing their agility round right and a dog that just isnt worrying at all!

Rum yesterday at shrewsbury had a lovely couple of rounds in agility, one being an unplaced clear but you could tell he was going steady and making sure he did everything right, worrying about getting it wrong. This morning (back at shrewsbury show) he's gone it to the ring and flown round like a demon possessed, he was relaxed & not stressing at all but he flew round, missed contacts (normally unheard of) and missed his weave he was going too fast. It's a fine line, especially with him as I don't want to knock his enthusiasm & I know full well if I had corrected his contacts he would have then turned into Mr super creepy I am making sure I get that contact. It's very hard to know what to do with him, hmmmmm. Only jumping classes left now though & no more shows over winter so I guess am going to have to really get some drivey contacts going in training.

Wordless Wednesday

Ember Update

Back at the vets for a progress check.  Vet was really happy with her progress, the infection has gone and therefore her toe wasn't as swollen so he could get a good feel of it & found  that it is not actually broken all the way through & is just split the nail a little.  He said she has done really well and can return to normal activity including agility & just watch how she goes, so fingers crossed she's sorted.  We'll see how she goes off the medication and if she is still okay she can compete at the weekend :)