7 hours ago
Thursday, 5 November 2009
Downright bloody naughty!
Not sure what got into Tom last night, apart from perhaps the devil, but at training he was not sniffy just very naughty. He ran around the arena completely ignoring me, Mac and anyone else that tried to catch him. Ran through the tunnel looked at me then ran off again, ran up the dogwalk did a perfect contact (right to the end two on two off) ran off again. In despair I just walked out of the school he ran from one end to the other to follow me out then ran around outside in the dark. I came back in and sat in the corner, he ran in looking around for me then after spotting me came dashing over and looked at me as if I'd been cruel to him by leaving him out in the dark at which point I gave up on the agility.
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Shropshire, Shrewsbury Show & Training days
SHROPSHIRE
Last weekend some friends and I rented a cottage in Shropshire so we could go to Shrewsbury show and have a few days away at the same time.
I wont go into the journeys to and from the cottage but the rest of the weekend was great. The cottage was small but big enough for 4 adults and 7 dogs, luckily the dogs were all small ones though.
Saturday was show day but I'll come back to that.
On Sunday we decided to take the dogs for a walk and then go on to Powys Castle so set off on a very windy day with Tania map reading and found our way to wind blasted hill top with a stone circle. The dogs had a whale of a time and didn't seem to notice the wind even when we climbed up to a stone cairn for a photo shoot except Tom who I think regretted that he hadn't used extra hold hair gel.
After the walk we went on into Wales and Powys Castle where we wandered round the gardens which looked lovely with all the autumn colours but stupidly I left my camera in the car.
By Monday the wind had dropped and Tania and I looked a the map, while her hubby Steve wasn't looking, and decided to walk in a wood that had mountain bike tracks running though it. When we got there we looked at the map on the board and choice the yellow route which was supposed to be the one for cyclists that hadn't done much and 5kms in length. We set off with all 7 dogs, including Bracken who is 85 years old in human terms, and climbed and climbed and climbed until we started to wonder if we would ever go down hill again. The views were amazing and the track well signposted but I think it could have been a bit more than 5kms and we seemed to go up hill more than down and towards the end we decided to take our own route as even the dogs were starting to flag an poor Bracken had to be carried up the steepest bits :)
The weekend was very relaxing and enjoyable even if a bit hilly with good food, good wine and good company.
SHREWSBURY SHOW
Saturday dawned wet and windy but mild and off we set to the showground at Oswestry for the Shrewsbury Small and Medium Show which was about 45 minutes away. I really enjoyed the show and not just because there were only very few large dogs there and even with the huge sheltie contingency it wasn't very noisy. Tom's first class was combined 1-3 jumping and I was able to get into the queue early and run him without hanging around for too long. The course wasn't tricky so I was quite relaxed and was very pleased to get a clear round but as I thought the scoring was being done somewhere else I didn't check his time or anything and thought it felt quite slow it wasn't until I went to run his graded jumping that I realised they were scoring at the ring. This round went completely tits up with Tom sniffing in the weaves and then doing his own thing in the middle of the course but there were some really good bits that encouraged me to think that we might do better in the agility. I decided to check Tom's time in the jumping and after checking the score sheet I realised that he was on top of the clear round pile but as I thought it wasn't very fast I thought it was the out of the places one but the scorer pointed out that he was winning by 2 seconds which was a bit of a shock.
All three of Suzi's classes happened at the same time so I was rushing about like a loony and missed my presentation for Tom's class but ran across the whole of the showground with poor Suz dragging behind and arrived puffing and panting just in time to get my rosette from the judge. As it was wet Suzi was not overly keen on running but after getting an E in the pairs she got 2 clears in her jumping classes but agility proved too much and after getting her dog walk contact she suddenly started choking and retching, she sometimes gets a soft pallette thing so I wasn't overly worried and after picking her up and carrying her out she was fine.
Lunchtime came and the wind and rain picked up to such an extent that I was seriously thinking of not doing Tom's final run but I'm really glad I did as he flew round without creeping his dog walk contact or sniffing in the weaves and went into the lead of the grade 3s then I had to wait until the end of the class which was a bit nerve racking to say the least but he stayed there and will start next season as a grade 4.
TRAINING DAYS
Over the last fews weeks I've done 2 training days, one at Colchester with Lee Windeatt where we worked on obstacle discrimination and one today with Nancy and Andy (or should I say Anton du) Hudson. Both were really enjoyable and very informative and I know that I've picked up some good tips from all the instructors and hope that I haven't frustrated them too much.
At Colchester Tom struggled a bit with his weaves but there was a tunnel mouth right at the start of them, he didn't go into the tunnel but would only go in the 3rd/4th weave but once the tunnel was moved he went straight in, not sure what was going through his mind there but the rest of the course was good and he didn't falter with the tunnel under the A frame. I really enjoy Lee's courses as he makes them such fun and has a wicked sense of humour.
Today's course was just for small dogs and except for when the border terriers were running it was quite quiet. Nancy was doing the agility side and really made us realise the importance of consistency when training and working our contacts. All of the dogs in my group had the same sort of problems with contacts so we all got loads out of watching the others and I'm really going to try and be consistent with what I do with Tom, honest.
We did jumping and weave entries with Andy and although Tom was very sniffy during this session when he did work he achieved some stuff that I didn't think he would but it made me realise that I really have to work on pull throughs and not just hope he gets them so this winter it will be contacts and pull throughs. I would like to get him doing the without me having to actually go through the gap to get him through, Oh that he would do pull throughs like Wendy Card's Gem.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the course and I'm sure they all went home with something to think about.
Last weekend some friends and I rented a cottage in Shropshire so we could go to Shrewsbury show and have a few days away at the same time.
I wont go into the journeys to and from the cottage but the rest of the weekend was great. The cottage was small but big enough for 4 adults and 7 dogs, luckily the dogs were all small ones though.
Saturday was show day but I'll come back to that.
On Sunday we decided to take the dogs for a walk and then go on to Powys Castle so set off on a very windy day with Tania map reading and found our way to wind blasted hill top with a stone circle. The dogs had a whale of a time and didn't seem to notice the wind even when we climbed up to a stone cairn for a photo shoot except Tom who I think regretted that he hadn't used extra hold hair gel.
After the walk we went on into Wales and Powys Castle where we wandered round the gardens which looked lovely with all the autumn colours but stupidly I left my camera in the car.
By Monday the wind had dropped and Tania and I looked a the map, while her hubby Steve wasn't looking, and decided to walk in a wood that had mountain bike tracks running though it. When we got there we looked at the map on the board and choice the yellow route which was supposed to be the one for cyclists that hadn't done much and 5kms in length. We set off with all 7 dogs, including Bracken who is 85 years old in human terms, and climbed and climbed and climbed until we started to wonder if we would ever go down hill again. The views were amazing and the track well signposted but I think it could have been a bit more than 5kms and we seemed to go up hill more than down and towards the end we decided to take our own route as even the dogs were starting to flag an poor Bracken had to be carried up the steepest bits :)
The weekend was very relaxing and enjoyable even if a bit hilly with good food, good wine and good company.
SHREWSBURY SHOW
Saturday dawned wet and windy but mild and off we set to the showground at Oswestry for the Shrewsbury Small and Medium Show which was about 45 minutes away. I really enjoyed the show and not just because there were only very few large dogs there and even with the huge sheltie contingency it wasn't very noisy. Tom's first class was combined 1-3 jumping and I was able to get into the queue early and run him without hanging around for too long. The course wasn't tricky so I was quite relaxed and was very pleased to get a clear round but as I thought the scoring was being done somewhere else I didn't check his time or anything and thought it felt quite slow it wasn't until I went to run his graded jumping that I realised they were scoring at the ring. This round went completely tits up with Tom sniffing in the weaves and then doing his own thing in the middle of the course but there were some really good bits that encouraged me to think that we might do better in the agility. I decided to check Tom's time in the jumping and after checking the score sheet I realised that he was on top of the clear round pile but as I thought it wasn't very fast I thought it was the out of the places one but the scorer pointed out that he was winning by 2 seconds which was a bit of a shock.
All three of Suzi's classes happened at the same time so I was rushing about like a loony and missed my presentation for Tom's class but ran across the whole of the showground with poor Suz dragging behind and arrived puffing and panting just in time to get my rosette from the judge. As it was wet Suzi was not overly keen on running but after getting an E in the pairs she got 2 clears in her jumping classes but agility proved too much and after getting her dog walk contact she suddenly started choking and retching, she sometimes gets a soft pallette thing so I wasn't overly worried and after picking her up and carrying her out she was fine.
Lunchtime came and the wind and rain picked up to such an extent that I was seriously thinking of not doing Tom's final run but I'm really glad I did as he flew round without creeping his dog walk contact or sniffing in the weaves and went into the lead of the grade 3s then I had to wait until the end of the class which was a bit nerve racking to say the least but he stayed there and will start next season as a grade 4.
TRAINING DAYS
Over the last fews weeks I've done 2 training days, one at Colchester with Lee Windeatt where we worked on obstacle discrimination and one today with Nancy and Andy (or should I say Anton du) Hudson. Both were really enjoyable and very informative and I know that I've picked up some good tips from all the instructors and hope that I haven't frustrated them too much.
At Colchester Tom struggled a bit with his weaves but there was a tunnel mouth right at the start of them, he didn't go into the tunnel but would only go in the 3rd/4th weave but once the tunnel was moved he went straight in, not sure what was going through his mind there but the rest of the course was good and he didn't falter with the tunnel under the A frame. I really enjoy Lee's courses as he makes them such fun and has a wicked sense of humour.
Today's course was just for small dogs and except for when the border terriers were running it was quite quiet. Nancy was doing the agility side and really made us realise the importance of consistency when training and working our contacts. All of the dogs in my group had the same sort of problems with contacts so we all got loads out of watching the others and I'm really going to try and be consistent with what I do with Tom, honest.
We did jumping and weave entries with Andy and although Tom was very sniffy during this session when he did work he achieved some stuff that I didn't think he would but it made me realise that I really have to work on pull throughs and not just hope he gets them so this winter it will be contacts and pull throughs. I would like to get him doing the without me having to actually go through the gap to get him through, Oh that he would do pull throughs like Wendy Card's Gem.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the course and I'm sure they all went home with something to think about.
Tuesday, 13 October 2009
Wanted
I'm not usually one to write my own blog entries, after all I am a dog, BUT I just felt that I had to come on and put a request on for a new handler.
Despite all my training and time spent trying to make her understand that she needs to get her timing sorted out she insists on handling me as if she's never been told how to do things (and I've heard Mac tell her the same thing for the last three weeks so know this isn't true) She knows that running to things and then waiting for me then running off doesn't work but she still does it WHY? She knows that if she gets ahead of me I just have to put my nose down and have a sniff but she still does it WHY?
Plus how can she expect me to do my weaves when she puts her big behind right in the way so I can't even see the weaves let alone go in them.
So please, please someone come and take over from her she is truely bad no wonder Dudley used to bite her ankles all the time.
Despite all my training and time spent trying to make her understand that she needs to get her timing sorted out she insists on handling me as if she's never been told how to do things (and I've heard Mac tell her the same thing for the last three weeks so know this isn't true) She knows that running to things and then waiting for me then running off doesn't work but she still does it WHY? She knows that if she gets ahead of me I just have to put my nose down and have a sniff but she still does it WHY?
Plus how can she expect me to do my weaves when she puts her big behind right in the way so I can't even see the weaves let alone go in them.
So please, please someone come and take over from her she is truely bad no wonder Dudley used to bite her ankles all the time.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Bits and bobs
Thought I'd better up date my blog as it's been nearly a month.
Tom's training is going well and I'm finding that I'm pushing him a bit more to achieve weave entries and contacts, this doesn't always work but things are definately improving and if I could get my timing a bit better I think the sniffing may decrease too.
At Suffolk Five Rivers he got 6th place in both his agility classes, I was very pleased with this I know where we lost time and hopefully working over the winter I can speed up his contacts. His jumping classes were at the end of the day and I think that I queued for too long with him as he was extra sniffy in both.
I've booked a holiday in the New Forest so we are going to chill out and have lots of walks and I've even booked a couple of private agility lessons so it's going to be fun. With luck I will come back relaxed and ready for anything. This will be the first holiday I've had since 2005, I don't include agility shows as holidays and they seem to fill up the stress glass most of the time :)
Suzi has had her dew claws removed as they used to grow really quickly and curl right round, Dad came down one day to find her with a claw caught in her collar which made us make up our mind to do it. At the vet they said that she might take a while to heal properly but it's only been just over a week and you can hardly see where they had been and if she wasn't bald there you wouldn't know at all. The only side effect is that when she tries to hump Tom she slides off as I think she used these claws to really hold on. Tom doesn't mind this side effect but I think it frustrates her :)
I'm are off to Shrewsbury show at the end of the month which is my last KC show of the year, at the moment. A friend and I have rented a cottage that will allow 7 dogs so we are making a weekend of it.
I have some training clinics coming up too so will try and get someone to take some pictures.
Tom's training is going well and I'm finding that I'm pushing him a bit more to achieve weave entries and contacts, this doesn't always work but things are definately improving and if I could get my timing a bit better I think the sniffing may decrease too.
At Suffolk Five Rivers he got 6th place in both his agility classes, I was very pleased with this I know where we lost time and hopefully working over the winter I can speed up his contacts. His jumping classes were at the end of the day and I think that I queued for too long with him as he was extra sniffy in both.
I've booked a holiday in the New Forest so we are going to chill out and have lots of walks and I've even booked a couple of private agility lessons so it's going to be fun. With luck I will come back relaxed and ready for anything. This will be the first holiday I've had since 2005, I don't include agility shows as holidays and they seem to fill up the stress glass most of the time :)
Suzi has had her dew claws removed as they used to grow really quickly and curl right round, Dad came down one day to find her with a claw caught in her collar which made us make up our mind to do it. At the vet they said that she might take a while to heal properly but it's only been just over a week and you can hardly see where they had been and if she wasn't bald there you wouldn't know at all. The only side effect is that when she tries to hump Tom she slides off as I think she used these claws to really hold on. Tom doesn't mind this side effect but I think it frustrates her :)
I'm are off to Shrewsbury show at the end of the month which is my last KC show of the year, at the moment. A friend and I have rented a cottage that will allow 7 dogs so we are making a weekend of it.
I have some training clinics coming up too so will try and get someone to take some pictures.
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
The Summer Show and Prestbury Park
I'm actually not coping as well as I thought as since last week I've done nothing but cry but I'm hoping that it could be just hormones.
After talking to people I decided to go to the Summer Show at Ely with just Tom and was lucky that someone saved me a really nice camping spot as I couldn't get there until the Friday night. Tom loves camping and was very excited when we got there and took a while to settle down to sleep but by Saturday morning he was back to as normal as he ever is :)
We were there for three days and I'd entered him in two runs a day and going from three dogs to one, Suzi stayed at home, was weird and quite relaxing. Tom worked his little socks off all weekend and although we had 4 Es and 1 5 faults he got a 2nd in his grade 3 agility. The Es were mainly problems with him powering away from obstacles and missing the next thing which to me is something we can work on as I don't want to stop him going on I just need to get my timing better in getting a call him.
Prestbury Park is a lovely venue with the only problem being that the people going to the polo didn't think speed limits were meant for them and huge horse lorries thundering through the camping was a bit of a shock but to be fair it was only for one day and only in the afternoon. It was so quiet in the evenings, you couldn't hear any traffic at all shame it wasn't a bit warmer so we could sit outside and take advantage of the peace.
Suzi stayed at home again as camping is not her thing so it was just me and Tom again, we had 3 runs a day with one agility and two jumping on Saturday and two agility and one jumping on Sunday. On both days Tom got a clear in his 1-4 jumping but not quick enough for a place, I think on Sunday he might have been if he hadn't gone for a quick sniff. His contacts and weaves were really good except for one class when the weaves were the 2nd thing and he just wouldn't go in to them but I think this may have been because I raced him to them rather than sending him ahead of me.
I've decided that while I will get another dog it wont be until late next year so Tom will be an only dog for a while and I'm hoping this is going to be a good thing for him as he wont be competing for my attention, although he always got as much if not more than Dudley but I think he thought he didn't.
We are back at training after the summer break and I have some plans on how to get Tom and Suzi's contacts more consistent and I'm planning on getting some video to put on here.
After talking to people I decided to go to the Summer Show at Ely with just Tom and was lucky that someone saved me a really nice camping spot as I couldn't get there until the Friday night. Tom loves camping and was very excited when we got there and took a while to settle down to sleep but by Saturday morning he was back to as normal as he ever is :)
We were there for three days and I'd entered him in two runs a day and going from three dogs to one, Suzi stayed at home, was weird and quite relaxing. Tom worked his little socks off all weekend and although we had 4 Es and 1 5 faults he got a 2nd in his grade 3 agility. The Es were mainly problems with him powering away from obstacles and missing the next thing which to me is something we can work on as I don't want to stop him going on I just need to get my timing better in getting a call him.
Prestbury Park is a lovely venue with the only problem being that the people going to the polo didn't think speed limits were meant for them and huge horse lorries thundering through the camping was a bit of a shock but to be fair it was only for one day and only in the afternoon. It was so quiet in the evenings, you couldn't hear any traffic at all shame it wasn't a bit warmer so we could sit outside and take advantage of the peace.
Suzi stayed at home again as camping is not her thing so it was just me and Tom again, we had 3 runs a day with one agility and two jumping on Saturday and two agility and one jumping on Sunday. On both days Tom got a clear in his 1-4 jumping but not quick enough for a place, I think on Sunday he might have been if he hadn't gone for a quick sniff. His contacts and weaves were really good except for one class when the weaves were the 2nd thing and he just wouldn't go in to them but I think this may have been because I raced him to them rather than sending him ahead of me.
I've decided that while I will get another dog it wont be until late next year so Tom will be an only dog for a while and I'm hoping this is going to be a good thing for him as he wont be competing for my attention, although he always got as much if not more than Dudley but I think he thought he didn't.
We are back at training after the summer break and I have some plans on how to get Tom and Suzi's contacts more consistent and I'm planning on getting some video to put on here.
Monday, 7 September 2009
Dudley's stone
A very kind friend sent me this touching present as a permanent reminder of Dudley, I was overwhelmed when I received it as we've only ever met over the internet which just goes to show you can have a proper virtual friendship.
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Dudley 21/7/01 to 22/08/09
I'm so heartbroken at the moment, my darling Dudley died earlier this evening and I don't know what to do. I feel so guilty as he got run over and I should have known where he was but I didn't. A very kind man took him to the vet but he was already dead when he got there, I went to see him and was able to say goodbye but I just want him here now with me and Tom.
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