Nothing sweet about me....

Just wanted to show you this.....



That is fox poo not mud and was down both sides, only had my phone so quality is not too good but I've got proof she's not such a princess. I'd just been telling Rhoda about when she rolled in the biggest pile in Cheddar Gorge and took my eyes off her for a minute and turned round to see this.

Weave training

Luckily Sharon Eldridge had two spaces come up in her weave training session on Saturday so Wendy and I took Woody and Tom. The weather was gorgeous and even though the sat nav seemed to take us the scenic route we got there in plenty of time.

Tom was quite sniffy but as we were outside for the first time I excused him this time and just tried to work him through it which seemed to work, I also tried the patented Card call of 'get 'ere' when he ignored my nice 'waz sis' and have to say this seemed to make him actually look at me and come quicker (something to use as last resort in the future perhaps)

Although he didn't always get the entry I was hoping for he was always looking for the weaves when I said 'weave', I've been saying 'yeah' when he gets the entrance but I noticed that he came out whenever I said it so Sharon suggested saying nothing after the initial command only encouraging him once he was weaving.

I really enjoyed the training even when I fell over the tunnel cradle, which I'm sure jumped out and hooked itself round my foot, and landed with a thump.

Trevor Greenslade was there and took loads of photos, I've added the link to his site as I don't want to publish them on here until I have persmission from him, sure he wont mind be putting the link though.

Tom's weave training

Spring - is it here or just teasing us?

Now the evenings are getting lighter the dogs get to have an off lead walk after work and you would think they haven't been off lead all winter instead of just since the morning, I think it's because they get to go out in the woods after work and not the local football pitch. I have just enough time to get round before it gets too dark and it's lovely to watch them dashing about having a sniff and not so lovely seeing them in the distance throw themselves down to have a roll in something. The only problem is that Dudley decides that dashing off into the undergrowth just as it's getting dusky is what I want him to do and that I wont mind standing in a dark wood while he finishes his look about.

The leaves are starting to come out on the trees and the birds are singing their little hearts out which brings me to my question - is this it or are we going to have to prepare for snow at Easter again? I hope Spring is finally here and that we get a dry summer this year, not too hot please but dry at least.

The other evening Tom found something to sniff and I carried on walking as normal, usually he catches up quickly but the sniff must have been very interesting because I got quite a long way away before he decided to follow. I hid behind a tree, which I do a lot but usually get found very quickly, and waited for quite a while until I heard him come running along the path and I was expecting him to stop as I wasn't that well hidden but he carried on at full speed dashing past Dudley and disappearing round the corner and I got there just in time to see him running flat out into the distance. He eventually stopped after I called him a couple of times and came dashing back but the look on his face made me feel awful as he looked so worried.

Where I work there is a lake and a couple of swans have taken up residence, the male is really aggresive and if you walk near the lake it comes charging across and it's wings make a whistling noise which is really quite intimitating, I'll try and get some video of it.

Happy Birthday Leah

Just a quick post to say Happy Birthday and don't let the bastards get you down.

Bad Leah

She scared my dog so badly last night that she will never go on the dog walk again or Suzi will do anything to avoid getting her contacts and using Leah as an excuse was the best one yet.

It was a case of 'Oh my God someone is running next to the dog walk, I've never had this happen before' and then flatly refusing to go up it and then crying when I touched her to encourage her and getting everyone to look.

This little, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth, dog is a monster who gets the boys into trouble all the time and plays the 'poor little rescue dog card' at every opportunity and should be exposed to the world for the little madam she is instead of everyone saying I'm lying. One day I will get video evidence and you will all have to admit that I was right all along. If she didn't look cute in pink coats I would disown her altogether and possible trade her in for a sheltie or even a collie.

Mid Downs and Chippenham

Well not quite the results I was hoping for, I managed 2 clear rounds over the whole weekend but in Tom's last run of the day yesterday we managed to get round without an elimination.

Some of the courses at both shows were different if nothing else and being judged by someone yesterday who didn't think they needed to make some sort of effort to look like the judge plus felt judging most of the course looking through the A frame was fine was a bit weird but on the whole I enjoyed all the courses and my dogs had some really good bits in all their runs. Poor Dudley only had 2 runs yesterday and as the first one was at 5pm and he wasn't overly keen I decided not to wait for his last class as I had a 130 mile drove back.

Suzi had a fantastic run yesterday and I was over the moon until I found out that she'd missed the last of 6 weaves, I was still pleased as it was a great run but disappointed because I didn't notice that she'd done it. I did the same course with Tom and although we got eliminated, in the weaves, I was really pleased with the rest of it.

Tom was very sniffy all weekend and also unsure on his seesaw, I really babyed him round his last run yesterday and managed to get round with only 5 faults when he ran past the weaves but he came back and did a love set so hopefully he will suddenly grow out of it (fingers crossed)

Suzi mananged to get all her dog walk contacts this weekend too and Dudley got one of the clears although thinking back he was a bit sniffy too so I hope he's not going to take over from Tom. Hopefully when we get outside there wont be quite the temptation as there is indoors.

Oh and Andy they haven't changed the surface at Chippenham so you made the right decision :)

Suzi - training 09/03

She was quite wild last night, not sure what got into her but I'm hoping that she has the same speed at the weekend with a little more control:)

Two things I really need to watch are, not saying her name then running off as she tends to follow me and miss out any equipment in the way and not saying 'Go on' when she's looking in another direction to where I want her to go.

I've been using a flannel to try and get her to run right down her dogwalk with varying degrees of success, as she was tending to jump it Wendy suggested that we used it more as a stride regulator than a target so we put it at the top of the contact which seemed to work until last night when she decided that she was going to target it which is what I wanted in the first place, Oh the frustration, I'm never having another bitch to do agility with they are too clever by half and have a huge sense of humour.

She struggles with the weaves at Fordcombe because of the surface as usually there are big holes where the bigger/faster dogs have dig it up on their way through and even if we keep filling in the holes she doesn't really get much speed up, hopefully once we get onto sand and then grass she will speed up like she started to do at the end of last season.

Looking forward to Mid Downs and Chippenham at the weekend but I have to admit to not expecting much success as I think Dudley is going to be in a biting mood, Suzi will probably says it's too cold and I'm not sure what Tom will do at all.

Dudley at Crufts

Dudley has had a very long and busy day being a great ambassador for the Border Terrier breed, anyone who only knows him from agility will not believe this as they have probably only ever seen him biting my ankles and possibly trying to eat all the collies at the show. Today he walked from the carpark and through the halls without a second glance at any of the other dogs and spent the day making a huge fuss of all the people who came to the stand, he didn't get impatient with all the hands that wanted to stroke him and was quite happy to kiss anyone that wanted it, I was so proud of him and to show him this I bought him a a Ruffwear Swamp cooler for when we get the hot summer this year, then to really show him how proud I was I trimmed his nails and took one too close and made it bleed, boy did I feel bad.

I didn't get to see any agility today as the Arena was a long way from Hall 3 and I didn't like to leave Duds for too long even though the other people on the stand looked after him while I had a quick walk round, I had an hour but only managed 2 halls but was very good and didn't spend much money other than to buy Thomas a new harness as stupidly I left his other one in his cage while he was in it and he chewed the catches. He's done this before so I should have known better.

News Flash

EQUAFLEECE'S NOW COME IN PINK.

Saw them at Crufts but couldn't remember what size Suzi is so I will be off to their website to order her one ASAP.

Training - Tom 4/3/09

Below is a plan of part of what we were doing last night at training. I have been having problems with Tom and his overly solid wait but to do this exercise I needed him to wait so I could get in the right place to put him in the correct tunnel entrance, to help one of the girls held him by the collar and I called him to me and treated him, we then carried on which he did very well apart from his turn back to me after number 4, I think I was a bit late with my 'steady', coming out of the tunnel to the seesaw I pushed him out a bit so I could get a really straight entry which he did and then he did a good A frame running right to the bottom.

The second time I had to really do a squeaky voice to get the recall but got my 'steady' just right then put him in the tunnel and then completely lost him, out of the corner of my eye I saw him come out but then couldn't find him, I twiddled about a bit and said 'I've lost you' only to find that he was doing a beautiful seesaw :)

I like to have a criteria for things like contacts with all my dogs but have to admit that this sometimes goes to pot when the red mist comes down but my 'steady' is the same for all three and that is 'go over the jump, wrap the wing and come back towards me whatever side I'm on' this means that I don't have to put a left/right in as well as the steady. Last night we had several opportunities to practice this and Tom go it every time but I need to do some more work on tightening up the wing wrap as he tends to power off as soon as he lands which make the turns rather wide, he loves his tug and treat so I'm going to use this to help tighten up the turns.

Best laid plans......

Last night Dudley was supposed to have a bath in preparation for his trip to Crufts on Saturday, I was going to do it last night so he wasn't too fluffy on the day BUT I phoned a friend to talk about what shows we were going to do this year and 84 minutes later after a long discussion about the merits of various shows and the fact that camping was already full at loads of them and moaning about the fact that my broadband wasn't working I decided that 9 o'clock was too late to bath him to ensure he was dry before he went to bed (if he goes to bed damp his hair sticks up all over the place and other dogs laugh at his bad hair day) so now he'll have to be done tomorrow as I'm training tonight which will mean he's very fluffy and wont look like a proper Border Terrier at all.

Poor Suzi got blown into Dad's pond last night, well Dad can only assume she was blown in as it's not somewhere she will go voluntarily, and came indoors looking like a drowned rat. While I did feel sorry for her I have to admit I did laugh this morning when he told me which didn't go down very well with either of them.

I'll be in Hall 3 on Saturday if anyone is about, you'll know me by the fluffy terrier on the Border Terrier Discover Dogs stand.

The hidden costs of agility

We all know the cost of agility such as entry fees, petrol and training but what about all those little things that we buy like liver, to make supadupa treats, toys, to ensure the dog loves agility, poo bags, obvious that one, that special food that we just know is going to give our dog that extra edge not to mention the cod liver oil tablets for the handlers so they don't creak so much well I have another one to add to the list - Sports Bras.

Now I'm not one of those lucky people that doesn't need support in that department, I would love to be able to run without worrying that if the support isn't enough I'll end up with two black eyes, I blame my mother for this but have got used to it and after years of trying to find a really good bra I discovered lessbounce.com, what a great site for those of us of the well endowed variety. Well I duly went on there today to order a new bra for the coming season and bought my usual one without really thinking until I realised that I could have another 18 RUNS at shows for the amount it cost! I don't begrudge myself this small, well not that small, thing and I know I'm going to need it but boy am I glad I'm not writing down every cost I'm paying out for agility as I think I would probably give up right now.