New addition to the Kingswood household

No not a new dog (yet) but a new to me caravan.






I hadn't noticed that Suzi was in the picture until I downloaded them but she seems to approve but Tom needs to learn how to use the step and not keep launching himself over it and nearly missing the doorway.

It's a Mardon Saffron and and the layout means I can leave a bed made up at the back if I want so no more making the bed up and finding that I need to get something out of the fridge like the campervan.

I'm very excited as you can imagine and can't wait for our maiden voyage to Colchester at the beginning of May.

Mid Downs and such like

I have to say I enjoyed Mid Downs even though I came home with 3 Es and one 5 faults, both dogs worked exceedingly well and Suzi even got her dog walk. She was so excited about being back at shows that I was left standing at the start of her agility and had to do a mad dash to catch her, she flew round with much more enthusiasm than I have seen for ages, the seesaw was her downfall as it didn't tip when she thought it was going to and her momentum slid her off the side but she charged back up it and finished the course. Tom was not at all sniffy looked as if he was really enjoying himself in both agility and jumping, our downfall was having to turn sharply from a fast straight line as he powers on and doesn't always here my panicy commands of 'Tom, TOM, TOOOOMMMM'. Suzi, once again, flew round the jumping course and if I hadn't got over excited, and tried to get somewhere too soon thus pulling her into the wrong end of the tunnel, would have got a lovely clear round.

The van has been gone so I'm now looking in ernest for a caravan, seen a really nice one but it's over my budget so I'm either going to have to do some haggling, not my strong point, or try and find some more money from somewhere or keep looking. My first caming show is the beginning of May but that will come round so quickly that I have a feeling I wont have found anything by then.

I went for a lesson with Leah at her new outdoor paddock last night, my first thought was 'what a nice place to be able to train', my second was 'God that equipment is spread out'. We worked on Tom turning off a straight line (must remember that he actually knows right & left and use it at shows), going on, and me cutting corners slightly without him coming in to me. I had to do lots of running!
I was so pleased with him as the temptation of sheep poo was very strong but he didn't even attempt to stop while he was was working and if he did wander he came back as soon as I called him let's hope this bodes well as Spring at Shuttleworth usually has sheep poo in the rings.

I'm supposed to be doing Chippenham and Downlands but I now have to go to Boulder, Colorado for work on 20th so will miss both of them :(

New plans

I've decided that my campervan is no longer big enough for agility shows, and that's with one less dog, so I'm selling it and looking at caravans. I would love a brand new one but know this is impossible so it's 2nd hand here I come. I don't need anything huge as even the smallest ones seem to have 4 times more storage space than the van and even a loo which is really my main reason for changing, plus the extra cost of insurance, tax and MOT of having basically two cars. The van is on ebay so hopefully I'll be able to start looking in earnest for a caravan very soon. I can't believe that once I used to say that I would only do one show a month, then only one day a weekend and I would never camp!

My diet is going well but the need for new clothes is looming so more expense, lets hope the van gets people's interest and really brings home the bacon.

Tom's training is still going well with less and less sniffing but we have the big test this weekend at Ardingly, indoors in a riding school that has been used all winter for show jumping so will no doubt be very interesting. I'm taking Suzi and will enjoy running her but however positive I am I really think that contacts may be our downfall :)

Catch up time - sorry no piccies or video

I have loads of photos and video but my laptop is currently refusing to download it so I'm using this as a sign that I need a new one with more memory and a bigger hard drive hopefully I will then be able to add some of the stuff I've got.

Tom's training is coming on well after the Christmas break with sniffing at a minimum especially when I'm able to see the signs and get a call in to get his attention back. I'm continuing to use a target at the bottom of the dog walk, sometimes with a treat and sometimes without. If it's there we get good speed to the contact and he hits and stops but if it isn't he still creeps down, at my first show I'm going to try and get him looking while I walk the course and pretend to put something there hopefully he's as clever as I think and will remember me bending down.

A bitter sweet development of losing Dudley is that Tom is turning into a real Mummy's boy, he's got much more cuddly and appears to want to be with me more than before rather than playing with other dogs. I would never have wanted to not have Dudley but am taking advantage of this with Tom as he is much more interested in where I am at training than what the other dogs are doing and Wendy has pointed out that he watches me all the time when I'm walking courses etc. I'm actually really enjoying this as Duds was always one for everyone else and would forsake me for someone else without a backward glance and am seriously wondering about putting off having another dog until 2011 rather than the end of this year as planned. I will wait and see what happens this summer.

Count down to Boot Camp

I've decided that I need to lose weight for Boot Camp and the coming season and have even added a diet ticker to my blog.

I'd like to lose 3 stone so I can get up and down that steep hill to exercise the dogs :)

New Flip video camera

My Christmas present to myself arrived today and I thought I'd have a play and see what happens. It's very easy to use and comes with software that uploads when you plug it in to the usb. You can edit it and add titles and music, the only thing I would say is that the videos seem to be huge this one was 4mb before I added anything to it, I added some titles and music and it went to 36mb!



Putting it on here has lost some of the quality but on facebook it looks quite good.

Walking in a winter wonderland

Woke up to loads of snow this morning and it doesn't matter how old I get seeing snow when I pull back the curtains always makes me very excited.

Luckily Tom had his new coat so after wrapping both of us up nice and warm we set off for the local rec then walked through the woods to Dad's.










Dudley used to love the snow so it was bitter sweet today BUT he never got snow balls like Tom does, poor little lad was so funny trying to walk with great big clumps of snow hanging round his legs. When I was getting them off he even had them hanging from his little boy bit.