Wet, Windy & Horrible!!!

When will it ever be spring?! All it seems to do lately is rain or snow. Today it has just poured down all day. I wanted to get to York Rd and do some weave training but no such luck, I got soaked through just taking the dogs for a quick 15 mins on the field. (Its days like today where I feel bad that they are stuck indoors, not that they minded, all snoozing in front of the fire!)

We had Agility training last night, I ran all 3 dogs as Conor has gone back to work. Heidi did very well, she really has come on so much lately, I'm really looking forward to running her this year. Megan proved that she was in fact just being naughty cz daddy was watching her over the past few weeks as she was as good as gold, jumping everything and not running round jumps or under them. (She is a little monkey!) Brian is doing so well in training that I have decided to enter him into a full height class. Conor wanted to go to Dordale show so I have filled in the entry today and sent it off but they don't do an anysize class for Bri so I have just entered him into 1 Grade 1 jumping class on the Sunday to see how he gets on.

Other than entering a few more shows, not much has been going on, I'm working lates for the next two days :( still I suppose I cant complain, I do only work part time!!!

Tuggy Injuries

Does anyone else get injured when playing tuggy with their dog? Quite often one of ours misses the tuggy and gets my hand or fingers so I often have a bruise or two! Today Heidi missed the tuggy and got my finger instead, right on the knuckle and its been bleeding all day!

Today me and Conor took the dogs to the woods for a good run around and they had brilliant fun, they managed to get themselves soaking wet and covered in mud as usual. They have all done a bit of weave and see-saw training too today, Megan watched the others do the see-saw and decided there was no way she was going on it so we have done some bits just getting her used to being on and around it without it tipping.

Tonight we had good citizen class, our test is on the 16th March so not too long now. Megan certainly knows how to pull the strings, she puts on her sweetest most innocent face in class and when I make her sit and wait she looks so cute and everyone always says ahhh! Little madam, she isn't so innocent really!

The White Stuff is Back!!!!

We woke up this morning to a load of snow again. There has been a few bits here and there all week but today was a good quite deep covering which has pleased the dogs. My mum and dad have been up for a visit so we took the dogs out to play in the snow and had dinner. They left quite early though as they didn't want to get stuck in the snow.

Yesterday me and Conor nearly had a nasty encounter with a horse, we were on our way home and passing through Tealby which is a village a few before ours when a horse ran out in front of our car. There was no rider on it and it ran off up some body's drive and began munching on their lawn. I got out of the car and knocked on the door to see if they knew who it belonged too and shortly after the owner appeared at the bottom of the drive. The horse was a bit spooked and didn't want to be caught and ran straight past her and into the road again, nearly getting hit by an oncoming car and nearly into our car which was parked on the side of the road. Having no experience with horses we left them to it and moved a little further up the road to slow down any on coming cars until it was caught. Luckily there was no accident and they caught the horse but it could have been pretty bad.
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We haven't really been up to much this week, Megan had a training class on Tuesday and all 3 had agility on Thursday which went well. We did some work on our waits and even just 3 or 4 practices made a big difference with Megan, hopefully there will be the opportunity to do the same whilst waiting for our go next week too.

The motor on the heater in the van seems to be on its way out so that needs booking into the garage to get fixed, there always seems to be something!!!!

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I have decided to take Brian back to training classes too, not that he really needs anything but he sometimes seems a little bored and so I was chatting to Caroline who runs Meg's good citizen and she does a class on a Wednesday for dogs who have done their Gold good citizen but just want to do a bit of fun training with their dogs, nothing serious, so I plan to take him to that although it wont be for a few weeks. I also found a place in Lincoln who do a class on a Friday called Social Fridays where dogs pretty much go and socialise with others! It is definitely the sort of thing Brian would love so I might take him every so often to that too. I'm not going every week though as Lincoln is a bit far just for a social outing!!!
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We are really looking forward to the agility season starting now, Conor wants to do as much with Heidi as he can when he is home so we have ended up planning to enter shows much further afield than we originally planned as there aren't any that local all the time although there are a good amount at the Winterton Showground this year which I am really pleased about as its only half an hour from here! I have entered Megan into a couple of shows for when she turns 18 months but I have just entered her into anysize so that she can get a bit of experience in a show environment before she begins to compete. I have also entered her into a couple of nursery classes here and there too. Looks like we might have a busy but exciting summer ahead!

Happy Birthday Heidi!

Happy Birthday to our Princess Heidi who is 2 today and also to all her brothers and sisters in the Bonvivant T Litter (sorry, far too many to name!)

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together!!!

Today we have been to Dog Vegas and had a brilliant time. All 3 dogs were running and we had lots of positives to take away with us. Brian decided to remind me that he doesnt get clear rounds all the time, getting 2 out of 5. His faulted runs were due to a person sitting in the corner of the ring on a chair so he went to say hello!

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So, Heidi. Heidi did not particularly like people a year ago, or crowds or other dogs or venues, tannoys and loud noises. At that time we made a plan, she has trained at lots of different clubs to learn to socialise and associate equipment with fun not the environment around her. We have travelled long distances sometimes as far as Bristol from Lincolnshire to train with Mike and Claire Bacon at Diamond Dog Training. We have been to competitions and not taken part just sat at the side. She has had a good break from club training to allow her to mature and grow into her self and is now enjoying training at Agility Buds with Lucy Osbourne, all of this was not only necessary but worthwhile and today, the plan came together.

Heidi got her first ever clear round today which was fantastic, the video below explains all...

Megan had her first ever runs today too, she did well in parts and I was very pleased with her, getting her contacts on one agility run (and then jumping them on the next!), she did some nice jumping sequences too but we have a very long way to go. Anyway we had a really fantastic day and made the video below which pretty much sums it up and to be honest making the video was just as much fun too!!! (Oh and I fell over a jump wing today and fell on the floor infront of loads of people but never mind, at least i'll run round them now!)

Training Day

Today was a day we had been looking forward to for a couple of weeks, we had booked the barn where I do agility on a Thursday and Lucy let us use her equipment so that we could get some good training in with the dogs and it meant we could do it no matter what the weather.

We had a really good day, lots of contact training and ironing out some issues we had been having. Brian ran really well so I didn't do too much with him (I don't want to over do it with him after his injury either), Heidi was a hyper and mad as ever and her main issue is either jumping her contacts or doing her best to look for Conor and nearly falling off obstacles so we worked on overcoming these issues. Megan worked on linking contact equipment with other obstacles as I realised in training we have mainly done the contact equipment on its own. We have now ordered an A-frame of our own although it wont be ready for about another 5 weeks, i'm hoping the weather might have picked up by then and we can get some use out of it outside.

Below is a video of our best runs of the day, thanks to Ambrose who came with us and videoed our training for us. It really helps to be able to look back afterwards, both Conor watching and the video have made me realise that Megan has a natural distance that she likes to be away from me and I often run in towards her too much and it pushes her out around jumps so I now know I need to let her work away from me more.

Megan is shattered tonight as she also had her good citizen class too so she has had to work extra hard. She did very well again, her stays are excellent, which proves how much we need to work on her wait before agility runs as they are not so good!

On the mend

Brian is doing much better, it turned out to be his left shoulder, not right, I realised when he yelped putting weight on it to go downstairs. Anyway he has had lots of rest (much to his displeasure) and only today has he been allowed out with the girls. I didn't take him training tonight and he wont be going to flyball on Saturday as I want to make sure he is fully recovered.

Me and Conor took the girls to agility tonight, Conor ran Heidi and they did very well, Lucy commented on how good Heidi runs for her dad too. I have always known she is a daddy's girl but she is happy to work for me as it means she gets to do the thing she loves most, they do make a really great team though, its just a shame that work gets in the way.

Me and Megan were terrible tonight (or mostly me), it took us about 10 attempts to run 3 jumps, turn right over one and run another 3 but not to worry, we all have bad days! Megan had to miss her training class on Tuesday as I was on lates so we have had a bit of a lazy week really. The see-saw has arrived and is currently in the back garden but it snowed heavily last night so not much chance of using it today although its all gone now so maybe tomorrow, we'll see. I plan to order an A-Frame tomorrow too so then we should have everything apart from a dog walk but we really don't have the room for one anyway so that's not a problem for now.