A Walk Along the River Bank

As a change I decided to give the dogs a day off training today and take them for a nice walk along the river Ancholme. I work right next to the river and see people walking their dogs there all the time but didn't really realise what a nice walk it actually was. I popped into work and went for a swim whilst the dogs waited in the van then took them for their walk. They were not supposed to get wet, I thought the bank was quite steep so didn't think they'd get in...

...Well how wrong was I?! It evened out the further down you go and I only came back with 1 dry dog and that was Kody (although he did have wet legs). I couldn't keep Brian or Megan out, they are real swimmers and Heidi got soaked as she fell in trying to get to Brian! Still they seemed to enjoy themselves and have slept all afternoon although Megan and Kody are now full of beans and are back to their usual wrestling games, I dont think they believe in giving me 10 mins peace!
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1 Paw At A Time

We have had a couple of good sessions of training at the field this week so far and I'm pleased to say Megan is now doing the v-weaves with a single footed action. The plan now is to reduce the angle that they are at until she can do them upright. I' really pleased with how quickly she has picked it up so far, lets hope she continues with the same good progress. I am keeping a video diary of her training on this so I'll post it once we have completed the training.

We haven't really been up to much else lately. We have ordered our dog walk and A-Frame so we can start our contact training but they aren't due to arrive until mid December so we are currently working on jumping skills until then.

Brian has another check up at the vets on Friday and Kody is going too for his injections. I'm really hoping they give Brian the all clear this time (I seem to remember saying this before) but I really think he is the best he is going to be now and he is so much happier in himself and seems to have put a good bit of weight on too so fingers crossed!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Megan!

I can't believe our puppy is 2 today, it doesn't seem like that long ago she was a tiny little puppy. She has of course has some presents, a mini space hopper like the big one she loves and another toy and some treats too. Her daddy has promised to get her a new teddy when he gets back so i'm sure she'll love that as she really does love teddys!

Anyway, Happy Birthday to Reno, Zippy, Speedy, Eva and Zippo. hope you all have a lovely birthday x

Dog Vegas

Today we have been at the Dog Vegas show. I was running just the girls but the main idea today was to do some 'in the ring training' rather than competing as such. The aim was to ensure that Megan had a WAIT at the start of EVERY class and that they both got their weaves and would then be rewarded. Well it didn't go exactly to plan...
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...Megan  broke her wait in the first 3 classes which is really just down to naughtiness as she has a very solid wait at home so for the last 2 agility classes as there was no weaves in them (how annoying when that's what you want to train) I decided to run NFC and use the time to get our wait. We did have success but most of our course time was used up with me trying to win the battle but when she realised I could keep putting her back as often as I wanted until she did it, I won. I let her do 3 jumps as her reward for waiting. The second attempt at this was pretty much as the first was but to be honest I think it was worth while doing as she seems to know there are only so many times I can put her back at a normal show so sometimes the smaller shows are worth entering just for training things like that.

Only the jumping classes had weaves in and unfortunately both of the girls missed them on each time, Heidi chose the tunnel every time and Megan ran past them totally on one run and on the other went in about halfway down so obviously still more work to do on those.

Generally though not a bad day out, Heidi got quite stressed being indoors as it's very crowded and noisy but she coped with that by playing with her toy and being very focused on me whilst in the que and obviously getting lots of tasty treats for being such a good girl. I know she isn't happy in some situations but all I can ask of her really is be try to accept it and to be good and today she certainly did.

(The pictures are of the girls playing wrestling earlier in the week!)

Training Video

We have continued to work on our 2x2's since last week and the girls have definitely upped their game (C'mon girls!) On Friday and today we have been on 6 poles and it has gone very well. The issues we had previously had with Heidi's right hand weaves seem to have gone and she is doing them well. I videoed today's session and I'm glad I did as one thing I have noticed that I always do with Heidi (and never with the others) is stop dead once she has completed the weaves to throw her toy instead of continuing to run with her until we have passed them so that is something I will stop doing from now on (Bad mummy!)

As they all did so well today I ended the session with a couple of goes on 12 poles which I may have rushed on to a bit too quickly. Heidi and Brian both came out at 10 almost every time, Kody slowed considerably once there were 12 and poor Meg, she tries so hard but she can't double step 12 poles and so she tries and then ends up strolling through them so from tomorrow we will be getting the V weaves out for them all-Kody to increase his speed, Meg to teach a single footed action and Heidi & Brian in the hope that it will keep them in until the end.

With the dark nights drawing in we have been doing some shaping and clicker training at home to teach the dogs some new tricks but also so that we can introduce some bits into our agility training later through the winter. I have to say Megan seems to be the brain box for this, she really seems to like shaping. Kody and Heidi are doing well with it too, I think I have found Brian the hardest, we have been working with a cone and it took forever for him to interact with it but when he finally did I clicked him a few too many times for some things and now he thinks the game is to kick it over! Not quite what I had in mind but its new to me too so we will all learn together I guess.

Quick Catch Up

Well I thought it was about time we had a quick catch up although to be honest we haven't really done that much to be writing about. The dogs have had a good few sessions at the field and today I finally managed to move the remainder of our stuff up there. We have been working on our 2x2 training for the past few weeks on & off and bearing in mind all 4 dogs can already weave, today they should have been on 4 poles...

...The boys have both continued to do very well with no major issues at all but the girls have both been terrible today. Heidi just decided to not listen and do the first thing that popped into her head and then barked at me when it was wrong and Megan was more interested in what the people opposite the field were doing. Megan seems to be ok if she takes her time but when she gets some speed up before going into them she comes out. She isn't adjusting her stride prior to entry. I think they will both have to go back a stage tomorrow and i'm going to put today down to an 'off' day and begin again tomorrow. (We don't want the boys being better than the girls!!!)

Infact the dogs have all been pretty horrid today, I don't really know what has got into them, I decided it was about time the van had a good clean out so as we were back from the field earlier than planned I have hoovered it and cleaned out all inside and washed all the vetbed and blankets. While I was doing the massive project I noticed the dogs (well the Mali's-Brian was alseep) sitting in the front window barking. As they seemed to have far to much energy I put the 3 monsters out into the garden but I lost count of the amount of times I had to moan at them for barking. I hope they are not as mental tomorrow, they do make life hardwork when they are like that!

Kody has settled in really well with us, to be honest it is like he has always been here. Megan really loves him, they play constantly and they prefer to go on their daily walks together (although I do try and vary who each of them goes with). I have spent this evening repairing toys that he has broken (mainly the ones that are Megan's favorites-her teddy lost his leg again today and she was most upset) so if anyone can recommend some indestructable toys (I know not many are Mali proof) it would be much appricated as we are running low. Kongs seem to be the only toys to survive at the moment in our house!

Sick Day

Yesterday we had some lovely warm sunshine so we made the most of it and spent a good few hours at the field doing some training with all 4 of the doggies. We still have 9 jumps to move but hopefully we will get them moved tomorrow.

Today I was  supposed to be on earlies but last night I began to feel unwell with a headache and a bit of a sore throat. I opted for a hot bath and early night but didn't manage to fall asleep until after 4.30am so I didn't go to work this morning, instead i've spent the day curled up on the sofa covered in a duvet and dogs! They do seem to know when you don't feel well as they all want to curl up with you for a cuddle, only problem is you get squashed when all 4 want one at once!

Nearly Moved In...

We got the majority of our agility kit moved up to the new field today, just got some of the bigger jumps and the A-Frame to move now but it has poured down all day today and we were thoroughly soaked after a few trips with the van so gave up. Hopefully it will be dry one afternoon over the weekend to get the rest moved once I'm in from work. The grass has been cut up there too so it is pretty much ready to go now and we are quite excited!