Kody Can Swim

Today was only Kody's second hydrotherapy session and he was such a good boy. He was much better at getting showered this week when he got there and when he got out. He was very happy to play ball on the ramp and had a good few games of bobbing for the ball. We then got him actually swimming. His first couple of goes were a bit splashy but then it seemed to click in his head as to what he was supposed to do and by the end we had him jumping off the ramp and swimming around the edge of the pool nice and calmly and then back onto the ramp. (We however were not so calm, shouting and cheering at him for being a 'good boy') I cant believe the difference in him for only his second session. It took Heidi about 4 sessions to be that confident in the pool.

The other 3 all had a swim today too. Brian was totally mental, anybody would think he had never been swimming before! He just loves to go to hydro, I think it's his favourite activity. Megan was in second after Brian, she was much calmer, she tries really hard but she does have a much more 'relaxed' swim than the others do!

Heidi had another brilliant session, I got some photos of her swimming today she really does enjoy it. She was even barking for Anne to throw the ball for her into the pool! I only managed to get photos of Kody sitting on the ramp but i'm hoping after a few more sessions he will be less reliant on me being so close and ill be able to get some photos and a video clip of him swimming. (You can see he certainly isn't unhappy sitting in the pool!)

The dogs have got to wait 3 weeks for their next session now as either I couldn't take them or Anne couldn't fit them in but hopefully Kody wont have forgotten how to swim by then.

Jumping Today

We have done plenty of jump training with the dogs today. We wanted to practice a couple of sequences that Conor had done with Kody last weekend at the Border Collie show that didn't go brilliantly. We both did them with Kody today and were able to see where it had gone wrong and we then did them with Heidi and Megan as well and they coped well with them.

Our major problem today was 'ins'. I couldn't do it with Kody, he knows what to do I just had terrible timing and wasn't getting into position quickly enough. Something we will need to practice I think.

Conor had trouble doing them with Heidi too but he broke it down to do a couple of jump at a time before progressing into a row of 3. Although it was a bit wide at times she was getting the idea, it's something again that will need some practice.

Megan's weaves have been very good today, her entries are so much better and I can confidently leave her in them and run on ahead, something i'm hoping to be able to do this year in competition. I did do a quick bit of contact training with her too today, she was naughty and jumped her dog walk a few times and missed her A frame on a couple so with only two weeks to go until our next competition that's what we'll be continuing to work on.

Brian joined in with some of our training today too, his weaves are still brilliant, they are definitely his favourite obstacle, for such a big dog he can really move through them and he is very bendy. Considering when he first learnt to do them he hated the poles touching his body he has come a long way. Brian isn't going to be competing at all this year, he will obviously be coming with us to shows as he loves to meet people but really he only seems to enjoy agility at home so we will just continue to let him join in to train as and when he wants to.

Kody's Turn

This week it has been Kody's turn to do some activities. On Wednesday he had his first hydrotherapy session, he wasn't overly keen on being made to swim, he did a lot of panic swimming but on his last go he did calm down a little. I'm sure he will get used to it though, he has another session next wednesday.

After last weekend we decided it might be a good idea to take Kody to some agility training. I am going to be running him and I haven't done much with him really so it would be a good idea for us to get used to each other. As it happens Lucy had a space become available from this week in the class after Megan's so I took Kody last night and he was a good boy. He isn't very confident running with me at the moment and it took us a few goes to do thing but that is more my handling than him. He did do some nice sequences though and i'm sure we will improve in the coming weeks.

Kody isn't feeling well today although it is self inflicted, he has stolen a large amount of food from the food bin and now is sulking as he probably has belly ache.

Today we have had a busy day, we collected the caravan from storage and got some gas for it and brought it home as it is going to be staying here throughout the summer months. We have cleaned the outside so far but it really needs a good clean in and out before we go away in it. Our first camping show isn't until may though so I have got plenty of time to get it serviced and packed ready and I still need to get a few bits for it that we realised we needed from last year. (Spare battery being one of them) We have decided that this will probably be the caravans last year and we will hopefully have an upgrade next year.

This weekend I have the whole weekend off work and we don't have much planned so it will be nice to get some jobs done and we plan to try to get to the beach with the dogs if the weather stays nice.

Border Collie Club of GB

Well thats our first show down, today we were at the BCC of GB show.

Heidi had some good runs today, in her jumping she just had a pole, in her C1-4 agility she did well until the weaves and then wouldn't do them and it went a bit downhill after that and she missed her contacts and in her last agility run she wasn't too bad, a bit mad but calmer than she can be!

Kody was a bit mixed, it was the first time Conor had ran him at all, in their first agility they had a few minor issues like taking the wrong jump and Kody getting a bit confused but nothing too bad. His second agility run wasn't until this afternoon but Kody completely lost all his confidence. I stood and qued with them but then moved away so I could get in position to take some photos and Kody really freaked out so I had to go back to him. His run wasn't great, he was very worried and Conor just couldn't get him to weave at all so he ended up bringing him out. We decided that I would give it  go running him in the jumping and he was much better, we got E'd for going in the wrong end of the tunnel and we missed out a couple of jumps due to my handling but all the way round I told him he was a good boy and praised him loads and he ran much better.

Megan started the day off well with a lovely clear in the G3 Jumping which resulted in 16th place so I was really chuffed with that. Her first agility was a real mess, lately she seems to be turning into a proper Mali, a bit mad at times and thats exactly what she was in this class! She missed her DW contact by miles, didn't weave first time and then flew over the A-Frame into a handstand (not sure if she got the contact or not!). Her second agility was better, she got the A-Frame as she is supposed to but still missed the dog walk so we know we still have work to do on that. We have had that little bark in 2 out of 3 classes today too, it makes me laugh so much when she does it and I think she actually surprises herself when it happens!

It's a few weeks now until our next show, but already I can't wait!

Meg's Little Bark

This week we have done loads of training with the dogs and I think it is starting to pay off. We have done loads at home and had 2 hours training with Lucy on Wednesday morning and club training tonight where we took Heidi as well as Megan.

Megan has worked on contacts and weaves, her contacts are coming along nicely now, we have done a lot on the dog walk and really pushed her to speed up and she has a very good success rate. We are still to test it without any training aids though. With her weaves I have been working on leaving her in them and running on ahead. It didn't go too well when we trained at Lucy's but we have had some success at home so it is a work in progress.

Heidi's contacts are an ongoing project, she is running them with some success at the moment but we seem to find a method that works then all of a sudden it stops working so it's something we are going to persevere with over the year. Her weaves have been good at times but also terrible at times too! At club tonight I think it took about 10 goes to get her through them as she just gets so wound up and excited.

Kody has trained his contacts and weaves and some jumping at home, he is starting to come off his contacts without being released so we are trying to nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem. He is generally a very good boy though.

This week Megan seems to have found a new level of enthusiasm, she is running so well and much quicker than she used to be and yesterday at Lucy's she developed an excited little woof as she jumped. I'm really pleased that she is starting to love doing agility, until now she has always tried hard but because she was asked to do it, now she is enjoying it more and i'm really looking forward to running her this year.

We have our first show this weekend, we still have some areas to work on with the dogs, Heidi is contacts, Megan it is box sequences as she sometimes runs under a jump but we still have a few weeks after this show until our next one so plenty of time.

The video below is some of our training this week, both at home and with Lucy. Our video ran out at Lucy's though so it doesn't actually show that much. (Check out Meg's ears as she weaves-they make me laugh as she holds them together in a point!)

Crufts & Agility Nuts

We had a really good day out on Friday at Crufts. The dogs were spoiled with new beds, toys, dinosaur bones new tags for their collars and some other bits. The Mali's had a good day with Megan's brother Speedy taking the RDCC so well done Jackie and Speedy and Megan's mum Chamonix taking Best of Breed. We got to watch the ABC Jumping in the afternoon and saw Jo & Keisha finish 2nd so well done to you both too,  great results all round!

Today we finally managed to get to an Agility Nuts show and we had a really good but very long day. We only had the girls running and although no clears lots of positives to come away with and only a few silly mistakes from Megan really.

I haven't ran her at a show since about October last year so I have had no way of knowing how our training has gone but she got her weaves today and got her A-Frame contact and we had a wait in every class so I have come away really pleased. (There wasn't a dog walk so I couldn't test that). She had a bit of a nervous moment on the see-saw but other than a couple of times at club it has probably been about 6 months since she did it. She had a lovely fast jumping run too and only had to clear the last jump when a woman entered the ring by the finish carrying a bucket which spooked Meg and made her run around the jump but other than that a very good day for us.

Heidi was a bit mad but did have a nice jumping run but knocked 3 poles and a good up and under class but silly daddy's handling made her miss a tunnel.

Lots to work on this week though ready for the season starting next Sunday at BCC of GB in Newark.

Crufts Tomorrow!!!

Tomorrow we are off to Crufts for a day out and I'm quite excited. We are hoping to arrive in time to cheer on Jackie & Speedy in the breed ring and will hopefully get to watch the ABC Jumping too. We are mostly going on a shopping trip though, a good opportunity to spoil the doggies (not that they need it!)

This week when we have been training I decided to alter the stride pattern that I want Megan to take on the dog walk so that she does the down in 2 strides rather than 3. I think it will suit her better as she does have a very long stride. Training it has started off well and we tried it out at club tonight, still with the stride regulators in place and after some initial confusion of her thinking she needed to stop on the contact (something she never did when I wanted it!) she got it very well. We also had the opportunity to test her A Frame contact too without any training aids and that went well. We still need to work on our weaves though as we did have a couple of missed entries and she came out of them a couple of times but generally I'm pleased with how her training is going. We are at Agility Nuts on Sunday so that will be an opportunity to test things somewhere totally new.

Good luck to everyone we know competing at Crufts over the next few days and we'll see some of you tomorrow I'm sure!

Fake Ailments

Well Kody's week didn't get much better resulting in him thinking he only had 2 working legs! Conor came home on Thusday and amongst all the dogs initial excitement at him being back Kody managed to catch his dew claw which snapped and was pointing at a right angle compared to where it should be. As a result Kody had to go and visit the vet who clipped off the offending nail. The vet did say the nail didn't seem 'normal' so we have to keep it as short as possible but if he catches it a lot it may have to be removed.

Megan hasn't been herself either so I spoke to the vet when we took Kody and the vet thinks it sounds like she is showing signs of having a phantom pregnancy. She isn't producing any milk and the vet thinks its only mild signs so she doesn't need anything for it and we are to carry on as normal.

Due to our vet trip on Thursday we managed to miss club training but will be back there this week and hopefully Meg will be feeling better anyway. We also plan to get some training in at home this week ready for Agility Nuts next weekend.