Catch Up

We have been doing a few bits and bobs to keep us busy lately. We made it to hydro on monday (3rd time lucky) although that wasn't totally without drama, halfway through Brian's swim the power went off (Anne thinks we are jinxed!) so him and Kody swam with no pump or lights on. For some reason Kody was much more relaxed than normal, don't know if it was swimming with no noise or maybe he thought we couldn't see him as the lights were off. Who knows what goes on in that boys mind :)

Yesterday Heidi was booked in to see the Chiropractor. I was a little worried at how she would react as she isn't overly keen on strangers but she was as good as gold, trotted in to see her, played ball and was nearly asleep when Christine massaged her. Her back was a bit out of line and her pelvis and her neck quite stiff and tense but she is back in good shape now. She isn't overly happy at being made to rest but she can go back to normal tomorrow.

Today we had a very early start as we headed over to Derby so that I could do the final part of my judges training. Good news, I passed. Despite it being freezing cold it was a good day and I am actually looking forward to doing a bit of judging. I have given my details to Adams agility to hopefully do one of their shows.

This week we had planned jump training but it seems the weather may have other plans for us as we have the dreaded white stuff forecast this week. After previous years I'm glad we have a 4x4 truck!

Are We Mad?

Yes we are, yesterday we went to the BEACH! It wasn't planned, the dogs were meant to have hydro but they had problems with the pool and as I has things to do in the area we decided to take a walk on the beach too. As you can imagine, there was nobody there so the dogs had the whole place to themselves and considering it's January it wasn't that unpleasant.


We have been continuing with our training over the past couple of weeks, Kody is back at his club now although from the 1st Feb they are moving to a very posh new indoor venue in Newark (where Agility Nuts held their KC show), we are still planning to go though as I enjoy training with them, just means a bit further to travel. Last week Kody did well and we managed to get some sequences right that others struggled with but this week he was very clingy and I couldn't really get him to leave me so today we have worked on that a little.

Heidi is doing very well, we have completed our 2x2 training now and have begun to put our weaves into sequences and it's gong well. Her contacts are good too so that just leaves one thing now to try and improve, her pole knocking! She is going to the chiropractor in a couple of weeks time so we are going to tackle it after that. I doubt there is anything wrong with her to cause the pole knocking but a miracle cure would be good :)

Agility Nuts

Yesterday we went to our first show of 2012. When we got there we quickly discovered there had been some issues with the venue being double booked so the show was outside. Thankfully the weather was nice all day although a bit chilly at times, certainly not what you'd expect for January though. We managed to catch up with Natalie, Reno & Kiros too which was nice :)

Heidi and Kody were running, Brian was socialising. He managed to find himself a girlfriend in the exercise area, a flat coated retriever who he would have happily flirted with all day if i'd let him!

Heidi had 2 runs, an agility first thing which went well except for taking the first pole and another later on. I held her contacts though which were spot on so I was pleased with that. (There were no weaves in the agility class) Her second run was TFO jumping. I had hoped that if she was going to get faulted it would be before the weaves so that we didn't have to do them as I didn't really want to have the possibility of ruining the training we have been doing. Thankfully she seemed to realise this and took a pole shortly before.

Kody had 3 good runs, good contacts and weaves but in every class I managed to pull him off a jump, I think by me trying to move ahead too quickly so something we need to work on. He got round the tricky bits in the jumping class very well though.

Thank you to Lyn for the photos of Heidi & Kody, not very often I get any as I'm usually taking them!

Today I got the contact equipment out as it's meant to be nice all week here and I did some A-Frame and See-Saw training, i'm pleased with how they are both working. Heidi has also continued with her weaves today and is now up to 6 poles with a jump although the first 2 are still 'open' a little bit.

The video is only a short clip, had some videoing issues today. (Flat battery, poor location of camera etc)

Weaving (Ups and Downs)

After I last posted about Heidi's weave training and how well it was going it went a bit off track. On Wednesday we moved our training to the paddock for the first time (prior to that we had been in the house or around the farm). It didn't go well, Heidi went into 'mental mode' spinning, circling, not concentrating and looking like she had never seen weaves before in her life. I have no idea what caused it, maybe it was the move to the paddock, but I ended up having to open the weaves right back up, have a few 'easier' attempts, reward her and call it a day.

We couldn't train yesterday as we had winds of up to 70mph here so being outside was not an option! Today is lovely and calm and sunny though and I feel like we have made great progress. We continued where we left off on wednesday with 100% success from any entry so I began to slowly close up the poles. Over our 3 sessions today we have got to 4 totally straight poles with entries from anywhere. As she was on a role I decided to introduce the jump but to ensure we didn't lose our success I opened up the first two poles slightly making sure she got her entry.

I'm so pleased with how she has worked today, you can really see she is having to think and when she gets it wrong she is trying something different not just doing the same thing over and over. Tomorrow will be a rest day as i'm on earlies and then on Sunday we are off to Agility Nuts for a bit of a progress check.

Next week if the weather looks good i'm going to get all the contacts back out so we can get on with some proper training alongside our weave training.

Kody has had a few weeks rest, just with a little weave training session on Wednesday working on entries so it will be good to get back to doing something with him too.

2012

It always seems like a good idea to look back over the past year and see if it went to plan. 2011 provided us with new challenges, we had lots of fun with our agility even if we didn't bring home many rosettes and it had motivated me to try harder next year!

Brian only actually ran once this year, that was at Dog Vegas in July and he did seem to enjoy himself and he was such fun to run, he does seem to prefer the social side to agility though, meeting his friends (dog and human) around the rings. He has continued to do well with his swimming, i'm sure he can't wait to get our pool up again in the summer.

Kody was my biggest challenge last year and one I was totally unprepared for. It hadn't been the plan for me to run him but I'm glad I did. Grade 6 was harder than I ever imagined. Most of the time we didn't get round a course, I just had no clue having been thrown into the deep end but I think it has helped me realise that I need to work on my handling to give him the best chance. Me and Kody joined a new club at the end of the season and although we have to miss every 3rd week due to work I think it is beginning to help us and helps me see different ways of doing things so I can work out what suits us best.

Obviously improving my handling and timing is going to help Heidi massively. Last season was a bit of an ongoing battle with Heidi, starting off with retraining her contacts to a stop after playing around with running ones. I think a stop for her at the moment is the best option, it gives me a second to get control again. Her weaves also required some work as they often caused us issues. She did have some very good runs though, more often than not with just an unlucky pole.

The dog that gave me the most enjoyment to run though had to be Megan. She was just so much fun. Even though she always broke her wait, got her eyes on any tunnel halfway across the ring and went for it and missed most contacts she always enjoyed herself. Coming 3rd in the team event with her brothers and getting placed in G3 jumping (despite me thinking she wasn't ready) were the moments i'll remember. I'm very thankful that she was a part of our lives, even just for a short time. She taught me a lot and will never be forgotten. I hope her and her litter sister Eva who passed away just a few months after Megan, are up to no good together somewhere. They are missed very much.

...So 2012...

I want Brian, Heidi and Kody to be happy and healthy and enjoy life as much as possible. I would love to get a clear round with Heidi (well more than 1 but we have to start somewhere) and to handle Kody in a way that helps him progress (and not confuse him).

We have been a bit slow on the training front with one thing and another but I resumed Heidi's 2x2 retraining yesterday and it is going very well. She was never trained using this method but you can see from the video she is making improvements. (The video really was for me to test the new editing software i've got-but i've posted it anyway).

Over the next few weeks i've only got 3 days at work so I'm hoping for some dry days so we can really get on now. Already the schedules for shows are coming out I'm beginning to worry-we're just not ready!!!

Anyway, Happy New Year! Have a MAD 2012!