Lincoln Show

I've been a bit late updating our blog this week but while i've got 10 mins I thought i'd get on with it. To be honest not much has been happening here, it just seems to be raining constantly! Last weekend at Lincoln show was no exception. It just poured down all Friday night and into Saturday morning. The show was an hour late starting while they decided wether it could go ahead or not. As the rings were ok they decided to go for it and see how the day progressed. As it happens the rings remained in very good condition all weekend, it was just the walkways which didn't. They ended up being pure mud! I think some of the campers had to be towed off too as their is no way their vans would have coped. We did have some spells of sunshine mixed in with the thunder, lightening, hail stones and rain. It seemed to rain every time I took my jacket off and left it in the van! The picture is of the ground next to the van after a 'shower'.

Anyway onto the agility. Heidi is continuing to run well, she did pick up a few E's this weekend but not naughty ones, just an off course jump or tunnel. All in all not too many poles either and I was pleased with her, she is still working nicely and listening.

Kody is another story, I really think we are getting worse. I have lost all confidence running him now which is just making him worse when we start to run and it just seems like a vicious circle. I don't think we had run that I can say I was pleased with this weekend. He did start off well in one of his classes and stopped at the bottom of the A-frame but then just wouldn't take the jump in front of him no matter what I did so we ended up leaving the ring. Unfortunately due to the terrible weather here we haven't been able to do any training at home so I can't try out anything or even practice running him other than at club (where he is fine). Back to the drawing board...

Today the doggies have had hydro which has worn them out. No shows now for a couple of weeks for us. I think I'm kind of glad. Don't fancy another weekend of being soaked through!

Bretford Show

We had a pretty enjoyable day at Bretford yesterday. It was nice to catch up with Natalie & Jackie again. I left Brian with my mum so only had Heidi and Kody to look after and run, it seemed very quiet with only the two of them! As it happens Brian had a great day with a nice walk and playing in the stream near to mum and dads house.

Me and Heidi didn't do as well yesterday, it wasn't terrible but not fantastic. She is very responsive to my body language and as a result I pulled her off a few obstacles where I hesitated slightly so I need to work on my timing.

Kody tried hard for me again but I was a bit rubbish yesterday. You can see on the video, once he gets confused he barks at me an then I lose all confidence and just give up which makes him worse! So from now on if it goes wrong I am going to do my best to remain positive and carry on with something (even if its not the course). He did have 1 clear yesterday in the Easter Egg challenge and finished 11th. Clever boy.

We have a massive well done to say to Natalie & Reno who got their first KC clear yesterday and then got another straight after! He is doing so well. Jackie & Speedy also had a good weekend, by yesterday he had 7 clears out of 7 runs, I'm sure he will have had more today too :) Thank you to Natalie for the video of my doggies running too, it helps to see where I can improve my handling.

GOOD Friday

Yesterday we were at Dog Vegas and had a brilliant day. Heidi is running so well at the moment. Her first run was in C3-5 agility, she just took the first pole and then ran lovely and ended with a time that would have put her in 5th place had she been clear. She took 2 poles in her other agility class and got an unlucky E in jumping, I just didn't get where I wanted and she saved us so many times but I ended up causing her to back jump a jump. So many people commented on how well she was running and I knew it wouldn't be long before she got that clear and it wasn't, she ran a fantastic run in the last jumping with just 1 wide turn but still finished 4th so I was over the moon.

Kody was a good boy too, his first run was a course where only 3 dogs went clear, it was so hard and we got E'd at no 7. He ran a nice agility run later on, just got 5f for a refusal  and then went on to go clear in a tricky jumping course. It was a bit messy and he ended up in 9th place and they only placed to 8 which was a bit unlucky.

I'm hoping their brilliantness continues tomorrow as we are off to Bretford for the day.

Happy Easter Everyone!