Mud & Water!

We headed off to Adams for Easter. The plan was to compete Friday and Saturday and I was judging on Sunday. We arrived on Friday morning and the ground was very soft, got the van stuck in the mud about 2m off the hard standing! The rings were surprisingly good though. We didn't manage all of our runs as walking and running courses for 3 dogs meant a few rings clashed and I didn't want to run anything I hadn't walked and handle the dogs badly and make them slip or slide unnecessarily.  

We did have a good day though, Heidi did some nice bits with just a pole or missed weave entry. Chaos ran really well getting a 2nd in C4-5 Jumping and an clear round in Grade 5 jumping. I hadn't entered him into any agility as we still need more work on the running A frame but who knows when that will happen! Bridget also ran well, she was entered into allsorts classes just to boost her confidence and she was a really good girl. she was clear in 1 run and came 4th and her other one she just got 5f for running past the side of a jump.

By the time it was time to go home the ground had dried out a bit and I was able to reverse the van out without being towed thankfully. 

On Saturday morning we arrived at the show and the ground was just awful, there was just mud everywhere. We decided not to stay, instead we had a nice early morning walk on Cannock Chase and headed back to my mums for the day. I judged on Sunday but with only half a ring actually usable it wasn't much fun. Think our trips there might well be over.

Our show for this weekend was meant to be Broadlands UKA but it has been cancelled due to the wet weather and the ground being bad so another week to wait before any more shows!

Today Heidi has been for Hydrotherapy. She will be going a couple of times a month to keep her fitness up. I'm aware she is now 10 years old and still competing so I want to keep her in as good acondition as possible. I think she enjoyed herself today!!!

(Heidi in our Pool Last Summer)

Silver Stuff Again!

Chaos' Silver Agility warrant certificate came so we are now all official! 

This weekend has been back to freezing cold. Heidi took her Silver Good Citizen Test (about 9 years after taking Bronze) and im pleased to say she passed. She was a really good girl given that she hadn't ever met the other dog she was tested with.

Not much else has been happening, we have done some bits of training on the nice days, it has been nice to be back outside. Chaos and Bridget went to club last week and worked really well. We have started to enter a few shows for the summer and stating to make plans for our club show as well.

Kelluki and a Catch Up

So all the show was pretty much washed away by the time we headed to Kelluki show. I took Chaos and Bridget as Heidi was still on rest from having a Myotherapy session the day before. I do love the Kelluki shows, I

love the venue and the show itself is really lovely. 

Bridget only had the one run, allsorts jumping. Ive decided to try this for a while with her to hopefully build a bit of confidence without having to think too much about weaves and difficult courses. This course was perfect for Bridget and she went clear (her first clear round) and finished 4th :)

Chaos' courses were a little tricky. I had only entered him in Jumping and steeplechase but we managed a messy clear in the Comb 4-5 jumping and he finished 3rd. This has also given him enough points for his Silver Agility Warrant so he is now Bonvivant gonna Be Chaos at Borubears AW(S).

We have snow!!!

On Sunday we headed off to Stonebrige Agility show - it was freezing!!! Heidi is resting following Myotherapy and needs another treatment on Saturday so just took Chaos. He only had 2 jumping runs, one was a good clear, the other went a bit wrong! His clear is in the video.

We had been forecast lots of snow this week so on Monday we made the tough decision to close for the week, given how much snow we have had it was definitely the right choice! The dogs are loving it at the moment, hopefully it will only last this week and normal classes can resume from next week. Will post some more snow photos as the week goes on.

MAD Show

Yesterday was the last of our winter shows which was kind of sad as it may be the last one for good if we don't find another suitable venue. The sun was shining and everyone had a great day. Its hard running a show and running your dogs to their full potential so we didnt have great results. Bridget had 3 runs at standard height and actually ran really well, in her first run she was a bit distracted but came back and worked. Her other 2 were much better and she actually got a 4th place (with 5f) in her steeplechase. So pleased with her, her confidence is improving all the time. 

Club members had some fantastic results, I wont list them all as im bound to miss someone out. Some photos below for some of the guys with their rosettes :)

Training

The last week or so has been pretty busy, Bridget went for Myotherapy last week and everything is as it should be, she loves a massage! Heidi is booked in for next week.

Yesterday was Heidi's 10th Birthday, I have no idea where that time has gone, she certainly doesn't act like a 10 year old!! Still loves her Agility and any kind of training for that matter.

Today the dogs have been in the building again training as the weather been rubbish has meant the field is still very wet. We have work mostly on our dog walk training, they were all really good, Chaos is still a bit cheeky and self releases but he is getting better. Brenda learned a plank today and Kody did some ladder work.

The rest of this week will be spent getting ready for the last of our winter shows on Saturday. Rosettes and trophies are all sorted, ring boxes packed, prize hampers made, slowly getting there with it!!!

Bridget

Today I stepped out of my comfort zone and became a student for the morning and loved it. I took Bridget on a training day with Sian Illingworth to help build her confidence in new places as she is struggling with it at the moment. Bridget was awesome, she worked for the full 2 hours and enjoyed herself! I think it will be baby steps with her in terms of shows and might be a while before we attempt to run full courses in the ring but positive experiences like this one should all help. Video of her training is below :)

 

Reviving The Blog

I stopped blogging about my dogs training as I didn't have the time anymore but looking back on it a few nights ago I realised what a good source of memories it was and really made me smile so ive decided to attempt to do it again.

So since the last post in 2016 a fair bit has happened...ill do a quick catch up! 

Heidi and Chaos both won into Grade 5 in 2017, Chaos competed at the Belgian Shepherd World Championships in May 2017 for team GB, Bridget got Best Of Breed at Windsor Champ show in June 2016 and qualified and competed at Crufts 2017 before we hung up our showing hat. Sadly we also lost Brian back in June 2017 after a short spell of illness. Kody has now fully retired from Agility, Heidi is still loving Agility at 10 years old! We have our own AstroTurf indoor building for training now too, its not massive (20m x 7m) but big enough to train short sequences and single jump exercises and weaves.

This morning I took all of the dogs over to the building to do some training. Its been a while since they have worked on skills. We picked cone wraps as our training for today. Brenda and Kody have not done it before so they leaned how to wrap a cone in both directions. Chaos is a cone pro so it was just a bit of fun for him. Bridget has limited enthusiasm for it so we have to keep it short and sweet and Heidi has far too much! We worked on their pull through skills today though and got there in the end, will carry on tomorrow.

We also started to work on their weave entries, Chaos and Heidi are needing to do more difficult entries now and although we have done it before they are a little rusty! 

Video clip below of Brenda weaving, I taught her about 3 years ago but haven't done it since. She hadn't forgotten!!!