Today's News

"Well there isn't any because I ate it!"

The naughty little sheltie was having a race around the office this morning and decided to take a look at the headlines. She obviously wasn't impressed because she ate them.

Whilst she was shredding the day's news, Andy was on a business call and wasn't too impressed so Kizzy and I were banned from the office (suits me fine!)

This week Kizzy had her first 'agility' lesson. We went to training on Tuesday and for one reason or another all the people in my beginners class were absent (are they trying to tell me something I wonder?) Anyway, we decided to use the spare slot for Jan and Teazel and Andy and Kizzy. We did lots of name response exercises, sits and downs etc. Then we moved onto recalls through jump wings and some pipe tunnels. Teazel, being a collie, is much larger than Kizzy but they worked well together and were totally focused on their toys and handlers. Andy thoroughly enjoyed the session, it's the first time Kiz has done anything alongside another dog and he was really pleased at how focused she remained. By the end of the session Kiz and Teazel were still up for it, sadly the same couldn't be said of their handlers!

We've both been working hard on her recalls, sits and downs. With some advice from Bernadette we've made real progress. As with everything, Kizzy does all these exercises with huge energy and speed. Even in the above photo where I had to get her to sit (otherwise she was a blur amongst the torn up newspaper!) she does so with energy. She doesn't just flop into a sit but is upright and looking for reward, play or release. In fact, we've never seen her do a puppy sit.

Kizzy will be exactly four months of age tomorrow. This is good timing as it means she can 'legally' go to Mid Downs agility show on Saturday. Andy is judging in the morning and really looking forward to taking Kiz round her first agility show during the afternoon. Hopefully the weather will be reasonable. It can't get much worse than it has been recently that's for sure. Mind you can't complain, it's very sunny here today.

Tomorrow afternoon Andy's off to Ardingly to set up his course and he'll take Kizzy with him for that outing. I would normally go along to help but I'll be taking another journey into London to visit Mum in King's College hospital. Sadly, she is still showing no sign of improvement and is now in day 12 of a coma. It's an awful time and you just have to keep doing stuff in order not to dwell on things all the time. Thanks for all the kind comments.