April Sunshine

Just can't believe this weather we're having. We had a lovely weekend last week at Shuttleworth. Dan (my brother) won grade 1 agility and came 3rd in grade 3 jumping with his first agility dog Tig. They're having a great time and really enjoying themselves.

This weekend we went to Newbury for the Wallingford show. It was really good fun and very well organised for such a large show. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Murphy was a very bad boy this weekend and just wouldn't stop on his dog walks despite all the work Andy has put in.

Niamh was a little star and came 2nd in G5 jumping and 3rd in G5 agility yesterday. The timing was good as we haven't been gelling recently and so it's given me a big confidence boost. The agility course was very fast and I didn't expect to get a place, let alone a trophy. The jumping course was one of the best I've seen for a long time. It was probably top end of G5, possibly G6, and required lots of handling but not nagging. All the time there was something for the dog to do but lots for the handler to think about. I think the judge put a huge amount of thought and effort into her design and it was a very satisfying course to run. My friend didn't get clear and she said exactly the same about it so it's not just me saying this because I came 2nd!

Sadly I didn't work Poppy very well but she had a good time. We got a scrappy clear on Saturday but that was about it.

Kizzy is exhausted. When we arrived on Friday we met up with our friends and had a puppy training session in one of the enclosed paddocks at the showground. I said we'd have fifteen minutes with the puppies and 45 minutes later a very tired Jenny & Rikki; Polly & Daisy; Karen & Todd and Andy & Kizzy trudged back to their caravans! We had a really good session and all the puppies worked well in a new environment. We did lots of tugging and recalls to handlers. Great fun.

Kiz then spent a lot of time round the rings on Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes just watching other times Andy took food and clicker and they did some training. Kizzy really does love agility shows and enjoys the whole experience of being away in the caravan and mingling with 100's of other dogs.

Last week we re-organised our agility training schedule to include a new puppy class for Kizzy and friends. They now have a weekly half-hour class on a Tuesday. We did lots of recalls and sendaways through wings which they all enjoy. This week we're going to concentrate on getting the puppies tugging with their handlers whilst other stuff is going on. All in all they did really well and I'm looking forward to this week's lesson.

Mum is still in Kings College in London so the nightmare trips continue. We have managed to secure her a bed in the local cottage hospital but she now has the C.Diff bug and cannot be moved anywhere until this is completely clear which can take a long time. To add to this she fell out of bed last week so that has set her back a bit. We can't believe this was allowed to happen and are very angry about it.

Our move seems to be progressing and we are hoping we might exchange contracts this week. If this happens then I'll post some pictures of the new garden which is lovely. Meantime here's a picture of Kizzy enjoying a chew on Niamh's ringo in her little compound outside the caravan.