Last night's training

It was good to get back to training. I didn't go last week due to being ill. I've still got this wretched cold, it just won't go. Although I enjoyed training I was out of breath after about ten obtacles. By the end of my class with Niamh I was exhausted.

I was happy with our performance in the main but the weird thing was that she skipped the second pole again. This started two weeks ago at club but she showed no sign of repeating this behaviour at home or at the Easter show. Last night she did it again. It's very hard to stay calm and not get paranoid or irritated by this. At the end of the class I took her to the weaves with a handful of sausage and did lots of repetitions. To begin with I slowed her down and each time she came back through the second gap I praised and fed her. We did about 20 successful repetitions so at least I put her away in the car feeling more positive.

We picked an FCI course from the 2001 world champs in Portugal. It was the large individual agility and was a challenging and fun course to work on. For our class Andy split the course into sections and then we ran the whole course at the end.

I did a similar theme with the puppy class (I really need to rename this class as they're not puppies any more!) and all four of them finished by running the full course. Two of the dogs aren't weaving yet so they did a slightly different version but Evelyn and DeeDee and Andy and Kizzy did the whole pattern. Evelyn was clear apart from one wrong turn (in front of the tunnel # 10) and Andy chose to run the course by pulling to the weaves # 14 (rather than putting in a front cross) and Kizzy just missed the entry which she had got each time in practise :-( I was really impressed with all of them as this is by far the most complex course they've achieved and the most obstacles sequenced together. Whilst we split the course into sections prior to running it in full the class members kept busy when it wasn't their turn by practising start lines and wing wraps. I think they were all tired but happy at the end of the class!

The pressure was on for me to put on a good class because Leah took their class last week when I was ill and Andy (being Andy) came home and told me how good the class was, much better than normal. Sob. Nobody loves me. Jenny was very sweet and said that indeed Leah's was a very good class but so were my classes; they were just different. I go into too much detail for Andy's liking; he likes to keep moving and have loads of "goes" at everything. Maybe something to do with the fact that his bad dog barks when not busy!

The last two classes we ran slightly differently but running the whole course to begin with and then analysing and practising and then running again at the end of the class.

Here is the course for those interested:


After training Leah and Jay came back with their supper (chips and salad in a pitta bread) as they often do. Andy and I declined as we're trying to be a bit sensible about what we eat. What am I saying, we both scoffed "Wendy" cake that Mac brought along after his win with Spud at the Easter show. Oh well, it's the thought that counts.

Leah and Jay won't thank me for these lovely photos, but there you go!