Another fun weekend

Another fun but tiring weekend been and gone! This weekend was Wallingford show for us. We were booked to camp but decided it was a bit cold plus Andy thought it would be a good idea to catch up on some work and spend Sunday with Al working on the studio. Haven't done any photos on that recently but things are progressing and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Will take some pictures and do an update later in the week.

This meant driving back and forth to Newbury but I decided it was worth it. It was Zeki's first G4 show and so I was keen to try to move her up another grade as I want more challenging courses for us to run. I am very pleased to say that we achieved this goal on our first day when she won G4/5 agility. I haven't got this round on video but I was really thrilled with her. It was the best round we've done to date and I knew we couldn't have done it better. It was a slightly trickier course than we were running in the G1-3 and I really enjoyed the challenge of a start which had several ways of handling and a pull through right at the end. Good stuff! We also got 5th in G4/5 jumping and 2nd in the medium pairs with Karen and Todd.

Not such a good day with NN. She worked beautifully her G7 jumping only to be piloted over the wrong jump three from the finish (not that she knew!) and then she had one of her funny little spooky turns in the G7 agility. She was running really well but something unnerved her and she ended up falling off the see saw at speed. I put her over it again and she was fine but still looking over her shoulder at something outside the ring. She was very sniffy this weekend and whatever she was sniffing was spooking her. I resolved to get her out round the rings with a pot of food come Sunday!

Karen and Todd had a fantastic day winning both their G7 jumping and agility and getting the 2nd place in the pairs.

Here are some pictures of our wonderful little shelties and their Saturday haul:





Back we went again on Sunday morning. I decided to take little Pops with me on Sunday. She had stayed at home with Andy on Saturday and had a lovely day out in the garden but I knew she wanted to come with me on Sunday morning so she did! She had a wonderful day with a long session out by the rings killing her chippie chipmunk and a nice walk with just me and her. She was exhausted when she got home. Perfect.

I decided to have each dog out individually on Sunday and after Poppy had her time I took Niamh out with a pot of sausage. She was a bit spooky but we went to the edge of the ring where she had been frightened and played games and did tricks. She got over it and was fine for the rest of the show. She worked so well in David Isbister's lovely G7 agility and like a fool I charged at a fast weave entry (down hill) and she slipped into the second gap. Stupid handler, lovely dog. I managed to make amends in the G7 jumping where we came 3rd. She worked beautifully in both her rounds so I felt much better. I so love my Naughty Niamh and feel very upset when she is unhappy. She's such a bright funny girl and it's horrible to see her miserable.

Then it was Zeki's turn and she was awful. Screaming at the ring and lunging. I was terrified she would slip her collar. I can't use her little agility harness for walking round the rings as she can back out of it, so I decided to buy her a new harness just for socialising round the rings. I had realised that I only take her to the ring when it's her turn as she is such a handful and I need to do more work with her but chicken out of it as I'm afraid she'll get loose. She can't get loose now as she has one of these! It fits her really well and I feel very confident. It's a shame this style don't come in the same lovely colours as the original harnesses made by these people but I still managed to get pink and black! I like it because you can unclip the collar as well as the bit that goes round their tummies. It fits her much better than the original style of fleece harness where she was between sizes. This new style is almost tailor-made as they come in three sections and your dog is fitted with each element to make sure of a snug fit. Very good!

Little Zeki; what can I say. She was a star coming 2nd in G4/5 agility and then 2nd in the team Dash with our team mates Karen, Jenny and Rosie. We were beaten only by a large dog team. I was so proud of Zeki running clear in her first team; thank you girls for letting me run first.

I really enjoyed the agility class that she came 2nd in as there was some handling and it was a bit different from most of the classes we have run. It was great that Karen filmed it for me.



I can't wait for the next show!

I am also looking forward to seeing little Kizzle running. She's only done one show so far this year. She and Andy are rather rusty as they haven't competed, apart from this one show, since last September. Andy has very limited time to train at the moment due to work commitments, college and the studio build. On top of this the garden is starting to come to life so things are very busy for him. I think I might have to do a little training with Kizzle to get her back to her peak! Don't mention this to Andy, I will just sneak up the garden with her and pretend I'm throwing the ball which is part of her fitness regime as she is a rather lazy little girl on her walks most of the time!