Last training before Olympia

Well, just two sessions of training left before Olympia. Last week at club we set up one of Johanna's courses (well almost, the start isn't quite right.) It is a great course to run, plenty to think about for sure. Johanna is an excellent course designer. The original course is the white circles and we added a second way round, black circles, which was just as testing.


Tonight we're going to the opposite extreme and setting up a really fast contact loop so that we can continue to practise driving into tunnels and fast releases. My plan is to release Niamh as soon as her feet hit the floor and just put in a few proofing contacts where I don't release and expect her to wait regardless of what I'm doing.


On Thursday we have our last night of training at Leah's club. I expect she will make me run around a lot as per usual. She is so cruel to me. I am only joking, she makes me work hard but does remember to give a high rate of reward in the form of verbal praise. I'd prefer Quality Street but there you go, it's better for me that way!

I am going to do a bit more work on my dog walk and tunnel commitment at home this week. I have a nasty habit of pulling Niamh off tunnels if I'm not careful. She is a very honest dog and if she thinks I don't want her to do something then she won't do it for herself. I need to up my volume a bit when I want her to drive to things I don't want to go so close to. I am too quiet and calm. Leah keeps telling me this and I do try to be a bit louder and more enthusiastic but it's hard!

Bernadette has given me very good advice on my contacts for training drills and now I just need to work on my timing to make sure that I don't waste time (as advised by Leah.) It may all go to pot as Niamh may well decide she isn't going to wait on contacts at Olympia anyway ..... but I have to train as if she will perform her normal behaviour. I must be sure to release her clearly as she has been known to wait on a contact when she hasn't heard the release!

Bernadette has given me some healthy snacks to take to Olympia (oh and some jelly beans and chocolate) and for Niamh a new dog towel so that I can dry her off if she gets wet. On the towel it says "Believe". I will try hard to do that, I do believe in Niamh (yes that does rhyme) it's me I have the problem with!

We also received this via email today. How lovely. This is Naughty Niamh's lovely Daddy, Mac. You can see the likeness. Well, it came from Nat really but you have to pretend!

That's it for now. My nerves have kicked in today. I am glad about that as I wasn't feeling anything and that always makes me worry!

Brilliant Weekend

Have only just had time to post about my brilliant weekend.

I got up early on Saturday morning for my weekly beginners lesson and Andy took all the dogs for a nice walk. After that got all my stuff sorted ready to go off for the weekend with Niamh and Zeki. Had to stop off at Morrisons in Oxted enroute to get some shopping for my Dad and step-mum. Jan was really poorly last week and just couldn't get out. So I grabbed them some stuff and had lunch with them before heading off to Sunbury. Luckily they live just outside Godstone so it's really easy to pop onto the M25 from their place. I took a picture of the pond at Dad's as the colours looks really lovely at the moment:

I got to the venue in time to give Zeki and Niamh a quick walk in the park and then it was time to start our "Co-ordination and Balance" course. It was fantastic. I think it rates as one of the most enjoyable and useful sessions I've done with any of my dogs. The variety of exercises was well thought out and great fun for the dogs (and us!) Zeki was really well behaved as she was kept busy.

We did three levels of wobble board; ladder work; cavaletti exercises; elephant trick; walking on hind legs whilst supported on a big squashy exercise ball; walking slowly down ramps to encourage the dogs to rock back onto their haunches during descent rather than rushing down onto their shoulders; figures of eight around cones and other stuff. Zeki absolutely loved it. When it wasn't her turn she kept sitting on a Quality Street tin trying to get me (or anyone) to click and treat her.

I was very pleased with Zeki's attitude to all the different exercises. As soon as I showed her a piece of apparatus she just wanted to interact with it. I didn't have to lure her to anything. She has done some ladder work so I kind of expected her to do that nicely but she has not been on a wobble board and she loved them! She was happy to perform tricks whilst balancing on the wobble boards. The round wobble board was the most challenging as it never comes to rest but she was just as happy on that as the square versions.

Thank you to Hannah for the thought and effort she put into this session. I would thoroughly recommend to anyone with a young dog or indeed any dog that could do with some help in learning how to "think" about their balance and use of rear end. Excellent - good job Hannah!

Then we tootled off to Karen's house. Dear Karen was brave enough to invite me to stay over night with Zeki Beaks and Naughty Niamh. Actually they were quite well behaved. They didn't really know how to cope with the cats. Niamh was scared and Zeki wanted Willow to play with her. Neither were as well behaved as Karen's six dogs when they stayed with us the previous week but I kind of expected that! Now if it had been my perfect little Poppy that would have been a different story. I didn't take Poppy with me only because it was a cold weekend and on both days she would have needed to spend a lot of time in the car and it seemed silly when she could be at home with Andy and the others in a nice warm house.

We had a chinese takaway and rather a lot of wine on the Saturday evening. Hannah came round and we all watched Strictly Come Dancing. We were all worried for Austin and Erin and sadly in the results show on Sunday we were right, they were voted off by the judges. A real shame but there you go!

On Sunday morning we were rather lazy and got up quite late (probably due to the fact that we'd had a lot of red wine and didn't go to bed until 3.30 am!) Anyway, we had crumpets for breakfast, yum my favourite and then gradually forced ourselves to get showered and dressed. We needed to be at Polly's around midday for lunch before our training session with Dennis. It was very cold and Dennis kept us all moving. I thoroughly enjoyed his training session. It was pitched perfectly for what I needed just before Olympia. Lots of fast contact loops and some tricky sequencing which we put into a full course at the end of the session.

Niamh was brilliant and we had a high success rate overall which is what I need right now. We had some mistakes but Dennis helped us to put those right. By the end I had to pull out, Niamh was brain dead as we'd done so much (so was I for that matter!) I really love Dennis's training as he is so motivational, great fun (he laughs with you and not at you!) and helpful.

Thank you so much to Hannah, Karen and Dennis for their input to a fab weekend and of course to my two gorgeous girls (Naughty Niamh and Zeki Beaks)for their endless enthusiasm and sense of fun. I do love my dogs.

Naturally Poppy got extra hugs when I got home on Sunday evening. This is what I'm planning for Poppy's Christmas present as I feel so guilty not doing as much with her as the other two:

Can't you just picture Pops snuggled up in one of these?

Correct answer: YES!

Looking forward to the weekend

I'm really looking forward to the weekend. On Saturday I'm taking Zeki to a Co-ordination & Balance course. These are run by Hannah Banks and I've been looking forward to this for ages. I think Zeki will really enjoy the course. I've done lots of exercises with her which relate to co-ordination and balance such as ladder work, getting in and out of a box, elephant trick, balancing on a wobble cushion, sitting on a box etc and she loves doing this sort of thing. Apart from her weekly obedience class this is the first course Zeki and I have been on so I am really excited to see if she'll perform her exercises in a new place with other people and dogs around.

Thought we'd have a little practise!

I was going to practise doing some exercises on the blue wobble cushion but I can't find it anywhere. I have a feeling I may have lent it to someone. If any of my friends can rememer if they have borrowed it please let me know!

After Zeki's training course I'm going home with Karen who has invited me to stay for the night. I am really looking forward to this. We're going to have a takeaway and watch Strictly Come Dancing. I'll have Naughty Niamh and Zeki Beeks with me so I am hoping very much that they will behave as well as Karen's dogs did at our house last weekend. Some hopes me thinks!

On Sunday we're off to Polly's for an afternoon training session with Dennis McCaulay. This is Niamh's last external training day before Olympia so I hope the weather stays reasonable. I have been on one of Dennis's training days before and really enjoyed it. He has loads of good ideas and keeps you moving. This really suits us as Niamh likes to keep busy, it actually means she gets tired less quickly. If she is left for too long between turns she directs her attention to dog-watching and this tires her out much faster than her agility training. I know I should keep her occupied between turns but it's hard on a training day because I want to listen to what the trainer is talking about even when it's not my turn. Dennis does push me out of my comfort zone but does so in a way which keeps me motivated and positive. I love his style of training.

I think Andy is planning a ride out with the Edenbridge HOG (Harley Owners Group). That's himself, Michael & Dan! Michael now has his Harley so it will be a noisy excursion for sure.

Training and other things

We had a good session at training last night. We set up a pattern that we last used in 2004 and worked on weave entries as well as pull throughs and fast contact loops. Murphy was a very happy boy as Leah was back from her month away in Wales. He was rather enthusiastic to say the least. Poor Leah, I don't know how she does it but she runs Murphy in the first class, then Hex, Link and finally Herbie. It was nice to have her back at training (and Jay of course), I have missed her but don't tell her that!

I was pretty pleased with Naughty Niamh, her contacts were excellent and her weave entries pretty good. I have been working hard on getting her to continue in the weaves when I peel away or stop and she has definitely improved with this aspect of her weaves.

I had Zeki out and about during one class. She is a real handful when there are other dogs working. If I have food then it's no issue, she's totally into me (well, the food!) but if I try to use a toy then she is much more likely to watch and bark at the other dogs. She has a very strong eye. We did make some progress but not much! More of this little problem later!

Kizzy and Andy had a good training session. Their contacts have really improved and Andy now seems to be much more clear in how he wants to move these forward. He was due to attend a training day with Toni Dawkins on Saturday but unfortunately had to pull out due to a pulled muscle. He somehow managed to do this on Tuesday evening at training and so can't run much at all right now. He has had to pull out of badminton for a couple of weeks. Of course, he can still manage to ride a motorbike!!

On Friday Karen, Leah and I got together for some extra training. Leah set us some difficult exercises which highlighted all my weaknesses. We did a couple of sequences where we had to layer and also run past obstacles that the dog couldn't take. I did not achieve it with Niamh so I need to practise this more. Karen and Leah both managed to get it right with their dogs. Boo hoo, I am so useless. We also had a session on pull throughs and push throughs. This was better and I managed this reasonably well.

Karen and Leah did some training with Hex and Todd. I think they had a good time, they were both very tired after. I didn't watch them train as I had a much more important role, that of buying our lunch. One has to prioritise.

After lunch Karen gave me a lesson with Zeki. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have some video which I'll put on the blog as soon as I've edited out the really bad bits! Our ladder work was hysterical because I used a toy rather than food and we had rather too much drive and kept forgetting to trot through the rungs! Poor Karen was trying to assist me and video and typically most of the not so good bits got filmed and the better stuff not! Karen brought Sparkie down for a wander and we soon discovered that Zeki's focus was not so good when Sparkie dared to move. So, we spent some time getting Zeki to play whilst Karen and Sparkie walked and then trotted round. As mentioned earlier, she has a strong eye and I realise I am going to have to work hard to build up her focus on me in situations where there is movement and excitement. I am going to see if I can find a local obedience class for where we can start to work with other dogs around. Overall I was delighted with our training and her tugging has strenghthened enormously and more often than not I can switch between toy and food.

On Saturday I judged Tenterden agility club's competition. It was good fun with lots of nice dogs and handlers. We had a lovely buffet after the competition and I won a jump in the raffle. It's one of those portable stick in the ground types that you can pop in the car and take to shows.

Andy was pretty busy getting the land rover cleaned up ready to sell (it has gone!) and then he and Michael went out on a bike ride. We decided to sell the vehicle because it's a lot of money tied up in one car that for seven months of the year sits on the drive. Come the spring we're going to look for a cheaper tow vehicle ready for the agility season.

Today was also busy. I had my beginner group in the morning and then I took Zeki down and trained her. We worked on our open v-weaves - she's very proficient at these now and does them equally well for a toy or treat tub. I won't be doing too much more of these for a bit as I don't want to upright them any more as she's only 8.5 months old but equally I don't want to keep them wide open for much longer. Hopefully when we come back to them she will remember the process.

We moved on with our little jump and tunnel sequence and can now complete two jumps to a u-shaped tunnel and two jumps to finish. I do this from ahead, beside and behind on both hands. So far, so good. She is very keen for her toy which is a real help.

I have decided that I will do a stop dog walk. I simply don't have the kind of commitment required to achieve reliable running contacts. So I have been working on her targets and they have improved enough that I decided to start work on the down dog walk plank. I lowered it right down and just started from about a third of the way back behind the contact on lead and she pulled straight to her target. We did about five repetitions on each side and I was pleased with the result.

This afternoon Michael came round and helped me get my new PINK laptop sorted out with the software I need. It's very nice and this is my first blog entry using it!