WBSDS and clever Naughty Niamh!

If we listened to everything the weather forecasters said then we wouldn't have gone to Newbury for the weekend. As it was we had about 45 minutes of rain first thing Saturday morning and then reasonable weather for the rest of the day and a lovely day on Sunday!

We travelled down quite early on the Friday to help Leah set up her courses. Once we'd done that we chilled out with a glass of wine or three. I ran Herbie round Leah's course so that she could make sure it was easy to judge. He is lovely to run, so obedient and responsive. Leah let me bring Zeki into the ring to have a little play. I am very grateful for this because I need to get her in as many different places as possible to try to get on top of her desire to chase. She was really good and didn't try to leave me at all even when Leah was trying out parts of her novice course with Hex. We managed this without any food at all so it gave me confidence that we will get on top of this aspect of Zeki's nature. Quite by accident I found out that Zeki is very happy to jump full height - yikes I couldn't believe my eyes!

It was a weekend of two parts for both Andy and I. Neither of us got our dogs clear around a single course on the Saturday. This sounds really awful but in reality it wasn't quite that bad because we didn't actually have any disastrous rounds; just the odd mistake which spoilt otherwise reasonable performances for me and in Andy's case probably cost him a couple of really good places if not a win. All positive stuff just not quite coming together. It sounds like I'm making excuses but we scribed all day for Leah and there's no doubt it's harder to run your dog well when you just go and grab her from the caravan and charge off to the ring without any preparation. That's not to say we'd have done any better without ring partying but I do think it makes some difference to your attitude let alone to the poor dogs who get left most of the day. We made it up to them with a nice long walk at the end of the day.

Sunday was a glorious day and I have panda marks to prove it. I wore sunglasses all day and forgot to put on any sun cream until lunch time! My first class wasn't on until after the small and medium agility but was running over the same course. Leah said I would love the course and so I went up to the ring to take a look and had a walk round whilst it was set at small height. I absolutely loved it. It had a bit of a European flavour with obstacle discrimination and two fairly tricky weave entries. The finish was a bit scary though. I walked it to cut off the corner but even so that was one long run! With regard to the obstacle discrimination and weave entries, I decided that I would trust Niamh to do as she's been trained and if things didn't work out then we'd go away and just train harder.

Meantime Andy and Kizzy set up on the line. Andy wasn't very optimistic about his chances and I really don't know why because he and Kizzy put in a fantastic round. He left her to find both weave entries and she bombed down the long finish. She did very solid contacts as Andy is trying really hard to be strict about them and even so she finished up in 3rd place a fraction behind her kennel mate - Timmy with Peggy. I think it was possibly the best round I've seen them run together.

Before I knew it it was my turn to run the Naughty Niamh. Sadly I don't have Niamh's run on video as Andy has been helping me with her in the queue. I'm not taking her back until about two dogs to go and it does seem to help as she doesn't get quite as wild. Still pretty bad but at least I'm less stressed!

I really enjoyed running the course. It was cleverly designed so that you had to work the whole way round but there were no horrible angles or twisty bits and no pull throughs for a pleasant change. Niamh did exactly as I'd hoped and picked up the dog walk and both weave entries all by herself. There was only one place where I forgot my job and that was as she powered out of the collapsible and went a little too deep. However when I did call she responded immediately and didn't attempt to take the back of #20 which caught out quite a few. I think I was so amazed that we'd got that far I just stopped thinking for a nano-second and I was very lucky to have such a responsive partner in Niamh. The other thing I was very grateful for was Niamh's finishing ability. Once she knows she's on the home run she leaves me in the dust as she just wants to get to her toy. Boy was I thankful for that on Sunday! You'll see why when you look at the course plan below!!

I couldn't believe it when Andy said we were lying 1st in the grade 6 section. There were a lot of dogs to go and I've been in this position rather a lot so I didn't get too excited. However when the class closed a couple of hours later we were still in first place so at last we have started our progression to Grade 7 and I am just a little bit delighted! What is also pleasing for me is that we would have finished 3rd overall just a fraction of a second behind Mark Douglas and Ruby. I saw their round and it was stunning I never thought I could almost match it. The grade 7 was won by Leah and Herbie with one of the smoothest fastest rounds I've ever seen them do.

This weekend for the first time I felt that Niamh has started to unleash some of her power in the agility ring. To be honest that was why we got eliminated in our rounds on Saturday as I had completely lost my timing on turns and she was taking obstacles I didn't even expect her to look at.

So a brilliant weekend. Not what I'm used to as we are normally a consistent partnership and instead of several placings we had several eliminations but most importantly the longed for 1st place! One down; three to go!

Here is the course designed and judged by Anthony Clarke.

and here is a very tired Naughty Niamh with her rosette and rather nice trophy:

Garden in the sunshine

Thought I'd post a few more pictures of the garden which is looking so lovely right now. I never tire of our garden - it is full of interest and different little areas which spring into life at different times. It is quite hard work but I like spending time out there. It isn't a posh neat garden so it doesn't matter if a few wild things take over. It always looks nice if the back lawn is cut and sometimes that's all we have time for. We had a small garden at our last house so it's wonderful to have all this space. I love to sit in the kitchen or the small sitting room and just look out at the back garden. It's very beautiful and I think we are very lucky indeed.

The ponds is greening up, watched over by a little person ever hopeful of the fish food leaping out of the pond and landing in her mouth!

Let me out, I want to go and run through some tunnels!

Three wise monkeys

Our pink gravel patch - this is the cherry blossom!

Lovely colours

The bog garden starting to come to life

The apple tree in the 'secret garden'

Bluebells under the willow tree

The willow tree in full leaf

A small flowering tree which looks really beautiful at the moment

Another view of the 'secret garden'

I thought my Bessie mini rhododendron was resting this year but I was wrong - she has started to flower to keep Lizzie company!

Happy Birthday Becky

Happy Birthday to our Becky who's nine years old today.

She is a lovely girl, so happy and carefree and sweet natured. She has simple priorities in life: playing in the garden, eating, walking, chew sticks and her spot on the sofa in the evenings. Sadly for Andy, agility features nowhere in Becky's list!

She had a lovely walk in the sunshine today and will have something extra with her dinner. Right now she's outside basking in the sun. Becky knows how to enjoy life for sure.

Another week flashes past

I can't believe another week has flashed past since I last updated the blog. I really love this time as year as we start to get into the agility season. Every day so much has to be packed in so that we can tootle off on Fridays to this or that show.

Last weekend we were at Wallingford and had a really lovely time. We had only two runs each per day but that didn't matter. We camped with Karen, Hannah, Tom and Michelle and had reasonable camping so not too far to walk to the rings.

I didn't do very well on Saturday. The courses were extremely challenging, particularly the agility. I actually liked it as you had to concentrate and work the whole way. However I think it was probably more like a championship class (IMO). I was supposed to weave really wide from Niamh in order to pull her to a jump rather than her taking a tunnel which was set right in front of the weave exit. I was cross with myself that I forgot to do this and sure enough she ran straight into the tunnel. I hadn't realised until a couple of people told me afterwards that I weaved too close so I was pointing at the tunnel myself. Dumbo. Other aspects I was happy with including the A-Frame/tunnel discrimination which Niamh did brilliantly. In the jumping class she ran well but we knocked a pole off a big spread. Her time was good though.

On Sunday we were much better. The agility course was a bit too simple and quick for my tastes but nevertheless Niamh did a good run. I don't think we could have done much more and we went into 4th place where we stayed. We ran early and on such a fast course I didn't expect to stay that high up as there were over 250 in the class but we did! I was a bit disappointed when Andy told me my time was 2 full seconds behind the leader but only until I found out it was someone with running contacts. That made sense to me then. It was an ideal course for running contacts as there was a jump out in front of each contact exit. Hope I get lots like that when Zeki comes out (that's if I'm still running her on the A-Frame by then!!) In the jumping course, which was a little trickier, we also ended up in 4th place just a fraction off the winning time. Good girl Naughty Niamh!

Kizzy and Andy had a good weekend. They got 3rd in G6/7 jumping on Saturday and 2nd in G6/7 jumping on Sunday. Kizzy was looking really good. They are starting to come together again after Andy's lay off from injury. He is moving much better and Kizzy is much happier as a consequence. In her agility classes she was doing brilliantly and just one glitch in each cost them a clear round. All of her contacts were good and shock of shocks in the Sunday class after Andy got E'd he .... wait for it .... trained his dog walk. I was so pleased! One of the main things they need to train is wing wraps. They have gone a little awry and Kizzy now thinks it's ok to turn wide. This causes them problems as it's hard to get her off obstacles in the vicinity which are not supposed to be taken! We did some work with this on Tuesday night and hopefully things will improve on that front. Neil and Bex had a megga brilliant weekend they are running so well together. It has really given Andy the incentive to train harder and run better! It's great that they are so competitive with each other but remain good friends!

Zeki had lots of outings round the rings and we practised queuing for Andy and Kizzy. She was rather noisy but we did some good bits of training overall. We also had a great little training session outside the caravans. Karen, Hannah and I took it in turns to get each of our dogs out and go through a little routine of tricks etc. The dogs loved it. Even Poppy and Sparkie joined in.

We had a great weekend and went home very happy, tired and looking forward to the next show.

I've worked hard to get the office up to date this week. I am still a bit behind with the bookwork but almost there. Had to take my sister into hospital yesterday. She is having her right hip replaced. This is very unusual as she is only 39 and they really didn't want to do the op but eventually were persuaded to act. The new joints have a limited life span and so this is the main reason they don't like to do this operation when people are young. However our view is that she wants to get on with her life now and who knows in 20 years there may be new solutions for this problem. She has been off work for months as she is unable to walk very far. Her job as a nurse working with the young people at the NCYPE is a very active role and she needs to be fit to carry out her duties. Hopefully she'll be able to return later in the summer.

OK so we only bought a new caravan last year. Well, yesterday we bought another one - not as well as but instead of! I cannot believe we are changing our caravan yet again. We have struggled to find a layout that really suits us and hopefully we have managed to do this at long last.

We really love the fixed beds but found that there wasn't enough room for both of us to sleep comfortably. We both tend to sleep like starfish and so the 4'2" fixed beds are a little narrow. Andy was finding them quite clostraphobic so it really wasn't working. Last year we changed back to a caravan without a fixed bed and decided to make up the front benches as two separate beds. This is all well and good but it's a lot of work and quite tricky to manage with six dogs in the caravan. We also like a decent bathroom area and some of those with the fixed beds are a little on the small side. We want all of this without having a twin axle caravan. That's a step too far for me!

Lunar make a model with our dream layout. Our local dealer who we have been with for many years has just become an agent for Lunar so it was all just perfect. The new caravan (Lexon SB) is on order and hopefully we'll get it next week in time for Dordale. That means unloading the current one when we get home on Sunday night so that Andy can take it into Songhurst Caravans early next week. They need it there so that they can switch our motor mover and a couple of other bits and pieces.

Needless to say our almost brand new awning won't fit the new caravan so we have to decide whether to look around for another and sell this one or send it to Isabella to be enlarged. All good fun!

Lots going on

I'm so tired and the weekend isn't even here yet. Thankfully I have only two runs per day at Wallingford, I don't think I could cope with more than that!

I had a huge tidy up in the front driveway today. The weeds were going mad so I decided to wage war on them big time. It looks much tidier now but I doubt it will last long. The hedges need cutting but that's a man's job!

We had to move the huge stack of fence panels from the front down to the yard. Michael and Andy did this in three hits. They carried two panels at a time between them. I had one little turn but could only manage one panel at a time (with Andy). I only did six but I couldn't feel my fingers after that. How they managed to carry two at a time I have no idea. In total we had to shift 54 fence panels. We had to get them done this week otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get the caravan out.

That was another megga job this week. I hadn't stepped inside the caravan since last September. I did wash all the dog bedding, linen, bench covers etc but had just chucked it all back in. We always empty our caravan of stuff for the winter so as well as tidying it up I also had to re-stock. No doubt I will have forgotten something essential. Once that first trip is out of the way it's not so bad but I hate stocking up after the winter. It took me best part of a day to do it all. I had forgotten to vacuum the carpets so had to do that as well. The outside of the caravan is very dirty after the winter but that isn't my department!

Our next door neighbour Geoff is upgrading the electrics on the new jeep. It only had a single electric hook and we need a double in order to run the fridge when we're travelling. It's so nice of Geoff to do this, last night he was out front in the dark still trying to get it sorted for us by the weekend. We have such wonderful neighbours, we are very lucky.

I am so tired after all this work on top of all the stuff Andy keeps making me do in the office. I have to find the energy to train Niamh this evening, hopefully Leah will be kind and not make me run too much. I think two or three obstacles in a sequence will be quite enough for me tonight ..... I should be so lucky!

Here are some pictures from the garden which is starting to bloom and look lovely after the long tedious winter.

Gorgeous pink

We are lucky with the magnolia this year as the frost didn't get it

More gorgeous pink flowers

My dwarf rhododendron - Elizabeth. Mum bought this for me many years ago in memory of my first dog "Lizzie". She is really flowering well this year. Just behind her is another dwarf rhody - Scarlet Wonder. This one Mum bought in memory of my beautiful red and white collie "Bess". She is having a year off from flowering. We moved both plants with us and luckily they have taken really well in their new spots.

My little rose that Sarah and Steve bought in memory of Abbey. She is starting to shoot. This is where I scattered some of her ashes on what would have been her birthday a couple of weeks back.

A view down to the agility area - you can see the lovely green hue as everything starts to grow. I can tell the trees are starting to green up as my hay fever started this week and it's always in conjunction with the trees starting to grow their new leaves.

The pile of close board fence panels and posts that had to be moved from the front. Thank goodness that is done. Thank you Michael for helping. Somehow my little contribution seems pathetic when you look at the stack!

Zeki's running A-Frame

We are continuing with the running A-Frame and I think it's going ok. I have watched a lot of running A-Frames on Youtube so I guess this places me firmly in the "sad person" category but there you go! As far as I can see Zeki's hit pattern is matching that of what I'm watching whether it be large or smaller dogs. Where I need to apply a fix is in how deep she makes her first hit.

I did some in the garden yesterday but made the mistake of doing the A-Frame last when Zeki was quite tired - we'd done some jump tunnel combinations and some weave practise first off. What this means is that she doesn't hit the A-Frame with as much speed as I'd like and so doesn't jump the apex very much; this in turn results in her not landing so deep into the down side of the A-Frame. She is meeting criteria in each case by hitting the contact with all four feet but in most of these she is much higher than I would like. The very last attempt where I put in a front cross after the A-Frame is the best attempt IMO. I am thinking seriously of putting in a stride regulator to bring her deeper into the contact but my concern with this is how I fade it successfully.

All good fun!

How could I forget

How could I forget, Kizzy won the senior small dog tournament at the Easter show! Sorry Kizzle (and Andy!)

Back into the swing

It was really great to be back at an outdoor KC show this Easter weekend. We decided not to camp even though we had booked a spot. It was too cold and damp for my liking and as Ardingly is only 30 minutes away from home we decided it was more sensible to come home to a nice warm fire in the evening! Translation of the preceding statement: I am a wimp and I hate mud!

Saturday dawned and was rather damp and cold. We were ring partying all day for Sara and so the dogs didn't get much of a day really. I quite enjoy ring partying once you get into the swing of it but the thing I really hate is the amount of time my dogs have to spend on their own in the car. We don't really have enough people for Andy and I to alternate so most of the day both of us had to be on the ring which makes things worse. We had a good laugh and got through the classes pretty swiftly.

I made a complete hash of my KC Olympia run. I really liked Sara's course (I usually do pretty well on her courses) but I was useless. I didn't go in with a good attitude and it showed. Poor Niamh deserved better so I kicked myself up the proverbial and tried much harder in our G6 jumping class. We ran well in this and ended up in 3rd place which I was very happy with. We also managed a 19th place in the G6/7 jumping with a rather messy round due to a couple of poor handling choices on my part. Then on Sunday Niamh ran superbly. I was thrilled with her performance in both of her classes. We knocked a pole in the jumping which was totally my fault as I changed my mind on a critical handling point but we put in a good time. We came second in the G6 agility. I really did try to win this class and Niamh responded brilliantly. Unfortunately I failed to get into position for a pull through and the result was a bit messy and cost us dearly. I think I knew as it happened that it would blow our chance of winning and I was quite surprised (but very pleased) that we ended up in 2nd place with that glitch. I really hope we can keep up this level of performance and I'm looking forward to getting into the show season as I'm having such a good time with Niamh.

There is only one thing which is bothering me and that's our start line. In lots of ways things have improved as I can now get her doing tricks and tugging in the queue. Last year she would not touch her ball until after her run so this is major progress. However, two or three dogs before it's her turn to enter the ring I lose her completely. I am struggling to get her to sit on the start line and when she does she is leaning so far forward it seems that she will fall onto her chin. That said, so far, when I leave her she doesn't attempt to break her position. I think perhaps I'll have to ask nicely for someone to queue for me so that I can enter the ring at the last minute. Trouble is people are busy at shows and can't always find the time to do this. Andy will do it for me but then that means he can't video. S'pose you can't have everything!

Onto Princess Kizzy. This was her first weekend as a grade 6 dog. Things didn't start out too well in her first class which was the Connection (the class that replaced gamblers.) She and Andy were not a team and didn't achieve the course that Andy had planned. After that though things really picked up and Kizzy ended up 2nd in G6/7 agility and 3rd in G4-7 jumping. On Sunday things continued really well and they got 2nd in G4-7 Agility and 2nd in G4-7 helter skelter. All in all a really good start to their G6 experience.

We made sure all the dogs had plenty of time out with us on the Sunday (to make up for Saturday). Poppy was exhausted as she had loads of time out by the rings watching the agility. She has a new best toy for agility watching. Karen bought her a little chicken for her birthday! Zeki had some good training sessions around the rings. I needed these as Saturday was a bit of a disaster. It was so rushed and I forgot to take any food so she was lunging and screaming at the rings. I was a bit disappointed after all the good work we did at the UKA shows. However I had much more time yesterday and things improved. I took her out several times sometimes with food and sometimes with a toy. Overall much better but without doubt work in progress!

I had lots of time with friends chatting ringside. I had lots of muddy paw prints from little dogs that shall remain nameless - Shadow! I can't stand mud. I have trained Niamh to jump up at other people and not at me so I don't get muddy from my own dog. It's most annoying that other people have copied my training technique! Needless to say the washing machine is working overtime today!

We've decided to venture out in the caravan for Wallingford next weekend. I hope the weather is kind to us!

Today we are going to catch up in the office and also do a bit of gardening. We also have to try to haul down the remaining 30 or so fence panels from the front drive to the yard. So far about 20 have gone down but they are very heavy. We need to get them moved from the front before the end of the week as we're planning to go away. Then there's just the small matter of getting the posts and panels in place. Luckily we have found a guy to do this job in lieu of Andy and Michael doing some drawings for an extension to his house.

We also have to do a new course for this week's agility and then we're going to have a little training session with Kizzy and Zeki. I also plan to do a session on Zeki's dog walk today. Better go before the day runs out!

Great Weekend

It's so good to be back at agility shows. We took ourselves off to Scrambles UKA show on Friday. It was held at the same nice venue as the show last weekend. It's pretty good running ground and a lovely big exercise area for the non-working dogs to get a good play time and walk.

We both went on Friday and had mixed results. We both won a class and had faults in others but overall pretty good.

Saturday we were just too tired to go again so decided to have a day at home. I had a very lazy morning and then did a bit of training in the garden with Niamh and Zeki. Andy and Michael worked most of the day in Michael's workshop making up the new fire surround for our little sitting room. It's really nice and I'll post a picture once it's completely finished and in place. Whilst they were working I took all the dogs out in the garden and tried to read my book. This was impossible as the two shelties and Poppy kept putting toys in my lap so I gave in and played with them. It was a lovely afternoon and very relaxing (apart from the playing of course!) Andy and Michael were just the other side of the fence so the dogs kept running up and down trying to work out why Andy was in next door's garden.

On Sunday I went back to UKA and Andy went to the sheltie show. We both had a good time but I think my day was nicer out in the sunshine rather than being stuck in a dusty riding school! I have enough agility points for Niamh's progression to championship level in UKA so I decided to train her agility round. I ran normally until the A-Frame which was last but three and then did a run by and rewarded her with the ball. I competed in my other classes and managed to gain some more points in jumping, games and steeplechase.

Was very tired this morning! Leah came over and we did some training in the garden with Hex and Niamh. Then I got Zeki out and let Leah take a look at her running A-Frame. It was good to have another pair of eyes on it. Leah thinks Zeki definitely understands that she musn't jump and gave me some good tips to further my training. So far so good! We are now up to full height and so I must get Andy to take some more video for me.

That's about it for now. Here is a little film of a couple of our runs from Friday's UKA show.

Happy Birthday Poppy

Happy Birthday to Poppy my beautiful little friend, twelve years old today!

Dear little Pops, where have the years gone. Poppy is the sweetest little dog I've ever shared my life with oh ...... and she was quite good at agility in her day!

She is still full of life and fun and loves to have her special time with me. Sadly I've taken the decision to retire her completely from agility. She has some stiffness in her rear leg (from her injury a few years back). We always knew this would happen and it makes me sad but I have lots of lovely memories. I do not want to risk making her lame as she so loves her walks and play times in the garden.

This and that and memories

We've been exhausted this week. I'd forgotten how tiring day shows can be!

It's lovely to see some sunshine. The garden is slowly coming to life and the magnolia is looking really lovely right now.

On Tuesday we had a good training session at club. We worked on a speed circle; opposite end of tunnels and missing the tunnel out completely. I am giving lots of thought to my opposite end tunnel training. I have decided that I am going right back to basics to teach Niamh to pick up the opposite end using a verbal cue. We'll see how successful this is in due course! Meantime I expect I shall continue to get it wrong in competition. I have resolved to teach Zeki this task properly from the outset!

The course we worked on was based on something I picked up from Lian's blog (thank you) with some added extras. Here it is in case anyone else fancies using the pattern.

We worked on the speed circle with the youngsters. We used the wings and tunnels and they all did really well. Zeki loved it and flew round the circle. Zeki actually chased Louise's puppy on Tuesday night which was good because I was able to correct her. This is the first time she's done this in a controlled environment and I was glad it happened. After correction she stayed with me and played with her toy. All in all a good session.

Tuesday was a bit traumatic as I had to have an MRI scan on my inner ears. This is to try to find out why I keep getting the dizzy turns. I have had two of these in the past but have always gone into the scanner feet first. This time I had to go in head first and for the very first time in my life I came close to having a panic attack. I stupidly opened my eyes when I was moved into the scanner. I told myself time and again not to do this but to imagine I was in a big space with the sky above me. But being me I had to have a look and it made me panic. My head was in a restraining frame and the scanner is so close to your face it's ghastly. I very nearly had to press the button to get them to take me out but I was determined not to give in (I am a very stubborn person in case you hadn't realised!!) and so I did some deep breathing exercises and gradually got myself back under control. I did not open my eyes again. I think if I have to go in one of these things again I will need to be sedated!

We have started using the new grassed area for agility at home. This is where the vegetable garden used to be. We rotivated it and sewed seed last autumn. Andy has been rolling it and at last it's ready to be used. We set up a sequence using the new area and it's really good to have the extra space. There is still lots of space to be reclaimed and fences to be repaired and renewed but we're gradually getting there. It all takes time and unfortunately money!


Zeki's training is progressing nicely. We have been continuing to work on her running A-Frame, so far so good. I have also been practising weaves and entries and again am very happy with progress to date. Today we practised some very flat weave entries following a jump sequence and after one mistake she was foot perfect. Next week I must move on with her dog walk and seesaw training. This has been neglected whilst I've worked on the A-Frame and weaves. I have also been practising our startlines. She loves this game!




Andy is working flat out today in order to get a big project finished by close of play this evening. This means we can both go to the Scrambles UKA show tomorrow! Yippee I am looking forward to this.

Meantime here are some pictures that Dennis took of Kizzy and Niamh from last weekend's Waverunners show. I especially love the first shot of Niamh on the seesaw. You can see her hind legs are off the plank and how much she is driving to the end of the seesaw before it tips. This is exactly what I want and it pleases me to see her doing this in competition. Kizzy is also driving well up the plank but obviously it takes a bit longer to tip with Princess than Naughty Niamh!








Last but not least a happy memory, well I have cried today, but overall the memories are happy. It would have been Abbey's fifteenth birthday today. I wish she was here with me but I know she's somewhere good curled up and fast asleep in the spring sunshine. Today at last I feel ready to sprinkle her ashes. She is going to be with Lizzie and Bessie's rhododendrons and her own little rose. It's a beautiful sunny day and the time is right. Now I'm crying again.


So to cheer myself up I'm posting this picture of the lazy little sheltie that is Kizzy. I couldn't make my bed today because she was installed and looking just too cute to disturb!

Our first UKA Show

We have at long last joined UKA after being told good things about it by several different friends.

Off we went on Saturday morning to Walton-on-Thames and the UKA Waverunners show. It was very windy and cold with April-type weather rather than March. One minute it was dry and the next it was raining in short sharp bursts. We were very lucky that we didn't actually do any of our runs in the rain. This was pretty amazing as we had five runs with each dog. I understand that normally each dog can enter four classes but this club put on an extra steeplechase class making the number up to five.

We went back again on Sunday and it was a much better day weather wise. Andy actually enjoyed himself whereas on Saturday he wasn't that keen. I was going to go back by myself on the Sunday but he decided to come along and I think he was glad he did. We also made sure to wear warmer clothes and take along our foot and hand warmers. To be honest we hadn't expected it to be so cold on the Saturday and hadn't really dressed appropriately. God, you'd think we'd have been prepared - how long have we been playing this game!

Anyway, back to the show. I absolutely loved it. It was so wonderful to go to a show and spend time with my dogs. I missed out at Mid Downs as I was judging but even that wouldn't have been as good; competing at indoor shows just doesn't compare with being outside, not to me anyway. The non-competing dogs didn't have such a good time Saturday as it was so cold we just kept them wrapped up in their coats and mainly in the car but on Sunday they all had a wonderful time. Andy took Becky and Murphy for a lovely walk and Murf found a football (his favourite thing in the world) and Becky found a little pink ball. They came back exhausted. Poppy had at least three outings and spent the whole lunch break irritating everyone with her little purple ball. Kizzy and Niamh were kept very busy needless to say.

On the Saturday Niamh actually had six runs as they re-started the senior agility due to a slippery dog walk. I had already decided not to put her over the dog walk as I'd seen a dog slip and fall twice. Instead I elected to do a training round and missed out the dog walk. The look on Niamh's face when she did a perfect A-Frame and was rewarded by her ball. She was a very happy girl. Shortly after the decision was made to re-start the class so we got another go. Niamh worked really well on Saturday but had one pole down in three of her classes. This is very unusual for her but I do believe she has speeded up and it took a while for her to get used to this herself. In her snooker class she was brilliant. We did all the hard stuff and then I made a handling error and got her E'd on the very jump that had we managed to take the right way would have given us a qualifying round. Stupid person. In her last run of the day (senior steeple chase) we finally got it right and came 2nd.

On Sunday we really got into our stride and had four qualifying rounds out of five. I let her down with bad handling in the one class we got wrong. Once again wrong end of tunnel was my undoing. I really need to think this through and start training it better. She was faster than I am used to which didn't help but I was still a plank. Her other rounds were great and we ended up with one clear steeplechase run; first place in senior agility; first place senior steeplechase and 2nd place in gamblers. Although I chose to compete in all my rounds (apart from the one I mentioned) I did try to get something extra from each run. I tried to improve my startline (with varying degrees of success!); I tested out different starting positions for myself in terms of Niamh focusing on her line rather than my position; I tried hard to put in front crosses where I would naturally choose to rear cross and other things like that. Overall I was a happy bunny and Niamh was a very tired little girl. I so love working her, she is just the best dog in the world - apart from Poppy of course!

My little Zeki had a great day on Sunday with lots of little training sessions around the rings. I took Bernadette's advice and had either a play session or a food session and didn't mix the two together. I was very happy that Zeki was doing tricks and tugging around the rings. We also did some corrective training when she lunged and screamed at dogs working in the ring and I think she is starting to understand that it really isn't acceptable to do this. I am sure it will always be a managed approach but I can live with that!

Kizzy had a pretty good weekend with lots of rosettes. She won a couple of steeple chase classes, came 2nd and 3rd in two others all with qualifying rounds. She was placed in lots of her performance classes but sadly not with qualifying rounds (i.e. she had faults). Andy has work to do in a couple of key areas: one is Kizzy's weaves; she seems to have regressed a little in this task but more worryingly she has learned to flick away from Andy in places he actually wants her to come towards him. We haven't quite figured how he has managed to train this but we need him to untrain it rapidly! That said I think sometimes we need to stop and take stock that their partnership is still a very young one. She has won a lot and sometimes that can be more of a hindrance to onward development (well IMO anyway!)

I had a very similar experience with Poppy. She was a very quick little dog in her day and we won up to the top level at a rapid rate. Then we ran into problems because our partnership hadn't cemented properly within the competition environment. It took a couple of seasons to really come together after winning into advanced level. That's what I like about my partnership with Niamh. We have developed quite slowly, certainly compared with my previous partnerships, but our confidence in each other has had time to mature and is very strong.

I'm not knocking in any way the dogs that get to the top early in their careers, just really musing that I rather like the slower route for myself. I am sure Andy and Kizzy will get it back together; they are very much a partnership in progress.

We had great company the whole weekend with Leah, Jay, Bernadette, Dennis, Dan, Karen and Becca. We had some good chats, good laughs and a lot of fun. I also got to meet Vicki and Simon for the first time after exchanging blog conversations! Nice to meet you!

I know a lot of people knock UKA (um, I think I might have been one of those people in another life) but it is a lovely atmosphere, a bit like agility was when I first started. It doesn't matter that the classes are small. You still have to perform with your dog and I still get huge satisfaction from doing my best round whatever the environment. I still love the KC shows (well most of them) but I think for pure enjoyment for me and my dog the UKA show rates as one of my best experiences!

Guess what ...... I loved it and I can't wait to go back to another one!

Not Zeki Training

Thought I'd do a quick post about something other than Zeki's training!

We're pretty busy with Andy's work. I guess we have to make the most of it and take on as much as possible while it's available. Andy is actually really busy at the moment so that has a knock on effect for me in the hours I have to put in. Very inconvenient but I suppose I really can't complain!

We recently managed to get hold of a decent leaf collector off eBay. I suggested to Andy that now would be a good time to look as most people have finished collecting leaves and there might be some bargains.

He found a good machine on eBay being sold by a guy who was running a little business out of his garage; basically he was buying up liquidated stock from small garden companies and selling on. Andy and Michael went off in Michael's van to collect it and came back with a Makita petrol strimmer, a Makita petrol hedge cutter plus the guy had thrown in a 26" cut 4-stroke lawn mower for nothing. He said it wasn't working well and we could have it in case we fancied fixing it. Well it turned out that all that was wrong was that someone had put 2-stroke petrol in the machine so once Michael drained it out and refuelled with unleaded it runs perfectly. Result. We decided we would go halves on all this equipment and just share it for both gardens. We're going to put some new fencing up soon and the idea is that we'll install a gate so that Michael can come across whenever he needs to use the various bits and pieces.

Of course Andy has already been playing with the new leaf collector. We (royal we) had done most of the leaf collecting by hand but there were still quite a few round the edge and under the hedges. Come the Autumn this machine will be a god-send as we get so many leaves it's unbelieveable (and hard work!)

The wonder machine!

We had a good night at training last night although I couldn't run Naughty Niamh as she has cut one of her front pads. It doesn't look much but she is acting as if her leg has been chopped off - typical panic pants Niamh. That said it is in a place where quite a bit of pressure is applied by the foot so I should be more understanding. Hopefully it will heal soon but in the meantime I'm probably going to get some skin glue and see if I can use that to speed things up and make it more comfortable for her.

I plan to do a little Niamh update soon in terms of her training and what we've been up to over the winter. It's all Zeki, Zeki at the moment but I have also been doing lots with my beautiful Niamh too. She continues to get better and better and I can't describe how much I love training with this gorgeous girl.

Today is a day off from all things doggie related. I'm off shortly up to Sarah's (our riding school landlady) and we're going up to London for lunch at One Aldwich followed by the theatre - we're going to see the new musical version of Oliver. I'm really looking forward to it and ought to go and get ready now!

A-Frame training for Zeki

After our positive weekend I decided to begin Zeki's A-Frame training. We started yesterday for the first time. As with most things I've done so far (with the exception of tunnels and jumps) I have decided to use food as the reward until Zeki has a good understanding of her job.

It's relatively easy to move to the A-Frame when you've done work on planks and wobble boards etc. The dogs seem to understand the requirement to interact with the obstacle in front of them. I put out her treat pot and sat her in front of the A-Frame and that was it really. She was up and away. Typical Zeki straight in at the deep end with no fear.

I know I backed out of teaching a running dog walk but I have decided (for the time being!) to try and teach a running A-Frame. There is no doubt that Zeki learned something from running her plank. We did quite a few repetitions of the A-Frame yesterday and only once did she really put in a leap for which I withheld reward. That said she didn't miss the contact but the method I'm trying to teach doesn't allow for leaping or long striding (see below.)

Today I wasn't going to train the A-Frame because I prefer for my dogs to have some time for new tasks to sink in before re-visiting them. However, I really wanted to get some video of her early attempts and Andy was available to do this today so we ended up doing a few repetitions but not many as we'd already had a little jump and weave training session earlier this morning.

It's interesting to see the video because some of the attempts I thought were really good were not quite as I thought and the one where you hear me correct her was really no worse than the very first attempt which I rewarded. So, I will have to watch more closely. The last attempt on the video is one of the best where you can see her put in an extra stride. Obviously the A-Frame is quite low at the moment and I plan to keep it at that height for a couple of weeks before raising it a little bit. Interestingly I can be ahead of her and she still runs nicely whereas I found with the dog walk if I stood ahead she nearly always took a leap at least on the first attempt.

My plan is to train it the same way as I did with the dog walk, i.e. not accepting jumping or long striding regardless of whether the contact is physically achieved or missed. The method is based on Sylvia Trkman's ideas which I find the most easy to understand and the least cluttered in terms of using props (which I'm not very good at fading.) That said I am not against using a stride regulator at a later stage if I think it might help. We'll have to wait and see how the success/failure ratio looks once the A-Frame reaches full height!

Zeki's first training day

Well we've had our 1-1 with Nic and also attended a training day with her at Sue's place. The 1-1 session was good fun and gave me some things to think about (overnight so's I could try to implement them the following day). The best thing about the lesson was that I managed the whole hour without using any food. Mostly we used a ball but finished with a tuggy type toy.

We worked on a little jump sequence and did some weaves. I chose not to work on contacts as Zeki is still learning those at home and I didn't want to do them without using food. If I start using food I find it difficult to switch to the toy so that was as a good a reason as any not to work on contacts.

Nic gave me some good tips regarding getting Zeki to work more for her toy (as did Bernadette after my lesson) and I took all the comments on board. It might seem like I don't at the time; like most people I come up with all the reasons why I shouldn't; couldn't; have tried; she does it at home-type excuses but the advice does go in and when I stop and analyse it later I realise I could do things differently or better. I'm always grateful to people for their ideas and suggestions which help to make me a better trainer of my dogs.

One tip was to play short and sharp and put Zeki away before she tired of her toy. The other was to make each tug game much more exciting (god it's tiring) and try not to let her tug just for the sake of tugging but use it purely as reward for some kind of behaviour, however small.

Up until Friday I have done very limited jumping with Zeki as she's only just coming up to 13 months. Mainly I had done straight lines into tunnels through wings. When I put the poles up I still really did just straight line work and had started a little bit of grid training. With Nic we worked on a four jump sequence and I was amazed at how well Zeki coped. I have taught the basics but just not really strung much together. It never ceases to amaze me how dogs learn from the basics and how easy it is to string together more complex sequences.

Nic had me sending Zeki out to #2 without going too near #1. Then I had to move across the face of #3 collecting Zeki on my right hand and then turning and pushing her over #4 off my left hand. She did it brilliantly and I was able to move across #3 whilst she was taking herself to #2.

We did some weaving which was the first time in a new place without food. Zeki also had her first introduction to the collapsible tunnel which she was fine with. A very useful session.

I was looking forward to my training day but a bit worried about Zeki barking too much and chasing other dogs. I decided on Friday evening that I was not going to use food. PERIOD. Hence my feeling worried!

The decision not to use food meant I would stay away from contacts but to be honest that doesn't really bother me because at this stage what I'm really wanting is for Zeki to concentrate in new places with different dogs and different equipment etc. I also decided to take along my little soft crate and that Zeki would sit beside me in her crate in between her turns. This proved a really good idea and I think I will do the same for any future training day, even possibly for the Naughty Niamh.

It helped in so many ways: she was keen to come out for her turn; I wasn't tempted to use her toy to keep her quiet so she remained keen for her toy as reward; I could relax and watch others work the sequences and I could listen to the trainer uninterrupted. If Zeki barked when another dog worked I simply draped my sweatshirt in front of her crate and when she was quiet she was allowed to watch. It made for a very stress free session. She was very happy with the routine and took herself into her crate each time I finished her game.

As well as the little sequences we got on film we also split into groups and worked on single jump exercises. I was worried about this as Zeki had to work with me whilst other dogs were doing their stuff. I know I can do this with food but I had only her ball. I am pleased to report she didn't leave me once. She had a good look at one dog but chose to stay with me and do her own jump. I think this was the aspect of the whole day I was most happy with!

At the end we did quite a complex jump sequence including the weaves. I could not believe that Zeki did it perfectly straight off and then again on our second go. Typically Andy wasn't there to film as he'd gone off to collect some kitchen stools we'd bought off eBay that happened to be located near Sue's place. So at the end of the session I ran the sequence again to get it on film. The version you see was our fifth attempt! As soon as the video came out I got over excited and kept making handling errors! Eventually we got a good take! So, in all Zeki did that little sequence seven times and not once did she miss the weave entry which wasn't easy. So our first training session together was a very enjoyable and productive affair. Thank you Nic for your help and advice.

Here is my little Zeki Beeks in action:

Zeki Training

I am really enjoying training Zeki and feel we are making progress on several fronts.

My main focus has been working on channelling her focus onto me and whatever we're doing rather than on whatever else is going on. The downside of this is that I do feel I've subdued her natural exuberance and drive but hopefully that will come back the more she gets to enjoy what we're doing together.

Alongside this we have progressed the weaves in a very short time. Less than three weeks ago Zeki was still on lead and running through splayed v-weaves. Now she is off lead and onto upright poles. I am quite amazed at how quickly she progressed. We worked on our entries whilst still on lead and that seems to have paid off. Now I am using my cone to work on entries with a bit of speed involved. I have removed the target pot from the end of the poles and am throwing her reward in which seems to be working. That said I am glad I got Andy to video me today because it illustrates that I'm not quite getting the timing of the reward right. Although she looks ahead for the reward (which is good) she isn't driving out of the poles as quickly as I'd like so I think need to throw the reward in earlier. Ideally I want to move to her toy as reward but am continuing with food for the time being whilst she really learns the job.

Today we worked on entries and independence but in other sessions I make sure to include varying my position whilst she weaves and putting in front and rear crosses on entry/exit. I am lucky that she really seems to love weaving.

On Sunday I took Zeki across to Bernadette to continue her work with distraction training. Overall she was very good and we managed to do things whilst Bernadette ran Zen. This is good because Zen is very exciting and Zeki would love to chase her. I actually managed to progress from just doing simple stays to working on some sequences whilst Zen was running. I think I mentioned in my Mid Downs post that Zeki actually tugged on her toy when Kizzy and Andy ran, well interestingly she did the same today and switched onto her toy when Zen was running. I think this is good news. We also had a play on the weaves and she was pretty good making only a couple of errors. This I am very happy with because now she has performed weaves in two new places without many mistakes at all.

We also made a start on our down dog walk training. I finally have decided that I am going to do a stop dog walk. I would love to be clever enough to train the running dog walk but just don't think I have the knowledge or patience to see it through. Zeki is very confident running across the dog walk and for the first time did a full height version at Bernadette's just running (well actually jumping) to her pot. I had some good advice from Bernadette and a good session to get me started on my new dog walk training. Zeki understands her target better than I had thought and so now we have to practise back chaining on-lead to her target making sure I vary my position and work on the release as well as the finished position. I am not very co-ordinated with this but hopefully I will improve! I cannot believe how much I forget between training each dog that I've had. That said I've been doing this for 21 years now and Zeki is the sixth dog I've trained of my own so I suppose that isn't many spread over that number of years. Well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

I am very excited as Zeki has a 1-1 lesson booked with Nic Garrett tomorrow and then she is on her very first training day on Saturday, again with Nic. I am really looking forward to both sessions.

Meantime here is a little video of today's weave training. Apologies for my silly voice whilst we train ..... might be best to turn down your volume LOL!

Mid Downs

On Friday we went to Ardingly to set up my agility course ready for Saturday's Mid Downs agility show. I judged one part of the Burgess qualifier and the judge of the other part had agreed to use the same course so we also set up her ring. I ran Niamh round both parts and was happy that it ran well and that both parts were as similar as we could possibly make them. I was also lucky that Mark agreed to run his young dog round the course (he was not competing with either of his dogs) so that I could be sure of my ability to judge it properly. I find that very helpful and it boosts my confidence hugely.

It's much less stressful to get your course set up the day before rather than trying to do it on the morning. I know it isn't always practical or possible but this time it worked out as Ardingly isn't far from where we live and I knew that the club members would be there setting up the show.

I also took Zeki out and had a little play with her. It's really nice to have the opportunity to get your young dog into a different environment to see if you can transfer learned behaviours to new places. Zeki was good and did a little bit of weaving and some tiny jump sequences. Again Mark kindly ran his young dog round a couple of sequences whilst I got Zeki working with me and she was much better in terms of paying attention to what I was asking her to do as opposed to chasing another dog. I think we are making progress on this front but I know there is still much work to do! At the moment I rely heavily on food as a reward when in new/different places. At home she will do just about anything for her toy so I know she finds a toy rewarding and it gives me hope that I can gradually increase the value of a toy as reward as we progress together.

The day seemed to go well. I had a few nice comments about the course (always good to hear) and a few negative ones in that some people found it hard to remember the pattern. I can relate to this but it's very difficult to be creative in such a small space. You really have to re-use jumps and I guess that always leads to possible confusion. I had one bit of feedback that really made me sad. Somebody asked a person who trains with us how many times they had practised that course. I have no idea who that individual is but I was affronted that my integrity be questioned in such a way. It really does make me think that judging is becoming more odious with each passing year. I judge only because I feel I really should give back to the hobby I so enjoy but I'm really beginning to question just how much longer I can be bothered to give up running my own dog only for comments like that to be made. Hey ho!

I saw some brilliant rounds of agility and the class was won by Leslie Osborne with wife Sarah taking second place. Sarah, you should have run faster .......go the girls! I also judged the medium 3/4 agility and this was won by a brilliant little rescue dog. I can't recall the name of the handler but it was a cracking round (as Ness would say!)

I finished judging at lunch time and was taken across to the pavilion for lunch with my scribe Sara (thank you Sara, it's nice to have someone you know scribing for you). We had a very nice lunch along with Helen and a friend. Very civilised and pleasant. Then we went back to the show and I spent the afternoon socialising and making sure each of my girls had some time with me. Zeki was pretty good as long as I kept her busy doing tricks or stays. If I tried to chat to anyone she immediately became fixated on the ring and was lunging and barking. So, I had to work hard with her to keep her occupied and reward only good behaviours. We watched Andy and Kizzy run and the best thing for me (apart from Kizzy's run itself!) was that when Zeki saw Andy and Kizzy run she actually got so excited she wanted to tug! Hurrah, it is in there I just gotta keep working on it!

Back to Kizzy. To be honest I didn't expect a lot as they haven't trained much due to Andy's injury. The course was interesting and I would say quite tricky. It was G5-7 but perhaps more leaning towards 6-7 in terms of difficulty. Anyway, little Kizzle went out there and did her stuff. She won the class despite her pilot instructing her to turn right (which she duly did) after a jump instead of left. I was quite impressed that Andy had the wherewithal to stop Kizzy back-jumping as he corrected his mistake. It cost quite a bit of time but they still won the class as the rest of the round was so smooth. So, that means Kizzy is into G6. This was Andy's goal but I don't think he expected to achieve it quite so quickly. At this point I should also say well done to Neil and Bex who also won into G6 at Chippenham! That little dog is going brilliantly. I saw them run at Crufts and was very impressed. I also heard that Manda and Kodak had a win at Chippenham, that is great news! All in all a good day for the Obays with Timmy and Peggy coming 2nd to Andy and Kizzy and then Bernadette and Zen winning the medium class. Sadly Todd and Karen had a tiny glitch but I was well impressed with Todd's contacts they looked just about perfect to me. Andy watch and learn!
The downside of this is that I now have to change all Kizzy's entries (Andy never does entries) and it's a pain. It must be a nightmare for show processors and now it will be even harder with the new rule.

I was glad I saw Hex and Leah run in their G3 jumping. They won the class and looked very impressive. Well done also to Lesley and Toot winning the other part of the same class.

All in all a really good day, just wish I had been running the Naughty Niamh! I can't wait to run her at a show.

Some nice walks

A few pictures from some nice walks I've had recently. Some are of all the dogs and others just my three. Andy is trying to walk his own dogs at least two or three times a week as part of his campaign to get over his injury. These were clean walks but then the rain came back and it got a bit muddy again. Today isn't too bad so I'm just off for a walk now. Hopefully they'll be reasonably clean when we get back.

Down stay on a slope!

I love this picture of Poppy, she look so cute

I love these three photos of Niamh (below)

The above photo makes me laugh. Kizzy had a ball and Murf and Pops are stalking her!

Now Zeki has the ball and Murphy and Kizzy chase her down!