Wednesday 30 January 2008

Gosh, my last post was last Friday, now what has happened since then. Hm nothing major, well nothing that I can remember!

Saturday morning I had a nice lay in. I do like my lay ins!! I try to make the most of them before the show season starts!! Then I went off to the gym. Very energetic! After that I took the dogs out to do some obedience training. They were both very good! Even the blonde one! Then took them onto the beach for a walk. Just as I was about to start on my walk I saw these two little westies, who then decided to come running up to me.. but I will forgive them as they were my Mum's friends dogs. So I guess they recognised my two. My Mum's friend was just about to start her walked so I walked with her. I was out for about two hours. And give them some credit, the Westies were still going... not strong but they were still going!!!

Saturday night, I think I said was our works annual dinner and dance. The food was typical mass produced and not very good! But the evening was fun. I did have plenty to drink. I managed to avoid a hangover on Sunday but I did stil have a nice long lay in (there's those lay in's again!).

Spent most of the rest of the morning and early afternoon having a bedroom blitz an then took the dogs back down to the beach again. The walk was lovely until Jag started limping!!! I assumed he had grazed his pad again like he did over Christmas. So I turned round and walked back to the car. At home I looked at his foot and couldn't see anything! Panic, Crufts is only a month away. Well after having a better look I found a sore, red patch right in the middle of his paw and a small cut where the large pad joins the foot. So I have been bathing his paw in salty water much to his disgust. However today there is a noticeable improvement and he is putting all his weight on the foot. So I can only assume it is feeling a lot better. Fingers crossed it carries on like this. If not I will take him to see my lovely vet.

It did of course mean that I missed training with Jag on Monday and was meant to train with Toni last night and have missed that too. He also hasn't been able to go out for walks since Sunday. So not good for the Crufts prep but theat's the way it goes. I'm sure we will catch up. It did mean that Twix got to run in Jag's class on Monday and boy did we have a good night! I can't wait to run her in the ring again. I just hope what she is doing in training transfers to the ring!

Today I have been in Norwich all day for work. I left at 6.30 this morning and got back at 6.30 this evening so am a little bit tired after all the travelling and the heavy negotiations that went on!!

Tomorrow is teaching night again. I promise I am not going to get stroppy ( I will write that 1000 times before I go tomorrow). But I am going to make a few people aware that their agility ability (I like that phrase) is in their own hands. Thank you all for your comments though it's good to know I am not ranting over nothing!!! I wonder if people realise how much their trainers want them to do well?

Right........... wellies!!! Sorry pics are not great as my camera appears to be asleep. So had to take with my phone. But these are soooo cool.


Friday 25 January 2008

Venting ones feelings!!

Well the blog seems to have become a rather nice way of venting ones feelings, good or bad!! So far it appears like I'm a grumpy s*d lol. Honest i'm not. But I have felt rather irritated.. by everything lately! Maybe it's an age thing and another birthday creeping up. Who knows.

Any way Wednesay started badly. I learnt that a colleague of mine had lost her Dad. It was not unexpected but not nice. A relief in a way but it did upset me. My colleague is only three years older than me and her Dad a smiliar age to mine. She has also had lots of other bad news within the last 6 months or so. I hope things change for her. She is so nice and without be cliche, it's just not fair.

Gym has been good.. Yes really I do like it. I somehow like working my butt off and feeling like I have worked hard. Weird!! But hopefully it will pay off one day. I was actually sad enough to buy a pair of jeans in the sales at Christmas, that were a size to small for me. So my aim is to fit into them.

Thursday night is my teaching night... so for Leah (if she looks at this blog lol) here is my course that I set..



The focus was on jumping sequences. There was lots to do with this lot! We didn't do many contacts, except for a couple of runs round the outside route.

The sequences gradually got harder and harder as I went through the classes. Pups did lots of set pieces, snakes, boxes, lines etc. Finally to the top class who were doing lots of lovely lovely difficult sequences, with the odd really hard one in there especially for Toni!!

What does frustrate me about some people that I train is that they seem to think that there dogs will miraculously reach the top without them having to put any effort!! I have people at training (like Toni) who put in an amazing amount of time and effort with their dogs and reep the rewards. As she should. Then I have those that I look at and think, you just want a robot! I seem to be getting more and more frustrated with these people. What do they expect.. you get out what you put in. In boils down to some of them been downright lazy! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR there feel better now.

Tonight was gym night again. Yawn. Tomorrow is gym morning lol. God I better be size 0 soon! Then tomorrow night I am out on the raz all night!! Lets hope the hangover isn't too bad on Sunday morning.

And yes I promise the wellie pick will be here soon. Just as soon a I can find 25 hours in the day!

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Remind me... have I just had two weeks off!!

Well I enjoyed Christmas but it was over too quickly and here we are, 22nd of January and the holiday feels like it could have been months ago, not weeks!

In a lot of ways it is good to be back into the swing of everything... except I seem to have even less time than I did before (before when, i'm not sure!).

Monday was training. I run Jag and Twix on a Monday. Last year I think I ended up concentrating too much on Twix and as a result was babying Jag round everything too and he is certainly not the sort of dog that needs babying round anything!! So I have decided I have just over a month to Crufts and I need to put in some hard graft to get us back on the same wavelength. So we are practicing lots of tricks and obedience stuff as I don't have equipment at home.

Last night I actually felt like Jag and I were gelling again. I asked for some hard courses.. and got them and Jag was great. I managed to get most of it right. Tonight............ what a relief, back to training with my good friend Toni Dawkins! Toni is so much fun to train with. We have trained together for a long time. We used to hire the school when Kite was a youngster and just do anything and everything for an hour or so. Then for some reason neither of us had time. Well toward the end of last year we made sure we started training together again. And boy does it help. We pretty much know each others handling inside out so can help each other. On top of this, Toni is just a perfectionist and task master! I am a bit "oh that will do" but not when Toni's around, I can't get away with it. So that is exactly what I need.

Tonight we did load of jump and tunnel sequences. We are trying to think of Crufts type things to get ourselves ready. I decided not to do any extra with Twix tonight as I really want to concentrate on Jag for the next few weeks leading up to Crufts. But after Crufts Twix better watch out!! lol.

Twix was a good girl on Monday night as well. Her dog walks and a-frames were great. I have had similar issues to Nancy on the dog walk (must be in the breeding!!) but was really pleased with Twix's consistent speed. I have also been busily tyring to speed Twix's weaves up. So for now, we have gone back to slightly open channels. Always want more don't we.


As for the wellies............. yes I will post a pic lol. Need to get the camera out though so might not be untl the weekend.

What with training last night and tonight, tomorrow is gym night, Thursday I teach, Friday is gym night, Saturday I have a ball to go to in the evening... I might get round to some chill time at some point!! Maybe Sunday.. but only after going to the gym!!

Saturday 19 January 2008

Arguments, training and shopping!!!

Well today consisted of all of the above. I had a nice lay in. Then decided I would take the dogs to the park for a walk. Thought it would be a good opportunity to do some obedience training and practice some silly tricks with both of them.

I arrived at the park. It was fairly quiet apart from some football training at one end so I decided to go up to the far end where it was really quiet and also there are goalposts so I an tie one dog there while I train the other (no they won't down stay while I work the other dog!)

Any way bascially on the way up to the top we were joined by a black lab. Owner was a good distance away with her other dog. I don't mind my dogs mixing with other dogs but I do like the owners to be near by as to be honest I don't know what their dogs will do! Any way lab stucks its nose up Jag's bottom and proceeded to raise its hackles and curl tail over his back and growl. So eventually as the owner was taking no notice of it and making no attempt at all to call it back, I shouted at it to go away. She then started shouting at me!

After a large amount of abuse I did tell the woman where to go to which she replied that she would kill me!! Nice!! She said she felt sorry for my dogs cos they have to live with me. The spouted on bout I better not be seen down there again and she was going to report me to the police and the dog wardent. I told her to go ahead. She then went into some weird bante about I was the sort of person that didn't pick up after my dogs and how she had more pooh bags than me! She then also shouted that I am the sort of person that probably doesn't go to work and earn money!! Hm. She also said that first my dog had bitten hers and then that I had hit the dog and she had witnesses! There was no one around!

Now maybe my boss would say I don't work, but I certainly turn up every day lol.

Eventually the woman went. I hope she does report me. I can see the police and dog warden making her look very silly!!! I think I have a few people that could vouch for me and my attitude to dogs... just a few!!

Any way after she went and I had stopped laughing, I did some training with both dogs. I will have to try and get a video of Jag doing heelwork! My friend that does obedience thinks he is hilarious cos he only uses three legs! Any way they were both good and worked well.

Then I went off shopping with my Mum. Found a lovely pale pink ski jacket from Tog 24 so just had to by it! And bought some wellies as well, in preperation for Supadogs. They are pink too... with marshamallows on! You will have to see them to believe them.

Tomorrow I am off to judge at WAG. Have just finished setting out my courses. So will see how it goes.

Friday 18 January 2008

Starting a fresh!

Ok now its' up to date (ish) I can start a fresh and try and update regularly!

Well I am sitting here typing this while I should be in a Travelodge up in Warrington. I have booked in to Ribble but decided that it is far to far to go and I just really don't feel like it. So I know if I go I won't work my dogs properly so have decided to stay at home. Probably a sensible decision. But worrying, because I don't normally do sensible.

Saturday I will take the dogs out early and do some obedience training with Jag. Then I am off shopping with my Mum. Sunday I am judigng at a WAG show which is about 10 minutes from home. So that is my weekend planned. Although I do still have to design the courses for Sunday... oops!!

This week has seemed long and tiring. Monday night was agility. Tuesday night I went to teach at someone elses club. I was looking forward to the teaching but not the journey as we had gale force winds. Although looking at Nancy and Leah's blogs I can't see why I was worried (yes I do spy on your blogs!). Wednesday was gym night, Thursday I did my normal 4 hours of teaching and then Friday was gym again. So somewhere I'm sure I will get a rest!!

Mr Jaglet and I haven't been on the same wavelength for a while now. So I have decided that we need to do more work together. I don't have access to agility equipment at home so have decided we will do lots of obedience stuff. I did lots of this when he was younger and I think it helped both our relationship and it kept Jag under control. He can be quite mad!! Last Sunday I went training with a friend that does lots of obedience. So I now have things to work on. She is helping my obedience while I teach her agility!

Bad bad blogger

Well I am the worst blogger in the world I think. I started it off and thought what a good idea and then that was it. I was never any good at keeping diaries or anything else... so I will try and keep this more up to date. So a quick update I guess from my last entry. After having had a cracking show at Vyne, Jag went on to the highlight of the year for me... Hinckley!!!!! This time he won the CC!!! Woo.... just what I had wanted for a good few years. Andy Hudson was the judge and he set some great courses, which proved just right for Jag and I. On top of this Jag also managed to qualify for a chum semi the following day. I have a video of Jag's 2006 Olympia runs (also judged by Andy! hm pattern emerging!), his Crufts runs and his CC winning run. If I have done it right, then it should be below!!




Jag's CC was the highlight of mine and Jag's year. We got to 3 Olympia semi finals. I managed to finish 6th in one (top 5 qualify), had 5 faults in another and in the last one we got e'd about two from home after he had done a cracking round. GRRR!!! We did get to go to Olympia. They had an invitation run on the Monday and Jag and I were asked to attend. Sadly Jag broke his wait and splatted the first two poles. Good bit was that we were live on Eurosport. So finally I am a famous (or not) TV star. As for Twix... well what can I say about little girl. She started off in grade three by getting several clear rounds in her first weekend and just carried on. After winning out of grade 3 she picked up lots more places. Her first grade 4 show was at the begining of July. Well she didn't stay there for long! Twix won out of grade 4 by winning a 1-5 agility at Dogs In Need. I was especially pleased with this win as not only did she win in a class that had dogs above her grade but it was at a huge show that always has a great level of competitions.

Apart from Twix's wins this year, we had a great time at the KC Festival. I think Twix had something like 9 runs over the weekend,and 8 clears! Results were:-

13th grade 4/5 jumping
12th grade 4 agility
9th grade 3/4/5 agility
7th grade 4 jumping
3rd grade 4 jumping
3rd grade 4 agility
2nd grade 3/4/5 jumping.

Twix also qualified for the Novice Cup final. The top 8 (I think) dogs get to go to Crufts. The finals course just proved a little to tough for Twix in one area. But I have to say she worked the rest of the course brilliantly!! She picked up on a really hard weave entry and just flew in.

One of Twix's relatives, Nancy Hudsons, Niamh also qualified for the final. From memory I think they finished 2nd and are off to Crufts.