Not a lot going on!

Well as the title suggests, not a lot going on. Very boring (sorry). Training... well haven't done much of that. My dogs have had a month off each and then I managed to hurt my back, so I haven't been running them. Tried on Monday and was ok but not great. I was going to run both but Twix managed to cut her paw on the Sunday so just ran Jag which was nice but I wasn't running him properly but he was such a good boy.

I guess it isn't long until Christmas so will just potter through and to a little bit of training but i'm sure the extended rest won't dog the dogs (or me) any harm.

No shows to report on either. Well not for my dogs. Last Sunday there was a WAG show which I went to to watch some of the people I train and I also thought I might be able to help out a bit as Leah was judging. We had a good laugh! But I soon learnt that you can't please everyone and some people just can't seem to stand people being to happy, hey ho. I won't need to help as much in future! But I think having a laugh passed the time of day. Poor Leah was stuck judging for over 10 hours and it was flippin freezing. I know most people appreciated Leah's courses and the time she took to judge everyone. Well done Leah. Just a shame there were the odd few people that couldn't see past themselves!

My club enjoyed the show. Between 3 of them, they won all the grade 1/2 classes.

Toni and I are doing a training day on 28th December. So should be enjoyable. Have lots of people already but still some spaces left. Be good to run off all the Christmas pud.

So what next... well a series of going out getting drunk nights! And then the pain of deciding what the heck to buy everyone for Christmas! I always say I dislike Christmas but it's not really Christmas I dislike, its that bit before. To add to it both my parents have Birthdays at Christmas too. One on 19th and one on 27th, so double the presents to think of... ahh!!!!

Well thats about it really. I hope all the other bloggers are fighting fit and looking forward to Christmas.

WAG show 26th october

I usually end up judging most of these each year, well it feels like it. Not that I mind at all. But today I decided to enter one instead. And ok it is a small unaffiliated show but my enthusiasm for agility has kinda been on the decline of late. But I was actually looking forward to today. Nearly didn't enter but then thought what the heck. I think it is because I knew that there would be a good group of club memembers there, that I decided to go along and have a laugh!

Well what a good day! On a persoanl note, both dogs went clear in the agility. I trained my contacts and they were both great, Twix's were even quick. Both had good waits. The helter skelter was a real blast and both of mine went clear, finishing 2nd and 4th. The best result was the jumping where they both again when clear and finished 1st and 2nd. My first double!!! Even more pleaseing was that the time between Jag and Twix in the jumping was 0.9 and in the helter skelter, even closer at 0.4! And they were both big blasty course. Go little legs Twix!!! And it wasn't like Jag was slow on them either as there were another couple of decent grade 7 dogs there that were on similar times.

As for the others from club. Well what a day. I think there were 8 of us there and between us we won 21 rosettes. Now I am well impressed with that. We had a 1&2 in the helter skelter. In one of the jumping classes club memebers were 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th. There was at least one other 1st and two other 2nds. One of those was from my friend Karen. Her dog (like her) is basically mental. Ya know, one of those dogs you would love to get your hands on! But his first clear I think and Karen's first trophy. Might be some more there one day I think.

So well done to all the club members. Kinda makes you feel like maybe, just maybe, they do listen sometimes. Almost as proud of them as I was of my own dogs (almost!).

Oops - how long!!

Just looked back on my blog and last post was 2 months ago!! Eek where did that time go.

Have heard lots of grumps about blogs but never mind. If they bore you and you are reading this then s*d off. Make a choice, don't read it. For the rest that find them interesting for nosey reasons or anything else, please do continue.

So blimey, October. Well what has happened since Agility Club show. No idea really. I went to DIN for a week. Very frustrating week. Twix did qualify for the end of week finals so was very pleased but frustrated that in 3 out of the 4 grade 5 jumpings she did, that we had the fastest time and one pole down. Grrr. Jag was a good boy but seemed to go clear in the agility classes I was training and not in the jumpings. Hey ho. Oh and there was one agility round I refused to do because of the wind at the time. I have never seen an a-frame blown over and across the ring, breaking the weaves as it went! Was I gonna run my dog even though they changed the course.. NO! Too much risk. What is weird is the amount of people that agreed and said it was too dangerous, only to run their dogs!! It makes me really mad! And I could go on all day about it but won't.

Judged at Paws in the park, nice show, enjoyed judging for a change. Class winners did really well. Well apart from the winner of the grade 5 agility and he should have had 5 for kneeing his dogs into the weaves but my error.

Not much else to say agility wise, I have missed out on Olympia this year. I really am not that bothered. Yes if I had qualified I would be more than happy but i'm not kicking myself for not getting there either. I will be there as a groom though! So watch out I will chilled and just enjoying.

Dogs are both fine. Twix has had a cut poor, you'd have thought she had had her leg chopped off the way she limped on it. But that lasted one day!

Now chippenham has been cancelled, I have no more KC shows left this year. I may or may not to Rugby. Not that bothered to be honest. Have booked a room for Ribble next year. Could do with a break really to reiginite my enthusiasm for agility.

On a good note I have had a sneak preview of Toni's new contacts DVD that is due out soon (watch this space!). Very good and hope for Toni's sake that it sells really well. Toni's contacts with her dogs are blinding. And the DVD really is "how she did it".

Oh will be judging a few WAG shows this year. I am busy saving for a caravan. No way I can do another year in a tent. So all money making ideas on a postcard please!!

Agility Club

What a hot weekend!!! Went up on the Friday and got set up nice and quickly. Saturday was the first time Jag would be doing any agility since his two weeks off!! To say I was a little nervous is an understatement. I know I should have put it to the back of my mind and just run Jag normally but that was easier said than done!! The champ classes were interesting.... don't let our judges go to Europe! (only joking!). I managed to mess the first bit of the champ class up, think I was just worried. Still never miind. We were better in champ agility but I wasn't really "up" for it after being e'd in the jumping. Crufts class Jag had a nice clear but was too slow.

I am now wondering if Jag had been carrying an injury for a few weeks before hand. He had knocked poles the previous few weeks but not enough to make me worry, just thought it was odd poles. But then agilit club weekend he didn't knock any. Maybe the going lame was a good thing in its way. Made me do what I should have done a few weeks earlier! Bad owner!

Sunday we had our last Olympia qualifier and Crufts team. Olympia qualifier... well what can I say... marked on the a-frame. I shouldn't really say much more except dogs have four feet not just two at the front!!! Not sure it would have been quick enough though. Jag is off the pace at the moment so I think we will be doing lots of trotting walks to get him a bit fitter!

Crufts team was good fun. We are not normally that worried but this was our last chance and I think we kinda wanted to qualify again because we won at Crufts this year. Would be nice to go back and defend our crown! Any way it all worked out just fine and we won the class. So I will get at least one day at Crufts!

Twix and I were just not together. Not sure if it was the heat (affecting me not twix lol). But it just wasn't happening!!!! Never mind. Perhaps I have chilled now I have achieved what I wanted to this year.

The weekend was a good one though. Lee won the ticket with Bold. It was a great run and really showed Lee and Bold's qualities. I think people underestimate this little dogs potential. He is very much like Toni's Kite and still such a baby really. There is a lot more to come from them!!

Was booked into Aylesbury yesterday but really didn't feel like going. I need an agility break! So I am depriving myself of shows this weekend and next in the hope that I will be up for D.I.N. Am looking forward to camping with friends for the week and maybe more looking forward to drinking and having a laugh than the actual agility. So not sure I expect any spectacular results but it will be a week away from work!!!

Rugby and Newlands

Rugby... well what can I say, what a waste of diesel!! lol. Went up on Friday, not a bad journey. Saturday saw an Olympia heat for Jag, course was tricky but do-able. Jag got half way round before he knocked a pole. I kinda gave up at that point. Clear in his 1-7 agility and he ran clear in the team. Hm if only I could have swapped that 1-7 agility for the Olympia one!

Twix had a clear in her grade 5 agility with nicely held contacts so no place. I pulled Twix off a tunnel in the 5 jumping. All my fault, had been working on calling off of tunnels on the Monday at training as it was something I was bad at! The 1-7 agiltiy with Twix was a nice trained clear. Not that it would have mattered as they had entered Twix in the wrong part. So I guess it ended up as an NFC run.

Saturday night I got Jag and Twix out of the car just before going to bed and Jag was lame. I had hoped it was just that he had been laying awkwardly in the car but alas he was still lame Sunday morning. So no classes for Jag! I didn't really feel like I had my heart in running Twix. I think it showed and we messed up all our runs.

On a good note I did get to relax and watch the champ class. Toni won the ticket with a great run in the final. With Lee winning the reserve. Hard luck Lee but just goes to show how woman always come out on top!! (well most of the time!)

Jag was sound by Thursday of this week but I decided not to run him at Newlands. It just wasn't worth the risk. I would prefer for him to have a couple of weeks off. Twix had a good day. We started off with 2nd in the grade 5 agility. That was followed by winning grade 5 jumping!!!!!!!! Very pleased as this was her 3rd jumping win so now moves her up to grade 6! Go the blonde dog.

Watford, Bretons, Dartford and St ed's

All those shows and all over two weekends!! No wonder I spend so much on diesel.

Watford was pretty much a complete waste of time. Will think twice about this one next year if it is at the same place. Mind you they can't help the weather. But it drizzled all flippin day. The grass was really really short and the ground underneath really hard. It was evident quite quickly that a lot of dogs were really slipping. As a result it seemed stupid to try and push the dogs round anything. Jag slipped all over the place in his jumping. Twix was more sure footed in hers and ended up 4th but I left with a feeling that we could have had a much better place but I wasn't going to push and Twix doesn't work well with me running her like that.

Bretons was a good show :-) Our club were ring partying. So it was a case of run off to a ring when possible. This weirdly seemed to work well for me. Jag had two
6th places which I was pleased with as more than anything we were clear!! His touch points were lovely and very controlled. Twix was e'd in her agility.. my fault totally. I forgot to call her before the weaves. Oops. But in her 4/5 jumping... she won... yay. Good little Twix. She really did run well and won by a good margin, well for agility these days it was a good margin.

Dartford wasn't the most successful show for me. Jag did do a lovely round to come 2nd in his 6/7 jumping. And most importantly I released him from the start rather than him deciding when we were going! Twix had a pole in her 4/5 jumping and a clear in her agility but as I trained her contacts we weren't placed.. well at least I don't think we were..oops.

St Ed's today was a good show! Ok Jag had a pole in the chum, grrr. But he was clear in grade 7 agility, lovely contacts had another 2nd in 6/7 jumping and just a pole down in the grade 7 jumping. Although I can't believe I actually managed to remember where we were going... nice course, but I was still thinking about Twix's success when I ran.

Twix came 4th in her 4/5 agility, which was good with nicely held contacts. She came 6th in a 5/6 jumping. Really pleased that she beat some nice grade 6 dogs. Maybe she will be able to hold her own up there. And even better... we won another grade 5 jumping. So two down one to go. Twix again won by a good margin. So very pleased.

Chum semi on Thursday.. gulp! I hate these. Really really hate them. Olympia is lovely but the semi's are nasty. So would love to get through but who knows. So many good dogs. Watch this space!

Well done to Nancy and not at all naughty Niamh for qualifying for a chum semi today. Just go for it out there! Think Karen and Todd had a rather good day to!

Hinckley, Thames and Axstane

Well after the wet weekend at supadogs, all I wanted was a nice dry Hinckley!! Went up on Friday. Toni drive me up there (Lee followed Sat am). We had a nice journey up, always seems to go quickly, mainly because we seem to manage to chat all the way. Set up the tents and then sat down to drink. Had a pleasent evening chatting and drinking.

Sat was at least dry! Champ, hm didn't go well. Actually Jag just had a pole but with something like 43 clears in the jumping we had kinda got no chance. Twix for some reason felt very slow. I was told I was babying her too much. So in her last run I made an effort to be a bit more pushy and it worked. We did get an e but she felt so much better (looks like Toni was right again!). Best result of the day was Jag's 4th place in the Crufts singles qualifier. Nice to get some points under my belt.

Toni won the medium ticket with Minx.. yipee.. another one. Was really pleased for Toni. They are working so well together.

Sunday I was judging a 3/4/5 agility. Was pleased with how the class went. There was a nice tight bit and then a flowing finish. Course below. I was pleased with the way it ran. There was the normal mixture of good and bad handling but was quite happy with the winners run.



On to Thames. Went up nice and early on Friday afternoon, was set up really quickly and was sat drinking rather early!! As for agility, some more Crufts points for Jag. Clear in the Chum but a very competitive class and due to a turn in the wrong direction, Jag was well down the places. Twix had a couple of nice middle of the road places in agility with trained contacts. Missed out on Novice chum because of a pole. Champ was pants again... will I even make a champ final this year. Hm!

Saturday night at Thames is always fun. And that is as much as I will say. But I did feel slightly tired on Sunday and had a slight headache. But nothing to major.

Axstane is a lovely show. Always enjoy it. Jag had a 4th in his agility on Sunday with nicely held contacts. He came 8th in the celebration connection class. Which very scarily qualifies him for the final. Gulp! The best result of the weekend had to be Twix's 5/6/7 jumping on Saturday. She finished 3rd. Now I know there weren't a huge amount of grade 7 dogs there, but the first two places were good grade 7 dogs and there were several good grade 7 dogs behind her. Twix did the best round I think she has ever done. Amanda Rodgers was the judge and course was big and flowing. Not the sort of thing I would expect Twix to do well on. I was very chuffed with Twix after that one. She seemed to work really well all weekend and I had lots of people commenting that she suddenly seems to have gone up a gear. Which is what it felt like running her. So long may this continue. Oh and just for good measure, her dog walks were great!

Axstane and Thames were also debut shows for 3 of the dogs in my puppy class. All three have had clear rounds and these shows and a few places to boot. Is really nice to seem them out there running and work well.