Summer ?? holiday

We set off earlier this month on our trek around the country to go to Peterborough, Ipswich and Chester for the dog shows there- I reckon we had about 2 full days without any rain, and the wind was appalling all the time. It was like running in the Autumn/winter, with lots and lots of mud.
It wasn't a great time away as far as the agility was concerned, we had a couple of good runs, with lots and lots of bad runs. KC festival was a mixed bag, blew out in the qualifiers for the British Open and won the other run we had for the day! (Typical Ruby). Blossom our sheltie was away on a bonking holiday, but also whilst we were away our Smooth Collie Beryl came into season. Puck was dramatically affected by this. He has shown in the past a bit of interest in the girls- but never excessively so. But he was behaving like a sex mad maniac whilst we were away. What I always liked about Puck was that he wasn't sex mad, but here we were at the start of our holiday with a dog who wasn't focused on the job. I worked out why he was so bad, earlier in the year we lost our Alpha male dog Io- I believe having him there kept Puck's desires in check, so I have now to deal with Puck as the Alpha male dog in our household.

His behaviour in the ring manifests as missed weaves and a love for tunnels- invariably the wrong end. He ended up at the end of our holiday with one clear round to his name!! A good one it was though, coming second in the EO qualifier at the KC festival.

On the Saturday at the festival I judged and I enjoyed this- especially the 6 and 7 smalls and mediums. Though found the presentations frustrating- announcements for them were made so poorly that hardly anybody turned up for them- and I do try my very best to get to presentations.

DIN started well- champ jumping- finishing 2nd! Then the wheels fell off the week, E'd in the champ agility at the end of the round, and subsequently many more E's the rest of the week- Ruby's worst sequence of events- ever!

DD wasn't much better- but we stopped the rot slightly with a 6-7 agility win, her A frame started to go off the rails , and in two jumping courses she inexplicably missed jumps out on the course- so video's in the next round or two!

Pucks weaves are in the process of being retrained now I'm home (grass cut yesterday) to many runs being destroyed by his impetuosity and poor wait!

For him I'm putting this season down as a learning experience- not much more than this that I can do !

A week or two off now ( thank dog) I have the pairs final with Tom next week his dog panic has finally gone grade 6 with the 3rd jumping win coming at DD- well done to them.
Saw all of the pups ( except Qui) when we were away and I must say I am so very proud of the way they have all grown up, all very striking kelpies in their own way.

SUNNY SCUNNY

It took us over 6 hours to get to this fab show, marie was judging and I was scriming so I new we would be well looked after and would have a fabulous lunch as well.
One week on after molli/brie went and as far as i know she has settled in as if she has always been there, Andrea must be photo mad as she's taken literally hundreds of pics of brie, and she looks great in them- what is it about seeing the trees for the woods? In these pics she looks great- at home she was another red and tan kelpie ( in a nice sense). I'm so happy she has found a fantastic and loving home- so now all the litter have their respective homes, I love to see them all and to see the "pairings" ie Bel and Kaiser look spits of each other and Flash and Qui are similar, Draco stands out as being hairy- though it's all fallen out, come winter ( and hormones) it'll be back as hairy as ever. It's fun to take them to the big open spaces at shows and let them off the lead- they aren't as bad as Puck and Tink at coming back to you, but Ruby prefers to run with them ( Draco & Bel as they don't try to bite chunks out of her and aren't faster than her - yet!) 

Weather at scunny was fab- nor blistering hot but just right, the runs started badly ( we had 4 runs a day- not used to this many- but grateful for them anyway. First up was the EO combined 6-7 , it was an intentionally trappy course - far, far too trappy IMO jump traps, tunnel traps, wrong side of tunnels, jumps etc, I've stated before that I like to see handler and dog enjoy the course and not go around nagging and roaring, in 6-7 the pairing will make their own mistakes and you don't need a trappy course to test the partnership. I have found this yoer a prevalence of pull throughs in course design for 6-7 and though I can do them- rather well i think, I confess to being bored by them as they are coming up again and again- surely our judges can come up with more innovative course designs? Maybe this is why I enjoyed Amanda Rogers and Andy Hudsons champ courses this year ( I'll reserve judgement on John Gilberts design at NH) Their courses showed thought and flair and I got my teeth into them., any way both puck and Ruby  cocked up on the first tunnel trap! Ruby following my flicked out hand puck just seeing a tunnel at the end of the dog walk!
Puck weekend did not get any better- his best and only non- E was in a lovely grade 6 jumping with a 2 jump recall !! it was the last run of the weekend and I think he could tell that all was not well in the dad-puck relationship so he tried his very best and only had one plastic pole down.
I also ran Tom's dog panic, both jumping runs were unlucky, but resulted in E's- she need's one more win to go grade 6 , but she (for once) saved the best run for her agility, coming 6th in grade 5 agility, her contacts are very slow (especially the A frame), but I'd actually done a wee bit of training with her earlier in the week and it paid off as her contacts were a bit quicker and more confident than before and she enjoyed herself, which is the most important factor!
Ruby's Saturday did get better with a third in the agility and 2x 1sts in the jumping! Sunday continued in the same vein with 2 x 2nd's and a third- so from 8 runs 6 trophies, she is such a good girl just now, but with a missed dog walk in one of the courses it'll be back to a bit of training for her!
I may look into getting her seen by a chiropracter thingummygig as I've mentioned before her lack of a "right" turn- whereas her left turns are very flexible, I noticed it on the weekend where I could watch her turning over the jumps ( one course) and It occurred to me whilst watching her that I'll get her looked at.

I've never been one for this sort of thing, but when people say it has improved their dog I think it must be worth a try- just a bit worried about the over-dramatisation people attribute top this ie after seeing the chiropracter you hear people say " oh- the spine was horrendously out of alignement " etc But will get her checked out just the same - think there will be one at KC Fest DIN etc.

A six hour journey home on Sunday and I'm still recovering!
Big hols coming soon- so no blog for a while KC Fest , DIN and Dashin Dogs! Should be fun, I'm judging at the KC fest so all you small / medium 6-7 handlers out there as I've stated here your jumping course will have NO pull throughs but it'll be a runners course for the dogs to have a great time!

Agility Club

Off we set for the Agility Club show, one of my favourites for the year, only 2 runs a day ( 3 or 4 if in the champ/teams etc) but who cares when the weather was great - hot for dogs though- especially funny watching Tink kick her feet out on the tarmac as her feet were getting too hot- also according to Marie it was happening to her on the contacts as well (though probably was being held on them too long if that was happening!)
We went with 11 dogs and came back with 10- Molli is now called Brie, and has a fabulous home with Andrea Russ and her collies. We did not set out on friday with this in mind, it happened in a weekend and Andrea met molli, and fell for her, I've always stated what a fine dog she was, and andrea has a fine prospect for the future, she's apparently settled in and is ( as always with Molli/Brie ) taking it all in her stride, can't wait to see her again though!
I had high hopes for the weekend as Ruby has hit a nice vein of form and Puck is , well Puck! He had some very very nice run's but not quite there yet, he did get a clear in the crufts 6-7 but the madly wide turns put paid to a place , to get the places he must tighten up and begin to listen and react with more alacrity, he got round all of the courses , he's due a sparkling run soon though- I feel it.
Ruby ran in the first few in the Crufts/EO qualifier, it was an interesting course that to do well you would have to control the turns and have a dog that could turn at distance and have fast contacts, etc etc! I decided to do something I rarely do now and that is turn at the bottom of the A frame to turn ruby over the next jump to control the turn and her entrance into the the far end of a tunnel. Also critical was the turn on to the dog walk, a choice was given to go the 'long' way or the 'short ' way, turn around the jump and enter the dog walk- I decided to turn ruby the 'long ' way- as it was the way she was naturally running, and it was a turn to the left, she did it so neatly and her turn so good she had to scramble up the dog walk and drive to the bottom ( not her greatest forte). We finished with a clear and off I tootled up to do the champ jumping round.
The champs were the biggest I've done so far 112 dogs! The Judge was Andy Hudson so I entered with trepidation as in the previous champs I've done with Andy I've yet to attain a clear! The courses were in my opinion fabulous , testing and well thought out with a distinctive European flavour. The dogs enjoyed them, and at the end of the day a great partnership won. Ruby picked up 5 faults in the jumping, in a steady round for her ( I said i was tense), she took off early for a jump - so then the rest of the course was damage limitation. Then I popped down to check to see where I was lying in the Crufts- and it was top of the pile!- But with 320 dogs I'd be surprised to be there by the end of the day.
Champ agility round next and it was over in a blur, I still can't remember the course!
Ruby flowed round and didn't put a paw wrong- as attested by her place 1st !! So pleased with her. Then I went to run Blossom in one of her courses ( I'm sorry but I could murder people in small courses, the queues seem to never get shorter! ) Well when I was waiting in blossom's queue I heard the presentation for the Champ agility class- I missed it - I hate missing presentations ( with a passion) even more so when I win! Sorry Andy!

We'd made it to the Champ final, loved the course with options! I walked it and stuck to my plan in the final- ruby nearly ran into the tunnel, rather than the dog walk, but being such a fab girl she did the right thing, but after the tunnel, I had too much time and I thought "I'm in the place I should be as I'd walked it this way, but now I'm here I'm not so sure!" and she ran past the jump! Bollox !! I'd got a bit lost and we'd threw it away, roll on the next one!

A quick check at the Cruft's and we'd finished 2nd to David Munnings and dobby, so 9 more crufts points, making 23 so far, good enough for next year I should think.
One bad thing about the day- no trophy for the champ rounds, so although winning a grade 7 class of over 100 dogs (paying £10 or more for the class) and no trophy for winning it!

Next day was the olympia qualifier- no pressure here as I'm going the ABC way , but a lovely course was completed with a fab run from ruby who flowed round the course to finish in 2nd place Woo-hoo . Again to dave and dobby ( a dog with much better contacts and twice the size of ruby).

All in all a great weekend and I'm addicted to agility and winning again, how fickle am I? Off on a mad journey to Scunthorpe next week- 240 miles- daft!

Caerphilly

As promised here are a couple of pic's of the trophies we won at Tuffley, these pictures don't do them too much justice as they were bigger than they seem, hopefully they'll have them on offer again next year so I can win some more!





Well Caerphilly is our local show, no bridge to contend with, and only 25 miles away, great venue and some good company, nice to be at a show after missing Rugby, though from what I hear i didn't miss too much.
Puck as usual struggled to contain himself on most of the courses, got to get some form of a wait! He had a couple of nearly's but not quite's, his one clear ( of the month no doubt!) was in grade 6 jumping which he finished third- great considering he had a spin near the end.
Ruby was on this weekend superlative and peerless, of 6 runs she won 4 classes, she was on form in both agility and jumping and her average winning margin was about a second ( or 2 and a half in the agility) her agility win was one of those wonder runs where everything comes together and she flows around a course- she can if she want's save that form for this weekend at the Agility club show .
here's the dragon brood she and puck won at the weekend




We also won the quiz, so another few quid in the kitty to go towards us buying more kit for our club.
Started training Draco on Monday and he is ,at the moment ,a bit of an airhead, wanting to bounce up and down, but he is very different from my other kelpies as he is so sleek and flexible at this age, he will certainly test my skills to get him ready to compete. Best and most promising of the pups is Molli as , when she works she is very much like her mum, and will be a prospect in the future.
Oh and Draco started cocking his leg this week, woo-hoo teenage hormones here we come!

Tuffley

Off we tootled to Tuffley show last weekend, so nice to go to a reasonably local show, but I guess we'll have to get used to this what with the rising cost of fuel etc, I just wish there were more shows over this side of the country- especially in the winter! What a lot of people don't know is that we are an hour from the severn bridge just to get to any show- and it cost's us £10.60 to get back into Wales! Not cheap!
We've also managed to find somewhere to securely keep the caravan, rather than on the cul de sac (road) anything to keep the neighbours happy, and it has 24/7 access, and only cost's a couple of quid more than the grotty farm we used to keep it on, having the caravan bumped along a rutted road, up a very steep incline, and a narrow road was enough to stop me taking it there- oh and the irate resident who complained if you turned up after 9pm at night!
Well on to the competition, high hopes for Puck who trained very well this week! And ruby had a challenge tournament to defend, and both had an ABC qualifier. Puck was particularly bad this weekend- he's struggling with grade 6 I'll admit! His starts are an ever increasing problem- he's too keen for his own good, and we need one for the future- and when he does get going it's a lottery if he's listening to me or not- but lots to get on with, his highlight was a pole down in the ABC ! the rest were all big fat E's.
Ruby won the ABC - these are strange runs these days- I know I do not need to go for it in these runs, and she should qualify- but I still remember the anxiety of these runs in the past ( which I now have in the crufts/olympia's nowadays). Puck just beat her time- he's due a very good run soon- let's hope it'll be in a qualifier for him! Ruby had 5 clears out of 6 ( the last being when I pulled up as the ground was quite poor and I slightly went over on my ankle- so we walked out). Her jumping was good ( a 2nd and a 4th) but on one run again I went over on my ( good) ankle so held her up- the agility's we're ok , no good places though as twice she went for the wrong jump and I had to call her off- still to gel with her this season! Ultimately we finished 2nd in the tournament to Ant and Magic ( but I remember that see-saw!!!!!) We'll get it again next year!

A cracking photo taken by Alan Score of Ruby- she does take a great action shot!



Unlike this lumbering ox!

I said that the ground was bad and Marie went over on it in her last run with jet- very painful for her, but she coped tremendously well in the pain she was in and Judged on the sunday, I put course out for her that would accommodate her lack of mobility and I hope those people and dogs who run it felt that they enjoyed them, Tuffley really must consider the ground in the future as loads of people fell over at the weekend, the show was great well run and the trophies were beautiful ( it is nice to get trophies that you haven't won ( or seen ) before - they were like big chrystal jewels with a star on the - I'll post a pic in to this blog when I get a chance.

We've started to try to find time to train the pups, which is difficult , but Madeleine has eventually chipped in and started to train Molli, this is very brave of her and I am so proud of her for giving it a go- especially as molli is and will be a livewire, but they seem to be trying hard for each other, even though Madeleine had the setback of falling over, she'll be back to give it a try!

No show this weekend ( boo-hoo) decided a couple of months back that it was too far to go to and with the rising cost of fuel etc we couldn't afford it! So as you see I tinkered with the blog design- hope you all like it with my stars theme!

Off to Manchester this week to lecture in Old Trafford to 150 nurses! This I am looking forward to as it'll be my first big journey in my new car which came on Monday!
It has cruise control- so maybe it'll give my knee a break- as the Physio has upgraded me from Bursitis to Tendinitis! I've got the tape to get my knee all Rafa Nadal'd up for the future!








Off to our most local show next week- Caerphilly- so no huge journeys or bridge to contend with- just other factors like plastic poles and poor equipment! and narrow spaced weaves!