This weeks Hex video

My little mate Riot....

Sadly still no home for Riot, not even much interest.....

He is a really nice dog, but has quite a few quirks at the mo, but even with these I would be really sad to see him go! Anyway to try and help find him the right person I have made him a video.......

The Europeans and last week...

Oh my god, what a week! Well last Sat' I went to Scunthorpe, drove for hours only to blow out at obstacle number 6 in the Champ! But I did get to run Jay's Kelpie, "Stihl", who was very good and got a 3rd in 5 Agility, and Herbie pulled off a nice 2nd in 7 Jumping, so not a totally bad day! The next day Nancy, Andy and Jan came over to the school and we tried out some FCI style courses (as I had the Europeans try outs this weekend), these were very hard, but we all got some great stuff, and it was good training for me. I had a great morning and it was really good fun. I then spent some time with them teaching push throughs (as I love doing them!). Monday I had a great training session with Herbie, and Tuesday he was even better. Thursday was Hex's lesson. He is coming on really well! I have a video that I need to upload, and will try and do later...... The contacts (truthfully are only about 75% accurate at the mo', but have made a few discoveries with him, IE DON'T SAY GO!!! as he just extends his stride too much!) Then to

Saturday.......

We got up early (4am) and left by 5am as I wanted time to relax and do all the necessary paper work etc. When we arrived the sun was shinning, BUT it was bitterly cold. The course plans were up on a wall, so i had a look (then wished hadn't, as they were suttley trappy!) I love a good twisty course, and just hoped I could hold it together for four rounds?
I have asked Nancy to e-mail me to courses so I can put them on here......

Well first was the jumping, it was quite a small ring so you came up against the next obstacle quite quickly (including the wrong one!). Herbie produced a lovely clear.

Round 1-Jumping

The next three classes were agility, and only if you were in the top 30 dogs after 3 rounds (on points), could you do the last round.

Round 2-Agility

Round 3-Agility

Round 4-Agility

Herbie did two more great agility rounds and at the end of the third round we were in 6th over all.

The last round I just desperately wanted to do with another clear, and we did. Herbie was absolutely fantastic all day, despite his mum's nerves! In the end we qualified 2nd over all as one of the few dogs to do 4/4 clear rounds.

They are taking the top ten dogs (in the large) and an extra 5 wild cards, so we were picked!! YIPPIE!!!!!!!! I am so proud!

This is our team......


Big dogs:
Sarah Osbourne
Leah Gardner
Lee Gibson
Lee Windeatt (Bold)
Greg Derrett
Marc Saunders
Anthony Clarke
Nigel Staines
Alan Bray (Skylar)
Nic and Caleb

Medium:
Gary Cumming
Andrew Sandercock
A lady with a schnauzer (sorry, forgot your name)

Little:
Wendy Fairlamb
Bernadette Bay
Helen Davey-Smith

I also know a couple of the wild cards.....
Dave and Dobby
Katie mitchell
Lisa and Chi

Well done to everybody, I think we're sending some great dogs (but I would say that!)

Any way, this all finished at 6.30pm, and I was meant to be in Carmarthen (for my Grans surprise birthday party, at 7pm!!! NOT A CHANCE!!!!!)At 9.15pm we rolled in to dinner, very hungry (not good at eating when I'm competing!), and tiered.

The next day Jay took some lovely photo's of Herbie (as my mum wanted some on her site) So here they are......

A long awaited Hex Vid!!!!

Bad weather, rescue dogs and life......

Well I hate to say it, but i whimped out on an agility show!!!! SHOCK HORROR!
The rain was just too much this weekend, and half way to Spring at Shuttleworth Jay and I decided to detour to my mums. I'm really glad I did as she is extremely busy, and fed up at the mo! She has soooo many dogs in. Well the good thing is that I homed 2 dogs to friends this weekend, so at least that is 2 less.
Whilst at my mums, Liza was running a new dogs agility class which was the same things as hex is doing, so we joined in. Well there are two things to note from this (for me!)
1)I hate doing agility in the p*ssing rain!!!!!!
2)my running contacts are cr*p! This one is harsh, but, I thought we just about had it (early days still, but consistent with what I wanted), but this was the first time that Hex has played out doors, and although he was not at all fazed with all the noise of the rescue, new dogs or the rain, he does/did do a different behavior on his contacts than normal. He offered a longer extended stride which meant 3 out of 5 times he either didn't hit the criteria area on the contact, or strode straight over it (ooops). It is something that I'm not hugely worried about, but I will watch as he progresses.
His turns off his contacts are coming on really well, and I'm very pleased with those. His straight line drive is great, and he has a huge love for tunnels!
In class he was introduced to the channel weaves set really far apart, he took this all in his mad stride, and galloped down them to his tuggy!

So back to this week, yet another busy one. On Monday I spent a lot of my day trying to help somebody with a rescue dog they are having problems with. They were very nice, and a very sweet dog, just a case of wrong dog for them, BUT, we spent nearly 4 hours doing stuff, like I taught them how to clicker train etc to try and save the dog it's home. It's now a waiting game, but I dog hope they stick with her, because I do think that they could make it work!
Then I ran Herbie at club, normally I would work Link as well, but as I have the European qualifiers in two weeks, I thought it best to concentrate on Herbie. He was extremly head strong last night, and I felt that I was fighting with him all the time, so we will see how it goes tonight?

Got a couple of private lessons, lots of normal classes, and then Sunny Scunny on Sat. Hopefully the weather will be good.

Hex Pictures

Here are a few pictures that I took of Hex today....... Note how he is holding his tail! GOOD BOY!

My birthday!

Well yesterday was my birthday. It was fairly uneventful, oh except Jason waking me up at 5.45am to open pressy's (he is a big kid about things like that!!!!)

Hex bought me a new set of channel weaves (what a smart puppy!!!!) oh a nd a lovely card of a stunning Black and white collie, and inside it said something along the lines of..... Happy Birthday mum, as you've guessed it is me Hex! This card was meant to have a picture of me on the front, but because I am so ugly I kept breaking the camera! VERY FUNNY JASON!!!! Jay and my family got me a load of art stuff! My dad got me a tripod for my video camera, so I'm going to attempt to tape Hex this week at class (all on my own!) The rest of the day consisted of work, then cleaning the house, training, and then cooking dinner! Luck me!!!!

Jay has said I need to be ready to go out tonight though, so we will see what happens!

Well back to the puppies.......

Link and Herbie both competed at Mid Downs, it felt sooooooo amazing to have them back (then Herbie promptly cut his pad Sunday!!! BLESS HIM!), Link worked at his normal erratic pace, but is jumping better! Herbie was a star as normal, I need to get back into the groove with him, as I lost him on a turn or two! I also ran Mr Murphy at Mid Downs. We had 2/2 eliminations, BUT, he did get all his contacts nicely and he did two great waits! I had real fun with him (thanks Andy), but will really miss running him. Stihl was a star (even with my poor handling!) she came hme with a couple of good places.

Hex worked well in his lesson, but decided to "sheep" his tuggy instead of doing a wait, naughty boy. He is really nice as you can switch him from food to a toy and visa verse, which is much easier than having a dog that will only work for one or the other!

At Mid Downs I gave Karen her picture that she ordered of the lovely "Tinkerbell" (a kitten I hand raised, and she adopted!), it was really nice as she seemed very pleased with it! So anyway here it is........

Well as for the rest of the week, it's filled with teaching and cold weather I think.

Was meant to be camping this weekend, but it all looks too cold now! Hope that Herbie's foot is OK (touch wood it is looking good at the mo!)