My Collar

Well Sunday came and I set off to judge WAG in the freezing cold. Ended up Judging for 10 hours with a very quick lunch.....to say my back hurt was an understatement! Many people came and said how much they enjoyed the courses etc, so on the whole people were happy, although it is very apparent that you will NEVER please everybody! Amanda was great and came and helped nearly all day even though she was not even running a dog (THANK YOU!)

Yesterday my collar came (yippie), I love it, and it looks great on Herbie (who loves it!) so here are the pic's........

Mum did me this lovely tag for it as well, with a black and white Border collie on it (she painted!) you can't see it very well on the photo, but it is really nice...........

Any way off to training now.......

Training day, Crufts, CSJ and the cold!!!!!!

Had a really good training session on Thursday night as well, I'm very lucky to have a really great and talented lot, who I can stretch (and they hopefully enjoy it?!)Below is that course we did...We mainly worked on running past things ie straight through the box long ways, from the weaves....It was good fun to teach, and was a good opportunity to really reinforce the dogs coming into their handler when called, so lots of play which keeps the mood light too.





The circled numbers is the course we did and the squared numbers are part of a sequence we did.....

Then on Friday I was very proud to be offered a sponsorship from CSJ, and so have now become part of the "CSJ Team". I'm very excited for the future!

Today has been a great day as far as I am concerned. Had a grade 5-7 agility training day, which I really enjoyed teaching. Had some FANTASTIC dogs on it, can't wait to watch them next year! Have posted my course up so you can see what we did....(it is a take on the WC 2008 large final) We finished with the whole course which everybody achieved really well......Mental note to self...Better watch out for that lot next year!!!!

The post man had finally been when I got home, and to my great surprise Herbie and I have qualified for Crufts, I'm so excited as I have never been before. So got a lot coming up!

So finally to tom (sun), currently it is -2.5 c at ours (well outside) and tomorrow I am off to Herne Bay to Judge a lot of dogs in the bitter cold, and possibly in the snow.... we will see, got some nice courses ( well my sort of nice anyway!)........Catch up soon.

C-side.....

Well we've done it.... Hex's first run in public. I have to say I felt so scarred!!!!
Hex was brill, we got E'd but it was very much my fault... The two problems we had wouldn't have occurred had I used my "Steady", but honestly I was so nervous I panicked and forgot. He sent on nicely and even put in a bounce or two. Hex was completely unfazed, and tried to go and set up for a second turn.

After that we did a tricky 5-7 agility course with the other 4, Paula ran Shy as I was too tiered after a very late night before!!!!!!!

Mac was winning the agility, first I ran Link (Mr no clears!) and surprise, surprise he did a stonking clear and went into second OMG!!!! Then I ran Herbie, and I have to admit right up to the line I thought I would throw him back and "go" for it, but luckily I found my sensible head and stopped all his contacts, he was fantastic, really listening which was great and he went into second place, lastly I ran Stihl (as jay is still doing building stuff) She was amazing, she is soooo fast, how I would love to run her normally, she did an amazing run knocking a whole second off Herbie and only loosing out to Mac and Spud ( a grade 7 dog) by 0.01 of a sec!!!! She flew! So at the end we had 2nd, 3rd and 4th and the people in 1st and 5th were also Anju agility members, so all in all a good day!

So nothing with Hex now 'till Dec when I have a WAG show oh unless I run him at our Anju show on the 30th?

Any way thank you to Paula for Videoing Hex at C-Side (the video went on to stand by soshe missed the first jump, but you'll get the jist!!!!....

New Video

Well finally I have had a chance to get a bit of Video of Hex at training....I'm really pleased how he is coming on. His contacts are still slower than i would like, but that is only because he is so keen to get it right. In the video you will see that sometimes I will quick release him so that hopefully it will encourage him through it quicker. He is starting to look happier on his seesaw, which I'm really pleased about, and as far as I'm concerned his weaves are fab!!!!! I've never had a dog who one foots through his weaves, so I just love watching Hex do them.

Herbie has found an extra gear (which is great!) probably 'cause i told him about his new collar! He is really fun to train at the moment. So only around 4 weeks 'till Olympia aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

Poor link (who at 9 years YOUNG went round training last night like a 2 year old!) some how tweaked his shoulder and looked a little sore so had watch from the side line......I don't know what i will do when he is retired, I don't think he will ever be ready to stop (bless him).

Well the house is coming along now, and finally I can sleep in my own bed now (after 2 weeks on the sofa) there is still a lot of mess, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. If I could find the camera I would post a picture, but it looks like it maybe lost forever in the abundance of MESS!

So any way here is the latest video.......

Busy, busy, busy!

Well I've been at my mum's for the last month working at manytears It was sooo busy but I loved every moment of it, I truly felt like I had done something great with my month!
Haven't had much time to train as i was so busy, but Nat came and stayed for a week (and was my salvation in the hard times!) and we did a couple of bits with Hex and Kai.
Hex is going really well, I'm very proud of him, although need to do a lot more work on his contacts, but they are coming as well. He picked up his weaves so quickly, and has a really nice action through them (will try and get a vid at some point!)
Entered his first show today aarrrrggghhhh!!!!! It will be Ribble in Jan 09, only one jumping class and the pairs, so I thought it would be quite a nice one for him.

On to Herbie....I'm really training hard for Olympia, being much more disciplined with myself and putting 110% into every run I do at training. I'm going to start jogging again with Herbie as well.
Now traditionally (well the two times we've been) I've bought Herbie or Link a "Special" Olympia collar, this year is no different, but I have found the most beautiful unique collar (that is being customised for my special boy!)...It can be seen here.....
hollyandlill
The way in which it is being customised is as follows.....Silver Stars to show all what a Star he is? And we will create a unique mix of Turquoise (for good health), Goldstone beads (for vitality), Aventurine (for success), Carnelian (for courage) and maybe the odd dash of Lapis Lazuli (confidence)? And a little mother of pearl so he brings home the prize??

My mum gave me some birthday money back in March and I could never find something I liked enough to buy, but this is what I will use it for.

I will try and get some vids and pictures asap, but at the moment I am living in world war three (well the after marth of it!!!!) still a lot of building work going on!!!!!!