Update on Riot

I was delighted last night to receive a lovely e-mail about my little man Ri. It seems he is doing well, for all of you who knew him and still ask how he is doing here he is for you, with Helen's letter..........
Hi
Our flyball team are all busy planning for Crufts and that reminded me that I have not sent you a Riot update.
As you can see from the photos he is as handsome as ever.
Agility training so far has been a bit hit or miss with him.
He started off quite well apart from being totally obsessed by the other dogs running.
For some reason he started to lose a bit of confidence and unfortunately due to the weather I have been unable to do any work with him at home on my own.
He loves his contacts and he knows exactly what is required of him, but really was not confident when it came to jumping.
Levenhall club have been great and we simply spent a few weeks getting his enthusiasm back up and it seems to be working.
I don't know if he will be out this year but once the better weather comes along we can really start doing little bits and pieces on our own.
As soon as Crufts is over I will start his flyball training. Judging by some of the new dogs I have trained this winter it really increases the dog's confidence for working away from the handler.
We have had a few reluctant agility dogs transformed after a few sessions of flyball.
I have started doing a little free shaping with the clicker and he absolutely adores this.
He will go and do something and then give you his cheeky look, the one with one ear pricked and the other not, and dare you not to click him.
He is getting on great with my cat Gizz but I would still not trust them unsupervised.
For some reason Kyle, my 13 year old BC adores him. I have not seem him play so much in years.
I don't know if it is a Kelpie thing but he certainly is different kettle of fish to my other dogs.
What day are you and the wonderful Herbie competing at Crufts as I would love to see you run?
If I do miss you I will no doubt see you at the trials for the European Open.
I am not sure why I am bothering to go down to the trials but it is an experience and it is great to see some of the brilliant handlers, yourself included of course.
I have been following Hex's progress on your blog. You must be very proud of him.
I will better go now I hope you like the photos, as you can see from the second one he is still very vocal.





It was really wonderful getting this, and the picture of him barking made me laugh so much as that is just how I remember him!!!!!





Any way on to this weekend.......
My dogs have the weekend off, but tomorrow I have 2 training day sessions, the first a 6-7 group and then a 3-5 group. I am really looking forward to training everybody who is coming along, and seeing how dogs that I have taught before have progressed and also seeing some up and coming youngsters. I will post the courses next time as I don't want anybody to get a sneak preview!