June already

Time seems to be flying by. Is that because I get older and suddenly time seems much more precious or is it just that I have much more to do?

Well, back to Agility and dogs..... Supadogs was a bit of a disaster, weather wise.
Saturday and Sunday was lovely weather, but it started raining the night Saturday to Sunday, which turned tha pathways into mud baths.... Walking or driving was terrible.
Saturday it was very hot.
Jake and Max did quite well, Chadiga managed to get her first clear round with Jake in the junior classes. Well done, girl!
This time he didn't run out of the ring and seemed quite focused.
Jake and Max managed some few rounds, but no placings. Max managed a clear round in the jumping, though the third last obstacle was a tyre. I tried to stop him there to help him through, but he just went on and flew through the tyre. What a good boy. Of course stopping him made us very slow.
Jake managed a one clear round, in the jumping. Max managed a clear round in the jumping and the Agility class.
He was such a good boy.
Unfortunately due to the rain falls starting Sunday evening the rest of the show had to be cancelled as the venue was partly flooded. What a shame. Especially as I paid around £127 in entry fees :(

At the weekend we had entered UKA show in Walton on Thames.
Lucky us the weather was lovely. Chadiga entered Larkin in the Steeplechase, Nursery and one Casual jumping class. He was ok to start with but got worse over the day. He has the bad habit at jumping up at Chadiga and starts nipping her arm, hand etc instead of working ahead. In the end she was quite frustrated.

Jake had 2 clear rounds in the jumping each day, a total of 4 clear rounds in jumping and Steeplechase. Max had a clear round in the Agility each day.
Seems that I have to be more accurate when I do jumping courses with Max. He is a cracking dog and could do very well in jumping classes, as his contacts doesn't slow him down, but then he is burdened with a crap handler :(
Oh well, maybe one day I will know what I am doing :)

Now I don't have any shows till the end of the month, but will go to some sheepdog clinics in June. Not sure that might become my second "doggy" hobby :)

I took Luke to Sarah Jenkins for a sheepdog lesson. I was so worried that he would go for the sheep, but Sarah was very impressed with him. I hope it will help me with solving some of his problems. He has crap recall, liked to chase birds, planes, cars etc. Fortunately he stopped chasing cars and planes now and since the sheepdog lesson his recall slightly improved.
He was brought up in a crate in his former home, so the moment he is let outside he tries to stay away from me as he thinks it will be his last opportunity to go out. We have little steps forward, but sometimes a few backwards. Now at least he comes back indoors, most of the time. Not always though. It can be very soul destroying when he buggers off outside to play with water and just totally switches off.
But he just loves to work. Last night I did hide some treats in the garden for him to find and he really enjoyed that. His tail was wagging nonstop. We did some simple obedience training too. Sit, flat, lefts and rights. I tried a "roll over", but he is very reluctant to lie on his back. Maybe he feels vulnerable then.
I lured him through the weaves with a treat, what I actually don't like to do, but hey ho, he was so eager to do them and not at all worried. I enjoy those moments with him, but then he suddenly seems so far away again and really worried.....

Chadiga made a few videos of Luke herding and I hopefully upload them here now, otherwise one is on YouTube :)

But, oh boy, did my calves hurt after the 1 hour session. Must be the constantly walking backwards. Wonder if it will ever get better. Had real problems walking the next days ;-)




Looks like the upload doesn't work, I just insert the Youtube link then....