A picture of my garden on Sunday and a picture of Robbie in the snow...

The weeks passing by

The weekend before last I took Max and Jake to South Eastern Agility Show.
I was a bit fed up with Jake and his nonstop barking in the ring, so I decieded to run Max instead. As it was an unaffiliated show and we had no chance of winning anything, I thought nobody would mind.
We did the jumping and he did it very well except for the last obstacle, which was the tire. he just ran underneath.
In the Agility course he knocked a pole and ran underneath one jump, but he did the course wonderfully and his contacts were brilliant.

I then went home to fetch Chadiga and she ran Jake in the Accumulator to get used to running him and vice versa. Whereas I ran Max in the Grade 1-7 Agility. Max was fabulous, he flew over the obstacles, got all the turns and did all I asked him to do. The second last obstacle was a seesaw and when he was on the pivot point he slipped and fell off. Poor him. It didn't put him off though and we finished the course. He would have gone clear if he hadn't fallen off. He was such star.

As we encountered so many tires in courses recently I asked Leah to do some tire training at classes.
Max was truly worried about them.
I was stupid enough to force him through the tire and the result was he hid in the tunnel and lost all fun in Agility. I could have kicked myself.
In the evening class there was another tire in the course and though I could lure him through he seemed to have lost the spark in general.

Friday morning the boys and I set off early to go to the UKA Scrambles show in Walton on Thames.
I had entered Jake, Max and Larkin. Max only in casual classes in Larkin just in nursery classes as a little motivation push for Chadiga.
First was Max's casual jumping. He wasn't really focused, but nor was I and we got 10 faults.....
Just nearly everybody else got eliminated. Was a baby class after all....
10 minutes later we had to re-run as they forgot to take our time, this time we were better, but slower....
Anyway, we got a 3rd place for this! (I call it lack of competition :) )

Then was Jake's class, first the Steeplechase.
And he was brilliant, we got a clear round!
I put Max in the same class but then the disaster began.... He started running under the jumps.... I was devastated....
And it is my own fault... I can only hope that it was because he was so tired and that I didn't put him off Agility again and destroyed his confidence. I am so stupid!
He did the same in the jumping class, so I took him out and didn't do any other classes.
Jake was too interested in the kids while in the jumping class, as they waited ringside with Max, but got a clear in the Agility.
We were to slow for placing, as usual..... ;-)

The boys were really helpful in looking after the dogs while I was running and comforting me ;)

Chadiga had to go to school and so couldn't even run Larkin!

I couldn't attend the show on Saturday but tried to go back on Sunday, while on the M25 we were surprised by heavy snowfall
and were sitting on the motorway. So I decided to go back home, which took us 2 hours. When we came home I was so tired that I didn't feel like doing anything else. The boys went outside for a few ours and lots of snowball fights.

Today it is back to work. But we went for nice walk in the morning and I took some nice dogs/snow pictures.... hopefully ;)

Terrible Weather

Today it seems raining nonstop....
Horrible weather.
I am looking forward to the UKA show in a weeks time. Max's first show. I am really excited in how he will do. He will do 2 classes in standard height to start with...
In the coming shows he will do normal height. At classes he is doing "his" normal height nearly all the time, unless the turns are very tight.

Last Weekend was Easter Celebration Show. I had entered Jake. The weather was terrible. Snow, hail, rain and very, very cold.... I was frozen when I came home.
I only did one run and passed the others on to Chadiga.
She did quite well, though Jake kept looking for me and even left the ring once, to look for me. Cheeky sausage!

Here is a video of one of her runs.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyaeEtwt-YY

Sorry, cannot get the link to work :(

Mid Downs Show

Yesterday I went to Mid Downs show to help with a ring party. The show was only for Grade 3 and above, so I couldn't enter.
It was awesome to watch some of the higher grades.
We were very lucky with the weather. But I was sooo tired when I came home, especially as I didn't sleep very well the night before. No, not because of nerves, that would be rather silly ;)
But somebody rang me at 1 am, then my neighbour let his dogs out at 3 am and then at 5 mine woke me up, so I took them for a walk. The result was that I was at the show rather early and was shattered when I came back home.
I took some pictures with my new camera, but wasn't impressed about the quality... I hope I will improve :(((

Today we had a very quiet day, especially as it was raining nonstop...

More interesting

I would like to make this more interesting. Find the layout a bit boring. So if anybody has any suggestions, in case anybody ever reads this ;-)
Thanks!

I am so bad.......

I m really bad in updating this, but time seems to fly by.

I had few really good 1:1 sessions with Nancy to help to sort out Max's jumping problem.
In the end, it seems it is really my problem.... Surprise, surprise. As he is such a sensitive dog he seemed to have picked up on my frustration immediately. Which then took away his confidence (easily done with him) and he shut down and usually went off for his contacts or rolled on the floor.
Now, with Nancy's help, I practice little tricks and routines while at class, to keep him focused and get him into work mode, beside giving him lots of positive reinforcement.
And it is wonderful to watch him, he seems so much happier now. His tail is wagging nonstop in class. Everybody else must think I am mad, letting him to "roll overs" and "eights", but as long as it keeps him happy. Now he seems much more confident and we slowly seem to get there.... (Wherever that is ;-) )

My first show will be Easter Celebration, but I only entered that with Jake. Max's first show will be the UKA Scrambles....

Junus started now to take Nina to Agility classes while Noah takes Robbie.
I m quite impressed with Junus. He really wants to work with Nina and though she is bit shy, he puts in so much effort and doesn't even mind to go all silly to get her attention. I offered him to run Max at a few shows, where he can try him in Junior or jumping classes. Junus seems quiet and understanding enough, not to upset Max.

Max and I worked on a "startline routine". The point hopefully is, that I get him into position at the startline, he starts focusing on me and does it because he wants to (Thanks Nancy :) )

I bought a new camera, full of hope the pictures of my dogs will get any better, but when I took it out last week pictures were very similar to before. Now I have to get my head around photography, as I have no idea about these things.

Today I am ring partying with Bridge House at Mid Downs and I might take my camera and give it a try.

I try not to leave so much time between the postings..... There is always hope ;-)

Wednesday, 6th of February

I haven't written anything for a long time. Bad blogger me! Time just seems to fly by. It is already February. In 2 days time is Noah's birthday and I haven't prepared anything. Wanted to do it yesterday, but with the weather being so bad I didn't feel like going anywhere.

I took Max to the Chiropratic practice yesterday and they said there is nothing major wrong with him, preventing him from jumping.
I had a lovely private session with Nancy last with. Max was so happy afterwards as it was such a positive experience. He did really well.
It is just not easy to keep up in the regular training.

Depending how the training goes I am really torn between "year, we will get there" and "why do I bother".
Even if the dogs are excellent, then it is me messing everything up because I cannot focus or in general can't concentrate very well....

Now the boys show interest in Agility as well, but you never know how long it will last. Junus took now on to train with Nina, just general obedience stuff and perfecting the "elephant trick" Nancy showed us. Nina is a clever girl and very rewarding to teach.
I am contemplating now to let Junus start with her in Agility. But it is always hard to find a beginners course, or maybe start private lessons for him? Not really sure what to do.
Maybe it would get Chadiga motivated as well, as she goes to her Agility lessons with Larkin, but outside of lessons, she doesn't do an awful lot, which can be frustrating from my point of view. Maybe I should try different tactics of motivation.
I was thinking of taking them to the WAG show and let them run Jake. Maybe Chadiga doing the Agility and let Junus do the jumping???

Sometimes it would help to have somebody to talk to and share all those difficult decisions ;-)

Today it seems to be sunny, but that might change..... Would be nice to have a few dry days, we might even be able to use the garden again :))

I fenced a part of the garden off, which is very muddy and which is just outside the back door. Now the dogs took to jump the fencing :-s and are still in the mud :( Dogs, eh???

I wish I had more equipment, then I could do much more, if my garden ever recovers....

Oh well, better take the mutts out now, as long as the sun shines :)