Happy New Year

I found this posted at work and it seems so appropriate to post on here:-

Sometimes it is good to compare our lives with the suffering, homeless and starving in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 per cent of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish somewhere, you are among the top 8 per cent of the world's wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

Good luck to everyone in 2010, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Still no Snow

Still no sign of snow here just lots of rain :( The dogs are coming in soaked through which makes them all smelly, yuc !!! The hair dryer seems to work a trick and both Ronny and Zippy have no problem standing underneath it. I on the other hand cant wait until the summer arrives again.

Last day at work tomorrow, I hate going when it seems like everyone else is off, the only good thing is all the roads are quiet so it takes half the time to get to work, might try and push an extra 10 mins in bed tomorrow.

Weekend is looking busy, Keisha and I have training on saturday to get us ready for the world champs qualifier in March, Zippy's agility class re-starts on sunday morning and on top of all that I really want to try and finish fitting the van out for the dogs.

Day 8 of Weave Training

This morning was Day 8 of weave training, I had all intentions of filming them today, I charged the camera up last night but forgot to take it this morning, in fact it's still on charge now. I promise I will film them on friday when I next get to the field and post it in the evening. Anyway, training is going really well, the puppies are currently weaving 6 poles and hitting some amazing entries. If things go to plan then they should be weaving 12 poles on friday, it will then just be lots of practice and game work and polishing up on the footwork.

Tomorrow im back at work, at least it is only for three days. The weather is not looking good though, I think we are due a heap of snow, maybe I will get sent home from work early !!! (in my dreams).

Cool Agility Show

Today was a really good day, firstly Ronny appears to have no sign of that injury which is great news but obviously tomorrow morning will confirm that. His first jumping class was a bit manic but I guess 3 weeks off was always going to send him crazy, I won the battle of getting that wait at the start, a few attempts later but he eventually did it, start as you mean to go on is my motto this year !!!

Keisha ran a really nice agility to finish 2nd and Kody ran some really nice rounds too. Unfortunately my handling was not up to scratch today which did let the dogs down on quite a few occasions, I think more training for ME is required.

A massive plus is all the dogs had awesome weaves today, the training is starting to pay off so im over the moon with that.

Well done to Ellen and Hamish for their fantastic results, 4th in Touch and Go and a brilliant 2nd in agility, I bet that person who said you should give up on Hamish feels a complete fool now !!!

Santa's arrived

Santa arrived and left lots of pressies for the dogs (spoilt as usual) Zippy had a new teddy as seen in the clip below, sorry its a bit boring but I missed all the wacky running around and throwing it up in the air when he first got it. Ronny had goodies after goodies after goodies as did the rest of the dogs.



Its been great having some time off, lots of sleep with no early starts is definitely a good Christmas present for me. Tomorrow we are off to the Cool agility Show, Ronny, Keisha and Kody are all in action although im only running Ronny in the jumping classes just to make sure he is fully over his injury, he certainly appears to be fighting fit but I cant help worrying about him !!!

Anyway, hope your all having a great Christmas, I will catch up with you soon.

Merry Christmas

So that's it, all the present have now been bought and apart from the odd one or two Ive just about finished wrapping them all up. Ive had to buy mum and dad an extra one from the dogs, more of an apology really. Ronny sneakily crept into the kitchen the other week and stole a whole joint of beef, ooopps!!! and his son (Zippy) has taken a fancy to gardening and keeps bringing all mum's heathers to the back door, the garden is looking quite naked now, ooopps again!!!

Anyway, I hope you all have a great christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

Wicked weather

Ok, so maybe I am a bit jealous today. It appears everyone is getting snow and lots of it apart from me. Don't get me wrong we have definitely got the chilly weather and it did snow for an hour or so last night but when I got up this morning the only white stuff was the frost. Even agility class was cancelled this morning, im guessing they must have had snow 20 mins up the road !!!

On a positive note it did allow us to continue with our weave training this morning, day 4 is now complete and we are still very much on target. The doggies can now weave four poles and are hitting some amazing entries. Im hoping the success will continue and by the end of December they will be able to weave all 12 poles.

Snow or Pay ???

I would love to say im jealous of all you guys getting snow BUT IM NOT. As much as I love the snow it really wouldn't have been a convenient time at the moment, I will explain all in a minute.

Anyway, seems as you have all put snow pictures up the best thing I can do is put a picture up of what I was doing this time last year, as you have probably guessed by the picture I had just picked Zippy up. It's funny how time fly's by, a year on already.

So, I guess I best explain why snow wouldn't have been ideal for me today. Well it begins from the start of this week,

DAY 1: I arrived at the train station on time to find my train had been cancelled, I was going to be late for work as the next one is another half an hour wait but never mind things happen. I think I might have got away with it but it didn't help when on the next train a woman collapsed mid journey, we then had to stop at the next available station and wait until an ambulance arrived, an hour late I strolled into work, ooopps.

DAY 2: The train did set off on time but unfortunately whilst on route a person fatally jumped in front of the train.

DAY 3: Yes you guessed it, not on time, a fire track side at one of the stations we pass through, late again, ooopps.

DAY 4: They said it was infrastructure problems, then equipment failure, in fact, I think they used every excuse in the book, but I can tell you one thing, LATE again, ooopps.

So................

DAY 5, if snow had fallen it would have been station closed all day due to weather, as much as I love the snow I actually prefer being paid, 5 days in a row being late for work definitely would have been pushing it, need I say anymore.

The tree is still standing

I decided to get into the christmas spirit and put the tree up last night, ive been having some premonitions that it may not stay upright for very long or even better have a Zippy as a decoration on it, it appears im not the only one who worries about the tree falling down when there are puppies in the house !!!

Anyway, apart from an initial hiccup of Zippy running off with a fake branch and the odd nudging of hanging baubles it seems to be going well, ask me in a few days and I might change my mind.

Weave Training

This weekend has been so busy, I cant believe Ive had my three days off already.

The cages are now fitted in the van which means we are fully mobile again, Ive just got a few finishing touches to do inside to make it perfect for the dogs and me.

This weekend Ive managed a good amount of training, the puppies jumping is coming on nicely and we can now string a couple of sequences together. I started their weave training yesterday which actually turned out to be quite successful, Zippy showed he had the most brains and seemed to have no problem at all on day 1. Kody on the other hand found it quite difficult, he just didn't get it at first but I persevered and by the end of it he started to get the hang of it.

Agility class was on this morning so I took Zippy along, he ran really well today and it was a definite sign that the training is paying off, he even managed the dog walk at full height. I decided not to stop for the second class as I thought it would be more beneficial if I went to the field and continued the dogs on Day 2 of weaves. I'm so glad I did, we have had a brilliant afternoon, Zippy is a natural, he just gets it (well at the moment anyway) Pudsey seems to share his brains too. Kody had a massive break through today and he is now up to the same standard as the others. I will have to continue with Day 3 next weekend as the time I get home from work it is so dark, I wonder if they will remember it !!!

Thankfully it's Thursday

It feels like it has been a long week, I appreciate its only thursday but thankfully I have booked the day off tomorrow. The cages are being fitted into the van in the morning which is great, it will be nice to get back to some sort of normality, walking 5 loonies in the morning over to my mum and dad's at silly o'clock is a complete nightmare.

Ronny is looking lots better, he occasionally looks a bit lame but its mainly when he walks on my mum and dads drive which is covered in stones. He is on a strict rest rest rest plan now until christmas, im sure he wont be impressed but as he runs like a mad man all the time I just cant take the risk of him aggravating it more.

Tomorrow afternoon im hoping to start my weave training with Zippy and Pudsey, I will probably re-train Kody aswell. I'm trying out a different technique this time, in the hope it will turn out to be a lot quicker with a higher success rate of hitting those entries. I will keep you updated on our progress, hopefully I wont get any grey hairs.

Meet Kevin

Four months until the agility season starts and I cant wait, especially as ive got a new caravan. Ive decided to call him Kevin after Harry Enfield, the saying of "It's not fair" usually comes out of my mouth during shows so it seemed appropriate to call him that.

I guess Santa came early in my house this year !!!

20 Legs are currently running as 19

My mob of 20 legs is not currently running at full strength. I woke up this morning to find Ronny lame on his front left leg, not sure what he has done but I think it might be his foot. It was such a shame as today was the Jumping Grids Training day that I had really been looking forward to, something that would have been great for Ronny. Anyway after finally getting over my disappointment this morning I packed Keisha in the van and headed off, it was probably a blessing in disguise as Keisha always stands quietly and calmly which enables me to hear what the trainer is staying. We have had such a good day, I have learnt loads of new training techniques that I will be able to set up in the garden if it ever drys out. It will be really useful for all my dogs and I will hopefully be able to work out what their strengths and weaknesses are. Today we worked on two grids, balance and scope. Keisha appears to be a naturally talented jumper with great balance and judgement, her only downfall appears to be the odd bunny hop she tends to throw in, but I have been given some homework to practice on for that.

I am now up and running in the new van, it was handy having the training day as I was able to give it a good run down the motorway and along some tight country roads to get used to it, the new cages are being fitted on friday so hopefully we will be back to normal soon.

Goodie Two Shoes

I had a really good day at work today, it's not very often in my job that you really get noticed for work you do but today I got brownie points all round.

Ive been working on this one case for a while now, ive had problem after problem after problem and it was causing me a massive headache nearly everyday. Well today I got the result I have been waiting for, after months of hard work it has finally paid off. Looking at the big grins on the bosses I knew I was in the good books :)

So this is what it feels like to be a goodie two shoes !!!

Ive given myself a pat on the back and decided to take tomorrow off, a well deserved rest I think im going to call it. So my plans for tomorrow is a trip to the field to get some agility training done, nothing like a bit of dog therapy combined with some fitness.

This weekend is crammed full of things to do, I get to pick the new van up on saturday morning followed by a night out on the town with my friends from work in the evening. An early start on sunday as Ronny and me are booked on the Jumping Grids training day, it focuses on the jumping skills of the dogs and one of its aims is to help dogs that knock poles. Its something I have been looking forward to and hopefully I will learn a whole new world of techniques.

New Mali Motor

Not the most exciting picture but here is the new Mali motor. I decided if the dogs have all that energy then the van definitely needs to match them. My current van isn't powerful enough to pull the caravan so im long over due for an upgrade. This beast will have no problem, on top of its new bigger engine with Turbo, it comes in the top spec, air con, electric windows and mirrors, heated windscreen, light sensors, window wiper sensors (for the rain) and a 6 CD changer. After the initial inspection we took the vehicle for a test drive and the sales man drove first in rocket speed with no seat belt, ive since told him my job and he decided to throw in a twin electrics tow bar for free :) So im chuffed, I get to pick him up on saturday, just got to get the new cages fitted now.

Today I had booked the day off work, one to sort the van out as stated above and two because Emma and me had booked a lesson with Yvonne Croxford. I took both Ronny and Keisha and Emma ran Maisy. I think we have both come away with some areas to work on in training, Yvonne pointed out some really silly habits that we both did and by the end of the lesson Ronny and Maisy were running so much better. Yvonne set up some FCI type courses for Keisha and it was really beneficial, we worked on the tunnel alongside Dog Walk entrances and Keisha seemed to get it straight away, if only I could get Ronny to do it !!!