Agility or Breed Show?

Well actually its both this weekend, tomorrow we are off to the JDA agility Show in Lincolnshire and on Sunday we our at Uttoxetter for a Crufts qualifier breed show, I have got Keisha and Zippy entered in the Malinois and Pudsey in the Laekenois. Natalie and Reno will also be attending on sunday so it will be good to see if either of Ronny's puppies qualify.

This week has been non stop, I managed to get to Emma's on monday for some agility training, tuesday Kody had his class, I was really pleased as he is quite happy to run on and leave me behind now which is great news. Unfortunately yet again Ronny and Keisha's class had to be cancelled due to the weather.

Good news is Zippy and Speedy have been offered a place in the puppy group at Hinckley which will be starting in October, its going to be great fun especially as I wont be the only one with a loony toon in the group, sorry Jackie !!!

Derby Agility

Yes you guessed it, Ronny got all his contacts in the final. I must say he was a really really good boy and I was so proud of him, unfortunately we hit a wrong jumping line which we managed to save but then it threw us out for the next jump and sadly we got eliminated, but after that he finished in style and his weaves were just awesome, the amount of people that have approached us over the weekend and said how much they loved Ronny was just unbelievable.

Overall Ronny has had a good weekend, some really great rounds but a combo of my handling errors and Ronny knocking the odd pole left us with no clears, plastic poles and Ronny's zero clearance distance just isn't a great combination.

Keisha has had a mixed weekend, saturday she didn't have any clear rounds, she seemed to forget what "ins" are and can you believe there was one in every class on saturday. Today was much better, she had a lovely jumping round to finish 8th which included the "ins" which she did perfectly and her agility was brilliant but the nasty judge said she missed her up contact on the dog walk (I disagree) so she finished with 5 faults.

Kody has also had a good weekend, he had his first clear round in agility yesterday and today he ran really well but knocked a pole in each, he is really starting to go ahead on his own now and his confidence is definitely growing.

Contacts for ice cream

Two more days until that final, I thought this might be an appropriate picture to set the scene, that dreaded dream keeps occurring of him jumping those contacts, ive bribed Ronny with the promise of a big ice cream if he gets all his contacts so we can go onto the jumping stage.

It might of settled my nerves if his agility class was on last night, can you believe I managed to do Keisha's hour lesson without any problems, I had just fetched Ronny out of the van for his class and before I could even let him off the lead the heavens opened up, sadly it just didn't stop and the class had to be cancelled.

Still im up for a challenge, it wouldn't be the same if Ronny didn't make me work hard.

Happy Birthday Ronny

I cant believe its Ronny's 5th birthday today, where has the time gone. Here is Ronny at only a few months old, how cute is he ???



Last weekend was quite successful, at EMDAC Ronny gained a 2nd in jumping and Keisha had a few good placings 3rd, 4th, and 10th. Unfortunately dash and fetch wasn't at the show but the lake was the next best thing and Pudsey suddenly found his swimming legs and is now officially in the swimming group, I think he got board of watching from the bank and the next thing he just leaped in and off he went. Just Kody left now, im not sure if he will ever get past just dipping his legs in. Unfortunately Kody caught his dew claw during his agility class and we are now waiting for the nail to fall off, he is a bit of a drama queen and thinks he has broken his leg, obviously I didn't run him on sunday so he could sit in the van and nurse his poorly.

Chipping Norton turned out to be a good show, Keisha did a lovely jumping round to finish 3rd and her agility would have been a really nice round but I didn't call her in quick enough and she ran past the jump getting a refusal, obviously she got all the contacts in that class !!!

Ronny and Keisha were drawn in the same part for the combined 1-7 jumping, I ran Ronny first and messed about trying to get him over a jump waisting a valuable second, after all that he was only 0.4 sec off the winner and finished in 5th place, I cant believe I let him down again, he would of definitely won the class beating those grade 7 dogs eeerrhhh. Keisha had a perfect run to finish 8th, I thought she would have beat Ronny's time but it just goes to show how incredibly fast he is. One day I will get it right with him.

This weekend we are at Derby, im really looking forward to it, Ronny has made the Adams Derby Final which is being held on saturday after all the rings have closed. It's run very much like the power and speed classes, im having this re-occurring dream of Ronny jumping those contacts and not even making it to the jumping part, I know he can get quite excited in front of a big crowd, fingers crossed we get to complete the course.

Two days down one to go

Yippee its my last day at work tomorrow for the week, me and the dogs are off to the EMDAC agility show on thursday and friday. Its nice to attend a show where you can just relax and have ago at the other activities they put on too, I think Ronny is hoping for the dash and fetch pool to be there this time.

I'm going to see if I can buy this photo of Ronny (above) I absolutely love it. Nowadays his weaves are one of his best skills and I think this photo demonstrates that, when we first started out I couldn't get Ronny to finish the set of 12, it took me nearly a whole year to crack it, it just goes to show how things can change.

Saturday we were supposed to be flyballing again but unfortunately there were too many teams entered and we were one of the unlucky ones that didn't get in, it would have been nice to try and improve our PB from last week but I guess a day of rest will be equally as good. Sunday we are off to Chipping Norton agility show so at least we wont have to stay at home then.

I forgot to mention last weekend I managed to see Speedy and Eva, Speedy was looking lovely trotting around the agility rings at Rugby on the saturday, he is turning out to be a very handsome boy such a lovely gentle character, he even stands nice watching the dogs compete, my Zippy has other ideas and will try anything to get in the rings and have ago, funny I should say that, he did manage to escape from me last friday at the RVA show, I was checking Keisha's placing and the next thing Zippy made one massive tug and pulled his lead straight out of my hand, Zippy and his lead flying behind were off and just making an entrance into the agility ring, thankfully I told him to stop which he did, no embarrassing Zippy running through the ring, PHEW !!!!!!!!!

Tony, Richard and Eva came to watch the flyball on sunday, Eva seemed to enjoy herself and was happily greeted by Ronny her daddy and the curly Pudsey man, she too looked great and was a lively little thing, well I say little, she is already bigger than Keisha.

Its great to catch up with the puppies and see how they are getting on, I think Megan maybe at the EMDAC Show this week so that will be another one to catch up with, I have seen Reno quite a bit but im getting withdrawal symptoms so will have to catch up with him soon, which just leaves Zippo, ive had a good update though that he is getting on great, quite a big boy apparently and very very strong.

Bandits break best time

Blimey what a successful day we have had today.

I think we broke our best ever time going into this tournament by at least 11-12 times during our day of racing.

We finally finished up with a new best time of 19.33 which was just fantastic especially as Kody who today only ran in his fourth ever race was in the winning line up. What makes it more special is in that particular race Ronny and Maisy's cross over was quite wide so that 18 second barrier is looking very reachable now.

All the doggies ran really well and by the end of the day they all looked pretty tired, we could clearly see all five dogs had put there all into it. Their hard work was rewarded by finishing second overall and considering we were seeded 5th we were all really chuffed.

It wasn't without drama, dad had done some terrific super-manning in the air to try and stop Ronny from having a double run (he was trying to take Keisha's go too) in the end it was declared a draw, Ronny managing to sneak an extra go on one occasion and dad managing to save it the second time, he's just too keen!!!

RVA Show

Really good day today, for some reason it hadn't dawned on me that it was at the same venue the KC Festival used to be held at. Lots and lots of room for exercising dogs and it was in company with other dogs shows, the main one being a Championship breed show.


Good results with Keisha today, she did a lovely jumping round to finish 2nd and then went on to do a good agility round to finish 3rd, although she is now getting those contacts we just need to start making them quick, I guess almost running ones, I think that is where we are loosing those vital tenths of a second.

Ronny ran well today, I had my first ever contact where Ronny stopped dead and I carried on running past him and then realised he was waiting to be released, something that he only ever does in training, (maybe its finally clicking with him). A mixture of my late handling and Ronny mis-striding left us with no clears but he ran really well today so I'm really chuffed.

Kody didn't have any clears, he thought the first pole would be a good idea to knock in his jumping round and in his agility he had a pole half way through, on a good note he did get his weaves in both of the classes and they were quite quick too.

Tomorrow we are at Rugby so hopefully we will have another successful day, it looks like I'm in for a quiet night as all the doggies are flat out sleeping, I best go and take advantage of the peace.

Running about

Tomorrow I'm at the RVA agility Show, well I was starting to doubt myself as my running orders haven't turned up. Being my normal efficient self I left it until the last minute to enquire where they might be, apparently they had been sent out last week but I never received mine, after sending numerous of emails I finally received one back today with my running orders on, phew !!!



The weather is looking a bit mixed for the weekend, nice tomorrow, rain on saturday and then nice again on sunday. Thankfully ive just brought a new shelter/Gazebo thing which will definitely come in handy for the naughty weather we may encounter.

No update on the clever dog seedings yet, when ever im involved everything always seems to take ages or people just forget to do it, maybe if they get time it will be up next week, I will let you know when its out.

Thanks to Michelle's friend (who ever you are) for taking the above picture of Keisha and thanks to Michelle for emailing it to me.

Rain again

What is wrong with our weather, how come we are in summer but we still get lots of rain.

As expected no agility training for Kody tonight and its not looking great for Ronny and Keisha tomorrow night either, I suppose a night in front of the tv is the next best thing and it wont do the dogs any harm having a chilled out week.

This weekend is go go go, friday we are off to the RVA agility show in Peterborough for the day, only two classes each but six runs between the three dogs is still quite alot of running for me, great for fitness if nothing else. Saturday we are at Rugby agility which is really handy considering it is only 20 mins down the road and then sunday we are in Birmingham for flyball, the Bandits are seeded last in this weeks division so im guessing its going to be hard racing.

Tuffley Update

This weekends weather turned out to be quite good after all, not a single drop of rain on saturday just lots of sun, today was quite good but the rain did arrive about lunch time, showers on and off for the rest of the day, I still managed to sneak in some sunbathing time and I have come away looking a little more tanned.


Update from the weekend, no clears off Ronny but he was definitely on form, yesterday his agility was brilliant, I found the course quite tricky but I was really chuffed that Ronny and me got most of the way round just messing up the easy bit, he broke a weave pole but carried on, he did a lovely running contact from the dog walk into the tunnel (he was supposed to stop) but after all that I just over worked trying to get him in the tunnel that was situated under the A-Frame and somehow managed to push him past it can you believe. Unfortunately he didn't go clear in the ABC qualifier either, bad handling by myself, I didn't help him enough with getting the angle correct onto the dog walk and at his speed he just couldn't keep his balance.

Keisha however did go clear in the ABC qualifier, she proved me wrong in getting that A-Frame contact, sadly for her my handling was slightly off and I pushed her far to wide on two jumping sequences and lost that vital couple of seconds, i will keep trying, one day im hoping to qualify at least one of them.

Kody had a good weekend, he had a lovely clear in his jumping, he didn't get in the placings as we waste so much time getting through the weaves and on this occasion there was 12 of them, on the plus side he is running really well and I think next year he will be a proper contender for some of those placings.

Bonus for Ronny, Keisha and Zippy, there was a lovely stream suitable for swimming at the show, Zippy definitely is a water baby just like his parents. Sorry for the video and the above photo quality, I forgot to take my camera so had to use my mobile instead. The clip below is of Ronny and Zippy.

hot hot hot !!!

This week has been so busy it feels like I haven't stopped, it doesn't help with the weather being so hot, not that im complaining (please please don't take the sun away). The dogs seem to be managing ok but ive had a ban on playing fetch all week, Ronny and Zippy are still walking around with a ball in their mouths in the hope I will throw it for them, sadly for them i haven't given in.

Training has gone quite well this week, Kody had a great class and I think I can safely say he has fully mastered the see-saw (you watch him fly it at the weekend now) just got to work hard on his weaves, although he can do them he doesn't always get the entry and he's not flowing through them yet.

This weekend we are at Tuffley, there is an ABC qualifier on saturday so fingers crossed that Ronny and Keisha run well, I have had this annoying feeling all week that Keisha may jump that A-Frame contact again, I know she hasn't for the last 2 weeks but ive just got that gut feeling, hopefully she will prove me wrong.
Thankfully ive booked camping at this show which might turn out to be a great idea considering the weather is looking like rain. Ive charged the battery for the tv as I think we might need it.

I don't think ive got any other news to update you, unfortunately the clever dogs seedings from the weekend haven't been added to the current rankings yet, as soon as they are published I will let you know. Anyway good luck to everyone this weekend who is competing, especially to Emma, text me when you get that clear round again :)