Good end to the month

The month is now drawing to a close and thankfully its finishing on a good note. Keisha is now injury free which is a massive relief, WC training went ok but it was obvious that Keisha and me hadn't worked together for a few weeks, my signals weren't clear and it was causing her to take the wrong lines. Still we can now start back training so hopefully we will get our mojo back.

This morning was Zippy's agility lesson, he is such a good boy and is looking so confident in himself, next week we have been moved out of the puppy group and will start in the big boys class. The picture above is Zippy, where has the time gone !!!

Injury and illness

This month is turning out to be full of injury and mild illness. After two weeks of suffering with a bad ear I have now adopted a cold. Hopefully by the end of the week it will disappear.

As for the dogs, Pudsey decided he was due some time off so when I arrived home from work last friday he was standing on three legs, I don't know what the dogs are playing at but as Ive been ill for the last two weeks and done hardly nothing with them im slightly confused, fortunately he is now back to running around as if nothing had happened, I think the dogs are playing the sympathy game with me !!!

On the bright side Keisha is looking better, after three weeks off she will start back training this weekend, World Champs training is saturday so it will be a good opportunity to see if there is any sign of that injury. I don't know about you guys but I always find the first training session back stressful.

Sunday already

Its been a really nice weekend but a busy one packed with lots of training. Friday Ronny had his last night of indoor agility training and he ran fantastically well, for once I couldn't fault his contacts and apart from the odd pole knocking he is looking great.
Today Zippy and Kody were at club, im really chuffed with Zippy's progress and his confidence is beaming, he is really starting to run ahead and pretty much jump anything in sight, I think he is now ready to learn the last piece of equipment which is the see-saw, then it will just be practice practice practice.

Kody had a good session, I haven't ran him at club for about a year so it was a nice change, I am starting to get the hang of adapting my handling to each dog, something that I found quite hard last year, I guess its all the practice of having 5 dogs to run !!!

So tonight the dogs are quite tired, yippee, Ronny and Zippy managed a quick play before crashing which I have added below, sorry nothing to exciting, I must make time to get some new pictures.

Ears

After a week or so of constant pain I finally dragged myself to the doctors to be diagnosed with a perforated ear drum and an ear infection, I have been on brilliant drugs all week and at last im finally starting to feel better.

So tonight I thought I would dedicate my picture to ears!!!

Nothing much happening at the moment, Keisha is remaining on rest as she is still slightly lame, Ive ordered some joint and muscle stuff recommended by Jan so im sure that will help when it arrives. All the other dogs are fighting fit so im hoping we will get a run of good weather so I can get some decent training done.

Its not long until the season starts and Ive already entered four shows, im starting to get slightly excited but a bit anxious as im not completely happy with my contacts yet, I guess the next month or so will be concentrating on them.

Agility Training

How nice is it to get back to some sort of normality, according to the news we are due more snow in the week so it seemed appropriate to take advantage of the sunny weather today. Agility club was on this morning which made Zippy and me extremely happy, he had a really good session and his jumping was really nice, especially as he hasn't done any since Nov/Dec.

This afternoon I took the rest of the mob up to the field to do their training, Ronny looks back to his best which is a great relief. Pudsey and Kody are really coming along nicely and the session's are starting to look like mini courses now, its much more fun when you can string all the obstacles together.

Mum has got fed up of Zippy picking all the flowers out of her garden so is trying to bribe him with this one, his own personal one at home. Personally I don't see what she is complaining about, what lady doesn't like flowers brought for her everyday ???

Not the best week

I guess im about to have a moaning session, it's not been the best week and to be honest without wishing my life away I will be glad when this week is over.

It started last weekend with Keisha becoming lame as previously stated, if that wasn't bad enough on monday I woke up with ear ache, its gradually got worse all week and it doesn't help because I cant hear anything out of it, Ive still got it now and if its no better tomorrow im going to have to drag myself to the doctors to get it sorted. On top of that, the roads are just crap, as much as I like snow I will truly be glad to see the back of it. It's been a nightmare to get to and from work and also having to drive around in it whilst im there too. There has been plenty of accidents and lots of bollards and traffic lights have been taken out too (used as stopping pads for sliding cars).

On top of all that, Zippy was attacked by a Rottweiler earlier in the week. I was walking home with Ronny, Zippy and Pudsey when I heard this man shout "Oi come here" It didn't sound great so when I looked behind I could see this guy shouting at his loose Rotty running my way.

Now Ive been involved with dogs for years, even been a police dog handler and managed some horrors with right attitudes, but I can honestly say this was the scariest dog Ive ever seen. It immediately went for Zippy and grabbed him on the neck, thankfully for all of us Ronny was on hand, he jumped on this dog and grabbed it on the face to get it of Zippy which thankfully it did let go of him, the only problem was Ronny and Rotty were now scrapping. I shouted to the stupid man who was stood bear footed with a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to come and get his dog, looking back it probably looked a bit like a comedy sketch, he tried to grab the dog by its collar but it slipped it and caused the man to fall backwards on his arse (hehe).

After the man finally got control of his dog he just walked off with not even a sniff of an apology or checking to see if the dogs were ok. What actually happened was the man had let his dog out for a wee but didn't check to see if anyone was around, a bit stupid considering his dog was a fighter, its people like him that give us dog owners a bad name and dogs a bad reputation.

On a positive note none of my dogs were hurt, Zippy doesn't appear to be bothered and Ronny thinks he is ace, not that I approve of aggressive dogs but on this occasion im glad Ronny was brave, if he hadn't of jumped in I honsetly dont think Zippy would be here today.

Back to 19 legs

What is it with my dogs, get one dog recovered from an injury to find another one has gone lame. Keisha and Zippy accidentally collided with each other at the park yesterday which resulted in Keisha doing a couple of rolly polly's and getting up lame. Zippy appears to be ok so at least thats something. So now its time for Keisha to have a couple of weeks rest and put her feet up and enjoy the comfort of the house rather than the kennel for a change. (I best keep watch she don't milk it !!!)

Not much to update you on at the moment, all training has currently stopped due to the weather and unless it suddenly improves I doubt it will be on for the next week or so.

Which means there has been plenty of time to sit at the computer and plan which competitions im going to do in the year. I have mainly stuck to the same shows as I normally do but with the exception of one or two. It's probably a good time as the shows are starting to appear on the sites and it always seems like the camping gets full as soon as they appear.

Friday Fun

I decided to take the day off work today, im fed up of struggling to get in on time and on top of all that having to drive around in it all day at work too. So this morning was a nice lazy walk down to the field and let the dogs loose to play in it. Zippy and Keisha absolutely love the snow and for the last two days thats all they have done, Ronny enjoys the snow but much prefers the warmth of the house when we are at home.

As expected Wilmslow Show has been cancelled, im actually quite glad as I didn't fancy braving the roads, instead im sure a couple more trips to the field for the dogs to play will be just as good.

Megan Pics

Here are a couple of Pictures Kate has sent of Megan, a Ronny daughter.

So last night it finally decided to snow here, yippee. It's only taken how long??? Anyway the puppies loved it and ran around like right hooligans this morning, didn't look to impressed when it was time for me to go to work though. This evening they have had another long play and I think it might have finally tired them out.

We are supposed to be going to Preston on saturday for the Wilmslow Agility Show but im guessing it will probably be cancelled, more snow is forecast so its not looking good.

Football thief

So christmas has come and gone, I've packed away the tree and re-gained some space in the house, whilst sorting cupboard space out Zippy decided to steal the football, caught red handed !!!

Keisha's training went really well last night, I do love running the FCI type courses as its more challenging trying to pull the dog of the obvious obstacle, I feel we are not quite there yet but thankfully there are still a few more training days to go before the qualifier in March.

Agility club was cancelled this morning due to the weather so Zippy missed out on his class, however day 11 of weave training is now complete and today was distraction day, we had some real great fun doing this. Pudsey and Kody have now sorted their footwork out, Zippy is still struggling, I can see he wants to single stride it but he just cant get his co-ordination together at the moment, I've got an exercise I want to set up next week to try and help him out.

Happy start to the New Year

After a very late night I finally managed to drag myself out of bed this morning and make it to the field. Owning dogs is definitely a non stop thing and im sure my mob didn't care that my eyes were being held open by matchsticks today !!!

Still it was all made worth while as the dogs have had a great start to the new year, I am truly thankful that all the dogs were really easy to train today. As promised the dogs have been filmed (thanks to mum for being the frozen camera man)



So it was Day 9 today and by the end of the session they should all be able to do 12 weaves ........



Ronny is now back in training after having 3 weeks off, there is no sign of that injury so im very happy, he re-started his weave training today and im sure it wont be long until he catches the others up.

Anyway, I hope everyone has had a good start to the year, all the best and good luck for 2010 xxx