Training gives way to snow, but it doesn't stop play ......

Man I hate the snow, although its not that bad here its still inconvenient and im already dreading getting to work this week, last year was a complete nightmare with the trains and roads and with all the cut backs im sure the council will try and save money on the gritting side of things. There is one positive for having snow, the doggies absolutely love it !!!

For obvious reasons training was cancelled this weekend, I think I might try and find an indoor venue to hire as I think this winter is going to be a bad one and I cant afford to keep missing training sessions, if any of you have any ideas of a local venue and/or fancy training and sharing the cost please let me know.

So this weekend I decided to take the dogs for a long walk both day's, they absolutely loved it and ran non stop for most of it, although it was cold the sun came out and made it a very pleasant walk.

Ive just brought the doggies an early christmas present, now the cold days have arrived and the risk of injury is so much greater I have brought them a 'Back on Track' coat, they may be expensive but in the short time of having them they seem to be worth every penny, last year Ronny and Keisha both picked up injuries in the winter so with my massage training day and the new coats im hoping it might help to prevent this.

Needs must

So im finding that these dark nights are making it impossible to do any training in the week, with Olympia fast approaching im starting to get a bit twitchy, so I decided on sunday that the next best thing would to bring training indoors.......... well that's what I have done, I now have one of the dog walk planks in my front room, a bit drastic I know but my brother came over to visit tonight and he didn't even batter an eye lid, now ive put that down to one of two things, he is either very blind or probably the more likely reason is that he is used to me doing strange things in my training world !!!

Now with Keisha's A-Frame in a complete mess ive decided to revert back to the 2o2o method, originally I was planning to run it but she just cant seem to grasp it and either jumps from a great height or does some sluggish attempt at it and to be perfectly honest I just haven't got the time to do all the repetitions that are needed to train it. All is not lost though, watch this space .............

That hit the spot

Yesterday I had booked Ronny and me on a K9 massage course, it was such a brilliant day and I have learnt so much from it, Ronny was in his element and I must admit the benefits did shine through today at training, he had very few poles down and he looked so good in his movement.

Today we were at the field for training and I was mainly concentrating on the A-Frame, Zippy just seems to be a natural and he is really starting to fly over it, Keisha is the complete opposite and just doesn't seem to get it, which is actually a complete shock as she usually picks things up really quickly and always way before the boys, I guess I have found her weak point. Ronny was a real star, I did a sequence of very fast releases and then threw the odd 'hold the position' to make sure he was listening for that release command. This afternoon Emma brought Maisy and Rupert down, they are both flying through their sequences which was really nice to see, I know it's a bit early but I am really looking forward to seeing them in action next year !!!

Dyson Groom

I brought this little beast last weekend at Discover Dogs, its called the Dyson Groom and retails at £40, ive been trying it out all week and thought I would post my feed back on here in case you are interested in getting one.

Essentially all it comprises of is a slicker brush stuck to the end of the suction pipe but it comes without the mess of flying hair left in your house that a normal brush would leave.

All my dogs are fine with the hoover, on the first experience of the Dyson Groom Puddy was not keen, I think it was more the hose part swinging around and occasionally knocking into him, however, his second experience was like he has never known any different, he is completely happy with it now and actually sat there ages getting brushed. Ronny is a massive fan, he loves being hair dried so being hoovered is an extra bonus for him !!!

If like me you have got an older Dyson model then it doesn't matter, it comes with an attachment to fit either old or new shapes, this has been a complete hit with me and what better timing now the winter has arrived.

The one thing I would say though, if your dog doesn't normally like the hoover then this would be a big no no, I know the new Dyson models are alot quieter but like I said all my dogs are completely happy with the hoover so it was never really going to be an issue getting them used to it.

Discover Dogs Update

Discover Dogs on sunday was a great experience, as it was my first time going I hadn't realised it was actually a competition rather than just a display/training in the ring I was hoping for. Well anyway, I had already made up my mind I was going to push for speed and just have fun, try and get Keisha running on in front again and to take a chance once in a while rather than just go for a clear. Well the jumping was first up and quite a nice flowing course, Keisha ran lovely and seemed to cope with the carpet surface very well, we finished 4th and actually only finished less than a second behind the leader.

The agility round in the afternoon was a really nice course, with my contacts completely stripped back for training and currently in a complete mess I knew we were going to miss our A-Frame and Dog Walk contact so I wasn't disappointed at all, how can you complain when you haven't trained it properly !!!

On the positive side Keisha ran the rest of the course brilliantly and had one of the best times, she was so enthusiastic which was so nice to see, lets hope our contacts are up to standard when we go to Olympia !!!

Brownie Points

Today I have had the best day at work (I know, I cant believe im saying it either) anyway, I cant go in to too much detail but we have caught one of our nominals that has been on the run for the last 4 weeks, the gaffer's always put pressure on us to get them in but today was the day, me and my colleague Gaz have scored massive brownie points so we are definitely in the good books for the next week or so, YIPPEE !!!

 

On top of that, one of our other nominals has finally been 'caught out' shall we say and we have got even more brownie points coming our way, for once I will be looking forward to going into work next week.

 

This weekend is another active one, tomorrow we have got bags of training to get through then sunday we are off to Discover Dogs, Keisha and me have been invited to take part in the agility display in the main ring, this will be our first time running on carpet so it will be a great experience. I'm taking mum along for the day out, neither of us have been before so we plan to do lots of shopping between the displays.

I have brought Zippy a new bed, I braved it and decided to give it him last night, he was proper snuggled up in it at bed time, I had a stressful night sleep wondering if he was going to get up like elephant man this morning, well thankfully it seems to be fine and Zippy still has beautiful eyes, phew !!!

Results are in .....

The results are in for the first BSD WC selection Day which was judged by Lee Gibson, here are the current top 8:

1st - Gill Raddings and Check (Terv) - 52 points

2nd - Jo Hyslop and Keisha (Mali) - 49 points

3rd - Claire Bacon and Emmy (Terv) - 46 points

4th - Dave Leach and Rusty (Mali) - 44 points

5th - Andy Brown and Thor (Mali) - 43 points

6th - Tony Parmiter and Poppy (Gron) - 41 points

7th - Louise Challis and Delta (Gron) - 29 points

8th - Andy Brown and Storm (Gron) - 27 points

As you can see it's incredibly close, all to play for next February when the last of the two selection days is being held in Kent.

Still in the running

Today was the first selection day for the BSD World Champs, yesterday we had a really good training day so I was going in feeling alot more confident than last week.

I dropped the boys off at mum and dad's this morning and set of for the long daunting task, I must admit I was feeling really nervous this morning and the drive there seemed to take ages.

Anyway, the first run was quite a tricky agility course, nothing I felt Keisha couldn't do but the trap for us was the tunnel laying next to the dog walk, first time round it was to take the tunnel, then second time to take the dog walk. After practicing this combination I felt Keisha may take the dog walk rather than the tunnel so I had already made up my mind I was going to try and force her line more towards the tunnel and to try and cut the dog walk view. Well I definitely cut the view off from the dog walk but in my stupid panic to do this actually ended up pushing her completely past the tunnel and forced her to take a jump getting us eliminated. This was definitely a case of not trusting my dog, I was so annoyed at myself for doing this and putting us both under pressure, any other time I would have left her to it and she probably would have had no issues.

So back to the van, a massive telling off for myself and a case of getting my nerves under control. The next agility round was quite straight forward but alot of traps and definitely a need for obstacle discrimination, this time I had already decided I was going to trust Keisha fully, not crowd her and just be there to help set the nicest line for her, she ran it beautifully and even managed a lovely A-Frame and Dog walk contact so I was proper chuffed with her, a lovely clear round, phew !!!

Then on to the two jumping rounds, I always feel so much more confident in these classes, Keisha is a good technician and a clean jumper so its just getting her round, well thats what we did, two really good clears, in the last round I had given Keisha a bad line and nearly forced her to run past the long jump, I just realised before it was too late and stuck my arm out in the hope she would react, thankfully my little honest dog did and somehow managed to clear it, I was so amazed by it, I can remember shouting good girl to her as she landed, now that's what I call TEAM WORK.

Im not sure where we are currently lying, the results are due out on tuesday so we will have to wait until then, we gained a 2nd, 3rd and a 4th today so I reckon we are probably about 4th-ish, the top 8 qualify so I think we are still in the running for one of those qualifying places.