Happy New Year 2011

Olympia ABC Speed Jumping 2010

Here are the final results. Olympia - ABC Speed Jumping

1st Mark Douglas and AG CH Cories Ruby Tuesday 27.68 seconds
2nd Anna Brayley and Revel Without a Pause 28.61 seconds
3rd Jay Gardner and Chaffords Prodigy 28.62 seconds
4th Jo Hyslop and Bonvivant Objet d'Art 29.01 seconds
5th Nicky Holden and Kenward Casca 29.64 seconds
6th Jane Anderson and Cories Boomerang Bindi 30.41 seconds
7th Jackie Kenny and Cories Kinder Surprise 30.92 seconds
8th Neil Ellis and Pelham Tully 31.85 seconds
9th Nigel Staines AG CH Dragonheart Dark Destroy 5 faults 28.07 seconds
10th Sue Leech and Blackthorn's Red Devil 5 faults 30.91 seconds



Thanks to Marie Douglas who I believe filmed the event and posted it on to You Tube.

Speedy Cliffe - a Ronny puppy

Just received a couple of pictures of Speedy that were taken by Jackie on her mobile phone, he is a very handsome boy, apparently he is a beach bum, he loves the sea !!!

Im thinking it must run in the family as I know most of the puppies love the water, none more than Ronny !!!

Cool Agility Show 2010

Today we have been at the Cool Agility Show, it's a really nice local show with such a nice friendly atmosphere, plenty of free tea, coffee and mince pies to keep you going. What made the show extra special today was all the doggies ran really well, Ronny won the jumping class followed by Zippy in 4th place and Keisha 5th, then Zippy went on to win the Touch and Go Class beating Keisha into 2nd place. The other jumping rounds were really good, just the odd pole being knocked, we did have issues in the agility round, Ronny was in manic mode and forgot that he was supposed to stop on his contacts, Zippy and me lost timing at the end of the course and actually ran passed the final 3 obstacles and Keisha wrapped the wing far too tight and took a pole.

Still ...... a good progress check, more work needed on the start line wait and more contact work needed to try and speed Keisha and Zippy's up (Ronny just needs to stop).

Merry Christmas Everyone

Wow, Olympia was amazing !!!

Wow what an experience, Olympia is definitely something I would love to do again, the arena was just amazing and the crowd were something else, I loved every moment of it.

Above is the jumping course for the afternoon session, it was definitely a sprint all the way round and by the time I got to jump 18 I had the worst lactic acid possible, thankfully Keisha flew by and finished ahead to stop the clock. In this round I set Keisha up sightly wrong at the start and she actually had a wide turn after 2 as she was looking at the long jump, after that she ran spot on and did a really nice round to finish 4th, for a dog that doesn't really like to sprint she definitely held her own against those Kelpie rockets.

The agility round didn't go quite aswell, after jump two I got in Keisha's way and pushed her past the weave entry making her take it the wrong side, I think the nerves got the better of me and I insisted on helping her which infact ended up being more of a hindrance, you think by now I would have learnt to let the dog do the obstacle on their own, after all I do train it that way !!! Still on the positive side, although her contacts were slow (making Keisha do the obstacles twice, in this case weaves, always makes her slow for the rest of the run) she did actually get them all, so training did pay off. We finished on 10 faults in the end as naughty mummy ran off to get to the end which made Keisha crash jump 18.

So yesterday was a great day, a great run and a not so great run but so much learnt, how nerves affect my performance which makes me do stupid things, in this case crowding my dog. But what a fantastic dog I own, who instantly forgave me for my stupid mistake and actually didn't feel any pressure of the whole experience, I am so glad it was Keisha who gave me the opportunity to run at Olympia, thankyou Ratty. x

Olympia tomorrow !!!

OMG I cant believe how quickly Olympia has arrived, I am soooooooo very excited and actually cant wait for it to happen. I must say a massive congratulations to Dave and Rusty who finished 3rd in the senior class on saturday, what a great achievement and I hope I can continue to do the Belgians proud in the ABC tomorrow.

So Keisha and me have been training really hard, we have worked so hard on our contacts and in training they are perfect, I would have liked to confirm them in a few competitions before tomorrow as I know Keisha can be quite sharp on them in competition but sadly that didn't happen, I just gotta hope she doesn't get too excited and ping the horrible things. As we are running 2nd I have no option but to just run them flat out. It appears the final is being shown on BBC red button tomorrow night so I have asked my dad to record it so I can see what goes well/bad, the coverage starts at 6.45pm and we are on at 7.35pm. As this is our first year it will be a great experience, we get to see the course plan before we run and then actually only have a couple of minutes, if that, to walk the course, I hope I will remember it !!!

Good Luck to all the other competitors tomorrow, out of the 10 competing 7 are Kelpies, I predict a Kelpie will win !!!

Not long until christmas

Time is flying by, up until yesterday I hadn't even got a single present, the internet has been very handy for christmas shopping this year and after surfing the web last night I have reduced my list to only two more to get.

So yesterday was our broken start line wait course, we came back feeling quite disappointed with the workshop and there were a couple of people on it that seemed to ruin the atmosphere, on reflection we did learn a couple of techniques which im sure Emma and me will try out, it was Zippy's first ever course and he was such a well behaved boy, so much so that he actually made me look like a liar as he hardly broke any of his waits, NO EXCUSE NOW MR ZIP.

Olympia starts this week, it's very exciting, Keisha and me don't run until the final day which is next monday, we have been working really hard on our contacts and touch wood, fingers crossed etc etc it has all been going well, it would have been nice to get a few competitions under our belt to test them but I guess there is no point in worrying about it, if nothing else it will be a good day out.

Start line wait soon to be sorted

The weather this week has been very very cold but ive actually enjoyed walking the dogs in it, especially as there is not a single snowflake in sight, for the first time this week the temperature will get above freezing reaching 3°C tomorrow which will probably feel quite warm now.

This sunday Emma and me are taking our little horrors Maisy and Zippy on a broken start line wait course, it will be perfect for us as we have both been very naughty and allowed our little furry friends to get away with it for far too long. This way, once we regain control of that start line wait I can officially tell Emma off if I catch her allowing Maisy to break it next year, no doubt she will do the same to me !!!

Snow has gone, no more please !

I'm thinking the dogs may prefer wearing trainers in this weather, the ground has been so cold and icy and they must feel the difference on their feet. Anyway, the weather has improved over the last few days and with the rain last night the field is clear of all snow. Let's just hope we don't get anymore snow this week !!!

Last night I took Keisha to FCI training, I thought she might of been a bit wild due to us not getting much training done but she was actually fantastic, her contacts are looking much better now I have reverted back to 2o2o method, I really made the effort to layer the dog walk and let her work alone on the other side, normally I would not chance this as she is a bit of a cling-on but to my surprise she was absolutely brilliant at it, im definitely gonna take the opportunity when it arises in shows next year.

This morning we trained at the field, the ground was actually in good shape and had thawed nicely by the time we started to train, Zippy is doing really well with his skills, we are now up and running with pull-ins from both directions and his A-Frame is looking great. Ronny had very few poles today which was so nice to see, if I have learnt anything from this dog I would say it's TIMING, even now I find him hard work as he is soooooooooo into by body language and any slight movement at the wrong time he will always let me know.

Training is still going ahead ......

We are refusing to let this snow get the better of us, although we are very restricted we are still doing our contact training, it would be nice to move it back outside though but looking at the weather forecast it doesn't look like its going to be any time soon.

Last Sunday was the Agility Club annual awards, Keisha finished 2nd in the Grade 4 league this year and won us this huge crystal trophy, I think it may be the best and infact the heaviest trophy I have ever won. Well done Ratty (Keisha) !!!