The Good the Better and the Devastating !!!

The Good: Zippy is running fantastically well, some great results last weekend at Dogs Unleased, 3 x 2nd places, not perfect runs as either Zippy or me manage to get the course wrong, either turning the wrong way or just having too many wide turns but we are getting round them which is the main thing :) not far from getting that last G6 win now so I hope we can keep up our good form.

The Better: Wow Ronny is running amazingly, he won another G7 jumping last week, his other rounds just a pole in each and he even held all his contacts until he was released (good for him). What a difference since we have been G7 we are so much more chilled out and having fun (well obviously Ronny always had fun and its only me that's more chilled out lol)

The Devastating: Not been the best couple of weeks with Keisha, first she pulled up at Newton Heath in the champ agility lame, not really sure why and I haven't ran her since, no sign of lameness on her normal daily walks but she was obviously not happy about something. Then greedy guts managed to swallow a bone which ended up getting stuck in her rectum, packed off to the vets to get it removed, during which she had to have x-rays to establish where the bone was laying, all back to normal now from her operation and no long lasting damage caused but unfortunately the x-rays identified that she has Spondylitis in her vertebra, basically it is a form of arthritis.
Obviously explains the pulling up in the Champ class, she hadn't been running at her best for the last year or so now which is completely understandable, I wish I had identified the problem sooner I feel ever so guilty that I have been asking her to run with a bad back. :(
So ive made the easy decision to retire her, such a shame at an early age but her welfare comes first and I certainly don't want her to be in discomfort for something that is supposed to be fun, she's been a good dog for me and we have achieved so much together, what a brilliant dog and one that has certainly kept me sane through our agility years :-) Love Ratty forever x

Bitz & Chipz and other good news !!!!

Bitz and Bobz on saturday, a lovely little venue and the weather wasn't too bad, the sun made an appearance at times but very windy, Emma and me decided to swap dogs for one class, I ran Maisy in her jumping which was really good fun, we were going really well but just had a refusal and then a knocked pole right near the end, Emma had fun running Ronny in his jumping class, a good course for handling and she was brilliant, unfortunately they got E'd but they both came off full of beans so I think they had fun.
Zippy had a good day, 2nd in G6 jumping and 5th in C4-7 jumping, a few issues at the minute with who knows best but im sure we will work through it in the end, obviously I will win :-)

Sunday was Chipping Norton, a bit of a disaster day for me and Zip, 3 big E's, I think we had timing issues and Zip was a bit keen to get going in all the classes so trying to keep control in time with him zooming past was too much for my brain, I was a bit disappointed as we had been running well earlier in the week, still that's the joy of agility, gotta take the ups with the downs.

Keisha had a good run in the C4-7 jumping to finish 5th and Ronny ran even better and won the class, clever boy !!!! We are so much more consistent now, this garde 7 lark is actually quite good fun with Ronny :-)

Some congratulations are in order, the Kronik Kidz are doing really well. Jackie and Speedy won G3 Agility at North Derbyshire, they have been knocking on the door for ages so it was only a matter of time, good boy Speedy.
Natalie and Reno also gained 2nd place in G3 Agility at Bitz and Bobz, it wont be long until he starts climbing the grades too, Ronny is a very proud daddy :-)

Hinckley and JDA Show

Some pictures below of Zippy in action at the WC.

So Hinckley our own show last weekend, shame the weather wasn't brilliant but it wasn't a complete disaster, monday turned out to be the nicest day as the sun finally made an appearance. I don't know about anyone else but I always find it hard to run well at your own show, helping on the rings all day and then just turning up getting your dog out the van to run straight away is never a good combination. Champ on saturday with Keisha, she ran soo much better than at Nottingham, had a bit more go this time and we actually had a good clear in the agility, unfortunately in the jumping round me managed 5 in the weaves as she slipped and then skipped the 3rd weave, never mind there is always Newton Heath in a few weeks to give it another go.

No clears for Ronny but he ran really well, knocked a pole in his jumping but ran a fantastic round, what makes it interesting is Zippy ran the same class and was 2 tenths faster than him getting third place.

On the monday Zip ran in Natasha Wise agility class, he was amazing but just dropped a pole, a bit gutted as he was flying and he actually finished 5th with 5F.
So onto JDA, the weather was actually good for us, we managed to dodge the rain pretty much all week we had the odd shower but nothing drastic, the ground held up really well, on the first day we were a bit slow at getting going, mainly E's all day but Zip did manage a really scrappy jumping round to finish 9th. Wednesday was much better, Ronny won G7 Jumping in 25.11 and Zippy came 2nd in G6 jumping with a time of 25.23, they are pretty much running identical times, the course was perfect for a Belgian, a fast flowing course judged by Michelle Guerin, well obviously it suited my boys !!!!

Then yesterday was our last day, the boys did it again, another lovely fast jumping round that was ideal for me to work them at a distance, Ronny came 3rd in G7 in a time of 28.34 and Zippy won G6 jumping in a time of 28.07, he actually beat all the G7 dogs so im mega chuffed with him. So that's it we are 3/4 of the way to Grade 7.

Today we are just chilling at home, having a well deserved lazy day, we are at Bitz and Bobz Show tomorrow and Chipping Norton on Sunday, really local show so at least we don't have far to travel.