The new fencing...well the start of it, I was getting slightly fed up of Sennen eating all the veg's, so we (Ian) made a start on fencing the area off, this is the shortest fence, the other side needs lots more wood and work, but the area also needs approx 10 tonnes of top soil too, so didn't want to put the fence up and then have to wheel barrow the whole lot through the gate! until we have saved up enough pennies to pay for some to be delivered!
The only felt roof left on the sheds, needed replacing, so that was done too. .....and after 4 years of asking, now and again I got my latch on the gate going down into the agility garden area, it was such a pain having to use both your hands to open it before....
So Sennen got bored and chewed the chair leg, so I spent 6 mins training her to get the washing out and shutting the door...work in progress, but she was mentally tired at the end of this session...it's rather long to watch, so if you don't want to get bored watching the whole session don't bother!
A nice 1-7 jumping course, Harry was clear, but not fast enough for a place, I wasn't quick enough to get my front cross in in between jump 3/4, and I over cooked both pull through, after jump 5 and between 12 and 13, but yet again he gave 100%...Love him
Mindy's too had a great round and the judge just needs to know her course to realise she wasn't e'd between jump 3/4, Mindy did almost come through the gap between 3/4 but I was able to correct her, so if she (judge) was being picky she could have given me a 5R, but hey...Mindy did a great round....
Worcester show, Aly came with us to share the driving, we left at silly O'clock 3.30 am! but we both enjoyed our day although I didn't bring any places back to Cornwall, Aly did so, that was good...
This is the 6/7 jumping judged by Barrie James, great course and I was really looking forward to it, you could let them have their heads a bit to cover the ground, bet it was fun for the large dogs!
This would have been Mindy's last run and I was looking forward to it, although she had worked so well in the last two classes, was sort of waiting for the fall! Barrie has yet to see her work well, so it was a shame she couldn't get off the start line, I couldn't get her to do any tricks or play, maybe she was tired as all the small runs where finished by 10.30 and they had 3 each.... anyway I left her on the start line, well you did need a bit of a head start and eventually she left the start line at a trot, so I gave her the benefit of the doubt and attempted to do a "funny turn" which usually gets her going, but no she wasn't going fast enough to execute that one, so we ran to the finish and I picked her up and gave her a cuddle after trying to get her to tug........
So this was the Olympia "Q" run...Harry's was wide and I was late in telling him what was happening next again...so we lost around 4/5 seconds straight away and when we checked the times, you could see we would have been easily in the top 3 places, but hey, I didn't get it right, Harry didn't know or care, he is really working confidently now and who would have thought a Chinese Crested could do agility!
Mindy as you can see looked great apart form the dreaded First Contact Seesaw...AGAIN
We used to spend most weekend in the summer(BA ...Before Agility) collecting, scrounging wood from skips, FTC, etc. We didn't have any heating except storage heaters and a wood burner, even when Ian put in the central heating we couldn't just walk past skips etc, we would still heat the house as much as we could with free wood (we did ask the skip owners by the way) I was rather OCD about it all and would start to panic if we got below half way on the log box and off we would go again with the trailer and landrover...
We have a wood burner here too, but it is only dinky one and really doesn't heat the house like the last one, but hey it's so nice to watch the glow..... Anyway thanks to a friend who chopped down a huge tree the other day, our log box is now FULL for the first time since we have been in Cornwall and we are about to start on a pile outside, some of the larger bits Ian's recons he is going to make into a table, yes this is Ian we are talking about who hates making anything of WOOD, you should of heard him when I said I needed a dogwalk please can you help me make one...... So my Saturday at home was spent, watching Ian with the chainsaw and chopper, I did help by filling the log box and tea making........
Tomorrow is a local dog show, for the "Smalls" and "Red", she is nearing her end of anysize now, she's almost 12 and some nights we see her struggle to jump on the sofa, then I spend most of the time whilst running her worrying whether she is going to hurt her self in the ring, the trouble is she is not the type of dog that would enjoy wondering around the rings socialising as all she really wants to do is agility, I keep getting told she looks great and I then I spend the time crying about it all, we have had such a great 10 plus years competing together and a few special people have had the pleasure at running her at full height and anysize and each one has enjoyed it as much as me, so may be tomorrow will be her last run.............
Sennen is well and truly part of our family, we have gone a whole week now with the loo roll left on it's holder and the flannel only move when we move them, thankfully she's not so mouthy with us, BUT she still jumps 5 foot in the air to get your attention landing on you, which is a night mare, she will even do it to strangers, Ian's learning slowly to ignore her, when he comes in in the evening but he adores her, mind you it's hard not too, she's drop dead yummy! She's been measured, she's large just a little taller than Red, but way smaller than Buzz, thank goodness.
Anyway "agility" wise what's she been up to...not a lot, as underneath it all I didn't know whether she would do it and I wanted her to mature a bit, although she has been learning lots of tricks and balancing on alsorts of things and tugging and playing with lots of different toys, reminds me I must ask Lisa of www.bungeedogs.com whether I can buy a bungee handle as I need another one.......
I have just put together a game plan now for us and Sue with Holly have joined in too, for 20-30 min's of training now and again, they both have done, tunnels with go-on's through wings, seesaw "bang it" game and run to the end whilst it's up in the air and stay there whilst it lowered to the floor (taking the bang out of it) and walking on dog walk planks on the floor, with end postion, I'm doing it slightly different to Sue, but we can proof it all together so that's fine too, the famous wing wraps, that I keep hearing about till I'm sick of hearing, like it's something new!!
I am trying to teach myself different words for left and right wraps, but I have always found it hard as I don't always get my left and right right, let alone adding more words.... but I'm trying to get better and just maybe we will get to get it right on a course...... wont start the weaves for another few months or so, I am going to teach 2 x 2 like Mindy was taught, although I only had the book at the time and the dvd is well worth a look to see if it's for you. Personally I dont think anyway is wrong way to teach a dog agility, just different and I feel as long as your happy with how your teaching it, then carry on, but I do think you should be open minded enough to look at other methods, so you can make the right choice for you and your dogs, I love trying new ways of doing things, some work and some dont....
So I'm off to go and teach Sennen to empty the washing machine now!
This is Buzz at 9 years old running his last agility run with Nick, his mate.....He is still sound and fit and will enjoy his retirement at home with Ian (who taught him agility from the beginning) you may get to see him around the rings he's the HUGE, powerful collie that barks a lot...
I made the decision to retire him whilst he is still looking okay jumping, whilst he is still sound and happy, I hate seeing dogs competing who IMO should be doing any size or even nothing at all, unfortunately I have seen these people dragging their dogs over full height course over the last two weekends of shows...
The new fencing...well the start of it, I was getting slightly fed up of Sennen eating all the veg's, so we (Ian) made a start on fencing the area off, this is the shortest fence, the other side needs lots more wood and work, but the area also needs approx 10 tonnes of top soil too, so didn't want to put the fence up and then have to wheel barrow the whole lot through the gate! until we have saved up enough pennies to pay for some to be delivered!
Buzz is showing you......
