Season draws to an end - Part 2

Then the Zevman, what can I say, we had some real if onlys. You see on this jumping vid. He turned so tight on a pivot he came through the tiny gap between the jump wing and me. What a good boy to be so tight and that just shows inexperience in us as a team. But low and behold lets boogie as we won the grade 3 agility, he was such an angel, doing a tunnel dog walk discrimination. He was so funny. As I decided on the strategy of start handling as you mean to go on. So I did not block the tunnel as it was on the left side of the d-w and I needed to be on the right. I did a mini pull in cue and Zev, got on the dog walk and in a flash looked at me and said “why you waiting there, we need to get a move on”, oh it did make me smile, then there was a flat left hand pole entry, did that, did the wonky line of jumps, tunnel under the d-w. Crikey, was I squeaking with excitement after that round. And further development was he is getting the play after, like I do with Rivi, I think the celebration at the end is really important and gives me a chance to say thanks to them both.

My stomach hurt, and it has not hurt with excitement since the worlds 2006. So thank you to Zev and Rivi, for giving me the perfect finish to the 2009 Agility Season. Prior to Rivi, I did not have a dog to run in agility for around 18 months so what can I say, except "its good to be back :-)"
My thanks for the season are:
-Marc, who is always by my side supporting me no matter what s..t he has going on.
-Nuts, who is also always by my side and indulges the youngest of the pack as only a grand dog can do.
-Big for being the bestest/cutest toy poodle puppy we could dream to have
-To friends for support, guidance and laughter
-To new friendships made
-Rivi and Zev – enough said
-Raz and Wings for being with us and enjoying agility
-Tri, for being a big part of our lives for longer than we could have hoped
-Beacon for being a great agility club

Agility Season 2009 - Draws to an end - Part 1

Season 2009 draws to an end, and did it finish real good. Rivi won into grade 6, and she did a Superoli performance all weekend. Of 6 rounds we had a 1st x 3, a 2nd and a 5th. Someone said does she ever go wrong? My reply, was her co-pilot is only human ha ha ha. Yeah, it was just one of those weekends to savour - our sheer enjoyment of doing agility together. When I look at videos and see the progression over the past few months in our understanding of each other. The investment in the sheer amount of care and effort I have taken to convince her, that she is the most brilliant dog on this planet over the season. And I have been rewarded. Next year will see us in grade 6 which is exciting and scary as we move out of the ‘baby’ grades. But if we have the same enjoyment, then we will have a great time. If only the Dog Vegas Diamonds were real!!!!

Bromsgrove 2009 - hiccups and finding grooves

A real hiccup of a weekend, some great stuff, and then some less so!? Then I found my groove and me and Rivi won the combined 3-5 jumping. I was dead chuffed as this was our first weekend at grade 5. Rivi did a great agility but my second rear cross was far too late (pesky jump was in my way, the cheek of it!) so I made sure that she did not know it had gone wrong. The Perfectoli has well gone up a gear, people noticed this and how her confidence was improving. So again I was dead chuffed. It’s a funny expression why say ‘dead’ before chuffed, can someone please explain the origin of this expression?

Zev, is a whole different ball game, he is opinionated, questioning, wonderful and at the moment absolutely exhausting to run. I have tried to work out how he best wants to prep with me to the start line, so that we can find our groove. I think he needs the lead off early, so that he can shout. Good for him to get it out of his system, then heeling along side me and then I say “we doing agility” and cue him with a hand signal for the side he is on. By the end of the weekend we were getting the hang of the start line set up. Zev is doing well, however I was so glad Marc videoed as I was going into careful mode, which is not good as it gives the dogs different vibes and cues to that in training, an example was I slowed down and walked along side the a-f rather than running hard, I stayed with him in the poles!!!! Silly me, I thought it was exhausting, Zev was probably thinking “what the heck is up with her, she has gone all weird?” Despite this he got 6th place in a combined 1-7 jumping, a clear round. Woohoo and a good lesson learnt by me early and quickly in our agility career.

It was great that a practice ring was put on to raise money for charity, Rivi and Zev, really enjoyed being rewarded with their toy in the ring, so thank you Bromsgrove much appreciated and all for a good cause.

The Lumix vids are not compatible picasa for making videos so no pretty ‘dressing’ of the vid.

WC AGILITY 09 - Natasha Wise y Dizzy - Individual Medium Agility

Just look at this, totally cool and fantastic. Could not find the jumping one, what a great WC. With this sort of achievement it seems that congratulations can never be said enough times. Luv u-tube as I would not get there this year it is so great to see the vids of some truely awesome runs. Thank you so much to the people who posted them. Have not found Zev's momma runs who came 5th, hopefully the OBay blog will be posting them soon. Nor have I found the Bronze Medal runs of Team GB in the large dogs. For sure agility is tough, from the 'if only, to the sublime' - it is life on the edge of a moment. And when you get there you have lived for sure.

Gillingham - Part 3 - Rivi and bits...

Rivi, was on a ‘freebie’ weekend, as we missed the date for progression to Grade 5 by one day. Needless to say I was thrilled with her, she is getting into the whole thing, and even did not spook at flies nearly as much :-) On the Saturday she won the jumping, and I was well stoked. And we got a beautiful glass wine glass, thank you Gillingham. I have wanted one all season so that I can drink a toast to the Rivioli with her own special glass. One course I tried a different handling manoeuvre a ‘push thru’ rather than a ‘pull thru’ and me and Rivi got in a pickle but recovered well enough to come 4th. If I had pulled it off, it would have been snazzy, coz I did not it was like ‘’well that cost you a win”. But in the great scheme of things I need flexibility in how I handle, and whilst on freebies, it makes sense to me to try things out.

It was great to run two dogs, and I really like that Zev and Rivi will not be competing against each other as they are different heights. That is a real bonus. I would not like to run dogs, where you end up competing against your self as well as the agility courses I don’t think? I have not got my head around that one.

Then Mr Big was allowed to do recalls to Marc whilst course building was occurring, so that he has the opportunity to learn to really focus on Marc and doing training whilst there is lots of people and dogs around. Bigs was very good and did the most perfect recalls. Now he is over a year old, he can start agility training proper and progression with the weaves is looking really promising.

So that was it, another great show, with our guys and friends. Hard to believe there is only another couple of weeks left and then the agility season will be over.

As the Vid Rec has started playing up, we used the camera. But whilst the quality is good, actually the sound capture is far too effective! The way it records is not compatible with Picasa or other programmes. Which is rather irritating, as I can’t string vids together and all the other stuff. AARRRHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gillingham DTS - Part 2 - Envy's debut run

The Envy, Rivi’s pair partner made her debut and came forth on the Sunday. So super cool with the babies debuts. And Tidey clearly on a roll from his grade 1 win, won his grade 2 with Caroline. So grade 3, here they come :-)

Gillingham Part 1 - Zev's first agility run

Due to technical hitches the blog for Gillingham will have to be in three parts. Part 1 - Zev's first agility run.

It was weird and tough, without our Tri in the caravan. But knew the first show without her would be the hardest one. However, life doesgoes on, and Zev's first run was a coming.

His first KC show, and it was hard to tell who was more excited me or Zev! There was some great courses and very kind judges, and we even managed to get round one and come 2nd. It was great to see Zev developing more drive with each round, and it was like a ‘light bulb’ moment for him on the Saturday – “Wow I don’t just get to watch, I can do it!” By Sunday, a friend was in fits of giggles watching him, as he is so like ‘come on, I wanna do it now, and I mean right now’. She said I should be under no illusions who is now in the driving seat! Ha ha. By the time we finished our last run, we were laughing so much I could not stand up straight. Needless to say on Monday at training I had a very charming, pushy and full of it Zevman :-) Wooohoooooooo...

Live Is Life

Well, its that time. The teams are getting ready to go to the FCI World Agility Championships 2009. This song is one of the pivotal songs to dance to, when watching and celebrating this competition.

To everyone competing, spectating, working, cheering, have a fabulous time. This competition rocks.

UKA - Rivi's flying high and Zev's first agility adventure

I debated with myself whether to do this UKA show, it would be weird going without Marc, can you believe in all the years I have done agility, I think I probably have only done around 4 shows without him. But I thought it would be nice and low key, the venue is lovely and the weather forecast was dry.

It was totally mad. It is the first time I have attempted five runs with Rivi, and it was manic, booking in, the guessing which class would get to Rivi’s or Zev’s class/height first. Rivi was a Beautyoli and won 4 of our 5 Novice classes. I was on cloud nine. I am such a kid, I get so excited when we achieve a first place, actually I get excited about handling something well, let alone achieving an rosette! Hence the picture....as the thrill just does not diminish.

I could have kicked myself with the snooker, as Rivi was going beautifully and then I heard the whistle and thought ‘last jump’. I should have thought ‘weaves, last jump’. Still only the second go at snooker and the judge was lovely and sympathetic. Oh what a doughnut. I think I will have to have a lesson with someone who is experience in Snooker, as the rule book makes loads of sense until I read the section about the snooker! I also think the more I do the class, the more the rules will make sense. A classic ‘chicken and egg’ dilemma. So that is a project for the winter, get to grips with snooker. Thank you, Babyoli.

Now the Zev was brill I had just run Rivi, and Zev’s class was closing. "Yikes", there is no way I could miss his first one. I ran with Rivi to the ring, explained I was going to get Zev. The lady said the class is closing. So I explained I just had to run in another class and will go and get him straight away. Poor Rivi, straight back to the van. Poor Zev, rushed from van to the ring, plonked on the start line and off we went. It was a good big course, just how I envisioned a steeplechase. I got Zev ‘e’d’ as I pulled him off a jump after the tunnel, but it did not matter. He ran like the wind, was so responsive, hence the ‘e’ and made me feel so alive. His second class, was another steeplechase, now this course was real clever in how the line of jumps was set, and driving Zev round, we had more close shaves with the jumps than Wallace & Gromit. But I was thrilled with how he attempted to change his line, understood the rear cross cue and also did a reverse turn and he ran and found his cool kong and did a little lap of honour. And despite the zigzagging we still came 2nd! We had a really good laugh, as it was such fun. I wish we had the day on video....

What a day, I was beaming so much, my cheeks ached, so chuffed with my guys, it was good to be smiling again. And Nuts really enjoyed getting treats off new people he met. He is such a cheeky charmer shoving his nose at people’s pockets! In his defence, he keeps getting rewarded for the said behaviour ;-)

So life goes on....

Grief is a weird thing, and I agree that those who offer the profound wisdom. Which is that it lets us know we have loved. And we Wynne's are lucky for knowing much love. And yes life's relentless march forward continues on. No power to put the world on hold for a while.

So we look to the future and our hopes for journeys yet to be taken. One such adventure is having a pairs partner for Rivi. Can't be Marc, as he already has a pairs partner! This photo, introduces my friend's lovely youngster Envy out of the last Nedlo litter (Dot x Will) who is going to be Rivi's pairs partner.

So we have loved.....

So we have loved and so we have lost.

The inevitable day came and our hearts broke once more.

In loving memory of Tri, Marc’s very special girl.