What a weekend....

An epic drive for me although probably for some nothing - 4.5hours of driving to attend my old club show in Fordingbridge. It was a great excuse to see some girlfriends and Saturday night we laughed so much I was nearly crying with laughter. Competing wise my guys were great but I was not the 'jet lagged' feeling stayed with me all day. I was only fit for socialising and eating. Fortunately my guys are very tolerant of my human foibles.

This was Zevs and Mine agility run. He was super and just coming out of the canvas tunnel he turned to look for me and ran around the last jump. What the heck his performance is continuing improve, we did 'pull thrus',  'outs' and everything else I asked. His see-saw is getting scary fast, he virtually skids over it. I may have to look at retaining it so that he has more control over the tilt. People were 'gutted for me' as it was a KC qualifier, but all that mattered was the progress we are making. It was easy with Rivi and Zev I can play with them and they are oblivious, but friends disappointment as they want to see Zev and Rivi at more finals is harder.  A friend texted me and said "I want you to win, more than you want to win".

I do want to win, but I don't want to lose good grace, positive focus and the joy of running.  The wins or qualifications will come. This year I have not thought we ready to hit those heights. Zev and me are so excitable when we start chasing qualifiers next year. Perhaps I am wrong, and I know opportunities should be seized. But how you deal with things is oh so important to me too. There is a fantastic motivational poster at work that says "Attitudes are contagious - Is yours worth catching" (copyrighted) I think it was by corporate impressions .  Such a great tag line and thought provoking too.
Then what a donut moment I had in my last posting saying perhaps I was asking too much. The truth of the matter is I probably don't ask for enough. I am so known for 'babying' my guys. However come September I may be getting to classes twice a week rather than once, where I can train how I want. It is hard to find places to train where you are not being instructed :-)

Then my grapes, the birds have been nicking them!!!!

Intact - before the birds helping themselves

The birds have had grapes for a change!!!!!!!!!!!!!oh well

The Babyoli - back with a bang :-) Weeeeeheeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

Back with a bam. The Babyoli is back and what a comeback, two 1st in Agility, a 2nd & 5th in Jumping. The two agility wins put her into Grade 7. Then the icing on the cake was we came 2nd in the Adams Novice Derby that she qualified for last September. I have deliberately erred on the side and caution and gave her extended time off to recover from her poorly paw which is now a very sound and healthy paw again. Phew for our first run I was actually a bit nervous, would she be OK? Logically, medically, physically and rationally there was nothing to be concerned about. But as I would walk to the end of the universe for my guys, I was just you know was a tad concerned. But I need not have been, way cooooool! The video is of the Final...a yes, yes, yes moment indeed!

Then Mister Big and Marc went Grade 7 to. So next year they will all be in Championship Classes. The rise of Big's through the grades has been fast. He only made his first KC show at Easter. This is one of his winning runs, from the weekend.

Then the handsome irrespressible Zev had a 2nd and 3rd in Grade 7 jumping classes. I was thrilled with this. The vid of one of his runs shows a pole come down and if you watch carefully it is actually knocked down by his tail, how frustrating is that! On the whole the run was fast, responsive and with the longest leadout we have done, so I was very pleased. However I have been lax with Zev he is so charming and I have not followed my criteria to its usual standards and I realised this last night, when Marc said "Zev is quiet going on the up and running across the dog walk, but he barks all the way down". Which tells me I have been asking to much to soon. And whilst he is fast, I can run too fast for him, which then gets him all barky in telling me off mode. Which is fair enough. Note for Zev:- your handler has had a 'lightbulb' moment.

July - a year on.....Phew!

Play Fest - The guys have a complete 'riot' in the garden.
And its corny to say but a joy to watch.

July - a year on. Last July was when I made the decision life had to change and to change direction it included quitting my job to get things back on track. It has been a scary few months, well 10 months its was what it took to achieve and in that time the following has occurred.

• New job - back in human resources and so far so good
• New home -  great - stacks to do but we knew it would be a long term project
• The guys doing good, Raz does cause us a worry but on the whole its good.
•  Zev's progress from the start of the season to now. We have been through some upward gear changes and some blips as sometimes he just seems to go to fast for his brain. He is now nicknamed the bionic sheltie at club ha ha and yep I really have to run and push us both. But ultimately it is really satisfying and oh so fun. His other nicknames are 'Sir Snobalot' as he only interested in others when they have food otherwise he gives people a rather disdainful look and 'Turbo Womble'.
• Rivi - bummer that with a rip roaring start we have missed almost two months of the agility season.  However she herself is doing great and today we did some Salo puppy foundation stuff today to refresh basics as we start our way back to agility
• Big. What can I say. He is truly irrepressible and now at training really starting to open up and that is starting to transfer into the agility competitions.
• Dixie in season. And just started the Salo puppy foundation - and cool. Must video as very effortless, with the others you can see the learning progress and therefore can see the learning. With Dixie it is just effortless!!!

Joe Boy

Sometimes change is good and sometimes it is good to 'go for it'. Yep things can be scary, but better than the alternative of being not happy and not making an effort to change things.

Well another weekend at home. Missing doing the agility competing. Missed doing Weardale however it was so great to see Mum and Dad who came up for the weekend. Been too too long. Marc and Dad beavered away and I now have two compost bins and loads more clearing done in the garden. Had cheesecake - naughty but very nice and not a creamy cheesecake but puff pastry and icing and coconut - total sugar fix :-). No one seems to make cakes like Gilberts Bakery. That is missing from the Midlands..oh well.We also had Joe come and stay while Alan and Jackie compete at the Agility European Open. Joe is rather old and had a stroke earlier in the year so not easy at all. But he a fantastic dog and it is rather sad, he is at this stage of life. However he seems to have enjoyed himself and followed Marc and Dad up and down whilst they mowed the lawn.

The beginning of the compost bins

Gilberts Bakery - Cheesecake - totally yummy

Zev in his garden 'den' - chomping on his dog biscuit

A very up and down weekend......

After the excitment of Tuffley and training going well, it was time for the Rugby KC show. The very exciting thing was that Marc and Big's qualified for the Semis this September. And this is their qualifiying run.


For Zev and me it started OK and managed to get round the Champ Jumping and came 10th despite it not being a flawless run.

Onward and forward to the Champ Agility and there we were cruising the course and I went to cross behind the aframe and the judge was in the way -  i just bellowed for them to get out the way, and Zev coz he must have seen me slow up turned around and came back down the aframe. I was gutted and then I was cross with myself as I let it annoy me and that meant I handled the rest of the course not well at all so we ended up being eliminated. I did try and reflect and wondered if it had been me, but even people I did not know came up and said about it. It was really disappointing, and I got no apology. I did not expect a rerun but an apology would have been decent. Who knows in the great scheme of things, even if this had not happened I might have got Zev eliminated anyway, but I will never know. Still this is agility and there is always something new to reflect upon, learn to deal with and move on from. Especially losing my focus and feeling very irritated - so not happening again as it so not me and totally exhausting.

And only another two weeks and hopefully I will have Rivi to run again...am totally missing running the Babyoli.

Celebrations....in July so far

Having much to celebrate....

First - Zev's and me being in our first agility championship class at Tuffley show. I was so proud to run with my man. My cheeks ached from smiling so much all day. More so than usual. We gained a forth and sixth place in the qualifying rounds to put us into the final. But no videos..hmmm...we left the camera at home. Still a good start and I was pleased with me too, as I feel on the whole my handling is progressing and Zev was so responsive and did some real great stuff, even if I say so myself ;-) And thanks to Tuffley for the fab champ rosettes I was thrilled to get them and a great memento.
Second - the irrepressible Mr Bigs and Marc won two grade 6s classes at their first grade 6 show. So they too are having a cracking season.
Third - on the 10th July my Rivi has finally had her stitches out and the pad has healed really nicely. And I was allowed to lead walk her for 10 minutes today and can gradually build up the length of time each day. The vet had done a great stitching job and the boots that we got from Ann at camddwrcanine have been brilliant whilst she went in the garden to do her doggy stuff. I was so worried it might split again, but the being so so careful has so far paid off. Rivi has been so good and brave with the whole thing,  So hoping we will be back to agility at the end of July or August have to see how it goes. So at least 6 weeks missed. Yikes indeedy.
As we have had some time at home and no shows we have enjoyed exploring what is growing in the garden. It is so different seeing things grow rather than just buying them from the supermarket. And the cherries we picked were fabulous.