Monday 19 April 2010

First "Nuts" of the Summer

The Doggies and me have just spent a lovely, sunny weekend at AgilityNuts.

I was judging all day on Saturday so didn't get much chance to run Kiros although Ann gave him a run around my Novice Agility.  He ran clear for her but wasn't very fast as he wanted to get to me all of the time. At the end of the day I ran him in the pairs (1st pole down) and the knockout jumping.  He was drawn against Indi in the Knockout and only got through the 1st round as Indi had a pole down.  She's soooooo fast!! In the 2nd round he was beaten by another Cocker Spaniel.

Here are my courses.

Veteran Agility
Elementary Agility
Novice + Agility
Starters Agility

I ended up altering my Jumping courses as I didn't get many clears in Elementary Agility so can't post them.

Reno had fun playing with Hazel's puppy Shadow and on Sunday had a really good romp around with another Mali, Barbara's Sam.  The problem I have at the moment is he is having so much fun on the excercise area he doesn't want to come back to me to have his lead put on!  Work to do I think.

Although Ann was judging yesterday and I was Ring Managing I found time to run both Kiros and Ronnie.  Ron was E'd in both his runs.  I think he is actually getting worse but he still thinks he is the best Agility dog in the world and I love running him as he has so much fun.

Kiros was a real star.  Clear in all of his 5 runs - 3rd in TFO Agility, 2nd in Jumping and 1st in Agility.  He started slowing a little in the Steeplechase and Helter-Skelter so was out of the placings but overall wasn't showing much sign of his age.

Reno will be 18 month old on Saturday and so will "legaly" be able to compete.  Unfortunately he is nowhere near ready so I'm not planning to enter him in anthing until he can do a clear round in training. The way we are going I can't see him competing this summer.

Don't get me wrong, I'm more then happy with how his training is going.  He is so full of drive and enthusiasm it is just that his drive is cannelled into tunnels and contacts with the jumps in between being totally unnecessary!  Weaves are ok as long as the channel is far enougth apart for him to whizz through, any closer and my bright boy thinks it is easier to go around them.

Good Luck to Zippy, Speedy and Megan at thier first KC shows at the weekend.

Sunday 11 April 2010

Six go mad in Norfolk........


We've just come back from a lovely holiday in Norfolk.

The Agility show was on Saturday and Sunday.  The weather was very mixed - sunshine, showers, wind and hail!!  Indi and Harley both ran well but unfortunately didn't come home with any rosettes.  Kiros didn't really understand the point of Anysize jumping and wasn't running at full speed but still managed a 4th and 5th in his two runs.  He seemed quite stiff after the show.  I'm hoping it was just the cold weather.

On Monday we took the dogs to the beach at Sea Palling for Reno's 1st experience of the Sea.  It was still quite cold and threatening rain so the only people on th beach were dog walkers.
The dogs had a great time playing and posing.

We visited Wells-next-to-the-Sea on Tuesday.  This walk wasn't quite as exciting as by now the weather had started to get quite warm and the beach was full of families so the dogs had to be on their leads most of the time.

Because of this we decided to stay closer to "home" on Wednesday and spent a few hours walking along the river bank in Coltishall.

Kiros totally refuses to swim in anything other then a heated swimming pool even if a stick is amost within reach.  I'm sure Reno wanted to swim in after it but Kiros wouldn't let him!!

Of course there were plenty of posing opportunities along the way.
Back to Nottingham again on Thursday and then Scuthorpe Agility on Saturday.  I was a little worried about Kiros running after the weekend before but he seemed ok. Infact he did a lot better then I did so we didn't get any clears!  Harley and Ann, on the other hand, worked really well with two clears and a 4th place in Grade 5 Agility.

Kiros has had an excellent training session at NADTC with Jo today.  He cope well but was flagging a bit at the end.  Reno is back to Jo's puppy class tomorrow.  I'm really looking forward to it.