Pain in the Neck

A week ago last Tuesday Kiros woke me up at about 3am in a lot of pain.  Unable to lay down or turn around.

Initially I couldn't work out what was wrong, and started to panic, but after watching him for a while realised that the pain appeared to be in his neck.  

The Vet thinks it was either muscular, arthritis, slipped or hardened disc and gave him a dose of pain killers and a weeks worth to come home with. 

Now he's finished the dose he is completely back to normal, if not better.  So much so that he has been running around like a puppy in the Snow!!

The weather has caused a bit of disruption to my work this week but has given me time to get all of the Xmas decorations up and I think they look lovely with the Snow on the ground.

Unfortunately the Snow has also meant that Ade and my favourite event on our Christmas calender - Lincoln Christmas Market - has had to be cancelled :(

To make up for it we went to Melton today and I managed to pick up three new baubles for the Tree - Isn't it supposed to be bad luck not to get at least one a year?!!

I'm really looking forward to next weekend.  Off to LKA with Lynne on Saturday for Deco's first Champ Show and Agility Nuts on Sunday.  I'm not Judging so should have time to concentrate on running Kiros and Reno.

Veteran Kiros

Kiros is now heading towards 11 years old and is still extremely fit for a GSD cross but over the last few weeks I have noticed signs that he isn't jumping and turning as comfortably as he used to.

Last Tuesday at training both Ann and Margaret (a Vet that trains with us) noticed that he was struggling to "power" with his hind legs.  For the rest of the class I ran him on medium and he started to "power" again.

I've thought long and hard about this and have decided that the time is right to retire Kiros from full height.  It has been a very difficult decision because, as most of you know, although Kiros has slowed from how he used to run he is still a very fast Dog!!  I feel I owe it to him to help him keep running in Agility for as long as possible and am hoping that tunnels will become easier for him when he is not jumping as high.

Today, whilst getting the house sorted before the Xmas decs go up :), I sorted Kiros's rosettes and trophies from the last two years and was amazed how much he had won.  I've got no idea how many rosettes are there but I know that there are over 30 trophies.

I know that I'm the luckiest person ever to have found a Dog like Kiros.  He has achieved more then I could ever have dreamt of and let me experience the thrill of being a winner so many times.

Thanks to Agility Nuts he will still be able to compete on the lower height so I'm sure his winning days aren't yet over. 

Enjoy Veterans my special boy.

My Sad, Neglected Blog:(

As the title suggests I've been a very bad Blogger of late so now it's time for a huge update!!

At the end of October the whole family spent a week at East Rose, nr Bodmin, Cornwall.  The farm was a little remote which was a bit of a culture shock for the teenagers but the Dogs all enjoyed being with each other and we were able to take them on loads of walks even though the weather was a bit variable.

Since we've been back I've really been able to focus on putting Reno's weave and contacts into small courses and I'm extremely happy with how they are progressing. 

November's Agility Nuts show was last Sunday and my plan was to have a go at his weaves in competition there. 

As it happens it didn't quite go according to plan!!  I judged the Agility in the morning and, because of there being a full quota of Dogs entered in the show, I didn't have time to run either boys in Agility. (I did attempt to run Reno around my Elementary course before it was walked but the least said about that the better - let's just say it was a bit early for both of us!!)

Here are my courses.  They all ran better then I had expected but there were only a few clears in Elementary and Starters due to the amount of Dogs that had to be faulted at the weaves.  Comforting for me to know that Reno isn't the only one with a weave problem.

Elementary Agility

Novice + Agility

Starters Agility

Veteran Agility

So both Kiros and Reno ran in the afternoon Jumping classes. 

The Elementary Jumping was quite a straight forward class with no weaves in it so I was confident Reno could run it well and he did.  Unfortunately his silly Mum didn't run to the last jump resulting in him going around it.  I really must learn that he is still a baby.  Tunnel Torment didn't go quite as well as the weaves were next to the tunnels and it didn't take a lot of imagination which Reno would prefer.  Having said that he did do the weaves after going through the tunnels a few times.

Kiros ran a lovely, tricky Tunnel Torment only having one pole down and coming 2nd in the fastest time.

This is the first winter in ages that I haven't been making regular trips up to Myerscough for Agility shows so I've been making good use of my spare time by reclaiming my back garden with the help of Reno and Ronnie.  It tends to go back to nature during the summer months.

But now the Dogs have got plenty of room to play ball and bark at the neighbours:)

Reno's first Trophy

Since Wigan show my will power has been really good and I haven't run Reno in any classes with weaves or contacts because I'm still not confident with them in Training.

This has been made easier by the fact that I didn't to go to Dog Vegas show at the end of September and have only entered Agility Nuts shows over the winter that normally have at least on jumping class with out weaves on the schedule :)

So what have we been doing instead?

Well a nice weekend in Dorset to finalise plans for our holiday to Cornwall in a couple of weeks and plenty of Training in the Paddock, at NADTC and with Jo Rhodes. 

I've really been working on Weaves and can confidently say that Reno can complete 12 weaves now.  I'd been falling into the trap of slowing down a bit to help him keep his rhythm but Jo has advised me to keep running past them with him so he develops his rhythm at speed.  This sometimes means that he comes out early or misses some in the middle but he understands when he has gone wrong and just tries harder the next time.

He's also finding it easier to adjust his pacing so he can enter them correctly after another obstacle. My aim is to be confident enough to run a jumping course with weaves at the November Nuts show and then go back to KC shows next year.

We attended a Jumping Skills workshop with Gemma Hanekom on Saturday which was very interesting.  I had seen the grids that she talked about before but had only practiced them with Kiros. Jo used to set them up once every 5 weeks which I'm hoping she will continue to do as they would be very helpful to encourage Reno to jump a bit lower.

So now onto the title of the post!!

Sunday was Agility Nuts first indoor show of the winter season and I'd volunteered to Judge jumping in the afternoon so I could run Kiros in the Agility classes in the morning.  He ran really well as usual - just a pole down in the Power and Speed and clear in Agility to win the class.

The judge allowed me to only run the "Speed" with Reno which he ran clear in a respectable time  and Paul allowed me to run him in the "Up and Under" Jumping in the afternoon.  I had to fit it in with my classes so didn't have much time to gel with Reno before the run but he still ran excellently going clear and finishing in 3rd place.  I really think my little boy is showing signs of what he is going to be capable of.

I tried to take a nice photo of him with his trophy but Kiros was convinced that all "trophy" photo's should include him!!

Here are my courses from Sunday if anyone is interested?

 Elementary Jumping

 Novice+ Jumping

 Starters Jumping

 Veteran Jumping

They ran really well and I was pleased to see some lovely handling particularly in the Novice +.