Whoops!!!!

Once more I've been so long up dating my blog and I've got so much to tell you that I'm going to have to make several posts over the weekend..................

I'll start with Christmas as I have tonnes of cute photo's that I took whilst we were away.

Needless to say we had an excellent Christmas with loads of presents and things to do but by far the best part of it was having time off to spend with my family and the Dogs.

The Dogs really enjoyed helping Hayden and Bowen unwrap everything on Xmas morning.  To be honest I think they were more interested in the wrapping paper!



Then it was the patient wait for Christmas Dinner............................................................................

but some were more patient then others!!!!!

Then, of course, there is always that Boxing Day feeling:-)

and Ronnie is still looking for a new toy to play with!!

Getting ready for Xmas!!

Oh dear.......how much time has passed since my last blog entry?!!

Ade and I are well and truly into our "Christmas Countdown".  The lack of Snow this year has meant that we have been able to do all of our usual Xmassy things plus a couple of new experiences to add to our list.

We really missed our visit to Lincoln Xmas Market last year but made up for it by spending most of Sunday 3rd there!!

Last Friday we spent the evening at Rufford Country Park admiring the Aura Illuminations followed by a day at Newark visiting the Christmas Tree Festival.

We'd been to something similar at Melton in previous years and, although there were nowhere near as many trees here, we found Newark to be just as nice :-)

Our trip this weekend was to the impressive Hardwick Hall.  We've spotted the Hall from the M1 several times when passing but hadn't actually visited it before.  This visit has made us realise that we needed a lot more time then we had allowed to see all it had to offer.  I think we may be planning a return visit in the Summer.

So onto Agility matters!!!

Decembers Nuts show was last Sunday and I wasn't judging so had a chance to work both my boys on all of the courses :-)

Kiros missed his weave entry in the Agility so was E'd and had a pole down in TYOL but won both his Jumping and the Speed and Power:-)

Reno

Elementary Agility - Judge:- Di Polkey - Tricky weave entry that he missed and then a mistake in the weaves and run by at the Dog Walk.  Having said that, he did great "stop" contacts and the run by was my fault for not straightening him properly.  In that situation I'd rather he bailed out then taking the up plank in an unsafe manner.

Elementary Speed and Power - Judge:- Andrew Green- I handled the Speed section really badly getting Reno eliminated for back jumping.  Again good contacts but he needed two attempts at the weaves.

Elementary Jumping - Judge:- Ann Miller - Lovely course but Reno really disappointed me on this one:-(  He started well but when I asked him to weave he turned around and bit me!! He did eventually complete them and finished the course well but I know he could have done better.

Elementary TYOL Jumping - Judge:- Nell Pegg - Reno completely miss judged a bounce stride, landing on and demolishing a jump!  This meant that he took a jump out of order so I had to quickly re-think my course.  Miraculously I managed to avoid elimination - No placing but at least points for the league.

Today we had the NADTC Xmas party.  Kiros couldn't come as his neck is giving him a bit of pain again but Reno had the time of his life!!

He loved the games and came 2nd in one the involved my carrying a present as I ran him.  The "eat a sausage" game was probably his favourite but he had a pole down so came home with 10th place.

As I was judging the last game Ann got to run him for the first time.  Reno was such a good boy for her, in fact probably a little to focused on her as he was convinced she was going to give him a sausage and kept looking at her hands rather then going into tunnels!!

Again I want to finish this post by congratulating Paul and Tiber on their amazing Nuts debut :-)  No clears but some really competitive times.  Make sure you take his collar off in future Paul!!

November's Nuts

I signed off my last blog posting on a high, contacts and weaves getting consistently good and looking forward to Jo's 3-5 course........why is it things start going wrong when you get to that stage?!!

Reno has forgotten that contacts are for stopping on!!!  I can't put my finger on what has suddenly gone wrong but the only way I can think of solving it is to go back to basics again, "treating" every contact and even bringing the target back in if necessary.  I was a little disappointed as I'd hoped to run Reno in the Agility classes at Nuts last weekend but hopefully it is only a minor set back.  My goal is to have him ready to run Agility by next March, the start of the outdoor season, so plenty of time :-)

I wasn't asked to judge at this months show but was still very busy as I volunteered to manage a ring all day.

Kiros ran beautifully as always and still came home with two 1st places (Agility and Tunnel Torment Jumping) even though he had some really good competition at this show.  We didn't do so well in the other two classes......2nd pole down in the TFO Agility and Eliminated in the Jumping (typically the run I played my joker on!!)

Reno would have benefited from a little more time running around the exercise area as he was a bit over hyped!!

Elementary Jumping - Judge:- Hailey Sommerfield - 8th Place! - I was very aware of the fact that the Large Novice + Jumping was running in the next ring and had seen Ray and Amanda Ellerton queueing with Laser and Limit.  I hoped that they wouldn't get to the front of the queue before we did as Laser sends Reno into a frenzy.  Luckily our queue ran a bit faster then theirs so I got to the start line with Reno as Nicci Hinson was running Leo in the next ring.  What I hadn't accounted for was that, in Reno's eye's, Leo was equally as exciting as Laser so we entered our ring with Reno on two legs!!!

I wasn't sure if I would manage to keep Reno in the ring let alone run the course but to my surprise as soon as I set him up his focus was purely on his course and nothing else mattered.....what a good boy x.  He literally flew around the course and even got his weave entry.  Unfortunately, as seems to happen more often then not when he goes into the weaves in front of me, he popped out after the second pole.  I'm not sure if that's to do with him not braking enough or me putting him off as I catch up? I brought him back, put him straight into the weaves and finished with 5f in a time a fraction off 2nd place.

Congratulations to Hailey who put up a lovely set of courses for her first judging appointment :-)

Tunnel Torment Jumping - Judge:- Zoe Dalby - Great wait by Reno and a lovely start, avoiding the first tormenting tunnel, only to be eliminated for going diagonally across a box.  This is something I need to work on with Reno as I don't seem to be making myself clear to him.  In my defence he did put me off a bit by starting to squeal as he ran this course.  He's never done that before!!

Monday night's training was a 6/7/International Jumping Course.  I'm so enjoying doing this sort of thing with Reno.  Although he is obviously not quite ready to run this sort of thing it really helps me to put things into perspective.  With Kiros I have achieved so much but at Reno's age he hadn't even won out of Elementary and we wouldn't of had a clue how to start with a course like that.

Finishing this post I want to say HUGE congratulations to Paul and Tiber who did their first competitive runs at Dog Vegas on Saturday and came away with a 2nd and 7th place (hope I've remembered that correctly!!).  What an amazing start :-)

Must try harder!!

Reno has been much more focused in training over the last couple of weeks.

The Sunday before last I went to Paul and Pen's to share a training session with Paul and Tiber. 

Both dogs enjoyed working together.  Tiber is showing a bit of spirit and pushing Paul a bit at the moment but he's looking really good.  His debut is next Saturday at Dog Vegas.  Good luck Paul!!

Reno worked some lovely sequences with only minor errors at the weaves and a couple of naughty contacts.

At Jo's training last Monday we were working on sequences.  We particularly enjoyed the one Jo set up to get us thinking of the fastest line for the dog and Reno demonstrated a brilliant understanding of the rules.

Then onto Ray's training at NADTC on Tuesday night...Ray set up a really nice grade 3 course which we would have gone clear on it it wasn't for a large pile of horse poo that Reno spotted on a turn!!  Still, can't complain about the perfect weaves and contacts :-)

On Saturday Kiros, Reno and I went to Katie's to do some training.  Jo was there with Ronny, Keisha and Zippy and Jackie came with Speedy, Leo, Jake and Brindle. 

Here's were the "must try harder" comes in.  I was really please with how Reno worked in a place he'd never been before on different equipment and with the excitement of having his family around him but I've realised that I could be doing a lot more to help him.  I've got a real tendency to cut corners and expect him to pick things up without any help from myself.  Comes from running Kiros for too long I guess?

So from now on I'm going to push myself a bit more to run faster and get to places to help him out (well that's the plan anyway!!)

After the lovely lunch which Katie made for us we took all 12 of the Doggies for a stroll together.  You can't see Brian and Heidi on the photo as they'd found the muddy ditch!!

Tonight is week 4 at Jo's Training - Grade 3-5 Course.  Really hope we do well!!