Low Nest Farm

Lots and lots of Blog updating for you starting with Ade's surprise Birthday trip to Low Nest Farm near Keswick in the Lake District the week before Easter.

Ann and Mark have been here several times before and, knowing how much Ade and I would enjoy it, they decided to book a few days for us all to celebrate Ade's 50th Birthday later on this year.  Some how we managed to keep the destination a secret from Ade and he still had no idea where we were going when we set off at lunch time on the Tuesday.  In fact, due to his rather poor sense of direction, he still had no idea of where we were until we got to Penrith!!!

It started to snow towards the end of the journey and continued to do so for the rest of that evening.  The plan to walk into Keswick for our evening meal but we wimped out and went by car.  Over a lovely warming meal Ann revealed the schedule for the next day.........................

It started at 7.15am with Mark and me taking the dogs for a stroll up to Castlerigg Stone Circle.  The sun was just coming up and there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground.  The Lake District as I've nether seen it before.

These are the views from our Studio window that Ade took whist Mark and me were out walking.

8.30 was breakfast at No 10............Ann and Marks Studio!!!!!!!!!

Followed by a quick dash to the Bus Stop to ensure we caught the hourly bus.

Our day was a perfectly planned Bus Pub Crawl.  The weather steadily improved and we even managed part of the journey on the open topped bus.

Enabling Ade to get some great shots.

I had to include this shot of the most perfect place to do Agility!!!  The Doggies had been well looked after whilst we were out by Alison, the owner, but we spent the evening playing with them in the paddock and generally spending some quality time with them.

Thursday was Doggies day....................but it started with breakfast at No 10 again.

A nice long but reasonably flat walk into Keswick then along the disused railway line into Threlkeld.

Plenty of water stops for the Dogs and a lovely pub lunch with time for the Dogs to relax.

Followed by a walk back to Low Nest Farm via the stone circle.  Unfortunately Kiros (and Ade!!) really showed his age on this last bit.  The walk was about 2 miles too much for him :-(

We were due to go home the next morning but I couldn't resist another walk before breakfast.  Just Reno and me this time.

Thank you to Ann and Mark for organising this fun filled break for us and the weather couldn't have been better.

Bronze, Silver and Gold

Both Reno and Kiros ran really well at the last Winter Agility Nuts show.

As I was judging I only managed to run them both in the Jumping classes but Kiros won Gold in both of his classes and ended the season as the runner up in the Veteran league.

Elementary Jumping - Judge:- Richard Ludlow - Reno loved Richard's course in January and this one was just as nice but this time had the weaves in it.  I handled a turn badly resulting in Reno back jumping but he didn't realise and continued to complete the course perfectly including the weaves:-)

Elementary Up and Under - Judge:- Andrew Green - Really imaginative course from Andrew but some how I never seem to do his courses justice.  I'm determined to do so one day!!  Needless to say I got Reno E'd for not trying hard enough!!

Last Tuesday was Awards night at NADTC.  To achieve Bronze you get two attempts to go clear on a simple Agility course. 

Reno ran absolutely perfectly and got his Bronze on his first run. What a good boy!!

We could have attempted Silver on Wednesday but I didn't want to over do it so we'll wait till October to have a go.  You only have one attempt at Silver so the pressure will be on.

Dog Vegas show last Saturday was our first KC show since September.  To say I was excited was an understatement!!

Kiros was entered in Anysize Jumping and ran a lovely excited clear.

This is Reno's first run in the team.  Once again we were the comedy element:-

The only other class I had entered him in was Graded 3-5 Jumping.  It was supposed to be judged by my friend Jackie Boyd but Doreen Sizeland had to step in as Jackie was ill :-(

It was a good open running course with a couple of tempting tunnels that Reno succumbed to but his weave were perfect.  I'm so much more confident with them now and am really looking forward to his next show at Easter.  The time has come for me to stop worrying about the equipment and start concentrating on attaching the course.

Feb Nuts and onwards

Back inside and not as successful as January's show but enjoyable non the less.

Elementary Agility - Judge:- Iain Langman - At January's show Reno got all his contacts in the Agility round but I was very careful with them (mainly because of a difficult assent onto the DW) and it's fair to say they were slow.  At this show I decided to run them like I do in training and Reno decided that he wasn't going to stop on them so E'd for putting him back on!!

Elementary Snooker - Judge:- Pen Sensky - Decided to use this course to practise our weaves but I handled the entry wrong causing a fault so end of run.

Elementary Jumping - Judge:- Di Polkey - My fault again for miss handling a jumping sequence and getting Reno eliminated by great weaves and finish :-)

Elementary Helter Skelter - Judge:- Lynne Land - More bad handling!!!  Not working one of the jumps resulting in a refusal.

Just to prove that when Reno gets to the stage that he either understands (or ignores) my strange handling Kiros got three clears taking home two 1st and a 2nd.  I love this lad so much and his joy when on the start line is clear for all to see:-)

Down to Dorset again the next weekend for a relaxing weekend.  I forgot to take my camera so no up to date photos but Ollie is looking great now.  He was put on a diet by his Vet and the results are clear to see.  The little lad has so much energy.  Him and Reno don't stop playing with each other.

Wanda arranged coffee and cake with our cousins, Jayne and Wendy, who we haven't seen to talk to for years.  It was great to chat and catch up but the most amusing thing was that, even though Wanda, Jayne and Wendy all have kids, the first thing well all did was got out our phones and showed each other photo's of our dogs!!!!  Some things just run in the family:-)

Since we've been back it's been training, training , training to prepare ourselves for the first KC show in a couple of weeks.

Reno put in a good run in Dog of the Month at NADTC.  Although he missed his weave entry all of the other dogs were faulted and he was fast enough to win the class.

I've found some time to spend with Pen working on weave exercises and we've had our second guest trainer session at NADTC with Steve Croxford.

Last Thursday I attended an excellent session run by Jo Tristram and organised by Bob Sharpe.  Although Reno wasn't perfect he did very well in an environment he wasn't used to and on exercises that were a bit harder then what we'd attempted before.  This has given me a lot more confidence and I'm really looking forward to a few shows now.

Agility Nuts is next weekend and I'm judging the Agility so I'm really hoping there will be weaves in the Jumping.

It's been sooooooo long.............

Since I updated my blog I'm having to look back at my diary to remember what we've done:-)

The weekend after the January Agility Nuts show we had the first of the three winter guest trainer sessions organised by NADTC by way of a thank you to all the members that helped out at the show, three hours with Toni Keating.  The take up rate for this session was surprisingly poor and meant that our group only consisted of 4 dogs and handlers!!!

Toni managed to set a course that cleverly worked on start-lines, handling, contacts (speed and Independence), weave entries, obstacle discrimination and course analysis!!!  She brought loads of energy to the session and 3hrs just whizzed by.

Jan 28th and 29th were the dates of the Kennel Club Judges seminars that I'd booked myself onto. 

I thought long and hard about doing this as, although I love judging, I'm not sure if I'm thick skinned enough to face the possible backlash that KC judges tend to get if things don't quite go the way you plan.  In the end I resolved not to let a few small minded people spoil what I love to do and I'm now a fully qualified KC Judge eagerly looking forward to my first appointment :-)

Then came the Snow!!

The best type, it has to be said, as it came at the weekend giving me plenty of time to play with the boys and then was starting to go by Monday so didn't interfere with work too much:-)

Kiros would like to assure everyone that you are never too old to have snow on your nose:-)

The weekend after was Agility Nuts February show and as the snow gradually disappeared over the week the temperature started to drop!!

On the Saturday before the show friends were reporting being at Dog Vegas in temperatures of -10!!  The thought of setting off to Fiskerton at 6am the next morning filled me with dread.

Can you believe the Agility God's were smiling on us again and we woke up the next morning to temperatures some 15 degrees higher? :-)