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 +.

Sun, Sand and Mud!!

We've just had a very eventful weekend away in Lancashire attending Wigan show!

Ade and I booked a Hotel in Bury close to Ann's parents so we could meet up easily for Dinner each night.  The weekend started well as the Bolholt Country Park Hotel was lovely.  They promised that they were Dog friendly and proved that they were even letting the Dogs run off the lead in their beautifully manicured gardens and didn't bat an eyelid when Kiros and Reno found the rear entrance to the Kitchens.

We had a lovely meal at the Hotel on Friday night and I even had time to have breakfast before I made my way to the competition the next morning. 

I was aware that it had been raining during the night but wasn't quite prepared for what the venue was like. Even at 9am the rings were full of the slipperiest mud I've ever had to run on. 

My Asics Enduro's were totally inadequate for the conditions and I did a spot of "knee surfing" whilst attempting to run Reno (Ok I know I said I wasn't going to run him again but what can I say, I must be an addict!).  It was obviously a handling move that he wasn't used to so I totally confused him.  I also struggled to keep upright whilst running Kiros resulting in me getting him eliminated.

At least the weather treated us to this spectacular horizontal rainbow.  I haven't seen anything like it before.

For my last two runs I resorted to borrowing Ann's shoes that were 3 sizes bigger then my feet but at least I managed to stay upright.  Reno was a bit distracted so I ended up taking him out of the ring but Kiros his course beautifully only picking up 5f on the second from last pole.

At the beginning of this year I was sure that I would have to be thinking of retiring Kiros before now but he is still running so well, even getting two clears in the ABC Semi Finals the weekend before although not fast enough to qualify.  Over the winter I will be limiting his runs to Agility Nuts and other easier runs that I know we will enjoy together.

We decided that evening (over a nice Italian meal that took over 2hrs to get through two courses!) that we wouldn't go back to the competition on Sunday as we didn't want to risk the Dogs.  This turned out to be a wise move as the Show Committee took the correct decision to cancel the show.  Instead Ann and I took the Dogs for a walk along the Beach at Southport whilst Ade and Mark sampled the towns Pubs:)

Well Mud was obviously the theme for this weekend!  In order to actually get to the sand we had to wade through it ankle deep.  Still the Dogs had fun and slept well for the journey home.