North Downs & Woodside.

Hello all. It's been a little while since I've blogged, so apologies for that! I'm going to keep it short and sweet though :)

Since my last post, Pie has got another win towards Champ, woo! He won Gd 6/7 agility at North Downs. We did pretty rubbish in our other runs, but videos are below so have a little look.

First video is G6/7 Jumping. I didn't like the course as it involved everything that I can't do. It was my first run of the day and I went into the class knowing that I wouldn't be able to get round it, which isn't a good start. Ooops!!


Then onto our win :) Jumped long at 2, and the snake was terrible, but P was the only dog that I saw, have a nice turn on the pink jump after the aframe - good dog.


Our last run was Combined 6/7 Agility. I wanted to only train it as I'd ran his contacts in the morning plus I'd seen a few dogs go, who I knew I just wouldn't be able to beat. At the end, Pie just wanted to do the pink jump again, and again, and again.... haaa naughty!


Onto Woodside/ Rugby. After much confusion it turned out that I hadn't entered Pie at Rugby :( Mine and Laura's plan was to drive up on Saturday morning compete at Rugby then afterwards drive on up to Scotland, stay in travelodge overnight with the dogs and then compete at Woodside which was only 10 mins from the travelodge. After finding out I hadn't entered P in at Rugby, I didn't really fancy going but Laura offered me Phoebe, her medium cocker, to run so made it worth the drive, as I'd have something to do, other than video Laura!! Well Phoebe and I managed 2 clears and 2 places! hahaha! If anyone knows Phoebe, they will know that clear rounds are gold dust with that dog ;) Her first run was the open jumping, which I only had time to walk up to number 15!! urggh!!

I love how Laura is helping with her running commentary and how her and Lee are jumping around haha! p.s this was the first time I've ever run Phoebe, apart from one little course at training.

Then we oddly managed another clear in the open agility too!!


So after competing at Rugby we headed up north urrrrgh! I think it took us 4 and half hours up to Scotland, maybe a little more, as we stopped a few times. It was sooo cold. I've never felt anything like it before!! As soon as we got to travelodge, the TV was whacked on to catch the first part of the xfactor final. During the break i managed a boiling hot shower, which was well deserved!!
Then on Sunday morning I managed to snap Laura's stupid wobbly van key off in the door... ooooops. Not good seeing as her spare was 500 odd miles back in Wiltshire! Thank you Mr AA man who sent out a locksmith. And also Norman Stokoe who lent us the money as he didn't accept card. Norman, you star!

I really pushed in the agility, and finished 2nd behind Sarah Stokoe. She had a cracking run with her young dog who has just gone G7. Sarah ran straight after me and if it was the other way round, i would of held my contacts. P was only 0.5 behind, which I was really pleased with. The other jumping runs were rubbish. Me again. One, he had a pole down which threw me and all my reverses and timing was all out from then on. It had an interesting end which i must remember to set up as Pie didn't have a clue what i was asking, as he thought he was done and was looking for his ball.






I also went to Olympia on the Saturday. Laura was grooming for Lee as he and Shy had qualified and Virginia from The Agility Voice magazine had offered me a press pass, so I went along too. It was a really good day, and I had such a laugh. Well done to Lee (aka Ken)who finished 4th in the Final and also to Elspeth & Tasha who won the afternoon pairs event.

I probably won't be blogging until after Christmas now. But I do have a training day on the 29th so will blog after that :)

Have a good one everyone.

L x

Norfolk Autumn

Well Norfolk Autumn was a really lovely show. Despite being quite far away, it was 4 proper runs a day. The ground was rock solid though and Saturday was very windy! All the jump wings had to pegged, there was no Dog walk in the outside rings, and whenever i went to walk the wind would literally push me along. After it being windy all day, I had an awful head ache and couldn't wait to go to bed!!

So Saturday runs... I had 3 course that were in Dave Hutchinson's ring and although they required quite a bit of work, I really liked the courses. First up was Combined 6-7 agility. The jumps were quite tight which required me to turn Pie left after number 3. It was just too tight going right and it can't be good on their legs to take them that way especially with it being so close and the ground being rock solid! Anyway I was lazy with the turn which meant P thought we were going right... no no! He nearly back jumped aswell. Oops! He worked really nicely though apart from flying out of the tunnel barking and not listening to my shouting 'right right riiiiiight!!' so I re-did that little bit to make him do it properly!



Then was Grade 6 Agility. Again a nice course. I was late with turns again... and then he ran off into tunnel after see-saw. I'm not sure if this was a place for a dummy but ahh well.


Laura ran Pie in the Combined 6-7 Jumping. She's always giving me stick about Pie bla bla, so I said that she could run him. Plus there was far too much running it in for me ;) She didn't do too badly... you can watch the video... and yes I did chuckle a little as her hat flew off!!



Then last run of the day was Grade 6 Jumping. It was back in Dave's ring. I ran off too early for a jump and Pie came with me. Pie struggles to pick things up like this especially if it's off set. It's OK when i can be there, but when i need to run off to get somewhere it's tricky for him as Iim not there to help him. He also has this problem with tunnels. Off set things is something I really need to work on.

Saturday evening it started to rain boo!! And I was not impressed ha ha. Laura and I are big x factor fans and seeing as we haven't sorted a TV out for Laura's caravan we were stuck on Saturday night. Thankfully Linda and John Cook were kind enough to have us both other to their lovely caravan to watch it. I haven't seen Linda and John in quite a while so it was nice to spend some time with them. They are so lovely.

Onto Sunday. Well I think in my last post I said that my aim for the weekend was to get 2 clears out of 8 runs. As Laura had one run, it was to be 2 clears out of 7. After Saturday it wasn't looking too good!!
First run on the morning was Combined 6-7 Agility. At the start there was a snake, which I had been struggling with recently. Pie had been running past the second jump, my fault of course. Bad training and handling. I had decided to run his contacts in this, but only if the first big was tidy and tight. It was, to my surprise until the left turn before the see-saw. I checked him late which meant he jumped long, looking for the dog walk, which meant I trained my contacts. I know what people mean about me not 'meaning' it when I run. I just jog around not pushing at all. This showed in this run as P's aframe and dog walk were slow. I was determined that this wasn't going to happen in his Grade 6 agility.



I really pushed his contacts in this. They were much better speed wise but he self released. This goes to show that i need to do this all the time, as when i just jog along he stops fine but as soon as i push them i lose them. Not good. So in more runs I will push them, and maybe only quick release one, to test him on the others. He worked really nicely though.



His combined 6-7 Jumping i was also pleased with. Despite him missing a weave entry that he should of got, i was really chuffed with the run. OK it wasn't perfect and we didn't get a clear, there was some really nice bits. I know people will read this and watch the video thinking it was rubbish, but i honestly don't care. I've struggled this season with him, and in this run it actually felt like we were on the same wave length :) and I think i was more confident coming out of this run than any other.



His last run was Grade 6 Jumping. Laura really wanted me to go for this one and on the course it was i thought we stood a good chance. He landed badly after 3 as he didn't check properly which meant he fell onto his chin, which lost him time. We managed a clear, with me nearly falling over after the pipe tunnel (!!) and was 0.9 behind the winner. We finished 4th which was really good, as I'm not worried that he wont get another jumping win. Without that fall he could of easily won. If the round had been perfect and we still finished 4th, then i would be worried. So we managed our 2 clear rounds yay!!



On the way home we got stuck in too much traffic. Whilst Laura and I were moaning about it, Pie was nice and cosy, snoozing...


Videos to come once YouTube has finished uploading them. Our next show is North Downs, again 4 runs. I'm aiming for one clear round.

Also here are a couple of photos of Phoebe and Rodney for Laura...



L x

Suffolk 5 Rivers

OK I'm not sure where i should start here so thought I'd start from the VERY beginning!! Laura was meant to be picking me up at 5.30 Saturday morning. I stupidly went out on Friday night with some friends and came home at 3ish, set 2 (!!) alarms for 4.45, seeing as last time i had gone out before i show i slept through my alarm, and i certainly didn't want a repeat of that!! So after finally getting into bed and my head spinning whilst on the pillow, i only remember by mum waking me up saying that it was 5.50!! AHHHH!!! Thankfully Laura had text me saying she was running late so wasn't too bad. I quickly got ready in a matter of 15 mins when she knocked on the door. SO lucky! We got there late, so missed walking most of our courses oops!! Thankfully for Norfolk next weekend, we're leaving Friday evening so we wont have this trouble again!

My first run was Graded 6/7 Jumping. I watched it for a little while only for Tracey to tell me that they were calling to the end already!! So off i ran to get Pie and then came back where i was straight on the line. I was really late with 2 turns which meant P had to snake round me... not good. Then at the end, looking back i should of put a reverse in after 19... he ran wide and ran past last fence. Bummer!!


Then on to NBC 1-7 Jumping, which was also a shambles! Again i didn't walk it, and didn't handle it how i wanted to either. Again my turns we late. He didn't seem as though he was jumping right though. Wasn't powering at all, and was really sluggish and slow :(

His last run of the day was Graded 6-7 Agility. I liked the course and actually thought that i could maybe get around it with out getting the usual E!! Again he was really sluggish and slow. And i ran off from a jump and he came with me. It wasn't a bad run though, although i was worried as to why he wasn't running properly, and being all pathetic and slow.


Saturday evening Laura and I went to the cinema to see Fame... don't go and see it, it was rubbish!! ha ha!! And Pie also had his first ever chicken wing too! He gulped it down and then started being all odd, and i started to panic, but thankfully he was fine!!

Sunday, couldn't really get much worse than the day before!! First run was Graded 6/7 Agility. I was late with my turn at number 2 which put me behind for the whole run. I won't go into detail about it other than it was possibly one of the worst runs of the whole entire show! Yes it really was that bad!!
Then onto Graded 6/7 Jumping.The course was quite tough, and he worked really well, just me being rubbish - no change there then!! He still didn't seem to be running at his full speed though.


Last run of the day for Pie was Combined 4-7 Helter Skelter. It was a fast, tight course and if i didnt get round it clear, then there was something seriously wrong!! the first dog to run actually wont the class in 13.23 - Nedlo Hezza Beauty. Dave is such a powerful dog and practically bounced everything. Pie and I managed a clear in 14.5 which wasn't too bad considering his build etc. Although he didn't bounce as much as i thought he did. He used to try and bounce everything but doesn't now, so maybe i should work a little on that. So we finished 20th in that... boo.


Roll on next weekend though where there is 4 proper runs a day :) My target out of 8 runs is 2 clears. So fingers crossed! Oh yeah and... I'm letting Laura run P in one of his jumping classes. Don't worry i shall be getting it on video :)

L x

p.s. Videos to follow soon.

Training Update

Ok so quite a bit has happened since The Agility Club show. That was my last show where Pie got his first win towards Grade 7 and also where my team, Thames, qualified for Crufts next year. Woo! Ok so, we've moved house, which has a bigger garden which means I can put my full set of weaves and one jump up. There is room for more, but that's all I have. Pie has been working really nicely up at Club training on a Tuesday night, and have also trained with a few other people at other venues. Laura came and got me and we went to Maidstone to train on her equipment with Lee, about a month ago, probably longer actually! It was really helpful, and Lee gave me a couple of exercises to practise to try and get rid of me doing stupid 'dummies' all the time. (Thank you Lee :) )I didn't realise how much I actually did them. The hardest part at the moment, is taking them away. Pie is so used to me using them to pull off things, that now i've 'nearly' got rid of them where they aren't needed, he just flys over anything as he doesn't fully understand just yet. Something i have to work on.

I've also just passed my test, which means i can do more shows when and where i want, and not depend on everyone else to take me. Oh the independence!! And think of all the training I can do, because I certainly need it.

Anyway back to the important things. Things i've realised i'm rubbish at!! Laura and I went up to Maidstone to train Rods and P again yesterday, after we had got all her belongings from her old house, actually i'm going to change that and say after we got all of her junk...! oh my word! ive never seen so much stuff come out of one cupboard. And anyone who was watching us trying to take a sofabed down 3 flights of stairs must of been wetting themselves!!

I wanted to practise pulling off tunnel entries, so we set up something which we could work on. This is where the dreaded dummy comes back to haunt me!! If there was a sequence where Pie has to run past the entrances of the tunnel i would normally dummy him into me and then carry on. By a dummy, if any of you are wondering what i'm on about is like a false pull through. So, without a dreaded dummy it's mainly on the verbal and with me turning slightly and running, also bringing a tit-bit arm in after i couldn't do it!! Thanks Laura!! After about a million goes we were sort of getting there, but P was still looking at the tunnel, and practically landing in it before looking at me and turning and then realising we were running past the tunnel. I need to work on bringing him into the toy when i say 'come here' and reward this loads. I did this quite a bit a while ago but clearly need to practise this lots more. Oh and... another thing is Pie's steadys on weird angles. It's frustrating that he can do some but not others. I know that my drive arm is too close to my trap arm/jump arm as i've been told on lots of occasions by quite a few people, but it's one of those things that people just need to keep drilling into me. It's things like that, which i don't mind people keep telling me off for because that's the only way i'll learn and remember. And with my arm being too high this is why he pulls off things again. Again, very obvious in videos and after someone points it out, but at the time i really don't notice. I think i'm going to strap my arm to my side and just have my hand pointing out ;)

My next shows are next weekend and the weekend after which are Suffolk 5 Rivers and Norfolk Autumn. I'm determined to get at least another win towards Grade 7. From now on i've got to get my arse in gear and start running P proberly. I've got to believe in him and believe in myself, and just go for it in every run. Apart from the odd training run of course, otherwise P won't have any contacts by next year!!

I've got a few videos to show some of the exercises Laura and I were doing, just so you know what i'm talking about. There is also one of Laura and Plodders, who i can't really call plodders anymore because he's come on sooo much since I last saw him. For all the people who are ,or have slated Laura and Rodney, you will be eating your words next year, because he's going to fabulous... not that he isn't now of course ;)

I can't wait till next year also. Laura wants me to be champ for Scunthorpe which realistically i don't think will happen but oh well!! But i'll be doing more shows, Cat is coming down from up north somewhere to stay for a longish weekend and we'll do a show, which should be good.I've got Crufts too, and hopefully if not before Scunthorpe but sometime after Pie will be Grade 7 and attempting champ. What a very very scary thought!!

L x (the video still isn't working... bare with me)

P.S. Good luck to the GB team competing at the worlds as of tomorrow, but especially good luck to Lee Windeatt & Bold, and Tash Wise & Diz. xx

UPDATE.... Large team GB won the Bronze medal, Bernadette & Zen finished 5th in the medium individual... and Tash & Dizzy WON the individual so are now world champions!! I'm sooo pleased for them both. Tash deserves it so much :) xx

'Rugby' & The Agility Club

Ok well where do I start? I casually decided to miss writing up on Rugby as it was embarrassing how badly I did. Anyone who watched my runs must of been thinking 'how the hell did they make it to grade 6?!' There are two answers to that... 1) because literally any tom dick n harry can get to grade 6 these days, so Pie didn't look too out of place, amongst the other dogs that really shouldn't be in grade 6. And 2) because it was fluke!! haha! But no my bad handling and P being an idiot we didn't have a successful weekend!! Pie decided to self-release on literally EVERY contact. URGH!!

Anyway, onwards and upwards. After getting a new job and not training for nearly 2 weeks... oops... our next show was the agility club. My Aunt had planned to pick me up at 6.35ish as she wanted to get to Newbury at 7 as she was doing the ringside refreshments. I worked till 12.30 on Friday, and after having a shower, packing and things i didn't get to bed till after 1.30... and slept through my alarm!! Mega panic!! Mum kindly got out of bed and drove me to Newbury and so I ended up getting to Laura's (as she kindly offered for me to camp with her) at about 8. Missed walking the Pedigree team and Grade 6 Jumping. Laura had walked my jumping and told me how it was, and i went to have a look to try and remember it!!! Well considering I hadn't walked either the team or the jumping.... i think i did pretty well as i got clear in both!!! And also won the grade 6 jumping by a second, even with really wide turns on the top off-set snakey thingy. I hope you all know what i mean by that ;) So we've finally got the first win towards grade 7 :)

I won't go into deep about every run because to be honest it is very boring... apart from his contacts were fab... apart from a couple, where i tested for him to come off, which he did, so i popped him back on.

Also.... my team qualified for Crufts on the Sunday, being the only team to have 4 clears so we're off to Crufts 2010 in March. Woo!!

Just want to say a few well dones too.... For Laura getting a 3rd with Phoebe in 4-6 Medium Jumping i think it was... Tasha Wise and Maddie won the Large Ticket on Saturday too. Fantastic result as Maddie is nearly 11. Also well done to John Cook and Mac who won the KC Novice Olympia Agility... so pleased for them :)

All Pie's runs are below apart from my pairs run with Virginia Harry with Robert. We both had cracking runs but Rob had the first pole down and Pie was clear. There are also some other videos from the weekend on my page too. I don't know what happened this weekend for me to get so much out of running Pie but I really like it!!! No more shows booked for me at the moment though... I'm waiting for Laura to tell me what to enter!! ha ha.

Lansdown

Well I only entered one day as I was only originally going for one day to do the teams... Well to cut a long story short I ended up going up Friday and coming back Sunday. Andrew and Carol Dicker, once again kindly offered for me to stay with them :)

Anyway, on the way up on Friday, I realised I had no coat... but also no shorts... oops! So I wasn't really prepared for the weather apart from maybe overcast. Well it obviously wasn't and was BOILING all weekend.

Agility wise... I was really looking forward to running. Never good, because always means i'll do rubbish. The only clear I got all weekend was the team, where 2 the last 2 dogs went clear and the first 2 dogs missed dogwalk contact. Bummer. Pie over-shot his position on the aframe and stoped half way to the jump!! Oh dear! I just did a 'ah ah'' and you can see him stop, knowing that he has done something wrong. On the other hand I was REALLY pleased with the speed of his dogwalk in the team too. Although his position at the end was a little long, the speed was good. Progress!!

Out of 3 runs.... 2 E's and a clear in the team. Next show is Rugby, and I just hope we can get the clear that i've been longing for for half of the season!!

Thames

Well I finished the weekend with 6 E's, severe sunburn on my neck and arms, and feeling very tired!

As I'm a member of Thames, I was ring partying all weekend, and this may be a reason why Pie and I's peformance wasn't quite on form haha. Despite the 6 E's I had a good weekend, and I've come away with some things to work on.

I feel that Pie's dogwalk down plank has slowed down a tad. After having spoken to Laura and Lee about it, hoepfully this will be sorted in the next few shows. So thank you to you both for having input in this... and especially to Lee who is helping me out of the habit of using dummy reverses when I shouldn't. Damn them!!

So didnt manage any videos as was too busy working, but next show is team day of Lansdown, and then Rugby where I'll also be busy again... as Laura has demanded I video her puppy Rodney, aka Plodney Rodney. Sorry Laura ;)

Cippenham & UKA

Well Pie only had 2 classes at Cippenham. 3-7 Agility and 3-7 Jumping. Both courses were easy, nicely flowing courses. I managed to send Pie back through a tunnel on a pull through on the agility, which meant I could train his contacts as we messed up on number 3.... oops! We also managed a cross behind too yay!! In the jumping, P went wide on a turn after a long straight flat, but ended up finishing 5th which I was really pleased with.

Onto UKA... I was meant to be judging on the Thursday but they didn't need me in the end but I still went to compete and to see Laura, and introduce her to Josh my brother. Haha. She makes me laugh! Ended up spending most of the day with Laura, Sian and of course Josh, and the weather was lovely which made it a really pleasant day.

Pie worked really nicely, considering training on Tuesday was awful!! We managed a 1st and 2nd in novice steeplechase and senior jumping, but I'm not sure which was which. We also got a clear in senior agility, but I trained his contacts, which were superrr.

Here's a video of Pie's runs.... with thanks to Laura videoing for me. Also thanks to Sian and Laura for renaming Pie... APPLE!! WHAT is that about!! hahaha!!



L x

UKA, Vyne & Tunbridge Wells

Well after seeing Tace on the Friday I went to Newbury on the Sunday for a UKA show. After going out with my brother on Saturday night (as it was his last weekend before he went back to uni), I didn't go to bed until 6.30!! My alarm was set for 7.15 as my Aunt was picking me up at 7.45. Well not surprisingly I slept through my alarm.... and my Aunt rang my phone to say that she was outside whilst I was still in bed!! OH MY GOD!! Mega panic and rush, but managed to get out the door within about 10 minutes. So feeling and looking like utter poo... I arrived at Newbury... didn't even walk my Senior Jumping and managed a 3rd! I've never felt so awful though.

And I clearly didn't learn after Saturday, because I went out with my brother again on Sunday night and went to bed at 5.30!! Oh dear!! The weather at Vyne was HORRIBLE and sooo cold!! We didn't manage any clears but Pie worked really well.

Onto Tunbridge Wells... I always like this show and thankfully the weather was lovely both days :) and I even caught the sun on Sunday! The KC Chum on Saturday was a tough one for me as there were bits where I wasn't sure how I was going to handle them, and because I was only running order number 17, I didn't really have time to watch, so managed to get a lovely E in that, but gave me a reason to train his aframe and see-saw. I wasn't keen on his G6 jumping course, just because it didn't really suit us at all. But he was a naughty boy and wouldn't go round a jump. I found this even more frustrating as he managed to go round 3 (!!) jumps on Sunday!! Grr. Then our last run was G6 agility. I really really liked the course, which helps! We had a bit of a wide turn before the see-saw but most people were having a wide turn there, but he was a bit slow on his down plank of dogwalk. I think it was because of the turn after so I'll have to practice that. In the end we came 5th.

Onto Sunday. Like I've already mentioned the weather was glorious!! And so were the courses actually. The Crufts singles course ran better than it walked. I watch the small and mediums first as it was the same course. After Pie self-released in the Team, I trained his contacts in his Crufts. I held his Aframe which was 2nd obstacle and the next contact was see-saw. So I ran that in hope he would self-release on his dogwalk again and would give me chance to tell him off and correct him but he didn't. Good dog! Then managed to stay clear until number 16, where there was a cross behind!! Which I have REAL trouble with and so we got a few refusals after having a few attempts!! Lee needs to teach me a 'drag and drop' properly :P I was really pleased with the run though. Grade 6 jumping involved another cross behind but we managed that one, and with a late reverse turn from me a HUGE wide turn near the end, but we ended up 4th :) Then last run was G6 agility. There was a jumping sequence at the beginning which needed tight turns in order to do well. I can't remember if they were tight because I was trying to think of next turn then the next one etc. But Lee said we managed to get them fairly tight which was good. Then i didn't hold my ground for long enough, which resulted in him going straight into tunnel instead of over a jump, but picked up the hard weave entry well, and again gave me another excuse to train contacts :)

Next show isn't until Cippenham, then off for 3 weeks until Thames, can't wait.

There are several videos on my YouTube page so follow this link...... http://www.youtube.com/lucykippie

Good News :)

Well just got back from seeing Tace Allen at newbury showground, she had a look over him and couldn't find anything at all, he seemed perfectly balanced is the way she put it. She reckons I should give him a run at the uka show tomorrow on a lower height of about 2ft I think and see how he goes. So we MIGHT be competing on Monday or if not, even Tunbridge!! I'm not going to push him at all, and in all fairness he hasn't been lame for 2 weeks now and could easily of healed naturally anyway. I'm also going to get two people to watch him, who see him compete regularly and for one to film and for the other to watch, just in case one sees something the other doesn't.

Visit to the osteopath....

OK, where do I start... Pie was on about 5 minutes a day lead walk, and on the lead when going in the garden to go to loo. Pie doesn't like doing anything less than 100 mph (apart from his weaves!!) so keeping him on lead is a bit of a pain. Anyway, Tasha had the osteo round her house last night to check over her 6 and said that I could pop in anytime after 6.30. So I kindly asked my brother to take me and he did. We got there for just before 7 and Hannah had a look over Pie. He was really good considering he's not too keen on strangers poking him, I don't think any of us would either, but I held his head just to be safe. After she had started checking him over he was nearly falling asleep, as his eyes kept rolling. Bless him! Hannah felt that his left tricep by his shoulder was tight, and also found the slight beginning of arthritis in one his back toes, but it was nothing to worry about. Hannah has advised me to cut down the metacam. She said it has done its job and it's not inflamed anymore. She agreed with me about it masking up and it making it worse. She believes that in order for the muscle to heal I should expect him to go lame again once his exercise (on lead) is back to normal. The scar tissue needs to heal (or something like that). So for the next 2 days his metacam is being halved and then for the net 2 days half again. And increased exercise as the muscle still needs to be stretched etc. Obviously this can't be certain without scans etc.... but i'm going to see how we go for the next week and then call Hannah again to get him checked. Depending on his progress he should be able to be back training in 6 weeks. It's not as bad as I thought, but also not nice to hear seeing as he is my only competing dog. I'm heading to Vyne next monday, mainly to watch champ, so we have something to aspire to when we are back competing. It's Helen and Mitch's first champ too so would like to see her in that. I'll keep you all posted, and thank you to those who have been really supportive and helpful.
L x

Update on Pie

Well my poorly puppy is still poorly :(

Took him to the vets Thursday morning. She warned me that shoulder injuries can take a long time to fix. She doesnt know what the exact problem is but shes hoping its not too bad as he isn't in too much pain. She proded, poked and moved his shoulder to the full range of movement and he only flinced once. She has put him on metacam which im not too happy about as because as soon as i up his exercise and take him off its more probable that the lameness will come back again and he could be doing his shoulder more damage! She has said for him to have 5 min lead walk a day... and increase by 2-4 minutes everyday. As soon as/if the lameness shows again I have to take him back for xrays, and if nothing shows then it might be tendon damage. Kate smith who is a chiro has kindly offered to have a look at him over the weekend. Her and Paul are competing at Newbury so i'm waiting for my brother to get back from Brighton later on today and for him to take me.

So all in all is just a waiting game really, but i don't think we will be doing much this season :(

Wallingford

Well I was in a really good frame of mind for the show until Pie went lame on tuesday night!! Thankfully he was fune by thursday evening, so ran him at the weekend. We managed a 3rd in G6 Jumping on the Saturday, which I was veryyyy pleased with!! The timings were very close and it was one of those runs where everything just felt right, and I didn't mind where we finished. I forgot to video any runs over the weekend... oops.!! The G6 agility wasn't pleasant and I managed to get to a respectful number 11!! Where Pie decided the tunnel was better than to do a jump. Naughty boy! Sam and I managed to get through to round 3 in the knock out pairs with 2 bys!! and then by the time we actually ran against a pair... we both got E'd!! Not good.

Sunday didn't seem too good, Pie was naughty boy and pulled off a jump in agility, which meant I could train my contacts... and see saw!! So Lee won't be able to complain.

I forgot to enter wbsds this weekend, so have a weekend off which is good as Pie is lame again. He looks like a monster when he walks... his left shoulder really dips and he was sat next to me earlier and he went from sit to stand and I heard 2 large crunches! So i'm calling my vet tomorrow so i can go to osteo and im popping down to newbury over the weekend to see Kate Smith who has kindly agreed to have a look at him. I really hope it's nothing serious and just something which he needs a few weeks rest for. Our next show that i've booked is Vyne, but very much doubt we'll be doing that now :(

So positive thoughts for P please :)

Easter Celebration

Well my alarm went off at 7, after having just 2 hours sleep!! And my first run didn't turn out to be until about 10.30!! So lots of waiting around, thankfully the weather wasn't too bad.

It was our first show at grade 6, and our first class was 5/6 agility. I thought the course suited well and really was going for a clear round, however, the freak dog ran past first jump. Huff. I think it was mine and his fault, but oh well, was an excuse to use it as a training round. He had a lovely dogwalk until he self-released... ahhh!! I didn't even notice as it was just before I said 'go', but looking back at video, it's very obvious that he went before I said. Ooops, so Lee told me off for that and for not holding my see-saw.

In the G6 jumping, there was about 4 places where you could do a cross behind.... but Lee managed to convince me that I only needed just the 1 at the end, and that worked really well, so thank you! Although before the cloth tunnel P did a little twizzle which I thought should of been faulted but the judge was rather kind and we managed a 12th.

I had been entered in the connection agility too, I didnt really have a choice as my entries got changed, and I had no idea what it was. I didn't even bother to walk it, as I was just going to watch a few go, and 'steal' their route! Leah did a good job in explaining it to me though :) I was the last dog to run, but Mum wanted to go, having been sat in car most of the day, so I tried to push in early but they would'nt let me so couldn't run it.

It was a good day though, and was great to finally meet Kai - Nat have faith in her you silly girl!! I'm at Wallingford this weekend, both days, and am really looking forward to it. So see you all there!

Oh and here is a video of our 5/6 agility run...

UKA Scrambles

I thought it was about time I had a blog, which I could update regularly!!

Seeing as I can't go to the 3rd day of this show tomorrow... thought i'd post 2 runs from today.

RC Senior Agility - NFC. I train most of my agility runs at UKA, and vary when I actually bring toy in or not. I decided to run his first contact (although it's still a slight pause) and then test the following 2. His see-saw was lovely and solid, so was very pleased. Still not happy with his up on aframe but oh well. I think he knew that if he came off I wouldn't of been a happy bunny!! I'm pleased with myself that I choose to train runs, because I truely believe it all pays off. It takes abit to pay £3.50 and run and just put a big fat NFC on, but I love it

Pairs - I ran the agility side and Virginia and Rob ran the jumping. Again, i held his contacts. It was in the morning and the ground was still quite wet and slippery, and as I released him off his dogwalk, he skidded on his belly to the next jump. Oops! Luckily he was perfectly fine.

Senior Jumping - The course was ridiculous! The champ jumping after it was EASIER. He got a nice weave entry though He ran past tunnel and had air head on, so I took him out.

Novice Steeplechase - We came 2nd in this, so now we just need 2(!!) points in order to move up to senior steeplechase

Enjoy x

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3JeqbOccYM