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