'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...