Well last weekend was Demon's first Kc show of the season at BCCoGB (Border Collie Club of Great Britain) Agility Show.
It was a fair weather day....Not as nice as Sat but you cannot grumble as it was dry except for a spot of drizzle half way through the day.......There was also the BCCoGB Championship breed show and North Lincs Open show going on at the Newark and Notts Showground where the agility was held.
Demon's first class was Large Jumping Graded 1-3. I walked the course checked where i wanted to position de for the start line, walked the course again and again and again.....you get my drift. i also walked his Large Combined 1-4 Agility as this was up too. My running order was 293 in the jumping but halfway into it they started calling for dogs as they had no dogs on the line so figured since i'd stood watching for so long i'd fetch de and get it done.
Well!..... He did a cracking round no poles all his weaves etc.....as i was coming on to the home straight i noticed there was a tunnel in the course!!! This tunnel was suppose to be no.5 on the course well dippy here went start (no.1), 2, 3(weaves), 4 and instead of sending him into the tunnel i pulled him on to number 6 and kept going!!! Completely forgot the tunnel was even there :) Demon ran his little heart out and had i remembered the tunnel would have gone clear so i was very please with him yet could of kicked myself...it happens.
We then had a bit of a break till we did our next run, his Combined 1-4 took ages and they were sticking very rigidly to running only when they'd called up to your number, so i ended up walking and running the third class i entered De in, Graded 1-3 Agility first.
The Graded 1-3 Agility course was a nice course for the Grade 3 dogs as i felt it tested them a little bit although for Grade 1/2 it wasn't as straight forward as some i'd seen before for them. Demon did another nice round here as well and i was so proud of him as i felt in both this run and the jumping he was really thinking and listening and none of this barking we'd had such an issue with last year either, we went clear in this class :) I've got myself into the habit of checking de's times after every run he's done....not to see where he's come but it's just something that's always interested me so i've always done it.......22.221 sec's and he was in the lead, although at this point there was still 20/30 Grade 3 dogs to run.
We then went for lunch and i went to walk de, next was his Combined 1-4 Agility nice course crappy handling on my part, got it de's way and was slow calling him in places, due to this he took 2 poles but all in all he ran beautifully.
Me and Lucy took a walk down to look at the breed showing as it was better than standing around doing nothing and waiting for results.
After about 20-30 mins we walked back up to the agility and the Graded 1-3 Agility ring was just finishing.....at this point Lucy's dad Steve came over and said de was in second place, I'd not been over since after lunch so didn't know any different, i was just so proud of de knowing he was running well and when i look back on the few problems we'd had last year that are now a distant memory it makes me realise how far we've come. I can't say i wasn't a little gutted but i was also pleased i could still enter the Alpha 1-3 Challenge @ Lincoln in April so there were good points to it.
We all got ready to walk over and listen to the presentation we i ran into a friend who said 'Congratulations Sarah' i was like 'what for?' and she looked at me and just said for the lovely round Demon had done in the 1-3 Agility and me being me i said thanks and thought nothing of it.
I had De with me so i played with him round the rings just doing waits and releases, they called the results out and got to 2nd and called someone else's name?? I looked over and Steve and everyone were smiling and the winner was called and it was me and Demon!!!!!
What a shock to the system that was :).......A nice one tho. Up we went to collect De's rosette and a black glass-like plaque.
Thankyou to Lucy Osborne for the video x x
Friday, 25 March 2011
Monday, 21 March 2011
My handsome boy
Two pictures of Demon at BCCoGB agility show Sunday just gone, update on show to follow.
Thank you to Lyn Coupland for these, they're lovely :)
Thank you to Lyn Coupland for these, they're lovely :)
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Welcome to the world & update
Once again the blog has been neglected although alot has happened.
On Jan 4th we welcomed into the world our beautiful daughter Skylah Paige :) She was a big baby compared to Chloe-Leigh at 8lb 9 1/2 ounces!! But she was happy and healthy and all went quite smoothly so that's the main thing.
The dogs and her big sister adore her, roxxi being the most attentive ever! All she needs to do is stir and roxxi is there :) Demon is his laid back usual self and takes it all in his stride as always.
Weather has been up and down but i have managed to get training in with them both at home, just weaves and jumps mainly although i have loaded the car up with all my jumps, the tunnel and my weaves and headed up to the football field and trained a few times (its amazing what fits in my little corsa:))
The begining of feb me, de and rox headed over to lucy's for some training.
Below is a vid them both doing some exercises, they both enjoyed being back doing different bits. Demon's contacts looking nice for the season and roxxi the little star as ever xx
We have also been to the feb dog vegas where demon came third in Grade 3 Agility the clever little boy!
As i speak i am up-grading my see saw so to speak, it is having new ply wood as the winter hasn't done it any favours and it is also being rubber coated.
Below is a vid of de trying the rubbed coated see saw at Dog Vegas.
I am hoping to enter demon in one or two obedience shows this year so we'll see how that goes, not going to concentrate on it as much as the agility but there are 3 shows near me each year so may do these.
Our next show is Dog Vegas Independent show on 19th March which i will use as training and then we're at BCCoGB on 20th March - 1st kc show of the season so looking forward to that :)
Thankyou to Lucy Osborne for the videos xx http://lucyosborne.blogspot.com/
On Jan 4th we welcomed into the world our beautiful daughter Skylah Paige :) She was a big baby compared to Chloe-Leigh at 8lb 9 1/2 ounces!! But she was happy and healthy and all went quite smoothly so that's the main thing.
The dogs and her big sister adore her, roxxi being the most attentive ever! All she needs to do is stir and roxxi is there :) Demon is his laid back usual self and takes it all in his stride as always.
Weather has been up and down but i have managed to get training in with them both at home, just weaves and jumps mainly although i have loaded the car up with all my jumps, the tunnel and my weaves and headed up to the football field and trained a few times (its amazing what fits in my little corsa:))
The begining of feb me, de and rox headed over to lucy's for some training.
Below is a vid them both doing some exercises, they both enjoyed being back doing different bits. Demon's contacts looking nice for the season and roxxi the little star as ever xx
We have also been to the feb dog vegas where demon came third in Grade 3 Agility the clever little boy!
As i speak i am up-grading my see saw so to speak, it is having new ply wood as the winter hasn't done it any favours and it is also being rubber coated.
Below is a vid of de trying the rubbed coated see saw at Dog Vegas.
I am hoping to enter demon in one or two obedience shows this year so we'll see how that goes, not going to concentrate on it as much as the agility but there are 3 shows near me each year so may do these.
Our next show is Dog Vegas Independent show on 19th March which i will use as training and then we're at BCCoGB on 20th March - 1st kc show of the season so looking forward to that :)
Thankyou to Lucy Osborne for the videos xx http://lucyosborne.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Silver, Snow & Contact Training.
Well, where to begin. The blog has yet again been neglected. As you will notice it now has a new look, thank you ever so much vicki ( Ruffs Dog Blog ) for this, its lovely! :-)
The blog layout now has added pages one for each dog, results etc and with time will possibly have one or two more added.
Kennel Club Good Citizen
Back in May Roxxi passed her Bronze Kennel Club Good Citizen Test, the amount of test dates at both the clubs i attend for obedience have been far and few and they have not had a Silver test at all! But, our waiting (and training) has paid off and a date was finally set for 17th Nov. I knew Roxxi was ready although, anything can happen on the day. So along we went to the test being held at The East Lincs Ringcraft Society, Sutton-On-Sea, just up the road from us. Roxxi was amazing :-) My clever little girlie didn't put a foot wrong and i'm pleased to say she PASSED!!! So i am a very proud mum :-)
Snow (grr!!)
Don't get me wrong, i love the snow, the lovely white flakes falling gets me in the christmas spirit. It's been really fun watching the dogs trying to catch it as it falls and seeing chloe's face light up at the sight of it and being able to make snow men with her. But, the amount we've had has been rediculous to say the least, the whole country has been in termoil as funny as that sounds. Alot of people have been snowed in and shops have been more or less out of essential bits and bobs ie. Milk, bread and salt funny enough. This lasted around a week and a half - two weeks. Training at most venues has been canceled/ re-arranged for safety reasons with driving. As the snow thawed it became very dangerous as it then froze so we then had several layers of ice. The majority hs dissapeared now and the dogs have churned up the garden with the slush thats been left so i'm in the process of fencing it off in areas :-( And as the good old english weather doesn't like to stay the same too long, just as we thought we were getting over it the weather forcasts are predicting more snow!!
Contact Training with Lucy Osborne
In between the horrid weather and getting ready for christmas i booked both dogs in to do a contact session with Lucy. They've not done any agility training since begining of Oct now i think, although the rest has done them good. So after a glitch with the weather and the sessions having to be re-arrnged we went to Skellingthorpe looking forward to the training ahead of us :-)
Roxxi - Roxxi's class was first and, yes, she was WILD!!! The first dog walk, a-frame and see saw she did she either jumped off (dog walk), flew off (see saw) or (a-frame) flew over the top and only just hit the bottom!! So after the group had all had their first go Lucy took us all back to basics. So with Roxxi we got her targets back out and made her re-value the bottom of the contacts. This consisted of placing Roxxi at the bottom of the contact and rewarding for touching the target then moving her further up the ''down plank'' releasing her then letting her run to the target and rewarding her and finally releasing from the target and rewarding for only releasing on the release command. After all the group had done this we did the full dog walk again, Roxxi flew across! And stopped in position perfectly :-) We then did tunnel - dog walk and then jump - tunnel - dog walk. Lucy then wanted to show us that with a good solid understanding of what behaviour is expected on contacts we shouldn't need to be with the dogs (running right next to the equipment) So. . . . If u imagine a u-shape, we started at the top one end at the jump (with an a-frame behind us) the tunnel is the bend in the u-shape and the dog walk is the other top of the u shape. Lucy placed a pole a metre/two away from the side of the dog walk and explained for us to run along the pole keeping on the outer side away from the dog walk. So over the jump, into the tunnel and keeping our arm outstretched towards the dog walk (arm nearest dog walk) we ran to the end to reward for stopping on the contact. Even though i wasn't running right next to the dog walk she powered on to the contact point at the bottom.
Next we did the same course; jump - tunnel - dog walk. But this time we were on the dogs right hand side sent over the jump, into the tunnel and onto dog walk but instead of running along the dog walk we ran behind the a-frame! Meaning there was the a-frame in between us and the dogs running over the contact. I had my doubts weather Roxxi would do it but to my surprise she did! :-)
We did lots of other small exercises but sending over jumps on to the a-frame, jump, tunnel but us staying behind the dog walk :-) Roxxi worked really well, i was really impressed with what we achieved.
I will update demon's session over the next few days as his session was just as interesting! :-)
For anyone who hasn't done a training session with Lucy before it is something i'd highly recommend. I train with Lucy on a regular basis and also do most of her contact/weave/handling sessions. I always find when training with her that i come away feeling i've achieved something and also knowing my aims/ targets to work on. Her training methods are *always* rewarding to my dogs and i always feel they work up a gear training with her, which is due to her positive and rewarding training methods.
The blog layout now has added pages one for each dog, results etc and with time will possibly have one or two more added.
Kennel Club Good Citizen
Back in May Roxxi passed her Bronze Kennel Club Good Citizen Test, the amount of test dates at both the clubs i attend for obedience have been far and few and they have not had a Silver test at all! But, our waiting (and training) has paid off and a date was finally set for 17th Nov. I knew Roxxi was ready although, anything can happen on the day. So along we went to the test being held at The East Lincs Ringcraft Society, Sutton-On-Sea, just up the road from us. Roxxi was amazing :-) My clever little girlie didn't put a foot wrong and i'm pleased to say she PASSED!!! So i am a very proud mum :-)
Snow (grr!!)
Don't get me wrong, i love the snow, the lovely white flakes falling gets me in the christmas spirit. It's been really fun watching the dogs trying to catch it as it falls and seeing chloe's face light up at the sight of it and being able to make snow men with her. But, the amount we've had has been rediculous to say the least, the whole country has been in termoil as funny as that sounds. Alot of people have been snowed in and shops have been more or less out of essential bits and bobs ie. Milk, bread and salt funny enough. This lasted around a week and a half - two weeks. Training at most venues has been canceled/ re-arranged for safety reasons with driving. As the snow thawed it became very dangerous as it then froze so we then had several layers of ice. The majority hs dissapeared now and the dogs have churned up the garden with the slush thats been left so i'm in the process of fencing it off in areas :-( And as the good old english weather doesn't like to stay the same too long, just as we thought we were getting over it the weather forcasts are predicting more snow!!
Contact Training with Lucy Osborne
In between the horrid weather and getting ready for christmas i booked both dogs in to do a contact session with Lucy. They've not done any agility training since begining of Oct now i think, although the rest has done them good. So after a glitch with the weather and the sessions having to be re-arrnged we went to Skellingthorpe looking forward to the training ahead of us :-)
Roxxi - Roxxi's class was first and, yes, she was WILD!!! The first dog walk, a-frame and see saw she did she either jumped off (dog walk), flew off (see saw) or (a-frame) flew over the top and only just hit the bottom!! So after the group had all had their first go Lucy took us all back to basics. So with Roxxi we got her targets back out and made her re-value the bottom of the contacts. This consisted of placing Roxxi at the bottom of the contact and rewarding for touching the target then moving her further up the ''down plank'' releasing her then letting her run to the target and rewarding her and finally releasing from the target and rewarding for only releasing on the release command. After all the group had done this we did the full dog walk again, Roxxi flew across! And stopped in position perfectly :-) We then did tunnel - dog walk and then jump - tunnel - dog walk. Lucy then wanted to show us that with a good solid understanding of what behaviour is expected on contacts we shouldn't need to be with the dogs (running right next to the equipment) So. . . . If u imagine a u-shape, we started at the top one end at the jump (with an a-frame behind us) the tunnel is the bend in the u-shape and the dog walk is the other top of the u shape. Lucy placed a pole a metre/two away from the side of the dog walk and explained for us to run along the pole keeping on the outer side away from the dog walk. So over the jump, into the tunnel and keeping our arm outstretched towards the dog walk (arm nearest dog walk) we ran to the end to reward for stopping on the contact. Even though i wasn't running right next to the dog walk she powered on to the contact point at the bottom.
Next we did the same course; jump - tunnel - dog walk. But this time we were on the dogs right hand side sent over the jump, into the tunnel and onto dog walk but instead of running along the dog walk we ran behind the a-frame! Meaning there was the a-frame in between us and the dogs running over the contact. I had my doubts weather Roxxi would do it but to my surprise she did! :-)
We did lots of other small exercises but sending over jumps on to the a-frame, jump, tunnel but us staying behind the dog walk :-) Roxxi worked really well, i was really impressed with what we achieved.
I will update demon's session over the next few days as his session was just as interesting! :-)
For anyone who hasn't done a training session with Lucy before it is something i'd highly recommend. I train with Lucy on a regular basis and also do most of her contact/weave/handling sessions. I always find when training with her that i come away feeling i've achieved something and also knowing my aims/ targets to work on. Her training methods are *always* rewarding to my dogs and i always feel they work up a gear training with her, which is due to her positive and rewarding training methods.
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Update......
Haven't updated the blog since Demon went Grade 2 back in July!! (Not good at this at all :) time just seems to run away with me.)
His last Grade 1 show was Empingham (24th-25th July) I went to Empingham knowing that as De had won out of Grade 1 at Just Dogs Live i could practice alot and relax a bit. The show was lovely, camping was brilliant for us...we'd brought the kids with us so finding out we were situated 2 secs from the loo it was bliss :) I went to Empingham knowing i wanted to do two things with Demon. a) Practice his contacts and b) see how much i could push him. The reason for the latter was because i don't want to have a dog that you have to be with in every situation, Demon is quite a strong headed boy and he has a lot of drive, at the time of writing this i already know i am holding him back which costs him time. I have practiced driving him on at training but for some reason i hesitate in the ring, this could be a number of things...not wanting to make mistakes, not wanting to loose control....who knows.
At the end of the weekend me and Demon had come away empty handed but, i was on top of the world. His times were great, he didn't miss a contact. In 1 class he ran at the weaves with such speed he went in the first weave but he couldn't physically slow himself down and popped out of the 2nd weave the rest was clear. In the combined 1-3 jumping he drove on beautifully and me being the idiot i am forgot the course and pulled him off the 3rd to last jump. The one thing i did come away realising was i needed to work on his weaves (12 not 6) i had been doing 6 with him at training at at home and not enough 12 so he was coming out at the 9/10th pole.
All in all i was very happy, note to self handler could do with more training!!!!
SCUNTHORPE SHOW
Scunthorpe was Demons 1st Grade 2 show back at the beginning of August (7th/8th)
SATURDAY:
I can only remember a few of his run's on the Saturday he had a Graded 1-3 Jumping, Demon would've gone clear except i had my stupid head on once again and stood in his way causing him to run round jump 3 instead of going over it-what made this even worse was if it wasn't for my boy having more brains than me he'd of been eliminated because after he ran round the jump i said "come" luckily he did but came round the jump rather than back jumping it- Such a clever boy!! The rest of the run was lovely.
In the Graded 1-3 agility, I for some reason clapped my hands as i turned him causing him to knock a pole....he then flew his see-saw (tut,tut Mr De)
The last jumping of the day De popped out of the 2nd weave and had a pole in the middle of the course yet worked on lovely at the end of the course.
His last run was Combined 1-3 Agility. It was a lovely run little bit bendy but all in all a nice course.Demon got his twelve weaves and contacts and went clear!!! He was very noisy going round and i found myself shouting over him at times but we came away with a respectable 8th!!! What a good lad.
SUNDAY:
The 1st class of the day was Graded 1-3 Agility. The course was quite flowing although some people lost the dogs over jump no 2 the second time they had to go through the box at the start of the course, Demon was quite responsive and towards the end of the course you had tunnel, see-saw, weaves and 3 jumps at a slight angle. The latter half of the course De got his independent head on and once he'd done the tunnel did a lovely stop on the see-saw and i realised i wasn't with him for the weaves!!! so the only thing i could do was risk it and see if he found them or hold him to get into position. I decided to risk it in that split second and my little boy did his weaves and the last 3 jumps alone and fast!!!! I was sooooo happy with him. So our 2nd clear for the weekend!!!
After lunch i was amazed to find not only had we gone clear in the Graded 1-3 Agility that morning, but that we'd also won it!!!! :)
Yay so Demon is now Grade 3 at his 1st Grade 2 show!!
The rest of the show was a blurr, no more clears although we did have some nice runs, alot to do on my part giving him commands sooner but also Demon has become more noisy when running and with him barking he's not listening as well......more to come on this!!!!
My gorgeous boy with his 8th and 1st from Scunthorpe!! xx
His last Grade 1 show was Empingham (24th-25th July) I went to Empingham knowing that as De had won out of Grade 1 at Just Dogs Live i could practice alot and relax a bit. The show was lovely, camping was brilliant for us...we'd brought the kids with us so finding out we were situated 2 secs from the loo it was bliss :) I went to Empingham knowing i wanted to do two things with Demon. a) Practice his contacts and b) see how much i could push him. The reason for the latter was because i don't want to have a dog that you have to be with in every situation, Demon is quite a strong headed boy and he has a lot of drive, at the time of writing this i already know i am holding him back which costs him time. I have practiced driving him on at training but for some reason i hesitate in the ring, this could be a number of things...not wanting to make mistakes, not wanting to loose control....who knows.
At the end of the weekend me and Demon had come away empty handed but, i was on top of the world. His times were great, he didn't miss a contact. In 1 class he ran at the weaves with such speed he went in the first weave but he couldn't physically slow himself down and popped out of the 2nd weave the rest was clear. In the combined 1-3 jumping he drove on beautifully and me being the idiot i am forgot the course and pulled him off the 3rd to last jump. The one thing i did come away realising was i needed to work on his weaves (12 not 6) i had been doing 6 with him at training at at home and not enough 12 so he was coming out at the 9/10th pole.
All in all i was very happy, note to self handler could do with more training!!!!
SCUNTHORPE SHOW
Scunthorpe was Demons 1st Grade 2 show back at the beginning of August (7th/8th)
SATURDAY:
I can only remember a few of his run's on the Saturday he had a Graded 1-3 Jumping, Demon would've gone clear except i had my stupid head on once again and stood in his way causing him to run round jump 3 instead of going over it-what made this even worse was if it wasn't for my boy having more brains than me he'd of been eliminated because after he ran round the jump i said "come" luckily he did but came round the jump rather than back jumping it- Such a clever boy!! The rest of the run was lovely.
In the Graded 1-3 agility, I for some reason clapped my hands as i turned him causing him to knock a pole....he then flew his see-saw (tut,tut Mr De)
The last jumping of the day De popped out of the 2nd weave and had a pole in the middle of the course yet worked on lovely at the end of the course.
His last run was Combined 1-3 Agility. It was a lovely run little bit bendy but all in all a nice course.Demon got his twelve weaves and contacts and went clear!!! He was very noisy going round and i found myself shouting over him at times but we came away with a respectable 8th!!! What a good lad.
SUNDAY:
The 1st class of the day was Graded 1-3 Agility. The course was quite flowing although some people lost the dogs over jump no 2 the second time they had to go through the box at the start of the course, Demon was quite responsive and towards the end of the course you had tunnel, see-saw, weaves and 3 jumps at a slight angle. The latter half of the course De got his independent head on and once he'd done the tunnel did a lovely stop on the see-saw and i realised i wasn't with him for the weaves!!! so the only thing i could do was risk it and see if he found them or hold him to get into position. I decided to risk it in that split second and my little boy did his weaves and the last 3 jumps alone and fast!!!! I was sooooo happy with him. So our 2nd clear for the weekend!!!
After lunch i was amazed to find not only had we gone clear in the Graded 1-3 Agility that morning, but that we'd also won it!!!! :)
Yay so Demon is now Grade 3 at his 1st Grade 2 show!!
The rest of the show was a blurr, no more clears although we did have some nice runs, alot to do on my part giving him commands sooner but also Demon has become more noisy when running and with him barking he's not listening as well......more to come on this!!!!
My gorgeous boy with his 8th and 1st from Scunthorpe!! xx
Saturday, 10 July 2010
Just Dogs Live, De is now Grade 2!!!!!!
Can't believe where the time has gone.
Demon had his 1st show on Friday @ Just Dogs Live at the East of England showground in Peterborough. He only had two runs but i decided to go as my friend Pat was showing her sheltie on the Friday so i had company.
The day started out lovely the weather was nice, sunny and with a lovely breeze.
Demon's 1st class was Grade 1 jumping, i think he handled the course really well as i walked the course i was quite happy with it although i knew how hyped up he was and that I'd have a chance of loosing him in two places.... either the weaves or on jump number 4 because number (10 i think) was calling, but the course was very flowing in the middle and at the end so he could also make up time in these places.
I don't think it helped that i was so so nervous too.
He had a lovely start line wait and did the 1st few jumps lovely i did lose him over jump 10 so we were eliminated, called him back to me and set him up after jump 4 and he went lovely, over jump 5 into the weaves and wasn't slow either everything was perfect from then until the last jump which he clipped but i couldn't of been prouder!!!! ;0)
As the day went on the weather got hotter and hotter we definitely felt the heat,
it wasn't until 12ish i walked my Grade 1 Agility course....I'd walked and done my jumping by 9.....and by this time i was boiling god knows how poor de felt, but we found a nice little water pool with a hose pipe attached to shower the dogs down with and cool them off.
So on to Grade1 Agility.....I was soooo worried about this course, and watching other people and dogs running it make me worse, dogs were flying contacts, the weaves were best being done with the handler on the dogs left as you had to pull them off the start line jump and then on to a snake line, i prob am not describing it very efficiently but trust me i wasn't feeling very confident lol!
So after umming and ahhing i decided to get in the waiting line, then on to the start line.
Well what can i say!! Demon was a darling throughout the course and didn't put a foot wrong :)
The one thing a decided i wanted out of the course was his contacts and i got these, i also said i run his contacts with me on de's left side, if he got them good if not I'd try again. He did do the weaves and at the end of the course we had gone clear!!!!! I was over the moon and actually crying ( yes crying, i felt like a right idiot after lol!!) but i was so happy i couldn't help it.
I went to ask for de's time out of interest and found out he was actually ranking 1st in Grade 1 at that point, but there was still lots of dogs to go.
And here is the little star.....Yes he actually won Grade 1 Agility @ his 1st show!!! ( and a few seconds in front of the 2nd place dog too!)
So my baby is now Grade 2 I'm so proud and feel so lucky to have him xxxx
Demon had his 1st show on Friday @ Just Dogs Live at the East of England showground in Peterborough. He only had two runs but i decided to go as my friend Pat was showing her sheltie on the Friday so i had company.
The day started out lovely the weather was nice, sunny and with a lovely breeze.
Demon's 1st class was Grade 1 jumping, i think he handled the course really well as i walked the course i was quite happy with it although i knew how hyped up he was and that I'd have a chance of loosing him in two places.... either the weaves or on jump number 4 because number (10 i think) was calling, but the course was very flowing in the middle and at the end so he could also make up time in these places.
I don't think it helped that i was so so nervous too.
He had a lovely start line wait and did the 1st few jumps lovely i did lose him over jump 10 so we were eliminated, called him back to me and set him up after jump 4 and he went lovely, over jump 5 into the weaves and wasn't slow either everything was perfect from then until the last jump which he clipped but i couldn't of been prouder!!!! ;0)
As the day went on the weather got hotter and hotter we definitely felt the heat,
it wasn't until 12ish i walked my Grade 1 Agility course....I'd walked and done my jumping by 9.....and by this time i was boiling god knows how poor de felt, but we found a nice little water pool with a hose pipe attached to shower the dogs down with and cool them off.
So on to Grade1 Agility.....I was soooo worried about this course, and watching other people and dogs running it make me worse, dogs were flying contacts, the weaves were best being done with the handler on the dogs left as you had to pull them off the start line jump and then on to a snake line, i prob am not describing it very efficiently but trust me i wasn't feeling very confident lol!
So after umming and ahhing i decided to get in the waiting line, then on to the start line.
Well what can i say!! Demon was a darling throughout the course and didn't put a foot wrong :)
The one thing a decided i wanted out of the course was his contacts and i got these, i also said i run his contacts with me on de's left side, if he got them good if not I'd try again. He did do the weaves and at the end of the course we had gone clear!!!!! I was over the moon and actually crying ( yes crying, i felt like a right idiot after lol!!) but i was so happy i couldn't help it.
I went to ask for de's time out of interest and found out he was actually ranking 1st in Grade 1 at that point, but there was still lots of dogs to go.
And here is the little star.....Yes he actually won Grade 1 Agility @ his 1st show!!! ( and a few seconds in front of the 2nd place dog too!)
So my baby is now Grade 2 I'm so proud and feel so lucky to have him xxxx
Thursday, 25 March 2010
Massive Catch-up 1
So much has happened since my last blog so this may take a while.....
Training lesson with Lucy
As i put at the end of my last blog I'd booked a private lesson with Lucy. At the end of this i came away very very happy with De as i feel we achieved loads out of the session. I book an hour and a half and did 15 mins with Roxxi, 30 mins with De, another 15 with Rox and finished with De's last half hour.
With Roxxi being young still i really just took her as the journey is good and it ment i could do something with her in a new environment. We did some change of directions with her, with either Lucy holding her and me running away then once she was released and almost with me id change my direction to see if she'd be with me, we also did it where I'd leave her in a wait, call her to me and change direction. Alot of it was playing getting her to value the toy even if Lucy's dogs were doing something. Roxxi did a few tunnels which she does nicely and also some just running through wings.
The private lesson was mostly for De, we did mostly jumping and tunnel work as it was too wet to use the contacts. We worked on getting De to look at the starting jump no matter where i was stood, this will hopefully give me a bit more control and give De some independence that i don't always need to be directly in front of him for the starting jump. We did alot to do with him working on to other obstacles.
One of my biggest problems (or at least i thought i had a problem) was with demon working while other dogs are working, i felt like i had not done enough to ensure that he wasn't more driven to chase another dog while it was working, rather than him working himself, so i was worried that if i got him in the ring he'd forget i was even there and run off!!! Luckily Lucy had stig (and Ben) with her so there was a bit of a distraction if stig was doing something. But, to my amazement as soon as i put De in front of the first jump that's all he thought about :) Clever lil boy....Maybe I'm underestimating him???
We finished off with some channel weaves, i love doing channel weaves yet i feel i don't have enough knowledge to train them myself so just recently Ive been reading up alot on them...If anyone has any tips or can recommend any books/ dvd's please email me at: sarah_261086@hotmail.com Id be very grateful. I was finding it hard as i don't have my own channel weaves o do it a home as much as i would like to also, but i have now sorted this and should have some during April.
The name game
When i got Roxxi, Paula, her breeder was waiting for the puppy's names to come back there were two names, Stillmoor Shimmy and Stillmoor Silk and Satin. Me being me hoped for the girlie name but alas it wasn't to be as Roxxi was given Stillmoor Shimmy as second choice...Now i wasn't too keen on the name so looked into changing it. I got all the info from the Kennel Club and sent the forms off. Since the last post I've had them back!!!
So now we have Roxxi a.k.a STILLMOOR MISS INDEPENDENT.
Still got to write up Crufts and my training session with Kenny Spottiswoode and Lucy but will update more soon x
Training lesson with Lucy
As i put at the end of my last blog I'd booked a private lesson with Lucy. At the end of this i came away very very happy with De as i feel we achieved loads out of the session. I book an hour and a half and did 15 mins with Roxxi, 30 mins with De, another 15 with Rox and finished with De's last half hour.
With Roxxi being young still i really just took her as the journey is good and it ment i could do something with her in a new environment. We did some change of directions with her, with either Lucy holding her and me running away then once she was released and almost with me id change my direction to see if she'd be with me, we also did it where I'd leave her in a wait, call her to me and change direction. Alot of it was playing getting her to value the toy even if Lucy's dogs were doing something. Roxxi did a few tunnels which she does nicely and also some just running through wings.
The private lesson was mostly for De, we did mostly jumping and tunnel work as it was too wet to use the contacts. We worked on getting De to look at the starting jump no matter where i was stood, this will hopefully give me a bit more control and give De some independence that i don't always need to be directly in front of him for the starting jump. We did alot to do with him working on to other obstacles.
One of my biggest problems (or at least i thought i had a problem) was with demon working while other dogs are working, i felt like i had not done enough to ensure that he wasn't more driven to chase another dog while it was working, rather than him working himself, so i was worried that if i got him in the ring he'd forget i was even there and run off!!! Luckily Lucy had stig (and Ben) with her so there was a bit of a distraction if stig was doing something. But, to my amazement as soon as i put De in front of the first jump that's all he thought about :) Clever lil boy....Maybe I'm underestimating him???
We finished off with some channel weaves, i love doing channel weaves yet i feel i don't have enough knowledge to train them myself so just recently Ive been reading up alot on them...If anyone has any tips or can recommend any books/ dvd's please email me at: sarah_261086@hotmail.com Id be very grateful. I was finding it hard as i don't have my own channel weaves o do it a home as much as i would like to also, but i have now sorted this and should have some during April.
The name game
When i got Roxxi, Paula, her breeder was waiting for the puppy's names to come back there were two names, Stillmoor Shimmy and Stillmoor Silk and Satin. Me being me hoped for the girlie name but alas it wasn't to be as Roxxi was given Stillmoor Shimmy as second choice...Now i wasn't too keen on the name so looked into changing it. I got all the info from the Kennel Club and sent the forms off. Since the last post I've had them back!!!
So now we have Roxxi a.k.a STILLMOOR MISS INDEPENDENT.
Still got to write up Crufts and my training session with Kenny Spottiswoode and Lucy but will update more soon x
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