Thank you ESSC Working Section for a fantastic training day with Lesley Olden

Sunday was another busy day for me ... I've booked a place with the ESSC Working Section Agility Training Day with Lesley Olden at Birchwood House Farm in Hampshire. I was supposed to take Sing and Saturn with me, unfortunately Sing isn't look fit on Sunday morning and I decided to take Saturn only. I drove down there nice and early and with my Tom Tom, I didn't get lost!

There were sixteen handlers and we were separated into 2 groups. The first group was for the Beginners and the 2nd group was for the Advanced. Each group has one and half hour session in the morning and one and half hours session in the afternoon. I was very lucky to be in the Advanced group at the same time I was very worried that I may not cope as Saturn was the youngest and lowest grade among the dogs and I don't know if I will be able to handle the advanced technique.

Lesley is a very nice trainer and I was a bit sorry for her to be put up with some noisy shelties, especially those in the Advanced group. I think she needed some paracetamol at the end of the morning session!! lol=)

Lesley encouraged all the handlers to motivate the shelties either with toys or food, for both the Beginners and Advanced, also she said basic is very important and suggested we do some basic every now and then to remind the dogs what they've learned.

In the Beginners group, they were some new handlers, first timers and a 11 year old boy. It was very nice to see how they handle their dog and they also reminded me that I was worst than any of them when I first started with Sing.

In the morning, we did some jumping sequences, front crosses, rear crosses, turning away, turning into the handler ...

In the afternoon, we did some contacts and weave entry. I always have "issue" with Saturn on the contacts, so it was very interesting to learn new method to see if Saturn will response better to it.

Saturn was a good boy, I think he did very well at the training and we have a lot to practise on. It took us less than 2 hours to get there but took us more than 3 hours to get home and my good Saturn kept me company all the way through the bad traffic on M3.

I have taken some photos of the Beginners in the afternoon session:

Back again after lunch

line up for the Dog Walk

here goes our Secretary Lesley and little Gypsy

young Lester and little Lassie. They are a cracking pair.

Christine's Badger is very confident on the Dog Walk

and this is Badger on the A Fame

Becky and her sweet Coco on the A Frame

Adrianne and her little buddy

poor Saturn was exhausted after a day long training, bless him!

Sorry ... no photos for the Advacned ... as I am busy listening and learning