updates

There were a lot of things/news going on here last week, hopefully I will try to update all news in one post!

Agility training in full swing

I am so glad that my agility training is now back into full swing again. WooHoo! I just loved my agility training. That is the only thing that I am so much looking forward to in a week. I used to train on Thursday morning at Pachesham but now I have an extra class on Wednesday afternoon! Since Sizzle gone Grade 5, I know we can't stay in the beginners class anymore, we need to work on more advance stuff, so I asked Eleanor to slot us in an advance group but I still keep the beginners class to practice on basic stuff. Sing is on the rest, he won't be able to do any exercise for a few months, so I have to run Saturn and Sizzle in three classes in a week but that is good for us.

The weather has improved quite a lot, we get to go into the garden more often to do some practice.

There are a lot of things that I need to improve with Saturn and Sizzle. For Saturn, mainly contacts. We retrain the contacts over the winter. We did a lot of ground work and still doing a lot of ground work. I have withdraw all his agility entries until I am confidence he is going to do his perfect contacts in the ring. 

With my secret Santa's help, we are progressing nicely. I have tested his contacts at training first time last week. His DW was perfect. No hesitation, in full speed and perfect position. His A Frame and  See-Saw are still iffy, so we need to work hard on those two.

Sing

Poor Sing is still limping. I tried so hard to restrict his movement. I know with his problem, he needs to keep absolutely STILL for at least TWO weeks. I cannot cage rest him, he gets very stressed when I put him in the cage. He is the only dog that I have not crate train with. He thinks cage is a punishment, this is why he looks so miserable at Crufts! He is an easy dog to live with. He normally lie down by my feet but he is also a very much of mummy's boy, so everytime I move, he moves! He is like my shadow, he will follow me wherever I go. 

I did try to restrict my movement just to help keeping him still (I lie! I am just being lazy!!). Sing is a lively, agile dog. I have hide all the tennis balls so he cannot get to them. The more I restrict him, the more he will tease Sizzle and Saturn to play with him! Can you imagine Saturn and Sizzle are on top of him rumbling? I have tried to separate him in a different room, either I stay with him or stay with the others, one of them is definitely unhappy about that, so more stressed and chaos!

Maybe Sing and I need to go away for a quiet holiday somewhere, just the two of us! Do a lot of sleeping! I still haven't recover from my cold, it has been 6 weeks now. I really had enough of it! Sing and I are both ruin, we need to hibernate for two weeks!

Thank you Matt & Brax

A BIG thank you to Matthew & Bracken for sending us this lovely gift set as a lovely memento from our First Crufts:

Saturn and I are very proud to be able to pair with super Matt & pocket rocket Brax. The four of us have a very good understanding of each other. I think that is so important to do the pairs. Matt & Brax have been brilliant all the time! We can't wait til our next pair!

Also, I have to send our HUGE congratulations to Matt & Brax for winning their last Grade 6 Agility at Chippenham yesterday, this take them up to Grade 7. This pair is going strong all the time. I can't wait to cheer for their first Championship class!! Go Matt! Go Brax! 

Bloody pull through!

We were at Chippenham Agility Show yesterday. For a change, we don't have to lodge in the night before. My first run won't be until about 140 dogs later, so we can get up nice and early and drove on the day. It was very early in the morning when we left home, so the traffic was very good and we got there just over 2 hours.

I was very much looking forward to this show, this would be Sizzle's first Grade 5 show. Our first class was Graded 5-7 Agility. I walked the course in hoping we can do well. There were a pull through which is always my worst nightmare. I already struggled this with my experienced dogs Sing and Saturn. To be honest, in my opinion, I knew I cannot handle this pull through with Sizzle, especially the two jumps were set very close together, so there isn't much room for me to try hard! Sizzle started very well and I managed to stay back to send him to find the weave entry then catch up with him in the weave. The pull through is after the weave. I think to start with, I wasn't in the right place and we didn't managed the pull through and got eliminated straight away! I determined to try the pull through, so I actually did 6 attempts and each time I failed! BooHoo! I wish I could try till I success but I knew I took up too much time so I have to carry on. Sizzle did his beautiful running DW to finish the course.

I never thought I will be unlucky enough to have more pull through but I did! In the Combined 4-6 Agility class, there were TWO pull throughs! Arrrrggghhh ... Of course, we went horribly wrong in that pull through sequence again! After that, I determined I want to be able to handle pull through, so this week is my PULL THROUGH WEEK. I am going to practice a lot of pull through!!!

On the good note, Sizzle did well in the Combined 5-7 Jumping. I know he is not a fast jumper but coming 6th is not too bad at all. The best thing was, we both managed the flat weave entry! WooHoo! A lot of dogs took the longer route to go into the weave but I told myself, I have been practicing the weave entry last week and I want to make sure he understands it and I am glad I did try and succeeded! That really made me very happy!

Sizzle then paired with Brodie. This is the tri boys first time pairing with each other. They ran really well together, with their time, they should have came 3rd but we didn't hear the briefing, I dropped the baton before Brodie finishing and that cause us 25 faults! What a silly rule!

I only entered Saturn in the Jumping, so he only had one Combined 6-7 Jumping class to run and the pair with Bracken. In the Jumping, we managed to do layering and I also got to send him to find the weave entry. I was behind a jump and flick him right to find the weave. I was standing in the middle of the weave, so it was very good for him to find the entry and weave independently. He got 7th in the Jumping.

Unfortunately, Saturn and Bracken didn't do well in the pairs. Saturn missed the weave entry!! Poor Brax must be so confused with all the pull throughs, she took the wrong jump! We don't care! Both Saturn and Bracken have a lovely time!

these were our runs at Chippenham:

and this is our pull through practice this morning:

After the show, we let the dogs run around the exercise area with Brodie and Bracken. 

We only took Sing, Saturn and Sizzle with us: