crazy weather

We have some crazy weather over the last 10 days. It hasn't been stop raining since? ... (that I can remember!), it was wet, cold and miserable. One good thing, the shelties are pretty hardy, they don't mind going out in this horrible weather, that makes life much easier. Funny enough, they knew their "walkie time". Everytime, when the clock hits 9am and if we are still hanging around without showing any sign of going out, they will keep coming to remind us their walkie time. 

Poor Seagull hasn't been out much lately due to the weather. He is that kind of dog that won't go out when it is wet, not even in the garden. I don't know how he can hold his toilet for so long? Silly dog! If I "force" him to go out, he will turn around and come in! Crazy!

We have a lot of flash flood around here, lots of big puddles on the road and we have some temporary ponds in the Common. All our rain gear didn't get to dry up properly. We feel rather soggy everyday but the shelties enjoyed their walk, that's what matter. 

We had one dry day yesterday! All day, it was warm, sunny and a little bit of breeze. I woke up early to walk the dogs, thinking the rain will come later. I walked Sing and Sizzle mainly on pavement, on lead for about 40 minute; then I decided Colin and I should take Saturn, Sipzie and Sonic for a long walk and we didn't plan that the long walk has turned out to be 5 hours walk! Phew! I am sure they enjoyed their long walk. You thought after a good solid 5 hours walk, they should be tired? Nope! Sonic was still going when we got home. I was exhausted and has to lie down for an hour before I can move!

 these two photos were taken with my iPhone, I wasn't sure if I should bring my camera, just in case the rain come.

We made used of the good weather, we did quite a bit of gardening between us. I mow the lawn, it was much needed as I struggled to clear up the dog poos in the long grass and wet weather. Colin tidying up the willow tree branches and his "vegetable garden". Although the garden is not water logged but it is very slippery and muddy. I slipped a few times while training Sonic and Sipzie in the garden today. I did stand on my feet though.

After we finished with the garden last evening, the rain come again! Grrr ... it then went on to rain all night and this morning :( Colin was a good daddy, he took the dogs out while I stay in the dry! After 11am, the rain stops and sun came out. Such a crazy weather!!

Colin got to spend a few hours to do his gardening and I got to practice agility with Sonic and Sipzie. I've tried to reinforce Sipzie's 2o/2o on the DW. I still struggled to get Sonic to turn after the DW. Sometimes, I think we got it and sometimes we lost it altogether :(  I have an old see-saw plank which I used it as a ground work to teach him to turn. He is brilliant on that, my marker is getting smaller each time. I think we have a big problem that he is not responsive to me. He likes to do whatever he wants to do. Our garden is long but not wide enough, so he will spin himself to go up the contacts (which are his favourites) where I want him to do something else. It annoyed me sometimes. 

Away from Agility, I didn't stop practising for him to come to me using clicker and treat. He is great if I have his toys and clicker. If I have nothing, he don't always come to me. He is not a people friendly dog which sometimes make training harder. His recall is 101% when we are out. He still doesn't like people touching him, that including me. He sometimes come to me for a fuss and he will let me stroke him but if I call him over or go over to him, he will go away from me. 

I started to do heelwork with him, I must say, although we are very raw but we are very slowly getting there with clicker & food. I am not sure what I do is actually helping as I do not want him to always look out for me, he is still a little bit clingy, I want him to be able to go away to do the obstacles independently especially when there is a straigtline, I want him to tackle the jumps without looking back at me.

His verbal directional cue on the DW is hopeless! He is turning well on jumps and on ground work but once he is on the DW, all he sees is straightline. I keep telling myself don't give up, go back to basic ...

I've been practice some left turn and right turn after the DW. This set up with the tunnel underneath the DW is for Sizzle but we didn't get a chance to practice as he is on rest at the moment; so I thought I will practice with Sonic to see if we can do it. I have to say, that take a lot of effort to teach him to turn sharp right into the tunnel. Good job that he is not worried that the black tunnel is underneath the DW.

We also practice some "sending" on the V Weave and half way recall. I think we need a lot of practice on the sending as he seems slower toward the port.

and we practice some V weave with tunnelling: