27th Dec 09

Well its been almost a year since I started training running contacts with Rodney, there has of course been some ups and downs. I used to write a diary practically everyday. Its just over a hundred A4 pages long, stopped writing it when Rod started competing it July, I may start it up again because it keeps me motivated and focused. Lately, well over the past few months actually, the weather has been so bad I hardly get to do any training, therefore my contacts really arent as good as they should be. I thought my dog walk was fine at Rugby, however after watching it back on video... hmm.. think I was wrong. This is very annoying because at the time I thought it was fine, so I continued with it. Then the next day at Woodside (Scotland) we had one agility class, jump jump dog walk and he jumped, so of course I picked him up and left the ring. Again very annoying, because he jumped and looked at me because ive been trying to do work off the contact where he comes to me, however if you want good running contacts your dog can not be looking at you as he/ she has to be listening to your commands rather than body. So... much to my dislike.. back to doing boring focus work off the dog walk. Going to try to do a bit 5 times a week. Depending on the weather of course. Am also going to try to video (have a new camera woohoo) once or twice aweek, so hopefully that will act a bit more like my diary used to, to keep me focused a bit more. Due to living in Wiltshire, I dont actually really have anyone to train with, so having to motivate myself is a bit harder than training with others.

Anyway on a better note, Rodney is still running pretty fast. Here below is a video of him at Rugby (12/12/09) 1- 2 is a bit wide cos I didnt handle it very well, then he also runs past the last jump, but who cares hes 23 months old, hes running pretty fast and is quite tidy in his turns...



Here below is Lucy running Phoebe in both her jumping and agility, she came 5th in the jumping and 6th in the agility... yes... two clear rounds, I couldnt believe it. Lucy had forgotten to enter Pie tut, so being a good friend like I am, I gave Lucy a dog for the day... a grade 7 spaniel haha!!..





Next few shows lined up.... UKA on the 2nd of Jan, just going to do a few dog walks and see-saws with toys at the end. Then try to win the beginners jumping. Phoebe.. well who knows... maybe I should take Lucy again to run her. Then we have Wimslow the weekend after and Ribble the weekend after that. I really really could do with an indoor arena so I can train indoors... back to looking for the rich boyfriend thing again la la la!! One day!!

xoxo

P.s Phoebe and Rodney in the park this morning :-)

Rain = Rubbish

I can honestly say since my last post I have pretty much done nothing with the dogs apart from walk them. Went to Spain on Holiday, which was fun :)Worked quite a bit, need to work more to pay off lots of things :9 Still looking for a rich boyfriend/ husband... having no luck at present though :(!

So, due to this stupid amount of rain we are having I havent done much training, however have done a bit. None with Phoebe though :( Rodney once again has been fantastic... I love him! See-saws have got a bit naughty again tut, so need to go back to working on them. A-frames and Dog Walks have been amazing. I literally just test them out on what I can do.... anything. Hes just brilliant. Ok one thing I need to continue working on is my "here" command off the dog walk. But he seems to have the tight turns off the contacts pretty under control. I guess the next 12 months will see if that statement is correct or not. I think the only thing im not really happy about is my weaves, he is still two footing since Gillingham, however when I put him through tight channels hes back swimming again. Sammie and I do train on wide weaves, so next time I go down to train with Lee, im going to take a set of premier weaves down to swap with the Adams (tight weaves) he trains on, so will hopefully solve that in the next few months.

I am hoping it wont rain so much tomorrow, so can get on and do some training. Maybe video like promised last time. Working Sunday- Friday then we have Rugby and Woodside, which I am quite excited about.

xoxo

Catch up....

Ok, I am totally useless and did sort of forget about my blog until the otherday.. oops! Last time I wrote anything on here, we had just got back from Norfolk show, where Ploddy Roddy had just gone Grade 6, clever dog. I sort of classed Norfolk as my last proper show of the year, where I had decided I needed to give the dogs a little bit of time off then get back into training. Think I gave the dogs two weeks off, then will give them three weeks at Christmas. I really don’t like the idea of giving six- eight weeks off, because then when you bring the dogs back, unless you are sensible like Lee Windeatt, you bring them back to training week one and expect them to do everything they were doing six weeks ago before you put them on rest, you also expect them to be just as fit. I think if I did this, I would forget like most. Also I heard three people say at North Downs show at the weekend “This is my first show back from their winter rest, they came back two days ago” what!!??!! So they have done no fitness work or training and are going to do four runs… hmm… interesting… not very smart huh! Anyway back to what I was saying… after Norfolk and the dogs rest. I couldn’t get myself back into training, I don’t have Lee to train with anymore (well not often anyway) because ive moved back to Wiltshire, I had sort of got myself in a routine which didn’t involve training, it was a lot colder all of a sudden and basically I just couldn’t be bothered. I had so much to work on with young Rods, I had no idea where to start. However luckily, I got my self back together and begin at the beginning, made myself a little list of what I needed to practice, and it seems to be going ok so far :D!

At the end of Oct I went and stayed with Garry Lee (not like that) for a few days. On the Thurs I traveled up via the Stokoes and did a bit of training with them, Rodney ended up being ill, so we had to cut training short ! While up at Garrys we had a great time, well I did anyway. For my birthday present (I was 21) Garry paid for me to get my tattoo done :D I got a mustang (galloping horse) on my right inner upper ankle tehe, I still like it 3 weeks on which is a bonus. I don’t think I’ll be having any more done, think that got my rebellious bit out of me. On Sunday the 1st we went to Broxburn show, which was ten mins down the road from Garry. This was Rodneys first grade 6’s. Grade 6 agility had two dog walks, two aframes and no see-saws, soon as I saw the course, I thought wayhay here comes our first win to grade 7. Once again as soon as I thought I was going to win, it all went Pete Tong. Rod had a pole, so I sort of gave up, changed the course slightly and left the ring. Sarah Stokoe however won it with her young dog, fantastic round, she only needs one more win for 7 . Then we had 6/7 combined jumping, nice course, however I got Rod E’d, I had to pull him across the face of a jump, however I didn’t tut! Once again though he ran well. Grade 6 jumping left, was a totally stupid course, it literally was just jump turn jump turn, think I used 12 steadys and did 7 front crosses, because I wasn’t committed due to it being a crap course, Rod got worried and ran really slow. However luckily due to being up in Scotland we still finished 2nd, 0.5 I think, behind the winner. Everyone thinks winning in Scotland is really easy, ok it is easier than winning down here, however I do think most southerners forget there are good dogs up north too. I think by going by general speed the dogs are faster up north, however there handling and turns are no where near as good as a lot of people down here. Basically to sum it up, after everything I have heard, I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed myself. That’s lucky I enjoyed myself, because Lucy Clifton and I are going back up there for Woodside next month, hope she doesn’t read this post, because I haven’t mentioned the shows in Scotland, just said it was up north… la la la!!

So North Downs, four runs, no clear rounds tut! However Rods was running so much faster who cares. Below are the runs, once again kindly videoed by Lucy Clifton. In the first agility below, you can see I get E’d because my handling off of the dog walk, Rod goes straight into the wrong end of the tunnel. If there is anything I can do off of contacts it is wrong end tunnels. So the next day I go training up the field, I decide this needs to be set up, I was expecting perfection like usual, however, it wasn’t at all, first two times he went into the wrong end (the end I didn’t want him to go into) :O I was so happy, you may ask why. I was so happy due to the fact, if I cant do something in the ring, I also love it when I cant do it in training because atleast then I can work on it. If its just something you cant do in the ring, but its always perfect in training it is soooo much harder to sort out. So of course we are going to be working on this. I have now introduced my “here” command whilst he is on the contact and not as he is leaving, due to the fact he has speed up and hopefully will keep speeding up, leaving the “here” until he is leaving the contact is too late. Have done this once is training so far, just on a plank and it seems to be working very well, so fingers crossed.










Also a huge well done to Lucy and Pie for winning grade 6 agility, lovely run. Two wins down, two to go !

I almost forgot about poor little Phoebe. Broxburn, I think we did an extra jump in every run, however for once she ran well. Then at North downs, she had one clear round, which we trained and came 4th in, the other two rounds, she wanst too bad, however E’s! I am starting to have a little more faith in her. Paul Oldfield mentioned how he needs a medium ticket… so…. If naughty little Phoebe will run with him…. Hahahha watch this space lol!!
Here is Phoebes clear round…



Well im off to Spain on Friday for a nice long weekend with a couple of friends. Have two weekends off, then Rugby and Woodside. Will hopefully not forget about my blog again, if I can remember how to upload videos, I will take some of Rods in training next weekend and put on here.

xoxo

My internet sucks...

Well I am only hmmm 2/3 weeks late with this post. My excuse is my internet, I for-whatever reason seem to live in the middle of no where and the internet is so painfully slow, it kills me! I can never get myself together enough to even be bothered to try to get on. The only way I really seem to keep in contact with the world is via facebook on my phone!

Back to the dogs though, so my last show was Norfolk. Seemed to do pretty good, Rodney won a combined 4/5 jumping and a grade 5 agility, then he had a 2nd in grade 5 jumping and another 2nd in 3-5 jumping. Phoebe, well im sure you can guess... er err! She did however have some almost rounds lol! Poor little Phoebe, as of today I started training her again, seeing how she will be in champ next year I thought id better, don't want to embarrass myself any more than I already do!

Since Norfolk, I have got very slack on the training front, been more interested in boys, out-going, make-up etc... tut tut! However that is over and I am finally back in the game ready to get back to training. So I said before I had a see-saw issue... I have of course done a bit of work on this. I am very lucky Rod learns very quick, so ive literally only done a bit and hes got the hang of it already.. I hope. Ive proofed it in two new venues and he has been perfect. So just need to get to afew more venues and get in the ring to see if its properly sorted.

Hopefully this Sunday Lucy and I will pop down to train with Lee, I am sure ive picked up some bad habits since I haven't trained with him for awhile now... :(! However he watches all my videos from shows then tells me what he thinks im doing wrong which always helps, so I can go away and work on it. Apart from hes mentioned a few times now that I waggle my finger if im picking Rod up from a tunnel, I actually cant stop myself from doing it ahhhhh!! Then next Thurs, I am travelling up north stopping and training with the Stokoes and Jennings for the day (another new venue for Rodders) then continuing EVEN further up north to SCOTLAND :0! To stay with Gary Lee for a couple of days, and doing the Broxburn show (Rods first grade 6, think I forgot to mention earlier, due to Rod winning the grade 5 agility at Norfolk, he is now grade 6.)For the rest of the year I have North Downs and Rugby (Kc shows) then think I have entered a UKA or two, plus Corton are having a limited show in a couple of weeks, so have got that too! My only issue really is, the fact ive got to work to pay for all of this :( its rubbish and as my friends know, I am still on the look out for a rich boyfriend who can fund me, so if anyone finds one pleaseeee send him my way, thank you :D!!

I was going to finish the blog with a few videos from Norfolk however, they have changed the format on youtube and I can not for the live of me figure out how to now put them onto my blog, think Ill have to speak to charlotte of Lucy! The videos are on Lucys youtube page though... lucykippie! (dont want the one where I tried to run pie lol)

xoxo

Five Rivers

Ok, so Five Rivers show was last weekend, I am a bit late updating this and can prob not remember most things anymore. Guess thats good, this maybe a shorter post for once.

So, lets get Phoebe out the way to start with, I remember last post saying how I was really happy with how she was running and how she is all of a sudden so much better, ok if im allowed to take that back.. its taken back. She was useless, or maybe I was useless.. one or the other, prob the latter. I dont think we got a clear round once again, not even in the H/S lol.. tut! I took her out of two runs for being an idiot, then in one run Lucy and I swear she was E'd, however she got an 8th.. who knows.

Rodney wasnt too bad, ok yes still need to work on waits and see-saws, but apart from that hes running well. Once again getting faster every show through confidence. It is still showing if I dont go into the ring 100% he will not run right, luckily I am getting better at this though. This weekend was slightly annoying, cos he ran well but I kept making silly mistakes, making him wide, hence why he had 3 clear rounds and only 3 2nds. However he was never far off the winner and I know if I hadnt made stupid handling mistakes he could of won all 3. I know I know, everyone can say that from time to time, if not all the time "If I hadnt of been E'd 3 times, I would of won!" But when im saying it I am once again refering to his speed across the course.

So here goes come videos, luckily Lucy Clifton came with me so she videoed a lot of my runs :-) Here is 4/5 graded agility, ok up until the see-saw, you can see he slightly flew the see-saw tut, then I messed the end up cos I hadnt walked the course. From this video you can see why I keep saying I MUST work on my see-saw...



Here is the other 4/5 graded agility which we came 2nd in. Jo Thorpe with her dog Kyp won it by 0.5. As you can see not our best run, but I guess its good to have them all on video so you can see what needs to be worked on... yes most of this round needs to be worked on actually...



Here is one of the jumpings Rod came 2nd in, think this is the one he was 0.6 behind in due to the end I messed up, then the other jumping he came 2nd in, he was 0.09 behind, naughty Lucy forgot to video! :P



Last video of the show, we have the H/S combined 1-7, I was so pleased with the speed Rod started with in this run. However I somehow get E'd or faults or something, I have no idea whats wrong with me. Paul (oldfield) told me I had to run inside the box due to the position of the box, I was like no no no, on the outside will be fine, however I did it all wrong and well basically Paul was right, think I must of been one of the only people to get E'd lol. There were some fantastic times in this course, Elaine with Davey did it in 13.23 :O!...



That was a bit of an over view of last weekend, due to not really remembering what happened. When I get chance and Lucy puts the videos from Norfolk on youtube, I will post a new blog :-).

Chow (think thats how you spell it) for now xoxo

Gillingham

Ok, so Gillingham, prob not my best show this year so far. I was basically CRAP! I knew the dogs were working too well at Northern Week and something would have to bring me back down to earth, Gillingham it was.

So Phoebe, can safely say as usual we didnt have a clear round lol, the closest we got was in one of the 6/7 agilitys, she did a nice run however stopped 4 off on her A-frame, so I corrected then continued with the run. In the Crufts Singles, there was none of the usual quick collies, im mainly speaking about Dizzy and Minx, so I thought ooooo I could actually win this (I also really liked the course for Phoebe) so I went into win, however ran out of breath and she did a wrong jump, ok slightly annoying, however shes really starting to run well, finally at almost 6 years old!

Rodney... Saturday, in the agility, it was 3-5, I thought wayhay ill win this easily... that was not the case and I should never think like that again!!! It was just a crap run, he was wide and slow, then cos I basically just wanted to get out of the ring cos I wasnt happy with the run, I sent Rod up the A-frame, not sure if I said anything and he actually missed... what is wrong with me? Why must I keep making these silly mistakes? I know with my contacts even if ive gone wrong, I must continue to work them, but I didnt. Of course after this run I was veryyy angry with myself for letting Rods down again. I didnt see the A-frame however I am presuming he jumped, which is not good enough. However like I keep getting told, since hes been out thats only his second A-frame he had done incorrectly, so I really shouldnt complain. In the jumping, he didnt listen to a steady before the weaves, then after the weaves there was another, and he really didnt listen, so I corrected and continued. A few people asked why I did this because I was still clear, however I really dont want to allow too many bad turns in the ring, you dont allow missed weaves or missed/ incorrect contacts, so why allow bad turns?

On the Sunday I came back to Gillingham with a lot better positive attitude. In the jumping with Rods I ran off too earlier on a turn and should of got 5R, then had another stupidly wide turn because I couldnt get there in time due to the last jump I had ran off on, basically it was a crap run, however I wanted to work the end, so Rod would come out of the ring happy and I could praise loads. Somehow he managed a 3rd lol, he hadnt got marked where we thought he should of had a 5R. In the agility, it was an ok run, apart from me being a bit crap, he did however fly his see-saw, I didnt correct cos I wasnt sure at the time. Again not much I can say, apart from I know this is my main weakness and trust me I will be working on it. The only problem at the moment is due to the fact we've really only just got back from Northern Week, im trying to give the dogs a bit of time off, where I really need to train, but well of course im not. After 5 fivers and Norfolk, dogs can have a bit of time off then I can get back training properly ready to come out fighting next year.

So I was pretty crap and didnt get any new videos of Rodney :( however Lucy Clifton and I are going to 5 fivers the following weekend, then Norfolk, so we are sure to get some there :).

Also Rod did actually run at quite a good speed on Sunday, so do I think hes going to be good and fast enough to do well in gr7... yes, yes I do. I think peoples opinions of him by this time next year will change, hes a good little dog we'll show you :)

xoxo

Dashin Dogs and Northern Week

So… Dashin Dogs and Northern Week.

Lets start by saying both dogs were fantastic… this may not come out of my mouth again for some time, so lets run with it :D

Dashin Dogs. Phoebe actually ran really well, however we kept having one pole or running past the last fence in too many classes to mention, it was a shame, however I was pleased with her and her contacts were getting faster cos I was training all her runs (they were getting faster cos she was actually starting to understand her position again.)

Rodney… well he was just brilliant!!! He had 7 wins and a few other places, all week he only had 2 poles and flew one see-saw (so I corrected of course) how good is that? For a pup of 19 months old, to go to a week (6 days competing show) and only have 2 poles, perfect A-frames, Dog Walks and Weaves. The only thing that started to show was his waits weren’t quite as good, I never allowed him to break any, however they were getting pushy and I was releasing too early to prevent him breaking, thinking about it now, I shouldn’t of done that, but we all make mistakes I guess. I think it was 4 agility wins and 3 jumping, which atleast shows hes fast enough to win jumpings and its not just his contacts which are saving him time, its his turns too. Some will say well there was only 70 odd dogs in the grade 4’s so it was easy to win, however… I always compared his time to the grade 3’s in the class, so it made it almost 300 dogs I was comparing him too each time and when he was still beating all of there times  he also won afew 4/5 combined classes, so again he was also beating not just grade 3’s and 4’s but 5’s as well.

I really enjoyed Dashin and the ground was no where near as bad as everyone made out, cant remember all the results, however… Lennon (Rods litter bro) and Jon when gr2 by winning 1 /2agility. Lucy Oneil and Rue won a gr5 agility, and I think John Cook and Mac won 2/3 jumping classes (I have to say again.. how much of a fantastic dog I think he is… I want him, Mac not John this is.)

We then drove from Dashin Dogs to Northern week, should have been a 3 hour drive, took 6 and half due to traffic… erghhhh it was horrible! Then when we arrived the weather was sooo crap, I couldn’t even cope, awning did NOT go up! On the plus side, the showers were fantastic, so hot and you could go in them whenever you liked… *cough* unlike Dashin where they only got opened from like 5-7pm everyday, you had to que for atleast an hour, usually in the rain until you got in them, then they were too hot, or usually too cold and there was like no power.. just crap!

We then did like Dashin 3 days competing, 2 days off then another 3 days competing. Rod was ok for the first day, won an agility, however on the 2nd and 3rd days, he was really weird (prob tired, I don’t blame him, I know I was) he just didnt run right, he went a bit flat (therefore slow) and just wasn’t right, we had our first clear in an agility class which we didn’t win :O I think it was safe to say Ploddy Roddy walked around. However like Lee said to me after “That will teach you, and there is a lesson to be learnt… basically don’t do it again.” Ive prob confused you now. The reason he said this was because, we both know Rodney runs to my mood and how I run him. You get some dogs which basically run the same speed whatever you do, Rodney is not one of these dogs. If I don’t go in the ring 100% confident about the course and what im doing, Rod picks up on this and will not run right. So basically my lesson was, run like a girl and not going into the ring confident, I will continue to get silly places like 2nd’s, where I have no1 to blame but myself. So after that I think I gave him a couple of runs off, trained him the next day in Lee’s training group, so I could give him some confidence (and maybe a bit for myself) by playing with him with his toy in the ring. He then had a day off and came back for the next 3 days competiting absolutely brilliant :D He then won both the gr4 agility and the 1-7 combined agility. He didn’t just win the combined, he won it by 1.1 seconds, I know there wasn’t lots of that good handlers and dogs left at Northern week, however there were a few, so I was still very pleased. Then I think on the last day he won another gr4 agility and the rest of his runs were pretty good. Only mistakes, apart from having me handling him, were he came out of one set of weaves cos I decided to test him and run off to the right and he came with me dohh! Then he had a few poles and a couple of places in 1-7 jumping classes.

Phoebe also did very well…. She finally went grade 7 WOOHOOO!! I have wanted one win with her for agesss… anything I needed, and she managed to get 5 wins!! Typical!! I knew I should of gone up north last year!

On the whole Northern Week was a really fun good week, they had Bingo… which is always a winner with me, I got to teach Lee how to play which was interesting. Alison and Gunner won grade 3 agility, her 2nd clear ever I think :D I saw Toni and Beep do quite a few runs, she is looking so much better, she won a grade 3 agility, by 2 seconds I think, it just shows you can not write dogs off because they don’t come out a hundard miles an hour (something else Lee has to keep telling me regarding Rods.) People still think Rodney is slow and crap, I think/ hope these people will have to eat there words once he finds his feet, I don’t think anyone really realizes, Rod has just turned 20 months old 5 days ago, give the little lad a break! Back onto results… Sarah Stokoe and Chance won the large Champ Ticket :D I ran Dylon in champ, went clear in the jumping (1 of 12, out of 62 that were in it.) Then got E’d in the agility grrrr I was so angry with myself, just shows you actually really do need a wait (Dylon does not have one lol.) I also ran Indistorm Tom Boy (Pete Jennings young dog) one of Rodneys half brothers, both out of Dylon.) In my opinion he is potentially the best dog in the country, he is just fantastic, I would have him right now no questions asked.

I did find a few things weird about Northern week, the main was one was you could do whatever you like… whatever goess… I couldn’t even cope for the first couple of days. Aka I wasn’t sent any running orders… doesn’t matter, just turn up whenever to run. You could enter classes on the day, and the worst thing I couldn’t deal with was the fact the judges were allowed to change the order of classes in there rings eg In ring 2 it would be, small 1-4 jumping, medium 1-4 jumping, large 1-7 jumping, then medium 1-7 jumping, you think ok im in large and medium 1-7, I can have a lie in, no no nooooo… 8am over the tannoy… “Ring plan change, we will now be doing the large 1-7 jumping, then poss medium 1-7, if you have a look on the ring it will tell you the new order.” Sorry what….?? Are they allowed to do this? I have no idea, however not many people seemed to mind, it was just the norm so I was told, by the end of the week I was almost going with the flow.

Here is a pic of Rod will all his rosettes and trophys from both shows...



And Phoebe with hers... not quite so impressive, however I dont think shes ever won more than two classes at one given show lol, so I thought I'd better mark this by taking a picture...



Now for the good pics, Sammie asked me to do something about her slugs on her face, sorry I mean eyebrows, so here we have a before and after shot...






One more funny pic from my phone, here is Sammie after she banned her funny bone on the window, doesnt she look funny :P...



Ok things to work on… everything with Phoebe lol… aww no, poor Phoebs, mainly me not doing so many dumbies with her and weave entries. Rodney, See-saws and Waits, I forgot to say, he also flew another see-saw at Northern week tut, so I have been working on them this week, they are loads better, however something I will continue to have to work on for the next month I reckon.

So this weekend we have Gillingham, Rodneys first grade 5 :S… scary! Im also running Dylon in champ again, going to attempt to get to the final this time.

xoxo

Tenterden, Burridge and KC Festival

Rodneys 3rd, 4th and 5th shows!

Tenterden, in short (not like most of my posts)... perfect contacts :)however we seemed to have poles in most runs, think this was because Rod was starting to speed up :D! He did however manage a 2nd in grade 3/4 jumping, 0.03 behind John Cook and Mac, which I was really please about because Mac in my opinion is one of the best young dogs around. Phoebe and my pairs partner Rob Harris and Hamish came 2nd in medium pairs :) Phoebes only clear of the weekend I think lol

Burridge... No places :( However perfect contacts with Rodders again, he was sooo close in Novice Olympia, but... I pushed him too much over a jump and he landed long and actually in the weaves so we got E'd, I was gutted... I really wanted to win that class of all classes. Phoebe also ran really well for once, I didnt push her at a jump off the dog walk and she span so we got 5 faults in her Olympia qualifer :( stupid handler... I think she may of got through if I hadnt of done that too, never mind... next year. Tash won it with Dizzy, was one of the best runs ive even seen, pleasure to watch as always!

KC Festival... Rods second show running at grade 4 (he only had one class at Burridge where he ran at grade 4) Well he ran very well indeed, first class of the weekend, Rod did a brilliant run in the grade 4/5 agility and won it by 2 seconds woohoo. He also managed a 2nd in gr4 jumping, 0.3 behind Lesley Olden and her nice little Nedlo Toot. I really think Rod sped up lots this weekend, I am very pleased with how he is running, couldnt be more pleased actually. So... as of Gillingham he will be running in Gr5. Yes hes gone up abit quick, but what can you do..? Hes more than capible, ill just have to make sure he doesnt get any agility wins throughout September to keep him in Gr5 for the winter, then hopefully do lots of UKA and bring him out next Easter again at Gr5, and hopefully try for the Novice Olympia... again :)

My friend Lyn who owns Rodneys sister is over and living with me atm, we have been training together which has been fun this week. Thursday we are off to Dashin dogs for the week, then straight up to Northern week for the following week :) My only problem is, so far Lee Windeatt has been at all the same shows as me since Rodney has been out, therefore he has helped me walk most of my courses to make sure I go the correct direction etc... he is not at Dashin, so I am slightly worried about how I am going to handle :S hopefully the video camera will be fixed before we go, so I will atleast be able to video my runs so I can see if/ what I do wrong. He will however be at Northern week for the first part :)

Here is the last couple of weeks sumed up in afew pictures...

Sammie at Tenerden on my Iphone, on facebook, checking up on her Fairy, Roman, Puppy, Cat, Pony etc etc etc... How much does she look like a baby Gorilla, this is one of my fav pics on my phone, had it as my background for a day, but thought that was abit weird and didnt want anyone to see so I changed it back to a pic of Phoebe lol



Here is Lee's Bold on his table, training for the World Championships..





Lucy Cliftons Pie after training with a red nose on tehe..




Lee Gibson deciding what part of the KFC he was going to eat first, Fri night at the KC Fest, first time ive seen Gibbons in agesssss....





Dave and Ian (Sarah Stokoes husband to be)again Fri night at the KC Fest...




Todd, Rodneys brother who was over from Jersey, what a hansome young chap...




I think Rod forgot that there are cows in his garden, after arriving home from the KC Fest...




Well.. two more days of work, then two weeks "holiday" as Sammie keeps saying! Ooo yer, I better also say, well done to Sammie and Woody (Rods half brother, Woody not Sammie)and there flyball team for becoming British or World Champions this weekend, or something like that, I dont really get it, however I am sure its a big deal in flyball world, so well done :D!

xoxo

Agility Club (Rodneys 2nd show)

I know I know, I said Weardale was going to be Rods 2nd show however after looking at the weather forecast, and the show organisers advising against camping at the show, I decided an 11 hour round trip to basically just have a bash at the novice chum wasnt worth it. So instead I went out drinking in Swindon for the weekend... lifes tough sometimes :-P!

Anyway after Rugby and my missed A-frame, you can guess what ive been training lol. I also drove down to Kent for an evening to do some training with Lee, he teaches me so much everytime we train together, I have no idea how anyone gets around an agility course, without training with someone good like him on a regular basis.

The Friday before Agility Club I was really ill, I took the day off work and laid in bed all day feeling sorry for myself, somehow got myself together and drove down to the show (30mins down the road, I was camping)I went over Carole Harris'for the evening, didnt even drink... just proves how ill I was! Sat morning I attempted to walk my Novice Chum, the only class I really wanted to win, had to have a few breaks inbetween cos of dizzyness. It was pretty hard for a 3-5, after walking it with Lee I felt alot more confident. I personally felt the run was practically perfect, well apart from the weave entry we missed. As I turned around I was literally pointed at the 2nd weave, a more experienced dog wouldnt of had a problem, but I guess I should give him a break, being his 2nd show and all lol. Here is the run below... kindly videoed my Lucy Clifton...



We also had a jumping, which was so easy, I decided it couldnt go wrong... that will teach me! I decided for some reason to cross behind a flat tunnel, which wasnt the thing to do. I also decided to cross behind before telling Rod to go in it, so I basically got him 5 faults.. tut! Rest of the run was ok though. This very same course Tash and Jive (Rodneys Sister) did a STUNNING run, until Tash let her jump the wrong jump just before the end, I am pretty sure they would of won it! Here it is...



Rods last run of the day was the pairs which we did with Sammie and Dylon (Rodneys Dad)Rod did a nice clear, afew turns werent perfect and it wasnt amazingly fast, but it was acceptable. Sammie however got us E'd... :-P Here are our runs...



Phoebe had no good rounds on the Sat, however luckly had one good one on Sunday, where she came 3rd.

Rods grade 3 agility on Sunday I really liked, was a lovely lovely course! I however didnt call in time coming out of the tunnel and he saw the dog walk and thought wayhay another go, so I got us E'd. Contacts once again were perfect. The camera dies just after the see-saw, however in this run, I decide to correct the see-saw, cos I thought he had flown it slightly, dont get me wrong, I dont think it was enough for a judge to mark, how many judges mark any form of see-saws? However I want my contacts to be perfect, therefore I will be a 100% consistant in the ring. After watching my video back, I believe it was a perfect see-saw and I see no reason for my correction in the ring... damn it! Anyway here is the video... I actually think he is starting to look a wee bit faster :)



Unfortunatly by the time Rods 3-5 jumping had come along, Lucy had gone home so it didnt get videoed. Was another good run though, however he came 9th, abit of a rubbish place I know... only 0.9 behind the winner (Leah and Hex)so I wont complain too much.

For some reason this has been one of the best shows. So many funny things happened I dont have time to write them all. I will however mention some of the Paul Oldfield ones! (If you dont know Paul, I doublt you will find any of this funny... sorry)
1) He won the SMALL CHAMPIONSHIP TICKET with Scout! Which now makes the dog AG CH! The jumping run was amazing to watch. Soooo funny... I have never seen Paul work a course so hard, he almost got E'd but saved it, had no idea the old man could move so fast. I missed both the agility and final rounds :( There was however a large turnout cos everyone knew Paul was in them (I dont think the small final has ever had such a large audience :-P.) I have also never seen Lee laugh so much and/or so hard!
2) In the Large Crufts Singles, he was saying to Lee how you should be practically in the tunnel as you do a reverse for a certain bit of the course. Paul however took this too literally, ended up with a leg wedged in it, falling backwards, how he didnt end up totally ass over tit I have nooooooo idea. Lucy and I were laughing soooo hard it hurt, for some reason, we couldnt see anyone else laughing though, o well lol!
3) Paul was doing a really nice clear in the Chum, Lee had advised him that at number 19 a "spinning blind" would work nicely... erm... Paul was very excited that he was going clear (there hadnt been too many) he got to it, wasnt committed and got a 5R... tut... he straight away pointed the blame to Lee of course!

This weekend was also good because, some how or another Lucy Clifton won a class... she hadnt even walked the course, and.. she had a really wide snake thing. Only 3 more to go :D! Her team (Thames) also qualified for Crufts.. yay!
Tash and Maddie won the large ticket, I think thats there 4th :)

We are at Tenterden next weekend, Rods last weekend running at grade 3, lets hope the weather is nice.

xoxo

Rodneys first show!

As most know, it was Rodneys first show over the weekend. Something I have looked forward to however also dreaded for some time now.

The weather was crap on Saturday and my hair went curly and erghh, not a great start, but I soldiered on! First up was one of Rods agilitys, was a lovely course, I really liked it. All contacts were perfect, I just got too excited towards the end and pulled him out of his weaves by calling his name, what a numpty! However, despite my bad handling I was very pleased with the run. We had another agility next (both were either 1-3 or 1-4)this was again a nice ish course, had a couple of bits I didn't like, but I was happy I was going to get around it... this however was not the case. It was a sharp right turn off the A-frame, I have done this a million times in training and I know we can do it perfect, however he jumped, therefore I could not continue, I corrected by doing the A-frame again. I was very surprised he did this, I then ran the rest of the course terribly, which is NOT acceptable. I always tell him once on dog walk what direction he will be coming off of it, this however I did not do and Lee said I wasn't even running right I was doing everything half heartily, which again isn't acceptable, anyway he came off dog walk side ways cos he didn't know where he was going... TOTALLY my fault, the thing with running contacts is, even though it was my fault, I couldn't continue with the run, so I left the ring. Very annoyed about A-frame and for myself for not running rest of course right. Later on there was a practise ring, I did a few dog walks, they were perfect. Then I did afew A-frames, "goes" were perfect, then I mainly spent my 2 mins of time on equipment doing turns off A-frame, these however were only 50%, I don't even remember my contacts ever being that bad. Yes I am annoyed, however just shows an area which I will be focusing on over the next few days or however long it takes to make perfect. I can not get him to do anything wrong in training regarding his contacts, therefore it shows I must get to more new venues to train.

I also had a jumping run on the Sat, Lee had told me the best way to run it, I did what he said and it worked perfectly :D Rod was abit slow in and out of turns, however when I started running so did he. I couldn't really fault the run though, I actually think I handled well for once... weird! His turns were perfect, his weaves were great, was just a nice run... his 3rd ever run, first clear and he came 7th :)Phoebe was also good, by having all clears, she picked up a 2nd in grade 6 jumping... so close, I'm starting to think she may actually go grade 7 one of these days :P

Sunday... Well Sat night was abit of a drinking night shall we say. I drank a little too much and had next to no sleep tut! Lucy Clifton was veryy funny and drunk this evening HA!! Therefore Sunday was abit of a struggle!! Rodneys first jumping class was again really nice. I have spoken to Lee regarding how much I should push/ pressure Rods in the ring, he believes you should be calm, collect and let the dog have there head to start with when you first get in the ring to prevent pressuring and blowing there minds, so this is what I have been doing in his jumping (have to push in agility cos of contacts)Even with just basically doing a nice training round like the jumping on the Sat, Rod came 4th in Grade 3 woohoo. Sian and Eddi won it (It was also Eddi's first show :)) Dave and Nala came 2nd, not sure who come 3rd. Rodneys next jumping class, I was useless in, got around with just having one pole (Rodneys only pole of the weekend)however I wasn't happy with the way I handled at all. So my last run of the weekend 1-4 agility I was determined to do better 1) cos it was our next agility class since Rod jumped A-frame on the Sat, 2) I had just handled terribly in jumping! Gary Woodham was judging, again was a good following course. I literally woke up, thought s**t hope my class is still running ran down, saw Lee and said I was running, then went in the ring. Luckily I did wake up, cos Rod was fantastic and won the class WOOHOOOOOO!!! After watching Heges run with her youngest I honestly didn't think I could beat it. Of course I was really pleased, so grade 4 here we come :D!

Here is a pic of Rods with his trophy and rosette from winning combined 1-4 agility, there was roughly 180 dogs in the class.



I also saw Natasha Wise run Rodneys sister, Jive. She is looking fantastic :D! I think Tash won every class with Dizzy this weekend, including Champ and Crufts singles, I don't know why other people, including myself with mediums even bother... no-one else can even compare.

Today was the GB world team try outs. Lee and Bold won the large overall woohoo (hope he doesn't start charging me for training :S)Sue Rolfe and Kes also made the team, which I am really pleased about. Natasha and Dizzy won medium :)

Once again another very long posting, I know I could prob go on alot more, however ill save it for next week. Weardale this weekend coming :D! xoxo

UKA Newbury

Today I took a day off revision (prob not one of my smartest moves) to take the dogs to UKA. Started the day by running Sammie Stevens Dylon (Dylon E Do Well (Rodneys dad)) as always he was a pleasure to run. Not sure why hes always such a pleasure though, he doesn't have a wait which is quite annoying however it doesn't seem to matter too much, cos he listens so well to other commands. I hate to say it, I mean I really hate to say it, however its like hes been ok or quite well trained.. weird! However we went clear in Champ Steeplchase and came 3rd, which I was quite happy with :) more impressed I kept him out of a tunnel I thought he would fly in.

I then did two classes with Phoebe, it was clear the heat was really affecting her, so I didnt run her in other two classes. In the evening it was the Royal Canin final, which Lee Gibson was judging (Phoebe had qualified for.) Once again he set another very good course. His courses are always so good because it is clear there has been so much thought gone into them, by having hard but fast options, then the slower but safer options. Hes also big on his obstacle discrimination rather than the million pull through option. I know hes a friend however he has to be one of the best judges in the country. Despite Lee being good, I wasn't so, could be due to the fact I hardly ever train her (naughty of me I know.)She missed weaves, then came out of them.. tut. Luckily I got a free t-shirt, which actually fit ish, well compared to everyone elses, was funny cos people were really struggling to get into them. Afew people prob shouldn't of bothered, wasn't a nice site... whoops :P!

Well of course I didnt just go to Newbury to run Phoebe, Rodney got to do two runs too. He did a lovely run in the Beginners Steeplechase, where he ran past the last jump, hes still so baby and not running as fast as I want, however I really cant complain it could be going alot worse. We then had Nursery agility, once again I took my own line so I could do the contacts twice, they were perfect :) Lets hope he can keep it up and do the same at Rugby :D!

Here is a video of Rodney today, I must thank Sammie for videoing and putting online for me so quick, I am very impressed. Especially after she went clear in same Steeplechase with Rodneys brother Mika and I was talking too much and missed the 1st 5 jumps on video... whoops! Not like me at all :P!



xoxo

Exams Exams Exams

Not much to report at the moment training wise, I have soo many exams on (however all over in a week woohoo, well until re-takes lol) so hardly have any time to train. I did take it upon my self to have two mini breaks to train today though :P Like I said in my last post, my equipment is on my uni grounds, so when studying or in lectures I can pop out and do abit which is greatttt!

Today I did afew dog walks in the morning with Rod, they were excellent, 100%. Mainly worked on wrapping around end of dog walk into a tunnel, I haven't done any like this for a long while, so was very surprised how good he was. Then in the evening, did afew snakes and weave entries, again he was brilliant, did everything perfect, just came out of one set of weaves because I was testing him trying to make them more independent (with Rod going one way in the weaves and me running off the other.) Lee keeps going on about this to me, I just never get around to working on it, because it bores me, however I know hes right it is really important to have good independent weaves, so I WILL keep going at it. Didnt get chance to do anything with Phoebe :( She barks the whole train when training, so cant really run her at uni throughout the day because she would disturb everyone, whereas Rod is a good boy and is silent :)

Here are afew pics of Rodders and Phoebe today :)







hehe



xoxo

Laura's Agility Blog

Here is abit of my life story, to bring everyone up-to-date :)...

Hello, my names Laura Chudleigh and I am 20 years old. Currently living in Maidstone, Kent. I am studying at The European School of Osteopathy. I live with my two dogs Phoebe and Rodney, and three other first year students.

I am very lucky that Lee Windeatt lives near me, so we train on my equipment which is located on the grounds of my uni. He is a brilliant handler and trainer, however I really must stop advertsing him, because otherwise he will soon be too busy teaching others to teach me (and I need as many lessons as I can get.)

I am hoping I can use this blog to keep a record of my training and shows, also to keep a check on rumours, I am always hearing new ones about who im supposed to be sleeping with or who im up to something with. 9 times out of 10, they are totally incorrect, most rumours are quite funny and I like them, one because I know they are not true and two, guess I like the attention lol... notice how I said 9 times ;)!!

As I am sure most know (or my friends which will read my blog will know) I am attempting running contacts with Rodney... scary! You may ask, why??? Why on earth try running contacts, Rodney is only my second dog, my first proper one (first border collie) and lets be honest for a moment, does anyone in the world have a good consistance running contacts WITH turns?? No, is the answer to that! So why try? Honestly im not sure. Charlotte Harding and I used to speak about them pretty much every day about 24 months ago, then when I got Rod I chickened out and said I couldnt do it. Then after I began training with Lee in Sep just gone, I started to get alot more confidence in training. We had began teaching Rod stop contacts on the A-frame like how Lee teaches his, however Rod really wasnt getting the whole stop thing too well, he also likes to stalk quite abit. Basically I was bored of the idea of stops, and the idea of running started to play on my mind. I think it was the 4th of Jan, I was at uni one morning, Dave Munnings and I had had a conversation about running poss being the way forward if someone could do them correctly. That afternoon I wrote up a method, and emailed it to Lee, he was of course unsure but said he would help and support me regarding them as much as possible. Without Lee's help there is no way I would of been able to do it!!! I also better take this moment to say I used alot of Silvia Trkmans ideas off her website. What I love about her website is the fact she tells everyone everything, she keeps nothing a secert, again wouldnt of been able to do my contacts without this website.
So as I am sure you can see, I am pleased with how they are going so far... if they work in the ring consistantly is another matter. I am hoping I will be able to be consistant enough in the ring like I am in training to maintain them though. Rodneys first show is Rugby in about 3 weeks time, I am really looking forward to it, will be his first big test! He has however done 3 days of UKA and got another day this Saturday, so fingers crossed he will be fine.

Here below is Rodney at his first UKA show, not that fast, but I am hoping he will speed up :) Thank you Lucy Clifton for videoing and putting online :)



Here below are my other training videos.







And more recently....



Thats all for now... anyone who made it all the way through that... I am very impressed :D!!

xoxo