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