Musings

Well this a non post post. So I'm really kind of sad I'm not at a show this weekend. The weather is all nice and sunny and I'm not making good enough use of it not being at a show lol. Which is stupid really because rommy clearly isn't really ready to be doing any agilitys at a show yet. Anyways weekend at home with some nice walks and lie ins, I must be going mad actually wanting to get up at the crack of dawn on the weekends. So I thought as we haven't got any actual agility to do I should do some homework and remind Mr Roomster exactly what the hell ketschker turns are. Turned out he didnt seem to have forgotten them as much as I thought. Fingers crossed we can try some out at training and maybe some shows this year. 

Speaking of shows, I have actually no idea what the hell to expect from mr man this year. I've got alot I'd like to try this year but he's an unpredictable fellow at the best of times at shows because he's so bloody wild and friendly. I think my main aim is to keep him fit and healthy, I really don't want to have to repeat the problems and the winter he just had. Poor lad. Next to keep him with me and then to have his aframe really consistant in the ring and training. Anything else happens along the way would just be extra. How he did at bretford is definitely already in the extras category. I'm still absolutely amazed by that. I mean what the hell little blog? 

Onto kizzle mcwizzle, she's such a wierd little cat. She's such a Maine coon in her head because she really does think she's a dog. She seems to have got a thing in the morning now where she will go and find one of her balls, carry it to you in her month and then she'll play fetch and drop in in front of you to throw it again. She's nuts! She even drops it better than rommy does lol. Definitely need to try doing some more tricks with her. Saw a youtube video of a cat doing agility and I'm Defintely feeling a new enthusiasm for getting her do some fun things. I mean she is a dog after all. She'd love agility lol. Oh she also fell in the bath the other day. So funny lol. 

Next show is foxypants is spring at shuttleworth, I'm very excited for that adventure. God knows what will happen but I'm sooooo excited for it anyways :D. Eep! Yep... I must be mad. :) 

They might be right!

So everyone kept on telling me that the 2nd year of shows is always a lot better than the first. To be quite honest I didn't believe them...

Yes its only like 3 shows in but thing are already seeming a lot better than last year and most things are getting better every show. Rommy is faster and a lot more focused and above all hes staying with me!! :D. This weekend we went off to the Bretford Easter show on Sunday. I didn't realize before hand but it that was the day the clocks changed so we lost an whole hours sleep :(. So being very sleepy we went off to the show anyways, the satnav was being a complete idiot but we finally got there and Rommy was utterly mad from the second he got out the car. Hes NEVER been that excited straight away before! I wasn't quite sure if it was a good thing or not. Whether it was going to be his complete insanity of uncontrollableness OR Im ready to work crazy... you can never really tell which one it is with Rommy until your trying to get around a course....

SO first up was the 'Egg 'gility' which was a steeplechase with the option of an Aframe (the faster route) or you could go around it with a set of jumps. As we've only been doing the A frame at full height for 3 sessions and always with stride regulators I wasn't quite sure it would be a good idea to do the A frame but in the end I thought we'd be a little be daring (lol) and give it a go. This is def my fave run because he only went and was a blooming star and did an amazing little A frame. Clever Romster! And he only went and got 1st! :O. Dolly spanner was also 2nd but unplaced :(. Thanks to Rhoda and Matthew for the videos! 

Next up was Combined 1-3 Jumping. One not do good thing from this weekend was that with every run Rommys waits just got worse. I just about managed to get to past the second jump on the first run, nearly to the second jump on the second run and barely past the first jump on the last. A bit too much enthusiasm. DEFINITELY going to be working on those! Hes normally so good aswell :/. Oh well can't have it all. Anyways back to the jumping, we managed to get another clear round and we got another 1st! 

After that last up we had graded 1-3 jumping, it was pretty much the same course backwards but without the weaves. We all had some very clever pups because Rommy got 1st AGAIN, Matthew and Brooke won in the small grade 3. They're first win! and Dolly spanner got an unplaced 3rd. They all had the clever brain juices running that day! :)

I actually CANNOT believe how well Rommy did, hes such a special boy but definitely not the easiest dog ever. So hes now got 2 grade 3 jumping wins... eeek! Tired face picture!

And just because she made us all laugh... Kizzy antics...

I had to dig her out..... 

Snow is Annoying

So the snow is back... and its easter! What the hell is up with that... very annoying now. Couldn't go to training again because of it all :(. All the mud its made now aswell its just generally really annoying I've missed having a nice clean sheltie. Winter really does make me appreciate a freshly brushed dog. I just had to get some pictures on his after grooming walk because he just looked so fluffy and handsome! Rommy really wasn't amused by me making him stop for photos but heyho its a hard life being handsome!

 Kizzy is just getting bigger and bigger shes gained nearly 300g this week. Shes got a really big obsession with water and the freezer noises at the moment. Got some picture of her watching the bath run this evening. Shes so funny you could leave the tap dripping and shell be entertained for literally hours! Shes always got wet feet from playing in the sink. You can see her longness in the pictures as well. 

But on the upside to no training I had Rhoda's  Brooke come for a bath who's always a star and then after we got to have puppy fun with the little miss Sparkle! Even Kizzy got to join in the fun! Kiz was a bit sleepy as it was normally her afternoon siesta time but her and Brooke ended up settling down for a nap together. It was very cute, theres pictures over on Rhoda's blog. Rommy and Sparkle got on really well and he loved having her over, they had a bit of a play in the garden and I just loved seeing how good Rommy was with her. hes such a sweetie and Sparkle is such a good little girly!

Progress

Lots of progress, I like progress. To start off we went to the only nice day of Ajax on Friday and what a nice day it was. The ground was really good and Rommy was even better. YAY! Getting there I was planning on doing an NFC agility run with him to practice contacts, but with his A frame still not remotely ready I decided I just decided to work on building confidence and concentration. Now Rommy being the friendly and nosy boy he is he finds people and numbers very interesting. So instead as there was 3 steeplechases on that day I would do all of them plus the jumping to get him weaving in the ring... and if possible keep him with me which was the major challenge of 2012. So here we are 2013 and he managed to stay with me for ALL of his runs to get 4 clears... first time EVER! Yes in one run he did have a couple of looks at the judge standing at the end of a line of jumps but bless his little cotton socks he stayed with me. He really made me run too! I only have two of his steeplechases on video it wont seem to let me post it normally but heres the link :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkV9pWuEZxM 

He managed to get himself 4 rosettes, one clear round, one 3rd and two 2nds. But more importantly he stayed with me :D. Fingers crossed we can keep it up for the rest of the year.


We also had training today it was the second lesson with the A frame at full height, hes still using stride regulators which are amazing. Got most of them on video because I find it so much easier to watch everything slower... my eyes and brain cant keep up. I thought he was so much better than last week and he only had 1 miss and 1 trying to stop. I've put all of them together in one video with normal speed and slow mos as I thought it was nice to see him getting it more and more in each one :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRLzUBTLRN0

More videos :)

SO more videos :), managed to get an extra cute video of Rommy and Kizzy. We had an water gift bag left over from Mothers Day which Kizzy decided it was hers and it was a great place to hide and bat his legs and jump out and pounce on him.... great idea. Poor boy. So Rommy thought it would be an even better idea to do this... Kizzle was unamused.

So went to training as well today, it was sooo cold! we did lots of running to warm up :). We mostly worked on his Aframe as it was the first time on full height. He did really well but he did stop a few times to start with which i think was might partly be because hes not used to coming down at that angle so fast. He also hadnt done any in a few weeks but after a while of reminding him he did seem to get the idea again a bit more. One things for sure... he LOVES getting to do them :).

Vids

Wasn't crufts great? I was unlucky enough to get Ill for the whole weekend so I couldn't actually go on Friday like I planned :(, BUT It meant I could spend all weekend watching it and made feeling rubbish not nearly as bad as it could do :). Even Kizzy enjoyed watching it!

So anyways just a couple of videos I meant to put up from before Sheltie Show. He was back to speed which was great, he forgot the seesaw once and has kind of forgotten funny turns since October... but that just a really fun thing to work on a bit more now :D. His dog walk has definitely got better as well

Sheltie Show

So we had our first show of the year over the weekend at sheltie show! It was lots of fun, with some very nice people and LOTS of shelties. With the winter we've had with Rommys injury I wasnt even sure we would make it to there so I was just amazingly pleased just to go and get to run! We only started jumping him on Medium height for the first time 5 days before the show as I wanted to bring him back reasonably slowly, but Rommy being Rommy it wasnt a problem at all and he was looking even better than he did before all his problems. So off we went to sheltie show, this is a picture before the show... he was already tired...

And this was him and his funny tired face after...

So what happened between these two photos I hear you ask?!
WELL he was a very good boy and worked really well, even when we made a few mistakes he carried on and worked through. His brain used to totally turning off if he had to stop for anything was a big problem of his last year. Another thing I was really pleased with he didnt go and visit a judge/ring party even when there was a judge standing right by the weaves! WOO! A couple of not so good things were that he did pop out the ring twice but once i got him back he did work really well so not all bad :). Another great thing was he did get one clear in the 1-3 Steeplechase managing not to go visit his friend Sally who was sitting at the end of a tunnel and he even got 1st place! Clever puppy! 

We had even got to try pairs with Rhoda and Brodie! I got a bit lost on the course but we had great fun anyways they were such good boys! Rommy loved getting to be in the ring with his Toad friend and Auntie Rhoda!

A successful first show of the year I'd say! Very proud of my little man! On other news Rommy got his first sunbathe of the year in today! Maybe the weather will stay and he might get another one tomorrow :). Also Kizzy seems to have grown so much already, she seems to have got very long legs. Maybe this is her Maine Coon-ness starting to appear?! The vet seemed to think shell end up as a normal size cat... personally I'm thinking/hoping she be a bit more like her Maine Coon dad! Good luck to Rommy if she does :D lol.

Byeeeeeeee