Catch up! ... FAB

So I haven't really been in the blogging mood lately with stuff that's been going on but I really miss it and I haven't updated in so long. So much has happened! Will do it in a few different posts otherwise this one will be a monster and if anyone actually reads this thing then I'd prob bore you all do death if you ever got to the end lol.

So all the way back in the first weekend of August I had been planning on going to Barking Mad summer show but instead I decided that we really did need to practise Rommys contacts before our big KCI adventure the next weekend so I had entered our first FAB show in Oxfordshire! It only took 45 mins to get to which was great and it was a super relaxed day with only 2 rings and both were netted. I really really happy about the netted rings as our aim was for NFC contacts so he couldn't get distracted and sod off. The only downside to the show was I had to do A LOT of waiting around but it was all worth it in the end. We did two NFC agilities and 1 steeplechase course just got a blast. His NFC runs were ace! We even had a set up with a tunnel right at the end of the dog walk which is Rommys nemesis when it comes to stopping on contacts. Why would you stop when there's a tunnel of run sitting right there? But he was a complete dude and did some amazing work, just like the ones he does in training. YAY finally! After that the only competition run we did of the day was the steeplechase, it was American style with an A frame. I handled like a prat and almost fell over, it was such a comical run that we even got the judge laughing HAHA. Even with it being a super sloppy run that it was he still got himself a 2nd so pretty damn good. I was just happy that I didn't break anything and couldn't help being finishing the run laughing at ourselves. 

Definitely going to be trying more FAB shows next year for some practise runs, really nice and chilled out shows. Loved seeing all the tiny dogs getting to run on micro aswell :)  

Agility Club - Starters Challenge

We qualified for the starters challenge over a year ago at Wellingborough 2012 and Ive been sooo nervous about it ever since and it was finally the day over the weekend! We were lucky to have Rhoda come along with us which was great for the support and definitely kept me from worrying so much. Thank you!! Im very lucky to train with people who have qualified themselves so got lots of bits of advice but oh my god I was nervous. Its seems to be a J9 thing to do well in the starters after Rhoda and Matthew both having done it and done well with Brax and Brodie as well as Paul and Chester winning it a couple of years ago! So I really wanted to do reasonably ok. We also had Chantal and Savannah the lovely tri sheltie bitch who is great in the final as well so it was really nice having someone else we knew in it too!

We finally got to the show after having to take a bit of a detour going the wrong way around the M25 because of an accident, first up was sheltie team. Rommy wasn't in it but Rhoda and Toad were with some other great shelties! I always love watching shelties run (obviously lol) so it was really nice getting to see a whole team of them :). They had 15f in the end so didnt qualify for crufts but I enjoyed watching them anyway. Maybe Rommy will get to have a go one day!

I'd entered Rommy in a couple of classes 3-5 agility and 4-6 jumping in the day as I knew the starters wouldnt be till late afternoon/evening. I know he needs to run some of the crazy off before he settles for some good runs. Unluckily enough the only 2 runs were on at exactly the same time and even though it was expected to rain it was blazing hot so by the second run his brain was gone. He ran the jumping first which was a really fast flowing course with quite a few trappy bits and a pretty tricky weave entry. My only really aim was to just send him in the weaves and hope he got them and he did! was so pleased I forgot I had to pull him off a jump after and got him E'd lol. Ooops oh well, he was a good boy bless him! The agility wasnt good but he did a lovely seesaw and the first time doing his running aframe to weaves in the ring and he got it perfectly so not all bad :)




We had A LOT of waiting to do after that as the final wasnt on till 6-6:30ish but I got to see champ! I have definitely been living under a rock somewhere because I hadnt seen Champ before in person and it was great! so many amazing dogs and handlers. the courses looked reaallllyyyyyy hard but it was really great to watch :D. I was really pleased in the end that a sheltie won the medium ticket! go shelties :D. One downside to watching the champ was the size of the crowd and it got me really worried about the starters. It did look like it was going to rain by then so I was still hoping a lot of people would leave and not bother staying to watch.

So after a lot of waiting it was raining and the starters was on, it was a really nice startery course and Rommy was on 5th and I was just really hope he didnt run out the ring... Turns out he didnt (YAY!) but he didnt go clear. He missed his weave entry because he was too busy looking at the judge in bright pink hahaha. Silly puppy lol. But I didnt give up! I kept running like everyone had told me too and as there was only 2 clears he ended up 4th! Bless him he tried so hard and he really did love the crowd. I think he thought he had a fan club lol.


For being such a good boy I bought him a hoof. Hes only ever had a hoof once before but i thought he deserved one and omg he loves it! He wont leave it anyone for fear of me steeling it lol. Wow it stink!
:)

Billingshurst

So last weekend we were at Billingshurst 50th anniversary show at Cranleigh showground. It was a ridiculously hot day but I was one of the lucky ones that wasn't in the ring first so I got there at a leisurely time of 9:15. Even luckier got to park under a massive tree in the shade which actually stayed shady for the majority of the day. So first class up was C1-4 Agility which was a really nice course, really nice and flowing. If I had to pick anything that wasn't so great it was the weaves were REALLY close to the edge of the ring and a photographer. We didn't have for a while so I hard a nice load of time to get Rommy ready. He has really surprised me these last couple of weeks how well hes coped with the heat, as long as he has his swamp coat on and stays in the cool car between runs hes been his normally nutty self in the ring. One thing I was kind of hoping I might see a bit of a difference with was his focus this weekend because hes been on Calm and Focus powder for about a month now and 4 days before the show  I also changed him onto Burns Alert for working dogs so I was hoping having both together would make a difference and to my surprise I actually think it did! So we finally had our run in the agility, it was a nice straight line (I got a wait :D) into the tunnel and then onto the dogwalk so the plan was I could get ahead to help Rommy remember to stop and it worked! He wasnt expecting it so pretty much fell off the end because he was going too fast BUT he immediately tried to put himself back on! SO HAPPY! Considering this is all I've been wanting him to do for months it definitely made my day... after that he had a few issues with weaves missing them and then really wasn't very sure of himself in them. But after that he went on to do some amazing contacts, flew his aframe and did it perfectly and then straight onto the seesaw and did his 2o2o again.... yes it was a bit to the side but I'm really not going to be too picky at the mo then he had a bit of a slip on the last 3 jumps but he was fine and I was just SO pleased with his contacts.

Videos thanks to Rhoda and Matthew :) 

Next was the c1-4 Jumping which was a bit of an weird course...  nice but I thought it was a bit tough on baby dogs!.... dunno if you can tell in the video but the first line(ish) of jumps are all at really odd angles and for fast dogs it was really hard! SO anyways... Rommys run it was great apart from the weaves, he just didn't slow himself down enough for them but on the upside he was a lot better in them than he was in the agility. But again he worked so hard in it and really focused and I got a wait which I REALLY needed!

Last run was a really nice 3-5 Agility. Unlucky for us it was really soon after the jumping so he didn't get time to cool off properly. Don't have a video of him in this but his seesaw wasn't as great as the first one BUT then I managed to get ahead of him on the dogwalk again and he really slowed down and thought about what he was meant to be doing and got his position perfectly! After that he seemed to have got his confidence with weaves a bit and got them and popped out at the 10th pole because he saw the tunnel trap sitting there for him but put him back in and he did them fine and even let me front cross out (hes only just started letting me do it in training) but then after this we came completely unstuck. Rommy was just too hot and even ran past the a frame to finish :( managed to get him back for the a frame which he got another great contact and last 3 jumps which he did really well and finished. Definitely lesson learnt with letting him cool down enough between runs! Bad Jenni! But he was such a star, I was so pleased with him. No clears or places but I really don't care if he works so well. It turned out to be a really nice show :).

Nothing to go to this weekend. Really glad I've for the weekend off after all this bloody hot weather. We really are winter beings Rommy and I. Next show is Agility Club for Starters Challenge Final! EEK! getting kinda nervous now but hopefully it wont be too bad! Wish us luck!

 

Crazy dog and dogwalks

SO havent been on here in a while. Had some pretty shit family stuff going on so really havent even thought about the whole bloggy thing. But anyways here I am again with a few things to update on.

 Rommy has accidently won into grade 4  at JDA... I say accidently because I was planning on getting him E'd in the run. He didnt stop his dogwalk like he should (more about that later) so I was going to put him back on again but Rommy decided he wanted his clear round and to go grade 4 so he went and finished the course... on his own. Leaving me standing like a numpty at the bottom of the dogwalk. Naughty boy. Needless to say he went and won it by 8 seconds. Blimey. He did pretty well at the rest of JDA getting 2nd C1-3 steeplecase behind a super fast collie, 4th and 5th in some pretty big C3-5 jumping classes. I E'd him in the rest of his agilities because of his insane dogwalk. We did Bitz n Bobz with the same crazy dogwalk issues but he got a 2nd in a jumping.

 SO those crazy dog walks. Pretty sure that the problem is mostly the crazy dog, If anyone has seen Rommy around agility he is completely insane and actually getting pretty uncontrollable lately. I've just started him on some herbal stuff to hopefully calm him down a bit. I KNOW he knows the difference between his running aframe and stopping his dog walk and seesaw, I KNOW he does. I really dont even care if he runs the dw and gets the contact because its really not the point. So I'm now in the process of making him really obsessed with his stopping postition which is going pretty well. So with any luck with all the homework we've been doing and with his herbal stuff we might actually be able to get our dog walk properly at somepoint soon at a show.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fz-ovqEveY 


In general hes been working really well though and his A frames have been really good, still trying to get his confidence up on it but he definitely enjoys doing them! :)

General updates and GT

Ive been meaning to update ALL week but its been one of those funny weeks where everything a bit BLAH. BUT as ever, I can always depend of agility and my wierd little blue and furries to put my in a good mood lol. SO last weekend we went off to GT UKA at Newbury, we had some really lovely weather and I wanted to have a go at the Nug-e-nuff and to practise contacts and to also give a Novice Steeplechase a go.


I got there nice and early to walk the beginners Tug-e-nuff agility, It was sooooo busy, its definitely the biggest UKA ive ever been too, It was more like a KC because of there being a champ on at the same showground on the bank holiday monday. So I walked the agility and was a bit worried about how hilly it was there, espesially with the A frame going right up the hill to begin with. Rommy always tends to be quite high on his running A frame on his first couple of goes before really getting his confidence to really jump the apex well. I felt that the uphill might just make him be just out of the contact, although there was the upside that it was a straight line from the start onto the frame so I hoped the speed would carry him in.  What I'm really aiming for at the moment is him just getting all his contacts in the ring. Im not all that bothered about going clear right now, I really just want him getting his critria from training into the ring with his waits and contacts. the rest of the course was quite nice so I was looking forward to having a go.


 ANYWAYS We had ALOT of waiting around to do before actually getting to run the agility because the midis were in the ring last after about a billion maxis. In the meantime I thought we'd have a go at Novice Steeplechase 2, it was a really nice fast course, but my main aim was to make sure I got a wait at the start, I set Rommy up as far back as I could get him lol he was really reved up but I managed to get a wait to the first jump which was actually a really long way as it was set up so far back. YAY for a nice wait :D. He went clear and was nice and speedy and he managed a 1st! I was really suprised as I saw some really quick cockers go. Clever Rommy.

We still had quite a while to wait around for the agility STILL, walked the jumping before id even got to the agility lol, but that was a nice course too, but it was still on the hill and it was 12 weaves going down the hill which i knew would be tricky. Anyways finally got to do the agility and bloody hell Rommy was INSANE. Got a reasonable wait again (YAY) and much to my suprise he went shooting off down the line and got a lovely Aframe contact, I think i was so suprised he went shooting off over the wrong jump and got E'd lol. He was just wild the rest of the way around but he got the best dogwalk contact hes ever done at a show, unfortunately he had a bit of a dodgey Seesaw but a lot of dogs were having a problem with it as it was going downhill and i think it must have felt abit funny or something. Really happy with the run anyways.


After lunch we had the jumping, and managed to get a little wait again which i was really pleased about. As i had expected he had issues with the weaves going down hill but he got them in the end and the rest of the course he did was lovely so really can't complain because he really tried hard!

Havent got any videos as i went on my own and didnt know anyone so here a picture of Rommy and his lovely trophy

Onto bank holiday monday and the weather was so nice and summery. We went up to Rhodas feild with some others to have some fun at having a go at a Masters jumping course and one of the EO try out courses. I was expecting them to be REALLY hard... and they were. Really enjoyed having a go at them though, Rommy seems to actually really like courses where you have to nag him abit more, really makes him work. I was so happy with him because on his first try he actually went clear on the Masters jumping! haha! What a dude, Heres a video courtesy of Rhoda of his second go at the course where he got E'd  but oh well lol.

 We then had ago at the EO tryouts agility course. OH MY GOD it was sooooo  hard! never got around clear but we had fun anyways. Rommy was even lucky enough to have a go running with Paul and then again with Matthew which is the first time hes run for anyone else and he actually LOVED it, he didnt stop wagging his tail. It normally takes ALOT to get Rommys tail going. Maybe Im not just as fun as them? lol. Oh well, hes stuck with him but he did absolutely love getting a go with someone different. Heres Rommy having a go at the course with me lol. the youtube thing wont work again so here a link
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K8p4gD5Ep8


So thats about it for agility but I managed to get a video of how Rommy and Kizzy actually playing, theyre REALLY rough. Kizzy nearly always starts it like she did here and she actually lost her first baby tooth while doing this lol. Not that she noticed because she was way to busy winding Rommy up while he was waiting to go out for a walk. Does anyone elses cats and dogs play so rough?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XV2btFxc0o

K9 Sports!

Spend Sunday at K9 sports at Littleport, the aim was to concentrate on NFC's to work on Rommys waits and A frame and dogwalk stop position. First off was the beginners jumping which was going to be for wait practice. He did some lovely waits in there and definitely need to be really going to try and be strong with them at shows now, no springing even if he does fly off over the first jump. Being able to practise in the ring with them really did help with him though because he really did a lovely wait. 

 We haven't really done all that much with dog walks since Rommys been better what with retraining the A frame and everything. His stop position at the end has always been good at training but he just tends to forget at shows with all the major excitement so really wanted to work on that and make him get it. So we did the beginners agility NFC to do dog walks and a frames. We did 3 A frames the first one I'm pretty sure he missed (my eyes find it really hard keeping up with him) and then the two after he got, they were a bit high but his first few always are at training so I'm happy with that. Managed to get in a couple of dog walks as well, first one he did what he normally does and flew and then the second one was perfect! Great! Really happy with his mornings work there! 



After his morning of NFC's he had a nice long break to chill in the car. We were planning on doing Split pairs with Rhoda and Brodie but poor Toad had a really unlucky day and hurt his foot/leg and was lame. Hope you feel better soon Brodie! Lucky Rhoda managed to borrow an amazing little poodle called Tia who's nearly 13! You really wouldn't guess shes 13 because shes pretty speedy! I had a bit of a near clash of runs with pairs with a the novice steeplechase but I ended up lucky and managed to get into the ring first to have a go at our first Novice. I have to say Rommy was nothing but WILD. His rest in the car had clearly charged his batteries because our wait practice was out the window BAD Jenni! but there was no way he would ever have waited because he was just a complete nutcase, I don't think hes EVER gone that fast at a show before! Of course he got E'd but I really couldn't help but laugh at him because he was just a complete fruit cake. Maybe resting in the car for that long wasn't such a good idea? One thing that was a great idea was doing that Novice before the Pairs because he had got the crazy out of his system, luckily I was running second so I had a bit of time to get my breathe back. Rommy was running over Toy height as well so I knew it was going to be a challenge but he did a lovely Clear and so did Tia! GO TEAM! I am so happy with how he worked! We were running second and whenever we've tried to run him second before he was just too distracted with the other dog but he was just a star! He even got his weaves with a tunnel sitting right at the end which has always been tricky for him so I was just so happy! lol! Sorry I'm rambling. 

Haven't got any videos but I found some cute puppy piccys instead :D . 

Hello Sunshine!

Wasn't entirely sure we'd be seeing you this year but here you are. Unfortunately  Mr sunshine gave me some sunburn on the one day it actually cloudy?! :( Oh well i guess it'll go brown eventually. To be honest this is prob going to be a bit of a downer of a post but oh well, not entirely sure anyone even reads these things anyways lol. So had a completely rubbish week, a bit ironic considering the lovely weather but it always seems to do that. After the Rommys injury again last week, finally getting better and then the head of some pretty shit family news rears its head. All the rubbish things really do seems to come at once I guess, because the rest of the week has been pretty much of a downer since then. I mean not as rubbish as the weekends news but you know... just little things being continuously crappy. I really do try to stay positive but I can honestly say some times its A LOT easier than others.


I honestly am that crazy dog lady, Rommy really has saved the day(or should i say week) hes just such a little star, just a real clown. His face really does make me laugh. Even when hes insisted on finding something to roll in on nearly every walk this week with all the fresh horse poo around everywhere. 

Do not fear as he had a bath this afternoon with a very lovely smelling shampoo so hes not all nice and clean. More importantly his yeti feet have been banished and hes all neat again. Finally.

We also did some really quick weave entry practice in the garden yesterday and he really was a superstar, was getting entries all over the place, he did need some help in bits but he just worked so hard considering weaves are prob his least fave bit of equipment. didn't get any video because I couldn't be bothered after a VERY tricky afternoon of work, Instead just a quick clip from a very sunny Tuesday training. bloggers being rubbish so here's the link 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWpcwhV1kMk




Not much to update on the Kizzy monster other than shes getting more adult hairy now and shes still a completely lunatic. Not long now till she can be spayed so at least then she can run wild  outside instead of trying to jump into the toilet.