West Lakes

What a spiffing weekend! The West Lakes venue (at Haverigg) is just superb - right on the edge of the dunes/beach and backed by stunning mountaineous scenery.

The weather was warm and sunny on Saturday and we drank Pimm's and sat on the grass and ring partying was a pleasure. Maisie did two runs and got 2 places! 15th in gr1 Jumping and 11th in gr1 Agility. The agility course was nice and involved some twiddly bits. Had it not being for Maisie trying to break the land un-speed record for the slowest weaves ever (I'm not complaining too much - at least she did 12!!) we might've even had a higher place.

Saturday evening involved a lovely walk on the beach with Jules and the girlies, and then unwinding over the show quiz with brandy and Bailey's - well, you have to keep warm when camping :o) Through the night the rain started and never really stopped all day on Sunday - and it was that particularly WET type of rain. Luckily Maisie is not fazed in the slightest by rain and she ran better for it being a bit cooler, and she got 7th in the Jumping!! It was such a Maisie-course - packed full of potential for front crosses, so I probably covered twice the distance she did LOL, she likes to make me run. It's really fun doing more "handling" courses with her when the weather's cooler and she's motivated. Loved it!
We hung around and squelched some more and then ran the Agility in the afternoon - well, Maisie was really giddy!! That is so unusual for the last run of the weekend and, though we made a hash of the course, it was great!
Both of the boys were less than chuffed at the weather. Even Tim's enthusiasm was dampened, and in the afternoon I got Billy out of the car and he just stood there, head down, a picture of abject misery, and he would not budge. I carried him to the long grass for a wee and then he stomped huffily straight back to the car and was going nowhere else, thank you very much.
The we came home and got dry and everyone had their fave things for dinner :o)
What a lovely show, can't wait till next year ...

Buzzing

LOVED training Tim tonight, not sure why particularly except that it just felt good. We've still a load of stuff to work on but each time we're both just getting it and understanding each other a bit more. He did some nice box work, is sending on and looking for his next jump, and is sending a little way to both types of tunnel. Also he did the A-scale off-lead for the first time and did it soooo well - going over confidently and enthusiastically running into his 2o2o and managing it more often than not, though at least trying to stop every time, LOL! He also did it in combination with wrapping round a jump either end of it too. We've not done much with the weaves yet and probably need to really put more effort into those now too. I'm starting to believe he might actually be ready for the pre-comp class at the first show he's foolishly entered for (NAWS Oct). I was a bit worried I'd taken on more than I should in such a speedy boy, but I feel like he's proving to be exactly what I wanted and needed in a "next" dog and I'm really enjoying his work ethic. I get a thrill from how he works on and drives through turns, etc. whilst still having steerability! Good ginger boy Tim :0)

Whilst we were setting up I ran Maisie over the A-scale about 8 times and did 12 weaves once. I think that's her optimum amount of training. She'll always be my bestest super-duper little fluffy angel girly ():-)

Catching up

Last weekend we were at Scunthorpe agility show just for one day - Maisie did some nice runs, including a good clear in G1 jumping even though it was late in a hot afternoon. I abandoned her contacts again in the agility - in trying to get her zoooming over - it worked and she missed them and then I felt a bit annoyed with myself as there were hardly any clears and she could've had a good place had I worked her steadily and 'safely' ....... ho hum. With hindsight it was the right thing to do - bigger picture and all that :o)

Oh, the week before that Billy flyballed on the Wirral. Good day, team came second. Unfortunately the low-flying planes really worried Maisie and that's taking some getting over.

This last Friday Billy ran at the British flyball champs near Daventry. The team didn't fare too well in their division (5th) but he was such a good lad and loved the frenzied atmosphere, and he got a lovely rosette for the wall anyway. Not sure who was most over-excited - the dogs or the flyballing humans ... I got thinking and felt proud of Billy's progress in the past year or so, from agility hooligan to competing well at national level, albeit in a different doggy sport.

Photo with kind permission of Sunnyside photography

Then we came home via Delinquent Dogz and Maisie had a couple of runs on Sat aft, then 3 on Sunday. She got 3rd in Jumping on Sat which was nice, and she ran beautifully in the flick-flack class - an 'open' class so no place, but pretty speedy for her. We like flick-flacks :0) Then another clear and good happy runs, plus more positive 'freestyle!' contacts on Sunday. She's such a little superstar.

Tim is coming along nicely and he makes me giggle. He had a poorly tummy a couple of weeks ago, but bounced back quickly and his daft big tail never stopped wagging even when he must've been feeling pretty rotten. Agility training is fun though challenging (for me probably more than him) and we're getting there ... He's a lot smarter than he sometimes seems ;o) The best thing is we've made some more strides in him not bogging off to say HELLO to other people/dogs when off lead. I can now take him on exercise fields at shows, with his cage ball on a tuggy, and feel relaxed that he's probably not going to harass anyone, unless he's extremely tempted e.g. by a ball and collie being thrown right in front of his nose LOL. He's also finally got the hang of retrieving said toy so that's a good way of burning up some of that gingery energy. He looks soooo angelic when he sleeps:
ZZZZZZZ

West Lakes for agility this weekend - looking forward to that one ...