I was just in the farmshop queuing for the till when a lady in front of me with two small boys realised she'd forgotten to pick up some celery. She told the boys that they'd have to come out of the queue to go back for it. The bigger of the boys though, only about 5 years old, said: "Don't worry Mummy, you stay there, I'll go get it, I know where it is!" So Mummy agreed and off he sprinted, there and back in the blink of an eye. He proudly presented his prize like it was a beautiful bunch of flowers! Except ... it wasn't celery but a bunch of spring onions!! His Mummy had the briefest little chuckle to herself but immediately gave him a big smile and said "Thank you Daniel, that's brilliant, well done for being such a helpful boy!"
I thought this was a lovely bit of training :o)
Monday 22 February 2010
Sunday 21 February 2010
Newton Heath
After getting stuck on some awful icy snow stuff earlier in the week I was quite hesitant about setting off over t'Pennines to Myerscough. The alarm went off and I got up to look out of the window and there was a very hard frost so I snuggled straight back into bed zzzzzzz. Maisie had other ideas though - alarm going off when it's dark means going to a show!!!!!!!!! So she started bouncing around going Yippeeee!!! So I got up to let them out to the loo, see if that would settle her back down. Then, once I was stood on the doorstep in my PJs, freezing bits off, it seemed a) not too bad out after all, and b) now we were up we might as well get on with it, so off we went! And it was a good decision by Miss Mouse as it turned out to be a lovely cold but sunny day.
We only had two runs. Maisie had got spooked going into the arena and she was backing off all the way round the agility run, even having an uncharacteristic pole down, never mind. The jumping course seemed OK when I walked it but I spent ages watching the earlier runs and it was proving tricky to get round. The start was nigh on impossible if you didn't have either a good startline wait (amazing how many dogs don't - at all!) or the ability to send them into weaves and cross behind. After the weaves there was a sharp turn right across a sort of box and I bet about 70% of the class (graded 1-3 so mostly gr3s) went wrong at this point!! Either popping out of the weaves early or failing to make the right turn and being E'd over the jump to the LH side of the box. I decided to work Maisie right past the end of the weaves and make a kink out to turn and thus get a straighter line into the box, and in the event this worked really well - OK not the most totally efficient line, but the safer option. There was also a bit where you really needed to be on the dog's right to work a curve round three jumps to the right, but then somehow cross to the left around the long jump. I'd decided that the only option here was to cross behind her at the long jump which I wasn't at all happy about as I thought it might make her look back and shorten, but then got a good idea from a handler I admire who runs non-collies and decided to just leg it with her past the long jump and then just set off from the corner towards the flat tunnel - so it was sort of a rear cross after the jump. I'd have thought this would be very messy but actually it worked great and kept her driving into and out of the corner. After the tunnel there was then a pull off a line of jumps straight ahead and learning from messing this up last week I tried to suggest the turn before she entered the tunnel, and also hung back a little and then sort of pulled her two-handed round the left as she came out - worked really well!
Gosh isn't it boring when people over-analyze courses ;o) This time it was worthwhile though as we finished in 4th!! Great placing for Maisie for a Jumping class and her time was very respectable; the winner stormed it but Maisie was less than a second behind the 2nd and 3rd placed dogs.
Other news: Tim's weaves are really coming on, and he is learning the art of relaxation - he's such a cutey sometimes, awwww :o)
And Billy's stubbed dewclaw toe is getting better - he's such a brave hero - ummm, not! But he gives the most smashing cuddles.
This morning we've woken up to a white, fluffy winter wonderland - again!
We only had two runs. Maisie had got spooked going into the arena and she was backing off all the way round the agility run, even having an uncharacteristic pole down, never mind. The jumping course seemed OK when I walked it but I spent ages watching the earlier runs and it was proving tricky to get round. The start was nigh on impossible if you didn't have either a good startline wait (amazing how many dogs don't - at all!) or the ability to send them into weaves and cross behind. After the weaves there was a sharp turn right across a sort of box and I bet about 70% of the class (graded 1-3 so mostly gr3s) went wrong at this point!! Either popping out of the weaves early or failing to make the right turn and being E'd over the jump to the LH side of the box. I decided to work Maisie right past the end of the weaves and make a kink out to turn and thus get a straighter line into the box, and in the event this worked really well - OK not the most totally efficient line, but the safer option. There was also a bit where you really needed to be on the dog's right to work a curve round three jumps to the right, but then somehow cross to the left around the long jump. I'd decided that the only option here was to cross behind her at the long jump which I wasn't at all happy about as I thought it might make her look back and shorten, but then got a good idea from a handler I admire who runs non-collies and decided to just leg it with her past the long jump and then just set off from the corner towards the flat tunnel - so it was sort of a rear cross after the jump. I'd have thought this would be very messy but actually it worked great and kept her driving into and out of the corner. After the tunnel there was then a pull off a line of jumps straight ahead and learning from messing this up last week I tried to suggest the turn before she entered the tunnel, and also hung back a little and then sort of pulled her two-handed round the left as she came out - worked really well!
Gosh isn't it boring when people over-analyze courses ;o) This time it was worthwhile though as we finished in 4th!! Great placing for Maisie for a Jumping class and her time was very respectable; the winner stormed it but Maisie was less than a second behind the 2nd and 3rd placed dogs.
Other news: Tim's weaves are really coming on, and he is learning the art of relaxation - he's such a cutey sometimes, awwww :o)
This morning we've woken up to a white, fluffy winter wonderland - again!
Sunday 14 February 2010
Flyball: Billy Woof is back!
How cool is this! I agonised for ages about pulling Billy from flyball team selection and since I decided to I've still kept feeling a bit bad about it for him. Well, I've just had an email from our team captain asking if we could commit to the Multibreed team! They only race on special days on bank hol Mondays so it's just a commitment to four days this year, and some training, though not necessarily every week. This works so perfectly for us and I am soooo chuffed for the boy!!!!!!! Also, the Multibreed team (Grasshoppers Multi) is really good - last time I looked they were seeded second in the UK in M/B!! So the boy will get some great quality racing without an impossibly difficult commitment in time. Yippeeeee! Isn't it super when unexpectedly fab things like this happen! :o)
Amazing Maisie Mouse AWB
So yesterday at Hare & Hounds (Richmond) Maisie got those last few points for her Agility Warrant (Bronze)!!! If her head gets any bigger she'll not fit through tunnels :o)
It was a hideously early start with classes starting at 8am. I'd only entered Maisie in the two (graded) classes so it felt a bit of a long way to go just for two runs. First run was jumping for a change - lovely course, we got E'd after the first jump, as did Helen & Skip - amazingly we each accomplished this feat in different ways, and what makes it even dafter is that the first four obstacles were jumps in a straight line, haha!! Then we had our agility run - fairly straighforward course apart from a pull-through and a sharp left after the seesaw into the cloth tunnel, which caught a few out. Maisie did a nice workmanlike round and finished 8th. There was a bit of a drama as somehow I'd got the wrong scribe slip - dunno how I didn't notice as I (nearly!) always check! I do think it's an important part of scribing to say "When your ready, Ermintrude" to double-check against this sort of thing. Anyway, after some begging and lip-trembling it was sorted by the lovely Show Manager. I paid penance by stepping in to ring party in the aft, they were quite short of volunteers and for a couple of hours I was doing leads, slips, poles; and even calling in too for some of the time. Now that's an impressive bit of multi-tasking if I say so myself ;o)
There were some other great results too: Helen and Skip 5th in Gr2 agility, Louise & Saffie winning out of Gr3 smalls and other fab results, and Sara & Tilly 3rd in G1 jumping.
I took Billy on the back field on his own with a tuggy this aft and had a lovely time without the two little monsters - sometimes a half-hour doing nothing much can be really special and this was one of those times.
Sunday 7 February 2010
Roll on Easter ...
It's been surprisingly nice so far to have a bit of a winter break from shows every weekend and I'm sure it's done Maisie good too. Today, though, I found myself tidying my sock drawer and brushing fluff from between the radiator fins. So I sat down and did a load of entry forms. :0)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)