NAWS March

Got to the show late today due to my precious Dad being taken poorly last night (he's much better already, thank goodness) and what with very little sleep, today has felt pretty surreal.

Just landed in time to have a bash at Maisie's Jumping - did both runs one after the other and she set off ever so whizzily, but just knocked a pole on each attempt so I retired us gracefully and went for a much-needed very very strong coffee instead. Unfortunately by her Agility in the aft she was much less up for it (maybe she should've had coffee too!) Slightly concerned she's gone off the boil agility-wise the past couple of weeks. Hope it's nothing to worry about but will just see how she goes for now. She seems more than fine and happy in herself.

Tim's Jumping runs were reeeeeally good. He ran at 'nearly large' height (22"?) for the first time in comp and did so wonderfully, really confident, not running under or knocking a single pole, even from a long recall start, good boy. Really great to have the opportunity to run at that height as a training stage for bigdogs, perfect. Just minor steering issues round one turn on both runs (sometimes it would be great to have a third attempt, lol!) but otherwise it was really pleasing stuff. Then his Agility and he was just Not Right at all - bogged off to see people (which he's never really done in the ring before - usually surprisingly focused!) and generally not together at all. Second run he flat refused to go over the A-frame and it was then I realised he wasn't just being a muppet and must be uncomfortable somewhere, so I brought him out. Checked him over and found that the poor lad has a very sorely back paw toe. Don't know how it happened, he's not actually lame on it and there's nothing to see or feel, but it was clearly bothering him. Poor lad, I feel terrible for not realising immediately he was hurting somewhere. Bad mummy :o(

So a bit of a mixed and generally glum sort of day though with good bits and good friends.

Meddling

Oh dear, I've been meddling with the new whizzo blogger layout thingumijig and it's gone all wonky! Will try to dewonkify it later!

Lots been going on. Last week was the BC Club Show at Newark - nice day out, Maisie had OK runs and a clear but no places. She did some ace weaves - her weaves have really come on lately and I'm starting to have the confidence in her to let her get on with them and speed up a bit, good girl.

Today Tim had a play at Delinquent Dogz - really good for him to have a go at running outdoors on that strange green stuff called grass! He did seem a bit unsure about agility al fresco at first but soon settled and enjoyed it. Course were a bit arrrrrg! Way too tempting tunnel traps in both agility and jumping pre-comp courses! So Tim flew into them head-first, of course! With hindsight I feel a bit bad for setting him up to "fail" like that and should've perhaps taken a different line at which we could succeed. Rest of the courses he ran beautifully though, good contacts, some great distance and layering, sending on from behind, out round a pinwheel into a front cross, pick-up into a sharp turn over a jump from a tunnel exit, so some real positives. My aim for the day actually was to get him to run to his tuggy at the finish line to prevent him tugging my arm instead, which was starting to become a bit of an issue, and he did that brilliantly so mission accomplished.
Maisie & Billy had a lovely day out being fussed and played with, so all happy tired dogs at the end of the day. Last NAWS tomorrow ... :o)

Bliss

Swamp and snow in one walk. It doesn't get better than this! mm x

Tim's a life-saver

Out walking this aft with the boyz and Tim started acting really oddly - even more than usual :) Anyway it turned out he was telling me something and when I looked there was sheep in trouble. She'd got stuck on her back in a hollow in the ground. I thought she was dead actually - all four legs stuck straight upright and no movement. Thought I'd better go check though and when I toe-poked her she moved, so I checked her over then rolled her back onto her feet. She had a huge wee & poo so must've been stuck there for quite a while. I did a bit of door-knocking and found out who she belonged to and, as luck would have it, just as I found out, her owner (t'Coalman!) drove past and so we flagged him down and told him and so he went to sort her out. Apparently they're just a few days off lambing and as she'd obviously been stuck there a good while she'd have probably croaked had Tim not spotted her. It was like a scene from Lassie! So perhaps Tim is in touch with his inner sheepdog after all. Clever multi-talented ginger boy.

too cute

I really tried to not buy any more photos of Maisie doing agility, but she is too damn cute!! So here she is. Happy birthday for yesterday, her official birthday - a three-year-old princess. xxx

Photos by Sunnyside Photography

NAWS Feb

 

Tim & I had been on a training day on Saturday and had a really good session where a few things clicked into place. Then on Sunday we had NAWS.
First Maisie's Jumping - first run went a bit tits-up partly because of a bit of argy-bargy in the queue, and then the weaves were near to the ring rope where a huge man was standing! :-O So that didn't go down well! Second run was really nice though - it was a shame she tipped a pole, but never mind. She wasn't so up for the Agility in the aft and went back to backing off her contacts a bit again, for some reason. She managed a respectable clear anyway though, my good girl.

Tim's Jumping - well the boy was on fire! Slightly bemused by his first stonking clear, I was quite gobsmacked when we managed it a second time!! In the end he finished in 3rd but only an nth of a second behind the winning time by Lesley's Mist who is jaw-droppingly FAST! Apparently Tim doesn't look nearly as fast as Mist (I've no idea, he's just a ginger blur to me!) but he seems to run pretty efficiently. I have noticed he doesn't tend to motorbike on his turns as much as a lot of fast BCs do. I'm not getting too carried away as it was basically a helter-skelter type course, and going fast in big circles is what he is best at, but still very, very pleased! & then he ran very nicely in the Agility too, judged by his Auntie Nat. He was clear again on the first run and very pleasingly sent down a long straight line to a tunnel with me at least 2 jumps behind. Second run I just turned my shoulders too soon and pulled him off the tunnel mouth! My fault, of course. And then he steamed over the A-scale and didn't stop as solidly as I wanted so I popped him over again and gave him a cuddle. Placed 5th on the first run though, even with contacts held for a good while. He is still running over medium jumps in comp and that seems to be working well for him for now. His startline waits are getting mostly quite solid - good job, we're sooo gonna need them!!!

Photo by John of Sunnyside Photography