Catch up!

Behind again! Just don't like to post loads of words with no photos or video! Shows are so large there just does not seem to have been time to video :(

Will do a little resume to get up to date...

Wallingford - we had Team Dash and Cad's Medium Team came 6th, across the weekend he also got 3rd in 6/7 Jumping, 5th in 5/7 Agility and 7th in 6/7 Agility - so I was very proud of him! Kaiser was also working well for a young chap! Wallingford is always so well organised which is great!

WBSDS - only place here was a 5th in Medium 6/7 Jumping - Kaiser was a bit distracted one day but worked well on the other day.

Newbury is a convenient venue only 30 mins from home but quite often with so many rings and a long walk from the van so all so spread out it really can be exhausting!

Onto Shrewsbury - our first camping show of the year - I always like this show as it's at a nice showground and they are a jolly bunch of people and the classes/judges/courses are normally good. Lee Gibson set a really interesting course - obstacle discrimination - no pull throughs at all :) - link here:- (how do you do smart links without all the text??)

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgngMJ275It0wwZ09H8fOkNktmbyD9XSYP6Vd072w_E1tZN2wD53BSEFEjgIGlOYK9jtT5JogDuM5d8XhPQy1md_fnymX3WWCva-JNU6FhWLZsraIoprdj6VldZd9rJV7PYCdP-MEdRaTNe/s1600/Shrewsbury+6-7+Graded+%26+UKA+Masters+Course.jpg

As is normally the case it was not quite as on the course plan - I remember the pipe tunnel at the end being so much harder to get into the correct end lol. I was really pleased to get Cad round - as it was Graded 6/7 they only went to 3 and he was just outside the places but I did not mind at all :) Cad's only place here was a 6th in a 6/7 Agility. Kaiser was a little star and did a couple of lovely runs and got an 18th place in Grade 3 Agility - I know to some people that is not very impressive at all but keeping his concentration all the way round a course has been really hard and he thinks weaves are a bit of a waste of his time and there were 12 in that class so I was really pleased (he had a good gawp at the judge when he was on the see-saw too!).

Then onto Vyne (Newbury again argh!!) - it was sooooooooooooo cold - no places but both dogs did some nice bits. The Champ went on soooooo long too! Cad was very cheeky in the Champ Jumping with an E and then did not really get going, then ran nice in the Agility with an E near the end.

Beacon - with no classes for the vertically challenged at Tunbridge on the Saturday a little group of us from club thought we would take a trip to the Midlands (2 hours to get there so not bad!) - it was a cold/grey/drizzly day - Cad went clear in the Crufts Team (between the rest they had 20f) and he had a clear in the 6/7 Agility, for various reasons the Champ was not good so I will now try and erase that one from my memory! I also borrowed little Rosie Terrier who ran well considering I have hardly run her before - she is a funny little thing! Kaiser had a day off as there were only classes for the little-ies.

Then onto Tunbridge - we had Crufts Team again and I was very proud of our Team of Karen and Todd, EJ and Cia, Sue and Bug and Cadders for coming 2nd - the winners (Thames) had 5 faults and our team had 10 (dog walk for Bug and Cia knocked the last bit of the long jump), Cad got a 15th in the Medium KC class, and Kaiser worked well with a clear in a speedy G3 jumping just outside the places.

So lot's of words for a short catch up but finishing with a photo! I am very proud that Cadders got a lovely Tunbridge trophy - Fleet got 3 there 2 years back...

Wordless Wednesday......

I am copying Angela - not many words but a photo I found when looking through the computer that I really like:-



and another I like:-

Easter etc....

Well Easter approached and the rain came down! We had been at Ardingly 4 weeks before for Mid Downs and when I had walked the dogs across the grassy areas it was well soggy so we had already decided not to camp - with 8 dogs between us and Fog nearly 13 and TT 12 and the rest of the dogs to think about too camping in mud just did not seem a good idea! So it's about an hour each way so we thought we would just go each day and that included going Friday to help set up (and go to the pub in the evening with Derek, Mandy and Arthur). Thankfully the organisers had been able to move the show indoors and also use the outdoor sandschools so no slipsliding about on mud yay!

This is one of the outside rings on the Friday with a little river running through it and below where the water came out - it did dry out quite well on the Saturday and Sunday and we were very lucky with the weather all weekend!





The people who camped were parked in rows on the roadways - looked really funny!



No Videos as I helped each day but was very pleased with the dogs, Cad got a 4th, 2 x 5th and a 6th and a clear in his fifth run so 5/5 clears - I really enjoyed all the courses I did with both the dogs - there was one I thought noooooo way would I do the start with Cad but we did it - wasted a bit of time as he so wanted to go back in the tunnel lol, and Kaiser is getting there - this was his first show in 6 months (the 2 shows we did recently were only for the vertically challenged dogs!) and Kaiser only did a handful in July/Aug/Sept last year where back then I was very selective about what courses I did in case they were a. too hard or b. too near the next ring as he so wanted to go and herd the dog in the next ring! It has been a lot of hard work - keeping his attention and motivation but I think we are gradually getting there - we need to work on the weaves and his turns now and make up my mind what I am doing with his contacts!

The House

Well the work has continued - it's almost finished now and really does look so different - all that's left is a few bits - the plastering has been done, the floor has been screeded (is that spelt right - I don't know!), so the electrics need to be finished, and some finishing touches and then the rest is down to me...I need to paint it, can't decide on a colour yet - might just go for washable cream, or might do the low walls that are below the glass in lilac! The floor needs to be tiled as well so I need to choose some tiles and get that done. Next job - I am having my driveway at the front widened to make room for the caravan so have had 5 tree's taken down (sorry tree eco peeps- they were those drop the darn pine needle ones lol).

Here are some before and afters - I am so pleased with the difference the new windows/white upvc guttering and cladding make as well as having the conservatory - I know some people like wooden cladding but it's not a very old house and cladding needs upkeep which I would be terrible at doing!

March 2010....

So what's been happening since I last blogged, Chippenham small/medium show, Downland, Kaiser went on his first training session away from club and the conservatory is finally taking shape.

Chip Small/Medium - I know a lot of people don't like indoor shows but I do lol - I find them more sociable and you know what surface you are running on - no worries about dogs or handlers slipsliding in the mud! Cad was having a cheeky couple of runs in the Champ but he still did some nice bits I do have those 2 runs but on Dennis's video camera and getting them off there seems complicated due to lack of correct wires or something like that - hence I have now bought my own video camera! I enjoyed watching the Champ final with Karen and Todd and Bernadette and Zen in it and Zen won the medium CC yay! So 2 E's in the Champ for Cad, nice clear on a very straight forward 6/7 jumping, it was a scratch pair as Cad's partner was in season - - another doodle :) they did 2 lovely clears - then we found out we had 25 faults on the changeover - you could not hear the tannoy but afterwards we found out (as others did) you had to hold the baton the whole time the second dog ran - it will make me cross to go on about it but it did put a dampener on things as I did not know my pairs partner and felt bad for letting them down after two lovely runs grrrr! We then got a 4th in the Graded 6/7 Agility - I was pleased with this as there was a tunnel handling point and Cad worked it lovely :)

Kaiser has been a very herdy/easily distracted boy! We have worked hard on this but I was not happy to take him on any training sessions away from club as if someone was doing something that was badly distracting him (like chucking a ball right by him down to the empty end of the indoor school) I know them and can ask them to stop just while I run (I would not find this so easy with people I don't know!). So he has not done any training days but anyways having worked hard on raising his concentration levels I booked to do a 2 hour group session with Gemma Hanekom - I like Gemma's handling of her dogs - always so very smooth and encouraging and I thought 2 hours was a good length to try after rather than some training "days" which can be 3 hours - yes of course we are not running our dogs for the 2 or 3 hours - lot's of listening/watching/learning - so I have a good few things to work on but I was pleased to get Kaiser into a different training location and get some new ideas on things to help us improve :)

Downland - I do like this show - 2 rings and you can watch from the upstairs viewing area - only thing was I had toothache for about a week and did not feel on top form at all and this seemed to rub off on Cad! We had a clears in 6/7 jumping just out the places and in steeplechase but I am finding I get more of a buzz doing the agility runs - we got 6th in the 1-7 Agility and a missed weave entry in the pay on the day agility - my fault (as ever!) Cad thought I was pulling him off the weaves I think! In the 1-7 I would have liked Cad to run down the dog walk a bit more so in the pay on the day I paused and he ran right down - only thing about videoing is it can make you what I call over-analytical !

Here are our runs in the 1-7 Agility and Pay on the Day Agility - I am not sure what I did to the second clip but you have to double click it to play on YouTube or at least on my screen it's all the wrong size - so I tried it on the blogger upload too - think I am being a technophobe doh!

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The conservatory is taking shape now - some people have said "is that not finished yet" ! But as ever it was not quite that simple! After the base and brick wall there was a wait of a few weeks for the glass/frame/roof etc to arrive and it's not just the conservatory but I was having all the back guttering/facias/soffits/wooden cladding replaced with white upvc and also 3 new windows so quite a major job! They have done a bit more so I need to take some more photos!

Crufts

On Thursday we set off early for Crufts - we wanted to get up there nice and early in case of any delays and to get a good parking space and I am glad we did as some people got held up with road closures/diversions!

Cadbury and Dennis's terrier/terror Rosie had qualified for the mini/mixi pairs - really proud that they had qualified for this and so glad that Cadbury actually got to run at Crufts this year - the last two years he had been a reserve for a medium crufts team so he got to go - watch agility - get all excited and then come home again!

We got to watch Pia and Maisie in the British Open Jumping and they did a fab run to come 2nd :)

Here is Cadbury waiting out the back by the DFS cloth......was a bit dark there so not a very good photo!



The course for the smalls was quite straightforward...the course for the medium and large dogs was well tricky - pull throughs from behind which are not my strong point lol (Cad is fine - it's me!) hence the need to really run and get all the turns in! I was soooo proud of how Cadbury ran bless him - Dennis's Rosie was on a bit of a gooooo slow! They placed to 6th and we came 7th!

Bill Glover kindly videod us:-

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I then did some shopping - there was not really enough time to watch agility, compete and shop in one day but I still managed a quick whizz round the shops and bought two new dogs beds and some lovely fleecey purple bedding

I bought one of these raised beds at Olympia - I had always wanted to see if the dogs like them and yep they really do so I bought two more!

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and bought the normal stuff like smoked bones/toys/new bowls etc!

Well Done to everyone else we know who is at Crufts - I am loving watching the live streaming and also have paid the fee to watch the videos of previous events :)

Wet Wet Wet!

That's the weather right now! It seems to rain everyday :(

I was only in my house a mater of days and the company said they could start the conservatory - luckily we can go and stay at Dennis's as the layout of my house means the dogs just can't be here with something like going on and also the garden was made unusable while there was a deep trench for the footings (can't have mad dog, old dog, semi blind dog and scruffy superstar dog falling down a deep trench!!) The dogs would have had to be elsewhere in the house with me or in the van if we did not have that option. Here are a couple of photos - the Builder is almost done but keeps getting held up by the constant wet stuff!





Had a mini house warming even though I am not actually back at the house yet (can't have the dogs running into things like a cement mixer in the garden!) it was a really nice evening and was funny to be giving guided tours of my house but not to be trying to sell a house!

Apart from walking them and going to North Downs twice a week not done anything with the dogs - way too wet - have judging at Mid Downs coming up and then Cadbury and Dennis's Rosie have qualified for Crufts in the Mini/Mixi so am looking forward to that :)

I always seem to need a photo of Fleet to close a posting on the blog - so here is one with Cadbury herding him - wow Cads is so young there!

New House

Well I finally moved into the house, you really do forget how much you have to do when you move house - I still have one bedroom full of boxes and still have so much to sort out!

I bought the house knowing I wanted to put a conservatory on the back - they are starting that today, digging out for the base and then putting the concrete base down and also I am having a wall round as I did not like the idea of full length glass.

Here is a scan of the 3D image of the conservatory and what the back of the house looks like now - so the conservatory will go across the double doors on the left that come out from the kitchen and also the window in the breakfast (dog!) area. The garden is not massive but there is a bit more than you can see in the photo as there is a patio at the end of the garden and a big-ish shed and it backs onto trees (I so did not want a house that was overlooked yay!) - I am planning on finally getting my artifical lawn put down once the conservatory is finished - I have had it for about 3 years and it's still in big heavy rolls!
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Dog wise we have not really done that much - have been training Kaiser twice a week at North Downs under the watchful eye of Matt and Amanda and I am really pleased with how he is working - his concentration is getting better and he is a very sweet dog, the only thing apart from training that we have done is a training in the ring thing at Lesley Oldens I thought it would be good for Kaiser to get a go somewhere else as he will not have done a show from Downland till Easter - again I was pleased with him - he had a couple of lapses of concentration but as the saying goes we are getting there! I love this photo of Kaiser as a pup.



I could not finish a posting on the blog without putting a photo of Fleet - this time last year I was getting nervous about going to Crufts with him in the Team....