Friday 26 October 2012

What a good boy

This has been M's phrase since Sunday!! 

I'm enjoying all the attention and praise I have to admit and even at training on Tuesday I was the good boy and M was the one being told off. 
Apparently shouts at me too much when running the course - she's got to shut up! I don't need to be told at every jump to jump.
 I'm glad someone else told her that and not me!!

Me and my rosettes!
 

Competition Part 3

There was a course called Helter Skelter that I wasn't entered for because M says it makes her dizzy - its only made up out of jumps and tunnels and goes round and round in circles...

Here's A and Bonnie doing it....


My last course was the agility. M was hoping again for non-elimination as when she walked the course she saw lots of places I could go wrong - i.e heading for the tunnel or the A-frame (my two favourites)

This was the course
 
 M was really pleased with me cause I listened all the way round and didn't go wrong once - my FIRST ever clear round :-)

AND i came 2nd!!!!!

Here's some of my pals doing the course....A and Bob and then Ma and Breeze




Wednesday 24 October 2012

Competition Time Part 2

The next course in the competition was a jumping course, this could and did include a tunnel and 6 pole weave (thankfully not the full 12)

It was quite a tight course with various places where I could trip M up so she made sure she walked the course a couple of times to get in her head where she would like to be standing to make sure I was going in the right direction.

This was the course....


 It was the circling at the top of the course that gave M the most worry but I did it perfectly - well I didn't get eliminated anyway. I got 20 faults; refusing jump 6 (I went to get some fuss from the time keeper), I knocked a couple of jumps down and then I missed the weave entry cause I caught sight of S (the judge) I hadn't noticed him till then!

but M was really very proud of me!!! 

No one was around to take pic's of me running so here are a few of my pals running the course....
This is A and Meg


 This is V and Jake

This is A and Bob







Tuesday 23 October 2012

Compeition time

So after my very exciting time on Friday/Saturday M disappeared on Saturday afternoon for a couple of hours leaving me to have a good long sleep....

Fairly early on Sunday M woke me up - no lie in for me apparently and she got all my agility things together and popped me in the car.

5 minutes down the road and we pulled in to our usual agility centre - Oo goody I thought. Well M took off my seat belt and told me to stay put, she'd be back in a bit.
A couple of minutes later and she was back and took me out for a walk. The equipment was already set up and lots of my pals were already there too, with a few strangers starting to arrive.

M took me back to the car and got me settled with my bed, water and my tuggy rope and left me there for a bit until she was ready for the classes to start - it was our Fun Show!! I remember this from Easter (although it was better weather today!)

My first class got underway and it was called Double contact agility - now this wouldn't be allowed in a kennel club competition but as it was our fun show we thought the extra practise with contacts would be good so this meant in this course we would have to negotiate the dog walk, the a-frame, and the see-saw twice.

M was very worried that I was too excited, but I did try very hard - although she wasn't impressed with me running off to retrieve my lead part way through the course!! Well I am a retriever after all!!
This was the course....

 I only got 10 faults on this course plus 8 time faults which is my best round yet - M was very pleased! 
and then we found out I'd got a 6th place rosette!!!



Here's a few of my pals doing the course tooo........... 
This V and Rosie...
Above is A and Bob barker
 Above is Ma and Breeze, my M almost didnt manage a piccy of Breeze as she's sooo fast!

Monday 22 October 2012

Excitement

Well for once I've had an exciting weekend, but I'm going to keep you in suspense over a couple of days cause I doubt this week will be as exciting....

Friday night M got home and bundled me in the car along with all my overnight things, Ooo I got excited cause I thought I was going to see Wispa!
Anyway M drove me to the yard where we met D and we swapped cars so I had more room - mmm luxury!
So I settled down to sleep, one of my favourite past times if your new to this blog... well when the car stopped I wasnt outside Wispa's house at all. In fact I didnt recognise where we were - how strange, I go everywhere with M & D so where were we?

M took all the bags out the car and my bed, and D took me for a stroll so I could get to know the smells of the area... and there were some good smells let me tell you!

Any how - it was exciting finding out where we were - we were visiting T & R who come and help D at the yard, they are lovely and give me lots of fuss so I was really chuff M & D had brought me along too. I charged in to get some fuss and to my shock there was a little furry thing in the kitchen in his own crate....
I had a good ole sniff and it was, it was a dog!! OOOooooo I could keep my excitement bottled up, M said I was wiggling all over.

This little puppy's name is Jasper and he is only 8 weeks old
and he's a cocker spaniel! - thats my bed he's chewing by the way, but thats ok cause he's only little!

T & R let him out of his crate and he was very scared of me (dont know why) but he got braver and braver and by the end of the visit (we stayed over night yippee) he was totally my bestie (sorry Wispa)

It was a bit dark in the house so please excuse M for the pictures and video....



 Yes that is MY cow he's got - but we shared it....

More excitement tomorrow......!!!!

Monday 15 October 2012

Competition

After a very early morning **yawn** and a long drive over to a place called Newcastle we got to the competition... at Cleverpawz!

I was determined to cleverpawz today...

However with a strange place and even stranger floor (sand mixed with carpet?!) it didnt go well. I had 3 eliminations and a round with 10 faults (the judge was VERY lenient according to M)

Meg and Bob did much better, having clear rounds and winning 2nd's and 3rd's - I must try harder, its just soo difficult to concentrate!

Here are a few pictures, sorry they're a bit blurred we were all moving sooo fast!

Meg is the tri coloured small collie and Bob (bob barker) is the black and white collie..


 M said my weaves were really good and I didnt miss an entry - all practise is paying off!

 





Wednesday 10 October 2012

My Pals

First night back and there were 21 of us training at the equestrian centre last night!!

M decided that she would make me wear my muzzle for the first 10 minutes just as a reminder not to be silly. I was a very good boy M even said so and so did lots of other people!


We were doing lots of little exercises tonight - we had the circle
To check that our human friends could stay away and handle from a distance. This is Jake below.

We did a see-saw, tunnel jump, combination going into different ends of the tunnel.
 We also had a jump, weave combination to practise weave entries, and for those that are just too good, they were trying the see-saw, miss out the tunnel and enter the weaves behind.

This is Shey with J below and Tarka's on the pic above.

 This last exercise was quite tricky and I was getting tired, I been running around and using my brain for a whole hour already!
It was an advance on the circle, and was meant to help us with weave entries from any direction so M would take me round the circle and shout Go weave at any point and I need to come off the jumps and enter the weaves from the right side.
Definitely something to practise at!
 Competition on Sunday so we'll see how it goes.....
I'm going to try and get M to take pics of more of my pals next time we go!

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Work with D

Yesterday I went to work with D! 
It was great I got to run around the yard and got loads of walks!

I did get told off later on though cause I ate a very yummy wooden spoon, and then threw it back up again!!

Off to agility tomorrow night and its the first night back at the Equestrian centre so I will be able to meet back up with lots of pals I havent seen over the summer YAY!!

I'll try and post photo's

Friday 5 October 2012

A day from the norm

So M picked me up last night (not actually picked me up hahaha) and drove me to D's parents to see Wispa!! Fun fun fun

M & D took me for a walk in the country last night - D wasnt happy with me at all, he said I was pulling everywhere. There were lots of smells and I knew the bunnies were somewhere but it was getting a bit dark to see them.

We stayed at D's parents overnight so I got to share Wispa's bed, which is lovely and snuggly, very different from my bed at home, which is soft and cool but not so snuggly.

THEN this morning D went off to work and M came down and gave me a quick walk round the village to say hello to a couple of morning walkers.

It was then into the car for a trip into town and then a walk out in a strange place, it seemed like the country but there were quite a few big stone buildings. 
Gardens 



Anyway I had a good ole sniff around and then M popped me back in the car and disappeared for an hour.

(I need to point out the M was very dressed up this morning - she's never taken me for a walk in heels before!! )

Anyway she got back let me out for a P stop and then off we went home. She dropped me off and headed to work - blimey that was all a bit odd..

Monday 1 October 2012

Same Old

As you may have guessed from this blog I have a fairly rigid routine. I'm beginning to think that you may all start to find my life and tales quite boring as I am beginning to writing this.

Instead of trying to carry on with my everyday diary which seems to have gone by the by anyway I'm going to try and just post with the exciting times - although there may be months between these posts :-(

I have a couple of agility competitions coming up so I'll try and post pictures of those, and also if I can get M & D out in this awful weather I'll keep you updated on those adventures.

I was out at the weekend M took my shopping - twice! Once was to get all my supplies although we didn't manage much as they hadn't got my treats in stock at Pets At Home - but it was bedlam, I haven't seen that many dogs in the store ever! and it was very noisy!

Then the second trip was to get M & D's supplies, I don't get taken here very often as i'm not allowed in the shop but M thought while it was dry we would go for a long walk - I have been driving her mental apparently. So we had a lovely country walk to Tesco's and then came back through the Park where I could chase the gulls! I had a right fun time smellin all those nice smells too and I got some fuss!

Got straight home and fell asleep which M was really happy about - I had been racing around the house knocking things over before.... well its all this wind and rain driving me MAD! M was going to get the weaves out but it was too wet so instead I helped her plant out her new flowers. I have been warned not to dig them up today while she's not a home!!