First obedience show of the year for Solei last Saturday, and Elton's first ever!

I'd never been to this show before, but I've been to the venue before for conformation - and I thought it was right up Solei's street, which was really the reason for entering. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, Solei's major problem with obedience is he worries about the chair bumping on grass - which leads to working wide and lagging. This show is held on concrete, in a hall.

Solei was entered in Pre-Beginners and Beginners, I was intending to compete with him in both classes. Elton was in the same two classes, but I was intending to train Beginners and work Pre-Beginners - turning it into a training round if it went very wrong! Elton was also doing conformation.

Very inconsiderately they couldn't have been more awkwardly positioned, with Papillon breed judging in an annexe of the main hall, and the obedience in a seperate building on the opposite side of the main (very large) hall! I spent all day running backwards and forwards between the two.

I decided to work Solei's Pre-Beginners round early, as it fitted in nicely before Elton's breed class and gave me chance to give Solei a rest before I did Beginners. He was absolutely fantastic <3 this is the Solei I get to see in training, that nobody else ever usually does because of bumpy grass!

There were a couple of slight lapses of concentration, but given I've done very little work with him for the last six months - because of how disasterous he'd gone by the end of last season - it was to be expected! We only had one slight "ooo er" moment when the judge moved from standing beside me to behind him during his recall and he jumped slightly off to one side (looking over his shoulder) and forgot to sit. On the whole he was fantastic.

Next I decided to train Elton's Beginner round, because he was really not concentrating. It was all new and exciting and he just was everywhere but with me. He was pretty atrocious but the judge said she saw some lovely snippets of what he was capable of, and she thinks he could be very good if I keep working on it :-) Which was great because I've always thought so, and it was nice to have a judge say the same!

I considered doing Solei's Beginners round, but time was pushing on and I didn't think I had time to get there and back in time for Elton. Then they announced the stay times :-P

Wouldn't you know it...I only enter one dog in one breed class, and I get a perfect clash between that and Pre-Beginner stays! They were at 11:30am, meanwhile Elton's breed class ended up going in just before 11:25am. Having realised what was going to happen, I'd already spoken to the steward and he said it was fine for me to join the class as soon as I could, but if the judge had already been over all the dogs he couldn't guarantee they'd wait.

So I took Elton in and stood him, hoping there would be time for the judge to have her initial look and maybe even go over him - but the judge and steward were deep in conversation (probably discussing me lol) and I realised there wasn't time. So I pulled him out, and rushed down to the stay ring, did stays with both boys, legged it back to the breed - and made it back with 1 dog left to be seen! Threw him on the table, triangle, up and down, and then tried to get his concentration to stand at the end (which was still AWOL).

He made the cut (class of 17, so she shortlisted) and then placed 4th :-) I was pleased given the circumstances, though a bit frustrated as I think he could have done better - (understandably) he wasn't very settled, and at some point between his Beginners round and coming back to the Paps something had happened to his ear - I have no idea what as he was fine until and during Beginners, but by the time he went in the ring he was shaking his head, scratching like made and holding his ear strangely as well - not a good look on a Phalene (if you didn't know it looked like one of his ears was incorrectly set), so he was lucky to get away with it really.

His ear was fine again a short time later, so go figure?!

As far as stays went, it was my first time doing stays with two dogs. They looked so fetching doing their stays together lol. Solei passed with flying colours, Elton was fine in his sit but broke his down nearly three quarters of the way through to go and say hello to another Papillon :-P I was very embarrassed, he caused chaos! As I'm sure you can imagine I was beyond stressed at 11:30am lol and very anxious for the stays to be over, so I don't know if he picked up on that at all.

It was just chaotic from then on, by that point everyone else had worked and they wanted me in both rings at once lol So I did Solei's Beginner round (again, very good. Did the retrieve! Albeit not with a dumbbell and it could have been cleaner at the end), immediately followed by Elton's Pre-Beginners (and he pulled himself together for me...it was a bit dodgy to start with but his concentration improved as we went on (reflected in that he lost more on HoL than HF)) and then Solei's Beginners stays!

Then I was able to stop and breathe :-)

End result, was that Solei  had 3rd in Beginners and won Pre-Beginners!! By a considerable margin - he lost 5 1/2, the 2nd placed dog lost 10 1/2 or 10 3/4 (can't remember). Elton actually would have been 2nd to Solei in Pre-Beginners, had he not broken his down stay! Aragh.

He was on 6 1/4, so comfortably in 2nd and could have afforded to lose up to 4 marks on his stay...but he dropped 6 1/2, which was very galling - would have been amazing to have father & son in 1st & 2nd, never gonna happen again! That put him down into 6th, so he was still placed - just.

So, so proud of them both :-) And I think Elton proved a point - you know how some people insist dogs won't show if you teach them to sit..etc? Well his day went - Beginners round (NFC), breed class and stood for 5 minutes, stays, back to breed & showed him, Pre-Beginners round! And he showed when he was meant to be showing and did obedience when he was meant to be doing obedience :-) I knew he could handle both, but I wasn't sure about bouncing backwards and forwards like that!

The only sad bit is that now I can never compete in Pre-Beginners at a limited show again, and that's the level I really enjoy and feel comfortable with.

Ria had her first vaccination on Friday morning. I know vaccinations can make them drowsy, so when we got home and she took herself off, curled up in her bed and went to sleep I thought I may get some peace for the rest of the day...no chance! I did get 4 hours....but then she more than made up for it :-)

We've been playing around with stuff, just getting her using her brain and having some fun! Thus far she doesn't seem to care about stuff moving under her paws :-) I had an oval container on it's side and she was putting her paws on it happily, despite it rocking - and sliding somewhat!
I was playing with a box, had her jumping on to it....then I swapped for a smaller thing and she tried to jump on to it as well <3 And after falling off a few times she managed it. I didn't think it was physically possible.
 
I'm having a lot of fun with her so far. Though she seems to be going backwards in house training :-P
 
I'm sure I had more I wanted to say about her, but sitting here on Sunday evening I'll be damned if I can remember - even though it was only two days ago!

Elton got to play agility last night :-) I pay for my agility classes in 4 week blocks, because you get a slight discount - however, you pay for 4 consequetive weeks whether you attend or not - if you miss a week, you lose it.

After last week Solei wasn't allowed (so says me and his chiro!) as he's on rest, so this left me with rather a problem...I didn't want to lose the money, especially as it wasn't my fault. So I rang to find out if I could carry the week over, given the circumstances (no), so I asked whether I could swap dogs. Maybe - bring him along and see. So given I had nothing to lose, off Elton and I went! The instructor agreed I could participate with Elton, and I must say; I was impressed.

I took him along to one of Solei's lessons once when he was about 4 months old and showed him the tunnel. Then when he was 15 months old he did some 3 jumps and a tunnel on a have a go course. That is Elton's total agility experience lol

So the class starts off doing contacts on the end of the dog walk....Elton has never seen a dog walk before in his life. He was such a good boy! Lovely contacts, and after we'd done a few he seemed to have a pretty good idea of what I wanted him to do :-) Then we attempted the full dog walk. The first time he kinda commando crawled over it :lol: (but the instructor (= she) was holding his collar which may have contributed), though his end contact was lovely ;-) The second time he went over it much more confidently, again with a good contact :-)

Next was the chute...again not an obstacle Elton has ever seen. The first time she held him at one end, I went to the other and called him with someone holding the chute open - fine. The second time was hilarious...I was walking towards the chute as she said to me "give it a go, don't worry if he won't". I stopped about 3 metres before the entrance, took him off lead and before I could react he'd run off, through the chute and was waiting for me at the other end LOL So yeah....no problems there then! Third time he tried to go around it, but I redirected him through and he was fine :-)

Then came the aframe - guess what, never seen one of those before either! We were only putting them on the contact, but it was at full height (a more advanced group had been using it "properly") so rather steep and Elton had some trouble - rather than a 2o2o method he eventually settled for flattening himself on the contact an inch or two up! <3

We did a jump a couple of times, then came some sequencing - jump, tunnel, jump. Yay, obstacles he'd seen before! Although his initial reaction was to go around the tunnel and jump #2 when I showed him what I wanted he did the whole thing :-)

Finally we did a sequence of four jumps in a square/circle/thing. I think his concentration span had gone by that point, as when I released him to start he wandered off to do his own thing! One dog retrieved, and he did then do it.

So yes, overall I was really impressed with him :-) I didn't want to start agility with him yet, but if Solei can't then I may reconsider....we'll see. We both had a great time, anyway!

I love this puppy <3 I'm not doubting myself anymore, I think I've done the right thing :-) She's gorgeous <3

She was 8 weeks old yesterday, and I've had her 6 days now. She's much quieter at night, though we're still not sleeping brilliantly! None the less it's much improved. I've reached the point of such exhaustion I'm not as jumpy which helps lol - to start with I was jumping awake with every little noise, determined to get her outside before she peed. Which was quite amusing on Saturday night - I woke up and of course me getting up woke her up. So I went to grab her to put her out, she squatted so I picked her up anyway and put her down outside expecting her to squat as she was that desperate....no, she ran back inside. So grabbed her again, by which time she'd started peeing again (I didn't realise) which ended up going all over my hand and lap before she stopped! This time shut the door before I put her down and she did do the rest outside....but not quite what I wanted in the middle of the night! No such incidents since, thankfully!

I left her for the first time on Sunday, she seemed to have settled quite well so I decided to take Elton to the show I'd entered him in, as we were first in the ring and it was only about 15 minutes drive. Dad was at home, so she wasn't completely on her own. On the whole she was really good :-) (and it was worth going as Elton won his class!)

On Monday some friends came over for lunch, and to meet madam! She was somewhat overawed when they first came in, but warmed up and by the time they left she was all over them :-) I have been warned to socialise her well, and someone with a puppy (7mos) from similar lines (I think his mother is Ria's grandmother) was telling me all about the problems they've been having with their dog and being scared of people. So I was a bit worried to see her initial reaction, but pleased with how it ended!

Tuesday was a big day for Ria - I put a collar on her for the first time (not amused!) and we went on our first big adventure, down the road to the post office :-) She hasn't even had her first vaccination yet, so she was restricted to my lap - much to her displeasure! As we walked down the road she wasn't sure of traffic, but I'd taken a toy and stopped to talk and play when I saw bigger vehicles approaching. She seemed to improve as she was out for longer, so hopefully she'll soon get over that! There was a white German Shepherd walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the road which she thought was rather interesting! She was very interested in the couple of people that walked by, but a bit wary. However, as we got down to where the post office is we met a man who stopped to talk to her and she was happily saying hello. Closely followed by an older couple who she also greeted enthusiastically, and then was actually pulling to get *to* people! So that was good.

After such a busy week I was very tired yesterday, so we didn't do anything eventful! I'm intending to try and book her in for her first vaccination tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

In general, I think she's doing well :-) Early days yet, but she's responding quite well to me (they are known for being a bit stand offish with strangers and that also made the first couple of days hard - she wouldn't respond to me at all). She seems to know her name now (makes a big difference!), and we're working on a nose to hand touch. Kooikers are known for adoration of food and putting on weight easily, and I can confirm she's no exception! I need to work on more toy drive, cos at the moment food wins every time. In play she isn't too bad at bringing things back at the moment, though I expect that'll change lol. She's pretty good about coming when I call her, though the word "come" has barely been introduced and doesn't mean a lot yet! House training is a work in progress, but for 8 weeks old she's not doing badly.

I'm trying not to stress about things and just to enjoy her! This is the first time I've ever had a very young puppy of my own (my family walked three guide dog puppies when I was 9-11yrs old - I don't remember much) and I really want to do my best by her, and especially make the most of that crucial <12 week period I've never had before. The youngest puppy I've ever had was Elton, who was 12 weeks old and came with his sister for me to "run on" the pair of them on behalf of their breeders - so a very different scenario, and I wasn't able to do half of what I wanted to do A) because he wasn't mine (he wasn't mine until he was just shy of 6 months old) and B) because I had the pair of them.

With Ria, the world is my oyster and I want her to be all that she can be :-) Hopefully I won't mess it up!

Although they're not a table breed her breeder starts her own dogs off on the table and then moves them to the floor once they're bigger, and I can't get down to her properly on the floor so we've been working on the table. She had no concept, and the first three times I put her on, she fell off (I caught her!), but she's now a bit steadier and I actually managed some semi-decent photos yesterday.

Ria, 8 weeks old :-)

*Sighs and rolls eyes!*

On Thursday Solei and I went to agility, they'd set up a sequence of four or five (can't remember) jumps, close together in a straight line. Fine - except they wanted to hold the dogs to have them pulling towards the owner. I know Solei can be a bit funny about that, but I do feel like I'm sometimes overprotective/oversensitive, so I let them go ahead. There were two sequences set up, with a different person on each. The first was ok (more or less, anyway!) but the person on the second a typical ham fisted man who was not at all used to small dogs.

I left Solei, and as I started walking away there was an almightly scream and I turned around to see him flat to the floor! I was concerned and not happy at the time, but carried on and he was fine for the rest of the evening.

Over the weekend I wasn't particularly happy - there was a slight look in his eyes, and he wasn't so keen on food - however, having just brought Ria home it could have been due to that.

I could have cried on Monday morning when he was like I haven't seen him since before he started seeing his chiro (excluding the reaction he had 48hrs after his first session!). I left him to see how he went, but not seeing much improvement I rang his chiro yesterday (but had to leave a message) and put him on crate rest.

She rang me back this morning and thought it was unlikely he'd put his back out as badly as it was initially, which was encouraging. She agreed with what I was doing, also told me to do 10 minutes massage twice a day and she said although she's not a vet and can't tell me, if he was her dog she'd give him some painkillers - which I was going to do, I just couldn't obtain any until today!

So we'll see how he goes, fingers crossed the rest and painkillers help. On the bright side aside from the holding the actually agility went very well :-P He was doing the obstacles well, and his 2o2o contacts had come back!

Then there's Elton! He hasn't been the same since we did a "dog swap" in early February - Darwin, whom I'd had for two years, went back and Fern, an almost 9 month old bitch, came in her place. Elton hasn't been the same since. A month after Fern arrived she came into season, and a week after that (so about two weeks ago) she went back.

From a dog that was very much into food and had never been a fussy eater in his life, Elton started being so disinterested in food. It had been a gradual (subtle) decline, until he refused his first meal completely a few days after Fern started her season.

Sometimes he eats (eventually), sometimes doesn't, no enthusiasm for food....which also has a knock on effect that I'm not spending as much time doing things with him cos I can't work with him (I'd cube the NatureDiet and then train him before each meal and use the ND to reward) if I can't reward him!! (Can use toys but not all the time) and he's just lost a little bit of something that was Elton, if that makes sense. I don't know what to do with him, I've tried doing things, not doing things..etc.

He's getting time spent with me on his own, and I haven't tried to do any form of training for weeks. I really hope he's just unsettled and now there won't be anymore dog changes for months he'll get over it - whatever "it" is!

I can't tell you how much I want the "old" Elton back :-(

I don't think I've mentioned this before, as it's gone wrong so many times before. But now she's here, I can announce it -

I PICKED UP MY NEW BABY ON FRIDAY!!!!

Can't believe I've finally got her home. Her name is Ria, she is a Kooikerhondje and she turned 7 weeks old last Wednesday :-)

It was a more than five hour drive each way, so on Friday we left before 6:30am and got home after 10pm. I carried her home, and she was absolutely dead to the world for the first two and a half hours

I have no idea why it's insisting on turning them strange ways (the first and third ones should be 90 degrees left and the second one 180 degrees (it's upside down)) but you'll just have to tilt your head or screen lol - sorry!

Then she woke up, and it got interesting :-) I managed to stop her being too obnoxious, and she slept on and off the rest of the way home. When we arrived home as it was so late I went almost straight to bed, and she did not approve! It was rather a noisy night.

I wondered what I'd done. And someone was upset I hadn't told them I was actually going to pick her up, which upset me and made everything worse. And I was obviously so tired as well....having had such a long day on Friday, and then got very little in the way of sleep on Friday night. So I spent most of yesterday in tears!

She slept better Saturday night, and I do feel a lot better about things today. So, we shall see what the future holds!

Well there's Crufts over for another year!

I had a fantastic time, I love Crufts. As usual I didn't have enough time to see everyone I wanted to see, nor do everything I wanted to do!

Elton was in Graduate Dog, which had 21 entries. Looking through the catalogue I don't think there was a single dog that always beats him - either he usually beats them, sometimes he beats them sometimes they beat him or he'd never been up against them.

So his class was called, and into the ring we went. He almost let me down majorly once in the ring - decided he would go into one of his "oh, I know you! And wow, and there's another dog next to me! I like you! Let's play!" (his breeder was two dogs away which didn't help as he sees her at least once a week most weeks and obviously knows her very well) and his mind and attention was anywhere but on me. Then - being the last day - there had been ample bitches in the ring and he picked up on the scent and dropped to the floor and commando crawled over to the first water mark, cocked his leg and then dragged me over to the next one and did the same! We had words and thankfully he did settle (benefit of a large class) by the time it was his turn, though he's shown better.

He isn't a fan of the rings at Crufts - it was his first time there, but he hates the grills under the carpet. When the chair goes over them it makes a much bigger sound/movement than a person, and of course I can't avoid them (well, I can avoid the horizontal ones but not the vertical ones!). He didn't like City of Bham for the same reason (different location but same grills), but LKA (same venue as Crufts) was ok - think our ring happened to be in a better place in relation to where they were!

However, the judge shortlisted and Elton made the cut :-) I was ecstatic, thinking he'd definitely got a place - and then my heart sank when I saw the judge had pulled out 6 (5 places), and I was just hoping he wouldn't be that 6th! After multiple laps of the ring (big rings, his poor little legs were worn out lol) he made his decision - and Elton got a 4th :-D

To be in the cards at Crufts is a big achievement, so I'm more than happy - especially for Elton's first time there.

Solei and I went back to agility last Thursday! As I said, I’d been so looking forward to it; but also with some apprehension – mainly as to what Solei would think! I knew I’d missed it, I didn’t realise how much until I got back to it…I had the most fantastic evening!

As it turned out we actually got to do more than I thought we would - the instructor knew Solei had done some agility before, so gave me a slightly freer reign!

We started off by showing the dogs the tunnel, and she let him do it “properly” twice, rather than her holding the dog at one end and the owner calling the dog at the other, like the others were doing. He loves the tunnel, so that was good :-) Then we split into pairs, to do some jumps – well, between two jump wings with the bar on the floor! There were an uneven number of us so Solei and I got our own jump to do as we pleased :-D We did some practice going through the wings, and then she put the bar up on the feet of the wings (so very close to the ground) and he was jumping that like a pro! I was pleased with him because the last agility we did he’d started trying to go under/round, and although he didn’t really have space to go under he didn’t even try. Then she put two jumps together and we had a couple of goes at that – Solei thought about going round rather than over, but after I showed him he did jump them.

After that we moved on to the dog walk, which was just one of the “down” parts, and all we did was 2 on 2 off contacts. This is the part his previous training deserted him, he used to have very nice contacts but he seems to have forgotten the “two on two off” principle!

Then came the tire – the first time I had Solei off lead and he decided to squeeze through the gap between the tire and the stand! So she put him on lead and showed him, and then you could see him going “oooh…yeah, I remember now!” and he did it very well. Finally we did a couple of recalls through channel weaves.

Bar contacts Solei remembered everything and above all he really seemed to enjoy it – which meant I enjoyed it! The only dodgy part was when I took him off lead for the dog walk cos I was getting confused with my lead and hand and at one point he ran off….but I was so impressed because he actually came back as soon as I called him without racing around in circles like he usually does! He was really focused on me most of the time actually, it was so nice to have a dog looking at me like that for once! Nice to have some Solei and I time as well. I can’t remember the last time we went anywhere without Elton!

The next day he had his chiro session, which was encouraging. She was pleased he'd enjoyed his agility so much and was jumping with no problems, and apparently he is in better shape than last time :-)
 
She actually managed to make him scream as well which was good because she could see what I’m talking about. He was slightly out of line so she adjusted him again, but as I’d thought, she thinks a lot of it now is psychological, so I’ve got some work to do with him to try and make his less sensitive and hand shy. He has reacted as he had a slightly upset tummy yesterday afternoon but not nearly as dramatic as last time.
 
We'll see, fingers crossed! Nothing this week, because it's the countdown to Crufts now - Elton and I show on Sunday. Eep!

Last summer when I took Solei’s Bronze Good Citizen award I thought about doing it with Elton as well, but decided not to as there was no hurry and I had enough to think about at the time. I’ve been waiting for the obedience club I’m a member of to hold a test (to my knowledge the last one was January 2010) intending for Elton to do it then, and they haven’t! So Elton still hadn’t taken it.

Last week I was sorting out some schedules, and suddenly had an “oh sh!t” moment! - entries for the first heat of the Pre-Beginner Stakes I want to enter close on 23rd March…by which time Elton needs to have passed his Bronze. There was no test coming up at club, and the earliest he could take it was at UK Toy – 26th March. Uh oh!

Thinking if they were holding tests it was more likely to be at the end or beginning of a month, I frantically started emailing round clubs! I had some helpful replies, and one said they were holding a test on 1st March and I would be welcome to come along…yes, result!

I was so nervous, although everything he had to do should have been well within his capabilities I can count the number of times he’s been to an obedience class on one hand (the last time as written here not good at all) and we were going to a venue neither of us had ever been to before, with dogs neither of us had never met before – having not specifically practiced either!

So last night off we went. Arrived nice and early, because I wanted to give us both plenty of time to settle – just as well, we needed it! He had a sniff about and then we did a bit of obedience to get him more focused. He did some lovely distance control (which of course we don't need for anything lol) but his heelwork needs a lot of work before the show in 3 weeks time...oops.

For some reason he's not nearly so comfortable with the chair as he was, and we definitely need to do some more work in more distracting environments. Not easy at the moment, but I'll have to try and get him out there a few times before the 26th. How I wish I had a nice indoor venue to use!

Never the less, this is about being a well behaved pet, not a top competitive obedience dog. As a pet he was fine, and we passed! So Elton now holds his Bronze Good Citizen Award, and panic is over :) I’m so relieved to have that out of the way. Yay Elton!

In other news, we've backtracked with the retrieve and we're currently working on the bed, with him picking it up and placing it into my hand. At the moment he's not having to hold on to it for any length of time, but we'll build that up over the next few weeks. He needs a much more solid hold!

Solei and I have been doing dumbbell work as well. He's still a long way off being comfortable and we haven't made any significant progress yet, but we'll see how he goes. Would be lovely if I could get him comfortable with a dumbbell again! We do this periodically - I get the db out and we play the db game for a bit, nothing happens and I put it away for a few weeks again!