Just realised I forgot to post this before. After my post on the 6th I went out and took some video. This week hasn't quite gone to plan - Crufts completely finished me off lol so we've done no weaving for a week, til this morning when I took her out for a quick refresher - and by the end of the session she was weaving 6 poles :-D Really pleased with her, but I leave you with this video from before Crufts....

We survived :-) Barely, in places lol

Thursday was Elton show day, and Ria obedience day. Elton went really well, and I was over the moon to get a 3rd with him in a really strong Limit Dog class :-)

I was really worried about how Ria would cope with the environment in the obedience - I nearly didn't take her in - but she seemed ok, so figured we'd give it a go (bar the recall it was all on lead)

Recall was lovely, she only lost either ¼ or ½ a mark (couldn't read the writing, she lost either 4½ on the heelwork & ¼ on the recall, or 4¼ on the heelwork and ½ on the recall!), heelwork could've been better - she just wasn't concentrating for most of the first bit, pulled herself together quite nicely for the second but it was a bit late by then.

Stays were awful - we had numbered markers in the ring and we had to stand by our number. I always put her on the end because she isn't the most confident of dogs, and not only was she right in the middle of everything, but also next to a large long coated German Shepherd. Sit was fine, though she got in a bit of a state when I released her (don't think she can cope with the "buzz" that goes up when 20 people release their dogs at the same time!) and it took me a bit to settle her again for the down. Down was fine, until we were told to return to our dogs and the others got back to their dogs just before I did, as I was blocked in - she couldn't cope with that for some reason (I think it was something to do with the dog on her other side, who I'd set her up a bit closer to to get as far as possible from the GSD!), and broke. Only unfortunately when Ria breaks she runs round the ring barking which is really embarrassing :-X

But no point dwelling on it, we're working on Control Unleashed and building up confidence, and I won't push her. She's young, plenty of time. I obviously had no idea she would do that, or I wouldn't have put her in!

There are a couple of nice photos floating about, here are two courtesy of ShortDog Photography -

http://shortdogphotography.co.uk/clients/index.php/Crufts1/DSC_8004 Setting up for the recall I think

http://shortdogphotography.co.uk/clients/index.php/Crufts1/DSC_8013 Heelwork

Stayed at a hotel on Thursday night, Ria & Elton's first time in a hotel (Solei was at home) and only second time ever away from home (following on from staying with my great aunt & uncle last September). Ria was wonderful, Elton decided to cry half the night, eventually leading to me standing outside the hotel in my pyjamas at 2am for half an hour whilst he couldn't find the right spot :-P Still, we got there in the end.


Friday was just Ria showing, but there still weren't enough hours in the day! There never are at Crufts. Ria has shown better. She sat down when the judge got near her backend, and then paced half the way round! My fault I think, I got a bit carried away :-P She got a 3rd in Special Junior Bitch.

In the ring at Crufts :-) Don't think she's looking too bad, just very raw still (and yes, she is standing on 2 legs...)

Had a fantastic time, shattered now! Back to reality, til next year :-) all 3 of my dogs are already qualified, not sure who I'll take yet (Solei's qualified for life but I haven't taken him for the last 2 years)

Ria missed agility last week as Crufts involved getting up at 2am on Thursday morning, and seeing as it's usually around 10pm on Wednesday before we get home from agility...yeah, that wasn't going to work. So really looking forward to it this week, hopefully she'll behave herself as I'm suffering from the effects of Crufts, she's bouncing off the walls as usual and wondering why she's not getting normal walks and training!

Yay fun stuff!

Showed Ria the Sunday before last for the first time since she's been out of puppy. That was over a month ago, so I hoped we'd still remember how lol. She wasn't as solid at being gone over again, but she was ok, moved well and won AVNSC Junior :-) Then got 2nd in a really nice Junior Stakes class under a different judge. Won £4 too - every little helps!

We then followed that up on Saturday by her being chucked for the first time ever. Class of 8, and she was the youngest in the class by some margin, competing against dogs up to 4 years older than her. Also not entirely convinced how familiar the judge was with Kooikers! But there we go - another day, another show. She was solid to be gone over which made me happy :-) feel more confident about Crufts now! Also grabbed a spare (carpeted) ring and was able to practise a bit of heelwork, which didn't go too badly.

Agility last week was really good - we started sequencing for the first time, and after the first couple of attempts which were very distracted and not great, she was fab.

In other news, Ria is WEAVING :-D Four poles in a straight line. I still need to work round the entries again as I only put them together yesterday evening, and I realised this morning I've accidentally  neglected entries on my right (we've worked right round the clock, but she was struggling with the more difficult entry, so I unintentionally ended up facing backwards almost all the time, which meant she was still on my left!) but I'm soo pleased with her. I really wanted to have her weaving 4 poles by tomorrow, because then she'll have at least 2 days break because of Crufts; so after that I wanted to be able to give her a quick refresher and then add the last 2 (well, last 2 to make 6 - then we go to 12). She's missing agility tomorrow night because we have to be up at stupid o clock (about 2am) and we can't get home much before 10pm, so that's just not realistic. I said I may have her weaving by the time they see her again, we've still got a whole week so looks like that'll be reality! I'm going to take them to the park tomorrow and see if it carries over there, hopefully video to come.

Solei took the initiative to go through the two poles on a horizontal once :-P so we may get there yet. He LOVES to tug these days, which is so much fun. You'd never think this was the same dog that a few years ago showed absolutely zero interest in toys, never mind tug.

I had to stop weaves with Elton because when we moved outside we couldn't come to an arrangement (he'd run off with the toy the first time, bring it back to me the next couple of times and then get bored) so I need to have a think about that (very difficult because I'm still trying to be somewhat careful with his teeth - so tugging sparingly!) but this is where we're at with the dumbbell :-)

He's making so much progress :-D Our latest steps are overcoming dancing feet, getting him more comfortable holding the db and duration without mouthing, and moving from the bed to the floor :-) Next things I want to work on are wait whilst I place it (don't think this actually needs any work, but I haven't done it yet this time round), building confidence on the wood as well as carpet (he's not quite so confident when it "clunks" on a hard floor) and getting him to present nearer to me and not stand up when I take it (as you can see in the video, he's ok at that distance). Not all at once, obviously!

Crufts the day after tomorrow, arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!