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!