Keep thinking I ought to blog and then keep not doing so! So we'll start with a catch up since my last post...

August
Had my first obedience show since Elton qualified for Discover Dogs. Elton & Solei entered in the Pre-Beginner Stakes, YKC Elementary & YKC Graduate. Both dogs decent in Elementary, training round with Elton in Graduate and a competitive turned training round for Solei who decided to leg it out of the ring to see a Pap bitch he spotted in the distance! Solei on strike for Pre-Beginner Stakes, Elton fabulous.
Final results - Elton 1st (Crufts qualifier) and Solei 2nd YKC Elementary, Elton 1st & Best ABC in the Pre-Beginner Stakes! To say I am over the moon would be an understatement :-)

Then came Paignton - breed & obedience for Elton, obedience for Solei. Elton VHC in a good size Limit Dog class, scratched him from stays in obed because he hadn't been in the breed and the ground was wet. Solei not keen on the ground but came 9th in Pre-Beginners, first placing he's got in a normal class for ages!

Bournemouth (breed) was Ria's turn. At 18 months old, her first show out of Junior. Thrilled with her - 2nd in the largest class of the day, behind the Reserve Best Bitch. Also managed a Reserve in the Special Beginner Stakes.

We managed one open show in August, Elton had a 3rd and Ria won her class. Also did one companion show, where Ria won her class and then threw away BIS - judge told me she would've had it, but she got unsettled and then decided to bark at a dog wearing a coat! Arrgh.

The month rounded off with agility club fun day. Ria got a 2nd in Best Trick, then we were drawn in pairs with the more able dog running a jumping course and the less able doing rally obedience. Then tunnellers. I opted to use Elton, for my sanity! I knew I'd spend more time chasing Ria round the field than actually doing agility :-P So he got a 3rd in the rally. Tunnellers was funny - a course of 17 tunnels, and we were allowed a practice run. I couldn't decide whether to do it with him or just go in cold, eventually decided he probably ought to practice...so we did it, he got to about #15 and stopped and gave me a "what, you mean there are still more?" look LOL. Finished the course, but then when it was time to do it for real he slammed on the brakes after #4 and wouldn't go any further! He had much shorter legs than everyone else :-P

September
Started with a companion show, just for the obedience. Elton got a 3rd & Solei a 5th, Solei then did a lovely training round in the next class - with a toy!! Never thought I'd see the day :-D

Next came Richmond champ, just with Elton. He got Reserve in a lovely Limit Dog class, just wish he'd really trot out and stop mucking about cos he could be doing even better.

Fitted in a day at an agility show just for some more atmospheric experience. They had a lovely fenced practice ring (with just jumps & an aframe in), so for once I let all three dogs have a play. Strangely neither Solei nor Ria could get grip on the aframe (Elton is nowhere near being able to do contact equipment, he's still scared of a lower dog walk plank :-P) so I decided the surface must be slippery for some reason and just went for the jumps. Solei was terrible, for some reason didn't want to know and really wasn't concentrating. Elton did some nice work, and Ria was fantastic...one day. Solei was playing by the car, wouldn't once we got away from it but it's a start.

Then followed the last companion show of the year, Elton got a 3rd in the obedience and Ria got a 2nd in AV Gundog after much debate by the judge between her and a Flat Coat.

Then on 14th Elton was bitten :-( there was skin broken and blood, and he was lame. I was livid, not least because he was literally just starting to get his confidence back after the whippet incident. He missed the open breed show I had entered the next day, Ria got a 4th of 4 in AVNSC (shouldn't have bothered!)

The day after that were some rescheduled obedience qualifiers from a cancelled obedience show back in July. I was going anyway, so thought I'd see how Elton (now walking on it) was and what he felt like doing. Physically he was fine, mentally we have work to do - again :-( I could've cried. He was entered in YKC Elementary & Special Pre-Beginner Stakes, Solei in both those plus YKC Graduate. YKC was his first class and I had to take him out of the ring on first attempt, he was just really worried about the side of the ring we were meant to start heelwork. Luckily we had a lovely judge and it was relatively informal, so I took him out and walked him round the side he was bothered about, then we went back in. The ground was also awful, which didn't help - Elton goes round long clumps and jumps tussocks! He wasn't bad to start with, then he refused to do HF and when it was suggested he went back on lead he fell into his "you're gonna protect me" position - pretty much behind me. So we gave up on that.

Solei was very good until we got to the side of the ring where there was a young child lying on the ground, which for some reason totally threw him. Strangely he walked past them initially, then we about turned at the end of that side of the ring which should've been better cos I was between him - and he refused to walk back past them. He then wasn't the same for the rest of the round, which pissed me off a bit.

He still got a 2nd in that class, purely because every other dog broke their stays! Elton (who'd sat up in the down, which was partly my fault cos I don't think I left him in a "proper" down) got a 4th.

Pre-Beginner Stakes were once again a story of what might have been! Solei went into "heelwork" mode as soon as we entered the ring and refused to play or interact with me - all he wanted to do was go into heelwork position! Typically he's never done that before, and the rest was fantastic. He'd have won the class (and qualified for Discover Dogs with Elton) had he only done the play! Elton was much better than the previous class, I was quite pleased with him as I think most of the issues in that class were because of the ground. Solei got a 4th (despite the "play" :-P) and Elton a 6th (you can tell Elton was having a bad day - Solei beat him both times lol). Solei also got a 2nd in YKC Graduate.

and there we are! Obedience done for the year now, except Discover Dogs. Going to put training stuff in a separate post to be written at some point, because I think this has gone on long enough...