Also - seeing as I am still failing on the blogging front - thrilled with Ria who (at the end of October) got Best of Breed at South Western Gundog and then shortlisted down to the last 6 for Best in Show. Unfortunately for us, the show has decided to only award BIS and RBIS and no longer BIS3 and BIS4....which was rather gutting as she was being strongly considered for RBIS and I think would've been in with a good shot at BIS3 or 4!

So Rally Obedience has only been recognised by the Kennel Club over here since the 1st January of this year. It had found it's way over here in a small way with independent organisations over the previous few years, but they were all in completely the wrong area.

There was one to be held last weekend, and a few friends were going (planned Toller invasion!) so I decided to enter...

I only entered Elton because I thought that was probably enough stress for one day lol As the day dawned I had read the list of signs a couple of times, practiced once and done a lot of hoping that his obedience background would see him through! There was nothing on the list he wasn't theoretically capable of. Though thank goodness for the person that walked the course with me - I would have NQd almost before we even started, cos the first sign was a spiral which I would have done completely incorrectly!

Anyway, he was amazing and we only dropped 1pt on the main round (my fault - tight lead), but then I got flustered and messed up the bonus exercise (lost 4 of the 10pts and 3 of them were my fault! The other 1 was an out of position for him coming in to me so enthusiastically he overshot...), which put him out of the placings. He was actually on the same score (205) as placed dogs, but because I kept hesitating his time was slower. So now we can add rally to the list of breed, obedience and agility. It was very scary! But I suppose we ought to go for the other two Qs now :)

Well that was a summer of massive fail, as far as updates go! I'll try and do better now that things are starting to hibernate, it's been quite a summer...highs and lows, some fantastic results and some "if onlys" so here is a run down of highlights since my last post at the end of April -

Elton won Group 1 and Reserve Best in Show at Yeovil Limit in June
Group 3 at Okehampton Open in September
and won a heat of the Special Pre-Beginner Obedience Stakes qualifying for the Semi-Finals again, gutted that we can't get transport to the semis this year :(
Ria won Reserve Best Bitch at the Kooikerhondje Club Show in June
and Best Bitch at Paignton Champ in August
Sadie has won a couple of champ show classes
been placed in two heats of the Pro Plan Pup of the Year Stakes
won the Puppy Group at Blackwood Open in August
has also had a Puppy Group 2 & a Puppy Group 3

So what have we been up to apart from that...well I am obviously thrilled with Elton, he's excelled in both showing and obedience this year, and I do believe we are slowly winning the confidence battle. I took him to an obedience class in a village hall (as a one off, it was a Wednesday there was no agility on and a friend invited me; as we don't go to a club I thought it would be beneficial) and he PLAYED WITH HIS TOY! Such a massive deal, there were dogs he didn't know and it was in public...and he played :) It's still not really happening outdoors, but I am sometimes getting him playing in his agility classes now so slowly slowly catchy monkey...

Solei had his ninth birthday in July. We had the most amazing victory in August - we went to see the chiropractor, and SOLEI DID NOT NEED TREATMENT! This is the most incredible deal, he has always been "broken" in the past - doesn't matter if it's weeks or months, his pelvic..etc is always out...only it wasn't! I had accepted that because his injury was so old when she first started seeing him, it would always be management and he would always need work...but maybe we have cracked it! I bought him a Back on Track coat in July, so whether that has helped I don't know. He hasn't really been entered in shows, just two open shows in AV Veteran, plus he had a couple of agility runs at a couple of shows in June...and he has done the Pre-Beginner Stakes at two obedience shows. That's all! I think I have decided to retire him from obedience now, though if I can teach him any kind of left turn we might have a crack at Rally next year. He is still attending a weekly agility class which he enjoys, and I hope to try a couple more agility shows over the winter....after this summer I have decided he is not a summer agility show sort of dog! Mostly because he found them too big and busy.

Ria is still proving a challenge! She's been doing really well in the show ring, which is great. I have temporarily pulled her from agility classes (mostly for financial reasons), she usually gets 5 or 10 minutes on lead work during Elton's class...though that said, last week she went off lead and was much improved :) Didn't run right off once. We were doing weaves which helped, she is usually so much better with weaves because she understands what's expected...too many options with jumps! I don't think I will ever do obedience with her, I don't feel it's fair to put her in a stay ring. If I can wean her back from the treats and still get her focus I think she'd be great at rally, so hopefully an option for next year...or the year after!

Sadie is now 11 months old and is lovely, sooo full of character and when I look at the incredibly outgoing, happy little dog I have now that throws herself at everyone, I struggle to process the scared little puppy I had when she first arrived, who was terrified of almost everything, spent most of the time when we were out hiding under my chair and wouldn't go near people! I am pleased with how she is developing, but unfortunately her tail is still holding her back and I don't think she is ever going to make quite the show dog we hoped for. It also doesn't look as if she will be with me long long term, so I made the decision to not pursue other avenues with her so I could concentrate on Elton and Ria. She will probably be mated next year, and fingers crossed she produces well.

Think that's pretty much it! For now...

A rather belated Crufts 2013 round up...an action packed three days for me, being there Thursday-Saturday.

Thursday was the least eventful day, with just Elton in the YKC obedience. Possibly the less said about that the better - he was completely overwhelmed once in the ring and although his HoL was okish, when we cut the cord (removed the lead) he sat there and decided it was too scary to move! So I called it a day - no point stressing him, C'est la vie! Though having only one obedience class and no breed judging that I was interested in gave me time to do some proper spectating and shopping, so there were plus points!

Friday was Toy Day - breed for Solei & breed stakes for Elton. Elton's stakes were in the same ring where he had lost it the previous day, but in a different context (and on lead lol) he was fine and showed very well. Didn't get anything, but I knew it was the wrong judge for him...just nice to qualify. Solei went well, remembered what to do and although he was unplaced in Veteran Dog it was the nicest Veteran class I've ever seen in Paps - there were 17 dogs entered and a lot of quality. He did then go on to get a VHC in Good Citizen Dog :-) So happy me - a card at Crufts is fantastic.

Solei age 8.5yrs at Crufts 2013 (Photo Yulia Titovets)

Saturday was the "big" day - the Finals of the Special Pre-Beginner Obedience Stakes. I have had little else on my mind since Elton got through the semis in November! Oh and did I mention - one of the motors in my chair failed and the part was taking forever to get back in stock, so I was without a working chair for 6 weeks...it was finally fixed on the Monday as we were off to Crufts on the Thursday!! I was just slightly stressed. Having been unable to do any proper practice I had one session with him (he was a very good boy) and then that was that - our Crufts preparation!!

(Photo Yulia Titovets)

Saturday was also Gundog Day, so Ria was in action in the Kooikerhondje ring! I was really pleased with her - she got a 2nd in Post Graduate Bitch to the Reserve Best Bitch, and a 2nd in Good Citizen Bitch to the Best Bitch. Good results!

Elton was in the ring early, having been drawn 2nd - couldn't decide if that was a blessing or a curse!
Nice to get it out of the way I think - though we had stays at the end of the class. After Thursday's disaster I could not have been prouder of him, the ring was right in the middle of Crufts with scores of crowds, and flyball being run just down the hall!! but he was a star, I came out of the ring thoroughly satisfied with how he had worked - whatever happened. As it turned out, the marks reflected what I felt!

The scores nearly halfway through the class

By the end of the class he was lying Joint 2nd, surrounded by Border Collies/Working Sheepdogs (BC/WSD)! That was the most terrifying stay I have ever done in my life...but all clear. So then we had a run off for 2nd/3rd. I was not all there by then lol and I knew we hadn't done enough to win it, but 3rd was beyond my wildest dreams...there were BC/WSD in 1st, 2nd & 4th, so he was the Top Anything But A Collie. What a result :-D



So all three dogs came home from Crufts with placements, I spent far too much money and have fab memories that will stay with me for ever :-) Even now, 7 weeks later, I still can't quite believe it happened! But there is no doubting who the star of Crufts was :-) Dog in a million!

I'm clever, yes?

I kept meaning to post...but there was so much to catch up on I kept putting it off, then obviously the longer I left it the more there was to catch up on and so it went on!

Anyway, the big reason for my distraction which is also exactly the reason I should have been posting -

Meet Sadie :) She turned 6 months old yesterday, she belongs to the boys breeders (S+T) but came to live with me at the beginning of February. If everything works out she is "mine" to do what I want with in terms of show, agility, obedience..etc and so could be here for years.

She was completely unexpected - at 3pm I had no idea I was having a puppy (a couple of days before I'd actually thrown out some boxes..etc that I had kept for puppy play, and put all the puppy toys away at the bottom of the toy box cos I thought it was a long way off!) and by 4pm I had a puppy!

I had mentioned to S+T some months ago that if they had a Papillon "spare" I would be interested in borrowing one to show. I knew Sadie's breeder was bringing her litter down for them to look at and all being well have a puppy (they bred both parents), I got a phone call that afternoon asking me if I was busy and would I like to come over cos they had something to show me...with which they produced this puppy and asked me if I'd like her!

She's been an interesting challenge so far! She's got a lot of attitude, but she isn't particularly responsive (even to all the weird and wonderful noises that puppies "always" respond to!) and she's very independent. She knows precisely no commands so far (well, I have taught her her name!), which feels so wrong for a 6-month-old puppy, but we have been busy...just busy with other things! Mostly play :) I've just been doing tons of toy play with her and some fun stuff like running to a toy or running with me in circles....oh and we are working our way through Crate Games. Started some self control with toys/food and targeting...hoping to book her on her first workshop (games, appropriately enough lol) in May.

Other than that things have been ticking over as per usual! Most of it we'll have to gloss over now because I've forgotten it, but I want to do a big post about Crufts (which was AMAZING) cos we had some fantastic results...other than that I don't think there has been anything major. I have done very few shows, Elton got BOB at the two general open shows we attended in March, and I went to my first "normal" (not Crufts!) champ show of the year yesterday with Elton, Sadie (just scraping in for her first show at 6 months on the day!) and Ria. Elton did nothing and did not deserve it - tough being a Phalene :( and it was all less than satisfactory with Sadie, we had been outside all morning, practiced in the outside (grass) ring and were all nice and settled...then just before her class it started raining and everybody went inside. It was chaos as everybody tried to find a spot and resume the judging with minimal delay. So suddenly we were in a very noisy building Sadie had never been in before, with a carpted ring she'd never seen, and a frazzled handler! She coped very well, was happy enough - just very unsettled and erratic on the move. Got a 3rd so she has now qualified for Crufts, but it wasn't the experience I was hoping for for her debut! Ria showed really well and got a 2nd to the Reserve Best Bitch, so very pleased with that.

Oh! We did pop along to a companion show last weekend to give Sadie some grass practice before the champ show - and she won the puppy class and Best Puppy in Show!! Start as you mean to go on ;-)

Busy weekend!

Went to an open show with the younger two on Saturday, Ria got a 3rd, she behaved really well and the dog that won her class won the group so I was pleased. Elton got a 2nd in a really nice class beaten only by the BOB, and the judge said it was a stunning class and very close so a fab result for him too :-)

Sunday was agility! The same place we went to in December. Elton I entered in the two baby classes again, and since Christmas Solei's club have got rubber contacts and he definitely prefers them - so after he'd struggled at the December show I decided just to do the two baby runs with him too. Definite improvement with Solei :-) and Elton ran one of the two courses twice because the first one was a disaster, but came home with his first agility rosettes - two clear rounds! (No placements given, only clear rounds)

I haven't sorted the video from last weekend yet, but having finally got to grips with getting the video on to the computer here are their runs from December.

Today is Thursday the 24th. Ria will be two years old on Saturday - she had never seen snow until last week. We only had a tiny amount, but Ria thought it was obviously a biological weapon manufactured to eat Kooikers - she was really worried about it! When she had to go out to pee she very hesitantly stepped outside, picked her way round the edge as best she could, found a clear patch, peed and then legged it back inside as fast as possible and refused to go back out! It didn't last very long, so her opinion didn't change.

Tuesday night it started to snow again....this is what happened when she saw it on Wednesday morning! What do you know...second time round and apparently it doesn't eat Kooikers - it's even fun!

As promised, Elton weave training :-)

Once again I keep thinking I need to sit down and write - and once again I keep procrastinating!

Quite a lot happened over the Christmas and New Year period. I actually didn't get to any shows in December, had entered one but then couldn't manage the preparation so didn't go. We did, however, get in some agility!

On 15th December we had Ria/Elton's agility club Christmas party in the afternoon, but I found a training in the ring thing also to be held that day which I really wanted to go to for Solei's benefit. Realised that because of the schedule I should have time to do that in the morning and then get to the party in the afternoon, so being slightly insane that's what I did.

The morning was mixed - I decided to give Elton two runs on the "baby" courses (just jumps and tunnels) and Solei one run on a baby course and one run on a course that also had an aframe and dog walk in.

Solei was terrible in his first (baby) run, very distracted and kept going AWOL (but that said didn't completely blow me off). Second run was much better, the first bit was nice, though he struggled with the contacts - had to take a couple attempts to get up the aframe, and wouldn't go near the dog walk to start with - but it had a tunnel underneath and I realised afterwards I don't think he's ever seen a dog walk with a tunnel under it. After I'd got him over it once he was fine.

Elton was really good...he would've been clear in his first run but...umm...his handler took the wrong course :X and the second run he got 5f, I just didn't support enough coming out of the tunnel for the stage he's at atm and he ran past the wing of the jump immediately after it.

Overall Solei has some to go, but it wasn't a complete disaster and he could've been a lot worse. Really pleased with Elton. Didn't run Ria (she wouldn't have coped) - but did take her in and do a couple of dog walks with her.

The Christmas Party in the afternoon was not such a success! It was apparently beyond Ria's capabilities at this point (still no regression in her reactivity which was positive, but lots of stress response - running off and sniffing - she really struggles when she's not 100% sure what I want her to do). There were three courses - the first was gamblers which I thought we might be able to manage, the dog walk was the second obstacle and she took the first jump then ran right past the dw and I never really got her back after that! Then we ran a pairs thing (one after the other) which was similar and in the end I finished with a steeplechase run which I broke right down and she actually managed fairly competently - there were even 1 or 2 really nice bits.

Then came Christmas, food and new toys were had by all! Solei is getting a Back on Track coat but I want to get it at Crufts so can make sure I get the right size.

First show of the year was January 5th, I'd entered all 3 which was fun - Solei's first show since June (he did a grand total of 3 last year) and even the younger two hadn't been out since mid-November.

Elton went decently but only got a 4th, Ria's class clashed perfectly with Elton's so I showed Elton and then we did a stressful dash straight into her ring where she showed very well considering (bit erratic on the move cos she was unsettled) and got a 3rd in a lovely class of 9. Solei enjoyed himself in Veteran and also got a 4th!

Solei's agility class started back on 10th, I'm so glad I gave him another chance. He's enjoying them so much and he seems to be making decent progress. The other two don't go back until 30th, though we did attend a Jump Skills workshop last Wednesday which was really good, I'd love to do more of that. Ria worked almost the entire workshop, a lot of it was one jump and grid stuff which is usually right up her street (I suppose it's clear what is required) so she coped well until we got to a more difficult exercise near the end - which is interesting, because it appeared to be my transition between repetitions that did something at that point.

The sequence was a curved tunnel, then 3 jumps where they have to collect because of where they were positioned, then another curved tunnel, then extending to another jump. So the first time I try and she gets the tunnel and the three jumps really well, so I stop and reward - fine. So I go back and try it again, intending to do the full sequence this time...she could not string a thing together...for no apparent reason. We got through the first tunnel, that was it.

So in future classes I will play around with transitions and making notes of what I do (it varies) and how she responds. At that point I swapped to Elton because I wasn't going to get any more sense out of her! By the time I'd switched they'd finished that exercise, so Elton just got to do a couple of sequences of tunnel and then 4 or 5 jumps in a straight line. He thought that was fun, he's growing so much :) He was playing "properly" with me at one point - and he is so much happier there now and loves his agility.

I have just started Elton's weave training again "properly" - previous attempts thwarted due mainly to a lack of reward mechanism (thrown toys = victory laps and losing interest after a couple repetitions, target = impossible to keep reloading and stop him getting it when incorrect and thrown food = just fail. He doesn't see it.) and also a lack of space. I have been lent a Manners Minder which has been so fantastic, we keep having to stop because the weather is against us but we have managed a few sessions and he's coming on really well. Currently on another enforced weather break, so I shall get some video when we can train again.

The most exciting thing is that I took Solei to his first agility show last Saturday. He was only entered in Nursery (no weaves or seesaw), I ran him at Micro height and we ran it NFC - but he surpassed all my expectations. He took the aframe and dog walk first time which, on past performance, I wasn't sure he would and he stayed with me the whole course and didn't go off and do his own thing...we had some sniffing in a couple of places (at the end of the dog walk - I put a target down and he was expecting food) and round the tunnel, but other than that he was fab...so proud of him.

Next time I will do my 2012 review!