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!

Just a quick update, as it's been almost a month.

I seem to have given up on obedience classes. I can count the number of times I've been since last summer on one hand....it's just money I can't really afford just to give them a different envionment to work in.

I've not been well for the last couple of weeks so haven't really done anything with the boys, but I showed Elton the dumbbell again and he still didn't really want to know - so now I'm trying to make it exciting and fun again, fingers crossed he's retrieving enthusiastically before too long!

Apparently I forgot to mention it before, but I took Solei to a chiropractor on 19th January. Despite what the vet said, I've been less than convinced at least some of his problems aren't skeletal - so I finally found one, and off we went. She found a few things, one area quite badly out of line. Solei seemed to enjoy the session and although he had a fairly severe reaction a couple of days later since then he's definitely better. The major bowing has stopped!

He screamed at me the other day, so he's going back next week (6 weeks since his first session) and I'll be interested to see how he compares.

Big exciting news, if she's happy; we're going back to agility! We started agility two years ago and then it fizzled out, I've been desperate to get back to it ever since. It was a pity, as Solei was just starting to enjoy it (he likes to be sure of what's expected of him, so takes a while of doing something before he really enjoys it), though he wasn't the quickest. Although it makes me feel guilty, I'm actually hoping there was something going on with his back then so that now we've sorted it he'll be much better.

It seems as if it was meant to be - earlier this week I was looking for something totally unrelated to agility, that I knew I'd seen on a website somewhere but couldn't remember where. I thought it might have been on an agility website I'd been looking at a couple of days previously, so I went back to see. I didn't find what I was looking for, but upon looking for that I discovered a notice posted two weeks previously advertising spaces at the club I'd intended to go and have a look at - starting next week!

So yesterday I rang up the number, and after we'd chatted briefly we discovered we actually knew each other....and not only did we know each other, but she'd even given me a lesson once. So that was rather fun! Also awesome because A) I know I like her methods so I feel ok going along next week without having been to look at the club beforehand (no opportunity to go and look before next week), and B) the wheelchair is ok :-)

So chiro permitting he starts 3rd March, which is actually the day before his appt but because it's the first lesson and we're not picking up where we left off - we're going as if we've never done agility before - there won't be anything more strenuous than he'd encounter on a walk, and he's fine to go on walks. That also gives him a week to recover before lesson #2, and I doubt there'll be anything strenuous there either (will just skip it if so - but after his first appointment I was told to gradually increase his activity but she'd expect him to be pretty much back to normal after a week. It took more like two because of the reaction, so we'll play it by ear as (hopefully) the adjustment'll be a lot less severe this time.)

I'm so excited to be going back to it - just hope Solei takes to it and really enjoys it. He turns 7 this year, but for a Phalene that's barely middle aged so he hopefully has a good few years of agility left in him yet!