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!

Not too much happening here since Discover Dogs! We attended one breed show the week after, Elton got Best of Breed and Ria was a disaster - just as the judge put her hands on her another dog errupted behind and really scared her. She did let her go over her but wasn't happy and didn't show well. Hopefully she'll be ok next time - she has a nice long break!
Other than that it's been regular agility classes for all three dogs, and that's about it!

Solei is enjoying his classes, but he's lacking the foundation and understanding of the other two which is a bit awkward for me too - I have to remember which dog I've got! Due to his first few years he doesn't seem to learn in the same way either. He has rekindled his dog walk/aframe obsession and takes great delight in doing them whenever he thinks that might possibly be what I want :X

We've resumed weave training with channel weaves (as that's what they use there) and it seems to be going better than last time so there might be hope yet. I want toy play to carry over better but I am able to get some play there, just not really as a reward yet - that said it did work a couple of times! I'm just trying to be careful to not "reward" lack of interest in toys (you don't want the toy? that's ok, you can have food). Last class of the year next week, and in a moment of madness I entered him for his first trial in January :-P (just to see how focused or not he is)


Elton...I think his confidence is slowly growing. He's very "sticky" still and needs an awful lot of work on independent behaviour (which is also largely a confidence thing) but he is making progress. He's enjoying it, which is the main thing :) He is starting to interact with toys a bit, though as a functional reward it's a bit hit and miss so I'm mainly using alteratives (food in various ways!). Contact equipment is still very much work in progress, but he was walking right to the top and down the up part of a lowered dog walk plank last week, which is definite progress. The chute is also still a scary cavern!

He did a beginners course running workshop a couple of weeks ago, just jumps and tunnels and we gradually built the sequence back until at the end we ran the whole course. I was really pleased with him, he was fab - even though I suck and forgot the course when we came to run the whole thing.

I've recently borrowed a Manners Minder and just started his 2x2 training again, so that's my Christmas project! I completely buggered it all up last time and it's been super fragmented, so I need to basically undo what I've done and start from scratch!


Ria I think may be maturing. I've had a lot of issues with her, largely with reactivity - especially towards other dogs. She has struggled to concentrate in classes because of that, even after months. It's been incredibly frustrating and very depressing, I have worked really hard with her but at times it felt almost like we were going backwards!

She had a really good week in class the Wednesday before Discover Dogs, much more focused. A few days later Solei went absolutely crazy and there followed a very peculiar season which never seemed to develop into a proper one - but I kept her out of class for 3 weeks to be safe, more from the mental aspect than physical - I didn't want her to go all spooky or skittish or anything, especially as the previous week had been so very positive. Last Wednesday was her first week back - and omg she was SO AWESOME ♥

Not once during the class did she run off or bark, and she was pretty focused. As she hadn't been there for a few weeks to start with we went up to the top of arena on our own and I just played some focus stuff with her and threw her ball - but even there I noticed a difference, she was much more interested in me and less interested in the floor and what was going on around her. Then we did a couple of dog walk ends and I mixed up rewarding with food or toy. Then we moved on to sequences.

This is what we were running - two different sequences - obviously not to scale and the jumps aren't quite in the right place but you get the idea - (run from the top) jump, tunnel, dog walk, pin wheel. First time she blasted past the first jump after the dog walk (contact was ok but when I released her she veered off...couldn't figure out why at the time as she was still somewhat focused and came back rather than wandering off, but it dawned on me later - I think she thought she'd finished and was expecting me to chuck the ball :P

Second time she ran it it was really nice (and there was another group working the other sequence, which was in quite close proximity, at the same time, so I was so impressed with her managing to keep focused). So then we were told to run to the wing of the jump after the dog walk before the dog had finished the dog walk to see if the contacts held up, then release from there. The other two dogs contacts blew up, Ria's were lovely but then she could not get the pinwheel - eventually got her to take the first & last but she kept missing out the middle one. Gave up and let the next person go, whilst I was waiting I remembered I'd had that problem before and it was when I was trying to "help" her....because she's so used to work further away from me when I'm that close I actually end up pushing her off stuff - which is why she'd done it fine the previous time, I was further back. So we tried it again with me further back and she got it perfectly.

Then we moved on to the other sequence and she was prettty awesome there too :) Blasted past the weaves the first time but then was ok after that - except after I managed to throw her ball *into* the tunnel when rewarding the first set of weaves and the next time she did that bit she decided the tunnel was way too awesome cos last time it had a ball in it too and she'd only do half the weaves. More proofing required ;) (though she only tried it once and didn't miss a pole the rest of the session, which I was extra pleased with because I've had a problem with her popping out one pole too early after I accidentally rewarded it a couple times :X)

The other really, really fantastic news is that we finally seem to be making obvious progress with her reactivity. Yes she can still go overthreshold if I'm not careful, but the last couple of times I've unexpectedly met another dog off lead she has bounded a couple of steps towards them without making a noise, then recalled back to me - previously she would often bark whilst going towards them and then would just run in a completely uncontrolled "panic" and there certainly would have been no hope of her tuning in to me to recall (though her running was always a large circle which ended up back at me).

We have also managed to walk past various dogs without her making a sound - lots of food involved and the occasional cookie on the nose but even that wouldn't have stopped her before.

I am under no illusions; we still have a hell of a long way to go (as she sometimes reminds me!) but I feel more encouraged that maybe there is hope yet :)

I am so proud of Elton. Last Sunday was the Semi Final of the Special Pre-Beginner Obedience Stakes. What with the events of the last few months I was rather anxious. I had no expectations, I just wanted Elton to cope with it ok - I was really concerned that he would just shut down in the ring and that would be no fun for either of us!

We went into town most days for about 10 days before the semis, so I could get us both used to working in a busy environment. We had our final session the Friday before, and he was superb. He was even showing some interest in a toy, though aided with food and rather hit and miss.

The first exercise is play/motivate your dog - this left me with a dilemma! As Elton hasn't been playing away from home since May I've mostly been doing things like spins, walking backwards..etc but 30 seconds is a surprisingly long time when doing that sort of thing as a constant quick stream with no reward - and I often start to lose him near the end. I knew if he could play with a toy he would be much happier, BUT if I showed him it and he decided he couldn't that would really stress him and would probably spell disaster for the whole thing.

We arrived at Discover Dogs early. I found a quiet corner with him and I was actually really impressed - he felt good, much happier and more comfortable than I was expecting :-) Admittedly there was still almost no-one about and he wasn't in the ring, but even in that situation earlier this year he'd have been unhappy. We even had some pretty good toy play! At that point I'd sort of decided to risk the toy, which was then confirmed when we all went in for our briefing - the judge said she wasn't a fan of just using tricks, so had I done that we'd have almost certainly been out of the running anyway - I decided there was not a lot to lose.

Elton was drawn 5th (of 16), which I was pleased with - long enough to settle and see a couple of others go, but not long to wait around! So the time came, we waited nervously in the collecting ring as I tried to judge the timing and completely messed it up! Thus when we were called I hadn't done as much warming up as I wanted to. We both entered the ring, told to commence the play/motivate and we both went a bit rabbit in headlights! I offered him the toy, and he went "can't!"...I had all sorts flying through my head (including oh sh!t here we go :P) but somehow I kept calm, tried again and he started playing!! That ropey start cost us the win, but I was so, so proud of him - can't believe he played in that situation :-) The rest of his round wasn't bad either! He was a little bit on edge and jumpy, but also seemed relatively comfortable - it's hard to explain, but he was pretty focused and his finish on the recall was very revealing - he did it quickly and confidently, when he's worried he does it very slowly.

He went into the lead but there were still 11 dogs to work. The stay was the longest minute of my life - we had to go by our markers, and Elton was between a Labrador and a GSD. I wasn't at all convinced he wouldn't get worried and get up to come to me, but bless him he stayed. Actually every dog was clear in the stay. In the end, he only lost ¼ mark more than 1st (despite losing 1 on his play), had the best heelwork mark of the day and then ended up on the same overall score as another dog so had to do the heelwork yet again for a run off for 2nd/3rd, which he won! (No thanks to his handler who almost went the wrong way)


He was an absolute star, and has now qualified for the Finals to be held at CRUFTS 2013!! What a day. Results aside the whole thing was an amazing experience, I'm so glad we got the chance to compete. Now we're going to have a much deserved couple of weeks off, then not think about obedience til after Christmas but continuing working on building up his confidence with toys away from home. Go Rocket Man!

Went to Gundog Society of Wales Champ Show with Ria yesterday - and she got Best Bitch!! I am beyond thrilled, she beat the bitch who has been top Kooiker bitch (& twice BOB at Crufts) for the last few years and who is very difficult to get past, and that's Ria's first "green edged card" at a champ show - be a while before I come down!!