As we start another year (or we were, when I started typing this - it's taken me a week!), it's time to look back on the previous one. This has been a year of highs and lows, denial and acceptance...and as I think back it seems impossible to think that some of the major events were within the previous 12 months! The sad note of the year was saying goodbye to Vale, our Labrador, at the beginning of November at the age of 14.

Let's go from oldest to youngest.

Solei
I have decided this dog will keep amazing me until he dies lol Love Solei. This year he has gone from strength to strength. Our relationship has grown and developed in a way I never dreamt would ever happen...life with Solei is good :-) Better than good!

The year started by dipping his paw into his first agility show. It was a UKA show and I only ran him in Nursery, but he didn't do anything really wrong and I was pleased with it for a first show attempt. There followed another three shows, the first of which was at the same venue (equestrian centre) and we ventured into the Steeplechase classes - he had two runs, he was over time for both and we had some sniffing, but overall it wasn't bad and we did get round. The other two shows were large outdoor shows on grass, and they did not go so well! He has been a bit iffy in certain places/situations ever since he was attacked over a year ago, and I think he just found the whole situation a bit overwhelming and stressful.

In July I bought him a Back on Track coat, which seems to have just tipped the balance...a combination of that, massage and chiro and I have a happy Solei! He even got a clean bill of health at the last chiro appointment and didn't require treatment, which I never thought I would ever hear. Quiet and consistent obedience year - just two shows, and two 9ths. Four breed shows, placed every time, but of course the highlights are VHC at Crufts, and then his Best Veteran in Show at Chepstow Open last month!

He has been attending weekly agility classes for most of the year, we both really look forward to them and his progress over the last few months has been amazing.

2013 goals
Overcome the scary cavern that is the chute Yes!! He has been doing it consistently in class for a few months now.
Learn to weave Nope, still fail ;-)
Get a Best Veteran Dog and/or a Best Veteran in Show Yes!! Best Veteran in Show at Chepstow.
Play(I want to be able to "turn on" his tug desire (which is awesome in the right situation) in any situation and with less effort from me to get it started. As far as I have tested this, I would say it's a success!


Elton
Most of his highlights seem so long ago now I can't believe it was this year, how long a year can seem! On the whole this has been a year of steady progress. I ran him in just the one agility show, a Not For Competition Nursery run at the beginning of the year where I just picked my own line round the outside of the ring and we were in and out in about 10 seconds - but it was positive, which was what I wanted. He has been making steady progress in classes, I think we have now conquered the dog walk...he has discovered he ADORES tunnels lol and he is now jumping full (UKA) height in class most of the time, though would still struggle to keep it up over a full course of 17-20. He can weave, but the weather has been against us practicing and it still needs more generalization and a reliable verbal (I spent so long not putting the verbal in because I don't want to do it too soon, that then I forgot to put it in at all...oops)

Obedience has actually been the most memorable event this year, despite the fact he attended just three shows. Our first was the "big" one - the Final of the Special Pre-Beginner Obedience Stakes at Crufts. He did me so proud to come 3rd, with Border Collies/Working Sheep Dogs surrounding him, also making him the Best ABC (Anything But A Collie), though they don't recognize that at the finals. The other two "normal" shows saw him gaining an 8th and winning a heat of the Special Pre-Beginner Obedience Stakes, although guttingly we weren't able to attend the Semi-Finals this year.

In breed he has been more lightly shown this year than in previous years, but has a two Best Phalene Dogs, a Group 3 and a Group 1 and Reserve Best in Show to his credit.

In October he dipped his paw into rally, and excelled himself getting a Q with a score of 205.

2013 goals
Be more confident with every piece of equipment by the end of this year than he was when he started Erm...semi check! Definitely check with the dog walk, and he couldn't weave at the beginning of the year and now he can. Seesaw is not being tried and the A-Frame we just haven't had opportunity. Chute is probably a bit better than it was at the beginning of the year.
The retrieve. :-P Seems to be carrying over well now, as much as I've tried :-)
Achieve his ShCM title this year Almost...he is very irritatingly now just 1pt away lol


Ria
What can I say about Ria...other than life is what happens when you're making other plans, and sometimes things just don't work out the way you intended!

She has had a successful show year - shown very lightly, she attended four championship shows and came away with two 2nds at Crufts (to the Best Bitch & Reserve Best Bitch), a 2nd at WELKS to the Reserve Best Bitch, 1st and Best Bitch at Paignton and 1st at Bournemouth. At our annual breed club show she won all three of her classes and Reserve Best Bitch, and she was Best of Breed at both Cornwall Gundog and South Western Gundog and shortlisted down to the last few for BIS at the latter.

Other than that...there is not much to be said really! When it's just her and me she is almost everything I want in a dog, there is so much potential there. When it's not just her and me she struggles to cope and she is nothing like the dog I know is there. She is not 3 til the end of January so she is still comparatively young, and I chose to let her more or less sit this year out and see if things improve as she ages.


Sadie
This year started with so much promise...and finished without! I had a fun 6 months with her as a puppy. Best Puppy in Show at her first two companion shows, at champ level qualifying for Crufts multiple times, winning a few breed classes, and placing in two very large and very strong ProPlan Pup of the Year Stakes classes. At open shows 1x Best Of Breed, 6x Best Puppy in Breed, 2x Puppy Group 3, 1x Puppy Group 2 and a Puppy Group 1. She has matured into a lovely bitch and I think would have gone on to do very well, but unfortunately for us her tail never came over her back properly! So once she came out of puppy I made the decision to retire her from showing, and we look forward to seeing what she produces in the whelping box - she will hopefully be mated in 2014. Such a shame, because I love her attitude and I think we could have had some fun in obedience and agility too - but she will not now be with me long term, and I can't justify the time and expense for a short/unknown period :-(

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...