Well we're 4 weeks into our 2015 classes.  It's great to see everyone back and we've been joined by Caroline and Rex too.  Despite the fact that Rex only has one eye he certainly doesn't let that hold him back and is looking like he'll make a fantastic agility dog.  Tia is nearly old enough to start competing and is off to be officially measured in a couple of weeks time, although I don't think there's any doubt she's small.  Millie after a few fidgety issues is now waiting at the start of a course, and Rueben with lots of treats and praise and some serious hard work put in by Ann is confidently going over the dog walk and A frame into a perfect 2on2off.

It's great to see all the dogs making real progress and it's not always the agility achievements that make us smile.  Badger is a lovely Springer Spaniel who has fantastic drive and would sell his soul for his beloved ball, but he can be worried by strangers and other dogs.  He's been coming to class for a few weeks now, he's now looking more relaxed and is comfortable working round all the other dogs.  He's accepting treats off both myself and Ann now, and even managed to give Ann a sneaky snog as he came down the A frame.

As the afternoons are getting lighter we managed to have a bit more time to train our own dogs.  Ann had set up a tricky opening sequence from a larger course, well done Glen who was the only dog to get round it first attempt.  Our grade 7 dogs did us proud by all disappearing in the tunnel when they shouldn't and I don't think Rufus fully had his mind on the job as he was more interested in seeing off the local feral cat population.     

What a perfect start to the New Year for our agility club

Several of us went to Dog Vegas show at Bishop Burton on Saturday (3rd Jan) and the red rosettes came thick and fast! 

Firstly Pauline - she had two first places in Grade 4 with Harry.  Her handling was so good, with clear and positive instructions to Harry who thrived on it and in the jumping class that she won, her handling was near-perfect winning by about 5 seconds I think. Pauline looked and sounded much more confident and the couple of times Harry 'did his own thing' and ran past the weaves, Pauline felt able to bring him back and do the weaves again.

Then secondly Ruth, in only her second show with Morse, came 2nd in the anysize jumping.  Well done Morse.  Much more to come!  Tig, Ruth's older dog, also had a run in the anysize and enjoyed it so much he took in an extra jump.  Well done Tig!  Although I think Tig enjoyed the queueing and meeting his adoring public more than the agility.

Julie got another win with Rufus in Grade 4 agility (he won 2 weeks ago too) and 1st with Gertie in Grade 7 agility and possibly another win but I have lost count by now!  Plus 3rd with Nancy in the anysize (and that included a detour as she said hello to the judge!).

Then I won Grade 5 agility with Glen (first of 3 wins needed to take him to grade 6) and 4th with Whisky in Grade 7 agility.  I wasn't expecting or looking for any wins - I was just hoping that Glen and I handled well together, which we did and are feeling like a team now, and that Whisky wasn't too silly, which he wasn't at all.  I loved running them both.

The day was so good for us all, and it wasn't the winning that was important - that was just a fantastic bonus - it was the fact that our training for ourselves and others is working. For Julie and I, our competing dogs have had literally 5 minutes at the end of our Sunday afternoon classes often in near-darkness, but because we've been super-focused, kept our dogs fitness up on their daily walks, kept their minds focused and happy by teaching tricks, its all working!

And we're so proud of Pauline and Ruth.

It's a tradition in agility to bring cakes to training to celebrate wins, so we'd best get baking :-)