Well it's been a long time since our last blog update; apologises but with classes becoming busier and busier; weekends away at competitions and that thing called "life" getting in the way there barely seemed any time for sleeping and eating let alone writing blog posts.

We are still absolutely loving teaching classes and I know we say it all the time but you are all doing fantastic, each week when we plan courses we wonder if we've been too ambitious in what we are asking you to do and then you make it look easy.  It's so exciting watching you all progress and seeing handlers and dogs being bitten by the agility bug.  Our puppy group are amazing and what a mix of breeds, I don't think I've met a Dutch Shepherd before but I could happily steal Effie ;-)

We've been away at shows for several weekends recently.  The youngsters Connie and Nancy are really settling into competition life now, still lots to work on with both of them but they are showing how much potential they both have.  Sadly the last couple of shows Whisky hasn't been able to compete due to an injury that is under investigation by the vet and at the last show Gertie decided to join her best buddy in the invalid corner as she wasn't jumping properly (hopefully she's on the mend now).

It hardly seems possible that we are approaching the club's first birthday, where has that time gone?  We still have so many plans and ideas when time allows!  We also think we should do something to celebrate our 1st birthday, so if you have any ideas let us know.

As time marches on our dogs and us don't get any younger and sadly I had to say goodbye to the eldest member of my pack a few weeks ago.  Stanley had been my constant shadow for the past 13 years, he was the kind of dog that thought you really needed his company in whatever you were doing which meant that actually going out and not taking Stan with you was similar to escaping from Alcatraz as every door had to be double bolted to foil his latest bid for freedom.  So as me and my pack adjust to life without Stan around, give your hound(s) an extra big cuddle as they really are with us for far to short a time.  Run free at Rainbow Bridge Stanley xx 

On Friday we headed off for our first weekend show of the season. The weather on Friday was glorious I was merrily wondering if I'd packed enough vest tops and should I pack my shorts; I cheerfully flung my thermals back in my wardrobe and frantically searched the house for sun tan cream. Well the weather gods certainly had a good chuckle as we woke up Saturday morning to rain, high winds and generally freezing conditions.

As it's the start of the season we both felt a bit rusty but we both had some good runs and some not so good ones, pilot errors! All the dogs were looking really good from our older more experienced dogs who showed they still haven't lost any speed or enthusiasm to the younger ones who at times showed their inexperience but also showed how much potential they have with a bit more ring craft under their belts.  Ruth and Morse competed on Sunday in the Anysize classes and did really well, they're nearly ready to make their Grade 1 debut!

As expected when you take away three dogs that have never been camping before we had several garden breakouts. Although the prize for the best escape has to go to Grace, who not only escaped the garden fencing but then appeared to be struck by temporary ear failure and couldnt hear any recall commands as she merrily danced her way through the camping area. And then as Ann opened the gate to go and fetch Grace, Connie, Whisky and Glen made a bid for freedom too and headed off to the exercise area too :-D Sighthounds are the naughtiest creatures on this planet, as Rufus proved when he couldn't stay on the exercise area but had to find a small gap in the fence and take himself off for a few laps of the neighbouring field just because I wasn't paying 100% attention to his antics.

Good luck to Caroline and Rex who had heading off to Lincoln this weekend for their first taste of competing.

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 :-) 

A trip up to Middlesborough saw a full complement of dogs competing after Whisky had recovered from his cut pad that prevented him competing at Gillingham.  Nancy was entered in an any size classes.  These are for dogs either retired from normal competitive classes; dogs coming back from injury or for inexperienced dogs.  Dogs are able to jump lower than their Kennel Club height.  Nancy showed that she's nearly ready to make her competition debut with a clear round to start the day off nicely :-)

Gertie, who runs at grade 7 medium, ran her little socks off, as usual barking her way round the agility course and had a win and a 3rd (she was only slightly hampered by her handler forgetting the course).  Whisky, competing at grade 7, didn't get any clears, but as I've felt 'out of sync' with him for a while due to lack of proper training, all I was hoping for was us to have fun together again and in his first class of the day - Doc's grade 4-7 agility - he had the first two poles down which I ignored and then he worked the rest beautifully, and I even did a blind pick up on a longish straight which worked like a dream. I even had time to hear Gertie barking at the side of the ring enthusiastically encouraging her playmate along!  Winnie got at least one clear in a twisty jumping class (as usual Winnie the lurcher beat Whisky the collie for clears!) but the star of the shows, in our eyes, belonged to our baby boys.

We should stop calling them our baby boys really, as Rufus and Glen are both 3 years old but we can't help it.  Glen has been having a lot of poles down recently - I've had him checked out at a canine massager and his neck was painful, but he's fine now - and I've finally realised its because I give him too many commands, especially when he's in mid air when its too late to give a command and he can't do anything about them and it makes him drop his back legs.  So I planned my course and ran him virtually silently with a couple of directional commands when he was on the ground before a jump.... and he felt brilliant and went clear and came 4th in Grade 5 agility!   What a star!  In his next class he only had one pole down and took a jump from the wrong side as I commanded him too early - so I praised him anyway!    And Rufus the lurcher is actually starting to use some of that whippet speed.  Up until now he's been running courses in second or third gear but I know we have fourth and fifth gear and of course whippet warp speed that we haven't unleashed yet.  I think we finally hit fourth gear and it actually felt like running a proper agility dog and the 4th place in Grade 4 jumping was an added bonus.  Watch out for when Rufus unleashes whippet warp speed as they'll be no stopping him.

And, as usual, we had some excitement on our end of day walk around the lake.  Glen fell in and couldn't get out (everyone else managed to!) and I nearly toppled over dragging him out.  Oh and Connie somehow managed to get filthy black legs!!!