so very lazy!

I have not posted in forever oops!

We have been really quiet on the comp side of things, and I admit im not sure if me and Bailey will do many more Agility comps, I think we have both lost our love for competing and sometimes I feel she is running because I want her to and not because she wants to, she still loves her training though and obviously flyball comps are best thing in the world!

Back at the beginning of March we attended the Rocket Relay Seminar. I had been getting a few sneeky tips from Katie so I had an idea of how to start with Diva but it was a fantastic weekend and I came away very motivated. I think a lot of people who don't participate in Flyball find it boring, repatitve and easy. I think our training was heading that way but after the seminar there is so much we can do with both young and old dogs and it has seen our training slowly transform for the better. We have already had some brilliant results with our old pro's.

Diva is doing much better in her training but I have to take my time with her, she is still very young for her age and hasn't fully matured. She is insane when training and tries to put 100% into everything but like a puppy she forgets herself and thats when I know we need to take a few steps back. She still finds it hard to concentrate sometimes but every week I can see a good improvement. She may not be out in the competing world for another year or so but we are taking it all at our own pace and enjoying ourselves.


Here is a quick clip of her at training a few weeks ago, doing a quick recall :)

Trial and Error?

Im finding that with Diva I am having to use a lot of trial and error when training her new things, I don't know if that's because she is my first puppy that i want to compete with or if it's because I just don't understand her properly yet.

I can't really say it's Trail and error because I think dogs, like people develop thier own way of learning and getting to know how you puppy works is what all the fun and foundation is about.

Boxwork - I have been very lazy with Diva's boxwork but I am determined that she will have a safe, nice turn on the box. I hate seeing all these lovely fast dogs in starters, break speed and slam the box. My aim is all four feet on it please Diva :)

I tried the target training but she wouldn't bounce on the chute, she just slam dunk the target..like a dog with a naughty boxturn. I had to stripped her back to basics and we havent touched the chute, at the moment she is back jumping over a flyball hurdle to get a smooth fast turn action. In a few weeks I will try adding the chute in when it is on a very low angle to see if she will push off it.

Contacts are coming on really nice, I do have vidoes but they are in very poor light so not worth posting really.

She is getting spayed tomorrow so will be having a good few weeks off before she is back at Agility, and i am not looking forward to keeping her occupied. My dad is not very happy about it because he keeps small talking about mini Diva's in a few years. For me I am happy to have her done, I found it very hard with her when she was in season, and she gets a lot of male attendtion when she isnt in season. Plus it's healthier and it means she won't need breaks from competitions, and there are already enough dogs in the country. At least it will be done a dusted with before the nicer weather :)



Bailey is feeling this winter I think, she is very unfit at the moment but I am booking her in for some hydrotherapy and now the nights are getting darker we can do more of lead walking.

Looking forward!

Flyball

We had a different approach to training last week and I think everyone would agree it was motivating and enjoyable. Diva did a few recalls from the box to a tuggy and she was striding lovely, she still seemed to be concentrating on the jumps a lot and her stride pattern but it was an improvement to the last performance.

Bailey was paired up with her old partner Mollie (who else). We tried doing a bit of boxowork wth them..... and failed but they enjoyed the racing games. I think it's safe to say they were having a blast and it's great to try something different with them.

I came away from Saturdays training a lot more motivated and pleased, I had been feeling a bit down with Diva's constant manic behaviour but at least I feel she can sometimes channel it into constructive training!

Agility

Diva has been my secret little star at Agility. She is fantastic...if i do say so myself. But what the hell I am actually going to gloat about my puppy for once because I am so pleased with her, considering she has done about 5 weeks training and only about 20mins each week.

Last week she was super focused. She was very careful about her jumping after face planting into the sand on her first attempt at a small jump. She soon got into the rythem of things and understood what I was asking her to do through the open channels.

This week she was bonkers, she was very distracted by the other dogs but did come to me as soon as I called her. A lot of dogs were missing from our intermediate group so I decided to see if she had worked of some off her steam to do some training in this session.

I did a few send on's over the jump bumps and her stride was much better, she wasn't hesitating as much as the week before and I was able to run with her without her chasing me.

We had a flat plank from the Aframe out to do some contact work on, this was the first time she had done her contact postition away from the house and to say we had not done any training for nearly a week she knew what I was asking from her and did the 2on 2off postition when I asked.

So super happy with my girls

Diva

Diva was 12 months old on the 18th December.

I can't believe were the time has gone! She still has a lot of maturing to do, but then they do say Gundogs are slow...more mentally than physically!

I totally adore her, she is ticking all the boxes for me. She is very keen to learn, and just wants to please but she also has that independence I like.

I have not done any chute work with her even though we now have one, its not been touched at all! We had to glue and nail the rubber to the front and it took the glue 3 days to dry because of the temperatures. Once the glue was dry, we then had 3 foot of snow..and now ice covering everything. I leave for work in the dark and arrive back home in the dark, so the prospect of standing in minus temperatures training box turns doesn't appeal to me, and i don't think it will to Diva who is just as rubbish in the cold as I am.

We have done a little on the contact trainer. The bit of work on the stairs I had done with her has helped a lot because she already understood the position I was asking from her, it was just a case of adding the plank in. Again we haven't done as much as I would have liked because I have come down with a chest infection and after 5 minutes with her im drained. She is however really enjoying it, I was origionally training the position with a target because I was hoping it would push her faster, however she loves target training and if i add her target she flys over the plank and totally forgets about the position, it might be something i can add in at a later date if she looks like a creeper.

There is a little video below of when we picked Diva up, as you can see she was a bold little bugger then too :)

Diva Fever...Going Advanced!

Last competition was Rotherdrax and although it as a long day, it was some great racing and Bailey recieved her Flyball Dog Advanced award. To some flyball dogs this isnt a very big flyball milestone, but for me and Bailey i couldnt be happier.

Bailey always put's 100% into every race she does, and although she isn't the fastest flyball dog, she is consistant and passionate. It's taken us a long time to get here and she has earned every point, a lot of people say they should scrap the points system but i think its great recognition of just how brilliant our Flyball dogs are, points can never be taken away from them. I love running her and love every race we do!



Things have started picking up training wise with Diva. She is 12 month old in 7 weeks!!

Even though thing's have picked up for us, i still do very little with her compared to what other people have done with thier pups by this age.

I keep watching videos and i think gosh... we have done very little.

We have had a lot of things to work on , but for Diva a lot of it has been general manners. She is know perfect with dogs on walks, she would rather stay with me and play tuggy than see the other dog. They both have friends they both like to play with and im certainly not an owner that wont allow them to have a play.

We can still only do about 10 minutes of training a night because she still gets very distracted and we usually finish up a session by doing some fun tuggy work.

She had her first puppy Flyball session, she did about 12 recalls over 7" jumps. For the first few run's she ran flat out and 7" didnt make her establish a jumping pattern so her stride was all over the place.

I also tested that she would retrieve a 'dead' ball and race back for a game of tuggy. Pleased to say she did brilliantly :)

Foundation Agility is still going well, infact better than i expected. We have been working on drive through tunnels, jump bumps and channel weaves. This week she did her first open channels and wasnt fazed by it at all and remained focused. I could also test her wait which needs a bit more work on but we are slowly getting there.

The only problem i have is she still screams like a banshee when watching. At the moment i am trying to get her to focus on me instead of what the other dogs are doing. I have been working really hard on her watch me command and *touchwood* it seems to be working.

Happier times

Bailey was fantastic at Agility this week, she actually shocked me.

We havent done any shows with her this year and i have been a lot more relaxed with her. It seems to have made a big difference in her confidence and instead of fighting her motivation and forcing her to train on nights she wasnt interested i would just sit out and let us both watch.

She was flying last night, really hitting her weaves and responsive. I love running her when she is like this, we work a lot better when she actually moves!

She's 8 years old now and she has got me further than i could have ever imagined but it sometimes gives me hope there is still some umph we havent found yet.

Foundation classes where up and running again last night with 3 new "puppies" some lovely dogs and lovely owners. :)


Flyball this weekend...Winter season is starting with Drax, so out with the Hat, Gloves, Dog Coats and Towels!

Growing Up…Getting Older

Redcar.
Redcar was a very cold but really fun day of racing. Bailey was back with the beardies in a really nice team. The only problem was Baileys Beardie issues. She finds Buffy far too exciting and didn’t really run well in front of her as she was too busy worrying about what they were doing. We did have some very good, close racing and it was a nice short day.

Bailey
Bailey turned 8years old in September. I just can’t seem to get over where time is going. She was a very special present and has helped me through some really tough times when I was a teenager mainly out of depression.

She is still a little stubborn bugger, cuddles are on Bailey’s terms and she still grumbles at Diva all the time but it is cute when they snuggle together.
A few weeks ago we were at Ribble Agility show; it was a very wet day but luckily indoors. Bailey ran two classes really nicely. She came 2nd in her 5-7 combined Agility but they only placed to first. Just beaten by a Grade 7 dog. After the Agility run she went lame so I decided to head home with her.

She then refused to do anything at training the week after and I was a little concerned about her back. I have been trying to get her booked to see our chiropractor but we are always either busy or can’t get there. Last night she seemed to be back to her normal self though and I’m going to book her in for a swim at a Hydrotherapy pool just down the road when Diva is finished with her season.

Diva
Diva is just short of 10 months now and maturing into a lovely young lady, she’s also having her first season so she’s having to put up with poor grumpy Bailey. Diva is exactly the same which is a relief as I don’t think I could do with her and hormones.

It just meant that she has had to miss her Agility foundation class but it gives us a few weeks to brush up on our Waits and also some other bits. I have started a little bit of box work with her, my dad’s just on with making us a “chute” for when she’s older but I have a little jump about 4” high which I’m getting her to buckjump over.

A bit naughty for agility but she seems to be enjoying it and at the moment I’m only keeping it to twice a week.

Just doing more Ball to Tuggy recalls and we have just started combining the left and rights to doing it around a chair or usually the washing line prop.
Her season means we can’t really do as much out on walks and she’s stir crazy with not being allowed off as much.