Competition wise things have been pretty quiet with nothing since the Royal. We enter the shows again this Sunday (hopefully with a bang!) and then will be pretty busy until Nov/Dec with Specialty shows, Obedience trials and agility trials etc. Croydon has their obedience trial at the start of Dec, and I have been graciously given the role of trial secretary!!! EEK!!! How scary is that! It was initially going to be a joint effort, but due to certain circumstances, I am now doing it by myself with the help of others who have run a trial before!!! On the whole, I don't know whether or not i'll be competing!
Both dogs are coming along well, Leo pretty much ready for trialling, if I can pull my finger out and work on his stays. So far we have duration, but I don't go out of sight for long, and haven't done that in a busy situation yet. I want to make sure he is *solid* before entering though!!! Kinta is also coming along well, but is in season at the moment so 'house-bound'. On the whole, I haven't really been doing much *official* training, just refining - things like working on toy drive, polishing up some areas that have dropped back a bit and little things like that. Since doing this, the dogs' attention and enthusiasm has been absolutely brilliant - just goes to show you can't forget the 'simpler' things amongst all the hoo-ha of getting them 'trained'.... plenty of time for play too!! Leo is gaining a LOT more confidence in agility and because of this his distance work is better and he is getting (slightly) faster. I am still trying to find what exactly makes him tick in the way of toys for agility though - excluding the ball!!
I spent last weekend down at Geelong for a Gina O'Keefe (WA renowned trainer) seminar. She covered obedience & agility and while there wasn't anything *new* (ie: oh wow, i've never heard that before!), there was a lot of stuff to 'refresh' on what you *should* be doing and just a bit of problem solving etc. It was a great weekend and I highly recommend her! I did come back one dog short though, as Gina fell in love with Leo and took him back to WA with her ;-).... or at least she threatened to! My condition was that she take him, train him and then I get him back ;). I also received praise for his heelwork, for which I was proud as punch about as it is something that i've worked hard on with him!
Rather than making the long trip home on Sat night from Geelong only to head back again on Sunday morning, I decided to stay in the area. Someone recommended to me "Ripley Park B&B" which is located about 1/2 way between Geelong and Baccus Marsh. Took about 20- 30mins to get there from GODC. I must say - I was VERY impressed with the night's accomodation. Fully equipped for pets - giving you 1/4 of an acre of FENCED yard for the dogs to run around in, a cottage all to yourself (2bdrm, kitchen, living room etc), dogs allowed inside, full breakfast provided plus snacks and stuff when you arrive that night (even for the dog!). Highly recommended if you are ever staying up that way! Leo had an absolute blast and thought all his Christmases came at once.... I mean - he was allowed INSIDE!!!
On a side note - i've taken up a new hobby! A fortnight ago I began (with Kylie) some ballroom/latin dancing! I'm surprised how much i'm loving it!! I wanted to do something not focussed on dogs and that people MY age would be doing (ok, so there are some oldies, but most are quite young)... dancing is always something I wanted to do ;). So I took the plunge. It is heaps of fun - basically they take the newbies aside to teach them a new dance (or refresh one) then you join in the circle for a big progressive dance! Surprisingly - I don't have two left feet and find that i'm handling it ok! I did find it amusing though when we had to turn a circle and how do you suppose I did it? With my heelwork footwork of course!!! OOPS! So if you see me heeling around the obedience ring and taking far too long to do an about turn - you know why!
I received the nicest compliment the other day - one of the agility instructors told me she saw my name in the Vic dog mag - with my obedience results (from Berwick)... She said they were quite impressive etc,etc. Asked me if he got his title yet, to which I replied yep, 2wks later! Place? 1st! LOL - she then went on to ask me who I trained with - thinking I was getting private tuition!! Howz that Sarah!!!! See what a good trainer you are ;)!
Well - I must hit the books again - but thought I better let you know that i'm still alive!
Oh - and here are some pics from the Hastings Agility trial where Leo came 1st in Nov Agility. A pic of him is going in the vicdog, can't wait to see which one! The piccies were taken by Sal Robinson (K9dogphotos).
1 comment:
Glad to hear all of your "doggy things" are going well hehe. All those compliments show you must be doing something right.
Of course dancing is lots of fun ..... i could have told you that ;) Thats why i have always been so addicted to it lol.
Oh and those pics of Leo are gorgeous
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