Camping, trials and so much more....

So the new agility year has officially begun with our K9 twilight trial that was last night. As always, it seems to prolong into a late night, so we didn't get home till 1am.

Prior to beginning agility again, we've been showing our guts out. Crazy thing is I've struggled for 3 years to get points on Kinta, and yet, this time last year I think Miss K picked up about 50 pts, and she's done it again picking up about 45 points on our summer stint of showing. She really is maturing nicely.

Kinta gained her Australian champion title on the valentines weekend which was a nice birthday present. Naturally, since then she's also picked up an extra 20 points... always the way isn't it!

We are now going to take a bit of a break from the show ring. Zara needs to mature and grow into her legs *vbg* and Kinta can have a well deserved break. Exciting news is that the VCA have since developed a NEW title by the name of NEUTER CHAMPION so you can guess which spunky boy will be going for that once July hits and this becomes effective! I can't wait!

Agility trial last night - no passes but working on speed and motivation. I was pretty happy for their efforts. Silly handler made some mistakes, which tends to happen when you have 3 courses running AT ONCE!
MJ - Leo - under time (!!!!) but 2 bars down and a handling error where I almost took the wrong jump...
ExAg - Kinta - not bad, just a few poor handling errors. Should have FC before the weaves instead of RC..
OJ - Leo - missed the distance challenge (tunnel was WAY too tempting!) which put me in the wrong spot fo the weaves, so that slowed him down.
MA - one good, one an absolute dog's breakfast!

here's the vid:


So - how goes obedience? Lets see - on some levels.... great... on others... falling apart yet again! Kinta is doing well training for her Open and Leo is progressing in his UD, yet we still struggle with the seekback... gah! I'm sure we'll get there in the end, but it's more the lack of training than anything else! Gotta put on the training boots again ;-).

On another note we will be going to Warrnambool for an agility trial next weekend which will be my FIRST ever camping trip (woot woot!) I can't wait! Am nearly all ready for thist (rather expensive!) venture and had a test run putting the tent up with Laura today.

Going up was no issue:
Yet the packing up prooved to be a little more difficult:

luckily however, after several attempts we finally got there!
Our little palace should be plenty of room for me and the furries to relax and stretch out in style! Can you tell I can't wait?!!?!?

Been pretty busy otherwise with dogs, work and house hunting, two of them fun, and one becoming extremely frustrating!! Sooooo hard to find a place that seems to fit everything I'm looking for..... Gah - soo frustrating!

The new training year.... 2010

Ok so our new training and trialling year has begun. I'm very excited about this year, not in the way of gaining titles or anything like that, but more on improving on our foundations and learning so much more about training. What's more as I (sort of) have a new dog to train. Zara is coming out of the cupboard ladies and gents.... at almost 10months old we are beginning to step up her training. Initially I was going to leave this to dad, but with his Foundation (agility) class starting soon, and given this club is full of people who have started agility and competed years before with multiple dogs, I figure a bit of a head start won't hurt!

I've also started some obedience work with Zara and I'm really impressed at her beginning stages... Not bad for a 9 month old pup and only 3 short sessions!!

first session:



third session:


I think I might pull her out and do obedience afterall if we have time!!!

Leo and Kinta are doing well and have already had 2 'mini' trials this year. Kinta also has only 6pts left for her Championship title, so I hope to get that soon! Leo has 2 masters agility passes and Kinta 2 excellent jumping passes :). Go the Pawsitive dogs!

Anyway here's a vid of their most recent trial:


I was pretty pleased with their efforts. So what are our aims this year?!

To get Z geared up for agility - we are going to work on some foundation stuff such as circle work, nose touches and driving towards a toy before we even begin on the equipment. I want a dog that really understands to drive ahead. Some exercises so far include:
*nose touches to a target
*circle work a la greg derrett style
*drive forward to a toy/ lead out then get toy
*run around a cone.

I am excited to see how she will develop in this area, as this is the first dog we will have done it' right' from day one LOL!

I would also like to use more toys in our training and develop that a little more with the older two, as well as continuing to work on our distraction training.... including for obedience.

All in all - I'm mostly out to have fun, but I'm also really looking forward to what lies ahead!

Hopefully I'll also be a little more reliable with updating in here!

New years resolution - tape more runs and training sessions so I can keep tabs on my errors!