Physiotherapy

Boo has started seeing the physio now. We had an hour appointment today and I was pleased. She gave him a general good bill of health but did remind me he IS classed as an veteran now.

She worked on his carpals as theere wasnt the expected flexibility, he also has a sore toe. He got a great, full massage including abdominals. We talked warm up/ cool down and training plans and I came away with a fresh and more thoughtful view with Boo's agility for the year.

* I think trying to avoid reps on contacts will help, the speed and velocity at which he hits them worries me and Donna agrees. In training I will avoid doing lots of reps, the odd contact will be fine but I am quite happy to just work on his FP instead.

* I am not going to enter Agility classes unless they are teams/ qualifiers or the odd UKA training round.

* Keep a focus on grids and jumping work to keep him flexible and muscled.

* Take extra time to warm up/ cool down and keep using his back on track coat to aid this.

As far as working on him at home goes, Donna has asked I dont work on him this week so she can see if any of the small issues she found get better/ worse etc. Next week is Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy :)

Training Giggles

I am so enjoying shaping BabyD, he keeps making me giggle. I have been working on his reverse and one session I somehow accidently shaped him to bow (a trick I have never taught) it made me laugh and really respect how dogs learn and how key timing of reward is :) I have read something simular on another blog before, but what tricks have you acidentally trained with your dogs?

I am constantly stepping up his distractions during waits at home, we were throwing treats towards him and holding them centimeters from his nose and I can see him peering up at me from under his eyebrows as if to say ' you cant fool me momma...' he knows that if he breaks he gets nothing but if he resists my teasing he gets tons of food and play- it's such good fun, I have never enjoyed teaching waits before always trying to stop the dog failing so I can reward the good, it's great to be trying to make him fail- he sees the fun in it too!

Sportsmanship and Jelousy

ne of the things that has always niggled me at agility is the nastiness that appears so often. I read a website from a 'top handler' recently talking of the WCs last year. The comment was made that the top medium dogs were over the allowed height and that it was about how big a dog dared be entered. It hit a chord with me for various reasons, of course my own Hoaxey is right on the limit of medium height (not that I am planning on the WCs) and our own Tash Wise won the WCs with medium Diz. Unless the handler measured each dog personally how can a statement like that be made? I am sure it caused offence to anyone concerned as to me it read an accusal of cheating. Not only that but why make a public statement like that? Is that really a show of good sportsmanship? Imagine if one of our Winter Olympians posted something like that on their blog, there would be uproar!

I hear this kind of thing so often, usually from people 'lower in food chain' than those that are the target. We all like a good gossip every now and again but often you hear people saying really libellous and deeply hurtful things. Next time you choose to impart a snippet of gossip about how **** starts training their young dog at five months old five times a week make sure you KNOW all the information and think how much you might hurt that person if they caught wind of it.

Ok off my soapbox now... :) x

Smoketrail Puppies

Just a note to mention how pleased I am that I found such fantastic homes for each of my Smoketrail puppies.

I am so proud of them all, Buzz passed his bronze good citizen test at just six months old, Ajaxs has been invited to be part of a KC Good Citizen scheme display at Crufts 2010 and Munch has passed his KC Puppy Foundation Cert and is on his way to his bronze!!

I get updates, photos and cuddles (from the pups lol) and most importantly I know how much those babies are loved. Thanks Yvette/ Don, Tracy/ Sue and Kim/ Dan. You guys are the best x

Now here are some gratuitous photos of them all...

DETOUR

MUNCH

BUZZ

AJAXS

Bad Manners

Why is it that some dog owners think it is ok for their dogs to have no manners?

Detour has been fantastic lately with strange dogs/ people and not being spooked by them so I decided to venture to the common with him and Linx. It is a new enviroment for DD so I knew it would be more of a challenge. I spotted a very big chocolate lab coming towards us and kept a close eye on D, he clocked the dog and didn't worry but it started rushing towards us so I quickly reacted and distracted D until it got closer as I know once they are close by he is fine. The entire and pushy dog proceed to to dash around after both dogs, nose inches from their butts, shoulder barging and hackles constantly up, Linx warned him with a lip curl a few times but to no avail. By this time the owner was way past us, calling the dog who was ignoring her totally. Eventually the dog barged at Linx when he was next to Ethan and the pushchair, Linx snapped in his face and the dog left us.

Surely an owner must know/ see how threatening that behviour is to other dogs/ people? Poor Linx had to resort to snapping and only when he felt me and Ethan were involved. If I had a person shoving me and bothering me like -OI YOU... OI YOU... I would probably hit them a lot sooner :)

Anyway, as disappointed as I was with the owner as proud as I was with my boys- thanks god for dogs with manners :)