12.12.12 - What a day!

Today was the day that we put up a little course for the youngsters with weaves in for the first time. I was hoping it would go better than what it did. We set up 2 courses and broke them up and did segments of them before putting the whole thing together.

SO some work to be done in the holidays.

here are the 2 courses we ran

And here is Rush's videos

Weaving Roxy

This week I attempted 12 poles with Roxy.....she managed all 12. She is not too happy with me on the left so we will stick on 6+6 for a while longer to make sure she is doing them more succesfully. I have also stepped up her training, so hoping to see her in the jumping ring next year

Here is a short clip of her weaves.

Rush loves weaving

So Mondays are our relaxed training days where we do some basic exercises. Last night we worked on weaves. We are now finally on 12 poles and Rush is loving it. He is so eager to do them, I am very happy with how we are progressing.

We have now started adding a jump and from this evening will work other obstacles to the weaves.

Here is Rush's video from last nights weave training, the one he entered too fast and skipped a pole, we had a few missed entries....but all still work in progress!!

Trying thursday

Thursdays exercise was quite a difficult one. I worked some sequences with Brandi and then ran the full course.

We managed to get through and I think it was quite a nice round, although I had to RUN and was finished after 1 round

This is the course we ran

And here is the video of Brandi's round

My sweet girl...Roxy

Yes Roxy is in training, I have taken it very slow, perhaps because I didnt start off correctly with her. She comes along to the training sessions and I have been jumping her on the more simple exercises. We have started weave pole training and almost on six straight. She has a great attitude for jumping and she absolutely loves it....but what she also loves is telling me to hang on while she quickly goes to greet someone standing nearby. This is my social butterfly and she loves everyone, so it gets frustrating at times when she runs off to say "hi". We will work on that a bit more and but has improved alot, even bringing the toy back to me has improved so I am confident we will get there.

For now we will keep at our training and hopefully be able to enter some dog jumping rounds next year, SO watch this space......

Here is Roxy's video of a round from training last week

Tricky tuesday

Well lets just say Tuesday was difficult and at times frustrating... I eventually sort of got it right, but not nearly as well as I would have liked, so we will need to work on these moves some more

This was the exercise

Here is Brandi's attempts at the exercise

Here is Rush' video



Winning EP champs 2012

So the night before EP champs it poured, I lay awake wondering what the day had in store for us, ok I will admit I lay awake and I was a bundle of nerves. By the time I got up there was blue sky and the sun was peeping through....I knew it was going to be a good day.

I bundled the dogs into the car and headed of to art in the park where the EP champs was being held.

Brandi ran like the wind in our first round, her weaves were good and we ended round 1 with the fastest clear. She had 1 hair raising point where she went a bit wide at the 3rd last jump and I was hoping to be able to pull her through 2 jumps and that she wouldnt decide just to take the wrong one. I was ecstatic as I knew that we were now in the final and had a shot at the title.

Walking the jump off course, myself and I think a few others were "shocked" at the weaves being in. We are just not used to weaves being in a jump off, and then we had to do them twice!! Brandi's weaves are good but the last couple of shows she has been breaking down in the weaves so I knew that I had to keep my head together and work like we know we can. I walked the course with a front cross before the weaves, I knew that if I didnt cross in the right place she would knock, but took the chance. She didnt knock and flew into poles. Coming out of the tunnel for the weaves a 2nd time I walked it on both sides, but felt more comfortable being on her right but that meant I would need to cross after the weaves. She came out the tunnel, I connected with her and bam she nailed the entry. A few jumps and we made it, clear. We were the 2nd last to jump so we had to wait for the last dog to jump to hear who had won. So far we were in the lead.

We won EP champs 2012, I couldnt have been happier. I was SO proud of how Brandi ran, she ran her little heart out against good competition.

Here are her 2 rounds.

Thanks Nadine Shortland for the video

Brandi and I after winning EP Dog Jumping Champs 2012

Thanks Kayleigh Heideman for the photo

Here are the 2 courses we ran