Spring is here :)

I can’t believe it is March!!

I wrote a blog a couple of weeks a go and completely forgot to post it  (ooops)so catch up for several weeks.

Firstly I’d like to thank everyone for the positive comments I received re. my earlier blog, it’s always nice to know you aren’t the only one thinking these things!

It doesn’t seem long ago that we were all moaning that the show season was over and it would be FOREVER before next season – now it feels like the new show season will be upon us very soon.

Phaze attended puppy class a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed herself immensely – and let everyone know about it!!

What I am pleased about is the fact that although she was hyped up and rather loud; she completed every exercise asked of her with lots of drive and enthusiasm and total concentration on me and the task at hand.

Phaze and Tarn had a lovely play after class; they look quite similar other than Tarn being a good couple of inches taller.

We attended a small Limit show at the end of February, I like to begin the show season with limit show and UKA (where we get the chance to train if we need it) so we can see if our winter training has been successful or not without putting pressure on ourselves.

Well the merlies could probably be considered to be slightly over enthusiastic about being at a show.

I felt like I hadn’t done any training over the winter! This is why it is nice to go to a couple of shows that don’t matter so much – Easter is typically thought of as the beginning of the season where there are Qualifiers galore – so you don’t need the added pressure of big classes on top of a rather wayward dog – so it really is nice to compete at a couple of small shows beforehand!

I was pleased with Thai’s contacts in the morning but that was about it. I knew I was in trouble when Cruze was running backwards shouting and twirling in front of me to get onto the start line. He is vocal around agility but generally locks onto me once I take his lead off and he knows he is going to the start line – but not this time!! 

The boys had calmed down a little by the afternoon and Cruze came 2^nd in 6/7 jumping with Thai closely behind in 3^rd.

Magic looked really good in all her classes – just a split second timing issue in the jumping which resulted in a pole and Dan being slightly too laid back for a wing wrap in the agility. We both find it takes a little time to adjust from our lovely dogs at home training who will turn on a six-pence for us to the wild excitable beasts we take to shows!

Didn’t take the video camera with us which was a shame as they all had some really good bits but that’s just another thing we need to get into the swing of – TAKE THE VIDEO CAMERA TO SHOWS!!

It was also really nice to see Holly, Phaze’s other sister, as I had not seen her since she was 7 weeks old. She is looking lovely, but bigger than Phaze! So I have gone from having the largest, fattest pup to the shortest one! We have all said that this is such a nice litter we would all of quite happily taken home any of the litter as they are all such nice temperaments and markings. So maybe I should of picked one with legs!!

The weekend just gone Dan and I did something a little bit different – still agility related but VERY nerve racking! We are now the proud owners of 2 certificates each stating that we are allowed to Judge at KC shows J

Chris Huckle and Bob Griffin ran the 2 day course and they were really very good at putting us at ease and conducted the course in a way that made it easy to learn but also giving us some insight into real life experiences – including the advice of how to judge when there is a punch up going on!!!! So by the end of the weekend we were all wondering why we wanted to do this!!

Everyone on the course passed so I look forward to seeing everyone’s first course when they have their judging appointments – I think most of us wanted to invest in the very cool miniature equipment we used during the course design part of the course as it really helped us see that what looks good on paper doesn’t necessarily work 3D!

I am looking forward to our last full weekend at home this weekend until sometime in October! Unfortunately that pretty much means the last lie in I will get until October too! I think a trip to the beach will need to be included and hopefully some photo opportunities.

Next weekend we have another training session with Toni at Rexon which we are both looking forward to, and then the weekend after it is our first camping show of the year at Newbury!!! Think we might go buy some more thermals!