In The Year 2012

In just 9 days this year will be finished, over and done with. It's amazing how much you can actually cram into 12 mths when you start thinking about it :-)

For me this year has been quite the learning curve. Learning that not everyone's methods are always right for you and your way of learning. So you really should look for something else, because when you find it, it really does bring ALOT of benefits :-)

Learning patience...... yep I thought I had it, but this has definitely been the year to learn more :-/ Liryk's injury was the start, man that was a character building moment and a half! I'm glad we made it through to the other side and so far it seems she's come out non the worse for it. Edge has been my other "patience building moment" :-P Boys boys boys...... LOL To be honest I think I'm really, really spoilt with Liryk, it's almost like she's been here before and everything is just a refresher for her. Mostly I've been good in not rushing Edge, and it's been interesting to watch his ....sometimes slow progression, and that's been ok, I'm in no hurry...... but I'm going to admit it.......the weavers nearly made me pull my hair out!! ROTFWL!!! We're finally at 12 straight poles :-D WAHOO!! and have now gone back to work on his footwork. I'm not sure what it is that I do wrong, but both Liryk and Edge struggle to single stride using Susan Garretts 2x2, I thought it was because I focussed to much on the hard entries with Liryk, but I haven't done this so much with Edge and he's still got the same problem..... So that is our mission over Christmas... to attempt to get them both single striding :-D

We also discovered some new friends this year :-D the kind that pop up unexpectedly, but you just know are the type that will be around forever :-)

The other thing that has become really apparent to me is that I have a serious addiction to agility.... Yep this was the year to really clarify how much I really do love it! Funny how you want something even more, especially when you can't run your dog :-P I do get disappointed in our baby equipment, not just with the weesaw, yes I discovered our aframes are also tiny compared to the rest of the world!! but also the challenges it puts on our dogs, rather than the naive belief it makes it easier :-/ But mostly I'm happy that at least we get to play some sort of game....

Anyhoo! Merry Christmas to all, two and four legged in your houses :-D And hoping everyone has a super awesome New Year!!

Bye Bye Puppy :-(

Edge has just turned 15mths. And its so long to the super cute puppy that I had :-(

I really can't believe he's grown up already!! Into a very large, very cuddly gooey boy I might add :-D
He's loads of fun and I think the best thing about him is he doesn't take ANYTHING seriously. Everything is just one big party and I'm lucky enough to be celebrating with him ;-)
It's blowing my mind that he'll be able to compete in a couple of months.... do I think he'll be ready? Hmmm I'm not sure... I hope so :-D Even if it's just in jumping. THAT would be fun!
I love love love his dogwalk. I've worked super hard and even though I do still get jumping, I'm happy with how we're going :-)
I can't wait to see how he goes over the next couple of months as we start to do more things. I'm trying hard not to rush him with anything but sometimes I get a little excited :-D

Slack :-P

Okay I admit it!! I've been SUPER slack with updating my blog, it's kind of taken a backseat as my life feels like it's rushing by and before I know it it'll be Christmas and another year is gone!

So here's a quick run down of the last few months...

The Grand Prix has come and gone. And it was everything I had hoped it would be :-) I'm not sure there is going to be another event that tops this one. No REALLY! I went in with high expectations just from the comments of others and it even blew those out of the water!!

The indoor venue was mind blowing, 3 rings all under the one roof! And they even managed to get rubber contacts in time for the main arena :-D The courses are HUGE easily 8m between alot of obsticles really allowing your dog power :-D Add in the relaxed atmosphere and competitive people that are just as happy for you to win as you are for them, and it makes this event what it is.

This was Liryk's first trip away and other than blowing me off when we went to pick them up at the airport in QLD, she took it all in her stride :-D One thing she wasn't happy with, was the metal stairs and elevator but by the end she was racing up and down with the rest of them. She absolutely LOVED event, by the end of the 4 days she was as high as a kite tugging and dragging me into the ring :-D

 

This was my favourite run of the whole weekend :-D



 

 

 The week after we came back, I unfortunately had to put my 15 year old boy Jestah to sleep :-(

I'm sooooooo greatful that I had him for so long, especially when others haven't been so fortunate. And to know we did so many amazing things together and shared so many special moments it makes saying goodbye a little easier.

 

                                                               Jestah in his prime :-D

 



 



Liryk had her first attempt at Masters Jumping and came an awesome second!! Super proud of her efforts :-D





 

 



We fostered a baby German Shepherd puppy called Sir Walter for 2 wks, he was awffy cute!!!!

   

 

And to consume the rest of my the time...... Edge is now old enough to play with weavers, the aframe and a couple more jumps :-D Sorry no video of Edge but I'll put something together soon! I can't believe he'll be old enough to be measured next month and will be able to compete in 3mths! Not sure if his boy brain will be ready though, but he's loads of fun to play with :-P

 

 



We're back!!!! :-D

OMG the excitement is almost indescribable :-) The joy at being able to run Liryk again is something that I just can't put into words. Three months has gone and we had the all clear to jump in and compete, I have to admit though, I was just a little nervous, especially running her in agility.

Last weekend was her first weekend of competion. I just had her entered in Excellent Jumping on the Saturday to see how she went. OMG it was like we picked up where we left off :-D SUCH a great course for her first one back :-)

I checked her over that night to make sure she didn't seem sore anywhere and decided to run her the next day in agility and jumping :-)
She's SUCH a buzz to run!
In the morning we just had one bar in both agility and jumping. The afternoon she gained her last pass in Novice Agility!! Whooo hooo :-D

                                                                                                                                                                       

She has this weekend off, with another visit to Deb Nook on Monday to check she's pulled up okay and whether or not she will be right to run in 650 at the ADAA States next weekend. I'm pretty confident all will be fine, just like having that reassurance from the expert :-D

The other news is......

It's the baby dog's birthday tomorrow!!! OMG!! I can't believe he's one already!
Seriously this year has just flown by.
I'm SUPER happy with where he's at, especially his running contacts :-D

Week 7 for Liryk and Edge's Running Contacts

Week 7..... WOW I can't believe it! 7 weeks ago it felt like I'd never reach this point with Liryk and now we're here I look back and it feels like it's flown by!!

We're now at the point where it feels like we're getting somewhere :-D

No more horrid halti!! That's been replaced with her favourite harness, because low and behold we want to encourage her to pull, so that she's giving her hamstrings a workout. This is great news for Liryk as anyone that knows her, knows pulling is pretty much her specialty!! :-)

There were great results from her second ultrasound last week, showing the initial torn area had reduced in size by 2/3rds, with no scare tissue evident and leaving an area of just 6mm by 3mm left to heal. This has meant that restrained recalls and recalls up hills have been added to the regime. And ......OMG...... sooooooo excited about this next bit!!!!!! This week she has been allowed to start jumping a straight line of jumps on 300 height :-D wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! not sure who's grin is bigger Liryk's or mine :-D

The other exciting news that has come out of Liryk's rehab, is that I've been focusing some more on Edge's running contacts :-D I'm really happy with how they look at the moment and I'm going to say I think I like his better than Liryk's at this point. This video was taken a couple of weeks ago. The first one is a bit high for my liking but all the others I LOVE!!!

I've also started him back on turns. We had a break for a few months as I really felt he wasn't mentally ready. We're just on the flat at the moment, but it seems just giving him that break has really helped and we've progressed another step :-) My plan at this point is to keep the d/w at this height until I've worked his turns on the d/w to the same point and move up from there...... though it is just a plan and knowing how much I detested turns with Liryk I'm going to leave that flexible :-P

The Joy Of Rehab

Thats what I'd like to be telling everyone, that I'm learning so many new things about rehabilitation....poohey! Liryk and I have come to the conclusion that it's CRAP! I ask you, how can there be joy, in no playing tug, no running, no jumping. I'm going to be honest and say I'd like to pop in quite a few swear words at the frustration that Liryk and I are experiencing at the moment!!

I thought having the patience to train a running contact was hard. Well apparently I hadn't quite learnt my share of patience, as this current expedition seems to be challenging my in inner calm.

I've been reading quite a few of people's blogs, that have had dogs with the same injury as Liryk. Most seem to think the rehab as been more painful on them, than their dogs. That their buddies are quite happy just doing 10 min walks. Hmmmmmm yeah Liryk is definitely not one of those dogs. She's pretty much disgusted that I insist on sticking that awful halti on her, that she hasn't seen since she was a puppy. Not to mention that she can't believe none of the other dogs seem to see all the birds that SHE can see but can't get to on our "controlled" walks.

The upside is we're now at week 3. So her exercise has been increased to 3x 15min walks, she can now do cavaletti work, stairs and slight inclines. Next weeks physio appointment will hopefully bring with it some fun stuff like the hydrotherapy treadmill :-D And the end of her electromagnetic pulse therapy three times a day. Though I do believe she actually likes this bit! She nearly always falls asleep while having it done (as you can see) so it must be soothing for her.

 

Thankyou to everyone that continues to send good thoughts and wishes our way, I'm sure it's working!!

May 2012

Well I never thought one month could possibly be jammed packed full of so many things and so many highs and lows.

And it all began with an email :-) "Would you like to upgrade to business class??" OMG OMG OMG!!!! YES :-D

So the extra long flight that started my journey to the World Agility Open in Belgium began in style. I've never flown business class before, but having blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and a fully reclining massaging chair is something I strongly recommend if you get the chance :-D

I was really excited landing in the UK. I couldn't wait to meet up with Jules, as well as meeting her host dog owner the lovely Lara and her border terrier Magners. Not to mention that I was counting down the hours till I got to see wee George again :-) 12mths is a long time between greetings. I even forgot how small he is, especially since I've been around my gigantor kids LOL

After picking up George we really spent very little time sitting still. We had a fantastic training session with Angela Rogers on the Mon. And she helped us hone our skills to the different handling styles of our dogs. I don't think I even noticed the freezing cold and the rain it was so much fun! This is DEFINITELY the way a training session should be!!  So thankyou thankyou thankyou to Lara for organising it, and to Angela for giving up her day to help us :-D

Tues was a 3.30am start ..... and we spent all day in the car making our way to Belgium. Thank goodness for Starbucks!! :-D Mmmmmmm iced latte!!!

Wednesday we had a 2hr training session in the afternoon at the De Warre Equestrian Centre. Wow what a place!! And it was so great to catch up with most of the team again :-D That night we experienced true Belgium dining and thankfully Pettrick was there to decipher the menu for us!! I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, the look on Jules' face when enquiring about what white asparagus would taste like, only to have the chef take some off someone else's plate with his fingers and give it to her to try!!! ROTFWL!!! or the waffles with ice cream and chocolate sauce :-D

Thursday was another early morning start to check in and have our dogs vet checked and measured. Then onto our super quick last training session, before our one and only free afternoon that we spent lazing in the backyard enjoying the sun. It was just what we needed before the competition started the next day.

The Australian Team :-)

Friday and Saturday were jammed packed full of runs :-) It still blows my mind that we get to compete with some of the worlds finest handlers and their dogs. This year I did feel the absence of my own dogs more than I did the year before. And I'd REALLY love to have had Liryk there to play with. But I felt extremely lucky to be running a dog like George, he is SUCH a superstar and his amazing joy for agility is infectious! Just check out his big grin on course!! :-D










We had some fantastic runs over the three days, we even had a close medal opportunity, but got a penalty on the 3rd last obsticle the Aframe :-/ But I think most people had those "if only" moments :-)

The last day of competition was the best for me I think. The finals of all the runs were being held and the atmosphere was fantastic!! The courses were super fast and as much as I love competing I also LOVE watching. The connection of some of these handlers and their dogs and the ability to look like one at such high speed is electric and inspiring! One of my favourite runs with George was the final run in Biathlon. The course was fantastic and you could just go hell for leather. We didn't go clear, but I didn't care, George and I had the BEST time out there and we ran our butts off :-D

With the closing ceremony came the rain and not long after that, came the news that Liryk had been injured :-( A rather evasive email left by my husband to say she was lame and now on strict crate rest and anti-inflammatories.... My brain went into overdrive and I didn't get much sleep Sunday night, waking up at 4am Monday morning with the departure of the rest of my housemates, I stayed awake and jumped on the internet to try and get more information about how bad Liryk actually was. An email from the vet that saw her, as well as chatting to the other vet via Facebook braced me with the crappy news that Liryk may not be going to the Nationals in 2.5wks :-( 

To say that the flight home was long, is an understatement! I'm so glad that I shared half of it with Karen and Colin :-) They definitely helped to keep my mind off Liryk and to make the journey home drag a little less.

To cut a long story short she's out of competition for the next 6-8wks with a grade 1 tear of her illiopsaos muscle (a muscle in her groin)

The bruising that came out on the inside of her leg :-(

I'm thankful that she isn't lame and doesn't appear to be painful and I have my fingers crossed that she will make a full recovery. I'm definitely disappointed that I've spent two years working towards such a big event, let alone not being able to cheer my friends on, or meet new friends and see their dogs in action. Thankfully there is still the Grand Prix and we will now work towards that :-) In the mean time we have weekly accupunture and physiotherapy visits with Deb Nook and Carmel Keylock. A follow up ultrasound is booked at the end of the month to check how the muscle has healed and hopefully ....... fingers crossed.... we get to start doing some agility again :-D

Edge Update and States Winner :-)

Thought it was about time to have an update on Edge :-D or Mr Zee.... or just Zee, which is what he gets called more often than Edge.....
To tell the truth I probably shouldn't have named him before I got him, which is what happened. Because Cray-Zee suits him soooooooooooooooo much better :-P
He's 8.5mths old and he's gone from a chunky little puppy to a long legged, crazy running machine. I just LOVE his personality, he makes me laugh at least several times a day with his goofy antics and yet all the while he thinks he's the COOLEST dude around LOL. He's fitted into our house as though he's always belonged, so I feel really lucky and grateful that all my dogs get along and love hanging out with each other. He and Liryk are the BEST of friends and will spend most of the day fooling around and doing bog laps in the backyard.
I've started his running contact training :-D It's sooooooooooo much fun! I had a momentary thought of whether I'd do it all again, but truth be told even the grey haired moments are worth the adrenaline rush at the end :-) And second time around thankfully seems to be going alot smoother.
We've almost finished our puppy class with Silvia Trkman. It's been SUCH fun! And he's probably the most "aware" of his body out of all my dogs. Would definitely recommend it to anyone whether it's with a puppy or an older dog.
I've put together a video of where we are at so far in our training and just couldn't help myself with the choice of music as it's Edge's personality down to a tee :-P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX8KHSXnVZU&feature=g-upl&context=G28f9816AUAAAAAAAAAA

Last weekend we had the State Agility/Jumping Trial and I couldn't be happier with Liryk. She and I are running so well together as a team that I almost don't want to jet off to Belgium in two weeks, just incase I some how lose that insinc feeling with her in the time that I'm away. She won both heats in Novice Agility and Excellent Jumping to get her into the finals. Novice Agility had a pretty tricky weaver entry and unfortunately she missed it, but I couldn't have been happier with her run overall. Her contacts were great and she was flying. The Excellent Jumping Final.... I'm.... well... speechless. She was a wee superstar and WON!

Liryk's Finals run......

2 Years Old :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIRYK!!!!
I can't believe she's two already....... where has the time gone???
From cutesy wee puppy, to awesomest dog EVA (well obviously in my opinion LOL)

She's SUCH a blast to train and run! I'm soooooo lucky that Liryk is one of those dogs that gives 200% everytime you go out there and the adrenaline rush from running her just makes me want to run her more!!

This year is going to be a big year travel wise for the two of us, we're off to the Nationals in June and then I also want to take her to the ADAA Grand Prix :-D Awffy excited!!!!!

THANKYOU Sam and Richard for letting me have the BESTEST DOG EVER!!! And of course she wouldn't be here without the sneaky antics of her father Jake :-) THANKS JAKE!!!! :-P

Are We Really Looking Out For Our Dogs?

Really ??? Are we???
I know it seems like a strange title but after Saturday night I left a trial feeling completely awful that I put my dog in a position that became extremely dangerous for her. And I'm soooooooo thankful that she didn't break anything and will hopefully not have any lasting fears, other than some bruising.

Any equipment has the potential to be dangerous, but I think contacts due to their height as well as the width of the dogwalk are particularly so. I won't mention adding a bit of rain but I'm sure you can imagine it doesn't get any safer.  We as competitors, as well as the judges who design the courses really need to look at the approaches to these obsticles. I'd like to make it clear that I DO NOT want a smaller / wider dogwalk, nor do I want to be expected to slow my dog down, what I'd like is consideration taken to the dogs path and how it will approach these obsticles.

Liryk is quick, she can do an ANKC or ADAA dogwalk anywhere between 1.2 and 1.4 seconds. Her ability to do an obsticle at this speed still blows my mind, but to expect her to hang onto something that is barely the width of a ruler from an angled approach is just scary. Yes I should have straightened her up, but things happen in a blink of an eye and to put that possible risk into the scenario, is just asking for an accident to happen. And one that I will be EXTREMELY careful NOT to do to my dog again.

I didn't see her fall, but the thud that I heard and the rush of people into the ring, let alone the horrified look on her poor little face still upsets me when I think about it. Thankyou to everyone who asked or came to see if she was okay, but most of all thankyou to Jules who came and calmed me down and walked Liryk out, so glad you were there buddy! And to Dr Deb Nook who made sure she was okay.

Our dogs trust us, I think it's only fair that we look out for them and keep them safe.

It's Over Already!

So a month off seems to have come and gone in the blink of an eye :-( I still feel like I've accomplished things though with all the kids, but mostly the baby dogs, Liryk and Edge, who I felt kind of needed more "skills" under their belt. Well obviously Edge as he's only a puppy still, but with Liryk even though she's done no contacts or jumps, we still worked on "body cues" she will see on courses and the beginnings of blind cross training.


Edge is now 6mths and has grown taller, longer and stronger. His body awareness skills have become much better thanks to Silvia Trkmans puppy class, and we are lucky enough to be continuing into the next class thanks to the generosity of Silvia, as he fell behind quite a bit when he had to have his surgery at the end of Dec. I REALLY, REALLY like this puppy, ALOT! I LOVE his attitude, and enthusiasm for learning. He's all cute and cuddly, but will turn into a crazed beast the minute you start to wind him up :-D He's just FUN! And I'm having a ball with him!!


This weekend we had Daisy Peel come and present a seminar. The nights were LOTS of fun! I was a little worried that Liryk, being in the advanced class, may not have had the skills to be able to deal with some of the sequences, but OMG I honestly have to say, I was REALLY stunned and SUPER pleased that Liryk dealt with each sequence better than I could have hoped! On the first night I learnt I have a tendency to flap my arms around a smidge to much! And I need to focus more on what my shoulders and my legs are doing. And the result was amazing :-) Now to just make a habit of it!!

 I was also able to do a private lesson on Liryk's running contacts and got some ideas of how to use her obsticle focus to help with handling her on turns and teaching her that just because there is a jump in front, I may just be calling her off it :-)

Speaking of running contacts..... I've signed up to Dawn Weavers running contacts course. Just to get a different spin on things I guess. Turns are H A R D! And if there's someway to make the learning of them easier for the dog to understand, then I'm all for it :-) Liryk doesn't seem to get that she can complete the dogwalk AND turn on the flat and thats obviously a flaw in my initial training. So I'm going to try something different, because what I'm currently doing just isn't really working for her. I also wanted to make sure I have as much information available to me before I start Edge's contact training. That was one of my mistakes when I started with Liryk.... I pretty much went in blind. And I have to say I REALLY like the turns that Dawn gets with her dogs! You can check them out at www.dawnweaveragility.com and click on the running contacts tuition link.

Well the R & R is over and it's only another 2.5wks before the next trial. I'm excited but I must confess I kind of liked blobbing in front of the couch the last month in the evenings, rather than chopping up treats and organising dogs into the car before shooting out to training. Oh well the 2012 year of trialing will be a load of fun I'm sure and once I get back into the swing of it, I'll wonder how I took 4 weeks off!!

Time For Some R & R

For the last few weeks I've been winding down my training with the girls. I entered them in the ADAA trial on Sat (pretty much because I LOVE the courses!!) but now it's over they're going to have a good looong break!

My plan had been to give them a good 6wks off, no training just swimming and fooling around at the park and teaching them some more tricks. But I forgot about having booked a private lesson with Daisy Peel on running contacts at the beginning of Feb! DOH! So it's only 4 weeks off for Liryk......... well that was until her performance at the ADAA trial. Oh My Lord!!!!! I don't know if it was the full moon but she was MENTAL!

AND popped out at number 10 weave pole on nearly EVERY single run!!! And to top it off Epic decided that if number 10 was good enough for her sister then it was definitely good enough for her :-/ So we missed out on a couple of Q's with both girls, due to the new found "weaver" issue :-(  And by the end of the night I had the issue then, with NOT trusting my dogs to do their weavers.... what a cycle!!

So I basically woke up Sunday morning on a mission..... to put my trust back into my dogs because deep down I DO KNOW they can do all 12 weave poles. Seriously if they can do 10 what's another 2?? Nothing right??

And I guess I might have been a little extreme in my proofing with Liryk.....I might have put a tunnel a metre off the third last pole kind of inticing her to come out.....but she got it!! So then I decided to make it soooo basic (I thought, maybe that's the problem, Liryk is thinking there's nothing out there "trying" to lure her out so maybe nows the time she CAN skip a couple at the end!!) Nope she got all her weavers then too :-/  So I've put the weekend's weird antics down to just that.... WEIRD!!!

So we're off to chill out for the next month. And the perfect way to start your doggie holidays is with a birthday so HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY EPIC!!!!!

And Happy New Year everyone!!! :-D