Close your eyes and take a leap ;-)

At the beginning of the year I mentioned how exciting this year "felt" How if I just took a leap of faith something mind blowing could happen, and it did :-D

I've just come back from the US where I had a working spot for 4 days with Lisa Frick and Tereza Kravlova. And it was everything I could have dreamed of and more. Both ladies while soooooo young, possess an immense knowledge of agility. And are the type of instructors that leave you inspired and wanting more.

They encouraged you to step outside of what feels familiar and comfortable, to run life on the edge, to push the limits ;-) Yes there were casualties.... a broken wrist, a broken ankle, and a damaged knee, all separate people and thankfully none of those things happened to me :-)

It was such an experience to be coached on new moves, understanding the reasoning behind why to use certain moves and where, and timing.... because I was late late late, especially on front crosses :-P

Most people at the seminar were wonderful. So encouraging to everyone, you could just feel that they wanted others to succeed, especially when some doubted their own abilities, and to see the looks on their faces when they made it..... was priceless :-D

I know seminars can be hard, you get caught up in the heat of the moment and two weeks from now you slot back into the same old routine of how you did things. And this is something I really want to try not to do. I spent most of my hours standing by each instructor watching, learning and taking notes, hoping that I would begin to "see" (even if it's only a small portion) of what they see..... fingers crossed ;-)

I do know, that I've experienced an opportunity of a lifetime. To meet two handlers and their dogs that are amongst the best in the world. And to have the opportunity to learn from them for just a fraction of time still makes my head spin.  To have people so generous to allow me to run their dogs, because without them there is no way I'd ever be able to do this. And yes I'm still pinching myself that it actually happened ;-)

Incase you haven't already seen it on facebook here is my little video :-)

What???? A weekend of no agility??

Sometimes its nice to just NOT do agility :-D To get away with family and let the dogs be dogs and have fun zooming around ;-)

We've just come back from Bridgetown, my brother and sister in law own the lolly shop down there....mmmmm chocolate :-D.... oops got a little sidetracked :-P And with it being my mums birthday we all met up for a weekend away. Good food, bush walks and best of all we completely missed the storm that everyone else got in Perth. SUPER relaxing time had by all!!

What Are The Chances?????

So I'm in a contemplative kind of mood.....

I'm wondering.... and I know it sounds daft!

But do you think it's possible .... that sometimes.... our dogs may just have been here before??

Liryk is 3years old, a baby still really, but from the moment I started playing with her in agility she just seemed to "get it" Almost like she knew it all already and I was just giving her a refresher. My brain says not to be stupid and it's all the foundation work I've done...but sometimes I almost feel like this is her moment and I'm just lucky enough to be along for the ride :-)

If we compare Edge with Liryk, well he seems like a normal dog.... okay a little crazy :-P But he has some nice skills and once he grows up I can see some great potential there, and this is my point...  "once he grows up" you see I've never felt that with Liryk, it's like she came grown up already and was just waiting for her puppy body to catch up.

I come home after trials with my brain exploding at the fact my "baby" dog is up there with the top dogs in WA... I mean SERIOUSLY how does that happen??? I'm stunned! I don't think I'm THAT good a trainer :-P so the alternative is this..... she's one of those dogs who is lucky to come back to their owners for another play at life. I've always said if only I'd had Ryka now instead of when I was 16 and knew nothing.... so who knows... maybe we do get a second chance to see our kids again ;-)

 Ryka with Jestah

Liryk

Tunnels Suck....

I should be more specific though....

Tunnels suck when they're under contacts :-P

Anyone that knows me, knows my young dogs have tunnel suck..... BAD :-D

At every trial I go to where there's a tunnel under a contact, I say "Geez I really need to teach that" week after week, month after month...... Liryk is now three and I STILL haven't taught it..... until NOW :-D

No more excuses... because seriously I HAVE a dogwalk and tunnel in my backyard!

So during the week I finally decided to have a play :-) And it wasn't nearly as painful as I thought it might be ;-) It's by not means 100% perfect, and just because I have it in the backyard definitely doesn't mean I'll get it in the ring :-P But at least I can say at a trial now... " Well I've taught that..... wonder if it'll work :-D" LOL

Eeeek!

OMG! Edge got his VERY first clear round in Novice Jumping last weekend :-D 1st place with the fastest time over all heights :-O It was SUCH a fun run!! We had a mini pause at the tyre as he's currently having a tendancy to shoot underneath it :-P ..... or in novice agility earlier in the day he went for the number cone next to the tyre thinking it was a toy!! LOL He's such a goof ball, but BOY he's loads of FUN :-D

The girls did great to! Epic and Jules' Diva won Masters Strat Pairs :-)

Liryk came 3rd in Masters Jumping and it was the last one we needed for her TITLE :-D Liryk and Jules' Mini also won Novice Strat Pairs and gained their title. And Edge and Zumba got their first pass.

Eeeek! What a day :-D

This weekend we have an ADAA trial to look forward too, then it's the ANKC States :-O An exciting month ahead and we can't wait :-D

Falling.....

Behind in my blog posts, yet again!! Yes yes I know :-P

So I'll try and pick up where I left off ;-)

The Western Classic!!! and Edge's first trial :-O

Okay I was nervous! It was hard not to be, every second person was telling me how much they wanted to see him run. Which is totally awesome that he has a fan club ;-) But I then felt pressure to try and be a better handler and not make him look like a fool :-P So to be perfectly honest I can't quite remember our first run in Novice Jumping LOL thankfully I had it videoed!

Novice agility.... weeeeelllll..... lets just say the greatest word for Edge (other than Kat-ching his release word) is "Go" It's his cue on the dogwalk to go flat out...... so here's what happened on the start line :-D I line up, he already had his naughty pants on and did a little bolt when I took his harness off, I got him back. He's sitting nicely by my side and the judge says "when you're ready GO!!!!" I have a sharp intake of breath and watch as Edges pupils go from normal size to massive saucers in the blink of an eye and I knew then he was in crazy land :-P LOL He had fun though :-D

Liryk also had a first :-) Her very first Masters Agility run!! Ooooooh and we were soooooo close. I just didn't quite see the push to the tyre after the aframe (though it's quite obvious on the video :-P) so she pulled off it DOH! She did however come second in Masters Jumping by just 0.02 :-O

The next night we had the Teams event and OMG!!! Epic's team the Trapguns, with Jules, Diva and Mini and Tom and Brynn.... WON the Jumping!! :-D

Sporting her awffy pretty sash :-D

Edge did sooooo much better the next night just knocking a bar in the agility :-D

The weekend just gone there was a birthday!! Liryk turned 3 years young :-D 3 years??? already??? She got a special green rabbit kong, that was disembowelled for it's squeaker in a nano second, but she loved it!! We had a trial that night and she came 3rd in Masters Jumping..... only one more pass and she has her title :-O

We have a couple of weekends off now before the next trial, sooooo much to work on!! But what a blast we're having :-D

Feb, March geez it'll be Christmas soon!

February is gone and we're into March already..... WHAT THE!!
Lets just back the truck up a little and slow this year down.... just a smidge ..... PLEEEAAASSEEE!

Last month has been full of trying to prepare the baby dog for his first trial, which incidently is TOMORROW! ARGH!! :-O

I had him in the Daisy Peel Novice seminar just a fortnight ago, and he didn't go to badly considering most of it was way way over his baby dog head :-P It was quite a bit harder than I thought it would be and while I love being pushed outside my comfort zone, I'd prefer my dog had the skills to cope with it first. Oh well you live and learn right? And at least I have a list as long as ...hmmm.... a football field of things to work on :-P

Liryk was a blast! She and I had an absolute ball in the advanced :-D Nothing like having some fly by the seat of your pants runs wondering if you'll make it to the obsticle in time to cue it.  Love love loved it!! :-D

So one more sleep!! before we step into the ring, with that gut wrenching thought of what's going to happen? I'm such a control freak!! yes yes I'm not in denial about it.... And while Novice is super fun.... the fear of the novice dog unknown is definitely in my head swirling around :-P

Frick-in Awesome :-D

So my last post heading was "eeeeeekkkkkk"...... and I was tempted to put this heading as "double eeeekkkkk" but even that doesn't quite express the excitement level I'm currently at :-D

It seems 2013 is going to be the year of adventures and travel :-)

I'm currently looking at going to NSW in the middle of the year to catch up with a buddy and thought I'd take the baby dogs along for some playing somewhere new :-D SUPER excited about taking the dogs on a road trip!

I'm aiming to get both Liryk and Edge to the ADAA Grand Prix this year. Liryk and I had such a blast last year, so I've got this high on the list of things to go do again :-)

I've also been looking at going back to America, my goal was the end of the year and OMG you'll never guess who's also going to be there at that time!! Lisa Frick!!!!! I've managed to get a working spot at two of the seminars she's doing :-D omg omg omg omg OMG!!!!

Just discovered a great saying to :-)

Think bigger,
Forget limits,
Embrace the idea of endless possibility.....
It will change you.
By Marianne Williamson                                                                                                                              

 Lisa Frick with Hoss winning the 2012 FCI World Agility Championships

Eeeeeekkk!!!!!

Okay so I'm a little excited about the year ahead :-D

Not that last year wasn't great , it actually had some pretty awesome moments in it.

It's just that 2013 "feels" like it's going to be something super spectacular. You know, one of those years where you start off with a glimpse of the possiblities of some life changing moments. If you just jump in with your eyes shut and don't worry about the consequences, or weighing up the pros and cons :-D

THIS is how 2013 feels!!

So thats it .......... I'm ready to jump :-D And I can't wait to see where I end up!!

Happy 2013!!