Jack and the Beanstalk

Okay so there is no Jack ..... just one mighty BIG beanstalk growing daily before my eyes! In the last two weeks Edge seems to have doubled in size, his legs are soooooooo much longer and I can't believe the length of his tail!! I won't mention his ears because at the moment they too seem to have a life of their own! They currently look like they may have beagle in them!!

He's currently 3 and 1/2 months and I'm hanging out for the next several weeks when his pointy little baby teeth start falling out, because I'm currently getting eaten ALIVE! I'm LOVING his toy drive but SERIOUSLY! Why is it ALL of my dogs go for the bit of toy closest to my hand!! It doesn't seem to matter how long the toy is, they always want the top bit :-/

Aww Mr Longlegged Piranha Pants is sleepin



His tricks are ...hmmm interesting :-D I'm currently trying to get him to cross one paw over the other, the hiccup appears to be, that when he brings his leg "over" the other leg the rest of his body tends to follow and he ends up in a dead dog position! :-P Silly baby dog!!

The other news is, that Liryk gained her Novice Jumping title at the last trial :-D She's sooooo much fun to run!! Novice Agility was a little better for us,  I was considerably more confident going into the ring this time compared to the last few times,(amazing what some training can do!!) even though there was a turn off of the d/w and into a tunnel. She got her d/w (though it was quite high) but she missed her Aframe. Thanks Karen for videoing and sending it through!!







So our issue continues to be turns after the dogwalk....... She's much better if I'm up there and able to "handle" the turn, but she really struggles if I'm caught behind. So...... I'm off to put some video together to send off to the guru Silvia Trkman. I guess as a last resort I can have her do a 2o2o if I get caught behind her.... hmmmm it's just not as much fun.... and it really bugs me that I can't get it :-P

Looking forward to this weekend with Liryk's first Excellent Jumping, hopefully it's not too over her head!!

Either way this is our last ANKC trial of the year (I forgot to enter the Dobe Trial DOH!!) so I'm sure she'll be ready in the New Year :-D

Tricks and Trials

To get my butt into gear with Edge I've joined another of Silvia Trkmans ecourses :-D
Puppy Tricks! Her classes are so interactive and rewarding, and sending in video's gives me the shove in the right direction to get started, instead of oohing and ahhing over how cute he is!

 Oooooh but he's JUST so handsome!!

Epic is happy in the fact that SHE is the prettiest :-)

Liryk unfortunately is getting some pretty tired eyes trying to keep up with one MENTAL puppy :-)

And Sweet Ole Jeddy is FINALLY getting some sleep around here!

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

The last couple of weeks Liryk has had her first introduction to ANKC trials. After only just being in an ADAA trial the weekend before it was REALLY noticable at how very different the two organisations are. While walking the Novice Jumping course, I felt like every second bar should have been taken out, it felt so close together :-P Liryk was a superstar however and gained a pass with a second place :-) She was 0.2sec off Frank's dog, Jag's, time. So EXTREMELY happy!!

The agility had a slight conundrum, with a tunnel discrimination at the end of the dogwalk. It wasn't an "obvious" discrimination but I guess when you have a running d/w it kind of open's up new things, that maybe weren't an issue before :-) Anyhoo it was an issue for me because I haven't trained that yet! LOL Just like at this weekend's trial there was a tight 90 degree turn off the d/w.......hmmmm haven't nailed THAT kind of turn in training either yet! LOL I'm discovering my list of "training challenges" is coming around alot sooner than I was expecting! I don't mind, I just thought I wouldn't be "seeing" those sort's of things in Novice to be honest. And with one of the crucial ingredients to a running d/w being confidence, I really felt bad about her not having that skill, because how I attempted to handle it created a miss on the d/w, as well as her missing the bar, all confidence knocking things for a baby dog :-(

There WAS an upside of this weekends trial. Liryk gained her second pass in Novice Jumping and won! YAY! :-D



Thanks so much to Graeme and Jenn for videoing!! :-D

I Like Me A Little Bit Of .......CrayZee!

Edge has just turned 11wks and from the moment I picked him up, he's made me laugh!
He's just so happy and crazy about EVERYTHING!

 All training with Liryk has pretty much gone out the window (which I had an incling it might!) And it's been replaced with me sitting on my butt and watching them all play and just getting up to mischief! Hole's that had once been filled in from Liryk's puppyhood have again become craters, magazines can no longer be safely left on the coffee table :-P And contact equipment has found a new purpose....... satisfying a teething puppy!

All in all he's JUST a sweetheart! We had to do some emergency "crate games" when he first arrived. He was somewhat traumatised by the lack of service on his flight (no movies OR lunch!) and after sitting in his crate for almost 13hrs, SERIOUSLY did not want to EVER go back in there AGAIN! Thankfully he now happily goes in there for meals and will even voluntarily go and sleep in there PHEW!!

I'm so glad he's come to be part of our family...... the next issue at hand is...... how to fit all the dogs in my car!

OMG, OMG, OMG!

Liryk gained her VERY FIRST passes today :-D Three just to make it even MORE exciting! and I'm sooooooooo over the moon I couldn't even wait to make a proper wee movie or put it to music LOL.

Two first places in the agility and a fourth in the jumping.

I'm EXTREMELY proud of how well she did! Some of her Aframes were a little high, but I'm not worried. It must be hard for her to work out her striding when she trains on an ANKC aframe that is lower and the ADAA one is quite a bit higher. I'm sure she'll figure it out though :-)

The only "coulda shouda woulda" moment I've tossed around in my head is her fourth place, where she did a bit of a wide turn. There was only a second between first and fourth and I did have the thought..... ooooh I wonder what would have happened if she hadn't been quite so wide :-P The other bummer is that, that run won't bloody download! DOH!

All of the courses all weekend were just AWESOME to run, it's soooooooooo refreshing to let your young dog blast her way around a course and you as a handler having to run FLAT OUT! It was GREAT!

Epic was a superstar too! Winning a medallion stakes round :-D

Can't wait for next weekend when it'll be Liryk's first ANKC trial :-)

Livin On The Edge

Well I will be soon I'm sure!
But you don't get anywhere in life if you play it safe right?

So the big news is........

There's a new addition coming into the family :-)

I'm having a minor "freak" at the prospect of having two baby dogs 17mths apart in age, but I'm hoping it'll work out just fine. (fingers crossed!!) And I LOVE puppies so that's got to make it easier right? :-)

The bummer is I have to wait a few more weeks before I get to meet him in person, he has a bit of a hike from New Zealand to here. But at least there's no quarantine which is a bonus!

Each week I hang out for photo updates of the 'little hooligan" (as Chelsea his breeder likes to call him!)

He sounds like the perfect trouble maker! Looks like Liryk will get some of her own back LOL

So here he is - "Cliffhanger Livin Ontha Edge"

                                                                   "Edge"  6wks :-)

Isn't he CUTE!!!!

The Baby Dog's Debut :-)

She's 18mths!!!
It doesn't seem like an important milestone for most dog owners, but for an agility dog and her handler it's just like reaching that moment when you're finally old enough to get your licence or be able to drink :-P

And this weekend was that moment when Liryk was finally allowed to play with the big kids :-D

I'm not sure that I had any expectations coming into the weekend, I know I was worried about her d/w performance particularly as she is still high in training on the ADAA equipment (which is longer than the ANKC d/w and so challenges the dogs to extend their stride even more to get the contact). But I think above even that concern I was just really, REALLY excited!! Geez I was even counting the sleeps on Facebook!! LOL

I made a minor boo boo, as my plan had been to just enter the Combined classes. That way she was only jumping one height for the weekend (550 or 22in) but I inadvertently entered her in an Intermediate Jumping class on the first night! Doh!! So she jumped 22in in Agility first up and in the next ring she tackled the 26in height class and like a wee superstar she kept all her bars up!! We had an unfortunate back jump of a bar (something we need to work on!!) but other than that she did AWESOME!

Extremely happy with her running contacts for the weekend, all d/w's and aframes were in :-D  We've come away with things to work on.... like start lines! Liryk back jumping jumps after a wrap, and a certain tunnel suck issue :-P LOL!!!

It's about another month before our next trial (another AADA comp) and can't wait :-D

VALIUM PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

In just three and a half weeks.....................

Liryk will have gone from this adorable, floppy eared puppy, to being old enough to enter her VERY FIRST TRIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Literally 18mths to the day and Friday the 16th Sept will be her introduction to the trialling scene.

ADAA (I'm hoping) should be a nice place for her to start. Being able to do NFC if you want, take toys into the ring and big open course's are extremely appealing :-)

If you're wondering about the "valium", well I'm just soooooooooooooooooooo excited, I think I might need something to calm me down JUST a smidge :-P

From the moment I picked Liryk up as a puppy, she's been a BLAST!!

A couple of months ago I was desperate for her to be old enough ........ and now it's just around the corner, and I'm hoping she has the skills she needs and the confidence, to make the ring an awesome place to be.

I'm still debating about entering her in agility, I'm not sure her dogwalk is solid enough to handle a trial environment yet. But maybe I'll enter and just see how she goes. :-D

But regardless of if she happens to go clear, or does zoomies in the ring, she is such a AWESOME little dog that I'm SOOO lucky to have walking, or should I say pulling me on the end of the lead!