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
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
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
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
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
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!!
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!!
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