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1st February 2012      Midland Border Collie Championship working Trial

Sketch was entered at the Midland Border Collie Club championship trial for yet another attempt at getting his UDex.

I haven’t been along to this trial for many years as they haven’t seemed to have the right stakes for the dogs that I am working at the time. However I do have fond memories of this trial as I did go along to help at their very first trial an open CD and UD where I helped and actually laid the very first UD track.

TD judge, tracklayer and Square steward looking really cold!

Anyway the trial has come along way since then and has now been running as a championship trial for quite sometime and will host the KCC’s in 2013 in trial manager, ‘Barrie James’, very capable hands.

Anyway the morning was very cold and frosty and this being the third day of freezing weather meant that the ground was quite frozen. Our track was 11.30am and I had hoped that things would start to thaw abit and hopefully the dogs would find it abit easier.

When we arrived to the tracking field I met up with several competitors and was surprised that several people hadn’t managed to do the track. It’s always best to not over focus on previous performances as everyone has a different part of the field and it is amazing how things can be very different.

Anyway we arrived at the track and Sketch seemed his usual eager self pulling me towards the poles wanting to do it. I put on his harness and stood there dumb founded, knowing the first leg went straight, with Sketch wanting to turn left. I waited for him to come back onto the straight leg but he just didn’t seem to pick up anything. After waiting a while and then me physically showing him by pointing to the ground, he still didn’t seem to find any scent.. I continued to walk up the leg and he kept pulling off to the left and reluctantly followed the straight leg. It was at this stage I knew things weren’t going to go too well. Eventually he found the second leg pulled me vigorously down this one and then took another left turn, which didn’t exist, and at this point the judge called us off as we had gone wrong.

So the UD has eluded us once again and what seems so strange is that he is able to do a 3hr old more complicating track and not an half an hour easy one. Well it just goes to show it is more about the conditions rather than how complicating or how old it is.

Clever 'Toi' completing the TD track.

Anyway I went with a friend who was entered in the TD stake, a three hour old, complicating track and her little dog just whizzed around it!

7^th January 2012

First 2012 posting and we are away in Grand Canaries having a dog free 10 days.

However before we left I went along to the’ Barking Mad’ show at Keysoe; Their and my first show of the year.

Both Sketch and Puds ran only one class as the other two were at the end of the day and I had to get back early to pack! Sketch had a graded 3-4 jumping and for this series of shows Sketch unusually remains a grade 3.

It was a good flowing course that just needed some handling as there was a tunnel trap and after doing another 2 jumps the dog did have to go into the tunnel and then go past it the next time and complete the remaining jumps heading for home. He could have been a bit tighter both going and exiting the tunnel but the rest was nice and he came 3^rd.

Puds was her usual mad self and with her exuberance and my lateness with a body cue, she went dashing off in the wrong direction. Fortunately that jump was a long way away and we managed to recover but not fast enough for a prize.

Miss Toffee enjoyed her socializing and we continued to do bits around the practice ring with sits, waits and go’s. She is very responsive when I give her something to do but has started barking at other dogs when there is nothing going on. Ummmmmmm! Some thought needed here. Anyway we were fortunate to bumped in to Alan Score aided with camera, as he was commissioned to take some photos for someone else and he very kindly took this one of Miss Toffee. I thought the way the breeze caught her hair (ears) she looks (and behaved!) like a ‘Top model!’.

Thanks for the photos Alan, much appreciated.

16th December 2011

Zyco, Frayma, Frienzi, Zyma & Trauma

It's always good to hear news from Dot who owns Trauma, Sketch's brother. Trauma, with his friends attends obedience shows during the summer and his progress has been steady in Dot's vey capable hands. Trauma just needs to win one 'C' class now and then he can work Championship C.

Can't wait to book my seat at Crufts 2013 Dot and Trauma!



14th December 2011

Judging – not always an easy task!

I judged the KCGC on behalf of www.orchardsdogtraining.co.uk with 5 dog and handler teams in the silver test and 4 in the gold.

I generally think the tests are good although I don’t think that just passing the individual tests should constitute a pass but how well the dog behaves during the in-between times of the test and how the handler maintains control throughout. So maybe some participants thought my judging was rather harsh but I feel the silver and gold tests should be well earned and it is my responsibility as a judge to put through well behaved dogs.

However, through experience, it is often quite easy to see very early on, which handler/dog teams will pass and which ones will fail. However I do give ample opportunities for all the dogs and handlers to redeem themselves throughout the test.

The 3 silver test passes, all spaniels!

So in the silver test out of 5 attendees we had 3 worthy passes and in the gold out of 4 attendees we only had one. Now interestingly I thought the standard of dogs in the gold was very high and 2 failed owing to ‘rules’ rather than what I would call ‘judges discretion’. All the attendees executed the exercises beautifully and it was on the second to last exercise, the dreaded stays, where we lost 3 teams. Unfortunately 2 of the dogs changed position, from a down to a sit and failed because of this because of this rule. I feel that this is very strict as the dogs didn’t actually break the stay eg. didn’t get up and leg it, but merely change position.

So it seems that judging is all about rules, guidelines and common sense but are the rules and guidelines there for judges who don’t have any common sense!

19th November 2011

A mix bag of the last 2 weeks

After her last agility show back in September I decided to rest Puds for 6 weeks and just give her regular walks. Now this seemed to have been bit of a mistake as she has not just lost alot of body tone but also became lame. I was just about to restrict her activities; back to lead walking again, when I realised that her lack of muscle fitness was partly causing the lameness. Now as regular gym user I do core muscle strength exercises to strengthen a problem in my back. When I stop the muscle strength starts to decline and the pain in my back returns within 2 weeks. So instead of lead walking this time I have decided to Puds on a fitness programme and have bought a ‘walky dog’ for my bike.

At the moment we just do her regular walks but she is trotting rather than doing a mixture of wandering around sniffing or dashing off to chase something. (really bad for lame dogs!) Gradually I will extend this to include some road work, increase the distance and then later on do some jump grids.

Needless to say I have had to cancel her last two trials but I went along to Leamington DTS and Wessex DTS as Sketch was entered. Getting Sketch’s UDex has become quite elusive. Last weekend at Leamington he qualified all the sections and then right at the end he just clipped the last element of the long jump failing the jumping section. Unfortunately the ground was uneven and the last element was lower and he didn’t see it, didn’t extend enough, knocked it over and our hopes for his UDex disappeared once again.

Anyway this weekend we went along to Wessex trial and I had entered Sketch in TD open along with Puds although I didn’t think he was quite ready.

We stopped at Brean again this year, toffee thought it was a great place.

Puds just did some of the control exercises and I withdrew her from the jumps but it was handy to see how the other exercises were coming along though. Next up was Sketch and his performance was rather good. The speak was very straight forward and he managed to splutter out 10 barks, he got 4 and a half marks for this; His heelwork was so much better and again he got 4 and a half and although he looked back twice on the sendaway he did the long redirect in one go and got 7 and a half. He did all the jumps first time and so past this section. So it was now all down to the nosework.

Competitior of to start his round.

Although the track pattern was straight forward, as this was the fourth day of the trial, you could see the faint lines of the previous days tracks which were very distracting for both myself and Sketch. Anyway he worked it out well and completed the track getting two articles. When it came to the search square I can only say that he ran out of puff and although he put in a good effort he only managed to find 2 articles. But at the end of the day, once I had counted up his marks, I was delighted to learn that Sketch had passed and gained his TD Open, clever little fella. Hopefully that elusive UDex not too far away.

7th November 2011

New item added under toffee Diaries.

25th October 2011

This is the third year that I have attended one of Anthony Clarke’s agility training camps and I must say that they are most enjoyable and I always come away with having learned something new.

The day started with handling skills involving obstacle discrimination, the correct positioning of front crosses to create the most direct and fastest line.

Anthony showing the handling for getting the dog to drive around the back of a jump

For the first round Anthony left us to our own devises and after each person had run he then broke the course down into smaller sections and showed us the correct handling for each part. Everyone achieved a better second performance and everyone was successful with the tunnel trap this time around. What I felt was interesting was how Anthony said most people ponder on the bit that they have just done rather than moving along and getting into the right position for the next part. I must say I am very guilty at this! He said that we should give ourselves a mental list and once one bit had been worked to mentally, ‘tick it’ off and move on to the next bit.

The afternoon session was improving weeve performance and handling which I was looking forward to as I am looking at a weeve Winter training programme for both my dogs. Although I don’t dislike training weeves I don’t think I subject my dogs to all the right training as I don’t know what they really need to be confident independence weevers. Because of this I find training weeves frustrating and my training is sometimes fire fighting rather than giving the dog a thorough understanding of the job. Anthony’s key advice for weeve training was point of reward being essential and then later on proofing exercises once the dog knows it’s job in the weeves. So as with previous Anthony Clake training days I have come away with some new ideas and most importantly some new weeve proofing games to play with my dogs.

17th October 2011

It’s not just about the agility

It was Barking Mad’s first indoor winter league show last Saturday and it felt rather strange to be indoors on such a fine and sunny day.

It was great meeting up with some doggy friends who I haven’t seen in a while and to catch up on all the news.

I only ran Sketch in two jumping classes as I had hoped to train his contacts in the practice ring at the end of the day but unfortunately it was packed away when I got there later in the afternoon. In one class Sketch came out of 10^th weeve, naughty chap, and in the other I moved to quickly on the middle jump of the flick flack which caused him to run past it, naughty handler!

However I used the day to do abit of training with Toffee to see how focused she would be amongst other dogs. I started outside and did some little sits and recalls and settles ( her command for lie down nothing is going on right now) she coped with this rather well and so later on I did the same exercises but indoors which was rather crowded at times. Again nothing seemed to bother her. Although she is really good with other dogs interacting with me always wins and she loves to learn. Good little Cocker. We met up with brother ‘Boost’ and they both made a bee line for one another and played around the exercise area again completely ignoring the other dogs.

Managed to get this picture of the brothers and sisters, unfortunately no one could sit still for long enough!

Just heard that Roxy won a G6 agility 2 seconds ahead from the dog in 2nd place; on your way to G7 Roxy!

29th September 2011

My agility targets for 2011 for both Puds and Sketch was to move them up one grade. Puds into Grade 5 and Sketch into Grade 4. I thought both targets were realistic and after their first show, back in March, I still felt quite optimistic.

As the season progressed the usual weeve and slow contacts problems remerged from time to time plus me being faced with situations, on some grade 4 courses, where quick frankly I just didn’t know what to do.

However during the summer both dogs improved and I could see myself and Sketch becoming much more of a team. He was regularly getting clear rounds but the creeping down the dog walk contact was still only achieving a 10^th place.

As mentioned in my last posting about training a dog like Sketch, I decided to leave the Dog Walk well alone knowing that any training (Sketch thinks interfering!) on the dog walk contact would probably only achieve him going even more slowly. So I looked at other ways in which I could get him to go faster. From watching some video footage of his runs I noticed that he likes to chase me and puts in more speed when I am ahead, however there are places on a course where speed isn’t required. So when I walked a course I decided where I must get to myself to slow him and also where to get ahead so he could chase me. I also noticed that once in the weeves he ran faster if again I ran ahead; fortunately he doesn’t think about coming out of them.

So after two 2^nd & 3^rd, the last outdoor KC duly arrived. On the first day he ran really well and got a 2^nd and a 7^th with me getting in his way causing him to run wide and so on the second day I decided to go all out for it which resulted in either missed contacts or ‘E’s. So on the very last day the 1/3 agility course looked quite his cup of tea with lots of bounce jumping circles, a pull through and a very short distance to the weeves which most dogs missed. The three wing wraps didn’t go quite as tightly as I had wished but the rest of the course was tidy enough that he went on to win it.

So he now runs in the same class as his mother who unfortunately didn’t achieve my 2011 target but still managed a 6^th in 4/5 agility and a 12^th in 1/7 agility. Still not quite there with madam Puds, but at least most of the poles stay up, maybe another couple of years!!

19th September 2011

Sketch gaining his WD Open under Judge Sharon Carter.

Went along to SATS open working trial on the Saturday and entered Puds in TD and Sketch in WD.

I haven't done any trials with Sketch since last November when he refused to do the scale jump for the the third time in a row. It was back in July that I decided to go along to a friends field and set up a working trials round and see how he faired. Well to my amazement he worked well and jumped the scale beautifully. As Puds was entered in the TD I thought I would enter him in the WD without any further training since that day in July.

It had crossed my mind that Sketch hates regular training, gets bored and I must admit I get abit despondent with his lack of gusto and we go on a downward spiral together. It dawn on me that perhaps I over train thinking he needs training when in fact he doesn't and therefore decided not to do any further training before SATS this weekend; So going along to this trial was an experiment; and it payed off!

He was abit excitable during the control round and his heelwork was really bad with him paying very little attention to me. However he did a good sendaway and he did all three jumps really well.

So the big lesson learned by me is that once the exercise is learned the way to get more motivation/speed (with some dogs) is to then not to keep training it!

PS And Puds unfortunately was one of the 18 in TD that didn't complete the track. She managed to complete about three quarters of it before making the last bit up!

10th September 2011

Went along to Blenheim agility show held at a show ground near Shrewsbury. I haven't traveled this far for a day agility show before but I had encouraged a friend to enter this show being the first for both dog and handler. I really enjoyed the size of this show, only 5 rings and parking close to the rings which makes me wonder if I want to do the larger ones in the future.

Both dogs had 2 agility classes each and unfortunately 3 of these all came together with a friend standing in the que for one of my runs whilst I had to quickly walk another course. I must admit I don't like this when it happens as I don't do either justice and especially as the starts in both classes were very similar with only subtle differences.  Needless to say I got Puds 'Ed' as I didn't watch enough other dogs to see some of the difficulties other dogs were having.

However Sketch's G3 agility, first of in the morning went well and he got a 3rd place; the wide turns and twiddle at the end proved costly. (see video below)

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And my friend's first attempt at agility? Well it went really well, the dog stayed in the ring and followed Jane's instructions and both had a great time. Think they might have got bitten by the agility bug!

9th September 2011

Won a competition at a local show in a draw. The prize was a professional pet photographer coming along to take pictures of the dogs.

Just love this one of Sketch and of course our new front page. Thank you Jane of www.pandbimages.co.uk

3rd September 2011

New item added under 'Toffee Diaries'

Not much to report on the agility front. At Dordale Sketch was 11th in G3 agility owing to a bad handling error that forced him to go the longer way around a wing grrrr.

Although Puds was clear the two wide runs, in the wrong direction, cost her a place.

16th - 20th August 2011

Went camping for nearly the whole week at 'Dogs in Need' agility week held on the Showground near Ipswich in Suffolk. It was quite a responsibility borrowing my friends nearly brand new caravan, learning all the hitching up, operating things like the fridge, oven, toilet so I decided to take only three dogs and leave the two old girls at home.

The weather was great except on Thursday when it started to rain quite heavy ending the day with wet dogs and towels with nowhere to dry anything out. Fortunately the next day was really hot and I was able to give the caravan a good airing.

The breakaway was good, nice and relaxing with some really good dog walks & bike rides across the heathland.

The heather was really pretty this time of year.

However the agility wasn't very successful for Puds as she decided to develop a weeve problem and she only managed to do one set of weeves successfully. (Always the problem with a week show, no chance to sort any problems out)

Sketch ran well and managed a 5th Grade 3 agility a 14th Grade 3 jumping and was lying 3rd in Grade 3 agility but we decided to head off home rather than discover our final position. His best class was a jumping class where he responded really well to my commands, was really tight around the wings but ran past the last angled jump to collect his ball from the bucket!

I still think the creeping down the Dog Walk is costing him classes most of the time and I have deliberately left things alone to see if there was to be any improvement which unfortunately there hasn't. I am beginning to think again how i might be able to sort out the problem although I shall not start any retraining until after his last show in October.



5th August 2011

Toffee attended her first training day a foundation course for puppies with Anthony Clark.

Anthony always presents a well thought out course which is well structured and informative.

He discussed the merits of 'tuggy' games as apposed to ball chasing and food although he did say that food was the better choice in some training exercises such as 'free shaping'.(Clicker)

We started off with recalls (agility recalls) coming to hand signals and then the dog being rewarded from the other hand with a tug toy. Everyone did two types of recalls the first that involved the handler running away and the second where the handler was static teaching the dog to check it's stride and stop when he gets to the handler rather than dashing past.

Each handler was given a item, Toffee had a small box, and whilst waiting our turn we taught our puppies free shaping exercises to help them be creative as well as learning that failure wasn't a bad thing.

The day ended with 'crate games' based on Susan Garrett's DVD and we were shown how to work through the early training stages. Once taught the benefits of the crate is that it provides a self rewarding place for the dog as well as creating drive going into and out of the crate. It is thought that the crate can be used in a variety of different situations, e.g Dog walks, weeves, where more drive from the dog is needed.

Added new item to Toffee diaries saying how she got on!



13th July 2011

Puds had her three monthly check up with the chiropractor and has pulled a muscle in her back. I had to pull her out of the shows at the weekend and she is on lead walk this week and fortunately we are away, in France, for the next two weekends so hopefully she will be better again for the agility club show.

Sketch and I weren't a team on the Saturday (Bretford) as I wasn't really focused, I even walked one of the courses wrongly! and I pulled him off a jump in the agility because I called him; my fault really.

Anyway we performed better on the Sunday (Chipping Norton) and did a respectable run in the Graded 1-3 agility and came 2nd. I really pushed the 'alpha challenge' class, as we were near the end and I saw some really good runs, but I took my eyes off him and he took a wrong jump and got 'E'd!'

Away for the next two weekends so hopefully come back refreshed for the agility club show.

New item added under 'Toffee diaries'

3th July 2011

'Pretty much a usual agility day really!'

Just when you think things are getting better they usually take a turn backwards again; abit frustrating really. Both Puds and Sketch had one agility and one jumping class each. They were both in the same agility combined 3/4 class which I thought was very straight forward. Sketch's G3 jumping needed some handling and Puds 4/5 jumping seemed very challenging.

So in the clip below you can see I made a mistake, (pulled Sketch off too hard) causing him to miss the jump to the right of the seesaw, Puds knocked a pole (Don't know why! except that in the video I see her ears go up so maybe I gave her a command when she was over the jump) and finally, in the jumping Sketch did his usual 'boy thing' went the wrong way and circled a jump!

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Anyway it was great to meet up with Toffee's two brothers, 'Boost and 'Hank', another older brother as well as a half brother. Quite a family day.

27th June 2011

New item added under 'Toffee Diaries'

19th June 2011

Spent most of the day dodging the showers at Golden Valley agility show yesterday.

I was all set to run the 3/4 agility class with Sketch when this big black cloud loomed and then decided to drop it's contents and like most other people we legged it, abandoning the run to hide under the trees. Fortunately the shower only lasted about 10 mins so we returned to join the queue again. The course was quite challenging with most areas needing to be worked to avoid the traps and a pull through nearing the end. Sketch was really responsive and ran quite a good direct line and although his seesaw is back to normal his Dog walk and A frame descents are still creepy so he came 10th.

I decided to run Puds in the 4/5 agility although it was a very unusual course. The start had both the dog walk and the tunnel side by side and although handlers could shield the Dog walk at the start coming back to do the dogwalk the dogs were faced with either option. Many dogs were eliminated here and as Puds came to this bit I just gave her a directional command to straighten her line and then pointed her towards the dogwalk, which she did beautifully. The dogwalk then led onto a very strange jump sequence consisting of 8 jumps in two circles. I must admit that during the second circle of jumps I got lost and just pointed her to the last two and prayed that this was right! Plenty of growling from Miss Puds! From the 'A' frame there were 6 weeves an angled jump with a tight turn onto the seesaw. Another tunnel followed although you had to take the dog to it as it was angled in a way that the dog couldn't see it. Finally the last jump, after the tunnel needed a directional command as the dogs didn't spot this either. I was amazed that we managed it and Puds ended up in 6th place.

Always helpful to analyse your performance afterwards, looking at areas where we could have improved and I would say that Iwas very hesitant with my commands around the two circle of jumps. Will try to give you information earlier Puds!

17th June 2011

New article under 'Toffee diaries'

Today Toffee met an unfortunate fledging that had flew into the window. Not sure if she is into the gundog stuff!

14th June 2011

Lynda and Pepsy go Grade 4 at Thames at the weekend, in all that pouring rain!!

Go girls!!!

6th June 2011

Half way through the agility season already, can't quite believe it!

Sketch and Puds have been strutting their stuff at both Packington and Hinkley for the last two weekends.

Beatiful venue

I am sticking to 'safe courses' only for Puds and judge whether I will run her or not by the approach onto the 'A' frame and if the course contains loads of bounce jumping. I know missing classes seems a bit waste of money, but to keep Puds sound is the top priority. However the last two shows she has done two classes and gone really well. Before I was walking a course thinking, at which point will she knock a pole or make a mistake so I could take her out, I now realise how negative this was and now I have changed my thinking to 'I think she can do this round. So for the last two weeks she has got both a 7th & 15th in large 3-5 agility classes  even with the very wide turns!

Sketch's turns are really good at the moment but he still does odd unpredictable things! He flew the seesaw last weekend and at Hinckley this week, he decided to creep down it until he found the tilt, very costly in time. He is quite a wimpey dog sometimes!

On a personal note I don't feel quite so overwhelmed by the 3-5 courses so much now and feel more confident that I know how to handle alot of the situations. Also most importantly I am actually sticking to my handling plan and putting it into action rather than just freezing on the spot. However I do tend to take my concentration off both my dog's abit too soon, before they are committed, unfortunely resulting in huge wide turns or at worst, eliminations.

31st May 2011

Just heard that Gill and Roxy came first in both the agility 4-7 and the 4-7 helter skelter.

Well done girls; good luck in Grade 6!

26th May 2011

Just added new installment to Toffee diaries.

24th May 2011

Just returned from Sussex and whilst visiting relatives I also attended a 3 day agility course (Boot Camp) run by Nancy Hudson & Leah Gardner.

The venue was on the grounds of a farm shop which had many acres of open farm land and woodlands to walk around. The weather was perfect all three days and the participants were a great crowd.

Leah showing the correct handling for the wrong end of the tunnel

The days were well organised with 4 sessions comprising of 2 agility and two jumping with two sessions with each trainer. Throughout the three days we did front & rear crosses, 'ketchner turns', obstacle discrimination, improving contact performance and european courses, which initially seemed difficult but all became achievable.

Nancy discussing the turn after the jump

People were slotted into groups according to the dog's grade and this seem to work really well. For me this was just about the right level filling in the bits that I was ready for without be over fazed with information overload.  Leah and Nancy teaching complimented each other with Leah being very motivational whilst Nancy was very technical.

A most enjoyable three days.

15th May 2011

Sketch and Puds were entered at Leamington agility and as the ground was quite ruff I decided to scratch Pud's only agility class.

Sketch had one agility and one jumping class which were both early in the morning. I just loved the agility course which meant some good handling skills, a little bit of obstacle discrimination as well as testing the contacts; particularly the dogwalk.The start began with a jump leading into an angled tunnel with a pull past the 'A' frame into a blast of several jumps and back into the weeves. From the weeves you had to keep the dog from re-entering the tunnel to go up the 'A' frame. A flick flack' followed with a wing wrap arond the third jump onto the seesaw. The dogwalk came next and although there were two jumps ahead you had to turn the dog back to do a jump positioned behind before going on. Sketch ran really well and I was really pleased that at last I am beginning to give him information early enough so he know where to go next. For some reason I have been very tongue tied when it has come to this. His contacts were great and although he lost some time after wanting to dash off after the Dog walk he came back to do the wing wrap before he then did the last two jumps home. Unfortunately I did say to the lead collector that it was OK to leave his lead and 'yes' his ball after the last jump he spotted he ball and ploughed straight through the last jump. Grrrr!

Have added some information on Toffee diaries; she certainly gives me much to write about!

9th May 2011

Have added a new page called 'Toffee dairies'

4th May 2011

A bit late 'blogging' as Toffee is taking much of my spare time and Bee hasn't been to well so things abit hectic at the moment.

Went down to Sussex for last weeks bank holiday and had a two day PD course with Manda and Lee. Since my last visit I had put much work into Puds bite work on the sleeve and was disappointed when at Essex 2000, last March, Puds did her usual three pecks at the sleeve resulting in failure of this part of the test. I must admit I haven't known how next to proceed so it was good to go on their course again for a fresher.

Lee was his usual highly motivational and biteable self and again got the best out of Puds. I really like the motivational games that Manda and Lee have devised both for the bite work and barking in the hide. The way the games  are presented not only helps with generalising the behaviour but also making the dogs feel really confident.

Lee playing the, 'I bet I can make you look away', game using toys.

Success in having a confident PD dog is largely up to the 'criminals', (another person, rather than me) and it is just the handlers responsibility to maintain control inbetween the exercises. It seems that Puds is too self reliant on me rather than taking the initiative, maybe lack of self confidence on her behalf, and therefore lacks commitment in this area. I now have some further ideas what to train and plan to see how these develop before the next course in June.

However Toffee watched the proceedings with great intent. She was also quite feisty when she played with Lee's latest edition 'Meteor' a 9 week GSD who was three times the size of Toffee; not that Toffee knew or cared!

No shows next weekend which will be quite nice to spend some time at home and I am planning to add a new page for Toffee about her training. I am planning to do a mixture of behaviour as well as puppy training and will add an items on an ad hock basis rather than a regular weekly/fortnightly posting.

27th April 2011

Deliberations and new beginnings!

Puds and Sketch were both entered at Easter (Bretford) on the Saturday and then again on Monday.

Sketch ran well, especially after last week!, and I felt that we are were beginning to get it together now. He got a 10th in G3 jumping, slipped the weeves in two other classes ( work in progress) and got 'E' which was a handling error on my behalf.

I just couldn't get it together with Puds in any of her classes and on the Monday evening, although she wasn't lame, I thought she was standing in a funny way. I am really convinced now that 'A' frames are her misfortune and in the past, if she makes a mistake before we get to the 'A' frame, I usually pull her out. Unfortunately in one of the classes the 'A' came early and followed the tunnel and a jump which meant that Puds hit it at great speed. I think this hasn't helped matters so she is back to lead walking again. I now plan to run only certain courses that I consider safe for her.

New Beginnings!

This is 'Cloudtenn In Trouble Again' a Working Cocker Spaniel the latest edition at Woolram. I plan to train her for agility and Gundog work and maybe Working Trials.

She loves to be with me all the time and creates when she isn't. Chewing my foot mat is her favourite past time at the moment; see the evidence in her mouth!!!

16th April 2011

'Warm Wallingford'

The first of the Spring shows at Newbury and I was quite surprised how there didn't seem so many people around this year. I wondered if the ever increasing price of petrol is having an affect on people's pockets and I did hear people mention that they are just doing one day at shows rather than travelling back and forth twice.

It was great to meet up with Roxy and Pepsy though and Roxy is really on good form and she got a 5th in the CJS agility 3-5 and 3rd in 4-7 Jumping. Won't be long before you win out of Grade 5 Roxy!

Roxy & Sketch

Pepsy didn't do any runs as mum Lynda was judging; probably much to Pepsy disgust! Puds didn't run either as she is on 10 days lead walk owing to a recurring injury which fortunately was picked up by the chiropractor early and so I hope she will be out and about again next weekend.

Sketch, well not sure what to say about him really!. His was in one of his moods of not really feeling like agility today although he got a clear round in both the 3-5 CJS agility and came 17th in G3 jumping with a really wide turn, dashing off to the wrong jump, almost resulting in elimination. I can only describe his performance as abit hesitant although in the past I have noticed that he doesn't like hot weather all that much. I don't want to be one of those people who wishes for a cool summer just so my dog runs fast though!

8th/9th April 2011 - End of the trials, start of the agility.

Banbury DTS had it's W/T this weekend and rather than judging or helping I decided to enter and have a go at TD Open with Puds.

We were the first track of the first day which isn't always the best position to be in as the tracklayer is still getting familiar with the pattern and fields and also there wildlife is usually in abundance and then is scared off for the next few days. I had expected a bit of a challenge from the judge' 'Tony Lockyer', someone who expects a high standard both in his judging and also competing with his own dogs. However I thought the pattern was straight forward although the conditions fazed alot of the dogs and it was only the handlers that were experienced that managed to complete the track.

Judge Tony Lockyer with tracklayer Jane Webb.

Puds went of with her usual gusto and after the second leg, a cut back, she had great difficulty locating the 3rd leg. It was only after trying several things to help her I realised she had overshot the corner so we spent, for what seemed for ages, trying to locate the third leg, which we did. She then really got into her stride and then about the 8/9th leg she got stuck again. It was complete team work and my own knowhow that we managed to get through this obviously fouled bit of land. She then completed the rest of the track and I realised we had probably gone over one article and therefore the end article was crucial. She was heading full speed towards the finish not showing any recollection of the article so I decided to pull her back and walk backward up the last leg to search for it myself! I seemed to walk for a long time and couldn't see anything and as Puds thought this behaviour all rather strange, I decided to 'blow the qualification', and let her track on knowing full well that we wouldn't qualify without this last article.  just the way it goes really!

I watched another 2 club members who didn't manage to complete the track and therefore it was becoming apparent that the conditions weren't all that easy. I later learned that out of the 8 dogs entered that day only 2, including Puds, managed to complete the track. So our team work seems to be coming together and I feel confident again for when we get going again in September.

Spring at Suttleworth

Well fantastic weather and happy smiley faces everywhere, sitting in the sunshine watching crazy dogs and drinking coffee!

So what about the agility? Well I can only say that out of 4 classes, 2 for each dog, the contacts were good the weeves were all completed successfully and I was aware of the problems on the courses; so what went wrong?

I can only say that when it came to areas of handling, 'pull throughs', 'wrap arounds' and 'go arounds' I just froze! Although I have been practising all these manoeuvres recently I just don't feel confident to put them into action. My poor dogs either stuttered, took a pole or did something else in desperation not having any feed back or signals from me! At the moment I seem to have got both a mental block and lack of confidence in both my handling and my dogs ability. I really hope I will quickly get over this hang up!

2nd April 2011

Had the opportunity to go along on a Mark & Karen Laker training day.

Sketch was in the 1-3 group with Karen and the session was spent testing our weeve performance whilst putting the handler under pressure. The handler had to concentrate and think about both the jump sequence before and after the weeves which actually made us behave in slightly different ways and resulted in some of the dogs (Including Sketch!) slip or come out of the weeves too early. These simple and effective exercises actually mimicked what would happen at a show and would all contribute to further proofing of the weeves for this environment. Karen also showed us where to reward the weeves, at the point of exit, and said that rewarding later could actually create the problem of the dog leaving the weeves too early. All makes sense when you think about it!

Karen also showed us some ground circling exercises and the correct position of where to reward the dog. Later she explained how she would get the dog to do something and then run back to the handler for the reward. I could see how this simple technique would make the dog want to watch the handler more by becoming more important to the dog.

What was also interesting was how she rewarded very small bits of behaviour and a dog that wasn't really interested in toys was rewarded for just showing some interest and chasing the toy. She would then build up on this behaviour rather than expecting a retrieve to the handler straight away.

I found this to be a most enjoyable and thought provoking day consisting of very simple and effect exercises without anyone being over fazing. I also liked the way Karen explained the logic behind the exercises and what the dogs would be learning, which made alot of sense to me.

Can't wait until the next one!

Karen with her new addition.

25th March 2011 - Border Collie Club of Great Britain.

I do like going along to this combined breed and agility show, partly because it's the first agility outside Kennel Club show and also the weather always seems to be good. The classification was good and Puds had two agility classes and Sketch had one jumping and one agility.

Puds was in first and the 4/5 agility looked tricky but doable. I was a little concerned what to do about getting her through a box which led on to the DW and as I got there she spotted the jump on the left and I should have given her a directional command to straigtened her before I sent her onto the DW. Unfortunately I gave her the wrong command causing her to spin and stutter badly; all my fault really.

Anyway during her second class she slipped the weeves, which was really naughty of her so I took her back and redid them and then left the ring. Good little girly kept all the poles up though.

Sketch knocked a pole in his jumping class and I wasn't really pleased with the rest of his round as he wasn't really concentrating. His second class was agility and I really wanted to see how his contacts were during the hype of a show. At the start, he was getting really wound up by a couple of dogs in the que, so he blasted off unfortunately totally missing the second jump. This actually did me a favour as I thought I would train and focus on his contacts. The DW was OK although still slightly hesitant down the down plank and his 'A' frame was great. Weeves in both classes were good also; so things are looking quite good for the duo at the start of the season; hope they can keep it up!

19th March 2011

Just added some new pictures of Puds (see her own page) taken at a recent Working Trial; many thanks to Emma Baker for taking them.

7th March 2011 My first agility judging appointment - now that was an experience!

I must admit when it came to the night before I was certainly suffering from some 'pre-match' nerves and hardly slept the night before. I think I was anxious about what could go wrong as I feel giving out marks is the easiest bit it's when things happen out of the ordinary and having to make decisions you show your true colours as a judge.

When my able scribe, Joy Costello, and myself arrived we were surprised that the course was up and already being walked. I checked the course as per my course plan and asked Joy to see if angles and jumps were placed in a way they would be safe for the dogs; Joy has a very good eye for this.

We ventured off to grab some coffee and a quick chat with the other judges and then we heard over the tanoy the call for the first 20 competitors; gulp!

Anyway first mistake. Unfortunately I left the number plate close to the weeves and as the first dog came round it went into the first weeve and then came out. Although It appeared to put the dog off  I think the handler pausing caused the dog to refuse. It didn't really matter as the dog had previously knocked a jump but the handler decided to make a thing of it and remarked that she hoped it didn't put her dog off! The handlers reaction was a surprise to me as when I am a competitor at Working Trials, it's the judge which can sometimes be 'bullish' not normally the competitors. The girl and her dog later ran in the finals and needless to say the weeves were fine! Some folk are strange.

I found it rather interesting in the Grade 3-5 agility the amount of dogs that had poor contacts, a product of poor training, and the dogs not really knowing what the handlers wanted. Lots of dogs were either shouted at, bullied or blocked by the handler in order to touch the yellow marker.

On the positive side I saw some excellent dogs run and particularly impressive was the winner of Grade 3-5 agility and the first and second in Grade 1-2 Jumping.

Anyway after watching the finals the best bit was to come; the presentation. I just loved all those happy smiley faces!

27th February 2011

The need for 'proofing'

Went along to a new agility show called 'Bits & Boobs' agility held just south of Coventry. There were 2 rings, one for agility and the other for the jumping classes, which contained courses which were quite tight, including lots of bounce jumping as both areas was quite small.

Sketch's jumping class started with jump, weeves and then a tight turn to the right which I tried to layer and whether this put him off or not, he came out of the weeves. I was very annoyed with myself for carrying on with the rest of the course which he did really well, but how is he supposed to know coming out of the weeves is wrong! I think it was because I wasn't expecting it and needless to say he did the same thing in the second class, so I took him back to the start, redid them and this time he was successful.

Since I had the news about Sketch hurting his back I haven't done much weeve training but had planned to restart again when he got the OK from the chiropractor which has recently happened. As he is one of those dogs that doesn't come out of the weeves in training but does in competition, frustrating isn't it!, I feel the need some weeve 'proof' training. I do like to teach proofing as I think it leads to a better understanding of the exercise, eg. 'stay in the weeves whatever I might do' and 'I bet I can make you come out of the weeves'. Unfortunately, in the past, when I started some proof training, he became abit confused and always fell for the trap and seemed to be disappointed when he got it wrong. So this time around I shall start with some very subtle proofing exercises which hopefully will make him more confident of his job in the weeves. Time will tell!

12th February 2011

An enjoyable day at 'Barking Mad' agility today. It was good to meet up with friends again and the weather turned out really sunny and it was lovely to see some crocus flowering in people's gardens on a nice walk near the venue.

I intially trained Sketch's contacts as it's very useful that this show provides a training area outside; very valuable in my opinon. I did two sessions with Sketch one where he saw me put out the targets and then a second session where he didn't. He did both the 'A' frame and the Dog Walk' really well. Very pleased how it is going at the moment.

Sketch was also entered in 3-5 jumping and 1-7 jumping. I thought he did really well in both although with the serpentine manouver he missed it. I was intially disappointed as I thought he had learned this but someone pointed out that I moved from my postion too quickly. Handler error once again!

Puds was just entered in the 'any size class' class which was abit more of a challenge that the last time and a good test of her directional commands. Anyway besides one really wide turn she did it with her usual gusto and won it. This now means she has qualified for the final which is in March which will be fun as I have my very first agility judging appointment that day.

Video below; thanks again for the filming Becky.

30th January 2011

I have always wanted to attend a Kamal Fernandez training day and whenever I have seen training days available I have always had something else booked so I decided to organise a day myself and invite some other fellow dog trainers. It was good having a mixture of agility, obedience and Working Trials folk as well as a mixture of different breeds with very different personalities.

Kamal interacting with a Schipperke

Kamal started the day by showing us some of his invented dog games like, 'simon says', 'musical chairs', 'eye spy' which indirectly and most importantly showed some of the key elements of dog training eg. 'Are you the most important thing in your dogs life', has the key command been understood and generalised in all situations.

Kamal then did some one to one training concentrating on specific problems which included toy possession, competitor nervousness and even lack of learning styles in individual dogs.

Kamal explaining how to get over those competition nerves!

Kamal seemed to have an abundance of energy and when it came to 4.45pm, everyone was thinking that the day was coming to a close, when Kamal instructed everyone to get their dogs on the floor again for some more training and doggy games.

What I found particularly impressive with Kamal was his persistence to try and sort out a problem and his 'lets try another approach to this problem'. As well as good individual advise, Kamal had a very nice manner with people coupled with a great sense of humour.

I most enjoyable day and I think we might be seeing more of Kamal again in the near future.

25th Janaury 2011.

Today I actually felt like training the dogs again and maybe it because of the feel of Spring weather in the air again. Since coming back from holiday I was too relaxed and couldn't be bothered to go all the way to Wisbech for a PD open trial with Puds; That's the problem with holiday's really.

However it was really cold when we returned and I thought I would start some contact training so I doused the DW with water to clear the frost which quickly turned to ice. So I promptly came back in doors!

I always think that maybe when we have these prolonged cold spells I should just let the dogs 'veg out', but I have always been really bad at resting them and Puds always bugs me for training.

Anyway we ventured up to the agility field today and practised contacts on both the DW and 'A' frame. I have introduced a piece of food for Sketch and at the moment things really seem to be going well with him. His weeves were slow today and I only do one set until I get the all clear from when I see the chiropractor next month. I have also really limited his wing wrap training, again for the same reason which makes progress with this exercise very slow. However full steam ahead with Puds and 'Pull throughs', something I am really bad at and something I want to crack this year.

9th January 2011

Happy new Year!

Abit late I know, but no sooner had we returned from Sussex for the New Year celebrations I was getting things organised for our holiday, starting on the 10th January, and also thinking about my judging appointment at Boston Championship dog show. It was great to have a large entry 174 dogs, making over 200 entries but I also knew this meant a long day. I wasn't wrong there and we finished about 4.45pm.

Sh.Ch Altricia Fancy Free of Tudorhurst - Best of Breed

I do find some elements of judging breed dogs quite difficult. I think it is partly that one has to be critical, in order to sort them out, when in fact they are just dogs and it is us who puts our expectations upon them. However when I judge I do keep to the fore front of my mind that the border collie is supposed to be an athletic dog, that largely runs around all day.

Minkynip Is What - Reserve Best Bitch

When judging, I do tap into my knowledge and experience of seeing dogs competing both in Working Trials and Agility. Although most of the collies in dog sports are more streamline their overall shape should be and is the same as the show dogs. However I do see first hand what specific conformation faults do have upon a dog, sometimes with quite severe consequences.

Glenfound Simply Innocent - Res CC

Also the reference to temperament is difficult to ascertain as some dogs just don't like the show environment. It is sometimes difficult to differentiate between genuine nervousness and dislike of the situation and virtually impossible to assess for workability attributes. However I like others can't resist a good looking dog and I try to strive to combine both attributes which is very hard indeed.

                         Locheil sudden impact

Locheil black tie Affair

However my Best of Breed winner 'Altricia Fancy Free of Tudourhurst' made things really easy for me as she was exceptionally glamorous, without any glaring conformation faults and, through her movement, you could she that she would want to work.

29th December 2010

Winter blues haven't quite set in which makes me think that maybe snow is better than winter wet!

I had booked to go along to 'Cool 100' agility show on the bank holiday Monday and started my journey with intrepidation as snow was forecast in the West and I hoped it wouldn't reach the show held near Warwick. I did have my doubts travelling to the show as I could see snow clouds looming and I didn't want this to be the day when I got stuck!

I arrived and thought the show had been cancelled as I couldn't see any cars. As I approached the arena I could see a few brave/mad souls had decided to give it a go. I parked in an enclosure which one of the helpers said would be the only way out, after the show, as the compressed snow would be too slippery to drive back up the slop where we had just come from. I was also greeted with the news that snow was due at 2pm!!!

Anyway the classes barely started when they were calling to the end which I thought meant a early finish; but as more and more foke drifted in the show didn't end until 3.30pm.

I had entered Sketch in four classes but deciding to take it easy with him so trained the wait and contacts in his 2 agility classes and do one of the jumping class as it looked nice a flowy. The jumping class consisted of a couple of wide circles with some traps. Sketch was full of it (maybe after his 2 weeks of rest) and blasted around really enjoying himself. Anyway the judge came up to me, at the end, and said it was a really good run but unfortunately the timer hadn't worked so could I do it again? I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to but the ring party were so encouraging that I said I would but could I go again straight away. So setting him up on the start line I wondered if he could repeat the performance so putting my feelings to one side we sped off. I think Sketch was probably better this time as he had remembered the course and he came away with the best time and won the class.

Clever little chap! Especially winning this!