Late Christmas Eve

My mum and I have not long finished my youngest son Callum's Christmas sack. It's a big, padded sack in Christmassy material, with his name embroidered in green on the front. My eldest Jamie has one too, made for him for his first Christmas. I can't believe that his time last year I was pregnant with Callum, and the year before that with Jamie! He will be 2 years old in a couple of weeks time, and it's hard to believe that all that time has gone by. We can't imagine our lives without our beautiful children and we really do celebrate the fact that our family has been so blessed to have them.

Today I am grateful for my Mum who is such a constant source of love for me and my little family. I couldn't have made Callum's Christmas sack without her, and she is one of the few who understand just how important it is that these small things get done. Happy Christmas everyone!

Training this Saturday

Sue James is going to be manning the fort this Saturday, as I will be venturing down to the Dartmoor agility show in Okehampton. We are entered into 2 classes - Large Agility Graded 5, 6 and 7, and Large Jumping Graded 5, 6, and 7. This will be our first G5 classes as we haven't had another show since September and Ella's G4 win at Gillingham. I'm very happy with her since she's been back from her 3 weeks off, she's working really well and is possibly even faster than she was before! I was in two minds about entering this show, but I feel it will help prepare me for the sort of courses we'll be running next year so it's worth the trip. Just trying to ignore that fact that Hazel and Martin Tait will be picking me up at 6am on Saturday - we must be mad!

It's been a crazy week. My parents have been unwell and as my Dad is a fellow dog walker for people, I've been helping to cover his dogs as well as my own. We've been waiting an operation for Dad for sometime as he has a couple of things that need fixing, and it's had him quite run down. The nasty sickness bug that has been going around our families really knocked him for six this week, and he was taken into hospital yesterday to replace some of those lost fluids with a drip. He feels much better this morning and we're going into visit him a little later on today to find out what the plan is - he was supposed to be having his operation today, but of course that will now have to be delayed.

Today I am grateful for my Dad feeling better and for the good health of all the people and animals I love - it's something that is so easily taken for granted.

Tuffley Show

Now before I read Susan Garrett's most recent dog training blog entry, I probably would have said Tuffley wasn't very positive as shows go. After all, Ella and I only managed 1 clear round the whole weekend and it wasn't placed as I'd taken my time setting her up for a correct weave approach. But Susan reminded me what I love about my training and most importantly, what I love most about my dog.

So here's the review of our Tuffley weekend. She gave me some great rounds - fast, accurate contacts, great responses to directions, and lots of speed and enthusiasm for her job. A pleasure to watch, never mind run! She also gave me some valuable information about her understanding of her weave poles, and has cemented the belief that I need to re-train in order to get the performance that I'm after. Being disappointed in her is not an option, I'm a better dog trainer than that and we will succeed!

With the exception of this evening I haven't done any training with her all week and we have this weekend off as it's our children's Naming Ceremony on Sunday. So I've focused on making the ceremony perfect for them and let Ella and I relax this week. Next Monday we will begin re-training the weaves with the 2x2's with the help of our friends Lel & possibly Martin & Hazel Tait. Any failures we have next week will be positive ones because they will help define the correct response that I want from her in her weave poles.

So today I'm grateful for my beautiful baby boys, my wonderful husband, family & friends, and my two fantastic dogs. Looking forward to Sunday and sharing our joy over our children with all our family & friends too!

Group session at Dervish

Just back from fantastic training session with Ella. Joined Martin Tait's 8.30pm class at his indoor venue in Hinton and was very nervous to be rubbing shoulders with handlers from grades far above me! Apparently it was just what the doctor ordered - I'm proud to say I rose to the challenge and of course my wonderful dog didn't let me down. Especially pleased at how good her 'Wait' was tonight, easily one of the best in the class :-)

What was particularly lovely was tonight I was 'me' rather than Jamie & Callum's mummy. Now don't get me wrong - I adore being their mummy and they are the most gorgeous little boys. It's just I had forgotten how much fun I could have all by myself - it was great to rediscover parts of my personality which had lain dormant for the last couple of years!

Today I'm grateful for my husband for encouraging me to go out to training, Martin for being such a good friend & instructor, and those clever, clever dogs of mine. They've given my dreams wings and freedom to fly as high as I dare :-)