Making the most of the Weather!

I try my best to get Macy outside, I enjoy doing some agility with the dogs and took Macy with me training.  Here she is with Rum who is 12 this year and he was diagnosed with collie collapse about 6 years ago so he doesn't compete any more, he just has a potter about over small jumps.  Ideal for Macy to have a practice with:

 Kite came out for a bit of training too:

It's interesting comparing Kite (as a mini american shepherd) to my usual collie.  She is much more into her food than her toys, my collie will spit food out and choose to play with his tuggy.  We do need to work a lot more with her tuggy work, though to be fair my very first rescue collie was never into a game of tuggy and was lightning fast round a course so I don't think it is the end of the world if they don't tug.  She reminds me a lot of my very first dog (a collie cross german shepherd) as she really values verbal praise and attention/fuss.

She actually had her first media job last week and should be on a tv screen near you soon!  Here she was on set and she was sooooo good! :)

Pedigree Feeding Trial Week 3

Video from Week 3

Pedigree Feeding Trial Week 2

Week 2's Video

Pedigree Feeding Trial Week 1

Week one of our feeding trial, I have been asked to provide regular videos to track our progress.

National Pet Show

Fast Forward Dogs Activity Training were invited to the National Pet Show at the NEC to do some agility displays, Denise kindly invited Sweep and I to take part.  We had a fabulous day, Sweep wasn't bother about all the noise at all, he steadied himself on the carpet surface and wasn't silly.  It was the first time we had tried his running A-frame outside training and it was perfect.

We took Macy along too and she had a great day, the show wasn't as big as I expected, you could probably get round it all in no more than half a day.  She had a great time - brushed a miniature horse, stroked a snake, a chicken, met a huge tortoise and more!

We had also seen these balloons on The Apprentice not long before we attended and we just had to have one!  As Macy was picking her balloon, a photographer from the press took some photos of her (below).  She loves this balloon and it has followed her everywhere since she got home, it will be a sad day when it deflates!

13 Years Young

Cas was rescued at around about 6 months old from Border Collie Trust, she was in a poor way, she was scared of everything and anythings, scared of life!  After a lot of hard work she has turned into a fantastic dog who was one of the first to dance on Britains Got Talent but was told there was no future for dog acts so there was no point in bothering - they changed their tune when they realised the public liked it!  

Here is a video I did a couple of years ago and it really does sum her up completely:


I was worried how she would take to Mark when we met 4 years ago but she loves him and wants to be with him all the time, this is the dog that hated men! We would be lost without her she is such a character and always wants to please.  So Happy February birthday Cas!

Agility Wins

At the UKA agility show yesterday my lovely Rum had four wins and a second! The naughty sheltie also had a win. I won't bore you with the details, if you want to know more go to discodogs.blogspot.com


I have been working hard on the cross trainer this week to increase my fitness and it's paid off!


Here is a video of all but one of the wins:

Petplan Toy Test

Petplan has provided me with these toys as part of their Pet Toy Test review programme. Visit the Petplan UK Facebook page for more information and a chance to win the winning toy!

Tyre 

 This comes in a handy carry bag and easily fits together.  There are two uprights which have a spike in the ground enabling it to stand up, the spikes are a decent length so are quite sturdy.  There are four connectors which the frame sits in, these can also be used as jump cups if you didn't want to have the tyre jump in place.  The corrugated piping then just velcros onto the frame.  

It is a great piece of kit, it can't go very high as the top of the frame is only about waist high, but if you just want to have a go at agility then it is ideal or if you have a competing 'small' dog (ie under 35cm) then it is also fine.  

The frame sits into the jump cups so can't be dislodged however when using the equipment as a jump you can rest the poles on the jump cups enabling them to be easily knocked for safety.








Weaves


These come in a set of 12 (6 orange & 6 blue), they have a long spike on the bottom to enable you to put them in the ground.  The poles themselves are probably about half the width of regular competition weave poles.  They also come with a handy measuring tape which has standard KC competition widths marked on it, this is brilliant as it helps you keep the weaves straight and evenly spaced when putting them in the ground.  You then just take the measuring tape out to use.

All sounds great, however the major flaw which I find with these is the colour of them, I think they need to be white.  My dogs are experienced competition agility dogs and compete at grade 6 (out of 7 grades) and struggled with them.  I am not sure whether it could be due to them being thinner than normal or whether it is due to the colour, I personally think it's colour.  My sheltie seemed to skip the orange ones when they were at the end of the set.  So my solution was to put some white PVC piping over the poles and then then completed them fine every time.  The spikes were long enough to keep the weaves quite sturdy however there were a couple that ended up a little bent.  


I found it useful as you can change the weaves into a V formation or a channel which is great for teaching new dogs to weave and there are full instructions on how to do these on the case for them.  
Tunnel

The tunnel comes flat packed but easily folds back flat as it just collapses and is held closed with velcro.  There are 2 points either end of the rigid tunnel which allow you to peg into place.  There is then an attachment which allows you to attach a floppy chute to the main tunnel, this just attaches around the rigid part as it is elasticated and has veclro attachments.  


However there aren't any points at the end of this 'floppy' section to peg into the ground, therefore it moves around a lot, I ran my sheltie through and she almost got stuck.  I therefore didn't use it further as I felt this could be dangerous especially with a bigger, more powerful dog, I wouldn't run my collie through as he could have broken his neck.  I therefore just used as a rigid tunnel which is quite short, if the 'floppy' section had some peg points at the end it would be perfectly fine.

All in all these are fantastic for anyone wanting to teach their dogs a bit of fun agility, there could be some amends made to the equipment which would make it a lot better.  I would also use some myself for competition practice, I just would add some piping over the weaves and wouldn't use the floppy material attachment to the tunnel.  Therefore my favourite out of the three would be the tyre.  I also reviewed on video - below.

One Last Final

Yesterday at PADS agility Cas & Ember qualified for the TAG Brace Final at TAG Easter Show 2013. I just hope Cas is still fit and active for it as she will be 13! It's nice to have one last final for her and I hope we can compete :)


Brace is a class where one handler runs two dogs - not at the same time! So I ran Cas round the course then I ran ember straight away. You are allowed someone else in the ring to hold one dog while you run the other so Mark did that for me.


Really pleased with the girls :)


Gina

Adams Agility Show

Just a 5th place for my little old white dog in Anysize, clever girl.


Though we did have a really good show and just had little mistakes, for a more in depth review click here.