Patience...

Due to Kiah's injury a lot of her time recently has been taken up with resting, stretching, massages, on lead walks and generally other than that eating or sleeping, oh and of course her all time favourite which is definitely belly rubs! For the benefit of her health and wellbeing, all agility was postponed (aside from important events or specially pre-booked training sessions) and I must say Kiah has been very patient throughout the whole of her rest/time out, she is a very versatile, adaptable little girly and I am very proud of her :))) as always.

Obviously I have been entertaining her in other ways as she hasn't had agility to play at, she likes doing her basic tricks with her clicker (awesome invention!) such as beg, walk backwards, rolly over, dance on her hind legs, and sad face rubbing her face with her paw. I must train her to do the elephant trick too, haven't done that one yet its very clever. We have the odd play fight too, lots of biting, teeth and growling from me and her, she loves that game and of course I always win ;) hehe. Kiah also has her treat toys filled with tasty bits and pieces for her to think about how to retrieve (16 toys at last count), oh and we also play find the treat and hide it somewhere so she has to hunt it out with her nose, as she is so obsessed with food!

Kiah must miss her agility though, both training and competitions, its not the same as just walkies or brain training, so I'm sure she can't wait to soon get back into it. I just want to start her back up slow and steady to make sure of a full, solid strong muscle recovery, back to 100%. Here are a couple more awesome pictures of Kiah, taken by Candice at the selection day.

This Week's Updates

Another week's holiday has been and gone, very enjoyable with lots of eating, shopping (sssh xmas shopping too), visiting friends and family, even a bit of sport, it just went very quickly, and now unfortunately back to work today and back to reality! Kiah had a quiet ish week last week, having another 7 days of enforced rest by me after her trip to the chiropractor (she loves going and dragged me there as soon as we were out of the car!). I didn't want to push her any more than necessary, and I let her take things at her own pace - which is usually manic but a few minor tweaks in the house meant she was forced to not throw herself about QUITE as much as normal, well as much as a Malinois CAN be restricted! So mainly lead walks for her and lots of stretching and sleeping, I didn't hear many complaints as last week I could join her too! Also I must say thank you to everyone who has enquired about Kiah and wished her well/better, its lovely to know so many people care :) so much.

So on to the weekend which I decided Kiah was fit for (with lots of warming up beforehand) we took a trip to the West Midlands for the BSD WC first selection day, which turned out to be a lovely sunny and surprisingly warm day for October, it was also quite surreal seeing so many Belgians in one place! Kiah and I got to have a short practice on the FCI tyre and the weaves as these are both quite different to the KC versions, but Kiah had no particular problem with either, the weaves she took in her stride (literally haha!) thank you to Candice for taking some excellent pictures, this is Kiah powering through and out of the weaves I love this picture. A little more practice on the tyre would be good just so she understands what is required and doesn't go through the side. Unfortunately we made a bit of a mess of all four runs, the first started well and we did the difficult parts but then mis-communication led to Kiah back jumping, the others were silly mistakes generally by me, apart from one where Kiah was determined to head in the tunnel (under dog walk), though it was me that caused it I am sure.

BIG well dones must go to two special Malinois - Dave and Rusty for an exceptional performance in all four runs, taking the most points for the fourth year running and showing why she really is the best, and also to Jo and Keisha for two awesome clear jumping rounds the first time they have ever gone forward for the selection days too so well done both of you!!

Anyway... overall I was pleased with how we did at the courses, the only disappointment being me - I just dont think that we were working very well together, partly due to Kiah being a bit crazy (more than usual!) due to so much rest and not being able to burn off excess energy, as well as lack of experience generally, and on FCI style courses which is all home work for me. Still, I know most of the errors are my fault and I'm not the type to blame various external factors on why we didn't go clear, I would rather take the positives from it, and work on where and what we can do to improve. And I can see there are SO many positives; firstly that Kiah's injury seems to be a fading memory, her contacts are still really good, turns are getting better, her speed is still awesome, she was picking up good weave entries, and she only knocked a couple of poles over the whole four runs so I am really pleased.

Norfolk Weekend

After two weeks of nothing but rest for Kiah, perfectly sound walking/running, and a clean bill of health after a full check over from the chiropractor, we decided to go to the Norfolk show. So Saturday began well, after a long warm up and play, we had two jumping runs and Kiah was running VERY well, fast as ever, she was a bit keen so we had a couple of poles down and our turns were wide, but it was just lovely to be running her again and of course seeing her enjoy herself.

Then we went to do our agility run indoors which again started ok, but then Kiah lost her footing and slipped badly on the dog walk. She tried her very best to stay on, but unfortunately this ended up with her sideways, hanging on with her front paws while her back legs scrambled about. This all happened very quickly and after a full check over she seemed fine, so we carried on, warmed her down but didn't put her back in the car straight away to try and walk off anything she may have hurt. It was only after I got her out to do her next run that I had started a few minutes of her warm up, and Kiah suddenly held her paw up :(( not good. After a lot of checking over it appeared that it was not her paw, leg or foot and must be her shoulder or under her arm, and I'm almost certain it was caused by the dog walk slip. So poor little Kiah, no more runs for her - though lots of spoiling with her whole bed in her car cage, making sure she was warm enough, massage, cuddles magnet therapy and treats, she seemed a little better after that.

As the B&B was booked for the Saturday evening we thought we would stay and come to the show on Sunday to support our friends, and snap lots of pictures too. Candice and Dave both offered to give up one of their runs each so I got to run Ziggie and Rusty in their jumping courses which was lovely. Both dogs are amazing and so different to Kiah, and though they were brilliant doing exactly what I asked, I managed to get them both E'd but I think they enjoyed it and so did I, it was great fun, so thank you it was a very selfless thing to do and very kind. Kiah seemed a lot LOT better on the Sunday after a good night's sleep which I was pleased about, stretching and putting all her weight on her leg again, but for her own benefit I wasn't going to run her in any of her courses. By Sunday afternoon you wouldn't have even known she had hurt herself, it was nice to see her back to her normal self but still not taking any chances.

So, lots of well dones to others and their super-dogs this weekend for doing brilliantly; two 1st's and a 4th for Dave & Rusty, a well deserved 2nd and 10th for Candice & Ziggie, two 1st's for Lisa & Inca, two places and an ABC qualification for Jo & Keisha, places for Nancy & Niamh, Jason & Stihl, and lots more from people I can't remember, so well done to everyone that did so well :)) !!!

I genuinely believe Kiah was 100% better from her previous minor setback; or I wouldn't have run her, just a very unfortunate thing to happen I guess. This week will be another week of rest, relaxation and immune boosting foods for Kiah (and spoiling cause I am off work on holiday!) and another check up from Kiah's lovely chiropractor who has managed to fit us in. Then next weekend the first BSD WC selection day is taking place, so I am hopeful we will be able to attend, but we will see how Kiah is then, my clever little Malinois.