House Stuff and Other Plans

We have been doing lots of domestic type things over the past few weeks, and preparing to a certain extent for winter... as much as hibernation would be nice it doesn't pay the bills!! Sooner or later I think we will probably need to replace some or if not all of the windows as some are a bit draughty, but first things first... Alex kindly insulated our loft, and we are having the cavities completely insulated as well, it made a huge difference to the old place, plus there seems to be government grants available at the moment - it cost us £20 to do the loft so I would definitely recommend it.

We have also had our shiny, new, lovely leather bed with the new orthopaedic mattress delivered, and it is sooooo comfortable, I mean it is a world away from sleeping on the mattress on the floor anyway, but from my point of view the softer the better, even though we went for medium-firm as its better for (mainly) Alex's back. I just love the new bed though, and it seems that Kiah likes it too, she loves evening time - or prefers the morning at silly o clock after I've got up - snuggles with daddy.

Otherwise we have been continuing with our training over the last few weeks, even Davy has been on a couple of training days and he and Alex are both coming on fantastically well!! Davy loves his contacts, is very nearly on full height jumps, getting the hang of his channel weaves - and they are both successfully putting sequences of all the equipment together, so next season may be a good one!!

For Kiah and I, it doesn't do either of us any good to give up completely over winter, firstly as it blows her brain if we 'suddenly' come back to it, and secondly as I think their stamina falters. However we certainly don't go all out or push it, just like to keep her active, and she is very much more than just a dog - they are athletes at the end of the day. However, there is plenty of time for R&R, playtime (see picture!) and spoiling too of course, the most important thing to be able to come back afresh. To be honest I do think that the autumn/winter is very much about reviewing what we've done, learning and only then, starting to plan for the following year, so that's what we're going to do, and we have a couple of training days coming up to help us learn.

Lucky Norfolk

A very enjoyable show as normal, and even some incredible temperatures, it was some how quite strange to be able to walk around in October and not have to have a jumper on. On the Saturday evening we stayed in a B&B as usual (different to last year as silly me left it til the last minute as normal!!) and it was very pleasant with a HUGE bathroom, plus its so nice to be able to take the dogs in, as we know how well behaved they are.

I write lucky but there was some unfortunate moments in our agility runs - we seem to still be struggling to go clear but as much as it is SO frustrating at the time, looking back there were some excellent things to take away - especially in our first run the ABC. It was quite a nice course but had no weaves, which was a little odd, even though I didn't actually notice until someone pointed it out!! Kiah was listening intently to me, and was running awesome, however such a shame that three jumps from the end she flattened and sent the jump and wing flying. I was very pleased with that run from her though. We did also have a clear round in the gamblers class but it was a little messy! It was inbetween this and our final run of the day that we had a bit of a meltdown, and Kiah getting angry when we go wrong doesn't help!

However sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees and just need a bit of a talking to and a shake-up, and a few friends really helped me see sense that it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. And in fact our final run of the day in G6 jumping was far far better and I had a more positive frame of mind which I must keep too. We had go rounds, steadies, go ons, pull ins and an awesome weave entry by Kiah, no angry-eyes and not one pole down!! So though I made us go slightly wrong and caused two refusals, it really was a good round overall.

So I say lucky... Alex decided to buy me £5 worth of tickets in the raffle at Norfolk, and without any further thought to it, until we happened to be sitting in the sun with the dogs chilling while having lunch and started to hear the numbers being announced over the tannoy. Alex went off to check and a good job we did, as we had won the first prize, a brand new set of new regulation size weaves, fab!!! They just about fitted in the car on the way back thankfully, and are now safely up in the garden, and are being used lots, for Kiah to practice her entries and most especially Davy who is really starting to get the hang of his channels, they are really quite close together now!!

Also, I didnt get a chance to post on the day as we were at the actual Norfolk show, but Davy had his 3rd birthday while we were there - on the 1st October, so though he got a special dinner, shared human breakfast and extra biscuits, I just thought that I would say belated happy birthday to him on here too, so happy birthday Davy boy... such a good lad.