Agility-Full Weekend

We were at a local show this weekend, it is a shame that this show was only a one day event, as I really like the venue and also despite the forecast, the weather stayed great all day! It was a bit of a shame that our last weekend in Grade 3 didn't go quite as well as we had hoped! Our first run was agility, and with me not handling it right - couldn't possibly do a pull through, and Kiah being totally bonkers - not picking her feet up - it was a bit of a disaster! Our second run which was helter skelter went in the same kind of fashion! The third run was slightly better, though I don't think we were quite on form this week though as I got a bit lost, and I called Kiah to turn right a bit early on a jump making her take a pole. Of course there are positives to every run, and I therefore the things I could take out of Saturday was that I was very pleased with Kiah's start line waits, her contacts and more importantly her weaves. She seems to pick up her entries very well now whereas she used to struggle a bit cause of her speed, and she is a very good independent weaver too. And I am always impressed with her enthusiasm, no one can ever fault her on that, bless her she tries her best!

Today we didn't have much planned, but after reading a friend's facebook status it reminded me that there was an open day on at a local rspca centre so after a nice walk and play this morning, Kiah and I took a trip down there. There was lots to see and do, and we got lots of really nice compliments about how pretty Kiah was so that was lovely too. BUT... more importantly there was a fun agility course, MORE agility, well of course for Kiah's benefit we had to have a go or 4!! Kiah loved it as the jumps were set on a low height so she could go even faster and the course even had 8 weaves in which she got spot on every time! Then we shared an ice cream before we took a trip back home. Kiah is now flat out on my bed, I think I can safely say we both had a great weekend!

Last Week's Holiday

...now seems but a distant memory! I had booked a week off work, there was nothing specific planned, but it seemed to be quite productive. I managed to catch up with some friends, see my mum, go to the cinema and celebrate a birthday, a little bit of shopping, do lots of tidying up and catching up with paperwork around the house, and of course spend lots of time with Kiah.

The weather wasn't as spectacular as the heatwave we had the week before, but though I love the heat (while not at work!) in some ways it was better for Kiah being that bit cooler. It was lovely being able to take her on long walks during the day up in the forest park and golf course that entwines around it, meeting all sorts of people including another Malinois, Kiah wanted to go and say hello (she always recognises her own breed!?) but he was on a lead, I think he was probably a police dog. Kiah even played about in the lake fetching a small stick - as long as the water wasn't too deep - she likes to paddle but can't possibly go all the way in and swim ;)!! The picture was taken after Kiah had just had a game of "mad five minutes in the golf course sand bunkers" she always loves doing that and what sort of owner would I be, to deny such simple pleasures!!

I had no agility over the weekend just gone, but it wasn't so bad to have a weekend off, as I developed a sore throat, and hoping it wouldn't turn into anything worse I stayed in drinking lots of water, and taking some cold and flu remedies to try and ward it off. Touch wood I am feeling ok now, though still taking vitamins and eating lots of fruit and vegetables too! This Saturday coming Kiah and I are at a fairly local agility show, and it is our last weekend in Grade 3 so going to have fun and hoping to maybe get a couple of good rounds as a bonus. Fingers crossed for nice weather too!

Sardine Celebrations!!

My awesome little Kiah has done it again, she has won another Grade 3 agility today, to put her well and truly into Grade 4 now, she's such a clever girl, I can't begin to express how pleased I am and how proud of her I am!!! I seem to have found that the key with me, is to stay calm with Kiah as then she stays calm and we work well together. The course ran nicely, as the start was jump - dog walk I thought I would practice Kiah's wait and recall to the end of the dog walk. Well its a bit scary having a Mally running full pelt at you and trying to stay calm! Anyway the rest of the course ran nicely and we went straight into the lead and stayed there, and I love watching Kiah do her weaves I think they are one of her favourites. I think her other favourite is the sardines in oil that she had in with her food tonight (mmm fish breath) as a special well done dinner!

The rest of the weekend was good too, pleased with a good run the day before and we ended up 5th in the 3-4 combined agility, a nice run by Kiah, good solid contacts, though scrappy time wasting handling by me! I just really made minor errors in other runs though nothing to be overly concerned about just things to practice on at training, and a single pole down today in a good jumping run due to me not giving her enough room when doing the pull through (silly arse), but all good from Kiah bless her. Love this pic of Kiah on the turn in her jumping round, the angle of the turn is mad and how she doesn't skid or slip over I don't know!

I am really pleased that we are getting that bit more consistent (or should I say my handling is more consistent), and though I am ever so pleased with the first place and the lovely rosette and trophy, the best thing at the end of every run we do, clear or not, is seeing little Kiah's happy face at the end of a course looking for her toy to play, yeah go Ky-Pie!

Kiah Goes Grade 4!!!

I can't quite believe it still, but my little star Kiah has won into Grade 4 at the DDTC show this weekend by winning the Grade 3 agility by over a second! I walked the course and thought it was a nice course for the grade, and suited Kiah well, as long as I handled it properly and she picked her feet up over the poles! We had a relatively early running order and as the weather was so lovely (though a bit hot for the dogs) I warmed Kiah up just after lunch time, and we ran about four dogs in from the class starting up.

With me trailing behind her as usual ;) as Kiah powered down the line to hit the tunnel cleanly I thought the course was flowing well, so making sure she definitely hit her 2on2off, I released her fairly promptly from her contacts, something which she always enjoys, she doesn't like to be slowed down! The rest of the course went really well, awesome weaves and a really tight pull round to finish clear!! I do admit that I didn't run the course to win it, Kiah and I are just having fun and enjoying every moment, but I do know that Kiah's natural speed is very fast anyway, and that is the speed she works well - and loves to work at!!

The picture here was taken in the grounds of the park at Newton Heath (taken by Candice) and I just think it is a stunning picture of my beautiful Kiah. As always, I am so proud of all of who and what Kiah is, how hard she works for me, and what she has achieved. I am looking forward to hopefully the many new challenges that Grade 4 will bring us!!!

Newton Heath & The ABC Semi

Last weekend seemed to come and go really quickly, I had been looking forward to the Newton Heath show, mainly because Kiah and I had the ABC Semi Final.

On the Saturday Kiah was running really well, calm, clean jumping even over plastic poles, and two very good agility runs first off, though I decided to drop the jumping run as the course was a bit tricky, and end Saturday on a positive note. Very pleased to end up 6th in the first agility with held contacts as practice for later on. Just a quick note about Sunday though it wasn't as good, a couple of knocked poles and Kiah had a bit of a 'tunnel obsession' moment in a lovely jumping course though funny to watch, and SILLY call by me in a great agility round, causing Kiah to do a lovely 'go round' and back jump, shame I was meant to send her the other side!!

So on to the ABC Semi which took place on Saturday evening, its quite an exciting build up to it as it takes place after all the other rings shut, so there are lots of people sitting around the whole ring watching everyone run. I was quite lucky as my run was to be one from the end so it gave Kiah and I time to chill out, the time it took to go through 63 other dogs helped us both stay calm. Here's a pic of Kiah and I taken during our ABC run. The course was really nice, a good challenge and we had got over what I thought were the more difficult bits, shame a very simple bit of handling cost us. The part I messed up was where Kiah had to go through a curved pipe tunnel, over a wall and onto the see-saw... I should have stood still for a split second longer and let her clear the wall. Silly me went to run off though there was no need, and Kiah just flattened that little too much and took one little top tile (not even a brick!!!) out of the wall.

So this year it was obviously just not meant to be. I have to say that Kiah was working amazingly, the best I have ever seen her. It was also great to see that Kiah's speed is up there with the best as we would have ended up in 3rd place. I am not disappointed one bit with any part of the run, and as always the very best dog came home with me, and always will. There is always going to be another agility run, but there is only one little Kiah!!

More Congratulations at Thames

No sooner had I written the post about the Superstars Dave & Rusty winning their first ticket, there they go again and proving how much of an amazing team they are, by winning their second ticket with an awesome show stopping crowd silencing run at Thames this weekend!! It was great to be able to watch, and lots more congratulations to them this time too, and sooner or later they will get that third ticket to get that exclusive title, so lots of luck for that too!

There were also lots more successes at Thames for a lot of my friends which was lovely to hear about, though shame that Kiah and I (well me really) weren't really in tune that much this weekend. In a couple of the courses I wasn't very happy with some of the angles onto equipment either, not sure why some think this is such a 'challenge' when I think it is border line dangerous for some dogs. I was however (as always) pleased with most of Kiah's runs, her contacts and wait especially, and some of my handling reflected what I had learned at boot camp the week before, though some certainly could have been better. This picture is of Kiah at the last show we were at; taken by Alan Score who is undoubtedly one of the best photographers around, and the most generous too as he emails out all the photos he takes!

It was a little frustrating to have lost a bit of the consistency that we had over the past few weeks, especially with the ABC semi final rocketing up so quickly this weekend. I am definitely ready for it and even more so looking forward to it, and most importantly certainly hoping that my handling doesn't let Kiah down, while she shows how good she really is. All I know is that Kiah has already made me so proud to get this far, I know that we can do it but if we don't then as long as we had fun that's all that matters. At the end of the day, Kiah is amazing, always my number one and I take the best dog home whatever happens!!!

Boot Camp!!!!!!!

It is the day after Kiah and I got back from our Agility Boot Camp that took place this weekend plus Monday, and I can honestly say I have never done so much training, but I have certainly learned a lot, and have never enjoyed myself so much!! To add to that, it was great to meet such a lot of nice (some new) people, great to spend so much time with Kiah and the weather stayed good all weekend too, despite torrential rain over one of the nights, each day was lovely, not too warm, not too cold, and most importantly was dry!

The Boot Camp was run by Leah Gardner and Nancy Hudson at a lovely outdoor venue in Kent, and they really did both work amazingly hard to help us all learn so much in such a short space of time, so I must say a HUGE thank you to them again. We had 5 hours of training per day, split into two sessions and then two again so we got so much done, in agility and jumping courses with both trainers. There wasn't just one thing I would say that I learned specifically, but so many pieces of useful information and techniques and ways of doing things that will help me no end, and I will never ever forget. I love this picture of Kiah, she really is smiling, it was taken while we were practising her see-saw contact and it is just a typical picture of how she looked at the weekend, as she was just enjoying herself so much!!