Chill Out Day

As Supa Dogs was cancelled due to flooding from Monday onwards, Kiah and I didn't have the show on Tuesday, but we didn't mind as I had the day off work anyway, and we had a lovely day with Lisa and her dogs which are all Kiah's pals.

The sky was overcast but not threatening, and it was a nice cool day so we took all 7 (yes 7 - 6 BSD's and a GSD!) dogs up to local woods and fields where they all great fun running around, drinking from fresh rainwater puddles, and playing chase!

Kiah looks a bit scrawny at the moment as she has no under coat (it's her go-faster coat for agility she tells me) and she got a bit wet jumping like a gazelle through the long grass - but I really like this picture of her, taken while we were out on the walk.

Bank Holiday Brilliance!

My long weekend (Sat-Mon including the bank holiday) has been absolutely amazing, so I thought I would tell you about it all! Turned up at the show on Saturday morning, ready for the week long Supa Dogs show - even though I was only competing on the Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday, back to work on Wednesday. Long story about missing Monday, but there was an ABC Qualifier at a different show that day, so Lisa and I travelled to that show instead.

Saturday's weather was lovely, nicely sunny and warm but not too hot. Well it seems that Kiah was not content with just winning one agility class last week, and our very first run of the day she ran cleanly, and in a very fast time, and won the G1 agility!! I unfortunately messed up both the jumping rounds, they were just too simple and fast, and my handling left a little to be desired - but still very pleased with Kiah as she kept all the poles up!

Sunday's weather started grim, raining all through the night, but by about 11am ish it was again sunny and got very hot, I even got a bit sun burned which I didn't expect, as it didn't seem hot enough! It was a bit of a 're-run' from the day before which was great! Our first run of the day was agility, a bit of a twisty turny course so I was a little unsure how Kiah would run, and she was brill, again a nice clean tidy (by Kiah) un-frantic (by me) performance, we went on to win this one too! Kiah's treat as promised by me on both days was an ice cream, I have attached the picture of her taken at the show, enjoying her celebratory prize!

In the evening we went back to Lisa's house ready to leave early on Monday morning for the other show. Monday's weather was also evil, rainy and windy and especially so on the motorway on the way up to Packington. It seemed to dry out the roads though, and the showground wasn't too bad either it seemed to have held up. Our first round was jumping, and thanks to me getting lost on the course three jumps from home, we got E'd, not a good start to the day! Second run was G1-2 agility, I thought in this round I would train my contacts, in preparation for the ABC run that was coming up in the afternoon, and we still ended up 2nd! Didn't do a very good job of the ABC in the end, the course wasn't too bad, and Kiah did go clear, but was a bit messy.

So I came home with two beautiful trophies (Packington mislaid mine but they are sending it) the two from Sat/Sun are resin sculptures, one of a tyre, and the other of a see-saw, I believe the Packington one is a silver cup, all will take pride of place in Kiah's little trophy cabinet!! I am always proud of Kiah, however she does at agility as she always gives it 110% even if I don't sometimes when I should, but even more so over the last few days. I am just so pleased with her consistency and speed, and the fact we are really working as a team. I am really looking forward to Grade 2, onwards and upwards!!

Goodbye Grade One!!

I've just realised how long it's been since I updated my blog... whoops! Anyway, as the title suggests, yesterday's agility show was an amazing success. We were at the BATS show in Luton and fortunately despite an awful forecast, our runs were finished by lunch time and it was only then that it started to rain. Obviously someone shining down on us yesterday!

Anyway, in mine and Kiah's second run of the day; which was agility, Kiah ran really well, brilliant contacts, and went clear too! Fortunately as I was a late running order (208 of 223) I didnt have long to wait until I found out that I had won the class!! My nerves wouldn't have taken it. The class was combined Grade 1s and 2s - it was our first win, and only third ever clear round, taking us out of Grade One forever and into Grade 2!!!

There were a few of my friends watching the round which was great anyway, and two with cameras - thank you Lisa, and Alan, which was great too as its so rare that you get pictures of the round that you do well in! The picture I have attached is one of the ones taken by Alan, only because they are slightly more close up and they don't have me in them! Just also wanted to say thank you also to all of my friends and instructors who have taught me and Kiah, believed in us, and congratulated me on my win, it means a lot to me :)

Also to add to our success, the class we won was an 'Agility Club Starters Challenge' course too, so she qualified for this year's finals in July to be held at Newbury- our first final!! Kiah had an extra special celebratory dinner last night; a whole can of sardines added to her food!! She really did deserve it, my little clever beautiful Mally (as ever) did me extremely proud this weekend!

Success and Sunburn!

This weekend we were at an agility show in Newbury, Berkshire, run by the WBSDS (working belgian shepherd dog society) so lots of Belgians there all turning out to support the club - its nice to see so many. Also, apart from a 5 minute rain shower on Sunday where we managed to hide in one of the score tents and stayed dry, the weather was excellent, managed to get a bit sun burned on my shoulders and face, it was a bit windy, apparently it always is at Newbury, but it was warm and sunny and dry, so very pleased about that.

While I remember, have a nosey around the blogs that I have put on here under Friends Pages, all of them are to do with dogs (which probably isnt much of a surprise), most of them are to do with agility (ooh shock horror lol!), lots of them are Belgian pages (biased of course but there are others too), and I've added some new links recently too.

We had eight runs over the weekend, seven of which were rubbish, mainly thanks to me as usual, a couple of E's and poles down in others. But to overshadow those results, our very first run of the day on Saturday morning we went clear in! It was a Combined Grades 1-2 Jumping class, Kiah and I ran it it in 22.50 seconds and ended up with 2nd place and Best BSD of the class, so two lovely rosettes and a great trophy too. The picture shows Kiah with her trophy, Best BSD rosette on the left and 2nd place rosette on the right. I really have noticed how much Kiah has improved and matured even just over the last couple of months, still as mad and fast as ever, but I wouldn't change her for anything, I am SO proud of her!

Blog update - and Kiah's claim to fame

Just thought I would update you all with my news... well there isnt much, but I needed an excuse to put a picture on, so thought I should update at the same time! We had an agility show on Saturday, Kiah was her usual brilliant self, a few poles down but it was plastic equipment rather than wooden, so that didn't help, one agility class she was absolutely FABBO in, though I messed her up right near the end of the course. She is resting now till the weekend as she seems to have a bit of a limp on one of her front paws, so we will see how that goes and depending on how she is we may have to miss the show (boo hoo!) but I'm not going to take any chances with her. So keep everything crossed for the show coming up this weekend!

Anyway, back to the picture! Kiah and her brother and one of her sisters were invited to go to a photo shoot to be in a magazine - very exciting! The photos were taken by a guy called Tim Rose at MDP - a professional photography studio in Slough, on the 29/03/06 so Kiah was only 3 months and 1 week old - she was ever so well behaved. We were given copies of the photos on a disc to take home which was lovely. The pic I have attached was the one that was used in the June 2006 edition of 'Dogs Today' magazine - if you have it, she is on page 93 bottom left! It is only a small head shot, but she still had her 5 minutes of fame!

2 years ago today!

I was taking some pictures of Kiah this morning on our walk (a bit squishy underfoot to say the least though at least the sun was out) and I just happened to be having a look through some old photos of her as a puppy this evening too. I noticed the dates on some of the pictures and spookily some of them were taken EXACTLY 2 years ago today so she would have been about 4 months old in the puppy shot and obviously now she is 2 years and 4 months. Doesn't time fly when you are having fun with a Malinois! The lighting in the two shots are a bit different - but I have cropped one of the pictures to match the head shots I was taking today so you can all see how much (or little!) you think she has changed! Still beautiful as ever of course - but I am biased!

Our Weekend - and the SNOW!

Well we have had an extremely busy weekend - starting from getting up at 2am on Saturday morning, to getting back at about 8.30pm this evening! Kiah and I had an agility show all day on Saturday, we didnt get any clear rounds but again she was running fabulously - I must remember not to say 'go on' too much to her other wise I just make her go even faster!

Today we had a breed show where Kiah came 3rd out of 4 dogs in her class, looking beautiful as ever, though I think a little tired from travelling in between the agility show and this one. The big surprise though was the snow - I haven't seen 'proper' snow in years and this was at least 4-5 inches deep! So exciting - I think maybe more for me than the dogs! It is so difficult to get a good picture of her because of her beatiful - but dark - coat! ANyway this picture is of Kiah having a quick photo session after playing in the snow before charging around again!

I took lots of photos over the weekend of the dogs in the snow, agility, breed showing, which was great fun too - and everyone I said I would send photos to I promise I will do tomorrow!