Everything is looking good

Well ive made some changes and have decided to just train on my own for a while rather than attending an agility club. I do like the dogs to get experience working around other dogs but for the time being we are happier just doing our own thing.

I have finally decided its time to start training Roxy for agility. Ive left it far longer then i ever meant too but she matured very slowly mentally so i just never felt the time was right till now. Also i already have 2 good competing dogs and one who can do the odd run when in the mood so I'm in no rush for anymore right now. Im just working on straight lines, wing wraps , go ons and lefts and rights. She is so sharp and picks up things so quickly so i really have to make an effort to show her the right way first time as any errors i make she remembers and then works the same way next time. Thankfully we really seem to be in tune with each other which is a surprise to me as Ive never really bonded with a bitch in the same way in the past and would normally always choose a dog out of a mixed litter. She also loves what we have done so far and screams in the van if i don't get her out first to train. So far things are looking very promising and she doesn't seem to have the same long out of control stride Cai has, so is much neater and tighter.

The others are all showing some improvement too. Cai's weaves are starting to look quite good and he is now managing to slow to make the entry 90% of the time. Ive also being doing a lot of work on making his turns tighter and we may be getting somewhere. Cant wait to get out and do a few shows now to see where we are at.

Maidstone Flyball Tournament

What a day! we made Power Paws history by running 3 teams in open compertition for the first time. Im very lucky to have such a lovely bunch of people and dogs to train and i always feel so proud of them regardless of how they do as the dogs always do their best and never let us down.

First up we had our brand new dogs running under the 'Power Paws Triers' name for the first time. We knew they probably wouldnt get placed highly as two dogs were at thier first ever show not even having done starters. One of them has only been training with us about 3 months and only turned 18 months 2 days ago. The other has been training with us for about 18 months but was terrified of the box until a few weeks ago. The other two running were Meg and Skye with Maddie as reserve.

They put in a good performance but just coudnt match the times of the other teams in the division and finished 5th. But they all ran well and gained thier first ever flyball points so no one went away disaopinted.

Next up we had 'Power Paws Flyers' consisting on Poppy, Barney, Storm and Campbell. We were feeling positive after some good training sessions over the winter. We had declared faster as our seed time was 23.64 seconds which we knew we would beat even though we were running the same dogs and over 14" as our height dog had moved down to help the Triers. Apart from loosing our first race we won all the rest to finish 2nd gaining a new best time ever of 21.22 seconds.

Last up were the 'Power Paws'. We had gained a new dog Harry over the winter from another team and he fitted in really well with Jess, Alfie and Charlie. Again we won all our races except one to finish 2nd with a new fastest time ever of 20.18 seconds. Im hoping we can sort our changes and starts out and go sub 20 at the next tournament as we are so close now.

Quite a few dogs got certificates today which was a nice end to the day Alfie got his Flyball Dog, Jess got her Flyball Dog, Ben got his Flyball Dog and Barney got his FD Intermediate. All in all a great day spent with lots of great people and dogs.