C-Side Agility Show

Well this is an unlucky show for me as we never seem to do well! Today wasn't too bad though. The extra training ive put in the last few weeks really seems to have helped, Although it took Toni to kick my butt and make me sort out Campbells contacts. Ive been really strict and have started working with the clicker to really give him a marker he understands when he gets into the 2o2o position as before i have let him get away with pretty much doing what he wants and have ended up with quite a few missed contacts where we shouldn't have had them. Also i have been really working on his weaves and entries especially on the right and and he was fantastic today and did two sets of right hand weaves and didn't come out early.

In the starters jumping we got 5R for missing the second weave entry, Starters agility went really well but he took a pole down when i told him to go left. I really must work on this more as he keeps taking poles if i say anything before his back legs have cleared the pole. Open agility (grade 1 - 7) was a nice flowing course with not too much handling required and Campbell really went for it and was clear. But we were 10 seconds behind the winning dog and 1 second outside the placings so he really will need to improve his speed if we want to get anywhere this year. Hopefully with the lighter evenings i can get him out more and get his fitness back to the level it was at last summer. Open jumping was going well and all the bits i was worried about were out of the way then Campbell went and did something odd that i didn't expect him to do so i ended up calling him back over a jump and we got E'd!

Chico finally got to have a play too as he was entered in the run for fun class now that hes 16 months. He was a little superstar and really listened right up to the last jump which he ran past! Typical. He is obviously still very much a baby and wasn't going as fast as he does in training and kept checking to make sure he was going the right way but i think he has some good times ahead and he loved every minute of it. I still cant believe i have had him for over a year as it seems like just yesterday i got him.

2008 roundup

Campbell had an amazing 2008, he only started agility training half way through the year so we didn't do many shows but he has managed to go clear or get placed at all but 1 show. This is the dog who had no interest in agility until he was 2 1/2 years old so not bad.... now if only he was fast! Hopefully we will be moving up to grade 2 in the early part of the year and id like to have him at grade 3 by the end of 2009.

He also ran in his first flyball tournament and did really well just very slowly!. Id like to do a bit more flyball with him in 2009 and it would be good to get his flyball dog award by the end of the year. He will never be super fast but we can have fun along the way.

Cia hasn't done much this year as I've really had to try and sort out his 'issues' we are getting somewhere so hopefully in another few year he will be able to take part in more things and maybe start competing in agility. He is flyball mad and we have managed to start competing and we came 2nd and 1st at our first two shows so a great start. His best time in training has been 4.2 seconds but I'm sure he can go sub 4 seconds with a bit more work! I really hope he carries in doing well so i can get him into open in 2009 and get his flyball dog award.

His agility is coming on really well and he can work in a class now but is not ready to work without netting. We may do a few BAA shows next year as they are netted but I'm not going to push him too much as I'm not bothered if he never competes in agility as he was made for flyball.

Chico managed to get two rosettes in 2008 even though hes only a baby... he came 4th in dog most like his owner (don't say anything!!!!) and got a second in a fun 'agility' type thing at a companion dog show. He has started his agility training and is showing promise and i wouldn't be surprised if he wins me out before Campbell does in 2009. He has his first agility show in January so watch this space. He has not really taken to flyball so i am probably not going to bother to carry on his training in 2009, if only there was food at each end of the jumps then you would see him run!

Wimbledon Whizzers Winter Warmer

Well i managed to convince everyone that driving to Wimbledon was not actually that far for a tournament so we finally got to race again. It was the Wimbledon whizzers first tournament and they did a fantastic job. We had one starters team entered and decided to run Barney (X breed), Frazzle (Toller), Salsa (Goldie), Alfie (Staffie), Angel (Staffie) and Cai (Collie). Over the last week or so we have been walking the other dogs with Cai so he can get used to them as he is not great with dogs he doesn't know. This has worked really well and now i can do tight changeovers and don't have to panic about catching him so quickly as he goes over the finish!

They had 3 divisions of open before the starters so we didn't start racing till it was dark but the flood lights and marque worked really well and we were protected even when i started to snow. I did start to panic a bit when i saw that they had just put one small strip of netting round the jumps and NOTHING else!! All our dogs can run really well without netting but i worry about dogs crossing into our lane when Cai is running and panic that i cant catch him in time before he sees that it is open between us and the other teams dogs. I was so worried i nearly pulled him out and swapped him for Campbell who will 'do' flyball but only because i ask nicely and in his own time. Cai is over 2 seconds faster and our best dog by far so decided to be brave and go for it and wow how good was he. He didn't look at the other team once and got followed up the lane by one of our own dogs who then tried to grab the ball out of his mouth and he did nothing. I even started to call him further back from the finish before catching him and he was still perfect. He has come on so much this year and i now feel we could run in open as a team.

The other dogs all did very well Frazzle did the box in competition for the first time and got faster as the day went on. Angel didn't put a foot wrong and didn't drop one ball which has been a problem before and Alfie was really flying but got very overexcited and kept going back for a second ball even if there was another dog on the lane. No one could catch him so i think we will need to teach him to come back to a tuggy so that you get more than one second to grab his harness before he is off again! And Salsa ran in competition for the first time and was really good, she was fast and only messed up on the very last leg when she decided to say hello to the box loader.

We got our best time ever of 21.7 seconds and were only beaten in one race so ended up in a fantastic second place. I have been saying since we started racing as The Power Paws that i wouldn't put us into open tournaments till we can do 22 seconds so it looks like we will be entering open soon. Cant Wait.

Cai, Barney & Alfie

Campbell Tribute

A fantastic video a friend made for me a while ago. I still watch it from time to time and think it really shows how lovely Campbell is. He is a dog in a million and i doubt ill ever have another like him! Enjoy...