Thought I would share the rosettes and lovely trophies from the weekend. I love how the second place trophy is a bit smaller!
On Monday this week we went to Packington Show as well. No clear rounds unfortunately or rosettes to show for our efforts. Some tricky courses and as usual I made small errors in each course. Things I have learnt are
1. Always watch my dog - if I am picking him up from a tunnel turn to look at him so he gets the right side!!
2. Plan the course and then believe that I can get to the point I want ... I always think I am too slow, but often I am ahead of Dylan, so I should believe it is possible.
3. If I want a wait make it happen ... Dylan is quite capable! We had a lovely wait on a tricky course - hard start and he performed beautifully. If it hadn't been for the angles of fences and me rushing we would have had a clear rather than an E!!

On Tuesday I took Dylan to K9 Rehabilitation for his second massage session. Joanne took an hour to work her magic. All muscles are released now and the three days of agility had not done him any harm. I now have a few warm up and cool down exercises to do with Dylan. So glad the hip issue is now resolved. I am lucky that Dylan told me he was hurting before any major damage was done. When we ask them to perform agility we need to remember they are being an athlete ... so proper diet, exercise and building up to the performance you want are important. I can see that massage is so good .... now to book one for me!

I raw feed the dogs and the cats having done loads of research to work our how to balance it all. Today I went shopping to Morrisons and managed to pick up this haul to share between them. I also buy MVM mince, lamb ribs etc, Nurturing by Nature products (I particularly like their chicken and fish mix), Natural Instinct, which I get from our local pet shop - Dovarts, who also stock whole rabbit, which makes a nice change of other bits. Raw feeding the dogs and cats takes a bit of effort, but we have been doing it over a year now. I think it is cheaper than kibble and wet foods, healthier if the balance is right and gives loads of variety for the animals. And yes I do manage to do it while camping!

Here's the Team: From right to left: Tania & Harry; Julia & Lily; Amanda & Twix; Me & Dylan (thanks to Luke for taking the picture after our run)
The team run was my third run of the day (a very hot day as it turned out). Dylan's previous runs were not perfect, particularly the grade 6 agility run which should have turned out better ... handler error as usual though! The first run of the day was jumping and was a good run except I didn't give Dylan enough room to see the weave entry ... I should have fed him round from the tunnel and crossed behind him I think. He did get it in the end though and the rest was very good.

We headed up to the showground for the Nottingham Show on Saturday morning. No run first thing so we had time to set off at a reasonable hour. The night before had been raining heavily and so windy, but Saturday was a beautifully sunny day and eventually very warm. Luke came too and we set up camp. Luke was great and helped video lots of my runs and took some good shots of Dylan too.
First run on Saturday was the Crufts Medium Qualifier. Similar to the jumping win we had a few weeks ago the course had been set with 2 sets of 6 weaves in parallel. Last time I went around the outside, but this time I thought I would go up the middle since the second set should not be visible to Dylan from the angle he comes over the previous jump. This worked really well and in fact the rest of the course ran well except I nearly pulled him off jump 16. No faults for that though as he hopped over from a stand still. We got round well, with 5 faults on the A frame contact, which was my fault as I rushed to the next jump a tad too early.

Next run was a combined grade 6,7 agility run. Having walked the course my worry was the beginning and round to long jump from jump 8 & 9. My start unfortunately happened the way I thought it would, with Dylan heading to the DW from jump 1, touching the DW and then coming to me at the wall. Woops! I realise now that I need to keep my eye on him at all times & teach him to come to my hand! The rest of the course ran really well. so was really pleased with Dylan. Luke managed to video the middle part to the end as he worked out how the camera worked - thank you.

Julia, Tania, Amanda & I make up a medium team. Team photo to come at a later date. Julia runs Lilley a spaniel owned by Anne. Tania runs another spaniel (forgive me Tania as I don't know his name). Amanda runs a poodle (again I don't know his name) and of course I run Dylan the cockapoo. I think we are called the "Rushton No Contacts"
I ran last after Tania and we had to wait behind the line. Dylan was eyeing up the dog walk and it took quite an effort to get him focussed on the first jump. He ran a good round coming in clear. Overall we had no eliminations, but a few faults and some time faults too. We came 5th overall (out of 18 teams) with a time of 195.782 which included 45.782 faults.
The team run was my third run of the day. My day did not start very well at all. The first run was the Crufts Medium Qualifier and whether it was me or Dylan, we did not display any team attributes at all and in fact Dylan decided to run a different course! See below for the course design.
Our next run was a Graded 6, 7 jumping which was very widely spread and had a tight time of 34secs to get round clear.  We had a clear run and I surprised myself in getting to obstacles before Dylan! The best part was sending him to the tunnel (7) and encouraging him with "Right right right" as a command. He did a perfect right to come back over jump 8. Our time was 37.850sec, so time faults for us. We did twiddle a bit at 15, but not sure where else we could have made up the time.
The last run was a CG1-7 agility course which was lots of fun. Dylan was perfect and so was I for a change. Clear round and came in 7th place out of 130ish dogs. Really happy with that.

Saturday 4th May - my first run was the Olympia Qualifier, an agility run. I wasn't sure whether Dylan would concentrate or not. He did and we did a solid clear round, but I knew it was slow. Time was 34.995s. The fastest time was 28.... seconds, so well behind. I was happy with his contacts. I think I gave him the "find feet" command too early on the dog walk, but better to get it that not at all. We probably lost several seconds there.

His weaves are becoming reasonably independent as long as I am running in that straight line. I was able to be ahead of him which made the following fence much easier and I was in the right place. The course was an easy run and there were lots of clears.

The combined 6-7 agility run was good except for my mistake on the fence 8 to 9 pull in, where Dylan back jumped fence 9. Dylan had a great "feet" on the dog walk which was quicker than the earlier run. Fences 16 to 17 I took Dylan round the left wing of 17 making the seesaw tempting, but no problems at all. Some folks took their dogs between 15 & 14 to do 17, but I decided that was too risky for Dylan. It was a fast run despite being E-ed.

The graded jumping run was fabulous, except for me getting in Dylan's way in front of fence 7. Apparently I slipped slightly sideways, Dylan looked up and then at the fence which he proceeded to take out! Otherwise a super run, fast. So useful to be able to be ahead on the weaves, made fence 5 easy.


Dylan's final run, another agility was clearly one run too many, as he decided not to bother and went off sniffing. So other than a good contact on the dog walk the rest was pants and I walked out with a dog who was only interested in sniffing! I suppose the spaniel had to come out sometime!

Sunday 5th May 2013 was an eventful day. It started with a Graded 6/7 jumping which was so hard. The judge told in no uncertain terms that her grade 4/5 large dogs could manage it so we should have no problem ... see left. I knew that it would be a frustrating course for Dylan because I would have to get to places before telling what to do next.
I took him round the back of the weaves rather than through the middle and he nearly went in the tunnel, but a loud "DYLAN" called him back and into the weaves. We also nearly went wrong 17 to 18 as a pull in was needed, Dylan was frustrated and bit me, but at least he had stopped and I could pull him round to 18 and onto the finish!. Not the neatest (some of the grade 7 dogs were amazing), but 1.5seconds faster than any other grade 6 dogs in a time of 40.327s

My next run after a long wait was the Jewlnick Pairs, which I ran with Sian Mapp & Ollie. We were both eliminated, but had fun. My last two runs were right at the end of the day. His agility run wasn't bad with some great pull ins where necessary, but confusion coming off the A frame and into a tunnel placed underneath meant we were eliminated. Dylan's last run, a combined 6-7 agility went pear shaped with him wandering off sniffing. I grabbed his collar and headed to the last jump!

So a fabulous weekend, with some great first runs. Dylan was brilliant and I still need to practice being faster for him and being very clear on instructions so he stays focussed.

Dog Vegas ran an extra show on the last weekend in April 2013. I had booked in not knowing that this would be Dylan's first competition after his four weeks rest due to my worry over his hips. He seemed fit and we were travelling with Rachel & Obi and meeting up with Jo and Paul Harker and their dogs Darcey, Freddie & Jasper.

Rachel and I had decided to run the Jewlwick Pairs qualifier together which was the Saturday. It was also our first show where we were actually competing against each other. I was so excited. It was Rachel's last show at Grade 6 having won out at a previous show into Grade 7 (clever clever!)

It was great fun watching Rachel & Obi, Jo and Darcey and Jo and Freddie complete too. We had a lovely evening at the pub (with the dogs) eating a rather delicious meal. All in all a fab weekend. Glad to be back in the swing it it all.

Dylan was xrayed today and his hips look pretty good actually. The vets decided a specialist opinion would be good and we'll get that next week, but talking with the vet she suggested that it looked basically fine. The pain could have been muscle based or tendon based. The fact that the Rymadil worked so quickly is a good sign. He is home and recovering well from the general anaesthetic and has had some tea.

Yumove tablets I think would be a good idea and vet seemed to think so as well. Proper warming up and cooling down after training and I will learn how to do some basic massage I think to help him.

So I think Dog Vegas at the end of the month will be fine and back to training by then as well.

Thank you to everyone who has been concerned and sent positive thoughts through the ether & by text, fb etc! 

Not good at the moment. Dylan is under investigation for a poorly right hip. Two weeks ago at Dylan's routine annual health check, we told the vet that once or twice when getting up from the sofa he had squealed.  Also jumping into the car after agility training was difficult. The vet checked him all over, but in particular stretched out his right back leg backwards and we created a squeal again of pain.
On reflection I think Dylan has always been reluctant to jump back into the car after agility training, he will often climb carefully. But he has never indicated any pain before. He has never limped, but is careful about playing with Joe - often from the lying down position! I always thought this was sweet.
Anyway the vet prescribed Rimadyl for 7 days (50mg) and rest or lead walks only (absolutely no agility) and careful up the stairs and jumping up. Within 2 hours of taking the first tablet, Dylan seemed back to his usual self. He has been on lead walks only and we have prevented him from being too boisterous indoors too. Actually he has been really good and not minded the lead walks (except when he wants a poo - he would rather walk as far away from me as possible for that lol)
He went back to the vet on Friday and is now booked in for an xray next Friday to see what is going on with his hip. 

Over Easter we went up to York to stay with my Dad. Dylan and Joe managed a whole day walking around York (with a bus ride home)without any issues.

Both dogs enjoyed sleeping on the bed (a real treat as that does not happen at home!). We had a couple of days at the Hare and Hounds Easter Agility Show meeting up with Joanne and Paul with Jasper, Freddie and Darcey (see blog on front page). Dylan did no agility, but I had a go at running Freddie over a couple of courses. However he was too much of a mummy's boy so didn't really want to run with me!

Camping was freezing cold, however we did cook a rather good spag. bol. followed by chocolate cake & custard! I helped scriming all day on Monday while Joanne judged her courses, and that was enough distraction from not having a dog to run. Also Joe had a little go in the ring after we had set up on Sunday evening. He did really well following my instruction and did a fab wait on the line. Here are a few pictures of our time in York and at Hare 'n' Hounds.

Dylan was so naughty today. Not really sure why and will put it down to his handler not being 100% well. My cold is really persisting! 

So the good points are that Dylan is now listening to the "Go find feet" command on the dog walk and doing consistently good (but sometimes slow) contacts. I still need to stay behind him running along the dog walk, but as time goes on I can proof the contact position and should be able to take up a position to tell him to "Go" from. He was quick today and when it went well he was awesome.

The bad points: half way through a 12 weave obstacle he just wandered off for a sniff of something clearly very interesting! I was mortified. I got him going again, but for me the edge was gone, so I really didn't run him good enough. We were on that ring again later for a tricky graded 1-7 jumping, and apart from the fact he just wasn't listening to me from the start, he again went off to find the sniff :-(   I ended up just walking out of the ring and he followed meekly, but if he wasn't going to listen and concentrate then he wasn't going to get to have fun jumping. It was a shame to end the day on that note. In fact he has been a little naughty in training too recently. Clearly running him when I myself don't feel well is detrimental to both of us.

So the other courses were really tricky today. tunnels under contact equipment caused Dylan no end of mistakes. I clearly need to train a better command for "on it". Someone today suggested a raised arm to encourage the dog to look up to the dog walk or A frame. I will start incorporating this in training when there is no other choice and go from there. I think I will also start using different words for A frame a=nd dog walk, so demonstrate the difference. I currently use the same "On it" command. I am not certain that Dylan actually recognises words anyway, but it can do no harm!

This was our first run, which I could have actually had a clear if I had known what I was doing! Note that jump 16 has the label on the edge of the jump. I had not realised that this meant the jump could be jumped either way round. I had planned a pull round from 15 to jump 16 as indicated on the black arrow. But Dylan prefers to jump left after a jump and he went behind me and over the jump (red arrow). If I had pulled him round and finished we would have had a clear. But I re-did the sequence from 14 and got my pull in and then finished ... this being eliminated!
Lesson learnt - ask the judge what things mean!!

Jo Harker invited me to come up to the Hare n Hounds show up North! Well the Easter one actually, which I will go to. So I thought I would try it out beforehand going to the New Year Show at Richmond. Although this is a good 3.5hr drive, it isn't so bad for me as my Dad lives in York. It was a good opportunity to combine a family visit with an agility show.

So we travelled up on relatively clear roads on the Friday 24th Jan, to arrive in York before dark. I decided to take the Bongo just in case we did get snow as it would feel safer than the Fiesta in the snow.

We made ourselves comfortable at my Dad's house in York knowing we would have an early start on Saturday morning for the hour long journey to Richmond.  I also knew that I still wasn't feeling that well after having Flu this week, but was determined to go to the show to try it out and meet up with Jo Harker.

It snowed overnight - a couple of inches. But the roads where fine and we got to Richmond with time to spare. I helped on Jo's ring as she judged, scribing the whole day.  The atmosphere was lovely and I noticed that there was a lot more men competing than in the more Southern shows :-)

Dylan got a bit fed up being in the van all day. He ran well, but my cold prevented me from being very effective. My favourite course was Jo's graded 4-7 agility course (see below). Dylan & I ran it well until I halted at the second set of weaves as I wasn't sure what I should do to then get him to the tunnel. Of course I should have run with him and then lead him to the tunnel. 5 faults only and a good time. Never mind - next time. The other courses were nice too, but with my cold and helping I didn't have time to write them down & now I can't remember them!!

By Sunday the snow had gone. It was still chilly. We had the day to enjoy the show and Dylan got to meet other doodles and not stay in the van all day. The clear round was still out of our grasps as my brain decided multi tasking was not possible. Remembering to talk to Dylan and remember the courses was not possible. I got lost twice! Shame really. This was my favourite agility course which I can remember now, but jump 4 eluded me at the time, so we ended up with 5 faults for a refusal! Dylan did a perfect "feet" and super snake. I didn't layer the fence when running from 10 to 11. The tricky bit was the last tunnel to 18 and then 19. I ran fast, beat Dylan believe it or not and called him over to 18. He jumped that but did twiddle a little as I crossed behind him to the final fence.

I met Chris the lovely organiser of the HnH shows. I also met Pete & Pam Ayling, who are clearly very clever at agility. It is lovely to put faces to names from the Doodle Agility League. Dylan was mistaken for Freddie - they do look so alike. Amazing to think Dylan is medium and Freddie is large! Here's a supper picture that Jo took of the two doods.

We got home in good time on the Sunday. 3.5 hour drive isn't too bad. I had collected my sister's old freezer on the Saturday night and now we have all the space I could need for the raw feeding of both cats and both dogs!