Friday, January 23, 2009

agility + swimming

I had a very good day with the boys yesterday, especially Saturn and Sizzle.

Sing was still weak from the GE (general anesthetic) on Tuesday, I had him hip scored and now awaiting for the results. I gave him a rest on agility and took Saturn to Sing's class. I know Saturn is more than capable to do in Sing's class. He was on form yesterday (my old Saturn is back after a long long time!!!), very fast and the contacts wasn't slow at all. He has his 2o/2o, I must admit I showed him I put the "target" down for him but I have asked Eleanor to make it disappear without him seeing it, I don't know if that works the trick but he didn't creep down the A Frame and he earned a lot of chicken from me. His Dog Walk is never a big issue but I have to say he was fast going down too. His weave entries were great. We had a couple of difficult entries, one from the Tunnel underneath the A Frame to weave, I sent him into the tunnel and stay by the A Frame and told him WEAVE and I was so pleased that he found the entry on his own with no help and finished the weave in speed and didn't miss a pole.

the other weave entry is this one below, into the tunnel, turn right and did the three jumps into the weave. I always have a problem with the flat entry with him but yesterday, everything was perfect, I sent him into the tunnel and turn him right, he took the jump and I stay behind the jump to the weave pole and tell him WEAVE and he was a good boy, he didn't miss the entry or any pole.


After agility, we have nearly 3 hours to kill before the swimming so I took the boys to Oxshott Common for a long walk in the swamp, puddles and MUD. Can you imagine how I would clean up SIX dogs after the walk? Thank God, shelties are easily maintain as long as you are not too fussy. I just wait for them to dry up then brush all the mud off them. I normally wash them but with all the wet weather we are having, washing 6 dogs everyday would be too much, so I have to live with it until the weather drying up.
I always try to swim three dogs when I go to Greyfriars, Sing and Saturn, Skye and Titan took their turn, Skye loves swimming but not Titan, so Skye got to go more. I normally swim them in a separate session, so I am stuck in the pool with them for 1.5 hours as each session is about 25min. Yesterday, for the first time, I booked in Sing and Saturn in the same session as suggested by them, when we arrived, they asked if I want to swim Sizzle together. That gave me a good shocked as I have not try two dogs together let alone three dogs with one that have never swim before!!!
I know Sing has no problem as he will happily jump in to fetch the ball but I am afriad that Saturn will be put off by the very keen Sing and I can't leave Sizzle with the assistant. Anyway, I did swim the three together, Sing and Saturn has no problem, Sing jumps in when you throw the ball and Saturn just jump in anytime even without the throw of the ball, you can see him happily swim round and round the pool and try to fetch something visible, it was very funny but he was so happy! That's my boy!
Yesterday was Sizzle's first official swim, the assistant put a little jacket on him that made him looks so cute. I think I should ask for a yellow or blue jacket next time as they put a little pink/red jacket on him! They think he is a little girlie! Doh! Don't you think he is a handsome boy? Good little or wee Sizzle has no fear of water, the assistant put him on the low platform for him to get used to the water and with my help, we tried to chuck his tiny tennis ball, hopefully we could get him to swim on his own. We maybe a little ambitious but we managed to get him to swim with a little help and towards the end of the session, he actully jump in on his own with no help and nearly swam the whole pool!
I have now booked the whole pool to swim my three shelties together weekly, it feels so different when you have the whole pool to yourself! I tried to take some videos of them but they all came out fuzzy as the outside temperatur is so cold and the pool was well heated, cold+hot=blur! Hopefully when the weather gets warmer, I will get a chance to take some videos or pictures of the little one.
Here are a few from last year:
he loves to dive!

here is my great diver, great swimmer

5 comments:

Diana said...

My dogs hate the water. Well, Miley is a little better about it then Guiness. Guiness will even walk around puddles on the ground. I usually have to use hot dogs to get them to swim. And jump in, forget it. I wished they liked it like your dogs.
Great weave pole entires. Ill have to try them and test Miley's new weave pole skills and see how they hold up. Diana

Arran, Arthur and Mum said...

All that agility stuff looks pretty confusing to us. Mum's gonna have a lot of learning to do when we start going, BOL!
I not sure I would like swimming, but I is getting more used to being in big puddles.
~lickies, Ludo

Anonymous said...

Two water Shelties??? We're horrified!!! We HAAAATTEEE that wet stuff :)

Sara said...

I'm glad to hear that Saturn is getting back to his old self! That is wonderful.

Oreo and Misty have cute little life jackets that they wear when I bring them to the ocean, but they don't like the water as much as your dogs! This summer we are bringing them to a lake. I am hoping they will like the "non salty" water better.

ann said...

Looks like they all had lots of fun Lian.

Ann x