Friday, June 18, 2010

agility and football

I don't know where all these times go ... I seems to struggle to catch up with my blog! I am always busy with small little things ... 

The past week seems to flash by in blur. I was worried about my caravan. I found this company on the Internet and have the guy came to the house to look at the "damage" and give me a quote. I was rather happy with the price and for some reason, I trusted him so much and let him tow away my caravan! Is only after I spoke to others, they said: how come you trust this guy to let him tow away your caravan? Then, it hit me! I started to worry about my caravan and started ringing this guy. Well, for some reason, he didn't pick up the call, that got me worried even more. I rang the office and they didn't know anything about it. I nearly fainted! ... anyway, I got to talk this guy at last and arranged to pick up the caravan on my way back from Thames on Sunday. Then, Sunday morning, he rang me to say he is unable to access to his workshop, the industrial park has a big security gate, so I have to wait until Monday.

To cut the story short. I've got my caravan back on Monday. I am very happy with his work on the bodywork which I had damaged. It looks like nothing has happened to the caravan before, a very good job indeed. I also have the caravan service at the same time but I am not too happy with the mess they left inside my caravan. I left the floor mat to cover the original carpet but there is a dirty big foot print on the mat and the fridge door fell off. I can only guess the caravan was tow in a high speed as I found the nut from the fridge door on the carpet!
I had a silly feeling that there is something not right about the caravan but not until I have tested it, so I cannot tell. We were supposed to take the caravan to Axstane today but Colin wanted to watch England playing football. We have no TV in our caravan, the best solution is to stay at home and travel each day. He did suggested we go to the pub to watch it but I do not want to leave the dogs in the caravan for that length of time we are in the pub! So, we have to wait for another week to test the caravan is function properly.

Other than the caravan problem, our garden needs some work done. The weeds are growing so quick and the lawn needs mowing every week! Arrrggghhh ... If I am not walking the dogs, I am in the garden doing little jobs; if I am not at training, I am in the garden mowing the lawn! I wanted a big garden but I hate a big garden too!

I cannot believe I have no time to read blogs, update my blog ... where all the times gone?

I have entered Thames on both days but only managed to go on Sunday. I finished all my runs with Sizzle by 9:30am! I didn't run Sing because he is not looking too good, so he is on the rest again. We stayed to watch the Medium and Small Championship. It was relaxing and good fun. Matt & Brax were in the Small Champ, they were awesome. They did a lovely fast round in the Final and got their 1st Reserved Ticket! WOW! Such fantastic news! Huge Congratulations to them! You can read all about it on their blog.

Roger set up a nice Comb 1-7 KC Olympia course, I cannot believe I once again messed up the pull through! Arrrrggghhh ... WHEN am I going to learn this pull through? I am getting very frustrated with myself. I know it is all my body language to send the wrong signal to poor Sizzle.

Then, we ran in the G6,7 Agility. It was a handling tricky course. Not many dogs go clear in that course. There are a couple of kinda pull through the gaps in the course, after my failure in the pull through in the KC Olympia, I haven't got much hope doing this course but I keep reminding myself, treat every run like you are going to win it. This is the only way I motivate myself. Sizzle ran beautifully, I knew I cannot push him to go fast due to the traps. Other than the two "pull through" gaps, I was also worried about the jump after DW. There is the tunnel right in front of the DW, that is Sizzle's favourite! I do not want to call him off too early just in case he missed his contact but he was a good boy that morning, he listened and he responded well. And boy! His See-Saw was good too. There is only one slight mistake, when he came out from the green tunnel, I push him too far/too much that he needed to collect himself to find the weave entry, Bless him! BAD mummy. On the good side, I am so please to know he understands the weave entry!

Then, I did badly in the Jumping with Saturn and Sizzle. For some reason, that morning, every courses we ran, got at least a pull through.  With an awkward start, I cannot position myself in the right place to send the dog but Saturn pick up the first tunnel (red) well but I was so far behind that my body sent him the wrong jump. Poor Saturn has a crash into the spread! With Sizzle, I was lucky that I managed to push him into the red tunnel and didn't get a refusal for that but we had a little miscommunication on the black tunnel! I was pleased with the two boys on the weave to the jump part. I know I need to learn the pull through to be able to get them to jump the last jump the correct way!

here is the video:

I have been practicing some weave entries with the boys this week, I picked up this Wild Weavers from Bud Houston's blog. Both Saturn and Sizzle did really well the first time I tried it, then I moved the two jumps in the middle to make it a little difficult. Saturn is a good weaver and he has no problem but Sizzle struggled. To my surprised he was good at the flat entry on the 90degree but not the on the other side that he has to wrap around the first weave pole. Then, after I got him to wrap around the first pole, he now messed up the flat entry!! Boooooooooo ...

Right, more football tonight, hopefully England will do better this time!




3 comments:

Diana said...

We worked on pull thurs at the camp I just attended. When I watched the video, I kept stepping back toward the jump my dog just took when trying to pull them thur. This actually opens your shoulders and cue the next jump ( if jumps are at a 180) . You need to step straight back , more perpendicualar to the jumps. Its very hard to do. You just want to step back toward the jumps. Maybe you should video tape yourself to see what you are doing. I really thought I was doing it right but when I watched the tape I wasnt. LOL Diana

Sara said...

Great runs you had with Sizzle and Saturn. And your caravan looks great!

Sorry to hear about Sing. I hope he's able to do agility again soon.

Vonnie said...

Time just seems to be flying past just now! Hope your having a more relaxed time with the boys!