Having some serious fun!

I don't know if it's possible for me to be enjoying agility any more than I am right now.   Sonic is sound and running well for the first time in, well I have to say years.  He's had moments of soundness of course during that time but to see him powering around the course on the weekend made me realise just how much I've missed him and how long it's been.  I've even noticed a change in him at home.  He's become a lot more social and comes to visit Colin and I during the evening which he hasn't really done for a long time.  He just seems overall happier in himself.  Which of course makes me happy :-)  We still have some handling tweaks to iron out but that will come when we get the feel for each other again.

Then of course we have Cassie my beautiful super charged papillon.  In the last two weeks she has achieved her first two Novice Agility passes.  It feels like things have really clicked with her and her confidence grows with each run.  She is just getting faster and faster.  The look of determination on her face as she charges around the course is priceless.  She has had two runs in the Excellent Jumping class both of which were pretty good and only minor mistakes.  I suspect that some clear runs won't be too far away.  I really can't wait until we have some other 200 height dogs to compete against!  I've entered Cassie in the ADAA trial before the Royal Show.  We are only doing jumping as I'm not ready to put her on different equipment when she is only just getting confident on the ANKC stuff.  I've entered her in Mini for the Combined classes as there is no way I'm running her on 150mm height jumps.  So with a bit of luck we may have some other little dogs to compete against for a change!  Then of course the Royal Show is just around the corner and I can't wait for Cassie to compete in her first one.  I'm sure the crowd will love her.

Here are the video's from the Dogs West Fundraiser trial last weekend.  Thanks to Nikki and Tracey for stepping in and helping with the videoing :-)

Cassie the Jumping Dog

It was a momentous occasion on the weekend when Cassie achieved the last leg of her Jumping Dog title.  Once you've been in the sport for a while and taken multiple dogs through to all their titles there is the tendency to become a little blasé but I have to say the first title is always really exciting.  She had fabulous jumping runs on both days and on Sunday did the second course in 17secs.  This weekend I've moved her up to Excellent Jumping.  So much fun.

Cassie with Jacinta her very proud breeder.

Agility is going OK but we seem to keep having something go wrong each time.  On Saturday she missed a difficult weaver entry which is understandable at her stage of competing.  She then headed straight for the dog walk which she gets masses of reinforcement for.  Then in her first agility run on Sunday she totally avoided the weavers and didn't want to go near them and it was a nice straight entry this time.  The half of the course before the weavers and after the weavers was awesome.  Then in our second run I was expecting her to avoid the weavers again.  When things like that go wrong I figure you just suck it up until you can work on it in training.  Strangely enough she did the weavers perfectly and instead I lost her on a 270 (very unusual to have a 270 in Novice) and by the time I'd straightened her up she got called for a refusal.  No matter of course.  I think the extra time in Novice Agility will be good for her.  Some of those Excellent Agility courses are really hard and I it will be good for her to grow in confidence first.  Needless to say we will be doing reinforcement central for weavers this week! 

Fizzy Bear at 16 months of age.

This weekends trial will also see Sonic's return to the trial ring.  I'm really happy with his progress during the ongoing rehab and I think he is looking extremely fit and healthy right now.  I ran him on a Masters Jumping course at training last week and feedback from those watching is that he looked totally sound and was moving nicely.  He was extremely over excited to be back out doing agility that's for sure.  This week my plan is to run him over some agility equipment at training to see how he goes.  I did some figure eights over 24" jumps tonight and he looked powerful and comfortable.  Fingers crossed we have turned the corner.  No doubt it will be a little messy running him.  I've spent the last two months running novice courses which are generally circles.  Running a masters course is a completely different prospect and I am way out of practice!!  Can't wait to get back in the ring with him.  I've seriously missed doing agility with my lovely boy.