Bank Holiday weekend

The perfect bank holiday weekend! Sunny yet cool! I heard it was pretty hot and humid back in New York; sorry I am not there! hahaha

Two days of agility (Friday and Sunday) and two days of long pub walks with the dogs. Perfect!

Friday was Shuttleworth which involved a long drive up for one day. But I think it was worse for my pairs partner who had to get up at 3 am to get to the show! So I won't whinge too much at having to get up at 5:30am. Basically I went just to see if we could get another placing in Mini/Mixi pairs. And we did! I am not sure what we placed as I left to get home before the prize givings but hopefully it was good enough to give us enough points to go thru to Crufts in the pairs. I like partnering with Dave as he is so mellow; Like when I partner with Lisa I feel no pressure other than my own! Hex had a good Eukaneuba Challenge run and, again, hopefully we are thru to Crufts for that also. I did not push any of her runs this weekend and was glad about that. This weekend was my time to work with Hex on her contacts again making sure that she doesn't think running contacts are all the rage. She was a good girl on both days; running down fast, stopping really solid and holding her position. Yeah!

On Saturday Dennis and I picked a walk from a book and took Hex and Hob-b (the evil and the good) on the walk. It is so interesting to take different combinations of dogs out as they act differently than when they are all together. Hex and Hob-b together are pretty mellow and there is no barking (really NO barking!). We walked fairly local starting off at a Pub called The Fountain hoping to get back in time for lunch. The walk was only 3 miles but went along a river, thru some cow herds and past a gorgeous house (that dennis would buy for me if he could afford it!). We did get lost twice but not for too long. The pub has a nice outdoor garden so the dogs could chill out with us and eat chips. Spoiled bastards!

Sunday was the local Bridgehouse show. Again, training was the main focus of the day for both Hex and Zen! It was nice to go to a show that is only 20 minutes away! Dennis came and enjoyed taking photos for a few hours.

Monday we went on a nice walk with Tim and Marion. This time we brought Hex and Pax (or Pex as Dennis likes to call this combo). Since Tim and Marion will be watching Pax for us when we are in Norway we thought we should bring her to their house and let her spend sometime with them. I think Pax will be spoiled for that week and she likes both Tim and Marion.

Tim picks some really good walks and this was no exception. No book for Tim; he just gets his trusty map and decides the route himself. This time the pub was called the Cricketteer and about 1/2 way along on the walk of about 4 miles. The walk included a stop at a little pond area and Hex make good use of it! Throw some sticks and she is happy to dive in and swim all day.

Pax just watches..well not really watch she runs around the edge of the water barking at Hex. This combo of Hex and Pax is much noisier than Hex and Hob-b. And Pax likes to shows how you must circle the humans to keep them in a bunch when they start to wander and spread out.

There were some nice views along with walk; but most of the walk was thru nice cool wooded areas. A good walk for a hotter day and only one short uphill bit to get the heart pumping.

Here is Hex showing that she dried off quite nicely by the end of the walk!

Bridge House Agility Photos

Dennis played around with taking photos yesterday at the Bridge House Agility show. If anyone wants any photos please feel free. Also if you want a particular one in a larger format; just email me. You can click on this link or watch the slide show below.



Bridge House Agility Photos

Pax

I took Pax to Bridge house today and ran her in All-Sorts and she barked her way around the course as usual. I like to use Pax as an example of how a dog can bark throughout an agility course and still listen! Hehehe

Pax was the first dog that I started from a puppy in agility. Right from the beginning Pax barked when she ran and barked and barked. It was never that she was barking AT me; it was just that she was barking in sheer enjoyment of the running. Thank God I never listened to the instructors who told me that I must STOP her from barking when running agility. If I had been a new person to dog training I may have listened but at that point I had been training dogs in obedience for about 8 years. My gut feeling told me that it would not affect her training at all and it never did. You could always tell when Pax was running her course; she did not bark on the start line or in the queue (as Zen and Hex will) but would start barking as soon as her feet started moving! It is funny how Zen and Hex are the opposite; they will bark in the queue until they set up and then stop barking once they are working.

Anyway the reason I am chatting about Pax is really due to this gorgeous photo that Dennis took yesterday at Bridge House Agility show! Gorgeous!!




Pax will turn 11 in September. She still loves running but I am glad that I have retired her from formal agility. She has done enough and I want to keep her structurally sound in her old age. She made us laugh at the KC International Festival where she escaped from our caravan garden and made her way down to the burger van! Dennis got a phone call on his mobile (we have the phone number on her tag) asking if we lost a sheltie as she was down begging at the food van. HAHA! Where else would a run-away sheltie go?

Dogs In Need Agility Show 2007

I just loved this photo as Hex is so good to stay in the weaves no matter what way I run! Bless her!

We went straight from the KC International Festival down to Dogs In Need in Suffolk. DIN is a nice show but huge with 12 rings and 800 caravans and tents. It is a huge well organized machine and amazing how easily 800 caravans can be driven in and set up in one day.

Dennis set up the caravan for me while Johanna and I went shopping for provisions. We came back to the caravan and garden all set up to maximize the shade for the dogs......if only we knew then that there would be NO sun all week! Then Dennis took the three good sable girls and drove back home for a week of work leaving me with only Zen and Hex. I stayed at Dogs in Need with Johanna. Johanna only stayed for three days and then she headed back for the long trip to Denmark on Wednesday night. Johanna got to try out the caravan front bed that has to be put together from the front dinette. It was surprisingly big and even Johanna admitted that it was more comfortable than being in a TENT on a blow up bed!

We had a very successful Dogs in Need! On Tuesday was the medium and large Championship classes. Well Zen did it again and won another champ ticket! I certainly have not set out to collect champ tickets; I actually pulled her out of alot of champ shows after Zen finished her Championship last year. But this year I showed her in 5 Champ classes and she won 3 of them! That makes 6 championship tickets for Zen to date. Not too shabby. I think she can do it with her eyes closed........hehe

On Friday was the Small Championship Class. This was Hex's second Champ class and she really showed well and qualified for the final. The first dog to run in the final was a fast little Border collie x JRT called Scout. Wow! After seeing Scout run I thought there was NO way that either Hex or Indy could beat him as his run was textbook good. But I should never doubt my shelties! After Hex got faulted (but ran lovely AND Fast) up stepped Nicky and Indy in pole position. Indy did not put a little foot wrong and went on to win the Final! That was his third ticket and he is now the 4th Agility Champion OBay sheltie! Woo-hoo!

Here is the newly minted AGILITY CHAMPION OBay Truly Driven and his happy handler.

Could the week get any better? Well I could have won some money at Bingo....NOT. But instead Zen squeaked into the Medium 6-7 Finals on Sunday and went onto to win! She spoils me. The finals were fun to watch as alot of friends made it into the finals. It is nice to be able to sit around the ring and watch. Everyone did well especially Nancy and Nice Niahm who came third in a very competitive large Novice Final. Here is Nancy trying to figure out what to do with her trophy. Just put Pimms in it Nancy!

Now she is happy!

Here is me and Zen with our prizes. A lovely whiskey decanter and glass for all the whiskey I drink. Can I put pimms in it?

And finally here is Zen with a fuzzy pink feather boa. Why? Just because I can!

The Danish Way of Agility Handling..

Some sheltie runs with Johanna at the KC Agility Festival. Funny how we didn't get any videos of her border collies? Do you think we are biased? You gotta watch the "agility blooper" at the end! Even funnier was the commentators reaction...Dennis cannot watch this clip without cracking up everytime!

Video of Indy and Hex in the British Open Final

Gosh I haven't even talked about The Dogs In Need Agility show yet. First I had to finish reviewing all the videos Dennis took at the Kennel Club Festival!

They had loads of finals at the Kennel Club Festival! I can't say we did great in all of them. HA! (Let's not talk about the Nations Cup runs...) But one we did well in was was the British Open Final.

Indy was the winner and Hex was the runner-up! Here is the video of the two little cuties. Indy will go to Crufts for this win. No music on this one as you can hear the commentary as it was held in the main ring.

Some videos from the KC International Agility Festival

I thought this was a good video to post as we have three OBay shelties competing over the same course. This course stumped alot of UK handlers as we don't usually see a table on our agility courses! Dennis has made sure to remind me that HE brought me my agility table for Christmas 2 years ago so he takes the credit for these clear rounds.

I was really pleased with Hex on this course as she is really showing alot of forward momentum! And I started this season out thinking she was slow....

More videos to come hopefully tomorrow including some videos of some crazy Danish handling......hehehe

Daniel and Bailey at the KC International Agility Festival

Daniel and Bailey did fabulous at the KC International Festival AND Dogs In Need. Here are two videos taken at the KC Festival. Daniel and Bailey will be doing lots of agility at Crufts 2008!

Kennel Club International Festival 2007

I cannot believe I just spend 11 days in a row in the caravan at agility shows! And including the finals days; I just did 9 straight days of agility! I think I am agilitied-out (if that is a word!). I am looking forward to less competing and more training!

We started out on Thursday heading off to the KC International Festival in Peterborough. We had loads of runs each day; I think one day each dog had around 7 runs! I had to skip a few runs just to keep sane. We got a lovely camping spot thanks to Andy and Nancy who saved us a spot and to Dennis who I convinced needed to help out on the rings on Friday. He did well and worked on the ring all day. If you help at the show you get a better camping pitch and that really makes a difference when you have 14 runs in one day! Even funnier was Johanna who realized that she had 8 (yes EIGHT) courses to walk at the same time at 8 am on Saturday!

Lisa and Johanna camped together; each with their own teensey tiny tent. We put them behind us as posh caravan people should not be expected to look out at tents while drinking their Pimms....

Here is our set-up.

And here is the tent city AKA Crazy Danish Camping Pitch. Johanna was very patriotic and had her Danish Flag flying all weekend.

We had a good time at this show. The weather cooperated and the OBay team was very successful! I lost count of how many times we had an "OBay Sheltie sweep" (as Lisa likes to call it). There were quite a few classes where Indy and Hex were first and second and vice-versa in the small class. And there were a few classes were Zen and Chi were first and second and vice-versa in the medium! Now when that happens I win either way!

So much happened at this show that I cannot even remember it all! Here are some highlights and I will go over videos to post in the next few days.

• Little 9 year old Daniel won so many classes at this show! He qualified for Crufts in quite a few events including the Young Kennel club and the International Junior Handler class. But the best was when he WON the Small Starters Final against all the adults!

• Lisa and Chi and me and Zen qualified for Olympia 2007! We were the only two non-border collies to qualify! It was a tough one as the course was very open and fast and it was hard to match the times of the collies. Well..maybe there was another 1/2 non border collie as Rosie's Disney is only half collie and half poodle! Ha!

• Johanna qualified for Crufts with all three dogs! Spooky, Tazz and One are going to Crufts 2008!
  

Phew and that was only the first weekend! I have got loads of laundry to do and a caravan to clean so will post more later.

Nine dogs in the house

Random thoughts about dogs and stuff:

• I don't want a big dog anymore. Especially a BIG Boy dog as BIG boy dogs can pee on little dogs.
• Border collies shed more than shelties
• Border collies take up more room than shelties
• Boy dog pee stinks more than girl dog pee
• I really really love shelties
• I want One back as he is gorgeous but unfortunately he is a boy and his pee stinks!
• Hex is a witch and evil
• Dennis is an angel to put up with nine dogs in the house!
• Crazy Danes should not drive in English roundabouts with learner drivers in the front seat

Welcome Johanna and Happy Birthday Lisa

Johanna came in on Thursday night pretty late. So we have had a busy few days and not much time to get on the computer. It is nice to have Johanna here but please remind me never to have 9 dogs! I will stick with 5 for awhile! My girls are doing OK with the extra visitors but Hex gets cranky if they don't behave as she thinks they should.

It is hard to believe that One (OBay Singular Sensation) is so grown up! One is a full brother (from an earlier litter) to Hex and Indy. Here he is in a photo taken yesterday by Dennis with his new sooper dooper lens.

Saturday was the Aylesbury Show and Lisa, Johanna and I went together. It is a nice show and the weather was sunny and warm. We fit 7 dogs in Johanna's Pup-mobile and off we went. Johanna had some really good "almost" runs with One and had a really good Grade 6,7 Agilty Run with Spooky until the last bar went down. Arghhh! Zen and Hex had some good runs and I enjoyed running them on the 6,7 agility course put up by Dennis MacCauley. Zen won the medium and Hex won the small!

Sunday was Lisa's birthday so we had a BBQ here and Marion and Tim and Sue and Barry joined in the fun. At one point Sue had one of her dogs out and Lisa had one of her dogs out...so we had 11 dogs at the house. Dennis was not impressed; I can't understand why?

Anyway, I won't be blogging much over the next two weeks as we are off to the KC International Festival on Thursday and then straight to Dogs In Need Agility show for one week. It will be interesting to see if I can last for that many days in the caravan and that many days running agility. Hmmmm.....

Tony, being the romantic husband that he is, gave Lisa a new tent for her birthday. (note to Dennis..I prefer BLING or agility equipment for my pressies) So we had to get a photo of the new tent. How cute is this?

Latest WC course

I have gotten over the euphoria of Hex's winning her first ticket and now back to setting more courses for Zen and Hex.

This was the latest course Lisa (and Tony) helped me set up tonight. I haven't run it yet; planning to do it tomorrow afternoon after some lessons in the morning.

Johanna and crew (2 border collies and 2 shelties) come in tomorrow night. I am looking forward to her coming but wonder what the house will be like with 4 more dogs! Well more like 5 more dogs as the Spooky-spookster counts as at least 2 dogs! We are off to Aylesbury on Saturday and then a day off on Sunday to celebrate Lisa's birthday. Dennis comes home on Saturday morning after a night flight from New York. Hopefully he will be bringing home lots of pressies including my new PINK crocs!

More Good News!

I took Jordan to the vet today and her blood work is fine! Whew! Maybe her bladder is just getting smaller as she gets older. No matter, I am just glad that she has nothing serious going on. Yeah! I was feeling really bad for Jordan today so I took her out in the garden to play agility. She thought it was great fun and bounced around like a pup. She popped out of the last two weave poles each time and still got a sweetie. She is so deaf that we just run around aimlessly doing a few low jumps, weaves and dog walk but she thinks she is hot stuff.

The other good news I forgot to mention was that our "small" team qualified for Crufts yesterday! So now both Zen (in her all sheltie medium team) and Hex (in her small team running for Beacon) will be at Crufts in the Team competition.

The last good piece of news is that my sister Terry is coming to Norway to see us at the World Championships! Yeah!

Hex's First Championship Ticket!

Oh my God! Hex did it! No photos and no videos just a tired me and a tired Hex!

I cannot believe that Hex did exactly what Zen did 2 years ago. At the Agility Club show 2005 Zen entered her first champ class and won her first ticket. Now in 2007 Hex entered her first champ class and won her first ticket class at the same show at the same age. Now that is some special karma.

Hex also won both the jumping and the agility qualifiers and so ran last in the final right behind Nicky and Indy. I had it set in my mind that Hex and I had to go for it as I knew that Nicky and Indy would be storming around the course....

Special thanks to Indy for making such an uncharacteristic mistake and giving Hex the chance to win! I am keeping my fingers crossed that Indy can finish at Dogs In Need when we can all celebrate properly!

More WC Practice

Lisa came over Friday and we set this jumping course. The problem is that it takes so long just to set the course. Zen and Chi ran in perfectly the first time. Hex needed a little more work as she thought the back of #16 was better than #4. We set it up and ran it as if there was no space to get in between the wings of jumps 6/7. I do not know if it was set up like that but I would think it must have been.

I went to the gym 3x this week. I love the gym I love the gym I love the gym....bleh.

We went to the Agility club show today and I did nuttin all day in the results department. Oh yeah a 4th in a fast jumping class with Zen. But suprisingly, Hex, the perfect one, actually had not ONE clear round! But I was pleased with all of her runs and was trying to run with purpose and not baby her. This resulted in a few errors, but overall she was a very good girl. Chi got a 3rd in the crufts medium singles and I think this should be good enough in points to get Lisa and Chi to Crufts! Yeah finally! He was a good boy today and ran clear in both of his classes.

Since Dennis is away and Lisa and Tony were camping at the show, I had to bring all 5 shelties with me to the show. This is not easy with the cars and crates we have and I felt bad for Hob-b, Pax and Jordan who got stuck in the car all day. I was able to put Pax and Hob-b in the puppy pen so they could spread out a little; but Jordan (at 12 years old) is still notorious for climbing out of pens. So she had to stay in the car crate. The worrying thing was that Jordan was not able to hold herself and actually wee'd in the crate. She has never done that since the day I got her at 2 years old. I am worried that she may have something brewing as she also has been drinking alot of water at one time. I have luckily never had an older dog with kidney problems but wonder if this is what is starting with her. I think I will take her into the vet this week and ask them to do some blood work on her. I am not ready to lose another one just yet! Yes I know that I am being pessimistic but I just have a gut feeling that she is not OK.

Back to the Agility Club show tomorrow and Hex's first championship class! Indy has a chance to finish his Championship if he wins it tomorrow! This should make him the youngest dog to become an Agility Champion in England! I think Zen may hold that "title" now but I have a feeling that Indy will be knocking her crown off! If Indy doesn't win then I hope that Hex does! Either way; lets hope for a good OBay result!

Me and the dogs (how's that for good grammar) are very tired now. Gotta be up early tomorow!

WC practice

So I was very grateful that Lisa (as sick as she is with a cold) came over and helped me set this course. I feel better when I am doing something positive towards my goals rather than just worrying!

Both Zen and Chi ran this course really nicely and I will put Hex over it later on tonight. It was actually sunny and beautiful here today!

Went to the gym this morning and did 35 minutes on the treadmill but only about 2 km. And 15 min on the bike and a few upper body machines. I just realized that the gym must have installed air conditioning since I was last there and that is really nice for the summer as it can get so hot in the gym.

Newlands Agility Show

I have started back to the gym! I feel so out of shape; all I could do was about 1/2 hour walking on the treadmill and 15 minutes on the bike. And I felt wiped out after that! sigh....I will persevere. I LOVE the gym, I LOVE the gym, I LOVE the gym....yeah right...bleh

It was a rough start to the agility weekend when quite a few agility shows were cancelled due to the rain and flooding. I am very happy that our house and family are fine after seeing some of the photos from other people. Missing an agility show is no big deal compared to the devastation of the floods on some peoples homes. I will deal with the little bit of water in my garden! (and try not to complain too much!)

I was looking forward to Newlands as it is such a local show. Saturday was cancelled because the showgrounds were just too wet. Dennis is away in the US so I just puttered around the house doing some housework and a little agility training with Zen and Hex. Sue called and said that Newlands was on for Sunday so I headed out to Cranleigh showgrounds on Sat afternoon to help set a few courses. I brought Hob-b along by herself to give her a special afternoon out. She doesn't get a whole lot of individual attention so I try to bring her with me to as many places by herself as I can. She is such an easy going dog.

Newlands went ahead on Sundy and the sun shines on the righteous! It was beautiful weather; sunny and breezy. Just perfect! We had to park far away from the rings because they needed to save the soft ground from being churned up. I looked at this as a extra session at the gym....ha!

I was pretty pleased with all my runs with Zen and Hex. I did not bring the video camera since Dennis is away, but Lian videoed a few of our runs. You can see them on her blog at
Knights Shelties. Thanks Lian! The funny thing is that I was determined to attack the jumping course and thought I did. But when I watched the videos it looked like I was prancing around! Some people look so athletic when they run but I just look like I am taking a big of a stroll. AND I really thought I was running! As usual, Zen and Hex did their jobs beautifully and won their jumping classes. Zen also won her agility class and Hex came second on hers. I may not be able to run but I CAN train a dog! haha

Dennis will be in the US for two weeks. He is searching high and low in California for a new pair of Crocs for me!

and now for something very serious

You gotta see this blog!

Hahahahahaha! Just as I said to Dennis "pick me up a pair of Crocs when you are in NY next week"!

British World Agility Team

Well a few days have past since the try-outs and I am starting to get more positive! I think I will start having to ask for help in setting courses (from the World Champ judges) over the next 8 weeks. I would really like to try and work on two courses each week. I wish Lisa was on the team as then we could train together!

I was really dissapointed that Hex (andChi) did not make it on the team. Although considering our performances it was understandable! I know she is just a baby but I also know that she is a really consistant AND fast dog. I felt as if our performances on Tuesday were not up to our usual standards and that is what got me down. I know it was my handling and not Hex's mistakes. I would have loved to travel with her as she is such a confident and fun little dog. And now that we know that there may be no World Champs for Great Britain next year........

The try-outs were held at Rugby DTC's new indoor facility. What a fabulous place! If I won the lottery it is just what I would love. A gorgeous farm house with a indoor training facility right next door. SIGH...... Well I gotta put my dreams out there and maybe they will come true!

This is the first time Rugby opened up the building for an event like this. I hope everything went well for them and that they were happy with how everyone behaved! The building stood up well to the torrential rain and HAIL that happened on Tuesday!

The flooring in the building was really nice. Very springy and cushy and the dogs did not slip at all. There was only one problem....Zen got abrasions/grazes on two of her feet along with one or two other dogs that I heard of. I think the flooring was so grippy that maybe she got wore her pads down? I am not sure. But BLESS her even with the cuts on her feet she still ran! I didn't even realize how bad it was until afterwards when we finished up on Tuesday and headed back to the caravan. When I let her out of the car she could barely walk! In one respect I am so happy it was not anything muscular or joint related; cuts on pads heal quickly. But on the other hand I feel so bad that she was hurting so much and I did not know it. Thanks to Peter the team vet for giving Zen some anti-inflamatory and anti-biotic right away just in case. Always handy to have a vet around!

Here are some photos of the teams. I guess with a three day coach trip to Norway and a three day coach trip back I will get to know them all better!

Medium (look how tiny Zen looks!)

Small (look at how Nicky is such a poser! I think she likes her photo taken!)

Large (what a motley crew!)

Rugby Championship Agility Show

I had never been up to the Rugby show before. It was a really nice venue with nice flat ground to run on. The camping was limited so the show was a reasonable size. The club members were efficient and friendly and that always helps!

There was one scarey/funny moment at the show when Dave Ray gets on the tannoy and says "Don't go down into the lower fields as the police are coming because it is a crime scene!" The rumour goes around that someone found a dead body in the field! Of course, we all go Ohhh and ahhh and then go right back to running our dogs. A little while later the police come into the grounds and drive down to the lower field (with people yelling at them "FIVE MILES AN HOUR"). We later hear that that "body" was really some drunk guy sleeping! I wonder if it was someone who celebrated too much the night before but never did hear who it was.

We had a really successful first time at Rugby and came home with lots of crystal. The Championship classes were interesting. Both of the jumping and agility champ qualifiers were on the easy side as far as courses go. I was really thrilled that Lisa and Chi, Nicky and Indy (who won both qualifiers rounds) and Zen and I got into the Champ Finals.

The Champ Final was also a very straight forward course. It only had six weaves! Now that is a big strange for Champ. But, hey ho, I was just glad it wasn't NINE. HA!
Having an easy course is not really good for me and Zen. I count on the difficult courses to hopefully knock out some of the faster medium Border collies! So this time I knew that no one was going to make a mistake on this course (other than the usual bars or contact issues) and it would come down to times.

Three fantastic results in this championship final. Nicky and Indy (OBay Truly Driven) winning their first Championship ticket. Zen winning the medium ticket. And a kelpie named Ruby winning the large making her the first ABC(non-border collie) Agility Champion in Great Britain!

Here is a photo of Indy with all his champ winnings! I think Nicky is taking it very serious that she gets a free puppy when she wins the World Champs!

Enjoy this video of Indy and Zen running the Champ Final. Our first OBay Championship double!

Crufts Team runs at Rugby 2007

At The Rugby Agility show we ran in two team events. In the medium team, Zen ran with the English Shetland Sheepdog Club Tri-Stars. We took FIRST PLACE and qualified to run at Crufts 2008! Go Shelties!



Hex ran with the Beacon DTC Small team at Rugby. Unfortunately just out of first place by 8/100 of a second! One more chance at qualifying for Crufts in two weeks at The Agility Club Show.

ESSC TRI-STARS going to Crufts!

For the first time this year there have been qualifying events for Crufts Team Agility for small and medium dogs. (It was previously only for the Large dog)

The English Shetland Sheepdog Club put together two teams (one small and one medium) to run under their club name. At our first competition together our medium team, The ESSC Tri Stars won the class and are headed to Crufts 2008!! Woo-hoo!

Here is our team from left to right: Karen and Ace, Amy and Tazz, Bernadette and Zen, Lisa and Chi.

Our team-mate, Karen, had these great shirts made up and we all looked very smart and professional! I think we did the sheltie club very proud! If you can't see it on the photo on each sleeve of the shirt we had printed BARK BARK. I wonder why? Hahahaha!

Go Shelties!

Highs and Lows of agility

We just got back from a long weekend of agility. Four really intense days where I think it is easy to forget why I do agility. For the pure joy of running with my dogs who I adore.

The weekend at Rugby was very relaxing and both Zen and Hex ran beautifully all weekend. I felt like both girls and I just gelled as a team. I will post details later. But to summarize, Zen won another Championship ticket! This is her 5th ticket (2nd this year). Although I don't intend to run her at every championship show and collect tickets I felt that we needed to run the champs this weekend to get ready for the try-outs. To top that, Nicky and Indy (OBay Truly Driven) won the small Championship Ticket!

A fantastic OBay double! Two Championship tickets on the same day.The stuff a breeders dreams are made of!

Hex did really well also. In one of the jumping 6,7 classes we actually had an OBay triple! Hex first, Indy second and Timmy third! Now that is the way to do it!

Monday and Tuesday was the World Champ Tryouts. I went into them really positive and we did well on Monday. Then on Tuesday I just fell apart and felt like I let my dogs down with my handling. It is not like me to feel so down after agility but I just did not feel connected on all the runs. I don't know if it was just that we all were so tired? Or as someone said to me "maybe you want this too much"? I don't think wanting it to much was the reason as that usually inspires me! Dennis thinks it is because I wore a green shirt and not my normal red or pink!

I was mostly disappointed with my runs with Hex which were all over the place. I KNOW that Hex is so much better than that. Zen saved my butt for most of the runs except for the one that she decided the dogwalk was more visible than the weave poles.

The end result is that Zen is on the Great Britain Medium Agility Team and Hex is reserve for the small team. Lisa and Chi are reserve for the medium team. Best of all, Nicky and Indy are on the small team! As good as that result sounds I can't get my head around my crap performances yesterday and need a few days to get positive again!

So three Obay shelties competing in Norway. And two on reserve. Videos, photos and details to follow after I get my head back together!

More agility....what else?

Last weekend we had a day off on Saturday with no agility show! Dennis and I slept in and then bummed around the house. We got a chance to do some work in the garden (yes another tree has been taken out to make more room for agility!). Now we just have to do some more work on filling in the giant hole and putting some grass seed down. Both of us were moaning and aching by the time we were done. We are so old!

Lisa and I set up a new agility course to practice on Saturday afternoon. I was glad she was motivated to do it as I hate setting courses on my own. If, hopefully, we make it to the World Champs we will have to get serious about setting two or three new courses to work on each week. If you search the internet you can find courses that the judges (the two who will be judging the world champs)have set previously. We then can set these courses and try and get the idea of what kind of sequences they like to set. It helps to focus me on training specifics rather than practicing randomly.

The world champs this year is starting to be a family affair! We just got news yesterday that our friend Adele from The Netherlands qualified to be on the Dutch team with her sheltie Chilka. Although Chilka is not one of mine, Adele and Han also own Zen's daugher Wizz (see picture in post below). So I consider Adele one of the OBay family and I am sure that one day Adele will be competing in the Worlds with Wizz!

On Sunday we went to St. Edwards agility show. It was my first time going to that show and it was very enjoyable. Only six rings and the ability to park around the rings makes me a very happy bunny. Gosh it just reminds me how much I hate the shows at Newbury and walking miles back to the car and the dogs. The sun was shining and the weather was a near perfect sunny and cool 70 degrees. Eat your heart out all you stuck in 90 degree hot and humid New York/New Jersey! I love English weather!

Unfortunately there were no classes for small dogs at this show; so much to her dismay The Wicked One stayed home. Luckily Zen had FOUR classes to run so that made me happy. I brought Hob-b along for the ride and she enjoyed her day out.

Liz and Viv were there with their goldens along with Sally and her border collies. That group is so funny because they are so organized! Liz brings this huge spread of food including fresh salad from her garden, fresh bread, cheese and fruit! All very healthy and very tasty! They get to the show and set up their three cars side by side, put up three tents and surround the entire things with windbreaks. They got a space right by the rings and I made sure to join the comfy camp! Hob-b came along and I tied her up to the tent. She stayed there there whole day, just hanging out. I had to remember she was there as she is so mellow and quiet you can easily forget she is there! Liz felt bad for Hob-b laying on the ground (how can the princess lie on the ground?!) and gave Hob-b her chair to lie on. Hob-b lay on that chair all day!

They backed their cars up to the rings and opened up the back of the cars so the dogs were facing towards the rings. The funny part about this was a comment someone made while walking by in the morning. "OH" she said "that is a really bad idea; those dogs are going to start BARKING....". I almost pissed my pants! This is funny because Liz does NOT let her goldens bark and I am always trying to get her to make them bark! hahahahaha I was able to say with COMPLETE confidence that the lady was not to worry, these goldens NEVER bark. (and they never did!)

Result wise, I was very pleased with Zen. She was smooth and fast in all her runs. She is just totally on form and always a pleasure to run.

I had a chance to watch some of the people that come to me for lessons. I really enjoy being able to watch them as is so helpful for me to see how they run in competition. It helps me to see what they need to work on in training and how to plan their lessons. Liz did really well with both her Goldens but my favorite result was her 5th in Grade 1 agility for her young girl Lex. After a fall on a dog walk in another class last winter Lex had been slowing down on her contact obstacles. So Liz has been working hard on improving Lex's confidence and speed. This weekend Lex really showed loads of improvement on her contact speed. 5th out of nearly 200 dogs! I know she has it on video and I must see if I can get a copy to post. Lian also did fantastic with her young sheltie Saturn. Saturn ran clear and placed in all 4 runs. He got a 2nd place in an agility class beaten only by a super turbo charged border collie that just measured down into the medium class. This border collie, when it runs clear, will be nearly impossible to beat! It is a fantastic little border collie. So Saturn did really well to get 2nd to this dog!

I also had a chance to see puppies Todd and Kizzy; so all in all a good day out! Even better, home by 4pm and able to take a nap before Dennis got home from Golfing. What a great way to spend a day!

Unique is on the World Team Again!

Just got the news that Unique was picked for the Danish World Agility team for the second time! He will be running in small individual and small team! Congratulations Suzanne and Unique!

Commiserations to Marianne and Monty who were not chosen. But well done Marianne for trying out. The Full Monty is going to have to rest on his laurels and watch his children win!

Royal Canin Finals Video

Here is the promised video of Zen, Chi, Indy and Hex running in the UKA Royal Canin Finals. What little stars they were! Especially little Indy who was running in the biggest downpour of rain (you can hear it really loud hitting the video camera which was wrapped in a plastic bag). And the rumour has it that Nicky had NOT had any alcohol before she ran Indy! hehehe He must have a good influence on her!

Yoga, world team try-outs and Puppies!

Yoga today ......canoe (wicked abdominal work), albatross, warrior dancer, warrior archer, dancer (balance). Next week is the last Yoga class until September. My plans/goals are....if we qualify for the World champs...to go back to the gym to get fitter! I swear that I will go back to the gym 2x per week if we qualify! I promise I promise I promise!

The World Team tryouts are less than two weeks away and run for 2 days this year. ( I can't wait I am so psyched!) They are doing some timing of obstacles on the first day. Those "assesments" will determine if you then participate in the next portion of the try-outs. That assesement part should be OK for us but we are working on the sequences anyway! Then we run 4 courses (2 jumping and 2 agility) and that along with some pre-qualifying points will determine if you are chosen for the team. It is pretty straight foward, the top three in each height category go thru. Can I hope that 4 of them are OBay shelties? Wouldn't that just be a breeders dream come true? That along with Unique and Monty running for Denmark? Oh my goodness you won't be able to shut me up if that happens!

It is a shame this year that there is the ban on docked dogs. As much as I don't like docking it is not illegal in many countries so it is unfair that those dogs are banned in a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP! For England (as we now have a docking ban as of this year) when a few years go by it will not be an issue anymore but until then it is sad that some really good dogs are held back.


Puppies.......

Well when you breed things go wrong ALOT. It is not a job for the fainthearted as there is so much heartbreak along with the good. But here is one of the really good parts! Getting photos of a puppy almost all grown up and living up to her puppy promise. Here is Wizz (who lives in The Netherlands with Han and Adele). I almost cried when I saw these photos as she is so very lovely and such a sweet combination of Zen and Tazz.

And here is a photo of the proud Dad with his little girl Wizz!

Royal Canine Agility Finals

After the week in Scotland we headed down to Newbury for the UKA shows. Other than the initial panic of not FINDING the show; it was a nice relaxing show except for the fact that the rain followed us....

I like the UKA shows because you can choose to "train" a class. It is so nice to take a toy in the ring and suprise the dog with a play on a contact or after a good sequence. You don't take up anymore time as they limit your time in the ring to the course time. Like anything I am sure it can be abused but I haven't seen any problems yet.

So after the show on Saturday was the Royal Canine Finals. This is the first time UKA had these finals and I qualified Zen and Hex during the year. Nicky and Indy also qualified as well as Lisa and Chi. So FOUR OBay shelties in the final! As it should be! hehe I can only hope that all agility finals go so well for the OBay Team!

It was pouring rain during the final, you will hear the rain on the video as Dennis wrapped his video camera in a plastic bag and you can hear the rain hitting the bag! Unfortunately due to the rain there were not as many spectators as there could have been and the ones that were there were huddled under umbrellas. Since she could not judge with an umbrella, the poor judge looked drowned out there!

In the midi class Zen came 1st followed closely by Chi in 2nd! And in the "toy" class Indy came 1st followed by Hex in 2nd. Now that is a TRUE OBay sheltie sweep! I was so proud of all four of them. If I am going to be beaten I don't mind being beaten by another Obay! All four of the dogs ran fantastic and gave it their all even in the pouring rain. Rock on World Champ Tryouts!

Dennis is away for the next two days so the video will be posted later this weekend. Sorry for the delay....blame him!

Even more Scotland!

On Wednesday night the Charity competition was a "Flying Weave marathon". Again it was run head to head in a knockout run simultaneously over two identical courses consisting of jump- weave- jump. They increased the length of the weaves as the competition progressed. They started with 24 weaves and then increased it in 6 weave increments until 36.

Originally they were going to split the competition into large dogs and small/medium dogs. But since there were only 3 small or mediums competing they asked if we would mind competing against the big dogs. Liz (from the Isle of Mann)with her little JRT and I said that was OK.

This competition was easier on the handler (me!) but harder on the dogs. Again Hex and Zen progressed thru each stage. There were around 40 dogs competing. When we got to the 36 weave pole stage Hex was competing against a very large Belgian Terv. We set out against the Terv and, believe it or not, they called a tie as it was so close. They asked us to re-run to try and break the tie. At that point I felt that it was too much for Hex (she had just done 24, 30 and 36 poles) and bowed out of the competition with her and let the Terv go on.

I continued with Zen and we ended up in the final two running against....you guessed it.. the belgian terv! HAHA The Terv won by a hair, Zen was second and a border collie was third.

It was a fun competitition and a nice way to proof weave poles with excitement!

We stayed on at the show site in Scotland until Thursday morning's training session was over. Then we packed it up and drove 1/2 way down and stopped overnite at a Caravan club site in Uttoxeter. The site was nice (although the shower block was not as nice as previous ones) and it was right next to the racecourse. Really RIGHT NEXT to the racecourse and if you were there on race days the horses would be zooming by your caravan! As there were no races on we just had acres and acres of grass to walk the dogs.

Friday we drove the rest of the way down to Newbury to settle down for the UKA agility show and the Royal Canine Finals on Saturday night. The funniest part of that was that we got to Newbury showgrounds, drove in and just stopped.....there was NO ONE there! Panic set in and I started panicking that I was at the wrong place. Maybe it was at another site and I just assumed it was at Newbury? I tried calling Lisa but she wasn't around. We decided to turn around and head out to the stores and come back later...maybe we were just early? Luckily as we went to turn out of the showgrounds Dennis noticed the tiniest sign pointing down the road. It turns out that the UKA show was at a field across the road! In all the years of going to Newbury I never knew that there was another field across the road!

Panic over! We set up the caravan and relaxed for the night. More about the UKA Royal Canine finals later!

The rest of the week in Scotland

After drowning in the mud at the weekend we bravely stayed on for a few more days at the show site. I had thought this would be an ideal way of being able to check out some more of Scotland while keeping the dogs at a dog friendly location. It was nice not to have to move the caravan to another site and to be able to leave up the garden for the dogs.


This photo shows Pax hanging out in the caravan garden on her new bed. This was one of the few moments of sunshine.

Mainly Dennis wanted to golf and I wanted to do some nice walks in the countryside. We didn't do much of either because of the rain! Luckily Dennis did meet up with a friend on one day and actually had some sun while golfing.

Here was a house on one of the holes on the golf course in Coldstream. Dennis thought I would like to live in this house especially as it has a red front door (my favorite) and had lots of land and no neighbors! Yeah! I told him to buy it for our holiday home but he just laughed. I wonder why?

We did go on one nice walk. Dennis was cranky at the start due to the weather but cheered up as we went on. The views were hazy but still so pretty. We were walking around the Eildon Hills near Melrose in Scotland.

Along the walk the mud was a lovely red colour which showed up lovely on the shelties white feet! To make matters worse Zen decided to roll in something that did not smell very good. It smelt worse than fox poo and Dennis thought it may have been deer poo. UGHHH! I have never smelt anything so bad Notice how Hex and Pax will not sit next to smelly Zen...

So after the walk we went into town to find Dog Shampoo! When we got back to the campsite we had to fully bathe Zen with an outside tap (brrrrrrr) . There was no way Zen was coming in the caravan smelling like that.

Along with the camping we had 2 hours of agility training on site each day with a local trainer called Peter Elms. Although I had no idea what Peter was like but I figured what the heck.. we could always use some time on different equipment. I am pretty confident about my training and am careful not to try anything I am not sure about on my dogs. So I wasn't worried in case he was a bad trainer! Also the price was very reasonable!

Actually I was very impressed with Peter. We were in an advanced group (which in itself was great as sometimes the small/medium dogs get lumped together regardless of their level) and so the training was mostly running sequences and courses rather than training. He set up some difficult sequences and I like to tackle new and different courses. Here were the more difficult scottish courses I was hoping for! Other than an issue with odd weave poles Hex and Zen dealt very well with everything I threw at them.

Here is Zen yelling at me "WHY are these weave poles so funny?"

During the week they had two nights of competitions to raise money for a local dog rescue charity. They were very interesting!

On Tuesday night they had a competition called "Handicap Hurdles". This competition was a head to head, knock out run simultaneously over 2 identical jumping courses of 30 obstacles each(yes I said THIRTY obstacles!). Basically the two courses were side by side but one ran clockwise and the other anti clockwise. The last 6 jumps(yes 6 jumps in a straight line; my nemesis!) of each course came down the middle, side by side, so you could really cheer the dogs on and see how close they were over the final jump. Knockouts are always fun to watch; but please remind me that they are not so fun to run over and over and over! I am too old for this!

The reason it was called "Handicap Hurdles" is that each team would move forward in their start position depending on certain criteria. You would move up one or more obstacles depending on the grade difference between dogs, 10 years difference in handlers age, BC vs ABC and Large dog vs. small/medium dogs. It was funny to see some teams moved up over 6 obstacles at the start. We got a one jump start only once!

Anyway since it was a knockout as I kept progressing thru with BOTH dogs...guess what that meant? I had to run this 30 obstacle course around 10 times!! I finally gave up and gave Zen to Dennis to run. He bravely agreed to do it although he has never run her and really doesn't run agility at all. He ran her twice; once in the penultimate run and once in the final run. Guess who he was running against in the final run? You guessed it...Me and Hex!

I was so proud of both girls as there were around 80 dogs competing and we competed against mostly Border collies and larger dogs. The best news was that this competition raised 240 pounds for the charity! The organizers did really well to put this together, they worked very hard to keep it moving along yet keeping it fun.

So it was the final; Hex and me against Dennis and Zen. Guess who won? Of course, Dennis and Zen!

The winners of the Knockout. 1st place Zen, 2nd place Hex and 3rd place a lovely lurcher (just to make Tony and Lisa happy)

The next night on Wednesday the charity competition was a weave pole knockout. We have some video of that and I will post more later.....

OBay Shelties in Scotland!

Well we have just returned from our trip up to the Scottish borders. While we had a good time things were slightly dampened by the rain and the resulting mud. It is hard to believe it is July!

Starting our week we drove up to Bakewell for a stopover before the last part of the journey up to Scotland. We stopped at a really nice Caravan Club site called Chatsworth Park that was part of a large manor house and deer park. There was good walking for the dogs and a few pubs within walking distance. The walk to the pub that night was great but unfortunately the pub recommended by the site wardens was awful! This food goes on our list as just about the worst food we have eaten in a restaurant. Dennis has decided that if the pub says "families welcome" that means the food is really really bad! The caravan site had really posh shower blocks and that always makes me happy. I am really easy to please...really.

We got up to the Kelso site for the Scottish show on Friday and set up in a nice location. The site was great and was within walking distance to the pretty little town of Kelso. The site was located at Springwood park and, again, had great shower blocks! There was a little indication of the possible mud situation right from the beginning but we just drove up 10 hours and were not going to turn back now.

Upon awakening Saturday morning the rain started and just never stopped. I think it rained non-stop for two days. You thought Supadgogs was muddy? Ha! I must have gone thru a new pair of socks every hour and had mud caked running trousers. We tried really hard to keep the NEW caravan clean and therefore went thru tons of towels drying the dogs and cleaning their feet. I am so glad we left Jordan and Hob-b home with Lisa and Tony. THREE muddy wet dogs in a caravan was plenty!

This shows the walkways between the rings. Boy was that mud slippery.

Please note THESE ARE NOT MY LEGS! But Dennis thought it was quite funny as it showed how awful the mud was kicking up.

Scottish shows seem to be very different from agility shows down south. (well to be fair I can't label ALL Scottish shows..I can really just comment on this one). Strange things like:

• The running orders had no indication of numbers of dogs in the class! To this day I don't really know how many dogs were in our class. I guesstimate around 60-80.


• They don't have calling sheets to check you in. They just give you your scribe sheet when you ask and then you hold it while you queue and queue and queue. Oh and believe me scribe sheets do disintegrate in the rain. (did I mention rain?)


• The don't have a score table and therefore you do not see your times or faults or know if you placed; you just have to wait until the end.(One good thing is that whenthey post the results later on so you can see your times compared with others that placed.)

After the 2 day show we stayed on at the site to hopefully do some sightseeing and walking. Also included was 2 hours a day of training with a scottish handler named Peter Elms and some friendly competition at night. But more about that later!

Enjoy this video. Please note that although I am not the most graceful handler in the best of circumstances... I was running even worse than ever due to the mud! No comments on my gracelessness please! The dogs had some really good runs over the weekend but not all were videoed due to the rain. So here are just three jumping runs from the weekend. Note the simplicity of the courses which also was very dissapointing as I thought Scottish courses were supposed to be harder!

WOW! Fanastic owl photos!

These photos were taken by Tony. Unbelievable! Can you tell by our faces that we don't even know the owl was overhead?

Axtane Agility show

Axtane has always been a fairly lucky show for me. It was the show that Pax won out of starters! So I always get a good feeling going to that show!

It was strange beginning as almost all the small classes were on at one time. To make matters a little more stressful one of the judges told her ring party not to let anyone check in late. Which in theory is fine, but when small dogs have three smallish size classes to run at the same time (one being pairs and realize that needs to take priority) it would be nice to have a little flexibility! I really do not think anyone was looking to run late, it was just hard to hit all the rings at the same time!

The funny thing was that I did make all my small dog classes on time but then FORGOT that Zen had a jumping class for me to walk and then run. We caught that one at the last minute before it closed, watched three dogs run and went to the line trying to quickly figure out the course. Zen, bless her, did her best to help me out and went on to get 3rd in that class. Zen also got 2nd in both her agility classes AND 2nd in the Mini/Mixi pairs!! We are partnering with a tiny adorable little poodle who is probably one of the smallest of the smalls. Considering Zen is probably one of the smallest of the mediums I think it is cool that we did so well!

But really this was Hex's day! She ran 100% clear in all her runs and got 2nd in the Grade 6,7 jumping and 1st in the Eukaneuba Agility Challenge. What a doll she is. As usual I didn't think she was running very fast! HA! With two first in two Eukaneuba shows she may have a good chance at being at Crufts in 2008. We won't know until the end of the year but hopefully......

No videos for Axtane as Dennis was not there. I left him home to do garden work! And with all the small and medium classes on so early it would have been too stressful for Lisa and I to also think about videoing.

Sunday I decided to skip Axtane and spend the day with Dennis. We went with Lisa and Tony and their friend Steve to the Country Game Fair at Parham House in Storrington.
It is so interesting seeing all the country folk out showing off their talents. I am not into guns and hunting but these people take it very seriously as a way of life. I have to give them credit for that. There were quite a few displays of gundog work and training and that is always interesting. I find that gundog people have a different attitude towards training sometimes but in general they all were fairly gentle with their dogs. There was the usual herding dog display and that is always fun to watch. People think these dogs are robots but I like to see the shepherd pull the mike away from their mouths and yell at their dogs "would you lie down dammit" hahaha. Even their well trained working dogs don't listen all the time!

The best part of the day was one of the Falconry and Birds of Prey display. Thanks to Steve's enthusiasm I joined him and Lisa to sit up close in the arena while one of the displays was going on. This particular display was with the Eagle Owl. The "bird Man" had us all first sit on the ground and then later lay on the ground looking up while the owl flew over us. WOW! What a feeling! The first time he had us sitting with our backs to the owl while he called it towards him. You could not hear or sense the Owl flying towards you and right over your head until it practically touched you with it's wings. That is how quiet it glides and why it is such a good hunter of prey! It was amazing. The second time he had us lay on the ground on our backs looking up at the sky. Then he had the owl fly right over our faces so that we could imagine how the mice felt as the owl swooped in to hunt them. Wicked! I could really get into owls (but that is not a hint for people to start buying me owl things!) as I find them so interesting to look at as long as I forget that they eat little animals!

We are off to Scotland on Thursday! I have my fingers crossed that it doesn't rain because the only other two times we were in Scotland it rained!

Hex at Thames 2007

Hex had some really good runs at Thames. I think she may have run clear and placed in every run except one. Not too shabby! Sometimes the videos focus too far away from the dogs but I think these may have focused too closely on Hex! But she is so cute that cannot be too bad!

Video of Zen at Thames in Medium Champ

She didn't win this one! But I was very proud of her performance on three difficult courses in the Champ class. As usual Dennis choose the song!

My Gorgeous Girls at Hinkley!

Moving on from Supa Dogs agility week.....

The Saturday after Supadogs we went to the Hinkley Championship show for the first time. Well it was a good thing we tried that show! It is a brilliant show with really good ground to run on and a positive atmosphere. I am glad we made the trip up even though it meant a night at a B&B. It wasn't worth camping there as there were only classes for Zen on Saturday and none on Sunday. The Bed and Breakfast was Victoria Farms and it is dog friendly which is always a plus! Very nice people there and the rooms are clean and comfortable if not fancy. Oh and the full english breakfast was lovely!

The show was so successful for us in so many ways. Zen getting another Champ ticket, Hex going advanced, Chi winning the Champ agility qualifier and Indy winning the Champ Jumping qualifier. I am so proud of them all....even if they don't run clear they always put in a good effort. None of these dogs need to be dragged around the ring or begged to work...they live for agility! And that is what makes them so fun to run. I am blessed with my dogs.

Here is a photo of Zen with her 4th Championship Agility Ticket and her trophy. She was a good girl! It was so nice to win under Andy even though his courses were way too front cross crazy! hehe





And here are some videos of Hex and Zen from Hinkley. Dennis picked the music!

Videos of Indy at Hinkley

We were lucky to get some good video at Hinkley. Here are two runs with Nicky and Indy (OBay Truly Driven). At Indy's first Championship class he won the Champ Jumping and I know that his first champ ticket will not be too long in coming!

Enjoy!

Yoga today

We did Partridge and canoe which both were super abdominal work! Wow I know I will be sore tomorrow. We did the palm tree (wicked side stretch)and the frog pose (ouch). FOUR sun salutations and I am finally starting to remember the order of poses in that one!

Then we did something that the instructor called Pose of Tranquility...but I cannot find that one on the internet. I need to get a book and look them up. It basically was similar to a plow but you were getting your legs up higher and starting to go into a shoulder stand. Really hard! Then we ended up with two balance exercises; the fig tree and some other one I did not catch the name of.

And we ended up with some wacky abdominal "flapping" exercise. I wouldn't want anyone seeing me do that it was totally weird!

We are actually going to leave for Scotland next Thursday but AFTER my yoga class as I think it is so helpful for me. If nothing else I should be better balanced and less likely to fall down running in agility!

Hex and Zen at SUPA DOGS FINALS!

Dennis has been busy tonight and we are finally getting thru loads of videos from the past two weeks. Finishing up tonight with the SUPADOGS FINALS!! No music again so you can hear my frantic calls (which didn't work for Hex this time!) Ha-Ha!

Supadogs 2007 video

Here are some OBay Shelties running agility at Supadogs week 2007!

A very exciting Thames show?

Hob-b doing her best imitation of a therapy dog!

Blame Dennis for no videos yet....

.....and blame Lisa for no photos!

I have lots to post about but no videos or photos to go along. So that is just boring!

Dennis had to go away on short notice to New York so he has not had a chance to sit down and transfer the videos to the computer to post on You Tube. Now if he would just show me how......but then he would be afraid he wouldn't be useful to me anymore!

And Lisa took photos of Zen's wins last weekend and has to bring her camera over to transfer them. SIGH!

But OBay shelties have had a great two weekends. To summarize:

• Hex went advanced (oops excuse me...Grade 7 which just doesn't sound as exciting) at Hinkley Agility Show. Hex is amazing me with her wins as I don't even think she is fast! I guess I am wrong!
• Zen WON the medium CHAMPIONSHIP at Hinkley! This is her first Champ win since she finished her championship last summer as I pulled her from all Champs last year after her 3rd win. And then she came in season this year and missed two champ shows. So if felt really good to run in Champs and win again! Zen is just ridiculously fun to run.
• Chi won the RESERVE CHAMPIONSHIP Ticket at Thames Agility! This was the first time Chi has made it into a Champ finals and he ran perfectly! Chi definitely has the potential to become an Agility Champion.
• We picked up and used our new caravan at Thames this weekend! It was so much nicer being at the agility show with a nice place to relax afterwards.

I will go into more boring details when I get videos and photos to go along with it!