Nerves!

I know it is daft to be nervous about shows when you're grade 1 and have nothing to lose, but I can't help it. Molly is more beanful and mischevious than ever and has stopped listening again, we are seriously unprepared following a week away with no training. I am continuously disappointed by my poor (and what often seems like lazy) handling, but I do try.

For inspiration and tips I've been watching some of Nat's videos with Kai, she has a nice handling style! Must remember Malcolm's advise .... you are doing this for FUN!! Still Nat's gorgeous pics of Ham put a smile on my face, he looks fab!

Leah, bring on the wine!

The Lakes!

Well, we all had a fantastic time in the Lake District! Molly (despite plentiful pilchards) has dropped the few pounds I'd managed to get on her! Even bigger dinners I think.

This little dog has the most incredible stamina, and wasn't phased by fell walking!

Not quite sure how UKA and Vyne came round so quickly. They seemed so far away when we signed up! Ooopps.

C-Side 07/03/09

Molly's first trip to C-Side yesterday (I know one of the videos says C-Side but that was in fact WAG). She went clear in the starters jumping, we even managed to get a good time, but missed out on a place by a fraction of a second, but I'm sure we weren't the only ones!

She did everything I asked of her and I am very proud!

The other starters agility and both opens there were mistakes (mine, obviously) but she looked for her weaves - even coming straight out of a tunnel at top molly speed! She got the entry and didn't pop out until the second to last one and then corrected herself without any prompting from me! It was a really good effort! They took a few goes on the Open Agility but on the others they came together nicely. She is so nearly there!

She was a superstar yesterday, calm in the queues, listened to everything I asked and tried so hard to get it right. I could not have asked for her to work any harder, she was fab!

Contacts were there, not perfect, but no leaping off the A Frame, which has been a problem outside of her normal training environments.

Congratulations also to Bella the boxer for her clear rounds!

Thank you to Leah, Wendy and Nancy for all their guidance (especially weave-wise!)

Nancy - you'll be pleased to know I did not say "No" or "wrong" or "lazy" (<--- have stopped this, promise!) when she came out of the weaves on the open, we just walked back and went through again until she got them!

Congratulations to my hard working, honest little labrador! xx

A weavey weekend...

Well... we trained with Nancy on Saturday, usually a very successful experience. Unfortunately Molly and I were more than a little bit out of sync with each other. My lovely little Labrador doesn't really think for herself when it comes to Agility, so when I stop communicating with her she doesn't have a scooby doo what to do and we both get very frustrated.  After an excellent start with a tricky (for us) tunnel entry and some lovely jumping we continued our week of weave obsession and instead of completing a perfect set of right hand weaves as I expected we fluffed them.  I was so surprised as I finally thought she understood them. Several Hudson pep talks later Molly was back on form without any hissing, hand moving or other tricks. We also need to work on our cross behind, disastrous!!