New members to the K9 Freestyle team

Well i promised Pogo if she did well at Crufts i would get her a present when i returned from Australia. If you have been reading her sheepdog blog you will know how much she has been enjoying her sheep work, although at times she is enjoying it a little too much.

So in order to be able to do some practise with Pogo other than when i am training with Andy ( http://www.workingsheepdog.co.uk/) i have taken on a couple of weeks ago Fred and Ginger ! they are Campbell ducks for those that don't know their duck breeds. They were looking to be re homed as they were beating up the women in the group and Fred, the white one was destined for the table. Watching them i thought Fred was the bolshy one but it turns out Ginger is very confident and will walk straight towards Pogo.

After doing some work with them in a pen and Pogo on the outside it came to the day to let the two work together without a barrier. To say i was a little nervous was an understatement although not about Pogo eating them but getting them back into the cage when i had finished as i was using a friends paddock. I'm really glad to say that Pogo has been very good upto now (Richard touches the nearest wood as he types this !) and it is fantastic to see her working with them. At the moment they have not quite got the idea they have to move away from Pogo but hopefully with time this will get better.

Three wins at the Paws n music show

Well it was a very long day at the Paws n Music May show held at Rugby. We got there for 9.30am and the last class which i was in finished just after 8pm!. I had entered three classes which was the most i have ever entered in my life, as normally i prefer to enter one dog one class at a show as i can then fully concentrate on the routine and dog.

The first of my dogs in the ring was Whizzy who was competing for the second time in Novice freestyle. Whizzy was certainly up for it and perhaps a little too much at some points but i would rather have too much energy than not enough. I'm glad to say that she won the class which means she has two wins in novice so now she is into intermediate freestyle. As good as the routine was i have to say from a personal point of view it was a case of good dog pity about the handler. My timing just seemed to be off and i wasn't giving her clear commands or signals so i think i need to give myself a kick up the back side before out next performance.

It was quite a wait then until the first of the two classes that i had entered Pogo in. The Crufts advanced HTM qualifier was the first class for her where we were performing our Lets face the music and dance routine. Feeling a little over dressed in my tails we had to change the routine a little as the ring was a lot smaller than the Crufts ring which was the last place we had performed it. It went ok and i am pleased to say that she won the class which means she has now qualified for the Crufts HTM semi final in January 2011.

There was not much chance to draw breath before the Crufts advanced freestyle qualifier class started. I had opted to perform Pogo's Hawaii 50 routine which she enjoys performing. The only trouble with Pogo is she is very much a one routine a day dog so having only just performed the HTM routine i had to work hard to keep her focus and get her to do the moves on time. There was a little bit of improvisation in the routine for various reasons but she did enough to win the class so now has qualified for the Crufts semi in this division as well.

So having not got home until 11pm it was very much a rest day for all us on the Sunday. I would like to thank everyone who gave such nice comments about all my routines and also to the hardworking PNM committee who put on a super event.

Count yourself lucky

Hearing about a friend of mine and the disaster she just has been through really puts things into perspective. Some of you may have read before in my articles, that i often stay with my friend Brigitte of the B star poodles when i am in the USA. Since we met she has moved around but for the last few years has been in Nashville. If you have been watching the news recently you would have seen the major floods they have had and i tried to contact Brigitte but had not heard from her. I recognised some of the places on the news and thought that they were not near her house but it seems the floods were more widespread.

I spoke with Brigitte and i could not believe that the floods hit her house in a major way. If you imagine a two storey house and the water came to at least half way up the second storey rooms you can tell it was a major flood. It all happened so quickly and Brigitte did not have time to get out any of her many dogs before the water came in. She eventually managed to get someone to lend her a kayak which she managed to get some dogs in crates out. No one was interested in helping so she had to canoe through her house again and again, it must have been the scariest time ever. The bigger dogs eventually ended up swimming around in one room as the water was so high.

There house is complete mess and they have basically lost everything as it engulfed the whole house. This house and area has never been flooded in the whole time the house has been built so it took everyone by complete surprise. Brigitte got out with most of the dogs but unfortunately a few dogs and her cats were not so lucky. So the next time you think your having a bad day or things are not going right remember things could be a whole lot worse.

Betty's first outside demo

When i first got Betty it was at the end of the season of my entertainment show so she didn't really experience what its like to work outside in the show. During the winter she has been great at the cabaret nights and also demos at Crufts so i hoped she would work well outside when the K9 Freestyle display season started.

The first outside show of the year was the Newark and Notts county show where we had two 30 minute demos a day. On the first day the weather was awful and i got very wet during the first show and not much better during the second. Due to the rain i decided not to bring Betty out as the last thing you want is for a new dog to have a bad experience on its first outing. Luckily the next day it was sunny weather so i opted to work her in both demos. She was great and even after the sheep and ducks had been in the ring for the sheepdog display she still remained focused and didn't sniff. So i was very pleased with her but i know by the end of the season, all the dogs get a little ring wise so i hope her present attitude in the display remains.
Over the next few weeks i have a competition and workshop to teach before the outside demos start in earnest.