Crufts !!

Apologies for not updating the blog recently but life has been rather hectic, as of course the start of March is always Crufts dog show. This year it seemed to have come round too quickly for my liking and what with other stuff going on I didn’t feel I perhaps had done enough training. Now when I say that I haven’t done enough training I probably mean I did the same amount as most people rather than a "Richard" amount. After the semi finals there is always that deliberation about how much training to do as the dogs know most of the sequences they require for the routines, so you don’t want to bore them but feel like you should be doing training.

So with my brain on "house stuff" more of that later, I arrived at Crufts on the Wednesday and managed to negotiate my painter props from the Hilton car park to the NEC main ring. All was set for the Thursday and after a couple of panic run throughs of the routines it was an early night and I was amazed that I actually slept well.

Thursday morning dawned and after some breakfast I took the two dogs over to the main ring benches and had to leave them there while going to do a training display to open the good citizen ring. I have to say at this point that I don’t think I could have coped for the four days on my own so I am indebted to Penny and Jean who help me by staying with dogs or pushing trolleys etc - a BIG THANK YOU to you both. So after the training display with my group of handlers I rushed back to the main ring and got changed for Whizzys combine harvester routine. I was glad that Whizzy was first as I seem to relax a bit more with her and as I had only entered her in the finals for experience so I wanted us both to enjoy it as I felt there was no pressure on us. I thought that the big ring might suit her as she has a long stride and during the performance the bigger area allowed me to flow with her better. I had also taken note of her enthusiasm in the ring at the last few shows so had given her a bit more work before going into the ring just so she perhaps was not quite so manic. Well I could not have been more pleased with the way she worked and I have to say I quite enjoyed it myself.

Then it was a quick change into the painter outfit as Pogo was last in the running order. As each team went in I fully expected some to beat Whizzys score and some did come close but I was very surprised that her score remained in the lead until dog ten. Of course dog ten was Pogo so as I walked into the ring I knew one of my dogs had won the final. I have waited a few years to perform this painter routine as I knew it could be good but needed to make sure Pogo could cope with it before I brought it out. Now I’m not going to say that it all went totally to plan but the majority did and some bits I managed to cover. Overall I was very pleased with how it went and this time unlike the semis I managed to get the ending correct. When the score came in I was over the moon that I had succeeded in getting first and second in the UK freestyle final. This meant it was the second year running Pogo had won it and the third time I have won it : )

Later that day I was meant to work Pogo again in the winners spot but knowing my dog it was too much to ask her to work the next two days in competition as well as this second performance. Those who know Pogo know she has not got the most drive in the world and last year when she did the same it was a mistake on my part to do this second performance as it had an effect on her next two days routines. So instead of working Pogo I worked Whizzy who did well but perhaps not as on form as she had been in the morning. It’s a lot to ask the dogs to do complex routines twice in one day and personally I prefer to leave my dogs doing one routine a day as the second one never goes as well.

After the excitement of the first day it was time for Pogo to compete in the HTM final on the Friday. If you have watched the routine you will know she was shaking her head during the routine which was due to me : ( Just before I went into the ring I pulled some liver cake apart and some crumbs landed on her head and perhaps down her ear. I knew as soon as I saw them fall that I was going to have a problem and sure enough halfway through the routine I nearly stopped. After one good shake she seemed better so I carried on and the resulting score was good enough to take her into second.

The international competition was on the Saturday and as we had won on the Thursday we had to represent England in this compeititons. There were entries from Slovenia, Denmark, Belgium etc so no pressure for us! After a dodgy start when Pogo looked around she got into her flow and the routine went well, almost a little better than the Thursday. At the end of the competition I was over the moon she had added the international to her wins.

Crufts is always hectic for me as not only do I have the finals but three training displays with my dogs or volunteer handlers in the Good cits ring. I have to thank all my handlers for coming along and doing a brilliant job during the four days especially Lucy who got landed to do the commentary a couple of times as I was down in the main hall. As well as these training demos I also did an hour long training master class on the Samsung stand on Friday and Sunday which went very well according to the organisers.

So that was another Crufts over with, at the moment I’m thinking this might be Pogos last Crufts as I don’t often keep dragging my dogs out again and again preferring to retire them when they are on a high. Especially as I am judging next year plus have other young dogs coming up. Not that Pogo will retire as she is an essential part of the K9 Freestyle display so will still be working in that but from my point of view I don’t have to worry about her display work interfering with her competition work.

As I mentioned earlier it looks like I might be on the move, having lived in Southampton all my life it has and still is scary to move to a totally different place. At the moment I have my fingers crossed that everything is going ok with the house sale/purchase but who knows so I will post more when there is some concrete facts.

Finally can I just say a huge thanks to everyone who has emailed, facebooked or sent cards congratulating us on our Crufts wins it is lovely to hear such nice comments about the routines and the enjoyment that have bought to people watching.

A busy time

Since the semi finals life for the dogs has been fairly quiet as i always like to give them a good rest after the build up to a competition. That doesn't mean i have had a rest as Feb has seen the start of two monthly Tuesday workshops. These day long workshops are for handlers who are competing and during the day we have a mix of individual and group work. The first of this kind of workshop was at the start of Feb and i really enjoyed it as it was good to work on individual teams rather than keeping things general which you sometimes have to do with large groups.
Betty has not had that much training recently as i have had a lot of work with the two competition dogs so it has been nice to do a little more work with her. She is great fun to train but you do have to be on the ball as she does things so fast. She already has some unique moves due to her size but at the moment i am struggling to come up with anymore. Of course she can do all the basic moves like the bigger dogs but some just don't have the same impact because of her small size.
I forgot to mention in this blog that we did a performance in front of royalty at the end of January. When i say royalty it was Princess Alexandra who i think is a niece to the Queen. It was all very formal and i had to stand in line to greet her, then little Betty and Pogo had to do their thing. Luckily it went quite well and i am told the Princess really enjoyed it.
Last week i made the trip to London to see a preview of the Dogumentary or as it is now called A different breed TV show which i was filmed for last year. It is going to be shown on Sky at the start of April and i must admit to being a little worried about how it was going to look. As i watched the first half of the programme i was cringing a bit as some of the dog owning characters are certainly outgoing. Then it came to my bit which was the filming done when Whizzy competed at a show. I thought it came across OK, obviously they showed the only three people in the entire show that had funny costumes but that's what the media does. We then saw the fifth show out of the six and that was ok. There are funny moments in it and i think it will make you laugh in places if you do watch it. Not having seen all 6 programmes i don't know what the others are like but from what i have seen it appears i will not have to leave the country in embarrassment !
Not long to go to Crufts now so i really must get back into training but with lots of workshops still to teach this month it might not be that easy.

Pogo and Whizzy qualify for Crufts

The semi finals for Crufts took place on the 29th January at the KC building at Stoneleigh. As the semis got closer i was beginning to regret having to perform three routines all on one day. Life has been very busy away from dogs which is unusual for me so it had been hard to keep my brain on the job.
Pogo was first in on the day with her Great Escape heelwork routine. I chose this music as it suits her small frame and as i had found a different version i felt i could do it differently from when i have used it before. Pogo did well but i didn't feel that we were both quite on form, so i was pleased to find out that we ended up in second place.
Then it was the turn of Whizzy in the Crufts freestyle semi final. I was performing a routine she has done last year so in theory we should have known it. Well Whizzy was in turbo mode and i should have perhaps given her more work in the morning. That's the trouble when your working a new dog it takes a while to find out what is the best way to get them to perform well in the ring. Anyway it didn't go too badly and she was certainly enjoying it which is more important than anything else. She ended up third which considering she was the youngest dog in the competition and has only been competing since April 2010 i was very pleased. My main reason for working her at this level was that she would not get the opportunity to work in the main ring at Crufts for quite a while if i didn't, as i am judging Crufts again in 2012 so i thought it best to give her the experience now.
After a quick change it was time to get ready to work Pogo in the freestyle semi final. I had been concentrating a lot on this routine and have had it in my mind for a long time but wanted to wait until i felt we could do it justice. The routine seemed to go past in a flash and there were areas which were not as good as we should have been but something to work on before the final. The routine seemed to go down well with the audience and the judges as they scored us well which meant for the second year running Pogo won the Crufts semi final.
So now its a bit of a rest before getting ready for Crufts at the start of March.

Its snow joke

Well if you are in the UK you probably have had some of the white stuff around the place. The snow arrived overnight for us and it was quite deep, so i had to clear some grass for little Betty as it was about her height. The snow came just at the wrong time for me as the snow arrived on the Thursday and then i was meant to be in London on Friday. This was for a demo plus re filming the SKY TV Dogumentary programmes titles. Apparently the title sequence we filmed earlier wasn't what SKY wanted so they asked for it to be filmed again. As most of the other main participants were in London they all made it to the filming but i didn't think it was worth the risk so unfortunately my dogs will not now be in the opening titles.
The start of next year is starting to look busy with quite a few workshops both at weekends plus daytime ones at Swindon and Kings Somborne. I'm really looking forward to these sessions as each handler will get a chance to do some individual work on a routine, sequence etc. I did a similar session the other day for a group and really enjoyed working with the one team and trying to get the best out of them.
Due to the cold weather i must admit i have not been out much to do some training on the dogs routines so today i went out with the props to do some much needed practise. I was really pleased with Pogos freestyle routine training and her HTM is OK but i have mainly been concentrating on her freestyle routine. Whizzy is on a bit of a rest from freestyle as she has had a busy year but to keep her brain in gear i thought i would do a bit of HTM with her. I have taught her some of the positions ages ago but found she did not have the drive i wanted so i concentrated on her freestyle. Well i was very impressed with her energy and enthusiasm in her positions and you never know i might think about doing some HTM with her as she has such a nice trotting actions.
If i don't blog again before Christmas may i wish everyone who visits the website and reads this blog a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Back to training

On the last weekend in October i made my way to Belguim to teach a two day workshop. The first day was for advanced handlers and i was very privileged to have top handlers from a few countries attending. The day went well although my heart did sink a little when a handler said she needed to teach her dogs some WOW moves as unless her dog did these she thought her dog would not get anywhere in the top class. I must admit my heart sank a little as she was basically saying that judges are putting more emphasis on the moves than the choreography. This has been my problem with the sport this year as it seems that some handlers are doing trick shows with a backing track rather than putting the moves to the music.
I was wined and dined very well during my stay and had been booked in a lovely bed and breakfast while i was there which i highly recommend if you are ever in Belgium www.koeckenhuys.be
Getting back late on the Sunday night i was pretty tired but come Monday morning i was energised enough to go out and do some training with Pogo on her routines. I concentrated mainly on her freestyle routine as I'm not that worried this year how she does in her HTM also she knows her positions in HTM so it makes it a little easier to practise them at home. With our freestyle routine we really have to go out and train it as the props needs some space around them. I already knew that there was at least one area which i needed to work on but as is so often the case, the moves i thought she was doing really well didn't go as well as they should. So its back to practising these few moves over the next week to try and get them more reliable. Its funny how when you are training a routine if just one or two bits go wrong out of all the bits you practise it feels like the routine is not going well. I tried to walk out the routine without the dog to convince myself that actually most of the routine is sort of there but until i get these three moves exactly right every time i will not be happy.

Errrrr.........we need to do some more practice !

Today was the first time i have been out and worked the potential HTM routine for Pogo. To be honest i have been doing more practise for her freestyle routine so i suddenly felt i should just take a look at her HTM routine. On the positive side at least i remembered the routine which is great considering since i have worked it out i have not really done too much on it.
As usual as you start to work the routine there can be some pieces that need to be changed. One thing i try to avoid is just doing a couple of paces of one direction before changing as often it does not showcase the position and can look rushed. This was the case at one section where i thought Pogo would do a few more paces to the section of music but as it turned out she only did a few so some adjustments were made there.
Of course something you often debate as a handler is how many positions and directions should you put in. As much as judges/officials of the sport say a few positions done well is better than them all done but with some performed not so well, I'm not sure all judges think like that. Often you see judges marking ever single position off on a tick list and if you miss one out you get less content points. Then of course what if you only do a minimum of one position will they down mark you for that.
Anyway the practise was ok but as we all know ok is not good enough and i really need to work on some of the positions. Time seems to be rushing by at the moment so i really must knuckle down and do some precision work with Pogo.

First real practice

Well today i went and did my first real serious practice session with Pogo ready for January. I had recently taken delivery of a couple of props so there was not much room in the van. Although i had mocked up one of the props this was the first time Pogo had worked with the actual one. After a few mistakes she seemed to pick up mostly what i wanted and i can see that we need to do a lot more practise on this one sequence. The only problem is i need space to do this sequence so i can only do it outside so will have to set it up outside when its not raining so i can do it several times during a day. The sequence a little way into the routine was the only real weak section i felt as i videoed the session and can see most the rest of the stuff is OK.
The freestyle routine seemed to take up most the session but i did run through the HTM routine on my own and it seemed OK. Its a good job i can hire an indoor arena to practise in now and again as i think if i had done this session in the park some people might have given me really weird looks : )

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.

Life after Crufts

Well Crufts seems such a long time ago, its now time to get back into training and arranging the diary for the rest of the year. Details of new workshops will soon be on the website for Sweden, Bridgewater and a couple of others if there are places avaliable. Bookings are already coming in for 2011 which seems wrong as im sure christmas was only two weeks ago!! i suppose having a busy life means time goes quickly and in only a few weeks i will be off teaching in Australia, fingers crossed the jet lag is not as bad as last time.

The main item on my mind at the moment is what routines will Pogo do next ? I already have a long list of things i want to teach her as of course with the last few months being focused on Crufts you dont want to teach her anything new. I know if i dont start now on the new stuff time will again run away with me.

It was interesting watching the various Crufts finals back online especially when you see moves I did first with my dogs in the Uk many years ago. I think care needs to be taken with some of the moves that are being done now that they are not dangerous for the dog as the last thing the sport needs is for dog to get injured while performing.

Im slowly getting around to putting up some video of Pogos Crufts routines but some others have already put several versions of Pogos surf routine on youtube. The HTM routine will have to be put to different music as Lets face the music and dance is one of the tracks the Youtube will not allow.

Having had this last weekend off it was nice to get out in the New Forest walking the dogs. Betty decided to see if she can walk on water for the first time, luckily the water was not too deep !

Crufts

Well its all over for another year but what a great Crufts it was this year for me and Pogo. The first day was the freestyle final which i am delighted to say Pogo won by performing her Hawaii 50 routine. Everything seemed to go to plan and it got a great reaction from the crowd. As Pogo had won this final she then had to go back in at the end of the day to perform it which is not ideal as she was in the HTM final the next day.
The second day dawned and i was a bit nervous about our HTM routine as it was a bit out of our comfort zone. Normally i tell stories in the routines but this year i had decided to push myself and do a routine to Lets face the music and dance. The routine went well although a couple of times my mouth was so dry the commands didn't come out so we had a couple of wobbles. Now i thought the crowds reaction to the Hawaii routine was good but this routine seemed to go down even better. I had lots of people coming up after the final to say how much they enjoyed it and have received lots of emails to complement us on our performance. Many people have asked whether or not i have taken dance lessons well not at all i just practised a lot to get myself right. Although we came third the top three all scored twenty six points with the decimal places deciding where we came.
Onto the Saturday where i had to represent England as i had won the freestyle final on the Thursday. Pogo by now was tired so it took a lot of effort to get her to perform as she did. The international competition was probably the toughest there has ever has been at Crufts. The standard was very high and considering Pogo was tired i was delighted we gained second place.
Sunday was just as busy as i had three displays to do in one ring which i had also been doing on the previous days as well as competing. Plus i was giving a demo on the Samsung stand which was very well received with over 200 people watching in a very small space.
I would like to thank everyone who wished me luck and congratulated us on our achievements. Also a big thank you to Penny and Jean who help me out during the four days at Crufts and made it so enjoyable.

Last training session

Last night i went and did the final main training session before Crufts eek scary! Pogo went well but i think the handler could have done a lot better. I had the session videoed which meant i could see what i was doing or more like what i should be doing. In my defence i was only doing short bits of the HTM routine so it was hard to get into it. Fingers crossed on the day with the aid of some alcohol i will not let Pogo down. So over the weekend i am going to be writing out my lines of " must stand up straight" and "shoulders back and smile" 1000 times !!

Not long now till Crufts

Well it seems time is racing past at the moment and Crufts is getting ever closer eek scary. I think it seems to have come about sooner compared to last year as the semi finals were at the start of January unlike this year where they were at the end. When they were earlier it meant that you could have a bit of a break from training and then get going a the start of Feb.

So I have tried to start to do a bit more training and have been listening to the music a little more. My music choice for HTM this year is a little different from my normal track so there is a certain amount of nerves about it. I think it will mean I will be consuming more than my normal glass of alcohol before I go in the ring that day. Fingers crossed the alcohol does it trick and makes me more relaxed.

The freestyle routine is coming along ok although the "titanic" move has been giving me a bit of a problem. Everytime I practice this move it seems to go a little wrong the first time but then fine after that. So we really need to nail it a bit better so I'm hoping by putting a quick wait in before Pogo performs it Will help, lets hope that works. With a cabaret night this weekend and next it will give me a chance to practice a few of the moves in sequence in front of an audience.

Betty went to her first dog training class this week as I felt that she needed to work around other dogs as she thinks they are all her friends. Also with her little legs her nose is very close to the ground so it was good to work on a flooring which other dogs had worked on. I was very pleased with what she did but she did look a bit tired by the end of the class.

A busy weekend

Well this is the first time I have sat down at the laptop since friday of last week. Last weekend I was in Dagenham for two one day workshops. I have been to this group twice before so knew some of the handlers. The first day was for beginners so we tackled a lot of the moves and then developed them on a little with those that could perform them.

The only trouble was that the dogs got really exhausted as anyone who has been on my workshops know I always cover a lot on them. So I think many of the dogs and perhaps a few handlers slept well after that first days training. The second day was for dogs that had done some moves, so we linked them together as well as learnt some other moves. There were some nice dogs on the workshops and a Rottie with a tail who was a very handsome boy. I must admit I have not always liked some of the Rotties with tails that I have seen but this boy was a really nice one.

Leaving the venue on sunday evening I set the sat nav to Rugby as I was going to stay with Dave and Mary Ray as I had agreed to go up and help Mary with her routine. The monday dawned and we had to get to the Rugby dog training venue early as the owner of the place had decided to put a new cattle grid in so we had to get there before they started. As it turned out it was a good job we did get their early as it took a while to get through everything. I'm sure that Marys new routine will go down well as it always does and there is certainly a move towards the end which people will remember.

So what with the weekend and working with Mary on her routine its given me a much needed boost to get on with Pogos routines. Of course I have had the routines worked out for a while but there has just been a couple of bits which I thought I would leave until I knew if I had qualified. Today I went out training and luckily there was not many people in the park as I think I would have got some odd looks with my props. In Pogos freestyle routine she has what I have called the Titanic move and its not been always going to plan. I always like to have the moves to the stage where I know the dog will 90% of the time perform it but with this one I have not got my part off pat yet. So I will see how it goes and then decide if I will definitely put it in.

New Crufts rule fiasco

Well as I mentioned in my last post HTM / Freestyle competitors were notified of a new rule that was made up on Saturday that you would have to do the same routine at the semis and the final. It was no surprise when I heard that the Crufts department have released yesterday this new rule on the Kennel Club website. I think it is a case of get it out there quickly to try and shut up those people who are not in favour of it. I have to say I am disappointed that the people who work with the crufts main arena regarding HTM have not put forward the handlers point of view and are basically backing the rule it seems.

As yet I personally have not heard from anyone who thinks the rule is workable and necessary. Plus many handlers are disgusted at the way it has been brought in without any consultation and in a very dictatorial manner.

So what are the implications now ? well firstly it has been pointed out to me that I should make sure I tick that box on the entry form which says you don't want to be filmed. Why, well who will want to have a record of their routine on film so that others can say you have done the routine differently. Secondly are the judges who have already accepted the judging of the final appointments for 2011 happy to disqualify handlers under this rule. Also if a a judge is not at the semi final how will they know whether of not the routine is different ? who will be telling them that the routine has changed ? there are so many more questions I could list but I wont bore you.

I am so glad i do not work Disco in the semis anymore as I have always had to improvise sometimes huge parts of the routine as she never liked doing a predictable routine.

I must admit to feeling very disheartened by this rule and wonder why I bother to compete : (

Crufts semi finals

Well it is was a very long day but I'm glad to say that Pogo qualified for the HTM and Freestyle finals at Crufts 2010. Having woken on the Thursday before the competition with a nasty cold I wasn't feeling at my best on the competition day. There were quite a few entries in all the classes which meant that the last class of the day which was the freestyle semi final didn't start until around 5pm. So having been awake since 5.30am I think many of the handlers didn't suffer as much with nerves as we were all exhausted by the time we went into the ring.

So now its time to get practising on the new routines for Crufts, fingers crossed the weather stays fine so that we can get out and do some training.