Agility Update

Well I have been to a lot of shows since my last post - Dundee, Kingdom of Fife, Woodside, Fair City and SKC.

It has been a mixed bag with both Barney and Pebbles but that is what I expected given that we did no training from August through to January and then since then it has been very limited. I have started back training fortnightly with Kenny but training at home doing my 'homework' has not really been possible. I think the main problem this causes is a reduced level of understanding between handler and dog. I am not running each dog as well as I used to and they are not as sure about what I mean. Still at least we are still able to enjoy the shows and hopefully as Mia gets older I will be able to do more training in the garden - or maybe not!!!

As I cannot remember any runs in detail I will summarise each show. Dundee was very much getting back into it. The main struggle here was my lack of fitness and my inability to run! And then I managed to tweak my calf muscle in the last run on Saturday so I only did 2 runs on the Sunday. Still there were a few solid runs and a few disasters! I was quite happy though and we enjoyed a great weekend weather wise and family wise.

Then it was onto Kingdom of Fife which was a great show, I really liked the new venue in St Andrews despite the baltic weather conditions. This show was much better in terms of handling and flow. I was able to run a bit better and Pebbles really seemed to be tuned in. Barney was his usual erratic self but I love running him because in many ways he is easier to run than Pebbles because at least he will run ahead. All I can remember from this show is that Barney placed in agility on Saturday and Pebbles got a 3rd in agility and a 2nd in agility so really pleased.

Next up was Woodside and the first champ show of the year. Again we enjoyed baltic weather conditions! Barney did not qualify for the champ final which is no surprise! But Pebbles did with 2 clear rounds so I was really pleased. We managed to get 5 faults in the final so finished 5th and last!! It was a good course she just didn't push out round the wing of a jump but stopped and barked at me as soon as I stopped - nothing new!! This is probably Pebbles' biggest fault. She will not move if I stop but we are working on it!! Again I cannot remember much detail but think Pebbles placed in agility on Sunday.

Then onto one of our favourite shows of the year - Fair City. It is such an amazing location and the weather was a bit kinder than last year's torrential rain! I really can't remember much from this show (one of the side effects of having a baby seems to be memory failure!!). I think it was pretty mixed with Pebbles winning an agility (really good round) and placing in a jumping and agility. Barney got placed in a jumping but managed to get eliminated in all rounds on Sunday. And this is when he started to run past all cloth tunnels. Who knows why - Barney has some very funny quirks. And since then he has run past every cloth tunnel!

Yes, he ran past every cloth tunnel at SKC so not a good day for Barney! Pebbles managed to qualify for the Champ final again with 2 clear rounds - the jumping round was very messy but clear which is the main thing! We ran 3rd of 11 in the final on what was a really good course with a few testers to make you think. I decided that since we were 5 seconds off the pace in the agility qualifying that we had to go for it and for the first time in a champ final I just went for it to see what would happen, normally I am too nervous and end up handling really tight. This back-fired though and because I am starting to be able to run a lot better as I get fitter again I sent Pebbles over a jump then turned to run back to the dog walk but I was too quick and went too far away from her so she came round the wrong side of me and forced me to go down the wrong side of the dog walk - not good! I managed to rescue it at the other end but it was very messy and then as Pebbles cam out of the first tunnel I positioned myself towards the next tunnel but must have been too far away from her and she went into the weave at the wrong end. She then cruised round the rest of the course beautifully which I really enjoyed. So I have learnt from this show that I need to stay closer to Pebbles until she has committed to each obstacle. That is, let her work in front, not behind - yes, as Kenny has told me hundreds of times in training!! I just need to do it in the competition ring!

That brings us to the week before Avon show which is the annual outing with Gran! It is going to be the girls on tour - Mia, Gran and myself! I think Malcolm is really looking forward to a break and some 'me' time not to mention time on the golf course and his snazzy new road bike.

Mia is 7 Months already!

I can't believe how quickly time has gone. It has been ages since I have posted a blog because I just don't seem to have time these days! My days are filled with bottles, feeding, dog walking, baby activities and agility. All great fun but as a result time just seems to pass in a blur.


Mia is 7 months old already! She has developed so much recently, especially over the last month. She can now sit for short spells on her own, eat solid food, roll over, giggle a lot, and she is getting her first 2 teeth! She is an absolute joy at the moment. She wakes every morning with a huge grin looking forward to every day. She then goes through each day with a smile and lots of giggles. She is just so adorable. Long may it last!! Here are some recent photos:

The last photo is Mia in her jumperoo. This is probably her favourite place at the moment. She loves it and spends a couple of times a day leaping about, giggling and screeching!! It is great since it tires her out at a stage when she can't walk or crawl yet.

She has been away in the caravan a few times now and has settled in well. She has been to a few dog shows so far but because of the cold weather she hasn't really been out and about much yet. Hopefully now the weather has improved she will get to see a lot more.


She gets out and about during the week too with various activities - Sing and Sign class which she loves, swimming which she loves and mothers and toddlers where she sees all her friends :-)


The next stage will see her getting mobile - not sure if I am looking forward to that or not!!

Feb 2010 Update

Mia is now 3.5 months old and time just seems to fly past. She is growing like a mushroom and changes all the time. She has started smiling which is brilliant, she is so cute when she smiles. She has also found her voice and 'tells us stories' all the time. It is an exciting time as she learns new things all the time. I am looking forward to the next stage since she will be more alert and interactive than in the first three months.

Mmmmm, I wonder???!!

Happy!

Go Scotland!!

My days have pretty much settled into a routine now. Up in the morning for a feed, dress Mia, breakfast, prepare bottles, do washing, empty bins, cross trainer, shower and dressed. Small play session with Mia before another feed. Then get ready and load up the car for an afternoon walk with the dogs while Mia snoozes. The afternoon is Mia waking for the next feed before playing in the afternoon before bath, supper and then bed. She is absolutely brilliant at sleeping in the night and loves to sleep. She goes to sleep at around 8-8.30pm and sleep through to 8am which is great - we were not very keen on the sleepless nights!!

The next task is going to be weaning when she starts showing signs she has had enough of milk and wants to eat something more interesting. I think this will happen in the next month or so. That will be fun as well as very messy no doubt!! I am going to try and be a really good mum and make everything and try and provide a wide range of food to test her taste buds. Hopefully I will stick to my good intentions!

I have managed to start back with agility training every second Thursday and even managed my first show in 6 months in January. It was interesting to say the least. Both dogs and handler were very rusty. I made some really basic handling mistakes and got a bit lost with my footing in places. The dogs generally were great given their lack of practice. Barney did well and did his contacts well if not a bit slowly. Pebbles was as keen as ever but has regressed a bit to sticking to me too much and yipping her way round each course!! We had a great time though and it was great to spend a day out of the house with my lovely doggies :-)

I have been very dedicated at using our cross trainer every day for the last 10 weeks and it has not made any difference at all!! Drastic measures are needed and I am going to a boxercise class tonight. I love boxercise but hate the first few weeks when I am not sure what I am doing and when I am not fit! It better work though as I have to go out in public in my swimming costume in a few weeks when we take Mia swimming for the first time....

That is going to be interesting since Mia is not sure of new things and likes to tells us as much in a loud voice. Yes, I can see us trying to hide and/or disown our screaming baby. Fingers crossed we are wrong and she does us proud and loves to swim. She certainly loves bath time!!

Mia's first Christmas!

Well, how amazing! Mia is already enjoying her first christmas and look it is very, very white!

The first picture is of the front garden and view and the second picture is the back garden. A lot of snow! It is so deep that Pebbles disappears and has to resort to leaping to get through it! Still they have enjoyed many a snowy walk with their dad trying to find their balls in the snow.

It was Mia's first christmas so we felt we needed to mark the occasion with a special christmas outfit to wear on christmas eve and christmas morning. I think she likes it and definitely looked very, very cute!

Mia had her own pile of presents to open on christmas morning but as you can imagine she had no idea what they were or what the presents inside were either!! Still it is the principal I guess and she will be able to play with the toys before next christmas.

Posing with Mum

Posing with Dad

Are all these for me???!!!!

Yippee!!

It was great to have Mia this christmas and can hardly believe she will probably be toddling about this time next year - yikes!

We didn't forget the dogs though and here they are opening their presents which they always seem to be able to sniff out from all the other presents! They both enjoyed a christmas bone although Barney seems to prefer hiding his rather than eating it. On taking some rubbish out to the bins later that morning I noticed a small pile of snow up against the garage wall and lo and behold lurking underneath, hidden from greedy Pebbles, was Barney's precious bone. Even funnier was having realised that Mum must have found the precious bone he later came back and re-located it under another pile of snow up against the bins!! I am not sure of the whereabouts of this bone anymore........and I am not even sure Barney can remember either :-)

Christmas outfits!

We enjoyed christmas lunch at my brother's house with his partner Hazel and my lovely nieces Mhairi and Edie. As usual the lunch was excellent and we were utterly full when finished. We also enjoyed opening our presents to each other.

The girls! (Hazel, Gran, Mhairi)

Mia with Auntie Hazel

Mia with her fab cousins

Mac totally exhausted from the day's efforts

So that is christmas over for another year. It will be our turn to host it once the nieces decide they do not need to be where their presents are and once Mia gets old enough to want to stay at her house. It will be good fun when she is that age but I have a lot to live up to after many years of excellent hosting by my brother and Hazel!! Thanks guys.

Mia is here!

Well, we are now officially parents to baby Mia who was born on 25th October 2009 at 2.22pm, weighing 7lbs and 3oz.

After a short stay in hospital Mum and Mia got home on Wednesday 28th October. Since then Mum and Dad have been settling into the new routines and trying to get our heads round the fact we are now parents! Last week there was no Mia, this week she is here and she is real and we are responsible for her - yikes!

To say that she is gorgeous is an understatement. In our eyes she is absolutely perfect. She is so cute and so very, very small.

Proud Dad - 1 Hour after Birth

Baby Mia - 1 Hour after Birth

Mia - 4 Days

Mia - 4 Days

Mia - with her Cousins

Mia with cousin Edie

Mia with Uncle Graham

Life has been pretty hectic since her arrival and we are trying to get our heads round feeding and sleeping patterns. It is all very new and a very steep learning curve! We do wonder if we will ever be able to leave the house again or how you are supposed to look after a baby when there is not 2 of you!!

I am sure it will all get easier and we will get into our own little routine. It is all so amazing, exciting, daunting, and so, so worth it! One look at her cute little face is enough to make us smile and remember how lucky we are to have her.

BF in 3D

Wow what about this picture - BF in 3D at 27 weeks!!

So amazing!!! You can see her face and she looks so contented.

Malcolm and I decided that we could not stand the uncertainty of not knowing for sure if BF is a girl so off I went for a sexing scan today to get a better idea given that I am now 27 weeks and it should be more obvious. And it was confirmed that BF is a girl :-) Phew is all I can say given the amount of pink things already purchased!!

During the scan we also got a 3D picture as above. It took a while to get since BF had decided to put both hands and legs in front of her face and the scanner could not get a clear picture until the very end. It was well worth waiting for the shot though since she looks adorable. Yes, I am biased!!!!

East Lothian Show

I will start this post with the Champ class that Pebbles took part in since it was first up on the Saturday.

In the jumping class Pebbles went clear, not the tidiest clear and certainly not the smoothest but a good clear which is what was needed. In the agility round, not long after, she also did a clear round, again not one of her best rounds but solid. And I have to say that as a combination it was probably the best 2 qualifying rounds we have done in a Champ class this year so I was pretty pleased. This was shown by the fact that she qualified for the final and we were 4th last to go which was a really good position to be in.

The course for the final was really good - a few little twists and turns and a really tricky weave entry which really made me think hard about how to handle it. In the end I went with the entry that kept Pebbles on the left hand side but meant she had to go straight past a tunnel entry without going in. As usual I was pretty nervous but have to say that I am definitely getting better at handling the Champ classes and we started off really well. Pebbles negotiated the hard turns brilliantly tight and, I have to say, did the whole of the first half of the course really well. She was focused, smooth and doing really tight turns. Fantastic! Then came the hard weave entry and once again Pebbles did not disappoint as I pulled her away from the tunnel entry and then pushed her back for the weave entry she followed me exactly and did a great entry and weave. At the end of the weave I pulled her back towards the cloth tunnel and then disaster - I forgot the course!!!!! Instead of letting her take the jump straight after the tunnel which poor little Pebbles was all set to do I had a brain melt down and pulled her left and onto the see saw one obstacle too soon. It was then that the crowd groaned and as we finished I wondered what had gone wrong. Yes, I didn't even realise I had missed the jump until someone told me as we crossed the last jump. To say I was gutted would be an understatement - it is the first time ever that I have forgotten a course and can't believe I did it. There have been a number of sleepless nights since I can tell you. It is one of those things that keeps playing over and over in your head!

What disappoints the most it that when I think back it was a great round for Pebbles and immediately afterwards I reckoned would have put her behind Tash (who did a lovely clear round) and finished 2nd, outwith the course time. However, the worst thing about it is I think she might have been faster, possibly even won it, but I will never ever know. And it is this not knowing that is the worst. And I really feel that I let Pebbles down, she had put everything into the round and my mistake ruined any chance we might have had.

So I have made 2 Champ finals this year which I am really, really pleased about but have to say both finals could have been better! I can only say now though that it can't possibly get any worse and I need to just get on with it and try to beat the nerves so that next time I give Pebbles every chance of at least getting a clear round.

The rest of the rounds that day passed pretty much in a blur since all Pebbles rounds seemed to happen at once. She did manage a 2nd in agility and Barney also managed a 2nd in agility despite me really working his contacts which lost a lot of time. His contacts all day were really good, especially his A frame which is definitely getting faster and more consistent.

Onto Sunday and I was lucky enough to have Malcolm there doing some videoing so for a change I have videos of some of our runs. I will start with Barney:



In the jumping round it was a nice flowing course but with plenty to think about. Again Barney did well with the tight turns at the start, not normally his strong point. The turns at the jumps nearest the camera were a bit wide but all in all he did well and listened to my commands really well. He finished with a good clear and placed 1st Grade 6. Well done Barney :-)

Next Barney does an agility round where my main focus all weekend was to get his contacts. As you can see he did a really nice weave entry and did really well on the tight turns in the box after the weave. His dog walk was OK, he got the contact but it was a bit slow. Definitely better than earlier on in the year so I am really happy with the progress. The A frame again was slow but he really got the contact position which again is getting more consistent. Unfotunately there was a bit of a mix up at the cloth tunnel at the finish and he stuck his nose in before deciding that he had seen me run past so popped back out again!!



Pebbles started with a clear in agility which she did really well again despite the nightmare handling. I forgot where I was going after the weave and we nearly missed the jump until I did a mad push out, then after the A frame and jump I forgot where I was going again! Then if you look closely you will notice that naughty, horrible Mum manages to give Pebbles a kick in the face, enough to knock her sideways, as she comes out of the cloth tunnel. It completely floors her and she stands stock still looking dazed until I go back and get her to take the final jump! The poor wee soul and she still managed 2nd despite all this.

Then she went onto an elimination in the jumping round. She backed jumped. This seems to be a common thing when I send her over a jump and then move back to the next jump, rather than go round the jump wing she looks at me going back away from the jump and follows me over the jump. The good thing about this is that she is going over the jump even as I stop ready to turn back, previously she would have stopped as soon as I stopped. And rather than go right up to the jump wing and bring her round I have been trying to stand back and let her go forward on her own. This has not quite worked yet!! Pebbles still watches my every move and won't work too far away from me like Barney. Still the rest of the round was pretty solid.

She went clear in the final jumping round with a steady round and although I have no idea if she placed I doubt if she was fast enough. It is hilarious to watch my handling of Pebbles. I must stand up straighter and try not to stoop to her level! Something to work on I think!

I have to confess though that I was finding it really difficult to remember the courses all weekend. I think on the Saturday it was a mixture of nerves as well as what I am going to call 'pregancy brain'!!! Yes, I think the hormones were having fun with my memory as I struggled to remember where I was going some of Saturday and most of Sunday. Lets hope it doesn't get any worse for the Fife show!!!

From this show, my favourite show of the year, we went straight to Yellowcraigs caravan site, a mere 15 minutes down the road, for a weeks holiday which I was sorely needing. It was great to get a rest and simply enjoy walks on the beach and a few meals out. The weather was unbelievable as well with shorts and tee shirts worn every day until the Friday. It was like camping in France. I even got a tan!!

The 'bump' is now 26 weeks old - yes, nearly 6 months down and only 3 to go. I am really starting to notice the bulk of the 'bump' in everyday life. It is heavy and thus makes normal activities more tiring. Still amazing to think that in 14ish weeks there will be another human being in the Fairweather family. I can't wait!