BF (Part 2)

So what news of BF? Last week Malcolm and I went to the PRI for the 20 week scan. We were very excited and looking forward to seeing BF again and to hear its heart and see it move.

It was amazing. BF has developed so much even since the 12 week scan. We could see fingers, toes, spine, heart, brain and lots of movement. Everything was fine and all the necessary bits and pieces were there in the right place and were the right size!! We had decided we wanted to know the sex of the baby before going into the scan.

It turns out that there is a high chance BF is a girl :-) Wow, we were all convinced it was a boy! It is not definite and it could still be a boy but for now it is a girl. We are both really thrilled although were advised by the doctor not to decorate the nursery pink and to keep all receipts just in case it is wrong!!

So here are a couple of pictures of BF at 20 weeks - the first of her feet and the second of her side on:

I have started to notice a 'bump' now at 21 weeks which is really strange. I have even had to go and buy some maternity tops! It is getting really real now!

Other than that life has been pretty normal with no agility shows for a few weeks. It has been good to get a chance to get things in the house sorted. We have managed to clear out the nursery and the wardrobe - no mean feat I can tell you given the junk that was in it! It is looking great now though.

The other main task for me has been shopping - my favourite hobby! I have been on a few trips out with my Mum and we have managed to buy a few baby essentials as well as a few little outfits which are so cute :-) I have also spent time ordering stuff from the internet. The next shopping trip will be to Mothercare to get the rest of the essentials on the list. This won't be until mid-August now though since we have agility shows and our next holiday to fit in before hand.

So from the weekend after next things get very busy and before I know it the agility season will be over for me (am stopping at the beginning of August) and I will have BF to concentrate on. And of course it won't be long after that that I am on maternity leave - yippee!!

Will try and update soon.

Avon Show

Well I am just recovering from the sun burn from a really, really hot weekend in Lanark. The good news is that Mum managed to join me in the caravan for the weekend to keep me and the dogs company. She was a great help and it was great to see her back in action again after all her trails and tribulations and operations :-)

On the Saturday we started with the small and medium Olympia qualifier. This was the event that Pebbles won last year to qualify for the semi-finals completely out of the blue and where Barney finished 4th to also qualify completely by surprise.

This year Pebbles finished 3rd which was a brilliant result again although did not qualify and Barney finished 6th again not qualifying . I am glad they both did brilliantly but also glad they did not qualify because I would not have gone to the semi-finals anyway because they are too late in the year for me to manage the ‘bump’! I don’t know what it is but Pebbles seems to like this event because she did a brilliant round, really smooth and fast. What a star. Barney also did a really smooth round and did really good contacts so I was really pleased.

The rest of the weekend was a mixed bag with Barney managing 2 Grade 6 jumping wins to take him only 1 Grade 6 agility win away from Grade 7 – yippee! My aim this season was for Barney to get to Grade 7 so I am thrilled he is doing so well. I just hope he can get the last agility win before the end of the season.

Pebbles did some really good rounds including a great agility round over Joanne Dall’s really, really long course. I couldn’t even get the commands out by the end of the round it was so long and I was so out of breath!! And I was not the only one! Still she managed a great round to finish 2nd – well done Pebbles. She does so well for such a tiny wee thing.

The main issue that arose over the weekend was both Barney and Pebbles popped out of the same weave 2 poles early with Barney doing it twice. The format of the weave was as below:


My theory is that in almost all occasions the dogs go from the weave forward to another obstacle so keep driving forward where as in this example it was a sharp turn with nothing out in front. I was not sure how to deal with it either – should I stay level with them, lag behind or go ahead? This is definitely something I am going to work on over the next few weeks. Instead of weave entries I am going to have to think about weave exits! I will have to try and vary the position of the first obstacle after the weave and see if I can handle it differently as well i.e. do some next to the dog, some behind the dog, some ahead of the dog and some away from the dog. I think I need Kenny’s help with this one though!

I would like to say on a really positive note I sent both dogs into the weave on my left and crossed behind to go down the left side of the weave. Brilliant! It is great to be able to cross behind it means all the training is paying off. I will have to keep doing this in competition when possible to keep it working.

So that is all the shows for us for a while now. We are not going to Prestwick next weekend because we are going to Darren Dods’s wedding on Saturday and then there are no shows for the next 2 weekends. So the next trip will be Clyde Valley show at Irvine at the end of June. That will give us some weekends at home to get the nursery organised J

SKC Show

Once again I have been lax at writing on my blog – there just never seems to be enough time!

It has been a while since I did the SKC show and so I am sorry but I am only going to be able to write about Pebbles in the Champ class because I cannot remember any of the other classes in detail! Although I do remember that we did not get any great results in other classes despite some really good clear rounds. Just not fast enough! Barney, in particular, is coming on really well and is really starting to listen to me which is great.

So back to the Champ class. It started with a jumping round which suffice to say was interesting. Out of the 26 or so dogs that were entered only 5 actually got round without being eliminated! Fortunately Pebbles managed a clear round. I cannot claim it to be the best round ever in fact, it was very messy, un-smooth, and not the best handling in the world but I knew from watching others (we were near the end of the running order) that all I needed was a clear round or a round with faults, basically do not get eliminated. So we did that – phew!

Then it was on to the agility round which was a really nice flowing course with not too much handling to worry about. Pebbles managed a clear round, again not the smoothest due to my nervous handling – I knew I only had to get round without being eliminated to get to the final! Once again Pebbles did me proud and got a clear round so we were through to the final – yippee. It was my aim this year to get to one Champ final with Pebbles so I was really chuffed to have achieved that J

The final was very nerve wracking especially since there were only 5 dogs who had qualified and we were running 4th so had qualified 2nd best! Yikes! The 3 dogs before me all got faults so I knew that I only needed to go clear to get a place. Mmmm, and that’s where our luck ran out. For some reason Pebbles popped out of the last pole of the weaves, so not like her. In fact I cannot remember the last time she did this, if at all! I am not sure if it was my handling or another theory is that there was no obstacle directly in front of the weave so nothing to drive forward to. This theory is backed up by the fact that at this weekend’s Avon show both Barney and Pebbles popped out of the weaves early when there was no obstacle at the end of the weave but was off to an angle – mmmm, cause for thought and training! So that was that no place and eliminated for the first time that day. Poor wee Pebbles and she tries so hard and gives her all. I was so proud of her and think she is brilliant no matter what the result. She is my little star!