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!

Agility Update

So what have we been up to on the agility front?

I went to the Kingdom of Fife 1 day show in early April accompanied by my Mum and my nieces. It turned out to be a nice day with the sun shining on us for the afternoon. We also managed to enjoy some bacon or egg rolls and some chips to keep us going!!

Pebbles did really well with only 1 elimination in the agility round. I sent her onto the dog walk on my right and went to cross behind her to the right side but as soon as I stopped to cross over she stopped and I had to jump over her!! But she had already touched the up touch marker so was eliminated by coming off and going back on again to go over the dog walk. I am not totally surprised she did this since I have not done a lot of crosses behind at either dog walks or a-frames but given our work on getting her to work ahead I kind of hoped she would keep working forward and ignore my stop. Alas, no, it is not that simple obviously!!

Funnily enough Barney did exactly the same on the same bit of the course which did surprise me. He went onto the dog walk and jumped off the side as I appeared on his right. Mmmm, not sure about this one, not like Barney to worry what I am doing behind him.

Other than that Pebbles and Barney had some lovely rounds over jumping courses but were just not quick enough to be placed. The good news was that Pebbles did not yip as much as she had on the Sunday at Dundee after her see-saw incident. She did yip sometimes and was not as flowing as she was on the Saturday at Dundee but it was definitely an improvement.

On the Sunday we packed up the caravan and headed off to Yellowcraigs camp site at Dirleton (our favourite!). We stayed there from the Sunday to the Friday before we set off to Woodside show at Biggar. We had a great time with plenty of rest and sleep which is what I needed. And of course, there was time to enjoy the home made chocolate cake at the local tea shop J The dogs had a great time with 2 walks a day on the beach and Pebbles getting to chase the ball endlessly and until she was exhausted every evening. Her idea of heaven!!

On the Friday we headed off to Biggar camp site since we did not get onto the show site this year. It was not the nicest site and although close to the agility site it was still not the same as being camped next to the rings. However, on going to the agility site to walk the dogs and to visit Liz and Rodger on the Friday evening Malcolm decided to ask at the camping check in point if there was any chance of a spare camping pitch. And there was!!! So we hastily moved the van down to a great pitch just by the rings on the Saturday morning. Yes, a hassle but well worth it. Thanks so much to Rodger for all his help getting us moved and for his lovely Land Rover which saved the day!

The Saturday saw Pebbles in the Champ show, our first ever one! Gulp! I was very nervous! She did really, really well. With 5 faults in the jumping from a refusal at the wall (not a shock given she has never been keen on walls) and then a clear in the jumping. However, she was not fast enough overall to qualify for the final. Still a good solid performance which I was happy with. I have to say though that I was not phased by the courses which I had expected to be and thought they were pretty easy for a Champ class. Good in one way to not scare me but bad in that Pebbles often excels at the harder, tighter courses. I am sure this won’t be my complaint at the next Champ show though!

Barney did a brilliant clear on jumping for the last run of the day and finished a brilliant second in combined 5-7. He was definitely on form the whole day and was moving much faster than he has been known to do! Malcolm and I think a week on holiday on the beach chasing the ball always seems to help Barney who comes away a bit fitter. He can be lazy when he wants to be!

At the end of the day we took Pebbles to see the Chiropractor because I just felt that since Dundee she has not been quite right. And this was confirmed by the fact that all day she had been very hesitant going up the a-frame (noticed by a few observers in the morning). It turned out she had a sore back which was manipulated back into shape. Poor wee soul she must have been in pain and going up the a-frame must have been sore. Hopefully, she feels much better now!

On the Sunday we started with 2 jumping rounds early in the morning. Pebbles went clear in both and was definitely back on form – no yipping and flying along. She must feel much better without the back pain! She did not make the prizes though. Barney went clear in one round and was eliminated in the other. No prizes for the clear round – too many fast Grade 7 dogs!
To finish they both did a really tricky combined 5-7 agility. Barney did a brilliant round and despite a few traps and tight turns he performed brilliantly and went clear. Only 4 dogs in the whole class went clear! He finished 2nd which was a brilliant result.

Pebbles then did an amazing clear round and flew round even flying over the a-frame and dog walk. Yippee!! She is back and working ahead of me again like she did at Dundee before the see-saw bashing. The training is working! And what amazing weave entries all weekend! She finished 1st which was a brilliant result and only her 2nd ever win in a Grade 7 class. What a great way to finish the weekend.

BIG NEWS!

It has been a while since I have posted on my blog but there has been good reason!! Our big news is that we are expecting a small Fairweather at the end of October – WOW!!!

We have had the first scan and saw ‘BF’ (Baby Fairweather) on the screen, with a little heart beat and moving. It was amazing – here is a picture of BF as seen at the 12 week scan:

How cool is that!!

We are very, very excited although can’t quite believe it is real yet. We have the 20 week scan at the beginning of June so think it will sink in a bit more then when we can see a lot more detail and my ‘bump’ is bigger!!

So far I have felt pretty good apart from feeling very, very tired and nauseous from week 6 – week 12. Thankfully, the worst of the nausea seems to have passed and although I am not able to eat large meals at least I can look forward to my meals now!!

Anyone who knows me will not be surprised to learn that one thing I am looking forward to is the shopping! Of course, this goes hand in hand with copious amounts of research before committing to any purchase to ensure that we have bought the right piece of equipment for the job, at the best price! And it goes without saying I have already started a folder for the whole process – nothing changes J

Mum and I have already spent a couple of days looking round all possible prams/buggies/travel systems and backed up by my internet research we have chosen a travel system that looks brilliant and does everything we need. It has a carrycot (apparently a must for babies up to 6 months???!!), car seat and buggy all of which can be interchanged easily and the main frame folded quickly.

Here is a picture of the snazzy travel system:

As for the other items needed I am a bit more daunted by this. I mean who knows what steriliser to buy?, what cot mattress?, what clothes?, what bath?, etc, etc These will have to be bought after the 20 week scan! More research required me thinks!!

We are going to make bedroom 4 the nursery. At the moment this is a single room with the exercise equipment in it so this will have to be moved. The plan is to clear out the large set of drawers that are currently in the room which seems to have accumulated a lot of paper and rubbish since we moved in. This will be Malcolm’s job J These drawers will then be taken to the skip as they have seen better days.

Next job will be to clear out the wardrobe in bedroom 3 before moving the contents of bedroom 4 wardrobe into the newly emptied one. Finally, the gym equipment will be moved to bedroom 3 leaving the nursery with only a single bed and an empty wardrobe. Phew!! Then it is time to get the cot from Mum and Dad’s (kindly passed on from my brother) and put it up. I have already decided what drawers to order for the room and also what décor and bedding to get so this will then be ordered too. Now I think once this is done it will seem very real!!

I am going to keep doing agility for as long as I can without being silly and I am thinking, having spoken to a few people who have already done it, that this will mean I can keep going until I am 6 months (i.e. end of July). I will just take it as it comes though but am not having any problems at the moment.

So it is life as normal for now until the 20 week scan and then it will be all go to get ready for the big event. I mean who can believe there will be another Fairweather in our house for Xmas this year! Yikes!

Dundee Agility Show

Well, I have just managed to recover from the first show of the year at Dundee! I was exhausted yesterday. It is a shock to the system doing 2 full days in a row and setting up and dismantling the caravan. It is always the same first trip though!

So what of the agility? Well Saturday was a great day for both Barney and Pebbles with signs that the training done over the winter was paying off.

First up Barney went clear in all 3 rounds of the day which was great. He opened with a combined 6-7 agility which was to be the first test of his contacts. He did a great A-Frame, really fast with a great 'stop' at the bottom - really great! His dog walk was ok and he did get his finish position but he did take a while to get there! More work required in competition there I think! But still really pleased he is getting the idea that he has to stop in his 'finish' position.

He then placed 2nd in the combined 5-7 jumping which was a great result for him and one of his best in a combined class. His round was nice and clear on what was quite a tricky course with a lot of twists and turns. He then placed 2nd in his final grade 6 jumping which was good. Again a nice clear but he can still work on his speed! Barney definitely likes to go at his own pace and can be quite lazy sometimes!!

Pebbles opened with a lovely clear in the combined 6-7 agility, placing 6th which I was really pleased with. I thought she really took on board the working ahead of me and certainly drove to the tunnel and weave entries really well.

She finished 3rd in the combined 5-7 jumping in what I think was one of her best ever rounds to date. She flowed beautifully on a really twisty course and drove forward and ahead. Lovely!

She finished with a another clear in the grade 7 jumping but wasn't fast enough to place. Again I was happy with the way she was working forwards. Malcolm said he saw a big improvement.

Then came Sunday.........!! Not such a good day at all. We started with a combined 5-7 agility for both Barney and Pebbles and the see saw in this course caused all the problems of the day. The see saw was positioned on a slope so it seemed to 'bounce' on touching the ground which was fine for the bigger dogs but for Pebbles this meant it 'bounced' just as she jumped off the end and it hit her in the chest. I did not notice it at the time but Malcolm saw it clearly and said it was quite a big jolt and gave her a real shock. As a result she started yipping at me round the whole course from the see saw onwards and stopped working ahead. She stopped as soon as I stopped at any jump and ended up stopping and yipping at me at a few jumps she would normally have driven forwards over. Not having realised about the see saw incident I was struggling to handle her since it was so different to the way she was working the day before. It was very frustrating although made perfect sense once Malcolm explained what had happened.

The dreaded see saw also seemed to claim another victim with Claire's Islay squealing just before the jump that followed the see saw. First we thought it must have been her hips or a sore leg but afterwards on reflection it makes more sense the 'bounce' might have jolted her too and caused her hip pain. It certainly seems too much of a coincidence that it happened straight after the see saw.

This was only confirmed after Barney ran the same course. Everything went well until the dog walk which came further into the course than the dreaded see saw. On going up the first plank as normal immediately on reaching the start of the middle plank he started doing a very slow see saw type crawl, as if he was waiting for it to tip and was bracing himself. He did this all the way along the middle and last plank before leaping over the bottom as if in fright. Aaaaaaarrrrggghhh, just as we were making progress. It leads me to think he got a 'bounce' on the see saw and didn't like it either and didn't want the same to happen on the similar looking dog walk plank! I am so annoyed and so hope this does not affect his dog walk in future after all the work we have put in it would be so disheartening. I just hope I can get a few sessions in on the full size dog walk and see saw at training before the next show.

Pebbles did another 2 jumping rounds. Both of these she yipped her way round and again refused jumps. I was so disappointed that our progress had been affected by something out of our control. I will just have to work her in the garden and at training again to try and move past this setback.

Barney finished with a clear in his last jumping and placed 2nd in grade 6 jumping. A really good result and a good note to finish on.

It had been a long weekend with the last round on Sunday not until 6pm!!!

Lots more training now before the Kingdom of Fife show in 3 weeks.

Agility Training Update

It has been a while since I have written about agility but that is because there has been little to report. No competitions, just training in the run up to the summer season.

So what have been working on in training all this time?! I have spent the winter really trying to get Pebbles to work away from me for 2 main reasons. First, to try and get her to go faster, I always felt she was just going at my pace and not running forward as fast as she could. Second, to try and get her to run in front of me to allow me to cross behind and not necessarily have to be at each obstacle for her to do it.

I feel that things have gone really well although whether anything will transfer to competitions remains to be seen! Although for me to just be able to cross behind and send her in front will make a huge difference. It will give me much more flexibility around the course. I have put together a little video clip of Pebbles for you to watch. As you can see she is definitely working in front of me which she has never done before. There are still some bits that don't always flow when she looks round to see where I am or looks at me when she is not sure what to do. In the last run I send her over a jump on my right and I cross behind her before sending her into the tunnel. As you can see she does it but she is still not totally moving forward by herself. However, I think all this will come as the season goes on and we put it into practice week in week out. To even be able to do it at all is amazing for her.




As for Barney we have spent all winter working on his dog walk. This has been our failing for the last few years where I have had no confidence that he will get the contact and it is a hit or miss. I have been using the method of getting him to go flat at the bottom of the contact and rewarding him like mad when he is in this position so that he thinks it is a great place to be. It certainly works in the garden and on the lead he does it brilliantly at speed. Off the lead he is still a bit slower but that is coming on too, especially if I put a fast combination before it. Now all I need to do is a couple of training sessions over the full size dog walk and one on the A-Frame which uses the same principle. Here is a short video clip of a few runs on and off the lead.

I really hope it transfers to competition, although much of that is up to me to be patient as he is learning and to hold him on the contacts. It would be so good to be able to go into agility runs confident that he will get the majority of his contacts. That would be good progress for one year, the speed aspect can come later.

I must say thanks to Kenny, my agility trainer, who I have really enjoyed working with over the winter and who has really pushed me on and provided all the great ideas for training.

So that is where we are with a month until the season starts :-) I am so looking forward to getting the caravan out in 2 weeks and getting it packed up for the first trip. Fingers crossed it doesn't snow at Dundee like it did last year!