Smudge flies the skies!

(Updated picture of Scooby as Judges choice is below!)

Well as the title suggests Smudge has hit the skies in style! Last Wednesday we flew to England to stay with Lisa and Chi, and to do some training with Bernadette whilst we were there. We had a great time!

The journey over was good. I was slightly worried about leaving him in the care of the airline staff, but it all went smoothly and he came out at the other end with no problems at all. Phew!! We had borrowed a friends Tom Tom, so the drive down was nice and easy too (although at one point it did ask me to do a U Turn in the middle of a motorway!? Hmmm!? Needless to say I ignored it!)

The training whilst we were there was fantastic. We learnt lots of really good things that I can take home with me and work on. The main area that we focused on was contacts. I thought he had fairly good contacts until I went!! The basics were there, but Bernadette spent lots of time showing me how to increase his drive down to the target (so hopefully getting faster contacts!) and on getting a stronger release. We have already started working on this away from the contacts at home, and it is working really well. Something to take with us to training this week! The other area that I realised was not strong enough was his release command, so we have started to try and teach 'ok' as his release so that he blasts forward when I give it. Again we have already started work on this and I am happy to say that it seems to be working. It must be working well anyway as this morning on his walk he wanted to chase the cat and didn't until I said OK!!! (no cats were harmed during the practice of this excercise!)

The other area that we worked on was distance handling. I need to stop running him like a small dog! We did a few jumping excercises working on turning him ahead of me and getting him working forward.

I took my agility notebook with me and its almost bursting! We learnt so much that it is impossible to write it all on here (unless you all want to be reading for hours!)I am going to keep reading through my book, and go to each training session with a clear plan in my head of what I want to acheive. Especially on his contacts.

Bernadette also very kindly groomed Smudges ears for me whilst we were there. So they now look a little less wild and out of control! Lisa gave me a few grooming pointers and I will make an effort to keep him looking smart. Sheltie grooming is in a league of its own! I always keep him brushed, and his paws and pads trimmed, but the finer details were beyond me!

On our last day there we went to get Smudge officially measured. I am pleased to announce that he is SMALL!!!!!! YAY!!!!!! I was worried that he may have been medium, and that would not have been good for him. But no, he is a small! EXCELLENT! Good job too, look at the size difference between him and a real medium, Chi!! Smudge looks tiny!!

Needless to say he was tired after a few hard days of training, playing and walking! This was a rare moment where he actually slept!

Thanks to Lisa and Chi (plus the rest of the pack!) for letting us stay and for being so welcoming at such a busy time! And thanks to Tony for the photos above!