For ages now we have been thinking about getting a new camera. Last May we borrowed my brothers’ all singing, all dancing, makes the tea whilst taking a picture etc etc camera. We captured some brilliant pictures of the dogs, and decided that we really would like to invest in one ourselves, but they are so expensive!! Anyway, as we will probably be as poor as church mice for a while after we move, I doubt we will be able to make extravagant purchases – so we though we would do it now, whilst we still can!! So lots of pictures coming up on the blog in the next few posts! The only problem is that I am not 100% sure quite how to use it to get the best effect yet. No doubt I will learn in time!
And the first of Mannix jumping. What a crazy pic! Loving the crossed paws in the second - don't think he had quite sorted his feet out!!
The perfect contact position, what a good boy!!
Are you taking photos of me!?!?!?!?! (you see his mind is never fully on the job ;-))
"I'm a sheltie, it's my job to bark at all times!!"
I know I am biased, and those ears could really do with some work, but I do think he is incredibly handsome!
I had another treat this week (aren’t I lucky!). Tickets for me to go and see the Russian State Ballet performing Giselle in two weeks time. For those of you who don’t know, I was originally a dancer and it is my one other great love, apart from the dogs of course and agility. Sadly I don’t get to actually dance these days. I am looking forward to this performance greatly as I have not been to the Ballet for some time now and I do miss it. Plus Giselle is one of my favourite pieces, both for the music and the dancing. Not really ‘Macfarlane Dogs’ related, but hey!
Back to agility and we have started to look at the schedules for the summer season, and my goodness what a minefield! Far more choice than in Jersey!! There are so many to choose from and we don’t even know where to start. I guess once you start doing them you will get your favourites for the following season etc. But I didn’t realise just how much choice there was!
Mannix has had a short break in his training as Paul has come down with a horrible bug. He currently sounds like Marge Simpson and I hate to say it but I do find it terribly hard not to laugh when he talks! The dogs cannot figure out why his voice is so funny, and they are finding it very difficult to understand what he is asking them to do a lot of the time.
We had a great training session on Wednesday night. I used a weaves/tunnel sequence that I had seen on another blog. The faces of some of the newer ones in my class were a picture! Sheer terror I think sums it up. There were four different sequences, all varying in difficulty, and we stuck to the more basic one. By the end of the session, to their surprise, all of them had achieved it! Sometimes I think we just need to be pushed out of our comfort zone to realise that we can do more than we think. Hopefully they all went away feeling that they had learnt something new about their handling and their partnership with their dog (some strong :-) and some needing a bit more work :-/!)
At the end of the night I used the same sequence and worked through two of the exercises with Smudge. I was really pleased with his weave entries, and clearly our work on these has started to pay off. He also did great ‘go rounds’. We have been teaching him these whilst out walking around tree stumps etc and it was nice to see it translate so easily to the equipment. However the big surprise was that he would not go into the tunnel, hard to describe without a plan for you to look at, but needless to say I though he would do this with no problems at all. However every time, he actually ducked behind me and went for the nearest entrance (even when I was partially blocking it with my body!) So a good lesson learnt there, and something to work on for the future. We also did a fab session on a dog walk sequence involving a lot of distance handling. This again is Smudges weak area, he hates going too far away from me. It’s getting better, but something we need to work on a lot.
And the first of Mannix jumping. What a crazy pic! Loving the crossed paws in the second - don't think he had quite sorted his feet out!!The perfect contact position, what a good boy!! Are you taking photos of me!?!?!?!?! (you see his mind is never fully on the job ;-))"I'm a sheltie, it's my job to bark at all times!!"
I know I am biased, and those ears could really do with some work, but I do think he is incredibly handsome!I had another treat this week (aren’t I lucky!). Tickets for me to go and see the Russian State Ballet performing Giselle in two weeks time. For those of you who don’t know, I was originally a dancer and it is my one other great love, apart from the dogs of course and agility. Sadly I don’t get to actually dance these days. I am looking forward to this performance greatly as I have not been to the Ballet for some time now and I do miss it. Plus Giselle is one of my favourite pieces, both for the music and the dancing. Not really ‘Macfarlane Dogs’ related, but hey!
Back to agility and we have started to look at the schedules for the summer season, and my goodness what a minefield! Far more choice than in Jersey!! There are so many to choose from and we don’t even know where to start. I guess once you start doing them you will get your favourites for the following season etc. But I didn’t realise just how much choice there was!
Mannix has had a short break in his training as Paul has come down with a horrible bug. He currently sounds like Marge Simpson and I hate to say it but I do find it terribly hard not to laugh when he talks! The dogs cannot figure out why his voice is so funny, and they are finding it very difficult to understand what he is asking them to do a lot of the time.
We had a great training session on Wednesday night. I used a weaves/tunnel sequence that I had seen on another blog. The faces of some of the newer ones in my class were a picture! Sheer terror I think sums it up. There were four different sequences, all varying in difficulty, and we stuck to the more basic one. By the end of the session, to their surprise, all of them had achieved it! Sometimes I think we just need to be pushed out of our comfort zone to realise that we can do more than we think. Hopefully they all went away feeling that they had learnt something new about their handling and their partnership with their dog (some strong :-) and some needing a bit more work :-/!)
At the end of the night I used the same sequence and worked through two of the exercises with Smudge. I was really pleased with his weave entries, and clearly our work on these has started to pay off. He also did great ‘go rounds’. We have been teaching him these whilst out walking around tree stumps etc and it was nice to see it translate so easily to the equipment. However the big surprise was that he would not go into the tunnel, hard to describe without a plan for you to look at, but needless to say I though he would do this with no problems at all. However every time, he actually ducked behind me and went for the nearest entrance (even when I was partially blocking it with my body!) So a good lesson learnt there, and something to work on for the future. We also did a fab session on a dog walk sequence involving a lot of distance handling. This again is Smudges weak area, he hates going too far away from me. It’s getting better, but something we need to work on a lot.
No doubt I will be out and about with the camera on our walks this week, so lots more photos to come!!
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1 comment:
Lovely photos Louise! I like the one of Smudgy on the DW! Also, those of Mannix jumping, I can see he is a maniac!
So, are you coming to England to do more shows this year? Hopefully we can catch up. Samber would like to meet her other crazy half brother to have a crazy play!!
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