What happened to June?

What a busy month with getting my assignments in to college, working and a holiday. Started the month with a holiday to France to visit the Somme area, to see Simon's Great Grandfather's grave. Its a beautiful area but a sad place with all the war memorials.

One of the highlights was a visit to Belgium to visit Strike, who is Ruger's dad, as we had not met him before, he is stunning and just so full of personality. His owners Claire and Gaston showed us around their town of Mons, with Strike and Chiraze (Ruger's mum) who now lives with them, his sister Biper also lives with them and she is as gorgeous as Ruger.

We had a few agility shows in June and both Mawgan and Zara are running well, just unlucky with Zara with the odd pole falling but she's getting better, Mawgan is just too fast so makes mistakes, its frustrating as at training she is steady and accurate but changes in the ring, if I could get a stay it would be easier, but she won't stay after being attacked on the startline, so I have to live with it, her rare clears normally get placed. Zara ran what I thought was a nice steady clear at Newton Heath in Graded 1 & 2 Agility, I couldn't believe it when she won the class 5 seconds ahead of the second dog taking us into Grade 3!!! At Dashin Dogs Zara also managed two thirds in G2 Agility at our last show at G2.

Ruger is growing and is looking really good, we are looking now to enter him into a show or 2 once he's 6 months old, never shown before so it will be interesting.

Progress

Had a good weekend with Ruger and socialising, he has met lots of different people and is not barking at them as he was, which is great. I took him to the hairdressers and he sat and focused on me instead of looking at what was going on around him.
Yesterday Ruger went to his first agility show, Delinquent Dogz in Sheffield, where again he met lots of new people and dogs
Mawgan was her usual self with no stay, so we had 5 faults in the agility for leaping off the A-frame, then we had 3 eliminations, although she ran lovely once past the first 3 jumps.
Zara worked well she went clear in agility and jumping, and I was so pleased with her in the jumping as she was perfect, did everything I asked, including lifting her feet!!! She got 2nd in both classess at Level 1.

Ruger's first puppy class

Ruger went to his first puppy class last night at Buddies, run by friends of ours Karen and Derek. We missed the first week of the course due to work, so Ruger entered the class and decided that he had to let everyone know he was there by barking like a mad creature. I settled him in with a tub of polony and managed to get his focus with lots of hard work!! He managed the sits and downs very well and also into the stand, I was very pleassed with him, as he does his positions at home, but there are more distractions in a class. Heelwork wasn't as good as I had hoped as he didn't like having a dog behind him, he wanted to say hello, however he walks nicely on the lead when we are out and about, ie. he doesn't pull, so I am not too worried.

Settling in

Well Ruger has well and truly settled in to life in Lancashire. He has done alot in the last few weeks and takes everything in his stride. He was very well behaved at the vets, and went to his first agility lesson last week (as a spectactor) and loved it, might have been the fuss and attention and lots of treats, as long as he is not scared by the noise etc I am happy. He has visited Liverpool and South Wales and enjoys exploring new places.

Mawgan and Zara are happy with him, Mawgan ignores him mostly but will protect him if she thinks that Zara is being too boisterous, Zara now loves him as he plays all the time.

Both Mawgan and Zara have been performing well at agility shows in the last few weeks, Zara is now starting to pick her feet up!!! At the April Gundog show Zara had a 3rd in graded 1 & 2 Agility and 5th in jumping, then at Tailwaggers she got 6th in introductory Jumping and Mawgan got 6th in Triple A Agility (not bad for a dog that pings her contacts!).

Last weekend was the WBSDS show at Newbury, I was so pleased with both dogs as they ran so well, Zara only knocked one pole in 10 runs getting 3 clears unfortunately no places but the classes were big, I was not so happy with her totally forgetting what weaves are though, she kept missing the entry, and weaves are usually her strongest point LOL. Mawgan ran one clear getting a 16th place in Combined 1-4 ABC Jumping, she was unlucky with quite a few 5 faults, but she normally gets lots of E's but only had 3 in 10 runs, so that's a big acheivement for her, she was listening to me most of the time.

Ruger's First Week

This was Ruger's first night at home, Mawgan and Zara soon settled with him, he is not frightened by their size, and will take any toys he wants out of Zara's mouth as she lets him. The first night he slept well until about 4.30 but once taken into the garden he slept again untill daylight. During his first week he has got into a good routine of sleeping, eating and playing. He has learnt a recall, present, fetch a toy and leave. Today I have started clicker training with him and after one session he is very responsive.
Mawgan and Zara have now settled down and are not trying to chase him around, at first Mawgan thought he was as robust as Zara but is now quite gentle with him.