Virginia

After enjoying 2 days in Canada I picked up a rental car, and we started the long drive down to Lauras in south west Virginia.

US customs didnt seem to care too much about the dogs at all but grilled me with questions about what I was doing.



Niagara Falls

We drove as far as mid pensylvania the first day (with an added detour of having to backtrack 50miles) and stayed in a small town along the way. The following day was an 8hr drive through pensylvania, maryland, west virginia and virginia, and some truly beautiful countryside.




The following few days were spent with Laura & Jack on their beautiful farm, alternating herding training and sightseeing locally.




Sunday we had brunch at Mountain Lake, which is where Dirty Dancing was filmed. The lake the lodge overlooks was completely empty, and the excitement of the day was a body discovered at the middle of the lake, likely from the 20's.



It was fantastic to get back into herding again, I didnt realise how much I missed it. We started off a little rusty, but I'm happy with how Hollie picked it straight up again and did some nice work. Hopefully that will hold out for the specialty trial.

Arriving in Toronto

Tues 16th we flew from Gatwick to Toronto for our first leg of the american trip, and all in all things went fairly smoothly. I flew over with Air Transat airlines, and while the airline doesnt accept dogs booked directly with them in or out of the UK due to quarantine restriction, I as able to book the dogs on the same flight through Ladyhaye.

The dogs were dropped off 3 hours before the flight, and made it on with no problems. The only problems arrose when it came time to pick the dogs up. Firstly it took some time to find the building the dogs needed to be picked up from. ..then we had to wait for paperwork to be signed off on (the only requirement for flying into canada is rabies vacc which the pet passports proved). When the paperwork finally arrived we had to take it to Border protection to have it processed by customs. It was at that point I got grilled by a rather unfriendly customs officer (yes I know I'm one of the few crazy people that would take dogs on a 6 week international holiday) and told we'd have to wait for someone from agriculture to sign off on the paperwork before we could pick up the dogs. And in typical fashion that person from agricultue wasnt free at that point in time. So 3 hours later everything was all processed and the dogs finally got to be let out of their crates. I am just eternally greatful for Kim who picked me up from the airport and beared with me through the whole process even though she had much better places to be.

My time in Toronto was short but very enjoyable. Kim & Derek, two absolutely wonderful people along with their two ACDs Feral and Phoenix, kindly opened up their house to us and made my stay unforgetable.
Meanwhile my two dogs thought the living arrangements were great. Staying in a basement means lots of stairs to tear up and down, extra people around to give them attention, and lots of squirels outside to fascinate over.


Toronto from the CN tower

The stress of preparing.. America here we come

Well, I am just about all ready for my trip to the US. I feel like theres a million things I've forgotten to organise, but hopefully its just those little things that I cant do until I'm actually over there.

We flight out on tuesday, and are there for 6 weeks. And yes, I am taking the dogs too - boarding them for 6 weeks didnt seem like the nicest idea and wouldnt have worked out that much cheaper. Getting flights organised between the UK & US where the dogs could accompany wasnt easy - purely because of the restrition on airlines that can fly animals into the UK. Because of that they are at liberty to charge what they want, which is purely unaffordable costs.
As it is I am flying into Canada with one airline, but then I couldnt use the same airline to return the dogs into the UK (Go figure..I still cant work out why). And the airline that I was going to use to return is one of the many over the past few weeks that has gone bust! So instead we're cutting our US part of the trip short by a week, and detouring via France. Spending a few days there then getting the ferry back to England. It is absolutely ridiculous that it works out cheaper & less stressful doing it that way, but it is a good excuse for an extra leg to the holiday.

So the general plan is to fly into Toronto - then onto Virginia/Washington DC/NYC - then the ACDCA national specialty in PA for a week of agility, obedience, conformation and herding (boy am I going to be exhausted at the end of that!) - across to Montana - back to DC - then fly back out of Toronto for Paris. Crazy huh?!

So here I am, sitting here finalising all plans, and hoping like hell that Air Transat doesnt decide to join all the other airlines that are going bankrupt and cancelling flights!

Stour Valley Agility

Its taken me a while to get this update up..

Last weekend I had got to trial at the Stour Valley agility show. It was a smaller (only 5 rings) local show, and while the weather left alot to be desired (I was glad I decided not to camp..), it was a very enjoyable weekend.

I have to first mention Hollie. She had one run in Allsorts jumping (low jumps) on sunday, and it was a brilliant run. She saved me big time when I went to send her over the wrong jump second from the end. Thankfully she managed to correct herself at the last minute to take the right jump. Its moments like those this dogs worth her weight. She ended up getting 6th place which I was stoked with. I'm still suprised she even got a place given the allsorts courses are quite basic & flowing and suit the fast longer striding dogs.

I am extremely happy with how Tooheys ran over the weekend. And for the most part we were a team all weekend (rather than the usual bits & pieces of team work). He kicked his speed up a gear compared to how hes been running up until now - he was just as fast, if not faster, than what he is over the lower aussie jumps and I had to work hard to be in position to support him. I even had several people we train with comment on how fast he was running. A large part of it is due to his confidence in what is required of him growing, and I could even see his confidence build over the weekend. And that in turn really helped my confidence.

His biggest problem over the weekend was his weavepole entries. With his new found speed he was hitting the entries so fast that he had trouble sticking the 3rd pole, especially when I went to cross behind him. Ok, so I've been told that I am continually crowding him at the entry to the weaves which is making it difficult for him to collect himself. Perhaps as usual the problem is with the handler and not with the dog. Once in the weaves though he was extremely consistant & extremely fast.

Our other problem point was his startline stays (again..) Saturday they were wonderful, but sunday they deteriorated. I got the opportunity on 2 runs to take him back. I have to keep reminding myself that over here you can go back to the dog (and even touch the dog) to reposition them after you have left them at the start. It is so difficult doing something that is a big no-no back home.

Both our problems were repeatable at training on monday, so we got the opportunity to work on them, and I think we were starting to make real progress. Its so nice to have a consistant problem that I can then work on, rather than being something unpredictable every run.

And he got all his contacts all weekend!!

First run for the weekend was jumping which was a brilliant run. He hit the weaves beautifully at

speed. The most logical spot for a side change with the tunnels was between the two. However I was worried that second time round if I was to rear cross between the 2 tunnels he would come out of the second one heading the wrong direction. So I tried to cross before the first one (16) and ended up pulling him off the entry. Bad handler! Despite the time wasted for the refusal that resulted he was still only 4 sec off the winner (who incidently was our instructor..), which means without a refusal he would have been in standing for a very good placing.

Again a nice run on agility. The entry angle to the weaves was tough for a G1-3 course, and the only real option was to cross behind them. Unfortunately Tooheys got the entry then turned to see where I was & missed pole 3, which was his only fault.

Everyone commented that the difficulty of this course was innapropriate for the level. It was bairly a G4 course, let alone a G1, but it still got a very high clear run rate. It was very tight in spots and definately suited tight turning dogs. Again our only problem was the weaves - I pulled him off the entry, then he missed the last pole.

Jump 10-11 was very tight spacing compared to the others in the line of obstacles 7 -12, and required the dogs to adjust their pace. The most efficient way was to bounce jump beteen them, but I was extremely happy to see Tooheys back himself off jump 11 & adjust his stride where as even a month ago he would have just tried to jump & likely knocked the bar. That showed me that he really is getting alot more confidence about his job.

I made a mess of this course. Tooheys was driving onto the weaves and I panicked & called him off. Likewise I called him off the last jump because there was another dog standing on the finish line. Everything in between was nice though...

Again, our only fault was not sticking the weave entries, earning him a refusal.

And guess what.. yet another course where our only fault was the weave entry.