Well what a year!!!

Ive been pretty useless at keeping this up to date so thought it was about time with the Honey monster starting competing and would really like to track her progress how I did with Bells when she first started :D

So to bring us update Bells has had a good year getting plenty of placings in Grade 5 but thankfully not the 1st I'm scared of and once we are into January I can relax as more than one win is needed and since I'm starting to slow her down it's not like to happen phew!!! I still didn't manage to keep my nerve in ANY of the qualifiers which we where quite capable of doing poor Bells to have me as a handler lol We have missed some shows due to the awful weather and been to some muddy soggy ones too :( But we did manage to get enough points for her Silver Warrant which I'm so pleased about I'd love for her to get gold but think it might be too much of an ask for next year but we will give it a go :D
Towards the end of the summer season I made the decision to put Bella into Veterans for unaffiliated winter shows just to give her a break from the nags and twists which I think have been making her get a bit flat towards the end of the summer (you don't realise how much until they have a blast lol) She really enjoyed herself at Nuts with a 1st and E's but we where both grinning on every run which is all that matters, we love grade 5 but sometimes it nice to have an unthinking blast around a course!!!! We then where back at HnH and she took that same speed with her on the large course and we got E'd several times but it didn't matter as I couldn't remember when she'd last had that must enthusiasm at at a KC show :D We then tried out Veterans at Absolute Agility Harrogate and she loved it coming home with 4!!!! 1st places bless her she did a steeplechase course in 16.5 secs lol I doing think retiring her is going to be half as bad as I think as she just loves flying round :D Here her speedstakes run at the weekend

 

Honey started her training when she was 10 months just flat work then at 12 months started with low jumps and contacts. After hit and miss contacts with Bella I decided she would have a 2o2o from the start and shes taken to it well. Ive also started 2x2 weaves with her at 14 months she taken to it like a duck to water we tried a course last week with weaves in and she got them no problems I'm really pleased. Here's a few clips of her weave training :D

And that brings us up to the last weekend Honey's first show eek!!!! I was so scared but Honey was a star we had 3 E's and a clear but as the lovely judges decided to give faults for E's we suprisingly came home with rossie's for 3 classes so proud.  Just so pleased she enjoyed running I only wanted her to wait on the start line all the rest was a massive bonus, I think she found the waiting ring side a bit over whelming but its to be expected at this stage going to make sure I have plenty of yummy treats and tuggy to make her more relaxed. This is her very first run then her last run going clear :D

Glad to see my jump grid work is starting to show in some of the one strides she did on the straights now lots of handling skills to get to grips with but I'm so pleased with the weekend. Can't wait for next year, our next show is HnH for Bella and we are camping?!?!?! And if we survive Honey's next show is Nuts its a clear round only course which I love the idea behind as stops the competitiveness creeping in!!!