Some dates are just good

10 years ago today Mark and I got married :) Those of you good at maths will have worked out we got married just after Mark turned 40. Some would say it was a midlife crisis but here we still are :)


Our friends Lauren Langman & Matt Rouse gave birth to their little girl this morning - it's great news and the baby is lucky to be joining such a lovely family.


So 2 major events - one the start of a great marriage and the other a baby already on this date. Both are quite life changing.


Other people will have dates or times of the year when things are just good or things seem to go wrong. There is probably somebody that can prove some kind of spooky connection to our birth dates that will explain this phenomena. A bit like astrology I suppose.


Anyway whatever it is about this date something else happened today that will make a big change in our lives. We had a successful meeting with somebody and it will result in a big change that will have far reaching consequences. An end of an era is approaching.


This is separate from my other big "watch this space" happening and I will be able to reveal all much sooner on this one.


Those of you who read my blogs regularly will have heard about polishing coconuts - it seems mine have been well and truly polished :)


Bring on all the changes - an the old chinese proverb says
"When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.” I know what I'm going to do.

Watch this space

So excited with a brilliant idea my friend had. It really has taken my imagination. Luckily she wants us to do it together so keep an eye open for an invite to try something different after I've finished my experiment I mean project re warm up stretching and cool down routines.

Everyone has been timed now and it's great how everyone is so keen to help. Once we have finished the project I am going to roll out the routine to all as we are already finding it a great addition to our agility.

Torro Laker was 6 yesterday - he is looking physically on top form which is more than can be said for me. I had a muscle spasm in my lower back on Tuesday and could not move. Thank goodness we had watched the film 127 hours recently or I think I'd still be stuck on the living room floor now. I figured if he could cut his arm off to save his life then I could suffer immense (but admittedly non life threatening) pain in order to get to the pain killers and freezer to get an icepack :)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year - lets hope it's a good one for everyone.

I love this time of year. It is so exciting, full of promise of what this year will bring.

When I take down the Christmas decorations I have a big sort out and clean round. I also clear out the trophies from last year to give room for new ones this year. It is always difficult to know what to do with the old ones as it seems ungrateful to throw them away.

We have had a bit of a worry with Flint as he is showing his age although not when we have been out walking :) We've had some great walks this holiday including going to Studland on Christmas Eve. This was Rhyme's first trip to the proper seaside and he LOVED it. That's him in the background, out in the water where he stayed the whole walk, squealing with excitement and wanting us to throw something in for him.

He is such a great character and always looking for the fun in life. I am looking forward to his agility training and can almost guarantee we are going to have some interesting times when it comes to competing :)

It all seems so much brighter now he has understood the concept of recalling. We have walked in many different places with many different dogs and distractions this last couple of weeks and he has easily passed each challenge as if he never had a problem. Now he has understood what he is supposed to do, he comes back every time and his reward is freedom to run in the wide open spaces which is what is loves most (except running in the sea of course). Recall problems - what recall problems. What a great start to the year :)

Merry Christmas

We are lucky to have a beautiful picture by www.pet-ography.co.uk given to us by our lovely club members last Christmas and he makes them into Christmas cards too. What better way to wish everyone Merry Christmas.

The Christmas party was brilliant this year. I worked out a rota so everyone got a chance to join in and also then got a chance to take control of the games :)

We really need to try that memory game out again - brilliant and challenging if you got it but not so easy to enjoy if you got knocked out. It was good shouting at the others where to go if they got it wrong though.

The Santa game was great fun even though Billy decided to play tuggy with Santa's scarf.

Boxed trios, well what can I say, a must for next year especially if Sandra's coming.

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas it is such a special time. Cherish your time together with your loved ones and spare a thought for those that may have lost loved ones this year.

Polishing Coconuts

Hi long time no blog :( sorry folks.

I have been very busy doing loads of interesting things that would have been interesting to blog about too – ironic.

Here’s the list
• Course work and preparing for my thesis for my ICAT Canine Remedial massage therapy Diploma
• Choosing dogs for above thesis and arranging Vet Permission Forms
• Booking time to do thesis and arranging swimming for the swimming dogs
• Getting to grips with new routine and back to office employment for 1 day a week.
• Revising what I know about Credit Control and researching national averages for debtors re above job
• Training Rhyme
• Preparing for Christmas Match V Wallingford
• Preparing for Christmas
• Sorting Diary out for all the things to do and lovely people to visit over Christmas
• Writing cards & designing email card
• Preparing for UpAndOver Christmas party
• Checking supplies of CSJ & Orijen to ensure customers don’t run out of dog food over the Christmas break.
• Buying presents for family and friends
• Buying prizes for match & Christmas party
• Updating diary with shows I know we will definitely be interested in next year from the Agility Show Diary

I will come back to some of these at some point, as they are all interesting. I feel very lucky to have a life when I am busy doing loads of different things that I love.

Well why polishing coconuts? Well a good book to read if you want to take a bit more control of your destiny is a book called “Write it Down Make it Happen” by Henriette Anne Klauser. I will be re- reading it this winter and again I’m sure it will feature in another blog. The polishing coconuts is a reference to a study of some monkeys on an island that were cleaning sand off coconuts and more and more monkeys then joined in. When the number of monkeys on that island reached a certain number then monkeys on another island started to do the same thing. This shows how activity in one area can generate activity in another.

As you know I have a few key areas that I want better performance from Rhyme in – recalls, focus and play drive. I have been working on these using different methods (including tearing my hair out LOL) so you can imagine how thrilled I was with these comments
Great Recall – Lesley Olden - training afternoon
Good focus – Lauren Langman - training day
Lovely play drive – Gemma Hanekom - jump grid session.

Each of these comments were not relating to what we were working on in those training sessions so I could have easily not registered them but as consciously these are key areas for me my mind sat up and took notice and I thought RESULT.

In fact Rhyme’s work at the things we were supposed to be doing was not amazing so had I wanted him to excel at those things I would have come away feeling disappointed. The strength of knowing what I want and setting my own goals meant I came away from each of those sessions knowing that me and Rhyme are most definitely going in the direction I want to go in ☺ ☺

Dreams do come true :)

Wow what a great weekend of agility at the FCI World Championships.

We've been to this event 3 times now and this was the most exciting and emotional so far. The British Team were excellent. Medals were won and lost by a split second happening : eliminations, rolled poles, missed contacts and even a run past the last jump. I'm exhausted. I'll let the usual sources tell the full story, main highlights being: Bernadette and Zaz getting Bronze medal in the overall smalls, large team getting 2nd in Team jumping and so nearly getting at least silver overall and the mediums getting bronze in overall team - something for every height there :)

Seeing Ashley Deacon winning the smalls - such a tall man hiding his face in his little dog's head to hide his tears when most of the crowd was crying anyway was a particular emotional moment.

It was brilliant to see Zaz's agility run. Then edge of the seat stuff watching the remaining dogs going, hoping and hoping that she would remain where she belonged in a medal position :)

Previously I have also indulged myself in how I would be feeling with Flint or Torro on the start line. I really do believe that Flint and I would have been brilliant for the Team event and although maybe not quick enough for a Gold individual, he was superb on carpet and we worked very closely together so could get round most courses.

However Torro and I are different. Comparing him to the dogs there I'm sure he could have passed every contact, start line or weave challenge given. He's never worked on carpet so I'm not sure what he would be like for turns. Speed wise he's can be very quick. The falling point is that this year our partnership has not been one of mutual understanding and staying on course could have been a major problem.

Still I do know dreams can come true so with the right training and attitude we could be there this time next year. The thing is I'm not so sure it is still a dream of mine.

When I was younger I seriously dreamt of wing walking - just how amazing it would be to be up there strapped to a bi plane.

Mark treated me to a flight in a Biplane for my 40th and it was great - we did loop the loop, stall turns etc and I even got to do some flying :)

I would still love to do all that again but the appeal of doing it strapped to the wing has completely gone.

Is it sad that your dreams change or is it's just natures way of stopping you making a fool of yourself?

When It's Your Turn to Go.....

I do believe in fate in that if something if going to happen then it will. I do also believe that we can do what we can to help fate and by being positive good things will happen. For example selling the house is NOT happening so we're doing all the stuff we can to help it look better - even downsizing our bed from super king to improve space in the bedroom. In my eyes it isn't selling for a reason to do with what fate has in store for us. Maybe that dream house we like is not as good as another one that will become available once we've sold :)

Fate plays a part in our agility with weather, running orders, judges choice of challenges, other peoples form etc all acting together to create or detract from that winning run. Again we can do all we can (Mark's courses are good for helping decide what) to help these things either not matter or even better work in our favour but fate (or maybe luck) still has it's part to play.

Mark and Devo really should not still be in Grade 6 - or is there some good reason to keep them there? Maybe in a perverse way it will help him with his own Psychology :) Or maybe it's not a good thing to be working all over the country, not train your dog enough and feel too relaxed to concentrate on winning.

This morning fate really showed it has ultimate control in the most fundamental element of life - LIFE itself.

When I opened the blind I saw an upside down fly. As I went to pick it up to throw it away it righted itself. I'm not a fly lover but thought this dying fly would maybe enjoy it's last hours outside in the beautiful sunshine. I opened the window and scooped it out. As it gratefully flew away it went straight into the path of the spider busy finishing off it's web. Well I suppose the spider was happy.................