Happy New Year!

Wow, 2011 just flew by!

Well....the first part did. I hit a brick wall in September where a number of events within the space of a week turned my life upside down and back to front (and not in the fun rollercoaster way).

I am not the sort of person to talk about 'negative' feelings, I don't often cry and I keep the things that mean a lot to me very close to my chest. I don't like to think of people watching or judging me, I admire people who can be more open when they are feeling low - I'd probably cause myself a lot less trouble if I just opened up.

I spoke to only a handful of people about September's series of events and how they were effecting me and I thank those people for their support, time and understanding (you know who you are). By mid October and a 'Ctrl-Alt-Del' later things were looking up again and following Hex's season and successful mating the world started wizzing by again. Now I'm in a new house with my long suffering boyfriend (of nearly 8 years) with my furry family and little furry cupcakes on the way. I am VERY happy... but am wary that things can NOT possibly continue to go that well for me so I am watching my steps and my back!

As a club, we are really growing in members and in abilities and achievements. At the Christmas Meal we reflected on the highlights of 2011; it really has been a good year for us and the compliments I have had from people on my members handling, enthusiasm, helpfulness ringside and the general vibe we give off has been fantastic and as I said at the meal; all reflects well on ME, so thank you : )

I am really looking forward to seeing the 'class of 2011', continue to grow and achieve and the 'class of 2012' make their debuts.

I have decided this year to cut back on the amount of shows I do and stick to the ones I enjoy. I hope to have Hex back in action by Mid-End of May and want to ensure that we have FUN! I am also doing more judging this year, I usually do one or two appointments a year, I have taken on more with a mind to raise our profile, cut my costs and give back to the sport, especially as I know that with the new KC ruling on judging family members, shows are going to find it more difficult to cover some classes.

So that's what I 'm up to this year. But what will you be up to? Set yourself some goals, they don't have to be big, just think about what's important to you for example my goals are:

- To take Stitch to Champ level
- Qualify Stitch for a Semi &/or Final
- Bring Hex back up to full fitness by mid year and start where we left off
- To have more fun and put less pressure on myself at shows

If there is a goal you would like to discuss with me, if you would like help setting your goals, just let me know. I am here to help.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and a fun and successful 2012.

xXx

I will leave you with some pictures of the Christmas meal taken by Anthony (Thanks Ant):

Anthony Clarke @ A-SIT

Everybody was really looking forward to this and the feedback I've had was fantastic.

4 out of the 16 people booked in have only ever trained with me and it was a strange feeling handing them over and watching them train with someone else, but I was very proud of the work they did and knew they were in good hands!

For me there was no stand out performance, everyone did brilliantly. But there was alot of excitement around Sarah's Narla and Anne's Chas. I also think that Julie did SO well considering how poorly she had been in the week.

I congratulate everyone on their hard work, I thank Anthony and Sian for a fun day and am very grateful for the sun shining so late in October!

BHC Show

Weird one for me, just one run with Kif all day gave me a chance to catch up with and watch friends but I was mainly there to support Mum and Stitch on the anniversary of the show he came out at last year; which really is a reminder of just how much this incredible young dog has achieved.

Unfortunately the Agility win Mum has been craving was still just out of reach, with a handler oversight one obstacle from the end, but a stonking run over a difficult course and still one to be proud of and they made up for it later in the day.

Results:
Stitch - 1st, G6-7 Jumping
Stitch - 2nd, C1-7 Jumping
Kif - Clear, G5 Jumping (he was 5th, but they only placed to 4th - story of Kif's life!)

Chippenham Champ Show

A scorching hot weekend at the start of October (yes this is late!!) caught us all by surprise.

With no Hex to run I had fun running Stitch. Olly made his debut with Marley and had a couple of near misses but overall we were pleased that he ran just as he does in training (bring on 2012!). Molly's Ben also chose this show to start running as he does in training - good things to come next year!

Results:
Stitch - 5th, C4-7 Jumping
Gill & Kassey - 5th, C1-3 Jumping
Anthony & Amy - Clear, G1 Jumping

Honiton/South Devon Show

I was really looking forward to this show, it was the last one of the year I had entered with Hex, because of her impending season and I intended to just go for it.....unfortunately Hex had the same idea! I've just watched the videos back to remind me of what happened that weekend and O dear, what a mess! She wasn't paying attention to me, at all, no respect, just one crazy red head! But she had fun.

Lots of A-SITters at the show too, these are the results I can remember, sorry to anyone I've missed out:

Gill & Kassey - 1st, G3 Agility winning them up to Grade 4!
Mum & Stitch - 2nd, C1-7 Jumping
Alex & Sonny - 5th, G1 Agility
Alex & Sonny - 5th, G1 Jumping
Kif - 7th, G5-7 Jumping
Rosie & Freddie - 2 x Clears
Michelle & Bel - Got their first Clear Round in G1 Agility (and just one place out of the placings)

Bromsgrove & Blackdown

Bromsgrove Results:

Stitch - 2nd, C4-7 Jumping
Stitch - 3rd, C1-7 Agility
Stitch - 4th, C4-7 Jumping
Hex - 7th, G6 Agility
Hex - 5th, Pro Plan Final



Hex was 1 second off the win, but watching the video back, she did everything I asked of her, I don't think we could have done any better - she was fabulous.

And elsewhere @Blackdown:

Alex & Sonny - 5th, G1 Agility
Alex & Sonny - 2 x Clear Rounds
Sadie & Carmen - Clear Round

Olympia or bust.

People not updating their blogs for weeks at a time seems to be a running theme at the moment, I follow a couple of blogs and nearly all of them have been abandoned until recently, I put this down to the intense end we all have at the end of the season which leaves us with very little time.
So I do apologise for slacking, but I also point out that I'm not the only one!!!

So the Olympia Semis... a distant memory from September. I had so many near misses on the qualifiers, at least 3 5-fault runs with a qualifying time, but it was not meant to be and it allowed me to focus my attention on Mum who had managed to qualify right at the start of the season with Stitch. I was so proud to be there as her Groom, she looked an image in purple in her new A-SIT 'Experiment 626' polo shirt (thank you Sew What!) and smart black trousers, Stitch looked pretty smart to following a tidy up from Jo.

We arrived in plenty of time and watched the end of the Junior event before the warm-up was set up for the Mediums. To be honest it wasn't a very challenging course, but we figured 'well it is a warm-up' and Stitch did a nice clear finishing 7th or 8th.
Disappointingly the actual Semi Final wasn't much more challenging, although there were traps there, if you got the dog on the right line there were a number of straight lines which really favoured the collies, the only real trap came at the end trying to get your dog in the correct end of the tunnel, but because the jump before the tunnel was a panel jump, the dogs didn't see the wrong-end trap and not ONE dog fell into it. Mum did another nice clear with only one slight hiccup and finished 15th out of 36 - the top 10 qualified. NEVER have I heard of a clear at an Olympia semi not going through to the Final, but in the mediums this year there were 21 out of 36 dogs clear.

Obviously I was gutted for Mum and she was upset, but she really kept her nerve and to get 2 clears under that kind of pressure is really impressive and I was very proud, we weren't even sure how Stitch would cope with the environment; despite being a Grade 6 we must remember that he is only very young and that this is only his first season competing.

Here are the vids from the Semi's; the warm up followed by the Semi:

The following day we were at Prestbury and Stitch came 7th in the C1-7 Jumping and Hex came 11th in the G6 Jumping even with 1 naughty wide turn before the tunnel and a face plant on the jump after that! lol. We also got to try out one of the more difficult weave entrances we've been practicing check it out: