I think the point I’m trying to make can be summed up by an example of my wonderful Ella’s recent naughty behaviour. Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore her and rate her competitive ability, and yet just the other day she stole a tomato ketchup bottle off the side and then made a mess of licking it out on the sofa! The dog that at agility shows is self-control personified! It reminded me that she isn’t perfect, and it isn’t something that I didn’t really know. It’s just that thanks to one of my favourite dog trainers Susan Garrett, who has greatly influenced my dog training for the better,  “when I look at my dogs I can only see greatness.”

Karen Pryor in her fabulous book “Reaching The Animal Mind”, talks about the fact that once you’ve started training using positive reinforcement methods such a clicker training, your eyes are opened to a greater understanding of natural behaviour and reading the signals the dog is giving you. I’m so pleased that there are so many examples of handlers at the top of our sport building relationships with their dogs that are built on such solid foundations of love and trust. There are so many to inspire me in my own training, and take me further along the path of understanding. We’re starting to live in a training world where this is the norm rather than the exception, what a great time to be involved in dog training

Today, in fact like most days, I’m grateful for my dogs

Spud was his usual brilliant self, despite Martin feeling poorly with a bad cold. They put in a good clear in the Graded 5,6,7 Agility to win the class, but the jumping went a bit to pot after a knocked pole. Ella was her usual dazzling self, but I forgot a very important detail before we went in for our agility run – I need breakfast to function well! Whilst I remembered the course I was twitchy and pulled her off two obstacles – not like us at all. Then in her jumping round I planned a handling move which required advanced weaving skills, a challenge which she failed at twice before completing. More work needed there, but I also need to bear in mind our warm-up routine – a long queue is a struggle for a high-drive dog, and I think she just entered the ring a bit ‘high’. But overall I was pleased with our performance today, some good work and I think we can look forward to a season in G7 next year

Now just waiting for my beautiful boys to return home after a weekend with their daddy. The dogs keep us occupied, but it’s definitely quieter without them around! Busy day ahead tomorrow, all dogs to SMART clinic for appointments in the afternoon and then my Kennel Club Good Citizen classes in the evening. I have a great bunch of dogs working through the scheme at the moment, some real characters. I can see some of them moving onto agility in the future too, will be lovely to watch them develop and grow

Today I’m really grateful for my friend Sue Spring’s advice, to never give up even when things go wrong on course. If I had I wouldn’t have the satisfaction of completing the rest of our jumping round so well, and being able to take up a huge positive – thanks Sue!

• How to get the best from you canine athlete
• Fitness for competition
• Warming up
• Cooling down
• Injury prevention
• An introduction to canine massage – techniques, frequency and effects
• Coats & coolers – effectiveness, when to use and precautions
• Nutritional considerations for agility

Speakers:

• Ms T O’Brien BVsc, MRCVS
• Mrs H Price, Chartered Veterinary Physiotherapist ACPAT Cat A
• Ms S Ferris RVN

Date: Sunday 13th November 2011

Time: 10am – 5pm

Cost: £45.00

How to book: Call or email the SMART Clinic Cardiff on 02920 799006 / mail@smartvetwales.co.uk

The evenings are getting darker so it’s time to move our outdoor lessons to the weekends again. Here’s the information you need to know:

õ  The last weekday evening classes will take place during week beginning 19^th September 2011

õ  Gemma will be teaching on a Saturday morning, Sue on a Sunday morning

õ  Gemma’s classes will move to weekends on Saturday 1^st October 2011

õ  Sue’s classes will move to weekends on Sunday 2^nd October 2011

õ  Each class is limited to a maximum of 8 dogs and handlers – please confirm your space with Gemma or Sue

Saturday

9.30am                  Small Dog Competition Dogs G1-7

10.30am                Improvers (Previously Beginners & Puppy Agility on a Wednesday evening)

11.30am                Competition Dogs G3-7

Sunday

9.30am                  Pre-Competition (Previously Wednesdays 7.30pm class)

10.30am                Competition Dogs G1-3 (Previously Mondays 7.30pm class)

11.30am                1-2-1 Lesson (Lorna & Sky)

12.00pm                New Beginner Group

STANDING ORDER PAYMENT SYSTEM EXPLAINED

Our monthly standing order amount of £25 per month is calculated for those clients who take classes with us on a regular, on-going basis. We worked out the amount by calculating how many weeks in a year we would be able to offer training (bearing in mind public holidays and our own personal commitments), and then multiplying that by our group lesson price. We decided to allow for 6 weeks out of the possible 52 that we wouldn’t offer training. This was then divided into 12 to give us a monthly standing order amount.

The benefits of the system to you are that your training fees are spread out evenly across the year and you needn’t worry about remembering to bring your chequebook or wallet to training.

We thought it was worth explaining, as we know there’s been some confusion over the monthly amount directly relating to the number of lessons in a month. Plus as the Christmas period isn’t all that far away, we thought we could answer the annual question of what to do about the standing order throughout December and January. The answer is simply to leave it in place and relax and enjoy the break from training J

BRONZE AWARD CONGRATULATIONS!

On the 26^th April 2011 we put forward 11 dogs and handlers for their Bronze Award test, examined by Agility Championship Judge, Martin Tait. He was pleased to pass the following people:

Rosemary & Tom (Border Collie)

Betty & Humphrey (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)

Jane & Tadgh (Basenji)

Dorothy & Dexy (Papillion)

Val & Archie (English Springer Spaniel)

Bob & Spike (Miniature Schnauzer)

Gemma & Diva (Shetland Sheepdog)

On the 28^th June 2011 we put forward just 3 dogs and handlers for their Bronze Award test, examined by Agility Championship Judge, Martin Tait. He was pleased to pass the following people:

Gemma & Ella (Border Collie)

SILVER AWARD CONGRATULATIONS!

On the 26^th April 2011 we put forward 3 dogs and handlers for their Silver Award test, examined by Agility Championship Judge, Martin Tait. He was pleased to everyone involved:

Rosemary & Tom (Border Collie)

Deborah & Ember (German Shepherd Dog)

Betty & Humphrey (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)

GOLD AWARD CONGRATULATIONS!

On the 28^th June 2011 we put forward 5 dogs and handlers for their Gold Award test, examined by Agility Championship Judge, Martin Tait. He was pleased to pass the following people:

Rosemary & Tom (Border Collie)

Helen & Hattie (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel)

Jane & Flin (Rhodesian Ridgeback)

AGILITY CONGRATULATIONS!

Wendy & Caz for getting to Grade 5

Sara & Bertie for winning out of Grade 2

Gill & Aussie for winning Grade 1 jumping & UKA Beginner Gamblers

Sue and Sara for 3^rd place in their Pairs Jumping

Isobel & Scrumpy for their first clear round

Debbie & Frodo for winning 2 UKA Steeplechase classes

Gemma & Ella for getting 2 more wins in Grade 6

Sarah & Mattie for winning into UKA Champ

Sara & Blaze for getting to the Tug-E-Nuff Agility finals

UPDATED WEBSITE UNVEILED!

If you haven’t already, take a peek at our updated website – it now incorporates our blog to keep you up-to-date with information, and lots of new, cool features to make it more fun to browse. The new website now includes ‘Dog of the Month’ award. This is awarded to a partnership that has impressed us in the last month. This could be either a special rosette they have won, or for their performance during classes.  Congratulations to this month’s winner – Isobel and Scrumpy, for their first clear round at a KC show.

FOOTWEAR REMINDER

Now that the winter is getting closer, the bad weather is also approaching. Please can we take this opportunity to remind everyone of the importance of suitable footwear. During the winter we strongly recommend that people run in football boots because the ground can become so slippery. This can be bought for under £20 from Sports Direct in either Weston or The Mall, Cribbs Causeway.

WARMING UP REMINDER

As the colder weather approaches it is extremely important that your dogs receive a good warm up before their lesson. This can be as simple as 5 minutes walking round the field and then 5 minutes jogging. Useful things to add into your warm up include tricks such as turning on the spot or figure of eights through your legs.

CANCELLED LESSONS

Please can we remind you that if lessons have to be cancelled at short notice due to bad weather conditions such as snow, they will always be listed on our blog which can be found on our new website; www.daybreakdogs.co.uk

Happy Training Everyone!

Newsletter should be published up here very soon – just a few tweaks and I think we’ll be ready to update you all. Classes will be moving from weekday evenings to weekends very shortly – pop back to find out the details as they’re added.

It’s been such a hectic year and yet so little news has made it to the website – especially because of the ease of adding to our Facebook page. But now I’m getting settled into my new home, things should improve – feeling very excited about the winter training and motivated to get out there, especially with my little Diva. Of course at Blackdown agility show at the weekend she officially measured into Medium, so I don’t suppose I can really call her little, especially when we spend such a lot of time with Martin Tait’s miniature poodle Rizzo. She’s definitely going to measure into the KC Small height category, and she constantly amazes me with how naughty something so small can be! She and Diva adore each other and play so beautifully, lovely to watch

Did you want something?

Final agility show of this season coming up this weekend at South Devon-Honiton. Booked into a few odd ones over the winter time, notably TAG for my 30th birthday weekend and possibly Dartmoor in November. But essentially we’re getting to the point in the year when I like to reflect over our performance and start looking to put together a plan for areas that need improvement. I have to say I’ve been really proud of Ella this year and whilst we haven’t quite met all our goals (although there’s still this weekend to go of course!), we have come together as a team despite a lot of personal difficulties which have made it hard for me to give her my full attention and focus. What I love most about her is her ability to give her all in everything she does – she’s a spectacular blueprint for how I’d like to be living my life, and living proof of the lessons our dogs have to share with us

My beautiful focused girl

Today I’m grateful for my positive outlook on life – not always easy to achieve, but reminding myself I have lots to be thankful for certainly helps

“You can always tell a real friend; when you've made a fool of yourself, he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.” Laurence Sterne

Big couple of weeks coming up – Kennel Club International Festival then onto Dogs In Need Agility week, then hopefully moving house on my return. Never let it be said I do things in halves! Please bear with us if you’re awaiting information or a call back, we’ll be with you as soon as we can

Details of how my classes will be covered in my absence will be posted shortly, along with lots of other information to populate the new site. We have a lot to get you all updated on, not least Ella’s successful competition season thus far – my girl and I are pushing our limits and living my new mantra of “Finding the joy”. More on that in another blog post soon!

Today I’m grateful for the opportunities in my life and the great people that I have surrounding me