Agility season

First I have to share some photos from our trainings by my favourite photographer Maja Rokavec, thank you, Maja!:

Then I have to share some more great photos taken in Bohinj, by Gregor Raicevic, thank you! Bohinj is a real paradise on Earth. Water, mountains, woods, fields, all in one place, I think it's one of my favourite places I've ever been to:And now let's get to news. Agility season has started, so Beni and I are back to competitions. We are running in A2 still, and will remain in A2 for the whole season, I think. There's no rush anyway, Ben doesn't care whether he runs in A2 or A3 and neither do I, so it's better to wait until we are both ready. This weekend we were on two competitions, Gornja Radgona and Varaždin. No great results or something, but great runs by Ben. Too bad I was too late with commands and running, he was so fast I could hardly catch up with him, so I was sometimes too late and caused some mistakes. And I forgot the course once :) I am just so happy to see him run with all his heart! And I missed competitions very much... It's so great to hang out with people I like, running in different places, on different obstacles, playing and walking and laughing all day... And it's so great to find new things to train so that we never get bored. Right now we are focusing on coming to my hand, see-saw, contacts and jumping... And it's just so much fun, running in this weather is so different to running in winter!

Pick up an object and hold it

Here is my super-smart and super-cute Ben with his latest trick: pick up an object and hold it... It was not an easy trick for Ben, he needed more time than usually, but he can do anything, so I knew he can do this one too :)
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl7m1oHhjEw&feature=channel_video_title

SPRING is finally here!

Lately I've just been too lazy and too busy for updates. The weather has been just perfect and we really spend a loooot of time outside - actually, most of the day....
So, what's going on?

Ben is doing great, we are running a lot. I missed this weather so much that as soon as the sun came out, I just started with running every day. Running in the fields, running agility, jogging, just running, running, running. We run a lot on agility obstacles, but no, this time I just don't train anything, no more cik&cap, no contacts training, no training at all, all we do is run among the obstacles, as fast as we can. And Ben always amazes me how smart he is, without any training at all, his independance on agility obstacles is just great, especially on weave poles, I never really trained weave-poles a lot, and WOW, he would even finish it with me sitting on the floor (once I tried this as a joke, when I was dead tired sitting on the grass and Ben was begging me for more, so I sent him to the weaves, I didn't actually believe he would do that with me sitting and not moving, but well, he is one little crazy dog! :)) And his entries, oh my, where did he learn entries like that?!! We never trained that, I am so lucky! :) Here is a video of the two of us having fun on agility, nothing special, just running, but as I said, look at that independance on weave poles, and look at that see-saw, it has never looked better than now! And after some jumping problems, I set those jumps very close, because Ben was jumping too early and we are now trying to improve his jumping style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_BwATB0Fnc&feature=channel_video_title

We are also running a lot in the fields and jogging. About 8km four times a week. Why? Well, simply because we love it! :)

At the weekends, we usually spend time with friends and since the weather is so great, we like to go hiking or simply walking and fooling around.

When inside, we are usually learning some new tricks...

At night, we usually sleep :D

Oh, and I also go to work in between :D

So, that's basically it. No more news for now. Agility season is opening, swimming season is opening, hiking season is opening and I just can't have enough of sunshine!! :)

Puppy Ben

Beni I love you so much!

Agility

This time an agility report. Beni is doing so good, he really surprises me every day how smart he is. I changed his trainings a little, I've been thinking and listening to what he wants to say to me and it paid off. I think he is doing so good, I even dare to say my handling is better :)

So his slalom looks great, no matter what I do, where I change direction, he stays concentrated on finishing it, we've also been practising blind crosses, looks good, contacts, turns, outs, everything looks good now on trainings, but let's see what happens on competitions :) I really like his attitude, he seems so happy to run and what is more important, so focused on me, he doesn't have that moments anymore when he wanted to run his own course, especially if there was a dogwalk anywhere near, he just had to run over it :) I think this has changed, he listens so good, though, it is a little to soon to say that, we'll see what happens in the next few months :D

And a video of Ben's last competition in Prestranek, our first clean run in A2 and first exam for A3, thank you Metka for the video! I'm especially proud of that contact - it was perfectly done, eventhough I made a French cross when he was on the dogwalk. Good boy! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACbJ0FxfUM8

Winter trainings video

Here it is, finally. Some of our trainings in our garden, on MY OWN agility obstacles, home-made :) Proud of that! :) After three weeks of lying in bed, I'm finally healthy again, so yesterday I took Ben hiking and training turns after dogwalk. He was so happy to run in the woods again and to run on that dogwalk that he loves so much :) His contacts and turns look perfect to me, after two months of not training contacts at all, but I never expected anything less from him anyway :)

I am also very happy with his outs, weave-poles and speed (not on artificial grass though :)), I think we are doing A LOT better. We still need to train cik&cap more, though I am quite happy with them too, but I know we can do better than that. And we definitely need to do something about his jumping, suddenly his jumping style is very weird occasionaly... Well, he needs to prove that he is still my little weirdo :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0-ZtjhJ5_c

Beni's pranks

I had some great plans for this weekend with Beni. I wanted to go to agility competition on Saturday, after a really loooong time, and then for a long hike on Sunday and some running contacts to make little Ben happy. But the first bad signs started already on Thursday when I got a high fever. It got worse and worse and on Saturday I stayed in bed with 39.5 fever all day. I also wanted to finish winter agility trainings video, just some of our runs here at home on my home-made agility obstacles :) Maybe next week...

Well, they say everything happens for a reason... I guess we can wait another month for the next competition and another weekend for hikes and agility trainings. Little hairy Beni doesn't seem to mind that I have to spend most of the day in bed, this dog is so happy to be with me and doesn't want to move anywhere without me, so he spends the day lying on me, kissing my face, which gets really annoying sometimes, but how could I stay serious with this dog? He is also bringing me toys all the time and yesterday the house looked a disaster, I was really so weak that I couldn't stand on my feet, so in the meantime he managed to open my wardrobe where I usually hide all of his toys, the drawers and my bag and brought all the toys he could find to me... This means about 30 toys lying around on the floor. Funny, he never steals food, I actually never hide his food and can leave it open, he won't take anything. He is also trying desperately to convince me into doing some tricks with him, so he is constantly bringing his bowl (not because he's hungry or thirsty) and spilling the water from it. He sometimes does that when he's hungry or thirsty, but usually when he just wants to do some tricks or play. He doesnt' want to play with anyone else, though, not even go for a walk. Today I am feeling so much better that I had to make some photos of him at home with his funny hair...

and here is a character description of poodles that I found, one of the most accurate so far: "The Miniature Poodle is good-natured and eager-to-please. He's also cheerful, loyal, proud, dignified, and extremely smart. When most people think of a "Poodle" they think of a feminine, girly dog. But nothing could be further from than the truth. He's actually very rugged and athletic. He's incredibly intelligent -- one of the most intelligent breeds -- and is easily trained. He thinks of himself as a person and demands to be treated like one. He's very affectionate and craves your love and companionship. He wants to be with you always. He's highly playful and loves to clown around. He possesses a keen sense of humor! He's highly energetic and very active around the home. He's playful and can learn to play fetch! He's a strong swimmer and loves the water. He's highly social and loves all people. He's gentle and patient with children. He gets along well with other dogs and pets. If he's bored he will get into mischief, so you need to give him something to do to occupy his mind. He housetrains easily. He's one of the most popular breeds."