In 2010 I hope to start competing with Koda. He loves his training and is progressing well. We will do a try out in March on a HtM show, but won't have a proper routine ready for that, I just want to see what he does in a ring situation.

Wizz has now been promoted to Advanced freestyle, which means we can try to qualify for the semi finals for Crufts. This involves a bit of luck, lots of training and lots of fun, so 2 out of 3 we will surely be able to full fill and I hope the luck part won't be against us.....

Vi and Rogie are focussing on their herding. Adrian and I will take them to a training day organised by the Midlands Border Collie Club in April. The training taking the day will be Andy Nickless. We have bought his DVD and it is exciting to now go there and see how he does it for real! :-)

Antoon & Claire have helped me a bit more with my herding in February and it was very useful. I am considering myself very lucky to have such talented friends who are also able to point out to me what I am doing wrong. I relied too much on Violet and sort of let her do the job by herself. When they said this to me, I immediately agreed, as I always feel she knows so much more than I do. But they adviced me to take more control as it will be easier for Violet that way, and I can tell you the change is dramatic! I've been able to put all the advice into practice with my own sheep and everything seems to have become more calmer with my racey sheep. I hope to learn a bit more when we are at the training day.

Gyp has become very old and sort of lost her marbles....It is strange to see a dog change so much in such a short time. In November she was still more or less OK, even though we saw that taking her to training class was getting a bit too much for her. Even though we still do a bit of mental stimulation it seems like she is in a world of her own sometimes....not responding to anything we say.....This is very strange for a dog that has been so obedient all her life. She still likes her food, cuddles and likes to come for walks, so I guess all is well for now......

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Happy training,

 

Hetty