25 April: Astra. We had the jumping 3 course from Tromsø last Sunday, and that was difficult – but FUN! Hard to be where I should at the 3rd last obstacle where she needed the ROUND command, which is not quite learnt yet, and then on the other side of the collapsed tunnel  over a jump. We also had a good Ag3 course with enough challenges. With three persons in the group during training we sure got our feet going. -siri

24 April: Trixie was so good! Her weave was almost perfect, and she followed me very well. In between we worked on obedience, and she did quite well there also. Good girl! -siri

21-22 April: Competitions atArendal, the south coast. Saturday Swiss judge Sashsa created wonderful courses with very good lines to run. I was pleased with all three: Jumping 3 with one refusal only; Ag2 where we were eliminated, but did well before and after; and the clean team run, where I got my last necessary qualification so we can participate in the Norwegian championships for teams. Sunday judge Toon had courses that did not have the same flow. They were better for slower dogs than for quicker, and we got eliminated in both J3 and Ag2. So my weekend’s plan on getting my last Ag2 clean run did ot work out. Better luck May 1st At the end of a very wet and cold day Astra and I did make the team run but with two refusals – definitely my fault as I lost the sight of the dog. -siri

19 April: Oslo Hundeskole, with more challenging courses this time. But still not as much as I would have liked. Also this time dogs from the two classes (beginners and us) bumped into each other and created a lot of noise and disturbance. -siri

18 April: Good training today with Astra. -siri

17 April: I skipped Trixie’s training today as I was worn out – poor Trixie needs her activity and my conscience was bad. But that is better than a bad training. -siri

12 April: Oslo Hundeskole training. Not the best one this time. The combinations were way too easy, but I know it is difficult to create combinations for everyone when the span between us is so big. We are in a “Competition class” and there are dogs that have never competed, and two of us who are in class 2 and 3. The level of dust in the air is incredible, but that’s how it gets when there is dry sand and sawdust on the ground indoors, and nothing to keep it on the ground. Not even some rain indoors. -siri

11 April: 10 days without training, but a great trip to visit our daughter and her family. But we were back to normal with Astra’s training today. The combinations were OK and she did well. -siri

30 March – 1 April. Recruitment group for the National team: 3 days of fantastic agility training with Christina Kosinski and Peter Holmberg as trainers. WOW! Peter’s way of viewing the course lines is good. I learnt a lot from a two-day class that he gave a year ago, and was happy to learn more now. We had incredibly challenging courses this weekend, and it was fun whenever they worked – which certainly did not happened all the time. But we learnt a lot! -siri

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5ejAhe5Ebk&feature=youtu.be

29 March: Astra again, this time Oslo Hundeskole. CHallenging handling with a quick dog, but that’s what training is for. We worked a lot on staying on teh seesaw until it hits the ground. She always has the contacts, but runs often too fast. -siri

28 March: And Astra today. Stine had created two very long courses with about 20 obstacles, and more than enough running. Nowhere where we could send the dog and place ourselves, we just had to be there all the time. One had two x 6 meter long tunnels (+5 meters between) and I really had to run to be at the end and tell her that she had to go ROUND a jump, or which jump she was going to next. There were about 5 shortly after the end of the tunnels. I am sure we ran a couple of kilometers during the class. 3 in the group today, and we got a lot of excersize. Who needs a threadmill? -siri

27 March: Trixie had her class, and we were exhausted after that. 4 different courses, two with contacts and two without with 3 persons on each. Not much time for breathing before we were out on the course again. I still work her as a medium dog, and she speeds up so I really have to run. She is getting better at understanding my cues, and also a wee bit better at sit and stay before start. But she barks and barks when we are waiting. So I worked on obedience with her,. and lie downc and stay gave her a lot of rewards. -siri

25 March: Gunnvor and I took our shelties for a training session. We were the only ones in the facility, which is a great luxury. I worked on ROUND and jump back to me, BETWEEN the obstacles, and of course a few other things in the relatively small course we set up. Good to have my own personal trainer whose payment is to have me as her personal trainer. -siri

21 March: Astra’s turn for training. Instructor Stine had to leave due to a severe headache, so we trained each other. I am happy that Christina, Elizabeth, and Tone also have small dogs (all shelties), as they are all super oberservers and helpers. We inherited the courses from the Elite class that was before us, and they were challenging and fun. This time I was able to get her through the course the first time, without her jumping or climbing the wring obstacle, but I was too quick to leave the seesaw so she jumped. We worked better on that the next times, and repeated it several times. If I do what I am supposed to do, she will also. And tomorrow is another training at Oslo Hundeskole. -siri

20 March: Last week I was in Florida, so one week without training. But today we were back and it was Trixie’s turn. She sat and stayed nicely every time – for the first time. And we have worked on that for months without any success at all. Her weave was a lot better, and so was her understanding of following my instructions. Wonder how she got these brain cells to start, but I am not complaining. This was a vey good collie – finally! -siri

11 March: No clean Ag2 run today because I goofed big time. I am still embarrassed about that. Never done anything as stupid as this before, and I never will again. But we did a 1-fault run on the team competitions, and that was good. The team came in fourth of about 10 small teams. -siri

10 March: Competition in Drammen. Astra came in second in Ag2 with a clean run. She lost a couple of seconds in two big circles, so that was the reason she did not win. But I don’t care about that. All I care about is the clean run! This was her second of three necessary clean runs before she is in class 2. -siri

08 March: Astra and I had our second training with Ann Karin today. She had given us some challenging courses, and we mastered them, but not the first time we did them. -siri

07 March: Astra did a good job at the training today. Great girl! -siri

06 March: Trixie had her agility training. Boy, does she annoy me with her intens barking when we are waiting or I am walking the course. I don’t know what to do with her. I have tried barking collar, where she gets a spray when she barks, but she doesn’t care. She smells like lemon all over when we are done with the training. I have worked obedience with her while waiting and that does wonders. But we can’t work 100% of the time for two hours. Any other suggestions? Her agility is getting better, though. She understands more that she shall follow my instructions for where to go, and she is quick. I still work on medium height and length for her, except for the tyre, which is normal height. She dives into the tunnels, races up the seesaw, starts to have a good rythm in the weave, but there is still more work to be done with that. And to the handling. -siri

04 March: Inofficial agility competition, Winter cup part 2, and Trixie ran Agility Class 1. Not exactly a success, and I know that she is not ready for competition for a long time. Astra was allowed to have start training so I could take her back up to three times if she started before cue, obviously disqualifying us when doing so. She started before cue once, but the second time she sat. We took a few obstacles and I praised her a lot for her stay. She stayed until cue before the jumping competition, but veered off track behind me and onto a wrong obstacle. I withdrew Trixie from the jumping as I was not in a mood to struggle with her. Kida was showed today as well, and came in as the best in her age group and second best female puppy. -siri

03 March: Conformance show for Trixie and for Kida, Astra’s 4 month old puppy. Kida was placed as number 2 in er age group, and I totally agree with the judge there: Tone’s Nikki is a lot better and also a lot bigger.  Trixie received a blue ribbon for her assessment Very Good, and I was a bit disappointed. No comments by the judge about her very good body or her great movement, but he thought instead that her muzzle was too narrow and that her toes were too wide (on that slippery floor!) She has started to shed again, and she will not be shown for quite a few months. -siri

01 March:  The first training at Oslo Hundeskole’s new facility – great to train close to home. Ann-Karin as trainer was the reason why I signbed up with Astra. The facility is a bit crowded with two classes going on at the same time, but she had made a good agility combination. The jumping combination was more of a run-around-in-high-speed-and-have-fun combination, so it was no challenge at all. -siri

29 February: This one-of-a-kind date was also a very good training day for Astra. The two combinations were good, and we did well. My knee was finally not hurting and that of course added to the good training. She finally seems to uinderstand that she can run ahead of me. That will save us a few seconds. She is good at moving in the big circle where the obstacles is, far away from me, sho likes to take the shortcut. It seems like we are finally getting closer to where we want to be. And tomorrow is another training session, this time with Ann-Karin.

28 February Trixie was a nightmare barking and barking while we waited. Thre only thing that could make her quiet was obedience training. But 2 hours of non-stop training is not ideal. Towards the end of the session she did quite well following my handling instructions and her weave is now wuite good.

25 February: I took both dogs to training today, and we had a good session with a couple of other who also had the day off.

22 February Astra’s class training. I did not run the whole course due to my knee. But we worked on difficult entries for the weave, finishing the weave while I moved away (need more training on that), sit and stay (no problem during training, but competitions is a vastly different matter).

21 February Trixie class training. She runs so fast now! I still have her on medium-dog jumps to get her speed up. But my knee is still bothering me so I was not abel to get where I wanted to.

18 February NKK show at Bø, 2 1/2 hour’s drive each way. I was happy to have Mina and Elizabeth in the car with me. Three shelties in Trixies crate, and Mina’s sheltie and yorkie in Astra’s crate. Astra was focussed, but my knee was very bad so I was not able to maske myself turn and run as quickly as I had wanted. Still, with 3 errors (15 error points) we won Ag2L. The jumping class 3 was a failure when she took a wrong turn: My knee’s fault.So incredibly irritating, and I certainly hope that the knee will mend soon.

10-11 February was the first competition of the year. Astra was back to severe stress before start. The result is that she has no ears or eyes on me, with a disasterous result each time. So Saturday we disqualified all four runs. The first one was extremely bad, but the next ones were a little better. At least we had some good parts in all the runs then. She started with stress on the Jumping class 3 on Sunday. A few hours of waiting before the Ag2, and she mellowed and we did a perfect, clean run! She won, of course, as it is very hard to beat her speed when things go smoothly for her. 10 seconds below the standard time! One down – two to go before we are in class 3.

Due to travels (two weeks) and my illnesses (3 weeks) we have not been training as much as I wanted by mid-February.

30 December – January: Finally, the puppies had moved and Astra was ready to start training again after her 4 month maternity leave. She had not forgotten anything!

04 December: As Trixie has only been trained on medium obstables, we had a session working on the high and long obstacles. No problem – she can jump. But she did not like the new dividable tyre. Frankly I think she did not see it. It is black, very thin and the area around it is very open – and it is relatively dark in the training facility. -siri

December: Astra is still on maternity leave until the end of the month. Can’t wait to start training her again. -siri

22-27 November: Kennel Club with two great things happening:

I sold about 50 of my Agility 1-2-3 books, which were officially launched here! One funny comment from one relatively well-known handler: “What do you think you know since you think you can write a book?” The answer is of course that I have had it published! Neither she nor anyone else have done that in Norway since Jon G. Olsen published his 20 + years ago.

The other great thing was to see Astra’s daughter Ifa, who was qualified to run the Norwegain Championship in agility, 20 months old! She made two good runs Saturday and was then qualified for the finals Sunday. Unfortunately she did not make it in any of her two runs then. But NC final at the age of 20 months – fantastic, Mina! Congratulations also to Flax and handler Helge, who had the best result and time after the jumping competition, but unfortunately did not make it through the agility. Also his daughter Ina, who made it to the finals with her grandmother’s dog, who lives 8 hour’s drive away. Needless to say it is not easy to train her!  But the winners, including Stovner Dog club’s many very good handlers and dogs, all did a very good job – Congratulations to them all!-siri

14 November: Trixie and I had class as usual on Monday evening, and we enjoyed it very much. We worked on what we had learnt during the weekend. -siri

12-13 November: Weekend class with Lee Gibson was very good. I wish, however, that I could have taken Astra instead of Trixie, who does not know enough yet. But the goal was for ME to learn, and I did, anyway. It was a good class, where he stressed pull/deccelerate and Push/accellerate. Most of it made sense, but not all. However, this will become a part of my toolbox, and I will use it. Just takes some time to get used to, as I had to be in a different place from what I am used to. Different mindset. -siri

First half of November we did not go to class. We spent time with Astra and the puppies instead. -siri

The other “birth” had a somewhat longer pregnancy: The book Agility 1-2-3 came off the printer the same day and it looks good! It will be available at NKK’s Dogs4All show at the end of the month. I took off the next day to the publisher’s and it was wonderful finally to see it as a book and not just a .pdf file.

01-02 October: Lapinette weekend, with several of Trixie’s relatives. Saturday we had a 4-hours agility class (I was the instructor). Some of the collies had never done any agility before, but they really did well for beginners. Jumping, tunnels, and A-frame was no problem, and some handlig also worked. We ended with a great lunch in Nette’s garden. 21 degrees C was wonderful for October in Denmark! Sunday 12 collies and their owners had a nice walk in the woods at Amager, and ended with coffee and cakes at a picknic table. -siri

23-25 September: I did not bring any of my dogs to Kongsberg this weekend. Friday we had 8 persons trying out for the “bronze badge” in agility, and four of them succeeded. It was very obvious that they were nervous as this was the first time anything “mattered”. We had competition at the same time, and ended the evening with pizza and a seremony where four received their badges, and everyone received prizes for their competition and diplomas for their summer-and-fall class. Saturday and Sunday we had 6 dogs in the handling class. We worked on hidden tunnel openings, front crosses, back crosses, blind crosses, around the obstacles, between the obstacles and finally layered obstacles. They were all amazed at what they were able to do with their dog. What was a lot of fun was to see the different solutions they had to their handling. Recall or send, left or right, back cross or front cross. As an instructor I stress that they shall understand what they are able to do with their dog. There is no one-size-fits-all in agility. I also enjoyed listening to their discussions. They sure have come a very long ways since the beginner’s weekend in May! Two BCs, and the rest of them different breeds this weekend: Koiker, Kelpie, Eurasian, Chosky pez. I have never seen the latter breed before (they have been on a different training group), but did I fall in love with that dog! -siri

19  September: Trixie and I had a very good day in class. We had great contact, and her attention was on me and not in everything and everybody else. We worked obedience on the side, and did quite well on the course. Quite well does noe mean that things went good, but they went as good as one can expect of a young dog who has not learnt very much. Unfortunately her handler has not spent enough time working with her. -siri

11 September: Gunnvor and I had the indoor training facilities to ourselves around noon on Sunday. Listening to the radio on my way there all they talked about everywhere was that it was 10 years since 9/11. How time flies! I think of it as only a few years ago that I saw the twin towers being hit by planes and later collapsing… First we worked with Gunnvor’s sheltie Penny. She has decided to run nicely over the dogwalk and then JUMP over the contact. A chair that she had to run under, and two jump wings on the side, made it necessary for her to run all the way down. Not exactly an elegang solution, but one that worked. I think the solution is to work on running contacts. Then I got Trixie out of the car. She did so well when there was nothing in the surroundings to distract her. Weave is improving, though she is not quite there yet jumping back and forth; She stops on the down contacts on the A-frame and the dogwalk as she is supposed to; she followed my instructions for where to go – to a certain point.  Poor Astra, now (hopefully) a week pregnant was confined to the car during the training session, and she knows that Trixie is having some fun while she is not. I guess we’ll have to continue going up there, even if it is 45 minute’s drive each way. At least we’ll be able to do some serious training.  - And coffee and a chat with Gunnvor is always nice.

05 September: Training with Trixie. She still has ”a few” concentration problems when she sees other dogs and people running on the next course. And waiting is such a booooring thing. She let me know very vocally that it is so, and I spent a lot of time trying to hush her and keeping her quiet. Nothing helped, not even going over to the weave and work there, or working with obediencve. No concentration at all. When we got home Tom asked her if she had had a good training, but she did not want to talk about it. Usually she shows that she had had fun when he asks. I agree: This was not fun.

04 September. Marion came by and we agreed that the best little girl of the litter will be mine to own and hers to have. She has wanted a puppy from Astra ever since she babysat the last litter several times. Great cooperation! And Marion is a very knowledgable young woman, having just graduated from senior high with focus on dogs, and is now studying at the agro university. So I am very happy that she wants this. It will be good for me, too, so in the long run we can have more puppies while not having more dogs at home. And I can have a granddaughter from Astra. I believe that keeping a daughter, much as I would love that, will make the daugher very dependent on her mother. At least that’s what I have seen other places. They always need to ask their mother for permission, and will forever stay their mother’s little puppy. I want one with more guts – thus a granddaughter would be great. And I am not ready for another puppy yet with all the training that needs to be done. I was not ready for a puppy last year, either, but Trixie has been wonderful all the time, and Tom trained her basic obedience.  -siri

03 September. The agility competition closest to our house was today, and do I wish that I could have started Astra for the first time in Jumping class 3! But now there will be no training or competition for her for the next four months if she has puppies. So I came there without dogs, and watched for a few hours, and of course talked to everybody. -siri

01-02 September. Astra and I drove 5 hours to Sweden to visit Shelteam’s kennel where her stud-to-be lives. They had a good mating each day, so we can now only cross our fingers for a nice, good litter! -siri

27 August: Tryout for Guinness World Record Agility. Astra is still in heat, and did not like to run with panties. She knocked a bar (which she never does) and we were out of business. I bet the rest will have fun tomorrow, and I am sorry I miss it. But such is life, and her life is that she will meet Mr.Perfect in a few days and then hopefully puppies in 9 weeks. -siri

25 August: Astra’s turn for training, but she was in heat and her concentration was not fully on me. She ran behind me several times, even if I have never taught her that. this may be the second last training for 4 months as I plan to let her meet Mr Perfect in about 10 days. His name is Rasmus and he lives in Gothenburg, Sweden http://www.shelteam.se/rasmus.htm -siri

22 August: Double training. First Trixie agility. She started out running after everyone she wanted to say hi to, then all obstaclers she wanted to take. But after a while she began to understand that she was supposed to come with me even if there were others around. We trained on back cross, and on layered jumps behind a half-circle tunnel. She managed that, though usually she thought that she had to take a round in the tunnel before the jumps behind it. Tunnels are fun! Oh, well – she did what she was supposed to. We also had a circle with seeesaw, jumps, tunnel, and weave, and she did all well. She has a wonderful stop at the end of the seesaw. She does the weave pretty well, but is not quite there yet. And Astra barked from the sideline. Then it was Astra’s turn training in the show group. We worked mainly on the obedience parts. And Trixie barked from the sideline. Trixie was also allowed to take part and had other dogs jumping over her back. She does not care, even if sheltie Liz hits her. And 4 hours of training is a lot for the handler. -siri

21 August: NKK. Astra was back to old bad habits during the first run, which was the Ag2. She started wild and continued without listening or hearing, so I took her off course. The next (and final) run was Jumping 2, mand she did a clean run – her final needed for saying good-bye to class 2. Jumping class 3: Here we come!! In the evening she started her heat (no sign during the day and no interested males sniffing her, either). Now we are frantically hunting high and low for a suitable tricolor male for her. Hopefully we will have puppies around November 1. -siri

13-14 August: Competitions in Fredrikstad. Saturday started bad: Eliminations in four runs. Why am I doing this?? Sunday: One run with one fault in Agility 2, and came in as number 4 or so of about 25 dogs. She ran the team run with 2 errors (=10 error points), while the rest of the team had two clean runs. The team won. Prize: One hard rubber toy that none of my dogs like. Anyway – we won and that was fun. -siri

8 Aug: Show group training. We were only 4-5 people, but had a good training. We also worked on obedience heelwork, in addition to the “normal” marching, jumping through hoolahoops, and the individual things. Astra always jumps up on my back when I sit down, stays there and gives me a lick in the face. She is so cute! -siri

6-7 August Competitions in Nes: Sunday started well: Astra had a clean run with the speed of 4.14 meters /second. That was the final clean run she needed: Byebye at last to Class 1 and Here we come to Class 2. Actually I think class 2 will be easier, as there is more handling and less long straight runs from one course end to the other. Next was the team, where she for once had a fault: She missed the down contact on the dogwalk, and then had a refusal into the tunnel. But Stovner’s three small teams did well: Winner: Stovner, Second: Stovner, and third: Stovner. It was raining heavily so the judge decided to take out the collapsible tunnel from class 2 jumping. He replaced it with a normal tunnel, which gave us 3 openings to choose from instead of one plus the tail end of the collapsible. Astra ran well until the last entry to the tunnels, where she stopped when I called her, and put her nose into the wrong opening.

Saturday was a disaster with 4 out of 4 possible eliminations. Ag1 started with a straight line of obstacles from one end of the course to the other, about 40 meters: Jump – jump – dogwalk and jump, before going left. Astra’s refusal to sit and stay and her incredible speed, made it impossible to be at the end at the same time as she. So she veered to the right after the last jump, and when I finally got there, she ran over the jump again on her way to me.  -siri

Thursday 24:  Jumping2: Astra had one refusal and won. Three “disks”. But 4 good runs.

Friday 22: Ag1: One refusal, came in 2nd. Jumping2: “Disk”, Open Ag: Clean run, came in 0.7 seconds after John.

Saturday 23: Ag1: Clean run and won! Jumping2: “Disk” Open jumping: clean run and won.

Sunday 24: Ag1 “Disk”, Jumping2: 1 refusal and won. Open jumping: “Disk”.

Mina and Ifa did even better: They won the overall competition with the most clean runs during the four days and came home with a very large “silver” cup! Boy, am I proud of them! Mina is such a good handler, and Ifa is a great dog. I can at least take a little credit for that; after all she is Astra’s daughter! -siri