Things aren’t a lot better, to be honest! However, I felt it had been long enough and it was probably about time I wrote here again.

Christmas was difficult, as expected. I’m afraid I barely managed cards let alone presents so I will be sorting those out as soon as I can get my head round it (maybe by next christmas, the rate I’m going!)

I was quite poorly for most of December, missed LKA (again – second year running and I’ve only entered twice!) but wasn’t too bad for Christmas…then had recovered enough to take Solei to a show on the 27th December. I knew this judge quite liked Solei but unfortunately we’d put Sarah & Solei in the same class and Sarah beat him! Though I handled her in the challenge and ended up with Reserve Best of Breed, behind a dog that has recently become a champion, so that was good 🙂

After that it felt as though things may be returning to slight normality….until I woke up the next morning with a sore spot beside my mouth. Didn’t think much of it until it started swelling…and swelling…and I ended up with a lovely infected hole right near the corner of my mouth which made the whole side of my face swell up from my eye downwards, made eating/drinking/talking very difficult because I can’t open my mouth properly (and it hurt when I did) and was the most excruciating pain I’ve experienced for a long time. Lasted about a week but is now healing much better than I expected and I don’t think the scar is going to be terribly big.

So that was another set back! Despite my face I still managed to get to the show I’d entered on the 4th with Solei and Jason, who both got 2nds. The judge commented on Solei’s movement which was lovely because so many toy judges don’t appreciate good movement because they’re “only toys”! Highlight of the day was a friend was handling a Golden Retriever and got Reserve Best Puppy in Show 🙂 Not bad for your first proper outing at 6 months!

I’ve always wanted to do agility. In August 2007 I enquired about it but no-one was very keen to take me on and so I never took it any further. Tried again in January 2008 and this time although they still weren’t keen one of the people gave me the number and number of someone who may be able to help. I tried ringing her but always got her answer phone and whenever she rang back I was always out! Sods law given how often I go out. This went on until March(!) when I got distracted by Crufts and it fell by the wayside.

Then, last November, having the impending thought that I wouldn’t be able to show Solei for much longer and having taught him some obedience in the mean time I dug her number out and approached her again. I spent half of a Saturday trying (didn’t want to leave a message after the last fiasco!) and eventually she answered! However, she didn’t want to start anything until after Christmas because festive things would get in the way.

Ultimately Solei had his assessment session on Saturday 🙂 She put him through his paces….he made me seem like one of those awful owners that thinks they’re only little dogs so they don’t need training and they can get away with anything 😛

Actually it wasn’t that bad, he was really rather good until the end when we took one of her dogs + him for a little walk down the field and he buggered off into the bushes and would not come back! She said she’d never seen a dog that was totally oblivious and wouldn’t even keep looking to check where you were.

He is actually quite a clingy dog….but there’s nothing better than sniffing and peeing up bushes and because he’s never off the lead (bad experience with another dog and nowhere safe to let him off) he’s too confident that I’ll always be there. I think if he had one short sharp shock (ie I “disappear” when he’s doing it) that would probably fix him. Unfortunately to do that I need somewhere 100% secure because he’s out of sight for most of the time, which I don’t have!

We do have a problem though in that he was almost 3 years old when I had him (3 days off) and he had next to no training in those 3 years so he’s not used to using his brain which is making it much harder for him to learn. Bad enough that I missed the first crucial period when he was 6-12 weeks or there abouts but I missed the whole of the first year….and if they do nothing in their first year it makes it really, really hard.

I’m not totally blameless because I didn’t really do anything with him training wise for the first year I had him (though I’d already long missed the crucial period by then!) so I’m hoping that much like someone that’s binged on junk food and never exercised then decides to start and can run marathons eventually if they wanted to if I get Solei used to using his brain we can sort it…eventually.

He lacks concentration as well….in the house he’s *brilliant*…he does whatever I tell him first time 99% of the time….when I tell him to lie down he can drop practically before I’ve finished telling him,  sits first time, comes when called..etc and I was having to use multiple commands there but I think that’s just because it was so different…I think (hope!) he’ll be pretty good when it’s a little bit more familiar.

Because I can’t run with him he’s going to have to learn distance control so she’s given me two weeks to teach him to target (touch with his nose) my hand, then the other hand, then a pole and then follow the pole round a cone. I’ve been trying to teach him targetting for months and never had any joy so should be fun! Hopefully some of that work has sunk in even if it doesn’t seem like it, so now he’ll pick this up a bit quicker. Then, once he’s mastered this, we can begin! 😀