Holly is doing really well at the moment on full height, although we have not tried to try this in a competition yet.  I have done a few jumps with her out side where I take the dogs for a play and she’s fine then but something happens at shows; we both need our confidence building up so Holly’s also been booked in for some one to one training as well.  I’ve also done this with her because of her “A” ramp contacts as she really needs specific training on this and I have no way of being able to practice this at home.  At the moment I may just enter her in just Jumping Classes and leave the Agility until she stops jumping off as soon as she sees the flipping contact part!  Her weaves are much better but she has a habit of coming out before the last two so that’s another thing we’re practising on too and Tim’s horrible to us as well as he will put the tunnel right in her view after the weaves!!!!!!!

Tigger and Holly get on so well; I must admit when I brought him home I did wonder if Holly would accept him as it had just been the two of us for a couple of years and would her nose be put out of joint, but as you can see from the pictures they got on from the first moment they met and they still do!!  They have the odd falling out but that’s just over toys and he is a bit possessive over them in the house – outside Holly always gets the ball or Frisbee – bit like his mother there I think.  So when I leave them together in the house the toys are taken away and by the warmth of the seat of the chair and the arm of the settee I think they spend most of their time laying together.  I do find the odd tissue strewn around the house when I come home and he did have a session with the TV Guide and I didn’t know what was on the telly from 5pm to 7pm as he’d chewed that part out, apart from that his chewing is gradually receding and touch wood, he has yet to chew his new rubber matting in the car cage!  Holly stills “sings” in the car and thankfully Tigger has not followed in her footsteps as whatever Holly does he has to do too (which is quite sweet really, sometimes, – I’m sure if he had a “school” report it would say “easily led by others”).  I have kept to my promise that he is not sleeping in my bedroom (sorry but Holly has her basket in there with me as she just kept jumping up at the kitchen door handle when I first got her and then just came up the stairs – baby gates don’t work as she just jumps them!) and when it’s time for bed I only have to say “right then” and he’s off in his basket on the landing.

Tigger’s now 16 months old and has just finished his Beginner’s course for Agility and now the fun begins!  We had a training day at the barn on Saturday and Tigger participated in the morning at elementary height which he’s quite capable at but knocked a couple down as he’s rushing a bit, so I’m trying to slow him down a tiny bit; my jogging must be working as my speed’s built up a bit too!  We learnt quite a lot during the morning, especially me being told I’m trying to run before I can walk with him so I’m not going to get worked up when he doesn’t do it right – he is still only a little ‘un.  I must remember he is not Holly!!  We did a lot of specific training exercises such as things like general recalls on leads to motivate the dogs – not that Tigger needs “geeing” up when we go to agility but it’s good for him as he’s not good at bringing toys back!  We then went on to send on’s over a couple of jumps and cross overs and then built this up to four jumps, practising tight turns on one jump and then send aways, weave poles – which he is slowly catching onto but I am still training him with me running backwards with cheese in my hand just to get him confident in going through (offside weaves are a different matter as he goes for my right hand that he thinks the cheese is in and the catches my leg so I acquire quite a few bruises and cuts which is not funny).  He is better now on the dog walk and will go all the way along it instead of careering off the slope the other end looking for me!  Contacts are being trained with a target at the moment and when he does manage a “stop” I must admit they are very good ones – I’m still trying to acquire a scaffolding plank so I can do some bits at home; my neighbours have got one in their back garden but we can’t get to it as it’s under a load of rubble from their extension!  At the moment though, Tigger is coming out of his waits all of a sudden so we are doing a lot of this on the lead with loads of praise and treats but not introducing the jumps yet – keeping the two things completely separate for a while.  I have booked him in for some one to one training in April as well and am looking forward to that.

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Tigger (Harrjak Tigger)

Tigger came from friends Tim Knee and Michelle Townsend - I decided he was the pup for me when he was only an hour old!  I’d already chosen the name and my god has he grown into it too!!

February 2004 

Tigger is now 15 months old and has nearly finished his “beginners” course at training.  This week we have an agility course to do and then the final week a jumping course. We did start out using toys as a reward but he still hasn’t figured out that if he gives the toy back it will be thrown for him again, so we’ve gone back to cheese and sausage!!

I didn’t notice until last week of his change in temperament; watching the other dogs he has this high pitched squeal – all his siblings are the same – and he is so eager – but when it’s our turn and we get on the arena all that noise disappears and he’s just waiting to be told what, where and how.  In fact he was in a “stop” at the bottom of the dog walk and I was chatting away, looked down and suddenly realised he was still waiting for his release command!  Tigger is not feeling too confident on the A-frame or dog walk so we need to get a lot of practice in there; the A-frame is not as bad as the dog walk, this he basically scrambles up like a bat out of hell and races to the other end on his nails – I’m trying to find some wood wide enough to practice at home with.  He is going to be fast I think and follows where I’m going for some of the course and then “Whey Hey” takes over and pure excitement takes over and he goes where he wants over jumps and through tunnels!!! He is still very young though and at the early stages of training but I think for the first year of competitions (hopefully just the first year) we could be the “comical” entries. 

24 February

Before Holly’s session he did about 10 mins of extra training -  I mentioned earlier that Tigger was not too happy with the A-Frame, he had no hesitation running up it AND taking off with a flying leap from the top!  The wonderful thing about Tiggers is they’re bouncy bouncy bouncy and he just picked himself up and went back over it again, this time going down the other side properly.  The Dog Walk – he has now decided to use his puds going over this now but I think I need roller blades to keep up with him, we definitely need some control here!!!

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