Well what a funny day it turned out to be. All through the winter Tuesday training has only been cancelled once. Today was supposed to be rain, wind, hail and thunder, none of that happened, however 100 miles down the road Mt Tongariro blew a hole in itself over night and ash clouds were promised, that didn't happen either.

I collected Keile and Lucy as normal from their homes for their usual Tuesday Training, saw Rose along the way walking Miska. Keile's mum wasn't able to go to work in Taupo today as the ash fallout there was very bad and Helene has horrible asthma and things like extra particulate matter in the air is pretty lethal.

Melanie came at 12.30 with Tip and Mac and we worked solidly for an hour and half. Tip is really working well now, so we need to integrate her into a proper Saturday class. I generally work Mac and he tries hard for me. Mel reckons he just can't be bothered working some times. I don't think so, I think he just doesn't always understand what is being asked of him. However their agility is improving in leaps and bounds. Mel and I have lots of laughs working together as well. Mac does lovely obedience heel work but just can't keep his bottom on the ground in the sit stays. Oh well more work needed there.

Louise and Reilly came for 2p.m. Club Flygility but no other Club members showed so we had some fun with Reilly, he is doing perfect Flygility work now. He recalls through the courses like a gem. He has previously not been keen to come back to Louise once he has the ball from the box but we are playing another game with him back at home base and he wants to come all right. Louise loaded the box for me to work with little Fae, the fat fairy. She caught the ball three out of four which is remarkable given that she is short, the box is tall and the ball is a moving target. I also got Lucy and Keile some Flygility work and they managed a slight bend in the course and did all the hurdles asked of them. Little Lucy was a bit naughty and raced off to get aggressive when a new dog came through the gate with his owner. She will go for months being a little angel our Lucy the Kelpie cross, and then for some reason she wants to have a go at another dog. Not too drastic but unnerving for the new dog. I put Lucy in a down and did a proper introduction and she was as good as with the other dog. I would say that during her time at the Pound in her youth she was jumped on by something and she wants the last word - first. Hmmm it is a work in progress. We are afterall training for zero aggression in our dogs, so my plan to take Lucy to a Fly tournament next month might be pushed back a bit. I do find that adequate exercise along with training helps to keep aggression under control, Lucy lacks long walks on lead on a daily basis which is a shame. Looks like avoidance might be the only way for a while.

The new trainer was Kelly with her family dog, oops name forgotten, is it BJ.?, Anyway we worked on Hurdle introduction today. Kelly's family have a long history of dog training with me and it is good to have them back. Kelly has not done Agility with a dog before but really wants to do it with this dog. The dog has some kelpie, foxterrier and maybe something else. Actually looks a bit like a basenji. Very athletic with good ball drive, a great player, so I can't see anything standing in the way of a great team to do Agility. We trained till 4p.m. when Pam and her dog Molly arrived. Pam and Molly are doing Obedience and would like to do Rally-O.

Pam is great, she doesn't care what she does as long as its fun and the dog enjoys it.  We were doing Agility but for some reason when Molly gets excited or over stimulated she loses the abillity to stay with Pam, so she will be working away on the hurdles and tunnels and then suddenly want to go somewhere else, urgently, and she does not want to come back.  This has gone on and on month after month.  So we decided that we would kick Agility into touch for Molly and go back to her great heel work and stays and lots of recalls.  We are fussing about getting her sits straight and keeping her concentration on the job at hand..  Then we do a kind of Rally-O though the equipment - hurdles etc.  We are working on pace.  Doing some very slow stuff and then speeding up to a run then really slow again.  It seems to be working.  Amanda and Maddy are Pam and Molly's training partners.  Amanda got stuck at work today and by the time she got to us it was raining and Maddy had been plucked from home and into the car and down to the park and took a while to settle.  That said, Maddy works really well and concentrates above the call of duty.  So after Pam went home and Janina had arrived with Poppy, Amanda stayed for a while to do some Agility which Maddy really loves.  Janina and Poppy are getting so good at course work I really have to work hard to make a course challenging enough, and guess what Amanda and Maddy managed that difficult course work as well.  It always seems no matter what we put in front of Maddy she just goes for it.  Amazing.  And amazing again we put Poppy's hurdle heights up tonight to one below midi.  She will be a short midi and with her bull terrier build we are taking it slowly getting her up to height.  She was jumping with great style, I reckon she has got more style than her brother Jay the Labrador.

By now at 5.30p.m. it was getting cold and a bit rainy, so we worked through Poppy's weave training and packed the gear into the container. Just a handful of people today, but thank you for coming you guys anyway . Doesn't look like there will be much training tomorrow, the weather forecast is even worse than it was for today, but we will wait and see, lets hope the volcano stays settled tonight as well. Raewyn. And I have to add Kelly's dogs name is Jake, not BJ and Emily graced us with her presence to have a look at the trophies we are currently running so that she can donate another for NALA improvers, Thank you Emily.