The Voltenstein

This morning at training... VERY early, as in before the sun comes up, in the pitch darkness that is called supreme Agility dedication, a friend made a comment that made me all teary-eyed and stupid, but summed it up very well... Volt had just run one hell of a complicated sequence and as per his usual madness was spinning around me to go and do it or another course, or well anything again and she said to Volt... 'you just always run your heart out don't you boy?'

Today I just feel my Super Sheltie needs a special mention.

Please understand, we have tons to work on, turns aren't always our strong point and sometimes I am just way to slow for him.  I tend not to trust him nearly enough and my handling decisions are questionable at times.  Very occasionally Volt feels that it is more constructive to bark at me like a maniac while circling me at full speed, this is mostly in the middle of a course. Oh and there was that one time that he just went completely looney, apesh#@, coocoo for cocopuffs and literally did everything on the course that he was not supposed to.  Our start line stays, are... lacking to put it mildly.

He is definitely allowed all those things too.

Volt competed in his first Agility Show 1 year and 12 days ago... in this time he has done more than most dogs do in a whole career and apparently he is far from done.  At this point in time the titles and wins and rosettes and trophies and stuff really don't mean much to me though.  Getting it 'right' is the fun part.  And with Volt it is REALLY fun.... and there are Volt puppies planned for the future as well, I can't WAIT for more fun Shelties around...

I am really lucky to have found a one in a million dog like my Sheltie boy.  He has given me so much the last two and a half years, a life time worth of unforgettable memories and special moments.  Achievements aside, being on an Agility course with Volt is one of the most amazing experiences I can't describe, regardless of the result.

All the regional qualifying trials for our SA Champs and AWC Try Outs have now been completed and Volt managed to finish top of the Small dog category, well done Machine!  Here are the videos of all the trials (just a quick explanation, you run 4 jumping rounds and 4 agility rounds and then the points earned in your best 3 jumping and best 3 agility rounds are totalled):

Random updates... again...

It seems 2013 might just not be my year for keeping the blog updated, yes honestly due to lack of effort on my part, let's not lie... this year has just been one of those 'head-over-ass-spinning-full-speed-down-hill-into-inevitable-doom' kind of years so far... which is a good thing really... one of two things could happen... the ride could get even more interesting and I do like rollercoasters... OR things could just get better.  Either way, it won't be boring... and yes I exaggerate, but that is nothing new.  The videos in this post are just some recent random training videos, unedited nogals... yup, I am being really lazy indeed...

So our regional trials are done and dusted, we finished al four trials (so 4 x jumping rounds and 4 x agility rounds) to determine the qualifiers for the South African Agility Championships.  One province still has to complete the trials, so videos on this matter will have to wait until next. Steiner Weiner the Super Sheltie, occasionally known as Volt had some good trials... we won't say the same about me, he had to compensate for me more than once let me tell you.  He is currently lying on top of the scoreboard for both SA Champs and AWC and he should theoretically keep that lead.  We can only hope.  Spaz had the worst luck he has ever had.  My boy, that has never had a real injury to speak of, picked up a bad muscle strain while running the first trial and just as he was recovering from that, he managed to rip the top layer off ALL four his paws, so please don't ever ask me again why he is called Spaz.  So he ran the trials with almost no training, after having missed a few regular shows, so I wouldn't call them our best trials ever.  He managed to pull through for me on the last two trials though and is currently lying 11th in the SA Champs and 6th in the AWC section, although that might change when the final scores are calculated.  He is definitely safe to qualify though.

With the annoyance and worry of the trials being over, we can get back into 'all-or-nothing-go-for-broke-fun-full-speed' Agility.  I am very much looking forward to that and we have quite a busy time coming up too, including the first 'away' shows for the year.  Woohoo, looking forward to seeing some friends from all over the country and some lekker competition.



It also just occurred to me, that I forgot to blog about the National Dog Jumping League 2012... results only came out recently, but I am proud of the Spaz!  He won the National Dog Jumping League 2012, what a boy!  His full brother (from a different litter) came second as well, so Up the Farm Dogs!  Voltenstein didn't do too badly himself... he missed the first round of the competition as he was too young (yes hard to believe my little Stein has only been competing for 1 year and 11 days!), but he did manage to win 3 of the 6 rounds, since it is a cumulative competition, he only finished 7th over-all, but I will take it!



And now of course it is time for a Psycho Chicken update... loving her to bits and she honestly does give new meaning to the term 'working girl' and no get your mind out of that gutter.  She just has one interest in life and that is to work... whether it is playing circus circus for a clicker, going through tunnels are just running around full speed with me, work is IT in her little mind.  We will leave it with those updates for now...  Sorry for the lazy unedited training videos, hopefully you enjoy them anyway...