Shape Up Agility Seminar, Denise Fenzi Online course

The end of Oct was a very busy dog-related time. I had the pleasure of hosting Justine Davenport and Jessica Patterson for the Perth Shape Up Dogs agility seminar and it was fantastic! The girls were lovely to have around and everyone enjoyed the seminar. Red Dog did really well, there were a LOT of backsides, threadles, off course options etc and she really coped well. We got homework (no pulling of the shoulders!) and the only bad bit was them having to go home again..
Here is a short clip of one sequence we got right the first time. There were a LOT of sequences, I haven't even seen all the footage yet.


Tex is continuing on with his 'But I'm just little!' online course with Denise Fenzi. I am very much enjoying Denise, and her style of teaching. She is very generous with her advice and very quick to reply. However.. it seems like we have just unleashed more problems then we started out with :( Certainly his issues are a lot clearer... I knew he didn't like to be without the BCs, but didn't realise how completely disfunctional he really is without them until this course. He won't even go for a walk in our park (that he walks in 4x/day) without at least one of them.. flat out refuses to walk. And although his training inside has continued to be mostly reasonable, outside he has fallen in a complete heap and pretty much won't/can't work, even WITH a BC there. Denise says he has a LOT of fear. And to treat him like he is a puppy I am trying to socialise again.. because unfortunately he came to me so late from the breeder, I suspect he had ZERO time by himself when he was with her. It really feels like we are going downhill, especially lately. I will persevere, but I am wondering for how long. I suspect he would be happy just being a pet..and I don't want to stress him out. However last thing I need is just another pet dog.. that would make 3, with the only one who is 'working' not belonging to me! I am just not a fan of low drive dogs in general..would much rather work with completely over-the-top manic border collies than a pap that would rather just sit under the table..

Shimmer is also not going very well at the moment. She is very lame on her RH a lot of the time. I have just started her on NSAIDs and she seems happier on them. Her skin is flaring up badly as well. She is on Apoquel (new experimental drug for atopy) twice a day. Poor dog. Trying to keep her happy.. she is not doing any training at all and really hasn't done much for the whole of this year. Love the Big Dog. Still trying to find something that we can do with her.. herding would be great but there is nowhere close to do it, and it is very expensive. Ink is still the same.. and driving me nuts with jumping on the bed at 5am. She is retired from agility.

Speaking of expensive.. we recently (a few days ago), bought a new car! The Suburu will be traded for the (much) bigger Nissan Navara duel cab. Should be much more space for the dogs when we get the back set up..and I suppose I will get the nerve to drive it (park it, more to the point), eventually!