New beginnings.

Happy New Year!!!
My first blog of 2011 and I am a very happy bunny. Fern & I are almost over the flu, just a lingering cough and not up to speed yet, but feeling well enough to start training in earnest with Cove & Twiggy.
Lily & Olli are having a month off from agility. I think it does them good to have a break. Having spent 30 years of my life working and competing with horses, there are so many similarities and an over worked horse would become stale and lose its spark if it didn't have a month or 2 out to grass, chilling out and I believe the same of our dogs. My 2 star dogs are having fun chasing rabbits, getting muddy, eating sheep poo (sorry but they do) and just running freely around the fields. No training just being dogs. This does mean that Fern & I are now spending the next month training the youngsters ready for their first competition. 
Cove and Fern have an amazing relationship, and Fern has been training Cove, developing his behaviours and personality since he was 6 weeks old. He is bred to be an agility dog, and as he cost us a small fortune he is expected to be good! Twiggy had her first 6 months of life damaged and scarred, to what extent we don't know, but for the last 7 months I have been building a relationship, working on that special bond and trying to help her forget the past so she can be confident in her future. My little girl wouldn't "Wait" because if I moved 2 steps from her she panicked. She wouldn't "Recall" because although she wanted to be with me she was so petrified of the lead, or being grabbed that she would run around about 6 feet away in panic, and she wouldn't really work on agility exercises because she was always looking around, jumpy and lacking in any self confidence that she just didn't have any concentration span.
2 days into the new year, 2 days into training, and I am so thrilled with my little girl. To people who don't know her, this may not be impressive, but to my friends and people who really know me and my Twiggy, this video is incredible. This is just the beginning.