Har-roo-roo woof!!!! It has been a little while since I have updated, because there has been an awful lot going on. I have been a very busy boy in very many ways.
Last night I had a bit of fun. Mum woke during the middle of the night to find the room very hot. The central heating was churning away, and mum wondered why it was running so hard. She was very tired so went back to sleep. A little later she awoke again to find the room even hotter, and again the heating was powering away. She also thought she heard Nalle bark outside, so she checked downstairs to make sure he was in the house. Sure enough, there he was, curled up on the couch.
A bit later, she was woken by the central heating again. It was just about daylight and the room was very hot. All of a sudden, Tally barked and we all went rushing off. Mum then realized that Tally was barking outside, as was Nalle. She raced down the stairs to find the back door wide open. She had forgotten to lock it before going to bed, and I thought I would open it so that we dogs could wander in and out our leisure. Mum was quite cross. Considering the electricity prices have gone up yet again, and those large multi-national companies are making record profits at the same same, all mum could hear were the share-holders laughing on their way to the bank!!!! Mum says the door will be firmly locked tonight, and the share-holders had better find another dog to do them a favor because the heating won't be coming on at all tonight!
A bit later in the morning something spooky happened. When we arrived at the agility field, Melanie who trains Poppy arrived early. She said she'd had an awful dream which prevented her going back to sleep. In her dream all of us dogs had disappeared, and nobody could find us. One by one we were all recovered. Melanie said she was so worried about us that she wanted to ring mum at 3am to check that we were all alright.......... Mum said with our door being open for most of the night, it was possible for us to have disappeared. Anything could have happened! Thankfully, the gate was locked and I didn't manage to open that.
Onto better things now: Auntie Jayne Bray from Up n Over Tigers Agility has been to visit me again, and been showing mum lots of agility games to play with me. I am now really getting into all this. It is great fun, and I am starting to follow mums body language and hand directions. Mum and Auntie Jayne think I am very clever. Jayne wanted to know if I am related to Tally. I am. Tally is my cousin, although I think she is my sister. Don't forget to click on the pictures if you would like to enlarge.
Last night I had a bit of fun. Mum woke during the middle of the night to find the room very hot. The central heating was churning away, and mum wondered why it was running so hard. She was very tired so went back to sleep. A little later she awoke again to find the room even hotter, and again the heating was powering away. She also thought she heard Nalle bark outside, so she checked downstairs to make sure he was in the house. Sure enough, there he was, curled up on the couch.
A bit later, she was woken by the central heating again. It was just about daylight and the room was very hot. All of a sudden, Tally barked and we all went rushing off. Mum then realized that Tally was barking outside, as was Nalle. She raced down the stairs to find the back door wide open. She had forgotten to lock it before going to bed, and I thought I would open it so that we dogs could wander in and out our leisure. Mum was quite cross. Considering the electricity prices have gone up yet again, and those large multi-national companies are making record profits at the same same, all mum could hear were the share-holders laughing on their way to the bank!!!! Mum says the door will be firmly locked tonight, and the share-holders had better find another dog to do them a favor because the heating won't be coming on at all tonight!
A bit later in the morning something spooky happened. When we arrived at the agility field, Melanie who trains Poppy arrived early. She said she'd had an awful dream which prevented her going back to sleep. In her dream all of us dogs had disappeared, and nobody could find us. One by one we were all recovered. Melanie said she was so worried about us that she wanted to ring mum at 3am to check that we were all alright.......... Mum said with our door being open for most of the night, it was possible for us to have disappeared. Anything could have happened! Thankfully, the gate was locked and I didn't manage to open that.
Onto better things now: Auntie Jayne Bray from Up n Over Tigers Agility has been to visit me again, and been showing mum lots of agility games to play with me. I am now really getting into all this. It is great fun, and I am starting to follow mums body language and hand directions. Mum and Auntie Jayne think I am very clever. Jayne wanted to know if I am related to Tally. I am. Tally is my cousin, although I think she is my sister. Don't forget to click on the pictures if you would like to enlarge.
I am still not allowed to jump the same height as Tally, because she is a few years older than me, and I am only 14 months, so I still have quite a bit of growing to do. Therefore everything is still lower for me. However, I am now jumping the same height as Molly the Cocker Spaniel. Mum says there is no hurry to get me jumping full height just yet. She plans my first show to be in July, so we have until then to practice.
This is me learning how to turn:
and how to jump and then wrap round:
And now I am learning what mum says is the big one..... the weaves. All other aspects of the agility course are things which dogs do naturally. We run, we jump, we turn, run up things and down things, but weave? There is nothing like weave poles in our natural environment, so this is something which needs to be taught very carefully. We have three types of weaves poles at our school, we have channel weaves, which are one way of teaching me, and which are very good for showing me the correct way to enter the frame. We also have "V" weaves, because viewed from the beginning, they look like the letter V, and we have to learn to run down the middle of the track. The V weaves are good for teaching us how to move our legs and feet correctly.
Here mum is teaching me how to twist my body around the poles on the proper weave frame. See how my feet are positioned:
Mum is very careful to ensure that learning the weaves doesn't become like a maths lesson, so when I get to the end of the sequence, I get to play with my most favorite toy:
Then there is the A frame. I once scared the living daylights out of mum. When I was 12 weeks old, and whilst nobody was looking, I ran all the way to the top. Suddenly somebody screamed "Fran, Barkley is on top of the A frame". Mum panicked and rushed over and lifted me off. Mum realized there was never going to be a problem with me and A frames.
Here I am learning how to run all the way down to the bottom, in the hope that I don't start annoying mum by jumping off without having touched the contact. The contact is the name they give to the lighter colored part at the bottom. It is much safer for me if I learn how to run all the way down and not jump off from higher up.
It is great fun being Barkley. There are not many Irish Setters who do agility, many of them end up being show dogs, or even just family pets. I know what I prefer to do. Some of us who are competing are very good, none more so than Tally. I am hoping to be as good as her one day, if not better. Between mum and Auntie Jayne, I am expected to be a very good boy.
Thanks to Uncle Phil, who has Dougal the Petite Basset Griffon Vandeen for coming to
photograph me today.
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