Wooo Hooo !!!
Simone's xray results came back 5:4
I'm chuffed to bits.
This means that we can continue with our training this winter and hopefully do well next year.

Simone has been running around enjoying life without training since her last show.
She's been queen of the house.....
She now has to be reined in a little however as she is a 'give an inch, take a mile' little girl.

Although my dachshund 'Earwig' commands respect from her, the cats don't, and neither does Tony believe it or not, and when I'm not around she has a tendency to act the goat.
Running upstairs after the cats seems to be her favourite at the moment, which has got to stop....

So apart from minding her Ps and Qs around the house, she now has to start learning some new 'tricks' for the competition ring.
I hope to start teaching her a sendaway this weekend, and polish up her retrieve to include other things as well as a dumbell. Her heelwork is always going to be a 'work in progress' as she has such a lovely attitude she tends to 'bounce' a tremendous amount when doing this exercise. However, I don't want to squash that willingness, so I will have to be very careful how I explain that heelwork too has it's rules.
Shepherds don't take 'criticism' very well.
They take 'correction' very well, they don't mind being told that what they are doing isn't right, you just have to balance the correction/praise scales so that they don't feel 'put down' or they will start to dislike what they are doing.

I will come back after the weekend and let you know how the sendaway and retrieve training went.