Thanks Oulu

Thank you Oulu.

Today I am heading back to the UK. It has been a great few days up here in Oulu, which ended yesterday with a great second day at the show, and a Finnish experience I will not forget in a long time.

Sari, Miina & Santeri took me to a Smoke sauna in the middle of nowhere, it felt like we drove for miles into just forest. The roads were so straight!

Once we arrived we had dinner and then went into the smoke sauna which was, as expected very warm. I am slowly getting used to the extreme heat in the sauna’s, but then walking out the sauna and jumping starker’s into the adjacent river at about 10pm was something else. It was such a body shock and took my breath away! The Finns keep saying all this its good for you...??!! It was a fun evening and I enjoyed it a lot.

I have had a great time in Oulu and thanks to everyone for making it possible.

Lee

www.leegibsontraining.co.uk

Saturday Judging Oulu

Here are some judging shots from today (Saturday), aswell as some training pictures from Friday.

The weather was fairly kind to us today, only one real heavy burst of rain. I hope for the same tomorrow.

Thanks for all the Tea supplied today, I was kept well dosed up!!

Lee

www.leegibsontraining.co.uk

Training Pics from Oulu

Here are some pictures from the training seminars up in Oulu. I still cannot get used to the amount of daylight up here!

Lee - www.leegibsontraining.com

Oulu Day 1

Well here I am writing from Oulu.

The flight was so much better it does not compare to last Fridays, and it is nice to see another region of Finland. I am in fact only 100km or so from the Arctic Circle, which is impressive. The sun is just going down and it is 23.45pm now.

I have 8 hours of seminars tomorrow, so will get to sleep soon I think. I had 5 hours this evening, one of which was ran via a translator which was fun!!

Lee - www.leegibsontraining.co.uk

Thanks KKK - on to Oulu

I would just like to say thank you to everyone at KKK for such a great few days. The organisers of the show and the participants in training, as well as the other people I have encountered along the way, it has been a pleasure to be here judging & training.

Thank you to Juha & Riikka who have been my hosts since Friday, it has been such fun.

Here is a selection of pictures from the last few days which sum up how much fun it has been!

Wednesday I am moving to Oulu (further north in Finland) where I am training Wednesday eve, Thursday & Friday, before judging on both days of the weekend.

Lee

Here are the 3/4 Gina... sexy eh!?
Supersize Tea making exercise!

Helsinki night out on Friday, very very funny.

Famous Pancakes cooked by the master himself!

Oh yes!

Its like 24/7 work here

The supermarket has a place to put the dogs, what a good idea!!

My judging gift

www.leegibsontraining.co.uk

Modays Training Photo's

Hello,

I hear the weather in the UK is not really very good?? Not trying to rub it in but it has been about +20 degree’s here and so warm I trained in a T shirt all day!

Here are some training photo’s from today’s seminars. What a fantastic venue. Purpose built for agility. Not bad eh? Full video room & kitchen also!

Training was really fun to do. We focused on sending the dogs to jumps and sections of the course away from the handler. The handlers did very well and progressed a lot in two hours (3 x 2 hour sessions).

Regards - Lee

www.leegibsontraining.co.uk

Sunday pictures & update

Here are some photo's from Sunday at the KKK show. I have also put the course plans on too.

Class 3

Class 2

Class 1

Yesterday was the second day of the show. All the courses had a British flavour too them and all of the class winners deserve a big well done for the excellent runs they had.

The weather was very hot yesterday, and it is again today. I slept in rather late today and have still not quite sorted out Finnish time yet!

Now I am training for 6 hours this afternoon and evening, and I have the same tomorrow. I am looking forward to the training sessions. We have just made an industrial size flask of tea for the training.

Regards to everyone back home!

Lee

Saturday

Today was the first day of the show. I judged class 1,2&3 (small, medium & large) agility all day. I had some great runs on the courses.

After the show we went to a Finnish national park, which was stunning. I am just about to eat and have just come out of the sauna, which was unsurprisingly very hot! I can take it for a short while but not for too long. I feel very refreshed now though!

Last night’s quite drink in Helsinki turned into a epic night out in the city, however it was very funny and I enjoyed it a lot.

Sunday I have the same classes to judge again.

Lee

Flight

Hello from Espoo Finland.

I was not planning on writing another update today, but I genuinely thought I would not get the chance ever again earlier.

I have always loved flying but today’s flight from Manchester to Helsinki was possibly the most bumpy/scary I have ever been on. The weather in Manchester was wretched, no real surprise, so it was a rough take off, but on the approach to Helsinki the weather was stunning, really nice and clear. Yet the jaded Finnair embracer aircraft seemed about as stable as the British economy. We bumped our way across the city to the airport and managed to somehow land okay, but I genuinely have not experienced anything like it before. It really was uncomfortable and seemed so excessive for the, which seemed perfect. There was no explanation either!

The funniest thing was the ultra cool people who pretend not to be scared, suddenly dropping their news papers and looking petrified as the plan jolted violently downward. Even I was a little concerned as we didn’t follow any pattern, it was like left right down, back up again, very odd!
When I arrived at Helsinki I was also greeted with the news that there is a security strike at the airport. I am not one to make rash judgement but the pilot from my flight, you may want to hide that bottle of vodka!

Any hows, I am fine. Have just eaten a very nice BBQ with my hosts, and am not relaxing with a beer. My courses from this weekend I will stick up on here, but Sunday I want to give the people competing in the show a real flavour of English courses!

Look forward to my weekend here in Espoo (Helsinki)

Lee

10 days in Finland Start Today

Today is the first day of my ten days away judging & training in Helsinki and Oulu. I am just about to fly from Manchester.

Speak soon

Lee

EO/Crufts Singles Course Plan from Tunbridge Wells

Here is my course plan from Sunday at Tunbridge Wells show. The obstacle discrimination was tested from the wall to the weaves. It was a great course and was really fun to judge. Many thanks for the ring staff and everyone that helped!

On Saturday Scott had a 2nd in G5 jumping, but knocked a pole in the Novice Olympia class, so we will have to qualify for the 6-7 Olympia instead if we are going to get there.

Jack won grade 7 jumping also, which I was really pleased about. He did very well.

Enjoy the course.

Lee

Che 3rd in Champ final at Vyne & Scott wins another G5 agility!

Well again I am just so proud of my three excellent dogs Jack, Che & Scott.

Today Che came a fantastic 3rd in the Championship final at Vyne today, I was so proud, and we were winning it for the first 12 dogs! Jack made the final but was faulted on his dog-walk, but again ran the course fantastically.

Taddymoor Scott won his 3rd grade 5 agility class in 3 days today, with some great “shaping” at the end of the course, if I may say so myself, he was the only dog to run it in under 34 seconds clear! He also had a 3rd in grade 5 jumping, meaning we have had 5 clears this weekend, and only 2 poles out of 9 classes... I am a very very happy handler tonight.

Below is a video of Scott from Shrewsbury.



Thanks to everyone for being so nice, it means a lot! But I think the hard work starts now, we have to tackle grade 6 EO and Olympia courses at Thames in June...

Regards - Lee

Scott wins into Grade 6

Hello,

We have just been competing at Shrewsbury show this weekend, and it has been a great weekend of results for my dogs and those of you who train at LGT. Firstly I would like to say a few well done’s (I hope I remember everyone’s places!) to Brigit & Lilly who won grade 1 small agility, Wendy & Maisy who won g5 Jumping at Dordale, Aljeana & Amy for several top 4 places over the weekend in Scotland and for also making the Small Championship final.

Sara and Menna for winning the G6 agility class and also Ray & Spike for coming 2nd in the same class! Well done to David and Cae for winning small G6 jumping also, and the many other places that everyone else got. Lyn and Drift, Miranda & Fly, Ceri & Celta, Janet & Codi, Alice & Pip (2nd?). If I have missed anyone off...
As for me, well its been great with regard to Scott. I have been running at a slightly higher tempo this weekend and it has worked well. Scott managed to knock only one pole all weekend, and won 2 x G5 agility classes. He was really working so well. The runs felt so competent, which pleased me. We also had a 5th place Saturday too.

Che & Jack also had some good places in the g7 classes. We had some good courses this weekend and some testing handling sequences to work out, but I was very pleased with the weekends collection of places, obvisously capped with Scotts two wins.

Monday we head to Vyne. Best wishes for now – Lee

www.leegibsontraining.co.uk