Getting Ready for Nationals

Took some photos today of some of the conditioning work I do with Raven and Cypher to get them at their peak fitness for the Nationals coming up in Adelaide, May 4th,5th and 6th.Raven can't swim quite as fast as Cypher but she gets a head start by doing a launch off the edge rather than the sedate push of Cypher.

Found this place around three weeks ago and I am very happy with it. I swim them three times a week for half an hour. Usually Cypher goes first for 15 minutes followed by Raven for 15 minutes. This last week or so I've upped it a bit so that they are swimming for closer to 30 minutes, both are in the pool at once.

My pink nostrilled boy!

Raven doing her stealthy shark impression

I stay up one end and just throw the frisbee to the other end whilst either one of them swims out and retrieves it back to me. The place is called The Dog Pool and is located about 5 minutes up the road from me. There is a crate available so that the dog not swimming doesn't debride it's pads running around the edge of the pool, plus a hose to hose off after swimming. It's reasonably priced too at $12 for half an hour. My guys have been going for about three weeks now and they are loving it, they are keen to get in as soon as we get there. I have to check Raven's pads afterwards as sometimes the skin gets soft and she rips them easily, I've been using good old methylated spirits to dry them out when this happens. Cypher doesn't have this issue but takes a while to dry even though he is out of coat and still losing it at the moment.
So this swimming is in addition to a couple nights a week agility training at Club and then about 10 minutes a day out in the backyard where I just work on whatever I think needs attention.