Why Warm Up?!

You'll often hear us at Dig It telling people to warm up their dogs before agility training, and indeed before an agility competition run.

But why is this so important?! Why do we need to warm up, not only our dogs but also ourselves!

Here are a few reasons why:

• Reduce risk of injury
• Increase blood flow & nerve stimulation
• Improves mobility & performance
• Creates a bond between dog & handler and encourages focus
• Improves hind end awareness
• Massage reduces warm up time
• Reduces stiffness
• Keeps joints supple and counteracts tension
• Increases you & your dogs speed
• Tighter turns
• Increase body awareness
• Improves the dogs use of its body 
• Improves jumping style and ability

At Dig It we will give you the information for why and how to warm your dog up, but at the end of the day it is your responsibility to ensure you are taking care of your dog. It is only you that can make the decision to warm your dog up properly.

Summer Fun Day!

This June we opened our doors and welcomed everyone to our Open Day and Fun Dog Show.
Have a go agility, have a go rally and have a go flyball. All for free! We want to encourage as many people to try something new with their dog and have a go at a dog activity.

The Dogs Trust attended to provide free microchipping and advice and a total of 20 dogs were chipped!

Our Fun Show started at midday and was very popular! Judge Dawn from The Paw Wash Groomers had a tough decision to make. As we rolled through the classes every aww'd and coo'd as we reached the Pleasant Puppy category. Aaron Roscoe, Signal 1 Producer, came along with his tiny pug puppy and they got 1st place! Everyone was nodding in agreement, she was just gorgeous and so well behaved. 

It all got a little silly as we got to best 6 legs and the deserving winner was a spotty dalmatian and its spotty legged owner! Now that's what you call Best Spotty 6 Legs!

The show finished with a great laugh in The Egg and Spoon Race! Hold your spoon and your dogs lead in the same hand and race to the other side. Such fun!

Once the fun show was finished there was still lots for everyone to do and we must thank Oscar Pet Food for kindly sponsoring the whole show. Monkey Dog Wear brought their great selection of collars and leads to sell, plus Windyways and Instructor Bex successful made a good amount for their fundraising with their table top sales. Of course we can't forget Bret in the Brunch Box who completely sold on of burgers! I'm glad I had mine as a cheeky late breakfast before the rush.

In the afternoon the Carrry On flyball team gave us a great demonstration and Lydia & Freddie got to show us that they are not only amazing at agility but flyball too!

We are pleased to announce that the Fun Show raised a whopping £100 for the Dogs Trust and thank you for everyone who came and participated in the day! The weather was glorious and we hope that you all enjoyed your day.

Check out our full gallery here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/digitdogtrainingclub/sets/72157645069884742/

See you next year!

Open Day

Wowie what great weather we had for our Open Day today! This is a new event that we've not done before at Dig It and we haven't done anything similar to an Open Day for some years.

Have a go Agility, Have a go Flyball, Have a go Rally! All free of charge. Plus a Gundog Scurry that you could try out for free then enter a Scurry Competition. It was a fun filled day to encourage people to try out new activities with their dogs plus learn about what kind of classes we have at Dig It.

The yummy Brunch Box got the saliva flowing, plus the dogs thought it smelled pretty good too, and Eddie the Toy Man (that's his official nickname) was there with some great toys and treats for sale.

Also throughout the day we had several workshops running such as Tricks, Clicker Training and Agility at Home. The tricks workshop was particularly busy and everyone came out smiling and showing off the cool new things they have taught their dog!

Special guest Mike Crawford from Cheshire Canine Services ran the Gundog Scurry for us and he had a good crowd of people watching and having a go. Mike is running some gundog classes at Dig It over the winter and a lot of people that are booked on enjoyed their chance to try out what they will be learning.

A number of Flyball dogs were here and the Scurry started to develop into a competitive flyball feel, with fast collies coming first and second! Huge congratulations to the fantastic Steve who runs our website for coming 3rd with his Cocker Spaniel Digby! Mike later tweeted saying flyball collies are banned next year, teehee.

We saw a lot of new faces as well as familiar ones, and everyone said how much they had enjoyed the day. Rosettes were given to anyone who completed all three stations and many dogs were seen proudly sporting their hard earned prize.

Maybe we'll do this Open Day marlarky thing again?!