Just Todd

Rest well my best friend Xxx

2011-10-17T12:19:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Yazz, Zaz, Itzy and Zavla

2010-12-04T01:32:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that Yazz is 2 today ! Happy Birthday my beautiful girl and Happy Birthday to your beautiful sisters too!

Shanowl a ray of hope 19.01.1996 - 08.09.2010

2010-09-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

My beautiful girl lost her fight for life on Wednesday 8th September 2010. Sassie was the kindest sweetest girl I have ever had the privilege of owning, she came to me at a very black time, she was the tonic I needed to help me move forward. Agility wise she was a total nutter!! and brilliant with it, she qualified for a few finals, she won the Markies jumping final and had a few other brilliant results, that at this moment in time elude me, but more than that she was just a fantastic friend, she loved all the other dogs and did not have a bad bone in her body. I miss her more than words can say, sleep well my old girl, till we meet again.

Natural Instinct

2010-04-26T11:39:00.000-07:00

This post is to say a very big thank you to Natural Instinct for agreeing to sponsor me and my dogs, I am so impressed with this raw food, it is extremely high quality and my dogs love it. I have been feeding my dogs raw food for many years, and this is definitely the best pre-made food that I have found on the market.

Wallingford woo hoo

2010-04-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

I thought that I would post some videos of Todd, as Nancy was so kind to video him this weekend and he was such a star !! I had a wonderful Wallingford :-) Todd came back with 3 x wins ( this does not happen very often lol ) and a second on the Team Dash with Nancy, Rosie and Jennie, and a 2nd in the pairs with the lovely Zeki. I love this picture of Todd and Zeki with their haul from Saturday, which was take by Liza with Nancy's camera how cute !!!!

Todd

2010-04-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

Todd

2010-04-22T11:19:00.000-07:00

Todd

2010-04-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

Yazz UKA 1st run 2nd place :-)

2010-04-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

Oh dear !!

2010-04-13T04:27:00.000-07:00

Oh dear, where do I start yet again my poor blog has been neglected!

Lots going on at the moment I am trying to move after being here for nearly 21 years, so there is a vast amount of unused items that will be making a one way trip :-) and I have promised myself that my Magpie days are over for good! Not sure where I will be moving to yet, I just need to secure a buyer for my house first then the dilemma will start, a big decision to make but hopefully one that will be fun too.

Dan and Meg, Dan always manages blink in a picture!! Lovely Flowers :-)

It is nearly my beautiful daughters 18th birthday, where have the last 18 years gone? It only seems like yesterday that she was a babe in arms. It was my birthday a few days ago and I had the best birthday I can ever remember, I spent the day with Meg ( my daughter) who spoilt me bringing me the most gorgeous bunch of flowers and other pressies, then in the evening I had a Hannah, Polly, Lorna, Rosie, Jennie and Amanda round for Chinese yum yum !! Well I thought that my diet could hang for one day! Then the next day I went to Nancy’s for lunch which was made by Bern and very very yummy that was too and it was healthy doesn’t get much better than that, then onto a night of training for 3 hours with all my dogs it was great but boy was I tired the next day !The following day ( I thought that I would string this one out a bit lol ) I went to meet my son in London for Lunch with Meg and we had a wonderful day so thank you so much to my family and friends for making my birthday so great, and for all my lovely presents Xxx

Now onto my fantastic dogs, they are all just the best bunch of woofs around :-) I know that a few people will disagree with me lol Agility wise the season has started really well, but I felt very ring rusty, but as the shows have gone on I am feeling more confident, Todd is running really well at the moment and I am looking forward to the show season really getting underway, Jess is running well but we are not together at the moment, so I need to do lots of training with her to get our competition relationship back. Below is a picture of Todd winning my an Easter egg, thank you Toddster :-) The other picture with Yazz and her ring really makes me laugh.

Moving on to Yazoo,s first UKA show well what can I say she was just fantastic, happy, motivated her contacts are looking good and she even got a 2nd place in her first steeplechase competion, I am so very proud of her, she enjoyed it so much and wasn't fazed by anything else that was going on, made my day, thank you Yazz you rock!!! I know we have lots and to learn together and I can't wait we will have a ball.
You can see her first few runs on Berns blog I will try to upload her very first run later this week as I had problems with it earlier today. Below are some lovely pictures of our day at the UKA show, Yazz with her rosette and also her very clever sister with her 1st place, the group picture is very cute as all these pups started their pre agility class together and they all got a place at their first show.The show was lovely, the sun shone and the company was fantastic. I will just mention here that someone that should be nameless lol won 3 red rosettes at UKA on friday :-) well done Nancy and Zeki ! and also a huge cheer to Hannah and her lovely girls for their fantastic runs this weekend x

I think this just about sums up the last 7 days :-)

2010-01-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

Happy new year and Happy Birthday Jessica Rabbit !

2010-01-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

Todays walk at the Witterings, I love new years days, the world seems new and perfect, and it is Jessies birthday so I went to her favourite place :-) Just a shame that the world and his wife had the same idea!! but by the time Hannah and I had had lunch and a couple of cups of tea most people started to leave !! here are a couple of pictures I LOVE the silhouette, and the sunset was truly beautiful

Just a few hours to go

2009-12-31T02:57:00.000-08:00

Well we are nearly there 2010! This year has just wizzed by, my blogger postings have been few and far between, agility wise I have had a really good enjoyable year, Todd and Jess are now grade 7, so I will be broke next year with champ entries lol the rest of my dogs are well and happy, Yazz is such a lovely dog, she is very funny, has a huge personality, she has many nicknames !!! She has had her 1st season, and is due to be speyed in February, so I have at least 8 weeks to get myself totally stressed out :-)

Her training was going well but the weather has put paid to anything over the christmas holidays which is really annoying as I have had 2 weeks off, and I was thinking about starting to teach her to weave, but that will have to wait now I think till after she is speyed, anyhow there is no rush.

I did Leahs festive simulated show before christmas to give Todd a practice for Olympia( ha ha ha !!!) and Leah very kindly let me run Yazz in a jumping course without any weaves in, I really did not think that she would be a ble to do that many obstacle together but I gave it a go and here was the result, I was very proud of her to say the least.

I have had some lovely walks this Christmas, even with the bad weather, walking in the snow with the dogs reminds me of being a child it is so enchanting, and I never bore of it, I know it causes kaos on the roads but it always seems so magical to me.

This is my most favourite picture of Todd in the snow.

Yesterday I went for a very wet walk to St Marthas, it is such a pretty place with a church on the top of the hill, hence the picture !!

Here are a few of my favourite pictures of my dogs from this year, and I cant believe that this time last year Yazz was soooo little !!

I would like to wish all my friends and fellow bloggers a very happy new year !!! and also would like to wish Jessie a very happy 8th Birthday tomorrow :-))

They say one persons rubbish is another persons gold, and how true is that !

Happy Birthday Todd

2009-12-19T02:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to my gorgeous boy, on this posting I would have loved to have put a little video of Todd running at Olympia, but unfortunately, he went lame the day before, so I had to pull out. He seems a lot better today and that is what is important, as long as I have him there will always be another Olympia.
Enjoy the pictures we had lots of fun this morning taking some of them, my feet are only just getting the feeling back in them :-) and Granma notice the ears !!! not bad for a 1st effort me thinks lol

This is Todd in his birthday pressie a couple of weeks ago, and this week as the snow started falling.

I had to add this picture of Yazz as I managed to get her to stay still for more than 10 seconds she kept trying to attack the collar!!

Happy 1st Birthday to Yazoo

2009-12-03T11:32:00.000-08:00

4th December 2009 I really cant believe that Yazz is a year today, this year has just wizzed by, I really need to do a huge catch up, but just never seem to get the time !! Yazoo has grown into such a beautiful young lady! she is such fun to have around, her and Todd are really good friends and it seems to me like she has always been here. Her agility training is going well, she is an absolute joy to train, she makes me laugh all the time, as do all of my dogs, I think that we are blessed to have these special friends to enjoy our life and our special sport with..........and for one I know that if I didnt have these wonderful friends I would have gone nutts long ago........... ok perhaps I have but just please dont tell anyone !!! I would like to wish all the other girl power pups a very very happy birthday too ! ! so here goes HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Zaz, Itzy and Zavy with much Love Yazoo xxxx and thank you Granma for a great party x

Happy Birthday Sparkie

2009-11-04T23:00:00.000-08:00

Happy 13th Birthday Sparkie, my special boy xxx

2009-06-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

catch up again !!!

Yazoo's six month birthday has come and gone and I cant believe how quickly the time has flown by, she is turning into a real little sweet heart, she is naughty but nice, just how I like my pups to be.

I have just finished a really lovely little pre agility foundation course with Kathrin Tasker, the emphasis was on teaching your pup to work with you, with tricks and general pre agility exercises, including balance and co ordination and getting you pup to work with you in a class with other pups too, I really enjoyed it and was extremely impressed with my little girl she is far more focused on me than I thought that she would be and she even managed to stay looking at me while her sister was working which I was very pleased about. She is good by the rings and shows little interest at the other dogs working, she at the moment has an on and off switch which is nice, I have found one thing though that she likes to chase and its magpies !! oh and she is pretty obsessed with rosettes too, so if you see her at prize giving hang on to them lol

The other thing that I joined in a few weeks ago was an agility boot camp run by Leah and Nancy, it was a three day boot camp but I couldn't’t do all of it due to a work commitment, but I went on the Saturday and joined in with their puppy foundation class which was brilliant, we did lots of different balance and shadowing work, and again, Yaz was completely focused on me not the other dogs, then I joined in the contact work shop with Todd, which I got a lot out of, I am pleased with Todd’s contacts, and he has fast stop 2 o 2 off contacts, but I am really bad at pushing the boundaries, and Nancy and Leah got me to push them and proof them, which I think has really helped in the last couple of weeks competition as Todd has been going really well. I will definitely do the whole of the boot camp next year if they do it !!
Paula took these pictures of Todd they are brilliant they depict him to a T!!

I have had a really good few shows and Todd has won 2 x agility classes and 1 x jumping class towards advanced, I am really proud of him, he gives his all in every run he does and its only me that lets him down sometimes. Jess not to be left out also got a 2nd place in a grade 6 7 jumping class this weekend at Axtane, which turned out to be a great weekend lots of friends doing really well. I got a sneak preview of Nancy’s Zeki doing some little bits and wow she is really lovely her A frame is brilliant.

Hannah did really well with Zazzy at Golden Valley and qualified for the Alpha Agility Challenge final so go Zazzy go !! it is so nice to see Zazzy so happy again, oh the trials and tribulations of being a girl, :-( !!!! also Jess and Becky (Banks :-)) came 3rd in the ped. pairs at Hinckly which we were pretty chuffed with just one outside of qualifying but the glass tumblers were handy lol lol lol

I spent the whole morning bathing all my dogs except 2 as they all went into a black muddy ditch and were black and stinky, Todd was not impressed with this new activity and I think I ended up with more water and mud on me in the end as he just kept shaking !!

I'm really looking forward to Lune and Barrow and am busy trying to get myself organised for the week, also am looking forward to having a celebration with my extremely clever son on Wednesday night as he has just got his results and has a 2 1 degree in English, so well done Dan, am proud of you ;-) beyond belief x
and lastly but no way least well done to Sue and Lorna with their scrummy poodles this weekend both getting 2 x 2nd places x

I have joined the bad blogger club !!

2009-05-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

I have lots to catch up on but here are a couple of short videos, the first is very funny !! and a few pictures, my shelties are becoming such good friends which is great and Yazzoo is turning into such a beautiful young lady :-) ( IMO anyway !!!)

Well done Nancy and Niamh and Leah and Herbie

2009-04-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

Well Done to Nancy and Naughty Niamh for winning graded 6 and to Leah and herbie for winning the graded 7 in the 6/7 today at WSBDS, what a couple of stars :-) xx

Perfect morning

2009-04-24T03:48:00.000-07:00

What a glorious morning, I have just come back from a long leisurely walk through the bluebells here are some pictures of my walk ! and a couple of some of my favourite flowers in my garden at the moment.

2009-04-21T01:43:00.000-07:00

Catch up again !! OK Hannah this is for you are you keep reminding me that I have not done it for AGES!!!!!!!

I have been a extremely bad blogger recently, lots going on here, least of all one very happy eager pup, so most of my spare time is being spent doing little bits of trick training and socialisation with Yazoo at the moment, but I have had a fantastic few weeks, I will start with the first couple of UKA shows Scrambles and Waverunners. I love these shows the atmosphere is brilliant I really like the fact that I am able to choose whether to train or run my dogs, in each class, because they are smaller I find it easier to be able to watch my friends do their runs too. Todd won both his novice agility classes and qualified for the Royal Canin final and has now moved up to Senior level, and Jess runs at Champ level and had a 2nd in the Canin agility and won a steeplechase, Corrie had a great time running with Bern and got a nice place too. Here are some ringside pictures of Yazz and Itzy playing.

Next came the ESS show at Blewbery which happened to coincide with my birthday, again Todd ran really well, and won grade 3 – 5 agility, with beautiful contacts, he is now meeting my criteria in the ring as well as in training. He won a lovely cup for coming 1st which has got significant sentimental value, so thank you Todd :-)
Bernadette and Dennis had a birthday cake done for me and here it is, not only was it fantastic to look at it was very tasty too! I had some lovely presents too, including a pink glass sheltie ! an extremely useful new cage bag for my van ( and anyone that knows me knows that I have the odd toy or two to house lol lol ) a new fleece and Tshirt with a sheltie on some lovely flowers and some Bailys yum yum yum

my lovely cake.

I had a couple of weeks off for Easter, and had a fun and busy time.I had some great walks with friends and good training, Yazz started a puppy foundation class which I really think she is going to enjoy, I enjoyed my judging at the Easter show, there are lots of really nice smalls and mediums babies just starting competition at the moment. Todd did me proud by winning into grade 6 on the Saturday too.

I also got a new caravan thanks to Andy's keen eyes, he found it for me and its FANTASTIC, so this weekend was its first airing at Wallingford show, this was also Yazz's first camping show and she loved it, the weather started off a bit pants but just got better and better, I had a great weekend lovely company and some really good bits of agility, with both Jess and Todd. Here are some pictures of the weekend, my caravan, only when I downloaded the picture did I realise that there was a beer bottle in it oh dear !! there is a picture of a very very healthy lunch can't quite remember who's it was :-) and another one of someone just loving watching others work !!!

Another good weekend

2009-03-26T14:57:00.000-07:00

Princess Yazz :-)

I had another really good weekend, on Saturday I went on a Nicky Garret training day with Todd, which was brilliant, I came away with more than one thing too Nick !! I love Nicky's way of handling to me it makes total sense, the weather was brilliant and Todd worked really well, I wish I had videoed some of it, I must remember to take my tripod and video next time I go on a training day. On Sunday I took Yazz on Hannah's Co-ordination and balance afternoon, she really enjoyed it and so did I, she took all of the things in her stride and I came away feeling very proud of her, she also managed to concentrate even with both her sisters there, whom she adores ( not sure that the feeling is mutual thought I think there is an old saying that goes..... 3's a crowd lol lol ) and Sharon's lovely puppy diesel too who she really fell in love with at Mid downs show. Before we went to the class we took a walk on Chertsey meads with Bernadette and Dennis here are some pictures of Yazz with her sisters, on her own and also of Todd and Corrie dripping wet just come out of the river, thanks again Dennis for the pictures.

Lovely weekend

2009-03-16T01:51:00.000-07:00

I have had a lovely weekend, it was lovely to see every one at mid downs on Saturday, special well dones go to Andy and Kizzy and Bernadette and Zen and Leah and Hex, not a bad start to the year :-)

I was also extremely pleased with Todd his contacts were just as I hoped they would be, and I was disciplined with myself and made sure that he was in the correct position before I released him, which is why I have had to spend the whole of the winter proofing and re training his contacts in the first place !! a small handler glitch pointed him straight to the dog walk instead of the weave entrance in the Burgess qualifier, but the rest of the round was good. My jumping was a total disaster as I brought myself a few new pairs of tracky bottoms and the pair I chose to wear to the show started to fall as I was running so I decided better to stop than embarrass myself any further !

I wont comment about Jess as I ran her like a complete half witt !

Yazz had a ball at the show she met lots and lots of pups and there was a bit of a sheltie convention at the end, I think in total there was about 7 shelties, and surprisingly there was not too much noise from any of them, not even mine !!!!!!!

I was meant to go to the Chippenham show on Sunday, but decided to stay at home with Meg and have some girly time, she has been working so hard lately and wanted to do a photo shoot for her art with Todd as the white rabbit from the Mad hatters tea party, it was great fun, and Todd was a saint he just sat in his outfit for about 1/2 hour, I think he secretly loves being dressed up, specially when there was 1/2 a cup of tea as a reward !! here are a couple of pictures of them having fun and one that Meg has edited for her art.

I even managed to get my grass cut, I think that must be one of my most favourite things in the world is looking and smelling a freshly cut lawn, shame mine has a few craters in it now !

The last picture is of Todd and his most favourite ball of all time, its a shame its pink lol lol and Yazz trying to kill the camera :-)

Pictures and crufts well dones :-)

2009-03-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

I just have so much catching up to do, so I will start here, here are a few fantastic pictures of Yazz taken by Dennis. My little girl is just amazing she is fitting in to life with us just brilliantly, Todd and her are such good friends they make me laugh daily. I am continuing to do lots of socialisation with her, she does a really good puppy class on a Tuesday night with six other pups, she is learning to learn with lots of distraction, which is really good for her, and before I end this post I just want to congratulate Bernadette and Zen, and Nicky and Indy, Toni and Minx and Kite and Dawn and Puzzle I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through the champ finals, it was brilliant.

2009-02-28T15:35:00.001-08:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Yazoo update

2009-02-18T06:59:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that I have had this little bundle of mischief for three weeks already, and in other ways it feels like she has been here forever. I have been taking her to lots and lots of new places, the shops, town centre, pets at home on more than one occasion, up and down my road and to the post office, to Nancy and Andys and to their indoor school, and I think that I am going to take her to the beach tomorrow, I love the Witterings and as I start me new job next week I think that we will have a beach day out. I have got a new job in a primary school as their afternoon receptionist and I am really excited about it, when I went for the interview it was a comedy of errors, I managed to snag my finger on the school gate, and when I went into meet the three people interviewing me I managed to coat the place in blood :-) but it obviously went well as I was offered the post a couple of hours later !!

Yazoo is such a cool little character, she is very outgoing and confident, she loves her toys and is doing some really cute clicker work, she can nearly do the elephant trick and is sitting and downing and turning right and left, but her favourite thing to do is the wobble board she LOVES it ! she is fitting in really well with all the other guys and Todd really really likes her which I am pleased about to say the least, when she sees him in the morning she makes a bee line for him and jumps all over him, which makes me laugh out loud, but the thing I like best about her is she is really cuddly, it took Todd a long time to be a cuddle monster :-) She has also been given some lovely presents from my friends, so thank you for that.

Last weekend I had training morning with Leah and Jess, which was brilliant I really enjoyed it and I actually managed to do push threws for the first time properly and now I understand how to do them will try to teach them to Todd too, Andy very kindly offered to have Yazz for me, I think they had a good time together or at least thats what he said :-) here is a picture of Andy and the naughty little bundle.

Today Yazz had her 2nd jab, which I just hate, but she was fine and took it all in her stride, I will try to get some video of her later this week doing some clicker work.

Here are a couple of pictures of her today.

Just cant get enough of it !!!

2009-02-03T08:41:00.000-08:00

I ventured to Pollys today to walk the dogs round her field and it was glorious this morning, here are a few shots of the dogs and the equipment which I thought looked lovely all covered in snow. Poor Todd came off the worst he gets snow balls so big he cant walk here I think you can see some medium sized ones !!! and Tikka gets them too but not as bad here she is sporting her new jacket.

Yazoo is doing really well and we did some walking on the lead up and down my drive today I think my neighbours think that I am mad !!! she loves the snow in the garden and bounds around effortlessly. This picture is really funny as she is attacking the camera strap !!!

Snow :-) & Play ;-)

2009-02-02T06:50:00.000-08:00

Three days on !

2009-02-01T13:48:00.000-08:00

Today is three days since I picked up my beautiful new pup, in the last three days we have all done loads, Yazoo has been to Waitrose twice to check all the trolleys, children's play area and sliding doors, she has been to visit Auntie Nancy and Uncle Andy, has been to Guildford high street all but briefly as the weather was freezing ! she has spend a couple of hours on her own with my daughter who has fallen in love with her and wants her all to herself ( ha not chance !! as she is at College full time and cant pick up a poo !!!! :-) ) she has played with lots of toys done a little clicker training and made friends with Jess Sparkie Sassie and best of all Todd has decided that she is OK and has been playing with her today too, she loves the cats and the bunnies and also the HOOVER !!!! she has been thoroughly spoilt by all my friends receiving lots of lovely new pressies and chews but her favourite was made by Nancy's own fair hands. I am totally smitten with this little lady, she was the last pup that I looked at as I thought she was spoken for and I think she is fabulous, Bernadette puts so much work into her pups, she should be extrememly proud of herself so a very big thank you goes to Granma !!

Todd did a small group training session on Saturday taken by Andy and it was great, we did some really interesting jumping sequences that showed up lots of my body handling errors, which is just the sort of thing that you need, its good to see where you need to improve and also I find it amazing that Todd works so much on my body language which is brilliant, I feel so motivated to train at the moment and cant wait for the show season to begin. Yazoo came into the school while I was doing this and she was good, she settled in her little pod with snuggle safe heater in and slept. Then Andy very kindly looked after Yazoo and Nancy and I took all our dogs for a lovely walk.

Today I went to Guildford early then for a walk then to visit Polly and also to do some training, I did some contact proofing with Todd, and a few short exercises with Jess, that Hannah and I had discussed which again showed up some handling discrepancies, and I also just did some plain and simple circles with Corrie, which gets her going ahead. Yazoo again came out and met the lovely Zazzy and then we came back and now have about 2 inches of snow, I wish that it was day as I have been belly laughing watching my dogs playing around in it, this picture is of Meg cuddling Yazoo and she really didn't want me to take the picture ha ha ha I know just how she feels ! and of Todd and Yazoo on the sofa asleep. This little video is of Yazoo playing with Nancy's present. Just make sure you turn the sound down then you wont have to listen to my innate ramblings !!!!

I would like to introduce Yazoo

2009-01-29T08:30:00.000-08:00

I would like to introduce my beautiful puppy Yazoo (aka cutie pie) and thank Bernadette and Johanna for allowing me to have this bundle of gorgeousness .

Ive been tagged too :-)

2009-01-25T12:58:00.000-08:00

Knights lovely shelties tagged me :0) and also so did
Akadia's lovely shetlies too !

Open a document or file folder

Click on the fifth folder and then the fifth photo

Post the photo and describe it

Then tag 5 other bloggers

This is really interesting and I love this picture, my daughter Meg, is at Farnborough v1 studying Art and Textiles and this particular picture was taken by me, as she was doing some life studies of facial expressions.

So I am going to tag the following friends blogs

Nancy and Andy's Blog

Hannah's agility fitness blog

Johanna's blog

Rosie's blog

Mand's blog

Happy Birthday Corrie

2009-01-07T04:12:00.000-08:00

Corrie is 8 today here is a picture on our walk this morning taken by my old mobile and the quality is not very good, and I think that this is one of the best pictures I have ever taken of any of my dogs she just looks gorgeous !

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday Jessie

2009-01-01T06:38:00.000-08:00

Happy new year and also Happy Birthday Jessica Rabbit :0), I think that her new year was a lot more fun than her Christmas !! as on Christmas eve she had to have her front right canine tooth removed, as she managed to break it playing poor Jessie !! but she is much better now and has had a lovely day she got a orbee strawberry for her birthday present and she loves it !

2008-12-25T00:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Todd probably the most handsome sheltie in the world :0)

2008-12-19T03:54:00.000-08:00

Happy 2nd Birthday to my special boy, he loved his birthday pressie and has not put it down yet, I expect he's worried that Corrie will rip it up !! ;-)

Special Good luck thoughts

2008-12-18T09:19:00.000-08:00

Oh how quickly Olympia has come round again, and I would just like to wish everyone good luck at Olympia this year but special good luck thoughts go to Hannah and KD, Nancy and Niamh, Leah and Herbie, Rosie and Chip, Lynne and Rookie and Tracy and Barbie and also Tracy and Jack.......... go and show them guys.......... here come the girls !!!!

weekend co- ordination and balance

2008-12-12T14:26:00.000-08:00

Well that was for Todd not for me, I have discovered over the last few months that he is far more co-ordinated and balanced that I will ever be !! no seriously though, I took Todd on Hannah's course on Saturday and it was brilliant, I did a fair amount of things with him when he was a pup, i.e the elephant trick and tricks on the wobble board to help build his confidence with things that moved and to help him with his balance and have not done much of this recently, but he remembered all the things that I taught him and also we did some things that he had not done, stepping over the little cavalletti style poles was really good for him, I could really see him using both front and back legs so carefully so that he wouldn't knock one down, he also had a go on a pill shaped exercise ball and he made me chuckle as the one at home is large and round and he loves to jump on it, well he did the same to the pill shaped one and promptly fell off it............perhaps I will have to get one of those and teach him the difference! anyway this was a really fun and interactive way to spend my Saturday afternoon and the course comes highly recommended.

Nancy came back to stay at my house, (which I might add that I spent the week cleaning !! ) with Zeki and Niamh, who were really well behaved, Zeki and Todd were so cute they played really nicely, and Hannah came over and we all had Chinese and watched strictly........ sorry Hannah the Sunday outcome was not good was it...................I suppose Tom will have to win now then ? :0)

On Sunday, feeling a little worse for wear, nothing to do with the small amount of Red Wine that I had on Saturday night ! Jess was on Dennis's training day, which was really enjoyable. This went down as a really good fun weekend, lots to do and good company.

Monday my little van went down to Dorset to have its cages done and dear Polly followed me down there and brought me back, we stopped just outside Salisbury on the way back and gave the dogs a lovely walk, then had a late lunch at Bluebeckers which was yummy !
I will not get my van back till this Monday, and cannot wait to have it back all caged.

Friday Polly picked me and my dogs up (yet again thank you !!) and we met up with Amanda and had a walk at Holmbury st Mary, wow what a beautiful place this is, it is just outside Cranleigh, and it goes for miles and the view from the top of the look out is spectacular, here are a couple of piccys of the walk, Corrie really makes me laugh every time there is a wall or a log and I get out my camera she hops on what ever it is and just sits there posing, I didn't have my camera today buy Amanda did and as soon as she saw it she did the same for her too, after the walk we went back and had a really tasty lunch, then back home.

Sparkie, is continuing to do really well, and I have changed his exercise plan at the moment to 2 shorter walks per day, and this seems to be suiting him more.

I am looking forward to Sunday as Todd has a small group training with Toni and I cant wait to meet Rosie's' new pup Fozzie.

Update on Sparkie and other stuff

2008-12-04T02:15:00.000-08:00

I have not posted lately as I have been extremely worried about Sparkie, he has been quite lethargic, and not himself at all, also all his coat has fallen out, so I took him to my vets who said that his heart murmur had got worse and they could hear congestion in his lungs, the following Monday, he had a heart ultrasound and chest xray, and they found a mass in his lungs, my vets feared the worst and they seemed to think that it was a secondary lymphoma, as they said that dogs very rarely get primary tumours in their lungs, I was so devastated, and really just did not know what to do, I love this guy so much he has always been my heart and soul. He was referred to a heart and lung specialist who thankfully saw him the next day, so he went off to have lots of investigation including a needle biopsy in through the chest wall and into the tumour to take a small sample of it. Leaving him at the vets was awful, and that day was one of the longest I have had. When I picked him up I had a really long consultation with the specialist, who thank goodness had some better news for me, firstly his bloods all came back really good all except the white and red ones which I did not get back that day, his heart murmur is now a grade 4 which although not good could be worse, she feels that the loss of coat was down to him being on steroids earlier in the year, and they found a single cell mass in his lungs which she felt did not look like a lymphoma, now I just had to wait for the needle biopsy, I would at this stage like to thank Hannah, Nancy, Polly and Bernadette for being so kind and sympathetic, I have been in pieces and all of my friends have been fantastic to say the least.

Sparkie taking it easy and wondering what all the fuss is about :0)

I got the results back that the tumour is benign which is like a dream come true, I will have him re xrayed in about 8 weeks time to see if it has grown at all or obviously if he goes down hill at all I will take him straight back to see the specialist for for now I am fairly optimistic, and although he is still a bit tireder than usual he does seem a lot happier which makes me very very happy indeed.

Recently I have had my van carpeted by Nancy's and Andy's neighbour Micheal, and it looks gorgeous, thank you for arranging this, I am really glad that I have had it done and I cant wait now for it to go in next week to have cages put in will be all safe and snug. I will post a picture of it when it is all done.

Last weekend I went to stay at Nancy's on Friday night as it was their club Xmas dinner, all of the dogs were so well behaved, and Todd didn't disgrace himself by peeing anywhere that he shouldn't thank goodness !! Niamh really likes my dogs and it was lovely to see 12 !!! chilled out and happy dogs, Sparkie had lots and lots of TLC and loved laying by their lovely open fireplace with his new found friend Poppy :0) and I felt like I had had a little holi-day ! I was thoroughly spoilt !

Training wise, I have done little bits with both Jess and Todd, and I am really pleased ( lol lol )with a couple of bits that I have been doing, I have been trying to get Todd to go on ahead of me on the Aframe and the Dogwalk as although his contacts were nice, if I wasn't in from of him he would really slow down on both and then turn to look at me, so I have been doing lots of toy throwing and targets to give him something to focus on instead of me and it seems to be really working, I went to club on Tuesday night and he really drove on down the Aframe with me quite a way back, I just now need to carry on and start proofing them. Granma has done some work with Corrie, who really enjoyed this she even got her to bark like a sheltie grrrrrrrrrr !!!! :0))) (Corrie that is not Granma lol lol )Leah helped me do the push troughs with Jess and I have been practicing them, she ran Jess to show me and made it look so damd easy !! but I am determined that I will be able to do these dreaded push troughs !! Hannah and I have been doing some dogwalk bits too and these are looking pretty good, so here's to next year !

Lots of pictures

2008-11-24T03:35:00.000-08:00

Not a lot to say but lots of pictures, Tikka had just been groomed and looked so cute, Corrie, and Todd with my favourite tree behind them the silver birch, and a cool group one, Jess on her own and Sassie and Sparkie together.

I love the shot of the full moon that I took a couple of weeks ago and I took about 80 pictures and these are the two that I liked the most, the sunset was from last week when I went for a lovely long walk with Nancy and at the end of the walk the light was fading and the most beautiful sunset was to be seen for a few min's.

Johanna is over from Denmark and I went to watch her do some HTM at the weekend, she did really well, both Soda and Spooky are gorgeous.

North Downs and Nancy's training day

2008-11-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went to North Downs show on Saturday, I did ring party which was really good fun, I really enjoyed the show the venue is superb, it was nice to see lots of people that I hadn't seen for a while and Jess was in 3 classes, I managed to get Ed in the jumping and missed a weave entry in one of the agility's but came 6th in the other one, I am really pleased with Jess's contacts at the moment they are definitely our weakest link, but she came to me with a lot of confrontational issues and it has taken me a long time to get her over this and this year I really feel that she is totally relaxed and is accepting my presence at the end of the contact which is 1st prize to me in itself.

Saturday night would have been a lovely night in watching strictly and Merlin my favourites !! but at exactly 11.00 pm my lovely (not) neighbours decided that it was the perfect time to let off 1 and a 1/2 hours of the loudest fireworks I think that I have ever heard, Sassie bless her has gone deaf so for the first time in nearly 13 years she did not worry about them, Corrie was a little anxious but poor Todd was absolutely petrified, he had been given anxiety and the DAP had been going for a week and I put his coat on like a tea shirt, but he was so scared it made me cry I have never seen this little guy frightened of anything he was behind my neck like a stole and he was shaking, it makes me so angry why do we have to put up with fireworks for 3 weeks + every year and they just about stop and then start again for new year aghghg

Sunday was Nancy's training day which I was looking forward to, I love the way Nancy trains she is always so clear in what she requires of you, she keeps the group moving and is very inuative about dog and handler, I have put a little video together of a couple of excises that we did, I think that it shows the bit that I threw my ball over the finish line and manged to throw it directly at poor Dagmar !! I had a yummy baked potatoe and beans and cheese for lunch courtesy of Polly ( thank you for that Polly !) then came home and had someone come to see my cages that were out of the Vito which were brought, so I now have some money towards my new ones :0)

Today has just been a total washout I took the dogs out for an hour and a half and I am afraid that was all they got as it took me nearly that long to clear them up again. I am looking forward to some nice cold DRY weather so that I can clear up my leaves in the garden :0)

Wexford

2008-11-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

An exciting post (well for me anyway !!) as my friends and fellow blog followers will know my van spent a large proportion of its life in the garage, and to be honest I got to the stage it was costing me more than the house to run ! so it went on a one way trip to the nice garage and I part exed it for a lovely new van called Wexford !! he is a VW Caddy, candy white in appearance ( well nearly, he is man enough to wear pink paw prints, in fact he has 7 courtesy of Bernadette :0) ) 6 months old and fantastic to drive, I LOVE him !! just waiting now to get my cages fitted which should be in at the end of January, already I am noticing a difference on the fuel consumption. Picture to come later !

Happy 12th Birthday Sparkie :0>

2008-11-05T00:24:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday gorgeous boy xxxxxxxx

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T01:33:00.000-07:00

Wow what a difference a week makes

2008-10-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

Wow what a difference in the weather in a week, last week I took these pictures of a Red Admiral butterfly that had landed on my van, and was walking around in a Tshirt and today I took these pictures on the dogs on my morning dog walk, it was so beautiful this morning. The colours this time of year are gorgeous, and the snow in some places was quite thick, Sparkie spent the whole walk eating snow and has spent the whole afternoon, wanting to go out into the garden as he needed to pee :0>

Reflection

2008-10-14T02:47:00.000-07:00

I have found it really hard to post on my blog again, my heart goes out to Bernadette and Dennis on the loss of their special little Hex, she was a dog in a million, and her loss has touched the hearts of many, run free little girl, you really were truly perfect.

KC festival and DINAS

2008-09-04T06:16:00.000-07:00

A serious catch up needed I think !!

It seems ages ago now, but the weather seems to have stayed the same !!

The KC festival was in one word HUGE ! there were so many rings it was a bit mindblowing, and having three dogs at different sizes and different grades was a bit mad to say the least !! I did have a really nice weekend here though it was Dennis's birthday on the thursday night and we all went and had cake and drinks to celebrate, and I had my first ride in one of the buggies too, which was fun, I have always wanted to go in one how sad is that :0> Corrie, did really well and qualified for the Novice Cup, but unfortunately she knocked the long jump down in the final, Jess also did really well, but not in the British open lol lol. Todd seems to have been on a bit of a roll, he had 3 wins here, I am so so proud of this little chap, he is such good fun to run and he is getting more and more confident as the season has gone on, he is also getting stronger, and in fact in full view for all to see and guess who came to watch him run !!! ............. he actually broke his wait for the first time ever, I did though manage to call him before he went flying up the dogwalk !! and put him back, on the start, and I think we continued to do one of the worst runs EVER, never mind that's what happens when you really want it to go well. Huge well done to Hannah and Nancy and Granma for qualifying for Olympia, and commiserations for Lisa and Chi who were doing a lovely run and just had a little hic up at the end, but huge well done to them for Winning the British Open :0)

Todd showing off some of his winnings from KC and Dinas.

I came back from the KC festival on Sunday and then went to DINAS on Monday morning, the week was good, the company was great and my dogs did work really well, Jess won a jumping class and came 3rd in an agility class but bummed out on all her qualifying runs, there is a theme here I think !, Todd again was really good and had two 1st and a 2nd and he qualified for the final, which he ran brilliantly but I did a real goofy bit on handling and he had no choice but to drop a pole, I think I need to stop babying him so much, The Toddster is now grade 5 after 7 KCshows, so I think he needs the winter to train his mum, lol,

Mega gratz to Andy and Kizzy who won the small 3 -5 final and had just one or two 1st places :0>

I have sent Todd KCs book off this week as he has achieved his bronze warrant, how exciting is that, I have never logged any of my dogs points before, but my friend Lorna said to me make sure you write down his places for future reference and I am so pleased that I did it as I am usually useless at this sort of thing.

Here is a brilliant pictures of Delilah and Tinkerbell playing under Sassies new raised bed ! I brought it for here as she has been really stiff lately and I thought she would find it really comfy, but it was in the house for a bout 5 mins and these two thought it was the best thing since slided bread, to hide and attack each other under !

And the last picture is a panoramic view of Todd helping me cut the grass (not !!!)

Update !! just a bit behind :0)

2008-07-29T03:40:00.000-07:00

Is about time that my blog was updated I feel :0)

Wellingborough, was a nice small show, well run and very friendly, with some great classes for Todd and Jess, but with an exercise area the size of a postage stamp, and I was due to have camped but did not, for which I was grateful for as I always feel very sorry for the dogs who do not compete if they cannot have a good run a couple of times a day.

Todd came 8th in the open tunnel vision class, I have never done one of these classes before and it was really good fun, I think they should do more of them, and his next two classes I made silly errors, Jess did a really nice training run in her agility but did not get anywhere.

Rugby, is one of my favourite summer shows, I love being able to sit and watch the champs and the weather always seems to be good, and even though on the way to the show I drove through torrents of rain with hail stones, and then set the caravan up in it, by the morning the rain had subsided and the rest of the weekend weather was lovely.

Todd had a brilliant weekend, he had a lovely clear in his medium KC qualifier and then won the medium jumping, the same class that Andy and Kizzie won in the small, which was really nice, and we called it our double obay sweep :0), here are his two runs courtesy of Dennis, which I am very grateful for, I really must get my act together and start videoing runs again !! He also came 2nd in his agility on the Sunday. Jess also had a really good weekend getting a 4th and a 5th in her two jumping classes.

While Bernadette and Dennis were in Germany at the EOs I minded Jordan for them, bless her little heart she came into my house and she just fitted in ! like she had always been here, Todd and her had lots of playtime which she really enjoyed, I think he wore her out ! here is a picture of them together.

On the the Thursday after Rugby, I went over to spend some time with Nancy as Andy had gone to the EOs and she had just lost her beloved Abbey, we went for a really long walk and here is a picture of the dogs including Jordan all together no mean feet to get them all staying either !! just a shame that Tikka had to block out Jordan !!

The following weekend I was due to go to weardale, but decided to stay at home and have a chilled out weekend, which I am really relieved that I did because just for a change my van is back in the garage !!!!!!!!!! this time the turbo has blown up, I don't think that I have ever had such a rubbish vehicle in my life....and tbh I cant wait to get rid of it !! but the amount of things that have gone wrong now and been fixed perhaps it will now go on forever, but who knows !! I have hired a new vw Caddy and its brilliant.

On the Tuesday I had a trip into hospital for a GI as I have been having really bad tummy problems for a while, they thought I had gall bladder disease or an ulcer, but I have this instead, which is much better than having to have my gall bladder removed, just lots of antibiotics for a while, just would love to know where it came from ???. I also received some gorgeous flowers from Nancy and Andy which really cheered me up.

Delilah our new kitten is now fitting into our house so well she is absolutely adorable and very naughty, Tinkerbell and her are now beginning to be friends which is lovely, here are some shots of her in the safe courtyard bit of my garden, and also of Tinkerbell, the one with Tinkerbell trying to leap on Chopstix really makes me chuckle

Moving onto Agility club show, lovely show but HOW hot !! I know we should not moan about the weather but was too hot for me that's for sure. Todd however did not seem to mind the heat he ran really well and came 2nd in his 1 - 3 jumping, and I am so pleased as the trophies are gorgeous, the rest of his runs over the weekend were really good, he had a couple of poles down as I gave him his turn too early, and in one of his runs he was steaming along and my hat fell off which I momentarily stopped to catch it, don't ask me why just automatic reaction I suppose, but Todd stopped and I got a refusal, bahhhh never mind perhaps it will teach me not to run in one :0) Jess managed her 1st clear in the KC this weekend of the year and we came 28th ha ha ha way to slow !!!!!!!!!!! must try harder next year !!!! any way we have Burridge this weekend and I am just hoping that once again my van will be fixed so that I can tow my caravan there or we will be in a tent (yikes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Lastly I had to post his brilliant picture that Dennis took of Todd this weekend, thank you its fantastic :0), I see what you mean about Dennis getting brilliant shots of other dogs :0))))

Good luck to all my friends at the EO

2008-07-16T02:55:00.000-07:00

Good luck to all the team but special good luck to Bernadette Lisa Leah and Helen xxxxxxx

Go The Girls !

Lisa's and Chi's Royal Canin run 1st :0)

2008-07-02T07:24:00.000-07:00

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I have posted this for Lisa.

The weekend

2008-06-30T14:29:00.001-07:00

Chris had qualified for the Royal Canin finals on Saturday night, and had a judging appointment on Saturday for the UKA show, he thought long and hard wether to do it, but felt that it would make him think about something else for a while, so I scrimed on Saturday for him and he judged at the show, at the end of the show they ran the final, and compared to last year in the P....ing rain, the weather was glorious, Shaun Hunt judged the final, the course was just right some handling and a good course to watch. Chris did a lovely clear round and ended up 3rd, Lisa did a lovely clear round and won the medium, I did video Lisa and Chi on my phone, durrr wish I had thought to video chris too, but it only dawned on me after he ran that I could have videoed him too never mind, I will upload the video of Lisa's run in the next couple of days.

I ran both Jess and Todd at the uka show, Jess did a lovely training run in the agility and Todd had a run by in Chris's class, and I did a training run in his agility, his A frame was really good, I love the UKA shows especially for a young dog, its so good to be able to train in the ring :0)

Sunday was St. Edwards show, and I had 4 runs with Jess and 3 runs with Todd, Corrie is still not running at the moment as she cut her foot at Hinckley and it has only just healed it was not particularly deep but right on the edge of her paw and she kept catching it and making it bleed.

Jess ran brilliantly all day, she came 8th in the 6 - 7 jumping and 5th in the 5 - 6 jumping, in the kc qualifier, she was doing a lovely run, but I gave her a wrong turn command, and for a change she actually did as I asked and ended up back jumping a jump, really I was over the moon with her as she would usually go the way she wanted to go. Then in the grade 6 agility her see saw was a bit over zelous and she flew it, this is her worst contact, as I think some one who will at this time be nameless posted a picture of her on their blog doing exactly that !

mmmmm and Todd had 3 runs, what can I say, I think that I was maybe a little greedy !! he won 2 classes and came 2nd in the other one, unfortunately I don't have any of them on video, but he ran his heart out, he is really enjoying it and I just get such a buzz from running him too, he gives his all every time I have run him, he is strutting down to the ring in his harness, which I now think he has associated with going to run, as the second it goes on him he tells everyone where he is going, it makes me laugh not sure that everyone else finds it that funny but hey there you go life's tough eh :0)
Todd just looking toooooooo cute for words :0)

and this is what Delila thought of Jessie's rossette !!

On the way home from the show, we went for a lovely walk at our local woods and we ended getting home at about 9 oclock very tired but very happy.

.

2008-06-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

This has infact been a really tough week, Chris lost his Dad Fred on Tuesday night, he passed away in his sleep, just six months after his dear Mum passed away............ pretty tough for Chris and his family. Sleep well dear Fred and I do hope that you and Edna are backtogether again.

Todd at Bretons

2008-06-24T05:10:00.000-07:00

What a weekend

2008-06-24T04:15:00.000-07:00

This was Todds first KC outing this weekend, and I was really excited and scared, I had done a fair amount of training in the last couple of weeks, as he had not done very much at all for the last 6 weeks because of a nasty nail bed infection.

Thursday I went to granmas, to do a couple of easy courses, which made me feel a lot better, as he was a very good boy, and she gave me lots of confidence.

Saturday was Watford and we had grade 1 - 3 jumping 1st, which went really well but I pushed him past the weave entrance and then had a run by, but I came out of there feeling on top of the world, as he did a lovely wait and was completely focused on me and ran just like he does in training, then we had 1 - 3 agility, which was a lovely course, it was just such a long stretch on the way back, I pulled him past a jump, but the rest of it was lovely, but by the time I came over the finish line a couple of friends were chuckling at the colour of my rather red face, I ran really fast !! but no way fast enough (note to self must get fitter :0)) Lian very kindly taped both my 1st runs for me, which you can watch here as I have a lovely new sony handycam, but cannot upload them into the movie maker on my computer......... anyone with any ideas would be gratefully received. The last class I had that day was the mini mixi pairs and Todd did a lovely clear round in this. I came back from the show so proud of my boy, he really worked his little socks off for me and the mistakes made were mine.

Sunday was Bretons, and my first run with Todd was 1-3 jumping, he did a lovely run in this but I gave him a command too early and he knocked a pole and missed his weave entrance, but once again I was over the moon with the way he is working. Jess had a lovely run in her agility, it was grade 6 - 7 combined and she came 7th , I just love running her, she is so happy.

Next came 3 - 7 agility which was as it should be a harder course, I walked it and really did not think that Todd would get his weave entrance as it was quite hard, and the weaves were the last thing that I taught Todd and really are not quite up to scratch yet, but I cant believe this, he went clear and we came 2nd, if I am picky with myself, I know that I pulled him off the aframe a bit too quickly but I was so excited and I am just so proud of him, he is such fun to work and I love him to bits. The last class I did with him was mini mixi pairs again with Andy but this time I did not go clear !!! I pulled him off a jump and stood still out of a cloth tunnel which he stopped, but Andy did a lovely clear round I will post the video of his run at Breton, later today.

This weekend also, I collected our lovely new addition to our family, her name is Delilah and she is one of the gorgeous kittens that Leah hand reared, she is officially Megs cat and she will be adored, here are some pictures of her, she is just so funny and cute, and Meg just loves her. I am not sure that Tinkerbell is as impressed though!! here she is playing and at Bretons in her little pink harness.

Newton Heath

2008-06-16T02:54:00.001-07:00

We left for Newton Heath on Friday lunch time and had a great journey up and arrived at 5 o'clock just in time to actually do our runs, which we thought that we would have missed. Two really nice flowing courses which were not too testing to run, even though not walked ! Jess had a pole down in the jumping and came 6th in the grade 6 / 7 agility, this was our first clear for a little while and I was over the moon with the way she ran, I have been finding lately that she seems to have popped up a gear and once again I am having real trouble turning her, lol no surprise there then.

The camping location and the weather and company for the weekend was really nice and laid back, there was a lovely wooded walk for the dogs which they enjoyed, as you came into the venue there were literally hundreds of deer, they looked stunning in the sun, this venue reminds me of Longleat, it is so pretty.

Jess had 3 runs on Saturday, she came 3rd in the jumping class and 5th in the agility class, and did one of the best agility runs she has ever done and had the last pole down aghggh, at the time of running which was nearly the end of the class she had the fasted time, including the 5 faults, I know it was my fault for not continuing to run, I think I celebrated too soon !! will teach me I think :0)

The Champ class was very testing and only 8 dogs got through to the big dog final unfortunately Chris was not one of them :0(

Jess had another 3 runs on Sunday and she did a really good run in the grade 6 agility and we ended up 4th, I managed to E her in the crufts, and a pole came down in her jumping, but all in all it was the best weekend competing we have had this year ! so roll on Watford......

Bits and Pieces and lots of Good luck to Meg x

2008-06-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

Hmmmm not been the greatest blogger recently, lots going on………. I have not been feeling particularly well and have had a blood test which revealed I have a virus……. So watch this space could mean anything I may be changing into a two headed monster ha ha thank you I’m not quite there yet Nancy !!!!!

Todd is only just back training as he has had a nasty nail bed infection which has seemed to go on forever. I went to Nancy and Andy training last week firstly to officially meet Nancy’s gorgeous new pup Zeki who is absolutely scrummy, and then to go on to do some training with Todd and Jess, I really enjoyed the training session both with Todd and with Jess, Todd was totally focused throughout the whole session which was really good as he has not been there before and he is now used to numbers the size of houses lol lol and he did not target them either so thank you for incorporating all those things into our lesson, then on the way back my van had a blow out and I had to wait ages for Green flag to come to rescue me boo hoo, that was not the nicest experience ever.

Then we were off to Hinckley for the weekend, nothing of great significance happened with me and my dogs, although I had a really good weekend, Jess did some really good runs, I came 7th in a jumping class and Chris and I came 7th in the PC pairs, Chris also ran Corrie in her KC Olympia as I was not feeling too great and he did a stonking run and had a pole down, but it was really nice seeing her run for someone else. I had a great show, but I don’t think that I am running Jess with my usual enthusiasm at the moment, but I am feeling a lot better so hopefully will be back to running again properly by Thames. But Hinckley was such a nice show especially as Granma made Hex a Champion, when she was on the start line I had palpitations so goodness knows how she felt, and what a great run so pleased for the both of them, and also I had a special treat I got to run Zen, what a star she is, it is really weird she is just like running a big dog, she runs just like a collie, and she got beautiful contacts and she waited but I really mucked her up going to the Aframe as I switched behind her poor dog, but thank you Grandma I really enjoyed running her.

Did some really nice bits with Todd this morning, and then took everyone for a lovely walk to Puttnam, all dogs really appreciated a really good walk, Meg has lots of exams this week so really good luck , not long to go Megs and it will all be over and you can really start to enjoy your summer xxxxx Thames this weekend and hopefully lots of celebrating to do !!!!

Thank you to Dennis for this brilliant picture of the Rabid dog :0)

What did you see on your walk this morning

2008-05-22T01:29:00.001-07:00

I saw these ! they are my favourite too so I thought that I would post them.

Tunbridge wells and Bats

2008-05-19T01:59:00.000-07:00

I had to post this picture of Lorna at Tunbridge wells with Bill and Pias gorgeous baby Max:0) and also this picture of my birthday pressie from Lorna, its gorgeous and it looks so like Todd.

Jess and I had some really nice runs at Tunbridge wells, a lot of them had a nearly in them but I am really pleased with her contacts at the moment, and we got a nice place in the agility on the Sunday. Corrie came 4th in her Novice kennel club qualifier, which I am really pleased about but last year she came 4th in nearly every one that she did and I would really love her to qualify for this event, she is such a consistent little dog, and she runs her heart out.......... oh well a few more left to go and perhaps I should throw caution to the wind and just blast her off her contacts and hope she gets them, she is just a monkey on the dog walk if I release her too quickly :0) and BATS she came 9th in the KC qualifier as I held her far too long on her dogwalk and it was a very fast course.
Todd has had a nail bed infection for the last couple of weeks so he is on antibiotics and a foot bath twice a day, so hopefully it will be better soon, they really are a pain though as they just seem to take forever to heal up.

Silver !!

2008-05-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

The team came back from Belgium with lots of medals, I think that Dave won the most :0) !, but Chris and Cap got Silver in the snooker, here is a picture of a very happy chappy ! receiving his medal.

Todays walk in pictures

2008-05-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

I have just gotten back from the most gorgeous walk by the river, here it is in pictures ! Note the lack of Tikka in the water pictures he he he she HATES WATER ! I will start with a picture of Ducklings, as they are just soooo cute and end up with a picture which doesn't usually happen all dogs together looking the same way and no one blocking the other one out !!

Catch up again !!!!

2008-05-08T00:56:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks have just flown by, I have been working really hard on my new cat site, and doing a fair bit of training with both Jess and Todd.
My Daughter was sixteen on the 28th of April, where have the last 16 years gone ! she had a lovely day, and was spoilt rotten.... mmm I would have posted a lovely picture of Meg but she wouldnt let me lol !!!
A couple of weeks ago a few of us went to Bernadette’s to see Johanna and do a bit of training, which was really enjoyable, and Lunch was yummy too :0), also had a cuddle with the pups who have grown so much and are just gorgeous, Jess met little mouse and here is a lovely picture courtesy of Dennis of the meeting ! How cute is that.

We did the two day UKA show on Saturday and Sunday, Jess came 2nd in the Senior jumping on the Saturday, and in the royal canin she did a lovely run but I pushed her dog walk too far and pulled her off, which was a shame as her turns in this class were really tight and neat, and I even managed to a PUSH ROUND !! I ran Todd NFC on Sunday in the nursery class and was very pleased with the result, his contacts were really good and he powered to the bottom of both of them, I really like the fact that you can train your dog in the ring at these shows, I think it is so nice for a young dog to receive the reinforcement that we use in training in the ring, and I am sure that it can help stop them discriminating in the ring, well that’s my thought anyway !! Watch this spot !!
Vyne was on Monday, and Jess came 7th in grade 6 jumping, and that was it, her other 2 runs were not clear but I am generally really pleased with the way that we are working together this year.

Yesterday the team left for Belgium to compete in the IFCS world champs so loads of Luck to them all, especially Chris and Cap, reports to follow ...........

Lastly I have been attacking my garden, and the results are pretty pleasing !! I think summer has come at long last and here a couple of pictures of my favourite flowers and blossoms in my garden at the moment........... oh and Todd and I love this picture of Tikka it sum's her up completely.... in the words of Catherine Tate .... Bothered !!!

Todds 1st run at uka

2008-04-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

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Well by no means perfect, and yes I did have to jump him as he shot back up the dog walk !! but I came away a happy chappy today, I know I have lots more to work on, but his wait was really good he worked well in a completely different location, not quite sure why he shot off the end of the dog walk that we should not have done but, I did run him again in the pay on the day and he got all his contacts well and did do the weaves after a couple of attemps, but how good was it to be able to just train your dog in a show environment ! I cant wait for next weekend now :0) thanks also to Granma Bernadette and Granny Lisa for being so supportive today and it didn't rain any time that I ran which was a huge bonus as I just HATE running in the rain.

Nearly there !

2008-04-25T04:08:00.000-07:00

I have been very quiet on the blog front recently as I took the task of decorating my lounge on, funny isn't it you look at your lounge and think oh that wont take long ........... well it did in fact it took 5 days in total and I still need to gloss the doors, but I am going to wait till the weather is a bit better as with 6 dogs and 3 cats running around the house I don't fancy the fur look on the door !! anyway helping me show off my recent handy work it Todd in various poses throughout the lounge !!

I have added a picture of my daughters bunnies, Feather and Frodo, as they are so cute together, and also a picture of Todd 1st thing this morning in the bluebells just cause I like it:0)

I have been doing lots of training with Todd recently and have been to Nancy's for a very enjoyable Saturday morning training and lunch yum yum !! and we have just gone back after a 2 week break to north downs, Todd is really enjoying his training at the moment and I will try to post a couple of videos in the near future.

Well done to all who qualified for the European open especially Bernadette Lisa and Leah:0)

2008-04-10T06:55:00.001-07:00

This is especially for Nancy as I know how much she loves mud :0)) Little monster asked to go out into the garden then came back into the office, with feet looking like this NICE not !!

weekend

2008-04-06T05:19:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my birthday and I was meant to be at Scunthorpe............... but I have got a stinking cold and stayed at home instead, Chris went and got into the Champ final and ran past jump number 17 durrrrrrrrrrr long way to go bless him, as he didn't have a pairs either as I was here :0)

I had a very lazy morning, then took the dogs for a long walk, then did some weave training with Todd in the after noon, I had a bit of help with Gran ma when I went to see the pups last week, and have put the clear plastic guides on the V weaves and he is going through them really well, so I will continue to do this then gradually take them away, then I had a really lazy evening too, which is not like me at all as I really like to be on the go.

Chris brought me a new camera for my birthday it is a canon G9 powershot, so I will now be boring you lot even more with loads more pictures !!!! Here are a couple of pictures that I have taken with it, this is a weird thing that is like a panorama scene and it merges your pictures together, any way I liked it :0) perhaps Lian might like to help me with this lol lol lol

A couple of Todd in the snow this morning.

My house has now been re plastered and I now think that it was worth all the hard work, as it looks lovely, now just to paint it.

Well done to everyone that went to scrambles on Friday and Saturday especially Lian and Rosie who just won loads.

On my phone 1st thing in the morning!

Sunday morning I woke up really early, must have been all the extra sleep I have had the last couple of days and there was a blanket of snow all over the garden, it looked really beautiful, but not the nicest of conditions to drive in, but I had promised Chris that we could go to uka on Sunday, so I wrapped up really warm put all the dogs coats on and I mean coats they all had two on !! and off we set to Walton on Thames for the UKA show, I thought that it may have been cancelled but it hadn't, Chris and I had a lovely walk for about an hour before the show, they dogs had a ball, I don't think that Todd has seen snow this deep before and he and sparkie ran round like a couple of loons eating the snow and generally having a lovely time, trouble is when you eat snow you need to peeeeee ha ha ha I have never seen two boys pee so much before !

I decided not to run my dogs at the show because I am a wimp and did not want them to hurt themselves or me to fall over, and Chris didn't run either, so was a bit of a waste of time going really but the walk was nice anyhow!

I then came back about 12.3o and thought that I would update my blog for a change ! post some pictures with my new camera any thing is better than rubbing the radiators down to repaint them :0) mmm enough of that back to the radiators now.

Quick post

2008-04-03T01:31:00.000-07:00

So much going on at the moment, last week my work computer crashed and I had to get a new one, however nice it is to have a much smarter looking computer with a really good screan, how long does it take to upload and download everything you had on your previous computer, just so that you can do all your normal day to day things aghgh.

My lounge is also being re plastered at the moment, as I thought a couple of months ago that it would be a really nice to be able to just paint the lounge and not have to re wall paper it, so I started wall paper stripping about 6 weeks ago, and didnt realise that in total there were 6 layers of wall paper on most of the walls, NEVER AGAIN !! I also realised why the previous owners had wall papered not painted the walls were in a terrible state any way this is what my lounge looks like now not very pretty !! and six dogs in my bedroom and office is a bit of a squeeze but they seem to be quite happy lying on my bed all day !!

I went to see the pups on Tuesday and they are all really gorgeous, and little mouse is so funny and just too cute for words.

I am off to scrambles UKA on Friday and Sunday and to Scunthorpe on Saturday so will post again next week.

Mid downs and Easter

2008-03-25T03:15:00.000-07:00

Mid downs was my 1st show since September last year, and for the first time in a long time I actually felt quite sick on the start line with Jess in the 1st class that we did, I usually get a bit nervous but not this bad yukkk, any way she true to form did a lovely start line wait and we were doing a lovely round right until the sea saw and she just carried on going upwards, I was really shocked as she crunched to the ground she looked a bit shocked too, so I put her back onto it and stroked her thanked Pete Catt and went out of the ring, not sure why she did it perhaps I gave a wrong command but I think she thought it was the dog walk, bless, we went into her next class which was the Burgess supa dog class and she came 10th and I made sure she did a really nice sea saw in that class. Corrie came 6th in the jumping outside so all in all a pretty good 1st show.

At the show Leah gave me picture that she had done of Tinkerbell my naughty little tortie cat and it is gorgeous, I am chuffed to bits with it, thanks Leah x

This weekend I went to the Easter celebration show ha ha ha should have been the Christmas show, I was meant to camp but unlike Lisa wimped out lol. We were very lucky that the organisers had put so much work into the show and moved the show indoors so all the agility was indoors and the jumping rings were outside.

On Saturday Jess did the best Chum run she has ever done, just at the end she ended up jumping the tunnel but I was so pleased with her, she is turning so well and her contacts have really speeded up over the winter and for the 1st time she actually did a near on perfect pull through, I will also just say thank you very much to Nancy for all her help this winter with sharpening up Jessie's turns and also to Natasha for teaching me to do a pull through with Jess which I could just could not master for ages with her :0) mm and after that I came right back down to earth with my jumping run as I forgot where I was going ha ha

Sunday, I was doing ring party and we were on the outside ring, blimey it sleeted for about 2 hours and I was calling, and I was thinking to myself mm just do the ring party bit and go home its horrid, but right at the end of the jumping the weather was not so bad and I decided to run Jess in it, I had not walked it and was in the que just watching a few dogs in front of me I ran Jess in it and she came 3rd so yipee I got my Easter egg yum, Jess also came 2nd in the agility and won me another egg what a star !!

I have over the winter been working really hard on Corries dog walk and I ran her in her 1st agility since August after doing all this work and she jumped off it, obviously she is really discriminating between competition and training so I was a bit disappointed and the next agility was the olympia qualifier and she ran to the end of the dog walk and I found it hard to get her off of it and she came 5th in it and I came away feeling a lot happier, so all in all my 1st couple of shows have been really good, which means things can only go down hill from here on........... :0)))

Friday and Todds Birthday walk !!

2008-03-16T11:08:00.001-07:00

I know it was a lot later than we had intended, but Friday March 14th was Todds birthday walk which for one reason or another just got delayed, just a shame that Nancy and Lian couldnt be there.

I set off at nine oclock to go to the beach and it was raining, typical all the nice days we have had and it had to be raining for our beach walk, but just as I got into the car park it stopped and it didnt rain again till the journey home.

All in all we had 16 dogs and they had a great time, we walked for about an hour, the tide was out and we had the beach to ourselves which was lovely, all the dogs got on really well and were brilliantly behaved but gosh all those shelties together what a racket !!!! they could probably be heard in the little village which is why we had the beach to ourselves lol lol.

Then we had a really nice lunch and Lisa made Todd a really delicious liver cake which was decorated with cheese as icing and a T made out of cat treats mmmmmmm very yummy the Dogs loved it !! thank you Lisa !

shakey !!!

2008-03-13T14:06:00.000-07:00

I just love these pictures, they speak for themselves !!

This week in a nutshell

2008-03-12T11:04:00.001-07:00

This week has been really busy, up to crufts on Saturday to shop and support a particularly clever brown doglet ha ha and then back up on Sunday to shop and support another particularly clever brown doglet and a couple of particularly clever barky pointy things :0)
I trained Todd on Tuesday night at Northdowns, and he was really good he even negotiated going straight up an A frame with a tunnel either side of it and I was really shocked he didn't even look at the tunnel, hmmmmm sorted ! then, just a small lull into a false sense of security I am sure !!
That brings us to today, now most of my friends are aware of my VAN SAGA and the SAGA I thought had ended when £2500.00 lighter I thought that all its little problems were fixed but hey no......................... today driving back from homebase the f..............g exhaust fell off ohhh bloody marvelous, it is a twin catalytic if that's how you even spell it converter and the little boxy thing cost me £450.00 ffs not funny, and the very nice man even told me that is has a diesel leak too how pleasant, just in time for it to pop back to the garage, just as the show season starts any way I could moan for a lot longer but wont, but I do feel better for my moan.......... so hopefully it will get me to mid downs and then go back to the garage next week.... to be continued !

Good Luck

2008-03-04T04:36:00.000-08:00

Good Luck to all my friends competing at crufts this year especially

Hannah
Nancy
Bernadette
Lisa
Johana
Sue
Rosie
Lian
Mand
and Lorna (as reserve with Cadas )

I'm not mad honest !!!

2008-02-28T08:52:00.000-08:00

If Dogs were people and as tomorrow is Leap year this is the guy I would ask to marry me (woops sorry Chris x !!)

Windy Chobham

2008-02-28T02:37:00.000-08:00

This picture really made me laugh, I took it on Monday and it was really windy at the top of the hills in Chobham, all my dogs look like they are gunna be blown away note Sassies ears and Tikkas pom pom !!!

OK OK bad again !!

2008-02-25T11:27:00.000-08:00

I know that I am a bad blogger, I hate writing but loveeeeee pictures so here's the last couple of weeks in photos !!!!

The agility club awards, had a brilliant night , we sponsored a category ; all time agility handler and was won by no less than Mr Alan Bray ! great result. ( mmmmm also had far too much to drink :0) ) Lots of hard work went into making this a really great evening, so a huge thanks to all of the agility club ! thought I would post this, I have NEVER seen Chris in back tie so here you go !!!!

Missed out on Dawn Weavers training day as I did not feel too good ( the night after the above) my fault, but was interesting watching for a change and not trying to keep either one of my lovely woofs quiet, no rude comment please MR COLE!!!!!

Sheep herding or NOT !!!!!
I was very impressed with Todd's attention on me, to the point of totally ignoring the sheep, and Bernadette you are wrong he can herd just not sheep ! ask all the rest of my dogs they will confirm that he likes nothing more than to round them all up !!!!!

Mega congrats to the other Jess, she was just a star ! blimey Mac, you must be so proud of her !

Throw away dogs !!!!
Short but sweet, Jess was a throw away dog and she never ceases to amaze me, she did not have a very nice life before we got her, but she always comes out trumps !!! agility mmmmmm I can do that, tricks yes I can do that too !! BArking yes all the time :0) but sheep mmm I will try to do that too ! not bad for a 1st attempt mrs Rabid. Thank you very much for the lovely pictures Nancy !

Oh and the last one is especially for Leah, I brought Tinkerbell a new bed and she loveeees it, and also have just got my new website up and running, should be ready for action in the next couple of days as the prices are not right at the moment

.

Sunday on the Beach with just a few pals :0)

2008-02-11T14:53:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a glorious day and a friend had arranged a beach walk and pub lunch after, the dogs had the best time, I think that it is their favourite walk.

A lovely surprise

2008-02-05T08:48:00.000-08:00

I have just opened my emails and Nancy has done this lovely video of Todd and I at hers, thank you !!

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Todd this weekend !

2008-02-04T08:07:00.000-08:00

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Happy Birthday Chris

2008-01-29T06:39:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Chris xxxx

Weekend

2008-01-28T07:52:00.000-08:00

As most of my close friends will know I have had a few Van issues just recently, which gave to me missing one of my favourite shows of the year Ribble :0(

Friday I had arranged to go to Nancy's' for some training lunch and a walk, and I was determined to get there !! Chris had loaned me his now broken van ! I poodled (excuse the pun !) along at a staggering 45 miles per hour and eventually got to Nancy's later than intended but at least I got there !

Berndatte had brought a very interesting course plan with her and we set it up and tried to work it in various ways, it was interesting seeing the different ways that you could work it and also which way worked best for which dog. Jess has a naturally very long stride which is great when I want her to stretch out and bounce but not so good when I want nice tight turns so I have to work very hard on them and it is always better to push her than to pull her and she does not resist so much.

We also worked on Niahm and Todd's dog walk which both Nancy and I were really pleased with the both of them they were flying down to the bottom with Bernadette's help and eagle eyes !

Lunch was extremely tasty or should I say both lunches were extremely tasty lol lol

Saturday morning I took all the dogs for a nice long walk as I had a training afternoon, I parked in my normal place and set off, little did I know that there was about 250 people all over the common doing an orienteering session, aghghg I really did not know which way to turn back or to go on, there were people every where I looked in the woods doing really weird things !! running here and there, oh marvelous my lovely quiet walk had just turned into a nightmare, I know all the rest of my dogs are fine with that sort of thing but I was not sure how Todd would handle it, he has not come across so many people in HIS woods before, he was just great he only jumped up at one person who looked at him in horror ! and the rest on the time he just laid down to let these people frantically trying to find there particular numbers pass, we ran into a whole bunch of kids that thought fussing the dogs was much more fun than what they were meant to be doing, and I ended up giving them some tips as to where the numbered pots were :0) I will say though, I was very proud of my dogs whos manners I felt were impecable but I was really surprised at how thoughtless some people can be, at one point a couple of guys ran over Corries tail in their hast to get past, to their next number. I was really cross, she squeaked and moved away, mmmm I just wonder who would have got the blame if she had nipped him ??????

In the afternoon, I had Natashas training course , which was brilliant loads and loads of enthusiasm and great tips, this is the 2nd one of hers I have been on and I will say she is fantastic.

Sunday was nice Chris and I just went for a long walk in the morning and had a relatively healthy cooked breakfast! then chilled out in the afternoon.

Shhhhh it's sunny today :0)

2008-01-22T04:31:00.000-08:00

My lovely mum brought me a camera for Christmas it is a Kodac easy share, which Lian recommended, and its brilliant, so as the sun is out I took some shots of Todd, wow what a difference I have only had my phone camera before today.

Happy 12th Birthday Sass

2008-01-20T02:12:00.000-08:00

Happy 12th Birthday to my gorgeous Sassie Saucepot.

Todd enjoying his Christmas Pressie

2008-01-14T08:29:00.000-08:00

Meg gave Todd this elephant for Christmas, it used to be her little elephant chair, and he absolutely loves it to bits, I wont go into any details of how I know how much he loves it :0))

Todd on Nancy's training Day

2008-01-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much to Dennis for taking these wicked shots of Todd jumping on our training day, it was a brilliant day Todd, Jess and I really enjoyed it and came back with lots to practice.

My Dog's on the Ball is yours ?? !!

2008-01-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Jessie

2008-01-03T09:31:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday to my gorgeous Jessie who is 6 today, she has come a long way from the little beaten waif that I picked up from the RSPCA !!

Happy new Year !!

2008-01-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

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A very Happy new year to all of my friends and fellow Bloggers.

Guess what I got for christmas :0))

Just playing about really, and set up grid of jumps and put Jess and Todd over the same line, and YES I know that Todd had a pole down as he tried to bounce and didnt quite make it but I found it really interesting watching back them do the same line of jumps , !! sad really but I have never been able to do this before !

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Waves of Emotion

2007-12-23T11:52:00.000-08:00

The last couple of weeks have been huge waves of lots of emotions, two weeks ago Chris lost his lovely Mum Edna, and we had the funeral on Wednesday, it actually was more of a celebration of her life than anything, Edna had a huge sense of humour which stayed with her till the very end, and however sad the day was, a lot of very funny stories were told commemorating her humour and her constant faith in god.

Chris then had Olympia on Saturday which strangely enough was the date of Chris's mums birthday, for the last two weeks I have had Cap staying with me as Chris stayed with his Dad as obviously they had lots to arrange and I thought that Cap would be happier here with me, having lots of exercise to keep him fit, but no agility, as I refused to work him as I could just see the scenario of the missed contact at Olympia being my fault lol lol: before I start this story I will say that Todd and Cap adore each other, buttttttttt Cap is Chris's only dog and is used to well lets just say a little attention !! and Todd is not is the slightest bit spoilt at all !! well all in all and not all Todd but I would say about 90 %
1 pine box corner
1 pine chair bottom
1 dog bed
all modified for mums approval :0))))
and lastly but not least 1 small edge of a carpet and the longest that either of them were left alone in the room was 2 hours a day while I tried to get some work done ho ho ho, mmmmm not sure why, I thought that perhaps Todd was feeling a bit left out etc, but since Cap has gone back to his Dad not one item has been gnawed, and Todd is quite happy to spend a small amount of the day in the lounge asleep, so who knows, but I am really looking forward to getting my lounge redone !!!!

While Cap was here I decided to groom him PROPERLY and as Nancy will vouch for me MEN do not often groom their own dogs ( unless of course they do it once and pull all of the coat out and are not asked to do it again :0)))) only joking Andy xx)

I have recently converted half my garage into a grooming parlour ! and drying room, as I have now got a blaster, blimey wish I had brought one years ago what an amazing little accessories it is! no sand in my house no grotty paw marks and best of all it really does help remove all the dead coat from Sparkie and for that, it was worth every penny alone ! any way off the track again ! I groomed Cap for about 3 hours and here is a picture of the end result with the end result of Todd too who I also did.

Getting back to Olympia, well nearly ! I did go to Olympia on Tuesday to watch the medium final with my daughter, we were too late to watch the jumping in the morning but did see the final, it was brilliant, commiserations to both Bernadette and Lisa, but B.s round was brilliant right up to the very end and watching Chi made my cry as his was going like a little steam train, and he did the fastest time beating all those collies and I don't want to say about the pole so I wont. I am so glad that Chi is better and looking so well.

Then Thursday my van broke agian, and went off to the nice very expensive mercedes garage to be fixed !! my friend lent me a very old merc G waggon so that I could walk my dogs and here it is with all the dogs in the back, it did not go over 50 m p h lol lol lol

Saturday morning 6.00 am up and getting everything ready for Chris and Cap and trying to be the perfect groom, sandwiches made, hot thermos flasks of coffee and tea, bottles of water and mars bars and Caps special lead, Chris's special trainers etc etc etc and in the van and off we go, sat nav. telling us how to get there all very stress free until, oh noooooooooooooooo I have left my phone at home mmmmm cant tell everyone what chris has done and no pictures and no video booooooooooo hooooooo I am so cross with myself, but at least Chris had all his bits and we did have the car park ticket and entrance tickets etc etc so in the great scheme of things could have been alot worse but I was really cross with myself, at least a couple of friends remembered to take theirs so the pictures of courtesy of Jo Richards and Lynne Ward thanks :0)

So the time has come and the morning session is under way, Chris was running 16th and in the morning and I am feeling very very sick as I watched him on the start line and wow, he goes clear and then we just wait to see if it is enough and YES brilliant he is through to the evening, just a few hours to kill, I went back to the van to take the dogs out, up and down the motor rail car park and I decided to go to Holland park with Todd, Jess and Sparkie, gosh I could not live in London, soooo much traffic and noise, we walked down or up not sure ! to the park and met up with Mary Ray and Ann Roberts outside of the hotel, stopped and had a chat and while we were talking about 10 varying police cars and ambulances and fire engines all went wizzing by and Mary said that it happens all night long too !! any way they enjoyed their walk in the park and at least I felt that I had stretched my legs too. When I got back to the van, Chris told me that Leslie Osbourne had kindly given us his evening car park ticket so I did not need to take the risk of being clamped as he decided that he did not want to move the van to the other car park !

Here are some random pictures of Olympia !!

The evening finally came and what a brilliant final, Chris came 3rd and I was just soo proud of him and Cap when they ran they went into the lead but Chris lost just a little time up in the corner, and Greg ran a near perfect round and went into the lead, then Rob with little Dizzy went and blimey she just flew and won it, funny but two out of the top 3 dogs were bred by Kathy Napper and out of Quizz!! and a lovely bit of crystal for Chris and cap and what a great day. The only foux par was that instead of taping the euro sport which I had done all week which had 0 agility on it, I taped the strictly come dancing final oh how Chris laughed (not) !!! Cap showing off his lovely trophy and rosette.

Today I have been out most of the day looking together with lots of other people looking for Nigel Staines 15 year old lurcher Bear, who is still missing from Wednesday morning when she wondered off in Polly's field in Knaphill, she has been sighted by 2 different people on Friday morning in the same place, but not seen since all her details are on http://www.doglost.co.uk/

SHE HAS BEEN FOUND ALIVE AND WELL !!!!!!

Happy 1st birthday Todd

2007-12-18T23:46:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that Todd is a year already, he has grown into such a gorgeous young man.

I have been a very bad blogger !

2007-12-03T11:16:00.000-08:00

Lots and Lots of things going on at the moment, Chris's poor Mum has been very very ill for the last couple of weeks and very sadly has very little time left and also poor Chi, here's wishing him a full and speedy recovery and lots of love to him and Lisa.

I will say though I have had some lovely walks with my guys recently and one I went on this week I have added a couple of pictures as the view from the top of the hill, at Puttenham, was beautiful and I had to laugh as on the top at 8.00 in the morning I met a lady with 3 rough collies who fell in love with Todd and wanted to keep him! mmm I though long and hard lol lol and polity said not on your Nellie !!, I have also done a small amount of training with both Corrie Jess and Todd.

I have also taught Todd to sit and beg, thanks to Joan ahas careful instructions, and not a lot else !!!

Frost !! and a lesson to learn.

2007-11-16T01:50:00.000-08:00

I have to say I LOVE frosty mornings and crunchy leaves, and the last two mornings have been gorgeous, but I learn a very good lesson about Shelties and their memories! yesterday I arrived at our morning walk clad with jumpers scarves and GLOVES ! mmm Todd grabbed a glove and I just laughed at him running round shaking it and tossing it up into the air, and then took it and had a beautiful walk amidst all the ice and frost and thought no more of it. This morning I arrived at walk clad with usual hat gloves and scarf, and as I let the guys out of the van Todd decided to run up to me barking and leaping up to grab my glove, I said no and carried on walking and spent the next hour having spoilt B*****d syndrome, cause he could not have my glove, so lesson to oneself do not laugh at a behavior that you do not wish to be continued ha ha ha saying that it is VERY hard not to laugh at him as he is just soooooo funny.

Loadsa Agility !!

2007-11-13T03:05:00.000-08:00

I have had a real treat over the last few days lots of agility practice, with all my guys.

Started on Friday morning with a lesson with Bernadette and Todd, negotiating cross behinds and sending OUT not IN lol lol and some seesaw work and also some targeting on the down plank of the dog walk, which I am pleased to say is going really well, I think one of my main weakness is actually thinking I am really consistent with my verbal commands but have realised that I am NOT !! I have written all my commands down and think that I may drop a few of them and hope that less is MORE !

Friday afternoon I stayed to do a training session with Bernadette Lisa and Nancy practising a USDAA Grand Prix course which was interesting and fun to run you can see the actual course on http://www.obayshelties.blogspot.com/ . I was really pleased how Jess ran this course, and her contacts were lovely, it is always pleasing to have good contacts when you run your dog somewhere different, and I had a lot of fun trying different handling techniques into the rigid tunnel.I put Corrie round the same course and she ran it really nicely, and I think that I am going to have a go at training her running contacts, as she really needs to be motivated to run her best and I often find to stop her on the contacts is a bit deflating for her, so I am going to give them a go, lots of hard work coming up to retrain them. The biggest treat of all was that Bernadette let me have a run of Zen, she is sooo lovely to run, and I am going to work really hard as I would love Todd to run like her, well one can dream cant one !!

On Saturday morning we had a puppy training session with Lesley Olden (Nedlo agility) arranged by the Sheltie club, Todd had a great time, and I was really pleased that he stayed totally focused, as he has not been in an indoor school before and has only trained with the most 3 other young dogs. We did some little jumping exercises and also some dog walk work which again was very motivated, and had some fun on a wobble board, Todd enjoyed catching up with his mates, Kizzy and Kodac and Karen Buglers lovely young pup, who's name evades me at the moment, there was a couple of other really lovely sheltie pups there too.

Sunday afternoon was a 3 hour training afternoon with David Munnings, with Jess, she worked really well and I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon, the only downside of it was Jess can just be sooooooooooo impatient and noisy and by the end of the afternoon I was exhausted!! As the whole time she is not working I have to play with her or do little tricks to keep her attention, and people say shelties are noisy, Todd is no where as gobby as her.

I am looking forward to this weekend as Todd has a puppy training with Nancy in the morning, so lets hope the weather stays nice for that, I will try to get some pictures or a little video to post.

Happy 11 th Birthday Sparkie

2007-11-05T02:50:00.000-08:00

Happy birthday to my special boy Sparkie today, picture at the top was taken in Jan 1998 and the picture above this morning in a Fairy ring of mushrooms.

Thoughts for today

2007-11-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

Without wishing to be a dramatist or anything, but Tikka was due to be clipped today and on my way to drop her off and do a puppy class with Todd which I was really looking forward to with Rosie, I endeavoured to join the M3 and within 20 seconds of being on it I screeched to a halt and the sound was deafening, about 30 seconds in front of me had been a huge crash,. I only had Tikka and Todd with me, my daughter was with a friend and the rest of my dogs were at home alone.

All the traffic came to a stand still and I was counting by blessings that I was going at a reasonable speed to be able to stop and not go careering up the back of the car in front, but also deep in thought about life, how scary it takes seconds or minutes and its all over ! within a few minutes of being stationary all I could hear is people complaining about the fact they were being delayed for one reason or another mmmmmmm the lady next to me said this is just ridiculous I was meant to be at the hair dressers 15 minutes earlier, and it took me back and I said to her, yes it is a little inconvenient but I think that I would prefer my hair to be a little scruffy than to be in the position of the poor people ahead of us in the accident, she didn’t seem to get the drift buy hey there you go, I could not believe the stupidness if that's a word of so many people stuck in the traffic they were walking up and down the hard shoulder with kids, dogs and the rescue ambulances and police were hooting to alarm them that they were using the hard shoulder, and there was a group of youngsters behind me playing Frisbee hellloooooooo for me it just made me realise how lucky we are and within seconds it can all change soooooooo sermon over but give your loved one a big hug today.

Happy Halloween !!

2007-10-31T05:32:00.000-07:00

Birthday weekend for Polly

2007-10-30T03:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend was Polly's birthday celebration weekend as she was 60 on Monday, and what fun we had we did a huge garage party for her with nibbles, cakes and lots of Bucks Fizz and Champas mmmmm lovely here are a couple of pictures of her blowing out her mammoth amount of candles lol lol

I was meant to go to Downlands on Sunday, but my van put paid to that as it spent the weekend in the garage ! its back out now. But the weather was not great and we spend the day doing some housework aghghg and some training and I taught Todd the elephant trick as I didn't do it when he was a baby, but he picked it up really quickly and now offers it every time he sees the Bird food holder, which is great except I didn't put the lid on it properly this morning and we had lots and lots of canary food all over the office floor ! whoops.

Todd does the elephant too!

2007-10-30T03:32:00.000-07:00

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ROFLOL

2007-10-28T06:05:00.001-07:00

Talking of time wasting a pumkin flasher ha ha ha

This n That and supa star Cap !

2007-10-18T03:15:00.000-07:00

We have had some brilliant news this week Chris and Cap have been chosen as part of The GB team for the 2008 IFCS World Cup, I am really proud of both of them and cant wait to go with him as his groom and supporter :0))

so Lian will be in contact with you soon !!

This morning is the first morning that I have encountered my van windscreen being iced up, and being my usual unprepared self had to wait 5 mins for the windscreen to clear and off to walk the dogs at 6.30am and wow what a beautiful morning the whole of the park was covered in morning mist and the ground crunchy under foot, we had a lovely walk and the lake looked like something out of a horror movie, I kept expecting a hand to come up out of it lol lol

Cant believe that Todd is nearly a year old, blimey how quickly does time go, I don't think he realises just how big hes got either, as he still insists of squishing himself into his puppy bed, I keep putting it on the office chair for my cat but he keeps dragging it off and lying in it very cute :0) I know what Ill be getting him for his birthday !

Stour valley spiders n cobwebs

2007-10-08T08:15:00.000-07:00

We went to Stour valley show at the weekend, and Corrie WON !! she won the grade 4 / 5 jumping and Jess Came 2nd in grade 6 /7 jumping so both girls were very clever !! Also I ran Tikka in the mini mixi pairs with Cap and they came 2nd, I have not run her for a few weeks as she had not been well, but it was lovely to see her back to her old self and she really enjoyed running the course with her big mate !

After the show I stopped to walk them and I really feel sorry for poor Corrie as now every one herds her even the perfect one lol !

Spiders are probably my biggest phobia, but I find their cobwebs beautiful and intriguing, and first thing in the morning a little eiry, but here are a couple of pictures of the most amazing spider webs, that I ran into this morning, and thank you for your conker suggestion Nancy; but I still have loads of spiders in the house agghghghg and the conkers were chewed up and spat out on the floor by a certain perfect (lol) young sheltie !! ha ha

Paws in the park

2007-09-27T05:12:00.000-07:00

We went to Paws in the Park this weekend, which I have to say was one of my favourite shows this year, the courses were interesting and set at exactly the correct level (imo), the walks out the back of the hop farm were just lovely, company was great and I cant believe the agility season is nearly over :0( this is my last camping show till next year, I cooked a really nice Tia green curry and took it with me for Friday night and Hannah Chris and I ate and sat out drinking Tequila till late, surprisingly I did not have a hang over on Saturday !! Jess ran brilliantly again getting 4th in grade 6/7 jumping on Saturday 11th in the agility, and on Sunday Chris and I won the pairs which made up for us missing the pairs final and Jess came 5th in grade 6/7 jumping on Sunday too so a very nice way to finish the weekend. Todd really enjoyed the show seeing all his pals and he just loves caravaning so I am sure that he will miss it too. Roll on next year !

training at rosies

2007-09-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

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Tikka went to her favourite groomers on Saturday, Lora who is Rosies daughter, and while I was waiting for the princess to have her wash cut and blow dry Rosie offered to take a video in her field of Todd doing a little training session, thanks Rosie xx