WAO & Dreaming!

It makes a change doing nothing!!! Although we actually ended up being rather busy after all!
Saturday we stayed locally, mooched about on the 'marina'....it'll always be Exmouth Docks to me!! looked about and james dreamt about boats we cant afford :) then had a lovely big walk on the common with all the dogs. Early night then ready to leave at 6am to go see the World agility open show, which had countries from all over competing, we got to see England win the team gold yesterday which wasnt half nailbiting as that last dog went around!! Never know, maybe one day we'll be good enough to get there!!!!;-D
After this i decided we were doing some dreaming for myself....so i went to see a breeder i knew had a litter i liked the look of, and found my dream puppy that i cant have!!! :( but was lovely to meet sue and her lovely dogs :)

Harrjak Guided Miss Isle aka Missie

The very beautiful & talented Missie - owned by Linda, she was the only girl in meg x boo first litter :-) such a beautiful girl x She is competing at Grade 7
The pictures show her at Kernow in the Olympia Qualifier, and the Video is at BAGS show last weekend :)

must be getting old!!!

Zig weavingMeg

Meg

Terra

Daizy

This was taken by my brother steve - a fantasic pic i think!

I am knackered!
after an eventful weekend, we have to say good bye to our show tent :( its given us a good year of trade stands, but the wind at taunton racecourse was just too much for its little legs, and we left it looking and feeling sturdy on saturday night after setting up james' course for agility on sunday, to arrive sunday morning to find half of it bent and buckled and on its knee's :( !!!!! We managed to bend and twist things back into place enough to hold for the day, and anchored in in several more places, but didnt risk putting the side on else would have made it more kite like!

In general, Tail -spin had a good day :) dog run wise, i only had zig and meg entered and they only had 2 runs each, we had several faults in each run, and handler memory loss in zigs jumping but we had already missed the weave entry :) very hard running zig again after just running meg and training the young guys, but was nice :) i look forward to running her more again

Chase will be training more now he is back in action off lead, so can start doing some gentle bits that will help him with his learning :) He is so gangly and goofy, he is great fun to train and i love him to bits, he reminds me of Jak in so many great ways :) x

Dai & Terra are still working on jump style and full height jumping, they are coming on slowly, but im not having time to take all my bits to the park to do any at the moment, so they can only do once a week at the barn on club night after ive finished training

May already!

Crikey this year is flying by!!! This weekend sees us going to Blackdown show, a nice and local ish one for us at Taunton Racecourse in Somerset... James is judging, and me, well in my lack of wisdom, have agreed to have a trade stand! SO this week has been uber busy sorting stock, ordering new stock, and display panels, and all of it still needs pricing before sunday morning! I dont make like easy for myself do i!!

This week has been particularly pants, i feel ill, and crap in general, im still getting over my chest infection, i have been pretty down about jak, as im still coming to terms with the loss of him which i still find very hard :( and then to top it off i get a comment made about me that was uncalled for! I find it amazing that people feel the need to judge others like this, to make an assumption is one thing, but people must know by now there are two sides to every story, and what either side may or may not know could be the truth, only those directly involved will know the truth, and quite frankly for people who dont know me personally should not judge things about me, without asking me first. That is all it takes, ask, and i will do my best to answer, i will always be honest, but i wont directly or purposefully hurt someone.

Gossip is another world, i wont even get started on that one - again, if you have heard a rumour you would like to know about, just ask! most of the time its chinese whispers.

Just as an example, when i had terra as a puppy i was asked if i was going to breed from her, i said i was undecided as her dna test wasnt back, as he mum is a tested carrier for cea, i would need to know her status before doing so. well by the next show i went to, i had people asking why i was considering breeding when my puppy HAD CEA??? WTF??
Obviously she didnt HAVE CEA, but it was still bizarre the way my conversation with 2 people had changed peoples perception of me!! Obviously when i was asked, i put people straight, she was infact tested NORMAL!! lol, so the gossip factory was shut down just temporarily.

When you breed, like it or lump it, people talk about you line, and or dogs, and dogs you may have used etc, its part and parcel of it unfortunatley, but you take the rough with the smooth, not everyones opinions are the same, it would be boring if they were!

So remember next time you comment on someones dog, people may misinterpret whats been said and you could be running a 3 legged orange hyena....

in it to win it??

Holly chilling at kernow

hmm well to start this blog i shall moan! id love to know what goes on in some peoples minds at times i really would! we had a good weekend at kernow, lovely weather, friends and dogs, as you would expect from a show in cornwall :) but i had a couple of dampners really :( a comment made to a friend as she left a ring, saying 'i dont know why you bother running a dog like that'
now to me, thats down right rude, i personally would have given said person the lead and said come on then, practice ring now, show me how it should be done!! but what people dont realise is how hard the fast and the furious are to handle, until you have experience in it - please shut the eff up!

Well onto nicer things :) chase is now less a couple of dangly bits! he was a bit sorry for himself for a few days, but is now back to his normal self, im using this time to teach him a better nose touch to a target, as he has a fab hand touch, just weaker on a target.

Loki has been doing some foundation stuff with harry who is enjoying training her, but she is no easy puppy! she is quite motivated by food, but occasionally her terrier head comes on and she will also play, so im hoping he wil have the best of both with her :) although today she is poorly so has come to sit in the van at work, but is howling right now!!!

Meg & zig had a good weekend show wise, no wins to brag of yet, but zig had a clear with naarah in a jumping, but was a 4-5 so was too slow for a place, i plan on doing some runs with her myself to see how we go at the next few shows too. meg had good contacts and weaves, 1st run each day was bad on poles, so i think we have a pattern there too!
Terra had a few runs in grade 1, as she is registered to James i cant run her, so naarah and lydia both ran her, and had some not too awful - for terra, runs!!

Also had some good advice to help daizy with her toy drive and had her playing by the rings, so hopefully when she decides she is ready to compete we will have more focus from her!
I have training planned for this weekend, as i have no shows til blackdown, so much to work on!!!

Tigs

Saw several Harrjaks working this weekend,Tigs, Missie, Popi & Wren, nice to see them all, and pups looking all grown up! meg litter with reef are now a year old and looking lovely, some pups from that litter had some chase issues not seen in my line before, which is now being worked on by their owners, i think the match of those two were definatley extreme! Watching Tatty playing and interacting with joy around the rings was fantastic, and i know how hard she has worked to get that focus around fast moving dogs, its great to watch, well done Joy :)
I caught a brief look at jack on friday when i was scriming for Don, He is taller than i thought, but his face is similar to daizys litter, and caught up with mickey on the saturday, who is looking handsome as ever :0)

Saw some of the daizon pups too, they also are fab, so so pleased with how that litter is turning out, they are gorgeous! Sue's Holly however managed to scare a few of us by disappearing on friday for a little while! monkey!

Maid & meg, or is it meg and maid??

To finish this post, agility is, in my eyes, fun, i choose to do it as my dogs enjoy it, it helps keeps them busy, and mentally stimulated, as well as fit of course, and because i enjoy it, no better way in my eyes to spend a weekend sat about of an evening with friends enjoying a drink and chatting about how the day went, there isnt so much of that nowadays as everyone is always so busy to notice the time passing, but we did manage a few moments this last weekend which was nice and makes it even more worthwhile :) lets hope there is many more to come x as the title of this post says in it to win it - im not sure what some may class as winning, but i have fantastic dogs, fab family and friends, so in my eyes, im a winner, i dont need trophies to show me that :)

Dai playing ball in the field

Meg

Josie - mum of the first litter of harrjak's , almost 16 years young :)
We went to visit her in the school hols :)

Maybe, just once, someone will call me 'Sir' without adding, 'You're making a scene.' Homer Simpson

I thought id use a quote seeing as i havent in a while now :) this one inparticular is for my wee man chase, who is soon to be a pair of furry plums lighter than before :( he isnt going to feel that great about it i know that!! But i feel he is definatley at the point, where the sexiness needs to have the edge taken off unfortunatley!! Plus when any of the girls are in season i feel so mean sending him off to stay with aunties, not matter how much they love him!!lol!! So next week the deed shall be done as ihave a week off :)

Now then, what to update, well im still a crap overweight handler, so my dogs arent winning, however, we are all improving so there is a little glimmer of hope far far away!!!

This week has been a little freaky actually,I was on tv, yes really!! and not for anything bad or stupid ( night cops no longer film exmouth!!lol!!) bbc spotlight rang me about being interviewed on woodbury common about ticks and my dogs and we spent about 2 hours filming for about a 30 second part, but hey ho - harv was brilliant and was quite happy to throw himself into bushes over and over to show 'a dog in undergrowth'. He was my little star :) well done harv mate!
Daizy has an injury to her tail, and had a slight infection which had healed nicely, but is now waiting for some hair to grow back! we arent sure the exact cause, but a certain small black dog does like to catch her tail when they run together ....hmmmm. I have a cold AND a bad back this week, but have still been uber busy, new classes started for tail-spin, as i had some regular 1-1 people who have new dogs and wanted a class, but no where local is very good at the moment and people arent wanting to travel as far as the better classes, so hopefully i can fill the small exmouth niche in the market there.
I also had a fab 1-1 with toni again, well for what i could manage, naarah and harry ended up with most of the lesson, BUT we did get daizy onto some full height jumps, and terra too, and worked on weaves with them both :) both are coming along nicely, terra more so, as dai still struggles with that pain in the bum thing called FOCUS! but she is getting there, when she looses focus, she will run around a jump, not awful, she doesnt leave the ring etc, but still proves she needs more before our first show soon!
Chase is nicely working medium height, and has been working on grids, turns and tunnels. He is 17 months now and i deliberatly havent rushed him as he is a very tall leggy boy, it makes me sad to know people are jumping dogs as young as they do, there is simply no need for it :( especially as majority of those people will have to retire them early later on, i feel for the dogs, not the owners, they will probably rehome them on after they have worn them into the ground.
Loki is doing more learn to earn, as at 6 months, she isnt the baby she makes out to be, she has good all round obedience, she doesnt like downs, however ! we are working on wait, and getting her working to a target, which at the moment is a big floppy frisbee which she is really enjoying ( thanks for the tip toni!!) she has had her first lesson with harry doing some foundation work, just recalling through jump wings and feeding her after putting her feet on a low dog walk too, Harry has lots of homework to play with too with her, all of which he has started, so thats good :)

Meg & Zig had a good jump training session, we have another tonight, weaves too, so im hoping it stops raining soon!!!

We met up with Graeme and Rib (2nd meg xboo litter) and claire with wren, and went for a stroll on the estuary last night which was lovely - although having your mother tell you off when you are an adult must be embaressing, so meg was true to form and told them both off for not visiting sooner :) lol, they didnt seem to mind too much tho, and all were soon bombing about having a blast ( pics on facebook)

I think the only one missing from this blog is my dear old holly, so i will mention her :) she is coming up to her 14th birthday, she isnt as fast or agilie as she used to be, but as pics on my last post show, she still enjoys life and is as fit as she can be at this age and spends best parts of the day working on the best sleeping position to be in :) Loki adores her and will snuggle up beside her, which i think holly like too :)

All my guys are so quirky and unique, i love them to bits x

Light at the end of the tunnel maybe??

Exciting times ahead for us here at Harrjak, Tail-spin is just about to start a new venture, training classes!!! arrrgh! So nervous yet so excited! I get sooo many enquiries for puppy classes in Exmouth, there is a real shortage of decnt training in the nearby area, more so now Devondogs have moved out to newhall, so i have decided to get things going! I have been doing 1-1 sessions on and off, aswell as some pet minding, and some 1-1 people have asked about group classes, and when out on walks we have also been asked about it, so decided now is the time, i think the distraction will also help :-)
Im also on a mission to find myself a training area for my own dogs, they give me so much pleasure that i feel i owe it to them to try harder to find somewhere so we can all do better and enjoy ourselves, as we all love agility :)

I have a lovely group at Honitondogs on a friday evening, they are coming along so well, so i hope they are a nice new group of hopefuls for the future, they certainly have the right attitude :) I love seeing new puppies coming through and gaining experience too, Selena has Otter, Naarah has Sassy & small puppy Berry too, all lots of hopes for the future.

My little pack are happy and healthy, they are loving life, and we are loving them, yes they are naughty at times, but they are my naughty babies none the less :-)

Alot has happened in a small space of time here, Jak is definatley living on in Chase, and Harvey, and not a day passes where i dont look for him, and realise he is no longer here, the pain is still hard to deal with , but at the same time, i dont want it to pass, as he was just so special. I have a tattoo with his name to remind me of him every day, i dont need it, as there is no way i will ever forget him, nothing is the same any more... love your dogs every day, unconditionally, take photos to keep the memories as much as possible, and most of all cherish what you have while you have it...