why me???

its about time i won the lottery - im well past some good luck happening!!!

This week Holly was bitten by an adder, on the nose when we were out walking on wednesday evening, the other dogs backed off when i told them too, unfortunatley i was too far away after picking up some poo to help holly who hadnt heard me :( she was rushed straight in, i took a photo of the snake using my phone as was better than me trying to remember what it looked like!
She spent the night in the emergency vets on fluids, steroids, anti inflammitories and anti biotics, and came home yesterday morning, with a very swollen and puffy muzzle area aswell as a fluidy build up in her lower jaw and neck on the side of the bite, inside her lip is also badly bruised and looks nasty :( poor girl, she is so brave, and hasnt complained once, although, the vet said she decided at 3am to remove her catheter in her leg so they had to re-do it all :)

So if you walk in grassy area's/ heath land, please watch out for these!

Just Dogs

This weekend saw us going very locally to Feniton, for just dogs' first show, i think i can safely say it was a success, no drama's from what i could tell :-) well done on a well run show, i hope you put on further shows in the future!!!
We came away very pleased :-) Zig was a superstar! 1st in Snooker, 2nd in gamblers, which was fab as 1st ever time in games classes! i figure i have to do them at some point, why not have a go...so lydia did it lol!!! Meg had some lovely runs, as im mid process teaching a new wait, ( yes again!!) we had running starts which isnt great i know, but she is 8 now!!! We came away with lots of nice rossettes which im obviously really pleased about :-) our last 2 runs i was really pleased with as we both seemed to work well together :-)

Lydia took Daizy in Nursery, and got 5 f, they also made use of the enclosed practice ring and did some nice jump work on standard height, and some contacts, and didnt sway from the course too much!
Naarah also ran terra in nursey, at standard height and had an E for the wrong end of the tunnel, but that was it! all the jumps, both contacts all fine! so she is coming together nicely!! :)

Chase had a play around rings, and is getting more focused, altho does like to make a nice high pitched noise when it gets REALLY exciting! but was concentrating and doing some tricks and bits around the dogs working which was good! Loki went out and about several times with harry too, and was enjoying playing tuggy, and doing some general socialising around the rings, and helping draw people into the tail-spin trade stand too!

All in all a lovely weekend, nice walks, nice ground ( naughty rabbits in some places refreshing the filled holes in the rings!!lol)

At home things are going ok, would be better if James could find a full time job, but until then we have to make do! The dogs are happy and responding well to new routines i am doing with them all, which im hoping will increase their performance as well as my own!! Clicker training is coming along well, im learning much more about it, as when i have tried in the past my understanding was quite limited and i dont think i tried to give it enough of a chance :( so im back on it! It means my training plan has changed slightly to accomodate this, so i can give it all a chance to work for me & my guys

The only way is up?!?!

Friday evening we made our way to SWAT show, lovely show, I missed last year has i had meggie puppies :) SO was looking forward to this year....although there was no T-shirts for helping this year!!!!! ( tut tut!!) that was the bit i was looking forward too!

My weekend did have some upsides - im not all doom and gloom i promise :-)
Daizy has been in the ring now a grand total of 2 times, and on saturday with lydia stayed pretty focused and got around the anysize jumping course! CLEAR! so i was dead chuffed for her! Lydia then went on to do the double and got a clear in the 1-7 jumping with ziggy, unfortunatley just out of the placings, but never mind!!! The following day saw Harry ( for those who dont know harry he is my 10 year old son) had his first ever clear round with ziggy too!!! again in 1-7 jumping!!! so zig is at least getting consistant again and will hopefully gain a few places in this year, possibly her last before retiring down to anysize :)

A big well done has to go out to Claire & Wren, Winning Grade 4 agility by miles!! - ok by seconds to put it in more realistic in agility terms!!!

Lots of positives from this weekend, chase playing by the rings, loki out and about meeting more people, and also coming home to do more training with harry ( see her makeshift tunnel in the video!!) i got to catch up with Karen & Selena too, and a few pups! And met some online friends i havent met in person before too! Meg had some nice moments, so much to work on, im only hoping we can get there before she is too old! Chase had his first runs in anysize, and well, the good point was he had a good wait, and stayed in the ring.... i shall leave it at that lol!!!!
My handling leaves a lot to be desired. soooo much to work on when watching back what i do, absolute nightmare, ive really gotten to be a lazy rubbish handler, when did that happen!!! So lots to work on for myself, not just the dogs!! SO! back on to action plans, and getting stuff organised, as i try and take on too much in general, i must cut back on how much i do for everyone else, and concentrate on myself for a change!!!!

Really looking forward to the next couple of weekends, 2 UKA shows in a row :)

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1969266463996 - chase waving

R.I.P Welly bun

This weekend started off a sad one, we had to say farewell to our big welly bun, yes she may have been a bit of a grumpy moo at times but she has left a HUGE bunny shaped hole :( She was a bit off colour so i booked her in for a check up at the vets, later that evening when getting her out of the run we noticed a small amount of blood near her back end, but couldnt determine the source. So then another call into the vet, who said if she could be persuaded to eat, she should be ok to wait until morning to be seen as no more blood was forthcoming. i offered her some apple and dandelions mixed up which she did eat, her pellet food was turned down, but non-theless, she ate. So next morning off we went, only to find upon sedating her she had a massive tumour in her urinary tract, which unfortunatley was inoperable, so upon the vets advice the kindest thing for her was to say good bye. She has been buried in a nice spot in the woods opposite where we live, close to wade the oap hamster, and parsley the lionhead bunny we lost at a very early age. Harry is also obviously very upset to have lost her too

2 posts in one day eh!

Well yes, purely because i thought the other one about sunday was deserving of its own spot :)

So we are on tuesday, another week ready to rush past again no doubt!! This weekend im looking froward to SWAT show, James is Judging on Sunday , and i have no trade stand, so looking forward to just enjoying a show, although i will no doubt feel i need to help at certain times ;0)

Im hoping meg will be ok in time for the show as ive been working very hard on the fitness of the dogs these last few weeks as i feel they werent quite at optimum level for working which was why we havent been working so well lately, so have been putting lots of 1-1 walks in to help with that, plus to benefit me aswell as would love to be able to run them to their full potential, and feel i let them down by being overweight myself, so hoping to improve my fitness to benefit my guys too :)

Chase is back at training and is back working nicely at medium height, im particularly looking forward to the next few UKA shows as i get to run him in some nursery classes with his toy to help him become nice and focused in the ring.
Daizy.... i think she has been having a phantom, as she isnt quite herself at the moment, she has been taking herself off to bed with her 'suckie' ( fleece tuggy she likes to suck on and fall asleep) and not playing with loki and chase as much as normal, so i think maybe a little hormonal, so she came to the barn for the last 2 weeks and just had some play time with jumps and tunnels on very low height and made a nice fun time of it for her :) She is entered in only anysize at kc shows at the mometn, as i want her to build up her focus, as she is easily distracted, and will go under full height jumps if she is too busy watching what else is going on outside of the ring. So small and fun for now, and see how we get on at uka where she is standard height so can jump lower, she is one who would benefit from the 4th height if it were to be passed, as she is very much a border line girl!!
Loki has been having lots of fun so far, and is a sweetheart, she is so much more difficult to train than a collie though!! ;-)

This week we have pulled out the mary ray trick book, as i decided my dogs need to learn more!! so this week we have taught - round! and harry taught loki 'freeze'

you never know whats around the corner...

On sunday we had a nice big group walk 21 dogs, 2 kids harry & jordan, james, myself, karen, lolly, pat and teresa, later joined by debbie my step mum and her 6 month old puppy bailey.
We walked the estuary from exmouth, towards star cross ( google maps: 50.626851,-3.433664)

Bailey was spooked by a kite surfer, and bolted in the opposite direction! He got stuck in the mud a good way away and Debbie went to get him and ended up getting almost waist deep in estuary mud! closely followed by James! Ended up having to ring coastguard, but Bailey couldn't be seen, after being last seen chest deep in the sinking mud. ( here: 50.629355,-3.416798) we honestly were fearing the worst! The coast guard met me at mudbank lane ( the other side of the railway line but in clear view of where they were and closer than the car park) and spoke to debbie and james on the phone about a safe route out, before deciding to take their 4 x 4 to see if they could get them more safely. A local walking past in the meantime tried to help out by showing a safe route, to only go into his waist and have to get back out, thank you whoever you were, but you really shouldnt have tried anything silly!! :) Unfortunatley even the coastguards 4 x 4 they took out got stuck!

After james & debbie got to more solid ground, the search was finally on for bailey, Deb was obviously in panic mode by then, as was i, and i was with gary, debbies other half, using a friends binoculours and the long lens on the camera i had with me for the walk to look in the mud & sand to see if we could spot any sign of him, or of his body, but nothing!! the train passed twice, and it was being considered that maybe he had got out and ran farther away than where we were looking, and talk was of trying the dog warden etc, and lympstone further along to see if he had found his own way onto dry land...we were hoping for anything by this point!

Over an hour later and into the search, Debbie & james were out and safe, but very mucky...We could hear some shouts, and around the corner trots Bailey... ON the railway line!! so went from panic he had been sucked under the mud, to him being on the railway line!! the train wasnt due for about 15 minutes, but it was real panic in case he wasnt caught in time! 3 people including Gary debbies boyfriend managed to catch him after a good 10 mins, luckily before the train came!! Big thanks to all involved, only a few human scratches to show for it... Big sorry to the coastguard who got the truck stuck when they went to get James and Debbie out :-(

Usually when walking we avoid the muddy areas as ive always heard stories about how dangerous it can be, and we always stick to the sand, but when your dog's life is on the line you will try anything to save them, as debbie was doing, i wouldnt recommend anyone doing what they did, but know in my heart of hearts, i would have been doing the same if it were me in that position

A few photo's pre bailey's bunk! more on facebook :)

chase @ 18mths

My big baby, he is SUCH a funny boy - he thinks he is sex on legs :)