Love your dogs :-)

Love my dogs so much :-) I've had a nightmare few days helping find a very frightened collie, who went missing on Thursday, and we finally caught him today!!! Definitely makes me appreciate what I have, as well as what I have lost recently :-(
My guys mean the world to me, I don't like the term really, but they are my fur- kids!!!
They get along so well as a group, always being able to do anything together, they eat, sleep, play ,walk, travel and just generally live together, for that I'm very grateful as so many people with multi dog households just can't have that :-)

I'm still grieving for Holly, I've no idea how long I will feel so empty without her, and jak, in my life every day, they leave a great legacy in Harv and he is so special :-) I hope they are looking down on him feeling very proud, as he is missing them so much it's hard to see him sad too :-(
I won't go into how Harry feels, as he has had jak and Holly as part of his life since he was born, he is obviously as devastated as me :-(

Be grateful for the great dogs you have, appreciate them always, love them forever x

Sweet dreams my princess x

I cannot put into words how devasted i am about the loss of holly, given sleep on 11th August, too weak to fight any more, sleep well hols, always my princess, forever in my heart, go find jak at the bridge x

Swat summer show, Tamisje Uka, Holly & anything else i throw in for good measure while i waffle!!

I think i have come to the conclusion i am simply not lucky in life!!! As soon as something good happens, along comes something to bring it back down again!!! why me!!
Last weekend we had SWAT show, at the most local venue i think i could ever have! Westpoint arena is only 10 mins away from me, so was lovely to be able to get up late and still get there on time!!! Monday James was Judging, he had large 1&2,as well as smalls and mediums. all jumping classes, he likes doing things unusual and really tested people by putting weaves as number 1... now some could cope with it, others could not comprehend the idea! The day went well, and after the ring was finished we set up for my day judging the following day!! arrgh scarey! Pat was my ring maanger, and i had lots of my lovely friends come and help on my ring too, karen, sharon, selena, narz & lydia, pete & vicky too, another lady scrimed for a while, sorry i dont know your name? elaine i think it was, anyway, thankyou to you all, you did a great job!!!! My courses i was undecided if were slightly easy for the grades, but when they ran i had a good mix of clears, faults and Eliminations, so i think i gauged it about right, i had no negative comments, and several comments to say they liked the courses, so i was pleased with that :O) I had grade 3 jumping, veterans, and small 1-7 jumping. I decided to leave the veterans as the same course as grade 3, just removing the tyre and long jump and replacing with ordinary jumps, the course was then reversed for the 1-7 small with the tyre being added for the straight along the end. i was trying to keep away from the straight 'up and down' style courses, which seemed to work really well.

My large G3 jumping:My small 1-7 jumping:


zig and meg worked well on the days i didnt judge, well meg only ran on monday, as she bent her dew claw right out, and wasnt looking pretty! so she was off of running unril it was healed over at not at risk of opening up, she wasnt in pain with it after the initial cut off! :-0
The bad bits from here were getting a bug :( and meggies dew claw!


UKA Tamisje
I love uka shows.
The Standard height works so much better for the girls, it also means i enjoy it more! Ok so meg only managed one clear, and it wasnt even with me!! but still, we had some fab runs, and several places on tricky courses as we only picked up the odd 5f :) so was very pleased with that, altho we do need some weave work (@ laura chudleigh you are meant to remember to send me something on that!;-) Zig picked up i think 3 x 1st places ( nov jumping and senior schase, nov snooker) aswell as 6? second places!!) she was a star!!! On the saturday i ran her again, she was lovely, we came second in our jumping after a pull around a jump went awry, and a second place with her first clear in senior steeplechase! best bit of that one was, it was the second run of it as the timing failed, we had to run for time, and luckily i also managed another clear :)

The only down side to the show, was Holly took a bad turn, and her temp flew up to 106 again, she hasnt eaten ( still) since saturday evening, but is drinking fine. the onsite vets were really helpful, and today she has also seen my own vet, her temp is down a little to 103, but she is still refusing food, so we have changed her medication slightly to see if that will help. I realise she is no spring chicken, she is my baby and i love her so so much i just cant see her deteriorate like this, she has always been so strong, so naughty, and so funny, so to see her laying helpless is heartbreaking for me, and im hoping i dont have to make the descision im dreading, i will only do what is best for all of my dogs, if that means living on toast and pot noodles so be it :) so lots of healing thoughts this way if anyone has any spare for a soppy smelly bear dog :) thank you x

We have had such a busy few weeks, we have had time off from training really, so im hoping now to get back to it! we have Kernow UKA this weekend which im hoping holly will be well enough to come along to, we may do the trade tent, or we may not, we are undecided, as it will be nice to have a weekend with just us and dogs enjoying ourselves... we shall see.

Good Night Josie x

Waggerland Josie
13/12/95 ~ 24/07/11

Josie aged 15 and a bit

Josie aged 5, when she lived with us

Josie aged 9

Sunday morning i had a call from Richard to say Josie had been given sleep, she had gone downhill in the last few weeks, and the time had come to free her from the pain that was taking over

Good night and god bless josie-bean, you will be greatly missed, you have left such a great legacy, meg, tig & pop have produced stunning litters thanks to you, and you were the start of my fantastic harrjak line, so i thank you sweetie x My interest in dogs was started with Josie, she was the first dog i took to obedience classes, and then we played in agility too, never one for weaving as she would tug a toy or take food, but would chase and herd a tennis ball! Her funniest trait had to be emptying the toy box whenever she could - by surrouding you with toys, if you still didnt cave and throw one, she would start onbits of rubbish from the bin! Ever so cheeky, she would follow a ball anywhere - and did once through a glass window, shredding a back leg in the process...but still bought the ball back!! but she did calm down as she matured, and was a good mum once the hormones took over :) Her one and only litter, are tigger, Joe, murran, megan, popi & heli, a fantastic litter that love to work, so her great work ethic has been passed down to other agility generations.

Although she didnt always live with me, i feel very grateful to have been part of her life, such a special girl, she missed being an only dog when she first moved in in 2000, it took her some time to settle, especially with holly! Jak was pleased to have his big 'sister' with him, and i think she was very pleased to move back in and have control over the toys once more when Rich & Jess moved back to the UK!

Go find Jak and go tell him to play ball, you know he is a sucker when it comes to you :) x

Well done to Rave :)

Well done Rave, Harrjak blink and you'll miss it,

He qualified for the Alpha Agility Challenge Final to be held at Malvern Autumn show in September

would you believe it...

i/we have actually done some training!!!! and video'd a little!!!

meg and zig worked on contacts & weaves, and turns on jumps with harry, then dai and terra did a little of all sorts, chase and loki did some low work, and chase then some boxes at std uka height :) he is quite wide still on turns but does respond well, he is faster over straight lines!!

When all is said and done....

Im having fun, and that is , after all, what agility is all about :) i have recently only been taking part in small UK agility shows, which are exactly what shows used to be like, laid back, enjoyable and a little less competitive! of course the competition is always there, it wouldnt be a show without rossettes would it ;-)
My little red head has done very well just lately, Naarah a junior handler from our club, and a friend, has been running her in some shows, as we have been concentrating on running the tail-spin trade stand, and between Lydia, Narz & Harry they are all runnng zig at shows :) ( i rarely get a look in now!!) ZIg has now won enough points to move up to Senior in steeplechase, whilst she needs a few still in performance to move up there too.
Meg is working really well, and now i have my own training area we will be working on getting some better handling from myself to get the decent runs even better :) i cant wait!

Terra gave the biggest surprise from the weekend, a spur of the moment entry with naarah into casual agility ( as she gets to jump slightly lower) and she actually had a CLEAR ROUND! you have no idea how long this day has been coming! no spinning, only the odd bark, no ducking the jumps or running past!!! She WON the class by 4 seconds!!!!! Amazed and super pleased!! Again, now i will be able to train more, i hope to see her working at kc shows soon!!
Daizy , Chase & Loki all did some ring wandering and playing, and also in the tent, we worked on some tricks we have been perfecting, it is definatley helping them with their learning, and daizy especially, although she was still a little barky around the rings, she was much more focused on doing 'stuff' instead :)

Holly update!! She is recovering really well and has even been camping with us, she wears a jumper when in the tent as the temp does drop alot over night, and she is feeling the cold, but her facial swelling has pretty much gone, and her coat is falling out like no ones business but that maybe the weather more than the snake bite :)

Im really enjoying my dogs right now, the courses we work on at shows are definatley trickier than my little brain can cope with, and i only hope judges dont look at us in despair when we attempt to run, as i feel thats the case alot of the time, sometimes people need to know the stories behind the dogs, and how far they have come, and maybe soon we will find the perfect courses to get some clears on :-)

all 8 waiting for narz to move :)

oh dear.....

The most handsome chase :)

Zigs last few weekends winnings!