Water Adventures

Sunday was a very hot doy so we didn't go to Newbury, instead we took the dogs to Odiham to let them have a splash about in the water. It certainly cooled them down and they seemed to really enjoy their day. They made friends with a couple of other black Labrador's too who joined in their game for a while before moving on. Megan even swam properly after Brian at one point, she was in quite deep water and couldn't touch the floor. Anyway here is a clip of the doggies in shallower water enjoying their day.

Tomorrow Brian is booked in to go swimming at Stans and i'm hoping while i'm there he will have time to let me swim at least one of the girls. I think Megan will quite like it after so confidently swimming at the weekend. I'm fairly certain Heidi wont be too keen, she likes water but only if her feet can touch the floor. I want her to have a go though even if it's just to work up an appetite.

Strange Happenings

Good news is that Heidi's leg is better today. She wasn't limping this morning when she got up so I took them all for a short walk and she has been fine. She has played around with Megan in the garden all afternoon and has been for a longer walk on the plain this evening and it still seems ok so we are off to Newbury tomorrow, yipee!

It was just me and the dogs who went for a walk this evening and whilst we were out we walked along a track with fields to the left of us and a completely clear view of everywhere around us. I heard a voice of a woman who sounded like she was calling a dog or a child really close by and the dogs heard it too as they stopped to look but when I looked all around there was definitely nobody there. A little freaked out I headed back to the car and we came home, Conor thinks we may have heard a ghost!

No Agility Tomorrow

Poor Heidi isn't having the greatest week, today she has hurt her front right leg and is now limping. I'm not sure what she has done, we went for our morning walk this morning and she ran around with the others and had no problems. When we got back they all had breakfast and had a nap and when she woke up she was limping. I thought maybe she had slept on it in a funny position but now i'm not so sure. It seems to be easing off a little but we have decided not to go to Newbury tomorrow and let her rest it for the day. If it is better by tomorrow evening we are going to go on Sunday but if not she will just come to watch Brian run and have a day out so tomorrow we are on an unplanned rest day which is always great!

A bit of a swap

Thursday is Heidi and Megan's agility classes, tonight was the last one though as they are having a break until September. Heidi will still go to the same club but is switching to a Tuesday night from July, Megan is too young though so she will wait now until September. Anyway Conor was late home tonight so I took Heidi to agility training. I haven't done any with her since about February so I was a little nervous. I'll be honest I was pleasantly suprised, I had a few handling isues at first (not getting ion the right place quickly enough-due to being able to jog along with Brian I guess) but we did a lovely jumping round with no problems. We worked on her contacts and did an agility course at the end of the lesson which went well. She did have a Tally Ho moment on the See-Saw but I took her back to do it again and she did it perfectly. I can honestly say I really enjoyed running her tonight, it made a plesant change, I wouldn't want to do it too often but every now and again maybe.


As for Heidi's eating problems she is improving already, I have stopped feeding her CSJ as she decided to just leave it or eat round it if you mixed it in with something else. She has had a few meals of just meat and last night and this morning she had a cod fillet (spoiled I know) mixed in with some Royal Canin and she ate the lot. Tonight she had a whole tin of meat and a large cup of SupaDog Active and again has eaten it all. Tomorrow I am off to Pets at Home to get some small bags of different foods to try and see what she likes best. I think we may end up feeding her a mixture of a few but as long as she is taking on food then it doesn't matter. I will weigh her agin in about 10 days time and hopefully she will have put a bit of weight back on.


This weekend we are at Newbury for a UKA show on both Saturday and Sunday. We were supposed to be camping but our tow bar isn't being fitted on the new truck until early July so we are going to travel on both days. Brian and Heidi have 2 runs on each day and I'm hoping for some cooler or even slightly wet weather otherwise it doubtful that I will be able to run Brian at all.

Time to Relax

Today was my very last day at work and a bonus was that I even managed to finish at lunch time! I now have 10 weeks off before I start my new job and i'll be honest I cant wait. I definatly think I have picked the right time of year to have off (watch it rain now for 10 weeks!). I am looking forward to spending lots of time with the dogs, going on some long walks and doing lots of training. We have a few things planned over the summer too so it will keep us busy.

Last night me and Brian made it to agility training, there were only 5 dogs in the class so it was nice. We didn't get to do the see-saw, though we are doing that next week along with weaves. Last night we did a lot of rear crosses, something I find really difficult to do with Brian as he just wont go infront of me, he has to be right by my side and if I try to sneak behind him or slow down to cross behind him he just stops dead at the next obstacle (unless its a tunnel). Something for us to work on while i'm off I think!

Weekend update

Yesterday Megan went for a day out to visit Conor's mum. I fairly certain she enjoyed her adventure. She made a new friend called Paddy who she wasn't too keen on to start with but he is a very persistant playful dog and didn't give in no matter how much she nipped him and grumbled at him at first and after about 10 minutes they played nicely together. Megan's Uncle Oisin took them both for a walk together too.

Today I took Heidi to be weighed as she doesn't seem to be eating much and looked like she had lost weight and she weighs only 19.8kg at the moment, meaning in 6 weeks she has lost about 1.1kg. She has never been a big eater but lately she hasn't been overly interested in dinner at all so tonight she had some rice and chilli mixed in with her biscuits and also some tinned dog meat and she ate most of it. Hopefully she will keep it up, we are going to weigh her every few weeks to monitor her progress and I am planning to swim her with Brian in the next few weeks so hopefully it will get her appetite going and build some muscle.
Tomorrow night is Brian's agility class and I really do need to take him as he hasn't been again for a couple of weeks, i'm hoping we can go over the dreaded see-saw again in the hope that it doen't freak him out over the weekend.

The Wizard of Oz

Last night me and Conor went to watch the Wizard of Oz which was being performed at Salisbury Playhouse. We had decided to go as the dog playing Toto was Dexi (pictured left) who belong to our agility instructor Sue from Fun for Dogs. Anyway it was a brilliant show and Dexi was a real star!

Today we are having a relaxing day, when I can brave it i'm gonna get some housework done and then take the doggies out for a nice long walk on the plain to wear them out!

Baby Boy

I have just found a disc of photos from when Brian was a tiny puppy (5 Wks old) and this is my absolute favorite photo of him so I just thought i'd post it! Its on our website anyway but it made me smile so i thought i'd add it onto the blog too.

A night off

Tonight should have been agility training for the girls but Conor isn't feeling too good today and I wanted to rest my poorly ankle for a little longer (although its much better). Instead we took the three monsters out for a good walk up on the old ranges, its a spot we quite like and tonight it seemed that several other dog walkers did as there were dogs everywhere!

This weekend we have nothing on which is a nice feeling. On Sunday we are going to visit Conors mum and taking Megan with us. The older two are well behaved enough to be left at home once they have had a good long morning walk but Megan would be naughty (not that I don't trust her or anything!) so she is coming with us. We only realised yesterday that Conors mum has never actually met Megan so it will be nice for her to meet our monster!

Helpful Megan

Megan has learnt to help tidy up. If you squeeze the air out of a plastic bottle when its finished with and then give it to her she goes outside and takes it to the recycling bin and waits for you to take it off her to put it in the bin! Now all she needs to learn to do is hoover, wash up, iron...

This evening Brian should have had agility training but I hurt my ankle quite badly yesterday at work so I am resting it for a few days. With it being a nice evening I decided to get some jobs done outside which has included mowing the lawn and clearing out the shed. I got the tunnel out for the dogs to play in while I tidied up and they have worn themselves out running through it!

Handsome Brian strikes again

Well i'll start by saying Heidi was not any calmer. On Saturday her agility round started off well but then silly daddy got lost on the course which made Heidi unsure and so the excited jumping returned. Once they were back on track though they only knocked one pole. Brian had a bad run, he decided he hated the idea of doing the see-saw so I had to put him on it and he was so slow from the heat. I decided not to run him again on Saturday. Heidi did the knock out challenge but knocked 2 poles so she didn't win. I cant remember what happened on her jumping round. This morning we arrived at the show over an hour late so we had missed our jumping rounds :(. There was a fun dog show held along side the agility today so I entered Megan into best puppy. I went to book her in and there was another Mali there, it turned out to be Megan's brother, Speedy!!! (What a small world, especially as on Saturday Barbara was there with Sam (Bonvivant Samur) and her other two dogs).


Anyway Speedy was such a lovely friendly puppy (I bet Speedy's mum isn't saying the same about Megan though, she was a horror and nipped Speedy when he went to say hello, more than once). Heidi liked him though and was happy to say hi (until he tried to mount her, then she told him off!) Anyway Megan didn't get placed in best puppy. I enetered Brian into most handsome dog and he came third and the lovely Speedy came 1st! Well done Speedy. (The picture is of the Megan and Speedy)



Me and Brian entered the knock out challenge and went clear but were beaten by the other dog. Heidi knocked over a pole or two and didn't win against her other dog. Her agility round this afternoon was terrible, she was so excited she threw herself off the dog walk and so Conor decided enough was enough and took her out of the ring and Brian had another See-Saw phobia moment in his class so we were quite glad to come home! If anyone has any tips on calming Heidi by all means please email us.

Good Luck

This weekend the club that I take Brian and Megan to, Shrewton & District DTC are doing another performance of the Panto that me and Brian took part in back in Feb (Snow White and the Seven Woofs). They are raising money for Naomi House. Unfortunatly we can't be there as we have agility this weekend but Good Luck to you all, I'm sure it will be as sucessful as last time!

Tonight was our usual Thursday agility with the girls. I like Thursdays as when I get in I take Brian for a walk on his own, not something I get to do very often but its lovely to do, he walks nicely off his lead, even in the street and we took his tuggy tonight and had a good game. The girls went for their walk on the way to agility, their classes went well tonight, Megan did the tunnel, the A-Frame (it was almost flat on the floor), a low Dog walk and running through a wide channel weave. We also practiced her contacts and she did everything really confidently. Heidi was a bit naughty in her class and where she got so excited she jumped up a couple of times and bit Conor, cutting his finger really deeply and leaving him with a bite mark and bruise on his chest. She doesn't mean any harm she just gets so excited and nips but it really hurts! I hope she is a little calmer this weekend. I'll update the blog on Sunday night when we get back.

Meet Preston

This is our new truck, Preston. We went to collect him today from near Heathrow after picking him on saturday. We had decided that after our old truck (Freelander) had cost us so much in repairs over the past six months and still wasn't reliable it was time to get a new truck, especially with having to tow a caravan. We took the dogs out earlier on in it and they seemed to like it, they have got a lot of room in the back without the need for the seats to be down in the back like we did in the freelander so Preston seems like a hit!

The Climber

I forgot to mention in the entires over the weekend about Megan's new climbing trick. When she climbed over the caravn door a few weeks back I thought she was mad but then she did this. We have a stair gate in our hall about a metre and a half from the front door to stop the dogs getting to the mail and tearing it up. Its fixed to the wall so it isn't flat on the floor. Anyway it's pretty high and on Saturday morning I had put Brian through the gate as we were off to agility training and the next thing I knew Megan was there too. I hadn't actually seen her climb it but it had confused me as there was nothing to grip on to or climb up. I moved her anyway back to the other side of the gate and then I saw what she did, she stood on her back legs, rested her front paws on the gate, did a litle jump with her back legs so that she was half over and lowered herself down on her belly. Very clever!

Carshalton MCC Enduro

Today me and Conor went to Carshalton MCC Enduro competition near Gatwick. Conor was supposed to becompeting in it however the garage still haven't sorted the lights on his bike so it wasn't ready in time.

(The picture is of Conor on his old bike, I don't actually have one of him on his new one!) Anyway we went to the race as I was the official photographer for the event too which was quite exciting. I'm just uploading all the photos that I took and getting them ready for sale. (If anyone wants to purchase them they are available on http://www.mcmaniganphotography.co.uk/ under the clients page)
We are really looking forward to next weekend as we are off work on Friday and are going up to Lincolnshire to our house as we have a whole weekend of agility at Dogs on Top in Melton Mowbray and as well as competing all weekend I am the photographer there on both days too so I am quite excited. I perfer to photograph dogs than bikes (not that there is anything wrong with bikes!)

Agility Training

Thursday was agility training for Heidi and Megan. Heidi had a good class, her and Conor did a few small jumping circuits followed by some contact training. Megan took part in practices for the whole hour this week. She is by far the youngest in her group so we only do a minimal amount of work. This week while the ohers were doing jump, tunnel, jump Megan just did the tunnel. She isn't too keen on te flat tunnel (with it held up) she only went through once but its a start. We also did some touch training with her and she picked that up almost instantly. Lastly we did running through the channel weaves but with them opened right up. She seemed to really enjoy herself and take it all in her stride. This morning me and Brian had agility training too. It is the last time he will go on a Saturday as I a have decided to move him to a Tuesday evening (as we don't get to go o a Saturday much anymore). He had a very good class, practicing some jumping sequences and lots of weave practices from different angles. He is very acurate, just really slow! We also worked on the dreaded see-saw as he runs at it, doesn't slow down and flings himself off the end!! Today we practiced it quite a bit and he seems to get that he needs to wait for it to tip in the midde before he can go down it, only problem is he will only do it when i'm right there with him. I'm sure it will come with some practice though.

Splashes and Animal Sounds

The dogs have enjoyed another day of playing in the pool today and so far no leaks in it. The video above is of Brian enjoying himself in there last night.

The video below is one of Megan. I brought the dogs a new ball that makes animal noises when you touch it. Only Megan had seemed to want to play with it but she really likes it. The only problem is it drives you mental after a little while!

Summer is here!

It seems as though summer is here (I hope I haven't spoke too soon!) We have had a lovely weekend of weather which has continued into today. The picture is of Heidi sunbathing in the garden. Even when it is really hot she is quite happy to sit out there.

This evening we decided to cut the grass in the garden and then get the paddling pool out for the dogs. As you can see they seemed to enjoy it. I dont think we got it out at all last year as we didn't have much sun but as it is supposed to be hot all week I think they will get some use out of it. The girls were quite happy to play with Brian in there for a while but then they got bored and came in. Brian is happy to play out there for ages though, he just loves the water.