Christmas Catch Up

 We had an enjoyable christmas day yesterday, we ate plenty and Santa bought us all some good presents (we must have been good) including an iPad for me to keep me entertained in the caravan at agility shows in the summer.

The dogs had some new toys and goodies. I think Brian gets the most excited about Christmas, once the presents were put under the tree he wouldn't move away from them and on Christmas morning he helped open every single present! He was soon asleep after all the excitement.

This morning it was time to get some fresh air, the dogs were full of energy so we took them for a nice walk along the river bank. There was nobody about at all so it was a good chance for the dogs to just run. We managed to keep them all out of the river too, although Brian did find a muddy puddle to lie down in. They all had another turkey diner for their tea tonight and have been munching on dinosaur bones for the past few hours so that has kept them quiet.

Tomorrow they are in for some more excitement as my mum and dad are coming up to look after them for a couple of days so that we can go and visit Conor's family in Kent.

Im sure my mum and dad will wear them out though with walks and playing in the paddock, no sure who will end up the most tired though, them or the dogs!

Merry Christmas Everybody!!!

Adventures

Since our last post we have all had a few adventures. Me and Conor have just spent a week in lovely sunny Mexico, although at times it was cloudy it was considerably warmer than here. We have relaxed and enjoyed the sun, sea and sand and done lots of shopping, been scuba diving, doing 2 dives from Playa Del Carmen before flying home today. How I am currently still awake I'm not sure, having been up now for more than 28 hours. I think we'll sleep well tonight!

The dogs have had some adventures of their own too while we have been away. They left us last Saturday and went to stay with Sandra who normally looks after them. They go with a company called Barking Mad who collect the dogs from you, take them to their host (Sandra) and then they get brought back to you at home. They all went off very happily and when Claire brought them back tonight she explained that on the second day of having them, Sandra went to the shop (without the dogs) and fell and broke her foot so the dogs have been to stay with a new family for the remainder of their holiday. They have been to a lady called Lisa who has two daughters. It seems the dogs have had a fab time though, walking in the park and the woods, Heidi has been hiding out under the bed (her favourite thing), Brian had enjoyed dozing on the sofa and Kody has been Lisa's shadow. They all look like they have eaten well for the last week too (think diets might be in order after christmas!) but all in all they adapted very well to the sudden change of families.

They were all so excited to come home, they have had a mad half an hour, had their tea and they all fast asleep. Don't think it will be long before I join them...

When Brian was about six months old and a pretty naughty puppy we decided it was time to take him to training classes. After visiting a few we made contact with Stan Browning at Shrewton DTC, a retired MDP Dog  handler. We joined the club and all of our dogs, with the exception of Kody, attended the puppy classes and Brian continued into the advanced class until we moved away.

We had some very enjoyable experiences with the club and made lots of new friends, in fact Stan was always organising something for us to do in order to raise money for charity. Brian and me we members of the dog display team, putting on shows during the summer at the local village shows and fairs, we took part in a pantomime - 'Snow White & the Seven Woofs', helped organise our club fun dog show each year (where our dogs always seemed to come home with loads of prizes) and Stan also got us into the competitive obedience world and showed us what to do at our first show (in torrential rain I might add!). Stan and Elaine always looked after Brian if we were away or going on holiday, and Brian also went to hydrotherapy at Stan's pool. Also not forgetting the Christmas parities and monthly walks on salisbury plain for club members.

You might wonder the point of this post, well yesterday we received the sad news that Stan had passed away earlier in the day. It was a shock, I saw him last about 18 months ago when we visited the club after attending an agility show in the area. He was always so fit and well and was preparing to take part in a canoe race next year.

Our thoughts are with Elaine, Marie and their dogs and family, and also to the members of Shrewton DTC past & present.


(The photos are some old club photo's of us and other members from over the years we were there)

(The dog display team in 2008)

       

  

Stan & Bouncer

Halfway There

The good news is we are now all recovered from our illnesses and injuries :)

On Saturday I did the first part of the judges course ready to be an agility judge. It wasn't without a bad start to the day though, I had set my alarm and I woke up and it was light outside, odd I thought for the time of morning that it should be as the alarm hadn't gone off, when I looked at the clock, I should have left 20 mins ago! After a mad rush to get ready and get the dogs sorted I set off and made up quite a bit of time so was only half an hour late. I actually found the training it very useful, I had always been a bit confused with faults in the weaves, now I understand it.

I was planning to do the second bit in March but Lynne who ran it said if we could get on a sooner course design part then do, so I have managed to get myself on one at the end of January so a few months sooner than planned which is good.

Today the dogs have been swimming and I took some photos of a lovely Papillon called Buzz, he had lots of attitude! Only one more session left now for the dogs this year and that is next week. I can't believe Christmas is nearly upon us.

On the training front we have done very little lately. Kody will have his last class on Wednesday until after Christmas and Heidi isn't going back now until February to Lucy's as we are busy all of December and Lucy is away for January. We will really have to get our act together and get on with doing something. Im hoping the 2x2 weaves come this week or next so they are ready to start with Heidi over the holidays.

Illness and Injury Strike

Last weekend I began to get a sore throat, not surprising though as there seems to be a lot of bugs going around at the moment. It didn't get any better as the week went on so on Thursday I headed off to the doctors. I've got Tonsillitis. I have had it before quite a few times and always been very poorly with it but I felt fine and only had a sore throat so decided to carry on as normal just taking my antibiotics. I worked Friday, no problem, yesterday though, I got there and the heat and humidity from the pool seemed to make me go downhill very quickly and after only 2 hours of being at work I was on my way back home. I have now got a duvet and the dogs on the sofa keeping me warm and think this is where ill be staying for the next few days. I hate being ill, its so boring!!!

Poor Kody hasn't had a good couple of days, in fact he was absolutely convinced his leg had fallen off. On Friday evening he curled up on the sofa with me but seemed to be sulking about something, I leaned over to give him a cuddle and he began screaming at me, I then noticed his dew claw was sticking out at a right angle to where it should be. (This has happened before and the vet trimmed it off). As it was late I thought 'ill trim it as short as I can so he doesn't catch it in the night then take him to the vet in the morning to get the rest of the broken bit taken off'. As I trimmed it though he pulled his leg away and it came off in one go anyway so no need for the vets but my god you'd think his i'd cut his leg off. He wouldn't speak to me at all until yesterday afternoon. I know it will have hurt him but why are boys such Drama Queens?!!!

Counting Down

Well in our house we just seems to be wishing November away, we are all looking forward to enjoying December. Conor will be home, we are off on holiday and then it's Christmas.

Until this weekend I had been convinced it was far too early to think about Christmas but my mum and dad came up for the weekend and we ended up going Christmas shopping yesterday. I'm not all done yet but have made a start. Today we went to the garden centre and went to 'Christmas land', it was really nice to see all the trees and decorations and I have started to get a little bit excited!!! It's only 43 days :)

Even More Training

We have had a bit of bad weather over the past week so it has limited the mount of training we have been doing. I took Kody to the Dave Munnings training day which was an enjoyable afternoon. Kody worked well and I came away knowing I need to work on my timing and think about where i'm pointing my arms and shoulders.

We didn't make it to club training on wednesday as I was working but I did take Heidi to training on Thursday. She coped well with doing 2 hours although she slept well once we got home! She listed well and had almost no screaming and the only poles were my fault (timing and shoulders!)

Yesterday we had a really enjoyable day. We were joined here by lots of other Mali's (and a few non mali's) to do some training. Jo bought Ronny, Keisha and Zippy, Natalie bought Kiros & Reno and Jackie bought Speedy, Leo, Jake and Brindle. We did a few hours training in the morning, where again I need to work on my timing and shoulders (reoccurring theme here?!) and with Heidi I need to not be in a hurry to rush off and keep quiet unless necessary. It is useful to train with people who have experience in the same breed as you as Mali's don't run like Collie's.


We had some lunch and then took our 12 dogs for a walk. Out of the 12 though, guess which 2 were the only to to get wet? That would have to be Brian and Heidi who were so smelly and muddy by the time we got home!


We don't have anything else booked now but tomorrow I plan to get back down to the paddock and do some more, I'm feeling a bit more motivated now. I have also ordered some new spacing 2x2 weaves as I plan to re train Heidi's weaves, probably over Christmas, she was the only one to never fully do 2x2 and having seen the others weaves improve loads I think she will benefit from it. Must chase up the see-saw too, it still hasn't arrived!

Starting Training

We have managed to get down to the paddock and do some good training over the past couple of weeks. I want to get the things that I need to teach Heidi still out of the way first so that we can then practice over the winter. We started off with tunnel under the dog walk and A frame and have since done a fair bit of practice on both, she seems to understand it well, only being caught out on a couple of occasions. Kody also did the same training on this as we had major issues at shows with this, especially at agility nuts where he came down the a-frame and as I sent him to the tunnel he decided to squeeze between the a-frame and run alongside the tunnel! He isn't as confident with it as Heidi is but I intend to practice it loads.

Heidi has also been learning pull through's. I don't know why but she was never really taught this and although we might have got away with one at a show the chances are a pole would have been down so it was time to teach it. So far it's going well, the jumps are quite wide apart though, we will move them closer as she gets more confident with it.

Kody went back to club training last wednesday and Heidi goes back to hers next Thursday. This Thursday afternoon Kody and me are on a handling workshop with Dave Munnings and Lucy Osborne so that should be good fun.

Brian hasn't been left out of training, he is learning a recall to a whistle. Mainly because he goes so far ahead on a walk I cant shout loud enough to recall him and so he goes further and further... His training on this is going well and he comes back to it when he is alone in the paddock, i'm yet to test it when he has the distractions of the other dogs though or out somewhere else.

Today they have all been to hydro so are pretty tired, they have got a 3 week break now as we couldn't fit in another over the next few weeks.

Kronik Kidz Birthday

Happy 3rd Birthday to Reno, Zippy, Speedy, Eva and Zippo.

Obviously not forgetting our special girl Megan. Happy Birthday Puppy x

Keeping Busy

It is very quiet at home, the dogs seem to be adjusting though. We have been doing our best to keep busy as it seems the best way to cope. We have had an overnight stay at my mum and dads, I have had a couple of shifts at work and the dogs had hydro yesterday.

They were all super excited to go, Brian was his usual mad self, he always comes to life when water is around. Heidi seemed to have forgotten Rod for a few mins and barked at him but then was more than happy for him to wash her!

Anne is trying to get Kody stretching out more, although he is happy swimming he is quite tense and tucks up rather than stretching out. She had him pushing off the side though which seemed to be helping. I think it will just take him some time.

Bonvivant Wish Me Luck 24.10.08-6.10.11

Megan,

Sleep tight baby girl, Mummy, Daddy, Brian, Heidi & Kody all miss you very much, we wont ever forget you x

We Are Back!

Well we were offline for a fair bit longer than we had planned through no fault of our own. We have ended up with a very busy month though. We moved house at the beginning of September, we now have a nice house surrounded with nothing but fields, plenty of space for the dogs to run around, and most importantly, our own paddock at the bottom of the garden to do agility in! We have had no internet though until this week, hence our longer than planned absence.

We have spent the month settling in really, unpacking and doing lots and lots of grass cutting. The paddock is about ready to do training in now and we have our kit down there, we are just waiting for our new see-saw to arrive which I think will be ready in the next couple of weeks. The top picture is the paddock a few weeks ago, the one below is now that it has been mowed and has our kit in.

We did manage to get to the Agility Nuts KC show, it was a really good show and considering we were day parking it was an enjoyable one. Kody had a good few runs, 1 with just a pole and Meg also had a fab run, just getting a refusal in one for missing a tunnel entrance (not like her!). Heidi was a bit excitable.

The dogs have had a bit of a break from agility since, we haven't made it to any of our clubs for a while and Megan was spayed earlier this week so is now on rest (as much as you can make her to rest as she thinks she is fine now!) We plan to begin our winter training in a couple of weeks time and Meg can catch up once she is ready.

Pool Problems

We have been using our pool quite a bit since we got it, a few times a week at least. On Wednesday last week I pulled back the cover to discover it looked like this...

...bright green like Shrek's Swamp!!! Not good news. The rest of the day was then spent trying to tackle the problem. I emptied out 2/3 of the water and gave it a good scrub, connected the filter and pump (which I should have done from the start) and then re filled it. Unfortunately it was still quite green. I ordered a load of chlorine and algaecide which thankfully arrived by 10am the next day. I put in the required dose, not expecting much to happen really, turned on the pump and went into town. When I got back I was amazed by the results...

...a sparkling clean pool! I have then this week been reading a pool water management manual that I got from work and the pool will next year from the start of the year be regularly treated with chlorine which should make the original water last the whole season.

I have returned to training for the past two weeks with the dogs. Heidi and Megan are continuing to train at Lucy's but as I cant really take all 3 to the same class on the same day (its just too much hard work) I have joined another club with Kody on a Wednesday and we are really enjoying it and it is certainly testing us.

This weekend we have had no weekend agility, instead I have been at work for 2 days then my mum and dad came up yesterday until today. We have walked the dogs on a couple of lovely long walks and they have had a splash in the pool too and are now pretty shattered. We have got a busy few weeks ahead of us now and we are likely to be offline for a while but we will update you with our news once things have settled down again.

A chilled weekend

It was my weekend off this weekend and we have had a really nice chilled one. Yesterday I took the dogs for a really good long walk up their favourite muddy stream, as it was hot they all got very wet, muddy and smelly! (You can see by looking at Heidi's muddy legs in the photo) We got back and they all got shampooed before they were coming anywhere near the house. I then spent the rest of the day doing housework, ironing and baked the dogs a salmon cake (which the seemed to love!)

Today we have been to Agility Nuts. Its been forever since we went to a nice small show. It was really relaxed, lovely weather and I think me and all the dogs enjoyed themselves and...we had some good results!

Megan got a 10th place in jumping and had a pole in her Helter Skelter class. I also took the opportunity to do some dog walk training in the practice ring today too and she had about an 80% success rate, only failing when the tunnel was after it!

Heidi has been a good girl too, 3 poles in jumping and 3 poles in Helter Skelter but then a cracking run in agility, no poles! She did slip off the end of the dog walk though so I put her back on. She is really running so well in agility classes now, i'm so pleased with her.

Kody couldn't let the girls take all the glory though, he had a pole in jumping this morning and I got him eliminated in agility (too many tunnels confused me!) but he had a fab run in the Helter Skelter finishing 4th! What a clever boy. (I tried for ages to get his ears up for the photo but he insisted on having them flat to his head-he thinks the rosette is scary!)

Seaside Fun

Today I have spent a good amount of time grooming the dogs. With the exception of Megan they are all losing their coat by the handful at the moment. Still a couple of carrier bags of hair later they should feel better.

This afternoon as we had no plans I decided to take them to the beach. It has been a little while since we last went and as i'm working all weekend I thought it would do them good to let off steam. The beach was actually quite busy compared to normal although we had our own section down by the sea and nobody bothered us, most people were up by the sand dunes. The dogs had a good game of ball down by the sea and splashed around until they were too tired to carry on then we had a slow walk back to the van and they are now all fast asleep.

Happy Birthday Kody Bear

Today was Kody's 4th Birthday. He had some new toys, a giant space hopper that squeaks, a frisbee and a new ball, all of which he seems to enjoy playing with and hopefully he has had a good day.

Our new dog pool arrived yesterday and I set it up but as the dogs had been to hydro yesterday morning they couldn't test it out until today. I had built a ramp to help get them in and out but unfortunately it's too light and floats in the pool. Still getting them all in and out was easier than I thought, they all enjoy swimming so are quite happy for me to lift them in. They were even more chuffed when they realised I was getting in too!

It is currently filled with cold water but in about a month's time we plan to move it indoors for the winter and heat the water so we can continue to use it without injuring the dogs.

The video below is them today, its a bit messy at times as I was in the pool with them trying to hold a camera and throw a toy. Good job its an underwater digital camera as it got soaked and dropped a few times.

Must find a more boy coloured harness too, they all had to share a pink one today!

Scunthorpe Show

Today we have been to Scunthorpe show and only one word can describe it really, pants. (could think of others but not suitable to post here!) Not the dogs fault at all though. Megan had 2 lovely runs, both had a wait at the start which I was so pleased with, in 1 she had a pole and missed weave entry, in the other she chose the tunnel over the weaves (no surprises there).

Heidi only managed 2 runs out of 4 and both of them she didn't get past halfway before being removed from the ring for not listening. Poor Kody I just couldn't get it right with him at all in his runs, in the first one it went well until I blocked his view to the weaves so he took them from the wrong side and had to re do them. In the second class I didn't help him with his entry and so missed it and then developed weave issues where he just couldn't complete them so I just ran him to the finish. I walked the ABC qualifier and was convinced I would end up taking my eye out on the long jump pole as there wasn't much space to turn, when it came to run where I had been so concerned about it, it obviously went wrong and I nearly ended up over it instead of the dog! It went very downhill after that and Kody's weave issue continued as he came out after 6.

Then came the thunder, lightening and heavy rain so I decided as my heart wasn't in it we would come home. The sun was shining lovely here so I decided to do do some Dog Walk training with Megan. I had hoped to put her over the one in the practice ring at the show but as it rained we didn't bother. I am keen to practice it in as many locations as possible over the winter months. Anyway the video below is from today's training, it is still a work in progress but at least there are no massive leaps into space which is what we had before!!!

Clear Kody

We have just got back from a long weekend at Dog Vegas. The dogs have generally ran very well and I have been really pleased.

On Friday Heidi had 1 pole in her agility again, and a couple of 'wild' jumping runs. Megan, who is only doing jumping had 1 very good run but ran past the last but 1 jump. Kody had some nice runs including a lovely run in the Helter Skelter where he ran past the last jump which was right infront of him! I had Brian running in 2 Helter Skelter classes on Friday on small height, he really seemed to enjoy himself and flew round, just taking an off course jump in each class.

Yesterday the dogs ran well agin, Kody and me only having 1 mistake in each class, Megan just missing her weaves in one and jumping too wide in one meaning she missed a jump.

Today was a very hot day but the dogs still worked really hard. Heidi had 2 poles in her first agility, Kody had a nice agility run but slipped off the end of the dog walk and see saw (my fault) which I thought he had been faulted for, we finished the course but I sent him the wrong way over the last but 1 jump and I hadn't realised he'd been clear until that point! Bad mummy. We then did a very tricky jumping, managing the hard part but I gave him a terrible line onto the long jump meaning he jumped over it from the side. Very bad mummy! In his last jumping though I got my act together and we got round it clear although a bit messy. He was out of the places but I was so pleased with him. I had only been saying earlier in the day I haven't had a clear with any of my dogs since May!

Megan and Heidi did the G1-4 jumping and both only got faulted in the weaves. They flew round really well so I decided to check their times to see how far behind Heidi Megan had been. To my surprise Megan had been over 2 seconds quicker than Heidi! Clever puppy!

Massive congratulations to Jo and Keisha for their 2nd place in the First Contact Final yesterday and then winning into G7 today!

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday to Brian, who is 6 today! I think he has enjoyed his day and has been a bit spoiled, a new ball & frisbee a massive bone and lots of treats and he got to meet and greet plenty of people at the show this weekend.

This weekend we have been at Empingham. I have really enjoyed this show, I think it may be my favourite show and the sun has been shining today which made it much better.

Heidi and Kody have been really good dogs this weekend. Heidi has had no mad screaming, she has worked really well and listened and yesterday just had a pole in her jumping and a pole in agility and today she just had 2 poles in the agility and a missed weave entry but she has got EVERY contact this weekend so i'm really happy. She started the ABC qualifier off really well too but for a split second I lost concentration and forgot to get on the right hand side of the A-frame which then left me with nowhere to go and a very cross Heidi!

Kody has had some really good runs with only a little mistake here and there, we have had some issues with the dog walk though, he keeps falling off. All I can put it down too is that they were the rubber coated dog walks and where he would normally put the 'brakes' on for his stop on a wooden one it would just slow him down but with the rubber it means he stops suddenly and loses his balance and falls off! I took him the practice ring yesterday and out of 10 goes he fell off 4 times! He stayed on it today although I haven't pushed him too much on it and he did miss a contact on it this morning. Generally though he is running very well.

Megan...well she is only running in jumping at the moment and probably will for the remainder of the season now as I want to make sure we get this dog walk right this time before I compete with her. She has been a bit 'wild' this weekend, off doing her own thing and not listening although she did do her weaves very nicely in a class today so I cant complain too much!

Looking forward to 3 days at Vegas next weekend, lets hope the sunshine sticks around!

Brian is Magic!

I am sure I have mentioned before Brian's ability to make footballs appear from hedges and other random places. Well this weekend was no exception. Me and my mum & dad took him for a walk along the stream last night and on the way stopped off at the sports field to let him have a quick blast. As soon as we got there he ran over to the hedge and began digging, he has got 2 footballs from this particular spot on 2 separate occasions before so I thought there is no way in the world he will find another. A few seconds later, you guessed it, Brian appeared with a football!

He was chuffed to bits with it and played in the stream for ages with it and pretty much carried it on his whole walk. Today he is absolutely shattered, we have not long got home and apart from wondering where the others are (they are back tomorrow lunch time) he has curled up in his bed already. Some company he is!

Relaxing Day

Today has been a lovely relaxing day, It was my birthday earlier in the week so with my birthday money I decided to treat myself.  I had my hair done this morning followed by an afternoon of having a manicure, pedicure and hot stones massage. It was lovely.

I've just finished packing the dogs stuff, the mali's for their holiday in the morning to Sandra's and Brian's stuff for coming with me so now its time to chill out in front of the tv for the evening :0)

Hormone Hell!!!

The last few weeks have been an aboslue nightmare here and how I still have hair left is beyond me! With both the girls being in season there have been an awful lot of hormones raging in our house. Thankfully Heidi's are generally short and was over quite quickly, we are not so lucky with Megan.

Megan has turned into an absolutely horrible monster since her season started, she has become very aggressive towards Brian and Heidi, the only dog she is nice to is Kody. We had an unpleasant incident with Megan last week, she came out to the front of the house with me to the car (which is fenced in with a 4ft fence), as we were outside a lady walked past with her dog, Megan lept over the fence, ran accross the road and had a go at the other dog, resulting in the other dog having a bite on it's leg which although was small, needed veterinary treatment. The dog is ok however we are expecting to recieve a vet bill shortly.

Needless to say I have been at my wits end with her. Her season seems to be nearing its end now and her aggression is subsiding although she has had the occasional grumble at Brian but nothing compared to what it was. She has always been grumpy with her seasons but never anything like this. Thankfully it will be her last as we had already decided she would be spayed after this one although after the few weeks we have had it's likely that Heidi will be done too. (Mainly as having Brian neutered seems like a pointless exercise as Kody is neutered and has actually been worse than Brian with the girls, i've needed eyes in the back of my head as they have all turned into escape artists too, opening doors and jumping baby gates!)

I havent wanted to do any training with Megan at all since she has been so horrid so her dog walk training has taken a back seat although we did resume it yesterday and she hadn't forgotten what we had done so far.

As a result of the last few weeks and lack of training I have had a re think of the shows I had planned for the rest of the year, we are doing Empingham and Dog Vegas at Grantham and 1 day at Scunthorpe so I can enter the ABC qualifier with Kody & Heidi (I doubt Meg's dog walk will be ready) and I had entered the 5 day Vegas in August but I have now cancelled my entry and dont plan to do any more KC shows after Scunthorpe (I have entered Bromsgrove, havent decided whether to cancel it yet). I want to have fun with the dogs and lately it feels like we have lost sight of that so I plan to maybe do a couple of the smaller independant shows just to finish off the season and give the dogs some fun.

It's not all doom and gloom, the Mali's are off on holiday on Friday to stay with Sandra as im going to my cousins wedding (Brian is coming with me), Kody should be pleased about that, not sure what he did when he was with her last week but when he came back she said she'd happily keep him! Sorry Sandra-hands off!

Picture left is Kody in a 'cool coat' at the weekend, he wouldn't let me cool him down with the hose pipe like the others do but was happy to wear the jacket!

A Midnight Visitor

Thursday night was a bit of a strange one for us. Me and Conor went to the cinema to a late showing and on our way back from Lincoln about midnight we had an unusual find. We have to pass Lincolnshire Rescue Kennels which is about 3 miles from home, about 100 meters passed the kennels we had to swerve to miss hitting something. We quickly realised it was a dog. We turned around and then pulled over and Conor got out to check. After a minute or two of whistling and calling he came out of the field carrying a Rottweiler.  'It' turned out to be a 'she' and she was only around 6 months old (if that). We assumed she must have got out from the kennels so we put her on our lap and drove her back there. Being midnight there was nobody around and us driving around didn't get anyones attention so we ended up having to take the puppy back home with us.

When we got home we let her out with Brian but she had clearly not seen other dogs before as she was very nervous of him and a bit snappy. After some deliberation what to do we decided it might be best if she slept in the van for the night as the Mali's might not take to a snappy visitor. We put her in the van and then let the others out so they could sniff her in the van but with her safely in a kennel. They didn't seem too bothered about her although Megan did have a little grumble at first but soon got over it.

Not happy with leaving her in the van for the night we opted to set up a crate in our room for her and she could sleep indoors. We also decided to let the others meet her properly too. Heidi was absolutely brilliant with her, she stood perfectly still and let the puppy (who we had named Xou (pronounced You)) sniff her and when Xou snapped Heidi did nothing at all, just waited for her to come back to her. After a very short time Heidi had her playing with her and running around. Megan and Kody wanted to sniff her and she pretty quickly got used to them all. (The name Xou came as Conor had said to her 'C'mon you' and she came!)

We gave her some food and a collar and then put her to bed, she didn't settle in the crate for a while and even managed to escape the metal crate but by about 3.30am she finally went to sleep. The next morning she was up at 7.30 and she played in the garden with them all, had her breakfast and helped herself to toys and bones and then I called the rescue centre who said she wasn't from there but had likely to have been dumped outside as they had already had about 4 this year. The lady then said she would come to collect Xou that morning (although I had to phone the council first).

(Heidi & 'Xou')

The lady from the rescue centre came for Xou at about 10am and scanned her and she wasn't microchipped. She did say though that she wouldn't be difficult to re home if nobody claimed her as she is a puppy and people always want puppies.

She was lucky that it was us driving along the road that night as i'm sure not everyone would have stopped and then taken her in for the night. She was a lovely puppy although she had clearly had no training at all and had we not already got 4 dogs we would have almost certainly have kept her if her owner hadn't appeared. I said i'd ring the kennels tomorrow to check if she had been claimed. Hopefully she has although i'm sure she will end up with a nice home whatever happens. It is so sad to think that people just abandon their dogs when they can't or don't want to look after them any more.

Keeping Busy

As we are limited to our activities with the girls being in season we have managed to get some much needed jobs done at home. The weekend was spent clearing out the garage and taking a van load of junk to the tip so we now have a nice clear gagrage that even the car fits into. We have managed to give the van a good clean and tidy and today we have been to get some trellis to finish off the garden (which we will hopefully do tomorrow-weather permitting). 

Heidi has been for her annual injections at the vets today too and Megan came along for the trip to give the boys a bit of time on their own, to be honest I bet they can't wait to go to stay with Sandra for a long weekend!

Below is a clip of Megan, she is a bit mad whenever you get the broom out to sweep up and barks at it and for some reason gets all excited. The video is what she did with the broom once she had a chance to steal it! I think I have a video clip somewhere of her doing the same thing when she was a tiny puppy, ill try and dig it out when I get chance and re post it.

Double Trouble

This weekend we were supposed to be at Golden Valley with the girls competing in the Team Dash. As it happens Heidi came into season a few days ago but we still planned to go and use Kody as our reserve dog. Wednesday was spent cleaning the caravan and packing up ready to go (as well as hydro for Brian, Meg & Kody) but then yesterday Megan came into season too! We decided it wasnt a good idea to go to the show so we now have an unexpected weekend off.

We have booked the boys to go on a little holiday at the end of the week (to keep them away from the girls and give them a little break). We dont have any shows now until Empingham  towards the end of July so I am going to be re training Megan's DW contact back to a 2 on 2 off. I had planned to stick with a running one until the end of the season but it just isnt working and we are only halfway through the season so im going to attempt to fix it now. We have been working on it just not on the contact for about the last 6 weeks but as we now have no shows we can begin to put it on the actual contact. Ill keep you updated with her progress.

North Derbyshire Show

We have had a mixed weekend, the dogs have worked really well in some parts and not so good in other. Heidi had one fab run yesterday, just missing a weave pole and two not so great runs. Kody had a jumping class yesterday where he just knocked a pole and today took a jump from the wrong side in his agility. He did jump his DW contact yesterday though so I made sure I held it a little in his class today. Megan has had a couple of nice jumping runs with just one mistake too which prevented that clear.

Today it poured down with rain so after lunch we decided to pack up and come home, probably a wise choice as it didn't seem to be easing off at all and at least it meant we got back at a reasonable time and were able to get unpacked and dried off.

PADS

We have just got back from a weekend at PADS. I think this weekend we have had a record number of E's, in fact I think Megan was the only dog not to get ALL E's. She didn't have any clears but she had a few runs where she only picked up 5 faults.

Kody's courses were all very tricky this weekend and I have struggled again with handling him around them, I think a lot of the problem is where there were so many runs at once I didn't really have enough time to walk his courses as well as i'd like. You can see in the video below where I get in a muddle!

Heidi was a bit crazy this weekend as she had her dad back, in one jumping class yesterday I think she had a record 7 poles! I ran her in the Adams Derby qualifier and we got through the contact bit to the jumping but I didnt handle it very well and we got a big E. I also ran her in a jumping class today where she ran lovely, just getting 1 pole and then jumped the last jump the wrong way. Next weekend is North Derbyshire show so hopefully we'll get in a bit more training this week.