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.