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!