Well Thank you......

Brother Ady and Brother Ian for our Christmas present, no not the trailer you Silly Billy's, but the hedge, 18 evergreen hedging plants, for the hedge behind the trailer and in front of the other natural hedge, as we are finding, people that are walking in the "Preaching Pit" spend most of the time looking into our garden and Red goes potty!



.......And Thank you Mum for our other flower plants, can't for the life of me remember the name now! Sorry. We are trying them in various positions around the place, there are 4 pots, so may split up the group.



Angel (Foster dog 3) went to her new home last Tuesday, she has settled in and by the sound of it, is a lot happier than she was with us, which although is hard to hear, as we did try hard to help her settle, but she was so ill at the time and very thin, but she went to her new home fatter and fitter, so we did help her.
All the best little Christmas Angel. xx

Christmas Fun.....

Just enough time to post you some photos from Christmas Day, Merry Christmas everyone and have a great fun packed 2009......






Mum bought Ian, a nice new pillow, Harry got to use it first!





Harry and Red, discussing who would get to play with the Christmas Chicken first.........







Mindy thought this was a very strange game, being allowed to tear up paper! She got the hang of it in the end!

Padstow at Christmas

....Ian took me "window shopping" in Truro today, made a nice change, it's been almost a year since I've been to Truro! I hate shopping at the best of times. We got there really early and had a coffee before we wandered around the market stalls etc, listening to all the choirs and street musicians/entertainers, I have to admit I enjoyed it.

We bought a few things, all from Woolworth's closing down sale, 4 nice sturdy mugs and loads of Tulip and Iris bulbs, 40 bulbs for 50p - Bargain.

Oh yes and some "Soap Bath Bombs" from the "Lush" shop.
Two years ago, we had been in this shop and we could have spent a fortune, but thank fully we where still living in the caravan, so couldn't buy any bath bombs! So this year I treated myself to a couple of "Bombs" for Christmas.

Tonight we went to Padstow for a meal and to see the lights!
Ahhhhhhh














I think we need to treat ourselves, to a better camera! .............It looked so pretty in real life.

...I must be feeling a little better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLHWmjA5IE

Poor "Bunny" Ian has had it too.....

Ahhhhhhh

I Know, I'm sorry..........

I've not "blogged" for a while.
I'm in the middle of a bout of Man flu! I'm now on the antibiotics! yes I know, I actually went to the doctors! What with flu and "Foster Dog number 3" arriving! talk about bad timing.
Little Angel is 13 years old, very thin and wobberly, she is a hairless CC, I have taken photos of her, but I'm really embarrassed at how poor she looks, will take another one of her wrapped up in Auntie Anna's woolly jumper!

Anyway a trip to the vet and she is on antibiotics too - just hope I don't mix them up with mine!

We had snow last night, there was enough that I could have rolled around in it doing "Angels!"
I love snow, Harry and Mindy thought I was acting a little weired and wanted to get back inside in front of the fire!
Anyway by the morning most of the snow had gone!

Mindy's been re-viewing......

The latest contact training DVD of Toni Dawkins and Stuart Harmes!
I ended up turning it off, as she got too noisy.

Will have to watch it when she has gone to bed!

....And just so Stuart doesn't get up set, he helped her with her seesaw !

Poppy had a sleep over this week!

Poppy is approx 6 weeks younger than Mindy, which makes her 5-6 months old, she is nutty, fun loving, tail wagging dog, she seems fine out walking with other dogs, she barks far too much for my liking and boy my "smalls " can yap!

I road walked them today, all 5 together!
They still came home muddy!
So the next hour was spent washing and drying 5 dogs.

.........Last night a log rolled out of the fire and burnt a hole in the rug - that was the reason for buying a rug to save the flooring! It made us all jump, especially the "Smalls" as they where fast asleep in front of it!
It is quiet scary having a wood burner in a wooden shed/bungalow, but the joys of watching the glow and being all warm and cosy is greater than the "could be" danger.

Anyway, here is Poppy all grown up!

Harry Latest....

Trick!
Well it's not that new, just hadn't got around to videoing it.

Food shopping!

...I hate food shopping. So after many years of hating it, I decided to do something about it, with encouragement from friends - I tried on line food shopping, do you know what I enjoyed it, although the first time took far to long! the second time, 10Min's and it was done, you just have to be aware of your weights! so you don't end up with too small/too large amounts of anything...... the best bit its turned out cheaper, so far by £10.00, so I'm a happy Bunny.

Agility: What have I been up to. Well the big dogs have been having a rest from agility, lots of nice long walks and bits of clicker training.

Buzz I have started doing a bit of the Susan Garrett's Crate games with him, as he guards his crate from all dogs (except Red) - work in progress and the only bit of agility he is doing is, whilst the Dog walk is on low height I'm reminding him (as I have to do every year) where he needs to be, 2o2o and looking forward, great thing these clickers, it has taken two weeks of retraining for him to remember!

Here is a short clip of this weeks efforts from him, when it wasn't raining!



As for Mindy and Harry.
Harry is training on a Wednesday at Silverwell indoors, he started off not really very happy, but after 3 weeks, seems to be settling down, the jumping lesson is always better than the agility lesson, but having said that, most of his agility lesson last night was good. At home we are just doing running DW to get the speed up, it is on low height and we run around a bollard at either end and race each other up to the other end and throw the toy, which seems to work and teaching/showing him he can run fast over the top.
Mindy comes to watch and chat and seems to really enjoy her time with me in the arena, she goes through a few tricks and sit/stand waits and lots of play tuggy and fetching balls.
I still haven't made up my mind what to do with her contacts yet, as in 2o2o (all have been taught this method - so far) or 4 on the floor or just run like hell - she, I think would like that (running one) but I feel like, we might need somewhere to have a re-group around an agility course, she has a lot more "zest" than Harry, scary to try something new, especially on your own!
The 4 on the floor looks good, except Mindy doesn't like getting wet so trying to teach her to lie down on the wet grass on her little belly is going to be hard, I have been trying the behaviour away from the equipment, she is great using a mat to lie on, but wet grass! She did manage to lie down on the sand last night though. No doubt we will have plenty of wet weather to teach her it though!

31 "Sleeps" untill Christmas!

.....and 7 sleeps, until we can start opening the pockets on the advent calender!
Me addicted to chocolate - never!


Anyway, we had a busy fun packed weekend, I managed to get Ian to come walking with the dogs, so Saturday we decided to do our first walk since being down here on Bodmin Moor, we chose to start and finish at a place called Minions, which was great as it had "Tea Rooms" still open, the weather wasn't good, wet and very windy, Mindy added to the "Not good" bits by deciding to forget her name and charge off in the opposite direction to where we where going, chasing the birds and anything else she came across ummmmmm
So when Ian managed to rugby tackle her to the ground, she stayed on the lead - I'm hoping it was just the wind that sent her over the edge, as Red was going further away from us and running everywhere, although the boys where very good.
We started from Hurlers Halt car park and walked toward the Engine house and then walked off up a short sloop and around anti clockwise in a big circle returning past the stones.

Mental note. Must remember proper coats and hats.

I did remember the camera and got it out when it wasn't raining. Afterward we had hot chocolate and carrot at one of the tea rooms, which was lovely!














Sunday - we had another wet and windy, walk on the beach at Hawkers Cove, we where out for about an hour and half.
I think we over did it on the Sunday as poor Red, Sunday night was very stiff in getting up, by this morning, she was okay and she had another Cartrophen injection today at our vets in Roche.

When we first moved to Cornwall.......

Ian had a, 3 door 200 Tdi Discovery that, which back in Bristol he "off roaded", he had a Superwinch winch attached to the front, a snorkel for those deep water playing/trips out etc.

The Winch had been on all Ian's "off roaders" since I have known him! ....... a Range Rover, a 110 station wagon Landrover (which we travelled to Morocco and back, sleeping in/on and round it for 8 weeks - that's another story, which one day I may get around to telling you about! this was in between dogs) then, another smarter Range Rover automatic, leather seats etc. (but still dented enough to go off road and have a winch/snorkel attached)

We used to spend weekends away in the Welsh Hills, taking the tent and Cassie, our only dog at the time, we used to come home wet. muddy but happy! from the Range Rover, he went to the 3 door Discovery (picture above) which We had when we first moved down here.
Ian got bored with that and wanted something he could off road better so he bought a 90 station wagon Landrover, (off eBay!) which has been a great work horse, carting, wood/bricks/breeze blocks/sand etc. from A-B, but hasn't done much off roading, except around the garden! ............We have struggled taking all the dogs out in it, the "Smalls" sit on the front middle seat, which was fine but the two Reds struggled with not enough flat room in the back.

The picture shows it before, Ian put all his bits and bobs on it!














So along came the new arrival! a 5 door 300 Tdi Discovery, automatic.

Tooo late to post

....Sorry you are just going to have to wait until tomorrow, too tired to take photo's, but I promise I'll do it tomorrow after all the chores are done!
Night, night

News Flash ! !!!!

.....New arrival on Friday! Watch this space........ Oh and here's another video of Mindy and her mates playing on the dunes again.

......If it wasn't for the crunching of snail shells beneath your feet you wouldn't know you where walking on sand, covered in grass. ..........There are lots of rabbits holes - it does scare me watching Buzz charge around miss placing his long legs down a hole or two........ Elaine always said to us, if he makes it to two without breaking a leg "I'll be very surprised"! Well Auntie Elaine's he is almost 7 and touch wood, still has 4 long unorganised legs! Bless.

Perran Sands

......More walking and more socialising this week.
we spent and hour and half wandering around the dunes. I always thought when people said they walked on the dunes, I imagined loads of sand and a bit of grass and a lot of hard work walking, but the Sand Dunes at Perranporth are covered in grass and bushes! you can walk forever! You can see the sea in the distance, next time maybe I should try and walk down to it! it's great walking the dogs here in the rain, you still get wet - yes, but they stay clean - whoppy.

This week I walked all the way up to St Piran's church.

Thanks Lisa, for kindly allowing us (Mindy,Harry and me-I) to walk up there with all your Collies and Heelers - well until the clocks changed. Now I meet up with another doggie friend and her 3 Shepherd pups, we get to meet so many different types and numbers of dogs, it is great for socializing, although if you wanted to avoid dogs you could too!

Anyway here's a picture or two of them all, out and about, oh and another video!







Yummy rabbit Poo! Dogs.

Last Show of the year.....

...Well for me anyway!
Dartmoor Agility Club - I haven't been to this show for a few years, although I've entered it, many times, when the alarm clock goes off so early in the morning and it's pouring with rain and it's so dark - the bed I'm afraid wins! But this morning no excuses, I had a plan! I'd run the agility classes as they where first on and if I'd had a clear round (three chances) then rather than wait nearly 4 or even 5 hours for my next runs, I'd go home! and that is what I did.

I had a great morning, I really enjoyed seeing everyone before Christmas, and hearing of everyone news, as I don't get the "agilityeye" magazine, I don't seem to be able to keep up with what everyone has won or nearly won! Lots of "well dones" and hugs where shared. Not sure whether to mention those or not, unsure how people feel about seeing their names on my blog, maybe what I should do is just use first names and then everyone else can guess who????

But I do have to mention that Davids Sky has had pups, 7 months too late for me! I do love Shelties, but if he can't find a home for one of them, he knows where I live!!!!!
Young Lesley passed her AgilityClub instructors course.
...and Nikki came 10th today and Louise 12th in G1 classes -I'm so proud of you both.
Oh yes and Lorna with Cadbury winning another class! Well done to you all. and.....and.....and..........
great seeing Brian, Maureen and of course Louise and Flashhyyyy and Chris with my mate Troy I could go on, but I won't.
Oh yes, I will mention, Thank You to Nigel for my huge tin of sweeties - I don't know why, but I do - you shouldn't have, She says sitting here munching Merrily away!

Who was my best dog today, you won't believe it, but it was Buzzy, he was fab even though we had 5 on the DW, the rest was perfect for us, I'm still Buzzing from it now!
Red and Harry where clear, but not fast enough for places.
Red turned the wrong way out of the second tunnel, but the rest was spot on for a 9 year old dog, with mild HD, spondilousis (SP) and a heart murmur!
Harry was a little nervous about the whole inside thing, this was his first show inside and his second time at working inside (Wednesday night being the first) I did bring him in earlier on to walk around and try to get him to play and he seemed happy after a while, so I put him back in the car for a rest, anyway his run went like this: he went off from the start line heading straight at Clive-his mate, but I did turn him for the tunnel then up the DW at a steady trot, silly me didn't stand my ground for the weaves, I was going to cross behind, so we had a spin, the rest was nice but steady, hopefully after a winter of training inside he will gain his confidence, for future years, still can't believe he hasn't been competing for a year yet.

I didn't take Mindy, I thought it might be a little bit too much for her! She will come training on a Wednesday first, and see how she copes, she is rather wild!

Lara kindly brought my nice new tyre to the show, which has been on order for rather a long time, but it's here now - now I don't want to put it outside - its too clean!

Little sweet, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth pup, is off to the vets on Wednesday to have a couple of retained baby canines removed, I've also asked for hips to be xrayed and see how they look, and her patellas checked.

She had her eyes tested for KC/BVA and Glaucoma last week and passed. All the Crestie people, keep telling me to tape her ears up, as they are so close to being up - not as big as Harry's, I'm just worried in getting the taping wrong and her looking silly for a couple of weeks, I do love upright ears thou.
Thats it for now.

Here's a very short Video of Mindy and Harry out with their new palls, Perdy, Lucky and young Tally, just to show you, she has improved! Socially

PS. you might want to turn the sound down! HEE HEE

No Room at the Inn!

.....Busy, Busy, Busy

Ian has had a couple of days off this past week, so we have been flat out on getting the brick work finished and the roofs on the sheds.
Last December in the storms, the roofs blew up and forward knocking out the top brickwork and causing big structural cracks, they couldn’t just be bodged up! And the barn had so much woodworm, that it fell down one night!
So this years goal where, to get the sheds sorted before winter so we could use them and Ian could have his own workshop that was dry.

Basically what we have done is reduced the number of individual sheds, from six down to three big ones and the barn, reducing the height of one of them so they are all one size, height, depth and width – looks nicer! I’ve been the “workers mate, mixing the cement/concrete with help of the trusty cement mixer, chief tea maker and fetch this and that!”
When it has been dry enough I’ve been doing lots of painting, the walls inside and out, this is the type of painting I can do! Slap it on, doesn’t matter if everything gets covered as long as most of it is on the walls and not my knickers or the dogs!
Unfortunately Harry and Mindy seemed to have changed colour slightly, Harry is now four tone and Mindy well, I’m hoping I can get it off her before any of you guys see her – you should see her ears, she has so much paint on them she looks like she is flat eared!

Agility wise: - haven’t done much at home with my dogs, all the contact equipment is down ready to be painted and to stop Mindy climbing around on it on her own!
I’ve managed to squeeze in a couple of lesson for others, in between the rain.
Still been doing lots of play/tricks with them all, Harry’s “pork” trick is coming on – I couldn’t think of what name to call it and I needed something that was easy to remember, as I need to have another name for the other side too so that side is called “Pie”, so it’s Pork and Pie! He has to lift a back leg in the air, he is doing “Pork” but not “Pie” on Command, Ian said it sounds rude! I think I will teach Mindy this one too, as it is rather funny to watch them do.
Red is learning the Elephant trick – so you can teach an old dog, new tricks.
Buzz is learning to get all four feet in a cardboard box, we are struggling, he is rather large, may be I should have a larger box to start of with! And he is walking backwards up the four steps in to the kitchen from the sunroom, that is the only place we have steps in our bungalow!

It’s that time of year again, the nights are drawing in, and the central heating has been on for a couple of nights now! To think that, this time last year we had just put the central heating in or rather Ian had! The wood burner has also been use for a couple of weeks now, it really isn’t big enough, but takes the chill off and makes you feel “all warm and cosy!” The slow cooker will be out soon! Yes I do occasionally cook, well if you want to call it that, just chuck it in the pot and leave it on all day.

I did manage to drag Ian away from the “sheds” to come for a lovely walk on the beach though, videos below!
And here they are again, this time in amongst the rocks, looking for crabs!

Poppy!

I've always wanted a scruffy small dog!

A Parson was top of the list, followed by a JR, but Ian said "No" ......so that is how we ended up with Harry! ..........and I certainly wouldn't change him for a Parson or JR.
We now get to have fun with Poppy on a Wednesday whilst her Mum goes to the market in Truro and runs a stall, she is 4 months old, Scruffy JR and what fun we are all having, she's spends most of her time running around with the "smalls" .......Oh Happy Days.

Bet that got you going !!!!! and you thought she was here to stay!

Mum's photos

..............Mindy at nearly 6 months.
...and here is this years Christmas Card!
...and look who Buzz is looking at, fancy that!

Three wise Monkeys!

...We have been so busy!

The Sun has appeared, which means it has been dry!!!! So we have been trying to get the sheds finished before the rain starts again.........

I think ,I'm eating and sleeping sheds!

I have been able to take the dogs on some really nice long walks, well not that long as Mindy is not 6 months yet, but we have managed to do 45 Min's in what I call "real" woods, in other wards woods, that you have to make your own paths through, which is great for their "body" awareness and mine!

Ian came dog walking at the weekend, which was great, we walked on Goss Moor, glad he came with us as on the way home we saw a Rotavator for sale on the side of the road, so we did a swap with the lawn mower that didn't work (we did tell him, but as he was a lawn mower repair man, he felt he could fix it - good luck!) and gave him £30.

Here's Roger the Rotavator!

....and Ian in the back ground doing what he loves best "Welding" - working with Metal.

Ian is making a bin, to burn all our rubbish, branches/twigs and paperwork, we did have an old 45 gallon drum but that collapsed last weekend - too much use.

Went to Mums for a couple of days in the week, which was great and I think she enjoyed our visit, I was a little bit worried, as the last time I went naughty Red cornered her 17 year old cat and gave her a bit of a hammering, although I heard the commotion and yelled, Red did stop straight away, the cat ran off and wasn't seen for a week! ..........we wont be having a cat whilst Red is alive, about a month ago I had to retrieve one that she had chased up one of our trees, I noticed it up the tree, kept the dogs out of that area of the garden, but by the afternoon it was still there, so I had to climb up and bring it back down to the ground, and off it went, funny how I don't see the same cat twice!

Anyway Mum took some lovely photos of the dogs, for this years Christmas card (she is very clever with computers and cameras, my Mum!) and I took a few whilst on a walk around her woods. This is mine! ......I'll show you Mums, when she emails them to me.

Buzz just has to watch Red.

Anyway better go, it's not raining and the old shed needs to be dismantled!

another group "Ahhh" photo....

Mindy is now learning to wait!

Gosh Harry's ears do look big!

Mindy was 5 months yesterday!

Well I gave my 50th pint of blood, which personally is an achievement, as I don’t like needles! I got a badge and a nice pen thou! For my 75th pint (if I make it that far) they take you and your partner out for a meal.

The washing machine decided after 18 month of use and out of its warranty to shear a few bolts and send the concert block thingy through the side of the machine! So we bought another one, after which, one of my dearly beloved friends tells me of a very good site to get them from and she had just bought one delivered to her house for £80 Check it out www.clearance-comet.co.uk she says, decide what you want, don’t bid on the first few pages and work your way back a few pages and find what your after and put a bid in. Anyway it was too late for us, we bought it from John Lewis on line. Luckily we’ve had a few days of lovely sun to catch up on all the washing and drying.

Agility wise

Well we’ve won some and lost some!
Harry did some amazing runs and then the sun came out and he just plodded around! Well I assuming it was because it was so hot, I have taken him to the chiropractor and been given the all clear. Yes I know he is breed as a “Lap Dog” and not a working breed, so you can’t just go out and train…train. I am used to that with big Buzz. So anyway he is having two weeks off, from agility and just focus on playing together and learning some new tricks. Lifting diagonal legs!

Buzz, we are still waiting for our fourth clear round of the year.

Red seems okay if I get her warmed up before hand, but on the evening time she doesn’t look so good, mind you it doesn’t matter if she has done some agility or been for a long walk, she still struggles to get up from the floor/her bed.

Mindy has just had her 5th month birthday! and has been attending obedience classes on a Thursday, ummmmmm she struggles with dogs looking at her, especially Boxers and barks at them, but if I can keep her focused on me, then she is great! She also goes up to Roseland for a social on a Saturday and gets to walk around the field with various dogs of all ages, which is fab. Here she is showing of her skateboarding skills, still needs improvement, but this is only her second attempt.

So very sad.....

...Unfortunately, you may already know this, but Bernadette and Dennis lost their beloved Sheltie, Hex. Bernadette and Hex, where an amazing team together and brought a lot of joy to people all over the country, that got to watch them. I learn't such a lot, from them both.

Hex, was just needed somewhere else.

Our thoughts are with them all.

Not going to Blog......

......It doesn't seem right to tell you how much fun I'm having, what we've been up to etc, when poor Bernadette Bay with little Hex (see other blogs I view/links) is so poorly, not that I know Bernadette personally, but I've followed this partnership for a long time and Bernadette has always had time to answer my emails over training issues etc.
It certainly knocked me for six when I heard how poorly she had been - Mushroom poisoning.

Yes I know life goes on and all that, but some times it is good to stop, be quiet and listen to your own thoughts.
...so that is what I'm going to do-for a little while.

Hugs to Hex and Bernadette.

I'll be back.

So what have I been up to with Mindy?

Lots of Play, Socialisation and Clicker training.

She has learnt a lot quicker than Harry, that to play tuggy and fetch the ball is fun, it took me around 6 months before I could say that Harry would play with me almost anywhere, Mindy loves to tug!

We have Clicker trained the:
Sit, down, touch a target, lie down on her target, run to her bed/cage and sit in it.
Turn/spin, to the right and left.
Give a paw-whilst sitting and standing.
Jump onto my lap.
Stand on a home made wooble board!
Figure of eight, through my legs.
She sits in a washing up bowl, stands on the top of it too. Not sure why I taught her that!
And we are learning how to push the skate board along the floor, which I did try to video, but it is hard to do this at the same time as helping her. Have to wait until Ian is around to video.

She has just started to learn the “Elephant” trick.

We are both learning to run around in circles with her on the inside and outside of me, not for long as I’m too fat and unfit.
More Play

She is experiencing:
Standing and walking on/across different surfaces-wood, plastic and metal, sand chippings mud, puddles, water!
She is learning to swim-in Harry’s Hot tub (when it’s warm enough)
More play

She has been handled by, lots of agility strangers and left with them whilst I’ve walked courses! Met the Vet, young kids, old people and walking sticks, people with umbrellas, big hats and cameras and she has taken this all in her stride, she loves people – so far.

Things that I’ve noticed!
She is quite “Yappy” and around her mouth area is very tight, she doesn’t like you touching that area either.
Its great, my friend who is a ttouch practitioner is helping me with lots of tips and she is getting a lot better, although not yet totally relaxed about it, work in progress.

She gets worried if dogs appear from nowhere whilst out and about, she doesn’t cower, but barks at them!
I can help her with this, as long as the person whose dog she is barking at, is willing to help me, I ask them to walk with me, “dog, person, person, Mindy” just for a min or so and then she is fine with them.
I was talking to Lisa about this “thing that Mindy is doing” and she sent me a passage from a book, which made a lot of sense about when they are teething things that where fine one day become the scariest thing the next day and to keep up the socialization, well I think this seems to be whats happening to Mindy.
I took her to Bovey Tracey Dog show and she was fine although she was cheering the dogs on doing agility, she met lots of dogs, all shapes and sizes, got left with various people no problem, then the following week, whilst out socializing she started to bark and lunge at dogs.

This morning I noticed her bottom front teeth missing, she is well and truly teething now, cant wait till this stage is over, she must be so soar, she is picking up and sucking on socks ETC! and cardboard.
She doesn’t enjoy her grooming session yet, but we are getting there and if I want to try and keep her coat longish! Then we need to keep at it!

Otherwise she could end up looking like Harry – he is not a PARTI POODLE


Here she is targeting her "Pringles" lid.

The Gang together

........ Must practise that wait!

Show cancelled due to weather!

Fancy that! another show is cancelled due to the rain. It is so sad for those having spent most of the year organising it and for those looking forward to a weekend in the Dorset country side! lets hope they will be able to resheduel, not that I think I fancy camping in the Bongo in the middle of October - we will have to just wait and see.

Any way it meant that after driving back home on the Friday, I could spend the weekend with Ian. We went for a lovely walk this morning, in Cardingham woods, this was Mindy's first long walk, it's a nice gentle wood, with large gravelled tracks, we followed the bottom route around (shortest) which followed the river up one side and down the other.
The woods I normally walk in, only has a few "human" tracks, I tend to follow the animal tracks, the Collies love it and I think Harry does too, Mindy has yet to do this walk, she will have to wait until she is 6 months-ish.

Anyway here is a little video from our walk and our first group photo, just shows I need to work on Mindy's wait! Please excuse the videoing I should have given the camera to Ian, he is better than me!




Photo's too follow, after I have sent them to Mum to edit their "Red" eyes, if she can, good old Mum!!!

Whilst it's not raining!

I asked Ian whether we could move one of the "pampas grass", well what I meant was dig it up and split it into four and then use else where around the garden, so out came the digger!




....Whilst I stuck a Pizza in the oven, I was in for a suprise when I returned to the house to find HARRY! In bed with some light reading!

might I add It was clean washing!

"Sunny Flower" !!!!

Harry pulled it off!

Here's one of Harrys wins in G4 agility at pembrokeshire, taking him into G5



and not to miss Buzzy Bear out, here is one of his fab jumping rounds! Well for Buzz and I it is! Go Buzz, Go. Maybe we can get it together after all, I did feel slightly sad watching Aly and Lisa running him over the past week and seeing how that, their extra leg length, helped drive him along! you had better turn the sound down as Ian is chatting to his mate Mike at the same time as videoing - multi tasking !!!!! note he managed to miss the pole going down - well I think it did!



and here is Mindy and her Dad enjoying the only day of SUN that we had all week!

Barf Diet

It was Bone day today. last week I had asked for some Marrow Bones as lately we had just been getting meaty lamb ribs and a few shoulders and I wanted more bone! ............. especially as Mindy is starting to teeth and is chewing anything and everything, I caught her with her teeth around the wooden internal latch doors! All the others seemed to be okay with just bones when they where younger, but I did have a different butcher then and was able to get more leg bones of both Pork and lamb.

Mindy eats the tips of the chicken wings so fast that I'm now giving her some lamb rib bones, which thankfully is taking her longer.

Look at those ears, I think they might go "Up" after all, or maybe it is just because she is having more mouth/teeth exercises. Time will tell.

More Pictures!

We caught Red in action this week! She is a naughty dog, she loves to roll on the bed - I really should just shut the door and stop them from going in there, Ian doesn't seem to mind, as he took the picture!!








...and how could you resit these two, cuddled up together on the sofa aaahhhh!

Just, some photo's this week

I've been lent a small skateboard from Nicky at Hawksflight, so I can teach the small guys something new!
Mindy (15 weeks) took to it like a, Duck to Water, whether that is because I have been teaching her to walk on a homemade cardboard wobble board and other odds and sodds. Harry seems to be happier just sitting on it, but these photos are of our first introduction to the "skateboard" this morning!

So, not bad I think. (good English - just for MUM!)



and Here's the promised photo of Harry's Pairs partner winning haul, Nellie KC name is: North Somerset Nellie.
More to come - I think!


and lastly if you really want to know how we did agility wise over the weekend, read on:

Harry and I where away with the Devon Fairies!
I think because most of our courses have been 1-7, so therefore alot easier than 4-7 which he is now, so I have to start "upping the anti" (spelling) and start to teach ourselves harder things.

Buzz was well and truly away with the fairies.

Red well off course she was good! I thought I saw the judges hand go up for my hairy seesaw, IMO I should have been faulted, I did a reverse turn in front of it, which pushed her forward, so it didn't touch the floor and only just went past the pivot point, but I wasn't the judge! anyway I held her on the rest of the contacts and we where 3rd, I pushed her too hard in the jumping and she had a pole, so I was naughty and didn't work the rest of the course.

Got to go, the postman has just chucked the "agility Voice" through the letter box and I need a cup of coffee!

My "back in the old days, School" friend has arrived!

My School friend has arrived with her Husband and two boys - I say boys, one is taking their driving test next week! Where has the last 30 years gone? now that is scary!

They decided, they would bring all their camping gear! and Lottie the Jack Russell x Collie, no they aren't agility folk! Yes we do have friends that don't do agility.

I did offer them the caravan, that is in use too.
When I went down to see them this morning there they where in their "PJ's" cooking bacon butties!

It is great seeing them all.
They have gone down to St Ives, Tate gallery today as it's RAINING - again.

Good excuse not to train my contacts this week! Well the "A" frame. Mind you, Buzz would have to stop at the bottom, or he would be in the tents!

Happy Days.

It's all been happening!

What a long weekend, in a good way thou.

Firstly:
Well done to Mine and Harry's pairs partner, for winning out of G3, by winning 1-3 agility class at the Blackdown AC Show on Sunday. Hopefully Chris will send us a picture of Nellie and her trophy to put on here. (but you can see a video off our first pairs together, further done the page!)

Secondly:
Harry won another Jumping class.

Thirdly:
Lisa Hughes and Elwyn (Lanchashire Heeler) won another CC Ticket (showing) check out her website "Down on the Dunes" on my links, Well done mate. Hopefully she will be updating her blog now with gossip and photos!

Agility Club show - Newbury showground

It was great to see everyone, as I hadn’t been up country, since September 2007 last year.

Reasons being: The price of fuel, I hadn’t got a job to pay for fuel and entries (Ian wouldn’t have minded, I just felt mean spending all his hard earn’t money, just for my pleasure!)

I had managed to get a holiday job, so I started to enter more shows – yippee.

I left Mindy at home with Ian, for the weekend, especially as I was ring party on Saturday morning.

I found it hard, realising that I had only been out of the big competitions for 18 months and it had changed so much, so many new faces, with flying machine dogs, running contacts and the huge numbers in the classes, the standard was amazing, even in the lower levels.
Take for example the “Champ” class, my last Champ class with Red was Chippenham AC 2 years ago, there was 70 ish in the class and at the weekend there was 112 ish No I didn’t enter the champ class, I felt with Reds health issues it was a waste of time and money, I did love them thou and I miss them, I seem to work better with the pressure!
Red’s highest place in a final champ class was a 3rd, but in those days we walked away with not even a rosette to say we had made it too the final, “sad” hey. But I can remember the run really well and Big Bad Bess won the ticket with Shauna Lyons taking the RCC and Red 3rd. Red was clear in all 3 runs. Bless her.

Back to the show, I ran Red in just two of her 4 classes, one was a pairs, but my pairs partners hurt her self the day before, She was clear in both of her runs, but not fast enough, the 4 th class on the Sunday, I pulled her out off, as I felt it was to hard with too many spreads for an old lady to do! (My choice, if she had been 5 years younger, I would have loved to have had a go at it.)

Buzz, all most got a clear in his jumping class on the Sunday, he just landed so far out towards the wrong end of the tunnel, I did managed to pull him back to the right end, but we got a 5R. His agility rounds, he got his contacts, but came through a gap that wasn’t there! That is Buzz.

The main reason for going to this show, was to see how Harry would fair with the top dogs and I wasn’t disappointed, we had a 4-7 jumping, which we did manage to go clear in, but with two baggy turns and our not so fast weaves, we where just 3 seconds behind the winner, his other clear round was in the small KC Olympia, unfortunately he came down the “A” frame soured over the next two jumps and thought he was finished and headed for the lady sat at the ring side (pole picking up) I was screaming at him like a wild women, but he was convinced he was finished! So winter work, is to get Harry weaving faster and speed up his contacts, I think that is just a confidence thing with the contacts, he did get blown off the dog walk and I think his shoulder gets soar at times, which won’t help for contacts. So I will have to keep the holiday job going to earn some money to pay for the fuel and entries for next year and see if I can go up country more often.

Anyway here is video, kindly videoed by Chris's John, off Harry and Nellie doing their bit!

Grow your own!

Vegetables

In Bristol we had tried to grow “hanging tomatoes”, and “runner beans”, yes they where successful until we went to Pembrokeshire show each year and then they all would die! Well they where all in baskets and pots, we didn’t have a garden as such more a concrete parking area for four cars!

So last year we decided to stick them in the ground and see what happened, we grew “runner Beans” mountains of them! And froze a lot, unfortunately that was not successful (freezing part) they tasted horrid and we ended up throwing them away, we had various people telling us that we should have blanched them before freezing them, some said: add salt, others said no, so armed with all this advice, Ian had been given for Christmas some seeds of Runner Beans, Spinach, courgette and Maize, we added tomatoes to the list.

We had decided we would put the beans and Spinach nearer to the house this year as it had been a pain to remember to go down behind the shed’s to water them, so choose a nice sunny spot, nearer to the top. We grew them on in the green house first and then put them out the Spinach was put straight out into the well manured ground (horse) and we waited and waited…………

In the mean time the tomatoes we put in grow bags in the green house and the maize went where the beans where last year, oh we also bought a pumpkin!

…..Back to the runner beans and spinach, we quickly realised the spot we had chosen was very very windy and they struggled, so with sadness I had to admit defeat and pull them out and re-seed the area to grass!
More grass, I hear you say, well I have tried to put some nice flowers in the area, but they too have been affected by the wind and the SLUGS – I hate Slugs and Rats (but that is another story!)

The Maize - I think look okay and the pumpkin seems okay too.

Here is the proof: