.....Mow the lawn

Or Cut the grass !!!!!

Well Paul and Amanda this one's for you!
I had a polite email telling me off!

In Paul's own words!

Hi just read your latest blog . Now then Angela you lived in Bristol with a Bristolian long enough to make you almost Bristolian!
We don't MOW the LAWN we CUT THE GRASS !!!!!! just thought I 'd remind you .

He he got ya!

Anyway back to the serious stuff!

It's very strange just having one car, I have to remember to take the dogs leads and my foot ware out after each trip out, as Ian needs it during the week to go to work!
We are learning to plan each week, this week I need to take the dogs to the vets, they all need weighing and Red has to have her Cartrophen injection and poor Buzzy keeps going lame on a back leg after a long free run. So after arranging that, I then had to arrange picking up the dogs bones on the same day. So I will have to drive Ian to work and then do all the trips out, at least that day the dogs will get a different walk! ...and then remember to go and pick Ian up after he has finished work!
Luckily the food shopping is done on line, so that is okay.
It also means walking from home with the dogs, which involves 20 Min's lead walking before they can run free for 20 Min's to then go back on their leads, to walk 20 Min's home again. It's not an exciting walk for me, although the view is great you can see the sea in the distance but it can be rather noisy, if the wind is blowing the wrong way, as you can still hear and see the A30, but the dogs don't seem to mind.


I keep telling myself it's only temporary.



I had arranged to go up country this week to see my Mum and then go on up further to have an agility lesson, but that all had to change after selling the Bongo, anyway Ian suggested I went up country just to have the lesson and chill with Auntie Elaine, so after teaching the babies on Saturday off I went - Luckily my buddy and instructor had a free slot for us and the caravan was free - Thanks.


Wow what a lesson - poor Elaine had a lot of areas to sort out and I'm not sure whether she managed it all in the time we had together, but over dinner we wrote it down, just so I could have half a chance of remembering key areas.
Mindy was great and she coped with working and playing in a new area-well most of the time, she did tell us that Max was watching the other side of the fence, but she managed to get her self back on track!
......and Yes, Elaine and Dawn are right it's my handling that is letting Harry down (I did know that really!)


You really do need regularly 1-2-1 lesson folks, it's great having group ones too, but .........



Anyway the following morning we took all nine dogs in the same van! out for a walk.






.....at least driving home the dogs where all quiet and slept, before they knew it we where home!

I'm getting really excited - not hard I know, as Mum and Adrian (my Brother) are coming down to see us all next weekend and this will only be their second visit, since we moved here, so lets hope it's not raining and we get to have a nice walk around the gardens. I'm so excited!

...Bongo's gone!

....The view from the top of one of our "humps" in the garden.

....As the heading says, the Bongo has gone to it's new home, so now I'm car less and have to share Ian's Discovery until we find a smaller doggie motor!
Hopefully we can sort that out this weekend or I won't be able to go and see Mum or have my agility lessons next week.

Now, I must go and mow the lawns - AGAIN

Oh yeah, we bought a second hand tent from the agilitynet site - before the "net" server went down! So better have a dumbie run at putting that up too, at long last a tent that so say "pops up" and can be put up on your own and you can stand up in it - fab.

...Just a few video's

Mindy is almost 13 months now, we've so much to learn together before she sets foot in a ring, but we are having a great journey along the way!

Here she is weave training, we are using the Susan Garrett 2 x 2 method with a twist from "Clean Run" magazine written by Mary Ellen, although I found using 3 upright poles great before, I've really enjoyed this method. Gradually I will bring the 2 lots of weaves together to make 12! .....and yes I am working around the clock ....and putting it in little courses ....and crossing in front, but I admit I havn't done much crossing behind, (must make a note of that!)

I've had to go back a few steps with "Crate Games" as poor Sue, nearly had kittens the other day when she went to take Mindy out of the car for a "Coat" fitting, apparently she was like a slippery eel and before she had the door open, she was gone along with Harry, who jumped over her head and ran down her back, of course Red wouldn't dream of leaving the car and stayed there! at least they only joined me in the middle of a teaching session of babies!
So all week, we've been car and crate training! Hopefully I can show Sue how to help them achieve this at the weekend!

Harry was great at the weekend and stayed in the ring, although I did cheat and take Red to "que" for him, whilst Sue had hold of him out the way, but he could still see us having fun, boy did he fly around that course! That's more like the Harry we know.

...and here's Mindy running A Frame, we eventually made our minds up, it's to be a running "A" Frame and a stop on the dogwalk!

......I've been asked

...by various people now, about how I feel running Harry in agility classes, whether I'm cross with him for leaving the ring etc!

To answer you all:

Yes, I feel cross and frustrated, not with Harry though, but with myself for not being able to find the answer to help us have fun together on an agility course.

Yes, I know he doesn't always go off to play with the girlie's 2-4 legged and sometimes we can put in some amazing rounds.

Yes, I know he is not a collie! (mind you not all collies die for agility either!)

But do you know what, everyone that meets him, See's that same sparkle in his eyes and the same huge ears and are smitten, just like me - you can't say that about a lot of dogs, people ask how he is and know his name before mine.

There are so many positives about our relationship, so why am I hung up on just one thing?

I feel, each dog that is given to us, is given for a reason.
and if Harry's is to make people smile, then Harry keep on making us all smile.

One Sold, One to Go!

Ian has sold his off roading 200tdi 90 landrover - all ready to go!
That is with a winch fitted, snorkel and diff guards, personally I think he sold it too cheap!
But it is sold and we are now back down to two vehicle's the Landrover Discovery which will be converted to off-road (winch, snorkel, diff guards to be added!) and the Mazda Bongo, which used to have dog cages in, but now is cleaned and re-seated back to a car.
I'm using the discovery as my dog car at the moment until we sell the Bongo and use the money for something smaller, the Bongo was great for long distance shows and sleeping in but with two older collies and two small dogs, it seems really a waste of space.

So here it is, just in case any of you want a different car.
Just email me and I'll send you details.

Agility wise, well I went to North Somerset Show, travelled up with a friend as I only had the boys to work.
The course's where lovely and flowy all day and a lovely change after Easters show weekend, even though they where fast and flowy I only manged to get around one with the Harry! the pairs with Chris and Nellie-which we won.
Harry was bitching and left the ring to go and play mmmmmm, so was picked up and carried back to his cage in the van, where I left him! Not sure how to work this one out, but I have been and bought "Ruff love" to see if I'm prepared to try something else, yes I know he is spoilt, it is so hard not too, he only has to look at me with those eyes and his big stand up ears and I'm his! I suppose at the end of the day I have to weigh up what I really really want from our relationship together ummmmmm
Lots to think about. Any help greatly appreciated.
Mind you, I am suprised he managed to do his other two runs as he escaped his crate and raided my zipped up ruck sac and eat 4 pieces of bread, cheese and cucumber (but he didn't like all the cucumber and let that drop down into Buzz's crate) and returned to his crate like nothing had happened, at least he managed to take the clingfilm off!

Buzz did an almost 99.9% perfect jumping round and I was over the moon with him especially as he let me do two "front crosses" and kept the poles up, we just had a big hesitation on jump two and I had to actually turn him around and face the jump again (I would have given me a 5r) but hey I'm not a judge, but a clear is a clear, we went into third place, but as we had such a long way to go home we left before the end of the class.
Must also say, thanks to another Friend who brought to the show 4 huge bags of plants to plant, which must have emptied their garden, I spent all day Tuesday planting and watering them, my shoulders where so soar with all the digging and bending down!

We have friends coming for the night on Friday, which should be fun.
and that is about it!