...As promised!

...A couple of videos of Mindy and Harry at the local Cornwall Agility Club match in November
Here's Harry.

And Here's Mindy's almost a clear round run.

The others can be seen on my youtube site, I've not worked out how to get the link to this page YET!....

Wild Wet Weather.....

Busy Weekend!

Well thankfully we haven't lost the roof of the bungalow, just a sheet has been blown off the "garden " shed, unfortunately the sit on mower was under that sheet........
it's too wild out there to fix it, but we did manage to get another sheet ready, after taking a trailer full of rubbish to the recycling tip and picking up a second hand leather sofa!
well we where making do with a old cane chair to sit on (that came with the bungalow), but for some reason "Someone" was slowing eating through it....not sure who, as we never caught anyone doing it!

We even managed to do a bit of Christmas shopping on Saturday!

Oh and the bird feeder decided to fly down the garden, another job for Ian!

About two months ago, whilst surfing EBay, I came across , one of these, a "Snugglepad" and I thought I'd give it ago in Harry's bed at shows, to keep him warm, you pop it in the microwave for 6 Min's (depends on your wattage of your microwave) and it lasts for 10 hours, I do put another blanket over the top as it's quiet hard to sit on and you know how Harry likes his comforts!

Any way it's that good, I just bought one for Mindy for her bed too, at winter shows and training they can sit around a long time cooling down!...it's the wet that gets them cold. The "Puffs" seem to take a long time to dry, I also now have a dog blaster at home, which is the best £90 I've spent for a long time (another buy of EBay)
How long they "snugglepad"will last, I don't know and I don't know how it works, but it does and yes 11 hours later they are still warm and so is Harry......and as Mindy hates wearing coats, I might not have to fight with her putting one on...we will have just to wait and see....

We are still on the look out for another caravan, as ours has been sold. We want something a little bit different to the other one, we want it to be able to sleep 4/5, bedroom at back as well as front, single axle. 1998 upwards.........

Sunday.
We had a local agility match, three jumping runs, good training, 1-2, 3-4, 5-7 well thought off , except the small and mediums had to compete against the large with one set of results!
I couldn't get Harry around any of the courses! Lots of Silly mistakes by me...he has gone up another gear, which I love, except I'm not sure how to handle him! ...... and now that Mindy is doing courses too I'm a little confused what's happening, I cant quiet relax with her as not sure whether she going to go on the chase, luckily I've got all winter to hopefully get things settled and learn how to work them both!

I do have some video's off their runs, but still struggling with me computer and waiting for the lovely Ben to come and add "this and that" , so I can have a movie maker back!

Mindy enjoyed her self! she did a couple of wide turns, whilst she was debating whether to go and chase - well that's my excuse, but Graham P said it was my handling of the front crosses, I should do more because I hate them and feel disorientated when I turn back the way I should be going! So I know Graham was right!

Well I suppose I had better stop now and go and do a bit of house cleaning...what else can you do when it's wet and windy outside, the dogs are resting after their wet walk and are happily eat their bones (in the house)

Mindy's Moments

That 18 months just flew past and now she's competing at real shows!

She was a good girl, she queued nicely, for those that know Mindy will know that was an achievement, let alone get her to sit and wait on the start line!...she was fazed by the "half" people looking at her over the wooden side panel and gave them a growl!....but was fine with the wind howling through the buildings!

....still haven't quite got the start line, "take the lead off sorted", as she really does need to queue with her halti on, but then we fight to get it off and I certainly cant get it on when I've caught her at the end! I thought I'd sussed it by using a double ended lead, halti one end and a slip lead the other, but put that on and she coughs and splutters and I'm always worried she's going hurt her self, so may be I now have to have a clip at the end, which I just put straight on to her collar........

It's all my fault as I trained her in classes with a halti on as it was easier than taking it off, then this would have been sorted before her first show, I hate seeing people messing around on the start line, taking off all their bits and pieces.......Don't know why.

I have been doing bits of clicker training with that issue, but obviously not enough!

Her 2nd run, even though she was OTT, when we finished the course, I managed to walk her over to the corner-out the way, off lead and gave her a load of baked liver and there was "no way" she going to leave me, so may be that's the answer...find out Sunday when the next fun event is, if she's not in season.

Anyway back to her first run, I released her using the "321 okay" and off she went not her usual manic self but still working, down the dog walk, good sniff along the down plank, I was told afterwards that a dog had pooed on it! So I chose to release her early to keep her motivated, through the tunnel, she looked at me coming out, so rather than me "powering!" off down the line I stayed with her, I was going to layer the next bit through the box, then should have made it to the bottom of "A" frame to do a blind turn and send her on over the next jump....but because I went through into the box, I was wrong for the next bit and I actually pushed her off the side of the "A" frame, I now know I need to walk courses just in case she's having a clingy moment and then could have been prepared for the next bit better....any way the rest was lovely and I left her doing the weaves whilst I finished the course.

On to the second run.

That was a jumping round with Bridgette as the judge, who say Mindy at 8 weeks old and has always thought of her as a LAMA! anyway the course was nice with a few turns in it, I wanted to not baby her round it and work her like I would have done at home, I would have not done much of a wait and pulled her to jump 4 and crossed behind jump 5, but I though if she was clingy I wont be able to motivate her by crossing behind so chose the recall, but in actual fact, running with her from the start might have kept her with me rather than her going off to "chase", but she did come back with an "ooh" via a few extra jumps, we did manage to keep the rest of it flowing and the rest was pretty much perfect!

And here it is..........

She was ready to come out and do some shows, at home she was managing to do lots of exercises and we just needed to get out there and do it, in the real world, with nerves and handling courses that I haven't put up here, we have lots of fun events lined up until middle of December , so that should keep us going until 2010....

King Harry!

Lots to share with you all....Family - sorry it's an all "agility post" this time!

Discover Dogs
Harry was invited to make up the numbers at DD, I thought it would be a great experience for Harry, to see how he would cope running on carpet, all the people, peeing indoors on sawdust etc!!!!

Well he loved it...he was in his element meeting people and he coped extremely well on the carpet...not that I would have called it carpet it was amazing "Stuff" and if this is the sort of carpeting they use at Crufts now, then it's game on for us!
So very different to when "Red" competed on carpet and came out with blood on her pads, where she had broken a nail and scrapped her pad, what a difference 5 years make!


We had two agility course over the day, great courses, great judges, well organised, no ques for the human loo's, but there was no way that Harry was going to wee in that saw dust area, for a start it would mess his hairstyle and secondly far too small and smelly and I don't wee indoors. So we had to take him outside.

Harry loved the agility a little bit too much and flew his two dog walks....more work needed.
He was a little bit slow on the first round but by the second one was almost as fast as outside...Well Pleased.
Amy and Fudge did two great rounds and came home with a 1st and second......

And I got to actually meet and chat to the Bernadette in real life! Hi there.
and Lorna and Cads was there too, along with Karen, it's funny as you feel like you know them all by reading their blogs! Funny old world.....

Thanks to Elaine who groomed and shopped till she dropped for us.....

I don't think anyone thought we would make it in one trip to the car! But Elaine and I always find a way to work it out!....what ever it is! how many pieces of vet bed (loads), dog wormer's, leads, cones, dog crates, coats, bags and Harry

And of course, I had to buy my special boy a new collar..........

Would I go again if asked........

Don't be daft of course we would.


Mind you it might be a little more stressful with the Mindy Muppet........

Her story of her first KC show tomorrow, Ian came ...so we have video evidence....

...Knockers!

...Well the drive is finished, apart from tiding up the edges. We've bought a new front door which is now waiting for our favourite carpenter to fit it!.....so now we just need a knocker, I never realised how hard that would be to choose!!
Here's a few on the short list....chuckle chuckle

just cant seem to get the "template" I want......

Just can't get this blog layout the way I want!
I started changing it three weeks ago and then it all got a bit confusing!

My blog "updates" aren't showing on friends blog lists..... I'm not sure what button I pressed to change that! .......or whether it's a google blog problem......

I liked the blue one briefly then I thought I'd change again and didn't like the one I found, then couldn't find the blue one again....Computers....Just need lots of rainy days to fix it how I want it!

So Family and friends Sorry! normality will return....I hope sooner rather than later!