Happy New year's "Eve"

Our first "almost" group photo (Ian was behind the camera), Hey look they are all only tiny, so maybe I could fit a few more in, without any one noticing !!!

Happy New Year everyone, family, friends and those that read our blog...Hope all your dreams come true and you have a healthy year ahead of you.....
and maybe I'll get to meet some of you at an agility show in 2011 .......

More Puppy photo's

10 weeks old.........

Ian thinks her ears will go up!

but I think they would have done so by now, if they were!
At last asleep, look at that lovely pink tummy...

Her mate Buzz, the only one who hasn't told her off yet!

Harry doing his "On my feet" trick

What a strange week...

Olympia Horse of the year was on and some the best agility dogs where competing there, but this year you couldn't see it on the TV, so we were sat on Facebook waiting for messages to pop up from friends who where either there or watching the results pop up on the official Olympia web site, so many agility folk would pay to see this, I personally cant see why some one doesn't show this for us all to watch........

Sunday evening we suddenly and unexpectedly, very sadly lost an agility friend, a lady who did so much at shows, although in a lot of pain herself, she always had time to stop and chat to people, never said a bad thing about any one and totally adored Tom and her dogs...all their dogs names began with "P", not sure the reason why, they just do.....

The Agility community is in shock, having not long ago lost Gary (who gave me my first ever agility clear round Rosette with Cassie) to cancer....

and then in another breath, I'm all excited about this manic Sennen pup, who's bonkers and I do wonder what we have here!...both Ian and I where expecting something a little quieter being that Annie (greyhound/whippety lurcher girl) was the mum...

She can Tug like the devil! (not that I've tugged with the Devil, but you get my drift) plays ball and retrieves (indoors) great, sits on command, knows her name, has learnt to open the back door, stand on and in a washing up bowl, just about to progress on to the elephant trick. stands on a paint pot, twist to left and right and a down, I hasten to add, she knows none of these except "sit" by name!...just about to start on the crate games, but as I've forgotten how the first part goes, must borrow my DVD back! and about to start on the wait game.

She has been to Padstow, met a policeman, been in the pub, meet a pram and a wheelie bin, a donkey and pony, been to the beach, walked on the sand, dug holes in the sand and started to play with our pack, Harry's her bestest mate.....

She has played with Holly the collie, had a wee walk with 2 labs, 2 collies a springer and a wocker, been in Steve and Peta house with their two Belgians.......That's all in week one of being here!

She eats her chicken wings, mince and vegs, without a second glance, house training is interesting, I'd forgotten how much a large pup wee's! and last night she slept from 9.45 straight through til 5.15 woohooo!

So I think you can say, she's settled right in, although she still need a telling off, from the Red dogs yet, to become a fully fledged member!

Sennen's first wordless Wednesday!

Back to the vets!

for a nice reason this time!....A PUP!

Tired out after her first afternoon away from Mum

Checking out the bone chopping board!

Meeting Harry.

So this is Sennen....5 DOGS! I cant believe it, we have 5 dogs! how did that happen???

She's going to be rather a large girl, she weighs in at 5.65kg this morning at 8 weeks old.

Mum is Annie a whippet/grey hound lurcher and father ...take your pick!

Walking with Friends.....

Nikki and Jem

St Austell ale, Beer at the end oh and lunch...

Kathy, Bertie and Ted and Me with Harry and Mindy

We walked from Trisillian to Malpas, 1 hour and 10 mins there, lunch then 1 hour 10 mins back.....great walk, although Nikki and I were making a few noises about "where we there yet!" around the odd bend and after 100's and 100's of steps!

Happy days....

Haircuts!

well Mindy and Harry have been to Val the hairdressers for an almost "short back and sides", I was beginning to struggle keeping up with the grooming, so I think you realise if you have been following this blog these "Puffs" take a lot of looking after if you want to keep the coat longer, they feel like silk and it just knots going out in the wind! Val loves them and Harry adores her and rushes to see her outside of the salon but hates going there..hope that makes sense, whether it's just all the other dogs barking, they were really noisy yesterday and I do hate leaving them, the last time I stayed and stuffed them full of treats and they really had a nice time...but look at the end result they came away with neck chief each and Xmas stocking....

They have all been to the vets this week too, Harry for his jab and weighing..I try and weigh them all regularly just to keep track with them, it can creep up...as it does with me!
everyone has lost weight, just little, but nothing to worry about, Mindy really needed to0, Red I try and keep low in her old age for her movement in her hip, she has HD in one hip oh and a grade 2 heart murmur (not bad for a grade 7 retired at 10 agility dog!) Buzz I was a little more concerned about, he had jumped off the bed on Saturday morning and did his back leg thing that he did last year that took £500 hydrotherapy and pills and potions and 6 months rest to sort out, although it really was just a management thing...he is a lot better after 6 days of metacam and lead walking, Vet agreed with my idea of another few days of rest and Metacam, take him off the metacam and then keep lead walking for another week and see how we go....

What else happened this week.......No lessons as the ground was just too hard, until today....but I did manage to fit in some cik and cap training (twist and rop, Dawns saying) great DVD that Slyiva Trkman has brought out, very down to earth in how she teaches it and why and where to use it....great Christmas buy! I'm still at the pole stage and haven't made up my mind what words I'm going to use that I can remember, I use "this" for both sides, but hadn't really taught it around anything...just used it out on walks to get them back to me.....Lots to learn.

Oh and Ian chopped another 6 inches of my hair with the kitchen scissors, it's rather short now and I can only just tie it up.. yes I know it will grow out a bit...it's short !!
May be I should have just gone with Mindy and Harry....

Frosty mornings...

Cant show you any snowy pictures as we didn't have any, looks like the rest of Cornwall has had snow, but it by passed us, this time. It has been very cold and we haven't been able to do any training...agility training that is. I think because the sun is lower in the sky, the sun doesn't get around to many parts of our ground, it does seem that others can still train outside, lucky them.......

So in the mean time we are trick training, well Harry is, his Christmas trick is coming on, although Ian says I'm too old to be teaching it!, red flag to a bull moment, so I'm sticking with it....we bought them a Radiator bed, which Harry seems to like, although haven't caught him in it, unless we are eating our food at the table...

Busy week if everything goes to plan this week, all dogs are off to the vets, check up, weighing and Harry for his Jabs, Harry and Mindy are off to Val's their hairdressers too, going even shorter this time, I am finding it hard with their coats and knots and as it's so cold they have been wearing coats too, then I have to spend an hour afterwards just grooming them...it will grow back for the summer (I hope)

No time to blog!

...Our three after their walk on a snowy sand dunes at Perranporth, this morning...Mindy's on my lap.

...these are the 6 pups left out of the 11 that still need homes, they are 6 weeks tomorrow, there is a boy and girl in each colour!

Lurcher Annie's Pups anyone!

4 weeks old today I think.......
The bitch is the farmers down the road and she had 11 pups, 6 boys and 5 girls, in the hay rick, he didn't know what to feed them or how to bring them up, so guardian angles Jackie and Nicky at Hawksflight (look at my links bit) bought them into their home and are raising them all...
They will be ready on or around the 11 December, when they will be 8 weeks, they will be microchipped and come with 4 weeks free insurance, they are staying down in Redruth, Cornwall, if any of you blog readers want to know any further details just send me a message and I'll pass on phone numbers etc..
She is such a good Mum...

Look at all those colours...Father unknown

Ian has picked the foxy one, think that is him in this photo on the right! and I narrowed mine down to 3 and "fancy that" they are all lined up here....one on the left is a girl, who is chewing Mums ear in the top photo, next is small grey brindle dog and then the pretty grey and white brindle girl.

An event without the dogs!

Ian with looooong legs!

Merry go around, do you remember these???

Long body...I don't think I've laughed so much for a long time!

Long Bodies....

Melodies!

You should hear the "Compton Theatre Organ" the chap came and played it for us, he was a great story teller and a great player of this Organ!...I think I could sit in a theatre with a silent black and white movie listening to him tell the story with this Organ! it was brilliant for a first timer.

Any way if you want to spend 3 hours or so, out and about in Devon, I'd say go and see all the old fairground rides in use.......they hire the place out and I recon it would be a great place for a Christmas Party or even a wedding!

Ps. this time of year it's only £3 to get in.....

brown signs off the A30 at Lifton on down, saying Dingles steam Village...

www.fairground-heritage.org.uk

On the way home we walked the dogs on Bodmin Moor, so everyone was happy, we should do this more often, Ian had tears in his eyes with laughing so much with the mirrors, I felt like kid again.....

..End of the year photos!

..at the end of the each year I take a photos of the woofits with their achievements, some may seem small to other peoples, but they all mean such a lot to me and are amazing, they all are so treasured, our home is so small (one bedroom) that they cant stay out all year, and end up in the garden shed, well the trophies and first place Rosette's, the rest get bagged up and given away to worthy causes!...but they are all treasured!

Do you have a favourite trophy?

I have a few, over the years....but this year I have two, which standout and they both are Mindy's one was a 2nd place at Wye Valley a hand painted plate, Mindy's first KC trophy (which so happened to be Red's first KC trophy at Supadogs, in 2001, a plate and 2nd place.....spooky) and the best one this year was a first place, that Mindy won at SWAT a photo frame and a picture of my choice from the lady doing the photo's.

Photos at shows are so stupidly expensive these days, even if they are great...I refuse to pay £10-12 for one photo, if they where cheaper I'd buy loads.

Two other trophies which will stay with me for ever, Red won one from the "Voice" crystal end of year "sweety jar" with lid, this one is always in the lounge and Cassie came 2nd in the pairs at Supadog with Kevin and Jansey (starter pairs 2001) and that's Cassie only ever trophy, it's a dog water bowel....I really miss Cass, bless her.

So here are the photos of all the dogs and their prizes.....Poor Buzz, cant cope with photo's especially if Red is watching! ...Look at Mindy, big yawn another photo hater!

Seesaw re-train 2010.

I ummm'd and ahhhh'd!

.....whether to put this in a post or not. I am certainly not secretive about how I train, I just find it may be boring for those family members that know nothing about agility and really aren't interested.

and in this case I wasn't sure whether I was doing it right!....in the begining I had a definate plan on how to train the seesaw, for me....my thoughts where: what was the point of a small dog running just to the pivot point and then tipping and moving down to the contact area....takes far too long and you would have to always be there for them....at the end of the day, the fastest dog wins....So I did my homework, watched loads of youtube videos on how others had trained their dogs and read articles etc.......

and I chose to use the method of the dog running all the way to the end with you there with food or toy, what ever gets the dog motivated, yes it would have been much easier if it was a toy and I would rather a toy, but I have learnt you need to adapt with each dog, if I had used a toy with both of my small dogs, I don't think I would have got Mindy anywhere near the SS again after her accident in June this year at Thames DTS, she got the contact the seesaw touched the floor then as she ran off it it bounced back up and hit her on the chin, it then took two weeks for her even to be within 2 metres of the ss, lots of clicker training and cheese got us to the start of the video, so from there we decided to use the "bang it" game and she eventually managed to "Look at it" (click, treat), then touch it, (click, treat) with her nose to touching it with a paw,(click, treat) often these click treat would be a jack pot too, then to jumping on the end, whilst it was on the floor (she had no problem with the dog walk and continued to run it in the ring) we then raised the end a little and she learnt to jump on the end and ride it too the floor...the rest of her progress is in this video diary...up to you whether you watch it all as it is long and some cases unedited......but this worked for us.....Harry joined in too.

She then managed to do three ss in the ring before the end of "My"season (September) and won the last agility class, to take her into G6.

No video's of that run, as she had at the previous weekend show, left the ring to go and chat to Ian who was videoing....Bless, such a baby, well actually she is a baby, I keep forgeting this was her first season competing and she's now up with the big guns!

Dogs are such great teachers........Love them.

So that's why...

So that's why you don't see too many "puffs" in full coats, out walking in the woods, although to be fair, Mindys coat is clipped shorter than a proper puff!
This was only 20 Min's in on the walk and she was far worse by the time we got back to the car another hour later!
.....Mindy is a hunter and chaser, where Red goes, she goes.
Harry was muddy, but not this bad.......

Bless them, but what fun to watch, her and Red ducking and diving in and out the trees, jumping some puddles and running through others!
So we spent the first hour when we got home using the dog wash and dog blaster......thank god for both, a god send!

Spent a couple of days

...at Mums this week with the dogs, Mum was chief video lady for my lessons with Dawn and as she is only an hour away from Mums, it seems a good idea to spend some time with Mum and have a lesson with Dawn.........
....at the beginning of the year Mum had the old pond, dug out and made bigger, they put a couple of island in for the ducks/geese.....
Mums Retrievers love swimming, mine are more paddlers!
View across towards the house, the other side of the woods.......
See Buzz is paddling out towards a stick....
Not sure where the "Puffs" were, off hunting, playing kiss chase!

Picture Monday...

Harry made his own bedtime arrangements last night!....was this because I spent the day out without him, cuddling puppies!
PS. the bed was made in the morning.....I promise.