"Shut that door" Harry

This weeks trick for the dogs. Well not Buzz as he got to do some agility, as trick training with him is hard work, he barks so much and puts me off!

Harry of course can do anything, so soon learnt what I wanted.

There is only one trick that I'm struggling teaching him and believe it or not, it's the elephant one, where they stand with front legs on a box and move their back legs around it, I did start to wonder whether it was because he wasn't a herdy type dog, so didn't naturally want to be around the front of me when I moved around the "Quality Street" tin of sweets (empty).......but yesterday I had another go at it and just stood next to him whilst he was stood on it and gentle touched his side and he moved away from me, so clicked and hey presto, he is moving about a 1/4 way round the tin!....that was yesterday, haven't done any today.

I'm still using my keep fit program with the Wii, one day I do a mixture of yoga and muscle exercises and the other, jogging, snowball fights etc..........

I've only lost a few pounds, but I am feeling a lot more flexible, I can now touch my toes on some of the yoga exercises, although I am still struggling with the one leg ones and tend to wobble and have to put my foot down, which then I get told off about, at least I can swear at them without offending any one! I am a bit silly really, as I do all this with my jeans on, that can't help "getting your leg up!"

We went agility training indoors with the "Roseland" club last night, first time for nearly 6 weeks. It was great seeing everyone. Harry did a few contacts and a couple of little exercises before I could see he had had enough, the clue was, him running through the tunnel, grabbing his toy and running off to say "hello" Nigel I really love you and where's Lisa! Mindy was great and managed quite a bit, she calmed down to do some nice work, I do think she may be starting to have a phantom (she didn't have one after her last season) She's just been so quiet around the house the last two days and wanting to sleep and have cuddles, so I had better up her exercise, reduce her food (that's what the book says, to help stop phantoms, how true that is?)

Any way the Wii awaits, so I'm off...........

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Boys?

For the Off-Roaders amongest you!

.........Ian Started dismantling the front of the discovery, ready to fit his Christmas present a Winch, in the recent lot of snow!







......trying the bumper out.












....fitting the winch to the bumper.
after the bumper had had "umpteen" amounts of coats of paint!
(more than our living room!)






...Just the wiring left to do.
Note. I did supply the tea!


So what's left to do: Well Ian has to fit another Christmas present, a Snorkel (raised air intake) and then no doubt will he will want to add "guards" of all sorts to the underneath (help protect from bending anything when off-roading) and....and.......and............

Kick up the butt!

Well I had my "kick up the Butt" by Elaine, well it wasn't really a kick up the butt, more goal setting and motivational talk! ......and having read Susan Garrett blog......I felt like getting back into it, not necessarily agility, although I did go out and run Buzz along a line of jumps on medium height, I use the word run loosely as I left the toy at the end so, he didn't herd me and sent him to the end of 5 jumps at various widths apart..........Well it's a start.

What I have been doing is lots of clicker training, Well again I say lots, it actually was all day on and off on Saturday as it was raining and Ian was outside welding a winch bumper together (that's another post later on, for all you off roaders!) it's funny really the two big dogs weren't brought up with clickers, I've really only got into it with the two small ones, so I thought I would have a go with the "Bigs" as well, you can see all the videos on my YouTube link in the link section, if your interested!
So I did the basic with the Big dogs, I had taught them tricks before, but not with the clicker, so some of what they did they knew from before, except I added a new "Trick" put your head in a flower pot! WHY I've no idea! ....but they cottoned on to to it really quickly we are talking about two dogs here that at 10 in a half and nearly 8 year old.

The "Smalls" have been taught from scratch with the clicker, so they are easy and fast to pick things up as long as your timing is right, Mindy started to show me a new one, which I think I might go along with "Wipe your feet", she did it whilst doing a touch command, she pawed at the target, I also want to help her accept the Halti better so we will do more on that today and feet touching she hates her front feet being touched, she has such long hair around that area they need to be trimmed and nails cut, she will mouth you and protest, so that will be her next step.
Harry just loves doing anything for food and will come up with anything, so he has learnt to get in his sleeping bag, with a little help at the moment and to hug a toy/bottle/plastic pipe and even Daffy duck!

Why have we got a Daffy Duck toy, well Ian loves anything to do with DD! We have quite a collection now from stickers, Christmas tree hanging thingy to Tattoos!

This is what happens after a clicker training session!

So now that I'm clicker ed out maybe I'll go out and do a bit of agility training? Must enter some shows too, as closing dates are starting to get closer, still can't make my mind up about the small/medium Chippenham show, it would be Harry's first champ show.........

Well, are you getting bored Yet?

Snow, snow and more snow.............

We are as I type, having another "downfall", not sure whether that's the right words for "load of snow", but I'm sure you get what I'm meaning, we certainly aren't used to this in the UK let alone, warm, sunny, yet mostly windy (as Lisa always kept telling us before we moved here) Cornwall!

The postman managed to get through to us yesterday, which was the first day since Tuesday, the rubbish collection and recycling truck couldn't get though, so that is still sat underneath a covering of yet more snow and now the lane is impassable again, unless you have a 4 x 4.

Luckily Ian took us (me and woofs) all out Friday and yesterday to refill the freezer and cupboards and go to the butchers to get the dogs their bones although I actually just picked up a huge box of chicken wings instead, so their freezer would be full for another 25 days!

We walked them on the way to the butchers on Newlyn Downs (another new walk for me) it was nice as we had the whole place to ourselves, I wouldn't normally mind meeting other dog walkers, but with Mindy being well and truly in season, it's nice not to worry!

That looks like a nice sledging hill below the windmills............

.....I took this photo on Thursday of Mindy and just loved it, you can actually see the snow on her chin, just starting to melt.

......I also realised that I hadn't got that many nice photos, of my Old lady "Diddles", so here is one!

We tried making a snowman, but have been struggling getting it to stick together and then Red would just grab the starts of one and eat it, hummmm, we eventually got a hump of one, but then all the dogs including the girls, have been using it as a pee post, which has slightly put me off in attempting to make any thing more of it!

It doesn't look like, I will be able to take Buzz for his swimming classes this week again or to the vets for his Cartophen injection, I might be able to change the cartophen injection for an evening appointment, if they are open!

Still it's all very pretty out there, so maybe after lunch has gone down (roast chicken) we could venture out, for a bit of sledging?

...and More SNOW!

The video is a bit wobberly, so you may not want to watch it!
.....Snow time, even the Collies have "snowballs" this time around, here's a little tour of the top part of the garden, which was taken yesterday morning, we've had more snow since then, so it's deeper!

....and just a couple of Pictures of the "love birds" on the back of the sofa, these "puffs" love being up high!

Agnus Castus, plus bits and bobs!

Bought from http://www.crossgatesfarm.co.uk/ rather expensive though, for such a small bottle! Anyway thanks to Jill for recommending them.

Harry tied him self up in knots (literally) the last time Mindy was in season, I wanted to try something natural, so far it's brilliant he is a lot calmer than the last time! Today was a good test as she was running around sticking her bum in his face, poor chap! So if you have a sexy boy that needs calming down a bit, try some of this Agnus Castus 6x

I forgot to mention on our last beach walk that Buzz had found something to roll in, on the dunes, on the way back to the car, he ended up smelling like Padstow Harbour!
Buzz never rolls, well actually he has rolled three times in nearly 8 years, one was "in" and I mean "In" some fresh cow poo! the second, was a very dead badger he found on Newbury Showground! (when we where camped across the road in the fields) yuck that was awful, we had the motor home at the time and had to try and cram him into the shower and shower him off, god I can still smell that smell! and then the other day, he looks so funny doing it too, like a dieing fly! and the third was that "flat" fish!

Ian managed a few odd jobs over the Hols, including rolling the drive, with the neighbours roller, so at least I don't get stuck in the gravel, trying to get out with the Berlingo and Ian can drive straight over the top with his motorbike!

We went for a cycle along the "Goss Moor" 7 mile cycle route, well I think we must have done more than 7 miles as we started from home and then cycled to the Screech Owl, before we started on the 7 miles, we had snow flurries to start of with, luckily I had made a couple of those small flasks of coffee with sugar to keep us going, we did stop and walk on a few occasions just to get the circulation back into my Bum.... so the goal is to do it the next time in less than 2 hours! It was nice for a change to do something without the dogs, although I'm sure they would have loved to come, except Harry who would have rather been in bed in the warm!

We have had a few days of snow, which I love, but wished Asda had made it through with the shopping yesterday and wish Ian hadn't got a 4 x 4 and could have stayed at home with us all.....

Look, I managed to get Buzz to look at me and not at Red, that is a first!