It's Okay if your shoes arent doing it!

Bernadette said it so well, she said that she sometimes feels like this, when she's competing! Not that I believe a word of it, Bernadette always looks like, she knows what she doing and where she's going, lovely, calm, quiet and smooth...... But from now on, I will be using that saying......"It's okay if your shoes aren't doing it." Mum was I ever like that in my Ballet lessons......I think the answer would be YES Angela!

"To-do Lists"

Harry spends most of his time when he is resting (which is a lot of the time) with his back legs in the "Frog" position, whether that's a good thing or not, he seems happy though!

We have managed to get loads of jobs ticked off Ian's To-do list this weekend...meanie aren't I, although Ian did get up extra early to watch the GP.

Roof needed patching up...yes it's our roof on our little house!

Harry hates being left out, and has to come up and check we are doing it right.......

Mind you, all I did was take the tea up, oh but I did help mix the concrete up for the other major job!!

Harry and Mindy's UKA NFC Day!

I had two shows to go to this weekend, indoors at "the Grange" and indoor at Barguse.
What a beautiful day, travelled up on the Saturday in my Berlingo with Aly and her two dogs, we did most of last year together on the further afield shows, so nothing new!

First time I've ever been there and no rain! no mud either, well a little in the gateway to the field exercise area....Aly made us our ritual bacon baps for breakfast...YUMMY.

Anyway we had two agility runs and two jumping, really I was only going for the agility....
we started the day with a helter skelter, OH dear, as there were only 13 in the class and we where parked a little way from the rings I chose to take both of them in, giving someone else to hold the one I wasn't running, done it before....But unfortunately both dogs weren't happy at all, I had slow, un-confident, unmotivated dogs, came out feeling rather deflated, although I have to add I don't usual do helter skelter or steeple chase, I don't like standing still, not with my "Smalls" anyway, it was nice to have a breather running Red, but that's another story!
this behaviour continued in the next two runs with Harry leaping off his contacts on the dogwalk, so I stood still and Harry popped his back feet back on and the very kind Judge let me re-do the whole thing, only for Harry to leap off again, I stood still, he backed his feet back on and we left the course! this happened again on his next agility run to be repeated the same way for the fourth attempt to be a beautiful but slow 2o2o....
I didn't bother to take them for their next run and just took them for a nice walk around the fields with a friend and her wee dog!

Anyway Sunday arrived and I had all night ummming and arrring to think why/what was the problem and came up with, I would run all 4 of my runs at the UKA Not for Competition and boy was it fun, take a look at the video, 3 of the runs are on there, Mindy's first one, you can see she is still not happy looking around, not focused on the first jump or where I was, but by her second run she was wagging her tail and raring to go, that's the speed I get at training but not the speed I get at home, so we still have a long way to go to get that....Harry seemed to recover quickly and I'm sure he would have run it for real just fine, but I didn't want just FINE I want FAST! and boy where they both fired up at the end of each of their runs.....

I did find it hard, watching loads of people not running with toys, watching dogs that where unmotivated, slow and nervous being forced around a course which they really didn't want to do, why cant these "expereinced" handlers see that! yes they may have got round and got a ribbon or points or whatever it was that has motivated their owners to drag them around...I dont know.
I hope to god if anyone saw me with a dog like that they would have the guts to come and talk to me...Did I tell them, NO.......enough said.

Anyway I came away from that UKA show BUZZING with excitement about My PUFFS, they gave me everything they could on that day....LOVE THEM

Training anyone.......

No thanks, we're happy here!

Now where did that week go!?

Sennen resting in the sunshine day after her "Op" yes it's all been happening this week...

She ate a squeaker out of toy along with part of the fabric toy too....two weeks later it appeared after a stressful 24 hours.....So we now don't have any squeaker fabric toys out to play with until she is older.....

We then found a warty/lump thing on her front foot that grew in the week and was making her lame, so she had that removed and 3 stitches in it's place...keep her quiet was the orders hummmmm, those that have seen Sennen "On one" will know how hard that is going to be...she hated the stupid lampshade that she came home with (why cant they invent something less stressful for them, than that?)...so Ian's socks came in handy......anyway she is not bothered by the foot, and hasn't had to wear the socks during the day-yet!

They decided to send it of the lumps for tests, as whilst she was sleepy I managed to look at all her feet and found a further two on her back feet....

So that was my week.....
Mrs woo, enjoying today's blue skys and warmth...

Can Dogs shape our lives?

Oh YES, take Sennen for example, she has taught us after at least 7 "loo rolls" destroyed to now put them on the cistern behind the loo up high...We are a bit slow here, we never caught her doing it, just the end result on the bathroom floor or our bed!
The coal bucket having been emptied on numerous occasions on to the only carpet in the house, has a new place to sit .....On top of the TV! the log basket having had wood taken out eaten or chewed up, is now in the utility room, behind a closed door as she has also been known to take the next mornings bones out of the sink in their bag and trot off out into the garden.....

She has taught us, a cry by the door means she wants to go outside, not neccessarly to have a wee, but a tear around and possible dig up a plant, chase the naughty blackbirds or worse still find some thing really manky to bring back into the house to eat......
But best of all she has taught us to laugh loads and remember some of the other dogs antics which I had forgotten about...

We always offer the dogs different types of foods, from wine gums to ice cream to a tongue full of wine to popcorn etc.....which has just jogged my memory of Cassie who liked to eat wine gums...but this day she chucked it around a bit and then we lost interest watching her....to the following day me having a panic that she had a lump behind her ear only to find an orange one stuck behind her ear! Ian and I laughed for weeks after that one and still do.....

Did you spot Mindy blending in well on the throw with Sennen?

Ps. She is also shaping the back of the sofa into a foot stool!

Freaky happy endings!

Love this picture! Tally and Holly trying to come home with Sennen and I, after a walk with Sue...

Many years ago we where walking in Priddy woods, near Bristol/Bath area.

I think Red was with us and Raggy baggy (who was another Collie that used to come and stay for 4 months of the year, every year whilst his Mum and Dad went on their Summer Holidays!)
Anyway we had been walking for a couple of hours and where just coming to the end of our walk, when we realized Cassie wasn’t with us…we called and called and quickly realized she wasn’t just going to turn up…we started back tracking, calling and about 10 mins of back tracking came across her just sat amongst the trees staring at us, we called her but she didn’t move, so we clambered through the under growth to find her sat next to a tree stump with her collar caught on a NAIL on a tree !

Thank god we found her, she didn’t bark or struggle……

Then this morning another freaky happy ending accident!

A thank god you where there moment!

I was in the bathroom, with the door shut, as all 5 dogs seem to want to be in there with you and it’s just too small and Buzz although he has a choice to be in the bathroom with us, has to be in the thick of it and he hates being confined and will fight, silly billy…
So I was in there with Mindy, with the door shut, when I heard Sennen being told off by Harry for being a pain (normal), added to the telling off noise I could hear a thud, thud noise, I opened the door (wished the camera had been nearer, because I doubt you would have believed me!) There was Sennen walking around with Ian walking boot attached to her “D” ring on her collar by the hook that you put the laces around! Swinging between her front legs, she thought it was cool and wasn’t panicking at all!

Bless them all, love them all...they make me laugh, thank GOD

Cor Blimey!

Went for a sort of "new" walk this week, I try and walk from home as much as possible, but as I am back to walking in two groups again, as Red was being a grumpy soul and I didn't want Sennen getting any ideas she could behave like that too!
So I usually walk from home to here, it takes about 25 mins to get to somewhere were they could be let off lead on this "Permissive path" area, Imerys had closed off my other walks and I never understood why, until I did this one, as you can see from the last photos they are getting closer to the A30 with their "Mining"
...View towards Mc Donalds...that's why the hill is called Hamburger hill!

But today I took all five and drove the first part...there's my wee Berlingo down on the left of the photo and looking over at the right you can see the footpath bridge which goes over the A30 and that's how I usually get to where the photo was taken..hope that makes sense...my home is over the bridge and turn right walk another 15 mins and your home!...

you can still see the bridge and the path that goes past the park homes and the hill on the right is where I used to walk until they kindly fenced it all off....

and there the mining, scarily close!

and now we are almost full circle of photos, so this is on the left of the A30 and looks like a Motocross site, right next too the Imerys Site! the road goes to Grandpound Road etc.....