December already!

Rather stating the obvious I know but where has this year gone? I can't believe it's December as it seems only yesterday that I was stocking up the caravan for our first outing of 2009. Yikes, that reminds me I have still to clean it out from our last trip. I've put the little greenhouse heater in there to keep the chill off but I still have to have a good clear up. It's never that bad as I clean it out after every outing but even so I really should sort it out properly!

It doesn't seen long ago that we were longing for Christmas to come and go so that we could pick up Kizzy and that was three years ago. Now I have my own sheltie and she started competing in agility this year. Naughty Niamh will be 5½ years old on Christmas Day; Murphy will be 8 on Christmas Eve; Becky 10 and Poppy 13 in the spring.

Lots has happened this year including some really sad things which I won't dwell upon. On the positive side I am really enjoying my doglets. I am so lucky to have the three most wonderful dogs. Poppy is still a joy to me and what can I say about Niamh and Zeki, they are just the best fun to train and run with. They are both so keen and willing and so very different which isn't so good as I'm not very good at switching between the two. Oh well, it's good to have a challenge.

Andy is also very lucky with his lovely dogs. Kizzy is the light of his life and such a character. Becky and Murphy are lovely cuddly dogs who just want to be together.

We are both fortunate that our dogs get on really well as threesomes but also as a pack of six. I know some people have dreadful problems with their dogs on this front and I really feel for them as it must be so hard to manage. We are very lucky in this way.

I so love training my dogs and it makes me sad sometimes when I see people who shout and are horrible to their dogs. Agility for me is the thing that brings me even closer to my dogs and makes me love them and bond with them more than anything. I can't imagine how that would happen if I got cross with them or lost my temper just because they run the wrong way on a course. Of course I get frustrated, same as most people do but it's always with myself and never my dogs. I can't understand the mentality of those who continually tell me that their dogs don't listen to them. I guess we're all different, same as dogs are! Luckily all of my friends are like-minded so I'm lucky to have great people to train with.

What a strange posting this is: I'm not really sure why I started it, just feeling a bit reflective for some reason. Coming to the end of the year I guess.

So, to cheer myself up I decided to "decorate" the blog early for Christmas and post a cute picture of Zeki!