HudsonDoglets

All about Becky

2011-12-13T13:19:00.001Z

Poor Becky has been through a really rough time over the past ten months or so. It started with rear leg lameness at the beginning of the year. We had x-rays done and nothing was conclusive so with the support of our vet we tried to manage the lameness with pain relief, restricted exercise, swimming, massage and physio. For a time it worked and although the lameness never completely disappeared we felt that Becky was enjoying her walks and life in general. We were all pretty sure the source of pain was emanating from her knee as it was swollen and she showed stress when it was manipulated. However to complicate matters she also had two areas of pain in her back and therefore there was a possibility of referred pain.

Then at the end of October the lameness got worse and we awoke one Sunday morning to find that Becky was holding her leg completely off the ground. Our immediate thoughts were that she had ruptured her cruciate ligament. We got an appointment with our vet on the Monday morning and by this time she was weighting the leg again but only slightly. We all agreed it was time that Becky be referred for more extensive tests and we chose North Downs Specialist Referrals not just because they are local to us but because they have so many areas of expertise and at this point we were unsure if the issue was skeletal or soft tissue. Nico, our vet, especially wanted us to see Terry Emmerson because he is a specialist in both orthopaedics and soft tissue. Unfortunately he was on holiday so we had to wait for nearly three weeks for an appointment during which time Becky's lameness and pain got progressively worse. We decided to try her on Rimadyl to see if that would be any better than the Previcox. I so wish we hadn't asked for that (you will understand why later.) Nico wanted her off all pain meds prior to her appointment so we made sure to do this but as our appointment got closer we noticed that someone had been peeing overnight. Sometimes it was on the back door mat and other times a bed was completely saturated. We weren't sure who it was as Niamh was on steroids at this time for a skin problem. We knew we would have to isolate her and Becky to find out who it was.

Anyway off to North Downs. Terry Emmerson is a very nice guy and he gave Becky a thorough, if brutal, examination. He agreed she has some pain in her back but he was 99% sure that her main source of pain was coming directly from the knee. Like our own vet he felt it wasn't severe cruciate damage as the joint was pretty stable. He suggested the best route would be for an MRI scan and at the time they would also do a neurological test to make sure that the pain wasn't coming from the area in her back and also take some fluid from the knee to run some tests. He suggested that it was unlikely that Becky would have surgery and that more likely we would medically manage whatever was going on.

We had to wait a week or so for the results although Terry rang us on the evening we collected Becky to say that in his opinion there was nothing nasty going on. He would be back in touch once the scans had been printed and read by their radiologist. Unfortunately nothing really showed on the scan apart from a thickening in the knee joint which didn't look sinister but wasn't quite right. He said he was going to get another opinion on this but it was unlikely anything would be conclusive and so we would manage Becky's pain with medication: continue with Rimadyl and add Tramadol. Not very satisfactory but he had warned us that sometimes things aren't always clear cut.

In the meantime the peeing was getting worse and we identified that it was Becky. I had an inkling it could be the Rimadyl although this isn't a published side effect of the drug. So, I stopped it and rang the vet. Becky then had to have urine and blood tests and these tests showed that her urine was too dilute but that her kidneys were about right for a dog of her age. After ten days off the Rimadyl she started to return to normal which was a relief but because she was no longer on anti-inflams her pain returned big time. She would/could no longer put her leg to the ground and was carrying it under her belly most of the time. She was panting and stressing and we were beside ourselves. So, we rang Nico and asked him what could we do. We took her into see him and he was sad to see that her knee had swollen considerably since being off the anti-inflams He advised it would be wrong to put her back onto anti-inflams as there was a real possibility that we would damage her kidneys but he would understand if we chose to do that as he was sympathetic to our worries about her pain. He suggested we go away and think about things and we would re-group the following week. We made the decision to put her back onto Previcox and within a day her pain was better although she still wouldn't put her leg down.

Things seemed a bit better but then the peeing started again and we felt totally between a rock and a hard place. We called Nico in despair and he started the conversation about removing her leg. This was last Monday and we spent most of the day either crying or on the phone to either Nico or Terry Emmerson. Terry was very kind and suggested we have biopsies done but it would be up to three weeks before we got the results. Terry and Nico spoke and then we talked with Terry again and we told him we had decided to have the leg removed. Our thinking, along with guidance from Nico, was that whatever results came back from more tests the fact would remain that the leg was causing Becky huge pain and that had to stop. Against us was the fact that we could no longer administer anti-inflams and so every possibility had to be considered. Both vets felt that Becky's pain was disproportionate to what was showing on the MRI scan and X-rays. Nico felt that something was being missed and that the level of Becky's pain was that which he would expect to see in a dog with some kind of tumour and that means a great degree of unmanageable pain. Terry said it was somewhat unorthodox to remove the leg prior to biopsy but he also said he could understand why we were going down that route. So, the decision was almost made and we decided that we wanted our own vet to do the operation. Terry asked us why not North Downs (fair enough) and we said our decision was very easy to make: Becky loves Nico and all his staff and goes into the surgery with her tail wagging looking for the biscuit barrels and importantly we can take her into the surgery about 20 minutes before her op and be with her as she goes to sleep on the table. Easy decision I think!

Nico invited Andy back to the surgery for one last chat before we finally made up our minds and during that meeting he explained exactly what he would do during the procedure and what we could expect. Andy said we would go ahead. Once he had made that final decision then Andy was anxious to get the ball rolling as we were in such a state by now. Nico took his diary home with him so he could call his other clients and cancel all procedures, bar one, for the following day so that Becky could go straight in. I am so grateful for this.

So Tuesday dawned and I awoke feeling very down. It's one thing for this to happen when there is no choice but when you are actually making that choice you question over and over are you doing the right thing. We got the call to take Becky in around 12.40 pm and had one very last chat with Nico. He was totally understanding of our dilemma and said he felt pretty much the same himself but like us had concluded that it was the right thing to do. He felt her leg one last time and she cried , he also reiterated that he had a gut feeling that there was some kind of cancer/tumour for this level of pain. That was enough for us we would go ahead. We went through with Becky and she went off to sleep very easily. We waited whilst he took some precautionary chest x-rays. He came out to tell us that these were clear and therefore he would go ahead.

He assured us that he would only send her home if he felt her post-op pain was under full control otherwise she would stay in. He had already explained that she would be pretty spaced as he would be keeping her dosed up with opioid analgesia. This was his only option due to her anti-inflam intolerance. He called us once the op was done and said it had gone exactly to plan and that she was sleeping on a heat pad with lots of blankets over her. He said he would call us again later for an update.

True to his word he called at about 6.30 pm. He said she was very stoned and quite high maintenance with a drip etc. However, he had offered her food which she wanted but was too unbalanced to manage herself. So he sat with her and rolled the food into meat balls and hand fed her. He felt she would be too much for us to cope with that first night and so he was taking her home with him. It made us feel very happy that she would be in such good hands. When we went to collect her the following day he looked wiped out and explained he hadn't got that much sleep as she had needed quite a bit of care and hand feeding. He also said he had been kept awake worrying that if her pain was really in her back then how could it now manifest itself now that we had taken off her leg. But then he talked himself back into the space where we had all been the previous day; where we agreed the pain was coming from the knee and that it was the right thing to do. He was pleased that we had slept better - bless! We are very lucky to have such a brilliant and compassionate vet. He and his whole team are simply fantastic.

Becky's first night home was pretty awful. Andy sleptwith her and between them I think they had about an hour's decent sleep. She wouldn't/couldn't lay onthe side of the amputation, understandably, and that was adding to herfrustrations. She was very agitated and stressed. She wore a buster collar and Andy had her lead around his wrist so he was aware of her movement. She needed to go out quite a lot during the night and was leaning and listing. It was very scary and we felt very emotional and helpless.

The following morning we made her a very special bed of double memory foam, a folded upduvet from one of the spare beds covered in a soft fleece blanket. Thismeant she was on a very soft but supportive bed and importantly completelyelevated off the floor. What a difference. She was much morecomfortable and would now lie happily on the side of the amputation.

The stitches are obviously tweaking as every so often she would try to get atthem but one of us is with her all the time so we make sure she can't lick orbite at the incision site. Some bruising and a bit of a swelling started below the incision butthe following day the swelling was all but gone and the flesh is just purple/red.

Leah came to visit Becky on her first proper day at home. She commented on what a fantastic job our vet had done. She thought it was one of the neatest amputation sites she had seen. That was good to hear.

By now, slowly but surely she was starting to improve. Interestingly, Leah commented on something that I was feeling. She saidalthough it was obvious Becky was post-op sore, she seemed less unhappy in hergeneral demeanour. She said her face looks like the usual Becky ratherthan the one we've all been seeing over the past months and weeks.

We have bought her a Ruffwear harness for when she can go out on proper walks. This will be very useful as it has a handle on the back and we will be able to quietly help her with bridges and styles etc without making it stressful for her. She hates being lifted and man handled.

Her balance and ability to get around to go out for a pee etc isquite amazing. The leaning and listing has almost disappeared. She will lie on her back with her legs (and stump) in the air. She hasn't done that for many months as she has been protecting that damn leg. I cried first time I saw her do this. Her hair is already starting to grow back and her stitches are due to come out this Friday. This morning she hopped up onto one of the sofas - we are really getting there!

We are gradually introducing her to the other dogs and having them back in the sitting room for the evening. We are making sure they stay calm and don't go near her (that means Tidal Wave in her soft pod as she doesn't do calm.) We have to protect her operation site from being bumped or knocked. We remember Nico's last words to us as he put her into our car: "don't bump the stump!"

Now we have to hope that once the last lot of anti-inflam has finally cleared from her system that the exsessive drinking and peeing will stop. I do believe it is improving so fingers crossed. Here are some pictures and video of our little Tri-Pawd!

2011 is slowly on its way out

2011-11-24T17:26:00.006Z

Well, 2011 is nearing its end and it's a year I shall be glad to say goodbye to for one reason or another. Of course not everything has been bad but it is a year which I wish to move on from.

In September we had to say goodbye to my step-father Eddie. I think when my mum died back in January he simply lost the will to live without her. Even though she had been in the nursing home for such a long time she was still here with us. After the funeral a few of us went for a drink in the Crown which was Eddie's watering hole and we saw him off in a style which he would have liked. There was only one thing missing and that of course was Eddie.

Eddie was a huge part of my life for thirty years. He did a lot for me and built the extension on my first cottage out of love. I will never forget that because at the time I had no money to pay for the labour. He was a first class brick layer and was respected by many in the trade. He was a very proud man and his work-ethic was second to none. He adored all my dogs and right to the end could remember the name of every one of them. I am sure he will be laying bricks wherever he is now with Tina by his side.

Eddie - my step-father. Sleep peacefully, now out of pain.

Seeing him off in style at his favourite haunt, The Crown. My step sisters Cindy and Angie below with myself and sister Sally and in the middle John Kenward who worked with Eddie. I hadn't seen John in many years and it was so lovely that he attended the funerals of both my Mum (who he loved and who used to make his sandwiches every day!) and of course Eddie. Thank you John, it meant a great deal.

Bit weird to post pictures of flowers for a funeral but the picture below shows the flowers from Eddie's brother, Brian and and his wife Barbara. How lovely that they had the florist make them into a brick and trowel. Very fitting and a lovely tribute. Below are my own flowers which I just wanted a photo of as a reminder of the day we said goodbye.

Agility shows have just about finished although we have North Downs indoor show on Saturday. I'm not a great lover of indoor agility shows but this one I do quite like as the venue is very nice and the show is well organised. It's good to catch up with friends in person, for possibly the last time until the new year. It's nice to be able to stay in touch with friends via Facebook but it's still not the same as chatting in person.

Our last few agility shows were fun and Zeki and I got into the champ final of our last championship class of 2011. We ran clear in all three parts and ended up in 3rd place in the final beaten by two great runs, one by Christine and Zev (Zeki's litter brother) getting the reserve CC and the other by Amanda Hampson and Rogue winning the CC. We travelled all the way to Southdowns for one run at the end of September (KC Qualifier for Olympia 2012) but unfortunately picked up 5 faults. It was a nice day out despite the fact that we got caught up in a massive motorcyle protest on the M27 on the way down. It wasn't very nice and at times quite scary as some of the bikers were behaving in a very intimidating fashion. It certainly didn't make me sympathetic to their cause and I speak as someone married to a motorcyle fanatic.

In October Zeki and I travelled to Gloucestershire to try out for the WAO 2012. The day was well organised and the tests were well thought out and extremely challenging. I could only fault one test which was the jumping course at the very end of the day. It was too hard and too biased to one's ability to run at great speed. The course was a borrowed one from one of our own UK judges but for some reason the organisers decided to send us to the opposite end of the tunnel at the start of the course and also added in an extra jump. These two changes made a difficult course too hard. Of course that's just my opinion but I don't think I'm being unfair. In fact I managed to scrape round that course in a very ugly fashion. Overall we didn't do too badly, made some silly mistakes but had a go at the challenges set. We ended up in 3rd position in our height category. Now we have to wait until some time in December to find out if we have qualified. The finals are in Belgium in May next year. Zeki thoroughly enjoyed the day being an 'only' dog. I left my others at home with Andy as I knew it would be a busy day and they wouldn't get much attention.

Zeki was invited to Discover Dogs for the medium ABC competition. I really enjoyed this experience. I kind of expected Zeki to take things in her stride and she did. She was completely at ease with the atmosphere and ran really well. She came 4th in the jumping and 6th in the agility with the second fastest time but with 5 faults. I was thrilled with how she ran on the carpet. She hasn't competed at an event like this before so it was a really nice warm up for her Crufts debut in March 2012. Leah came for the day as my groom and was really helpful in keeping Zeki nice and calm before she ran. I didn't want her screaming and barking prior to her run so it was nice to have that help.

Leah suggested I bring Tidey for the day. I wasn't looking forward to that as I thought it would spoil my nice relaxing day with Zeki but I am so glad I did take her. I was worried she would be a bit spooky with all the dogs and crowds but she was fantastic. She was totally chilled walking along the streets of London with big buses whizzing past and she loved the crowded stalls inside the venue. She was fine with all the dogs and absolutely loved the people and children. She must have had a hundred cuddles during the day. She got to pose with the vet from the Dogs Trust for one of their promotional leaflets so hopefully I might get to see that some time.

Here are both my lovely girls playing crate games at Discover Dogs!

Here is the video of Zeki's jumping round (thanks to Bernadette for filming.) Pop back later to see the agility run which is still slowly uploading onto YouTube and I've lost patience!

Recently I have done a couple of extra training sessions with both Niamh and Zeki at Leah's. As always they have been very challenging but also very enjoyable. I love to do these training days with my girls once the show season has wound down.

During October our old friends Chris and Dave Hurst came to stay for the weekend along with their younger daughter Ellie and their two dogs Ruby and Spider. It's was so lovely to see them and catch up with everything. I can't believe where the years have gone as it seems only yesterday that Ellie was a tiny baby at Burridge Agility show. It is also scary that Ellie's elder sister, Casz, is now studying to be a doctor and we knew her as a tiny tot! I love this picture of Casz with Poppy when she was about ten weeks or so. Poppy will be fifteen in April so it shows you how long ago this was taken.

Here are some pictures from their visit with us. I notice now that Chris and Andy managed to avoid the camera!

Above is Poppy and her litter sister Ruby with myself and Dave. These two little dogs hadn't seen each other for best part of five years and yet they greeted each other so sweetly. I do believe they remember. They are both doing so well for their age.

Tidey 'Tidal Wave' with Ellie

Above Ellie with Spider (who is also a Woodsorrel like Poppy and Ruby) and a gorgeous dog; below with Poppy and Spider

Below is Ellie with Kizzy being typically stand offish but eventually unable to resist Ellie's charms!

Our visitor Spider making himself at home!

As usual once the season winds down I tend to do longer walks as Autumn progresses. I like to lengthen their daily walks during the off season in order to keep them as fit as possible. Plus I rather like Autumn/Winter walks despite the fact that the dogs get dirty sometimes. Either you have a gorgeous day without the searing heat when it's just a joy to be outside or it's cold, wet and depressing and when you get the dogs back indoors it's a lovely sense of satisfaction that they've had a nice walk but are now tucked up in the warm again. Either way I love walking at this time of year!

Just love these pictures of the sunflower field on part of our walk. This field used to be for hay but this year, for the first time I can recall, they ploughed it which looked horrible to start with but then these came up and it looked beautiful. This photo was taken a few weeks back and they have all gone now. The field has just been deep ploughed so back to being ugly for a while!

Tidey is growing up fast. I have lots to update on her as I haven't been blogging of late. In the meantime, here's a current picture of her together with Niamh and Zeki on our walk yesterday.

If I could choose how a border collie turned out in terms of confirmation, colour and of course most importantly ears then Tidey would be my perfect dog. That is not to say Niamh isn't perfect also because she is. She is a much bigger, rangier type and I have come to love that look even though it probably isn't my preference. I wouldn't change a single thing about my beautiful Niamh. Tidey has the look of my previous collies, Bess, Abbey and Poppy. She is quite petite, sharp featured and very intense. The only thing I would change about Tidey is the naughty spots on her legs. I'm not a lover of naughty spots and in Tidey's case every single one of them has proved to the purveyor of extreme naughtiness.

More of Tidey in another post, but meantime here is a little video of her instant downs which we work on every day during our walks.

Lastly, a couple of garden photos. The long border is now just about finished for the season but we are lucky to still have a little bit of colour here and there. I can't wait for spring as Julie has planted loads of new bulbs. It will be exciting to see them emerge.

Absolutely lastly for this post, the new addition to our family. Andy's 'new' BMW which he loves. We have sold the big VW Transporter as it was really surplus to requirements. My little Caddy will tow our tiny caravan next season.

Kizzy, Becky, Murphy and Poppy are very happy cruising round in this motor car.

Back soon with Tidey and Becky updates!

The beginning of Autumn - pictures of the garden

2011-09-27T16:23:00.001+01:00

A few pictures of the garden as things are starting to turn. The new grass is growing really well, we are so lucky to be getting this late September sun which is perfect timing. It's had two cuts now and hopefully we'll be able to use it in a couple of weeks.

My favourite time for the Russian Vine as it starts to turn

Julie has had a good clear out of the long border but there's still stuff to come and lots of colour left

We have hundreds of bulbs to plant (well, Julie does lol) and they will be going in soon

I could make my own weave poles from the bamboo sticks!

Just a nice view

The weeping willow and our tallest tree, the Eucalyptus

The new grass growing helped by the late September sunshine!

The summer garden in pictures

2011-09-21T13:34:00.002+01:00

Our lovely garden from the summer in pictures. We have done a lot this year with Julie helping us with the border and the rockery; Al sorting out the hideous tip that was the very top of the agility area and putting up post and rail fencing. We finally got round to putting some planters in the front which have been really lovely and colourful. As you can see my planting theme is mainly pink ...... would you expect anything else!

Reg, one of Michael & Ellen's cats hiding in the undergrowth

Only taken four years to put this little hangingbasket up, it's been sitting in the yard since we moved here

Brought the above planter from my Mum's housebefore it was sold. Every time I come into the drive I see it and thinkof her. She loved her garden. There used to be two but one of themhad a bit of an argument with my sister when she was reversing her car ....enough said, Sal!! So we bought the planter below to go opposite.

The border in full bloom

The border and the repaird bird house (Andy makes these from scratch)

Part of the new rockery above and below

Above and below the reclaimed area at the top of the agility area ready for seeding

Our runner beans which were delicious

Above and below the new post and rail fencing sectioning off the agility area. Al and Andy did this and I'm very pleased with the result!

Some of my planters on the decking area

The garden wall after Andy gave the Russian Vine a bit of a haircut

Above and below, apple picking!

Just for the sake of comparison, here are a couple of photos: one is of the long border last summer, very full but mainly of green stuff very little colour at all; the other is of the top end of the agility area, a real mess.

However, a good excuse to post a picture of my dear little Abbey, we didn't have her for much longer after the above photo was taken. She was so precious and I still get a lump in my throat whenever I look at a picture of her. So, for the heck of it here's another photo of my oh so special girl.

Abbey 'Karrider Kwik Step' - my dog of a life time who I still miss very very much

Tidey

2011-09-11T10:51:00.003+01:00

Well, at long last I am doing an update on Tidey. That naughty little Zeki has been hogging the blog of late.

Tidey is five months old today and I am very excited as we are going to start our foundation class at club this coming Tuesday. We won't be doing anything that I haven't done at home but it's exciting to be doing it somewhere else, under instruction and with another dog. There are only two of us in the class but our club is so full we just can't spare the time to put on a full class. It's a shame as I'd like to be training with more dogs really. I am probably going to start obedience classes with her soon so she will get interaction with lots more dogs there.

Here are some pictures of Tidey at three months. Her ears are a little wayward but looking as if they might be semi-pricked, or at least one of them. Oh boy have they changed .... read on!

In the pictures above she reminds me very much of her Aunt 'Terra' who is owned by Michelle Seabrook. You can see Terra on Michelle's website here and I think you'll see what I mean. Tidey is the second dog that I have closely related to one of Michelle's dog, the other being her gorgeous Ziggy who is niece to my very special dog Abbey. The likeness of Ziggy and Abbey is remarkable. Michelle and I have never met but we are like-minded dog lovers and have a good cyber-friendship! Michelle breeds the lovely Harrjak border collies.

The little string attached to Tidey's collar is her instant reward. I have this on her so that when I recall and she comes to me we can immediately have a game as I never seem to find a toy quickly enough. This string is called her 'string-a-ling' and she knows its name and can pick it out from a bunch of other toys.

Tidey's favourite toy in the whole world is her fleecey which holds a plastic bottle. This toy is somewhat unoriginally named 'Toy' and she can find it amongst lots of other toys. She also loves her 'pom pom' and can find this in the toy box on command.

I have taught Tidey most of her tricks and behaviours, thus far, using food and a clicker. Once she is familiar with a behaviour then I sometimes reward with a toy. It really depends on whether I want speed and drive or calmness and thought processing. Tidey's preferred reward is a toy and she will very easily switch between toy and food.

What have we done:

The three positions (sit, down and stand)
Stays
Grab your collar
Ladder work, wobble boards, going round a cone
Recalls to side at speed
General tricks such as shake paw and roll over, turns to left and right, reversing and reversing onto an object such as a wobble cushion, trotting through a mat on the floor, nose target
Each morning we work on our new giant peanut ball and large wobble cushion. The exercises we are working through will help to strengthen and maintain Tidey's core muscles and also help with her hind leg awareness

My biggest challenge with Tidey is that she has a very strong eye. This was not apparent to me when she was young and I actually thought she didn't possess a strong eye (and was very happy about that!) Then she suddently latched onto agility when she had her first outing at the KC Festival. She became highly excited which I can cope with but then the screaming started. That I can't cope with so have to work on this undesirable behaviour. I am not sure yet exactly how I'm going to deal with it but shall we say it's work in progress at the very very early stages! I am going to sit down and re-watch Crate Games and try to motivate myself to work through the process with Tidey. It is invaluable for sure but I find it a little tedious doing it by myself.

I know you shouldn't really compare dogs but I can't help it and I do. Tidey is very much her own personality but she has traits which remind me in turn of all my other collies. She is strong-eyed like Bess, Poppy and Niamh but she is very tuned into me and has been from an early age with little effort from me just like Abbey. I will be a lucky person if I get a combination of all my dogs as they have been and are wonderful dogs. Looks-wise she reminds me of Bess and Poppy with those ears and of Abbey with her slim, neat frame. She is least like Naughty Niamh in her looks although you can trace a link in their lines way back. She is distantly related to all my other collies including Bess which is lovely.

Here are some pictures of her at 4.5 months and the ears have gone up, up, up! I don't think she is going to be a very big dog. Probably Abbey-sized (that's a technical term!)

I can't tell you how much I adore this little dog. She has fitted into our household so easily and is friends with everyone. Niamh took the longest to come round, which I expected, but she is now very tolerant of Tidey and they tick along very happily together. Tidey and Zeki play together a lot.

I sense that Tidey could end up as our top dog. She is a very strong and determined character but not in any way aggressively so. She will tug a toy with one of the other dogs and quietly hold on to her end until they give up and walk away. I haven't yet seen her lose out on this front.

Her adult coat is coming through and so far there isn't very much of it! I wouldn't say she is smooth-coated but she really doesn't have a lot of coat. Again, none of my previous girls have been big-coated and so she seems to be following a theme in so many ways. When I look at her I am so glad she is mine as she really is my sort of foxy little dog and I would have been gutted to see her with anyone else as she really does remind me of Bess and Poppy looks-wise. My most different collie has been Niamh in terms of looks. Niamh has a confirmation to die for and is very robust. She is quite large and rangey and if I'm honest not really what attracts me to this breed as my preference is for the smaller, darker, foxier look with big sticky-up ears! However, when I look at Niamh I see the most beautiful dog in the world with the happiest face, always smiling and loving life. I am so lucky I love all my doglets so much.

Here is Tidey this week, so almost five months and after her first bath. She rolled in fox mess from head to foot so it was a complete bath. Guess what, she had another half-bath the following day when she did it again. This time it wasn't funny as she rubbed her head all over my leg and so my trousers got smothered. Aaggh, naughty little puppy.

I am really enjoying Tidey both as a pet to live with and a dog to train and play with. She is full on with energy and enthusiasm but is lovely to live with. For the last three weeks she hasn't been in her kennel during the day time at all. She has been in the kitchen with the other dogs and so far so good. She has chewed a bit of one of the baby gates but that was last weekend when I was a Prestbury Park so I think she was missing our little training sessions and time together. She comes through to the sitting room during the evening if we watch t.v. and has about an hour with the other dogs, then she gets a little over the top and I am worried she will damage herself or one of the shelties so she goes into her sitting room kennel and within about 5 seconds is fast asleep. Last night for the first time she actually curled up on a bed and went to sleep in the sitting room but it didn't last long. She went off on a wander and I found her in the snug curled up in a bed and called Andy to show him how good she was being. Then I realised she had about 5 pine cones in the bed that she had stolen from my display. Needless to say they are no longer of a quality that I would wish to display!

That's it for now but I will try to keep the blog updated of her progress as she grows up.

Prestbury Park - final post!

2011-09-11T10:41:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Bernadette I have all of Zeki's runs from Prestbury Park champ show on video. Here are the two qualifying rounds for Zeki together with the course plans courtesy of the judge Arthur Rodgers. Excellent courses.

A couple more pictures from Prestbury Park Champ Show

2011-09-07T17:08:00.001+01:00

Champ judge: Arthur Rodgers with me and Zeki above and below with

Me and Zeki and Bernadette and Zaz 'Ag.Ch. Obay Itz Got Pizazz'

Zeki wins her second CC!

2011-09-05T16:56:00.002+01:00

Well, my next post was going to be an update on my puppy, Tidey .... but Zeki Beeks decided differently!

I drove up to Stoneleigh on Saturday morning for the medium Olympia semi-finals. We had a good journey and the weather was perfect for agility.

Our invitation run was a simple flowing course which Zeki ran clear in. I stopped both her seesaw and dog walk in preparation for the semi-final. She ran well and I was very happy.

I was hoping that the semi-final course would be more technical than the invitation event and it was but only slightly. I knew I could get round the course but in my heart I also knew that it was highly likely that we wouldn't be fast enough. We had an early running order and did our best. Zeki ran clear with a lovely round and I couldn't have been more pleased with her. I think we stayed in the top ten until about three dogs from the end and then slipped to the dreaded 11th spot. If I had run a little later in the competition there are a couple of things I would have done differently (a blind turn in one spot and a push off the seesaw rather than front cross after) and those things might have got us in as we were very close to the 10th placed dog. However, running early I opted for the safer way of doing both. It's impossible to tell how these competitions will develop as sometimes people get through on 5 faults and so I knew I would be cross with myself if I had taken unnecessary risks. Oh, hindsight you are a wonderful thing which sadly we don't possess!

I have to be honest and say that I was very disappointed. Not with my little dog, she ran her heart out for me as she always does. I was disappointed to be one spot off qualifying. I was in that mind set where I would rather have been eliminated or be placed much further down. However, the upside is that there is a tiny chance of being called as reserve should someone have to pull out for some reason. On the day I was beaten by ten fantastic dogs and handlers and I wish them all the best at Olympia. Maybe next year ....

I had booked B&B in Cirencester ready for Sunday at Prestbury Park champ show. I didn't much feel like going but knew I would have to pay for the B&B and so didn't really have any choice. The B&B was pretty good, it was clean and the people were really friendly. There was a huge field beside the house where I could walk the dogs round a huge circular path which took about 40 minutes so they were happy little bunnies.

Here they are watching X-Factor. Niamh is bored by it and Zeki is swearing at the judges because they are so very stupid and talk such rubbish.

I drove into Cirencester and picked up some pasta salad for my supper (and a small bottle of cider!) and watched X-Factor. It was, of course, utter rubbish but I still have to watch it. How sad am I? I didn't sleep too well as the bed was very hard and I kept waking up with dead limbs and aching hips. Luckily the dogs slept well!

It was only four miles to the venue on Sunday morning so I was able to go into the house and have a lovely continental breakfast. I arrived at the venue and it was pouring. I felt like turning round and going home. I was parked in a spare camping spot next to Becca and there was a huge chestnut tree which Bernadette and I parked under so we were able to keep a bit dry.

I walked a couple of courses for Zeki and also the champ jumping. It was a really good, tricky course by Arthur Rodgers. Just as I had hoped and expected. I had walked the course about three times when Bernadette called out to me, what are you doing? Yep, once again I had picked my own line and missed out a jump. How am I going to stop doing this! Thank you Bernadette. I re-walked the course. There was one part where I couldn't make up my mind how to handle (that's what I like about Arthur's courses, choice not just one obvious way of doing things) and I eventually opted to run it one way but it didn't work for me and I wished I had chosen the other way. It put me off my stride and I couldn't recover so we did the messiest round you've ever seen. On top of that Zeki ran past the collapsible tunnel on the run home and I just about managed to keep my wits about me and not get eliminated so finished the round with 1 time fault and 5 for a refusal. I knew I would have to do better in the agility round. Even our judge commented on my rather awful run!

I liked the agility course and walked it correctly from the outset. Things are looking good! Zeki ran the course well and we finished with an unplaced clear. I hoped that this would be good enough to get us into the final and luckily it was. We were called out as running #6 in the final!

We ran both legs of the champ class in the rain but luckily not heavy rain, just persistent heavy drizzle. Yuk, I hate running in the rain but the ground was excellent and yippee we had rubber contacts.

The course was set up during the lunch hour by the ring party but not checked by Arthur so we couldn't walk it. When he came back from lunch he checked it and we were able to walk it but not for that long. It all came as a bit of rush as we had quite a walk back to the car to get our dogs. I hadn't brought Zeki to the ring because we just didn't know when the final would be running and I didn't want her getting too hot on what turned out to be a glorious day after the rain cleared.

I really liked the course because you had to work all the way round but it had a good fast finish which would be exciting if the dogs were clear to that point. I walked it about four times (normally I would walk a champ final a lot more than that but there just wasn't time.) I rushed off to get Zeki and by the time I got back the first dog was running.

I did some tricks outside the ring to get ourselves in the groove and then we were on! I was nervous but not as nervous as I was at Axstane. I ran late in that champ final and knew I had a really good chance of winning. I didn't have that same feeling today although I knew I had a chance I also knew there were some very good dogs to follow us.

We put in our best round but I have to admit I didn't run it quite as I had planned. I walked the course to have the dogwalk on my right but at the last minute I had a moment of madness and just got very slightly disorientated. I knew that I wouldn't have time to put the cross in so I had to go with the flow and work the dog walk on the other side. There was a tricky go round after the dog walk and now I had to handle it as a flick away go round, yikes could I do it? All this was going through my head and I even said out loud "I've done this wrong" as I was running along the dogwalk. Sometimes I think I am mad. Anyway we could do it and in fact it was the best way to do it so for once my mistake actually got the right result! I had another moment of doubt when I was unsure if Zeki had actually taken the tyre, it was cleverly set in the corner before you turned for the run home. However, my common sense told me to keep running because if she had missed it, it was all over anyway! Luckily my honest little dog had taken the tyre and so we ran clear!

Here is the video of our run. Thank you to the nice person who filmed it on Bernadette's video camera. I kept forgetting to take mine to the ring. It's so nice to have it on video.

We didn't get beaten and so to my absolute shock we had won our second CC! Oh my God!

On the same day Zeki's younger full sister, Zaz 'Obay Itz Got Pizazz' won her third CC making her Agility Champion. Well done to Bernadette and Zaz for this fantastic achievement. Below is a picture of both Zaz and Zeki with their prizes and CC's.

European Open Agility

2011-09-01T12:37:00.016+01:00

I am glad I qualified and attended this event as we had a really good time despite the organisation of the event being very poor. Austria is so beautiful and we were in a particularly lovely part of the country. It was a shame the weather was overcast and hazy as some of the views were not as clear as they might have been.

Here are two of my good luck presents (blanket from Johanna, and mug from Bernadette.)

Leah bought Zeki a lovely all in one collar and lead combo with 'Zeki Team GB' on the collar plus the little heart which Zeki is sporting below.

We started our journey at 3.30 am on the Wednesday morning and eventually arrived at our hotel around 8pm that night. We had a few stops along the way but not many. It is nice travelling in your own vehicle as you can stop as and when you fancy and not if you don't want to!

The hotel was really nice and made the trip very pleasant. The event itself wasn't great but the courses were, in the main, really good and challenging. It was a shame for the large dogs that they ran their final so late at night in the pouring rain and under failing flood lights. Not good. The small and medium dogs were luckier as they got to run in the main arena in the day light. The large dogs weren't permitted to run in the main arena as the groundsman feared that the pitch would be ruined or so I heard.

Zeki on her cushion in the hotel and below the view from my room

Agility-wise I had a mixed bag. We did two good runs and two not so good. That said the two E's I got were just very tiny mistakes, it wasn't a case of the runs being disastrous. Sadly one of my E's was in our team and I found that quite hard to deal with as I hate letting other people down. I wasn't the only one and the whole team was very supportive.

Our whole Team GB was brilliant as everyone gathered to watch just about everyone else and it was lovely to have the support of your team mates regardless of what height dog they ran. It's something I am getting used to running a medium dog as the medium handlers in the UK are a tremendously supportive bunch on the whole.

I don't think I would travel again for this competition unless it was much closer to home. It is very expensive and the travelling is exhausting which is worthwhile if the event is excellent but sadly this event wasn't.

In this team jumping round I was so worried about Zeki going to the wrong end of the tunnel that I pulled her so much that I lost my spatial awareness and she took the jump instead of the right hand end of the tunnel. I was so angry with myself as she ran beautifully otherwise.

This is our team agility round and I was delighted to run clear in this. I don't have video of her individual runs although I think Bernadette might so maybe I will be able to put them up some time, not sure.

It is interesting that Zeki's A-Frames are so much deeper on the rubber contacts but her dog walks are slower. I haven't really trained on them that much and am looking forward to doing so in the future. I love them. I also love the bigger-spaced weaves. By the second day Zeki had the measure of them and she was definitely faster and lower in her weaves than she is on the tighter spaces versions we usually see over here. Bring on the new weaves also!

Below are some pictures of our day trip to Linz. We went up a very steep hill on the Linz Tramway and visited a beautiful Austrian church. I lit a candle for my mum in the church. There was a huge thunder storm whilst we were at the church, you could see it gathering in the valley and over the hills. We had coffee and pancakes in a little restaurant with amazing views over Linz.

On the tram

A street in Linz

View from the hill top restaurant

The painted church

Below views from the hill top

Zeki and me at the Opening Ceremony

Zeki no longer able to pose quietly - what's new?

Zeki and Herbie

Rodney and Zeki

Girls from Team GB

Team GB

Team Eagle (GB)

Zeki in her pod at the stadium (photo by Amy )

Action shots of Zeki by Candice and Amy

Thanks to all my lovely team mates for making the trip 'such fun' and to Leah and Bernadette for their company but most of all to my beautiful Zeki who gives me so much joy both as a companion and when we run agility together.

Agility Shows - catch up

2011-09-01T10:38:00.016+01:00

At last I have found time to sit at the computer and update the blog!

So, let's start with agility shows (I will do a separate posting for the EO's as I think they warrant their own space :o))

Well, since Tuffley the girls have run well. Zeki got into the champ final at Rugby and had I not faltered to mark my own seesaw (which the judge didn't mark) she possibly would have had the reserve ticket. Instead we came 3rd, a result which I was far from disappointed with bearing in mind the large and strong field at this show. I think Leah might have the run on her video so I will have to nag her at some stage to download it for me! Annoyingly we didn't do well in the Crufts singles class which was the one I really wanted in order to get some more points. I think we have one chance left for this competition.

I found it very stressful running two champs side by side. I have done it often in the past but always with large dogs so running in the same ring over the same course. Here, the two champ classes ran side by side and I had early runs in both. Not pleasant!

We were due to stay up for the Sunday but after a sleepless night at the B&B on Friday after the EO training (which was excellent) I was just not keen on going back. We had an unpleasant experience with a group of drunken builders keeping us awake all night long. So instead I headed home and had a relaxing Sunday instead.

Other shows have been Newlands, KC Festival and a couple of days at Dogs in Need. I thoroughly enjoyed Newlands and really used it for training Zeki in preparation for the EO's. I have mixed feelings about the KC Festival because it is so large and very tiring. In addition two horrible things happened at this year's show which will be very hard to forget.

Firstly, a fellow agility competitor and someone I've known for as long as I can remember had a heart attack after running his dog and despite tremendous effort from the first aiders and medical team died in hospital. Don Nunn was a real character and gave back to agility in so many ways: judging, ring partying, club training and more. I remember when Niamh qualified for Crufts at the KC Festival in 2008, Don also qualified and I cannot remember anyone being so thrilled. I think he came 17th in his very last class, the one he ran before he died. Bless him, what a way to go and I hope that one day his family will take comfort from the fact that he died doing something he enjoyed and was so fiercely passionate about. He will be missed very much by lots of people in the agility world and my thoughts are with his wife Christine and their family.

Secondly, a woman was attacked by her own dog after completing a round of agility. It was a horrendous attack, not just a simple biting. Apart from one other ghastly incident a few years ago, this is probably the worst thing I've seen involving dogs and humans in agility in all the years that I have been involved. I have tremendous respect for the men that helped this woman putting themselves at risk and saving her from further serious injury. Luckily this sort of incident is very rare in our sport but it does make you think very deeply about the hyped up situation we put ourselves and our dogs into each weekend and indeed at training classes.

At the KC show I bought Zeki another deck chair. She now has this indoors and absolutely loves it. Here are some lovely pictures that Hannah took when we were having afternoon tea at the show:

Tidey matches Zeki's new chair!

Zeki and Zaz borrowing Zeki's camping version of the chair!

Tidey wants one too!

and here is Zeki ensconced in her new sitting room arm chair at home:

Agility-wise I was thrilled with the way both my girls ran. Niamh got into the British Open semi-final and all we had to do was run clear to get to Crufts but we had a misunderstanding at the weaves (partly due to me shouting weave instead of saying poles.) I originally changed my verbal cue from 'weave' to 'poles' because it sounds just like 'Niamh'. Whatever came over me I don't know. Zeki and I failed to get into the medium semi-final which was frustrating but not the end of the world. She did some brilliant runs and came away with quite a little haul.

We did a couple of days at Dogs in Need and I wasn't sad not to be camping there. I have attended the show almost every year since it started (I think this was the third one that I've missed) and I am tired with the format. I think the organisers do a fantastic job but I just need to do something a bit different. I was cross with myself that I didn't get Zeki into the champ final all down to a stupid error on my part in the agility round in which we were eliminated. We ran clear in the jumping and came 4th but that's no good with an elimination in the other part!

Last weekend were Surrey and Bridge House, I went to the Sunday show and had a lovely day. I took Poppy along and she had a wonderful time round the rings watching the agility. She was exhausted when we got home. Niamh got an 8th in her agility class and Zeki won an agility class. Their other rounds were good but mistakes by me stopped them running clear.

One of my mistakes which is on video is where I completely miss out a jump and get eliminated. This wasn't because I forgot the course but because I walked the course incorrectly. I do this so often but usually someone tells me or when I'm waiting to run I notice someone running the course differently to how I walked it. This time I ran #1 and so didn't get the benefit of seeing it run properly. I actually did this in the EOQ at the KC Festival and noticed with two dogs to go! That was very lucky as I was placed 17th with Niamh and 2nd with Zeki! I must look at the numbers when I walk courses!

I was just too tired (or is that lazy) to get up early on the Monday to go back again so instead had a lovely day at home in the garden.

Next weekend Zeki has her medium Olympia semi-final followed by Prestbury Park champ show on the Sunday. Fingers crossed for both!

Kizzy has been having a rest from agility as she hasn't been running quite right. She is seeing an excellent osteopath who is getting her back to fitness. She did a little bit of jumping for the first time this week and so far, so good.

Here are some photos and videos:

Zeki in her deck chair in the awning (above) and Tidey and Niamh on their beds (below)

Poppy agility-watching at Bridge House show

Niamh (above) and Zeki (below) with their rosettes and trophies from the KC Festival

Zeki with her first place along with some of her Obay relatives and Skipper, Sonia's rescue sheltie who got his first ever clear round and came 3rd!

The beautiful Naughty Niamh from Newlands and Dogs in Need.

Wonderful photos by Alan Score

Five more great shots of Niamh at the KC Festival by Jodi Lunn

And finally ....... some pictures of Kizzy's enforced holiday from agility. Here she is doing what she loves best .... eating:

Tuffley Agility Show

2011-07-05T09:18:00.006+01:00

We had originally booked to camp at Tuffley but for one reason or another decided against. I've never been before but always heard good reports and now I can see why. It's a lovely show at a lovely venue with lots to do for all the dogs. Now wishing we had camped after all!

Andy elected to stay home and do some work in the garden with Al (more of that in another post.) So, off I went at 5.00 am on Saturday morning with Niamh and Zeki. We decided it would be better for Tidey to stay home with Andy as she would have a better time; with a champ class each day and the fact that she's still not old enough to be around the rings we thought she wouldn't have a lot of attention.

Saturday was Zeki's champ and I was pleased to get into our third final and be in pole position as we came 3rd in both the jumping and agility rounds. The courses were quite tricky and I enjoyed running them. In the final I was following a brilliant run by Karen and Todd (ending up with reserve) and Sian and Jazzie with an awesome run which won the class, making Jazzy an Agility Champion. I still wanted to give it my best shot although I doubted I could better Todd's run and knew I couldn't catch Sian and Jazz. I pushed too much and pulled her off a jump which was a shame as I would have liked to finish the class with three clears. That said I really enjoyed the courses and Zeki was a joy. She had a fantastic weekend ending up with quite a little haul of 8th, 3 x 3rd, 1 x 2nd and 1 x 1st placings! Clever little Beek!

Clever little Zeki with her haul from Tuffley show

Zeki in the champ final, photos by Joe Upsall

On Saturday night we stayed at a Days Inn hotel which was really very acceptable. You're allowed to take your dogs in for a one-off £5 fee. Bernadette, Lisa and Sue were also staying there and we had pizza together which was fun. Lisa makes me laugh so much with her funny stories. Got any leads for sale Mrs? Good company and a good evening, thanks girls!

Zeki and Niamh in the hotel relaxing after a long day

Sunday was Niamh's champ and I decided to really concentrate on her runs and just do Zeki's classes if they happened to come up when I wasn't busy with Niamh. I was lucky and managed to do all of Zeki's runs in the end! The large champ courses weren't really my cup of tea as they had places where the ability to run fast definitely was an advantage. I didn't dislike them but knew I would struggle and I did! I managed a scrappy clear in the jumping, Niamh was such a good girl to keep going at the finish when I found myself miles behind her. Unfortunately in the agility we got eliminated. She was running really well but my undoing was a huge gap where I lost touch with her, she turned the wrong way and I was unable to retrieve the situation. I was quite disappointed as so many people struggled on both courses that we would definitely have been in the final had I managed to run clear in the agility. Bad handler must run faster. The annoying thing is that I do run faster with Zeki. Zeki brings out the assertive side of me because she is so bold and driven; Niamh is more reserved and that makes me the same with her. I need to try to put my 'Zeki' head on when running Niamh to see if it makes me move better between obstacles.

I had a brilliant weekend of agility, friends and nice walks in the exercise area beside the beautiful castle. We are definitely camping next year!

Here are some videos from the weekend:

Tidey at twelve weeks

2011-07-04T14:36:00.011+01:00

I can't believe that Tidey has been with us for five weeks now. She is just the most gorgeous puppy and I love having her around.

The week before last Leah and I went to Bernadette's to do some training exercises for the EO and I took Tidey along. She had a wonderful time in Bernadette's garden whilst we had lunch. I was also able to do some restrained recalls with her in the agility paddock. All good for her!

Last week marked the completion of Tidey's jabs and she was able to go out and about for her first walks. I am taking her with Poppy so that she has company but calm company. I never walk my puppies with my other dogs because I don't want them to get knocked over, learn bad habits or key into the other dogs too much which can create bad habits, particularly with collies in terms of herding and barging etc. Poppy is the perfect nursemaid as she is very calm and friendly with people and other dogs and sets an excellent example for Tidey. Having Poppy makes Tidey much more confident as we approach new things because Pops just takes everything in her stride. This time of year when it's so hot, it's also good for Poppy as we don't go quite as far as with the other dogs so it's perfect for young and old to walk together.

I took Kizzy along one day which was fun but exhausting as Kizzy kept playing with Tidey and I was getting very tangled in the extender lead!

We have been taking our trick training outside as the weather has been nice and have started work on various co-ordination and balance exercises using ladders, peanut exercise ball and wobble boards. She loves these games and it will be good when I get my extra large peanut ball from the states which Bernadette has ordered for me! We have also been practising our go rounds using a cone.

World Championship Tryouts

2011-07-04T13:56:00.004+01:00

I'm a bit late posting on this event as it happened a week ago today. We didn't qualify for France but we had a damn good try; I really enjoyed the event and it was good practise for the forthcoming EO's. Although they are very different events you are still having to work your dog under pressure which is good for me and the doglets.

The venue is quite small but very nice and I really liked the surface. Both my girls ran well and overall I was happy with our performance. I think if I had kept my wits about me then Zeki could have qualified but sadly I made two silly mistakes which cost us dear. Both girls got into the final round which I was thrilled with. The only run I was unhappy with on the day was Niamh's final run where I think I had just run out of steam. It was a very hot day with lots of pressure and eight runs. So all in all not bad and I will definitely try again next year but only with Zeki. It was too much, for me, concentrating on both dogs when they are so very different.

In round 3 with Zeki I had done all the hard work and just failed to call her to the jump so she picked up the weaves having already done that loop once when the weaves were the correct obstacle. I didn't turn my shoulders enough and didn't work the turn, I just started verbally cueing the left turn for the jump without thinking about getting her to the jump in the first instance! I have to admit I could have cried after that round, very rare for me to feel like that but I was so angry with myself. My happy, noisy little dog soon saw to it that I wasn't unhappy for long though!

In the final round I simply lost my spatial awareness for the front cross and ended up in a position which cued Zeki to do a go round rather than take the jump naturally.

Niamh did some lovely runs but for some reason we are having weave problems. She has suddenly started breaking out of the weaves and I'm unsure why. I am doing some training with her at home to try to resolve without make to big a deal about it. So far it isn't working very well but I am determined not to get up tight about it. We will sort it out with patience and reward!

Natasha Wise set excellent courses which I thoroughly enjoyed running and which I felt were a good test of various skills required for FCI type courses. The only thing that she was unable to test us on was the size of a typical FCI course but that was due to venue constraints.

Well done to everyone who qualified on the day especially Bernadette with Zaz and Dave with Rusty.

Here are all my runs, the good, the bad and the downright ugly!

Happy Birthday Naughty Niamh

2011-06-25T17:17:00.003+01:00

Happy birthday to my beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful and Naughty Niamh ... seven years old today. I can't believe where the years have gone since I picked up this naughty bundle of fur. I love her so much and am so very lucky to have her as my companion and agility partner.

Zeki's Champ Final win from a different angle

2011-06-20T22:00:00.002+01:00

I am going to indulge myself and put up a second video of Zeki's winning run in the champ final at Axstane. Thanks to Amanda for filming it for me (and for the verbal encouragement at the end!)

It's nice to have this as I can actually see her A-Frame and the jump sequence behind which we couldn't see from our own video. Brilliant!

What's occurrin'?

2011-06-19T17:54:00.007+01:00

What's occurrin' ...... we're off to Crufts, that's what's occurrin'. Lush, tidy, fair play to us.

Zeki with her first Championship Certificate, a ticket to Crufts 2012!

We just got home from Axstane and I am still on Cloud 9. I really can't believe that Zeki has won a championship class. I can't begin to say how proud and elated I'm feeling.

We didn't go to the show yesterday as I wanted to help Jan (my step-mother) to go and pick up my Dad from Brighton hospital after having a super duper state of the art defibrillator pacemaker fitted. I am pleased to report that the operation went well and hopefully he will start to feel the benefit of this amazing piece of kit.

The weather forecast wasn't great so I wasn't too sorry not to be camping; after a wet time at Thames last week it was a bit of a relief to be honest. It's not much fun for the dogs especially a little puppy in the wet.

Instead we did some gardening and then I went off to Brighton with Jan and Andy cut all the front hedges, pruned the rose arch and a few other garden jobs between very heavy showers. Good job, now just all the back hedges to do. Hopefully next weekend!

We decided to go to Axstane today and I made up my mind to work really hard to get into the final. Helen Saunders was the judge so I knew we would be tested which is great! We started off well with a clear jumping run which placed us 2nd behind Amy and Taz. Then in our agility after a promising start for some reason Zeki clipped the long jump but I just kept going and stayed focused on finishing the round with no further error. Yippee we were in the final and running second to last.

I was quite nervous about the final but in my heart I knew if Demon, the kelpie, ran clear we couldn't beat him as he so very quick. Demon and Helen ran and right at the end they had a refusal at a jump. Now I knew I was in with a chance. Amy and I looked at each other and said nothing but we both knew we had a really good chance. I have to admit at this point my nerves almost overcame me and I had to dig really deep to keep positive and channel those nerves into aggression. I thought my legs were going to fail me but once I released Zeki onto the course I forgot about the nerves and just gave it my best shot, as did my little dog. She is such a star and I am so lucky to have her. We kept our focus and determination and finished clear. Amy ran last with Taz and unfortunately had a refusal (bad luck Amy) which meant that Zeki and I had won. I just sat in a heap on the floor and blubbed. I am so hopeless!

I was a bit disappointed last week that we didn't do well in the Crufts singles and only have a couple more chances of getting points. Now we are going to Crufts in style. I am soooooo happy!

Thank you Zeki and all my lovely friends who kicked my behind and made me believe I could do it! Thank you Helen for setting great, challenging courses.

Well done also to Bernadette and Zaz on gaining their second CC at the same show. An OBay sweep! Made the occasion even more special.

Tidey at nine weeks

2011-06-14T15:43:00.004+01:00

Tidey continues to be a joy. She is a delightful little person. I am really enjoying her and don't want her to grow up for a long time.

We are into a good routine now which starts off with her waking up around 7.00 am each morning when we go outside for her morning toilet. Then she goes into Andy on her fleece lead with a bunch of toys and has a good romp on the bed. Meantime I let the other dogs out and then bring Tidey back into the utility room where they all have their breakfast. She goes back outside and then we go back to bed for ten minutes with a cup of tea for Andy and more play time on the bed.

Lots more little visits outside to make sure she understands her house training and then we have our first training session of the day. Just ten minutes or so in the garage working on sits, downs, lefts, rights, get in the box, elephant trick, reverse, sitting on a wobble cushion and now going round a cone. Things are progressing nicely and I really enjoy training her. Some of the behaviours are quite well formed now and I'm starting to reward those with a game of tuggy.

Then it's human breakfast time and Tidey has a short play session in the kitchen with various toys and the shelties. Back to bed for about 2.5 hours when I race around trying to get office work and house work done and big dogs walked. At lunch time we go for a walk in the garden, then another training session followed by lunch and a play session. Then back to sleep for the afternoon.

Same sort of thing at tea time but if we're in for the evening then she comes into the sitting room in her play pen where she either plays with her toys or chews or sleeps. This is our time and she is learning to be with us but to be settled. She cries if she wants to go out which is brilliant.

Then we have our last training session followed by a puppy play time before bed. Then it all starts over!

She is due for her second jab next Monday and then will be able to go out and about a week after. She is getting plenty of socialising at dog shows in the interim but once her jabs are finished I plan to take her to the local school, the high street and to the recreation ground.

Here are some pictures of her at nine weeks of age. She is so cute.

Thames Agility Show

2011-06-14T11:04:00.009+01:00

The weather forecast for Thames was not good. Luckily Saturday was better than expected and we had a nice day. We had good camping not too far from the rings which is always a bonus.

We set up our little camp and puppy pen and then took it in turns to take our big dogs off for a nice walk whilst the other one watched over Tidey. Naughty Poppy, yes Poppy and for once not Niamh, ate about a third of a festering dead rabbit and then rolled in the remains of it. She definitely could hear me calling her as she kept looking up but then just ignored me and kept on munching. As I ran back to her I could hear her munching the bones and as I got to her she flung herself down and rolled in what was left of her prize. Honestly, she has become so naughty in her old age. At home she goes to all the waste paper bins and picks out tissues which she shreds everywhere. But I don't really care because I love her to bits and she can do what she likes, in fact it makes me laugh more than anything. In future though, I think we will be going to the exercise areas on an extender lead!

We really love our new caravan and everyone is really cosy as you can see:

Agility-wise I was not very good on Saturday at all. The previous evening we had an EO training session and I lost my confidence big time as the ground was so slippery and some people were falling over as well as dogs falling out of the pipe tunnel. More on that in another posting!!

Nic Jones had set us a couple of testing courses and I really didn't handle them very well at all. Nic was very accommodating and helped me break the courses down into manageable sections which made me feel a bit more confident. The one good thing we managed was the tricky weave entries and exits, those were fine so I guess we did take something positive from the session.

My lack of confidence continued into Saturday and I really didn't run either of my girls very well at all, apart from one run with Zeki. We had only two obstacles to go and Zeki ran past the collapsible. I couldn't get her into it as she kept flicking to the weaves and so we thought that was probably what she had caught sight of when she ran past the first time. Looking at the video though, I'm not sure that was the case. She was just being a very bad little sheltie! Judge for yourselves! I have labelled this course Crufts singles but it wasn't, this was just a 6/7 agility. I don't have the Crufts on video but thinking back that was a reasonable run where I didn't read an angle to the weaves and took her past the entry. Totally my fault. I was really disappointed with that as we needed some Crufts points. Oh well. Try harder.

Niamh ran well on Saturday and put in a couple of good runs in the champ but I made an error in the jumping, well actually it was worse than that, I had a moment where I forgot the course and took her to the wrong obstacle. She put in an excellent run in the agility but unfortunately had a brick out of the wall which was the first obstacle. Oh well.

Here is the course I mentioned where Zeki ran past the tunnel - bad, wicked little pointed person.

So all in all Saturday was pretty poor agility-wise although pretty good weather-wise. We had a hail storm at tea time but luckily all the agility had finished by then. We knew the weather forecast for Sunday was bad so we took down all the wind breaks and packed up the puppy pen.

We didn't go to the entertainment on Saturday night as I didn't want to leave Tidey alone for that length of time. Instead we all snuggled in the caravan and watched the final of the BBC dance competition. We have a new t.v. to go with our new caravan and it's fantastic. It's digital and the picture is amazing. It doesn't drain the battery too much either.

Sunday morning we awoke to rain and it steadily got worse and the wind got stronger. It was very cold for June and I wished I had packed more warm clothes and some gloves. We got thoroughly soaked. I ran Niamh in her KCQ but wished I hadn't because she got caught up in the weaves, partly due to her fur sticking to the poles and partly due to the exit required and I knew something had happened but like a fool I kept going for a couple more obstacles. I wasn't running her properly as I knew I should stop and we got eliminated so I pulled her out. I spoke with judge to ask if he had seen what happened and he said she had got stuck but seemed ok. It was on the way back to the car that we realised her foot was bleeding. I felt so bad. I went back to the ring to check the weaves but we couldn't find anything obvious. I think she caught her foot on one of the pegs as she got stuck. Interesting the judge had checked her in the ring and when I went back we saw blood on his hand. He agreed this must have come from Niamh. For a different reason the class was re-started but I didn't re-run it with Niamh. I don't normally run her in such awful conditions and in future I will stick to my principles and not be tempted by qualifiers etc. Her foot is now fine but I am still upset by the incident.

I had the champ with Zeki and decided to have a go despite the weather. I don't feel so worried about running Zeki in the rain as she is much lighter than Niamh. Maybe I'm wrong to have that view but it does feel different. Anyway, we broke our duck and managed to run clear in the jumping. We also ran clear in the agility which meant we achieved our first run in a champ final. I was very proud of little Zeki. I didn't run her in her other two classes as we have already qualified for the KC Olympia semis and I couldn't see the point in running classes I really didn't need to.

By the time the final started it was really pouring down and very unpleasant. Our wet gear started to fail and we were getting soaked to the skin. We must be mad. Zeki put in a really good run and we ended up in 4th place which I was more than happy with. I made one stupid error which you can't see on our video but Amanda Brophy also filmed the round from a different angle and it is clear to see that I rear-crossed one obstacle too soon on a sequence which caused Zeki to almost pull off the long jump. It was really good to see this as I couldn't work out what I had done wrong. That said it wouldn't have made any difference to my placing in the final although it would have brought me nearer the time of the 3rd placed dog.

Kizzy ran some good classes and then was a bit naughty in others, going back to her running round jumps and barking at Andy. Naughty little thing.

Here are the videos of a nearly run for Kizzy and Zeki's first ever champ final.

.... and here is a link to Amanda Brophy's video where you can see my big mistake! Thank you Amanda for filming in such awful conditions!

Training

2011-06-08T11:10:00.002+01:00

I was determined to have a positive training session with my girls, especially Niamh, after the weekend. We set up a course we have used before (think it was a course from last year's U.S. try outs for the World Championships.) Rather than run the course exactly as we had before we chose to mirror-image it which would provide different challenges.

It is an excellent course and once again one which is trappy and quite difficult but flows beautifully for the dogs if the handler gets it right. Most of us put in a 'funny' turn between #13 and #14 which is certainly something we wouldn't have done when we first used this course last year. For the black numbered course we also found that a blind cross worked well between jump #15 and the dogwalk in order to get the handler to the other side ready for the 'go round' at #17.

I can absolutely understand the issues that some people have with blind crosses, less so the ketschker (sp!) turn as this really is something that when done properly is communicated to the dog. That said I am working hard to cue my blind turns with a should drop and a verbal cue to come into 'side' or 'close'. If I don't drop my shoulder or give the verbal cue then I expect the dog to stay on the original side. Needless to say that doesn't always happen but it's work in progress.

This course is a real challenge and a great training course. It was good practise for our build up to the EO at the end of July. Both my girls ran it really well and I was thrilled with both of them.

Garden

2011-06-07T15:42:00.004+01:00

The garden is looking lovely at the moment. Even better after the 24 hours of steady rain we had overnight Sunday and all day yesterday. I noticed how much nicer my walk was today just with that bit of rain, the ground had a little bit of give in it rather than feeling quite so rock hard.

Tidey at eight weeks

2011-06-07T15:15:00.003+01:00

Tidey

2011-06-07T10:06:00.005+01:00

Tidey has come back from her first weekend away in the caravan with new-found confidence. She didn't really lack confidence in the first place but we can see a huge difference in her since we returned home. I think the experience of going out and about is so good for puppies in so many ways.

She was eight weeks old yesterday and had her second trip to the vets for her first jab. Andy took her for me and said that she didn't flinch, mainly because she was too busy eating biscuits that the vet had given her.

She has put on a whole pound in her first week with us, I am not surprised as she has a very very healthy appetite. Her food disappears almost as quickly as the shelties and that is saying something in our household!

I have started working with the clicker more this week, I did little bits last week but mainly it was all about settling in and finding her feet. Now I am starting to shape one or two behaviours and so far things look really promising. She is very keen to learn and luckily for me she loves to play with any kind of toy.

She really is a sweetie and I totally adore her. Both Zeki and Niamh are showing some signs of jealousy but not in a horrible way. I am taking the time to make sure they aren't left out and doing play/training sessions with them once Tidey goes back to sleep. I am also making sure to give extra time to Poppy as she still wants to be kept in the loop when she isn't asleep (luckily for me, that's quite a lot of the time these days. Bless her little heart.)

I have decided to drop the hyphen from Tidey's name but keep the spelling so that it links to the Tide (as in the ocean, moon tide etc.) My dear friends made this decision for me at the weekend when they kept referring to her as Tide Y, i.e. saying the word Tide and 'Y' separately. Grrrgghhhhh!

I hope to get some pictures of her in the garden later. In once sense I can't believe she's been here for a week already and in another it seems as if she's always been here as she has settled in so easily and happily.

I love puppies!

Dartford & Keston Prizes

2011-06-07T10:04:00.003+01:00

Kizzy and Zeki displaying their prizes from the weekend at Dartford & Keston shows. Spot the difference in their poses ;o)

Naughty Niamh at Keston

2011-06-07T09:49:00.011+01:00

I love these pictures that Alex took of Niamh this weekend. They show her different faces so well. In the first shot she is watching the agility.

In the series of photos that follow she has seen people who she loves and is trying to get to them. In this instance it was Emily, Marian, Jean, Alex and Grace. She is such a funny girl. She really isn't keen on strangers but once she has befriended someone then they are a friend for life and she will spot people she knows amongst a crowd; these are the faces she displays as she tries to engage with them. In the last picture she is reversing ready to launch at her specified target!

Agility watching - above

People watching - below

Dartford & Keston Shows

2011-06-06T13:38:00.007+01:00

It was hard work getting ready for this show due to puppy paraphernalia and loading our stuff into the new caravan.

The venue is not far away at all but our journey took twice as long as it should due to the wretched tolls at the Darford Crossing which are always busy from lunch time onwards on Fridays. Why they can't lift the barriers when the queue backs up so far I don't understand. Originally the tolls were going to be dropped once the bridge was paid for but obviously that didn't happen!

We got set up and Tidey began a new adventure which she took in her stride. I can't begin to say how good this little puppy is. She just accepts whatever comes her way and gets on with enjoying herself. She woke up a little earlier than at home but that's quite understandable bearing in mind that she is sharing a small space with two humans and six dogs. She woke up at about 6.10 am each morning. She continues to be really good about toileting and gets on with her business just outside the wind breaks on the extender lead. She is so easy. We set up her play pen inside the wind breaks and she was very content in that space as we had our deck chairs beside her and the other dogs were close by on their pins. It got a bit chilly at times so we covered her little bed with a blanket so she was very cosy.

At night time she slept in a soft crate on the bunk above my bed. Niamh slept beneath my bed, Poppy in a bed in the door well and Zeki slept in bed with me! Kizzy slept on the end of Andy's bed and Becky and Murphy on quilts on the floor beside him. We were all very cosy and slept well.

Above and below - Tidey in the new caravan

There is a puppy in there somewhere!

Naughty Niamh in her new caravan bed

Tidey had a wonderful weekend meeting lots of new people and receiving some nice new toys! She loves toys and gets very excited each time she comes across a new one.

Agility-wise it was a very mixed bag for me. On Saturday I was disappointed that I pulled off a jump too quickly and caused Niamh to drop a pole in the KCQ but delighted that Zeki won her agility class and came 3rd in her jumping. Kizzy ran well especially considering her first run was at 5.40 pm and both she and Andy had switched off somewhat! It was a shame that she cut behind Andy in her agility run and shot up a tunnel as the rest of the round was lovely. Bad little Kizzle. She redeemed herself on Sunday by getting 2nd in her agility class.

Sunday for me was hopeless with Niamh, completely lost our mo-jo. The only round I was happy with was her jumping class which she ran brilliantly but unfortunately we were E'd as she picked up the second weave pole. I ignored that and carried on as I wanted a positive run to end our rather disappointing weekend. Zeki was brilliant but I let her down in all three of her classes. She was running so well in all of them but a single stupid mistake in each of them meant we had no results to show for Sunday. Below are some videos of our good and bad runs from the weekend:

Overall we really enjoyed the weekend but I must work to get back in tune with Niamh. I can't bear it when we aren't running well together. I think Niamh is suffering a bit from puppy-itis and I am very tuned to Zeki at the moment. This is good for the forthcoming EO's but I am determined not to waste my beautiful Niamh so I need to get my act together quick!

On a serious note, an agility person suffered a heart attack at the show yesterday. It was very upsetting. Several agility people came to his aid and a small team formed to perform CPR until the emergency crew arrived. He was very poorly and at times it seemed he wouldn't survive but thanks to the efforts of those people he was taken to hospital by the ambulance and I understand he is making progress in the right direction. Brings my poor agility performance into perspective for sure.

Tide-y enjoying the garden

2011-06-02T09:57:00.007+01:00

Not to be left out, Zeki puts in an appearance. I found her fast asleep in the middle of this little bed yesterday afternoon. I rushed in to get the camera but unfortunately she had woken up by the time I got back!

New arrival - Tide-y

2011-06-01T16:37:00.005+01:00

I got up really early on Monday morning and headed off to Plymouth. It took me just about 3.5 hours as traffic was really light as it was bank holiday morning. It wasn't a particularly pleasant journey as it was raining quite a lot and really foggy for much of the journey. I took Niamh and Zeki with me so that they could have a good sense of the puppy on the long journey home and it wouldn't be such a shock to them. I listened to the radio on the way down and am glad I did as Miranda Hart and a guy who I can't recall were sitting in for Chris Evans. I so love Miranda. She started off a bit nervous but soon got into the swing of things and was making me laugh so much. It really helped to pass the journey and I was really disappointed when the show finished at 9.30 am.

I arrived at Becky's house at about 10.20 am after giving the girls a quick run in the local park ... in the rain. I was very excited by this time and when I went into the sitting room I was greeted with this lovely sight. What a beautiful litter, sadly I couldn't get everyone to face forward quite at the same time. Tide-y is the third red and white from the left. The fourth red and white you can just see behind the little black and white boy with the white paint-pot nose. They are all seriously cute and beautifully marked puppies. Obviously one of them stands out more than the others ..... to my eyes of course!

I stayed for about an hour and we had Tide-y out playing, even when she tried to go to sleep we kept her playing trying our best to tire her out for the long journey home. Once we had completed the paperwork we set off. I must say at this point that I think Becky and her Mum have done a fantastic job with these puppies, they are well socialised and it is clear that a huge amount of time has gone into their upbringing thus far. Tide-y knew her name really well by the time I collected her and so that at least would be one familiar thing for her in her new life.

Whatever we did worked as she slept from Plymouth to Edenbridge. This time the journey took best part of four hours as the homeward bound holiday traffic was starting to build. Luckily I missed the worst of it but it was still tedious especially along the A303 prior to Stone Henge. This time French and Saunders took over on Radio 2 and they were hilarious and helped to pass the journey for me. I was lucky it was a bank holiday and there were such excellent guest presenters!

We got home around 3.30 pm and Tide-y woke up as I let Niamh and Zeki out of the car. She came indoors and had a lovely greeting with Andy and the other dogs. We have to keep Niamh away from her at the moment until she is a little more accepting of the new arrival. She isn't very tolerant and is quite jealous. It's really strange how she immediately accepted Zeki, she seems to love shelties but nothing else!

So far she has been out in the car each day and touch wood she seems to be the sort of puppy who just falls asleep as soon as you put her in her little pod. She learned to toilet on our gravel dog patch on day 1 and on an extender lead. I always accustom new puppies to this regime as it helps when we're at dog shows. So at the moment she goes onto the extender for toileting and is, I am pleased to report, very good at this task!

I have done a little clicker work with her, just building on what Becky had already done for me, i.e. just click and treating to build up the clicker/treat association. We have lots of little play sessions during the day and I've been doing lots of games with a toy in each hand where she tugs on one toy then I let that go dead and she runs across to the other toy. Johanna taught us this game when we were in Denmark as a precursor to the dog understanding an active hand/arm as opposed to a neutral one. I'm really pleased that she is doing this so naturally. We also have a little grooming session each day and she has had her first visit to our lovely vets. She enjoyed that as her examination was accompanied by puppy biscuits at each stage. She is booked in for her first jab on Monday when she will be eight weeks of age.

She has been into the garden lots of times and for little walks into the agility area with a different dog. She is on her extender lead and just follows the big dog. She has been with Poppy, Niamh and Zeki. This is the way that I'll try to get Niamh used to her, where there's lots of space and Tide-y isn't right in her face. I have also taken her down there by herself and she was a little more cautious as it's a big space but by the second trip she was trotting off ahead of me with her little extender maxed out!

I haven't got any pictures of her outside yet but hope to get some this evening or tomorrow. Meantime here are some of her on her first day home and with her very fist visitor, Elspeth.

Lots of news!

2011-05-29T19:41:00.005+01:00

Well, as always with me it's like waiting for a no. 7 bus and then three come along together. So here is my third and final post of today.

All change: we are getting a new caravan. We had almost decided to give up caravanning and just day trip with B&B as needed. However, we came home from Boot Camp thinking that we did still quite like caravanning just not all the clearing away at the end of the weekend. So we decided to downsize dramatically and hopefully this coming week will be picking up this little caravan from Songhurst. It's very small compared with our previous models but we spent nearly an hour looking at it and figured out exactly where each dog will sleep at night as well as ourselves.

Yesterday we spent the whole day clearing the old caravan and cleaning it ready to swap over. I cannot believe the stuff that came out of our caravan. We have been really strict and rationalised everything that we carry. So instead of having spares for the spares, we will manage with the absolute essentials and nothing more. Hopefully that way we can continue to enjoy caravanning at shows with slightly less packing up at the end of a long and tiring weekend.

We hope to have the caravan in time for Dartford and Keston. It's due to be shipped to Songhurst from the factory on Wednesday and Richard is going to to his best to have it ready for us on Thursday including swapping over our motor mover. They are a lovely family firm and I wouldn't want to buy a caravan from anyone else.

The other exciting news is that we have a new arrival due. Tomorrow morning I shall be leaving home at about 6.30 am to travel to Plymouth to bring home this gorgeous little girl. I am so very excited and doubt that I'll sleep much tonight. I hope that Niamh, Poppy and Zeki won't be too upset.

The origin of her name is Pepperbox - a type of poppy (the ones that produce seeds for bread) in memory of her breeder's first dog, a spaniel called Poppy. Perfect for me too!

Moon - Becky wanted a theme of English ships that fought against the Spanish Armada and Moon was one of those ships.

Tide - to go with my chosen name of Tide-y (I might drop the hyphen not sure yet.) Tide-y from one of my most favourite comedies 'Gavin & Stacey'. Obviously there is a connection between Moon and Tide so I'm really thrilled with the name.

Meet Tidey "Pepperbox Moon Tide"

General Update

2011-05-29T14:51:00.010+01:00

The run up to the agility season beginning has been quite frantic as we've had so much going on in the background. We are trying to get my Mum's house ready for sale and it's both hard work and heart breaking going through things. The house means a lot to all of us as we were all born and raised there, the house has been in our family since my parents bought it in the mid 1950's. The three of us are children of the 60's and so there are lots of memories going back over a long period of time.

Dan organised a gang to start tidying up the garden and we are gradually making progress. The garden is full of wonderful memories and it was lovely seeing it start to reappear from the brambles and overgrowth.

We have spent a lot of time on our own garden as well and it's starting to look lovely especially the long border which Julie has helped us with. We have also made a start on a new rock garden and I brought home some plants from Mum's garden and have planted them up with pansies and violas. Every time I look at them I think of Mum and how much she loved her garden and growing things. Only wish I had inherited her green fingers!

Here are some pictures of the garden:

Runner beans which we grew from seeds

Sweet peas also grown from seeds

The start of the new rockery

The pond and surrounding pots

Above and below, planters from Mum's garden

A rose about to bloom; this is the rose that Sara and Steve bought me in memory of my beloved Abbey.

Andy gave the above plant a massive haircut as it was huge and not very happy. Since its haircut it's thriving.

Below are pictures of the long border. It's lovely seeing the different colours as they emerge.

May has been a very busy month for us with the garden, house clearing and also the WAO's and Boot Camp. Andy had a fantastic time judging at the WAO's and absolutely loved the whole experience. Hopefully there will be some pictures we can post at some stage, meantime here are some from their own gallery.

Boot Camp was a brilliant, two lovely groups of handlers and dogs and on the whole decent weather. It was absolutely exhausting but very satisfying. There's a lot of work involved before and after Boot Camp as well as the training itself. We couldn't manage without our janitor Andy and equipment mover Jay. Alex is a star and always helps us pack up and load the trailer.

We managed to get some good training in with our own dogs working on tricky weave entries and European style courses, all good stuff ready for the EO. It's beginning to dawn on me that I have qualified for this event and Zeki and I really need to get practising!

Show update

2011-05-29T13:49:00.003+01:00

The agility show season is now in full swing and since my last update we have been to Easter Celebration , Vyne, Beacon and Tunbridge Wells shows.

Zeki's first champ class was at Vyne and I made a stupid mistake in the jumping round and got eliminated. We then went on to do a good run in the agility leg with a ketschker turn from #2 to #3. It worked really well and got me into a good position to handle the A-Frame to tunnel. That said I over handled the exit off the A-Frame and cost us too much time. I was very disciplined and trained the dog walk as I am still trying to get Zeki's performance sorted on this piece of equipment. I should mention that I did the same with Niamh and got E'd in the jumping round and ran clear in the agility. Uuuummm, where's the common denominator here?

The theme continued at Beacon with me again making a stupid mistake in the jumping round but then running clear in the agility, still with a trained dog walk and gues what, we won the class. Fantastic courses from Lee Gibson, challenging, flowing and such fun to run. I think Lee is a really excellent course designer and judge and I, for one, hope we see more of his courses.

Kizzy and Andy competed at Easter and started off their season really well, getting 2nd in G6/7 jumping.

Here is a selection of videos of our doglets at the various shows mentioned plus a couple of runs from Mid Downs right at the beginning of the season. The agility run was a qualifier and Zeki came 3rd behind Dizzy and Minx. As you'll see it was a fast course and so I was thrilled with that result. This means we've qualified for a final later in the year. I hope to keep up to date in a slightly more timely fashion but this year has been a very busy one so far!

This is the champ agility round from Beacon. Really good course and I was so thrilled to win it! I would love to have been in the final as that course was also tricky. Must try harder!

Happy Birthday Becky

2011-04-23T18:59:00.004+01:00

Happy Birthday to our Becky, eleven years old today. Bless her little heart.

Catch up time Pt III - European Open Tryouts 2011

2011-04-21T14:01:00.011+01:00

Zeki qualified for the EO Tryouts this year. She got some good places in the qualifiers during 2010 and I think we qualified well up the table which was pleasing in itself.

I could not decide whether to accept the invitation to enter the tryouts as it came at quite a tough time. I had just lost my mum and had the pressure of Crufts looming. I was 'persuaded' by my friends that I should enter and so I did. Well actually Bernadette did so on my behalf as I was too stressed to even complete the entry form.

The tryouts were held at the Lincoln show ground alongside Lincoln's own agility show. A really lovely venue even though a rather lengthy 3+ hours drive. Bernadette and I travelled up together and stayed at a B&B which was only 15 minutes from the venue. You can read all about that on the Obay blog!

The judge for the tryouts was Yvonne Croxford and I was really hoping she would be setting some testing courses. Yvonne did not disappoint. The courses were complex and tricky. To be honest, although Zeki and I have practised lots of hard combinations at training we have rarely come across difficult courses during out competitive time together. Most of the medium courses we have run tend to be based on a grid. I like courses with shape, challenges and hard weave entries. Boy we got that at these tryouts! We ran our best and I am very proud of our attempt. We only got one clear but that resulted in a 2nd place and was enough to put us into the final round. Although we were eliminated on the other courses they were not what I call 'disastrous' eliminations but purely as a result of a poor handling technique or a fractionally late call in just one spot of the course.

I was very pleased to get into the fourth and final round and we tried our best and did some great bits and one not so great bit at the weave entry.

At the end of the day I reflected that I had really enjoyed the courses; that I had some great sequences to go away and train; that I had a new confidence running Zeki prior to our first championship class in May and that I had had a thoroughly enjoyable day with some lovely people.

I was chatting away to someone when I heard Leah shouting my name. Everyone had gathered for the selection announcement and I was ringside waiting to clap those who had been picked, whilst talking at the same time. I can multi-task you see.

I ignored her but she kept calling me, in the end she called very loudly and I think I turned and said "what?" Bit rude but couldn't she see I was busy! Everyone started to laugh and Leah shouted to me that I'd been picked for the team and to get my ass over there. I was so shocked I couldn't speak. Then I was tearful, I just couldn't believe it. We had been picked to represent Team GB at the EO's in Austria. Oh my god!

Here is a picture that Bernadette took on her iPhone (hopefully a couple more to come from Candice when she has time to download them.)

Medium Team GB - Europen Opens Austria 2011

I am so proud of my special little dog. She was a star. Here are her videos from the day:

Catch Up time Pt II : Crufts 2011

2011-04-21T13:39:00.006+01:00

I accepted the invitation to judge Crufts four years ago and before I knew it the time had arrived. I found the whole experience quite daunting but ended up really enjoying it thanks to the support of my friends, Andy and the fantastic team of people at Crufts itself.

I wrote a report for the various magazines which outlined my experience so here it is for posterity published on my blog as it does sum up the event as I remember.

I received the invitation to judge at Crufts 2011 in July 2007 and was delighted to accept; it seemed so far in the future that there wasn’t anything to worry about, but boy those four years flew by!

In 2010 I was at Crufts to support Andy when he judged the championship finals. I watched him up on the big screen looking very smart and I watched Natasha looking beautiful and slim and then I had a melt-down. Next year that would be me up on the big screen and you know what they say about television adding 10lbs to you. That triggered a big change in my eating habits and I have Crufts to thank for losing a good deal of weight. Let’s hope I can maintain that!

Before I knew it 2011 had arrived and in January I received an e-mail from Dave Jolly letting me know which classes I would be judging – I had twelve courses to design. Shock horror, it takes me ages to design one course! I had a deadline to work to and as always I went to the wire (why do I do that?) I had several bouts of histrionics but eventually the courses were designed and I felt a huge sense of relief as I sent them off to Dave. Thanks to Andy for his support, how he put up with me during that time is a miracle!

I am very lucky that I am able to set up courses to try things out at home, with friends and on training days. That said I didn’t have a lot of time to do this but I did manage to work on my international agility final and some elements of other courses. I guess it should go without saying, (but I’d better say it anyway) naturally I didn’t share the courses with anyone who was competing at Crufts and in most instances people were oblivious to what I was trying out as I didn’t tell them! Thank you to all my friends, some knowingly and others unknowingly, for indulging me in this.

I travelled to Birmingham on the Wednesday for rehearsal day and it was well worth the effort as I had the chance to set up five of my courses. The ring party provided dogs and handlers to run the courses and it was a great confidence-booster for me knowing that the courses ran as I had hoped with just a few minor tweaks. That said they could still end up a little different on the day as the courses aren’t marked out in advance; they still have to go down from the plan but in the main they all got set up pretty darn well thanks to a great ring manager and ring party.

Several people said to me to make sure I enjoyed it because it would all be over before I knew it and those words proved very true. I kind of did enjoy it despite my anxiety. I am a very nervous judge and fret terribly about getting the courses right for the level and not letting down the competitors. Having competed at Crufts many times over the years I am very aware of how important it is to everyone and how nervous people get. Funnily enough I wasn’t nervous about judging in front of lots of people or the television cameras, it’s getting it right for the dogs and handlers that makes me worry and that’s the same wherever and whenever I judge. It is also quite stressful getting the courses set up within very limited time frames.

I found I enjoyed each class retrospectively rather than at the time. I got lots of comments from friends asking me to SMILE more but to be honest it’s not something I could think about as I was concentrating so hard. Smiling just wasn’t on my agenda!

Overall I was happy with the way my courses ran and wouldn’t change very much at all so I guess that kind of says I achieved what I set out to.

The support team at Crufts is phenomenal and I was looked after really well both in and outside the arena. Nothing was too much trouble and every single one of them helped to make my experience one which I will always remember with pride. The amount of work these people take on is quite incredible and I for one will never ever take what they do for granted even if I have been guilty of doing so in the past.

I think I could go down as the first and probably last judge to dance in the main arena at Crufts. There was a gap before the finals in the circular knockout partly to allow the competitors to recover and partly because the event was running ahead of schedule. So, on came the popular Scissor Sisters track; what was I supposed to do, stand there like a lemon or dance around like an idiot. Naturally I opted for the latter. Another bonus was meeting Ant and Dec; lovely guys even though I don’t watch their show and didn’t have a clue what it was all about!

I think my last word should be about the competitors. This report isn’t about results as I was asked to write about the experience rather than report on who did what. However, I would like to say that all the competitors were fantastic and I got to see some awesome runs on all my courses. I have to mention by name Dawn Weaver and her exceptional dogs; they gave me nothing to judge, just amazing displays of near-perfect agility; the awesome Zen and Bernadette Bay who ran clear in all of their seven classes; Will Rolfe who won the Crufts singles when I truly thought it was in the bag for Dawn and lastly all of the international competitors who attacked the courses with such energy and enthusiasm. You all inspire me to train better and harder! Good luck for 2011.

Below are some pictures, thanks to Maria for the photos of me with the lovely Declan. I met Ant as well but didn't get a photo with him. They are both lovely but Dec is the nicest (IMO!)

I look a bit shocked in this photo, Declan is signing my niece's book for her. He was so lovely.

Looking a little perplexed. Perhaps I couldn't remember the course pattern!

Obviously I got one clear round along the way, although I think I clapped everyone!

Thanks to Lian for catching me in judging mode, it's nice to have pictures to go with my memories of this amazing experience!

Here are my course plans from Crufts 2011:

Catch up time Pt I : Olympia; End of 2010 Agility Season & the Garden

2011-04-21T13:17:00.011+01:00

At last I feel like posting on my blog; I really miss keeping it up to date but I just haven't had the heart for it lately. However at the weekend my special little sheltie made me very happy and I want to record that emotion on the blog so here we go with part I of a megga update completing with very good news (well for me and Zeki anyway!)

End of 2010 Agility Season

Both my girls were brilliant last year with Niamh getting into four champ finals and Zeki winning into G7. We are really looking forward to our first champ class in 2011!

Here they are with there 2010 hauls.

Olympia 2010

I was proud to have Naughty Niamh at Olympia for the second time. We had a great time despite the worry about getting home through the snow. As it happens we were fine especially as we were travelling in Jay's super duper 4x4. We ran clear in the morning event but were just out of the top ten times. There are a couple of places I could have saved precious time but hindsight is a wonderful thing! I was thrilled that Niamh was so close to the qualifying times. We got to run in the pairs and she ran clear again; our partner had a lovely run also but picked up 5 faults.

Here are Niamh's videos and some pictures. I so love Olympia. Whenever I watch back video of Niamh it makes me proud and quite emotional as her honesty always shines through to me. She is such a wonderful dog and I am so lucky to have her. I know, I am biased but that's how I feel about her.

Me and Naughty Niamh at Olympia 2011

The little snowman Dan and Mac built in my front yard for when we returned home!

Niamh with her Olympia rosettes at home

Garden

I had written on the blog back in the Autumn about the work we were doing on our long border. I am excited about this as we have put lots of new plants in and it's lovely to see them start growing.

Right now we are just finishing the lovely display of spring bulbs and we have to wait and see what else will happen this year. Obviously it's going to take time for it to mature but it's still so much better than the mess it used to be. Andy has cleared a couple of areas and put down grass seed. The downside of this wonderful sunny April is that the new grass isn't growing very fast as the ground is too dry.

At last my bird house/table has been fixed. Andy made this years ago and we had it at the old house but the post had rotted and it has laid under the shrubbery here for nearly four years. Whilst I was at Shuttleworth show the other weekend he mended it and it's lovely to have it back. You can see it in one of the pictures below.

Here are some pictures of the garden.

During March when not much happening

Above and below the height of the daffodils and tulips, really gorgeous

A few tulips left but now bluebells starting

It seems to be a really good year for pansies. Ours are looking gorgeous and some of them we planted before all the snow last winter and they have survived. Julie who helps us in the garden gave us a tip to feed them once a week with tomato feed. It seems to be working!

Happy Birthday Poppy - fourteen today!

2011-04-06T11:04:00.002+01:00

Happy birthday to darling Poppy my beautiful little girl, fourteen years young today. Here she is on her birthday which is an absolutely glorious April day. We are going out to the garden centre and there is a nice pet department so Poppy (and of course Princess Kizzle) will be coming along for an outing.

Happy Birthday Zeki Beeks - three years old today!

2011-03-08T12:21:00.004Z

Happy Birthday Zeki and her littermates: Zinna, Zev and Ziga

Rest peacefully dearest Mum

2011-02-03T15:58:00.005Z

I haven't been able, or wanted, to post on the blog for a while. My mum was taken ill just before Olympia and was taken from her nursing home into Kent & Sussex hospital with double pneumonia.

It became clear that she was unlikely to recover and so with the help of our local GP we managed to get her transferred to our cottage hospital just over the road from me. It's a wonderful place and we were very happy to have her so close by. My step-father, Ed, has been in the same hospital for some weeks and so it was good that he was able to see Mum whenever he wanted. We were able to visit as much as we liked and my brother Dan, sister Sally and her two children, Kelly & Sam, spent as much time as possible with her talking, singing songs and making sure she was comfortable. It is time we will always cherish and are very grateful for.

As we feared she didn't recover and my lovely mum passed away on Saturday 15th January. Even though she had been in the nursing home for almost four years and we knew she couldn't withstand another chest problem it was and is a heartbreaking and shocking time. I thought I was prepared but I wasn't.

She was a fantastic mum and a great person; we will always be very proud of her and of the work she did for Oxfam. We got a lovely letter from head office after mum had passed away saying what an inspiration she had been and how she had touched the hearts of all the people she worked with during the 20+ years that she managed the local Oxfam shop. Oxfam was always the cause dearest to her heart.

Throughout her life she was fiercely proud of her Irish and Roman Catholic roots. She was a regular member of the congregation of St. Lawrence’s RC church for many years and it was of great comfort to us all having a service in celebration of her life at the church where we all attended mass every Sunday.

I can't believe she has gone and I miss her very much but I know for certain that she is with the angels.

RIP

Kathleen Elizabeth Belcher nee O'Farrell

25th March 1933 - 15th January 2011

Nearly Olympia!

2010-12-09T12:31:00.004Z

I can't believe where the time has gone since we qualified for Olympia back in early September. I know it sounds clichéd but it's true "time flies" (actually I think that phrase is probably an example of an idiom but I'm never quite sure!) Anyway the fact is that Olympia is only just over a week away for the large dogs and I am very excited.

The only downside is that we haven't had any training for two weeks. I can't train outside as we still have snow and, more worryingly, ice. On top of that the indoor school has been inaccessible. Andy drove up there on Tuesday to see if there was any chance we could train but the yard had about 9 inches of snow and ice covering it and it would have been too risky. Today it's really sunny and the temperature has risen but so far the snow isn't thawing very much at all. We really need more rain to wash it all away.

I know it's the same for quite a few people going to Olympia but it really worries me as it is far from ideal. Obviously there is the issue of fitness for both Niamh and myself but also the worry that we will have lost our self-confidence. So I am trying to counter this by making sure Niamh gets decent exercise despite the icy conditions and that I am keeping fit by walking and doing my pilates exercises. Andy is walking Poppy with his dogs so I just have Niamh and Zeki to walk. It's much better because Niamh is calmer; she doesn't herd Zeki like she does our other collies and so the walk is much gentler. She still gets a good run but doesn't do all the hand brake turns and crazy charging around. I am also having a trick training session every day and getting her to do some exercises on her wobble cushion and pilates peanut ball. Hopefully we will hang on to our connection by doing bits and pieces together.

I am hopeful that we might be able to access the indoor school one day next week to do some agility training but it really depends on the state of the yard.

Meantime here is Niamh's latest little gift from Leah - isn't it great and the words are just perfect. I am going to use it to save up for a new bed for her!

Even more snow pictures

2010-12-03T09:28:00.003Z

Some pictures from the front yard:

Walking in the snow

2010-12-02T15:52:00.008Z

I took the doglets over the road for a walk but didn't get as far as the fields as it was just too deep, instead I stayed in Blossoms Park and walked round the cricket pitch a few times. Phew, that was hard enough work so god knows what it would have been like out in the fields. Not very nice I suspect!

The dogs are exhausted, especially little Zeki Beeks. She nearly disappeared from sight at times!

They had huge snowballs on them and I had to give them all a warm shower to get rid of them. I even had to rinse them in their Equafleeces as their coats had stuck to their legs with all the ice. Not fun!

More snow pictures

2010-12-02T13:14:00.008Z

We had a lot more snow overnight and it's still snowing now. I'm trying to muster some enthusiasm to walk some of the dogs across the road to the fields but it's not very enjoyable as it's hard to walk. The snow is above my wellies so I'll have wear waterproof trousers over the top of my wellies. I will only take NN, Zeki and Murphy as I don't walk Becky and Poppy out in the snow (will explain why in another post) and Princess, well it just doesn't bear thinking about. She would much rather stay on my bed!

Here are some more pictures from the garden. It shows how much more snow we had overnight. It varies in the agility area as a lot of the equipment is under the oak trees but even under all that cover there is about a foot of snow. Out in the exposed parts there is a good two feet. Too much!

Here we go again - more snow

2010-12-01T12:26:00.007Z

I know we are lucky compared with other parts of the country, especially the north east but even so more snow this year isn't very welcome. We already had a good spell of snow earlier in the year but to experience it before Christmas and in November is almost unheard of.

As usual the forecasters haven't got it quite right. We were told to expect flurries over the last 48 hours but instead we have had constant snow, some of it quite heavy and as a consequence we have a good eight inches of snow and as deep as a foot in the back garden and agility area. Unlike yesterday it isn't melting because the temperature hasn't risen above freezing today.

Pretty back garden first thing this morning

Andy clearing the driveway with his leaf blower!

Andy and Becky (in matching Hurtta jackets) about to go off to the vet ... more of that later.

The secret garden covered in snow

Zeki out in the agility area

and with Naughty Niamh .... you can see how deep the snow is. Zeki is standing not laying or sitting

Snowy startline practise!

Naughty Niamh waiting for Zeki to chase her

Niamh practising contacts!

The summer house with its new veranda - except you can't see it because of the SNOW

Another shot of Zeki in the agility area up to her chest in snow

Weaving in the snow!

Zeki practising her contacts!

Even deeper snow in the back garden as there are less trees to protect the ground.

We had a lovely play in the garden. I took Zeki and Niamh out with me and we played games and also topped up all the bird feeders. They are eating so much at the moment especially the fat slabs and balls. I like to make sure that food and water are available for the wild birds and especially so in this extreme weather. Some of different feeds I am topping up every day as they get through so much. Greedy little birds. Of course these two were following me around looking for dropped seeds but I was too efficient and they didn't get any!

It took me ages to get all the snowballs out of their fur when we came inside. Neither of them wanted to come in as they both love the snow. Kizzy quite likes it but hates it when she gets snow balls so I took pity on her today and left her sleeping on my bed.

We have had a lot more snow forecast and I really hope they have got it wrong as I don't want any more. It's fun for a bit but then it gets very tedious and everything is such an effort.

Before the snow came!

2010-12-01T12:19:00.005Z

Things are progressing very nicely in the garden. Our rose has arrived and been planted, for me rather disappointing as it's just three twigs but that is normal I am told. I'm not really sure what I expected but not just three twigs! Oh well, I am sure it will be beautiful one day.

Al and Andy have been very busy starting to work through the very long list of outdoor stuff. They worked the last two weekends flat out and finished up on Sunday evening working in floodlights in the freezing cold. So far they have repaired the shed roof and completely re-felted it so it now looks very smart and doesn't detract from our newly planted border. They have also built a lean-to roof over part of Andy's yard so that he can keep most of his stuff (trailer, barrows, timber etc.) under cover. Part of clearing out the yard meant using up the decking that we inherited from Dennis and Bernadette a good time ago. This has now been put to very good use around the summerhouse and gives a nice area for people to sit. Here are some before and during photos. Can't put any 'after' photos up yet as everything is covered in SNOW again!

Next weekend Andy is going to have a huge tidy up of the yard and do some much needed pruning in the agility area. Then the following week Al will be back and they hope to get power and light into Andy's mower shed, put up lighting in the new lean-to and other bits and pieces and then on the second day, if we can get materials here in time lay the new bigger gauge gravel on the driveway. This isn't a very technical job, just lots of hard work shifting the current gravel next door as Geoff has a use for it and then taking delivery of the new stuff and getting it in place.

It's very exciting to see progress but it's really hard work for Al and Andy. I did feel sorry for them this weekend as it was so cold. I spent a lot of the day ferrying up hot drinks, soup and lots of food for them. I did two walks in the freezing weather so could imagine how cold they were stuck out there all day.

A couple of weeks back was North Downs agility show. I like this show as it's always well organised and a nice indoor venue. My girls were both brilliant and we even managed to execute a funny turn! Zeki got 3rd place in her class but I got e'd with Niamh as I pulled her off a jump which was a bit annoying.

Zeki got a 4th place in her jumping class and then one elimination down to a poor handling choice on my part. I actually didn't wait for her last run as it was too late. Niamh did some fantastic contacts which I was really pleased with bearing in mind we have Olympia coming up soon. Can't wait, very excited about that! I can't believe how excited I still get at the prospect of going to Olympia. My first time there was with dear little Bess in 1991 and this will be my twelfth time competing and Niamh's second.

On the subject of Bess, Graeme gave me a dvd of her Pedigree Pairs win from 1993. It made me cry when I watched it. She was such a wonderful dog. I have already posted the video on Facebook but here it is again for posterity on my blog.

What have we been up to - Pt 2 Garden

2010-11-04T11:54:00.007Z

I can't believe it was back in August that Julie started on the long border in our garden. It was hard work for her to clear it out and get ready for planting but once done we had a session with her to choose the plants. Julie brought some books and we spent time looking at the most gorgeous pictures.

The planting is finished including lots of bulbs ready for spring. I say finished but there is one more item to go in the border but we have to wait for that to be delivered. We decided to put a couple of clematis in to grow up the wall and in between those a climbing rose. It's the rose that we have to wait for and it probably won't arrive until sometime in the new year or so. We chose Teasing Georgia Climbing and I can't wait for it to arrive and be planted in the prime spot.

Here are some before and after pictures of the border. We are so looking forward to seeing things grow in the spring and hope that it will look really beautiful instead of the rather muddled mess it was before.

The above two pictures show the border over winter (totally bare) and then in the height of summer, just a mass of overgrown grass type plants with no colour or structure.

Below are pictures of the border now that Julie has finished clearing and planting. It doesn't look much but hopefully we will see a big difference come next year when it all starts to grow.

I love the Autumn for walks, the beautiful colours and cosy nights by the fire but I don't like it for the dark nights and even more so for the leaves that fall. This year the oaks have had a massive crop of acorns and it seems that every acorn in the world has fallen into my agility area. They are a nightmare to clear up and it's back breaking work. That isn't very good for me as my back is very painful at the moment. The two procedures I had back in the summer haven't really worked this time which is very disappointing. Not sure quite where I go from here. I am hoping to start yoga classes so maybe some core strengthening exercises will help me.

The big leaf fall is just beginning and it's ongoing work between now and Christmas to keep on top of the leaves. Sometimes I think we should just leave them until everything has dropped but the trouble is we would be knee deep in leaves if we did that.

Most of the horse-chestnut and chestnut trees are finished and the oak leaves are starting to fall now. The oaks opposite and most of those in our garden/agility area are turning with the exception of the biggest oak which sits over our yard and sheds. That is always the last to come into leaf and the last to drop, it doesn't finish until after Christmas. It must be different species from the others but I'm not sure which. I assume the others are English Oaks but am not knowledgeable enough to identify this one. I should go and take a leaf sample and google it! Anyway, I hate leaves once they fall in case you hadn't realised!

We were very lucky last year in that we had an easterly wind when the main drop came and most of the leaves blew out across the fields. No such luck this year!

We have masses of chores to do outdoors over the winter including: re-roofing one of the sheds as it now looks very tatty sitting next to our new neat border; a new roof across the yard so that things will stay dry and not get covered with tree debris etc; decking to put round the summer house; new sheeting to be erected outside the back door for cover when it's raining; a car port for my little van; new larger-gauge gravel to go on the drive because I am so fed up with the tiny gravel which gets everywhere; mower shed to be racked out; fish pond to be cleared out and fix the filter and so on .....

All good fun and keeps us out of trouble!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful Kizzy

2010-11-02T10:54:00.007Z

Where has the time gone. Our beautiful little Kizzy is four years old today. Here she is unwrapping her present. It seemed the right thing to give her a proper wrapped present as her biggest thrill is shredding wrapping paper. We love her so much.

Here are some pictures of our 'Princess' doing what she loves best:

Birthday wishes to Kizzy's litter mates: Oz, Zoe and Whizz

What have we been up to - pt 1 Agility Update

2010-11-01T21:39:00.035Z

It's a while since I've posted on the blog mainly because we've been really busy and partly because I just didn't feel like it! Have been a bit bogged down with our year end accounts which causes me no end of misery as I always leave things to the last minute and then bury my head in the sand and hope it'll go away. It never does and I never learn. Oh well.

Anyway, the agility season is all but over and Autumn is well and truly with us. The clocks went back at the weekend and the horrible dark evenings are with us once more. There is a part of this time of year that I love as it's nice to be cosy by the fire with Christmas coming (and Olympia!!) but I really don't like the dank, dark days.

So with the dark evenings here what better way to spend an hour than catching up with the blog and remembering the last few shows of the year. I think I left off after Lune Valley and the World Tryouts. Quite a few shows between then and now and I can't remember all the details but some highlights are:

Rugby with Zeki getting 3rd in the Crufts singles (also EOQ).

On the lovely walk at Rugby venue with Pops, Zaz ( staying with us at the time) and Zeki

Agility Club third win towards G7 for Zeki and some good runs from Kizzy with me running her. Here are some fantastic photos of Niamh from this show by Grace and Alex:

Burridge Niamh Q'd for Olympia semi-final and had a nearly with Zeki but one pole down. Andy Sandercock judged the large qualifier and it was a really good course, obstacle discrimination and some really tricky bits. Loved it as it gave me a chance! I know some people like to set very fast and relatively easy courses for Olympia Q's as they believe that reflects what you'll get at the finals. They are absolutely entitled to this view but I feel a bit differently. I see Olympia as a prize that should be earned. The style of course at that final is like no other due to the size of the arena and the nature of the event. From a personal viewpoint, I am so much better when I have to really work at a course than just blasting round fast patterns. Anyway, Andy's course certainly suited us!

KC Festival Zeki got her final win for G7 and then another win the following day. Here she is with her prize, clever beautiful little girl:

DIN - Zeki got into the G6/7 final and was a superstar, such a shame her daft handler pulled her off a jump right at the end, she also got a couple more wins at that show; Andy and Kizzy starting to get back on form with Kizzy coming 5th in the small champ final with clear runs in all three elements; sadly not at all on form with NN at DIN. Here are three videos from DIN and some photos of Niamh and Kizzy:

I absolutely love these photos taken of Kizzy at DIN - she looks so lovely, thank you to Patch Guipago for these super pics!

And a couple of Niamh taken by Grace and Alex. I particularly love the shot with Leah and Herbie where we've been caught without realising having a cuddle (and kiss) with our lovely doglets.

Letchworth another 3rd place for Zeki in EOQ class and some good runs from NN in prep for the semi finals the following day. I camped over night in my van at Letchworth, here is Niamh getting ready for bed on the new pillow I bought her :o)

Love the above photo as Niamh leaps in the air as she watches Leah and Herbie run. She gets so excited as she always assumes it's pairs when she sees them run!

Fantastic shot of her focused and driving through a tunnel. What a lovely girl and what a great shot (not sure Alex or Grace but thanks anyway!)

Olympia semi-finals, Stoneleigh - I truly didn't think I would get Niamh to Olympia again as the qualifying process is very hard now. We are a good team but there are so many great partnerships out there and rather a lot of them quite a bit quicker than we are! We have consistency on our side and I guess I can handle the pressure of big events having participated in quite a few over the years. So I have to stay focused on the positives and I really did that during my walk at Kenilworth Castle before driving on to Stoneleigh. I gave myself a good talking to and it seemed to work! I had stayed over night at Hill Top Bed & Breakfast in Kenilworth where both my dogs were able to come into the room and I would thoroughly recommend this establishment to anyone with up to a couple of well-behaved doglets. I was treated so well and waited on hand and foot. Such lovely, welcoming and friendly people.

Anyway I digress but it does help to stay somewhere nice where you don't feel under pressure because of your dogs. I know Kenilworth quite well and have often walked in the castle grounds and find it a good way of relaxing before the trauma of the qualifier! Niamh dug up several mole hills and got smothered in mud so I wasn't best pleased at that!!

On to Stoneleigh which is literally five minutes up the road and got parked and organised and then went to watch the novice qualifier. It was quite a tricky course and we saw a lot of E's. I was quite nervous as this was to be our warm up run and I hoped that I could get Niamh round! As it happens the course ran really well with the slightly more experienced dogs, it wasn't as tricky as it had looked from the outside. I decided what I wanted was a clear round with solid contacts, I also found somewhere that I could turn Niamh towards me rather than flick her away even though it was slower to work the combination like this. I have a few issues with her flicking away from me when I want her to turn toward me but more of that in a later training update! Niamh didn't disappoint and ran a lovely clear which boosted my confidence.

Before lunch Simon built his qualifier and we were allowed to walk it over lunch. It was quite trappy but still a fast course. I really liked it as it wasn't just a straight forward blast. I walked it probably twenty times and drilled into my mind all the things to remember. The course had a bit of everything: running past the face of obstacles not to be taken; pull or push throughs; go rounds; snakes and a fast finish. Sadly I didn't get it on video as I was on my own and just had to concentrate on my run.

We ran quite late and Leah and Herbie had already gone clear running early on. I was thrilled for them and so wanted to get it right for me and Niamh. I was very nervous.

Apparently by the time I ran (which was two thirds through the competition) all I needed was a clear round but I was unaware of that. Bless her, Leah stopped anyone from saying this to me because she knows that I work much better under pressure and would probably screw up if I went out just trying for a clear. As far as I was concerned I had to go fast and clear. Niamh was brilliant and I couldn't have asked for more. We ended up 10th out of the eighteen that qualify and I was delighted with this result.

The competition is so different now and because there are more in each semi and a lot more go through to the final (sixteen whereas used to be five) I was worried that this would make me complacent. I mean when you know you have to get top five you have no choice than to go for it but when you are looking at top eighteen it would be so easy to take it too cautiously and blow it. Anyway, we didn't and we're going to Olympia. I am so thrilled! My clever, wonderful Niamh.

This is the cake that Leah made for me and Niamh for qualifying. I wish I was that creative!

Will he, won't he? I couldn't possibly eat Niamh - it would have been so wrong. That didn't stop Andy. Horrible person he ate my dog.

Gillingham - just can't remember what we managed to do there. I don't think very much agility-wise but had a great time as I love the venue and had lots of nice walks. We were able to go early as Andy and Tamzin had a trade stand so it was nice to have a few days away. Here is the naughty one peeping out from the windbreak:

Stour Valley - great day with Niamh getting four out of four clears and some good places. Didn't do as well with Zeki!

South Downs with 6 hours between my two (yes two) runs but it was worth it as Todd and Zeki won the pairs that was over by 10.00 am and then it was gone 4.00 pm before the qualifier was set up. The wait was worth it Zeki was a star and won the Olympia qualifier meaning we have qualfied for the 2011 semi-finals! Zeki won a lovely picture frame (well two actually) at South Downs and this is perfect for the lovely photo that Gran'Ma bought for me at DIN of Zeki competing in her first final. It was even worth the four-hour drive home (accident on M25)!

Zeki and Todd with their haul from Southdowns show

I think that's about it for the agility competition update. I have one more show before Olympia which is North Downs and also the WAOC try outs in December. More of that later!

Sleep peacefully Sweet Sasparana

2010-09-13T21:55:00.004+01:00

I hope Karen won't mind my posting this on my blog but Sassie has a special place in my heart and I wanted to put this picture on my blog as it is so lovely.

Karen, our thoughts are with you. What a beautiful girl she was and what a wonderful life she had.

Shanowl a Ray of Hope ~ 19/1/96 - 8/9/10 'Sassie'
aka Sassie Saucepot / Sasparana

Naughty Niamh is going to Olympia and Zeki Beeks is now Grade 7

2010-09-07T15:19:00.003+01:00

Will do a proper update soon but just wanted to post about my two wonderful doglets.

Naughty Niamh has qualified for Olympia 2010 and Zeki Beeks has won into G7; perfect timing at the end of the year so I can work on things over the winter ready for G7 and champ classes. Zeki won into G7 on all agility classes which makes me even happier!

Clever clever girlies!

Niamh with that precious 'Q' rosette

Zeki with her prize for that final win putting her into Grade 7
from the KC Festival 2010

Mammoth update part 2 (garden and other bits)

2010-08-10T15:09:00.007+01:00

I caught Andy's bug after return from Lune Valley. Whereas he had a cough, I got laryngitis and couldn't speak for nearly a week! You can imagine how happy Andy was at this time! I went into hospital to have my facet joints injected and was very lucky they did the procedure as I was running a temperature. Oops I told them the laryngitis was down to hay fever, I think they saw through that. However, as my airways were clear they went ahead. My back was good for a few days but then not so good. Having been back to the consultant I am now booked to go in the week after Dogs in Need for another procedure, this time to have radio frequency lesioning which is where the nerves are killed off semi-permanently. I last had this done 11 years ago and it gave me a number of pain free years so fingers crossed it works again. They won't do this procedure until they have first tried the injections.

The garden has been hard work this year as we had neglected some tasks last summer/autumn. We have had to give in a get a bit of help. Julie who occasionally trains with me has been twice now and her project is the long border. So far she has had two sessions on it and needs one more to finish clearing it out. Then she will help us plant it with perennials in the autumn. I hope it will look beautiful next year.

Above: the overgrown border and with no structure to anything!

Below: after two sessions by Julie, just the last third to go which she'll tackle after we get back from DIN

You can also see yet another chore - a new shed roof is needed!

The other major chore in the back garden is the side opposite the long border. As you can see it is very overgrown. I know the colours look lovely but beneath that growth is our beautiful old brick wall and we do like to be able to see it! All that growth sticks out by over a metre and encroaches the lawn. Andy tackled that side himself with a little bit of help from me.

Above the overgrown greenery and below, we can see our lovely wall again!

On top of this Andy has cut all the hedges in the agility area and in the front. We love our beautiful garden but it is a lot of hard work for sure!

Mammoth update part 1 (agility)

2010-08-10T12:37:00.023+01:00

Oh gosh where to start: agility catch up I think!

Lune Valley, Barrow and the World Try Outs

It's a long trip to the Lune/Barrow show ground but a gorgeous venue with a the lovely canal walk right off site plus of course loads more walking off site if you choose. We took the lazy option this year and walked along the canal each day. The intrepid Bays went offsite and climbed mountains each day. One day they even took Mr Murf!

Murphy and his 'other' family

The show ground had changed this year which meant a different layout. It wasn't as nice and neither was the running ground. The show committees had done their best but there was a heck of a lot of walking from the caravan to the rings and by the end of the week my legs were done! Andy caught a horrible bug whilst there and became ill half way through the week so that spoilt things a bit. Andy did a day's judging for Lune and myself and Bernadette did some training for Barrow's charity raising.

The showground from the canal. You can see how the rings were right up one end and the camping all behind. Not good on the legs!

Poppy having a snooze in Zeki's little bed!

A lovely property at the end of the canal with its own private jetty. Beautiful.

Kizzy did some good runs and got some placings but she's still not running flat out. We have to work hard to bring her back to her old self. Not entirely sure what has knocked her confidence so much but hopefully we'll get there. Niamh and Zeki were great and Zeki and I managed two wins towards G7, both in agility. Niamh got two third places one of which was in agility and possibly one of her best ever runs (sadly no video). She was third behind two very fast dogs by just fractions of a second and this gave me a real boost.

On the Sunday of Lune Valley, Bernadette and I travelled all the way down to Daventry for the World Try Outs. This is the first time I've ever taken part in this and I have slightly mixed feelings about the experience but I'm glad I did it and very happy that my little Niamh performed brilliantly. The courses were a little bit easier than I had been expecting and so I kind of knew we wouldn't be able to out-run the really fast partnerships. We got E'd on the jumping course but I don't feel too bad about that as a lot of people met the same fate on this course. It wasn't a hard course there just one bit on it that caused the problems. We had a pole in one agility class and a clear in the next agility run. We got into the final round and I was very proud of both Niamh and myself on the day; her for her great runs and me for holding my nerve.

Actually, the most stressful thing for me on the day was that there was nobody to take your lead; this I find hard because Niamh is a handful on the start line and I need to get her onto her toy at the end of a round otherwise she will try to go back into the ring. Strange that such a simple thing was overlooked at such an important event.

Bernadette and Zen made the medium team so big congrats to them on being part of the team for the umpteenth time. What a great partnership. We have excellent teams in all three height categories and I really think we can do well in October. Good Luck guys and girls!

It was a long drive back to Lune Valley show! Here are my videos from the day (thanks to Bernadette):

Rugby

Quite enjoyed Rugby but the camping was pretty awful as we had the day trippers right outside our caravan which can be a bit annoying as some dogs just bark all day long. Not very peaceful. The venue seems to be struggling with the size of the show. Mixed results with the doglets. Niamh did a lovely run in Simon Chandler's KCQ but had a pole down. We were E'd in the champ jumping as Niamh chose to flick away from me in the weaves, something I had been practising rather a lot and obviously need to proof against!

Zeki was a little star and came 3rd in the Crufts singles. I couldn't believe it. The course was a a bit different from the usual but still quite fast. She did run it well but I still didn't expect to come that high in a 6/7 qualifier. The Crufts points are no use to us as I am judging at Crufts next year (yikes!) but I believe the class was also an EO qualifier so that might do us some good if we try out. Zeki was leading her jumping right until the end when we got beaten by Gemma and Hoax and so ended up in 2nd place. We did a good run in the KCQ right until the end when I pulled Zeki off a jump. We wouldn't have been quick enough to qualify though as the top three spots went to border collies and they will always be faster across the ground than us.

Agility Club

Well, this was different from usual as it was held at Ardingly. It was a nice show but boy was there some walking. The way that the club had been forced to lay out the show was pretty awful. All the rings ran across the very top of the ground and then the camping just went back. To make things worse all the rings were situated within enclosures with only two gates to get in and out of each enclosure. Of course the gate was always opposite where you ended up or wanted to be! I think this is possibly the most walking I have done at a show perhaps apart from last year's KC Festival. Hard to tell!

Results-wise, nothing for Niamh. I chose not to run her on the Saturday as it was quite wet when her runs were due and the courses a little too twisty for my liking (in those conditions.) I saw so many dogs hit the A-Frame in the KCQ that it made me feel sick and at times upset.

We didn't do very well in the champ on Sunday but Zeki made up for it by winning her Graded 6 agility in style (by 10 seconds!) It was a tricky course set by Andy Longley and I thoroughly enjoyed it as you had to handle the whole way round. I was really pleased to get this third win in agility as we had almost won a class on Saturday only to be beaten again by Gemma and Hoax. I am delighted to say (both for Gemma and Hoax, and for me and Zeki LOL) that they are now in G7! One more win to go for the Beek! Thank you very much to Colin for filming this run for me.

I ran Kizzy on the Saturday and she worked really nicely because Andy wasn't there! Had he been around she would have looked for him. He had to stay home to catch up with work.
We got 5 in the champ jumping and a clear in the agility but didn't make the final. Unusual for a small champ as you normally would get to the final on 5. Never mind! Again thanks to Colin for the videos.

Obay Winners at the Agility Club Yazz (G3); Zen (KCQ); Zaz (G5), Itzy (G4) and my little Zeki (G6)

Kizzy preferring to stay home on the Sunday!

Burridge

Oh gosh, what a long trip for two runs but I am sooooooooooooooo glad I went. Niamh and I qualified for a KC Olympia semi-final on the Saturday. I loved the course, set by Andy Sandercock, it was full of handling and choices. I chose a couple of safe options but took some risk in other places. I trusted Niamh completely on the obstacle discrimination (both times) and she did her job. Clever little girlie. We had a very near miss right at the end of the course, I opted to go for the faster finish and it almost cost us as Niamh very nearly took the wrong jump, I yelled her name and she just turned off it but it cost us time. I really thought I had blown it with that error and was so pleased when friends told me we had come 7th with two people in the top five already qualifying this meant we had done it! I was a very happy bunny and took my three dogs off for a nice walk on the New Forest with Karen and her gang. I didn't do Niamh's second run as I was so happy I didn't care about it!

Sassie with Poppy and Zeki in a little stream on the forest

The following day was a choice for me. Chippenham and Niamh's champ or back to Burridge for a last ditch attempt for Zeki in the KCQ. I chose to go back to Burridge and am glad I did even though we didn't qualify. Zeki worked beautifully but had a pole; we stayed on for our 6/7 agility and honestly think we might have won it but for one half of the partnership letting the other half down right at the end of the course. You can see for yourselves which half let the other down!

Well done to Karen and Todd for winning the KCQ and getting to the semi-finals in September. Karen had to withdraw from Olympia last year so I hope with all my heart they make it through this year. Oh and not forgetting little Yazzooooooooooo, not to be outdone by her brother she won two classes on the Sunday!

Well, now it's just a case of getting ready for the up and coming KC Festival and Dogs in Need. I am so looking forward to this feast of agility. I will try to do a more timely report on our return!

Big oops!

2010-08-06T19:05:00.002+01:00

My poor blog is feeling very neglected. I have lots to update but no time to do it. I also have some videos of my doglets but no time to download them. I guess it's to be expected at this time of year with so many shows and a very large and wild garden to tend on top of the usual office work and looking after the doglets! I also had facet joint injections in my back followed by a horrible bout of laryngitis which meant a few days where I couldn't do much and so got even more behind!

So, this post is really just to acknowledge that Hudsondoglets and their humans are all well and that it is my plan to do a megga update before leaving for the KC Festival. We are so looking forward to some time away with our doglets in the caravan!

Please come back soon for an update!

Happy Birthday Naughty Niamh; six years old today!

2010-06-25T04:27:00.000+01:00

Happy birthday to my gorgeous, beautiful, wicked, Naughty Niamh. I cannot believe she is six years old today. The years have flown by since we trekked all the way up to Lancashire to collect her. Thank you Natalie for letting me have this wonderful little dog. I won't lie to you, she has been hard work at times but oh so worth it. I love her to pieces. We share the same birthday and I do believe when she was born, she was meant for me. She is my wonderful Beeby Neebs!

Here are some birthday photos of my special girl: