Popdate and other bits

Can't believe another week has flown by. I have no idea where the time goes.

Popdate

On Monday I took Poppy back to Sara for a follow up treatment. She had some deeper manipulations on her back as she was not as sore as the previous week. Overall Sara was pleased with her progress and she's now on a get fit exercise regime. This week she's been on the lead for her walks and is coming back absolutely sound after long walks on lead. Next week she'll come off lead but only with Abbey on a quiet walk. Then we'll just gently ramp up the exercise level on a weekly basis. I won't bring her back into full agility training this year as I want to make sure the toe heals properly. I will start doing some simple low height jumping (at home) in about three weeks and take it from there.

Training

We had a good training session on Tuesday with the puppies. We did a cross behind exercise which Kizzy did really well. We also did some box combinations and lots of contacts with Andy crossing behind the dog walk, stopping half way along it and some run bys.

I didn't have a dog to train with Poppy being out and I decided not to train Niamh as she had a bad tummy. I think she probably ate something horrible but she was passing blood so I decided to keep her home in the warm. I was going to take her to see Jim if it didn't clear by the following day. I put her on a course of Canikur and that did the trick as she seems to be fine now. She was not impressed being left behind on Tuesday evening - I think it's the first time she's had to miss training and she wasn't a happy bunny!

Lunch with an old friend

On Wednesday Sara Davies came for lunch. We haven't seen Sara for a while and she wanted to have a look at the new house. She'd been keeping up to date with our news via the blog and wanted to meet Kizzy in person. Sara currently has three dogs: Becky her lovely little collie who's 15.5 now (gosh it seems like a life time ago that Andy and Sara used to pack their little jumps and weave poles and trek up to the park to train Becky and Tina together each week!); Jazz her GSD and Poppy the boxer.

Sara was very impressed with Kizzy's elephant trick and wanted to see how we trained it. She watched Kizzy doing it and then watched Niamh who is still learning the trick so that was very helpful for her to see. She wants to teach Poppy to do the trick. Sara does clicker training and had taught Poppy to stand on a box as a puppy. We have set her a challenge; to train Poppy to do the Circus Elephant trick and be the first boxer on Johanna's "Be an Elephant" blog!

I did get an email from Sara saying she started training as soon as she got home from lunch! Watch this space!

Sara has decided that she wants a sheltie as she's fallen in love with the Kizzle!

Other bits

For some reason we've both been really tired this week and we slobbed out in front of the t.v. last night to catch up with some programmes we'd taped. I had taken the dogs on quite a late walk (we didn't get back until dark) and I was frozen, just couldn't get warm. The upside, I thought, would be be that they would crash for the evening. Well, they did ... except for one. The small pointed thing was quite tired after her walk (1.5 hours) and had a small sleep in her bed. Then I made the big mistake of giving her some dinner. The re-fuelling was very welcome and the ensuing energy surge took place as usual. Whilst the collies + Murf slobbed out in their beds the small and pointed one rampaged. Here she is while Andy is trying very hard to watch Top Gear.

Andy: "please can I watch Top Gear!" Kizzy: "yes but only through me!"

"Yes, I know I'm beautiful, even when I'm irritating people" (that's Kizzy, not Andy - well the bit about beautiful, not irritating as that applies to them both!!!)

Andy: "Oh, I give up, I'll stop watching Top Gear and kiss you instead"
Kizzy: "I should think so too, about time I got some proper attention around here"

Nedlo Training

Yesterday morning we got up really early to pack Andy and Kizzy off to Hampshire. They were booked on a sheltie pup training session with Lesley.

They had a two hour session and Andy really enjoyed it. He said it gave him a real confidence boost both in terms of what he could do with Kizzy and the fact that she did her stuff in a new environment. Kizzy learned to use the wobble board (a large piece of ply which sits on a ball and moves about). It was easy to teach her using the clicker. She has never seen one before but very quickly was standing on it and then performing left and right turns. The idea of this is to teach them to have confidence in their balance ability. I think Andy, Karen and a few others are going to book another lesson together which they're looking forward to.

Andy reckons Lesley probably had a headache by the end of the session but that the experience would stand her in good stead for today when she has a total of sixteen shelties to train in two sessions! Ha ha, I think ear muffs might be required!

I took the others for a good long walk and then got back to some more leaf clearing. Oh joy!
Andy and Kizzy got home at about 3.00 pm. Kizzy was pretty tired although she still had her mad turn in the evening. Murphy is so good with her. He was stretched out on the sofa and Kizzy was just running over him, right across his head and body and he just lays there. She is a bad sheltie.

She is a little fire bug. Here are some pictures of her once she'd calmed down from her evening hysteria. She loves to bask.

"I'm so tired after all that training and running around on top of Murphy!"

"That's it, I'm rested; time to get up and look for more mischief ....."

"Maybe not; there's always tomorrow!"

Circus Elephant (work in progress)

I have started to teach Naughty Niamh the circus elephant trick. I haven't had a lot of time to spend on this but she is learning. Once she's perfected the trick I will post another video and request to be added to the Circus Elephant blog, we're not ready for that just yet!

http://be-an-elephant.blogspot.com/

We want to come out to play

Whilst I was working outside or should that be outside fighting a losing battle with the leaves I had four little people taking it in turns to watch!

Murphy: please can I come out to play!

Becks: I'm a bit shy but please could I come out too!

Naughty Niamh: I am not shy, I'm coming out just one more ear to squeeze through!

Kizzy: Don't forget the little one!

Abbey and Poppy refuse to play this stupid game. The others line up and take it in turns. The cat flap is never empty if we're outside and they've been left indoors. I can't have Kizzy outside when I'm raking as she just digs up the leaves and chases the rake ........ oh and barks! Bad Sheltie!

Leaves, leaves and more leaves

Before coming into the office this morning I thought I'd do a bit of leaf management. It's quite a big task in this place. I collected some using the rake and then used the outdoor vacuum. I took three massive loads down to the bonfire. By the time I'd finished there were loads more where I'd left off as the trees across the road decided to offload a few more. At the weekend we'll have to get up the ladder to clear out the gutters as they're absolutely full. We have leaf guards but the leaves are just laying on top of these in places up to 3 inches deep!

Agility in the leaves, there are loads more to come off the oaks trees yet. Now that the colours are becoming duller I just wish they'd hurry up and fall then we can have one good clear up!

The weeping willow is sobbing never mind weeping!

Still some nice colours in the back garden and plenty more leaves to fall!

By the time I'd cleared the alley way at one end it was filling up with more leaves, I think I'll wait until the oak tree opposite has finished shedding before I do any more clearing up!

To be fair the people we bought the house from told us we would have quite a bit of work come the Autumn so we were sort of prepared but even so ...... this is just amazing!

Poppy Update

Lots of people have asked me for an update on Poppy so I thought I'd put something on the blog. She had and hour and a half with Sara Barnes yesterday. Sara spent half an hour watching her move and then examining her to determine exactly what where her injuries before she started treating her.

Poor little Poppy sustained quite a few injuries when she took her tumble at the weekend the most obvious being a mild ventral rotation of the right sacroiliac joint (a lot of people refer to this as putting the pelvis out of line); an injury to her medial toe which we are certain isn't fractured but probably badly bruised and lastly soreness in thoracic facets joints under T8-T11 - this last bit caused by the way she landed flat on her back. Sara said all the injuries she could find exactly added up to what I described had happened to Poppy on Sunday. I have probably not described the injuries absolutely correctly but this is my best effort from what Sara was explaining as we went along. Sara also thinks that Poppy's badly bruised (giving her the Arnica was the best thing we could have done.)

Poppy then had just under an hour of treatment on her back, hind leg muscles where she was also displaying quite a lot of discomfort (forgot to mention that). By the end of the treatment Sara was very pleased as Poppy was standing properly and the rotation of her right foot had disappeared. She needs more treatment on her facet joints but Sara is going to do that when we go back on Monday as Poppy was too sore for deep treatment, Sara just did some fairly gentle manipulations.

Poppy was so pleased to see Sara, she hasn't been for nearly five years but she knew exactly where to go and greeted Sara with a big sloppy kiss. Poppy was Sara's very first agility patient, many people have been to her since but Sara still says Poppy is her best ever patient. She just sits, stands or lays down and does everything Sara needs in order to give her the best treatment. Here is a little picture of Sara working on Poppy, you can see how chilled Pops is.


Poppy now has to have a couple of days rest as she's treatment sore and then gentle exercise by herself to make sure she doesn't stiffen up. When I see Sara next Monday we'll discuss a proper exercise regime to start bringing her back to fitness in due course.

Kizzy's Training

Kizzy had a good training session last night. She has a new training toy which she loves. Karen bought it for her birthday. It's a little fluffy yellow duck on a rope.

I decided that we would do some work on cross behinds in the puppy class. We started off by using just one jump and placing the toy out and to the side we wanted the dogs to turn. The handler had to set off and send their dog over the jump, crossing behind and giving their directional command. We did this over one, two and three jumps and they all did it well on both sides. Then we added two jumps on either side of the run of three so that they had to take a jump to their toy. By the end of the session all three dogs were doing the exercise really well.

Then we did a sequence with two jumps and a tunnel. The handlers had to send their dogs over one jump and into the curved tunnel without running past the wing of the jump, i.e. so that the pups had to pick the tunnel up for themselves without the handlers running with them and take the second jump. I either threw or had their toys placed after the second jump. We did this exercise in both directions.

Lastly we did some contact work and Kizzy was wizzing over the dog walk to her target. We split up for contact work so that there are distractions going on with each dog working on a separate piece of equipment. All three concentrate on their own task without getting distracted which is helping to strengthen their behaviours.

On Saturday Andy is off to Lesely's for a sheltie pup training session. Karen and Amanda are also going but I'm not sure who else. I must make sure that Kizzy's little kit bag is packed with all the appropriate bits and pieces: a ton of sausage; duck on a rope; fleecey tug; raggy; target; clickers; training lead and finally make sure she's wearing the right collar! Oh and her handler of course! Will give a report on that event in due course!

Thank you Karen

For once I'm speechless (well almost!)

I was getting quite envious of some of the lovely blog headers appearing just recently. We already had a lovely one of Kizzy which Karen did for us a few months back. When I fired up the PC this morning I found an email from Karen with a new header attached. I am so pleased with it as it shows all our doglets with other lovely bits and pieces (Zen and Tazz; Eridge Rocks and our beautiful Russian vine) included. Karen is so creative and clever. I could never do anything like this as I am not at all creative.

Thank you so much Karen.

Poor Poppy and other things

This weekend was busy. I had my beginner group on Saturday morning and as usual I ran over so didn't get finished until well after 12.00 pm instead of 11.30 am. I really enjoy teaching this group as they are all keen to learn and really want to get on. Only one of them has done a bit of agility and that was quite a while ago, that's Tanya with her gorgeous beardie 'Bella'. She is such a lovely enthusiastic dog who just wants to play all the time. The other three are collies, two of them rescues. There's Julie and Kim who is a black and white missile. If I took him along to an agilility show I think there would be a bidding war for him. He learns everything so quickly and works at breakneck speed. Then there's Nicole and Storm, he's a blue merle tri and is a really nice boy. He's a thinker and takes his time to learn things but once he's got the idea he's off. Lastly, there's Cassie who is a tri-coloured collie with her handler Lindy. Cass is a little bit nervous of strangers but the agility is really helping and she is enjoying herself. As well as basic agility we've started to do some clicker training and all the dogs have taken to it which is really pleasing. I will make sure to take a photo of them all this coming Saturday so that I can post them on the blog!

After the training I took all of mine on a really long walk to get out of Andy and Al's way. They were busy finishing off the front fence and gate fixings etc. Anyway, we walked for miles and watched the little blue aeroplane take off along the runway where we walk. I always put the dogs in a down to watch this and have to wave to the pilot. I am quite sad like that! We were out for about 2.5 hours and the dogs were pretty tired when we got home.

On Sunday Andy and Al did loads more here. They put the huge capping stones onto the brick pillars, I really don't know how they managed to lift them up there as they weigh about 60 kgs each. I certainly knew that they were in my little van when I brought them home on Friday! Al also put the new lights on the front of the house and loads of other stuff. Andy finished grouting the kitchen floor tiles, just the utility to do now.

The new pillars with their capping stones from outside and inside. We have ordered a house name sign in slate. At the moment we have a tasteful temporary sign made on the PC!

I went off to a training day with Lee Windeatt and Toni Dawkins. It was very enjoyable although quite cold at times. Lee offloads all his ideas to you (as does Toni) which I always find very generous in a trainer (some do not!!). We didn't get time to try all of Lee's ideas so I'm not sure I will remember all of it but I certainly came away with a couple of exercises that I'm going to set up and practise, one being the dreaded push throughs. I'm not sure I'll ever manage to achieve those!

Naughty Niamh was good girl and I was pleased with the way she worked throughout the day. Her contacts were excellent as were her weave entries. Some of the jumping stuff didn't go well but that's because I was trying so hard to try the different methods that Lee showed us and Niamh got a bit confused.

Lee showed us his method for a fast snake sequence and it certainly worked. In fact too well for Poppy as she did the jumps in a dead straight line and knocked the last wing out with her head and as the wing fell she got completely tangled in it and took a bad fall landing on her back. I was very upset. It was completely my fault as I just didn't give her enough space. Poor Lee was upset but it wasn't his fault, totally mine. She hurt her right back leg badly and I had awful visions of it being the same as her major injury four years ago. She wouldn't weight bear on that leg and after rest it was just hanging. We stuffed arnica into her and by the time I got home it was vastly improved which was a huge relief. At nearly eleven years of age I would hate for her to finish her agility in this way. More importantly I would hate to be the cause of spoiling her retirement just for agility, that would be too awful to contemplate. I have been in touch with Sara Barnes (the wonderful physio who facilitated Poppy's return to full fitness after her major injury) and we're going to see her hopefully this week as soon as she can squeeze us in. I am hoping it is just a bad knock.

We were cheered up on Monday morning when Poppy's beautiful new bling collar arrived! Here she is showing it off.

Poppy showing off her new bling collar!

I will report how Poppy gets on at the physio in due course. It will be the first time Poppy has seen Sara for a long time, I can't wait to see how she reacts as she really adored her. We used to go to Sara twice a week for treatment for nearly six months so they became quite close!

Oh no, bad birthday girl

As it's her birthday Kizzy has been allowed to come in the office with us today. As usual the bad sheltie has abused her privileges. She is a wicked little minx.

Happy Birthday Kizzy

Happy Birthday to our little Kizzy - one year old today! Can't believe how the time has flown. Here is a picture of the birthday girl. Sadly a little out of coat as she's moulting like mad!

Kizzy sends love to her brother and sisters: Ozzie, Whizz and Zoe and remembers her little brother Zeus.

Progress with lots of things!

Now that the new utility room is finished we had to think about flooring. We couldn't get quarry tiles to match the kitchen so chose some different larger floor tiles. We thought perhaps we'd change the kitchen as and when we could afford to but the tiles were on a really good offer and the guy in the tile centre said that it might not be possible to match the tiles in months/years to come. So, we decided to bite the bullet and buy enough tiles to do the kitchen as well.

We (royal we - Andy) ripped up the quarry tiles and then Dennis started to lay the new ones on Monday. It took all day Monday and Tuesday and it was awful. I couldn't use the kitchen so the dogs were distributed round the house and the dust was unbelievable. It was created by chipping off the old adhesive and I've never seen anything like it. Dennis was only able to work for two days so he drafted in Colin and Josh and they worked like crazy to get it finished. It is almost done just the utility and half the kitchen to finish grouting. Al and Andy are going to do this on Sunday.

Here are some pictures of the new floor and the new utility room. Colin made himself an apron out of an old Jewson sack and much to his disgust I took a couple of pictures for the blog!





The other progress we've made is with the front boundary. All we have left to do now is tarmac part of the drive and get a new load of gravel; put the cappings on the brick pillars (I'm picking those up today) and put the fixings on the new gates. Then we're there. Hurrah!

Here are some pictures of progress to date with this little project.




And finally, progress with little Kizzle's training. I took them all for a nice walk together on Wednesday and I was very proud when little Kizzle waited at the end of the walk to be called to get into the car. I always lay my dogs down on the playing field when we get back to the car and then call them in pairs to get into the car. Today Kizzy joined in and was perfect. The first pair I called was Poppy and Niamh and Kizzy waited with the others. She was in the second pair to be called and came with Abbey and last is always Becky and Murphy. I was very impressed especially as she wasn't the first to be called. Bless!

Here they all are waiting to be called to the car. Not a very good picture as it was taken with my phone and into the sun. But, you can just about make out little Kizzle on the extreme left of the pack. What a good girl!

A walk by the rocks, busy weekend, more building work

Friday - a lovely 2.5 hour walk through Broadwater Warren to Eridge Rocks

On Friday I decided to get out of the house for the day. I was sick of the building work, so I loaded up my three girls and off we went. I had to call into Tunbridge Wells to get my hair cut and then we went to our favourite place for a walk. Broadwater Warren is so lovely, it's a well kept secret and is very peaceful and not many people use it. It has recently been bought by the RSPB but they promise they aren't going to make too many changes. It was my regular daily walk when we lived in Tunbridge Wells but I still get to walk there a couple of times a week as it's only five minutes or so from Mum's nursing home.

Anyway, I decided we'd do a really big walk and so we went right out to the Eridge Rocks which doubles our regular walk at this lovely place. There are two paths by the rocks, one goes right along the top and the other comes below the rocks. We headed out on the top path and came back via the bottom one. The paths along the rocks are a good quarter of a mile long and it can be quite eerie especially if you walk along the lower path in the dusk. However, Friday was a nice day and it was lovely to wander along the rocks.

I have to be very careful with Abbey along here as she has a tendency to climb the rocks and a couple of years ago got stuck up high and instead of waiting for me to come and get her hurled herself off and landed at my feet. I thought she had broken her back and was in a real panic but after a few moments (obviously she was winded), she got up shook and trotted off. It was very scary and I have always been very careful and make sure to have her on a lead in certain places along this walk!

We were out for 2.5 hours and the girls were very tired by the end of the walk. Abbey is amazing, she was still going strong at the end of the walk. Here are some pictures of the walk including a shot of one of the paths which was half muddy and half dry. Abbey chose to walk straight through the muddy bit rather than the dry bit and was plastered up to her knees! Why she had to do that I just don't understand - bless!

These are some of the smaller rocks at the beginning of the lower path

A little cave which my dogs love to explore

This rock looks a bit like a toad!

Naughty Niamh at the base of one of the rocks.

A view from the lower path

Abbey & Poppy nosing round the rocks

And which route did Abbey choose to take through this space - yep the muddy one!

Back in the main part of the forest where all the colours are turning to gold

After the walk I gave the girls a drink and some biscuits in the back of the car and then we drove back into Tunbridge Wells. I had a nice browse round the shops and a lovely lunch at O'Briens - they do the best sandwiches in the world and their coffee is lovely too! Then we popped out to Pembury and I had a wander round my favourite garden centre. It's a Nottcuts and they're a bit more traditional and less commercial than some of the garden centres around. Lastly I called in to see Mum on the way home. She was in pretty good spirits so we watched Ready Steady Cook together and then I gave her a full manicure which was quite difficult as she pulls her fingers away all the time, she tries not to but can't help it. It took a long time to get through all her fingers but we made it and she was very pleased with the end result!

By the time we arrived home, the builders had gone for the day. Andy had walked his three so they were nice and tired, we lit the fire cooked some supper and fell in a heap in front of the box!

On Saturday I did a training day for Sue Dennison. A great bunch of people and dogs in both the morning and afternoon session. The morning was geared to G5-6 and the afternoon was for beginners. I really enjoyed both sessions. I took Poppy along as she loves to watch training days. She is such a good little girl and just lays by the side with her chipmunk in her mouth and shakes it every time someone sets off! When I put her in the car at the end of the day she fell onto her side and didn't wake up 'til we got home. Lucky Poppy - I wish I could have slept all the way home!

On Sunday I went to Downland agility show. It wasn't too early a start as the clocks had gone back so it didn't feel too bad. However the scheduling of the show was a bit of a pain with our first run being at about 9.30 am and our last two runs at 5.00 pm. A long day but I didn't want to go home as I knew the kitchen would out of bounds. We decided to take up all the old quarry tiles and Andy decided Sunday was as good a day as any ... more about that later.

I got both girls eliminated in the jumping round but got both clear in the agility. This was Niamh's first clear round in G6 (actually it was G6/7 combined) at only her second G6 show so I was pretty pleased. We might have got a lowly place I'm not sure as I didn't wait until the end, just too tired!

At Downlands show I met Hazel's little sheltie puppy for the first time. She is totally gorgeous. I had seen photos which Toni had sent to me but to meet her in the flesh, well I just wanted to steal her. Her name is Puzzle and she is just eight weeks old. Here is a picture of her and her proud mum.

A gorgeous sheltie puppy called Puzzle with her proud mum Hazel. Isn't she cute!

I was exhausted by the time Sunday night came and just crashed out in the armchair and watched the Strictly Come Dancing Result .... which was a fiasco! When will those stupid judges learn that if they keep insulting the worst dancers all that happens is that the public give them the sympathy vote and then the good dancers who are in the middle of the table get into the bottom two and one has to go out. It wouldn't be so bad if the judges gave them constructive criticism but they can't stop at that they have to be rude and insulting using stupid terminology like "gorilla hands" and stuff like that! Hey ho!

Training

We had a good session at training last night. It was very cold and there were quite a few people missing for one reason or another. So, in our first class with only 5 of us we were able to practise a few different things that we don't always get time for.

I really enjoyed Naughty Niamh's class although we didn't get much right! One of the sequences we had about ten attempts at and I just couldn't get in the right position. I did the same sequence with Poppy later in the evening and it worked fine. Although I think I've stopped 'babying' Niamh I haven't really. I still tend to watch her and over encourage where she doesn't need it. One of the things I really enjoy about training is trying stuff that I wouldn't normally do.

The particular sequence we worked on last night was quite challenging and the way we were attempting it wasn't necessarily the best way but it was good to practise this sort of thing for the times when you might need it (in this instance being able to layer a contact and recall your dog off it.)

Below is a diagram of the sequence with the dog's path (little dog) and the handler's path illustrated with a red line. I would have chosen to do the manoeuvre by running between the A-Frame and Jump X but Al ran first and did the layered version and it was very impressive so we all decided to try it. I always forget that my legs are much shorter and slower than Al's but I can't resist a challenge! I love Niamh's class for this reason as we all support each other but also encourage each other to push and try different things.

You could of course handle that sequence from behind but we all found by doing it that way you were left too far back for the collapsible, jump finish. You needed to get up on the sequence to get a fast finish. I couldn't get it right with Niamh as she kept taking Jump X towards me rather than coming to me and pushing away over it. That was because I was in the wrong position each time I tried. I eventually got it right after several attempts all of which caused the rest of the class much amusement! When I did the exercise with Poppy it worked really well, I still think I'm more intuitive with Pops. She has more drive than Niamh and so something like this is possibly easier with her. The sequence was made more difficult for us because Andy had made us run a simple loop to start the class which was the same start but straight into the weaves off the A-Frame so of course the dogs had that in mind ......... adds to the challenge!!


Kizzy also had a good session last night. She was doing the three jump, pipe tunnel combination in lots of different ways. We also used the three jumps to do lots of left and right turn exercises. At one point we did the three jumps and turned out of the sequence to the jump in front of the seesaw which I had moved to create a box but Kizzy decided the seesaw was still on offer and executed a perfect seesaw and target position (without Andy or the target!) So the seesaw was moved after that!

Bad blogger

I have been a bad blogger and not posted a single entry in over a week.

We've been really busy with loads of stuff relating to our building projects. The front pillars have been built ready for our new fencing to go in along the front boundary. I am really looking forward to this job being completed as it means we'll be able to shut off the road. It can be a busy road and it will be nice to be behind gates at last.

Nice new gate posts

Just as we started this job the frosts came so the builders had to wrap the newly built pillars in hessian to keep them warm and cosy over night! Luckily this worked and the frost didn't get to them.

Al is coming at the weekend and he and Andy are going to do the fence panels. It will take about four chaps to lift the gates onto the pillars. They are huge and very heavy.

Inside things are coming along nicely. The garage and utility are completely finished and currently being painted. It makes such a difference when the plaster is covered over. We've chosen new floor tiles for the utility and have decided to bite the bullet and take up the old quarry tiles in the kitchen and replace with the new ones so that the floor is the same in both rooms as it'll look so much nicer. I quite like the quarry tiles but we couldn't find any to match so we decided to opt for larger tiles which I think are a bit easier to clean as there aren't so many joints. More disruption!

The new colour in the utility area. That damn fridge will move eventually so there'll be a nice walk through from kitchen to utility. Dennis is making us an oak doggie gate so we can restrict the dogs to the utility room if they get a bit grubby in the winter. Not Abbey of course. She always comes in the office regardless! That colour is going to come right through into the currently white (and thus 'cold') kitchen. I'm looking forward to the end result but not the process of getting there!

We're also having the kitchen re-painted whilst Andy is here (not Andy as in Hudson!) so that the colour flows straight through the two rooms. We are so boring, we've picked our favourite colour again. It's called Dorset cream and we had it in our last house and can't find anything else we like as much! I like it because it changes so much in different lights. In the bright daylight and sunshine is has a lovely yellow glow and in the evenings it's a rich dorset cream colour. Andy is also painting the new garage and will finish up by painting the floor before we put our mats down. It means we'll have a lovely clean space ready to receive the Harley Davidson back - Dan has been looking after it since we moved. I think he'll be sad to see it go as he has been out for the odd ride on it!

On Friday evening we're off to Ikea to see if we can get some more kitchen units for the utility to match the existing. Luckily they still make the style that we inherited in this kitchen which isn't too bad at all. We won't be having granite worktop in the utility though, that's what's in the kitchen and it was £400/m! Um no way, our money is running out so it'll be standard worktop in a similar colour to the granite!

Been busy with agility too. Did a training day for Polly on Sunday which was great fun. The weather was amazing, cold but sunny all day. As usual I had a great time. Am going on Saturday to Sue Dennison's to do another training day. I don't know all the people on this one but I am really looking forward to it and hope the weather stays good. Then on Sunday is Downland show, I think I will go even though I hate the venue, it's so noisy. I will be very tired as I always am after training days but I want to do the competition with Naughty Niamh and of course Perfect Pops!

Kizzy's training is coming on really well. Her weaves are almost upright and Andy is practising the two difficult entries with her (still on lead). Her contacts are looking good and they are having a great time together. I tried to do some video of their training yesterday evening but the battery ran out. I will endeavour to get some on video to post on the blog in due course!

Grooming & Trimming

With a busy weekend gone and another busy weekend coming I thought I'd better grab some time this morning to give the dogs a good groom.

I got the table in so immediately everyone made themselves scarce except Kizzy who quite likes being brushed. She lays on her back half asleep while I cut her toe nails and trim her feet. She is just so easy to maintain!

It's very hard work and rather tedious and normally I do three dogs one day and then three later in the week. However, last time I did this I forgot to do the second three and was horrified when I looked at Abbey's claws last night. They always grow fast as she's very light on her feet but they were like talons. Becky and Murphy's were very long too and that's when I remembered I'd only done the other three and that was about four or five weeks ago.

Abbey's dew claws have started to curl and grow like hooks. Recently she has twice got her dew claw caught up in her collar. Luckily we've been in the room with her to sort her out. I had decided to take her collar off whenever we leave her in future. Now I know why it was happening. She is also able to walk much easier on the hard floors. I feel very guilty that I let her claws grow too long. Bad mummy. I will never do just half the dogs at a time again.

I also trimmed all their feet. I like to keep all my dogs feet trimmed because it looks nice and come this time of year it also makes life much easier in terms of keeping their feet clean. It's so much easier to wipe trimmed paws than horrible hairy feet, quite apart from the fact that they look like cart horses.

The biggest baby of the lot is Naughty Niamh. She is pathetic and shakes so hard that the table wobbles. Abbey hates it but isn't too bad. Poppy and Murphy continually pull their feet away which makes me mad. Becky and Kizzy are little angels and just lie there enjoying the experience. Becky has the biggest coat of all our dogs and you could groom her all day and the hairs would still keep coming out. She has a huge undercoat which sheds almost all year round. Kizzy is a doddle in comparison with Becky. Her coat is similar in texture to Becky's, obviously quite a bit longer but not quite the depth of undercoat thank goodness! Niamh is almost bald and takes just a few minutes to brush, most of the time is spent standing her up because she insists on sitting down every time you try to brush her tail or trousers. It's maddening!

Anyway, we eventually got done and then we went for a run down the paddock and the trauma of the morning's wicked grooming session was all forgotten about!

Here are a couple of pictures of the two little angels. It is prior to their grooming session so please don't look too closely!

There were two in the bed and the little one said - roll over!

Very busy weekend

On Friday I visited Mum and went shopping in Tunbridge Wells for Andy's birthday present. I bought him a bag for his new camera and a v-neck sweater in M&S which he's been after for ages. I also bought him a trendy scarf but I'm not sure if he'll wear it! As I was out that way I walked the dogs in Eridge (my favourite forest walk) and took some photos of the cobwebs. They're not very good as I used my mobile. I was inspired by Karen's lovely photos of same on her blog.

Spiders Webs - hopefully you can see them!

Naughty Niamh amongst the foliage which is rapidly changing colour

What a busy weekend. I thought things should be nice and calm now that the agility season is winding down.

Saturday was Andy's birthday and we had a hectic morning with my regular four people who come for some agility training. They are complete beginners and a lovely bunch of people with some super dogs. Heaps of potential. The come for an hour but we usually run over and this week was no different. Andy came and helped so we could get them started on the v-weaves and the dog walk. Then it was a mad dash indoors to get showered and changed ready to be picked up by Dan and Mac who were taking us to the Royal Oak in Crockham Hill for lunch. As usual the food was lovely and we had a good time. We got back in time to take the dogs for a good walk well in time to sit and watch Strictly Come Dancing (I shall dedicate some blog time to SCD another time as I have a lot to say on the new format!) and more importantly be settled for the all important Rugby semi-final. What a match, it was brilliant. Karen and I were texting each other throughout the match, it was so exciting. At the end we screamed so loudly all the dogs vacated the sitting room except Abbey who can't hear much and Kizzy who isn't bothered by much! I felt so sorry for the French team at the end of the game ........ not!

Sunday was completely manic. Andy cleaned up another batch of bricks ready for the front pillars to be built and I cleared the agility equipment ready for mowing later. Then we had to pack the v-weaves in the car and get up to Sarah (our riding school land lady) by 12.00 pm. Sarah invited us to a hog roast lunch to celebrate the sale of the oast house on her farm, not our cup of tea being vegetarians! That said, it was a locally reared free range pig, slaughtered locally so about as good as it can get. As always there is no such thing as a free lunch and Sarah decided it would be a good idea for us to put on a little agility display. Sarah likes small dogs and specifically wanted Kizzy to do her stuff as well as Poppy and that "mad fast black one" as she refers to Murphy.

We knew there'd be lots of people there including children so decided it was best not to take the Naughty Niamh as she's quite scared of children and it wouldn't be a good place for her to be. Pops, Kizzle and Murphy are bomb proof.

There were between 40 - 50 people at the lunch which was held in the indoor school. Sarah had caterers in and it was all very nice. It was a mixture of hunting, shooting, fishing people and serious horse bods (dressage and eventing.) We knew quite a few people and it was nice to see Julie and her husband Gerry, Julie is one of my beginner handlers and by co-incidence she gardens for Sarah. There were some famous faces amongst the visitors including Brook Staples the Australian international eventing rider and his partner Jeanette Brakewell who was part of the silver medal winning team for Britain at the Sidney Olympics. Jeanette has a collie herself and was interested in our training methods, she wished she'd brought her collie for a try out! Anyway name-dropping aside there were lots of 'serious' animal trainers there so we felt a bit nervous to say the least. Sarah wanted us to do the demos and give a commentary on what was going on.

We set up a small half-course and Kizzy was first on. She did her v-weaves which are almost upright but not quite so this illustrated nicely how we use them to teach the dogs. (I don't think I'd use them to teach a large dog to weave but for small dogs they are brilliant!) Then she did some ad-hoc tricks and some jump, tyre, tunnel combinations. Most of the stuff Andy did using the clicker. Every time Kizzy did something they all clapped and cheered. Kizzy was totally unfazed and just got on with her job. She was a little star.

Everyone was impressed with the clicker training technique and were amazed at how Kizzy offered up different behaviours in order to get Andy to click. They were also amazed at how focused she remained for the whole session especially when they found out she was only eleven months old.

Poppy and Murphy did some bits as well and got lots of cheers and clapping and then some of the children ran Poppy round the little circuit. Jeanette also ran Pops round and then tried to dog nap her!

It was good fun but very tiring. We put the equipment away at the end of the session, luckily with lots of helping hands and whilst we were doing this Poppy stayed amongst the children and people presenting her chipmunk to anyone who looked mildly interested in playing with her.

We dashed home to cut the grass in the garden and the agility paddock ready for the coming week and then indoors to do some housework before Nat and Matt arrived to see the garden and stay for supper. To Nat's disgust we decided it would be good to watch the Rugby in order to hex South Africa, sadly it didn't work and we've got them in the final next week.

Oh, wasn't there some other stupid football game on at the weekend .... think we won that but not bothered in comparison with the Rugby!!