Lazy blogger

Been really naughty and not updated by blog for ages my excuse is that there is no internet at Dad's where I've been over Christmas.

Had a very quiet time and just been walking the dogs and chilling out. Took them to the South Downs on Friday to walk with a friend who has 4 border terriers, it was really windy but not very muddy except in a few places and we were out for 2 hours walking up and down steep hills and admiring great views. Dudley was on on the go for the whole walk and for a lot of it we could only hear his bell to tell us where he was. Tom and Suzi were much more sedate and mainly stayed with me although Tom did have a good run round but keeping me in view all the time.

Yesterday I took him to on a Balance and Coordination course run by Hannah Banks. It was really interesting as we were doing very low impact things. The point was to help the dogs realise where their feet are and to learn to turn round things without knocking them and really use their back legs when turning. To do this we got them walking through ladders and over very low, light jumps (made with cones) and wobble boards. The wobble boards were brilliant but Thomas was having none of it and would only go on them if I was holding them still which defeated the whole object but we did start to learn the elephant trick. I can get him to stand on a box with his front feet when I say 'elephant' and he will bow but I can't get him to go round yet. The bowing wasn't intentional but happened because of my crap sense of timing but it looks quite good.

He's really funny as he doesn't seem to like anything if it moves under his feet such as the wobble board, this doesn't bode well for the seesaw but now I know I can work on it.

Christmas Eve and I'm at work with nothing to do except wait for phone calls to come and and to be honest I can't really see many of them happening. Looks like I'll be here til 5.30 as no one has said anything about leaving any earlier and as I haven't been here very long I don't know what usually happens.

Decided to make a video to put on here showing that it's not all work and no play for Tom but only seem to manage to get shots of him and Dudley piddling up every blade of grass and tree stump although I did manage to record Dudley rolling in something unsavoury but only the sound as the camera was pointing at Thomas who was doing nothing other than look at me. I'll try and edit something together and maybe I'll get something good over Christmas.

They spent an hour and a half pottering about at the stables yesterday while I mucked out and chatted. Tom was fascinated by the chickens and watched them for ages but only barked at them once, I'm not convinced that he wouldn't chase them if he could get in with them but their run is pretty secure. Duds takes no notice of them at all after trying to chase them as a pup and getting a clout with their owners hat.

Dudley is so jealous of my pony and will stand and bark at her for ages if he sees me paying any attention to her. She doesn't care and just looks at him which I'm sure makes his blood boil. Initially I thought Tom was going to be a chaser but he now takes no notice of the horses at all except to try and steal their feed from under their noses.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, eat too much, watch too much telly and enjoy the company of friends and family.

Well Done Leah

Just been looking at the results of the Olympia Kennel Club Agility Finals and Leah came 6th with Herbie and was 4th in the semis this morning.

I'm really pleased for her as she's had so much to worry about with Link's poor broken toes.

I'm a bit bored so I've added a new counter to my blog so I can see if it's just the mad English that visit the site or if I get some from other countries.

I have shamelessly pinched the idea from the Obay site!

Well no one else seems to be updating their blogs, anyone would think something important like Olympia or something was going on.

Last night was great fun and as usual well organised by Mac with some good courses by Wendy. Thomas' class ran 'not for competition' and were meant to use the runs to carry on the training which all the others did but even though Mac told me it was training just as I was about to start and I said 'Yes of course' the read mist came down and I just ran but Thomas was a star and even when I forgot to give directions he did what I asked with only a bit of sniffing. When we did the Helter Skelter I asked that he was timed, red mist again, and he was only just over 3 seconds slower than the fastest big dog and I know where he lost time so I'm chuffed to bits and really encouraged.

Suzi came 2nd in the agility and Dudley was 5th in the jumping so a good evening all round.

Another Tom!!!

Have been on the Agility Forum and someone else has a Tom, well he's a Barney really but looks so like him it's uncanny. He looks a little more ginger but has the same 'Who me' expression when caught doing something wrong.

If they get any more common I'll have to trade him in for a different model!!!

Now I've managed to work out how to post videos I'll make sure I get some more at training!!

We've got our Christmas party at Sevenoaks tomorrow, we usually have a little competition with the dogs of the same level competing against each other and I'm looking forward to running all three. Thomas' class will be doing the courses but just for the experience which I think will be great for us all to see how they've come on. I'm going to get them to time Tom so I can see how he compares to Dudley's and Suzi's times.

Just to be going along with here's a clip of Dudley at the weekend.

Cold but happy

Today we all went to ANJU's Christmas show where we had 2 runs at agility and 2 at jumping. Dudley managed to miss his weave entry in the first agility but got a clear in the second and got a 2nd place, Suzi did a good round but got distracted by Wendy both times in the weaves and Thomas was really good but found a lovely sniff that got the better of him in three of his rounds but the last one was fantastic and he came 1ST. I'm so pleased with him but I'm afraid I only got a video of his first agility where you can see he first found the smell.

Well whatever Dudley and Thomas are on I would like some!!

Last night they were both wild and although I could keep up with Duds, he wont usually go any faster than me, Thomas was running like a thing possessed and panicy directional commands from 4 jumps back with an occasionally remembered STEEEADYYYY made me realise what is likely to happen when we actually get in the show ring. Think we are going to have fun, well he is anyway and I'm going to have to get fitter, work on our lefts and rights and really work on our 'Steady'.

Leah put the tunnel under the dog walk which we all hate but the first time we did it Thomas was very good and went up the dog walk when I told him, wish i could say the same for Dudley, but I tried to 'push' him over number 3 when I would probably have been better 'pulling' him. I have done a plan of what we we did so you can see how awful she is to us.




Opened a new pot of CSJ Go On herbs and think they may be extra strength either that or they've got hold of some go faster drugs from the dealers in the area (rumoured but never actually seen) and if the latter I want to know why they haven't offered me any!

We're off to Just Mini's show tomorrow and I have a feeling the Dudley will be in full ankle biting mode but Suzi quite likes Golden Cross so I'm hoping she'll be good and bring home another rosette for Dad.

I love my dog and I love agility, well I do tonight as everything went really well. We did upright weaves without popping out and he got all his contacts, was listening to me and was really enjoying himself. It makes all coming out in the rain and cold worth while.

Tom is 15 months now and in three months time he can start competing, I'm not sure if I'm nervous about that or not. I'm not going to do anything until I'm sure he's ready as there is no rush but I can't help feeling excited about his first show. All I've got to do now is try and get him measured which I would really like to get done before he starts competing as it's sometimes quite hard to get done in the limited time there is at shows. Keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be able to find someone measuring at a training day or something.

Last night was really wet and windy and only the most hardiest, or stupidest, handlers turned up so we had we had two intructors between four of us in both classes. Thomas worked really well over his contacts and really tried with the weaves but I have to hold back a bit and not try and rush him as he tends to pop out if I do. He really knows his directional commands but I have trouble remembering which left from right!

He's fast asleep in his bed now after going for a lovely walk this afternoon where he made a new friend in another Many Tears pup who has been adopted by Rhoda who trains with us at Leah's and Sevenoaks. Fred and Thomas were a bit wary of each other to start with but by the end of the walk were playing and wrestling as if they'd know each other all their life.