Well I remembered the camera but the battery was nearly flat so I only got a few pictures.


"We're off"

"We're coming back"

"Well actually I'm carrying on"

"Well we have to start that raw diet sometime"


These kite surfers were amazing, some were taking off and doing somersaults.

Another lovely day....

so me and the boys are off to Camber again. Going to remember my camera this week too. I'll post some pictures later.

Not happy with me, Oh dear me no.....

Dudley is not happy with me at the moment because yesterday I clipped him, I know he should be stripped but he has the most awful coat for stripping so it's easier to clip.

I haven't got a grooming table so was sitting on the floor giving him a number 2 all over but at the moment he looks like he's wearing fluffy moon boots as I couldn't do his legs as close as I would have liked. The only problem is that it got cold in the night so in the early hours of this morning he wanted to come under the covers and told me in no uncertain terms by jabbing me with his cold wet nose :)

As there had been no coughs on Friday I took Duds and Tom to Camber Sands on Saturday and although it was a lovely day there weren't many other dogs there which could have been because we got there as the tide was coming in but there was still loads of sand visible. Dudley went absolutely mad and was doing the tail crooked down run for ages, at one point all I could see was a small brown dot in the distance which them started to roll in what I hoped was just the dry sand. Thomas found a dead crab and ate most of it after carrying it around for ages, it didn't seem to do him any harm but drinking the sea water made him a bit sick and sorry for himself but I noticed that the crab didn't come back up.

They both love the beach but Suzi hates it so she stayed at home with her Dad, I do have to regulate how long they are there for though as I don't think they would stop until they were exhausted. I must buy a tide table as you can only get a few days on the internet and I want to see what the tides are going to be over Christmas.

My friend went to Shrewsbury and she said it was the most relaxed show she's been to for ages with only 3 rings and enough helpers, she offered to help more than the hour she had put down for but they didn't need her, how many shows can you say that about. I really hope they put it on again next year as I'd love to go.

All my posts seem to be about coughing but Dad has got a cough! He says Tom gave to him but as he started before Tom I think it's his fault that the dogs have it. Tom hasn't coughed since the weekend and Suzi's has nearly gone too but going in to collect the dogs tonight made me laugh as there was Dudley and Dad in the sitting room coughing in unison :) They both have 'man cough' and are looking for all the sympathy they can get what with Dad groaning away and Dudley looking at me every time he coughs I got the look from both of them when I laughed.

Suppose it was inevitable....

Both Dudley and Suzi started coughing last night, looks like they've caught it from Tom and not from the same source as him. Being a typical male Dudley has 'man cough' whereas Suzi is is getting on with things much as usual.

I love Autumn, the colours are amazing and we usually get some dry bright weather it's just the evenings drawing in that I hate. In the Winter it doesn't seem so bad when it's dark but having a glorious sunny day and not being able to walk the dogs off lead in the evenings is awful, looks like we'll be back to raod walking in the week soon as it's 6.20 and it'll be dark in another half hour.

Resting

Well all the dogs are now on enforced rest from training as Thomas has got Kennel Cough, I think he may have picked it up at Five Rivers as my friend's dog has it too and that was the only place that we were together. He started coughing in the early hours of Saturday morning and luckily I was able to get him an appointment at the vet that day to confirm that he did in fact have the dreaded KC and not something stuck in his throat. Apart from the cough you wouldn't think anything was wrong with him as he is his usual bouncy self made worse by the fact he can't do any off lead exercise which is also driving Dudley mad as he's missing his dashing through the undergrowth walks too. Neither Suzi nor Dudley have shown any sign of coughing even though I have Dad on cough patrol during the day and to be honest Tom only coughs first thing in the morning and when I pick him up in the evening. I was getting all excited about going to the small and medium graded show at Shrewsbury but that'll have to wait until next year now.

I'm spending my time working on my plan for when we eventually get back to training, my main thing is to speed up the dog walk with all three dogs, mainly stopping Dudley wriggling at the judge and trying to get Suzi to accept that stepping on the white/yellow bit wont actually transport her to another dimension, with Tom I want to work on getting to running right to the end rather than creeping the last few inches. This is my plan but I now have to work out how I'm going to achieve it.

I'm also going to knuckle down to doing my correspondence course which I'm afraid hasn't even been looked at this summer but tonight I'm going to Lakeside for some retail therapy as I really need some new clothes for work.

Suffolk Five Rivers

What a great show this is, the venue is nice and level with a lovely running surface and the loos were magically kept stocked with loo roll, paper towels and soap (I didn't once see anyone in them stocking them up so it was a bit spooky that every time I went in they were clean and well stocked - Think I may be getting a bit obsessed with loos!)

It was Dudley's first Grade 6 show and I have to say that I was really nervous about it which was silly really as everyone in the queue were the same people we've been queueing with all year. All his classes were graded over the weekend and the lovely show committee had decided to place to at least 10th however many dogs there were in the class this meant that he managed to get placed in all his classes. In fact I came home laden with rosettes as Tom and Suzi were placed too.

Tom still had some weave issues on Saturday but got all his contacts and only got eliminated due to my over zealous use of 'out' in his agility causing him to go right round and back jump and then I forgot to say left at the end of his jumping so he went straight on and over the finish. On Sunday I used his power and speed class to work on his weaves as he just kept going straight past as if he hadn't seen them. He did a lovely clear round in agilty and came 5th, he was going great guns in his jumping until I sent him into the tunnel and got myself into just the right position to work a snake from behind when I realised that he hadn't come out of the tunnel, looking back I saw that he was having a good sniff but he came out when I called and carried on to do 12 weaves and finish clear. He hadn't done anything in the tunnel as the judge could see him all the time and it became clear that quite a few other dogs had done the same thing so there was obviously something really exciting to sniff in there. He finished about 5 seconds behind the leader but must have wasted at least that which was very encouraging.

The weather was glorious but chilly at night and on Saturday we prepared outselves for the Led Zepplin tribute concert that was scheduled but I have to say that we were pleasantly suprised to discover that even though we were parked quite close to the venue we could sit outside and still hear each other talk and I managed to go to bed and sleep before they had finished, in fact it was less intrusive that the disco at Aylesbury.

Can't wait to go again next year :)

The weekend was only marred by the very sad loss suffered by Bernadette and Dennis when the beautiful Hex passed away on Thursday, my thoughts are with them at this awful time as I'm sure are those of the whole agility community.