working wednesday #4

I have been working on Sonic's "going around" something, like a cone, jump wing or even a tree(s) whenever we are out walking. I tried to do different things with him, either "going around", do a figure of 8, round twice ... etc. This video was taken on our New Year walked up to Pollards Hill. I was late rewarding what I want him to do. Luckily, I have Colin video me, so now I reward him sooner and we are better. Sorry, no recent video.

Fitness Friday

I think I am getting a bit "too sensitive" on my dogs' health. Since Sizzle and I got picked for WAO Team England, the first thing in my mind is to get him and myself fit for this event. Unfortunately, things keep going wrong ... I fell ill just before Christmas and injured my arm and Sizzle has not been 100% fit. Everytime when I started to practice see-saw and polish his running DW in the garden, I realised he isn't running full power. Apart from him usual sensitive tummy problem which I think we are fixing it now by feeding raw. Took him to club training, he was on and off for 3 weeks and just yesterday, he started measuring jump! Oh dear Lord! I am going crazy! We haven't been able to train properly. I seriously hope we can get to some serious training in February!

I have been doing some "fitness" training with all dogs this winter, it is hard work and tiring especially I have to work all SEVEN of them. I can only do one dog at a time but I enjoy that. It is good fun and we all learned things together which I think that is brilliant to strengthen my relationship with all of them. The shelties love the exercise too. 

I am running out of exercise ideas and I was hoping some blogger friends can join in with me to keep their dogs fit as well, so I would like to play a pass-on game, so hopefully we can have more dogs to join and have more exercise ideas ...

I am going to start off with my new fitness exercise, this is to strengthen the core muscle. I recently purchased this Dome Ball, it is very similar to Bosu Ball, so you guess it, it is not cheap at all but the shelties deserved some posh equipment :)

I have my week 1 model ... Little Miss Sipzie:

I am going to pick 4 of my shelties blogger friends to play this fitness game, you don't have to play if you do not wish to ...

Shelties No 1: Oreo & Chewy

Shelties No 2: Miley & Java @ 4 Dog Craziness

Shelties No 3: Ricky

Shelties No 4: Bentley & Lexi

working wednesday #3

I took Sonic to a McTimoney Chiropractor to have him thoroughly check-up as I wasn't happy with his right hind leg. I didn't take him to the vet because I know he isn't in pain as he was running fine and tearing around like nothing has bother him. I know what the vet would said or suggest if I bring him in ... anti-inflammatory! Anyway, Susan Sargeant is highly recommended by our friend Lisa. Susan is lovely and she is only about 7 miles distance. I really like the way she treated Sonic, knowing Sonic is not "human-friendly". Sonic was relax and calm while treated, towards the end, he actually turned mellow! Mellow? Yes, I was very surprised of his reaction too.

Susan has a good assessment on him and told me his right side is very tight in many spots. I always think he is a clumsy dog. He is really crazy, although he didn't like people but he likes to jump up on me and bite my sleeve to tug and then landed badly on the side. Too many times that I can remember! Also, last Friday, I took him to train with Toni (because Sizzle wasn't well). He fell off the DW on the top plank. He was crazily fast (he loves contacts) and probably losing the balance. The good thing was he immediately run back up again with his usual speed without any hesitation. That is more reason that I would like to get him check over. The lovely Susan has done some adjustments (is that the right word?), so prescribed REST and QUIET! Damn! How can I keep this sheltie rest and quiet?

He was allow walk on the lead but Susan suggested not to take him anywhere he can run and chase squirrels/rabbits ... so we didn't go out yesterday. The weather was absolutely poorly anyway, bitterly cold rain all day, so there is more reason not to go out, instead, I decided to wash and blow dry the shelties. The boys were alright but the two girls were fighting with me in the bath and when blow dry! Hmmm ...

Also, I thought I could teach him a new trick or two to keep his mind busy. You all know how difficult he being a puppy, not liking me to touch his paw or any part of the body. I have done so much clicker with him, just to make him come and sit on my lap and all sort of things that you can think about but whenever we come to "touching", he runs miles! I always wanted to teach him tricks involving his rear end awareness and the one that I would like to try most is the to get him to give me his hind legs. As he is so sensitive about his body, I couldn't get close to him or even using a foreign object as a training aid, so I have left the trick once again. Yesterday, I thought it's about time I try that again. JACKPOT! He is so clever, and he picked that up almost immediately. I was really impressed. 

This video was taken this morning and it's his second attempt. I used "leg" for his right hind leg and "kick" for left hind leg. When I first started it, it was the right hind leg and my automatic reaction is "leg" and when I watched back the videos, I've realised it should be the other way round. He looks more like "kick" with his right hind leg and "leg" with left hind leg. Oh Well!

confused dot com

We got back late from Canada last evening ... nope, NOT that Canada, but the Canada in Hampshire, England. Sometimes these same names confused me A LOT. I remembered the first time I came across Washington in West Sussex. I've ordered some pvc jumps and weave poles for garden used. That was many years ago when I first started training Sing. I haven't got a Sat Nav, so I was rather confused this "Washington" is in America! This tells you how bad my sense of directions are! Then, later, I heard there is New Jersey and Little Hampton but they are in America!

I think English is a funny language, they repeat the same names so many times and too often. I've known a few Colin living in this area and there are about 10 of my friends named Patrick!!! Phew! Most Chinese names are unique and of course there are some common names too but the chances of same Chinese name is very rare!

I've booked a puppy/teenage dog training training day with Lesley Olden down in Romsey. She was very close to New Forest. We always like the walk at New Forest, so we took all the dogs down there. It was quite windy during training and the walk too. The sun was in and out, basically a good dry day but windy and brrrr .. cold. 

I will make a separate post about Sonic's puppy training with Lesley Olden. This post is all about our lovely walk and some photos ...

 this photo of Sonic chasing the tennis ball is slightly out of focus but I won't want to edit/crop as I think it looks very nice with the beautiful landscape behind him

 Sonic is a very happy dog, just like his daddy Sing and mama Samber. They definitely has passed on the happy gene to him. I have never thought I will get a picture of him running this fast and showing his hind legs crossing the front legs ... if you are on Silvia Trkman's "running contacts January", you will know what I mean.

Sonic is having a ball :D

I like this photo of him because it shows he has COAT, in reality, he hasn't :(

As we walked along, we met so many wild ponies but this one in particular is VERY friendly. I am always scared of horses/ponies but I can feed her and stroke her and she was very calm and let me do everything. She even go VERY close to the shelties without scaring them or harm them. I guess all my shelties are very calm that helps.

This photo is of Colin and Sipzie trying to lure the pony to follow us back to the car. Hahaha ...

This reminded me many years ago when we only have Sing and Seagull, we went to New Forest quite a bit. We parked the car at the carpark. After our walk, we open up the car boot to fetch drinks and lunch, we have 3 gorgeous ponies tried to get into the car boot. It was hilarious and I was very scared then!

 Sonic is such a brave little guy, he approached the ponies carefully, calmly, gently and he managed to get so close to the pony and they actually have a little "kiss" but it was too dark and my flash didn't work so I missed that LOVELY moment.

 this is another picture of Sonic went up to a different pony to say his warm hello.

this is the lovely pony that I wish to take home :) maybe next time I should go with a truck so I can bring her home but how can I get her to come through the front door and not get stuck? Mmmm ...

and here are some of Little Miss Sipzie having fun ...

LOL! Yes, she still has the chewing gum stuck on her right ear, that is one very stubborn ear!!!

 Oh! and Saturn also has a stubborn year after nearly 7 years! Hahaha ...

 Water + Ball = Heaven for Sing!

always leading the way ...

 always so agile!

I am really happy to have my camera with me yesterday, I have a lot of good photos but I can't post them all up here :(

Just before I end this post, I've mentioned earlier that I've joined Silvia Trkman's "running contacts" distant learning. We have our first assignment and it took me two weekends to complete as I need Colin there to video us and here is our Lesson 1 video:

Sonic - 10 month-old

Mai handsome boy Sonic and his beautiful sister Brooke is 10 month-old today! Where does all this 10 months gone? Just like yesterday when Samber was uncomfortable ... all the midnight rushing to the emergency vet to have him, Brooke and "Charlie & Angel" out. 

Thank you Samber for giving us these two beautiful babies, we are very proud of them!

New arrival

We are pleased to announced Sing x Skye puppy dog App arrived safely on Friday, the 13th, born only 4oz. Although he is tiny at birth but he is very strong, he put on weight nicely and at Day 4, he weight 5.9oz! Skye is a good mama, as she always is. 

He is full brother to beautiful Silky. I have quite a few people asking me if I am superstitious? The answer is NO. I feel blessed to have this little boy, although he is a singleton again! I think I can top the breeder chart of breeding "singleton" sheltie puppy!

Skye was scanned for two puppies, we can only think she reabsorbed the other one. For whatever reason. Skye is very content with this little boy. Both of them are still with Chris & Gail who own Skye, they will come back to me next week and I am so looking forward to have a puppy running around the house again for a few weeks. I am sure big brother Sonic would like to play with him.

photos on Day 4:

Sizzle update and a bit of Sipzie ...

I THINK in general Sizzle is getting better. He started to perk up on the weekend after spending the whole week acting like a yoyo. He was good for an hour in the morning, then spent the whole day lying down and does not want to know anything. Although he is not a greedy dog but I can't get him to show any interest in his favourite treats :(  He has been acting like that from Monday to Friday and I was beginning to get really worry. The vet suggested I walk him on the lead but I don't really need that, he walked really slowly, even a 10 year old Sing and 9 year old walk faster than him :)  He didn't even want to chase the crows ...

On Saturday, he woke me up wanting to play with his toy. Good sign, I thought. We had a little play, he was happy and I was happy. We went out for a nice crispy morning walk. He was a little happier at walk, although not chasing rabbits/squirrels/crows. Same thing on Sunday. All good!

We went to Lisa for another Reiki today, thanks Lisa for making Sizzle and me feel better :)

See, not all my group photos are good. This is the time, when some shelties refused to look the same way! Obviously, Sonic and Sizzle got distracted as there was a dog running around that direction. It is good that they STAY and not moving at inch! At the end, I gave up taking the "good" photo. 

You can see from this picture that Sizzle was so much happier. This photo was taken on Sunday morning walk.

After our lovely morning walk, we set off to Scrambles for Toni Dawkins' Training Day. I like Toni, she is one of the top handlers in the UK and is very successful in the Agility with her Border Collies. Toni used to have Sheltie, that was many years ago, well before I know her. Toni's mum got two lovely shelties. I only just came across the training day and was lucky to get a place. As Sizzle was not 100%, I decided to train Sipzie. 

I am thinking to give Sipzie a little rest this year, not doing too much agility with her. I think when I got her at 9 months old, I lost the puppyhood and the bond/relationship with her. That time, I probably rushing too much to get her into competition and I have realised after one agility season, she wasn't very happy or confidence at some shows and her running Dog Walk has become a disaster towards the end of the season. I am hoping to continue doing training and doing tricks to build up her confidence and also decided to go back to 2o/2o on the DW.

Our DW is progressing slowly and I am rushing it. I think I want her fully understand the criteria and she is doing great at the moment. I am hoping when I get her on the full DW, I can start doing a bit of training with her at UKA shows as well. 

She was a good girl, doing really well at Toni's training day yesterday. I am really pleased with her, although she can get a little wild and crazy but I like the way she is. Colin tried to film all our rounds/sequences but I think our little video camera is packing up. It sometimes get blurry and won't go back to clear screen for a long time. I think I need to invest a new video camera :(  

Here are a couple of sequence we did yesterday. I really like to learn the European funny turn properly!