Sing, the great swimmer!

picture taken in Lyme Regis

I don't know if there is another sheltie is as mad as Sing when comes to water/pond/sea? I have never seen a sheltie like him that would not get out from the water when he has a chance to get in.

This began when he was 11 weeks old. We took him to Lake District for a week holiday. We were out walking everyday, up the mountains, down to the seas. When he first saw the sea, he almost went straight in without thinking. I was so panic when I saw him walking towards to sea to fetch his ball, I shouted at Colin to "fetch" him back but he seems happy and no problem getting into the sea and get his ball. We have to stand back and watch to make sure he is alright but in the other way, we encouraged him to fetch more balls in the sea.

He continues to love swimming, whenever we are out walking and he sense there is a pond/lake/sea nearby, he will run towards it and we have to catch him up later in the water. He will beg for a throw of a ball or stick so he can fetch.

It is ok when the weather is warm but we are so afriad to go anywhere with pond in winter. There is no chance that you can get him out of the water and I don't want to see him shivering from cold. I remembered very well, in winter 2004, we have a habit of getting up very early on Sunday morning and make some coffee and drove to Richmond Park, sometimes the gate has not even open yet! We will walk from the carpark to the pond to see the swam and duck and of course Sing will straight into the pond before I say NO. He will swim and try to round up the poor ducks and then swim back to us to throw him the ball. We were enjoying that but also worried that he will get too cold. There is nothing we can do to keep him out of water but we decided not to go near any water in winter.

Here are some photos taken in Lyme Regis.

who is fetching the ball, me or daddy?

what's up dad?

Oh No! I don't like surfing.

I want to go back to mummy.

shelties

This photo was taken on Thursday at Oxhott Common

where I have to kill 3 hours. Aren't these lots behaved beautifully?

Walking with my 5 shelties seems to create a stir every now and then, many people thinks that I am a breeder but when I told them these are just my collections, they always look back at me with their mouth wide open!

We were having a Christmas gathering with some close friends on Saturday, one of my friends told me my shelties are a credit to me. Yes, I have to agree with her. Having 5 shelties in the house should be a handful job but I don't find them difficult at all, I love all of them and they are so well-behaved, good manners, friendly; taking them out has not problem too. They come back when call, eventhough they like to say hello to their friends in the Common but they response to me when I think it is too much. Also, walking with 5 dogs, I feel protected, especially with Titan. He will let me know if there is a strangers or dogs nearby.

Saturn's agility experience

Saturn got all his attention at the target! Very good for a beginner dog!

I was worried and excited before yesterday. I knew it would be Saturn's first show and I want to make sure he has a good time at his first show. As usual, he proved to me he is a bouncy happy dog. I am very happy with his performance eventhough he didn't get a clear round. He is trying very hard and I always forget that he is a beginner dog and I left him to do his own thing. He has very nice contacts eventhough he was a bit worried at the Dog Walk but he managed to walk through the full length. He missed the weave at first but when I got him back he weaved perfectly.

Merry Christmas!

It is nearly Christmas now! I have noticed the time flies and I have not done much as planned.

Ho Ho Ho! What would you like for Christmas?

I was telling Colin that I would like a personalised Xmas card to send out to family and friends and all I have in mind is the dogs.

We've been very busy nearly every weekend, if not dog show, then dog training, if no dog show and dog training, we were out walking with the dogs ...


Finally, early December weekend, I told Colin we have to put all things behind of us and get on with the Xmas card. First we took the Xmas tree out and put some decorations and then set the dogs in front of the tree to take some photos. Well, Colin is not a great photographer and all the photos he took was slightly out of angle and blurry. The poor dogs has been very good and patient to down stay for more than 10 minutes.


We tried everything we could to take the best picture, we then realised the background lightning is the main problem, well, there is not much we can do about it but for those who has received the personalised Xmas, I hope you all like and it and appreciate the dog's effort being good at down stay while their dad taking the photossssssssssssssssssssssssss!!

Here are some photos taken while we find the perfect one:

Merry Christmas everyone!