a ray of sunshine

My poor little sunshine was seriously ill for the last few days. I didn't know what went wrong with him but he was vomitting and diarrhoea. At first, I put it down to the nerves from the fireworks. I took him out last Sunday night for his "bedtime" toilet, while he is in the middle of doing his poo, a rocket firework landed a few yards in front of him, we both jump! As you can guess, he was so frightened and never wanted to go out in the garden when it turns dark. He looked a bit miserable last Monday and I put it down to the stress from fireworks. (Before then, he was absolutely fine with the fireworks whether he is inside or outside the house and I can understand if a firework lands in front of you ... gosh! I don't want to go out in the dark either!) He then looked alright on Tuesday and Wednesday, we even went to Nancy for a bit of training on Wednesday morning. He was happy little boy at Nancy and we did a bit of the foundation works and I was so excited that I have something to work on him. But then, on Wednesday evening, he started to look poorly, he didn't want to eat (well, he is not a great eater, so it didn't bother me) and spent most of the time sleeping. On Thursday morning, he had a tiny bit to eat and we went to the Common for a long walk. I remembered it was a lovely autumn morning and we were walking all over the places. The first hour he was alright, he was running with the other boys and chasing crows/birds as usual, then he started to vomit and it got worst and worst within the next half an hour, I have to rush them back to the house so I can take him to the vet. By the time we got home, he vomit violently with a lot more diarrhoea.

The vet kept him in to check on him and I went to pick him up in the evening. He then went back in again on Friday morning and left him there and picked him up again in the evening. He wasn't eating anything at all for the last two days and he looked tired and exhausted. Then, on late Friday night, he started to bark at me, I was very shocked but was very happy. I have been missing his little bark bark. I tried to offer him some chicken, fish, roast beef, anything as long as he wanted to eat, he picked the roast beef and had a little of them. Thank God, he kept that down and no vomitting at all since!

On Saturday morning, we were back to the vet again, Kevin was very happy with him, check his temperature and dehydration level, all normal. I tried to feed him every couple of hours, he ate very little, mostly refused to eat. Suddenly at 10:30pm on Saturday night, he showed his naughty sign!! He brought me a toy and bark at me very loudly, he wanted me to throw the toy for him to fetch! Ah! What a relieved!

On Sunday morning, he ate two pieces of roast beef and he kept all of them down! WooHoo!!

this is my little sunshine when he was ill. He spent most of the time sleeping on the couch.

Yesterday, we went to Toni Dawkins Training Day, organised by the ESSC Working Section. I always enjoy Toni's TD. She is a fantastic trainer and I have learned a few useful things from her TDs.

I was working Sing & Saturn but mostly with Sing.

I wanted to do a lot of weave training with Sing as I know that is our weakest part. I have to say I am very pleased with Sing on the weave, he was fast and enthusiasn, I cannot believe he weave so fast too. He has never weave in that speed before in any of our trainings and I was amazed he was keen and putting in a lot of effort. I also need to tighten up his turns. I have noticed that the faster he goes, the wider he turns, so we need to work on that. I think we only have ONE gear (either very fast or very slow)at the moment, I need to make sure he has at least TWO gears. Sing is alwyas a very reliable dog, always a clear round for him but he didn't show his speed, he is not a slow dog but we all know that he can run much faster. When I came back from China and went to Shrewsbury, he was a lot faster and keener. I wonder should I rest him more to get the best out of him?

I did all the contacts with Saturn as I know Sing can handle the contacts with no problem at all. At first, I didn't put the target down for him and he was slow coming down the A Frame, he nearly creep all the way down, so I make sure I show him the target at the bottom. He was very different when he knew there is a target waiting, no hesitation at all. We also did some jumping but I lost him most of the time ... when he is fast and I cannot keep up with him, I always in the wrong position and he don't know where to go. We have so much to practise on! To end the training day, we did a longer sequence with contacts in it and Toni placed the target at the bottom of the A Frame for me, so Saturn was not aware there is the target there and I was expecting he will creep down the A Frame but he didn't, he went straight down with his perfect 2o/2o, not even notice the target (with food) is there!! I think we are getting there if we practise more! There you go, winter projects!

I am very happy with the boys' performance, especially with Sing when I know he can run so much faster and weave so much better. I hope we won't stay too long at Grade 5 next year!

This is Brodie (loved and owned by Rhoda), he and Sizzle are 3/4 brothers, same sire (CH Shelridge Wishmaster) and same grandfather from their dam side (Blenmerrow Barnaby). These two are nearly identical, they looks so similar in most of their markings but Brodie is much bigger boy.

This is Toni, showing us what a perfect contact is!

The other bit of the good news is ... the doctor in China said they will probably get a match liver for my brother, so the operation is going ahead, hopefully sometimes next week. This mean, I am off again soon.