this week's agility training and swimming

I have quite a busy week this week doing agility stuff.

Sizzle was a bit "switch off" on Tuesday, he looked tired and lost his attention easily. I blamed Samber for tiring him out! Also, I have got a few important things to work on him as well. As a young puppy, I taught him to chase bird, my idea was to get him going and I want him to power on for speed but I now realised it is very "dangerous". He has a very strong eyes for bird, any birds! This happened on Tuesday at training, I didn't see a pigeon got his attention and I tried very hard to get him to focus our "jump tunnel jump" sequence. The minute I let go of him, off he shot into a different direction then only I knew he was chasing the pigeon! I guess I have a good job in getting him NOT to chase a bird when we work.

On Thursday, I trained Sing and Saturn. Sing was very good, I still put him in the beginner class to do some simple stuff to encourage him to upgrade a gear. Saturn was a mixture of good and bad. When he was so hyper, he was very fast and lost control, he just wanted to take any obstacles in front of him. Eleanor told me this is not the first time he did that and I need to crack this bad habit. So, I have something to work on Saturn too.

After the agility on Thursday, we normally go for a walk at Oxshott Common then heading to Greyfriars for our fitness swim. Sizzle is becoming so confident that he don't actually need a life jacket anymore but I insisted to put it on for the first 15 minutes. Saturn is a nutter when comes to swimming pool. He is so excited and bark and just want to dive into the pool all the time. I was trying to chuck the ball for him to dive in first, then Sing, then Sizzle but I think my timing was wrong, in the end he always dive into Sizzle who came back with a ball in his mouth! I need to be more careful next time.

Yesterday, we went to train at Bernadette. I really enjoy going to her. Again, Sizzle wasn't really focus, he just wanted to sniff most of the time and he went off his toys! That really surprised me! Sizzle is a very toy motivated dog but I just can't get him to play with the toys. We also discover we have more problems and I need to fix them! We also did some agility with Saturn. He jumped a little funny (keeping his back legs), I have noticed that sometimes he stretch out nicely but sometime he tucks his two back legs. I really don't know what is the problem there. Before the biopsy operation last July, he was a great jumper. I just hope my vet didn't ruin him! Not just because I want to do agility with him but I want a healthy happy Saturn!

Saturn at Lee's TD, watching and hopefully learning

This afternoon, I took Saturn to Lee Windeatt's training day at Sue's sand school. I have never been to Lee's TD and I was really looking forward to it. Lee is a very nice guy and he gave me a good tip to try Saturn on the A Frame, hopefully that will speed him up. I had tried to apply that (that is: as soon as Saturn's two front legs hit the ground, priase him like Crazy) towards the end of the training and it worked! Hopefully that is not a one off from him! We did some short sequences to look at things and I think Lee likes "turning away" (or flipping) method. I am terrible at that. My arms and hands are not co-ordinate enough to give Saturn the body language he wants, I just messed everything up.

At one of the sequences, Lee put a jump half way in between the weave (figure below):

We need to handle the dog on the right hand side, send and flip him into the weave entry (handler is not allow to pass the jump). Other than the smashing and amazing Bernadette & Zen did it correctly, I don't recall any of us could do that. I know if I were to handle him from the left hand side, he will find the entry. I have never done this flipping away thing but it is good that I know my weakness and I will practise more!

We also did a recall over A Frame and See-Saw. Saturn was very good at stopping at the contact until I released him eventhough he still kinda creeping down the plank. Overall, I don't think Saturn was working very well today, he was not in his full speed and I also notcied that sometimes he jumped with two back legs tuck in and sometimes stretching out. Also, at Sue's sand school, she has very close neighbours, so we are not allow our dogs to bark, so winding him up before his run is prohibited!

here are a few sequences we were doing this afternoon:

It was a three hours long training, I've asked Colin to take Sizzle in to watch for 10 minutes. He was so excited and started to bark when he saw some fast dogs going around, poor little man has to go back to the car.

I've got a bit stressed with Samber's house trained this week. She was very clean the first four days, eventhough she wasn't keen to go to the garden to do her toilet but she was clean indoor. She started to poo and wee indoor since last Friday. She is very clever that she didn't messed on the carpet, she will go to the kitchen and bathroom on the tile flooring to wee and poo. I don't really want that to happen, so I took her out every hour but everytime she went into the garden, all she wants is PLAY. At the end, I have to keep her in and let the boys out, then let the boys in and take her out. I have even tried to stay in the garden with her for more than an hour but still she is not doing anything. I started to crate her at night (before, she was sleeping on our bed with the boys); when I let her out in the morning, she did her toilet and I priased her but she was very nervous. We go out everyday for a walk, sometimes she did her toilet but sometimes she don't. Basically, she kinda hold her toilet until the next morning!

daddy's girl

Sizzle, Saturn and Samber

SIZZLE

I had a few "complain" from friends saying that I haven't posted any of Sizzle's training videos for a while. Well, the weather have been wet after the snow, so we kinda stuck indoor doing some refresh on our tricks and the balance work. As we have already started our puppy agility class at Pachesham, so I am not worry or in no rush to do more training at home. Tuesday agility + swimming and Saturday flyball are a lot for a little guy.

I didn't get any flyball training video last Saturday as we were doing the basic things, such as static retrieve, run back on 8 jumps to teach the dog to stride properly and recall. I am hoping we will get to do more box work next week. We can't practise this at home.

Yesterday was cloudy but dry, so I thought I will ask Colin to do some filming for us. A friend of mine was asking me how I train Sizzle on a few things, so I thought I would send her this little video:

His running contacts are so much better! The A Frame is still on the puppy height, I would not raise it until he is much older. Before yesterday, I still have the plank down for his Dog Walk training. I have ordered a pair of puppy trestle two weeks ago and it just arrived today but he had tried to do a full Dog Walk at Pachesham two weeks ago and he was no problem at all. I thought I will be braved to let him walk on a full DW at home to see if he is confidence and as you can see, NO PROBELM for this little man. This means, I have a brand new puppy trestle for sale! We still have a lot of things to work on, especially the rear across and turning away from me. I have not touch any weaving yet. I have watched Susan Garett's 2x2 weave a few times but I think I prefer the Channel/V Weave training. I would not do the weave training on my own as I know I will be terrible at it. I must email my guru to give us some lessons!

Here is another video taken today. I thought him the TYRE today, which he tried to go around it most of the time. I thought I will do a longer sequence with him involving two contacts then reward him at the end:

I love my little guy, he is so much fun and I enjoy training with him.

SATURN

Saturn's coat is finally growing! I have noticed that on the weekend and I can see the fur by his neck (his white collar) is filling up. I am so happy! He looks like a puppy now but a bit shaggy, you can see he has a very long outer coat and the new inner coat and his colour has becomes lighter. I like his dark shaded sable coat, he is such a handsome boy, hopefully by the end of the year he will have a full coat and his dark shaded is back.

this is my SOUL when he was 9 weeks old, cute eh?

this picture was taken last May, he had such a lovely silky coat and I like his dark shaded sable

SAMBER

Samber continues to "bully" the Tris. She just loved to play. She likes outdoor and she is so eager to go out. She would not let the boys stay quiet, she just want to non stop playing! I bought her a pink lead+collar set, hopefully to make her look more like a girl. Colin said he would not take her out because of her new pink lead, he said that is too girlie! I think I need to find her another not pink lead just incase Colin needs to take her out sometimes! Oh dear! What's wrong with man?

Samber's pink lead

flyball training + walk in the common

There weren't any flyball training last Saturday so I was really looking forward to today's training. We normally get there half and hour early so the boys could have a quick walk + toilet before they start training.

We took all the dogs with us, can you imagine seven shelties dashing around? Well, Samber would not leave Sizzle alone, she kept pouncing on him to tease him to play, so the two of them were running like a lunatic for at least good 15 minutes. I had to put them back to the car as I do not want Sizzle to get too tired for training.

Well, Sizzle didn't do too well at training today, he got very tired after 25 minutes of training, bad Samber definitely had tired him out, so I need to make sure she is not allow to play with him before training. For the last 10 minutes, I have to take Saturn out to replace him. Saturn was very happy to work with me and he did some very nice run backs.

Colin was holding Samber while we trained, I want to make sure she is happy with the new environment. Poor Samber probably has never seen so many barky dogs before and she actually got into panic. She is a very quiet dog herself, she does not like other dog bark, so when Saturn barks at home, she normally run away. Guess we need to take her out more to some dog shows or training places.

this is Sizzle doing his static retrieve

this tuggy I bought from Clean Run is really helpful. Sizzle loves it and he will tug when I show him this toy.

this is Saturn doing his run back, as he being quite a biggish sheltie, he has longer legs long enough to do the single stride

I still have problem to get Sing to run back to me FASTER after he gets the ball. He is always very nice running up to fetch the ball, single stride up the 4 jumps and no problem on the box.I have tried to use the tuggy to get him to come back faster but it just not working!

Ideas please!!!!!!!!

After we came back from flyball, we took the all the dogs to walk in the Common. It was such a lovely day today, sunny and dry and I only need a thin fleece on. The dogs enjoyed their walks and the little ones (Sizzle, Titan and Samber) were running chasing each other so much that I cannot stop them at all! Mad shelties!

pretty tomboy Samber

she is a stinker!

What can I say about this little girl we have? The more time we spent with her, the more we love her. She is fun, a real character, loves outdoor and walkies and she has everlasting energy! And yes, she is a stinker too! She is with me for 6 days now and she has 3 full baths!

We went out walking this morning, to a different part of Mitcham Common, a part that she hasn't explore before. She is no different to the boys, she will do the same amount of sniffing as the boys or maybe more. The only different is ... she does not cock her legs like the boys and I find it difficult to encourage her to go toilet!

When I walk the dogs, I like to walk and then stop for a little while to play ball with them. As we were playing this morning on the walk, this little MADam wander off to sniff around, I know she isn't far but when I turned around, I saw her rolling on the grass, my first instinct was "shit! Not on the fox poo!". I called her but she turned deaf ears on me and roll even more! I tried to call her again, eventhough I can see her looking at me but she didn't want to come back and I don't want to go and get her, so I decided I will walk off with the boys and call her, she finally ran and join us but gosh! She stinked! I do not want anymore rolling on the fox poo, so I pop her on the lead and she wasn't happy at all.

We continue walking, as the weather was nice so I took the boys to the hilly bit of the Common so Sing can have another swim. The water level in the pond is overfill at the moment. We were there yesterday and Sizzle had a go swimming in the open water and he seems to enjoy it. I tried to encourage him to swim again today and he did. As Samber was so smelly and dirty, I decided I will push her into the pond to wash off the fox poo. She is a funny girl, when I gently push her in, she swam away from me, she ended up in the island in the middle of the pond! I have to say, she swims really well and fast! Now, how can I get her back to me? I called and called but she just wouldn't come. I sent Sing in, hopefully she will follow him back to me but Sing only has his eyes on the tennis ball! The water is too deep for me to go in. I thought I will go around to the other side of the pond, closer to her, maybe she will come back. As me and the boys were walking off, I heard her jumping into the water and swam a long way back to chase after me. How sweet is that? I think this is a very good experience for her because she now joined the boys swimming! YEAH! all Lian's shelties can swim!

She really loves outdoor, she likes to go out walkies and paly in the garden all day. I thought Sizzle is full of energy but Samber never stops! The minute you let her out in the garden, she will play and play and play. With all the rain we have, the garden is very muddy so she is always covers in mud!

Samber is a great jumper, she can easily jump up to anything. It is not surprised to find her on the dinning table but one good thing, she is not a greedy dog, she will not steal any food. She may want to sniff them but she nevers pinch them. She is very much like Sing. Can you believe how lucky I am to have TWO non greedy shelties? Maybe Paula breed non greedy shelties!! Colin quite like her prick ears and said she looks like a fox but not me, so I have a go to FIX her ears!

Isn't she looks prettier with her proper ears?

I managed to use my mobile to captured Sizzle and Samber swimming in the open air:

little MADam

Samber is settling in very well with the boys, I don't think she acts like a girl at all. She loves to play with all the boys and when she plays, she is always the rough one! And Boy! She has everlasting energy!!!

Sing didn't seems to like her that much, he just treated her like any other in the pack. If she is getting too much in his way, he will show his teeth to tell her to "back off". They rarely play but when they play, Sing is always so gentle with her.

the love birds

When we first got her back, she was absolutely fine with other people and other dogs, she will ran to people when we went out walking for a fuss and she will say hello to all dogs she met in the walks. Unfortunately, something spook her on Tuesday and things have changed. I took her to Pachesham on Tuesday when I went training with Sizzle. We were walking pass a horse box and she was on the lead, I don't know why but the horse decided he will blow into her face and neigh! You guess it, she was so frightened and she wouldn't let anyone touch her since and when she met another dog, she will turn away and run!

I still trust her by letting her go off lead when we go out walking. I have learned the more I trust a dog, the easier I will get my training and this seems to work well on her. We went to Wimbledon Common yesterday for a good long walk and she was chased by a couple of big dogs that she was unsure about. She actually ran away from me but when I tried to call her back, she did responsed. She took a detour but her eyes were on me so she did came running back to me through the bushes!

Poor Samber has never associate with toys before, when I first shown her a few toys, she was shocked and ran away when it squeak! A big thank you to my little star Sizzle, he had taught her how to play in the last few days. She now loves to pick up a toy and shake them, very cute.

here is Samber playing with Sizzle's favourite bird toy

A few friends were asking me if I am going to do agility with her ... emmm ... definitely NOT at the moment. Sizzle's training is coming along very nicely and I would like to concentrate with him, I really enjoy training him and we work more and more like a team now.

Samber maybe a "potential" for agility but I know I am going to breed her to Sing, so when she is in season and whelping, that will take a few months off from training, so, maybe not a good idea after all. When she gets used to all the new surroundings, I would love to clicker train her to do some basic stuff.

this is a boring video of dogs playing but they are so sweet and happy together:

Please be my valentine

Sorry this is an outdated post!

I was very busy over the weekend, you will know why when you read this post.

We had a wonderful valentine day, doing something meaningful ...

finding a wife for Sing!

A lot of you know that I wanted a little Sing-let for a long long time ... I had think hard for three years and have consider carefully all the problems ... and we decided we will GO for it and make it happens.

I finally made up my mind this winter that I will go ahead with my plan and find Sing a wife and have a little family. I have two options, one is to find a girl to mate to Sing and the other is to buy a girl in to mate to Sing. I very much prefer my first option as I don't really want to keep a girl with my five entire boys, that would be a mad house when she comes into season. I have met three girls who are interested in Sing, unfortunately the first two's eyes not clear and the last one is a nervous little girlie.

Soon after Sing has his hip scored, Colin and I discussed and decided we will start looking around and buy a girl in and create some chao in the house. I have spoken to a couple of breeders and I have some very nice mature bitches out there ready to mate to Sing. Early this week, I got to speak to Paula (Sing's breeder), she has a 16 months old sable bitch to let go. I know Paula bred nice little shelties with superb temperament, so we agreed to go and see her on Saturday.

We went with open minded as I still have a few more bitches to meet. We met little Amber on that Valentine morning after two hours' drive. She is such a happy soul, very outgoing, lovely temperament, friendly with people and children and other dogs (I have proof that on the walks over the weekends), very springy and bouncy, full of energy (she nevers stop!). She may not be perfect on look or size but her temperament wins my heart so we took her home.

She is mixing very well with the boys, she is not snarling at them eventhough Saturn and Sizzle are both crazy chasing her, she is trying to play with all of them! Funny enough, when I took her away from Paula, I thought she will be upset but when I open the car, she jumped straight in!! I think she is meant for me!

She has met a lot of people and dogs this weekend, we went for a long walk in the Common on Saturday after we came home from Suffolk and we went to Dawn Weaver's training day on Sunday at Polly's field. She was happily running around with the Collies and she was happy enough for other people to cuddle her, touch her.

She was known as AMBER. Since she is joining the KNIGHTs shelties family, she needs to have a name start with S, so she is now call SAMBER!


BTW, she is sleeping on our bed with the other boys, so she is no different to the others. We love her very much. I am enjoying her, she is always happy and running around non stop!

Sizzle and Samber are best playmate, they tear around the house A LOT! And they wear each other's energy out too!! Hahaha ...

updates on little things ...

Daisy's puppies are 4 weeks old now. I haven't see them for a week!! How dare I?

Well, I have this terrible toothache for two weeks and it got worst since I went to the dentist on Tuesday. She is my new NHS dentist and she has a strength of a buffalo and she is never a gentle kinda young lady! When she x-ray me, she pushed the films into my mouth and asked me to bite hard and I have to admit the edges of the film actually cut my skin, it was bloody painful! Then she told me whoever done my tooth before, he had took the root out and filled it and now that is causing the problem. I asked her not to touch that tooth as I will go back to my old dentist who is going private now. Anyway, she continues to check my other teeth and we both came to a conclusion that one of my bottom tooth needs refilling. That's probably my worst decision. She gave me a jab to numb the area but when she was digging through the tooth, I felt a sharp pain and I complained, she said I being sensitive but I was so much in pain that I need to pinch her to stop her digging, so she gave me another jab and didn't wait for it and continue digging ... anyway, she did a messy job and sent me off. Most of the filling fell off yesterday (less than 48 hours) and that cuase my face to swell up and struggled to eat! Guess what? I have paid £198! I know it is a lot of money but I am not going back there to let her torture me again, so I am going back to my old dentist next week to ask him to fix it. This is such an expensive torture!

Other that the tooth problem, I slipped on the rubber matting on Sunday while flyballing and bang my right kneecap! That swell up as well, so basically I need a body overhaul!!!

Daisy's puppies taken at 3 weeks.

I went to my club training yesterday with Sing and Saturn. I still running Sing in the beginners class as I do not want to tired him out too much. I am keeping him for the Flyball and just want him to be fit for the Euro. Eleanor said Saturn was doing very well, he was jumping happily with good speed, the only problem is A Frame. He is still creeping down the A Frame, yes CREEPING! Arrrrggggghhhhhh ... other than that, he is perfect. We did some big loops of jumping sequences, a bit like steeplechase with all the contacts and weave stuck in between, I am glad he found all the difficult weave entry and weave on his own with me either stay behind or far ahead. I am really pleased with that. His see-saw was so much better when he came in speed and he actually tip it while he was near at the end of the plank but we still need to work on that on its own. Basically I am very happy with him.

BTW, Colin suggested maybe we should try to train him in Flyball to encourage more speed and "forget" about the A Frame?!?

always a happy boy

I had another very successful swimming session with Sizzle. The girl at Greyfriars said she don't think Sizzle needs her and can swim on his own happily and she was right. We put a little jacket on him (just in case), he actually jumped into the water straightaway before I throw the ball. You can see that he was really excited about it. The funny thing was, everytime he brought the ball back on the platform and I took it off him, off he goes again before I throw the ball. It was like that for a full 15 minutes. I need to hold his harness to stop him to get exhausted but once I took my hand off, he's in again! He must be enjoying so much.

One thing I find it difficult to swim three dogs without an assistant is that I have no control of them, they are all keen swimmers, so they can't wait for me to throw the ball, so they are off with no balls to fetch or one to fetch three balls!! Yesterday, I've got Sing and Saturn to wait, so I throw three balls and let Sizzle goes first, guess what? Sizzle came back with two balls in his mouth! Ah! Bless!

big ball in a small mouth

Sing

My vet rang me this afternoon to tell me Sing's hip score is back.

He scored 9; 5 on the Right and 4 on the Left.

The vet said he has a very good hip scored. Generally, shelties scored 14.

Flyball Tournament - indoor!

We had a fantastic day of flyball racing yesterday at Lockmeadow Market, Maidstone. This was one of their winter series host by Ball Busters Flyball Team. It was a very long and tiring day but at the end of the day, everyone was happy, I think.

We got there just before 7:30am and I have plenty of time to walk the dogs and settle in the flyball mood. I was having a mixed feeling when I first got there as the very last time I raced with Sing was in November 2005, the same place; now we are returning to flyball and the first race was here! I was touched by all the Ball Busters members who knows me, they gave me and Sing a warm welcomed back to the Flyball world and I was so glad they remembered Sing as a little cracker!

We have two teams racing yesterday, Wimbledon Whizzers and Wimbledon Woofers. The Whizzers are in Division 3 and the Woofers are in Division 1.

Zak, Bramble, Tally & Blue ran for Wimbledon Woofers. These four are just fabulous, they are jumping full height and gosh don't they zoom in speed!

For the Wimbledon Whizzers, we have Sing, Jed, Maddie, Rupert, Charlie, Alibi. I think the combinations are Sing, Jed, Maddie with one of the other three dogs. Unfortunately Jed was a bit unsure in the first couple of race, so we change the combinations again. I think we have Sing, Maddie, Rupert & Alibi combinations; then later we have one out and Charlie in ... every dogs get to run. We were running so well as a team and support each other. This is the Team work I like, no pressure, purely enjoyment.

Sing ran as a start dog yesterday. Well, did I tell you that that is my very fear? I am always so wind up when comes to racing (or even agility), I am probably worst than any of my dogs. I hate reading the lights as I know I am not persistent and keep changing, I just want to GO GO GO ... and my worst habit is try to predict the light! So, I am not a reliable start dog but I determine to learn!

Oh, I have nearly forgot to mention that they now have a different electronic system to when I was raced. This is just brilliant. The electronic timer will show all the individual time. Ray was taking a record of our running, I think Sing's best start time was 0.9xx seconds and he even had a 1.000second start time but his others was between 2-3 seconds.

I don't know what is Sing's individual best time as I wasn't watching but I kinda look at all the vidoes that Colin took, I saw something between 5.5xx to 5.7xx. I am hoping to build up his stamina in the next few weeks and hopefully we can tune him up to run back faster.

When we were not racing, Colin and I sat by the ringside with one of my not running dog to let them get used to the very noisy environment, Saturn and Sizzle were very good boys. They were busy turning their heads on the racing dogs but after a while they just calmed down. Also, we were watching so many little dogs racing and they can't do a single stride, so that actually made me feel better with Sizzle.

I tried to include every dog in the video:

hehehe ... how can I forget to mention The Whizzers came 3rd in our division!!!

well done everyone and dogs!!

Flyball training

I really enjoyed the flyball training today with Sizzle. The Team is doing so well and we have more than 20 dogs in the beginners class! The class was supposed to last for an hour but for the last four weeks we never finish on time, and the next class has 50 minutes wait! So they've got a new idea this week ... to split all of us into 4 different groups to learn four different things.

Every group has approximately 15 minutes to learn a thing, then we got to swap around. It was great fun but I find it a little tiring for me as we were in the smallest group, so this means we are running all the time!

The first task for us is the BOX WORK, this is to teach the dog to do a swimmer's turn. First of all, we need to find out which way the dog turns. I know Sizzle is a right handed like Sing. Luckily Sizzle is perfect going AROUND an object, so I just handled him gently over the box (from left to right) and asked him to go round and he did the box work nicely. On the second go, he was so excited that he went on top of the box and somehow trigger it and the box pop, so the third time he became a coward! I'd like to take him back for another go, unfortunatley the time ran out but I am sure we will manage that next week.

Our second task was to teach the dog how to STRIDE. I think this is easy for a bigger dog. The longer the legs, the easier to do one stride. They put 8 jumps up instead of 4, I guess the reason is to get the dog to stride in momentum. The other three dogs in our group has no problem striding but Sizzle still have a messy stride, double, double, double, single ... or double, single, single, double ...

We then moved on to STATIC RETRIEVE. Since all the dogs that come to join the flyball team, they must have at least like a ball, so retrieving a ball is not a problem but it is good to make sure they all can retrieve a static ball.

The last one was RECALL/RUN BACK. We have been doing this since day 1 so there is not a problem at all but today we are learning to get the dog to chase us and to reward the dog at the end.

Here is our training video:

Sing has a good practise session for tomorrow's indoor tournament. More news tomorrow.

Bus riding

Last Firday I took Sizzle on the bus to Tooting to pick up my car from the garage. I have taken all my dogs on public transports when they were young but have not done it with Sizzle, so this was a good opportunity.

I am not a public transport user so I was a bit worried that if the bus would happily allow me and the dog on board. We need to change two buses to get to Tooting, so from our house to Mitcham Town Centre was no problem at all. We were riding on the upper deck so Sizzle gets to see the "outside" world on the higer level. He seems confident and not worried about the ride at all.

Unfortunately we had a little problem when get to Mitcham to change another bus to Tooting. Since I had an easy ride earlier, so I was expecting all buses take dogs but this particular bus to Tooting refused to take us without explaination! As I have a foot on the bus and the bus driver slam the door and I've got my foot caught in it and thank God it didn't hurt Sizzle as I was carrying him. I was furious! I do not mind if he told me politely that he wouldn't take dog but slamming the door on me without a reason is not exceptable!

Luckily another bus coming along and happily allowed us on board.

Sizzle is waiting for the bus at the bus stop

Sizzle's first bus ride

I don't want a 2x2 but I want a 4x4!

I decided I will go to Pachesham yesterday for our weekly club training. Tuesday (Sizzle's puppy class) was cancelled due to the heavy snow. A few friends called me crazy as they think it is dangerous to drive in the black icy road. I know the coucil has put down a lot of salt grid (we heard from the radio that some part/area have ran out of grid!!) on the main road and I have been driving Colin to the Station everyday and we need to get on with life. We can't be put off by the snow!

We had rain yesterday, so mostly it was sloshy all the way to Pachesham. The countryside was so beautiful, all cover in white UNTOUCH snow. When I arrived, I was actually felt a bit regretted as the road was icy, sloshy, muddy ... the worst thing was my car got stuck in the middle of the parking place! I can't get the car to move at all, that really made me grumpy!

Luckily David (one of the new dog handler) came with a 4wd, he was very kind to tow me out but I lost my enthusiasim towards agility, so I handled Saturn very badly.

We did some jumping sequence with a A Frame stuck in between. We also did some difficult weave entries. Basically, Saturn was working in a nice speed but I lost him a few times as I was not concentrate. The major problem we have is still the A Frame. The first time, he actually CRAWL down the down plank; the second time, he came from a speedy jumping sequence and up the A Frame and that time, he was fast and nearly lost control (I think!) but he managed to put his two back legs on the plank; and after that, he started to go slow on the down plank again! Arggggghhhhhhh......

Maybe I should be thinking to run the A Frame with him? All ideas welcome please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After our training, I wanted to take the dogs to Oxshott Common, our usual dog walking place after training but I was so scared to get stuck in the car park as I know I will never get help from there! I then started to drive around the area to find a better car parking place, unfortunately Oxshott is a well countryside, so most of the roads are still covering in snow!

We managed to stop at Esher Common for a good walk. I wanted to take some photos in Pachesham but I was too worried and grumpy and I forgot all about it. They have a lovely wood where I walk the dogs before taking them to class. It was still covered in a very thick snow and most of the snow were untouch, so pretty.

Here are a few more snowy photos from the boys:

Saturn is a real photogenic in the snow, he always look so handsome and pose nicely

unfortunately his coat still hasn't come back, he looks very ugly underneath. Poor boy! I feed him sardine in sunflower oil (high in Omega) in the morning and yumega in the evening for the last one month and I have not see any improvement!! I am getting very upset about it now!

with the deep snow we have, it is a good chance to practise "find it". Sing and Sizzle love this "find it" game. Sing only wants to find his tennis ball where Sizzle likes to find a stick!

happy pair!

again, minus Seagull who still refuse to come out!

We didn't get to go to dogggie swim yesterday, Greyfriars called me on Wednesday to ask if I have a 4wd or else I better stay at home as they have even deeper snow! They told me some stuff were trying to learn skiing!!! Greyfriars was located in a valley, you need to drive down this narrow hilly private country road to get into them, so I assume they are try to ski down to work! Ah! I miss skiing. I haven't been skiing for 3 years now!

more snow photos!

Sorry guys, you have to bare with me (at least until all the snow is melting away) as I just can't get enough with the snow photos of the dogs!

This is cute little Sizzle playing fetch in the snow

Sing said: my teeth are as white as snow!

I didn't get many photos of Sing standing still this time as he is so crazy about snow. The most obedient dog has become the most disobedient dog!

we went to the hilly part of Mitcham Common today and we saw at least 6 big snow balls, here is my little man posing for a lovely photo. Do you think this is a good photo for making calender?

all the boys minus Seagull as I can't get him out of the house today!! He just wouldn't move and I hate dragging my dog.

looking lovely as a pair

this photo was taken yesterday, Seagull decided he wants a lie down after an hour's walk!

I find it very hard to take a good photo of Skye, his cold blue eye always makes him looks so sad

We are terrible!!

winter wonderland

We were building a snowman last evening, it was great fun. Since we have plenty of snow, we decided we want a decent size snowman. Here is Sizzle checking him out this morning.

It look like we are terrible in handling this heavy snow! Yesterday, thousand of schools has to close due to the heavy snow falls and the worst bit was MOST public transports were either cancelled or delayed. Colin didn't manage to go to work yesterday at all due to NO public transport from where we are to Central London. We were watching the news almost every hour and we saw those bus drivers on the TV playing snow ball fight! Aren't they suppose to drive instead of play?

Colin insisted that he MUST go into the office today no matter how, so I being braved and drove him to the Tube station this morning. Luckily I always park my "dog car" at the "outside" bit (closer to the road) of the driveway, I thought if we can scrap all the snow off the car, I should be able to drive the car onto the road easily. GOSH! It took us at least 20 minuites to clear all the windows! I drove very slowly and carefully and thank God there weren't many cars this morning.

After dropping Colin at the Station, I turned around and came home. Guess what? I was unable to roll the car back to the driveway, reason being, the snow is too thick! I have to dangerously leave the stuck car half in the drive and half on the road and quickly ran to the back of the garden to find a shovel. I didn't know it took a lot of effort and energy to clear the small part of the drive! I tried my best to clear as much as needed as I hate to leave the car in such a dangerous position and causing disruption. This shows you how inexperience I am when comes to handling the snow condition!

Some schools are still close today but when I rang my local dentists, they are all shut! I can't believe that doctors/dentists are allow to close? I am having this terrible toothache since Friday and determine to see a dentist to sort it out but it look like I will be continue suffering and moaning until the snow is clear!

BTW, I haven't seen our postman for two days!!

We had a little bit more snow this morning but the sun came out at 8am so I decided to take the boys out for another long walk. As it is much warmer than yesterday and the powdery snow becomes more solid and icy, the dogs will walk better on this condition than yesterday but Sizzle is the only one that having snow balls stuck on him, he must have such a fine coat!

some photos taken today:

I maybe bias but I really think he is a very handsome boy

Saturn always looks so handsome in the snow too

Sing, Saturn and Sizzle loves the snow the best, they like to run around in the garden and would not want to come in! Saturn likes catching the snow balls and eat them. I just like the big paws!

SNOW, at last!

We have snow! Lots of snow! Plenty of Snow!

It was very cold since Friday, the weather forecast said the wind is coming from Siberian and we will be expecting some snow either this weekend or early next week. The snow finally arrived last evening. I don't know what time it started snowing but we got home from visiting Daisy and her puppies about 6:15pm and it was still clear.

We were having dinner about 7:30pm and I was looking into the garden and saw some white stuff, I can't be sure it was snow as we always predict snow and we kept missing out, I do not want to put up my hope as you all know how much I enjoy snowing.

I have to go into the garden to investigate and making sure it is SNOWING! All the boys ran into the garden and chase around, then the snow was only about an inch deep.

Later around 9pm, I let the dogs out again for their bedtime toilet, the snow was heavier, I stick a measurement stick in to check the dept, it showed 2". Sing, Saturn and Sizzle were crazy tearing around in the garden and wouldn't want to come in at all.

We went to bed early as Colin needs to get to work on Monday, so by the time we woke up this morning at 6:30am, I pulled the curtain and to find out all the window is covering in snow! Blimey! I then took all the dogs out to the garden for their morning routine. Once I open the back door, I saw some snow coming in, it turned out that the snow is higher than the door!!! I quickly find the measurement tape to stick in the ground, it showed 5". I was so excited but I can see little Sizzle struggled to go to toilet!

Poor little boy is only about 12" tall and the snow is deep enough to cover all his legs! He actually CRAWL from the patio into the garden, when he saw Sing and Saturn ran down the garden and he decided he wants to join them so he did this little bunny jump, he is so cute!! Then, the big issue occured! He can't cock his leg to wee!!! When he lifted his leg, his underneath is still in the snow but he did try to wee though. The worst one is he cannot poo! I saw him trying so hard to find a spot to squad down and he was hoping from one spot to another but I can't tell if he managed to poo!

The news said this is the heaviest snow for 18 years. All public transports are not working today! I am not brave enough to drive Colin to the Station this morning and I have somehow persuaded him to work from home. He didn't quite agree with me but he suggested we take the boys out to the Common this morning and maybe go in to work a bit later. By 8am, the snow has increased up to 8" in our front garden, that is just amazing!!!

The boys, especially Sing and Saturn crazy about snow, Saturn kept digging into snow, I don't know what was he looking for but his face was covered in snow that made him looks so cute and handsome! Sing just kept teasing other dogs to play with him and he torn around like a lunatic! I have tried to take photos of him but they came out blurry, so no good for posting!

Saturn is crazy about snow ball, he likes to jump up and catch the snow ball I threw and here is the very cute photo of him! I like his BIG paw!!

another very cute photo of Saturn racing in the snow!

another one of happy Saturn with the two little evil one at background

Seagull was reacting very funny, he loves to go out but today, we need to drag him out from the house!!

these two smaller dogs really struggled walking in the Common, I don't know how deep is the snow but Sizzle and Seagull were the worst, they can hardly walk and their fur were stuck with lots of snow ball!!!!

you can see in this picture that poor little Sizzle is cover in snow balls!!! he looks rather cute but I think the snow balls actually putting him off

my little handsome chap

I also brought my sledge along, so we have some fun sledging with the dogs!!

At the time of posting, it is still snowing outside. I am very happy but Colin is getting worried that he may not be able to go to work again tomorrow, he is a real workaholic! Emmmm ... if this snow is not stopping, we may ended up 12" later!!! WOW! Fantastic!!! I better charged up camera to go hunting for more photos later!!!

Colin, the Shelties rescuer!

I nearly forgot to post this photo! Sizzle and Seagull were struggling to walk due to the snow balls built up on their fur. Seagull is a sissy, so he just hated wet and snow; as for Sizzle, some snow balls were so big and heavy, he just couldn't walk any further so their daddy has to go and rescue them!