Bonnie Scotland - first stop ... KOF

I think I better start catching up with all our news ...

We left for Scotland on Thursday, 4th of August, evening. We stopped at Preston to sleep over before continue the long journey. As we were towing the caravan this time, so the rest was good enough for me. I slept in the caravan with my four boys whilst Colin slept in the car with his three. We both have each duty to guard the caravan and the car. Hehehe ...

We got to Kingdom Of Fife around mid-day. Nikki was very kind to save me a space so I don't have to rush and still have a good spot near the rings. That's the best thing camping at an Agility show. Since Colin's toe was very bad, asking him to walk the dogs and take the dogs to the rings for me was a difficult task, I have to do all that myself, so having a spot near the rings is like heaven.

BTW, Colin got bitten by an insect before we set off to Scotland and his toe was very sore and painful. He can't even wear shoe/trainer, so for the entire Scotland trip, he was wearing my croc (which he always against it!!!) and hobble around. He even had to go to the A&E in St Andrews on Sunday. That was how bad he was.

The weather was OK on Saturday but rain all day on Sunday. I have entered Sizzle, Sipzie and Saturn at KOF. Each dog has three classes a day. Saturn was a little naughty on Saturday, didn't get any clear rounds but e'd in all classes. He won his G6 Jumping on Sunday and had a couple of placings in other classes. The two black ones did very well.

Sipzie got 4 x 1st at KOF. Two on Saturday and two on Sunday. I missed walking her first class, which is the Combined 1-4 Agility. I nearly miss her run too. I wasn't aware that the class was on and until I heard from the tannoy that they are closing the class, so I had to rush over and tell them not to close the class. I got to watch two dogs to run the class (luckily they are clear) before Sipzie and me are in.

I wasn't expecting to run clear with Sipzie as we still have issue on the weave and Dog Walk contact and training is in progress. It could be the Scottish air, she ran her heart out, eventhough it wasn't the smoothest, but she did her weave and just got her DW contact, WooHoo! A CLEAR round and she had the fastest time too. She won the class by over 9 seconds! I was very happy. Then, she went on to win the Combined 1-4 Jumping by another great margin. She must be on fire at the show, she went on to win two more classes on Sunday in the rain, also by a very good margin! The two that she didn't win were the one that she got eliminated.

 Sipzie @ KOF, Saturday - Combined 1-4 Agility:

Sipzie @ KOF, Saturday - Combined 1-4 Jumping:

 

Sipzie @ KOF, Saturday - Graded 1-4 Agility (eliminated): 

 There are no videos on Sunday due to heavy rain.

Sizzle was a little star at KOF. Normally, if I've entered him in the Champ, I will not enter any other normal classes. Many times, we got eliminated in the first round and we didn't get to do many runs. This time, I decided I will enter him in the Champ as well as the normal classes. Poor Sizzle has to work extra hard. Our first class on Saturday was the Graded 5-7 Agility. I was hoping to take the opportunity to practice his contacts, especially on the See-Saw. Guess what? He missed the DW and SS and we went horribly wrong in the entire course! I got nervous about our Champ Agility already but he ran so well in the Champ Agility and won it by 2 seconds. Now, I need to do is to run clear in the Champ Jumping to get into the Final. I forgot how to stop to give him a rest so I ran him in another normal class, Combined 5-7 Agility, again, he missed his DW and SS! Soon after that, we ran the Champ Jumping. We were ok but so close to get eliminated but I managed to save it and that cost us a big time lost! We were 2nd from last to run in the Final. Sizzle was very tired after 4 runs. The Final wasn't that far away and he was dead tired when the Final was on. I had to drag him out and he wasn't looking very happy, not when it rain as well. Unfortunately, when he was on the startline, the rain was getting persistent too. I knew I wanted to win it but I am also worried about the slippery contacts, so I play safe. We ran clear and I was too nervous to watch the last dog run. We were beaten by the little schnauzer and Sizzle got his Reserve CC. I am so proud of my little man!

Sizzle @ KOF, Saturday - Champ Agility:

 

Sizzle @ KOF, Saturday - Champ Jumping:

 

Sizzle @ KOF, Saturday - Champ Final: 

After what we had achieved, I didn't run him on Sunday, he well deserve a rest!

this is my proud little man showing off his RCC certificate, rosette and trophy

to be continued ...

we are HOME

We got home from Bonnie Scotland on Monday afternoon. Unfortunately, towards the end of our holiday, I began to feel unwell. Maybe too much sun (did you hear me complain?)! Oh yes! Sun and me don't add up. Colin got me out on week 2 twice to sun bathing on the beach with him. He obviously enjoyed it and I actually suffered from the "sun". The first time, I had a terrible migraine and the second time, I fell really poorly. It didn't help me at all as we were packing up to leave to Dundee. When I got to Dundee on Friday, I was very sick. The venue is not great for me. The ground is uneven and sloppy. We were camp on the slight hill and it definitely didn't help me at all. I lost my balance and fell over a couple of times. I didn't even have the energy to worry about running as I couldn't possibly imagine I could stand upright ... more about that later.

see what I've got? All flying ears shelties! Hahaha ...

Dogs were loving their holiday, its paradise to them. Did they miss their home comfort? I don't think so! They rather run and run around in the forest and down to the beach ... more about that later!

Happy 2nd Birthday to daddy's girls

daddy Sing and mama Samber sends licks xxx

Holiday countdown!

I am so excited and cannot wait ... we are off to Scotland on holiday! WooHoo! The long journey will begin on Thursday evening. We are towing our little caravan with all the dogs, we are hoping to do half way, if possible, then stop for the night and continue again on Friday morning.

Our first stop is Kingdom of Fife Agility Show; then on Sunday afternoon, we will move on to a campsite in Nairn. We will spend a week at the beautiful beach, Colin wanted to swim everyday and hopefully we will get Sonic to follow his daddy's step. I am sure water baby Scara will enjoy the beach. Then, after that, we will move on to Ben Nevis for a week. Hmmm ... Colin wanted to climb Ben Nevis, I think I better off stay at the bottom and wait for him. I don't fancy climbing mountain! I promised to take some good photos. On the way back, we will stop by at Dundee Agility Show. I guess with a walking holiday planned, I will be shattered before Dundee.

We always wanted to go holiday in Scotland but there is always something stopping us. The agility gets in the way; my brother was ill, so I had to travel a few times between China and Malaysia in 6 months; then we had puppies ... BUT we determined to put everything aside this year and WE WANT TO GO TO SCOTLAND.

We have been planning this holiday since January, we looked up for cottages but none of them will take ALL our dogs. Most places only accept two dogs and maximum three dogs. We found a place that will take all the dogs but they have to sleep in the cellar. WHAT? Excuse me? NO WAY I will leave my dogs in the cellar. You must be kidding! After so many unsuccessful attempts in finding cottages, we thought of hiring a motorhome to tour around. Goodness me, how much is to hire a motorhome for 2 weeks? £2000-£3000! That is an expensive holiday! That's not including the petrol yet! At one point, we thought we will give up.

Colin did suggested we take our caravan but I was too nervous to tow the long way! Anyway, I knew if we want our Scottish holiday, the only way is to take our caravan and GO. Luckily we found two lovely campsites that takes all our dogs, hopefully we will have a lovely holiday.

 This picture was taken at St Andrews last year when we went to KOF

 This picture was taken last year when we stop at Castle Douglas for a long walk

It's always good to see the dogs enjoyed their walk

Sonic is a good traveller, he will be 20 weeks old when we go to Scotland. Oh, how time flies! Scara is turning into 26 weeks and still a bad traveller, hopefully this long journey will break her car sickness. Titan was like her before and our Snowdonia holiday broke his car sick! I haven't done much with the puppies recently. The weather is too hot to go outside. I managed to teach the pups "ladder work" on Sunday. Sonic took it in straightaway but Scara took longer. She is not happy with it! This video was taken this morning, this is the second time the pups on the ladder work:

 

 

 

Interactive toys

I thought I will make a post on our Interactive toys. Mack & Murphy asked which is the pups' favourite.

Well, I don't think there should be a "favourite". My personal opinion on the interactive toy is to get the dog's mind busy. The dog has to work out how to get the treats out, this is why I ended up with so many different type of interactive toys (... and more coming). There are different levels of difficulty, so I always give the dog a different one so they have to "work" everytime. Sometimes, the easy level is not necessary the easiest one for the dog; each dog has their own way to work the toy. In my pack, Saturn is the most intelligent one to work out all the toys. Personally, I think these three toys (picture below) are the hardest, as NOT ALL treats will come out if the dog used the nose to poke it or roll it, especially the little blue one. Saturn and Sonic are the only two that work out they have to pick it up and toss it to get the treats out. I called that CLEVER :) As for the purple one (as well as the bamboo one), the dog has to shake it! Oh, I love watching them working these out. So, not all puppies are time waster but older dogs too! And YES, you can teach an old dog new trick!

I found in my pack, the boys work it out very quickly each one of them, they will not take longer than 5 minutes to work all the treats out from each one of them. The girls took longer and they get frustrated too. I even found Scara sitting there staring at the toy and refused to work.