Seagull update and Happy Birthday

Seagull update:

Seagull is looking less painful, happy & jolly for the last couple of days but I still keeping him in the crate most of the time. He is trying hard to bounce around when he gets the chance but my Vet said if he continues doing that, he has be on the lead when he gets out the crate, poor soul!

Since the crack is on the awkard place in the shoulder joint, there is no easy way to put the bandage on to keep it straight before the operation. The Vet and Osteopath agreed that they needed to get some bones from somewhere to fill the crack so he needs another X Ray on Monday morning to see if there is any changes in the shoulder joint.

This is 3 legged Seagull, he still have one of his leg up every now and then

but I can see he started to put some pressure on the leg sometimes.

I know Zen's babies are a year old today, so Happy Birthday to Kizzy, Zoe, Whizz, Oz and sadly missed Zeus.

Today is also the 2nd birthday of my share dog, Starry. I have him with me for a while, unfortunately I have to send him back to stay with his mother and sister due to his epilepsy fits.

Happy 2nd Birthday to Starry (right) and sister Daisy

The Birthday boy and girl with their mum, Tilly (centre)

POOR bad SEAGULL!

Poor BAD Seagull has been very naughty lately ... ever since we castrated him, he becomes extremely greedy and this greediness nearly cause him his life! The door handle to my office door has broken for a while and I could not get a replacement, so the door is always shutting with a small gap and not tight. Last week, Seagull started to sneak into my office in the middle of the night when were in deep sleep, TO STEAL FOOD left on my work table, sometimes he could get out but most of the time he was totally shut and need to be released when we came down in the morning, just a few days ago, he ate a full box of Lindlt chocolate that Colin brought back to me when he was away to Switzerland, that gave him a bad stomach for a few days.

On Monday night, he struck again! This time, there were no food on my table (I have learned not to leave any eatable thing on my work table) but when I opened the door in the morning, rather than zooming pass me like he did before, he just sat there starring at me, when I went closer to him, he started to yelp, I was shocked to his reaction and put my hand on his collar, that really made him screamed non-stop for 5 minutes, he nearly wake all the neirghbours!! I could not see what happened as the closer I get, the louder he gets.

At the end, I have to leave him and walk away, as I walked into the kitchen, I saw him following me but limping, he had his left front leg hanging. I let him calm down before checking him but everytime I touch him, no matter which part of his body, he just would not stop screaming. As he is a very nervous dog, so I thought he must have somehow hurt himself and have a bruise and being very scared. I put him away in the crate to separate him from the others and hope it will heel up after a good rest.

This morning, I checked on him to see if he has improved but I didn't see a good sign, so I took him to see my Vet. I have to leave him there for an X Ray and Kevin just rang to tell me the bad news that I don't want to know. Yes, he has a crack on his shoulder joint cup and need an operation. I asked Kevin what can possibly caused the problem and he told me it could be Seagull tried to jump off the table (either onto my chair) and twisted his leg and landed badly! He is getting a second opinion from the Wimbledon Vet, so the earliest operation would be next week, for time being, he needs to be kept very quiet and no movement.

I am very upset, I do not think this will ever happen to Seagull as he is such a lazy, quiet, slow dog eventhough he is only 4! I am trying to think has he ever been injured and we were not aware of. I always complain that he is very slow when we go out walking and there is no way you can speed him up.

My poor Seagull

4:23pm - Poor Seagull is home now, he still drowsy after the anaesthetic

We are hoping for a better news from the Oteopath in Wimbledon on Friday.

addicted to Photoshop!!

I think I am addicted to Photoshop!! I slowly get the hang of using all the tools and really enjoy editing the photos. I have realised if I want to create something like this, I need a good vision, steady hand and a good mouse!! As I am getting older and clumsier each day, it is not going to help to create more of this. I am looking for a Photoshop course which I can go and learn more about it in the winter months!!

signature with Photoshop Elements

In the new AgilityNet forum, I saw a lot of the members has their own "signature" and I was very impressed by all the photos and creations and wish to create one (or more) for myself. I think I must be getting very old and sturggled to keep up with the new technology. I have a Photoshop Elements but I have been spending a couple of hours a day for the last few days trying to create a signature ... and of course I could not move the picture to the position I want! And I don't know what I did tonight and suddenly it works! So, this is my first attempt, hopefully I get to create more and better quality.

Sing joins the BE AN ELEPHANT group

We all going "elephant" crazy here ... Johanna created this BE AN ELEPHANT Blog that drives all of us nuts! Everyone (well, I mean dog) wants to be an Elephant now!

I remembered when I took Skye to train with Bernadette last winter at Sue's sand school, she taught us to teach the dogs to use their back legs so this circus elephant trick has been going on in my mind for a while. I thought I have taught all my dogs to do this, unfortunately NOT! So, I started to teach Sing to be an elephant, it took me 10 minutes BUT it is long enough to make me feel dizzy either by luring him to go around the circle or seeing him go around the circle. This video clip below was taken this afternoon:

a very long walk ... from Leith Hill to Friday Street

We were planning for the Friday Street walk since last year but we just couldn't find the right time to do the walk until yesterday. We were back from Monmouth on Sunday after nearly 5 hours drive, absolutely exhausted but I was up early yesterday to get things ready for this long walk.

We planned to park the car at Leith Hill Landslip carpark and walk to Friday Street. When we got to the carpark and let Sing out, he was "amazed" to find out we are not at any show. Poor soul, we have been missing out a lot of good long walks this year!

I like to take the dogs for a long walk in the country side especially in Autumn, I think it looks so beautiful to see all the leaves falling and the grounds are covered in brown leaves.

The walk wasn't quite successful, Colin misplaced his GPS and we couldn't locate it anywhere and decided to go without it. We walked miles and miles, hours and hours and still cannot find the path to Friday Street and this walk was very hilly, so up and down, very tiring but the dogs enjoyed their walk and I was enjoying the fallen leaves ... and of course after 3 hours walk and we still cannot find the way to Friday Street and I decided to turn back and luckily I did because when we got home, Colin checked on the map and realised we were nowhere near Friday Street because we took the wrong turning and we could ended up in somewhere.

So, NO Friday Street, NO pub lunch, NO cream tea ... when we got back to the carpark, I was starving, Colin suggested we could find somewhere in Dorking for cream tea but to our surprised, we could not find anywhere for anything to eat!! Since we were on A217, we dropped in at Tesco's cafe for a Lamb Shank!

The boys at Leith Hill

Sing was after the squirrel!!

After a long walk, Saturn decided to have a chew and
Seagull thought Colin's legs made a comfy pillow!

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and this is Sing's runs at Caerphilly weekend together

with his team mates in the Team Dash, I am sorry but I don't know what are the pet names for Katarina and Daniel's dogs:

Caerphilly Weekend

This was my first time going to Wales to compete in Agility and I had an enjoyable wonderful weekend. Eventhough Colin was very ill and spent the whole weekend sleeping but it was good to have him as a company and he tried all his might to film the dogs while we were running. He is a good husband eventhough his filming was poor!

The venue was lovely, I've never camp so close to a town centre before, there is a bridge joining the campsite over to the town centre and we have our own beach so Sing was in the water when he was not running! We went to a local Chinese restaurant for a meal on Saturday after all the runs and it was lovely to walk across the bridge to explore the beautiful town at dusk.

I like the view of the hills and the houses,

I spent most of the time enjoyed the scenary than the agility courses!!

This is the bridge joining the camp site and the town centre

the boys enjoying themselves at the beach and Sing loves swimming!

I think we did pretty well over the weekend, both Sing and Saturn came back with some 2nds. The Saturday started off nicely with Sing got a 8th in the Combined 4-7 Agility. I like the course as it needs a lot of handling and I was worried for a while as Sing has not seen a WALL before! I was wondering how should I tell him to jump over the wall, it wasn't a straight line, it was a pull through so he might have not pick up the speed to jump over it but he was good boy and when I told him to JUMP, he doesn't seems to bother by the existing of the wall and after the wall it is a split jump then into the Dog Walk ... we went clear and was surprised to get a place (there were 60 dogs in that class).

I was admiring the Dragon Trophy when they gave out the first lots of prize giving and I wanted to do well to get one. They only give the Dragon Trophy to the 1st in Medium classes and I was hoping Sing will win the graded agility and bring me one of those lovely trophy. Unfortunately, Sing only got a 2nd in the Graded 4-7 Jumping and another 2nd in the Graded 1-4 Agility, so NO Dragon Trophy from Sing!

Generally speaking, I think the courses in Caerphilly show were better, not a straight forward up and down courses, all of the classes I've been running need some handling and I was very happy how Saturn performed. He was a real good boy. He got a 2nd in the Graded 1-3 Jumping, behind Natasha Wise's super turbo Dizzy and he was 3 seconds ahead of the 3rd, so he wasn't slow. At the presentation, I was chuffed to receive the Dragon Trophy with my rosette. They were quite a high entry at Grade 3 Jumping so they gave the trophy up to the 2nd place in that class. I only ran Saturn in all Jumping classes, he was keeping his speed but got e'd in 1-7 Jumping and 1-5 Jumping.

This is the BEST trophy ever!

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention the Team Dash, Sing and Saturn were both in two different teams, Sing was with Joyce & Star, Katarina & her Terrier and Daniel & his Whipet. Beside the Whippet got faults on the weave entry, all the other three members went clear.

We have Lorna & Cadbury, Janet & Sally and Sue & Bug in Saturn's team. Both Saturn & Cads went clear.

We definitely had a great weekend! It took us nearly 5 hours to get home last night and we were out walking for miles and miles and hours and hours today ... will tell you more in my next coming blog.

Enjoy the video clips of Saturn and his team-mates, Sing will be followed later:

Stour Valley

Both Colin and I are still under the weather, so we have to cancel our Pembrokeshire trip, so we went to Stour Valley yesterday. It was a very nice show, all the Stour Valley members were friendly and the venue is just right. Saturn was a very good boy, he got a 2nd in the Grade 1-3 Jumping, not far behind the winner, if my handling were smoother, I think we can beat the half a second. There are a lots of room for improvement for my poor handling and that will be my winter project.

Sing wasn't himself yesterday, he was very slow after a long walk at Richmond Park and 45 minutes swim on Saturday and he missed his Dog Walk!! I put it down to we haven't practice for the last three weeks because of me being poorly, hopefully he will be better at Caerphilly.

I just loved this photo of Saturn taken at Stour Valley

and here is the 1-3 Jumping video clip:

At the end of the day, there was a pay on the day class, I was running Skye for the first time, he was a good boy, I didn't expect we have a clear round but I wanted to do some training with him at the open show, so that was a good chance. He was good at the contacts and the jumping but when come around the weave entry, he thought Carlos is so handsome and he just wanted to go and say hello to him, once I got him concentrate, he weave in his own way, didn't put a foot wrong. I need to find more show to take him in for more experience.

Here, we have a video clip of Ann running Titan, usually Ryan is the one that handle this little miscchievious but he wasn't there yesterday so Ann could have a go. As Ann has never work him before so it would be interesting to see:

Shelties are the BEST!

Shelties are the BEST

I have all my nephews staying with me now eventhough the second nephew is study in the University of Kent but will come back to me over the weekends when I don't go to show. All the boys are very good with animals, gentle and kind and all my shelties take on to them with no problem at all. Seagull may take longer than the others but he is now think they are the best of friends to him! Ling (picture below) is my eldest nephew's girl friend who study in the City University. She resides in the University Hall in London during the week and comes back during the weekends, she was very frightened of any dogs before she comes to England. I remembered once when we were back home visiting and we went on holidays together, she was petrified by all the strays dogs and wouldn't move at all. Somehow she was worried sick before coming to England, she knew she is going to stay with me for a while but she can't possibly imagine living with five dogs! I reassure her hundred of times that my shelties are the best, they would not bite her but will lick her to death!! When she arrived a month ago, I was getting worry, I wasn't sure how she is going to react and how my dogs are going to react. I knew if you show your nerve and the dogs will show their nerve and that can turn worst. I was so glad when they got home, the dogs just took on my command to stay calm until she settled and I introduced them one by one and since then, she is great with them and they are great with her!!

The picture above shows Ling is absolutely adore the boys!

I was very ill for the last couple of weeks, down with terrible cold and flu. I was constantly coughing, choking and vomiting for one whole week and I spent most of the time in bed moaning! The dogs were very unahppy that I could not take them out for their usual walk but they were very good, they lie in bed with me to keep me warm and company, Shelties are the best!

Saturday was my sister in law Kyung Yeon's birthday, so we thought we could get together and have a nice walk in Richmond Park. She was also frightened of dogs before we met her, again, my shelties have melted her heart and she loves them to bits and wanted a dog of her own, unfortunately she and Russell has a full time job, raising a dog is not the best of time, just yet. I hope, one day they will have one (a sheltie?) to make them happy just like my boys did to all of us.

a group photo at Richmond Park

The dogs enjoyed themselves very much, after all summer long agility, this is a treat to them. No one can stop Sing from swimming in the freezing cold water as usual. He really enjoyed being in the water. For the first time, I finally got Saturn to swim in the open water (he only swims in the pool), I was really proud of him!

Shelties are the best! There were so many deers in Richmond Park but once I command them to STAY and they just stood there wathing the deers rather than chasing them.

a GOOD way to end the agility season

I started with a very rough week last week. I must have somehow caught a bad cold early of the week because when I went to train at Bernadette on Wednesday, I was puffing and panting running around the course. I don't think I was normally that bad but I can feel a temperature after the training. I was in bed all day on Thursday and have to miss my club training. I was wondering should I miss the Suffolk 5 Rivers show too! But, Saturn is going to pair with Leo for the first time and I do not like to let people down, so I have to pull myself together and set off on Friday to Suffolk.

Suffolk Showground is a lovely showground, I am definitely back next year. I saw there were many hook up points but I wasn't sure if we are allow to use it but we were happy with our battery for the weekend. The Showground is massive, there is always plenty of space to walk your dogs and there are a couple of fence up bits where they have some wild animals live in there. We went to explore and enjoyed the quiet beautiful place. The Suffolk 5 Rivers members are very friendly too, overall, a lovely friendly show.

I wasn't 100% fit, I felt rough especially in the morning, I was coughing, choking, craoky ... and poor Saturn was so confused when he heard my croaky voice. He was a good boy, he tried so hard but I was short of breath to catch up with him and he could not understand my croaky voice and he looked all confused!! He has a couple of clear round in Jumping but not fast enough to beat the Collies!

Suffolk 5 Rivers show is the first show that I have to run Sing and Saturn in different classes. Saturn's classes were in the morning and Sing's were in the afternoon, normally after lunch. When I took Saturn out, Sing has to be locked in the caravan with the others, so I wonder that actually help power him up (jealousy!!). Everytime, when Colin and I took Saturn out, I can hear him crying (very sad crying ... it actually broke my heart everytime I hear it).

Now, some good news ... Sing won out of Grade 4 by 7 seconds on Saturday! He was a real star this weekend, he also got a 2nd in Jumping. He continues to shine on Sunday, YES, he won the Jumping class. I was thrilled with his double win!! I was a bit upset about the Agiltiy on Sunday, it was another course that need a lots of handling and I knew we can win the class provided Sing will not leap off the Dog Walk. It wasn't a starightline after the Dog Walk, it was a sharp right turn which I have to be on the other side of the jump to switch 2 times. I pulled away too fast and too far and Sing ping the Dog Walk and we got fault on that! Beside this only fault, he was 10 seconds faster than the winner!! I am very pleased with my Sing, I set a target beginning of this year to make him a Grade 5 dog by the end of the year and it fulfilled. Isn't this is the GOOD way to end the agility season?

After this weekend, I need to work hard with Sing on Dog Walk turning left and right; and I also need to learn how to TRUST Saturn. My winter project!

Sorry, there is no video of the winning moment, Sing still run out to his daddy all the time and Colin would not want to risk it BUT I captured a very tired Sing after his run of the day!! This poor tired boy deserved a good sleep, I need to give up my bed for him. I have to sleep on the floor with the others!!

I am very glad to meet up with Linda and her three lovely shelties. Linda pop in with her hubby and shelties to keep us company. Isn't it nice to have friends around when you camp alone?

The handsome pair, Leo and Saturn. They have a similar face.

This is the beautiful merlie girlie Flowie

Leo is a football mad

This is Leo's circus trick

and this is Oscar

Crazy MAD House and Bromsgrove

Last week was a crazy week, my eldest nephew arrived from Malaysia with his girlfriend on Tuesday evening. I went to Heathrow to pick them up, they were landed around 5:30pm but didn't get through the custom until 8:30pm!! I then have to drive through Central London to drop the youngest nephew in Chiswick then drove into Liverpool Street to pick up Colin, by the time we got home, it was nearly 11pm!! The week passed by in blur as I have to help sorting the kids' universities ... etc.

We had a disaster starts on Friday going to Bromsgrove. First, the caravan jockey wheel played up, the caravan was hitting the ground hard and luckily I have a strong nephew to help lifting the caravan so we can hitch on the tow ball. When we were somewhere around M40, I've realised the lights weren't working properly so we pulled into the nearest service station and when I looked at what happened, I nearly fainted. Yes, the electric cable was drag on the Motorway and it has worn out, so we need to call the AA to come to rescue! Well, they didn't turn up until 2 hours later and took an hour to fix the problem.

By the time we got down to Bromsgrove, it was nearly 5pm (we aim to get there by 1pm)!! It was a lovely show, the only downside is the exercise area, the field is full of thistle!!

Bromsgrove was Sing's first Grade 4 show, he did pretty well to start his Grade 4 career, he got a 2nd in the Combined 1-4 Agility and another 2nd in the Combined 1-4 Jumping. He wasn't far behind the winner.

Saturn was a good boy too but my poor handling let him down again and again. He was so close to win 2 classes but we just couldn't get there!!

I need to work HARDER!

This is funny, I never know you will be awarded with a trophy if you are doing well at work but Colin does! Since April, he has brought home 3 trophies!! I need to work harder with the boys to keep up with him!!

Colin is a workaholic, he really work so hard to earn all these trophies!

These are my collection, I need to work harder to keep up with him!!

tracking

We didn't have any show this weekend but we have some exciting fun time! Our friend Jim & Joan are down in Childham caravanning, Jim rang on Saturday to tell us that he lost his Wedding ring in the field and he sounded very upset. We were busy entertaining my sister-in-law's family on Saturday so we could not go to visit them then but we brought our metal detectors on Sunday to help to find the lost ring!!

here is Colin checking the metal detector and Sing wonders what is the game ...

the search begins ... Sing & Saturn could not stop poking their noses in to help their dad

We bought Jim a new fancy metal detector (from Maplin) for his birthday (next Sunday), here Colin shows him how to detect a wedding ring!!

there he goes ... Sing is a very clever dog but he has not been taught to sniff rings!!

Result: CANNOT find the ring in such a big field!!

missing you

I've tried to tidy up my picture folder and found this picture of Scribble, it brought back a lot of tears. Look at the picture, you will know she will made such a brilliant agility dog! Thank you very much to Ann and The Hennessy Family for giving her such a lovely time.

She has gone for a week tomorrow but she will be remembered, always!

Happy Anniversary

Since we didn't go to Letchworth and Colin was on holiday, we took the boys out for some lovely walks for the last three days. Friday was our 6th Anniversary, we took the boys to Modern Hall Park where we got married 6 years ago. The boys enjoyed running around, playing ball and chasing squirrels!

I was very surprised to see the tree trunk is still there after 6 years!

Modern Hall Park is a gigantic park, we walked for hours and hours and the boys enjoyed running around

Colin is Ray Mear's Crazy, he found this lots of Acorn and cooked that for our anniversary lunch, is he a romantic husband? Certainly Not!

We found a lovely Rose Garden, all sort, all colours!!

I just like to climb a tree and the boys always trying hard to follow me up the tree

He is such a handsome merle

this is Sing at Seven Sisters Country Park, being in the sea all day!! He was a happy wet dog!

We didn't get home until 10pm from Brighton on Thursday evening and by the time we got home, all the dogs were straight in the bath, I don't think I like any salty dog on my bed!!

This is Sing looking so fluffy and clean!!

In the evening, we wanted to take the boys to Oaks Park but we were too tired, instead, they have another long walk in Mitcham Common, here is Colin chucking the ball for the boys.

Guess what we have for our anniversary dinner? No candle light dinner ... we ended up in McDonalds having Big Mac Meal!!

Here is the video iof Sing swimming in the sea, he looked so tired, he must have been swam for good half and hour fighting the strong wave!!