-2.5c and walkies

The weather forecast last night was down to -3c/-4c with a deep frost! We woke up to -2.5c this morning and the cars were all covered with deep frost and the Common look so beautiful and the ponds were frozen!

I met up with Jenny and Copine & Lucky for a good walk at Wimbledon Common. I haven't seen Jenny and Copine for ages, so it was really good catching up with each other. I used to look after Copine when Jenny goes away to visit her daughter and son around the world and Copine is just like my own dog. When I got out from the car and walk around the car park, Copine spotted me from far, oh girl, she charged towards me without hesitating. I was very surprised she still remember me and can sense me from a distance!

Lucky is Jenny's daughter Polly's dog. Polly used to work in Singapore and there is where Lucky was born. When Polly and her family moved back to England a couple of years ago, they have to take Lucky with them and poor Lucky was traumatised and nearly lost her life. Now, Polly and her family is working in Zimbawee for few years, they decided Jenny should look after Lucky until they get back to England again.

Lucky is such a sweet little BC, she is small and stalky, not much bigger than Sing!

this is my baby, Copine

these two crazy sheltie and collie!!

they don't care what temperature it is, all they want is to fetch something in the half frozen pond!

at 11am, the ground is still covered in deep frost!

finally ... some update about Seagull

A lot of friends ask me how is Seagull ... well, he still need his 100% cage rest. I started to let him out more on the lead, so his movement is limited. He has been a good boy, he lies on his bed on command and I can see his eyes follow me everytime I move. I feel very sorry for him but I know for his own good, I HAVE to not let him move at all!

I went to Lesley Olden's training day on Sunday and didn't get back till very late in the evening. When I got home, he was so happy to see me and when I let him out of the cage, he rushed to me for a fuss and cuddle. I then took him to the garden for his toilet on the lead and was very surprised to see him limping very badly. I've checked with Colin to make sure he didn't let him run around while I was not around, he promised Seagull was caged all day while I'm out.

I thought he could be cramped inside the cage for too long and decided to wait until the next morning to examine him. He looked fine yesterday morning and afternoon, a little limpy but not bad, then in the evening he started to get bad again. Weird!

I am going to take him to see the Vet tomorrow ... will update more later.

this is poor Seagull sleeping in the soft crate during the night.

I have put the soft crate in our bedroom, so he will not feel left out.

Thank you ESSC Working Section for a fantastic training day with Lesley Olden

Sunday was another busy day for me ... I've booked a place with the ESSC Working Section Agility Training Day with Lesley Olden at Birchwood House Farm in Hampshire. I was supposed to take Sing and Saturn with me, unfortunately Sing isn't look fit on Sunday morning and I decided to take Saturn only. I drove down there nice and early and with my Tom Tom, I didn't get lost!

There were sixteen handlers and we were separated into 2 groups. The first group was for the Beginners and the 2nd group was for the Advanced. Each group has one and half hour session in the morning and one and half hours session in the afternoon. I was very lucky to be in the Advanced group at the same time I was very worried that I may not cope as Saturn was the youngest and lowest grade among the dogs and I don't know if I will be able to handle the advanced technique.

Lesley is a very nice trainer and I was a bit sorry for her to be put up with some noisy shelties, especially those in the Advanced group. I think she needed some paracetamol at the end of the morning session!! lol=)

Lesley encouraged all the handlers to motivate the shelties either with toys or food, for both the Beginners and Advanced, also she said basic is very important and suggested we do some basic every now and then to remind the dogs what they've learned.

In the Beginners group, they were some new handlers, first timers and a 11 year old boy. It was very nice to see how they handle their dog and they also reminded me that I was worst than any of them when I first started with Sing.

In the morning, we did some jumping sequences, front crosses, rear crosses, turning away, turning into the handler ...

In the afternoon, we did some contacts and weave entry. I always have "issue" with Saturn on the contacts, so it was very interesting to learn new method to see if Saturn will response better to it.

Saturn was a good boy, I think he did very well at the training and we have a lot to practise on. It took us less than 2 hours to get there but took us more than 3 hours to get home and my good Saturn kept me company all the way through the bad traffic on M3.

I have taken some photos of the Beginners in the afternoon session:

Back again after lunch

line up for the Dog Walk

here goes our Secretary Lesley and little Gypsy

young Lester and little Lassie. They are a cracking pair.

Christine's Badger is very confident on the Dog Walk

and this is Badger on the A Fame

Becky and her sweet Coco on the A Frame

Adrianne and her little buddy

poor Saturn was exhausted after a day long training, bless him!

Sorry ... no photos for the Advacned ... as I am busy listening and learning

a VERY BUSY weekend ... Saturday @ Discover Dogs

I had a really busy weekend ... starting with Saturday ... up at 5am to send my eldest nephew to the Station so he can catch the tube to meet someone at Finchley to collect him and take him to play golf somewhere in Oxfordshire. He is an extremely keen golfer and he plays really well; his handicap back home is "6" and I don't know why his handicap playing at the Malaysian Golfing Society is "0"? He is a real golf mad, since the day he came, he has been playing quite a few tournaments with the Malaysian Golfing Society and always come back with something, on Saturday, he won this lovely trophy.

I called my handsome nephew

"the Little Tigerwood".

I just love this two photos of him playing golf.

He is a sport magazine star, the above two pictures have been publisehed in the magazine.

We then have to rush ourselves to take the boys out for a good long walk before going to Discover Dogs to support Lisa and Chi. We got to the Main Ring just before 11am and the Medium Agility was about to start. We didn't get a good seat as we were late and I was so determined to try on with my new camera before Lisa and Chi's go. I was very disappointed with the new camera as the quality is worst than my old one. All the photos came out blurry and the back ground colours are very yellowy. In the afternoon run, I decided to use my old camera and the quality is slightly better but nowhere near good at all. I think being NOT a professional photographer is the main problem and the lighting was the major problem using a digital camera and I didn't use the flash at all, I do not want to frighten the dog when the camera is flashing. Lisa and Chi did some brilliant runs, for more news, videos and photos, please visit Chi's blog.

We had a great time at Discover Dogs ... here are some photos ...

Lisa Bailey and her Tri colour Sheltie.

and this is Catherine and Barney

Mary Ray with little Oz at the Training Demo

Saw this little girl with her tiny little sheltie at the YKC ring,

it was very nice to see her grooming her fluffy buddy.

Three typical colour shelties at the Shetland Sheepdog Stand,

they belong to Betty Straw (Dukeson). I fell in love with the Blue Merle bitch Laska.

Finally, Colin found this giant dog to rest his poor legs!!

Thank You, KAREN!

I would like to express my great THANK YOU to Karen who designed this lovely "Winter Wonderland" banner for my blog. With Seagull's problem, she has made my day! I love you Karen. Karen is such a wonderful friend and I think she has some great ideas designing banners, maybe she should run a banner designing company?

A quick update re Seagull ... as I thought he is getting better, his stomach started to disagree with the pain killers. He has been sick for the last three days and yesterday was the worst of all. He vomitted every half and hour and was looking droopy this morning. I rang Kevin to check if I should bring him in to see him, he suggested I give him the Tagamat Syrup then feed him some chicken and rice, small amount but frequent as he might have dehydrated but pull him off the pain killer for the next two days. I was worried without the pain killer he might struggled with the pain but he is doing well. He looks so much better this evening, no vomiting at all (touch wood) and he looks happy. It was very hard to see him being kept in the crate all day, so I took him out and put him on the lead and let him stays with us in the lounge this evening and he looks so happy!

Good news re Seagull

I took Seagull to the Vet for another check up this morning and Kevin is very happy with his progress. He has been on Flexicam for the last 5 days, eventhough he has a little bit of loose tummy and occassionally being sick but he is alright. He has put his weight on the foot since Friday which is a good sign. Kevin does not think he needs a surgery after all and suggested we change his pain killer to Norocarp together with Pro-kaolin and Tagamet Syrup to calm down the acid in his stomach. He will be back to see Kevin on Friday to see how he responses to these combination of medicine and in the later stage, Kevin suggested he will give him a weekly injection to fill up the catridge in his shoulder joint. For time being, all he needs is 100% cage rest. I feel very sorry to see his poor miserable face in the crate but everytime I let him out, he is so happy and could not stop bouncing which is bad for him, so I am very sorry but I have to limit his movement until he is better. If I am in the office working on the computer, I will bring him in with me and leave him on his bed with his lead on and that will stop him hoping from place to place, poor Seagull, I wish he gets better soon and come out walking with us, really missing him when we are out walking eventhough he is the most difficult dog to take out walking with, probably I like him as a challenge!

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: