catch me if you can

Sorry, these are some silly photos taken this morning. Other than foxes and squirrels, Sing likes to chase crows, he taught Sizzle to chase crows too. These crows sometimes can be very naughty, they know the dogs are never going to get them, so they fly really low and tease them and when we all think the dogs are going to get them, they fly high again!!!

big brother almost get the crow!

new kid on the block ... so close


you can see Sing and Sizzle always in the front

at least this photo show the front view!!

teaching Sizzle to SHY

This has been a very WET autumn so far. I can't do much training in the garden as it is very wet and soggy most of the time, so I have to think of some new tricks to teach the dogs to keep their mind occupy.

This week's trick is SHY, Saturn and Sing have both master this trick; Skye and Titan are doing alright; so I am focusing on Sizzle. Normally to begin with, I will either try to blow into their face or put a sticky tape on their nose. Saturn, Titan and Skye are the blow type, so that made it easy to teach them. Sing and Sizzle needed a lot more hardwork. The sticky tape didn't work on Sing but last year I discovered a new way of teaching him, to put a piece of willow tree leaf on his nose, that works for him.

I have tried sticky tape, leaf, a piece of string and other stuff to put on Sizzle's nose but he just shocked it off instead of using his paw. He really is a little crazy monster, I have to keep laughing while teaching him this trick (he is fun to teach! a real character!). I guess he was frustrated that I tried to put all sort of things on his nose and he bark and bark and bark and bark and bark (at me)! It did take us a while to get him to use his paw and to understand the paw movement is what I am asking for.

I am pretty sure he understands SHY now:

Look! I know how to SHY

... roll over and SHY on my right ...

... and roll over to the other side and SHY on my left!
and mummy said I am a clever little monkey!!

here is the little video:

Bully Boy, Lover Boy, Happy Boy

Sizzle becomes quite a puller when I walk him on the pavement lately, when he sees a bird, he pulls to chase it; when he sees a motorbike vroom by, he pulls to chase it; he also pulls when we stand by the ringside watching other dogs doing agility ... that makes him choke on the lead. This is the least thing I want it to happen to my dogs. The other five boys are as good as gold when they are on the lead, I must have trained them so well. I didn't restrain Sizzle's behaviour as much as I did with the others, I want him to show more of his personality, especially the naughty side of him.

The only way to stop him from pulling is HARNESS. Funnily enough, everytime I put the harness on him, he hardly pull, so now he inherited Titan's BULLY BOY harness! When I first bought the Bully Boy harness, I thought that really suits Titan, he was very naughty and always bullied the others when we went out walking. Since Sizzle joined the family, he seems to take over Titan's role!

my first generation of BULLY BOY - Titan

These two always play fight and Titan is the all time winner!!

the NEW BULLY BOY - Sizzle

two BULLY BOYS

well, the other side of this bully boy is LOVER BOY

do you think he really is a LOVER BOY?

he maybe a BULLY BOY sometimes, a possible LOVER BOY but he definitely is a HAPPY BOY!

motivational toys

I have been trying very hard to encourage/teach Sizzle to tug, well, every since the first day he came home but he nevers is a keen tugger. He will tug if he feels like it but that is not what I want. I want him to be able to tug/hang on to the toy when I show it to him.

When he was much younger, some people told me him being so dante and in the teething stage, tugging will hurt him, so leave it a bit later, so I listen to their advice. After he finised teething, I tried again, with various toys ... rope, rugs, sock, fleece ... anything you name it, I have tried it but he still show no interest in tugging.

I then read on Sara's blog (http://saralovesdogs.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-toy.html) a few weeks ago, she got Oreo this very nice "bunny fur tug" motivational toy from Cleanrun. That looks very interesting, so I thought I will get him one to try on, maybe with this rabbit fur, he might show interest and wanted to chase it. Unfortunately Cleanrun is out of stock, so I looked around and decided to choose these similar toys for him:

I keep these toys for training, so they are totally out of sight. When these toys arrived from America last week, I showed him the Ralphine Tug, he was so interested and started to chase and tug with it (eventhough he still prefers me to throw the toy so he can retrieves it). We play for 10 minutes and I quickly hide it away, so he doesn't know where I keep it.

I went back to Pachesham this morning for my weekly training, gosh! I didn't realised I have been away for 6 weeks and the boys were very keen, which is a good thing. Since there were only 3 students in the first class including me, so we finished off a little early so me and the other lady can do a bit with our puppies. Her red merle Border Collie puppy Skipper is a full grown dog (11 months old today), so much bigger than Sizzle, very bouncy and they have already started their puppy agility class at Pachesham.

We did some jump, jump, tunnel, jump, jump (just jump wings and poles on the ground for the babies), didn't we all enjoy it, both Skipper and Sizzle flew around the course with a lot of enthusiasm. I am very pleased with Sizzle, he didn't show any sign of nerves in the new environment and I just like his little wildness flying around the course eventhough most of the time I handled him wrong (basically I moved too fast when I should stand still!!!). Oh dear! He is a little too fast for me!! I love seeing him enjoy his training, he is a clever little man and he learns very fast.

Sizzle learns how to tug with his ralphine tug

he definitely prefers RETRIEVE

all well now

Sizzle is now back to his bouncy naughty self! What a great relieve! He started to eat quite a bit on Sunday and kept all the food down, there were no vomitting or diarrhoea since. I still give him 4 small meals a day for him to catch up what he have lost. He didn't do any poo all day yesterday and I was getting very anxious again but this morning, he did a solid/firm one and you don't believe how happy I was! Am I easily satisfied by just a tiny good poo? If you know what I went through last week, YES, I am easily satisfy by this silly thing!

Since the first day he came home, he is sleeping on our bed with us at night. This little monkey is his "recent" nightime cuddly toy. He has quite a few plush toys and he would like to change them from time to time. Sorry, quality of the picture is not good as it was taken with my mobile. A cute picture can never wait.

I need to post this picture of Saturn. He looks sooooooooo content. He is the sweetest dog!

a ray of sunshine

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was working Sing & Saturn but mostly with Sing.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Name, please?

Can anyone please tell me what is the name of this toy?

It is very funny that all my shelties like this fluffy squeaky toy, eventhough the one that does not play will associate with it. I use it as a training toy for all of them and it has been very successful and over the years, it starting to drop into pieces and I would like to buy a new one to replace it. Anyone know the name, please tell me so I can look up on the Internet and even the best, you know where can I buy it?

lovely autumn morning

It is a lovely morning and I decided to take the boys to Beddington Park. I normally take them there during the summer months, so the boys can get wet in the very clear clean water but we haven't been this summer as we had a bit of trouble last summer. There were some children with untrained big dogs (a couple of Staffies, a Terrier X and a couple of other big dogs) and they had a go at Saturn and Titan last summer everytime we went there, so I thought I will not go there during the Summer holidays in future.

The boys like Beddington Park, it is a fairly big park with lots of trees, there are plenty of squirrels and they like to chase them. Also, it is one of Sing's favourite as he can get wet! Sing likes anywhere with water and Beddington Park has a lovely clean clear stream.

Here are the boys (minus Seagull) happily playing in the freezing cold water!!

When I first have Sizzle, he was very careful not to get dirty and he always sat there watching Sing and the other played in the pond/lake, never really dare to go near the bank but now I am very proud to say he is another swimming sheltie! He is not afraid of water and he actually enjoying being in the water other than the bath! Picture above: He gets dirty by chasing the crows and fell in the muddy ditch this morning!! Saturn, my handsomest boy with the softest look. Eventhough he is big but he is the most gentle and softest. We always call him Gentle Giant! He has a very strong sense for squirrels and rabbits and anything he would like to chase. He can spot/sense a squirrel/rabbit from a very far distance. He had caught a few rabbits so far but he is so gentle that he did not kill any of them. He always brought them back to me (drop the rabbit in front of me and put his paw on the rabbit) and I let him sniff for a few minutes and tell him to "let go" and he will release the rabbit and let him go, he has not draw any blood on them at all. What a gentle boy he is! Also, he likes to chase coot in the pond and the coot is normally the one that makes him swim in the open water!

All the boys minus Seagull.

Found this unusual looking duck, he has a different coloring and marking to the others, very pretty.

some action photos of Sizzle

A lot of friends sent email asking me how is Sizzle? He is great! He is very agile and lively and he is happy little boy! Here are some action photos taken this morning at the Common:

Sizzle being very agile:

He has learned this from Sing! Catching the ball in the air!

Believe me, he can jump very high!!!

Finally, after one hour of dashing around, he will stand still for half a second!

WHO is the best elephant?

Last night, I had a crazy idea ... I have never try this before but I thought let's give it a go and see if it works?

back in last December, I had Sing & Saturn did the DUO elephant trick, both dogs on the same stool:

... and last night, we tried three dogs on three different stools to do the elephant trick:

Ah! This is fun!!

Shrewsbury

Well, I've got back on Wednesday afternoon. Again, I have to transit in Dubai, another 20 hours before I arrived safely at Gatwick! I can't wait to feel the fresh air eventhough it was drizzle when I got out of the airport, it is good to be home again and can't wait to see all my boys!

Thank you very much to Bernadette and Dennis who have Sizzle for me and to Jim & Joan who look after the big boys during the day. All the dogs look happy and wonderful!

Before I have a good rest, we left on Friday night to Shrewsbury. I have booked two nights at the Travelodge, shamed that they only allow 2-3 dogs, so Sing, Saturn and Sizzle were on tow. Sizzle was a little star, he travelled so well in the long journey (he actually slept all the way there!). We left home around 7pm, with the heavy trafic and no stop, we arrived at 11pm at the A5 Travelodge. Sizzle again was very good, he didn't mess up at all.

I have never been to Shrewsbury before and I was very surprised to find it a very small friendly show. The show finished at 2:30pm, amazing!!

That was Sing's first Grade 5 show, I think being me away from them and them having a small break, both of them showed a lot of enthusiasm. Sing was a very good boy and he was fast. In his first class, the Grade 5 Jumping, he was too fast into the weave and lost his rythm and came off 9th pole. I knew when he is fast, he will somehow lost his rythm. This happened a few times in the last few shows when I tried to push him for time. Other than that, he was very good, I even trying to do some distance control instead of running next to him.

In the Grade 5 Agility, we cannot have a fast start as it is not straight forward. As I have not been doing agility for three weeks, so I got a bit rusty and didn't handled it well at the beginning, Sing did some wide turns and I think we lost a lot of times there. I am glad that after a break and no agility for three weeks, he still get his beautiful running dog walk. Shamed that we were beaten by o.02 seconds, I would be very happy if he will go up to Grade 6!

I am very happy with Sing's performance, he didn't slow down at all and he was very happy the whole day running around. I think we are up for Grade 5.

my very handsome boy

As for Saturn, due to his condition, he is still not on form, he kepet having some poles down in most of the classes he was entered. He was very happy and enthusiatic, shamed that he knocked two poles down in the pairs with Jean and Scott. Scott went clear. In the Grade 4 Jumping, he came 3rd, not a fast fast round from him but a good round with enthusiasm.

I like the Shrewsbury show, it is like half a sheltie show, they were so many shelties there!

only some of the shelties at the show!!

my little fluffy Sizzle having his adult coat now!! little stunner!!

two love birds ... Sizzle and Breeze (owned and loved by Rachel and Brian Cresswell)

As we finished early, we took the dogs to Wrekin for a good walk; then stop by at a local pub for dinner. I had soup for starter, gosh! That was the best soup I have ever had before but the meal was just a so so, what a disappointment after a great taste of the soup!

Before coming home to London on Sunday, we stop at Poles Coppice and Snailbeach (there is no smail on the beach!!!)/Stiperstone for another walk. We had quite a relaxing weekend, the only downside was I have to leave the other three boys at home!!

Here are some videos from Shrewsbury:

I'm back!

I'm back!

Maybe for a little while ... as I planned another visit to my brother again very soon.

It was a fairly long journey for me. I have to transit in Dubai to GuangZhou, it took me nearly 20 hours just to get there! My visit to my brother was very emotional. The first week was awful, he was very poorly then. I have not seen him bleeding non stop before, so I was very frightened. At one day, he was vomitted blood and at the same time passing more blood from his back end, the doctor can't do anything to stop the bleeding and that was the worst!

I wasn't happy at all with the doctors and nurses, they were not sympathetic to any patients and the environment was terrible. The air in GuangZhou is polluted by heavy smokers, everywhere you go, you will see lots of heavy smokers and they smoke and smoke ... even inside the lift!! There is a big non smoking sticker inside the lift but they've just ingnored it!

My brother was placed in the Intensive Care Unit since he checked in to the hospital, you thought he will be well treated and carefully monitor. We were very shocked that just a few days before I left, they put a HIV carrier patient next to him and the doctors and nurses warned us to be careful! We were stunned!

I think they are ridicolous and can you imagine how my brother feels? One night, they moved in a newly operated patient next to him and within half an hour, the patient died of the operated scar being exploded! How frightening was that?

All in all, I thought we were in the very wrong place for the treatment!

The next day after I left, my brother was transferred to another hospital, according to my nephew who is still with his dad, the environment is so much better but the quality of the doctors and medications aren't that good. Finger crossed for a safe transplant!

sorrow

I am sitting in Gatwick Airport waiting to fly to China to visit my dear brother ... I have at least 6 hours to kill, so I thought I just quickly update my blog before I go. The Internet in this airport is sooooooooooooo slow, I think the snail mail is faster, so hopefully, I can finish this post in one hour!!

The last 10 days have been very difficult, firstly my brother is very poorly, we are hoping the Chinese doctors will treat him well, unfortunately he seems to suffer more pain than he was in Malaysia. The worst thing is the hospital needs CASH everyday! If you haven't have enough cash to pay, they will not treat you, no matter how urgent or how poorly are you!! When my nephew sent me his photos, I was flooded with tears! I can't wait to see him!!

Secondly, Bernadette has lost her precious girl. Eventhough Hex was not my dog but I love that little wicked sheltie, she was the dog that everyone would dream of and when I saw the news on the agility forum, I also collapsed! This world is so unfair!! Why they always take the good ones away far too quickly?

All the boys are in good hands, I know I will miss them terribly! I am missing them now!!

We were at Lincoln over the weekend, 6 hours there and 6 hours back! I think the actual journey could be around 3 hours but the M25 and M1 were dreadful, apart from the traffic, I like show, the people were very nice and the showground was flat and good for human and dogs to run. I have to say I like the courses up there, I found they are more challenging than the one down here. That suit my "steady" shelties better. Sing did well, he came back with three lovely trophies. I am so glad that Lincoln is so generous with their placings and trophies. In most show, they only place to first place in Medium Grade 4 and Sing was always lie in 2nd or 3rd, so no trophy or rosette for him. I was so glad that he earned three trophies this weekend. Saturn wasn't up for running, he knocked 3 bars down in one jumping round, so I have to rest him but he did a nice agility round on Sunday though. I am very pleased with that and he came 4th, just behind Sing.

We also got to meet Breeze, Brian and Rachel's little Tri girl, she is 10 weeks younger than Sizzle. Sizzle and Breeze had a good play, they were so sweet together, I think Brian took some lovely photos of them toghether, hopefully he will send me some when I get home.

I also ran Titan in the All Sort Agility, to my surprised, we did the weave in style, I ran with him from a jump to the weave, he didn't miss the entry and finished the 6 weave poles in speed BUT, he missed the rigid tunnel ahead! Ha!

I also ran Skye in the Grade 3 agility, on Saturday, he was very fast and did very well in the beginning part but then I lost him after the tunnel. I am glad he was up for the run. We tried again on Sunday, the course was hard, even harder than the Grade 4 & 5, he started well, than after the first part, I lost him totally, he suddenly ran off to the hedge, so I have to pick him up and took him out, then to find out he was unwell and sick all over, poor lad!!

... Til I am back.

weekend

We have a weekend with no agility! I thought we deserved a quiet and peaceful time with the dogs, going for a long walk, maybe do a bit of gardening or even tidy up the house ... but NO, we ended up pretty busy and I ended up very stressed and frustrated at some points.

We went to Postmouth to visit Jim & Joan on Saturday, they are on holiday, we spent some time catching up and had dinner with them, we didn't come back till late so we have to go to bed almost immediately because I have Dawn Weaver training on Sunday morning.

Dawn's training was fantastic, it was a shamed that the training was a bit too short but I have something to work on, especially with Sing. Unfortunately I will be away very soon, hopefully I still remember what I want to work with him when I come back.

I shall leave for China once I've got my visa, hopefully the visa will come back sometimes this week. My brother is very ill and I need to be with him. There were so many twist and turn regarding his illness for the last few days, that gave me a few sleepless nights. I wish I can just go but this dam visa is a pain! My plan is to go for at least two weeks but depending on the situation, I may have to stay longer.

For those who ask how is Sizzle ... he is great, he is a wonderful puppy. I must admit I haven't spend much time doing anything with him but I keep the play whenever I can and I have to say, if I ignore him when he brings his toy to me, he will bark at me till I play with him, he is so sweet.

I have asked Colin to do a quick video of him doing something with me in the garden yesterday:

Sing is on fire?

I like this picture of Sing so very much! It was taken on Sunday at Prestbury Park.

Colin had a day off last Friday so we can take time to travel to Prestbury Park. We have never been to Cirencester Park before but had heard a lot of good things about this park, so Colin determined to get there early on Friday so we can have a good long walk with the dogs. I think Colin went a little crazy, instead of taking our time, he woke me up at 5am (YES! 5 o'clock in the morning!) to say "let's go now!". I think his job drives him crazy and he always get so stress, so when he has a day off, he normally is crazy and driving me mad!!

We got to Cirencester Park at 10:30am after a long break at M4. Obviously it was too early and the show organiser was not too impress with us arriving at that time. The ground was wet after they have a few days of rain and they are hoping all the campers will arrive after 3pm to let the ground dry up a little bit and thank God we were there early, as we got stuck when I drove to our pitch. I purposely chosen a pitch further in so if Sizzle jumps off the fence, it will not directly near the road. I wish I will take the risk to camp near the road and close to the rings. The car was absolutely stuck in the thick mud and wouldn't move, luckily the members were very friendly and helpful, the nice lady Mary moved us to our pitch for the weekend.

Since we got there early, we helped them setting up the seven rings, which was good fun eventhough I felt so tired and achy afterwards!! We managed to take the dogs for a long walk in the Park in the afternoon, we all came back to the caravan looking miserable and horribly muddy! Yes, the rain started around 3pm and places were like swamp and bog, I cannot describled our "garden" and the carvan and all the dogs defintely needs a good clean up after this weekend.

Both Saturday and Sunday had a mixture of sunshine, fog and shower, the rings weren't too bad but the camping areas weren't very impress. Luckily the people at the show were very friendly and cheery. I was very tense and stress due to the mud and worrying the car and caravan sinking ...

Sing was a good boy the whole weekend. I have been trying to work hard in pushing him to go faster lately and I am still working on that, I still make silly pilot errors especially in Marie's Jumping class. It was a very nice flowing course but I pushed him too fast and I was behind him and won't be able to direct him and that got him eliminated! Hopefully we will be better next season. Sing won the Grade 4 Agility on Saturday afternoon which surprised me a lot! He also won the Combined 1-4 Agility on Sunday, that gave me a "heart attack". I have never dream of him winning so many first places in a grade, especially 2 first places in one weekend, that was just fanstastic! And, this also gives me confidence at Grade 5!

They also have Flyball "competition" on Saturday evening. Prestbury Park DTC have their own flyball teams and I thought it would be good to reward Sing to have a go at the flyball since he won the agility. I have never thought of asking what flyball box they are using, so I was very keen, can't wait to let Sing enjoys his flyball.

The Flyball started at 6pm, some people gather around the ring side, not a lot, especially those that hate noises, they will try to stay away from Flyball as far as possible. When I look at the box, I thought I made a big mistake as Sing has never train on the Crufts Flyball Box before and they are so different to the BFA (British Flyball Association) type, that got me worried, I don't want him to injured himself on that box if he did something wrong but the people told me just go for fun and they will throw the ball to him if he does not know how to trigger the box.

this is the BFA box that Sing used to train with, it is called the American Flat Fronted Box.

If you look at the first flyball video, Sing actually "accidentally" trigger the box and he was surprised where the ball came from. Also, Sing used to be the "height" dog when we were running with Ball Buster Flyball Club. He jump 10", so he can do his "bunny" jump which he just bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce ... but at this fun game, the jumps were about 12"-14" (I guess) and the first round, Sing probably miss judging the jump and tried to do his bounce, he hit the 2nd jump and fell over but he is a good dog, that didn't freak him, he continue to bounce towards the box.

In the second round, his cheeky self made everyone laugh, he is so intelligent to know where the ball is and instead of trying to trigger the box, he jump over the cushion and fetch the ball, you can see the two box loaders were laughing and all the audience were laughing too!

The last two were actually "competition" runs. We (Sing with a terrier and two collies) of course can't beat the Prestbury Park Team but I was very happy that Sing enjoyed himself and I have promised him that once he goes Grade 5, I will take him back to Flyball.

As for Saturn, I did a couple of runs with him and his best one was the Sunday Graded 1-4 Jumping, not because he came 2nd but he actually run with his happy self.

Again, I haven't got time for Sizzle this weekend but I took him out a couple of time to the rings watching the world goes by. He is still shy with people handling him. I took him to visit a treat stall where the lady owner has been very kind to offer sausage to him and made him feel relax at the end. Colin was holding him while Sing and I did flyball. Colin said he was so excited and winding watching us, maybe I can have a go with him at the flyball?

I can't wait to go back next year, eventhough it was wet and muddy but the Prestbury Park members made you feel so welcome!

Chasing crows

I like to see Sizzle grows ... everyday is a new chapter for both of us, he has learned a lot since he came to live with me and he also learned something from the other dogs. I have been very careful watching him interacting with the others. I know Sing and Saturn are perfectly "good" behaving dogs and he is allow to learn from them but I am careful to let him interact with Titan and Skye, these two are little barkers, Titan will bark for fun and Skye barks when he is excited, either way is no good. Two noisy shelties are more than enough to upset the neighbours and I do not want a third one! Also, Titan gets a bit nervous when he meets other dogs (especially those big ones and boisterous ones) when we go out walking, he will bark his head off and started shaking when the dogs come closer. There were a couple of time I've noticed when he got nervous and that passed it on to Sizzle.

Sing used to chase squirrels and rabbits and I remembered very well that three four years ago he chased the squirrel and he ended up on the tree himself. I am not exaggerate, the branch was very low and it was a 45 degree angle, so Sing just ran up and up and up, till the end! Of course the branch was curving all the way up and the tree is not low. I nearly had a heart attack (I don't want to lose a dog in this way!) as Sing has realised that he has to somehow come down. Thank God he is always a good dog, so I have to calm myself down and to clam him down by telling him to turn and steady, do you think a two year old dog will go steady? Definitely not, he turned and ran staright down and I was under the tree holding my arms out, hope to catch him when necessary!! Since then, I never take him down that path again!!

Maybe he is getting old and realised he never catch a squirrel or a rabbit, so he started to chase crows in the Common. It is so funny to watch, he really have his eyes on those crows everytime we see one and he also passed this on to Sizzle.

This is not a good video but just show you how these shelties are crazy about crows:

Stour Valley

I am so glad that Stour Valley went ahead with their show. Despite the cold wet windy weather, we had a very nice relaxing weekend in the well drain showground. We didn't get there till 9pm on Friday night, it was pitch black, pouring down with rain while we setting up the garden but the weather has been very kind to us all weekend, both days have the mixture of showers, sunshine and storm and most of all, I know all the people that at the show were enjoying themselves!

We had a good fun weekend. Sing went clear on all his classes and have good places in all of them. He was a very good lad. I wanted to push him for speed but I knew if I did, he will miss his rhythm in the weave which we have tried at Letchworth and failed each time! That will be my winter project with my Singy B! All in all, I have to say Sing worked really well this weekend.

As for Saturn, I don't really know what is going on with him. He just doesn't seem to gain his speed back after his biopsy operation, maybe he needs more rest? His contacts are still dodgy, so we need to work on that over the winter after his good rest.

As for Sizzle, I have to say I have left him quite a bit this weekend. I wasn't helping on Saturday but the weather was not good enough to take him out and play. I was helping on Sunday and he was trying to escape many times due to boredom!!

On Saturday, we had the mini/mixi jumping pairs at the end of the day. It was a fun class. Thanks to Andy Longley, we have an "evil" course. The course had two parts, the small jump the same course and the medium and large jump the same course. I think the Medium/Large course was easier than the Small course. There were 20 pairs but NO 2 clear rounds in a pair!!! At the end, Eleanor & Ian won the pairs with one elimination; Bracken and Sing got 2nd with Bracken decided to take the medium jump to get herself eliminated. Saturn was pairing with Kodac, unfortunately the two boys got too excited and get themselves eliminated! Hehehe ...

On Sunday, we have Trio Team fun class, the Team consisting of one small dog, one medium dog and one large dog. Both Sing and Saturn were in two separate Blachin Teams. What can I say? The Pachesham have a really good weekend, all dogs in the two Teams went clear and we took the 1st and 2nd!!

Colin has slightly damaged the video camera at the KC Festival. He "over used" it in the rain, so the water gets into the camera, it is ok sometimes and sometimes not! He didn't video the individual runs but have captured the Pairs and Teams runs this weekend.

Here are the videos of the Pairs and Teams at Stour Valley and I also put in the Eukanuba Mini/Mixi Pairs ran from Letchworth. That was our first Eukanuba pairs, Matthew and Bracken did a cracking round, unfortunately Saturn knocked a bar down. Their combined time was very fast too, I think if Saturn didn't have a bar down, we will be in the top 5 but it is good to know they made a good pairs!

Starters memories

It has been raining non stop this morning, so there is no more excuse NOT to tidy up my work table and my office, well basically the doggie room!! While sorting out all the paperworks, I found a white envelope with this content:This trace my memories back to August 2006, Sing won out of Medium Starters Agility at BridgeHouse. Their show manager Christina Wilkin was very kind to send out pictures taken that day, it really is a very sweet memory espeically I was just a beginner then.

I didn't start to train Sing in agility when he was nearly 3, that was back in 2005. Sing is always a great dog but I was struggling with handling skills and running at the same time! I can't quite get him to weave but our trainer Eleanor said to me he is more than ready to compete. So, we did try a couple of shows in 2005 and mainly Sing ran out of the rings to greet Colin.

He was a midi when we started competing, we only did 3 open shows and 2 limited shows in a year then! He got his first ever trophy at Haslemere Limited Show in 2005. He won that Agility class, I remembered there is no weave in the class. I don't know if that is the reason he won or was it because we had Saturn and Titan that made him jealous and he ran faster!!

Then, we met Bernadette at the Sheltie Agility Show in April 2006, watching Zen, Chi and Timmy weaving that lead me pluck up my courage to ask if she can give me some private lessons to sort out Sing's weave. She is a very nice lady and we arranged to go to her to have some weave lessons. So, back to basic where we never know what channel weave and V weave is all about but Sing is a fast learner, he got the idea (but not me!). After 3 lessons, we entered BridgeHouse and amazingly, he won out of Starters! The following week, we competed at Trent Park where he had the Starters Jumping win! That is the best way to end a grade, an agility win and a jumping win.

Well, now I regret that I never have a chance to do Starters Challenge. It is unfair!!

Clicker Sizzle

some training videos taken last night:

Quick update

I am a little bit behind ... there were so many things happened in the last couple of weeks and I am trying to cope with my emotions.

First of all, Sing won into Grade 5 at The Summer Agility Show. Sorry no video, it happened on the Friday and I was on my own, no Colin there to film us. I was very pleased with Sing's performance, I think he was at least 3 or 4 seconds ahead, he was a good boy!

Then, my brother flew to China last Friday to seek for the alternative treatment to his liver cancer. The journey wasn't an easy one but I am glad he was coping. He is a very friendly, helpful guy, so he has a lot of friends there ready to help at anytime. A couple of his friends flew to China a day early to arrange the hospital and other things for him. He even has a doctor friend equiped with all necessary (mainly 3 pints of blood) acompany him on the plane just in case he needed him. The whole family was touch, we can't thank the doctor friend enough. Unfortunately, he is still bleeding and the Chinese doctors can't start the treatment until he stops bleeding.

Sizzle is a great puppy. I call Sing my Heart, Saturn my soul and Sizzle my sunshine! I haven't been doing any training with him for the last couple of weeks, I have learned not to train your dogs when you are emotion, so the training was on hold. I have continue to do a little bit basic training (those he already knows) with a clicker, hopefully he will get the idea of a clicker. Just two days ago, he suddenly CLICK!

It is very funny how a dog react to something, I have tried to teach Sing "SHY" for nearly two years and he couldn't get it but just last summer, he suddenly click and you can't stop him to shy now!! Sizzle is the same, he now loves the clicker!!

I started using the clicker to teach him the "elephant" trick, "in the box" and "target", his "elephant" trick is still in progress but he started to move his back legs half way round the box, not bad after two days training! He is also getting keen on the "target" but I have to wait until he is very hungry!! Will try to capture these on the video, but not easy when I am on my own most of the time, you can't do two things at once!

For time being, here are a couple of photos of little Sizzle growing up ...

his favourite bird toy!

naughty Titan had taught him to jump over the garden fence when we camp at the dog shows, so if you find a little tri colour sheltie at show, please bring him back to me!!

evil + evil = DEVIL

MALAYSIA BOLEH!

I have been quite emotional since I came back from the KC International Festival, for so many reasons ... will talk about them later but I've got more emotional again this morning watching the Olympic, men's single semi-final. The game was between Malaysian LEE Chong Wei and the Korean LEE Hyunil.

I haven't been watching much of the Olympic this year due to having a puppy around, he takes up most of my time, if I were to ignore him to watch the Olympic, he will bark at me for attention!!!

Anyway, I was lucky enough to catch the badminton this morning and to watch a Malaysian playing. When I first saw LEE Chong Wei on the telly this morning, I was rather shock, my memory goes back to the late 80s and 90s for the Sidek Brothers (you can guess how old I am!), I never knew any other players than the Sidek Brothers! I watched the game with a lot of interest and apparently LEE Chong Wei is the 2nd World Ranking player. He did rather well in the first set, he was leading and I just like his way of playing, always jump up in the air and smash the shuttlecox, that is so beautiful to watch. I like an enthusiatic player. I even remember the longest rally between him and the Korean player was 49 strokes and of course LEE Chong Wei won the rally!

Unfortunately he lost in the 2nd set, the commentators was right though, she said as a fan of his, it is very frustrating to watch. He wasn't too far behind to start with, always 2-3 points between the two of them but the Malaysian hasn't in the lead at all in this set. At the end, it was a big gap and LEE Chong Wei kinda give up and let the Korean win the set. I think the Korean player is quite a technical player, he likes to drop the shuttlecox in front of the net and he has quite a high success rate where the Malaysian is more of a sporting player that like to pull and smash.

In the 3rd set, the deciding set, the Malaysian was once leading by 8-1, you just can't believe he lost the 2nd set, would you? He is a fantastic player and he won the match at last! He is guarantee a Silver medal for Malaysia, I don't know when is the final and who is he playing to but I am keeping my eye out for him and I am hoping he will bring a GOLD medal for Malaysia!

Malaysia BOLEH!! Lee Chong Wei BOLEH!!

KC International Agility Festival 2008

What can I say? Extremely Excited before the show, Extremely Enjoyable at the show and Extremely Exhausted at the end of the show!!

I took the boys and the caravan with me on early Thursday morning and we got to the showground at 10am and still we were camping miles away from the rings, I am not complaining but I was just amazed how BIG the show was!! Thursday was a very humid and sticky day and thank God we were there early, so I just took my time to set up the caravan and garden for the dogs then took them for a good long walk. It is a shamed that you are only allow three dogs off the lead at a time. I know my lots love to run and play together but I tried to be good, I love to follow the rules and I do not want any complain from others, that will spoil my mood.

I was once thinking to take the dogs to the nearby Nene Park, so all of them can go off the lead and tear around but the weather hit me so badly that I decided I will stay in the caravan instead. Colin joined us later in the evening and I have to go into Peterborough to pick him up and we sneaked into the local Weatherspoon pub for the Curry Night. I have to say they did some beautiful currys where we can't get from the London Weatherspoons (what a shamed!) but I do not like the area. I took all the dogs with me in the car and we were lucky to have a parking spot right outside the pub. I was worry about the dogs being disturbed so I quickly finished my dinner and rushed out to be with them so Colin can takes his time to enjoy his food. While I was in the car, someone came up to me to ask if my dogs are for sale!! I think he must be mad or crazy!! Then, after that, there was a young bloke which I think he must be drunk and he was shouting at me and using all those abusing words!! I got really scared and locked up the car and tried to hug all my dogs, anyway, I will never go back to the pub again eventhough it is cheap and nice!

By the time we got back to the showground, it was nearly 9:30pm and I do fancy an early night as the Novice Cup qualifier rounds are first thing in the morning. I didn't come prepare as I know Saturn is returning from the operation and I don't want to push him too hard and Sing has been unsteady for the last four weeks, so I thought I just go and enjoy every minute since this is an International Festival. I feel good when there is no pressure, I walked the Agility Qualifier course and thought my boys will never get qualify as it is an easy flowing course, the fast dogs will get it. There were about 80+ dogs competing but they are only taking the top 15 dogs to the Final. Sing was out of my expectation, he was quite fast compare to his usual speed, so the plan of front cross at the end of the DW didn't work out well and we got a messy clear and lost probably a second or so!! I tried to play safe with Saturn, I know he still has his dodgy contacts but I just want him to go clear, so he can stand a chance and he was a good boy and went clear eventhough the A Frame wasn't good enough.

While waiting for the Jumping round, Sing did his Grade 4 Agility and got a 3rd in it. I was very surprised as the standard was higher here and of course I am very glad with him. Saturn got a 5th in his Grade 3 Jumping, again, I was reluctant to push him for the speed. After a long wait, we finally got to walk the Jumping course, we watched many big dogs got stuck at the beginning as the #1, #2 and #3 looked like a trap but funnily enough, it didn't bother the small and medium dogs and we all were worried sick and walked extra hard on the 3 jumps!! Again, Jumping is not Sing's cup of tea, he hasn't got that speed especially when you have so many collies in the class!! He went clear, but in his own time, bless him! Saturn was a little faster but still not fast enough to be placed! That got me worried as we haven't been placed in the Agility round either eventhough there were only 20 clear rounds! All the classes in the KC (I am talking about the Medium classes) are placed up to 6th only.

I was anxious waiting for the Final list and of course, the eager you are, the slower they release the results! But I have to say, they are much faster this year than last!! It was dreadful for me to look at the list. I wanted both Sing and Saturn in the Final and I was so afriad non of them are in the Final. Eventhough they both went clear in the Agility and Jumping but in the KC Festival, they accumulate the points, so even if you have an elimination, you can still go through!! This happened to me last year. Sing was in the top 10 and Saturn was at the 15th together with another border collie (they shared the same points), the border collie was eliminated in the Jumping but got 4th in the Agility, so she went through to the Final and Saturn was pushed out eventhough he has two clear rounds!!

Unfortunately, it happened again this year but with different dog!! Saturn was lying 10th on the Final list and Sing was 16th, just one point less to squueze in. Poor soul! I was really gutted. I never thought Saturn will be in the Final and I have high hope for Sing. This got me emotion all night and all Saturday morning. I was worried about Saturn's contacts, I am still in the stage of getting him to do his perfect target. I know if Sing is in the Final, I don't have to worry about anything other than the speed. Well, the Final was on Saturday afternoon in the Main Ring, I have been stuggling with myself. I want Saturn to look good and I just don't know how to handle the situation and the weather didn't help either. It has been raining all day Saturday, a real miserable day! I have to accept Sing didn't make it through to the Final, so I push him really hard in the Grade 4 Agility and he came 2nd. I was really pleased with that.

I thought I am going to train Saturn in his Grade 3 Agility before going into the Final but the rain got heavier when we got in the ring, so it definitely didn't help, it was pouring so hard and Saturn got creepy on his contacts, I thought I will pull him out from the Final but I managed to "control" myself and keep telling myself how great to be in the Final and we will do our best.

At last, the Final is about to start and the weather has dried up a little. I watched a few large dogs ran the course and get my mind sorted and I told myself, YES! I AM READY! I got Saturn out and played with him and walked him around the ring, since we were lying at 10th placed, we were about 6th to go. I didn't get to watch the other dogs go as we were tucked behind the commentary box and you can see nothing. The closer I get, my nerve started to kick in, I think this is the worst than me and Sing went to Crufts! I got really panic when I set Saturn up on the start line, but there is no turning back, I have to go ... we whizz around ok, he got his DW but he went into the "wrong" end of the tunnel (the number was placed in the middle of the tunnel, so you can take whichever end but I was planned to send him to the right end instead of left) and luckily I was still under control and continue whizzing, I told myself, one more contact to go, if he gets the A Frame, we will be fine, and I know how much I panic about the A Frame as he either freeze on top of the A Frame or he leaps and wasn't he a good boy? He got his A Frame but I FORGOT the course!!! I saw two jumps in front of me and I tried to figure which one to take and of course my maths was no good, 17 first or 18 first? I am such an idiot!!! That of course cost us a 5 faults!! Otherwise, it was a good round from my young boy. I am very proud of him!

Colin was very sweet, he knew I was very upset for messing up the course, so he took me into Peterborough for a nice meal. We were planning to go for a pub meal but I've got a phobia after Thursday night, so we went into a very nice Chinese Buffet next to a pub. I have to say it was a very tasty meal, you can hardly find those cooking in London anymore!

After two days of running, I started to get very tired on Sunday, especially I knew we have to pack and go home in the evening. I hope we have an early finish but both boys were in the Nation Cup, and the Agility round will be the last thing in the main ring. Sing was with the Rest Of the World (ROW) 3, the other two team mates were a Spanish lady Alos with her Spanish Water Dog called Tila and Sally Rees from Jersey with her Pyrenean Sheepdog; Saturn was with ROW 2, together with Evelyn Thomas originally from Belgium and her Italian Greyhound Kaiser and a Swis girl Claire and her cracking little spaniel that won many classes this weekend. We (me and Evelyn) were missing Johanna and One terribly!!! We were in the same team last year and had a lot of good fun together.

Sing did a steady clear in the Jumping but I think the other two members had faults in their jumping rounds and we were out of placed; Saturn got eliminated in his round and the other two have faults too, so we were out of placed as well. In the Agility Round, Sing's ROW 3 was running 3rd and Saturn's ROW 2 was running 4th, and I was the 2nd team member to run for both team, as they want to finish it quick, so you can imagine I tried to catch my breath in between. Again, both Sing and Saturn did rather well in their Agility round and they are both IN the course time and I am very pleased. The other two members in the two different teams have faults and time faults, so Sing's ROW 3 finished in 2nd and Saturn's ROW 2 finished in 3rd in the Agility Round and in the overall results, ROW 2 came 6th and ROW 3 came 5th!

Oh, I forgot to mention, the Large and the Medium were very lucky to avoid the rain in the main ring but some of the Small teams weren't that lucky! There were a sudden down pour and we had to rush into the marquee!!

After the presentation, we have to rush back to the caravan and packed, so basically we didn't leave the showground until 8:30pm and thank God, M1 and M25 were clear, so we were lucky to be home at around 11:30pm!! Extremely EXHAUSTED as you can imagine!! I think I need at least a week to recover!! I never feel so achy and tired after an agility show before.

One thing I still try to figure it out is why Saturn got his contacts in the main ring and not at the other rings? I wonder did I handled him differently?

and here is some individual runs from Sing and Saturn:

BEST COMPANION

After a wet start on Saturday morning at Aylesbury, we decided to go home after the morning runs, Saturn was on good form, unfortunately his "powerful" start cost him a limp, it was an angle to the Dog Walk and I was probably blocking his view and he hit himself very hard on the beginning of the wet DW, that gave him a good shock! There were a lot of dogs slipped and fell off the wet dog walk and see-saw, nearly 8 out ot 10 dogs has the same problem. With Sing, I had to keep shouting "easy" and "steady" and he hardly heard this commands in his run (he does not need those commands), so he was all confused and did a few spins and turns and we finished off in a terribly slow time!! The rain was getting heavier by 10:30 and we decided to have a relaxing weekend at home, so we left at 11:00!!

On Sunday, we go to the Sheltie Club SE Branch Graden Party instead. The weather was very kind to us, it didn't rain until the party has finished. We had an enjoyable and relaxing time with a SEA of SHELTIES!! All the boys had a good time meeting all the shelties, Sizzle was great and he was amazed to see so many shelties and people. He was excellent and handle himself very well in the party. We saw Dave and Margaret and GOSH! Sizzle remembered them well. He seems to be able to smell them from a distance and he went bonkers when he gets to them!!

Eventhough my shelties have NO show quality but they are the BEST COMPANION! It was a shamed that I didn't try to put Sizzle in the baby class, it will be good for him to learn to be handled by others, I saw some lovely puppies there and two in particular catching my eyes and then later I found out they are litter brother and sister!

I didn't know they also have a companion class for those not showable shelties but I managed to squeeze Skye in at the very last minute for some fun. I wish I know so I could plan which dog to put in the "companion" class. Obviously Skye hasn't got the "waggiest tail", no "smiling face", no "best ears" (if I were to know that, I will put Saturn in instead!!) ... but there is an overall Companion prize, I don't know what they are looking for, so I just get Skye to do some tricks and HA! He won the OVERALL BEST COMPANION!! Yipeeee for my good lad.

There was also a "fastest reacll" competition, 25p a go, so I take turn to recall all of them, yes including Sizzle and he was great, didn't run off and staright back to me! Saturn won the over 15" and his time was 161 (I assume that was 1.61 seconds). I could tell you that there is no sheltie can beat him, the average time was over 2 seconds! Titan finished in 191 and the other four boys finished in just over 2 seconds. I also won the under 15" with Starry, he was once my dog for few months, so I gave him a go and he was not far behind Saturn, he finished in 167. Eventhough Jim & Joan was claiming him under 15" but they think he is too big for under 15" but whatever it is, Titan was the fastest in the under 15", basically, I am the overall winners for the fastest recall!

Eventhough they are NO show quality but they are the BEST COMPANION