introducing Sooty, Sweep & Scampi

Sing and Sunny's puppies arrived on 30th September. After much consideration, we decided to let Sunny whelps her puppies with her owner Marilyn because I have the WAO tryout with Sizzle and I would like have time to make sure he is fit and I am fit for the tryout. We picked up Sunny and her pups on Monday, after the WAO tryout on Sunday and the pups are already 2.5 weeks old. Their eyes and ears are open. They are still not very active at this stage, they spend a lot of time sleeping to grow ...

Sunny has two tri girls and a shaded sable boy. The first born was a smaller tri girl, Sunny didn't have a smooth birth so she has to rush to the vet. The smaller tri girl (I named her Sweep) was pulled out by the vet; then we all decided a caesarean is best for Sunny as we do not want Sunny to go through the hard labour any longer. We then have a bigger tri girl (Sooty) and a shaded sable boy (Scampi) by caesarean. All the pups were weighing between 8.5oz to 9.5oz. Scampi is the smallest in the litter. They all put on weight nicely over the last two weeks and they are fat and contented puppies!

Sunny is a good mama, she settled in straightaway the minute she walked through the door. Pups are great travelling in the car for a long journey, hopefully these puppies will not have car sick when the grow older.

introdusing Sing x Sunny babies, born 30th September

bigger girl, SOOTY

she is very cheeky girl

smaller girl, SWEEP

she is very sweet and cuddly

and the Boy, SCAMPI

he is the naughtiest (in a very funny way), cheekiest little monkey! Of course with a butter wouldn't melt face!

 

 Sunny & Sweep and Scampi

Sooty trying her baby way of herding sheep ... BITE the sheep. LOL

chilled out time

Happy 2nd Birthday to Little Miss SIPZIE

Happy 2nd Birthday to 

our crazy Little Miss Sipzie

also Happy Birthday to her sister Chiqi,

and brothers Ike, Ice and Ronin

Happy 1st Birthday to SILKY

Happy FIRST Birthday to Silky, 

all grown up now!

Slobbery kisses from daddy Sing & mama Skye

xxx

more grown up photo, please visit her web page

catching up on some agility news ... Dundee

We haven't done any agility (training or competition) since my mum passed away, I am just not up to it. I only just returned to my weekly training two weeks ago and I realised how much I missed doing agility with my dogs. The first week I returned to training, things didn't ran well, I wasn't concentrating and both Sizzle and Sipzie didn't understand what I want. I feel really sorry for them. I determined to go back to my routine and I tried hard. Last week, I was so much better, I handled the dogs well and I determined to train hard this winter for a much better season next year.

I was looking back some videos, hopefully they will inspired me ...

Here are some from Dundee, this was Sizzle last Champ class of the year as I missed Chippenham. I can't leave Sing at home or in the hot car that weekend after his surgery, so I decided we will stay at home and chilled. 

I didn't do very well at Dundee, I got ill from the last day of our Scottish holiday. By the time we got to Dundee on Friday, I was very sick. I fell over seven times over the weekend, I just can't get my feet on the ground. The Champ was on Sunday and I make sure I save up my energy for that. 

This is the Champ Agility, we got 5 faults on the very naughty see-saw:

Luckily, Sizzle got a good place in the Champ Jumping, 2nd place to give us a chance in the Final:

 

Final? I messed it up big time! All the dogs before us ran clear and I determined to go clear and fast but I am just not experienced in handling the course. I over look the jump after the cloth tunnel/chute. And I never thought if I am not ahead of him, he will take the wrong jump to cost us elimination! I was really gutted as before the elimination, his time was good enough and a couple of seconds faster that the fastest time then. Oh well!

Oh, what can I say about Little Miss Sipzie? She was on fire in Scotland, apart from the time she missed her Dog Walk contact, she won all her classes :D

Sipzie - Saturday Graded 1-4 Agility:

Sipzie - Saturday Combined 1-4 Jumping:

Sipzie - Saturday Combined 1-4 Agility:

Sipzie - Sunday Graded 1-4 Agility:

Sipzie - Sunday Combined 1-4 Jumping:

Sipzie - Sunday Combined 1-4 Agility:

Good and Bad of this week

First of all, update on Sing. I have received so many emails from friends asking about Sing, sorry I haven't post an update after the operation. I was too upset. It is not a good news at all. The vet has done everything they could to dig/clean up his paw and the lab result has came back to say there were in-growing hair. What that means, I have not have a clue but the vet has explained that Sing will be cripple for the rest of his life, he will be on and off lame/limping; and his gland is badly inflame, although they have done to clean the paw but it will keep coming back on and off, so he needs medication, probably a very strong anti-biotic to control the inflame, also for the rest of his life. It is so unfair! He so well NOT deserved all this. He is one very special boy to me. He has never set fire to the Agility world nor the Flyball world but he has done a lot FOR ME. He is a wonderful dog to live with and a proud dog to take out and show off with. He has such a good temperament, he knows how to deal with elderly and young children, he is the most wonderful dog you can ever own. I was heart-broken.

It took him more than 24 hours to come off the anaesthetic, when he finally woke up on last Saturday afternoon, guess what he did? 

This picture said it all. That's my boy!

Sorry for the blurry picture! My camera's bugged now and I haven't got a good camera anymore :(((

Since the surgery, we have been to the vet twice for check up. He was rather good not to rip off the 1st bandage for 3 days but then, he's itching. We managed to keep the trendy bandage on until we seen the vet but the 2nd bandage didn't last very long, not more than 24 hours! We had to rush to the vet as the wound is still sore and red but the vet wanted to leave it open to get the air circulate. Knowing Sing is a licker, that's hard work! He was good-ish but soon I turned around, he will lick his wound, which is not good. I put the buster collar on, he tried to take it off within a minute :(

He is not impress with his buster collar!!

how can I keep the wound nice and dry?

So, that's all the bad news and update about Sing.

The good about my week is our training was going on very well, with all the dogs, Sizzle, Sipzie and Sonic. Thursday has now become my busiest day of the week. I have training in the morning and then training in the evening. I haven't got a choice but I thoroughly enjoyed my trainings. The two black ones are doing really well, even Sipzie did some really good work. Our contacts still need sorted out. Whenever she gets excited, she will leap off her Dog Walk, so she still does not understand the criteria! Sizzle is getting really jealous about Sonic. He thinks I am HIS mummy ONLY. It's good to know he loves me very much :)

Sonic started his puppy training last Saturday. It was roasting last Saturday. He started off really well. He is toy motivated, I don't need any treat at all. He did get very tired at the end, must be the heat! Yesterday was nice, it was windy and a bit cold but it was nice to be outdoor. Sonic was fabulous. He is a worker just like his daddy and everytime, he drove to his toy. I've tried to use different toys and he works for any toy.

I've got Colin to video some clips and here is a compilation of Sonic's training week 2:

 

 

 

Look what I received in the post today!

Goodness me! After a really good training this morning with Sipzie and Sizzle, I came home to this:

It seems a long time ago but having receive this, it helps build up my confidence again! I have been NOT wanted to do Agility since I came home from mum's funeral. I have missed all the Agility shows that I've entered and I haven't been training since. Today is the first day I finally pluck up my courage to force myself to go into training mood again.

update on Sonic

I am so far behind from blogging again, I meant to finish posting our Scotland trip but never seems to get around to do it. Since we came back from Scotland, there were too many things happened ... so I have to post whatever that comes into mind now.

Sonic is 6.5 months now, I haven't done much with him compare to what I did with Sizzle at the same age. Consider how little I've done with him, I am very happy with his enthusiasm towards "working with me". He is toy motivated just like his daddy that makes training much easier.  He will do anything for a throw of tennis ball. This part of him is so much like Sing. 

He started puppy agility class last Saturday. I think he really enjoyed what he is doing. For the full hour of puppy agility class, I have not even needed a piece of food, he worked well with the toy. It was extremely hot last Saturday, after nearly 40 minutes, he beginning to feel very tired. Bless him! Although he has learned some of the agility obstacles at home but there are still many that I haven't introduce to him yet, so I think I better get my training shoe on again.

Whenever I have time, I will do a little bit of agility foundation with him in the garden. Unfortunately, I haven't been around much lately and also been poorly and the weather was too hot and other excuses ... he is a little character, I just loved the way he works, his head is down and is driven to the ball/toy.

I don't know what to expect from a 6 months old puppy but Sonic has now progress to full see-saw which I think he is doing very well with. I didn't push to train the see-saw but it just happened. I spent his last two months just to do the very basic see-saw training, only last week that we progressed to full see-saw and he is loving it and I am really happy with his performance. 

Dog Walk wise, we are still running on the low plank. I have changed a different type of rewards to check his stride and I now will stick to just tennis ball. That seems to keep his stride nicely running across the plank. 

Yesterday, I decided to pull out my dusty Channel Weave. I think it's about time he has to learn something new. It didn't take him long to go through the wide channel weave and I managed to close the channel up to 10" within 10 minutes. I think we will stick to that for a long while before I bring them even closer.

He got a little worried about the Cloth Tunnel at puppy training last Saturday. I don't think he really worried about the cloth tunnel but he just don't like people. If the trainer is calling him (I sent him over), he will not go on. At the end, I have to do a lot of recall instead of sending him on. I am not sure how to overcome this problem. I don't think I can really change him to LIKE people. He is interested in people when we walk on the pavement, he wants to sniff people and saying hello but he will not let people touch him. I suppose Agility is the one-man game, so I should be alright but I need to get him over a "judge" trying to judge his contacts too closely! Oh, one step at a time!

Luckily, I have some agility equipments at home, so I can practice whenever I need it. It seems that he is quite happy to run through the cloth tunnel without much help!

here is a compilation of Sonic doing a bit of puppy agility:

 

 

 

poor Sing

For the first time today, in nearly 2 years of struggling to get poor Sing to walk normal; I finally felt relief that he is now properly look after by a reasonably good vet. And yes, I am moving away from my vet after 9 years to a better Veterinary. Although the distance to travel is further and not so easy to get to but I had enough with my vet, I cannot bare to take any of my dogs to him anymore!

Great thanks to Ann who highly recommend her vet to me. I took Sing to see the new vet and she has confirmed what Colin and I thought it was ...

For those who do not know what happened, here is the summary ...

It all happened in October 2009, the Thursday night before Shrewsbury Agility Show weekend. I was playing ball with Sing in the lounge that night while eating my dinner (our usual routine), he suddenly yelp in pain. I was shocked. He is a very tough boy, nothing could get him to scream unless he is extremely in pain, so I was concern. That night, he was unable to walk up the stairs or jump up onto the settee and our bed. There were no vet appointment on Friday and he was looking ok, so I carried on what I've already planned. To drive up to Shrewsbury on Friday night to stay in the Travel Lodge with the dogs. Sing didn't compete that weekend of course. I took him to see my vet on Monday. He was prescribed with pain killer. That time, the vet and I thought he must somehow strain his shoulder. We then have him look by a physio Ray Tent at a show, he did the flicking treatment and told me that he can carry on working after 5 days. Of course, I did. I did Dash 'n' Splash with him 5 days later. It was a 3-day event, on the last day, he slipped on the platform and I immediately see that he is not right and stop there and then. We were back to the vet and more physio ... it has been on and off for a few months and everyone thought it's his shoulder/joint problem. Then, in April 2010, I realised his paw beginning to change shape. I alert my vet, he said there is nothing to worry about, because he is in pain, so he tried to compensate the way he is walking, so he is developing a funny walking pattern and created an extra pad. I am no professional and I am not happy with the explanation BUT what can I do? I keep a close eye on that paw and I tried to massage the paw, hopefully it won't get spread out too much. Then in May 2010, Colin and I noticed he licks his paw more than ever and we sometimes see puss coming out through the pad. I told the vet, he gave him anti-biotic for that. He was on anti-biotic for a long time but there is no improvement on the paw. Sing is limping most of the time, surely there is something wrong with the paw. After a few months on anti-bioctic, the vet gave me a tube of Fuciderm Gel, it sounded like I will apply the gel on him whenever it is sore and basically is almost everyday. Anyway, it's been on going until we went to Scotland on holiday. Sing had to rush to the emergency vet because his paw was very poorly. I had a word with the vet and he said there is nothing wrong on Sing's shoulder/joint, it is the paw and he believe that there is a foreign object (grass seed highly possible) has been living in the pad for months or even a year. This is why he is constantly infected. He suggested I took him to my vet to have him x-ray and operated on it. I have been discussed this with Colin and both of us agreed that we will find another vet to look at Sing's paw instead of going back to my vet which we think he will just gave him more anti-biotic. Of course, I lost my mum and there were a lot of other sad things going on until just now.

Anyway, I am very happy to see a good vet with good knowledge and Sing will be treated and well look after by her. He is schedule to go in on Friday morning to have an x-ray then operation to get the pad sorted. After that, he will need another operation on the "extra pad", but we are doing one at a time. I am so happy that he gets treated properly and correctly and hopefully no more limp from my special boy.

 this is his paw today

Over The Bridge

It has been very sad over here in the last few weeks. Mum is now reunited with my dad and my brother over the Rainbow Bridge. She has been poorly for quite sometimes, every since I lost my beloved brother nearly three years ago. She wasn't coping. Eventhough she was living with us after my brother passed away but she wasn't happy, so we have to send her back to where she really belongs. She then suffered a few strokes and survived until early this year; she had 3-5 strokes within 2 months and left her paralysed. I visited her in March and she was stable then. Her condition was up and down, I knew deeply that she wasn't happy to be alive suffering from losing her beloved son. It was heartbreaking to see her suffering physically and mostly, mentally. I couldn't get her to talk to me but she will answer to my eldest nephew who looks just like my brother. We sometimes think that she must have mistaken Boy as Patrick. 

I was on the phone to my cousin two days before she passed away. None of us were expecting to loose her that soon. I was awake by a phone call from my nephew back home to break me the saddest news. Everything was a blur since. 

The thing that hit me most is to realise that she passed way the same day as my dad, both in Lunar Calendar and English calendar but 30 years apart. The chance of clashing in both Lunar Calendar and English Calendar is so slim and it happened! The journey to Malaysia was getting all of a rush and blur. 

When I returned to UK, I was violently sick for a few days. I know it's the stressed. I am nobody's child! 

I wasn't interested in Agility; walking the dogs has become a "duty" instead of something I really enjoy to be with the dogs. The dogs didn't understand the change in me, they all tried to be closed to me and demanding play but I just felt frustrated. Last week, I gradually feel a little better and the dogs were so happy to have the old mummy back. 

I am slowly recover and regain my energy. Hopefully we will back to routine very soon. 

Thanks to all my friends and family who email/sending cards/flowers. I really appreciate your support in this difficult time. 

 the most devoting mum in the world, sadly missed.

passed way on 10th September 2011

dad passed away on 10th September 1981. He was a wonderful father who I aodred.

 my beloved brother who lost his battle with liver cancer on 10th December 2008. 

He was the BEST man in the world!

R.I.P mum, dad & brother

you are sadly missed 

xxx

Sonic - 6 months already!

This blog has been neglected .. it has been very stressful and sad for the last couple of weeks, this is one of the reason that I haven't finish posting our Scottish holiday and the Agility news.

Sonic turned 6 months on Monday, he is not an easy puppy but we all love him to bits. He loves to play and work, he does not do cuddles. He always carry a toy around and demanding me to play. If I ignore him, he will come and tell me off; first, he will gently using his nose to poke me, if I still ignore him, he will pull my trouser, if I still ignore him, hmmm ... he will "bite" me! He did get his way though!

I am very happy with how he progresses, we do a little bit here and there, mainly some foundation work towards agility. He is a fast learner just like his daddy. I started to put some jumps in the garden with poles on the ground this week. I think its a bout time I strengthen his "working ahead/work away" from me. It didn't take me any effort to get him to work away from me. I set up four jumps in a straightline and he is happily chase after his tennis ball, he even do the run back (just like the Flyball). After two days of running up and down the 4 jumps, he tried very hard to take every jumps. If Agility didn't work out for us, I guess we can do Flyball. We are beginning to introduce "dead" toy at the end of the 4th jump and he is doing well so far.

I also set up a jump-tunnel-jump sequence with him and he absolutely love it. Our major problem now is the WAIT! He has no patient, just like me. He is so excited all the time when he knew something is going to happen. He just can't content himself, he just wanted to go go go all the time. We are working hard on that!

Such a happy boy!

Bonnie Scotland - Day Out ... finding Nessie

We had a day-out to the most famous and beautiful Loch Ness. The scenery around Loch Ness is just plain beautiful. I don't think I will be able to explain that in words. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy all day, so photographs are not the best.

And, we determine to find Nessie ...

Colin is leading the pack ... through Urquhart Bay Wood

LOOK! What did the boys found!

Nessie Sizzle?

Nessie Sing?

 Nessie Sonic?

Miss Nessie?

 RUN!!!! Nessie is coming!!!!

Bonnie Scotland - Day Out ... Nairn

We had a few Day-Out when we were holidaying in Scotland ... our first Day-Out was to Nairn. Nairn is about 18 miles from Burghead, where we camp. Compare to Burghead, Nairn is a big town. We didn't wonder very far, we took the dogs down to the beach and we don't fancy tie the dogs outside and walk into the museum or shops, so we will go to anywhere WITH the dogs or allow dogs.

 Nairn fishwife statue

 The KNIGHTs Shelties @ Nairn

 Sonic and Scara having fun on the beach

 handsome Saturn enjoys the cold breeze

 Sing and his shadow ...

 my leggy boy :)

Bonnie Scotland - hobble holiday ... Burghead

I desperately need another holiday! We've only been back from Scotland three weeks ago and I am stressed already! Not just that, I am agility-out! But I am an agility addict. What can I do?

I am missing my relaxing time in Scotland. That was one very peaceful and relaxing holiday. We were supposed to stay at Burghead for a week then move on to Ben Nevis but we were too lazy and fell in love with the tranquillity in Burghead and didn't want to move on. At the end, we spend two weeks at Burghead Beach Holiday Park.

We were so lucky to have a pitch so close to the forest. We were about 50 yards into the forest and down to the beach. We were like living in the heaven. The shelties love it and we love it. To be honest, I wish we could stay there forever. We even looked into a few static caravans but they are just too expensive that we cannot afford.

We spent most of our time walking in the forest (try not to get lost) and running on the beach. The shelties were absolutely mad. They love the sea a bit too much. Sonic and Sing always lead us to the beach the minute we let them go off the lead. For those who knows Sonic that does not like puddles, let alone sea; he now is another great swimmer just like his daddy Sing. He loved the chase the seagulls and oyster catchers ...

We had so much fun playing frisbee on the beach every evening ... when the tie is high in the afternoon, all of them apart from Seagull when swimming in the sea.

Why hobble holiday? Well, Colin's sore toe didn't get better (his toe is still very sore at the time of posting this), he can't walk so he has to hobble along. For a change, I am leading the pack at this holiday and have him tag along slowly with Seagull ... he enjoyed his book, sunbathing on the beach and he caught a sea urchin!

to be continued ...