we are back

We are back from Belgium, exhausted but happy!

More news later, now enjoy these couple of puppies photos:

left to right: Chiqi, Ronin, Ice, Sipzie and Ike

left to right: Ronin, Chiqi, Ice, Sipzie and Ike

missing him

I miss my little Sizzle whizzle. I left him with his auntie Eleanor after our training this morning. I am sure he is enjoying following Igloo everywhere.

I love his cheeky self!

Sipzie

photos courtesy of Miguel:

Look at this innocent little face

with brother Ike

maybe I should teach her to go IN the tunnel instead of jumping onto the tunnel, hahaha ...

good balancing on the mini A Frame

target already?

Now, stop taking anymore photos of me!

separation anxiety!

I feel like I am more attach to my dogs than they are to me!

Christmas is in the corner, so far we have a couple of nights out to meet up with friends that we only see once a year! Leaving the dogs at home prove to be very difficult to me. I know we only go out for 5 to 6 hours the most, still, I don't feel comfortable without my dogs! My second nephew and my little friend Ling are staying with me, so they are there for them whenever we are away. The dogs still have some company in their own comfort home but I am not happy. I WANT to be with my dogs, ALL THE TIME!

I already feel the separation anxiety in me before we leave for Belgium! These dogs are just fantastic to live with and fun to go out walking with and they are all eager to please me when we try to learn something!

is this Samber?

is this Samber?

No ... she is Skye

Jolanda and Skye came to visit today. We had a nice long walk in the Common. Skye is a little loonie when she sees her mama Samber. She just wouldn't leave her alone, she wanted to play with Samber all the time. It is actually very nice to see them playing.

Skye with her parents

seasons photos from the youngsters

We managed to put up our Christmas tree yesterday. I wanted to take some photos of the dogs around the Christmas tree as the sunlight was really good but just haven't have time to do so, we seems to rush here and there this weekend! It is good to have the Christmas tree up to make me feel Christmas is coming ...

Saturn was very suspicions why his daddy bring a tree in the house!

We received this Christmas Stocking from Rachel as a pressie from winning a photo competition. Here is Sizzle showing off his "hold" skill he learns recently.

I went Christmas shopping a couple of weeks ago and bought this funny costume, didn't Samber looks cute in the photo with her Christmas costume?

I will try to post more photos of the gang later when I have a chance to take the photos.

drive

Someone was talking to me recently, she said: your English shelties has no drive!

I said to her: Of course my English shelties has drive, they drive me nuts!

I remembered last year, I was chatting to a few people at agility shows, they also tell me: your English shelties has no drive. I was very upset then but not anymore!

this happy bunch drive me nuts all the time!!!

winter morning and crazy shelties!!

After the rain stop this morning, we have a few hours of sunshine so we could take the dogs out to the Common for a good walk. Eventhough the sun was shinning but the temperature was quite low. My crazy shelties just loved the water!!

I can't stop Sizzle swimming in the pond!

Sing is very jealous that he is not allow to swim! Look at his grumpy face.

Saturn just loved running in the water chasing his coots!!

counting down ...

Little Miss Sipzie is 7 weeks old today. I am counting down the day to meeting her ...

very excited! Can't wait!!

picture is courtesy of Miguel

for Ricky

Hi Ricky,

This is Kaolin & Poultice BP that I put on the shelties ears when needed:

this one for Ricky

This post is for Ricky

Ricky asked me how is Samber's ears ... Well, Samber's ears are very stubborn and they have been left prick for too long. When I got her, she was about 17/18 months and both ears were very stiff to bend over.

After the puppies left for their new homes, I started treated the ears with some strong grease with the help of kaolin & poultice. The ears will stay tip when the kaolin & poultice is on. I am hoping with the long term help of kaolin & poultice will eventually tip her ears. Samber's ears were looking good until we have this wet weather. Once her ears get wet, the kaolin & poultice will wear off and her ear will go up.

So, Ricky, we are still trying.

Iphito Of The Five Colors

I was sitting in front of my computer feeling really blue ... it is wet and cold out there, can't take the dogs out ... then my mailbox beep, here comes these two gorgeous pictures that make my day.

introducing this little Miss ...

Iphito Of The Five Colors

she will be called ... Sipzie

rainy blue

It has been raining almost non-stop over here for the last few days but knowing me and Colin, we still walk the dogs no matter what the weather is like; so you can imagine we all covered in mud everytime we come home! Yesterday was the worst of all, we were totally soak but the dogs were happy! Weird animal!

Training wise ... can't do anything in the garden, with the rain and wind, the willow tree leafs cover the garden and I have been unable to go out to clean up the dog mess, so I don't fancy stepping on the dog mess!! Also, the lawn needs mowing but it is too wet to do so! Due to the high wind we have recently, I put most of the equipment aside, look like we are not going to do anything in the garden for a while!

a very wet garden!!

Sing is starting to look better, at least I can see he is less stiff. I wasn't keen to put a coat on my dogs, I think they look rather silly with it but after talking to Sara last Sunday while she was treating Sing, I agreed with her to give Sing a coat to keep his muscle warm in this cold weather. I bought a waterproof coat for him. Someone I train with has one for her JRT and it looks very good on him, so I decided to order a 4oz coat for Sing. The coat arrived on Thursday. We went out walking with it on Friday and Sing didn't seems to mind which surprised me. I also take Sara's advise to give Sing his warm up massage before taking him out walking. I am so please to see Sing feels much livelier!

Still no ball for Sing but he found a ball in my jacket pocket!

Sing showing off his new coat. I am very happy with this coat, the outside is waterproof material and the inside is soft & warm moleskin. We went out walking yesterday in the pouring rain for more than an hour and Sing's body is dry when we got home! I since went to order five more for the other dogs!

Samber's coat is starting to grow again after she has her babies. I am surprise that she looks more Golden now!

Thought I would post this photo of Seagull, he looks very cute in the pile of falling leafs

to speed up or not?

We had a good training with Sizzle today. He was crazily fast but responsive! We moved back to indoor school last week. I have a feeling that he prefers indoor than outdoor. I can see he goes faster indoor but he is more casual in speed when we train outdoor. I do not know if the toy I am using today made him go crazy. He always prefers a "talking" toy, he is not keen on squeeky. I only discover that early this year when we went to Bernadette, she had a crazy laugh toy by Red Nose Day, I went and bought one from Sainsbury and Sizzle was mad about it, unfortunately we over play with the toy and it stop laughing now. Colin was glad it finally went dead as he said that toy made him go mad! Anyway, since then, I started collecting "talking" toys for him. I bought a Shrek and the Donkey from 99p store a few months ago, Shrek is now dead, yes, over play again! Today, I took Donkey to training. I show the Donkey to Sizzle on the startline, he didn't show he is hyper (he nevers did!) but when he goes, he shoot like a rocket. I was shocked and don't know how to response to his speed so we went wrong the first time, so when I got him back and restart him again, I was more prepare and we both went really well. We did the pull through and tough weave entries and Sizzle didn't put a foot wrong. Almost towards the end of the training, we had a small disaster. It was a tunnel and 3 straight jumps home, I pushed him to GO ON and he was fast and misjudged his pacing and knocked hard on the 2nd jump. This reminded me of KC Festival where he hit himself so badly on the pole at the practise ring. Luckily Sizzle is getting mature since, he was happy to go again after the knocked but show himself down. Sensible!

After today's training, I have two questions in mind ...

1. TOY - I always know Sizzle prefers a "talking" toy but because it talks so I cannot take the toy to competition near the ring to wind him up, what should I do? I tried to vary the toys at training but he definitely put up more gears when comes to his favourite talk toys.

2. SPEED - to speed up or not? Sizzle is teeny weeny 12", up against those 13.5" fast dogs, we don't stand a chance, so I always encourage him to speed up. At many occassions (at training), when we have a straightline jumps, I tried to push him so hard that he lost his pacing and kncok the bar. I really don't know what to do, to push or let him go on his own pace? I want him to understand that he should go as fast as he could when comes to straightline?

here is tired Sizzle with his talking Donkey, after training.

a mother's instinct

Colin showed me this link last night:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1230489/Squirrel-attacks-dog-Hero-squirrel-saves-baby-eaten-dog.html

I was amazed by the mother squirrel's act. From a dog lover's point of view, in the first picture, it didn't look like the dog is going to harm the baby squirrel, he maybe want a game with the baby squirrel but for non doggie lovers, they think a dog chasing a squirrel is cruel.

All my shelties chase squirrels and I know they never going to get them, is just like in the wild, some animals chase another animals, is a circulation. You don't expect to see a mice chase a cat, do you?

just a few photos

We were very lucky to have a few hours of lovely sunshine so I can take the boys (and girl of course) for a walk. It is a shamed that I cannot do a long walk with them. Sing is still looking stiff and a little tired after the massage on Sunday. His hind legs are less agile, I guess this is due to the tightness of his back end, hopefully he will look better in the next couple of days. Eventhough he is stiff and tired but his mind is very active. He still bring me a ball, how can I tell my boy that he is not allow a ball game for a while?

my very special handsome boy

I just loved this photo of Sizzle chasing the crow, so close yet so far!

this little mischievious is looking out for more crows

my neoghbour repaired the blown down fence from last week a couple of days ago but it didn't last, after a stormy night, this morning we woke up with two fences blown down!

weekend

Nothing excited happened over here, the weather has been bad for the last few days; it was cold, tons of rain and high wind, there is only so much we can do, dog wise!

Friday was Colin's birthday, we went to a local restaurant to have a meal and we were surprised it was their Elvis night, so Colin has free entertainment for his birthday. Well, the Elvis impersonator was a bit disappointed, won't go into details.

Elvis singing The Wonder of You

Saturday, we had a small do for Colin, just invited a few close friends for an evening drink. I've ordered a special cake for him online to be collected on Saturday around noon time from Kingston Upon Thames. God knows the traffic on Saturday in Kingston is a nightmare and with the rain and wind ... we can't even find the cake shop! Our stupid Tom Tom took us to the other side of the river and we have asked a few people but they have never heard of the cake shop! Ah? We even rang the cake shop to ask where are they and the shop assistant wasn't helpful at all, she cannot explain where they located! Arrrggghhh ... Anyway, we drove back to the busy side of the river and Colin has to jump out from the car while I stuck in the traffic to look for the cake shop. According to him, he has to walk miles to find the shop and I managed to pull over to a public car park. Well, at the end, I don't know where he was and he don't know where I was; we were on the mobile phones telling each other what shops we saw and we still unable to find each other!! How stressful!! Colin has better road sense than me, so he found me at the end!

Because Colin was running around to find me in the rain and wind, the "negative calories" cake got slightly damaged when he got into the car but it still very tasty!

this is Colin's negative calories yummy cake!

Luckily, we have someone to look forward to to distress the cake pick up journey! We pop in to Sunbury to see Skye. Jolanda has taken her to Hannah's Co-Balance workshop. We meant to get there before she started her workshop but with the traffic and lost in Kingston, we didn't get to Sunbury until 3:30pm. I wasn't sure if I should go to distract her but I just can't help myself. I was dying to see her. Jolanda takes such a good care of her, she looks happy and content. After she spotted me, she just went crazy on me! We had a little play everytime she was in the queue but I was glad to see her work, she has no fear on any of the wobble boards, she even did sit, down on the wobble board. What a clever little girl. I think the best thing was Jolanda was able to get her back to work straightaway from my distraction. For a 14 weeks old puppy, that is awesome! Jolanda must have been working really hard on that. Well done you two!

We couldn't stay til the end because we need to go back to our guests at home but I was so happy I've got to see my baby.

On Sunday, we went to Kerena. We have arranged for Sara to treat Sing and Rupert (Kerena's dog with hip problem) at Kerena's house. Sing got treated first and he was very good with Sara. He was calm and let Sara worked on him. With Sing, we know the injury has been built up over the years of playing ball (jumping in the air catching the tennis ball), his shoulder injury is secondary but the main problem is the back. You know what I am going to say ... NO ball in the air for him! I have to teach him to fetch a rolling ball!! This is going to be hard!

Sing is very tired yesterday, luckily the weather was rotten so I cannot take the dogs out, that give him a good time to rest and recover. He is still looking a bit tired this morning but I am sure he is alright.

this is what he does all day yesteday

this one for Colin

I found this very cute little Happy Birthday message on youtube. I didn't make this, well, you can tell that they are not shelties! (do you think I can teach mine to sing Happy Birthday? That would be good, won't it?)

It was made for the Queen mum's 100th birthday by one of the national papers.

but I think Colin would rather prefer this one:

Anyway, Happy 48th Birthday to Colin!

who said you cannot teach an OLD dog a NEW trick?

So, Sing is still waiting for his first treatment, Sara has got the referral from my vet, we have arranged for Sara to come and "sort" him on Sunday! I just can't wait to make him feel better. Sing is an easy dog to live with but he is also an active dog, he loves his ball so much, he is constantly searching for a tennis ball in the house and in the garden. I have hide most of the balls on sight but he is just too clever, he always found one and bring it to me.

I thought I will think of some tricks to teach him instead, hopefully that will take his mind off the ball. Over the years, I have taught him most of the tricks and he knew them well. I have run out of trick ideas!

I am a Silvia Trkman fan, I think she is fabulous, I just loved her and her dogs. Her running contacts are awesome and I like her trick ideas. She always make them look so easy. I found this little video very enjoyable. Sing knew most of the tricks other than HUG and walk backward and put the hind legs on something.

Yesterday, I decided I will teach him HUG ...

From the video above, I have noticed Sing loves to use his paw and now I know these two little guy below must have inherited from their father:

Zap at 3 weeks

Skye at 2.5 weeks

Now, the youngster's turn:

You must wondering why Sing and Sizzle kept lying down in front of the Allyoop? Well, I used the Allyoop to teach them "send away" (means go away and touch the stick and lie down until I released you). These boys are too clever, they think they know everything when they see the object! Hahaha ... I love shelties!

Jumping, put it together - Thank You Nancy for a great day!

We had a very busy weekend. North Downs Show on Saturday and Training on Sunday with Nancy Hudson. I thought the weather is going to be worst on the weekend but Saturday wasn't too bad and first part of Sunday was actually sunny. The sun has been really helpful to me because I broke my glasses (arrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!) when we arrived for the training day. I am not too bad for a short sighter but with glasses, it definitely help a lot. I train with Sizzle in the morning and with Saturn in the afternoon. I was actually very worried how I would train Sizzle without my glasses, I do not like to make a stupid handling, he is a very sensitive dog but everyone was very patient with me. Thanks.

my broken glasses

I was so much looking forward to this training day; Not only Nancy is a superb handler but she is a great instructor and great motivator too. I always enjoy my training day with her. She watched us and gave us advice on our weakest point and the way to improve them.

The Theme for this training day is "Jumping, put it together". This is purely a Jumping Training Day, so no contacts involve. I have noticed Sizzle prefers Agility to Jumping, I thinks he gets rewards on the contacts but not on the jumping, he definitely is faster in agility so this is a good day for him to learn some jumping skills. He was slow to start with, I do not know if he is still tired from Saturday (he looked tired and lie down on my camping chair most of the time, not like the energetic Sizzle) but he slowly pick up more speed, it could be the confidence grows?

Nancy set up 3 jumping courses; we spent more than an hour on the first course, we all did our first run the way we would run the course, then Nancy broke it down to a few small sequences to work on the hot spots. I like Nancy's teaching, she MAKES us try the way (handling) she wants us to run, afterall this is a training day and we have to learn something. I know my weak point, I am totally hopeless in pivot. I always put in a front cross instead of a pivot in competition but sometimes you have to do a pivot. This remind me of the Combined 6-7 Jumping course we ran on Saturday. My pivot with Saturn was horrible, he turned so wide because my handling was crap. I found myself station in the same spot waiting for him to turn. With pivot, the handler need to do the pivot as well as the dog but the handler do the pivot in the tiny spot. I think my body movement is very stiff, I am not agile to rotate.

I always have a problem with Saturn argues (he barks) with me when I send him to the tunnel. This only happened after he had the biopsy operation in July 2008. He used to be a tunnel vision dog before the op, he loves tunnel more than anything but not anymore. If you put a tunnel and a weave next to each other, he would choose the weave instead of the tunnel where many dogs will choose the tunnel. Nancy suggested I need to do a lot of sending into the tunnel with him. I am also weak at wrap the wing, with Saturn, my cue is always late and also I think I give him the wrong command. I used "back" for turning away from me, I used that a lot when I do a rear across and I realised I don't say "left" or "right" eventhough I teach them left and right, maybe I have to teach them left and right for wrap the wing? I recall a couple of weeks ago we went training with Nancy and Andy, Andy took the Jumping course, we did a sequence with directional commands, there is a wing wrap and rear across, I know Sizzle is stronger on the right turn, when we did the wing wrap, I told him "right" and he did that beautifully and came to the rear across, I told him "back", he turned the right way but wider, so Andy suggested I used the "right", I did that the second time and he actually wrap the wing. Now, it got me thinking ...

You see why I like training day, it really got me thinking ... I may not absorb immediately but I am thinking about it and look for the way I should improve.

here is a little video clip from yesterday, I only picked two sequences, I am not going to upload all, that will bored you:

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Thank You Nancy for a great day!

Now, this is not training related but the storm has done some damaged to our garden. We had a fence down between us and our neighbour. I saw the broken fence on Saturday afternoon after we came back from North Downs show. Colin suggested we don't repair it just yet as the weather forecast for the week is more rain and wind. Luckily our dogs are so well behaved, they only stand in front of the gap to look through the neighbour's garden but has never cross the boundary. I am not too worry if they do, I know both our gardens are secure and they dogs won't be able to escape.

did you see the gap

closer look

the messy garden after the storm!!