a very busy New Year ...

 Happy New Year from The KNIGHTs Shelties. 

Sorry Samber is missing from the picture because she just came into season :D

This is my first proper post of 2011.

Our New Year started off with a busy life ...  ALREADY!

We always have a small New Year eve countdown gathering, gathered a couple of our close friends and Colin's brother Russell and his wife KY. This year, I cooked an aqua pie, aka fish pie. Colin renamed it to Aqua pie because I put all kind of sea-food in it :) He joked that I have a whole aquarium in the pie.

 

 

We didn't get to bed until 2am, so we have a good lie-in again. We spent all New Year day walking dogs, repairing the doors in the house, a bit of DIY here and a bit of DIY there ... I hope 2011 doesn't mean DIY!

Other than DIY, my New Year also kick off with an Agility Training Day with Lee Windeatt. We were supposed to train on last Monday but due to snow forecast, the training day was postponed to yesterday in an indoor school.

 

I enjoyed my training with Lee. My bones got very lazy since we broke up for Christmas and New Year. I haven't done any agility for more than 3 weeks. With snow and ice and wet/muddy, this mean I can't train in the garden either. I am rusty!

 

We learned a few skills from Lee; he got us to do a few sequences and from there, we learned how to find the quickest route to cut down the time we wasted. Funnily enough, they way I thought is the quickest for me and my dog prove me wrong! It may look like we took further around a jump wing but that actually save me and Sizzle so much time that I cannot believe it. I think I have to practice and learn how to find our quickest path this year.

I've also learned how to do a "push through" in a better way. I always thought the way I ran is the best and suits me but not after yesterday. I have learned to push through quicker and neater. To my surprised, I always thought if I have a slow dog, which I can keep up with, I should do some front crosses to keep up the momentum and to turn tighter with the dogs. I have not done a lot of front crosses with Saturn or Sizzle much, I guess I am being lazy and not wanted to run too fast as I am so used to my own comfortable pace. Again, I was very wrong about that. If I were to do a front cross or even two front crosses, I would have half a second quicker! Mmmm ... that get me thinking ...

this is one of our earlier sequence that involved two front crosses:

 

 

Today, Colin did another long walk from home to Beddington Park with Sipzie. I took the boys in the car to meet them there, after an hour later! Colin and Sipzie has a lot of energy to kill, so that is a good exercise for them. Sadly, my Volvo wouldn't start again! We had trouble to get it started yesterday morning before going training. I thought after a long drive, the battery should charged up but this morning, it refuse to start again! I think it's time for a new battery.

The sky was cloudy this morning, I couldn't take a good picture but here are some of the boys enjoying their walk and play in Beddington Park:

 here is Sipzie coming into the Park and spotted me but this time, I managed to jump to the side before she head-butt me :) She does love her mummy.

she was so happy to see the boys again, especially Saturn:

 she still have a lot of energy to burn after the long walk:

 what Seagull likes the best? Pose for his photo session :)

 a very happy Sing:

 

Samber decided New Year is the time she should comes into season! I have been waited for her to come into season so I can repeat the mating, hopefully this time she will give me the BOY I've been waiting for. She is three months late but wrong timing. I secretly hope that she will whelp on Sing's birthday (how nice is that?). If I were to mate her this time, and if she is spot on, she will whelp on Sing's birthday, a week after Crufts. Last time, she was exactly a week early, so I cannot take a risk. I have some great supports and offers to watch her for me but I don't think I feel comfortable about it. Not because I do not trust the people that offers help. As a responsible breeder and mummy, I like to be with her and I know if I am at Crufts, I will be stressed and worried about her all the time. It look like I have to wait a bit longer for Sing's son! If I wanted a litter born on Sing's birthday, this means NO Crufts! Mmmm ... what do I want to do?