crazy

My husband called me CRAZY! He's right, I have been running around like a crazy mad woman in the last few days!

My first successful hatched happened on Saturday while I was away at the UKA doing agility. All my chicken were unsuccessful, a couple of them tried to hatch but died inside the shell. The others died inside without hatching. Very upsetting and sad. The chicken took 21 days to hatch but the very first one actually tried to hatch at Day 20 and the second one tried to hatch at Day 21. After a terrible start of eggs hatching. I was kinda don't want to know about the duck eggs. I was really heart breaking and upset after seeing the little chicks died. This is one of the reason I chose to go to UKA that day. Duck took 28 days to hatch. I have friend who is keeping an eye on the incubator for me. 

While I was in the middle doing the Agility, I've got a text message to say I have a little duckling that made a lot of noise. I was really excited but after reading that his legs are not out yet, I was holding back my excitement. I know anything can go wrong ... Part of me wanted to come home straightaway and part of me don't want to go home! By the time we got home, I rushed to the incubator to meet my little Daffy. 

new born Indian Runner

Following all the instruction from the Internet, we are keeping Daffy in the incubator to dry up but the humidity dropped a lot and I need to increase that to get the others to hatch. I've decided to add some warm water and that's went thing go wrong :( Although I got Daffy out before adding the warm water but he went absolutely crazy in the incubator knocking himself all over the place. He just couldn't settle. I was very worried that I have done something to harm him. Although everyone said leaving him in for 24 hours to dry up, I just can't seeing him running around like headless chicken. I've decided to take him out into the brooder early. I have to set it up at the last minute and kept cuddle him (wrap him in a towel) to calm him down. When he was wrapped in the towel, he was ok but soon he was free, he just can't stop scratching his head, both side. Weird and worrying! It went on until past midnight and I was really tired. Colin against me taking him to bed with us, so I just have to hop he will be alright when I wake up the next morning.

I got up at 4:30am and sneakily go to the brooder and he was fine but soon he heard me, he went crazy again but the happy crazy self. Oh, how sweet! I gave him water and food but he wouldn't eat and it got me worried again. I thought the chick crumbs that I bought is not suitable (sometimes the Internet can gave you all the information to confuse you!), I got panic. Luckily, Maureen said she knew a place where they hatch chicks and ducklings, so we can go there to buy the right food for the little ones.

Hmm ... Maureen drove us to Hoar Park to get some food for Daffy. We were totally distracted by the poultry and waterfowl in the Children's Farm. I was amused by all the pure bred chicken and ducks. As we go along, I fell in love with this little frizzle.

introducing Little Miss Frizzle, she is a Silver Frizzle Pekin

Little Miss Frizzle is very little. OMG, I am actually worry that if a hawk is hovering above might be able to take her away! Well, even a crow will be able to do that! I like her frizzle feather though :) A lot of friends came around to "admire" her but not all like her. Some said she looks like she has been plug into a main! Hahaha ... oh well, she's my little frizzle :D

I also bought two little 4 weeks old chicks to mix with the ducklings and also to give her some company. I have got a Lavender Frizzle Pekin cockerel. I know I have said no more cockerel but he is so cute, I can't resist not to have him. He is very similar to Frizzle but is all grey, they call him Lavender. You can't quite see him in the photo below. He and his friend are rather timid, they have not been man handled before :(

Lavender Frizzle Pekin, Silver Partridge Pekin and 2 x Indian Runners

I've also bought a Silver Partridge Pekin, hopefully she is a hen as we can't quite sure the sex at this age. I am hoping to take a better photo when they are old enough to go out. 

By the time we got back from Hoar Park on Sunday afternoon, our second Indian Runner was hatching. Poor little duckling struggled to come out and I have to give her a hand to get her out. She is rather loud (I hope she is a duck), she has a very calm nature compared to Daffy. Daffy is a little hooligan. Whenever I try to handle him, he's everywhere trying to fly off. I sadly has drop him many times, thank God only very low :)

second hatched Indian Runner, hopefully she is  Daisy not Donald :)

There are still a few duck eggs in the incubator ready to hatch tomorrow or so. I hope at least one will hatch as I like to have 3 ducks. If they don't hatch, I will go and get another one later to keep these two company. 

Right, that's the chicken and duck story. Now, back to the crazy agility. 

We went to UKA National on Saturday. As Sizzle is now semi-retired, I have more time concentrate on Sonic and hopefully encourage Sipzie to come back to Agility. Poor Sipzie has gone through a funny stage that she thinks Agility is torture to her :( She ran very slowly, unmotivated and she would not play with her tuggy and ball anymore. How sad! Away from agility, she will play fetch the ball and tug. Funny girl!

I've entered two classes with her, the Agility and a Steeplechase. She didn't do too badly on the Agility, still unsure about the stop DW, she mixed it all up with the running AF and stop DW. She is very often pop out of 10th pole as well in the competition. I don't really mind her go wrong so long she is happy to run around in a ring. 

This is Sipzie's Beginners Agility: 

Sonic ran over the same course in the Novice level, this is a Tug E Nuff qualifier. Sonic won the class over 5 seconds and he was the 3rd fastest dogs among all heights. I am very happy with that as I know at a couple of places that I have to let him turn wide as I do not want to make a mistake but sadly, we didn't qualify because I tried to go careful in the Jumping round and how many times I reminded myself that Sonic only has ONE speed, there is no steady round from him, the minute he take off, he is off like a bullet and there is no way I can play safe with him. We got 10 refusal over the tunnels in the Jumping!

Sonic @ Tug E Nuff:

After a messy round in the Agility, I decided to run Sipzie in a Steeplechase to boost her confident again. She ran clear and come 2nd in the class. She was 3 seconds slower than the winner who is very little staffie cross. Lovely little dog. I remembered seeing the dog when she first came out.

Sipzie @ Novice Steeplechase: 

On Monday, I travel down to UKA again to attend their Level 2 Judging Seminar. This is my very first Agility seminar and I am loving it. Level 2 is a Game Judging Seminar and I love the Games, especially Gamblers. It's very exciting to learn all about it and also to discuss some course design. The best part of it was how to judge and there are so many angles to look at things ... I can't wait for my next Seminar!

You thought I have enough driving on Saturday and Monday (it's 1.5 hours each way, 83 miles each way); but yesterday morning, I suddenly decided I want to go and do some Agility, so off I went with the dogs. Another 166 miles! I entered Sipzie in the Beginners Agility and she won the class! WooHoo! She got all her contacts beautifully, she didn't messed it up, she ran her AF and stop on her DW and the best part yet to come ... she did her 12 weave! How good is that? I was over the moon with her. I was thinking to do a steeplechase but I thought I want it to end good and that's the only class she ran in, sadly no video, Colin was not with me. 

Sipzie and her winning, she was the fastest time in all heights. 

I've also ran Sonic yesterday in the Novice Agility and Jumping. Well, I used the Jumping round for NFC and he did some very good work and we managed 3 x ketschker turns and he did that very well. I am so happy and the best thing was to send him to the toy at the finish jump. I love to see him driving the finishing jump to his toy. I was losing that since I started competing with him. I am glad to see that is back again. We didn't do to well in the Agility. It was a good weave entry so I praise him "good boy", every single time I said "good boy", he came out. I said that 3 times and he pop out three times! When I shut up, he finished the weave beautifully! I've also noticed one thing, not just on the weave but if he does something good in the course and I said "good boy", he will come to me and refuse something! I find it very difficult not to say "good boy" as I like to praise him when he does something good. I've been saying "good boy" at training and at home and most of the time he stays in the weave. Any suggestion? 

I've  also entered him in the National yesterday. It's an Agility run and I'd like to be able to do something like that. It was a very nice course with some tricky trappy bits but I don't see why we can't managed :) The ran the Maxi dogs follow by Standard, Midi then Toy. 90% of the Maxi knocked the spread after the DW. It was in an angle. I think after stopping on the DW, the dog don't spread out very well? I am not sure why big dogs do that? In the Standard, some dogs knocked the spread too. It actually got me worried as I have never thought about the spread being a problem. Sonic was 2nd in the Midi to run, everyone that entered has to stick with the strict running order. We started off well and Sonic was so fast over the DW and his powerful speed coming down made him miss the spread. It was in an angle, I supposed I should give him a right command or a name call? I didn't do that and he ran around the spread, I was hoping to put him back but he back jump so we got eliminated. The other part that most dogs went wrong is the cloth tunnel to weave and the 2nd last jump to finish but Sonic managed that all beautifully. In fact, he ran a breath taking course after the elimination :) This is the first time I felt really good eventhough a elimination. My confident is sky high when we took the finish jump. Shamed no video. I really wish that was being filmed. 

Right, no more crazy 166 miles everyday. I am having a break from Agility until Sunday :)