wild Wednesday

We are a MAD house at the moment! I have two Skye(s) staying, a black one and a brown one, the brown one I called her baby Skye. Both Skyes are a handful, they are both young and crazy. It is fun to have them around. I really enjoy their company. They keep me busy all the time, I forgot how busy are you when you have a young one, let alone TWO!

I wish the weather is better with the girls staying. We had a lot of rain yesterday, tons of it! This is the first time our garden is waterlogged! Can you imagine having 8 shelties running in and out? I seems to constantly mopping the floor!! :(

The boys, other than evil Titan are not impress with the new girls. Sing, Saturn, Sizzle and Seagull trying to stay away from these mad Skyes. Little baby Skye is the combinations of Sing and Samber. She has Samber's madness and Sing's intelligent.

the wild kid:

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

she is a mad tugger like her daddy, she can tug on her lead for the entire walk!

moody Monday

this picture said it all

St Valentine & CNY!

GONG XI FA CAI 恭禧發財 to my friends who celebrate Chinese New Year. It is the first day of Chinese New Year today and I believe this is the year of the Tiger. We are not allow to celebrate CNY as I've just lost my beloved brother last year and according to tradition, we cannot celebrate any festive seasons for three years. To be honest, any festive celebrations didn't mean a thing to me anymore! 

Today is also St Valentines Day, Colin and I are still very much in love but we don't celebrate. So, what  are we doing then?

Well, we woke up early today, drove down to Dial Post to do "sheep herding" with Saturn! Colin and I agreed that this is possibly the best way to celebrate our love as I love training my dog and he loves watching Saturn "stupidly" (don't ask me why but Colin thinks he is so funny when he herds the sheep) herd the sheep!

The weather wasn't too kind, very cold and miserable. It was snowing while we herd sheep! Saturn couldn't care less, he loves rounding the sheep up and he was very good to bring back the "lost" sheep. I left my doggie car in the garage for repair and they don't have the parts till Monday so we have to drive the convertible. We can't take all the dogs so we managed to squeeze Sing, Saturn, Sizzle and baby Skye in.

here are the series of photos of Saturn herding:

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

youngsters watched and learned:

  

 

baby Skye is here to stay for a week, her mummy and daddy is on holiday. She is settling very well and love to play with her mama and uncles:

Happy Valentines Day!

first agility show of the year

We went to TraVal show yesterday, this is our first show of the year. To my non-UK friends, this is an unaffiliated show, so the wins did not count towards your progression with the Kennel Club Grading system.

As I have no longer have a Grade 3 dog so I cannot compete in the Combined 1-3 classes (what a shame!), I think I need to start a new dog? I always enjoy running a Grade 3 dog. I have entered Sing, Saturn and Sizzle in the Open classes (combined 1-7), so the earliest of my first run would be sometimes after 12noon. This mean I have a lie-in (not!) and do some housework before setting off to the show.

We got there just after 12, the carpark was so muddy and the field was under water! I was so lucky that Colin was very happy to walk the dogs in the swamp for me and I can go and watch some of the runs. The dogs were all covered in thick mud and yuk! The car needs a good clean up tomorrow!!

My first run was with Sizzle in the Small Open Jumping. I think our starting was bad, it was a pin wheel and that slow Sizzle down, I need to try to improve that! The trap that most people worried about is the double tunnels and I saw a few dogs did spun around after they came out from the first tunnel and didn't go into the 2nd tunnel (the long yellow tunnel). I knew my dogs will dive into the tunnels, so I wasn't worried. My only worried is the 2nd last jump. I can't decide to whether to do a front cross or scoop on the 3rd last jump, with Sizzle, I did the scoop and he turned wide but he was responsive and we managed the pivot! WooHoo! Pivot is always my weakest point. Unfortunately we got a refusal in the middle. I cue him too early to turn "right" into the green/white tunnel and also if I have moved a step forward, he probably would take the jump and turn (bad and lazy handling)! He was a very good boy, he turned a fraction too early, otherwise, I think he looks great.

My 2nd run was with Saturn in the same course but medium height. He was too hyper on the start line. After the slow pin wheel start, he actually shot through the tunnel and I have learned from Sizzle and didn't cue him until I see him taking off to do the jump before the tunnel. Unfortunately we got eliminated because Saturn missed the 2nd last jump! I should have tried a front cross from the 3rd last jump with him but I didn't! I did the scoop and he took the finish jump! Bad handling!

My 3rd run, also my last run was the small Open Agility with Sizzle. I was very disappointed there is no Dog Walk in it. We still have to do three contacts, A Frame twice. Again, I cue Sizzle too early after the first A Frame to turn left into the cloth tunnel, he turned before taking the jump! Another refusal there!

I think I must have over practise "come into me" last week that made him being too responsive to my call. I hope this is not a bad start of the season!

Sing is still on the rest, so no run for him. Hopefully he will be back on training again after next week. He is on anti-inflammatory until next week. I didn't run Saturn in the Agility because we are retraining his contacts.  

all photos by: Spidge

here is our runs:

tug

One thing I have learned recently ... once a sheltie has the taste of food, he will drifted away from his toy! This apply to Sizzle!

Sizzle came to me as an old puppy, he wasn't the brave of boy (hence, we started our clicker training much later) and he took more than two weeks to start eating his meal properly. I was worried and started offering him chicken/beef/lamb/fish ... anything you name it, I've tried it but he just not interested in food. Other than he is not interested in food (also make the clicker training hard), he was happy to play his little purple/pink fritter toy with me.

Then, later, when he got a little older, he was still not too keen on food/treat, I bought a lot of motivational toys from Clean Run to encourage him to tug, we managed to do a little tugging but not great, he still prefer me to chuck the toy for him to fetch. I kept one of the toys (like a food pouch with tuggy) for Flyball training only and he was mad each time he saw that tuggy. It was a great reward for him to run back to me in Flyball and also a great reward for me to get him to chase the toy and start a little tugging.

Then, we stop flyballing and go back full time on Agility. Food is not a must but comes into handy if the dog loves the food. With running contacts, toy is great, I can just throw it when I see him hitting the area but not so easy with the see-saw. Sizzle is only just over 4kg, so to encourage him to stay on the see-saw til it tilt, toy is not the best option! I have tried it, he got so excited and leave the see-saw too early. People who helped me train/feed him on the see-saw knew how much he dislike good food!!

Until a few months ago (maybe in late September/early October), he started to take a great interest in food, chicken/ham/roast beef/cheese ... anything. He started to beg a lot from everybody at training. He refused to work with toys anymore or if he does, he tends to lost motivation. I tried hard to get him back on toys and ignored the food but it is not easy if you train in a class. He is ok if he is the only dog there and see nobody feeding their dogs. Unfortunately, in our current class, we were the only one that work with toys! Sizzle totally lost interest in his toy when he smells the treats! When he was in the puppy class before, all the puppy owners were very good, they only use food on the contacts, so all of us were working hard to get the puppies to play with the toys and that work so well with Sizzle. I wish I can go back to join the puppy group.

Last week at training, we were working on a sequence (fig below), jump, A Frame, round the back of jump in front of the A Frame. Eleanor told me this would be difficult for a dog with running contact. I tried that wtih Sizzle, uncountable times, he kept shooting into the tunnel from the A Frame. I thought the jump #2 is more obvious to him, so I must have tried to push him too far left, so he took the tunnel. I just can't get him to stay with me so I can push him to go between the tunnel and jump #2. We tried that too many times and every single time was a failure! At the end, I have to break down the sequence and did the "call in to me" after the A Frame but he still go into the tunnel! We did managed that at last but we were both exhausted!

Eleanor told me I need the tuggy to get him to come into me instead of me chucking his toy to do the "call into me". I totally agree with her but when I have my toy out, all he wants is to chase the toy, he is not interested if the toy is "dead" in my hand! So, I spent last week playing a lot of tugging game with him!

Sing got so jealous and he wants to tug as well. He probably is the best tugger in my pack.

He is the only dog that I can get to tug with command.

Saturn makes me laugh, he loves to chase rabbit and he had caught 7 rabbits in the Common so far but hasn't harm any of them. He loves this rabbit fur tuggy. He just wanted to own it and wouldn't let any of the dogs have it.

Sizzle is having a quite word with Puff.

I must include this picture of Sizzle and his new friend "Puff".

Colin and I wandered around some charity shops last weekend, Colin always search for books and I always search for toys. I picked up a few toys for the dogs. This cute red dragon is only £1.

Happy Half Birthday

Happy HALF Birthday to Sadie, Tiggi & Skye

How time flies!

little hooligan!! they were fed up to have the group picture taken!

that's better! Not really!! Look at Skye's face, it tells it all.

Hope your mummys and daddys spoil you rotten!

daddy Sing and mama Samber sends sloberry kisses xxx

a bit of everything

I was quite busy for the last few days trying to sort out a lot of paperworks, renew memberships, planned which agility shows we can go ... etc. It took me days to sort out most of the things!

Starting last week, we now go back to our usual training, it was so good to be training again! I am really rusty wtih my handling, I keep making a silly mistake! Having a break is doing no good to me!!

I took the boys swimming on Friday, Saturn loves it! You can't believe Saturn wouldn't want to swim in the pond. In the pool, he nevers stop! Each time he bring the ball back, off he dives in again and I always chuck the ball the furthest I can, this mean he has to swim the full lenght of the pool, for full 25 minutes! He is as fit as anything. I still have to be careful with Sing, just in case he pulls his back end again, he wore the jacket when he swims. He is better with the jacket on Friday, he seems to accept it now. Sizzle was funny, he is tiny little boy, when he was standing on the platform, the water already up on his chest so he cannot shake! Bless him! I didn't take any photo or video, I just want to enjoy the swim with the boys!

We had a dust of snow on Saturday, I was disappointed. I like it with a bit more snow to play with but hey ho, I cannot complain. We had a lot of snow recently and I am happy.

this is me and the shelties running in the Common on Saturday.

It was a lovely day and I love being out with the dogs.

On Sunday, I received a text from Miguel saying how well Sipzie did in the show ring. This was her very first show and she looks very promising. I am very proud of her and of course her handler Miguel. Thanks to Miguel for showing her.

of course young Sipzie wants to play with the Border Collie puppy standing next to her!

Hahaha ... I like her cheeky naughty self!

Sipzie today

fitness swim

I took Sing to Greyfriars today. I was supposed to start his fitness swim two weeks ago but I was in jury service, everything has to put on hold, so he is two weeks late into his fitness regime.

Due to his unknown back end injury, the friendly assistance at Greyfriars suggested I put a harness on him to help him swim, with the harness on, that helps him float better on the water and put less pressure on his back. He looks very funny with his little harness ... he hates it!

This is Sing's first swim since early last year. I couldn't take Saturn and Sizzle today with Sing because Sing was supposed to swim with a boisterous dog but since I was an hour early and there was only one cute westie in the pool, we were lucky to join Sadie the westie. We will be back swimming again on Friday, Saturn and Sizzle will be joining Sing in the pool! I am looking forward to the Shelties swim!

getting fit ... and more practice ... and getting ready

With 2 weeks of jury service, I lost a lot of times in getting fit, both myself and Sing! Sing and I are so badly need to be fit for Crufts. As you all know, Sing has been injured since September and he has not done anything since. Me? Probably is the worst! Before I could lost any weight, I have piled up more weight over the Christmas/New Year periods!

We did a lot of flat walking and hill walking before my jury service but then while serving my jury service, I ate more (jury service = sit/wait + eat!) and more weight put up. I am like a full air balloon at the moment!! I tried hard to go back to my daily flat+hill walking routine but I struggled! I am very surprised that two weeks break makes such a huge different!

While I was on my 2 weeks jury service, I woke up extra early to walk the dogs, feed them, go to work; then came back from work, walk the dogs, feed and do some trick training to spend more time with them. By the time everything settled down, it was nearly 10pm and by the time I climb up to my bed, it was nearly midnight! After my released from jury service, I was so tired, both mentally and physically. I still take the dogs out twice a day but I was so tired and spent most of last Friday in bed!

Well, I determined to get fit, so last Saturday, Colin and I did a lot of walking. We took the dogs for a flat walking in the morning, then my brother in-law Russell and sister in-law Kyung came over after lunch, we went out for the hill walking and did a bit of free gym in the park too. I have to say I was tired after that. We went down to our local Weatherspoon pub for Haggis, neeps and tatties, gosh! I ate more than I should. I was thinking, did I managed to loose weight after all?

On Sunday, I booked up a place where we can go practice. I haven't done any agility for 6 weeks, I am getting rusty and lazy! I've got Matthew and Rhoda to join us with their shelties. We were lucky that the day was dry, we don't mind the cold. The owner of the place was very kind to let us use the place for as long as we want. We spent nearly 5 hours there. We ran a bit, stop for tea breaks, have a chat and ran again; then lunch and chat before we decided we have enough. It was a very good practice session. The place is not big but good enough to be practiced on running on the carpet.

Funny thing is, I was worried that we cannot find some courses to practice but when we got there, it all became natural, we started to move the jumps and obstacles around and made up our own courses ...

Saturn and Bracken have qualified for Crufts in the mini/mixi pairs!

The event is on Thursday, 11th of March @ 13:10

for our friends that want to watch our run live at http://www.dfscrufts.tv/

I believe Sat & Brax are the only Shelties pair Team.

The practice session is mainly for Sat and Brax to practice running on the carpet. Matthew and I haven't been running together since our last run at Letchworth but we have a great partnership. Both Sat and Brax are very much tune into their handler, so I don't see any problem there. We did some individual practice as well as practice running as a team with baton changeover. Rhoda was very creative, she used Saturn's fleece lead to make us the baton! Thanks, Rhoda!

Saturn slipped on the carpet three times but that didn't put him off, he was still bouncy and happy after the slipped and continued the sequence.

I've also got to practice with Sing and Sizzle. Sing slipped a couple of times, the first time was from tunnel to the weave poles. He was happy to be doing agility again, this is the first time after his long break. He slipped a few times and lost his bearing. I then learned not to push him and keep telling him "easy ... easy ...".

Sizzle only slipped once, also in the weave, when he came out from the tunnel into the entry, he slipped but he managed to control himself and finished the weave in perfection.

It was very interesting to see how the dogs learning the grip on the carpet. I think Brax and Brodie slipped once or twice, not as bad as my shelties! I also got to run Brax and Brodie, it was something new and I do enjoyed running them, maybe I could steal Brodie to run? Do you think Rhoda would approved? I was surprised that Saturn was happy to run for Matt and Rhoda!

I just loved this photo of Saturn, already turning while he is still inside the tunnel. You can see Matthew crossing behind. I am really amazed how a dog learns so quickly!

Didn't Brax look like a hamster?

Sizzle or Brodie?

here is a few of our silly practice:

2 weeks of great experience

I can't believe I haven't been posting for a week! Not until Colin said to me on Friday evening: You haven't post anything on your blog, dear?

As I mentioned in my last post that I was called for my jury service for two weeks. I wasn't that willing at first. My first jury service was supposed to be the week that I went to Belgium to see Sipzie, I immediately sent them a reply to say I have already booked a holiday but I've got another letter within a week to send me a new date which I CANNOT defer.

Anyway, I have no choice but to go and perform my jury service. Other than my worries about getting Sing fit for Crufts, I actually enjoyed my juery service very much. It was a lot of waiting, sitting around to be called and you never know when are you going to be called ...

My first day was miserable. Got there early, have my introduction, then the waiting game begin ... I've waited all day first day, my name has not been called at all; then into 2nd day, I finished reading my James Patterson's book from the first day and still my name hasn't been called once! After lunch, I was beginning to doze off ...

Someone call my name! WooHoo! I've got a case, at last! I was so excited!! We were at a different court, so we have to leave the building and went to the satellite court.

My first case was not very excited but it was good to learn some new things, new experienced and meet new friends, non doggie friends! We finished early everyday, I was home before 4pm everyday and we only need to be at the Court by 10:30am! We reached the verdict around lunch, so we got released until the following Monday. Heaven!

Into second week, I've got more excited case, whole new experienced and met more new people from different backgrounds. We can't reach the verdict so the case has to be re-trial but I've got released for good on Thursday before lunch!

All done!!

Now, back to my normal routine!!