Success and Sunburn!

This weekend we were at an agility show in Newbury, Berkshire, run by the WBSDS (working belgian shepherd dog society) so lots of Belgians there all turning out to support the club - its nice to see so many. Also, apart from a 5 minute rain shower on Sunday where we managed to hide in one of the score tents and stayed dry, the weather was excellent, managed to get a bit sun burned on my shoulders and face, it was a bit windy, apparently it always is at Newbury, but it was warm and sunny and dry, so very pleased about that.

While I remember, have a nosey around the blogs that I have put on here under Friends Pages, all of them are to do with dogs (which probably isnt much of a surprise), most of them are to do with agility (ooh shock horror lol!), lots of them are Belgian pages (biased of course but there are others too), and I've added some new links recently too.

We had eight runs over the weekend, seven of which were rubbish, mainly thanks to me as usual, a couple of E's and poles down in others. But to overshadow those results, our very first run of the day on Saturday morning we went clear in! It was a Combined Grades 1-2 Jumping class, Kiah and I ran it it in 22.50 seconds and ended up with 2nd place and Best BSD of the class, so two lovely rosettes and a great trophy too. The picture shows Kiah with her trophy, Best BSD rosette on the left and 2nd place rosette on the right. I really have noticed how much Kiah has improved and matured even just over the last couple of months, still as mad and fast as ever, but I wouldn't change her for anything, I am SO proud of her!

Blog update - and Kiah's claim to fame

Just thought I would update you all with my news... well there isnt much, but I needed an excuse to put a picture on, so thought I should update at the same time! We had an agility show on Saturday, Kiah was her usual brilliant self, a few poles down but it was plastic equipment rather than wooden, so that didn't help, one agility class she was absolutely FABBO in, though I messed her up right near the end of the course. She is resting now till the weekend as she seems to have a bit of a limp on one of her front paws, so we will see how that goes and depending on how she is we may have to miss the show (boo hoo!) but I'm not going to take any chances with her. So keep everything crossed for the show coming up this weekend!

Anyway, back to the picture! Kiah and her brother and one of her sisters were invited to go to a photo shoot to be in a magazine - very exciting! The photos were taken by a guy called Tim Rose at MDP - a professional photography studio in Slough, on the 29/03/06 so Kiah was only 3 months and 1 week old - she was ever so well behaved. We were given copies of the photos on a disc to take home which was lovely. The pic I have attached was the one that was used in the June 2006 edition of 'Dogs Today' magazine - if you have it, she is on page 93 bottom left! It is only a small head shot, but she still had her 5 minutes of fame!

2 years ago today!

I was taking some pictures of Kiah this morning on our walk (a bit squishy underfoot to say the least though at least the sun was out) and I just happened to be having a look through some old photos of her as a puppy this evening too. I noticed the dates on some of the pictures and spookily some of them were taken EXACTLY 2 years ago today so she would have been about 4 months old in the puppy shot and obviously now she is 2 years and 4 months. Doesn't time fly when you are having fun with a Malinois! The lighting in the two shots are a bit different - but I have cropped one of the pictures to match the head shots I was taking today so you can all see how much (or little!) you think she has changed! Still beautiful as ever of course - but I am biased!

Our Weekend - and the SNOW!

Well we have had an extremely busy weekend - starting from getting up at 2am on Saturday morning, to getting back at about 8.30pm this evening! Kiah and I had an agility show all day on Saturday, we didnt get any clear rounds but again she was running fabulously - I must remember not to say 'go on' too much to her other wise I just make her go even faster!

Today we had a breed show where Kiah came 3rd out of 4 dogs in her class, looking beautiful as ever, though I think a little tired from travelling in between the agility show and this one. The big surprise though was the snow - I haven't seen 'proper' snow in years and this was at least 4-5 inches deep! So exciting - I think maybe more for me than the dogs! It is so difficult to get a good picture of her because of her beatiful - but dark - coat! ANyway this picture is of Kiah having a quick photo session after playing in the snow before charging around again!

I took lots of photos over the weekend of the dogs in the snow, agility, breed showing, which was great fun too - and everyone I said I would send photos to I promise I will do tomorrow!

Bad Blogger - but lots of good news!

Apologies, I haven't updated my blog in absolutely ages, I have no excuses... But anyway I have news and its all good :)

Well the important thing is, the agility show season has started up good and proper, with the most extreme weather conditions! The first show was local, and on both days we had snow, wind, rain, hail, sleet...nice! Fortunately the fab show committee managed to move most of the show inside and so it carried on! The second show was this weekend, a further drive but on Sunday it was sunny and warm I was just in a t shirt, crazy weather but I'm not complaining!

Anyway my good news! Kiah pups and me got our first clear round at the first show (in the snow I might add!) in Helter Skelter jumping - we ended up with 2nd place and a lovely trophy and rosette - see the picture!! I am so proud of her! Oh and because it was an Easter show I got a chocolate easter egg too (that's long gone!) and though Kiah didnt share that I bought her a pigs ear instead!!

At the second show I was very proud of her too, there were two rounds where she just had one pole down in each class and she would have won both. She really has matured so much from when we started, but she is still mad and its great! We have another show this weekend so both Kiah and I get to see our dog and human friends... I'll let you know how it goes! Hopefully a bit sooner than last time!!