Friday 25 February 2011

Camping Craziness

Just a quick post... the agility show entry websites are red hot at the moment!! I know the ever-rising cost of fuel is really starting to restrict a lot of people's dog show entries (which is horrible, silly government, all we're trying to do is enjoy a hobby, grrrr!), but you wouldn't know it, with the ridiculously fast speed that the camping is filling up at some of the popular shows!! Fortunately I am lucky to be able to relatively often have a quick check on the iSS / facebook / agilityforum websites, to have more chance of noticing when the show and camping moves from the coming soon list... am especially looking forward to DIN as I do every year, and Kiah likes the chill out element of the week shows too as you can see! ...Its kind of sad really, but there's a great adrenalin rush when you see the camping available and click on the little 'show entered' box!

Sunday 20 February 2011

Its Been Ages Again!!

It seems to have been ages again since I have posted on my blog, but I just don't have anything particularly exciting to say at the moment, but I finally felt like I needed to update with some news - not that there's been a lot really, even though I still love reading other people's updates, its great to see some positive news around. As you can see, there's been a bit of a title picture change, we took the picture recently and even though its a bit 'grey' looking, I love it of all of them, and thought that the two boys deserved to be on the front too, as they are ALL our little furry family of course - a rose inbetween two thorns I think haha!!

After my previous blog post and our health check up visit to the vet, after one Saturday training session - Kiah didn't quite seem right, squealing more than usual as she was playing raggy, and again as she got comfy on the sofa when we got home - so off to the vet we went again. I will never ever not take them if I think there's something wrong or it is necessary- but that place does seem to be our second home at the moment!! The vet thinks that she probably stretched a muscle in her neck, while being bonkers at agility, so more rest for her and anti-inflammatories... I feel so guilty for probably doing too much with her too soon, while her fitness and muscle wasn't/isn't back up to full strength/power, bad mummy. For her own benefit I put Kiah on lead walks on her harness only, and removed her from all training and competition - including the second part of the BSD world champs selection day. (Just as a side note - many congratulations to all that made the team but especially Jo and Keisha and Dave and Rusty!!) Well I know that she would work through the meds as it makes them not feel the pain (and she has no self preservation!), and I know some people will run their dogs anyway - but that doesn't make it the right thing to do in my eyes, they are our pets first of all and I'd rather not risk something as precious as their health.

So apart from rest and not doing much, Kiah and the two boys have been enjoying some of Alex's company - he had three weeks break between finishing his old job and starting the new one so he has been doing brilliantly at home, tidying, cleaning, decorating, de-cluttering, and generally getting the house completed and ready to sell, we hope! He has now completed the first week of his new job, and seems to be really enjoying it, I know I said exactly the same about the previous one, but I think I really mean it this time, the whole company seems to be better structured, more interested in Alex as a person rather than a 'unit', and something he is really going to enjoy as he can use and improve his languages which is an excellent natural skill, so he is clever as well as being handsome - all good really!! Another benefit of Alex's job is no weekend work still - very much LIKE this!! So over the last two weekends as we haven't been doing anything too manic for Kiah's benefit, walkies has been the main order of the day. Last weekend we had a pleasant walk up at the country park with all three of the dogs (where the new title picture was taken too) Yahoo decided that he would go swimming in the lake and get completely soaked - but he does love his swimming, and Davy and Kiah made a new labradoodle friend to play with. We then had Alex's mum and partner Colin down on that evening and Sunday, which we love to see and the dogs love to have fuss them, so it was a chilled out Sunday with them, very enjoyable and sociable.

This weekend was even more relaxed, the weather has been just grim (again), so we had a very short walk with the dogs in the horrid rain yesterday but an afternoon of chilling, central heating, cuddles with the dogs, and watching dvd's was lovely, then meeting up with 8 other agility friends for a nice meal in the evening, great to catch up with you all. Today has been a little more active, meeting up with Lisa and her dogs for a nice long walk up at the nature reserve, we were out for about an hour and a half and took the camera too, it was a bit rainy/misty/foggy but its lovely to see the dogs interacting together, even if they did come back covered in mud, you can't ever be mad when you see their happy faces looking back at you like Kiah smiley face!!