OMG even longer than normal, rubbish, where does the time go when you're having fun!! I'm just going to have to re-cap over the hundreds of things we have been doing - in tiny little morsels to even think about catching up on where we are today!!
PART ONE - Firstly was the single day of Axstane - normally we do the weekend but I had a surprise booked for Alex on the Sunday - sometimes its nice to do just a single day as it means the whole weekend isn't taken up with agility. Anyway as far as I can remember we didn't have any rosettes or results at Axstane; though we did meet Davy's doppelganger - also has a very similar name to our rat boy. If you look closely they are quite different in build and eyes, but just on first glance it is quite easy to think they are twins.
So on the Sunday - something a little bit different altogether!! Unfortunately we couldn't take the dogs but it wasn't going to be an all day event and wasn't hundreds of miles from home, so I knew they would be ok at home for a little while, and shattered from the agility the day before. I knew that Alex had always wanted to go up in a helicopter and had seen on the internet through pure chance that there was a 'supercar event' on all for charity, and that you could buy VIP tickets for, so I thought I would treat him!! So a helicopter ride across Surrey and (due to it being a VIP) the pick of about 50 or so cars to have a ride in - hard choices... He eventually picked a MacLaren something, specifically picked by its owner for the Gumball rally and had hardly any miles on the clock - its not every day you see something like that!! So I think he had a good time :D
Exciting news next - that most of our friends will already know about already, but its got to go on the blog of course too, to let every one know and make it official!! A few weeks beforehand we had decided that a new arrival would be potentially joining the family... small, ginger, furry, four legged, floppy eared, golden retriever shaped puppy!! We miss Yahoo so much, and even though he is irreplaceable - Alex decided that he would really like another one to join our family. We researched working line retrievers - in the hope they would have a nice working attitude, temperament, looks and potentially one day do agility if he/she wanted to. So a trip up to Northampton and meeting some 5 week old working puppies, completely gorgeous and decided that we would like to bring one of the boys home!! To cut a long story short, we visited them twice more, and we had second pick of 5 boys, and at 7 weeks just before the weekend, we brought the little dude home!!
It took us AGES to come up with a name for puppy, we thought we had decided but it just didn't suit him, so we forgot about it for a while. One evening we were watching one of our favourite films - and the name came to us - EVAN Almighty, and it just stuck and really suits him. While writing, Evan has reached 4 months and is a complete nut case, but has settled in really well, quite confident, very independent, and nothing phases him, lots of fun but very tiring!!
It has been a really good summer this year - or should I say its been a proper summer and how it should be - we have been to a few shows that were just a wash out last year - Tuffley over in Berkeley Castle - beautiful venue and exceptionally hot, Newlands and Agility Club both quite local and reasonably nice weather - and then on to Dogs in Need, our relaxing week away.
Dogs in Need we just enjoy relaxing at, it is a little set in its ways so we are thinking of doing alternative shows next year instead, but as we take it as our holiday we don't mind too much. Risky Roodles was the star of the show at DIN, achieving a 4th, 10th and 13th and qualifying for the finals, what a clever boy!! Unfortunately we weren't able to stay for the finals as we are having building works done at home, but so proud of him, he really is starting to show a bit more confidence. Davy has managed to accrue a few places and rosettes along the way, 2nd, a couple of 3rds, 7th, clever boy, and even Kiah - who is working SO well at the moment, I just can't get it together - got a clear round and a 10th place, in two really messy clear rounds, clever girlie. Puppy dog came with us of course too to all the shows, getting used to tannoy announcements, loads of barking, different people, lots of dogs, weather, noises, and took it all in his stride, clever puppy too!!
Moving into September, can't really believe its a year since we lost our old man Yahoo, it has gone so quickly and as much as I don't miss his 'wet retriever' smell, we do still miss him he was a big character and had such a huge personality. Little Evan does make us laugh constantly though, it is lovely that we are lucky enough to have all our dogs around and puppies are so much fun, if tiring!! We went to Burnham with all four dogs - Yahoo's last show last year - very enjoyable and though the drive up was grim, obviously this corner of the world missed it as the entire weekend was pleasant and fairly non-eventful! All three dogs were working, and all frustrating in different ways!! Kiah wasn't too nuts but had a pole in one, and a missed weave entry in the other, and a missed go round on a hard course, Risk was a bit in 'riskland' away with the fairies in some and too over-responsive to me (not a bad thing) in others!! Davy (with help from Alex I think) was the most unlucky perhaps, he had two near-perfect runs but naughty see-saw in one and naughty a-frame in the other, which would have otherwise resulted in some very good results...
