A Great Walk

I had a days' holiday from work on Friday so myself, Alex and Kiah met up with Lisa and her 7 dogs (5 belgians, 1 GSD and 1 sheltie!), and Angela and her 5 dogs (poodles!) for a long and enjoyable walk in the forest and fields, the weather stayed fab too. I brought my digital camera along with me, and we got loads of pictures of all the dogs having fun and some group shots too. Kiah had a wonderful day you could see it in her smiley face, she adores being able to run around and play with other dogs like this, but especially Lisa's as they all love chasing her over the fields and through the trees and bushes! She also made a new friend on the walk, Angela's small white poodle Lex who joined in the chasing games too!

Cheeky Kiah!

Last Sunday, Alex, Kiah and I all went to my Mum's for a visit as I hadn't seen her in a while - and to take her some chocolates that we had brought back for her from Belgium. We helped mum out with a few odd jobs, then had lunch, and after a short walk down to the sea-front we settled down in mum's front room on the sofa. Kiah isn't one to push her luck, but she is cheeky enough to try and take advantage of the opportunities - should they arise of course ;)! She sneakily hopped on to the sofa, as if to say 'if I sit still and you don't notice me you can't tell me off' and mum allowed her to stay up there, and so with Kiah looking cute and more than comfortable, I got a picture of her!

Discover Dogs

On the Saturday before last Kiah and I went up to Discover Dogs, an event held yearly in November and it is at Earls Court 2, where the public can come and meet lots of different breeds - some of which I hadn't even heard of! After meeting up in London, we travelled up to DD on the London Underground, Kiah was so good on it, even when being carried on the escalators, and lots of rewards for being so well behaved, and as always the tube was a good opportunity to get her used to something different.

This was to be the first day of the event so we set up the stand with lots of new and old pictures and information, showing the Malinois off at its best, doing Agility, Conformation, Flyball, Working Trials and just general fun pictures. So Kiah (see pic) and her two Mally pals Rusty and Tia were there welcoming the public on the Belgian Malinois booth all day, they all seemed to enjoy it very much taking it totally in their stride! Each of the dogs were getting lots of attention and having their pictures taken, doing tricks, showing off, and of course lots of praise and treats. I was so proud of her, it takes a lot out of the dogs being on 'display' all day. After the Tube journey back and the drive home, when Kiah and I got home in the evening on Saturday, she took herself off to bed (my bed!) and bless her she was snuggled up and out like a light!

Mini Holiday

Over the last week I have been on a trip to Belgium (Brussels) to see Alex's home town, and see some of his friends and family over there, as well as - most importantly ;) - meet his Golden Retriever who is called Yahoo - don't laugh, it really suits him! Once his vaccinations are all up to date, Yahoo will hopefully be coming over to stay with us permanently in the new year, as long as he fits in here of course, but I think Kiah is going to like him, he loves to play!

While we were over in Belgium we did a lot of sight-seeing including seeing the Atomium, the Cinquantenaire, the European Commission buildings, and the Royal residence, as well as lots of eating of waffles and chips (not together!) and seeing the local sights. I also visited the towns of Tervuren which is a 5 minute drive from where Alex's home is, and also more importantly we went to Malines, two of the towns where the Belgian Shepherds originated from.

Every other time Kiah would come with me when I go away, but as I hadn't been there before myself, I wanted to see what Belgium was like. Also, I didn't know how she would react to being in another dog's home as she hasn't met Yahoo yet, so for a few days this time she stayed with her doggy pals Rusty and Tia (photo from L-R: Tia, Rusty, Kiah), she had a great time - a mini holiday of her own! I missed Kiah a lot while we were away, so she has had lots of fuss since we have been back, as well as lots of treats and cuddles!

This Weekend

There are fewer shows now it is coming into the autumn / winter (cold!) season, so we haven't been up to much. Today we have decided that we will be entering an open 1-7 agility show in December, and Kiah and I will be travelling up there with Lisa and her Belgians, so we have got that to look forward to too. At the moment we go training twice a week; once on a week day evening indoors, and another at the weekend during the day which is outside at the moment. Kiah has been glad to be at training, she has been very good, with good waits, excellent contacts and picking her feet up too so working nicely. Just me not really working it properly sometimes, we need to start doing some more difficult turns, courses, challenging things and handling bits and pieces so that Kiah realises that not all courses are to make sure she can go as fast as possible!!

So our big mission for the beginning of next season is going to be to win out of G2 and firmly into G3, not just for the fact that I want to progress up the grades, but because Kiah needs to start showing what she can really do and I will be able to improve my handling a lot more.

Apart from agility training we are having a chill out day for Kiah tomorrow, lots of walks with fingers crossed for nice weather, lots of toy raggy, some more trick training, and cooking a roast chicken for dinner!! A day which I don't think Kiah will disapprove of! I know this picture cuts off the top of her ears, but I just love her happy eyes and smiley expression in it, and that's why I have attached it here.

Blog/News Update

Oops, just noticed how long it has been since I updated this. Naughty blogger.

Anyway, we have been up to quite a lot since I last posted, so thought I would fill you in. Well the most important thing is that Kiah's leg has healed up perfectly, the nice vet at the agility show did a good job as its a nice clean small scar and the fur is slowly growing back, so all good on that front, hopefully (whatever she did!) it won't happen again.

For the few weekends we have had off from training, we have visited my mum twice, and had one lovely sunny weekend where Kiah could play a lot in mum's nice big garden (see pic!), and another weekend which was not so nice, torrential rain and wind! Well we had walks down to the seafront on both weekends, managed to take some pictures of Kiah posing (see pic!) at the beach on the more pleasant one of the two, she loves being on the beach, running along the sea defence walls, and investigating lots of smells! The rainy weekend we again went down to the seafront, some of the waves were getting up to 4-5 feet, Kiah didn't get too close but was very impressed!

To help keep Kiah mentally stimulated while we had no agility, Kiah has also been learning the very basics of obedience, thanks to my friend Lisa showing us how to get the very beginnings of how to start learning to heel properly. We are using a clicker, and I can see how quickly Kiah is picking it up. Just need to carry on with this, and hopefully next time I see Lisa we can move on a step.

I think Kiah (and me too!) had started to get a little bored of on lead walks, limited running, AND no training, AND no shows either, so once her stitches were out, we were glad to go back to training as of last week and an agility show yesterday. At the show it was a case of 'dog needs new handler' - Kiah was amazing in both her agility and jumping she was running like a rocket - and no poles down all weekend! The only problem we had in agility was the see-saw, there was just no grip on it at all and she was airborne! Now everyone who knows Kiah knows she doesn't fly contacts. I even saw her try to stop with her claws scratching along the surface, and maybe I should have said steady earlier, but she doesn't usually have an issue stopping. But never mind, it didnt ruin what was a great round, we had great fun, and I know she is a good girl and I just wanted to reinforce our contacts at her speed, so that's why I put her back on!

The jumping was even better, a very different type of course from what I had ever seen before in grades 1-2, but very good nonetheless. The jumps were differently spaced, but Kiah was very responsive and worked well, again handler issues just two obstacles from home! The weave entry was slightly offset from the tunnel, but by the time Kiah was out of the tunnel she would have picked it up perfectly, now silly me decided to put a steady in, ok fair enough, but then not tell her what to do from there!! By the time I had, bless her, I had moved and into the second pole she went. So very annoyed with myself only (not her!) but I don't think Kiah minded too much as we had a good tuggy and play afterwards.

For agility competitions, that's almost the year over really, there are two shows - one up near Manchester and another in Rugby that I haven't decided on yet, but the major agility season is really finished. I'm sure the winter will go quickly though, and Kiah and I will have to decide what shows we are going to do next year!

Paws In The Park

This weekend was one of mixed fortunes, mainly good news though so can't really complain - but just have one bit of not quite so good news, as poor little Kiah cut her left leg somehow, have no idea how as there were no signs of it at all - though fortunately it is not a very deep cut. It is just by her left knee though, so every time she sat down, it pulled the skin apart and just wouldn't heal up on its own, so the kind vet at the show stitched it up and it is healing nicely now. Good timing (if that's possible for an injury!) because we don't have any shows for 4 weeks, giving it lots of time to heal up properly, just rest for her now to make sure it is all ok.

Anyway, back to the good news - the sun was out all weekend and I didn't see or feel one spot of rain which was great, and lots of different stalls and attractions at the show to look around too!! Most importantly though - Kiah got a 3rd place in her G2 agility (see pic!) with sensible contacts, and Ronny and Kiah doing us ever so proud and having a great pairs run on a tunnel crazy course and getting just 10 faults, dogs you were brill!!