Warm Walkies

A few weeks ago there were a stunningly warm few days including the weekend, so we spent a lovely morning with friends walking the dogs for a couple of hours, in the local country park.  We had recently purchased a new-to-us DSLR camera from a friend, again a Canon as we really like the brand and the quality, but this time a 40d, an update on our older 350d, so we thought we would take it and try it out.  The dogs had a great time playing with their friends, racing along the sandy lanes, in the cooler forest, across the greens, through the streams, and most importantly downhill on the offroad cycle paths - obviously when no bikes were around, a lot of fun.  The new camera did good too, we got some good photos of our three and our friends three as well, this is one of my favourite ones - you can see them bursting out of their wait, and the focus in their eyes as they heard their 'ok' release command!!

Birthday Boys!!

Wishing a very happy birthday to Risk (little dude, noodle, ewok, not poodle), who turned 1 year old on the 22nd September!! A very happy little soul and always makes you laugh, he is a little bit sensitive, and a little independent at times, but great fun and likes to play.  Really starting to enjoy his agility training, and bounces around when the clicker comes out to do tricks.  Very handsome and loves life and everything in it, our lovely boy!!

And...Wishing a very happy birthday to our first rescue boy Davy (doofus, rat boy, sofa dog), who turned 4 on the 1st October!! Such an easy going boy and also a little sensitive but very different, much more closed.  He is just starting to come out of his shell in a big way and has started playing with toys, a big step for him.  Also very handsome (not biased about my boys at all!), and takes everything in his stride, our lazy boy!!

Sunshine Through The Rain

We have had to make quite a few trips down to Mum/Dad's house to check up on things, do the gardening, sort out post, keep the house tidy, and generally start to have a sort out.  Its kind of sad for me going down there, but of course I have lots of lovely memories - and loads of photos to look through which I quite often do when I go down there, so its not a bad place to be, it will always be my home where I grew up.

I had to make a trip down on my own for something a couple of weeks ago, it was nice to be there again, and I took the dogs down with me, though it was absolutely miserable on the whole journey down, and not much better when I got there.  The dogs are always really good when we go down there, and after a play in the garden and a chase around the fruit trees (which always makes me laugh) they settle down really well, so I managed to get a few things sorted out.  Just as I was deciding whether to bother taking them out in the rain, I realised that it had actually stopped raining, the temperature had risen, and the sun had broken through the clouds, so we went on a really beautiful, quiet and peaceful walk along the beach, we all had a fantastic time, lovely end to the day.

Yahoo, 09.03.99-10.09.12

The Monday straight after the Burnham weekend was a very, very sad day for us as we had to make that final, fateful decision for our 'old man' Yahoo.  He was 13 and a half and one day, so for a big heavy built (but not overweight) retriever he was a pretty good age, but it didn't make it any easier.

After a vet visit the week before, due to his general health starting to go downhill, I suppose we knew that sooner or later it would be that time.  So we spoiled him rotten entirely that one last weekend, with lasagne, knuckle bones, sardines, biscuits, and chocolate (not all at the same time!) and of course sunning himself all weekend too, we made sure he enjoyed every last minute.

On that final journey, he had his favourite thing ever - a big chocolate bar all to himself, and lots of tasty biscuits while we said goodbye, with his dignity firmly intact.  Yahoo really was THE golden retriever - he was the most gentlemanly, kind, good natured, understanding, gentle, respected, calm, and friendly dog you would ever meet.

There's no one like you, our one and only 'orange dog' - we love you and miss you an awful lot.  Look after mum and dad for us, and wait at the rainbow bridge, until we meet again... xxx

Beautiful Burnham

For once we got to Burnham early ish on a Friday night and set up quickly, thanks to a friendly Dartford crossing and a reasonably easy journey up, even though by the time we got there around about 8pm, it was already pitch black, shows that autumn and eventually winter, is coming and just around the corner.  Both evenings in fact started to get damp and frosty as soon as the sun started to go down, and the night times were cold and very dewy too.

The day times were not to be sniffed at though, both days were beautifully warm and sunny, still reminiscent of 'summer' even though aforementioned seasonal days were few and far between!!  We managed to take a lot of photos at this show of the dogs, and this picture of Kiah is one of my favourite that has EVER been taken, it was very sunny but she was under a canopy (sitting on 'her' camping chair!), so I can see her beautiful dark brown eyes, but without any shadows, it shows her colour and her mane off, and she is smiling at me too.

Alex spent a lot of time at this show cleaning our van, and caravan, and helping to clean other peoples too... and some times he was having a nap in the sun!!  So unfortunately he didn't get to see all of our runs... it was such a great shame that the two he missed were the ones that we did really well in, we managed two clear rounds, and ended up with two second places, one on Saturday and one Sunday, and two lovely trophies and rosettes!!  I really was so pleased with Kiah, we so rarely manage to get any clear rounds let alone two, they were nice challenging courses set by Hayley Bray, and Neal Lye, but a little bit 'unusual' - and quite often they are the ones we do well in!!

Olympia Semis

So it was the time for the Olympia semi finals being held up at Stoneleigh, but rather than being in the ABC finals this year, Kiah and I had made it to the 6-7 instead, so proud of her but incredibly nervous being up against a lot of the top handlers in the country.  All of the finals were being set and judged by Arthur Rodgers, they were fantastic courses, perfectly set for the grades, tricky, lots of clever areas for mistakes, but plenty of room for handling and lots of exciting parts to enable power and speed, very enjoyable.

My warm up running order was number 20 so roughly in the middle of the pack which was fine, though I'm not sure whether it was good luck or really bad that I ended up with running order one in the semi final, typical!!  I think I controlled my nerves reasonably well (for me!) and after walking the course, I stayed calm and Kiah was good too, we had no poles down at all, working together and listening, and just an unlucky refusal, with a finish time that was up there with the others, so I was really pleased, and positive going into the final.

Walking the final course I really enjoyed the look of it, I must have walked it about 6 or 7 times just so that I made sure I had the hang of it, and I think at this point it was more than likely better that I had running order one, as I didn't have time to worry or stress!! Kiah was fantastic with my handling, just a couple of unfortunates - I had a couple of areas where I hesitated which was just a silly mistake by me, firstly which resulted in a pole down, and then another pole down a few obstacles later, when I called her too soon and I didnt need to.  Such a shame as again we had a time that wouldn't have been discarded.

There was so much positivity to take out of these two runs, I was so so pleased, and as much as I was a tiny bit disappointed in the poles coming down, Kiah's contacts were brilliant, and her turns, and her weaves and the entry too, and the go round, and driving to the tunnels, and taking off at the end to power to the finish line, clever Kiah bear!!  Good luck to everyone that is off to Olympia, I just hope we can qualify again, the nerves and adrenalin is exciting - would love to give it another go!!

Fun Agility For Charity

On the bank holiday weekend we had the in-laws down, its always nice to see them I really enjoy it (I don't even call them the out-laws!) and I think they enjoy seeing us too. It is lovely that they adore their 'grandkids' and the feelings are most definitely reciprocated, the dogs love them all too and all the extra fuss they get, and they usually bring dog sweeties which are always appreciated and welcomed!!

The Sunday and Monday we had plans to go to the agricultural show, and the demonstrations organised for the public and to raise lots of money for charity.  Everyone there seems to always manage to donate a few pounds which is great, either just through watching our displays or taking their own dogs around the have-a-go agility. This year the total was just over £1400 on the two days, which is split up and some is sent to a cancer charity, some to a dog charity, and the rest to other listed charities that are chosen through the organisers.

Its nice to be able to help raise a bit of money while doing something great fun with friends and the dogs, they absolutely adore doing the agility.  In the initial part of the displays, Kiah got to show off in her weaves, Davy got to do a jumping sequence, and little Risk got to do a recall over some little jumps, all done brilliantly.  Even young master Yahoo got to walk around the arena with Alex's parents, be the perfect role model for kids, and collect some charity money. Great fun for us all, and against the odds and the forecast, it stayed sunny ALL weekend!!