A great weekend!!

Smudge and I have just come back from a great weekend with Nancy, Andy and their dogs. We had such a good time! It was so nice to get away, plus of course seeing friends, and to top it all off a really interesting training day. But we are both now exhausted!

We decided to travel by plane for this trip, as I really didn’t fancy the boat at this time of year. The local inter island airline is the only airline who will accept dogs for travel now, and they let the dogs sit on the seat right next to you!

The flights were interesting to say the least, and just slightly scary! The planes are absolutely tiny, and only take about ten passengers and the pilot. It was pretty difficult to take photos as there wasn’t much space, but you can get the general idea. Boarding was funny as you all just pile out onto the runway and they tell you one at a time where to sit. You then have to climb over the seats to get into position and your bags go on your lap!


If you look carefully you can see the pilot at the front. Yes, pilot in the singular...no co pilot!! What on earth would happen if he had a heart attack? I dread to think, and I certainly didn’t want to ask! Somehow I don’t think Smudge or I would have learnt to fly that quickly! No other staff whatsoever, just ten passengers and the pilot. In flight service is a packet of biscuits passed along the rows! Lol!!

I have also decided that I really don't like being able to see the pilot. I'd rather not know what they are doing! Ours was reading a leaflet and drinking coffee. I am sure they probably do this on all the big commercial flights too, but what you don't know doesn't harm you. When you can see him it is scary…."KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!!!!!" (or the sky I guess!) I kept thinking!!

It was great that I had Smudge sitting next to me, and he wasn’t bothered at all. Took it all very much in his stride, probably more so than me in fact. He was such a perfect traveller. He trotted through all the airports happily (and quietly, much to my relief! haha), through security, was fussed by loads of people and sat and waited for hours at a time on his mat. I am so lucky to have such an easy dog! He is an absolute pleasure to take anywhere.



Perhaps the funniest thing was this…….

Yes that is a cardboard box........ covering the engine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which was right behind my seat. Can you believe it?!?!?! Slightly un-nerving to say the least!!!! I had to take a picture as I really didn’t think anyone would believe me otherwise!

All that being said, I still think I would do this trip again, as it was so nice to have Smudge with me the whole way, and it was certainly quicker than the ferry! You just have to grit your teeth and tell yourself that they do this everyday!

So, onto the weekend itself and we had a great time. When I arrived on Saturday we went for a lovely pub lunch and then a great walk. Saturday evening Bernadette, Dennis and Karen came around and we had a fantastic dinner cooked by Andy. All in all a great day!

Sunday was the training day. In the morning I watched the puppy class that Nancy took and helped restraining puppies etc. It was great to watch, especially as a few of the puppies had running contacts and it was interesting to see the progression from the last time I had seen them. Gives me inspiration for my next dog (perhaps! unless I wimp out - running contacts scare me!) Smudges class was later in the day, and we started with contacts. It was a great session and we came away feeling that we had definitely done some very worthwhile training. I really enjoyed everything we did and it has given me the motivation to concentrate on those contacts!

Unfortunately disaster struck towards the end. Smudge went into the cloth tunnel and came out on three legs. He was really badly lame, to the point where he wouldn’t put his paw on the floor. Strangely, it disappeared and he was completely fine again as quickly as it had happened. I briefly carried on, hoping it was nothing, but at the start of the jumping section it happened again and he came out of the pipe on three legs. So we pulled out of the session completely. This is now worrying me slightly as he did a similar thing on the beach last week. I have booked an appointment for him to see the vet on Wednesday. Hopefully it will be something minor. The strange thing is that he is not lame at all now. And in fact wasn’t straight after it happened both times. It happens so quickly. For now he is on strict rest and observation!

All too quickly our weekend was over, and we flew home on Monday. We had a two hour stop in Alderney, where we had a nice (if very windy) walk on the beach whilst we waited.



Thanks to Nancy and Andy for a fabulous weekend!!

Now back to reality and packing the house ready to move. Groan!

Changes

Autumn has gone missing! It was definitely October last time I checked the calendar, almost November. The only reason you would really know is because of the leaves falling and the nights drawing in. Other than that you would think it was still summer as it is strangely warm for this time of year. Somehow it just doesn’t feel right! I want to be wearing hats and scarves for bonfire night, not shorts and a t shirt! (ok well maybe not that far, but you know what I mean) I guess I will live to regret saying that come January, but for now I am kind of missing that autumn feeling. The good weather has meant that we have had some lovely walks recently. Dogs aren’t allowed on the beach during daytime hours in the summer, so ours don’t often venture down there. But from September they can go down when they like, and it has been lovely to have some great beach walks in the warm sun.


This afternoon I went to wave my gran off on her holidays. She is going on a cruise for almost a month........but wait until you hear where! Antarctica!! I am not going to say how old she is, as a lady never discloses her age, but needless to say she is my grandmother, so you can guess the rest. And she is going for a whole month, on an Antarctic expedition, following the footsteps of Ernest Shackelton on his polar voyage. Is she crazy? Certainly brave!! They will be navigating some of the roughest seas in the world. I really hope she has a fantastic time and that it is everything she hopes. It is her 'trip of a lifetime' and something she has always wanted to do. The fact that I will be sitting here worrying about her every move is neither here nor there! Geez is she trying to give me a heart attack? Its normally her worrying about me....this time the tables are well and truly turned! I only hope I am as tenacious when I am older!

So on to other news and we are moving house! Can you believe it was 15 months ago that we decided we wanted to move across the water and it feels as if we are no closer at all in some ways. Frustrating! Just when we thought we were all sorted, life threw a whole load of unexpected stuff at us! I guess it is all part of a greater plan……..hmmm at least that is what I keep telling myself. So for now we are moving within Jersey and every spare minute is spent packing and sorting. God I hate moving!

This is going to be a really strange move for me, as we are going to the house that my great grandmother lived in when I was a child. She passed away 7 months ago and I took my grandmother back to look around the property last weekend. Neither of us had been in there for 10 years, as my great grandmother spent her final years in a care home. It brought back an amazing amount of memories, some good and some bad. It is going to be very strange to live there anyway, for however long, that’s for sure!

Then of course we have the other side of the coin, leaving the house where we are! And that is going to make me very sad indeed. I love my house. Lots. It is so perfect for us, but more importantly for the dogs! None of our current dogs have ever known anywhere but here as their home. This house was our first home together after we were married and it was the first place that I really felt was ‘home’ since I originally moved out at 18. Still, life moves on, and no matter how much we like the house where we are we have to be sensible. At the end of the day it isn’t ours and never will be. This place holds a lot of memories though, of all sorts of things. And sadly of some dogs who aren’t with us anymore and will be left here, in their favourite place under the trees. God I am sentimental aren’t I? I don’t have a picture of Chloe or Alfie on the computer as that was prior to our digital days. But take my word for it, they were perfect.

After all this sentimentality Paul brings me straight down to earth with a bump and reminds me that our house has no heating, no double glazing, rising damp, a small but thriving lizard population in the front porch and is starting to fall down!! Rose tinted glasses?? Ok maybe just slightly, but it still won’t make me any less sad to leave. Perfection takes many forms!

So a new chapter begins! Lets hope it’s as good as the last one!

Happy Birthday Smudge

Today is Smudge's 3rd birthday. I cannot believe how quickly time is going. It seems like only yesterday that he was that tiny puppy!

And what a wonderful three years we have had! This dog has given me more than I can possibly say and I am so lucky that he shares my life. Thanks Smudgelet - here's to many more!!

His birthday began with a nice breakfast at a beach cafe (ok so maybe that was more for us than him :)) and then a long walk on the beach. My young cousins came and joined us and they all had a great time!! The girls loved being able to walk the dogs down to the beach on their leads. I am always really proud of my dogs around children. They are so gentle and very patient, but then I guess it helps that both girls know how to behave around dogs too. Scooby even plays tug with Erin (who is only 4) and considering the size of him and the strength he has, showed great self control and was very considerate of her. It's great for us to have access to such sensible children so that the dogs can get used to them.

And I love this picture of Maisie - look at those teeth!!!!!!

Later at home, Smudge decided that as it was his birthday he would just like to try and help himself to our chicken. Well why not? Bad sheltie dog!

And after a hard day's celebrating, he finally crashed!!

New vehicle!!

We bought out new car back in July, but never actually got around to putting pictures on the blog. We were also waiting for our cages to arrive, and they are finally here! So now the dogs can travel in style - no more makeshift cages!! I love the new set up, and it makes me feel much more comfortable having them securely in their own purpose built bunk.

The new car. It was a minor battle to get the Paws passed by Paul, however with some careful negotiation he eventually gave in. The one condition was that we had more blue paws than pink (I think there might be one less pink?) Well, he didn't specify numbers!! :)

And finally the gang in their gorgeous new cages, complete with brand new vet bed and cage beds. I bought all the bedding back in July when I ordered the cages but saved it until now as I wanted everything to be nice and new (yes I am that sad).

And so the season draws to an end.......

We finished our UK season with Stour Valley and Trent Park. I loved Stour Valley and will definetely be going back. It's on a beautiful venue, in a really nice part of the country. The day parking is fantastic as it is right next to the rings, so I could watch what was happening and didn't have to keep running back to check if the course was ready for walking!! It was a lovely relaxing day. As an added bonus Smudge won the 5-7 Jumping, on a tricky course, so I was really pleased with that!

Unfortunately we hadn't entered Stour Valley on the Sunday, instead we headed off to Trent Park which was a shame as it wasn't quite as nice! The venue was on a steep hill and was very bumpy!! The exercise area was the size of a postage stamp and was part of the car park, so the more cars that turned up, the smaller the exercise area got, and the more dangerous it became as the cars were driving right through where you were walking!! I know it's a day show, so the need for a large area isn't as great, but I do still like to let mine stretch their legs and have a run after a long drive, especially for the non competing dogs.

The nice thing about this weekend was that we decided to turn it into a mini holiday and stayed in a cottage in Hastingleigh. It was really high up above the South Downs and had the the most amazing views. They were very accomodating and although they normally only accept two dogs made a special exception and allowed us to bring our four. It was so nice to get back to a proper sofa and a comfy bed instead of a tent or a caravan!! What luxury!!

So now Autumn is here, and I don't think we will be doing any more shows in the UK this year, although I am trying to get some time off work to go for a few training sessions.

My winter project is going to be contacts (surprise surprise!). After a brief flirtation with the idea of retraining running contacts I have decided that I will persevere with stopped. A long and detailed analysis of my contacts this season, plus snippets of advice from some very helpful people :) has brought me to a conclusion and from there I have developed a plan. I think the problem is three fold:

1. The old classic....Not enough proofing! Lots more work needed on actually trying to make him miss them. I am so used to 'setting him up for success' that it is hard to change my mindset and set him up to fail!

2. Jekyll and Hyde syndrome!
In training Smudge is angelic. "Me? Miss a contact? Never!!" :) In the ring he can be a devil "Contacts? What contacts? No don't make me, the yellow bit is electrified!!" Clearly in training I am not creating the same adrenaline rush and excitement that he gets in the ring.

So, up to now I have walked Smudge as normal on training days. However, that means he gets to training nice and calm, very attentive and trotting around like the perfect little sheltie. But I need to train him when he is in 'demon mode'!! So as tough as it is, he now gets no walk on training day (much to his disgust when he sees the others go out). He also has to sit in the car whilst I teach the first two classes, so by the time I get him out at the end to do my own training I have a tazmanian devil on my hands, much more like Smudge in the ring! Now I can work on harnessing that into doing what I want!!!

3. To correct point 1 above, I have been doing all sorts of things whilst he is getting into position (thorwing toys etc). Do the obstacle alone, and he gets it perfectly, waiting for the release. Do 2-3 obstacles before and he still gets it. Do a longer sequence and he busts. But watching it back on video you can see that he does try to stop, he just can't anchor himself firmly enough to stick! It seems like the more speed he builds up beforehand, the harder he finds it to stop. He just cannot physically do it. Back to lots of work on his core stability I think. Over winter I am going back to doing lots of work on this and hopefully that will help him to be able to transfer his weight appropriately and stop on there no matter how fast he is going!
Lots to work on during the dark winter nights! And they will be here sooner than we think. I love walking at the moment as the leaves are falling, and there is the feeling of autumn in the air. A couple of people near where we live have started to light their fires in the evening this week, and that smell in the air is gorgeous!! I think autumn is one of my favourite seasons :)

And finally, a pic of Maisie in her new bed.....doesn't she look comfortable and snug? Sadly she hasn't been well again recently, so is very appreciative of her plush bed. She's a little tough cookie though and is not letting anything get her down! :)


P.S This blog post was brought to you with the kind assistance of a very bad sheltie..........

Paws

This weekend we had a local show, so no long travelling! How lovely! The weather was just beautiful and it was really nice to have a 30 second walk to the ring instead of the hikes we have been getting used to!!

Mannix had his first competitive run at this show. It was a really positive experience for him in a lot of ways, but not so positive in others. I had almost allayed my fears about him jumping large, but they are now sadly back with a vengeance. He really struggled to make it around a full course at full height, and it wasn't comfortable to watch. He only did two runs each day, but by the second day had to drop down to medium height and run NFC (you can do that at Paws shows) as he just couldn't cope and we just felt it was too much for him. I don't think this is to do with fitness, as Paul has done so much work with him to build up to full height (sometimes at the expense of other areas he could have been working on). So I guess it's back to the drawing board! Still, no matter what our concerns over the height, we wanted Mannix's first show experience to be a positive one, which is why we dropped him down a height, and I think he thoroughly enjoyed himself!! He was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day and crashed on our bed like the spoilt sheltie he is as soon as we got him home.

I am not going to go on about it, as I am sure it is an issue that has been done to death, and most people are fed up hearing about it. I know you will always get borderline dogs, whatever the height, and to be honest up until now it hasn't been an issue that I have given much thought to. But now that I have a dog directly affected by it I can completely understand peoples concerns. I doubt it is so bad if the dog is longer bodied, but Mannix is really short in the body and just cannot lift and extend so easily. The only saving grace is that he isn't very heavily built, which is a real blessing. It's a shame he loves it so much. If he was a dog who could take or leave agility then I think Paul might look at doing alternatives with him. But he really loves it, and is so enthusiastic! We will see what happens.

Other news and Paul turned 30 this week! He had lots of nice presents, but the funniest has to be a power drill. An old man's present if ever I heard it!! When your birthday list includes a drill, it is a sure sign that you are 'maturing'!! Haha! He is off on holiday for the next two weeks and spent this morning in B&Q. God only knows what I will find each day when I get home, there will be shelves everywhere!!!!!! He also had a birthday cake presented to him at the Paws show. I loved the candles!!

So nearly the end of the season for us. One more weekend left in England, which will be Stour Valley and Trent Park. I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone past!

Bank Holiday Sun!!

We had sun! And lots of it! It was sooo hot here yesterday, it reached 27 degrees. Phew! Having seen the forecast we headed out really early to walk the dogs before it got too hot. And we were glad we did, as even at 8.30am it was starting to really heat up.

With the rest of the day Paul and I decided we wanted to do something completely different for a change, so we headed off to the Durrell Wildlife Preservation Trust, often incorrectly referred to as Jersey Zoo. I say that 'zoo' is incorrect as Durrell is very determined to make people aware that they are in fact a Wildlife Preservation Trust. This means that all of the animals there are an endangered species, many due to the selfish actions of man, and Durrell is heavily involved in ongoing work to protect them from extinction. I am not a fan of traditional zoo's, in any shape or form!! But this really is quite a special place with a really important message. The grounds are just beautiful and it was lovely to wander around watching such fascinating animals up close. All the animals have the most amazing areas to live in, not the typical 'enclosures' you see in zoos. They try to replicate their natural habitat, and I have to say the results are just wonderful! It's an amazing place to visit, and really makes you appreciate our world and what we are doing to it.

Once it had cooled off we took the dogs down to the beach for a swim. It's such a shame as I forgot my camera, but both Mannix and Smudge had their first swim! Neither of them have ever been brave enough, but with a little encouragement (i.e me carrying them out!) they both discovered that they really wouldn't drown after all! I really wish I had the camera....Smudges face was a picture!!!

Sadly I had to go back to work today. I could really get used to not having to work for a living!! The good news is that I only have two more days to get through before we head off for Letchworth this weekend. Have to break myself back into the working routine gradually you know! :))