Happy New Year Everybody

Weeeeheeeeeeeee, new year, new season. I am excited as I will have Rivi to run in agility, so game on. Happy New Year. The video shows the guys opening their Christmas presents. The photos are a bit smeary as, we got mud on the lens whilst walking and did not realise until uploading the photos ha ha

Resurfacing

What a lovely Christmas Break, it is great being home with the guys, having great food and having time to just chill out. It is sheer bliss, but today we are getting back to normal. Got some great presents and have some agility DVD review, such as Susan Salo covering jumping, Susan Garrett- Success with One Jump. I am really looking foward to getting some serious swotting and analysising done. That is one of the good things about training, it keeps you mentally on your toes as you always look for ways to improve your performance and how you coach yourself and your canine team mate to stronger and more effective teamwork. Thank gosh for clean run and the lightness of dvds that make it so much easier to widen your knowledge base.

Merry Christmas Everybody

Have a lovely christmas and get dancing. Enjoy the spirit of Christmas.

Christmas nearly here :-)

Well, the tension at the weekend was hard to take, never done so much physical work in the garden. It is so much easier to compete than rooting for people for sure. Didn't Nancy, Nicky, Ken and Marc do well, guiding their partners into the final round. Way to go guys! Its a sort of commiserations and congratulations thing. It is great seeing dogs flourish through their agility training. To the eventual winners, well done dudes.

I was gutted with the tv coverage, let me explain...... I watched some of the Olympia coverage in the afternoon, had to have a break from the gardening at some point! The presenter said "there will be coverage of the evening programme on the red button channel". I was like woohoo, I will see the Novice Stakes final. Thank you, I was so pleased, a bonus Christmas Treat. Only to find due to technical difficulties it was not on. OOHHHHHHHHHH I was so so disappointed. Next year will have to sort out a solution as I do not want to miss the holiday treat?

.........................In the meantime, Zev has been telling the Santa Bears what he and guys would like for Christmas, as they have all been so so good;-)

Woohoooooooo Olympia - Good luck

Good luck to all friends and their wonderful canine team mates, at Olympia. Nancy of Hudson doglets has written such a nice good luck and even sweeter tribute to Bernadette & Hex. Hope everyone has a fanstastic time, sorry I won't there to cheer you all on, especially my Marc and Wings (sorry, but he is my hubby, I have to say that ;-)!)

Why am I not going to cheer everybody on? I just could not face putting Zev, Rivi and Big in kennels. I did it for Marc last year and the Rivioli, was not impressed at all, complete opposite to the rest of our guys who look upon it as another adventure. Also with the trauma of having to have her urgently spayed recently, it turns out my staying at home plan, was all for the best anyway.

Christmas is A - coming.......

Yesterday we put up the Christmas Tree, tiz only little but it was brought for us, when we first started to live together, and we do not see the need to change it. So it is well over 15 years old, and I guess that is our sustainable contribution, if it is good and lasts we will use it as long as we can. I made the mat for it with embroidered holly leaves and berries, and ribbon edging. Each year we get them out, hoping that they will be ok to use for another year. I love arranging the decorations, and seeing the lights a-twinkling. I hope I never grow out of that, that sense of Chrismassyness (not sure if that is a real word!) and a warm glow of the excitement of a special holiday break to come. For years we did the family trips, now we hole up together and make it a special together time, giving Marc a chance to recharge his batteries and have extra quality time. The other special thing this year is that it will be Zev and Big's first Christmas with us. It will be fun to wrap their presents and give them for the first time. Zev, was fascinated by the whole ritual and then he did the cutest pose, just as we were about to take a photo. Nuts is really clever at unwrapping, and gets real excited. He checks the parcels under the tree on Christmas morning and then trots back to me, waiting for permission to get his present. Yep, Christmas is a-coming.............

Mr Big Writes Again

This dog is just so darn cute. He is a poser'holic. Just look at him using the lap top and sticking his head over to pose for the camera. He now has learnt the following on cue, sits, downs, target. He has a real zest for joining in everything that the collies do, something he picked up from Zev no doubt, as Zev cannot be left out of anything or he is most miffed. Despite his tender age and tiny size, he is clearly part of the pack. And he loves walking. He cares not if its wet or muddy, running he must go (restricted to a suitable time duration for a youngster). On a soppy note, we really feel so lucky and blessed that this year both Zev and Big, have joined us in life's journey. They never fail to make us smile and keep us entertained with their enthusiasm for life and exploring everything they come across even if to us it is gross as finding a dead rabbit on the field, yuck! ;-) P.S Rivi continuing to improve:-)

Babyoli doing ok :-)

I know the blog has been pretty focused on Rivoli, but boy has she needed lots of attention. 48 hours on from her spay, she seems to be doing ok, the wound is neatly done and today joy of joy she wagged her tail. Which is a hugh relief, I do like to see waggy tails of the happy kind. Marc, was super on the first night and kindly slept in the guest room, so that Rivi could be on the bed right next to me. She stayed in the same spot all night, and it was reassuring to have her so close.

Zev, has been oh so good as a maturing male, he has had to cope with living with a bitch that was rumbling/false starts since May and then a full season in Oct/Nov and another in Dec. Whilst he has clearly been frustrated and many bits of furniture have been humped, he has never been over the top. That is one of the things I love about him, his ability to communicate his feelings in a way that is to me is a fascinating and intelligent use of canine body language both body and vocalisation. And as the photo from the summer shows, Rivi and Zev are so good together, and have great fun.

Botheroli!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Poor Rivi :-(

Poor Rivioli, took her to the vets today, as I was thought that she was coming back into season and my concerns were confirmed. This was really disappointing as she only finished her last season, on the 10th of November and I had arranged after much research for her to have an ovariectomy in the New Year, at a practice near Norwich. Which despite being a considerable distance to get to, seemed to offer the best solution. (As far as I can work out.) However, that has all changed as today my vets are concerned that she has polycystic ovaries and that they need to investigate what is going on immediately. So tomorrow she is booked in for surgery and its in all likihood she will end up being conventionally spayed. Poor Rivi has struggled with the hormones having rumbling starts on and off from May until October this year. She was 18 months and 2 days when her first proper season occurred. Poor thing, she must feel like she has semi-permanent PMT. Hopefully, she will be all sorted out tomorrow and no more hormones that are going 'haywire'.

Crapioli!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went to UKA yesterday, and it was really good, as it told me where the missing link was in my A-frame training. Rivi's dw & s-s are coming along a treat, but I always felt the a-f was bult on air, nice but how far can I push it. The UKA course was perfect to try, sent Rivi to a-f and cut across to pick her up on the jump wing that followed. Rivi said 'hang on I'm coming' which is lovely but from a technical view point I want her driving down the a-f. not looking at me. Then clarity rained upon me so hard, it was really hard not to be cross with myself. Poor Rivi, what a crapioli moment by me of cause. But "dont worry Rivi I have seen the light" so to speak. Generalisation training for the a-f coming up, I am on a mission.Yahoo to yoga mats and simulation of contacts.

Raz and Marc did perfect training round for agilty, as you can see. Although actually watching the vid you can see he should run harder when training, it is all to easy to fall into 'training mode'.

Big is Now officially Vanitonia Mister Big

Marc & Big

Its cool, Big's KC papers arrived from the breeders, he is now officially known as Vanitonia Mister Big. Well for a tiny man, he sure has had a big impact, he is so bold and feisty it is great taking him out and about. In fact he is 'me, me, me' . Zev has a play buddy who is smaller than him and the collies are very indulgent and gentle. Marc, is really smitten, which is great as he was starting to take way to much interest in Zev. I thought no way is he having my Zev, but who can blame him, Zev is so super! So I launched my action plan to get him a toy poodle. Nothing like the persistence of a Wynne in action. The action plan was successful executed in the form of Big. Mind you, Big was so cute when Marc met him, I did not need to convince him at all. I had always said when Jigs was 10, it would be time for Marc to have another little 'un, and the little 'un has arrived well and truly.