Down hill from now on...

For those of you who know Leslie you might be interested to hear that today he gave in and purchased a Sat Nav. At least navigating to shows will be less stressful now, if he believes it. But i can see him driving in the wrong direction for a 'quicker' route and just ignoring it...

Does this remind you of anyone Mum?

Our very own elephant

I've been teaching Tig and Emmy the circus elephant trick so I've been spending a lot of time playing with the washing up bowl. This has given it a good appeal to Dylan who now calls it a 'click box', he calls the clicker 'click.....ER'.
So here's Dylan being a circus elephant



He loves his 'click box' he uses it to get on the bed, stands on it to look out the window and to wash his hands or get his tooth brush. When i tried to take some picture he just kept turning his back on me and because he is getting abit of a sense of humour now he was giggling his little head off!

Dylan

Whilst downloading some dog pictures on to photobucket i came accross these. Both photo's were taken at about 6 weeks old. I always regret the fact that the quality is not better on the coloured shot because it captured him perfectly. He had such dark hair and eyes when he was born. The black and white shot i took whilst holding the camera out to the side and i've always loved it.

Our trip up north

We took a long trip up to Newton Heaths 600 miles in total and sadly for me that equates to 120 miles per elimination and a 6th in agility with Tig, where i could and should have done better. I was cross with myself but it was a good experience, i found my dogs a bit clingy in all the noise and i couldn't get away with using verbals and trying to get in the next position too early. We are back again for the Wyre show so i'm pleased to get another go and i hope i can do better for them.

Leslie on the other hand had a great day, Fizzy LOVES the noise and hype, she won her Gr4 jumping and even Billy coped with the extra hype and won the jumping TFO. Sadly i don't have that filmed because it was a very exciting, seat of his pants style run!

Here's Fizz's jumping round with a christmas twist.

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Brrrr its cold out there!

I cannot believe that on Monday i had such a lovely sunny morning with Bernadette, OK it was a little bit cold but nothing like it is here today. Jack Frost has arrived! After Bernadette's very helpful training on Monday i took the dogs over the fields behind the factory. I was so lovely and i thought to myself its November and the dogs are clean! I wish I'd had the camera. I took it out on Tuesday instead, Tuesday was not such a sunny day and the dogs were NOT clean but we had great fun with the camera anyway.

This is Emmy, after they'd been through the long wet grass to try and get some of the mud off.

I've been thinking for a while that poor Fizz doesn't get much of a mention on the blog and so i made the effort to point the camera in her direction. She's such a funny looking think sometimes she looks really odd. But i did get some great pictures of her, i just had to be patient. I tried to get lots of head shots so you can't see her coat because she does have a lovely face but i did manage to get this one of the ugly sisters! Sorry Laura and Lesley!

But if they are the ugly sisters then Dot must be Cinderella!

We don't meet anyone out the back so i can really let to dogs run and run (this is why i can't take them all out in an exercise area together). Here is them doing their out run but at least i know they will come back, although i think Fizzy had other ideas!



Finally Tig and Fizz lay down for a chat actually it looks like she's given him a cold shoulder but thats women for you, he'll get used to it!

HE HE HE

Thought these might make you smile...



He calls them his 'glass' and he loves wearing them!!!!

Autumn Jobs

Why is it that once the shows are over you never have all the time that you think you were going have! Partly i guess its down to lazy weekend mornings but mostly i think we just have so many jobs to catch up on, ones that we put off all summer. Last week with the help of Little Red Tractor (Dylan's favourite) Leslie has been catching up on 3 years hedge trimming!






Its a huge job and not really a one man job either but he's getting there, The one behind the dogs is not done yet although he did cut a path so people could get through to the agility field easier.

The other job we did last weekend was take the Dog Walk in strip it back and completly repaint and resand it. Sadly no photo's but it looks great and we had a good time doing it, Dylan especially because he got to play on Little Red Tractor all day. The A-frame is next on our list and of course the van cages that Leslie is trying to get done before Newton Heath next Saturday.

Halloween and bonfires

First i have to confess I'm a big kid and i LOVE Halloween, so Dylan and the minded children spent a week getting the pumpkins carved. I always get really excited and buy way TOO MANY pumpkins and then end up doing them for hours. So this year i was well behaved, i took 4 children to Slindon and we took Emmy, Fizz and Dot for a walk in the woods. After our walk we went to visit the pumpkin man. He wasn't there when we went because he's quite old now but his display was still good, this year he did a dinosaur and a pterodactyl, sadly i didn't have my camera. Here's a picture from a couple of years ago when he used 22 different types of pumpkins in his display.

I was good and we only bought 4 Pumpkins, i wanted to buy some green ones because they looked scary but the children were adamant they had to be the traditional orange ones. I let Dylan carve his pumpkin one evening when the minded children had gone because they like take over and do things for him. So instead he had the help of the dogs, especially Emmy who thought the pumpkin was YUMMY!





Don't worry he didn't actually eat any!!!

Here's a couple of the finished ones




Anyway after the minded children had been round trick or treating i took the sweets out to my group and i have to say they are all big kids too and everyone had a ball but there wasn't much training going on!!!

We were then on to the firework season, I'm really glad none of my dogs are bothered but i feel for those who have dogs that are affected by fireworks because they go on for so long not just celebrating the 5th of November.
Osborne refrigerators has a yearly firework party these days and most of the staff come and bring friends, we have sausage in a bun and a huge fire. Leslie spends ages getting the fire built and sorting out the fireworks because he likes everything to go smoothly, he hates gaps in the display. This year was no different and he did a good job and everyone enjoyed themselves we even had some unexpected visitors.

Yes someone called the firebrigade! We;re not sure who it was but they were quite happy with everything and they didn't even want a sausage in a bun! Here's Leslie's fire, we are a long way away from it and it burns down quickly.


I always have reservations about this party as i know that dog people should be against fireworks but the kids and BIG kids have a good time and it's nice to see people from the factory and chat to friends. Dylan really enjoyed himself and like last year he went to sleep half way through!

A shameless Plea!

The minded children and I have registered with Tesco's to collect their sports for schools vouchers and they are doing a great job, but obviously we are competing against the playschools and schools for them so if anyone has any spare that we can make use of PLEASE let me know and i will send you an SAE!!!! You need 1000's to get the big stuff but a few hundred would get us some new footballs and a new net for our goal posts.

Supadog Finals

Back in March this year before i realised what a year Tig was going to have he came 2nd in the Supadog heat and qualified for the final. Eventually the 14th October came round and Tig was going fantastic, I have to say i hadn't done anything with him and we spent the week before in Scotland but it worked to his advantage i think because he was seriously flying.

Sadly for Tig i let him down in the final and caused him to run by Jump 16 (GRRR!) but as you will see by Lisa's wonderful filming he was going great and i couldn't have asked for any more from him.



So we ended up winning both the warm up jumping and agility classes, I should know that is unlucky! As usual the wonderful Linda Croxford and her team provided GREAT crystal and rosettes AND more food for Charlie, which is great as she had just come to the end of the 3 bags Tig won in June!

Thanks

Thanks Karen for the lovely banner at the top!

One of those camera moments

Having read about Johanna's Soda jumping into the sink i think Emmy took a leaf from her book.
We got home from Downlands and she was very pleased to see us, it was a shame she couldn't come but lack of cage space and lack of excersize at the venue ment it was better for her to stay at home with Charlie.
Anyway she was hairing round the place like a hooligan and all of a sudden she ran in through the back door and landed right on the kitchen table. I wish i had a picture! Couldn't help but laugh as i wiped the muddy paw prints off!

Souvenirs

Now its always nice to get a little something to remember a holiday by so i guess its about time i introduced Corriedhu Emmy.



I first contacted Laura about a month before my holiday but i never expected Emmy to still be there when we went up, infact there were other people interested but it must have been fate because she was still there and needed a home and some people to call hers. Emmy has a GEORGOUS temperment and a really good attitude towards life and most of all she LOVES a cuddle.

Lucky for us that she wouldn't work sheep else Laura would have wanted to keep her but she certainly will do agility and she loves her food and toy and she's begining to play tug loads now i will have to take some video cause i know it will make Laura cringe! Sheepdogs just are not ment to do that, but she loves it.



For now Emmy is just settling in and finding her feet, she is for Dan (Leslie's Son)and he's been playing lots of games with her this week. The serious stuff will start later, there is no hurry as this pair are lucky to start in Grade 1 so they can learn the ropes together. Although i think Dylan's trying to steal her, here's his first shot at training caught on camera (rare for me i know!)



Emmy is genetically 'NORMAL' and carries dilute so maybe one day i'll get a blue tri bitch after all.

Arrived

The ordeal of the flight was worth it though as we had a lovely holiday, GG's granny flat is wonderful. Dylan LOVED his grandad who was named 'dad' for the week as apposed to 'daddy' who joined us after a couple of days with a few of the dogs for us to walk. This journey was made a bit easier by 'Vera' who we had enquired the week before. She looks abit dirty here but Leslie loves Black cars and she is pretty much everything we needed.

Leslie just has to find the time to make the cages now...

Sadly i didn't take any pictures whilst we were away so i will have to get my Mum to send me some. Usless i know but i don't have a Dennis! Perhaps he would like a holiday to scotland to take some nice piccies???

Here's a picture i took last week, shame about the red eye!

Scotland holiday - the flight

Well i don't think any of the passengers on the flight from Gatwick to Aberdeen will forget that flight in a hurry. I've always believed people when they have said that kids on airplanes cry because the pressure hurts their ears but now i know differently. Little boys just don't like to sit still, and Mummy's should not attempt airports on their own!
Leslie dropped us at Terminal 1 ages before our flight so with pushchair in one hand and wheelie case in the other i made my way in to the chaos. First problem, there is no one to talk to just computers! I'd never heard of checking in with a computer so that baffled me but i got my tickets and managed to keep hold of pushchair and case, phew. Now what everywhere said international and i knew i wanted domestic so i asked the guy checking in next to me and he said right at the end so push pushchair and pull case all the way down to the end of the building but it can't be right because that's arrivals. Maybe if you've flown lots you'll be thinking this sounds silly but at this point i was thinking this was not a good idea!
Anyway i eventually discovered that i you want domestic flights then you follow the signs for arrivals, silly me should have known! At this point Dylan was fed up but i manage to get rid of the case so that made life a bit easier, so i joined the huge ques for going through to airside.
I must admit at that point i breathed a sigh of relief and thought no problem I've got ages. The ques moved slowly and Dyls keep asking for OUT Mummy but all of a sudden a nice man opened up a side bit and let me through. Oh how nice obviously very helpful! Yeh right!
When we got down to the machines that scan the luggage it became obvious that he just didn't want me to hold the ques up because i had to take Dylan out of his pushchair and put pushchair folded up, nappy bag, handbag and mine AND Dylan's shoes on the rack. Then walk through and whilst holding Dylan unfold the pushchair (easier said than done) put Dylan in it, didn't want to keep holding everyone up so didn't strap him in (big mistake). I put Dyls shoes on, my shoes on, fixed nappy bag back on to pushchair. Phew so off we go!
Now the screen said we needed to go to Gate 5 but it was very early so off we go, outside the gate i got my phone to let Leslie know we'd made it and see if he had got out in time. That's when Dylan decided to make his escape, so he shuffles out of the pushchair and he's off. He can't go very fast but i have a new dilemma. If i let go of the pushchair to grab him then the whole thing will tip up as out nappy bag was full of books and toys for him. So i have to grab him with one hand and then keep the pushchair upright with my foot whilst i wrestle him in to it. Needless to say we ended up on the floor anyway with himself creating as he want to walk.
Everything else when fairly smoothly except having to change his nappy right by the gate whilst everyone was getting on the plane, but when needs must!
Once on the plane it became clear that Dylan needed a sleep but there was no way he would sleep so out came the toys and books. Within five minutes he was bored of these and we hadn't even taken off yet. He wanted to climb all over the seats but the seat belt sign was on and we kept taxiing down the runway waiting for our turn to go. After 20 mins we were off and so was Dylan screaming at the top of his lungs. That pretty much continued for the entire flight if he had to be strapped in except for when we were landing when it was 10 times worse!
So i have decided that it was not that the pressure hurt his ears it was his unhappiness about having to sit still in his seat that was the cause of the screaming and the cause of the very noisy flight to Scotland!

Sorry Nancy

I have to say sorry to Nancy for being a very bad blogger but i just don't seem to have time to sit down at the moment!

Here's some pictures of Dylan in his boat! It was the Sunday of Paws in the Park and we were home very late. He ALMOST fell asleep but i spoiled it by trying to get a photo and waking him up!





My indoor photo's are never a very good colour and just don't look at the state of the carpet!

Dylan and artificial colouring

Well just to keep up to date with the news about how they make our children hyperactive (tell us something we didn't know), Dylan decided he would have his own experiment.

So whilst i was stirring the play dough mix with the children he picked his moment and climbed up on the children's little table in the kitchen to reach a LARGE bottle of bright red food colouring. I'm not entirely sure what happened next but i heard the bottle drop on to the floor and when i turned around well you can imagine the rest.

Needles to say i was so busy getting the children out of the way, Dylan's clothes off and trying to mop up the red colouring on the floor (which looked very blood like) that i didn't remember to go and get the camera. So i'm afraid you'll just have to use your imagination this time. Add to this that on the same day i had to take him for his passport photo's with two 4 year olds too and when we got back the freezer had defrosted all over the kitchen floor i'm not quite sure why they didn't cart me off in a straight jacket!

On a more positive note Dylan's language is brilliant now and we have lovely conversations about all sorts of things.
He knows 'gate' 'door' 'tractor' 'rabbit' 'charlie' 'tig' 'out' 'stuck' 'do it' and 'pop' (for ice pop -oops!)
I have say the funniest one is 'gate do it daddy tractor' which means he wants Leslie to take him up to the yard to play on the tractor which he wants EVERY night and Daddy is getting a bored of playing with the tractor. But it gives Mummy some peace and quiet!

Olympia here we come!

I can't believe that i haven't had time to post this but this week has been mad. Last weekend was the Novice Semi final for Tig and the last senior Semi final for Dot. We had planned to stay in a travel lodge rather than driving back but things happened to mess up those plans and we were not organised enough and our unusual dog sitter is on holiday.

Tig's day was first and he started the day coming 4th in the invitational, i have to say i should have tried harder, yes I'll be the first to admit i'm lazy but i put the work in when its required and Mr Tig is on his way to London at Christmas. So we drove home feeling very relieved that we had achieved our goal this year. Although Tig has well exceeded any of my expectations!!!

I was really pleased to get home nice and early on Friday to get Dylan sorted out and ready for yet another early start. The long drives and early mornings take there toll on him sometimes and he gets all out of his routine. He copes remarkably well with it but its nice for him to get home and have a nice play in the garden and a proper dinner, rather than bits of food passed to him in the car.

I don't think i thought too much about either Semi final i try not to else i get too nervous but i guess i was more worried about Dot, its been an unusual year for our partnership, recently i know that we had started to come together and then she cut her pad and couldn't run for a little while. She went well in the invitational and put in a nice clear but i came out not happy with myself so gave myself a good kick up the ***!
I guess you could say it worked, to come 2nd with her was amazing and i never expected it to happen. I was so pleased driving home, i just couldn't believe we had done it.

Sadly no pictures or video i think i probably gave Leslie a hard time for two days and i know he is way too nervous for me to film anything!

Roll on Olympia!

Bridgehouse

We had a lovely bankholiday weekend and the weather was great. On Saturday i drove Katie and Phoebe to the junior show at Chippenham. It was a really nice show and well organised, i had a lovely day sitting by the rings and watching the kids run their dogs, there are some great partnerships out there whome i'm sure are ones to watch out for as they get older. She took a pole in the jumping and the last pole in the power and speed, but she really helped us out in the one dog 2 handlers by not noticing the handler switch and winning the class by a tiny amount. Sadly they were eliminated in the YKC agility, she was the last dog to run and there had been no clears but i think this was a bit to much pressure for her, its hard to get a 10 year old to remember that she's only been running the dog since March. She has done so well to get in to 3 finals with her and to win the Agility Club under 12's final. I am really pleased that she still has next year in under 12's as Phoebe is enjoying herself SOO much and they are such great friends.

Sunday was Bridgehouse show at Horsham Rugby Club, i'd never been to this venue before but it was very nice and the show was very well organised and nice and relaxed. So relaxed that we even took some video! All the dogs were good, Fizzy is making a few baby mistakes and watching what her Dad does just a little too much but she redemed herself in the Grade 3 agility by doing a nice training round and still getting 7th.

The wonderful Dennis took these piccies of her, I'm not sure how she ever thought she was going to make this one but she looks determined! I have to say she looks just as determined after knocking the pole down.

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KC festival, birthdays and ducks

The Thursday we drove to the KC festival was Leslie's birthday a bit of a shame to have to get up so early load the caravan and drive nearly 200 miles but atleast he didn't get a chance to be bored! On the friday we went out to the harvester with all our friends and had a nice meal, it was great because we ate outside and the kids all had a blast without annoying too many people! Leslie also celebrated on the friday as Fizz won Gr3-5 jumping which qualified her for the Novice Cup final on the Saturday.



Sadly for Fizz the Novice final proved just a touch too difficult for a 20mth old Gr3 dog but hey she did great to get there. Well done to everyone who qualifyed for crufts, especially Nancy and Mark who were the only 2 clears. Good runs!

Another little pup who was determined not to be left out climbed on the podium himself but sensibly he decided to settle for 3rd as the climb to 1st place seemed a bit scary!


Tig and I just weren't on the same planet for the KC Festival which resulted in handling errors all over the place, poor Mr Tig. However we managed to pull it out of the bag for his last class Gr 6 Agility which he won by 8 tenths. In the words of lisa WOOT! WOOT! WOOT! Mr Tig is now GRADE 7!!! Actually i don't think it has sunk in yet. Sadly there is no picture I NEED A DENNIS TOO!

But i did take some pictures of Spike for Bernadette



The Friday after the KC fesival was my birthday so Mum and I took Dylan to see the ducks in Arundel fortunatly we somehow managed to keep Dylan from falling in.





CAUGHT RED HANDED!





Some sad news for CROC fans
Dylans Crocs are now a whole size too small for him BOO HOO. They have however been replaced by a very smart pair or red shoes that FLASH. After all Winners wear red! PICTURES SOON promise!

Ok update coming up!

A quick update from right back at Agility Club show where Tig was 2nd in Gr6 jumping i was really grateful to him cause i was half asleep and he got me out of trouble. I need to wake up quicker in the mornings, oops. BUT even better Dot was 3rd in the Senior KC qualifier which means she gets to go to the last day of the semi's. Yippee! She ran brill not only that she did the course almost twice as first time round a dog joined her at the end of the dog walk (#13) so we had to restart FROM SCRATCH. At that point i could have cried as i hadn't expected to get it right and never thought i could do it again. Extra treats for Dot that day!

The following weekend was Burridge and at last some time on our hands to do some video's. We really enjoyed Burridge show, they ordered great weather and sitting around one ring watching was really good and relaxing too. I would only wish that i'd brought my orange fence with me so i could have penned Dylan in, anyone who saw me running up and down the road all day will understand why!

I'm not sure being so relaxed worked for me and Tig as we struggled to get much right but it was a good chance to train his contacts which were brill so i guess we still got something out of it. I also learned that i NEED to work on my tunnel call offs when i'm left behind, but i think a hundred other people might also feel the same.

Dot was good and put in a FANTASTIC clear in Gr7 agility but missed out on the places by 1 place. But i was really pleased with the round it felt really good to me.

And Billy well never thought i'd say this but he was the SLOWEST clear in Gr7 jumping, i like to keep pointing this out to Leslie to wind him up but actually he was one of only two people to go clear so he was very pleased with himself.

At the end of the weekend was the team relay which we entered with Pam and Karen who live in our village. I think it would be fair to say that we entered for fun, so much so that i entered Leslie with Fe not Billy (i wasn't popular for this decision, hehe). Well low and behold we were the only 4 clears which was amazing

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

On the Monday after Burridge i took Dylan and the minded children to a farm, i'm sure Dylan though the black calf was Charlie (our rottie) as he climbed on the fence, reached out to touch it and said 'arlie' which was cute and fortunately the calf didn't mind. He also got very jealous of me holding a chicken so the bigger children could stroke it which was very funny, poor Dylan. Here's a picture of him meeting Sweet pea i'm not sure what he made of her!


Here's some other pictures of Dylan enjoying the summer.

Fathers day at Axtaine

Axtaine is such a lovely show everyone is camped close to the rings and the tannoy can be heard from everywhere which is great. Usually its way to hot for the dogs but this year we had a few showers to cool us down. Dot and Tig performed very well with Dot coming 4th in both Grade 6/7 jumping classes and Tig getting a 5th in Gr 6/7 agility. For some reason Tig stopped on the see saw so lost a bit of time there but apart from that it was a nice round.



Dylan as usual had a ball playing in and out of the caravan and with Sophie, Andrew and Keiren who are much older than him but VERY good to him. He has also made a new friend this week and has started to learn to be nice to her, sometimes he is a little too nice but she is very tolerant of him.



With the fence around the garden Dylan is able to wander in and out of the caravan as he wishes although i have started to worry that he will be out there taking something apart to see how it works, just like his Dad. He has such concentration when he's trying to do something and usually he can be found at the jockey wheel trying to figure it out.




Agility didn't quite go Leslie's way but at least he had a nice Fathers Day with Dylan, they both love spending all weekend together. All week long all i hear is Dyl shouting for his Daddy, he knows the sight of his van and when we go to get in the car he will take himself up to the yard shouting for him, he gets quite cross if he can't find him. Weekends in the caravan really are his favorite time.