Shady and the bad dogs.

Tuesday, 16 October 2012

I feel good....

'Da da da da da da da!

I knew that I would,da da da da da da da!'

I remembered to take my camera out and about with me again today.

Here are some of the resulting shots,I was playing around with different settings.

Its half 11 at night,I've been busy busy busy today,and did another Regiment Fitness Training session this eve,and I am knackered!

So no captions with most of these photos today,you'll have to make your own up,I'm going to sleep! :)

'If I keep my eyes closed long enough,maybe she will have put the damn camera away when I open them'.

WWwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh,Shady is turning into a werewolf!! (actually he just had a little bit of bone stuck in his teeth!)

These 2 would tug ALL day!

Love my little Mookie!

After the Newfies I took the dogs round to Pete's to spend some time with Bugly,and the ferrets,I took a load more photos there too but as I'm struggling to stay awake now,they'll just have to wait till tommorow :)

Monday, 15 October 2012

Tell me why I 'DO' like Mondays......

Mondays are my new favourite day.

Come to think about it,I don't think I've ever had a favourite day before.Working with animals means you get used to working weekends,and Bank Holidays,and Christmas Day,New Years Day etc etc blah blah.So I've never really gotten 'that Friday feeling',as Fridays didn't mean 2 days off to follow to me.

Anyway Mondays I just love right now,and the reason is because all my dogs have a class to do.Mookie and Floozie both have agility,and then in the evening,Shady has flyball,which he is rocking right now! :)

Since we've left our outdoor training venue for the winter,Dan has reformatted our lessons,and now runs 2 hour workshops instead of the classes.
I really enjoyed it today,we worked on lots of different bits for around 15 mins or so,and I came away with lots to work on at home.
We started with wait doing lots of proofing exercises,I gotta say my girls have extremely solid waits,and brilliant focus on me whilst waiting no matter what is going on around them.
Next on first one,working up to 2 jumps,we worked on collection for turns,and our Go cue.Mooks really needs work with collecting,as she didn't have any foundation training and is a naturally very long jumping dog.
We did some seesaw games,teaching/or reminding the dogs to run right to the end of the season,then waiting for the tip,versus running half way along and waiting for the tip,before then proceeding to their end position.
Then a couple of short sequences practicing front cross positions,and finished up with some grids.

Dan asked each of us one thing which we need to work on.....I said for Mookie collection,collection collection lol.
He also asked for one thing we were pleased with,for Floozie I said everything :) She is such fun to train,God it is so much easier working a dog in agility who has had the proper foundation!!

Shady looked almost like a proper flyball dog tonight! He was flying :) We also did for the first time run backs with another dog also running,and Shady was 100% focussed only on me,and believe me the other dog was VERY exciting! So bit by bit he is turning in to a flyball dog :)
There was even talk of him entering his first flyball competition in Feb,which will be here in a flash.

So its late Monday evening,and I have 3 very tired and content dogs sleeping all around me :) Well I have 4,Mindy was out with me all morning,went for a run,came to the kennels whilst I worked,then came to Pete's with me when I went up to clean out the Ferrets and spend some time with Bugly.

and that is 'why I DO like Mondays'!

Sunday, 14 October 2012

Road workin'....

I was feeling uncharacteristically unwilling to change into my boots and take the dogs for a walk (with them off lead as usual) in the farm fields today.

The fields have recently been ploughed and rolled and are just thick,thick mud.Also with it being such a beautiful day and a Sunday meant there would be dog walkers everywhere,so I 'wimped out',and decided on some road work.

I took my camera with me,not really expecting to get any nice shots being as I would be on the lanes,but got some quite nice pics :)

I have realised that if I don't have new photos or videos,I tend not to blog,so all week I've really made an effort to take my camera out with me alot,and I'm pleased I have.

We walked around 3 miles,when I got home I cycled with Mindy,then groomed one little dog and afterward went over to my sisters to finish watching series 2 of Modern Family which we are addicted to at the moment,I've had a really nice day :)

Shady always sneaks me a little stick for us 2 to secretly play with whilst we're walking with the dogs on leads.
He trots along all pleased with himself,and my end of the deal is that I occasionally push his head in play,or try to grab the stick,which makes him growl at me and feel even more pleased with himself :)

One of the single track roads round the kennels which we walked.These tiny lanes are lovely in the week,when there is barely any traffic on them,but at the weekend,ecspecially when the weather is so nice there are walkers,cyclists and horse riders all over the damn place.Kinda gets on my nerves lol.
Its also a pain to try and get the 3 dogs out of the way if a bigger van comes past!

3 dogs on a log!

My handsome baby boy,you simply could not ask for a nicer dog than this one ;)

Thoughtful looking Foofle..

More 3 Amigos..

Mindy and I went for a bike ride when I got back from walking,here she is afterwards,laughing at me! :)

Saturday, 13 October 2012

A day off!!

I had a day off today,a whole day off!!! I haven't had one of those for weeks,probably months!

I lay in bed till about half 9,then got up fed the dogs and walked the dogs.

Then I went up to my old house and spent some time with Bug.

I picked up my tatty old 'plank' to train Shady's box turn on.We'd been doing that for a while when Sheren returned home with Kalli and Kai.

So we spent half hour or so chatting and taking photos of the dogs.

Shady loves Sheren,and Kalli was quite taken with my Shady boy.

It was nice just to hang out,with no pressure to think I had to be somewhere at a certain time. :)

Kalli is turning into a lovely girl,I think she is around 7 months old now,and is a great little dog!

Kalli has the most beautiful eyes.

Grovelling puppy!

Karate Kalli!!

Scruffy ungroomed boy! He's been getting wet,and then not been groomed,bad bad mummy!

Got my ball...all is well with the world. :)

Shady is such a happy contented dog :)

Gangly puppy :)

Keeping his eye on the ball.

'Oh God,....who to watch,Shady,mum or the neighbours?!?!?'

Shady looking like a giant here!

Kai looking like a weirdo (take 1 haha)

Lol Kai looking like a weirdo!

In the afternoon me and the girls drove out to Becky's to practice our agility homework.Which was wing wraps,and putting wings close up to traps,like tunnels weaves etc.

As predicted Foof did much better at this than Mookie,who didn't get good foundations as a puppy,and certainly doesn't have as much value for the reinforcement zone,so doesn't see the need to wrap in tight and get back to it.

She does often land tight,but then looping out on her way back to me.

We also did a bit more work on the foundation for the Ketchler turns.Taking it outside to a new environment sent the girls a bit loopy lol,lots of barking from Mookity Moo!

We all had a nice time,Sixxers is practically there with her weaving :) and is going to her first proper grade 1 to 3 workshop tommorow!

It certainly doesn't seem like a year since we were introducing her to my dogs and taking the first photos of her!

Flooz,Mook and Sixx had a good race round together after training.

I definately don't enjoy training little bits,on just a few bits of equipment,its just not reinforcing to me,I need to be told what to practice by someone,and made to do it lol.

Happy girls :) These 2 are unlikely,but great mates.