Test!

Not having blogged for a loooooong time I am just checking this still works - Cadbury and Friends can stay as the title as if the lovely Cadders was still around this would still be about him and his doggy friends :)

The life and times of Cadbury Bear

I thought I had not blogged for a very long time and I wanted to write about Cadbury - it started as his Blog so it seemed right that this was a post about him. He has all sorts of things wrong with him and has been really poorly recently, our trips to the vets continue and the poor dog has had more blood tests than he or I care to remember. He has thyroid problems (the tablets seem to control that), and then more complicated he has cushings (pituitary) and was doing fine till on the medication, his was eating and drinking normally, was a ok weight and his hair had grown back really well.... then he went for a 9 month check - the cushings levels were all wrong and he was now into addisions, they reduced the medication with more and more blood tests on the way (the cushings test is take blood, give an injection, then an hour later take blood again an ACT test), over a few weeks (and yes you guessed it more blood tests) he ended up on no medication, well normally you would think Yay...not nooooo no medication means he does not want to eat and wants to drink 24/7...so back onto a small dose of the medication which is having no affect on the eating and drinking, he has lost lots of weight. The only thing he is happy to eat at the moment is fish so I am cooking him fish each day... someone said that dog has you wrapped around his paw.... I said no that dog is most unwell... he has been a greedy dog his whole life and this is the first time he has not wanted to eat at all.. my vet is liaising with a vet at the Vet College but they are all a bit confused with the symptoms so 2 more weeks on a low dose of medication, keep trying to get him to eat and restricting his water and yep you guessed it more blood tests!

Holiday time....

Well holiday, judging and some competing in agility thrown in!

We are about half way through our agility break having done Hare n Hounds at Barnard Castle, I judged on a really hot day (I'm not good with the heat!) but it was still a good day.

Kaiser had forgotten how to weave but luckily remembered later in the show, he and Cad are just doing agility runs now (well Cad does Champ jumping), they both got a few places, Kaisers best was a 4th and Cad had a 2nd.

I had decided that I wanted Bex to stay in Grade 4 until I was better at running him in jumping classes. That's me not Bex lol, just didn't want to do well in one agility run, move up a grade and then be facing harder jumping courses so the plan was working ok and some of our jumping runs have been getting better and Bex got a couple of nice jumping places at this and previous shows and then at Hare n Hounds in Graded 4-5 jumping which was quite tricky he did a lovely clear and he won and also beat the time of the Grade 5 winner, so well pleased with that and proud of the young merlie boy :) we also had some graded 4-7 courses that were really hard and I was pleased with how we did them. I think the other grade 4's must have found them hard too as Bex got 2 top ten places with 5 faults (a pole in one and came out of the middle of the weaves to get 5 in the other).

A couple of photos - Bex with his first place and Bex in one of the exercise areas on the hill overlooking the show.

We are now at TAG at Uttoxetor Racecourse, competing and I'm judging here too. Hope everyone I know is having a good August :)

Small Catch up

With so much getting posted on Facebook these days sometimes things on a blog seem "old news"!

A zillion things have happened since I last posted photos of snow!

The most recent and really sad was having to say goodbye to Foggy, my first collie and the lovliest little fella you could wish to meet. It's such a long time to spend with a dog but I'm trying not to let the sadness of the passing overshadow the happiness of 15 years together :)

Bex started in Grade 3 and didn't stay there long winning 3 Grade 3 Agilities and getting a handfull of 2nd's in Agility and Jumping. It's a learning curve as he is faster than Cad and Kaiser so he's fine it's me that needs the training lol, the clears we have had in the few shows we have done in Grade 4 have given us a 2nd and 4th in Jumping and a 4th in Agility. Quite happy to stay in Grade 4 a little while as want to gather experience for us both along the way :)

Cad and Kaiser have been competing well too, they both mostly just do agility now as that's what they stand the best chance in and I didn't want things to be too hectic with three dogs to run.

A few shows got cancelled due to the weather, perhaps Summer will carry on into September and October... I'm not holding my breath but just not having constant rain would be good!

TTFN

Snow and a little agility

Firstly I really do luv the snow when it's fluffy and new and I can walk over to the Look Out which is miles and miles of woodland :) but..... when the darn snow hangs around for ages and keeps half thawing and freezing again and then it snows again, well it just gets annoying lol

Some photos from our first snowy walk - apologies to those on Facebook who will have seen these already!

The little bit of agility is that we went today to a training in the ring thing at Lesley Oldens lovely indoor school, you get 4 runs - 2 jumping and 2 agility. Thanks to the people kind enough to offer their video services after my last post today I nabbed Neil to video me - thanks Neil. Bless Bex he took the tyre out so Neil stopped filming while we composed outselves and of course checked Bex was ok - he seemed fine the tyre is a soft one I think he just took off too early - I could have edited it but it's all a learning curve! More practice needed on tyres at speed!




Hope everyone is staying warm as it's been sooooo cold!

The journey started :)

I like to think of starting competing with a young dog as a journey, so much to learn and so much to look forward to. After having no competitions for what seemed like a long time we have had a full weekend!! Saturday Winter League - Cad won the medium section of 1-7 Agility, Kaiser was 4th in 1-3 Agility and Bex's first time running at Winter League and he had two messy runs and then two lovely runs, 1-3 Agility he came out of the 8th weave pole and then his last run of the day a stunning clear round in 1-7 Agility - just out of the 6 places all of which (I think) were taken by grade 6-7 dogs.

So an early start today to go up to Solihull to Midlands Border Collie Club, a mixture of courses but hey that is the variety of agility!

Here is Bex's first run 1-4 Agility - loads of good things to take from this run - even if it was an E :)

We then had a jumping run - no video - same course as in the video of Kaiser - Bex ran past two jumps - all due to my timing not being right!

Then the last run of the day 1-3 Agility - I am not knocking the judge but the jump where I went wrong was a really tricky bit for this grade and the ending was hard too - nothing dangerous about it so no reason not to have a go (no weaves used in this side of the arena as they can't peg them - we can't peg at our show but use weaves with a heavy base that don't move much at all - I do like to see weaves in a course!)

If any of my Blogger/Facebook friends see me at a show with a video camera and don't mind doing the occasional video I would be sooooo pleased :)

A Kaiser Video

I hardly ever get any videos of my dogs (sad face :(..) so as Bex is just starting out I thought I would try and get some (not an easy task!) so starting here with a video of Kaiser today at Midlands Border Collie Show - 1-3 Jumping, no weaves and he was just out of the places. To think he could not even concentrate all the way round the course at one time (and still has some lapses of concentration lol)

Wyre

Well I thought I'd make the slightly ;) mad trip to Wyre! It was a long day but I'm glad I went. I borrowed Meg and Jaf and Fog stayed home, so 4 dogs to run! I'd entered Bex and spent days and then the journey deciding if I would run him and ended up thinking I'd wait and see what the courses were like.

Afraid no video as I didn't like to bug anyone to video my runs as none of the people I knew that well were there.

Bex ran lovely, 2 nice waits, 2 very fidgetty waits, lovely contacts and one weave entry missed, we are not ver used to running whole courses and this did show a bit but I'm happy this will come :) we had no clears but lots of good bits. The best run scorewise was a missed weave entry in 1-7 jumping :)

Kaiser had 2 great runs and gained a 3rd in Grade 3 Agility and an 8th in Grade 3 Jumping.

Cad got 6th in the medium KC qualifier.

Meg - well she was a bit mad! Plastic poles argh lol - best run was one pole down in 6-7 graded jumping.

An enjoyable day and nice to catch up with fellow agility loons! Now if they could just move the venue a lot further down south that would be great!

Posting from my iPhone today - not done that before!

Just a quickie

For those who do not "do" Facebook (I know that is most people - maybe Helen?) I wanted to try and put the video of Bex on here from his first show at the weekend - he only had one run and there were parts of the course I was not sure how to do as I have not done much pulling him off things - he was only 18 months and 2 days. I didn't care it was an E as Bex did not really know and I thought it was good experience to start him off at the venue where we train - although it is of course not that noisy or busy at training! Still lot's to work on - especially the wait as I was not confident he would wait in those circs so just ran him off the line.

Kaiser got a 17th on the same course and Cad a 7th in the 6-7 Jumping. It was a very busy day and I did enjoy it but am also glad it's over for another year - we were inspected by a Field Officer and scored Excellent - phew!

The blog must go on!

Well either post again or bin it lol - still love reading everyone elses just don't seem to have the inspiration to write my own however these are busy but exciting times as Bex is coming up 18 months - he may do a couple of shows over the winter we shall see how it goes but really the end of November is a funny time to be old enough so next Spring we can look forward to competing.

We have been lucky enough to attend training days with people who I greatly respect as trainers and admire them running their own dogs and we have learnt loads - it's just putting it all into practice! We went on a 3 day agility camp back at the end of August and trained with Dave Munnings, Lucy Osborne and Sian Illingworth, a different trainer each day and we did 90 mins in the morning and afternoon and social things too.

More recently I have trained Bex again with Dave Munnings and with Nancy Hudson and Natasha Wise, he has his fabric crate to go into between runs or he starts to go a bit nuts....ooops!

Just yesterday we trained with Natasha and Trevor Greenslade took a lovely photo of Bex - it's the first one I have of him doing agility so a really special photo to me :)



To give the others a little mention too - Kaiser has had a couple of really good results - a 3rd in 3-5 Combined Agility at Gillingham and a 2nd in Grade 3 Agility at Lune (Oct), he still finds it hard to concentrate all the way round the course and if something takes his attention he looses so much time doh! An Alan Score photo from back in the summer.



Cadbury is as scruffy fluffy barky lovely as ever - well to me anyway lol - an Alan Score photo of him too



Oh dear it looks like his ears needed a brush lol

Fog getting older and more leaky - hate it when dogs get old :( This photo is from a few years back



And a Fog and Jaf one from a good few years back too




That's all for now must get on with paperwork things for North Downs Show... x

(thanks to Alan for the Bex photo at the top of the page)

Such a bad blogger!!

Just seem to have no time to blog these days and don't ever seem to have any photos or video to add and just text looks quite dull!!

Just back from a lovely 10 days at Lune and Barrow - hate to do a list of results but Cad was a little star and did not spook in the ring once - following on from an incident at a show over a year ago some things can now really scare him and that really upsets me and makes me think about not running him. Yes it's lovely to do well however I just want Cad to be happy in the ring! I know the kind of things that scare him and try and avoid these if at all possible. Kaiser did some nice runs and got a few places but still seems to have problems concentrating! Not so little Bex has just turned 13 months and is such a sweetie he is loving his training and is due to start in a class this week, not sure how that will go as it's not specific for young dogs so we might need to improvise a little lol

The view of the rings on one of the days off



A bit misty but the view from the caravan



Went for a lovely river and woodland walk with the dogs on one of the days off but I couldn't take any photos as had my hands full keeping a good eye on the dogs and also did not want to risk dropping my new Iphone4!

Please ignore the grassy caravan floor!



TTFN will try and blog again soon!

eeek 2011 already!

Well as it's Cadbury and friends - Cadbury first he is fine bless him - cute and fluffy and gobby - across the winter we have done a couple of shows "ooops North" mainly to try and keep Kaiser concentrating... I just love running Cad indoors and he has had a few places bless him! Kaiser....well he has done some very good bits and at Wilmslow just the other day 2 lovely runs not quite clear but much better than before!

Bex wow the time goes sooooo fast - he is coming up 8 months! He is cheeky, cute and loves playing with his toys. Am still removing things from his mouth he should not have .......wonder when he grows out of that one lol






Am supposed to be getting on with all the jobs I don't get round to doing while going to lots of shows during the Spring and Summer...mmmm has not quite worked out like that yet.

The schedules have started coming out for the shows and the messages of camping full are already being seen....argh I hate rushing to get camping makes things stressful!

Just before the snow I had my artificial lawn done - it's been a long wait (I think it's 3 years I have had the lawn for without it ever going down and house moves along the way) - am loving it, my garden is not huge but it's great for the dogs to run about out there without getting muddy and I have done some little bits of training and just started some wings and pipe tunnel with Bex :) most of which I would not have been able to do for fear of turning the garden into a mudbath! The photos show the bigger half of the grassy area and there is another bit on the other side of the path. Prior to the conservatory I had patio, grass and then more patio where the large shed and back gate are - the gate leads out onto a lovely woodland path walk.





Thinking of those who have lost loved ones recently humans and canines xx

November already!

Wow time goes by so quickly and even though there are not that many shows now I am still finding lots of things to fill the time and managing to avoid the jobs I put off all summer lol

Bex is now 5 Months - he learns fast - bad and good! He had a few scary moments when loosing his teeth - one kind of got stuck sideways and he was chewing on it and there was blood everywhere - poor little chap :(



The other dogs are fine - Foggy showing his age a bit which is always worrying, sleeps a lot and copes better with shorter walks.

Have entered a couple of non-kc shows to try and keep Kaiser concentrating and he has been flying round with just a small error (mine probably!) here and there, and have Downland (no Cad classes :(...) and then North Downs.

x

Time goes by.....

Time goes by so quickly!

Well Bex is growing like grass lol - he is coming up 4 1/2 months, he is a sweet, clever, slightly gobby little chap! I am so glad I got him he has made me smile so much with his antics :) We have been going to a puppy clicker class and Bex has had a great time learning new things :)

So much to report on since I last posted! August was a busy month as well as having Bex-pup I did a little agility tour which was enjoyable but tiring! Cad and Kaiser got various places - think a 2nd was Cad's best and Kaiser got a 3rd in ABC and a 6th in Grade 3 Agility - Kaiser sometimes seems to be three steps forward two back but we are gradually making progress! Also borrowed Dennis's Meg for 3 days at Dashin and got a couple of places - she is great fun to run. Judged at Prestbury Park - the Team Dash and a couple of small and medium classes - very enjoyable weekend at an awesome venue.

Bex get's along really well with Cad and Kaiser - still very supervised play with Kaiser as he can be too rough! (photo a it blurry as on zoom on the iphone!)



Not many shows left for the year now, I had 6 months off of shows last Winter (did Downland then next show was Mid Downs where I judged so did not compete till Easter) but I felt soooo rusty so am going to do the occasional one but it will be nice to have time to spend at home with a few more things to do to my house too (painting and tiling in the conservatory and some stuff in the garden to sort).

Keep blogging everyone I do so enjoy reading all the blogs - even reading via iphone when I don't get round to turning my "proper" computer on!

Lorna x

Way too busy to Blog!

Sorreeeee been way to busy to blog will try and do a quick update now!



Above is Kaiser in a river in the Lakes - could not go to the actual Lakes due to the green/blue algae :(

We have done various shows from the Lake District to Wales and I am not going to type a list of the dogs results that would be too dull lol - so for me a couple of highlights. Kaiser has been getting so much better, he still has big lapses in concentration but when he does concentrate bless him he can be quite good! He has had a few places now and even got his club some points - his best to date is a 6th in Grade 3 Agility. Cadbury continues to be my little fluffy star. Some of the weather at the shows has been way too humid for him - no I am not going to shave him like some people have suggested, I just think some other breeds do get affected by the heat. He has made a couple of champ finals and then his dippy handler has mucked up! Also he won the Champ Agility round at Axstane and got a lovely trophy - the advantage of being E-d in the jumping (right near the end argh!) meant just have fun in the agility no need to go for a careful clear hence he won :) Oh and we won a Dragon at Caerphilly - you go to the show to hunt for a Dragon they are very sought after!



I have done a few runs and gained a few places with some borrowed dogs - having run Tom's Panic, Ian's Kes and Trim, Dennis's Meg and Tag - all good fun :)

I had a shall I follow my heart of shall I follow my head moment and my heart won I saw a picture of lovely mismarked little red merle dual reg BC and fell in love, he was not planned although I wanted to get a pup soon and he was 9 weeks old the day I found out about him - 2 days later saw me doing just over a 1000 mile round trip to Scotland to see the pups and choose one (I went with my original choice but had 4 to choose from - 2 red and whites, a red merle tri and the pup I went for), I stayed with Nat on the way back to break up the journey - boy it was a long way but I have to say he is worth every mile.

Please meet Bex - posh name lovely and short "Astra Bex"

We went away "ooop North"

Ok will try and catch up! Last year we went up for a mini break to Waldridge Fell as the lovely Dave Robinson had asked me to judge, it's very near to the sea and there is a lovely beach that you can walk to from the show. I had mixed emotions about going to this show this year as last year at this show Fleet went Grade 6 and won the Novice Olympia class details here but I do like to go to different parts of the country to go sightseeing and have a break and when I found out that there was a show on at the same venue the weekend before and we could make a 10 day break of it that made my mind up :)

We were camped with friends and played games in the evening and went to the beach and out to a couple of nice pubs so really it was a holiday with some agility thrown in!

One of the weekends was very hot and they say dogs are like their owners but I don't "do" hot weather and Cad and Kaiser are like me!

Cad got various places across the two shows his best being a 2nd, Kaiser seems to settle better at the shows with less rings (there were 6 rings) so much less for his herdy eyes to notice! He concentrated well and even when he did not go clear did some nice bits and having previously only had 2 placings before (an 18th and 19th) across the two shows his best place a 12th in Grade 3 Jumping, and also got a 14th, 24th and 19th in the KC Novice Qualifer, ok not quite up to the 1st of his "brother" from the previous year but he tried his best :)

Leanne Under My Bed very kindly took some photos of Cad and Kaiser:-







and here are some photos I took on my iphone of the dogs on the beach:-

Catch up!

Behind again! Just don't like to post loads of words with no photos or video! Shows are so large there just does not seem to have been time to video :(

Will do a little resume to get up to date...

Wallingford - we had Team Dash and Cad's Medium Team came 6th, across the weekend he also got 3rd in 6/7 Jumping, 5th in 5/7 Agility and 7th in 6/7 Agility - so I was very proud of him! Kaiser was also working well for a young chap! Wallingford is always so well organised which is great!

WBSDS - only place here was a 5th in Medium 6/7 Jumping - Kaiser was a bit distracted one day but worked well on the other day.

Newbury is a convenient venue only 30 mins from home but quite often with so many rings and a long walk from the van so all so spread out it really can be exhausting!

Onto Shrewsbury - our first camping show of the year - I always like this show as it's at a nice showground and they are a jolly bunch of people and the classes/judges/courses are normally good. Lee Gibson set a really interesting course - obstacle discrimination - no pull throughs at all :) - link here:- (how do you do smart links without all the text??)

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgngMJ275It0wwZ09H8fOkNktmbyD9XSYP6Vd072w_E1tZN2wD53BSEFEjgIGlOYK9jtT5JogDuM5d8XhPQy1md_fnymX3WWCva-JNU6FhWLZsraIoprdj6VldZd9rJV7PYCdP-MEdRaTNe/s1600/Shrewsbury+6-7+Graded+%26+UKA+Masters+Course.jpg

As is normally the case it was not quite as on the course plan - I remember the pipe tunnel at the end being so much harder to get into the correct end lol. I was really pleased to get Cad round - as it was Graded 6/7 they only went to 3 and he was just outside the places but I did not mind at all :) Cad's only place here was a 6th in a 6/7 Agility. Kaiser was a little star and did a couple of lovely runs and got an 18th place in Grade 3 Agility - I know to some people that is not very impressive at all but keeping his concentration all the way round a course has been really hard and he thinks weaves are a bit of a waste of his time and there were 12 in that class so I was really pleased (he had a good gawp at the judge when he was on the see-saw too!).

Then onto Vyne (Newbury again argh!!) - it was sooooooooooooo cold - no places but both dogs did some nice bits. The Champ went on soooooo long too! Cad was very cheeky in the Champ Jumping with an E and then did not really get going, then ran nice in the Agility with an E near the end.

Beacon - with no classes for the vertically challenged at Tunbridge on the Saturday a little group of us from club thought we would take a trip to the Midlands (2 hours to get there so not bad!) - it was a cold/grey/drizzly day - Cad went clear in the Crufts Team (between the rest they had 20f) and he had a clear in the 6/7 Agility, for various reasons the Champ was not good so I will now try and erase that one from my memory! I also borrowed little Rosie Terrier who ran well considering I have hardly run her before - she is a funny little thing! Kaiser had a day off as there were only classes for the little-ies.

Then onto Tunbridge - we had Crufts Team again and I was very proud of our Team of Karen and Todd, EJ and Cia, Sue and Bug and Cadders for coming 2nd - the winners (Thames) had 5 faults and our team had 10 (dog walk for Bug and Cia knocked the last bit of the long jump), Cad got a 15th in the Medium KC class, and Kaiser worked well with a clear in a speedy G3 jumping just outside the places.

So lot's of words for a short catch up but finishing with a photo! I am very proud that Cadders got a lovely Tunbridge trophy - Fleet got 3 there 2 years back...

Wordless Wednesday......

I am copying Angela - not many words but a photo I found when looking through the computer that I really like:-



and another I like:-