A Sunny Day

Glorious sunshine yesterday for HATS show, and a nice atmosphere. I didn’t expect much from Maisie as she seems a little tired from her new responsibility of keeping two brothers in line, but she ran quite well really. Third in Agility!! And a nice clear in the Jumping, even though it was right at the end of the day and she was seriously ready for a snooze by then! And she had a five-minute makeover in the carpark, stripping out some undercoat with a grooming rake. She looks a lot slimmer now! Next time her coat gets out of hand and she asks: Does my bum look big in this? It’ll be time to do it again :o)

& there were too many other good results to mention for everyone at White Rose. Yay!!!

Young Tim: Well, he behaved brilliantly and took his first experience of a show all in his stride. I felt confident enough to let him off his lead in the exercise area and he mostly didn’t bog off to say howdy to other dogs, though once he did get involved in a brill game and I had to go and “retrieve” him! More work to do on that recall. We went and sat by the rings for a few minutes and he was so good, totally unfazed by the atmosphere and he settled down quietly for cuddles. I wonder whether this calm behaviour will continue when he actually does agility and realises how much FUN it is?!

Next weekend it’s our first flyball tournament for ages, so Billy will get his special time too. It’s chucking it down this morning and the others went out in the garden whilst Billy was rooted to the doorstep looking horrified at all that nasty wetness – no way was he risking it! He’s a poppet.

Happy Pack

Well, Tim is doing brilliantly off-lead - took him out on his own earlier and he was such a good boy, following me like a good little lamb, this aft I decided to try all three dogs out together for the first time. And what fun they all had!!! I knew Tim and Maisie would romp around nicely together, but the big surprise was how well the Billy Woof boy did. He had his tennis ball to keep him busy - Maisie always does chase him for his ball and they play nicely, but Tim also joined in the game - chasing but not totally overwhelming. Billy did tell him to bog off a couple of times for being a bit of an impudent youth, but just enough to make his point, and they ended up all chasing around together, nabbing the ball from one another and the others chasing the holder enthusiastically but with rules of fair play observed. Happy lolling tongues and waggy tails all round. Oh, it was super :0)

Blank Canvas

How odd it is to start with a dog without any real "issues"! Tim is just a blank canvas ready for a nice, responsible doggy citizen to be painted on it. Already he's doing nice sits, downs and recalls, and today I tried the scarey thing of really letting him go and hoping he came back! (He was on a long line in a safe place.) I let him go and he ran and I called him and ... back he galloped, crazy happy boy, and literally bowled me over in glee at the re-union!!! We worked on it some more till he came back into a pretty sit :-) He does seem to fixate on sounds and sights in the distance so it will be a while before we perfect the Recall With Distractions, but a good start nonetheless. And he's got the rudiments of a tiny short down-wait already. What a clever baby.

Easter Weekend

We had a lovely weekend at the Dog Vegas show. Camping was fun and we were very snug in our little tent. The show was lovely and well-run and everyone had a super time. Maisie showed some real positives - driving on through straight bits, good control and not a pole down all weekend! Contacts were OK, though still a bit creeping, but we were let down by weaves a few times. She has great weaves when her energy is high, but she does soon lose enthusiasm and a bit of confidence when she gets tired - we would've had a further three clear rounds, I think, if she'd not slouched out of the weaves each time, so we really need to work on that. Despite that though, she notched up a couple of unplaced clears, a tenth place in Jumping, and a Fourth in Agility - YAY!!!! Very pleased with that tally, and she enjoyed it all and her confidence around people continued. Good fluffy girl! There were plenty of other great results from clubmates and friends too.

& then this happened:

Tim joined us! He came from a Welsh sheep farm, via the lovely folks at Many Tears Animal Rescue, and he is a little love - a 10-month old bundle of total collie-ness.

Billy & Maisie have both been great so far in helping him to settle into his new life. Maise thinks he's a brilliant toy and they've been playing like crazy. Billy thinks he's really quite pesky but has been very tolerant and gentle and has been getting extra cuddles for being a good lad.

Chaos reigns - there's a collie in the house!

Confidence!

Such a lovely, positive day today at a sunny Scunthorpe agility show. It was our first outdoor show of the season (& only did a couple end of last year) and it felt very different to running indoors – some serious running to do!
Maisie was such a super happy girly – absolutely buzzing – sun on her back and wind through her tail. First round was awful, but kind of in a positive way!.. She was sooooo up for it. Other rounds were nice and positive too with just odd poles down but solid contacts, great weaves, fast(ish!), responsive, and some working ahead, sending to tunnels and down straight lines of jumps.
The nicest thing out of the day though was just observing how much Maisie’s confidence around people has grown recently. She wasn’t too bothered by any of the judges, just odd suspicious glances, and out of the rings she was amazing – approaching several people for cuddles, ear rubs and tummy tickles. At one point I caught her sprawling against ‘Auntie Helen’ and gazing up at her with those bright trusting eyes I’ve only ever seen fully switched on to me before. Awwww, bless!!
So no big results, not even a rosette to bring home, and all our gang had a bit of a “nearly” day, but it was one of those days when that just did not matter at all. Really looking forward to all the other shows we have coming up now ……….
Oh & Billy got a handsome new collar for being a superb support act. He never makes me feel bad about dragging him along for the ride, and always has himself a fun day out even though he doesn’t play agility.

A Big Kiss

Was just kneeling down weeding amongst some hellebores this afternoon and was feeling a bit weary and fed-up after a long, busy week, when a grinning shadow with a big sloppy tongue appeared and scchlurped up the side of my face. Thanks Billy Woof Dog, your timing was impeccable and you're the best work collie-eague anyone could wish for :-) x

Made this little poem come to mind:

“He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.” – Unknown