West Lakes

Not Wet Lakes this year - well, it did rain a lot but all at night, how kind! 
This may be the most amazing show location - the exercise area is the beach! And a perfect doggy beach it is too. The facilities are excellent too - great club house, great toilets, great beer, great coffee, just great!
Maisie Mouse did pretty well - 3rd, 6th and 7th place rosies! Not bad from 4 runs :) Actually the run she didn't get placed on was her best in a way as she was most speedy, though she broke her wait (& I didn't put her back - Bad Human) instead taking a weird detour round the outside of the dogwalk where the (surprised!) judge dodged out of the way, lol! In all the hilarity of this she missed the contact and then later took out a pole with a flying leap - not E'd though. So from 7/8 Es last week to none this week, haha!
Tim kept up the E quota though. He was much less focused this time and downright hard work at times. I was really encouraged by how he ran last weekend but it's two forward and one back sometimes ... Dogs are such great levellers! Anyway, the one run he set off superbly on I stoooopidly twitched a shoulder and pulled him off a tunnel, arrrg! (Bad Human again) He had fun though and did do some nice bits. He also had a super walk on the beach with a big gang of dogs - which he's not really done before - and he behaved v nicely and had a whale of a time.
Billy had several walks on the beach and one into the village. He was a bit confused by beautiful big bouncing baby Flynn but just did a bit of slightly nonplussed gentle woofing, lol :o)
It is a great show but in future I'd defo try to make at least a long weekend out of it as it felt like too far to go for just two days - v v tired driving home last night.

Big Ta to Louise McGovern and Laura Sivell for pics of Miss Mouse and The Ginger One respectively :)

Hare n Hounds

(Zebra Danio - not my pic)

Our first 4-day show - and what a superb one! The HnH shows are so brilliantly run - nothing too much bother, lots of smiling faces all the time, sweeties, real ale - lots of fantastic real ale - agility heaven!!!!!!!! Oh, & some agility :)
Friday was an awful day weather-wise but both Maisie & Tim did their best runs EVER! Tim did a paw-perfect agility run, apart from when we came round to the weaves near the end & he had to briefly gnash off to tell Auntie Karen on the startline how Clever he was being :) But he did come right back and carry on nicely, bless him! Someone said he just got embarassed coz I said "weeeaveees" in the silly high-pitched voice Maisie loves, so may try to be a little more cool & blokey for him next time, lol. I was really pleased with how he did all weekend - just did that one run on Friday then two each on Sat & Sun, and he didn't completely lose the plot as he has before a bit over multi-day shows. His focus really is getting better and he did lots of nice bits, only going under the very odd jump. His contacts were just ace, as were his startline waits - only went under one first jump, so hopefully that's almost fixed. He's tending to miss weave entries but I think it's pure excitement and him feeling a bit anxious about the change of pace required? He so can weave! Took him up on the fields last night and tried to replicate the speed he gets up in the ring by racing him into the weaves from a flat-out gallop halfway across the field - both sides, all angles, and he can soooo do them, so we shall now work harder on that happening in the ring :)
Mad Maisie Mouse ... In the cold, wet, windy weather on Friday she was Amazing. I'd walked the course with the wrong dog in mind (doh!) so wasn't sure how to run it, but I needn't have worried coz she was supersonic (for her) - specially driving through the weaves like a collie!! I had to put in unexpected rear crosses all over the place! Knew it was a v competitive run and the dogwalk was second last obstacle - I had a rush of blood to the head and just screeched her over it a bit hard and she must've just missed the contact. In the event she finished 5th anyway with a pretty rosie and fortunately she'd have not won it anyway if she'd gone clear - though I don't want her to win out anyway!.. OK so that was the good bit ................... I ddn't even realise this till we got home but over the rest of the weekend we got nothing but Es!!! SEVEN of them to be precise!! Mix of her being surprisingly speedy and going lalalala with paws in lugs whilst dashing off in random directions, and me doing some spectacularly crap handling - on one run I actually got lost between jumps 1 and 2. Oh dear!!!!!!!! No matter though, it was fab and v positive :D
Jules & Jette breezed in on Sunday and then limped home with a fantastic 3rd in g1 agility, sooooo well done!!!! & many other good runs from - well everyone but me & the mouse, hehe.
I had a ridiculous nearly v serious accident with an exploding duck egg on Tues. Now that would've been one for the Darwin Awards ...
Got some pretty new tropical fish yesterday. Not had a tank set up for ages so that's fun. Maisie has been watching them in a that's-dinner kind of way, but they are safe :)
Hopefully Mr Woof is flyball training tonight. He had an ace w/e at HnH - cheesy chips, pub dogging and tent-warming. He'll be happy to play on the beach at West Lakes this w/e too, happy doggy days.

Culture, innit!

I did manage a little culture today in a visit to our local gallery. South Square is just down in the village (Thornton) and it's an ace little place. The current exhibition is of some local images - the project focusing on the "snickets" - tiny paths between houses, fields, lanes, etc. that we have loads of round here - and where they do/don't/might lead to.
http://www.southsquarecentre.co.uk/index.php?/gallery/about-us/
As well as regular exhibitions, there are artists' "spaces", weekly art workshops for kids and grown-ups (always meant to have a go ...) and other, well ... arty things - a picture framer, good quality crafts - cool jewellery, etc. and the wonderful cafe where I had a fab cuppa and cake this aft. :o) On Fridays evenings about once a month they have an opening night for the latest exhibition: you can get a stonking 3-course meal for about a tenner, and can even take along your own wine. It's really chilled and friendly, not at all arty-farty-snotty; you could rock up in scruffy doggy clothes and no-one would bat an eyelid. Must get back into going more often.