Beside the seaside

Waldridge Fell KC show this weekend – almost on the beach near Redcar. Arrived on Friday after a rubbish journey to be whisked down to the beach for a wonderful weekend-starts-here walk! It was the dogs’ first time near the sea and they loved it. Absolutely bizarrely, Billy, who won’t even tiptoe in a puddle/stream/lake, or even go out into the garden if it’s raining, went charging in and out of the waves!!!!?!!! & Maisie the swamp monster/ waterbabe wasn’t really that fussed about it, but enjoyed running on the beach with the other dogs. Tim did follow his hero Billy into the wet stuff. We had about ten dogs all together and they all got on well. The waves were crashing and the sun was setting with a perfect golden glow. It was an hour I’d like to have bottled to keep forever, but took some pics instead to try to capture the essence …

Oh, and the agility stuff … Maisie ran very well but we just had little ‘blips’ in most rounds, so no placings this time but some pleasing work. Every time we run together I think her sunny grin gets that bit wider! She’s such a fun, happy girly.
Helen & Skip had the most fantastically successful weekend – loads of very good places. Really well-deserved and it was an absolute pleasure to share in their victories, well done mate!!!
Brenda & Bryn had a difficult day on Saturday when he kept bogging off to see people ringside, but had a real breakthrough on Sunday when he focused so much better and worked. He’s a lovely boy. And our pairs run on Sunday wasn’t too disgraceful either :o)

Tim conducted himself well and was calm around the rings. He was a little worried by the tannoy so it was useful to get him used to that. Out walking he still tends to try to join other dogs’ games, but is gradually getting better and I was able to let him off lead both on the beach and the exercise field when it was quiet, and only had to go and retrieve him and apologise a couple of times, and most times he did come back to huge praise, cheese & tuggy games. It was exciting to watch Suzanne running fellow Welsh Sheepdog Bailey – wow, FAST!!

What a fab show - beside the seaside, beside the sea.

Big Brother

“It’s day 26 in the Big Brother house and Maisie Mouse and Tim have been quietly bickering over a rope toy for one hour and twenty minutes.”
Observing these three form a pack is like a fascinating social experiment. Like the inmates of a BB house, all was fluffy and over-polite to start with. Maisie & Tim were best buddies – constantly puppy-playing hard, not a cross word, whilst Billy kept himself out of the situation, politely reserved. As the days go by, though, the cracks start to show, disputes arise, allegiances change, different sides of personalities emerge, social rules are formed and challenged. After a week or so and it became obvious he was staying, Maisie started to get a bit fed-up with the way Tim was just too OTT – not respecting boundaries, biting her ears that bit too hard, barging, diving in for toys, etc. and she started to tell him off, really tell him off in that scarey bitch way!
Maisie & Billy have always had a quiet relationship – Maisie henpecking Billy, but Billy mostly quietly deferring to her, so no conflict. Tim doesn’t back down so easily – not that he answers back, rather he stands there looking goofily nonplussed and then goes right back to being an annoying youth!! I’ve noticed Maisie getting more frustrated with this lack of respect but she’s kept at it. Now, though, Billy is stepping up to the plate! When Tim’s a pain and Maisie tells him so, Billy strides into the fray and loudly enforces the telling-off. And it works! All he does is some big woofing and he marches Tim into a corner, and Tim really respects him for it, and Maisie gazes at Big Mister Woof adoringly! Tim now tip-toes around Billy and is also starting to act a little more respectfully towards Maisie. To be fair, Maisie does wind Tim up. She takes a toy and drops it on Tim’s head so he goes to grab it and she then gets cross! You can see why the word “bitch” is used in its context as a derogatory human term.
I tried to not intervene myself at first, thinking they needed to establish their own rules, but now I am getting more involved and trying to help Tim pick up the rules, sometimes telling him when he gets it wrong or right before the other dogs feel they need to. Tim is basically a very sweet, well-meaning, adorable young lad but I really wonder whether his background may explain his lack of doggy etiquette – could be that he’s grown up with his sibling(s) or parent(s)?? Or he may be just a very awkward age.
The rules and interactions all change again outdoors, but that's a whole other chapter ...
Anyway, Tim’s learning all sorts of stuff pretty quickly – apart from picking up at least a few manners, he’s also cracked house-training, he walks beautifully on lead, and he’s doing lovely basic obedience which he takes very seriously, bless him.
And who will be voted Pack Leader in the BB House? The dogs will decide!

Big Bro Billy Woof

Flyballing at Drax

This weekend we’ve been flyballing at Drax Power Station. It’s a surprisingly pleasant venue! And some quality Billy Woof time. The boy is just super and I’m ever so proud of him.
We ran on Saturday in a team of otherwise baby beginner dogs. They all had little “moments” – running out and whatnot, but they all showed bits of confidence and promise for the future so it was satisfying to run with them and the lack of placing just didn’t matter. At the end of the day all was lovely and fluffy till … Maisie and I had a bit of an accident – I bent down, she jumped up! My world went red, then very very black for a while!!! A broken nose and two black eyes, ouch. Real teamwork came into play as lovely clubmates sorted me out from a terrible state of shock, determinedly avoiding hospital with some deftly applied first aid and upside-down cups of sweet tea. Crikey, not nice at all.
Sunday was a quiet day of recovery, relaxation and walks. Young Tim had a good big walk with a couple of other dogs, Raven and Moose. He played hard with the gorgeous Raven – young Lab girly – and she was so tolerant with him but eventually, sensibly, told him to bog off, ever so politely but another little lesson well learnt. Later, Tim also had a lovely play back at camp with collie boy Eric, the same age. They’re both hilarious “roughy-toughy” boys with legs of odd lengths, and a firm forever friendship was formed, I think.
Today (Monday) we ran in the Multibreed competition. Flyball, for a sport that at first seems like a simple case of organised ball-chasing, actually involves a whole load of complicated rules!! The team name we ran under was new and so our “seed time” was a guesstimated declared time, and the dogs ran too quickly!!! We kept beating that time and exceeded out “breakout time” three times and so were eliminated from the competition, oops.
So no rosettes BUT Billy Woof gave his all every single run and he really did enjoy it, so job done! I absolutely admire Billy for his total and utter commitment to his chosen job. He gets so excited beforehand and then goes in and focuses and runs as hard, fast, straight and reliable as can be, every single run. Billy Woof, you’re my inspiration and little superstar! What a good lad.

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.