Not So Delinquent

Delinquent Dogz today. Sunny day and nice company, including Helen's new baby Belle with the big long legs - what a sweetheart she is.
Maisie ran a nice clear in the agility and did well in her other runs to say I was pretty crippled with a bad neck - eased a little by a massage which was lovely but left the world seeming rather surreal!! She's obviously more relaxed than at big shows as she tackled the A-scale with much less worry and hesitation.
& Tim had a little run in the baby class - we're sooo not ready for public appearances yet but hoped it would be a positive bit of training, and it was! The boy is so confident in himself and wasn't fazed in the slightest by being in a different environment. He did his startline wait, his contacts were rock-solid perfect and he did some really good bits of jumping. I reckon it was the worst sort of course for a speedy inexperienced baby - big straight lines, but actually he did really well and sent on beautifully in bits. & when it started to go a little pear-shaped I just looped him round and made up a bit of course that we could succeed at, and so kept it really positive and happy. And the thing that I was concerned about didn't happen - he really kept his focus on me (apart from a very minor bum waggle at the judge) and didn't bog of to say HELLOOOOO, I LOVE YOU!!! to anyone at all. What a super-good puppy!!! :o) So now I'm slightly less nervous about his first 'official' outing at NAWS next week ...
& Billy spent a lot of time looking handsome and bumming treats.

Artwork by Tim

Lakeland Adventure

The dark hours yesterday morning saw us setting off to Wigton. I was a bit dazed and confused at getting up so early and made a coffee for the journey and promptly poured it into the sink ... We chased a zillion cat's eyes along the foggy Dales road and then up the M6 where this eery light started to appear in the sky - turned out it was the sun coming up.

The show itself was good, the courses were great and the atmosphere really nice. Maisie got a 7th in the agility over a pretty tricky course - I was a little surprised how many clears there were in grade 1 - the standard was good. We flunked out in the other two classes but never mind :o)

Finished early and so made an impromptu detour on the way home - to Ullswater which I think is possibly the most stunning of The Lakes. We ended up having a brill walk, and stopped for a bit on the lakeshore, where strange things happened ...

At first it was pretty normal - Maisie going splooshing and the boys dithering at the water's edge:

But then something strange happened. I threw the ball in for Maisie, but it went a little beyond her deep-paddling comfort zone and so it stayed there bobbing on the surface. Billy started getting a bit hysterical coz the bally was lost, then all of a sudden he waded right in and threw himself into a swim!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it - would've been less surpised if Maisie had signed a pledge of cleanliness, or Tim sat down and done a crossword puzzle.

Sadly for Billy, the tidal waves generated by his powerful paddling sent the ball bobbing further away from shore and he never actually retrieved it, but he went back in a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed himself!!! A water baby is launched?!

Umm, Billy, you look kinda different since you went in the water:

Hey Tim, look, Billy's gone all ... small ... and white??!?!

Duh, that's strange Maisie, but I'm a little worried - look, I got my freaky feet wet:
Heeheehee:

& then a spaceboat appeared and took away the alien swimming Billydog:

Posing and scenery:
& later, back home, Maisie having sweet dreams with her pink princess rosette:

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Pals

Maisie & Tim really do enjoy each other's company.

Playthings:

Drying off after a soggy walk: Awwww:
& Billy - being himself :0)

(& he's still Maisie's main man really but schhh don't tell Tim - there's enough lovin' to go round)

xxx

v.e.t. ...

Billy & Maisie’s vaccinations and ‘MOT’ today. Both have been lucky and not been to see the vet for ages so it was good to have them checked out and we needed to go anyway to get armed up with anti-scarey stuff for the firework season. Both were declared fine in every way and Billy’s heart still great, yay! I know he’s fine and he’s kept fit and we manage it well, but it’s always there as a background worry. Other vaccinations went in easily but then it was time for the dreaded kennel cough vaccine up their nostrils. Well, Billy loves going to see the vet and revels in every bit of tending and fuss, but he HATES this bit with an absolute passion and it’s not nice. And poor Maisie’s even more disturbed by it. We managed it in the end but I was left wondering whether it’s really worth the trauma … & I don’t say that lightly because Billy’s heart thing was probably started by a bad dose of KC – it can be very serious indeed. If it wasn’t for us getting around so much and mixing with so many dogs at shows, etc. I would opt to not have it, almost definitely. Didn’t think of this till afterwards but I wonder if we can use their firework anxiety meds in future to get them through it, as it’s got worse for both each time as they know what’s coming. :o(
Another thing we talked about was Lungworm – a growing problem in the UK. Advice ‘on the street’ is to use Panacur granules alternating with your normal wormer. Well, apparently you would have to give them this every day for several days for it to kill off the lungworms. The only really effective treatment is Advocate spot-on. Trouble with this is that it’s noted that collies/crosses can have serious adverse reactions. Tests suggest though that they would have to eat about 4 times the recommended dose for it to have a serious effect. Seems it really is quite safe. However she is going to double-check the recommended dose for them – I was particularly concerned about the Tim-thing as Welsh Sheepdogs have a common ancestor with Rough Collies and they are particularly noted as susceptible - due to a gene thing - will stop there before getting boringly scientific ... Billy & Maisie have had it before anyway and been fine. She recommended using it every month – especially in the spring/summer when there are more slugs & snails which carry it. Oh joy, another regular expense! & also to keep using a round/tapeworm one (Drontal) approx quarterly too.
& Tim had some antibiotics and we got some other bits and bats and I got a big fat bill. Will have to send them out with begging bowls and sad eyes soon. Good job they’re worth it.

Squeaky Mice

Yes, Mice - plural.

The first one is in the loft and is tapdancing on the rafters and squeaking in the wee small hours. Traps have been laid before the rest of the family moves in ... :o(

And the other one is Miss Maisie Mouse. I just got thinking today about how yappy she is! (OK, so it's yappy, not squeaky, but it is a very squeaky sort of yap.) Anyway, she does this yapping whenever Something Is Going To Happen. e.g. I'm going to open the door to let them into the garden; or going to take them out for a walk - this is accompanied by hysterical bouncing; going to make their dinner; being let off lead - and this is usually yapping at and chewing the boys' ears. But the strangest excited yapping of all comes at bedtime: I get up and turn the downstairs lights off, etc. and she leaps up, usually from a deep sleep, and bounces around yapping, apparently overcome with utter joy, then she gallops full-pelt upstairs and - here's the strange bit - is usually in bed upstairs, totally chilled, almost asleep again in the few seconds it takes me to go up the stairs!!
I know I should probably train this away - not do anything till she doesn't yap and is calm, but life's too short, it really is quite cute to see her so highly delighted at such small things, doesn't last long, and is not nattering in advance but only reactive to when I decide Something Is Going To Happen, and thankfully the boys are both very stoical about it and don't join in or share any of her hysteria - they're just happy at a more "normal" level.

Lune

Well, no green dog but a sludgey coloured one instead ...

& she smelt far worse than she looked!!
But she was forgiven coz she went on to take 7th in the Agility (goodness knows how - it was an awful run and on 5F!!) and a nicer run in the jumping to take 8th - that was more pleasing as it was quite a big, open, un-Maisie course and she actually beat several dogs on time - often we are, or nearly, the slowest clear round. And the day had started really badly when she was freaked by the arena - I'd forgotten how noisy and frantic it was in there too - and then before her first run she was nobbled by another dog, no harm done thankfully though. We had a longish break before the last class of the day and I hadn't really intended running that one - no point overfacing her and she hadn't seemed 100% herself earlier somehow, but I walked the course and it was a straightforward one I thought she might enjoy so decided to give it a go. I planned and expected to pull her out if she didn't seem up for it over the first couple of jumps, and even warned the lady behind us in the queue to get ready to be on the line early, but Maisie really took off and thoroughly enjoyed the run!! She took me by surprise but I decided to just leg it with her, resulting in a couple of poles down and I barrelled her into the weaves in a way that doesn't work so she missed the entry LOL! Really good fun run though :o)
Then the highlight of the day came in Helen running big Jock in the anysize class. We managed to get him to the arena nice and calmly and off he went ........ brilliant!!!...... He worked so well and almost ran clear, but for just adding an extra jump to the course. & he was happy and relaxed, no suggestion of charging off and woofing at anyone. What a good lad!!
Again I wondered why those shows at Myerscough are so good - the arena is noisy and can get crowded, the tannoy is beyond crap, the exercise field not great, the location nothing to write home about, but they're always really good shows?! And another strange thing - I saw several people there I've not seen since there last year - where do they all go for the summer?..

Camouflage

When it's dark Billy disappears apart from the whites of his eyes and teeth. When it's snowy Maisie disappears. Now it's Tim's turn in the autumn leaves! Think I might be adopted by a green dog next so I can have that frission of lost dog panic walking over the green fields too. ;o)

I'm addicted to avocados.

Lune Valley tomorrow at Myerscough, yippee!!!...

Have lit the fire for the first time of the 'winter' today - brrrr.