What a great weekend!

Halo is turning into a little dog now, and on Tuesday we will be getting a friend for her. He is the brother of my sweet little boy I lost. He is a swimmer pup which means his legs splay at the momenet. It can come right, but will need a lot of work. Any way he is the same age as halo, so that will be nice as she is starting to try and play.

This is Ham, Halo's new friend

This weekend we went to our first UKA show. I have to say I really enjoyed it!!!!! It was one of the nicest atmospheres at a show that I have ever been to.
All our dogs were really good this weekend.....I don't often mention Link and Shy as they are 9 1/2 years old, and we are slowly winding them down, but linky was a star, having a lot of fun on his terms he he he. Shy won senoir agility, so not so bad for an old girl! Sadly on the second day she hit a wing very hard and is still a bit sore on her hind leg. Stihl pulled off a second in a jumping class.
Herbie had a good weekend....1 st champ agility, 1st gamblers, 2nd champ steeplecahse, 3rd Snnoker and 4th champ steeplechase, and little old Hex won Begginers jumping (which I thought was really hard!) and came 4th in the steeplechase. He had stonking rounds on every round, but he seems to have found a new gear, which ment he hit a pole most rounds (I think it just was mis judging rather than lazyness!)
Below is the video of all Hexy's runs and some amazing photos that Dennis kindly took!!!!! xxxx Thank you !

The Video...........

Hellish night

What a horrendous night!!!!!
Halo (as she is now named, although is affectionately called Alice!!!don't ask) decided to crash on me. She started to take a turn for the worse at about 12pm and then did a big plummet DOWN! By 3 we were in the vets, who felt we needed to just ride it out. At 6 she was extremely lifeless and her third eyelids had come across (for anybody with puppy experience you'll know this is BAD!!!!) We both kept fighting on, and I syringed fluids into her every 30 Min's all through the night. This morning she is looking a little brighter.

She did't move all night until she heard Jay come in, when she sat up and whinned, made a fuss of him then layed down again......She did the same when he left for work this morning, sitting up (at 5am I might add) then screaming from the moment he left!!! I think somebody has a crush!!!

So here comes the reason for Halo........(which we named her last Friday)

Halo arrived with my mum at a time of deep dispare for her. She was at a major low....she was my mums guardian angel of sorts, helping her to focus again!
She then came to me where her and her adopted brother bumped my life back into focus. She has fought hard to be here with us, and must have somebody watching over her, therefor Halo seemed fitting.

Today mum is picking up another of the same litter, apparently s/he has a front leg that doesn't look right.
It is a sad world, and sometimes the smallest thing can bring happiness! I guess don't over look the little things in life!!!!

Training

What a great weekend.......The sun was shinning, Jay was actually with me and not working, and I got to do training both days!
On Sat I had a training day with Tasha, this is the second one I've done, and yet again I loved every second of it! Even Jay did!!! So that was really nice training in the sun.

On Sunday I was teaching (which I equally love)I had been asked to do a training session for a small group. It was a really fun day, we worked on Jump grids, weave entries and contacts.....Below is the set we used:

It's amazing how 2 sets of small weaves (ie 6 and 7) trough the dogs and handlers, it gave less time to get into position, and with the tunnel draws and blind entrances it was very interesting.

I also used this patteren at class on Thurs as I liked it so much and oneof my groups dogs cut fromone set of weaves to the next not really seeing the first set..........Bless.

Any way that was my weekend in short.

Hex's runs

Dark Days......

My sweet little boy gave up his fight on Friday night, to say that this has broken my heart would be an understatement. He fought so hard! It's always hard rearing hand raises, but somehow he got to me, I could not and still cannot imagine my life without him. As I write this tears flow down my face......... life can be so cruel!

I have been a mess due to this. We we're booked into Mid Downs show, I was not going to go as I was too upset, and honestly in a state, BUT, I decided to go, to be with people like minded, who would understand. At this point I want to say thank you to my friends, it was really hard, and I'm sorry I spent most of the morning in tears. I ran my dogs poorly and frankly in a daze, but it was better than being at home (I just couldn't face it!). My last run was grade 3 jumping, Hexy was great and won this (which was nice as it was our last grade 3)...........This was a tiny ray of sunshine for me, in a horrendous 48 hours (not to mention at this point I had not been to bed since Weds), sadly my sunshine was very short lived due to some things that were said, which quite honestly hurt and blackened an already crappy day.
I was going to go to WAG on the Sunday, but suddenly didn't want to be with the people I craved the day before, sad how that can happen.

I truly feel there is so much more to life than agility, it isn't the be all and end all, no matter how much you love it, (and believe me I love it but today I would trade all to have my special boy back!!!). One positive thing has come out of my experience at the weekend and that is that next time I feel compelled to say something to somebody I will: 1) make sure it really needs to be said 2) make sure that it is totally just and most importantly 3) consider that perhaps the person I’m about to speak to might just have sad or difficult things going on in their life that I don’t know about.

I now just pray for "Alice" (as she has been nick named), I still will not name her properly as Thursday night I decided on names for them, then I lost my baby the following day, it feels like I'm jinxed, so I will still hold off.

Alice looks like she is going to have Queen Anne legs and a very under shot jaw, bless her

An emotional and tiring evening

Sorry the pictures are so bad but they are from my phone........

It has been an extremely emotional night!!! At this moment I have been awake for31 hours straight!!!!! My sweet little tan boy suddenly plummeted late last night and it has been a horrendous fight to keep him alive.
The problem with hand raises is that they generally have a very low immune system (as they don't get the colostrum from their mum)...........Any way it has been a night of injecting fluids under his skin, and keeping him warm. We have been to the emergency vet who can't give a reason why he crashed, but has given him some antibiotics and a pain killer. He has spent the night looking like he is in a coma.................Half an hour ago he lifted his head, and just a few min's ago he had the tiniest of drinks. I'm doing everything I can for him, I just hope it's enough.

The little girl is doing extremely well (in fact she is a little porker!!!!!!!) Their eyes are just starting to crack open the tiniest amount, so soon they will see the big wide world.

Herbie baby sitting....

Miss porker.........

Cuddles xxxxxx

Agility Boot Camp

Please click on the image to read more.......

Crufts

Well Herbie was a star, my handling not so good!!!!! We were having a great round and 2nd to last jump I had a panic and couldn't decide which wing to pull him round!!! Sadly this cost us a lot of time and put us in 10th (only the top 8 go through!) On the upside, Herbie started a new career as a PAT dog, and me as a pack horse for Nancy and her pink shopping obsession! ha ha
So that was that..........

Well done to Debbie and scooby for winning te starters jumping, Bernadette and Zen for reserve in the champ and Wendy and Cruise for winning the circular knock out!

My new alarm clocks.........

They may be defunked though as they go off every two hours!!!!!!!

The black girl is a cocker x poodle and the golden boy is a cocker. They were given to mum by a breeder as each bitch had 10 in each litter and these two were the runts and she felt they wouldn't make it. They are 8 days old today, mum picked them up at 5 hours old and hand raised them for the first 5 days (she did an amazing job, as it very hard hand raising!) I have now taken them as she has all the rescue to do as well. As yet they don't have names as I want to make sure they are dong well first. But judging on their lungs they are not doing badly!

We are currently on 2 hourly feeds and yes that extends all through the night as well.

Agility Zone is here.......

A quick one...

Well a really busy week a head...... On Friday I am at Crufts with Herbie in the senior singles (uping the credit of the rescue dogs.....HOPEFULLY!!!) At this point I would like to thank Nancy and Vicky for coming along with me xxxx
Then Sat back to Crufts to support Jan in the Novice.....
Then Sun back to Crufts AGAIN to be a groom for Sian in the champ!!!!

So just a quick good luck to members of my class............

Jan and Teasel in the Novice
Debbie and Scooby in the starters
Nancy and Andy in the mini maxi pairs
Wendy and Cruise on the 4 or 5 days you are competing!!!!!!
Anne in the rescue dog agility.


And good luck to my friends...........
Bernadette and Zen
Dave and Dobby
Sian and Jazz
as well as all the others that are competing!


Other news..........

I believe I have a spot in a new agility mag........ http://www.agilityzone.co.uk (Have a look it's promising to be good!!!!!) There is a question and answers section in the first mag..... but more exciting I may be writing a permanent article.......Watch out Bob Sharpe and Lee windy!!!!!! (not really) Mine will be a training article/courses.... I am really looking forward to this as I don't believe our English mags have this! So wish me luck he he he........