Easter in Cornwall

I am about a week late in my updates....ah well nevermind!

Roger and I had both been invited to judge in Cornwall at the 3 day K9 Kernow Show.

We travelled down on Thursday - the show was Friday (Roger judged), Saturday (I judged) and Sunday and then we travelled back on Monday. It made a nice break and the weather was not too bad at all compared to some other parts of the country.

I enjoyed my judging I had Large Combined 1 & 2 Jumping, Large Grade 3 Jumping and Pay on the Day Medium Pairs. The day I judged it did not rain at all which I was most happy about, it was cold but I was wrapped up well. On the other days there were a few showers and even a bit of hail.

This was Kaisers first time in the caravan and he seemed to enjoy it:-

The fleece is supposed to cover the seats.......but had been re-designed by Kaiser! The Showground in Wadebridge was a lovely if slightly windy place to stay it was brilliant for walking the dogs as there is such huge areas to walk that people are not all on top of each other.

How did the dogs do...well they did just fine bless em - Fleety got a 6th in G5 Jumping, Cadbury got 3rd in Medium 5-7 Combined Jumping (well pleased with that one) and a 2nd in Pay on the Day Take Your Own Line, JaiJai got 3rd in Grade 4 Jumping and Roger was kicking himself as he had a pole down in 4/5 Combined Agility and he checked his time and he was a bit ahead of the winner but of course it might have taken a little longer to keep the pole up.

The show had 2 runs a dog and also a pay on the day - I don't normally do Pay on the Day's but thought it would be good experience for Cads so I did a steeplechase as well as the aforementioned TYOL.

On the Saturday evening a group of 9 of us went into Wadebridge for an Indian meal which was really nice.

The tow back took a while as the A303 was clogged up but as least we were in no hurry and at least it was not after a days competing and packing up, we got back to caravan storage and I was sooo pleased that we finally got our old space back - the dippy man gave it to someone else in error and we had been in an awkward space for the last two shows of last year and all winter.

A couple more photos, Cadbury seems to be saying "oh yawn stop taking my photo" either that or "is it dinner time yet?" !!

Mid Downs and Chippenham

Was not impressed these shows were two days running! We do ring party at Mid Downs so had to be there all day from helping the judge to tweak his course to packing the ring away.....and then Chippenham small/medium show was the anniversary of Cads competing for one year and I had offered a lift to a club member who does not travel that far so even though tired out after the long day of ring partying at Mid Downs then had another long cold day at Chippenham....ah well whinge over perhaps they won't be on consecutive days next year!

Mid Downs - Fleety got a 16th after a run off that he won in the 3-5 Jumping - his first run was quite messy in parts so it was nice to have another go and do a much better clear :) He was going lovely in the 4-5 Agility and then near-ish to the end ran past the cloth tunnel. Cadbury did a clear on an interesting but also speedy Jumping (4-7 I think) but was just out of the places and his agility was a very interesting course....I hear there were only 4 clears in the whole class....I was proud to have got to jump 12 clear before he popped an extra jump - it was 5-7 and the Supadog Qualifier - set at more like Grade 8 ;) !!

Chippenham - another early start and picked Lindsay and Pip up along the way - Cads and Pip had a run on first and then runs last in the rings...first run was 4-5 Graded Agility - I had already decided I would hold my contacts and Cads came a respectable 3rd with held contacts - Pip came 1st in that class and as he is in a class I teach at North Downs I was really pleased for them. One annoying bit was that when they did the presentation although they wrote Cads as 3rd they only gave places to 2nd doh! I got in the wrong place for the 4-5 jumping and got Cads E'd and we had a clear in both the 1-7 Steeplechase which was messy in parts and a lovely run in the 1-7 agility but I think Cads thought he had finished after the second to last jump and ground to a halt and took what seemed like ages to then jump the last jump - he was just out of the places with both these clears so I was pleased knowing their were places we could have saved time.

No video......I really must get some more video of Cads as have not had any of him for ages.

A photo of Cads that I have always liked when he was little :)

Time goes by.....

Well time has flown by and I have been a bad blogger - there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day!

I will do a quick resume.....

My dogs all saw the Chiro a few weeks back and were all given a clean bill of health so that was good.

Crufts - I went on Thursday to be groom for Sue and Bug who were in the mini maxi pairs with Jaf's Sister Ruby - they did really well but were sadly not clear. Sue and I were there again on Friday for the Medium Crufts Team - Bug was in the Team (with Jude, Disney and Mouse) and Cadbury was their reserve - we did not need to run but Cads seemed to enjoy Crufts - Jude was clear, Bug had 5 and sadly Disney and Mouse were both E'd so they did not go through to the final. Sue and I walked miles and miles around the shops and bought a few things....I got toys/treats/a nice mat...can't remember what else now! Also managed to watch some of the agility.

Went for a lovely walk at Wittering Beach and yummy pub lunch with fellow bloggers Karen, Lisa, Bernadette and non-bloggers Mandy and Polly - it was a belated birthday walk for Todd who Cadbury really loves - see Karens Blog for Photos - there were 16 dogs and they all seemed to have a great time, Lisa made a lovely cake for the dogs and they all seemed to enjoy - Jaf and Cadbury certainly did!

Kaiser is now 5 months old and I can't believe he has been here for that many months already - bless him he is teething right now.

Newton Heath

Ok madly got up at 3.15am and set off at 3.50....it only(!) takes 3.5 hours at that time in the morning funnily enough the motorway is rather clear!

I always like to get to shows with lots of time to spare to walk the dogs - I had taken 6 dogs with me leaving the oldies Fog and Rip at home as Roger would be in and out all day so I had a busy day with walking them, running them, Kaiser being old enough to go in and have a look round...oh and then having to find enough energy to drive home again! It is rather dull travelling such a long way on your own (well with the dogs but they are all akip!)

Roger was working again - he has to work 2 Saturdays a month with his silly job - it used to be one but has gone up to two as you can imagine he is not that happy about that! In years gone by it used to be me working some weekends...ah well I get to run the lovely JaiJai and Josie the strange merle!

Back to the show...there were only 2 runs per dog - one jumping and agility - Josie and Jaf were only doing jumping. There was a pay on the day class for charity split into various sections so I thought I would put Fleet, Cads, Josie and JaiJai into it - so I had 13 runs!

Fleet:- he came 8th in Grade 5 Jumping with one messy bit, his G5 Agility was soooo funny he had gone lovely and was clear only 4 things to go and then he came round a jump the opposite way to which I thought he would and trying to think on my feet got me left behind and then he got but ran the aframe and then came back to see where I was and put a foot back on the bottom of the aframe I started to laugh which did not help! His POD Class was 5-7 Graded TFO hmmmm too hard for Fleet with well strange switch behinds which he does not like on the first bit with no forward momentum so we got a 5r and left.....laughing!

Cadbury:- he came 3rd in Medium 4/5 Combined Jumping - I really liked this course and there were some interesting handling bits so we really went for it and I was pleased to come 3rd with 2 speedy leggy terriers above us, his agility we missed the weave entry and then it all went a bit wrong and we left laughing....this laughing was becoming a theme....perhaps it was mild hysteria after the early morning start! Cads POD was 1-7 Medium Helter Skelter we whizzed round as fast as we could but I did not think we would be quick enough for a place but Cads came 6th so I was really pleased :)

Jaf:- he had just the one run - Small 4/5 jumping - he did a really lovely clear round for him as he can be very unconfident and slows down or stops and get all worried at shows (hence we gave up with the see-saw and he just does one jumping class) I checked his time and he was the first one out of the places which for little Jaf is brill as he only occasionally gets a place.

JaiJai:- oh dear what can I say about him he was off his head - I think he finds indoor shows a bit exciting - he did a few nice bits in each run including getting all his contacts quite nicely but no clears and his Grade 4 Jumping was a very testing tight course and really too much for him.

Josie:- she should have been able to get round the above mentioned Grade 4 Jumping course but she seemed rather excited and barked a bit and whizzed off the wrong way and kicked off a few poles I think she sees me as a bit of fun and running with her Dad is more serious! In the POD 1-4 Graded Helter Skelter she listened well, whizzed round and kept the poles up and came 4th :)

Kaiser had a fab day - saw 2 of his black brothers Draco and Flash and was so excited to see all the people and dogs he is such a happy little dog!

Then the dreaded bit the long drive home......I had delegated Fleet to drive but he did not look keen on the idea so it was down to me ;) stopped for 2 breaks on the way back and shared KFC with the dogs. Had a nice day but was flippin knackered when I got home late in the evening!

Cadders is going to Crufts....

He is to be a reserve for a Medium Crufts Team, hopefully all the dogs and handlers in the Team will be fine but it's good to have a reserve and I am very proud that Cadbury is their reserve.

The Team is Rosie and Disney, Alan and Jude, Sue and Bug and Toni and Mouse

Thanks to Rosie for all her liaising and Good Luck to the Team :o)



When looking through my photos I found this one from a few weeks back in the garden which made me laugh, I can see Cads and Kaiser saying "right let's herd Fleet"

A few photos :)

A few weeks back Kaiser and I were at Pets at Home and I noticed they were doing a photo competition the following week so thought we would get some photos done. Bless him he was so sweet - we queued behind adult dogs that did not know how to sit or lay down or stay still and yet Kaiser managed just fine. A week later we went back to choose the photo to go into their compeition, I don't expect him to do any good in that as of course I luv him dearly but he is not cute in the eyes of others like some of the fluffy pups that were there. I bought a couple of the photos although I am not sure if he looks a bit startled - the photographer got the dogs attention by barking at them! So with the usual thanks to the photographer for allowing me to scan and upload the photo (I did ask him - he looked bemused and thought I was mad but said it was fine!)

It's Cads Blog so I thought I would add a photo of him I really like - this was from the DIN Medium Novice Final back last August where bless the little furry chap he came 4th. Amanda kindly bought me this photo (so thanks to her and also the DIN Professional Photographer) and it really is such a good action shot - I think it has a funny mark on it where it was scanned - it's not on the original!

Waldridge Fell....

On Friday the 8th February we set off "up north", Roger had the day off work and was attending his first show of the year (my third..:o)) Duessa had kindly been our booking secretary and booked us a nice pub to stay at - it was a pub where we have eaten when at Northern Week and Sue has stayed there before so knew it was dog friendly.

We had a good trip up in nice weather and had a nice evening at the pub and the dogs were all very well behaved - Kaiser and Sue's merlie pup Bear had a play in her room, Kaiser was so much bigger and a bit rough so sweet Cadders came in for a play and he and Bear played lovely.

We were staying apx 40 miles from the show so had an early start and we were very lucky with the weather as the sun shone all day - its not a show or venue that Roger and I had been to before and I understand in previous years there has been heavy rain or snow and its been very bleak there. It was a nice indoor school with plenty of room for 3 rings.

Cads classes were Medium Combined 3-7 - agility, jumping and another jumping, he has not done that many runs up against grade 6 and 7 dogs so I thought it would be interesting to see how we got on. He had the agility run first which was an interesting course (see below - click on it to make it bigger) while queuing I watched a kelpie cross do a stunning run and thought no time for any hesitations if I wanted to try and get a place so we went for it and ran all the contacts - he did them fine running all the way to the floor I just did not make him stop. I was very pleased with the run and watched a few more people go thinking they would have been quicker than us but thought it would be nice to see Cads time. As is the northern way the score tables were hiding somewhere (found the one for this ring in the cafe!) and I was very surprised to find out that Cads was laying and stayed 2nd. The speedy kelpie cross won and was a good few secs ahead of us but even though it was not a huge show entries wise for Cads to have come 2nd in a 3-7 was brilliant.



Cads also went clear in both his jumping classes and was just out of the places in them both.

Fleet bless him also had 3/3 clears :) The Large dog classes were Graded 1-7 (agility, jumping and another jumping) We had a messy agility run so that put him out of the places, and in Pete Jennings jumping really we should have had a 5r and I stopped trying but we ended up with a clear again at Grade 5 you can't be messy or waste time so he was out of the places. In his last run another jumping he did a lovely run with one small place were we lost a smidgeon of time and I was very surprised and pleased that he came 3rd.

Roger had no clear rounds.....Josie is still only doing jumping but at least had 2 runs - she had one messy run with faults and in the other just had a 5r. JaiJai did ok with a nice wait on the start line in 2 classes (which he did not have last year) but alas no clears.

Sue had a good day with 1st and 2nd with Bug in Jumping - what a good Buggarty and a 2nd with Merc in Jumping.

So then the long drive home broken up with a nice meal with Sue and Duessa.