Mindy's Moments

That 18 months just flew past and now she's competing at real shows!

She was a good girl, she queued nicely, for those that know Mindy will know that was an achievement, let alone get her to sit and wait on the start line!...she was fazed by the "half" people looking at her over the wooden side panel and gave them a growl!....but was fine with the wind howling through the buildings!

....still haven't quite got the start line, "take the lead off sorted", as she really does need to queue with her halti on, but then we fight to get it off and I certainly cant get it on when I've caught her at the end! I thought I'd sussed it by using a double ended lead, halti one end and a slip lead the other, but put that on and she coughs and splutters and I'm always worried she's going hurt her self, so may be I now have to have a clip at the end, which I just put straight on to her collar........

It's all my fault as I trained her in classes with a halti on as it was easier than taking it off, then this would have been sorted before her first show, I hate seeing people messing around on the start line, taking off all their bits and pieces.......Don't know why.

I have been doing bits of clicker training with that issue, but obviously not enough!

Her 2nd run, even though she was OTT, when we finished the course, I managed to walk her over to the corner-out the way, off lead and gave her a load of baked liver and there was "no way" she going to leave me, so may be that's the answer...find out Sunday when the next fun event is, if she's not in season.

Anyway back to her first run, I released her using the "321 okay" and off she went not her usual manic self but still working, down the dog walk, good sniff along the down plank, I was told afterwards that a dog had pooed on it! So I chose to release her early to keep her motivated, through the tunnel, she looked at me coming out, so rather than me "powering!" off down the line I stayed with her, I was going to layer the next bit through the box, then should have made it to the bottom of "A" frame to do a blind turn and send her on over the next jump....but because I went through into the box, I was wrong for the next bit and I actually pushed her off the side of the "A" frame, I now know I need to walk courses just in case she's having a clingy moment and then could have been prepared for the next bit better....any way the rest was lovely and I left her doing the weaves whilst I finished the course.

On to the second run.

That was a jumping round with Bridgette as the judge, who say Mindy at 8 weeks old and has always thought of her as a LAMA! anyway the course was nice with a few turns in it, I wanted to not baby her round it and work her like I would have done at home, I would have not done much of a wait and pulled her to jump 4 and crossed behind jump 5, but I though if she was clingy I wont be able to motivate her by crossing behind so chose the recall, but in actual fact, running with her from the start might have kept her with me rather than her going off to "chase", but she did come back with an "ooh" via a few extra jumps, we did manage to keep the rest of it flowing and the rest was pretty much perfect!

And here it is..........

She was ready to come out and do some shows, at home she was managing to do lots of exercises and we just needed to get out there and do it, in the real world, with nerves and handling courses that I haven't put up here, we have lots of fun events lined up until middle of December , so that should keep us going until 2010....

King Harry!

Lots to share with you all....Family - sorry it's an all "agility post" this time!

Discover Dogs
Harry was invited to make up the numbers at DD, I thought it would be a great experience for Harry, to see how he would cope running on carpet, all the people, peeing indoors on sawdust etc!!!!

Well he loved it...he was in his element meeting people and he coped extremely well on the carpet...not that I would have called it carpet it was amazing "Stuff" and if this is the sort of carpeting they use at Crufts now, then it's game on for us!
So very different to when "Red" competed on carpet and came out with blood on her pads, where she had broken a nail and scrapped her pad, what a difference 5 years make!


We had two agility course over the day, great courses, great judges, well organised, no ques for the human loo's, but there was no way that Harry was going to wee in that saw dust area, for a start it would mess his hairstyle and secondly far too small and smelly and I don't wee indoors. So we had to take him outside.

Harry loved the agility a little bit too much and flew his two dog walks....more work needed.
He was a little bit slow on the first round but by the second one was almost as fast as outside...Well Pleased.
Amy and Fudge did two great rounds and came home with a 1st and second......

And I got to actually meet and chat to the Bernadette in real life! Hi there.
and Lorna and Cads was there too, along with Karen, it's funny as you feel like you know them all by reading their blogs! Funny old world.....

Thanks to Elaine who groomed and shopped till she dropped for us.....

I don't think anyone thought we would make it in one trip to the car! But Elaine and I always find a way to work it out!....what ever it is! how many pieces of vet bed (loads), dog wormer's, leads, cones, dog crates, coats, bags and Harry

And of course, I had to buy my special boy a new collar..........

Would I go again if asked........

Don't be daft of course we would.


Mind you it might be a little more stressful with the Mindy Muppet........

Her story of her first KC show tomorrow, Ian came ...so we have video evidence....

...Knockers!

...Well the drive is finished, apart from tiding up the edges. We've bought a new front door which is now waiting for our favourite carpenter to fit it!.....so now we just need a knocker, I never realised how hard that would be to choose!!
Here's a few on the short list....chuckle chuckle

just cant seem to get the "template" I want......

Just can't get this blog layout the way I want!
I started changing it three weeks ago and then it all got a bit confusing!

My blog "updates" aren't showing on friends blog lists..... I'm not sure what button I pressed to change that! .......or whether it's a google blog problem......

I liked the blue one briefly then I thought I'd change again and didn't like the one I found, then couldn't find the blue one again....Computers....Just need lots of rainy days to fix it how I want it!

So Family and friends Sorry! normality will return....I hope sooner rather than later!

Laugh of the day........

Sorry Elaine, you just made me laugh so much this morning, I had to share it with everyone!!!!

Dawn Weavers book arrived at Elaines!

Puppy Rae approves!

Buzzy Bear

..... Can’t remember whether I've mentioned him lately?


He’s been in the wars again!
...well, back in June he went lame on a hind leg, which sent me into a blind panic, …..weired I can cope with front legs but hind ones, means instantly cruciate, talk about panic. Well he had it x-rayed along with the other leg and nothing could be found, the cruciate was fine and he was well muscled in that area, so after week on lead and metacam...he was back free exercising and two weeks later he was back doing agility!


That was it until end of September, when he went lame for the whole of the weekend on the same leg, back to the Vets on the Monday, another lot of x-rays, she still couldn’t see anything and the cruciate was still fine, the x-rays included up towards his shoulders, just in case a disc was looking dodgy, x-rays where then sent of to Exeter to see Peter Attenburrow, in the mean time lead exercise and two weeks of metacam, the results, because of postal strikes didn’t arrive back to my vet until last Thursday, by which time he had had one week of no metacam and 3 weeks of lead walking and he was looking great, well I say great, it’s hard watching him walk whilst he’s on the lead, but he was loose around the garden and was still looking fine.
Anyway the results are copied from his (Peter Attenburrow letter)


“On the ventro dorsal view of the pelvis and coxo femeral joints there is evidence of a degree of subluxation of both coxo femeral joints. This appears to be more marked on the left side (funny that coz it’s his right that he was lame on!) There is also some remodelling of the femeral head on both sides with the rim of Osteophytes around the femeral head. The acetabulae are fairly shallow and I have seen coxo femeral joints sublaxation as a problem in this breed without there necessarily being evidence of gross osteroarthritis on radiographs. Usually these dogs will demonstrate some discomfort on forced extension and abduction of the hip.
Conservative management is probably appropriate initially; if there is poor response to conservative management and the pain persists then surgical intervention should be considered. Salvage surgery could take the form either of a femeral head and neck excision or total hip replacement”


So the long and the short of it. …He’s having a course of Cartrophen like “Red” had which helped her no end and hopeful this will help him too. We won’t go for an operation, until every other option is exhausted, but the vet has assured me that lots of dogs have this type of surgery and go on to live a pain free life.


In my heart of hearts I knew this is where he would struggle, as he got older being the “very large” active type of chap he is, nothing is done slowly or with any care of his own body (just like Red, his repeat mating older sister!) sad really as he not quite 8 yet, he too is the same as Red he needs to being doing something, I certainly wouldn’t be brave enough to run him in any size!
But hey lets not write him off yet!
So, he is to have weekly cartrophen injection for 4 weeks and then monthly for 4 months and we’ll see what happens. As long as he stays sound he can start coming off the lead.
We started yesterday on the beach at Porth, he had 10 mins off the lead, he was bonkers as expected, but he is still sound to day. Fingers crossed.

No time to be nervous.....

Before we knew it, Mindy and I where heading up the M5 to our first independent agility show, what a day! 4 runs two jumping and two agility, it was a very well run show, well done "M" and co..........and before you ask, No we didn't manage to win any, we had entered NFC so I could run in G1/G2 classes and take a toy in with me.......

Round one - jumping, she was a pain to Que, I had to ask a few people just to give her a bit of room, rather than letting their dogs sniff her bum, doesn't matter what grade your in Queing always seems to mean keep as close as you can to the next person/dog in the Que! I had decided to use a slip lead so I could exit the ring quickly when fished rather than struggling with putting on her halti, but she seemed to spend most of the time coughing and sputtering with it pressing on her throat. Anyway back to the round! 3,2,1 okay and we are off at a very "un Mindy like" speed, she was very calm, I would say she was slow for Mindy, but hey it was the first time that she has run or worked indoors, it was a nice round with just the first pole down (she took off from where she was sat!) so I threw the toy over the finish line (last jump) and off she went shaking or showing everyone her toy, I'd like to say it was a lap of honour!

Round two - jumping, went back to halti, much calmer to Que, managed to do lots of trick and waits whilst waiting our turn. Set her up, took halti off, started my count down and she was gone chasing the barking manic collie in the other ring...luckily the barrier fence was up, managed to call her back and start the course, much faster and focused (Surprisingly)

Round three - agility, not sure what really happened, but I'm pretty sure it was my handling, she bailed out of the dog walk, but was fine the second time, then went under a few jumps when they where on the turn, it might have been she was going so fast! or it was just my handling, then unfortunately she got spooked by the lovely young lad handing you the leads at the end, he wasn't much taller than Mindy, but ran across to hand me the lead, scary........

Round four - agility, she was still "up for it" Harry would have wanted his bed by now.
Much much better, did the dog walk at warp speed and I had a head start too, she still beat me to the end..... I really wanted a stop, with a quick release this time, Mindy had a different idea and thought I really aught to be teaching her a running DW, it was beautiful one, and before I could say anything she was in the tunnel turned the corner and in the weaves, and I wasn't going to pull her out the weaves, so we carried on, she went under the middle jump in a fan, Angie said, I just dropped my arm (getting ready to do the front cross and send her up the "A" frame), rest was perfect, except the last jump (I didn't want her doing a lap of honour with her toy, so had elected to have a tug with her at the end, so she just turned back to see me...note to myself more go-on work required.)

Halti = headcollar.

Home by 2.30!

She so reminds me of Red! How cool is that.

lets hope we can get a few more shows in before she's in season!

The Picture at the top, is just to keep those "family and friends" that aren't into agility, up to date with how the driveway is coming along!!


Oh and for some reason people don't believe me when I say Mindy was a different colour when she was a pup!








12 weeks-ish











4 months














6 months

























11 months

and now she just "Blonde"