Update and Christmas 2011

So Olympia 2011 has come and gone. Zaz and I were paired with Helen and Piaf in the morning pairs event. That was fun and we won the pairs! Zaz copes well with the large crowds and noise; maybe too well as she is slightly out of her mind with excitement!! Very similar to momma Zen at the same event!



Our evening final did not quite go to plan. As the winners of the semi-final in August, Zaz and I ran last. Our run was over at the first jump when Zaz knocked the first bar. At that point I would have liked to have left the ring but at Olympia we have to keep going. The run went from bad to worse and let's say it was not our best run ever! Never mind; I took the best dog home anyway.



I do slightly lose the will to live having to wait around for 6 hours between events. There is only so much shopping I can do in the Olympia village and I hate leaving Zaz alone in her crate. Maybe I am just getting jaded; Olympia does not excite me anymore. Or maybe I am just bah-humbug.

There is only one thing that can bring some Christmas spirit to me and that is Christmas Giz-mo! Damn he is cute!




So what is in store for OBay Shelties for the New year? I seem to continually find beautiful potential litters of puppies only to have missed pregnancies, litters of boys and oversized girls. Maybe 2012 will be my turn for a girl? I am not even choosy anymore; I will take any colour as long as she is small, pretty, smart and feisty with perfect ears. You know, basically Giz-mo without the boy bits.

In the meantime I have finally gotten my chickens! It is a new experience and I am enjoying learning about something new. So far we have gotten ONE egg from the girls and so it is one expensive egg! But the pleasure I get from looking out and seeing them pecking around is priceless. Right now we only have two but when our pen is complete I hope to get a few more. I am thinking 5 would be nice number.






This photo makes me laugh. Dennis bought me this tee-shirt when he went back to NY because I love marshmallow peeps! It is also appropriate considering my new love of chickens! This photo was taken on my birthday just chillin in front of the fire with my pups.



Happy Holidays to all!

Giz-mo The Dude

So Giz-mo is still here with us at nearly 15 weeks old. He may be 10 years old before I decide if he is truly staying with us. I know some people do not understand why I would "not" keep Giz-mo but I really do think carefully about each and every dog I keep. I do not want to get into the situation where I have too many dogs; I have seen it done too many times.

If Giz-mo was a girl he would definitely be staying. He is adorable, smart and funny. So for now he is staying and I am treating him the same as all my other pups. The question will be whether I can handle keeping an intact dog along with intact bitches. Time will tell.

For now he gets along great with all three girls; they love him one minute and just tolerate him the next.



Giz-mo has been learning his little party tricks as well as just being socialized. I try to take him everywhere with me. A few week ago he took a ride with me on the train into London. I carried him in a little bag onto the train and he took it all in his stride. I am glad he was in the bag as the trains were so crowded and I would have been worried about any dog just on a lead.

The day before I did some training to get him used to the little bag. He is such a neat dog to clicker train; he can be so serious about his jobs!



I hope to get some videos of his training to date up. For some reason I am having difficulty being motivated to video him; I think have been fed up with how people are charging money to watch You-tube videos of them training their own dogs! Sigh...