EO Day 3 continued

Here is a photo of the three tri-colour OBay shelties competing at the EO. L to right: Hex, Chi and Unique



Once I knew that we were in the finals I was a happy bunny and so thrilled that we were running 3rd from the end! What an advantage that is!

If I remember correctly; the medium final was first. The heavens opened up during the final which was a shame. This is what it looked like around the final ring at one point. Lots of umbrellas!



Johanna and One made it into the medium final. One was looking pretty good until Johanna tried a flicky arm turn and One turned when she said to... which was kind of before the jump. Ooops! Poor Johanna; when One gets something in his head that is it! He kept turning before the jump over and over! I bet Johanna re-lived that moment a few times in her head. He has such potential; I know he will get his act together soon. He is such a beautiful boy; let's hope that him and Hob-b produce me a beautiful sable girl with all of One's attitude!

Here is a gorgeous photo of One that Dennis took. Dennis CAN get action photos of sable shelties but struggles to get good action photos of my tri shelties. Arghhh!



Out of the 4 OBay shelties competing at the EO; three of them made it into the finals. Lisa and Chi had some nearly-runs that although weren't clear they were really lovely, fast and smooth.

Anyway onto the finals. In the medium Team GB had four dogs running. Andy and his medium BC Ten made it in as a result of winning the individual jumping. In addition we had Gary and his Patterdale, Louise and her Schnauzer and Tricia and her poodle. Gary had the best result with a clear and ended up in 22nd place. He had a good weekend and I believe had almost 100% clear runs! Tricia and Andy were both eliminated and Louise had really nice run but 5 faults. Her little schnauzer struggled all weekend with the spreads and tyre which they were not used to seeing; but they started to get it together in the end.

Now it was our turn! Luckily the rain stopped and the course was changed slightly for the smalls. It still had the dogwalk and across the face of the aframe combination. And after the Aframe was a combination that I was not sure how to run. I decided to go for the front cross (not my favorite move!) and was actually unsure up until I entered the ring if I could get there. I walked the course humming to myself "we can do this!" and I really tried to enjoy the moment. Sharon and Ruby put in a nice clear and ended up 23rd overall. Wendy and Scout were having a good run until a bar dropped. I watched a few runs and then sat on the side with Hex. It is best that I sit far away with her and just try and concentrate on remembering the course!

Here is a link to the course: Small EO Final

And here is Hex's video again! hehe




I remember going to the line with her and then it was over! I don't remember much in between other than hearing the GB crowd cheer at the end. That is the best feeling; having a crowd of supporters there cheering you on.

Hex ended up in 3rd (Bronze) and was out of 2nd place by only 8/100ths of a second. How great is that! We were over 1 second behind Suzanne and Unique and I am ridiculously pleased with that! Although being beaten by another one of my own puppies is getting old now! All crap handlers please line up for puppies! hahahaha

All I could think of after knowing that Hex had won the Bronze was "I am ridiculously happy!" It was so nice knowing that she had the speed in her to compete against some of the best dogs. It was a very nice boost to my confidence and I am so looking forward to running with her again either in the EO next year or the World Champs next year (or both!) We still have lots to work on but that is the fun part!

Here is a great photo of Unique with his special good luck slip lead made by Marianne in Denmark. She does fantastic stuff.



It seems to be getting old that I complain about the coach company and organization....but one more complaint! After the small and medium finals; the tour organizer said that the coach drivers were running out of driving time (???) so one of the coaches had to get back to the hotel immediately. This meant that they wanted all the small and medium dogs and handlers to leave before the Large dogs ran in their final! What a blow to team spirit! Everyone was enjoying sitting on the hill cheering on their fellow team-mates no matter what SIZE dog. Now they ruin that by making the small/medium handlers leave! Arghhhh! I was lucky in that Dennis had his car; so I stayed on to cheer on the large dogs (no one can say I am anti-large dog!) I know Andy was really disappointed as he had to miss Leah's run with Herbie in the final.

The large dog final was exciting and it was so great to see Leah run and win silver with Herbie. Rescue dogs rule! Leah looked relaxed and she ran in her usual smooth effortless manner. Marc put in a great round and ended up in 6th place overall; only 3/10 second separated 3rd thru 6th place. Nigel and Zico's time was great but had 10 faults on the contacts. Overall a good final!

Here is a photo of the British Supporter "hill".



So while we had good results that day; it was still back to the hotel for a late dinner and up again the next day at 4:30. Yawn!

EO 2008 Day 3: Individual Runs with video

What time were we up on Saturday? 4:30 am! 'Nuff said bout that!

So Saturday was the individual runs. The way it worked was strange. Basically you were competing against your own team-mates as it was the top three dogs from each country and each height that went thru to the finals on Saturday night. My morning wasn't going so well when we were eliminated on our first run. Doh! Bad handler.

The small jumping course was really great except for one thing. There is new combination in the FCI rules that I did not know about. Basically it is the old A-B-C jumping sequence but it is in a straight line with minimum pacing. If I had known I would have trained it! Actually it wouldn't be so bad if it had not come after a long stretch of a fast run to a spread and then to the sequence which was three jumps in a row with ONLY TWO METRES in between them. Hex can do grids and bounce jumps but I have never asked her to do them from a fast run or from a spread jump. Poor little things; all the dogs really tried to clear the jumps but you could see they just had no idea it was coming up.

I saw dog after dog hit the jumps really badly. I saw one little sheltie ram the second bar with his face and hit the ground crying. I have since heard that he possibly broke his jaw. How sad is that? If the dogs actually got through the sequence it was not pretty as they had to really contort their spines to clear the jumps.

Now to make matters even worse; we were the first group in. So all the other groups after seeing the problems all went to the practice jumps and set up the sequence and practiced! Darn!

All that doesn't excuse my poor handling where I watched her go over the off course jump. But I am going to blame that on the fact that she knocked that 3rd bar in the sequence and it threw me a little. Yeah that's my excuse and I am sticking to it!

Here's the video. I am very brave to post my bloopers! The announcer was evil and played funny music once you were eliminated! Not so funny when you are running; but really funny to watch! I have included Henry's jumping run so that you can see another dog try and negotiate the A-B-C sequence. Henry is a clean and careful jumper usually but even he had trouble. Arghhhh if only we had known to train this! Our fault probably!



Luckily for me (but not for my team-mates) we had alot of eliminations in that jumping round. This put us all at level pegging for the agility round; it would be this round that decided who went through to the final. I really felt like I pushed Hex on this agility round; although when watching the video I still don't look like I am running! Her see-saw was called as a fly-off as she left it too early. It was a very fair call and totally my fault. Partly I was thrown slightly as I didn't expect her to come out of that long FCI tunnel so fast and thought I had more time for my front cross. Had I realized that I would have stayed on the other side of the see-saw. Also I was pushing for time and mis-timed my "go" and told her to "go" before the see saw was down. I also blame her slightly; as she was a bit naughty leaving it in mid-air! I really loved this course and tried to walk it telling myself that there was nothing in it that we could not do. "We can do this; we have trained this" is my new mantra when walking a course. Between that and "I am so psyched; I love to compete" (ala Jane Savoie) we were all set!

Here is her run. Her time would have been good enough for 3rd place in this run.



So with only one double clear (Sharon and Ruby) in our team; the field was open. One other team-mate (Wendy and Scout) put in a clear in agility. The rest of us had faults in the agility so basically Hex got through as having the fastest 5 fault in the team. That put Sharon and Ruby, Wendy and Scout and Me and Hex through to the evening final. They had a strange way of setting up the running order though! Basically you ran in reverse order of your time on the agility round only. So if you had a fast time in the agility round (no matter how many faults) you ran towards the end of the running order in the finals. This put Hex and I running right towards the end of the final. A great spot to be in; so we would know what we had to do.

Here are the two other British smalls to make it to the final! Well done guys on getting to the finals especially Ruby for putting in two clears to get there.

Scout



Ruby



Gosh you would think I was away for weeks and I still have more to write. To be continued....

EO Day 2: Practice and Opening Ceremony

So the EO trip continues on the second day. Friday was meant to be the practice day and the opening ceremony.



Dennis took his car to the venue to start setting up the tent. There was alot of confusion as to where exactly the British team was to set up. According to management we had an "shaded" area set aside for us. Not being very trusting; Lisa, Dennis and I decided to bring Tony's beer gazebo with us...just in case.

This turned out to be a good idea as what our team ended up with was 2 pop-up ez-up tents for 30 dogs and handlers and grooms! A little crowded it would be and luckily the Welsh contingent thought as we did and brought another tent. So between us we had 4 pop-up gazebos for 30 dogs and handlers and grooms and management!

Here was our little set up. Considering how much it rained; it was a god-send that we had this! Dennis had the tent set up by the time we arrived in the coach. We were very glad that this was just the practice day as it took us 2.5 hours to find the venue!!!!! Yes, I said two and one-half hours! The movies Dumb and Dumber and Road trip all come time mind......



And Dennis liked this part of the venue. Bratwurst cooked on the grill! I think he survived the entire weekend on Bratwurst and beer.



Again there was a little confusion at first as no one had ever experienced the EO before. Immediately we were told to get into queues for our books (KC books and pets passports) to be checked. There was even a little panicking as some people were worried they would be measured. Luckily this didn't happen and they just took the measurements in the books.

It was weird having them take the books as we do not do that in the UK. But I remembered this from when we have competed abroad (Germany and Denmark) before. The dogs all were scanned for their microchips and these were compared to the books. The 3rd queue was the good one where we each got a free EO polo-shirt. Yes, I like FREE!

I think being so late did not help us in the practice arena as all we were allowed was 25 minutes. I think that was all the space that was available that late but am not sure. Either way, 25 minutes for 30 dog/handler teams was not enough. I do not need to work my dog for 25minutes but do need a chance to work her properly. All we got were 2 tries on jumping/weave sequence (set up by Andy) while the large dogs worked on the contacts section with ALL the contacts. By the time we swapped over; the smalls and mediums started on the contact portion and we were not able to get thru all the dogs. Just as I was about to go (last dog!) I was blocked by a big guy in the next group as we were now in "their" time slot. Fair enough on their part; but a real shame for us! I think I yelled at Greg to do something about this big guy in my way but he just yelled back run past him! haha So I did but my time on the contacts were not quite relaxed!

Here are some candid shots from around the practice ring.

Sonia being a great groom and keeping Hex quiet and relaxed for me. There is only one way to keep Hex quiet while agility is going on: hold her on her back in your lap. Yes I admit: I AM A BAD DOG TRAINER! and I should have a dog that can be quiet while agility is going on. Oh well, just shoot me! HaHa She won a bronze individual medal so I guess we aren't too shabby after all!



Well massage is the big new thing lately. Everyone is doing it now! Sometimes I do it just to fit in. Other times I forget; I am a bad dog trainer....hahaha I will soon try and get more serious.







Finally the opening ceremony. We all paraded in with our dogs on their new matching Snuggle Pet harnesses and leads and I think we all looked pretty darn good! I was very proud to be walking with the team again and this time with my little cutie Hex.




We looked good but not as good as the supporters! They were awesome. Small in number but not small in enthusiasm.




Finally we tried to get a photo of EVERYONE in front of the Snugglepet Booth to thank them for their donations of leads and harnesses for all the dogs. This was hard as you can imagine. Yet again the British have NO idea how to pose for photos! Good try though!

3 of the funniest comments of the EO weekend

Of course there were some pretty funny moments during the weekend. Here are my three favorite comments:

• From a fellow competitor: "Next year's EO is in the Netherlands. I heard the same coach company is already booked. They have reserved a hotel in Kent" :-)
• From a supporter after getting up at 4:30 to have breakfast after eating their dinner the night before at around midnight. As he sat down and looked at the breakfast buffet: "I am not hungry; I just ate."
• From our esteemed ass't manager as he watched Suzanne slip and fall in the mud during the small team jumping and still direct her dog into the correct end of the tunnel. "What a Lazy cow taking a nap out there!"

And the saddest photo of the weekend! Poor guy crashed the tyre during the practice session and Dennis actually got a photo of it! Our dogs are not used to frame tyres; so this was really difficult for alot of the British dogs. Ouch; this is certainly a reason for wanting soft tyres or breakaway tyres!

Why does no one learn? EO 2008 con't with RANT

I am really proud to be able to represent my "adopted" country and really grateful to have someone (the Kennel Club) fund my trip abroad with my dog. How lucky am I? So I do not want any of my blog to sound ungrateful or too moaney (is that a word?)

At the end of the day; I just want to run my dog and run well; potentially bringing home a medal and showing the world just how good the British Agility dogs are! We are very very lucky to have a Kennel Club that supports agility as our KC does. They put alot of money into these international competitions and they do not HAVE to do this. This year they even listened to the agility world and supported a competition that is open to ALL dogs (pedigree or not). So for this I am so very grateful. Thank you to the KC!

Unfortunately the organization of this trip was really the biggest issue. If you look back at our trip to the World Champs in Norway last year; you will see a theme developing. This trip continued along the same lines: Long days in coaches, hotels way too far from the venue and coach drivers who are inept and downright dangerous.

How can anyone expect a team (dog/handler) to perform at their best when they have to eat dinner everynight at 11 pm, get up every morning at 4:30 am and drive for 1.5-2 hours to even get to the venue? Then compete all day and drive back another 1.5 hours back to a hotel? Do this for 3 days in a row and see how you feel! This adds to the stress everyone already feels; the pressure to try and do well is stress enough. The travel should be made easy and comfortable; not stressful and long!

This coach company was the same coach company that took us to Norway. They are the same coach company that booked a hotel 1 hour from the venue in Norway. The organizers KNEW that this was not acceptable last year; why was the same thing repeated this year?? Actually it was even worse as the darn coach drivers could not seem to find anything; the venue or the hotel day after day! AND they had sat nav!

OK the Biggest rant coming up!

I will finish by describing the final straw for me. On our drive back on Monday to Calais I switched seats with Helen so that I could stretch my legs out for a few minutes. She was sitting in the first row of seats by herself. While I was sitting there I could now see out the front window and could see the driver as well. Gradually I noticed the driver talking alot with his fellow off-duty driver (who was sitting next to him). Shockingly the off-duty driver kept showing the driver (who was driving a freaking bus!) some paperwork and the driver kept taking his eyes off the road to read it. To make the matter worse; he then took the paperwork and placed it on his steering wheel to read....was that bad enough? No he still had trouble reading it; so he took the time to take out his reading glasses and continue to read the paper!!! He was not just glancing at the paper; he was reading and studying it! WHILE DRIVING A FREAKING BUS WITH ME IN IT!

After my brain started working, I pointed this out to the "tour organizer" who was also sitting in the front seat on the other side. He proceeded to look down at the driver, shrug his shoulders and say "this trip is just not going well" and then sat back down without saying a word! At that point I jumped up and yelled at the driver "Could you please NOT read while driving!" and then I went back to my former seat and put my seat belt on! I did not want to end up thru the front window. I think I might have said something else like f***ing h*** but I cannot remember!

Am I just crazy or does anyone else see a problem here?

EO 2008: the trip to Germany day 1

I tried to get some photos of my own without Dennis; they are pretty amateur but hey they help me remember! This is Hex waiting at the Ferry port on her newly sewn Union Jack dog bed. Lisa made the dog beds as we wanted the dogs to be patriotic also.

I thought I better start writing about our adventures before I forget. Time heals all wounds and all that! I will start by saying this trip was very interesting; take that as you want. You would think I would have learned from Norway; but I actually thought this trip would be easier. It was only in Germany; in theory only 4 hours from the French Ferry port of Calais. A piece of cake journey, right? Hmmmmm....

Initially we got a fright and were told that we all had to get on the coach in Daventry at some un-godly hour on Thursday morning. Holy toledo; Daventry is 3 hours NORTH of me and we should be headed 1.5 hours south to the Dover Ferry port. That just did not make sense! Why would we want to add 6 hours of travel time on the departure day and 6 hours on the arrival day? After much emails back and forth; finally the week before we were told we could meet in Dover. Phew! Why are the little things so stressful sometimes?

For future reference for fellow competitors; there is a lovely multistory car park at Dover where you can leave the car for around 6 pounds per day. That is much cheaper than paying for 2 tanks of petrol to get back and forth to Daventry.

I picked up Andy at his house and off we went to Dover. I felt really sad for Andy as he was not sure he should be leaving Nancy alone as she had just lost her special dog Abbey. Nancy bravely convinced Andy to go; but I know she was on his mind the entire trip.

There were 2 coaches taking us to Germany.This is what coach #1 looked like. Do these look like medal-winning handlers to you? Some of those guys had already been on the coach for 3 hours; I was glad we got on in Dover!



We had 15 dogs in each coach. The seats are removed on one side of the back of the coach and replaced with dog crates. I guess it is a good way to travel with many dogs but it is not great for the dogs who are cooped up in small crates. Also it is quite a palava trying to get the dogs out of the crates each time we stop.



So everyone onto the bus and across on the ferry to France. Once we are in France; the journey by car would have been just about 4 hours. By coach it was more like 7 hours. Dennis and Sonia had left in our car on a much earlier ferry and were in the hotel before our coach even landed in France! They had a much nicer journey than we did. And ,according to Dennis, Sonia was a great traveller and just fell asleep immediately as soon as she got into the car. She must have been very trusting of Dennis' driving ability!

So the drive to the hotel was not exactly smooth. The coach manager was relying only on an address in the sat nav. I guess he didn't feel the need to check before hand or maybe have a map...just-in-case... So, of course, we got lost! Back and forth up streets trying to find the hotel. I cannot remember how long we were lost but it felt forever especially knowing that Dennis got there with no problems. This was soon to be seen as typical for this coach company. We got lost ALOT.

Once we got into the hotel; we quickly walked the dogs and unpacked and then headed out into town. Luckily Dennis had already done a walk around the town so he knew where some restaurants were. I am so glad we went out that night to eat out of the hotel as it turned out to be the ONLY night we were able to do this. We found what looked like a typical German restaurant and went in with 13 people and scared the waitress to death! I do not think she was expecting 13 English speaking very-hungry and tired customers on a Thursday night.



The funniest thing that night was all of us pouring over the German menus and trying to figure out what everything was! Of course, no one remembered to bring a german phrase book and only 3 people had any semblance of an idea about German! I was afraid I was going to end up eating cow brains or something! Plus we had two vegetarians who were worried they would get meat. We started to muddle through and just as we were about to order...the waitress says "Oh Do you want an ENGLISH menu?" HAHAHAHAHA

I ended up eating schnitzel which was yum yum and Dennis had sauerbrauten! Food like mom used to make!

Video of Hex in the Small Final at EO 2008

Here is a video of Hex's final run. If you want to see the course diagram, the courses are on the official EO site. Here is the link to the small final course diagram.



Ahhh isn't she so cute! Below here she is with her trophy.

European Open Agility 2008

How proud am I? Two Obay shelties on the podium for the small championships at the European Open Agility 2008! Hex and I came THIRD and Suzanne and Unique came FIRST!

What a trip we had. I need days to recover and have lot to write about but for now am just enjoying sleeping late today!

Thanks so everyone who watched the dogs for us this weekend (Tony, Karen and Tim and Marion) and thanks to Nancy for lending us Andy for the weekend! He was a star. And Dennis and Sonia who were fantastic grooms! I was lucky to have TWO grooms and I think both are exhausted beyond belief!

World Dog Show Stockholm 2008

This post is going to have to be fairly short! I cannot believe I haven't had a chance to sit down and write about the World Dog show that we went to last week. I am starting to get nervous about leaving for Germany and the European Open Agility in two days so can only think about that right now!

Dennis and I flew to Stockholm Sweden last weekend to see the World Dog Show 2008. It was a nice chance to just get away for a weekend without dogs but yet to be with dogs! hahaha. Mostly we went to see Johanna compete with Soda and Spooky in Freestyle and with Hob-b in breed.

Sweden is very expensive but we got a great deal on flights and car rental. And Johanna (of course) knew someone in Stockholm where we could stay. The family we stayed with was very hospitable and it was really nice staying in a "real" swedish home!

The World dog show itself was a little disappointing to me. It was no where as posh as Crufts and the standard of dogs showing there was not as great (in my eyes). I did not really see any dogs that I FLIPPED for. I was hoping to see something that looked special or had something that caught my eye for future breeding programs. But, alas, no I will be sticking with my own plans for now!

Here is Dennis sitting next to the Best in Show car! Did the Best in Show actually win it?? I don't know! Everything, of course, was blue and yellow (the swedish flag colours). Why is Dennis dressed like that? Ask Johanna!



Hob-b showed like a little trooper. She did not get anywhere in the placings and received a "Very good" ribbon. Out of nearly 40 bitches he only gave 7 excellent ribbons. He actually gave quite a few "blue" ribbons which are a lower grade than excellent (pink) and very good (red). And even gave a few "yellows". The grading goes like this: excellent (pink), very good (red), good (blue) and then yellow. I forget what yellow means but basically it is not a good ribbon to receive!

Here is a blurry photo of her! Isn't she just adorable!



The shopping at the World Dog show was no where as good as I expected either. Bummer as I was so ready to spend spend spend! After Johanna showed Hob-b and we checked out the shopping; there was not much to do other than watch the Freestyle (dog dancing). There was some really good teams there and some pretty poor teams. It was mostly Swedish teams; so not really a great "international" compeition. Johanna and two other Danes were the only other country represented I think. Johanna, of course, was great! It was so nice to finally meet Soda. She is, well...a border collie! And not a Pikkupaimenen border collie so I am a bit biased against her! haha But I liked her anyway although I would rather have Wizz (the lovely Pikkupaimenen BC) live with me anyday! Soda is so young but she looked really good out in the main ring. And she still looked like a puppy out there which I liked; she was not a polished machine at only 15 months; she was still bouncy and a bit silly as a 15 month old border collie should be!

I have no photos of Johanna other than her waiting in the queue to get into the venue. Did we wait in the queue with the hundreds of other people? No of course not, Johanna had her own devious plans to get in quickly! But if I told you I would have to kill you!



All in all, I remember why I do not like breed showing! Kind of boring, lots of grooming just to stand around looking like you don't care in the ring. Having someone tell you your dog is too small, too big ect ect. Ya know...I don't care! haha!

How is this for doggie transportation and grooming table all-in-one?



We did do some sightseeing and went into Stockholm for 2 days. The old town was lovely and we did a tour on a horse and carriage which was nice. It gave a nice overview of the city. I still prefer more rural holidays; but for a short city break it was nice. We learned lots about Sweden and need to come back again.

Funny signs were displayed in one plaza. They were signs from around the world and made Dennis laugh.



This was actually the fire extinguisher on the boat ride we took. I have no idea what "skum" means in swedish but am sure Johanna will tell me!



And finally the obligatory photo of me standing like a dork in some pretty square in some city somewhere!



Actually it is a square in Stockholm but it looks like it could be anywhere in Europe doesn't it?

ect ect

The European Open is in two weeks! Hex and I still have lots to practice but I feel that she is more than ready. Bring it on!

Over the week up in the Lakes I made the final decision NOT to try-out for the World Championships this year with either dog. I had been pretty sure I was not going to try-out with Zen as I really did not want to fly her in cargo again. But I was so tempted to try-out with Hex as I could fly her in cabin if we drove out of England to France or Holland.

But at the end of the day, not matter how we tried to work it out, it was going to cost anywhere from 1000 pounds to 2000 pounds ($2000 to $4000). This is just something I was not prepared to do for a few agility runs no matter how important they are. Next year it is in Austria and the following year it is in Denmark; both drivable from England. So I will focus my energy on those World Champs and just support the British team this year hoping that there will be one or two other OBay Shelties on both the british team and the danish team again. It was a very hard decision for many reasons. Zen is now 5 and at her prime. Hex is just 3 and running so well. It would have been so cool to have TWO dogs qualify! And I just love competing at the worlds; the atmosphere is great.....I will miss it this year! But life goes on and I am hoping the European Open fills the void for me!

So the agility while we were up in the Lakes was really enjoyable. Some different types of courses to enjoy. There were a few "themes" to some of the courses; things we do not often see down south in the small and medium classes.

We didn't get video on the first weekend; Dennis mostly took photos. How is this one? Notice he doesn't get many good photos of my dog! Just other people's dogs! Arghh!



As for the courses; one theme was pulling thru two jumps to get to another obstacle. Not a pull thru but a go between; kind of a thread the needle type thing!

Like this



and This



And tunnel wrapped under A-Frame like this (Ok-you can see this on the video)



and This (didn't like this one as it made a really bad angle for the little dogs to scramble up)


Here a video of three different courses; I found it interesting because Zen and Hex ran the same course (just over different heights).

The Lake District Agility Shows ect ect

I haven't posted recently so I have lots to catch up on. We just got back last night from the World Dog Show in Stockholm Sweden and before that we were away for 10 days in the Lake District. We are so lucky to be able to travel so easily from England!

This morning after starting to catch up on laundry and house-cleaning I headed out to the stores to re-stock our fridge and freezer! Unfortunately the electricity went out while we were in Sweden and defrosted the whole lot. So we lost everything in the fridge and freezer. What a pain as I had just stocked up on some chicken and steak for our next weekend away. Everything had to be chucked out as it looks like the fridge was out for days. Our electric does funny things sometimes and one little blip and the whole circuit goes out. After shopping I went to pick up Jordan who was on holiday with Sonia and Bob while we were in Sweden. She is such a good dog and fit in so well with their lot of shelties. I think she enjoyed her weekend away!

The weather got pretty ugly today with lots of wind and heavy rain so I cancelled my lessons and have decided to sit down and catch up on the blog.

Dennis and I went up to the Lake District for the first time. I entered the Lune and Barrow agility shows; this was great as Lune was the first weekend and Barrow was the following weekend. Each show had 3 days of agility and each day had 3-4 runs. So I had 6 whole days of agility with 6-8 runs each day. Fabulous! The week in between we stayed on at the showgrounds and this is fantastic as then we do not have to move the caravan and re-pack. So 10 days in the caravan with 4 dogs and we actually enjoyed it!

Here is a photo of the showgrounds. The show grounds were really good and it was a nice well organized show. I intend to definitely go back next year; I just don't want to say how great it was or then everyone will want to go and camping is limited!



The weather was not great; this was the only downfall of the show. We tried not to let the weather stop us from exploring the region as it is main reason why we went to this show. On the first day we arrived to great weather and we took a walk right from the show grounds. You can walk right out of the showgrounds onto a canal path (The Lancaster Canal?) and then we tried to do a circular walk. We intended to make it a short walk but it grew longer and longer! I do like these walks where you do not really know where you are headed but you feel very accomplished at the end when you make it back safe and sound!

Here is me and the dogs heading out with the showgrounds in the background. Even Jordan came on this walk! Bless her! She is 12 1/2 years old and really did well on this trip with us.



Since we were "Up North" we saw lots of stone walls. They are just beautiful and one day I want a house with my own stone wall! Instead of stiles, they sometimes have stone steps built into the walls that cross public footpaths. Three steps and the perfect photo op.



After that first day the weather got pretty bad. Luckily the showgrounds drained really well and there was no mud. (remember Scotland last year?!) I am really protective of my dogs so I skipped a few runs when the rain started going sideways. Then the wind picked up and sadly the show committee decided to cancel the last half of Sundays show. I think this was a very smart move on their part; there is no need to risk anyone getting hurt. Quite a few caravan awnings blew down and got destroyed. Luckily Dennis had the smarts to roll-up our awning and our awning was spared. It is quite cozy yet scary sitting in the caravan all snuggled up while the wind and rain goes crazy outside!

Monday was better although still a little wet. The grounds were good and not slippery. I was really pleased to have so many runs over both weekends; it gave us a great opportunity to get back in the swing of running. Even with so many runs; I cannot say I tired of running at all. The runs were nicely spaced out and the caravan was not far from the rings. Really a fab show for us.

During the week between Lune and Barrow; we explored as much as we could with the rain. We had a really good walk around Lake Buttermere (Thanks to Tim's advice!) and that day was not too rainy. The walk was not too strenuous although the drive there was a little hairy as the roads around the lakes are really narrow and hilly.




The weather was pretty bad on the other 2 free days but we tried a few walks anyway. We found a walk that looked good only about 1/2 hour away near Ambleside. The description of the walk looked fairly easy but unfortunately we missed the part towards the end where it said "steep descent"! So we got up the hill (which wasn't easy!) where the wind and rain was coming down really hard only to find that the other side was really really steep! So back the way we came; still it was a good walk although a little scary at times!

Here is one of the few photos of both Dennis and I. We only took Hex and Zen on this walk as we thought it would be too much for the old girls. This was a smart move as they never could have scrambled up the rocks.



Overcast but still pretty!



The last day of walking was rainy to begin and then the weather improved. Dennis wanted to go out on this rock (which was high up!) for a photo with the dogs. No way would I let all the dogs out on this rock; but he took Pax. I must admit it is a great photo but I do hate heights!



I have to go thru the videos and will post a few later. The courses were really fun as lots of them had something different for us. They do things differently up north! I like having courses with something interesting in it. The only bad part of many of the agility courses was how so many of the courses had only 6 weaves. Oh that and plastic poles! Darn plastic poles fall way too easily! HA! Only one dodgy call from one judge but I will blog about that later!

Overall Hex and Zen did well at both shows. Zen probably had a better overall clear run average but Hex had better placements. This will happen more and more as the border collies are starting to dominate the medium class but that is OK as I like Zen just the way she is!

More later!

The end of an Era: Good-bye to Dasher

Last week we lost a very special little sheltie called Dasher. He was one of those special four pups out of my first ever sheltie litter. Dash was litter brother to Joy, Bell and Brandi and the last of the four to pass onto the Rainbow Bridge. It is so hard to believe that those 4 shelties are gone; I am so lucky to have had a litter as special as that first one.

Here is a photo of Joy and Dash with their mother Holly. They were only around 6 months old. Joy is on the left, Holly in the middle and Dash on the right.



Here is later photo of Joy and Dasher from an agility trial in 1997. They must have both won first prizes but it is not the prizes that matter now. When I think of that day now I remember the amazing feeling I had running Joy on the day. What great memories! It was so nice trialing the littermates together and watching them each develop their own unique personalities.



Dash was not only a link to my special girl Joy but also a link to my amazing rescue German shorthaired Pointer Tess. Tess brought Eleanor and I together when Eleanor was fostering Tess for Eastern GSP Rescue. I not only adopted Tess and but also made a great friend in Eleanor. Because of our friendship; I was so happy when Eleanor asked me for a sheltie as I knew what a special home Dash would have with her. Dasher starting a love of shelties for Eleanor and I am proud to say that she is almost as much of a "sheltie person" as she is a "German Shorthair Person"!

I do not think that Eleanor would mind me posting her words about Dash.

O'Bay Dunstanburgh Dasher

UDCX CDX AX MXJ NAP OJP EAC-V EJC TN-N, Can/Bah/ASCA CD
May 4, 1992 – June 23, 2008

I said goodbye to my faithful Dash today. He could no longer keep anything down and he was not drinking either. He had become confused, too. I took him to the vet’s this afternoon and he seemed to know that it was time to go see his pal, Sage, and his siblings. He was not nervous at my vet’s and he lay on the table quietly and slipped away peacefully and easily.


He was 16-years, one month and 19 days old, the oldest dog I have ever owned. He arrived at my house almost exactly 16-years ago, my first Sheltie, three lbs of adorable fluff. He grew to weigh 17 lbs, a calm, determined soul, master of all he surveyed, at least in his own mind! He was never sick in his life and he lived happily and contentedly until he could not live anymore.

Dash never liked competing as much as he enjoyed meeting people. That being said, he was my first MXJ agility dog and only my 2nd CDX dog. He was the first dog I took to an obedience tournament. He traveled with me to the Bahamas and Canada for dog shows and to Illinois and New Hampshire for dog camp. He loved going to Maine, to Cambridge and to Sherborn and would sit up in his crate in the car miles and miles before we arrived and start to bark and whine. He had the most incredible sense of where he was. He never met a person he did not like. I have many snapshots of him sitting with various friends and relatives.

He was a devoted dog, following me from room to room, upstairs and downstairs. He would bark nonstop if I left him alone anywhere but in his own house or car. (This habit drove my brother crazy! He loved my late Sage and they were great buddies. He never really bonded with another dog after she died, although he would play with Presto on occasion. He had a terrific life. I knew this weekend that his time was running out. Presto ran his heart out all weekend and someone even asked me if Presto were Dash.

Thanks to all who helped make his life so special – those of you who were and our my friends, his admirers, those who comforted me as he aged, those who were his teachers and his babysitters when I was away. And to Bernadette who, all those years ago, told me Shelties and Shorthairs would be a perfect mix and she was right! I am pretty sad right now, but I know I was lucky to have him for so long. My dogs make my life complete and along with the joy comes the sorrow, but I would not have it any other way. He lives on in his two cousins, Presto and Ozma.

Eleanor

Eleanor sent me some photo of Dash in his later years. I love this photo of him on a sailboat with Eleanor's sister and niece. He was such a family dog; the perfect companion as shelties should be. Dash will always have a special place in my heart as the one puppy who, no matter how long in between our visits (even years!), would remember me with such enthusiasm and joy! Good-bye Dash, you will be missed.