First Week Home

Well Boo has settled in VERY well. She really is a live wire :-))
She makes me smile everyday. At first Woody, Chip and Fozzie thought she was lovely, now I think they'd like her to go back. She tugs on their beards, eats their feet, clambers all over them and the novelty has worn off.

Her first night here I was up twice in the night giving her a bath. :-(( She had a bad tummy and just laid in it. She was by my bed in her crate but didn't make a noise till after she'd been.
The next night she didn't poo, but she screamed and screamed when we went to bed. She eventually settled and then slept all night till 6.30am.

Her upset tummy disappeared after 24 hrs and since then she has gone into the crate happily at night and is sleeping till I wake up, and hasn't had a single accident in her crate :)))

On the other hand when she's awake housetraining isn't going too well. She will go into the garden, charge around, rip everything out of the flowerpots, pick up stones, eat the mud, but pee..no way. She comes inside and immediately does it.
She is actually better when I take her out on the lead to the grass, she will pee then almost straight away. I find this bizarre as she has never had access to grass as I know where she came from just had concrete.

She has got a fantastic appetite and that's making her fun training easy. She is incredibly bright and very eager and willing.

Here are a couple of little videos of her.

The Newest Edition

In March I wrote about the death of Angela, the wonderful friend who bred 3 of my hairy boys. That to me was the end of the line for me. Angela had promised before she died to do a special mating and was going to try and breed me a blue merle hairy. The bitch was due in season in May but sadly that never happened :-((

So I started looking at other options for my next pup. I knew I wanted another puppy this year. I actually needed another dog in the house like a hole in the head, but I don't have the luxury of time to be able to wait. Unfortunately like us all I am getting older, and I don't know for how many more years I'll be able to run round an agility course. Ideally I would have preferred to have waited at least another 2 years, but that added to the 18mths/2yrs it takes to train a puppy I just felt that would be too long to wait.

Fozzie is 4yrs old this year, and so I felt I could now devote the time to a new pup.

I seriously considered a pure Border Collie, but Steve wasn't too keen, he wouldn't have stopped me, but I feel that as the dogs are a big part of our family ,we must all be happy with my choice.

So I thought about a Working Beardie, Steve was happier with this idea because at least it would be hairy.

I also looked at the Internet at various poodle crossbreeds. The sad fact about this, is that very few(if any) people that breed crossbreeds do any health checks at all:-( They don't seem to see the importance of them ,but to me this is so important.

Then suddenly out of the blue on Friday I was contacted by the person who had taken some of Angelas dogs when she died, including several Mums with their pups. He wanted to know if I knew anyone interested in some of these puppies. I asked what they were. There were some poodle x shihtzu puppies and ...... some min poodle x possible collie puppies !!!!!! Completely health tested

I just remarked it was a shame they were female and brown but that was about it.

After I finished speaking to him , I went and told Steve. He said that maybe I should go and have a look anyway ,and as they weren't too far away I agreed.

In the meantime I spoke with the Kennelmaid/groomer that works at Angela's to get a bit more info on the possible Dad of these puppies.

Well it turned out that the Dad was Charles, who is Fozzies Dad. How on earth he managed to mate a small miniature poodle we just don't know !!
Apparently the Mum is an escape artist and managed to scale a 6' fence to get to him. It was a complete accidental mating .
I thought it strange that Angela hadn't told me about these puppies as they would have been about 2 wks old when she died, but then again I realise she wouldn't have ,because she know I really wanted a blue merle this time not another brown puppy, and the mating for the blue merle was planned and waiting to take place.

So..Yesterday I went down to see the pups. I really think this was fate. Maybe Angela has orchestrated this from above ?? Why did Robert phone me when he did....strange and spooky.
I had said the puppy had to be right or else I'd walk away. After all I hadn't really wanted another brown puppy or particularly a bitch .

But as you can see from the picture, she came home. Her name is Boo and she is approx 9-10 wks ????

I am hoping she will be medium like Disney, but she will be what she will be.
It's strange having a girlie again. I love my boys and didn't anticipate ever having a bitch puppy again, but with 5 boys in the house maybe it's good to even things out a bit :-)
The boys love her, well all except Disney, but I know with experience he'll come round. She has settled in so well. But it's the part I hate now....housetraining :-((((((

   Boo

She has a lot of coat !

Part of the Gang :-)

Charles ( Fozzie and Boo's Dad)

Location:Sunmead Rd,Sunbury-on-Thames,United Kingdom

Fozzies Back :-)

Easter weekend we were at the Easter celebration show. After all the lovely weather leading up to it, it was a bit of a shock with the low temperatures, especially at night in the caravan.

 It was Fozzies first show back after his injury before Xmas. He was a bit all over the place,and knocked a few poles but I was just pleased he was competing again.

 Woody didn't seem to be jumping quite right on the Saturday and I was thinking I would maybe retire him, however on the Sunday he was Fab. 2 clear rounds and a nice place in a huge Grade 3-5 KC Olympia qualifier. Maybe once again its just jump fitness, because he tends to train on medium jumps as he's the only large dog in the class. So from now on , its only large jumps for Woody in training once he's warmed up.

 Chip did some really nice work, just odd little mistakes from me caused him to knock a pole here and there, apart from in one class where he broke his start line wait again and I put him back. He then(of course) went on to complete a stunning run...grrr. In another class , his lead with his ball attached was in view after the last jump. So naughty boy that he is, he just bypassed the last jump and went straight out for his ball. I always hide it behind the tent and this is what I did, but I guess someone moved it :-( 

So this weekend we are at Wallingford. I am judging on the Saturday, so only one day competing. 


Disney had a trip back to the specialist last Thursday. He had become quite breathless on walks, especially when it was warm. He had a heart scan and a check up on his lump in his stomach. He has a strange heart Murmour, apparently the wall of the heart thickens normally, but for some reason Disney's is thinner?? Anyway he is on tablets for this. The lump in his stomach has remained the same and the vet thinks it may possibly be just old scar tissue from when he was opened up as a puppy. It could still possibly be cancerous , but without a biopsy he can't confirm this , and at this moment in time is happy to just leave well alone :-)

 Yesterday we went out for a lovely walk, skipping the rain showers and got this lovely pic of the boys. Disney sounded much better so the drugs must be working.

Such Sad News

A lovely friend and the breeder of 3 of my boys, Woody,Chip and Fozzie sadly died on Sunday. Angela was at a dog show and had just got 2nd in the puppy stakes. She came out of the ring and collapsed ringside. She was rushed to hospital but tragically had a cardiac arrest and nothing could be done to save her.

She was the most caring, kind, thoughtful, smilie, unselfish person I had ever had the privilege to know. Angela will be sadly missed by so many. Her Detania Border Collies were the very best. Their temperaments second to none, and although my boys only inherited half or 3/4 of her collies genes , they too are a testament to her wonderful breeding.

So that's just leaves me to say R.I.P dear dear Angela, I shall really miss you



- Posted using my iPhone

Good News

I started Fozzie back at proper agility training 2 weeks ago :-) He's only doing small jumps but so far he looks totally sound. I'll put the jumps up to medium next week for a couple of weeks and then hopefully at the beginning of March he'll go back to full height. His walks are back to normal and he can now do 2 hr walks with no problem. I still keep him on the lead for the first 5 /10 minutes a) to let his muscles warm up b) so he doesn't do the explosive start when he's first let out of the van. Once all the others have calmed down and are happily sniffing I let him off lead, he's then calm. So fingers crossed we are on track for him to compete again in April. He's not had a single episode of lameness since he first held his leg back at the beginning of December so I am now optimistic. This week we had some lovely snow. I got the boys out early so I could take some photos before everyone else had walked on the snow.

Just love the boys snowy beards 

Fozzie update

Well Fozzie started to go off lead last Tuesday and all is well with his leg. Over the past 4 days I have got braver with him. The first 2 days I was paranoid and every time he tried to run off after the other dogs I called him back, put a couple of the others on a lead and then let him go again. Since Friday I have let him run with them and have relaxed a little, although I am still not letting him have mad run around moments with them yet. He is now going up and down stairs again. I actually thought this would be good rear end exercise for him. If all is still well at the end of this week, once I've extended his exercise further, then I will re start some agility training. I will just start on very low small jumps and gradually build him up to full height again. I have cancelled his entry at Mid Downs in March ,so that even if he was fine I won't be tempted to run him. So all is looking good at the moment. :-)) I've decided to let Disney go back to Obedience training(just for fun) He is still so full of life and I feel I'd like to do something on a one to one basis with him again. Here is a little video of Disney taken last week. He so makes me smile and laugh, and particularly at the end when he tried to do his hide your eye trick when we supposed to be doing DC.

New Year News

Well 2011 has gone and here we are into 2012. I am trying to be positive about 2012. I took Fozzie to the Chiropractor yesterday and went away feeling a whole lot better and far more positive. I went through the whole history of Fozzie and the events leading up to him holding his leg up, and without even touching him she was confident that it wasn't a patella problem. The symptoms just didn't point to it. She was also certain it wasn't a cruciate problem either,because although he was holding his leg up typical of a dog with a cruciate injury, there was no lameness/limping at all even when he eventually put his foot down. He was also able to bear weight on it to pee, and he certainly didn't have any problem putting his weight on it to jump up at the work surfaces or stairgate, and even on the day he walked into the vet, he jumped up to say hello to the receptionist. Marisa said that even a slight cruciate strain or tear would cause swelling( he had none) and limping ( he had none)  I trust Marisa completely. She has done wonders for Woody on several occasions and she has also had huge successes with MANY agility dogs, her reputation is country wide. So she did her magic on Fozzie. She found his pelvis was very out and also his lower back. She put everything back in place and was happy with what she had done. So Fozzie now has to stay on the lead again till Tuesday, and then let off lead and then its wait and see. I now have to gradually increase his fitness and by the end of January I should be able to start re introducing him to agility. I don't think he'll be ready to compete at the first show of the year in March but hopefully by Easter in April he should be able to compete again...fingers crossed. However if after he returns to normal exercise he starts to hold his leg up again, then the first thing is to take him back to Marisa to make sure everything is in place, if it is then it obviously it is a leg problem, but she's confident it isn't. I got a new photographic background from my sons for Xmas. I was very excited about getting it. I have long admired the photos taken by theprofessionals of dogs using white backgrounds. I'd had a play around before Xmas with 2 pieces of white hardboard, and I took some nice shots of my son's cats( below) but I knew to take dogs I'd need something bigger and more substantial.

Sully

Sully

Satsuma

So as soon as Xmas was over I couldn't wait to have a go. Apart from taking the photos my biggest hurdle was learning how to use photoshop to edit the images afterwards. Well the photo below is one of my results :-)

My Lovely Boys

Then last week my friend Jennie asked if I could take some pictures of her dogs....GULP,my first "other peoples dogs" photo shoot. Well it all turned out ok, but I still have quite a way to go before I am perfect :-)

Jennies Gang

December catch up :-)

Well its almost the end of the year and Xmas is but 2 days away. Where has the year gone? 2 weeks ago I went down to see my best friend Jane down in Devon and her 18 x 5 wk old standard poodle puppies. I took Chip with me ,but I now wish I had taken Fozzie (more on that later)

Chip is such a wonderful dog to have around puppies, so gentle and patient, even when they decided he may be fair game for a quick suckle..lol I had 2 wonderful days there(thank you Jane) and I was soooo tempted to have one of the Apricot girl puppies. She is related to my late Libby and reminded me of her so much. But I have my heart set on another hairy cross breed. One day in the future I will have another Standard Poodle but not now. Talking of hairy crossbreeds, I had the opportunity back in August of actually having another first cross min poodle/collie. However the timing was totally wrong. Lauras Rupert was only 7 months old, and we had our holiday to Canada booked. I had pick of litter and they were also red merles. I was disappointed about the timing but put it out of my mind, that was until I heard last month that due to unfortunate circumstances the one the breeder had kept was re available . Sadly by the time I heard she had gone :-(( So next year my search will start. Back to Fozzie. When I went to Devon I left the other dogs at home. When I arrived back on the Saturday I wanted to take them all for a lovely walk. Laura and Steve are good about looking after them, but Laura hadn't been well so they hadn't had very long walks while I was away. So off I go. Nothing happened whilst I was out, well at least I didn't see anything and after an hr we came home. It was an unadventurous walk and the dogs pottered around, ran a little but by their normal standards it was pretty boring. Fozzie was 100% when I got in. I went out almost immediately to go xmas shopping. I was gone for about 4 hrs, but when I got in Fozzie was on 3 legs. He wouldn't weight bear on his back right hind leg at all. There seemed to be no discomfort, heat or pain and he didn't object to me touching it, he just wouldn't put it down. I have some Metacam so I gave him a dose and as I went to bed at midnight he still was on 3 legs. However in the morning he was completely sound. He was supposed to be doing a training session but I decided to err on the side of caution,(and I'm glad I did) and I didn't work him. He was fine all day, but he then went onto 3 legs again during the evening ! Next day he was sound again, however when I took him out for a pee he hopped a couple of time. I gave him the once over and I felt he was showing discomfort on one of his toes, it seemed a bit warm ? I decided there and then to take him straight to the vets. My vet could feel nothing and the only place she got any minor reaction was on his knee. Between us, and especially as he hadn't eaten we decided to get some xrays done to rule out any bone problems. My vet also said when he was sedated she could check his cruciate. The xrays found nothing and she felt his cruciate was ok, but without an MRI scan she couldnt be 100% ! but she did find that he had luxating patellas on full extension. At this stage she felt that this could possibly have been the problem although they've given no problem up till now. His grooves are very shallow and there is an operation that is very successful that could be done if this becomes a problem. So I was sent home with strict instructions to give him 10 days rest, anti inflammatories and then slowly introduce lead walking,hydrotherapy etc. If all is well then we can continue as normal, if not then we can consider the operation before any arthritis appears. So from that time till now he has been fine, no lameness or leg holding at all. He did 5 mins of hydrotherapy today and seemed great . However Laura said she though he was slightly lame when he got up to go for a wee about 3 hrs later :-(( Then I was watching TV tonight and I noticed him licking his front paw. When I examined it he had skinned the pad right off !!! How the hell he did that I just don't know ? I put some cream on it and a bandage and he was then limping on the front leg ,but worse still was holding his rear leg up at the same time ???? I rubbed his leg and he then put it down and walked normally. I am now totally bewildered as to what could have happened to him. Are these 2 things connected ??Why did he go onto 3 legs with his rear leg up ,when his front leg was bandaged ??? So its back onto rest again and wait and see :-( I will keep you updated , I just pray that this won't be the end of his agility career :-( Rupert update
< His agility training is going really well. He's mega keen, mega noisy and mega fun. Laura is loving him. Laura has decided to try running contacts using a hoop. She isn't disciplined enough to train everyday and doesn't like using a clicker, so doing running contacts with a mat and marking it would be difficult. She has spoken with several people and has decided to try this method with the understanding that she may have to do a 2 on and 2 off if it all turns pear shaped. At the moment he is driving to the end head lowered to go under the hoop, sometimes he's a little higher on the contact that I would like but more often its great so fingers crossed. Rupert is very toy orientated and extremely motivated by the toy so this is great.

So this just leaves me to say Have a Very Merry Xmas and Happy New Year.

Catch up time again.

I've just realised that I haven't done a proper catch up for nearly 2 months. Lots of news and results but I won't bore you with every single run we have done since middle July. At the end of July it was the Agility club show. I was called in on the second day to judge as one of the judges had been taken ill suddenly. Fortunately I was able to use her course with a little bit of tweaking to make it personal. It was scorching afternoon, and I really enjoyed myself. The bonus being as I wasn't called till lunchtime, I had been able to run at least 5 of my runs in the morning. Usually when judging you can't run your own dogs , but under these circumstances I had been able to. Chip unusually had a good weekend and had a 5th in Grade 6 jumping and also a good place in Grade 6/7 agility. Following the Agility Club came the KC Festival and DIN in August.I had a fantastic 2 weeks agility holiday . The dogs all worked really well. Fozzie did some lovely runs and so did Woody. I have done a little compilation video of Fozzie's runs. Unfortunately I only got a few of Woody's runs . I also got a few of Disney's runs. More about Disney later. I somehow always seem to get the worst of Chips runs, and the best go unrecorded, but to be honest , as I've said before, I've saved my videoing favours for Fozzie this year.I am sure people get very fed up with me keep on asking them to video me. Fozzie and Woody both qualified for the Finals of DIN. I was so absolutely thrilled. Woody's run went very pear shaped and sadly he got eliminated,however I was just so pleased to have got him into the Final. Fozzie was FAB. He was doing a stonking round and was clear right up to the dogwalk, I was really pushing him and he missed his dogwalk contact :-( The first time he has missed a contact in competition and it was in a final :-( He would have ended up 2nd and I can't pretend I wasn't disappointed. A real "if only" I was however still really pleased with his performance and theres always next year. I've also posted that video. Disney only did a splattering of runs. One was the YKC Jr Final at KC Festival. He was being a real star, but 2 jumps from the end he suddenly realised I wasn't there and came out to find me. Beth was really mature and good about this, she just came and got him and just put him over the last jump. He also did a pairs run with Jennie and Stella at DIN and he went clear, unfortunately Jennie got eliminated but we still had a great time. Here are a few runs from each dog from that fortnight. FOZZIE COMPILATION. Fozzie in the DIN Final Disney at KC Festival & DIN Woody . After this marathon Agility fortnight we went to Surrey Agility Show on Bank Holiday Monday. A one day show with a lovely atmosphere and once again a lovely day. Fozzie was a star and came 2nd in Grade 4 Agility, only being beaten by literally a fraction of a second. He also did a lovely grade 4-7 Helter Skelter run and came 11th beating some fast Grade 7 dogs. It was a real blast with a horrible angle to the weaves which he picked up beautifully. Unfortunately I had to dash to the ring from scribing so no video. Chip did a couple of lovely runs with just a pole down and Woody also did some lovely runs and also got placed in Grade 4 jumping. Here is Fozzie's Grade 4 second place video. Last but not least was Letchwoth in Sept. This show had a high and a low. I made the decision to retire Disney at this show. He has lost most of his hearing and I wanted to retire him whilst people can remember what a great dog he is and whilst he was still enjoying it . In my time I have seen many good dogs carry on running well past the time when they should have been retired. I have watched them struggle over the jumps and I've wondered to myself how fair that is. Disney will be 14 next year and it has been the most wonderful partnership of 12 years. Lots of my friends including his breeder came to watch his last run and they all clapped. It was very tearful and emotional. However the high of the show was Fozzie winning Grade 4 agility and he is now a Grade 5 dog. He won the class by 3 seconds and even beat the Grade 5 time by 5 seconds !! Although it was a nice run I can still see places he and I can improve, so I am excited about next year now. He had a very lucky seesaw in this run. He definitely got it but it wasn't a good contact by any means. I am always critical of my runs and one of the reasons I video my young dogs so much is to see how I can improve my handling and to see what needs to be trained more. Fozzie has already done more than I could ever have imagined when he first started and I am optimistic about his future in agility now. Here is his win I just had to put this video on as well. It is a little compilation I did of Disney's finest moments in his agility career. From his first run to his last. The quality of some of the video and stills is poor but it was pre digital.

Rugby July 2011

Last weekend was Rugby Agility show. The weather forecast was awful and I hummed and harred as to even bother to go. Eventually I decided to go even if it meant I wouldn't run my dogs. I was so pleased to see when I got there that they were using JDA equipment and all the contacts had rubber surfaces. I hate putting my dogs over wet contact equipment especially the dog walk. I am seriously thinking of getting my dog walk re surfaced with rubber for this very reason.
As it turned out I ran all but one of my classes in the dry and the sun even came out :-) Saturday afternoon was positively beautiful, with blue skies and sunshine.

Fozzie was fab again, and did a lovely Grade 4 agility run, coming in 3rd. The time differences from 1st -3rd place were tiny and I think if he had only driven more to the end of the dog walk, and hadn't been slightly tentative as he entered the weaves (I think this was because he had missed the entry on his 2 previous runs) the result could have been very different. He also had a bad angle over jump 9 ( shabby handling on my part again !!!) so here were 3 things in one run that could have been improved on ! This is why its so useful to video runs ( if I can) it shows just where the time difference is made or lost . In Grade 4 Jumping I also did some bad handling after the rigid tunnel which put him on a bad line to the jump ( familiar story !!) he also lost speed after a couple of turns. He still ended up in 7th place, so not too shabby. In 2 of his other runs they had terrible weave poles. The first 3 poles were slanting in opposite directions. I saw many dogs miss their entries and I knew that this may be a problem for Fozzie and Yes it was :-( He did fabulous runs but missed the entry. I intend to go into my field and deliberately set my V weaves up so the poles are all over the place so he learns that no matter how the poles are he enters correctly.
Here are his 2 good runs.



Chip and I once again were just not in sync so nothing to report there.

Woody was a good boy and came 11th in the grade 4 jumping ( sadly no video) Unfortunately on the Sunday the only run I did in the rain happened to be Woody's. We had been in a long queue and when we joined the sun was out. However in the 10-15 minutes we queued a black cloud came over and typically the moment we got to the start line the heavens opened. I was only wearing a T-Shirt and got soaked.
Woody sadly slipped as he took off for a jump, mistimed it and crashed the jump. He hurt his back leg and got up on 3 legs. I was panic stricken. I stopped and gave him a rub down and a little massage and Amanda the judge came over to check all was OK. Fortunately he must have just dead legged himself because he suddenly put his leg down and seemed ok..PHEW !!

Disney didn't compete this weekend.

As I type I am looking forward to 6 weeks off work starting tomorrow :-) As you know I am a childminder and all the children I mind have this years school holidays off. So I am off down to Devon to see my best mate Jane on Sat or Sunday for a few days. Followed by a long weekend at the Agilityclub show at Ardingly. I am then back home for about 5 days and then off up to Northampton to spend a few days chilling before the KC Festival and DIN. So I am sure the 6 weeks off will fly by.