22 March 2010

We went to West Torrington Show on Saturday. Lily came second in the Junior class and Rosie came third. Milo came 3rd in the AVNSC Utility class so not a bad day at all.
While I was there I treated the Bostons to new beds as there was a stall there with a sale on. I put the beds in the kitchen. When I went in a few minutes later there was Ruby curled up in the larger of the 2 beds! Obviously making a point about who is the boss as she never sleeps in the kitchen normally














This photo is of a rather fluffy Lily. She had to have a bath this morning much to her disgust.














On our morning walk we went past the pond in the woods and there were a couple of ducks on it. Lily paddled in to see what they were up to . The ducks obviously didn't like the look of her so they both flew up into the air, closely followed by Lily. The ducks sailed on over the hedge and away, unfortunately Lily does not fly quite so well, and crashed back down into the pond, up to her neck in smelly black stagnant water!! This is the same pond that she fell into when she was a small puppy, I would have thought she might have learned to be more careful around it.

18 March 2010

We had a very good time at Crufts last week. Due to the fact that I was not showing most of last summer due to having the puppies only Casey had qualified. He came second in the Veteran Class.

Unfortunately I missed watching most of the Malinois judging as I had booked Casey in for an eye test and the time clashed with the judging. I am pleased to report that his eye test was clear, no sign on any eye problems which is good in a nearly 10 year old dog.

Lily came to Crufts too as we had volunteered for Discover dogs which is the section of the show where people can go to meet all the different breeds of dogs. Both Lily and Casey had a lovely time meeting all the people and getting lots of pats and strokes. Even by the end of the day after 7 hours in the booth Lily was still happy to cuddle with visitors, especially the children. Both dogs got lots of compliments about how friendly they were.

02 March 2010

March already. This year is racing past. I can't believe the puppies are seven months old already. We went to North Lincs Show on Saturday and Lily came 3rd in the Junior class and Rosie was 4th.


















Now the weather is starting to improve I am able to get on with a bit more training. When Milo came back it did make life a bit more difficult to do much training with Lily as I had 2 puppies to take out and socialise. I kept saying that once Milo had gone to a new home I would start training Lily in earnest. 5 months on and of course Milo is still here. We have done quite a bit of training in little sessions so today I worked out what Lily knows and actually she has learned quite a few things.

She can sit, down, stand, spin to the right and left and walk backwards, all on verbal cues.
Standing still for breed showing still needs work as she doesn't do still.
She plays with lots of different toys, she is not just obsessed with one toy like her mum. She fetches the tennis ball, and the ball on a rope endlessly. She plays tuggy with lots of different toys and will play almost anywhere.
I haven't done much obedience training with her but she is learning the retrieve and picks up the dumbell and holds it.
I have been doing lots of little bits of foundation training for her agility. She can circle cones left and right which I am hoping will help with turns. She can go ahead of me over a very low jump and she can wait so I can recall her over a jump. She really blasts through pipe tunnels. I haven't tried the flat tunnel yet.
She has really got the hang of the baby seesaw now. (a scaffolding plank with a 4 inch pipe for a pivot) She gallops along it and really bangs it down. I hope this will transfer to the real one when we start that.
She can run along the planks of the contact equipment on the ground and she is also getting the hang of the 2o2o contacts.

Her most useful trick is turning the floodlight on in the garden. The light is operated by a PIR detector so it goes on when we go outside and then turns off after a few minutes. The sensor doesn't pick up movement on the lawn so when we are playing on the grass every now and again we are plunged into darkness. When that happens I say to Lily "go turn the light on" and she dashes down the garden, on to the patio just far enough to turn the light, spins round and then gallops back at top speed to carry on with the games.