09 May 2008

Went for our usual walk this morning. It was a really nice morning. Quite warm. There was lots of dew on the grass. the dogs were getting quite wet running through the wet grass as it is now getting quite long. We then went into the newly ploughed field which has dried out a lot and Saffy run towards me a flopped down to the ground and started rolling about and wiping her face in the soil She really looked hilarious and I was laughing at her, wondering why she does these funny things when I havent got my camera with me.

Then I noticed that the soil was turning to mud on her wet fur and she was getting absolutely covered in it. Then it dawned on me that as it was Friday we would be going to the National Dog show. Her first Champ show. And here she was absolutely plastered in mud and soil!



I made a diversion on the way back to the car to go by the lake and encouraged Saffy to go in but she would only go in as far as her ankles so now she had clean feet. Mud from her knees to her shoulders and a clean back. Not a lot better. We walked round to the shallow bay are and by throwing biscuits out in to the water I managed to get her in deep enough to rinse a lot of the soil off. Once we got home I completed the job with the hosepipe so She did look fairly respectable when we got to the show.

Saffy wasn't mad keen on being in the show ring. She loved the trotting up and down and standing but didn't really want the judge to go over her, but in spite of this she still got 3rd place which qualifies her for Crufts next year.

Afterwards we Jan suggested I take her to do her KC good citizen Bronze award. Although she can do all the other things I wasn't sure if she would manage the 1 minute stay but she did it beautifully. We were in a crowded area at the front of the show with people and dogs walking past all the time but she wasn't bothered at all so we passed.

07 May 2008

Over the last few weeks Saffy's coat has been getting thicker and thicker and starting to look all clumpy. It is obviously getting ready to change. She has a much thicker coat than the other two Malinois. I have been brushing and combing it but it doesn't seem to have much effect. Very little coat comes out and it still looks slightly scruffy.

As it is the National dog show on Friday, Saffy's first champ show with CCs I thought it would be a good idea to really work on her coat so she looks her best for the show so I gave her yet another bath and when she was dry I really worked on her coat. the coat has finally decided to come loose and I managed to remove enough hair to make another dog. She looks lovely now. even though I got out so much fur she doesn't look in the least bit bald or out of coat.

06 May 2008

the weather has warmed up quite a bit now and the grass has dried out well so I got the training weaves out for Saffy. She does gallop up and down them very quickly unless I have the camera out, that slows her down.

At the moment I have the weaves very widely spaced as she is still too young to be training them properly. Once she is a year old I will start gradually narrowing the gap. I am aiming just to get her used to moving through the poles at speed. I want her to move through them from start to finish without popping out of them and regardless of what I am doing or where I am. The long term goal is for her to be able to do the weaves independently. In the video she is happily running away from me to the end of the weaves.

05 May 2008

Even though it is a bank holiday I was awake before the alarm as usual. I took the camera with me on our walk. We went to Lawton woods so I could take pictured of the bluebells. It was raining quite hard at first but that doesn't worry me or the dogs.


they love paddling in water

more pictures can be seen here

http://www.kodakgallery.co.uk/I.jsp?c=3cpj3kvmx.tm0edmax&x=0&y=f2id4q .

04 May 2008

We went to Rugby Obedience show today. Dora was drawn 2nd in Beginners. The first dog didn't arrive so we went in the ring first. I don't mind this as Dora always seems to work her best in the morning. She was very good, especially since we haven't been to a show since Crufts. We were entered at Cosely 2 weeks ago but as Catherine decided to have her baby that day I had to give it a miss and stay at home to become a Grandmother instead.

Anyay back to Dora. She worked very well. After we finished. the judge was very complementary about her. We lost a couple of marks on the heel on lead and heel free. I had to give her an extra command on the retrieve but I lost marks for moving my feet when I shouldn't have done. We lost 8 marks in the end. Dora did her stays well and I was pleased as it was getting quite warm and she has been known to lie down and get comfy in the sit stay if it gets too hot, so I was really pleased with her. We came 8th over all which wasn't to bad in a class of over 40 dogs.

I had entered Saffy for the first time today. I only did a training round with her. We did heelwork first and she was paying very good attention to me. didn't seem to notice the steward at all. We did a recall. The steward held the lead for me as I didn't think she would wait in this situation. She came very fast and sat slightly crooked but as it was the first time she had been in the ring I didn't mind.

We then did a retrieve. I held her collar rather than asking her to wait while throwing the dumbell, then I sent her to get it she did a lovely pickup and a really nice straight present.

I didn't do stays with Saffy or Ruby as it is complicated with more than one dog. Saffy isn't quite ready to do them yet anyway and as Ruby only did a trainig round I decided to miss the stays this time.

We had a really nice day. The weather stayed dry appart from a few odd spots . Robin said it hd rained a lot at home so was glad I decided to go

03 May 2008

Dora got well and truly lost this morning. I met up with dad for a walk this morning. We went round the pond and then I turned round to go back to my car which was parked at one end of the park and dad carried on back to his car. As I turned round I saw Dora in the field by the path and assumed she was with us but when I got to the end of the path I realised she wasn't.

As she is prone to wondering off I wasn't too worried at first. I stopped and waited and called her but she didn't appear, so I walked back the way we had come. Still no Dora. I was starting to get a little bit worried as this is not where she normally runs off and she had been gone much longer than normal. Eventually I decided I would go back to the car incase she had gone back there. Of course I had forgotten my phone so I couldn't ring my parents to see if she had found her way back to their house.

As I got back to the car I saw dads car just pulling away. I opend the boot to put the dogs in and there was Dora sitting in the boot. There was a note from Dad on the steering wheel saying that he had found her.

It turns out that she hadn't been following me but had actually gone with Dad instead and just hopped into his car and went home with him.

01 May 2008

as a puppy Saffy liked to lie on her stomach with her legs stretched out behind her.Here she is at 6 weeks old doing it.

She still does it but these days she likes a bit of comfort and usually does it on my bed or the settee.She has even been known to eat a bone on the floor with her back legs on the bed