27 November 2008

Saffy and Daisy settling down for a snooze














Not comfortable yet, the floor is a bit hard..














Thats better















Just get a bit more comfortable















These Malinois are quite useful to have around sometimes!

26 November 2008

A frosty morning walk. first across the golf course














then through the woods. What lives down this big hole?















then down the bank and across the fields














a quick dip and then home

25 November 2008

Malinois are sometimes called Maligators. Maybe this video shows why.
Saffy standing with her back legs on the settee snapping her jaws at every one. the noise is her teeth snapping together. She is not trying to bite she just clacking her jaws, but she does remind me of the monster from Alien!

23 November 2008

We took Daisy over to mums again today and I remembered to take my camera with me this time. Daisy had a great time playing with the big dogs. Shes not scared of them at all.

22 November 2008

I took Ruby and Saffy on an Agility training day organised by the Working Belgian Shepherd Dog Society. The trainers were Andy and Helen Brown.

It was a very interesting day and I picked up lots of handling tips. Saffy met a lovely Groenendael called Dipti who just wanted to play with her and they had a lovely time bouncing about.

Saffy was very well behaved in the morning with Andy doing jumps and tunnels , but when I brought her in to do the Agility training in the afternoon with Helen she got rather over excited and when I left her in a wait at the start she ran off over the dogwalk, then through the tunnel and back over the dog walk then dashed to the top of the A frame and stayed up there surveying the scene.

After this she did calm down a bit and worked very well. It would have been better if I had been able to remember which jumps we were supposed to be doing. There was a lot to take in and I kept forgetting which way we were supposed to go.

I was very pleased with how Ruby managed the contact equipment as it was a lot slippier than she is used to. at first she was a bit unsure on the A frame but soon learned to manage it. Ruby had a major phobia about the dog walk in the past and was very worried about slipping on contact equipment but she managed this strange dog walk very well. Helen encouraged my to talk to Ruby while she is doing the dog walk. i didn't realise it but I don't speak to her while she is doing it, but Helen said she is much happier if I talk to her in a happy voice.

17 November 2008

Daisy has settled in very well. Last week I was a bit worried about Saffy's reaction to having a tiny dog running around the house as she seemed convinced that Daisy was a cat, or rabbit. Something to chase. Saffy was really fixed on Daisy to the extent that she didn't even notice food or toys, she just wanted to chase the puppy. Things thankfully have changed very quickly and now Saffy and Daisy are the best of friends. They would play all day long. Saffy is very gentle with Daisy, lying down so Daisy can climb all over her.
Sometimes Saffy has trodden on Daisy by accident and then Daisy really tells her off. She is quite a tough little dog.

16 November 2008

Today was the inter club competition between Danesford, Lichfield, Rugby and Coventry dog training clubs. I was competing with Dora in the beginners for Danesford. We went first in our class. Dora did some smashing heelwork both on and off lead but unfortunately for some reason dropped the dumbell on the retrieve. this cost us 3 points. We would have won if we had done the retrieve, but as it was we came second. After all the classes we had a very nice lunch and then a quiz. It was a very enjoyable day. Unfortunately Danesford did not do too well in some of the other classes so we came fourth overall but we still had a good day
Saffy came with me too just for the day out and she had a lovely time playing with some of the other dogs.