The Blog of the Frog

Aragh!  *Sighs and rolls eyes!*

On Thursday Solei and I went to agility, they’d set up a sequence of jumps, close together in a straight line. Fine – except they wanted to hold the dogs to have them pulling towards the owner. I know Solei can be a bit funny about that, but I do feel like I’m sometimes overprotective/oversensitive, so I let them go ahead. There were two sequences set up, with a different person on each. The first was ok (more or less, anyway!) but the person on the second….I left Solei, and as I started walking away there was an almightly scream and I turned around to see him flat to the floor! I was concerned and not happy at the time, but carried on and he was fine for the rest of the evening.

Over the weekend I wasn’t particularly happy – there was a slight look in his eyes, and he wasn’t so keen on food – however, having just brought Ria home it could have been due to that.

I could have cried on Monday morning when he was like I haven’t seen him since before he started seeing his chiro (excluding the reaction he had 48hrs after his first session!). I left him for 24hrs or so to see how he went, now he’s on rest and painkillers 🙁 So we’ll see how he goes, fingers crossed the rest and painkillers help. On the bright side aside from the holding the actually agility went very well 😛 He was doing the obstacles well, and his contacts had come back!

Then there’s Elton! He hasn’t been the same since we swapped Darwin/Fern. From a dog that was very much into food and had never been a fussy eater in his life, Elton started being so disinterested in food. It had been a gradual (subtle) decline, until he refused his first meal completely a few days after Fern started her season.

Sometimes he eats (eventually), sometimes doesn’t, no enthusiasm for food….which also has a knock on effect that I’m not spending as much time doing things with him cos I can’t work with him (I’d cube the NatureDiet and then train him before each meal and use the ND to reward) if I can’t reward him!! (Can use toys but not all the time) and he’s just lost a little bit of something that was Elton, if that makes sense. I don’t know what to do with him, I’ve tried doing things, not doing things..etc.

He’s getting time spent with me on his own, and I haven’t tried to do any form of training for weeks. I really hope he’s just unsettled and now there won’t be anymore dog changes for months he’ll get over it – whatever “it” is! I can’t tell you how much I want the “old” Elton back 🙁

In other news, I’m exhausted 😆 However, I love this puppy <3 I’m not doubting myself anymore, I think I’ve done the right thing 🙂 She’s gorgeous <3

She’s 8 weeks old today, and I’ve had her 5 days now. She’s much quieter at night, though we’re still not sleeping brilliantly! None the less it’s much improved. I’ve reached the point of such exhaustion I’m not as jumpy which helps 😆 – to start with I was jumping awake with every little noise, determined to get her outside before she peed. Which was quite amusing on Saturday night – I woke up and of course me getting up woke her up. So I went to grab her to put her out, she squatted so I picked her up anyway and put her down outside expecting her to squat as she was that desperate….no, she ran back inside. So grabbed her again, by which time she’d started peeing again (I didn’t realise) which ended up going all over my hand and lap before she stopped! This time shut the door before I put her down and she did do the rest outside….but not quite what I wanted in the middle of the night! No such incidents since, thankfully!

I left her for the first time on Sunday, she seemed to have settled quite well so I decided to take Elton to the show I’d entered him in, as we were first in the ring and it was only about 15 minutes drive. Dad was at home, so she wasn’t completely on her own. On the whole she was really good 🙂 (and it was worth going as Elton won his class!)

On Monday some friends came over for lunch, and to meet madam! She was somewhat overawed when they first came in, but warmed up and by the time they left she was all over them 🙂 I was a bit worried to see her initial reaction, but pleased with how it ended!

Yesterday I put a collar on her for the first time (not amused!) and we went on our first big adventure, down the road to the post office 🙂 She hasn’t even had her first vaccination yet, so she was restricted to my lap – much to her displeasure! As we walked down the road she wasn’t sure of traffic, but I’d taken a toy and stopped to talk and play when I saw bigger vehicles approaching. She seemed to improve as she was out for longer, so hopefully she’ll soon get over that! There was a white German Shepherd walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the road which she thought was rather interesting! She was very interested in the couple of people that walked by, but a bit wary. However, as we got down to where the post office is we met a man who stopped to talk to her and she was happily saying hello. Closely followed by an older couple who she also greeted enthusiastically, and then was actually pulling to get *to* people! So that was good.

Ria, 8 weeks old 🙂

Everything else had fallen by the way side slightly, in the stress of puppies and the preparation for Crufts! I’m not sure there’s a lot to report, other than Fern did indeed go back shortly before Crufts – Elton stopped eating, and that was the final straw!

In other news….I PICKED UP MY NEW BABY ON FRIDAY!!

Can’t believe I’ve finally got her home. Her name is Ria, she is a Kooikerhondje and she turned 7 weeks old last Wednesday 🙂

It was a more than five hour drive each way, so on Friday we left before 6:30am and got home after 10pm. I carried her home, and she was absolutely dead to the world for the first two and a half hours

I have no idea why it’s insisting on turning them strange ways (the first and third ones should be 90 degrees left and the second one 180 degrees (it’s upside down)) but you’ll just have to tilt your head or screen lol – sorry!

Then she woke up, and it got interesting 🙂 I managed to stop her being too obnoxious, and she slept on and off the rest of the way home. When we arrived home as it was so late I went almost straight to bed, and she did not approve! It was rather a noisy night.

I wondered what I’d done. And someone was upset I hadn’t told them I was actually going to pick her up, which upset me and made everything worse. And I was obviously so tired as well….having had such a long day on Friday, and then got very little in the way of sleep on Friday night. So I spent most of yesterday in tears! 

She slept better Saturday night, and I do feel a lot better about things today. So, we shall see what the future holds!

Feeling better today 🙂

The breeder and I spent over 40 minutes talking on the phone on Sunday night, and I felt much better about it all afterwards. Good news is I had my puppies mixed up, and the puppy I thought was the other one isn’t – and the one it is I think I prefer to the one I thought it was (following?!). She’s going to see how they go over this week, and then we’ll decide what happens from there. If she thinks all is still well, then I can go up to bring my puppy home and pick from the two of them at the same time. Eee! Hopefully all will end well and my chosen puppy with be all I hope for 🙂 (and more, if I’m lucky!)

T wanted me to keep Fern here for the whole of her season, but I think we’re fast heading to a point where she’ll have to go back! Boys are getting more interested, and Solei is starting to get slightly antagonistic with Elton. All adds to the fun 🙄

Elton had his first pre-Crufts bath yesterday (will have another on Saturday), so now we’re counting down! We show on the final day this year, Sunday. I’m trying to be sensible about not doing much and going to bed early, but it’s not really working so far. Even if I’m in bed at a decent time I wake up early because there’s so much to think about at the moment. I had to go in to town yesterday to go to the bank, then ended up going back in again today to do some shopping. I’ve recently found the courage to start using the buses, which is an interesting experience!

I had a slightly awkward experience today when I caught the bus into town, then decided to catch another bus to ASDA. I’ve never been on this bus before, and it doesn’t go directly to asda – just stops nearby. So I got on this bus, and as we got out of town it started weaving down all these side roads….I had no idea where we were, until we turned right out of a side road back onto a road I knew and I went “…oh damn, I should’ve got off there” 😆 There followed a scenic tour round the side roads of a not terribly wonderful area, until we ended up back at the stop I should have got off at in the first place (recognised it coming from the other direction!) and I duly disembarked 😆 The rest of my day was less eventful 😉

Urgh, stress!

Solei’s chiro appointment went well – his back is in better shape than last time, so that was encouraging! She actually managed to make him scream as well which was good because she could see what I’m talking about. He was slightly out of line so she adjusted him again, but as I’d thought, she thinks a lot of it now is psychological, so I’ve got some work to do with him to try and make his less sensitive and hand shy. He had a bit of diarrhoea a few minutes ago which is good, because that means he has reacted to the treatment! Though not nearly as dramatically as before.

He’s been on crate rest since Friday lunch time, so he was more than happy to be released this morning! After one too many incidences of jumping on and off the bed he’s now attached to me by a lead (meant to be taking it easy for another 5 days!) and he’s not impressed. Not helped by the fact the last time he saw Fern she wasn’t interesting – when he came out this morning he was sniffing around the pen, then lay down in front whining! He’s meant to know what he’s doing and she’s only on about day 3 🙄 I thought it would be Elton who would be problematic! Elton is good as gold whilst he can’t get to her, though when she escaped past me last night he was rather quick to cement himself to her back 🙂

Yesterday was just a disaster. Elton and I went to a show where he was 4th out of 4 – and he actually showed really well 😛 I lost my favourite comb at aforementioned show 🙁 Then last night I had a phone call from this litter’s breeder, which didn’t go the way I hoped. Of the two left, the one with the body markings I love is carrying her tail badly, and to be honest I’m not sure how I feel about her anyway….I love her because of her markings, if she wasn’t far and away the best in the litter as far as that goes I’m not sure I would. The other puppy I actually possibly like better – but I’m really not sure about her markings. I need to speak to her later, and see what she thinks and where we go from here 🙁 It’s a position I really didn’t want to be put in, in my mind it was definitely happening this time and I don’t know if I can pass up this litter….but at this point I have my doubts as to whether either puppy is right.

I didn’t get much sleep last night playing it all over in my mind. I really need some more photos as well – I look at some of the photos I have of this puppy and I think no way can I have her, she’s far too white….and then I look at another photo and I think actually she’s not too bad.

I’m really not looking forward to this conversation later. I’m hopeful it may still end well, but it’s going to be difficult.

I’m on a roll at the moment….three posts in as many days! A lot of stuff happening over the last couple of months, and it’s rather theraputic. Plus this way I might actually end up with posts people will read because they’re not awfully long 😉

The chapter of grandad and his house is drawing to a close, which is bitter sweet. It’s so nice to almost have it done and dusted, it’s been such a stressful and emotional time (though actually hasn’t taken very long given what had to be done – he died at the end of April), but at the same time it’s a link….and once the house is gone, that’s it. I’m quite good at subscribing to the burying head in sand method! So yes, the house is now cleared (we have boxes everywhere in our house!) and contracts have been exchanged. Completion is tomorrow.

I spoke with the puppies breeder last Friday. We still haven’t made a final decision, suffice to say it looks more hopeful than it has done thus far! We’re down to two now – one of the four has a kinked tail so is no good for show, and one has been chosen. I do still technically have pick of the litter though  – at this point the puppy that has been spoken for isn’t the one the breeder would have picked anyway, and as I can’t get to see them I’m relying on her judgement…so what she’d have picked is probably what I’ll end up with. The one I’ve always liked the best in terms of body markings is one of the two still in the running. They were 5 weeks old yesterday, so I’ll be speaking to her again soon and if all goes to plan by the end of the month I could have a new puppy here – eep! Scary stuff.

Tonight was Solei’s first agility class 🙂 I’d been so looking forward to it, but also with some apprehension – mainly as to what Solei would think! I knew I’d missed it, I didn’t realise how much until I got back to it…I had the most fantastic evening! We started off by showing the dogs the tunnel, and as the instructor knew Solei had done some agility before she let him do it “properly” twice, rather than her holding the dog at one end and the owner calling the dog at the other, like the others were doing. He loves the tunnel, so that was good 😉 Then we split into pairs, to do some jumps – well, between two jump wings with the bar on the floor! There were an uneven number of us so Solei and I got our own jump to do as we pleased 🙂 We did some practice going through the wings, and then she put the bar up on the feet of the wings (so very close to the ground) and he was jumping that like a pro! I was pleased with him because the last agility we did he’d started trying to go under/round, and although he didn’t really have space to go under he didn’t even try. Then she put two jumps together and we had a couple of goes at that – Solei thought about going round rather than over, but after I showed him he did jump them.

After that we moved on to the dog walk, which was just one of the “down” parts, and all we did was have the dog jump on just above the contact and then stop with back feet on the contact and front feet on the ground. This is the part his previous training deserted him, he used to have very nice contacts but he seems to have forgotten the “two on two off” principle!

Then came the tire – the first time I had Solei off lead and he decided to squeeze through the gap between the tire and the stand! So she put him on lead and showed him, and then you could see him going “oooh…yeah, i remember now!” and he did it very well. Finally we did a couple of recalls through channel weaves – basically two straight lines of weave poles with guide wires on and a gap down the middle – so it is literally a channel.

Bar contacts Solei remembered everything and above all he really seemed to enjoy it – which meant I enjoyed it! The only dodgy part was when I took him off lead for the dog walk cos I was getting confused with my lead and hand and at one point he ran off….but I was so impressed because he actually came back as soon as I called him without racing around in circles like he usually does 😛 he was really focused on me most of the time actually, it was so nice to have a dog looking at me like that for once! Nice to have some Solei and I time as well. I can’t remember the last time we went anywhere without Elton!

So I hope now he goes from strength to strength and continues to really enjoy himself 🙂 Chiropractor tomorrow which is a bit nervewracking…we’ll see what she says.

Oh and Fern appears to be coming into season 🙄