The Blog of the Frog

Well it’s been an interesting few weeks! I thought I’d seen a lot of snow at the beginning of the year – well that was nothing compared to what we had this time!

I’d say we had slightly more than last time, but it stuck around for ages. We had a vague semblance of a “White Christmas” – that is to say it didn’t snow, but the ground was still very much covered in the white stuff!

It stayed away for the 11th and we made it to the NEC for LKA. I spent too much money buying Christmas presents! And Elton got a respectable 4th in a large class which had 18 entered. When we all went round together at the beginning of the class I had a glimpse of what he could be like when he eventually settles (in years to come, the rate he’s going!) and…wow.

By the 19th we were well and truly snowed in, and as they (rather misguidedly in my opinion) decided to go ahead with the show I’d entered, we missed it. I did feel for our judge – we had a breed specialist who’d struggled all the way from the other side of the country, she had an entry of 16 Paps and not one turned up! Which I suppose backs up that I feel it really ought to have been either cancelled or rescheduled. Our Obedience Club Christmas Party was also victim to the weather 🙁 They’re planned to reschedule it but not sure when.

My new chair was finally redelivered  in November, and although I can’t use it for prolonged periods (seating needs to be reassessed – appt on 7th Jan) it was an absolute godsend in the snow. I still can’t believe how well it coped!

On the subject of new things a couple of weeks ago I bought myself a new laptop….my old one is very old and hasn’t worked properly since it crashed, so it was well overdue! I wanted to replace it before VAT went up, and this deal came up so I went for it. I don’t like it as much as my VAIO, but I can’t deny it works better! I expect I’ll get used to it.

Christmas was ok…a bit strange, the day its self was nice, but Boxing Day was hard – always the way it was going to be really. Grandad always went to my uncle’s for Christmas Day, so we didn’t notice it so much…but Boxing Day they always came here, and there was definitely a void. The dogs were thoroughly spoilt! Lots of new toys and treats, Fish4Dogs Salmon Mousse for breakfast and Christmas Dinner a top of their normal biscuit for tea! For the first time I put together hampers for my parents this year which I had a lot of fun doing, they went down well.

On Wednesday we did our usual post-Christmas show at the Bath & West Showground. It’s always been a two day show but in the days of increased cost and falling entries I wish they’d go to one day, there would be room and it would save them hundreds. Nothing is ever simple – when I arrived and looked in the catalogue I wasn’t entered! Luckily I always get proof of posting whenever I post an entry, which they have to accept in lieu. I’d never had to use it until this year and now that’s three entries that have gone AWOL (one breed club champ (April), one open I actually sorted out before the show because I rang the secretary to query something and discovered the entry hadn’t arrived (October), and this show). I would say the post has been thoroughly disrupted because of the snow (we had no post for two weeks) but that obviously didn’t affect the April or October one and this was posted in November so should’ve got there in plenty of time! When we eventually got in the ring Elton wasn’t on his best behaviour, but not too bad. Got a 3rd.

In other news I’m feeling very sorry for myself cos I’ve got an infection in my face 😆 So, so painful and it’s stopping me sleeping which then makes everything worse. A new year tomorrow…..onwards and upwards?

Oops…I’d completely forgotten about this, not quite sure how I managed that! I suppose because my last post was so exciting I wanted to let it sit as the newest post for a while 😉 and then I got out of the habit!

I got confirmation of Elton’s Junior Warrant back really quickly 🙂 So he’s officially had letters after his name for a while now.

Other than that, things have been fairly quiet on the showing front! We went to South Wales KA champ show on the 8th October, where Elton got a 3rd in Junior Dog & a 2nd in Graduate Dog. Closely followed (2 days later) by the South Wales Pap Club Champ Show where he had a 3rd in Yearling Dog & 2nd in Phalene Dog. Neither judge was particularly good for Elton so that was ok.

The following weekend I’d entered an open show with Elton, but South Western Gundog Club was the same day so as Elton now had his JW (and SW Gundog was half the distance!) I opted to give him a rest and went to the gundog show instead. I handled a Clumber to Reserve Best of Breed and a Golden Retriever to 3rd in the Puppy Stakes, so that was fun!

The 23rd/24th was meant to be a weekend of two shows, but on Friday afternoon the garage rang to say the minor repair the car had gone in for actually wasn’t, and not only was it not safe to drive, they couldn’t get the part until Monday. I was absolutely gutted because that weekend was two shows I particularly wanted to do, and of course to add insult to injury I could have got lifts with so many people if it weren’t for the chair.

I suppose at least it was fixed for Midland Counties on the 30th; another I wanted to do, because I thought the judge liked him. He got a 2nd in a good sized Yearling Dog class, apparently a very close decision and on another day could easily have been the other way round (that’s what the judge said!)

On the 14th November little rocket man turned eighteen months old….can’t believe he’s a year and a half. Where’s it gone?! He decided to celebrate his half birthday in style as we went to Minehead open show and he won Best of Breed in good company, going on to 2nd in the Toy Group!

Now, winter is well and truly here! Though we’ve been in our little bubble here and have hardly seen a flake of snow. Though the show in Dorset I’d entered last Sunday was cancelled due to the weather – rather disappointing because Darwin was entered and his outings are few and far between at the moment!

Other than that, not a lot to report I don’t think! Christmas is fast approaching, obedience is over for the year, and I’ve been resting Solei since he went funny back in the summer. I’ve just started taking Elton to obedience, and I’m very pleased with him, though it is needed! – he has quite a good grasp of commands, but we’ve never taken them out into a more distracting environment so that’s what I intended to work on by taking him! He loses all concept of heelwork, though to be fair that’s partly because we’ve done very little work in the right chair – his heelwork to a manual chair is very good! (Fat lot of use that’ll do…)