Tis the final countdown….Crufts starts tomorrow and we show on Friday.

And Solei has totally lost it 🙁

As I’m sure everyone who reads this knows Solei has never been the greatest showman. Then last August I switched the food I was using in the ring and suddenly found a bit of animation! Although he’d still never be the showiest dog out there he was ever so much better and although he had one or two off shows and I had to be very careful what I did (or didn’t do) with him in the ring, on the whole it was so much better. That continued up until January – I remember because when I showed him on the 4th I’d promised him a new lead if he showed really well and he did, so I bought him one. Then the next two shows I couldn’t go so S took him and showed him – he wasn’t quite so good at the first one because it was absolutely freezing (he actually shivered all day, including when he was on the table being gone over) but went really well at the second. The weekend after that I showed him again and he was awful, as I wrote at the time. I’ve shown him twice more since and although not quite as bad as the first he’s still bad – I have the Solei back I had before I switched him on last August, which is a very bad thing!

So that was bad enough with Crufts on the horizon, but for the last two weeks I’ve been trying to increase his stamina and build up his condition a bit so I started walking him every day – before anyone thinks I’m cruel he does get walked but not usually daily. That was ok until I walked him on the 22nd and he was pulling away from the lead and flinching a bit. I think I gave him a day off, then he seemed ok again. Then a few days later it started again – he gets all excited to go out but then after a very short period of time starts lagging behind, he’s not walking on the lead properly and I think it’s cos he’s flinching at everything though not 100%…..he’s walking as far away from me as possible, with his head down and he usually flinches a bit if the lead gets too tight (but I’ve checked his back/neck, all seems fine). Round the house he’s absolutely fine, eating normally, pooing normally, jumping about and you wouldn’t know there’s anything wrong. But he’s REALLY jumpy. He’s always been quite a sensitive dog but this takes it to a new level. From watching him I think he’s flinching at any noise rather than at pain, and flinching when the lead goes tight because he thinks it’s going to hit him or something. Who knows what goes on in his head.

So right now I don’t even know if he’s going to walk properly on a lead at Crufts before we even get as far as standing with his tail up! I just hope his back & neck are all ok. I haven’t walked him since Sunday in the hope that he’ll forget a bit so when he’s in the show atmosphere he’ll (fingers crossed) be ok.

I can’t see we’ve got anything to lose at this point so once we arrive I’ll ignore him until just before we go in the ring! I’m just absolutely gutted this has happened just before Crufts and when he’s so close to retirement too. All I wanted was another month or two with the Solei I unleashed last August! To say nothing of the fact the way he’s acting at the moment I can’t see him doing agility or obedience either.

Time will tell I suppose.

To finish on a happier note, on Friday I’ll have had Alfie for three weeks. He’s 5 months old and one of my current Pap pups, but he’s not going to show so I’ve got free reign to do more or less what I want with him. After less than two weeks with me he knew his name, could walk on a lead, had a decent recall, knew spin left, spin right and was in the process of learning targeting (my hand). Not bad considering when I had him he didn’t really know his name, had no recall at all, hadn’t  been taught anything and oh my….if you put a lead anywhere near him he screamed and screamed 😆 Never mind actually walking on it!