The Blog of the Frog

Well in the end my worries were largely unfounded! Solei was a right little sod, wouldn’t keep his tail up properly and combined with the wind it was a disaster! The wind was blowing sideways on so I couldn’t stand him into it unless I wanted his bum towards the judge, but it was doing a lovely job of blowing his tail down – as you know Solei needs no encouragement in that department! Needless to say he wasn’t placed.

Other than that…Tyler got a 3rd in Puppy Dog but he went very well for me and was fine on the table, so ringcraft paid off 🙂 Jason was 2nd in Open Dog, behind Morris who went on to get the DCC and BOB!! Though Jason wasn’t called back in to challenge for the Reserve CC which was a shame. Tosca won Post Graduate Bitch so no problems there! And Sarah was 4th in Limit Bitch 🙂 So all in all a lovely day, bar Solei everyone was placed and no-one last in their classes and all showed well!

On Saturday I’d thought about going back to Bath again but there was an open obedience show only 15 minutes away and so I decided to go there instead. The right decision as it happens cos there was no way I could’ve faced that journey again! I’d entered Solei NFC so he could come along as well.

I was sitting by the Pre Beginners ring with Solei beside me when who should come up beside me but a friend who has Paps but is very highly regarded in the world of obedience. He doesn’t live nearby so one of the last people I expected to see practically on my doorstep! We had a lovely chat and he gave me some fantastic advice and even offered to come and spend half a day helping me with Solei. Then just before I went home he asked a couple of other judges what they would do if I came into their ring and they both said they wouldn’t mind how far away the dog worked as long as it was consistent! Which is fantastic because I’d been told 1-2in which is very close when you’re bumping around on grass and I didn’t think that was going to be at all possible. Obviously judges will differ and some won’t like him working so far away, but there are evidently going to be some that don’t mind 🙂

Sunday was going to be quiet but after Solei showed so badly at Bath I was desperate to show him once more. There was a companion dog show in Dorset, right near the coast not far from where we holidayed when I was very young, so we decided to go along! We took all four dogs – Vale too – and I was planning to show Solei, Jeanie and Darwin in the Pedigree classes but when we got there and saw the scheduled classes there were only two classes that they were eligible for and the entry was also more expensive than I’ve ever seen before (£3 per class, it’s rarely more than £1 or £1.50 and I’ve never seen them more than £2) so I decided not to double any of them up and just enter Darwin and Solei in the pedigree classes, then for a bit of fun put Jeanie & Darwin in the Brace and Solei & Vale in the Mismatched Brace. To say they totally exceeded all expectations would be an understatement! In the novelty classes Jeanie & Darwin came a very respectable 4th in the Brace, Solei & Vale *won* the Mismatched Brace! They did look good together actually.

Then in the Pedigree classes of course it was the only companion show I’ve ever seen that only awarded a Best in Show with no Best Puppy in Show…..so of course who would’ve been Best Puppy in Show had it existed? Yup, Darwin!! He won an enormous Puppy 6-12 months class and for his first time on grass showed very well indeed (even if he was determined to see just how much sheep poo he could eat in between). That was actually the other reason for going – Jeanie & Darwin are entered in the Bath & West tomorrow and they’ve never been on grass before, so I thought some practice would be handy! Solei was entered in AV Toy which was also a good size class. The only flaw was someone had the bright idea to put the ring right next to the main display ring, and decided it would be a good idea to put a police dog demonstration – complete with guns – in that main ring. And they decided to do the gun firing bit right in the middle of the Toy class! Needless to say it terrified the dogs, heck it terrified the people! Solei was sitting on my lap at the time because it was nearly his turn to be gone over and he’d been whinging and whining and fidgeting and generally trying to get off my lap and as soon as the first gun fired he froze! Didn’t have anymore trouble from him for the rest of the class 😛 At the end of the class it was a case of the best dog with their tail down! Solei’s wasn’t right down but it certainly wasn’t up properly, however his quality mst have shone through because he won it 🙂 Don’t know what was going on in his head because he didn’t seem particularly scared….any excuse to not hold the tail up!

In the BIS challenge mum handled Darwin for me (well, I moved him again but she stood him) whilst I took Solei and I was actually really impressed. It was quite hot, Solei had been bad at Bath and then had had that experience in his class (which was the 7th class of 9 so he hadn’t had long to recover either) but he showed better than he had all weekend! Couldn’t really have asked for much more from him and in the end it was a close run thing between him and a Flat Coated Retriever, and the Flat Coat went BIS.

Still, it was a lovely day and winning 3/4 classes and being placed in the other isn’t bad 😆 I almost felt guilty. After that we took the dogs for a walk along near the sea (as near as you can get given now it’s May dogs are banned on it) and then came home where they all slept for the rest of the day!

On Monday I went into town to go camera shopping. I’d seen a model I liked last December, then the price soared and I couldn’t afford it. But the price has just come down again and I was getting very fed up of my old camera blurring all my puppy photos! So I came home with a Canon PowerShot SX110 IS. I’ve always wanted an SLR but they’re all just too heavy for me to hold, so this was as close as I could get and still keep a manageable weight. I had a play in the shop because I wanted it for that afternoon but I also really wanted to have a look at the photos it took before I committed myself. So my plan was to take some photos in the shop, buy the camera and then look at the photos I’d taken in the shop on my computer before I opened the camera, and if I liked what I saw then I’d open it and if I didn’t I’d just take it back. However when I decided to buy it the chap said I could have the camera out and use it! As long as I didn’t touch any of the other bits. So I took it with me on Monday afternoon to try it out on the puppies. Honestly….I’m a bit disappointed thus far. It takes gorgeous videos, I’m really impressed with them. The outside photos I took out of the shop doorway I think are nice too (though haven’t look at them on the computer yet) but the puppy photos aren’t as good as I’d hoped. I’m going to take the camera with me to the Bath & West tomorrow, take lots of photos and see what I think of those before I decide. I would really like to keep it but I really hoped it would deal with this kind of photography better. It may be that once I have a play with the settings I’ll find one of those settings suits better so we’ll see…fingers crossed!

Monday evening was Solei’s second obedience class. I got the impression he found it very boring 😆 There were only 5 dogs there so we did some weaving in and out of each other which entailed Solei staying for a long time (albeit was a quick praise and release in between each dog) and then we moved on to recalls….which would’ve been fine were it not for the fact we only had one turn each and only two dogs did it perfectly – Solei being one of them. So his turn was over in a flash and two of the other three dogs must have had at least 5 minutes each individually with the trainer explaining what they should be doing to stop the problems they were having. Which is fine, I don’t begrudge that because that is the general idea….but it meant we were just sitting waiting for ages and Solei was thoroughly bored with the whole thing! At least I could watch and listen. Then we did a 1 minute sit stay which Solei did beautifully, despite me being an idiot and not thinking when I left him – he was quite close to a wall and I sat him facing the wall and then realised I couldn’t step away in front of him because there wasn’t room! So I had to go off to the side and keep calling him to keep his attention (whilst hoping he wouldn’t get up). But he didn’t 🙂 Oh and we did a bit of speaking to another person whilst the dog had to stand/sit/lie down nicely (ie no jumping up) – more boredom as far as Solei was concerned 😆 Which I suppose puts into perspective why he was bored – that was all we did (staying/weaving, 1 recall, 1 one min sit stay and the conversation) and it’s a 45 minute class. Almost all he did for 45 minutes was structured staying or informal standing/sitting/lying around doing nothing!

After that….I decided I’d give ringcraft a miss yesterday 😆 This afternoon will be spent bathing dogs and viewing puppies and then tomorrow we’re off to the Bath & West! Solei will be coming but he’s not entered…I wanted to enter him and I still wish he was, but we have three classes – Puppy, Graduate & Open – and I didn’t really want to drop him down to Graduate, but I had the offer of taking Jason who has to go in Open and I really wanted to take him. I still don’t regret the decision, just wish there had been a way to have my cake and eat it!

So that’s it for Solei now….he’s not entered in any more shows and I’m a little bit more relaxed about his mouth. I started trying a bit of retrieve with him on Sunday, for the first time in going on two years. Not long after I first had him I used to throw things for him and he would either run off in the other direction or drop the toy and recall back to me. Then we discovered the tooth and I stopped doing that sort of thing with him. Because of that I thought it was going to be very hard to teach him to retrieve, but I think maybe I was wrong 🙂 We did a little on Sunday, then Monday I was actually sort of getting him to bring things back….now he has more obedience he might drop it and recall but I point in the other direction and tell him to go and get it and he does 🙂 Then he might bring it another step, repeat..etc. I see potential, anyway!

I will still be doing companion shows with him, he’s always done quite well in them so we shall try a few and if he starts being unplaced every time then we’ll stop, if not we’ll carry on; full dentition or not! Not sure about Jeanie yet, might show her lightly…And maybe Darwin can manage another Best Puppy in Show where they’re actually awarding a Best Puppy in Show 😉 He’ll be 12 months old at the end of August so we’ve got more or less the whole summer to try!