Oops, it’s been a while since my last post – evidently that’s what happens when you have 12 dogs in one house! I hardly had time to breathe, never mind post….was constantly doing something with one or the other of them!

So yes, let’s go back three weeks. This is going to be a very potted account because I can’t actually remember most of it 😀 All the dogs arrived on the 7th and we started to settle into a routine. On the 12th I took Darwin & Solei to a companion show and after much debate with myself over who else I wanted to take I eventually settled on Pippin & Brodie, the other two boys from the litter. It was an incredible day, by the time we arrived it was actually almost too hot! Darwin went into Junior and Solei into AV Toy, Utility or Pastoral. Darwin went well on the whole, didn’t move brilliantly but he never does – especially on grass – still needs to “grow up” a bit and settle down! He stood beautifully and still won the class 😀 Solei decided he wasn’t going to play ball at all, he’s such a pest…I think he’d decided it was too hot. Though even he pulled it together slightly better at the end and to my amazement was 3rd! (Imagine what he’d have done if he’d shown well 😆 ) I only did the two classes, so that was that – judge didn’t even look at Darwin for BIS.

The next weekend we went down to Devon and after another debate over who to take, this time I was most ambitious – took Solei, Storm, Darwin and Vale to show and Elton, Lacey and Pippin to watch (on the basis the schedule wasn’t clear whether “baby” (4-6mths) puppies would be allowed to enter and I wanted Elton there incase they were, I wanted to see more of Pippin’s temperament and Lacey had gone all stupid and needed the exposure!) – 7 dogs!

Pedigree classes I entered Storm in AV Working or Pastoral (there was no Toy and that’s where the steward told me to put him 😆 ), Vale in AV Non-Sporting and Darwin in AV Open and Novelties Solei (who’d come for the obedience) into Best Mover and Vale into Veteran and Waggiest Tail.

Storm evidently wasn’t the judges type at all (or maybe he just preferred his working/pastoral as Storm was the only toy!) and he was 5th in a class of 5. Vale was 3rd 🙂 and Darwin won Open! It was a very well done show, they had a main ring with displays going on and after all the pedigree classes were judged the winners all went over to the main ring for the Best in Show judging and were each announced as they went in – it was like Crufts! 😆 aannd….Darwin was Reserve Best in Show 😀 He won a lovely rosette and a little cup which is to keep forever!

Vale was thrown out in Veteran (though she shouldn’t have been, she looks fantastic for 10) and 3rd in Waggiest Tail. Solei was 5th in Best Mover! The class rosettes were enormous, I’ve never seen anything like them – to the point Darwin’s 1st was actually slightly bigger than his RBIS 😆

The real highlight and icing on the cake was doing the obedience with Solei. I entered him in Starters & Triers (we’re getting ambitious now 😉 ) and he was 2nd in both!

They also had a have a go agility course which I did with Solei, and he would not go over the a-frame…which surprised me because although he’s only seen it once before on that occasion he went over it 4 or 5 times perfectly happily. However once we got past that although he was very slow he did the whole of the rest of the course off lead and went over/through everything no problem! We had a fantastic day.

Then last Friday Solei had his second agility lesson in ages (a couple of weeks ago was his first in 8 weeks and not with our normal trainer) and he hasn’t forgotten everything 😀 He’s sequencing a few obstacles now!

Sunday we went to Okehampton, S came with us, along Darwin, Tyler, Sarah and Storm – and Solei to spectate! So it was a carful. I handled Darwin and Storm. Tyler won the first class and Darwin was 2nd (yes, more than 2 there :lol:) and Sarah won Open with Storm (daddy!) 3rd. Sarah was then BOB! (and I got to take her in for the BOB challenge cos Sue had Tyler). Given my history with Sarah imagine how proud I was when I then later watched her WIN the Toy Group!! 😀 She didn’t do anything in BIS but it didn’t involve any extra waiting cos the toy group had taken so long everyone else was done so it was straight from group to BIS for her.

That’s my girl! <3