Bad frog! I must confess the thought of writing here hasn’t even crossed my mind over the last few weeks – I’d completely forgotten this even existed! A sign of preoccupation I suppose.

So we shall start this with a rather belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 🙂 and with this done, it’s catch up time….

13th December, LKA – Elton’s ears hadn’t settled as much as I’d like but were ok – they’ve always come back on the stand, it’s just when he moves and pulls them back they fly a bit oddly. We put in a good half hours practice in the ring before judging started, just reinforcing *walking* – not going boingy boingy spring jump hop leap skip wheeeeee! 😆 As a Minor Puppy Dog his was the first class in the ring. There were on 13 entered, which was less than I expected so I hoped…as it was he didn’t even get placed, never mind in the first 3! He actually really should have done – showed his little socks off, moved well and stood superbly…and half the dogs she placed had their tails down. Ok it’s minor puppy, cut them a bit of slack, but when you’ve got nice dogs showing well it comes down to “on the day”, and if on the day they’re not showing…well.

So that was disappointing because I really wanted to take him to Crufts as a puppy (and because I’m in two minds about taking Solei) and it’s always doubly frustrating when you something ought to have happened and doesn’t…feel almost cheated! But c’est la vie, I’m more or less over it now 😆

The next day was my obedience club’s christmas party, so no rest for the wicked! I was going to take Solei, Darwin & Elton but when it came to it I decided that three was too much given one was Darwin – he gets very excited and wound up and I knew I’d struggle to control him with the other two as well, so I left him behind – which caused a crisis in itself, but more of that in a minute!

It’s the first christmas party thing I’ve ever been to, bar the ones we had at primary school! Had a great time 🙂 Elton played pass the puppy and I’m amazed I got him back at the end of the evening! I teamed up with some friends and we were 2nd in the quiz and Solei was 4th in Musical Sits, 4th in Longest Stand (he eventually gave up and lay down…) and 3rd in Simon Says 🙂

Following swiftly on from that was our ringcraft club’s christmas get together the next day!! It was a good laugh, teamed up with the same friends + one for the quiz and this time we won!

Oh yes, Darwin – because I’d left him on Monday I felt sorry for him and left him with quite a large bone. Came home to find he’s totally decimated it – eaten an enormous knuckle off the end, which I really didn’t think he was capable of – especially in that time frame! I figured it might upset his tummy and went to bed! Let the dogs out in the night and he was fine. Around 6am on Tuesday morning he asked to go out, and this time he was squatting and not doing anything, there was some blood and he was SCREAMING. Absolutely scared me to death and I was panicking trying to work out whether I should ring S or T or the vets (of course, being out of hours!). It turned out the damn dog had eaten so much bone he’d managed to completely constipate himself 🙄 and once he’d cleared it, he was fine!! Sheesh, never again.

That Saturday (19th) it was off to an open show, with Elton doing his first Papillon breed class at an all breed open show 😀 He decided to kick off in style by winning his class, Best Puppy in Breed, Reserve Best of Breed and Puppy Group 3!! The judge was Tony Allcock MBE who has judged at Papillon Club shows so knows his stuff…actually on that occasion he gave Solei Best Phalene Dog & 3rd in Graduate so I hoped he might like Elton! Though never does to get your hopes up cos it’s often under the judges you think you’ll do well you don’t 😛 Over the moon with him…and not content with that he then wen on and won the Puppy Stakes!! Winning a big box of crackers 🙂 Fantastic day.

So that was quite a week!

After that came Christmas. We had a quiet christmas, as usual. My grandfather came to stay on christmas eve – as he did last year – but always spends christmas day with mum’s brother, so on the day it was just the three of us! The dogs were thoroughly spoilt this year. They had sardines for breakfast, Cesar for tea and of course turkey, carrots & sprouts 😆 Actually I was surprised they liked the sprouts, but like them they did! Solei, Darwin & Elton each had a new soft toy and nylabone, as well as new treats and a few other toys (told you they were spoilt!) and Elton had a new collar. Elton did rather well out of this christmas, as my present from mum and dad is going to be a show lead for him! Though I don’t have it yet, because I want to wait until he’s finished growing first. Boxing Day (Christmas #2!) was spent at home with grandad.

That evening I bathed Elton, because being slightly mad the 27th brought another show! So off we went, Elton still with rather dodgy ears. I wasn’t expecting him to be this judge’s type, so I was very pleased when he got a 2nd in Puppy 😀 I’d also put him in the Minor Puppy Stakes, but the less said about that the better – judge lifted his ears up on the table (the one thing you *never* do with a Phalene!) and then placed him last 🙂

So that marked the end of another showing year! Come New Years Eve I wasn’t planning on staying up, but in the end some neighbours were having a party and I could hear their music, and the puppies kept erupting everytime a firework went off, so I put my headphones on and drowned their music out with my own! Ended up going to bed around 1:30.

Yesterday we went to our first show of 2010. Elton started the year off well, coming 1st in AV Toy Minor Puppy! Though he behaved attrociously in the group (back to square one, sigh) and threw away any chance of a placing. I know he’s still only a baby but gosh it’s frustrating 😆