The Blog of the Frog

No-one seems to have a lot to say at the moment. I keep checking back but juicy gossip there is none!

I’m finding everything so hard at the moment, and I can’t seem to cope with anything! Things haven’t been quite the same since Solei put me through all that he did when he was last poorly at the beginning of December but I’m sure all this hasn’t helped either, I’ve been so stressed about it all. After my last post he finally went on Tuesday night and it was completely normal. He was ok for the next few days, then on Friday afternoon S & T came over here for a meeting and that evening I gave him a tiny bit of tinned again for the first time….Saturday we’re back to soft poo, though not dramatically and it was the usual colour this time. When he went to Manchester S came and picked him up which she doesn’t usually do (I usually take him over) and then it did get worse the first time after she’d been over again, though that could’ve been coincidence….so I’m wondering if them coming over again could have upset him. Then on Sunday Sarah came home – she’d been over at T’s for about a month for her season – and hey presto…Sunday night and we’re back to not total liquid but close to. It seems a big coincidence that everytime things have got worse something has happened that could well have upset him. Wimp 🙄

He picked up again within a couple of days after that and touch wood he’s been fine for a week now 🙂 I kept S from coming to the house last week because I thought if it was them coming that upset him it would be her rather than T, as she took him away. T came on Wednesday and he was ok after that, then we finished early at the show on Saturday so they both came back here for lunch and he was ok after that too! I did actually start giving him rescue remedy as well incase it was because he was getting himself all worked up.

Of course never a dull moment; Sarah has had diarrhoea since I’ve had her back! She’d been ok at T’s but when we picked up the Sunday before last she had dried poo on her bottom which I just brushed out. It hadn’t been there on Saturday night so I don’t know if it had actually started before I got her back or if it was her coming back which caused it.

On Friday she was bathed ready for a show. When she messes her trousers they won’t come back into show condition just with wipes and I wasn’t about to have her in the sink at 5am on Saturday washing her trousers! So I started giving her some homeopathic tablets which seemed to work. She went on Saturday (in the damn ring!) and it was normal, or close to. Then I slacked off giving them to her and it got worse again, so put her back on them and it continued to get worse until on Sunday night I was up half the night with her because I’d no sooner get back to sleep then she’d want to go outside again! We then remembered if you give too much homeopathic stuff it has the reserve effect, so took her off them completely and finally today things seem better…touch wood I really hope!

For the last three and a half weeks I seem to have done nothing but clean trousers (joys of a coated breed….there’s nothing worse than a Papillon with diarrhoea! You spend your life cleaning them up and consider taking shares out in baby wipes and powder…) and I’m so sick of it! Especially in the middle of the night. I must confess I’ve actually not touched Sarah for the last couple of days because she was getting sensitive about her tail and back end which is the last thing I need, especially as she’s just had a season and they can get more sensitive about that area anyway. She used to be very back end shy and I worked so hard to overcome it. So she absolutely stinks, she looks horrendous and I will be sticking her in the sink later today 😉

On Saturday she’d already regressed – she wouldn’t keep her tail up like she has been (it was at the stage I got her to in mid-November where it’s nearly there but not quite) and she’s definitely more sensitive about her bottom and tail being touched. I really hope if I work hard on her this week I can get her showing properly by next Sunday. She’s only got three shows left in puppy and I’d really like her to make the most of them!

Dogs – who’d have em 🙄

Solei has been poorly – again! Before I start please excuse the graphicness and skip to the next paragraph if you don’t wish to read 😉 He came back to me with diarrhoea which we thought was probably just caused by him getting himself a bit worked up at being away. He continued with it for a couple of days (it wasn’t really bad, very soft but still formed) during which time first T came over and then the next day S. It got worse and then he started being sick – really peculiar actually – he’d been in bed with me absolutely fine, mum came in to get me up and he went and sat on the chair looking as if the world was ending…I took him into the kitchen to get some breakfast (for me) and he was sick. He wasn’t off his food so I fed him a couple of hours later and although he wasn’t acting his usual self (which he had been up to then) he was fine until mum came home from school….at which point he was sick again (5-6hrs after having eaten!). Bizarrely everytime he was sick was either just before or just after mum came in the room so I don’t know if that was coincidence or if he’d got himself in a state. I was going to take him to the vet cos I was really worried by that point (poo was liquid as well) but by the time he woke up the next morning he was absolutely fine in himself again and not being sick so he never went! Within a couple of days the diarrhoea was back to soft piles from liquid and now he hasn’t actually been at all for about 2 days (he’s on small meals of chicken & rice so not a lot is going through) so I hope he’s back to normal now, or almost so – wonder how long I give it before I started to worry he’s constipated 😆 He’s been charging everywhere, seems fine in himself and I showed him both days this weekend with no problems.

I doubt it is/was a bug. The progression was too strange and he’s been a bit funny in certain situations. He was absolutely fine when he was away from me for 48hrs and 2 nights for Boston but Manchester was only 2 weeks later and again it was 2 nights and 48hrs so I wonder if two lots of being away from me so close together was too much. The problem is there’s a seminar on Sunday (3rd Feb) and they’re taking Phalenes up to explain about the earset and give people a chance to look at them and go over one. Solei would be by far the best for them to use as the dog to go over – he’s not silly on the table and structurally he’s a lovely dog – but would it be a bad idea to let him go away from me again? I would drop him off on Saturday evening (he was picked up for Manchester when I usually take him over which may have made a difference as well) and then collect him late on Sunday night so he’d only be away for 1 night.

He is a clingy dog and I don’t want him to start being really silly (he already suffers from a degree of separation anxiety and is very hard to leave alone at home) so I wonder if it might be a good idea to let him go as long as he’s better by then, but on the other hand is it too soon? Obviously his welfare comes first but it would also be a fantastic opportunity for him to be seen as a good example and to have lots of people able to get their hands on him. I would really like him to go but not at the detriment of his health – it’s been a very stressful week! Thoughts?

On the other hand we’ve had a fantastic weekend! On Saturday we didn’t arrive until 11am because in their wisdom they’d put the toy group after utility (which was a really stupid thing to do as the toy group is almost always the last to finish even when it’s the first group in!). As it is we didn’t get in for another couple of hours. Then to top it all we had a very slow judge, and she was still judging at 7pm – I kid you not!! The Papillons were done a few hours earlier but Jason won BOB so we were waiting for the group. She looked very hard at Sarah but eventually only gave her a 3rd, Sam winning the class but then being beaten by a puppy in another class for Best Puppy in Breed. Solei got a 3rd as well, but no comment on that 😉 In AV Toy Puppy Sam and Sarah got 1st & 2nd respectively! Luckily it was worth the long wait as Jason got Group 3 🙂

On Sunday we went to a show where all the judges were from Malta. Must say my illusions were shattered! We left just before 6:30am and I think it was about 8:30pm when we arrived home. The irony is we never stay that late at open shows, it was my first weekend with shows for a month, we don’t usually do two in a weekend and they were both late!

There were 4 puppies in Sam and Sarah’s class. Once again the judge was looking really hard at Sarah, he kept coming back to her but eventually gave it to Sam, Sarah getting 2nd. For some reason he was giving almost every class to a dog rather than a bitch. There were no puppies in the older class so whoever won that class automatically got Best Puppy. Then came Open, which was where my illusions were shattered! We had Jason, Tammy (Phalene) and Solei, Morris was also entered (Mac’s brother) plus 2 other dogs. Now Malta is part of the FCI, and in the FCI they recognise Phalenes as a breed in their own right with their own standard and everything so I was expecting to have a fair shot at this with a judge that wouldn’t automatically disregard a Phalene……no chance!! Morris won the class, Pap #1 2nd, Jason 3rd, Pap #2 4th and after much thought he pulled Solei out for 5th (having run out of Paps by this point 😛 ) and chucked Tammy! I wasn’t really upset because I’m used to it by now but I really expected better from an FCI judge.

In the challenge Sam pushed Morris really hard and actually almost ended up with BOB as well as BP! Morris won it by the skin of his teeth but then didn’t perform well in the group and so didn’t place. Sam gets quite worked up at shows (excitement); when he was younger everytime you got him out of the trolley he’d start snorting! He doesn’t do that anymore but he does often get an upset tummy. He was in the ring doing the toy puppy group and he did a poo, getting it all over his trousers in the process! You’re allowed 10 minutes to sort them out if something like that happens so he was promptly whisked out of the ring and we had a quick panic getting him cleaned up! 🙄 But it was all worth it….because he only went and got Puppy Group 1! It was all Sam’s fault we were so late home – as he’d won the group we then had to stay for Best Puppy in Show! He looked lovely going round that ring. He still looked such a baby compared to all the others in there, and by the end you could see he was flagging – it was a big ring for such little legs!

He got RESERVE BEST PUPPY IN SHOW! The judge said it was a very close decision and the Lab which was Best Puppy in Show had already had two previous BPIS wins so we can be very happy indeed with that 🙂 He was fantastic!

Following on from my last post with this ever so popular theme 😆

Today was Toy Day at Manchester Championship Show. I couldn’t go because mum won’t drive all that way at this time of the year, so usually I wouldn’t have entered Solei buuut he went under this particular judge as a puppy and she liked him then and he’s matured very nicely since, so I wanted to see what she thought of him now.

Last time was two and a half years ago. Solei was just shy of 11 months old at the time, and was entered in Junior – usually a dog that age would be in puppy. You can enter Junior from 6-18mths but unless you’ve got a particularly mature puppy (which he certainly wasn’t! The opposite in fact – he was a slow maturer) it’s unusual to put a dog under 12mths in junior. So at the age of 10 months, competing against considerably more mature dogs he got a 4th out of 11. The dogs placed 1st and 2nd in that class have both become champions this year (no easy feat here).

It’s usually the way that you enter under a judge that has placed your dog highly before thinking they like them and they end up not placing them! So I was hopeful but half expecting her to chuck him too.

Sarah is currently away (in season) and Solei went over yesterday afternoon, so I was dogless. I’ve never really been without them since I moved in here and I was missing him so much I really did almost say forget the show and go round and collect him last night.

Good job I didn’t because he got a 2nd in a large class of EIGHTEEN!! So he’s qualified for Crufts 2009 at the first show possible 😆 😆 From one extreme to the other! He beat some very nice dogs (Papillons of course) including Mac, so I’m absolutely ecstatic.

Tis a long way down from cloud nine 😉

He did it! Solei has qualified for Crufts 2008!

Sarah and Solei were fine together after he’d got used to her being back so I was able to keep her 🙂 I dropped him off yesterday afternoon and had an awful nights sleep! Solei always sleeps cuddled up with me and I really missed him not being there. When I did eventually fall asleep I dreamt he won his class at Boston which was nice!

This morning I was watching the clock ticking over whilst I anxiously waited for the phone to ring! I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I wasn’t too bothered about him qualifying or not, it would just have been nice but no big deal if he didn’t, but the later it got the more everyone’s life seemed to depend on him qualifying 😆

Just before half past ten the phone rang. He came 3rd out of 11! He couldn’t have cut that any finer if he tried could he – lowest possible (qualifying) placement at the last possible (2008 qualifying) show 😆 Apparently the judge wasn’t looking at him and they didn’t think it would be any good but evidently she was more interested than she looked!

It wouldn’t even begin to sink in until the results were on the internet, and even now I can’t quite believe it! I’ve wanted to go to Crufts for so many years and I’ve never been. Now I’m not only going for the first time but I’m going to *show* there!

They’re getting back home very late tonight so I’m not able to pick Solei up until tomorrow. Absence makes the heart grow fonder 😉 Maybe it’ll make him appreciate me more 😆

I think Sarah is suffering the effects of her season tonight. She was fine earlier but she’s quieter this evening and didn’t want her tea. She’ll be going back to T’s tomorrow for a couple of weeks when I pick Solei up so I hope a good nights sleep makes her feel better.

Gosh, what a day. Can’t believe he’s done it!

Well it’s been an eventful few weeks. In the end we missed LKA because the dogs were poorly – I was really looking forward to it so I was rather upset, but obviously the dogs come first. Solei decided that he was especially poorly and soo much worse than any of the others; most of them were better in 3-4 days, it took him 3-4 weeks!

On the 15th December I’d entered Sarah and Solei in an open show, for once there were no Papillon classes so they were in AVNSC (Any Variety Not Separately Classified) Toy. Solei was no where near well enough to go but thanks to my Solei-Bitch-Alerter ( 😆 ) I was expecting Sarah to be in season before the next show on the 30th, which meant it could have been two months before she showed again which was just too long considering she’d only just started showing well, so I decided to leave Solei behind and take her anyway.
She showed well and got a 3rd, behind a nice Lowchen and an Italian Greyhound which I must confess I thought was a Whippet when it came into the ring and wondered what it was doing in with the toys! :blush:

After that came Christmas, which was definitely lacking in something this year. Nice enough day, the dogs dined on turkey soup and had their presents! Vale & Solei’s were all edible, Sarah had a new rubber bone and a squeaky ball.

Then on Friday night I turned Sarah over because according to Solei I was expecting her in season somewhere around the 26th/27th (this being the 28th) and saw she’d started bleeding. I would never normally show an in season bitch but as the show was Sunday, less than 48 hours away, and on Sunday morning Solei still wasn’t interested in her I decided to take her as she was so near the beginning and shouldn’t be interesting yet. It just meant a bit of extra preparation, which actually benefitted her – she usually messes her trousers when she wees, but it’s never too bad so I usually just brush them out, but as she was bleeding a bit as well I cleaned her up properly with wet wipes, self-rinse shampoo and baby powder – and she looked fantastic 😆

She showed with her usual attitude, but on the move decided the floor was really, really interesting. Honestly, you’ve never seen such an interesting floor, look at this and that an- oooh over here! As she’s still a puppy (and was particularly bad about walking on the lead until I put in so much work with her) the lead can’t be held tight, so she can get her head down much more easily. Ah well, she is still a baby. Got a 2nd there.

Solei looked lovely as ever and won his class (Graduate) of 2. Went back in for BOB, against the 6mth old puppy that had won Sarah’s class and the adult that won Open…and of course Solei was chucked. Puppy got BOB (and obviously BPIB) and the Open winner got RBOB.

I got a bit depressed briefly after that, to be honest. I’ve got this gorgeous dog who is never appreciated because he’s got the wrong ears and now I’ve got a Papillon puppy who doesn’t have the ear bias and is really nice, and I *still* can’t do any winning!

I mean don’t get me wrong, I love my Sol to pieces and I wouldn’t trade him for the world, and I show because I love showing not because I want to win everything in sight – obviously everytime I enter the ring I want to win, but I don’t care if I don’t as long as the results are fair. Half the time even if the results aren’t fair (which is actually most of the time with Solei 😆 ) it doesn’t bother me much because I know it’s because he’s a Phalene and you come to expect it. But every so often a result will get to me – never lasts long but it upsets me for half an hour or so!

I know Solei isn’t perfect – no dog is. He has his faults and I’m not blind to that, but he IS a nice dog. To watch him move is poetry in motion – he flows round the ring with the most breathtaking movement. He’s done the Phalene class at the club shows since he was 7 months old, and except for that once at South Wales in October he’s *never* been anything other than 1st or 2nd – and has been Best Phalene in Show three times; the South Wales Pap Club in 2006 and for the last two years at the South of England Pap Club. So that shows when he’s on an even playing field (in terms of ears) he’s nice 😉  On all (four!) the occasions he was 2nd (mostly as a pup) he’s beaten the dogs that beat him multiple times since.

In a way it was made worse by the fact S & T went to a show yesterday that I wasn’t able to go to because it was too far. I knew the judge (breed specialist) liked Phalenes and I knew she liked Solei, which is typical. It was a large entry for an open show with some very nice dogs….and Tara, Solei’s cousin, got BOB! It was a different judge for the group, there were only five dogs in there (four placings) and he didn’t even look at Tara. It was the same judge that judged Solei on the 22nd December when he placed him behind the three puppies, so he definitely doesn’t like Phalenes! But the fact Tara got BOB over the entry that was there was frustrating, when Solei can’t even win a class – he’s only ever won two classes at normal open shows; both times it was an entry of two and both times the other dog showed so badly it would’ve been incredible if he hadn’t won it! It would just be nice for him to place where he should once in a while.

I’d been keeping Sarah here for as long as possible – when she gets further into her season she’ll go to T, because of Solei – but they wanted to borrow her so on Monday afternoon S came and picked her up, then dropped her back on Tuesday evening. Well, on Monday Solei hadn’t been in the least bit interested….but obviously Sarah disappearing for just over 24 hours was too much! He was all over her when she got back and we had an awful night. Luckily once the novelty had worn off he seems to have settled down again, touch wood.

I wouldn’t have bothered to have her back until her season was over, but obviously the longer I can keep her the better for T and also S & T are taking Solei up to Boston on Friday. It’s the last qualifying show for this years Crufts, so he’ll be going over on Thursday afternoon to spend the night as otherwise we’d be dropping him off at three in the morning! So if we could get through Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday morning I could keep Sarah until Solei comes back on Friday night, which is better for T and also makes being without Solei easier for me.

So fingers crossed for Solei at Boston! Positive thoughts appreciated 😀

I’ve been in one of my spring cleaning domain shifting moods today, in doing so I’ve been deleting the old logs. I was going through the previous months for frogaholic, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more diverse and interesting list of keyphrase searches than September 2007. Which were…

cannington college ferrets
i have been awarded high rate mobility and high rate care im so happy
rspca how to treat my frog
papillon showdogs tail staying down
silver.tie-dye.co.uk

In fact I’m in love with keyphrase searches! They’re hilarious!

dachador – and worryingly this one got 3 searches…? A few more over other months as well.
onions and paint smell comments
im having an extension and my builder is gorgeous
you can have any colour as long as it s black
smell from new plasterboard
frog somerfield (do somerfield sell frogs now?)

^ They’re August. I don’t understand how some of them end up linking here, but still!

Of course frogs and wildlife feature quite heavily throughout, especially in June!

what are these squiggly reddish worms in my pond?
exciting news about frogs
how to look after frog
frogs about it looks like/writing!
why is there a slow worm in my bathroom

papillon just another frog – I don’t understand that but it’s two of my favourite subjects so it must be class!

Also tons of searches over four months about various things to do with Leonbergers (I don’t understand how they ended up here either!)

So there we go, that’s me amused for the day. But I’ve actually ended up with quite a lot of visitors that must have passed through, wish they’d leave a comment before they go!