The Blog of the Frog

Ho hum!

So, on Sunday we went to a companion dog show with obedience – hoping for better luck after our failed attempt last time! For the first time I put both Darwin & Jeanie in Puppy together, which backfired as for the first time they were both unplaced 😆 Solei was in Non-Sporting and he was fine on the table this time, though still mucking about on the stand which called for manually holding his tail up at one point! Never the less he looked good and got a 2nd behind the eventual BIS winner 🙂 Vale came along as the show was in aid of the Labrador Rescue Trust and I entered her in Veteran where she was unplaced, though I think looked very good for her age – planning to try and have her out more this summer!

Solei was making his obedience debut, so after he’d done his Non-Sporting class we started our three mile hike round the field to try and settle him down so his heelwork would at least vaguely resemble such! It was at a Rugby Club so the field was in good condition and quite level – perfect (well, given it had to be on grass – hard standing would’ve been perfect perfect!) for his first time.

Eventually I decided I couldn’t walk him anymore and that would probably suffice, so we entered the ring (very nervously!). Deep breath as we started our heelwork (on lead). Solei wasn’t at his most settled to start with (probably my fault, nerves going down the lead!) and the lead wasn’t as loose as I would have liked but after a couple of turns we both settled down and he worked a lovely round, albeit quite a bit further away from the chair than I wanted. His recall was perfect – came on the first command with such enthusiasm he crashed into my legs! – and he did a nice sit. I didn’t realise when I entered him but upon looking at the exercise list there were no stays for the lowest level, shame because it meant the heelwork carried more weight! I didn’t think we’d done anything but hung about for the placings to be awarded anyway, and to my complete surprise we’d done enough for a 4th! The judge said the rest of his round was lovely and he only lost marks for being too wide during heelwork (silly dog is scared of the chair…you’d think he’d be used to it after this long 🙄 ) so not a bad debut, me thinks 🙂

When we first arrived I saw they had a scurry. Didn’t think much of it because a scurry usually involves a retrieve which is beyond Solei at the moment, but as the day progressed I saw it was actually a fastest recall, so I put Solei in for a bit of fun…and he ended up winning! Beating all the big dogs along the way 🙂

So all in all it was a brilliant day and shows Solei’s versaility – from a 2nd in the show ring to a 4th in obedience and rounding off by showing off his speed and becoming “The Fastest Dog in the West 2009” – or at least that’s what his rosette says 😉 Hopefully his obedience placement will be the first of many 🙂 I was a bit concerned initially because he is only capable of the exercises in the lowest level obedience classes and I thought he might have excluded himself from them now by placing, but after looking at a few schedules the majority are either not having WON a companion show obedience class or 1st-3rd in a companion show obedience class, so we just scrape through with that one 😆 I found one where you can’t have placed at all in any obedience class, but hopefully they’re very few and far between.

So this week we’ve been trying to improve our heelwork (and failing!) and working on our retrieve (and making progress, though still nowhere near a proper retrieve)

Talking of which, believe it or not, Solei’s tooth is still there! Now that we’re doing increased retrieve practice that’s going to pull it out before long but I never would have dreamt it would still be there 22 months on. Was a bit annoyed because I wanted to enter him for Three Counties and so nearly did, in the end didn’t because I was sure it would be out and of course he could have done it 🙁 Even more frustrating is I *really* wanted him to do Windsor but because it wasn’t until 3rd July I thought it would be a waste of money. Ok there’s still a week to go but if it comes out between now & then it’s because of all this retrieve practice which I wouldn’t have been doing if I had entered Windsor, so he would’ve been ok for that too! Araagh!

Monday was my 21st birthday…for the first time since I was about 10 I actually had some friends over 🙂 All doggy people, naturally! S&T came, three other Pap friends and a friend who has Goldies 🙂 Sat out in the garden in lovely weather and had a nice BBQ lunch. In the evening I took Solei to obedience as usual, being a glutton for punishment 😆 The latest puppy class has just finished and a lot of them had come up to the next class thus swelling our numbers from the usual 5 or 6 to 14(!). Problem with that is now it means there are two very definite ends of ability (and some in between) – from the dogs who are still starting to master a sit & down to those that are not that far off the next class. Next week our trainer said if we wanted to those who are going to do their Bronze Good Citizen award in July could stay behind when the normal class finishes and do a bit more work which’ll be good 🙂 I’m not taking it with Solei but that’s because I would love him to get the Top Obedience Papillon which is awarded by the Papillon Club every year. It runs from 1st Jan – 31st Dec and you collect points by placing (or even just participating) in obedience shows…but the Good Citizen awards also count. You get 4pts for Puppy, 6pts for Bronze, 10pts for Silver and 12pts for Gold, so if possible I’d like to do at least his Bronze & Silver (and preferably Gold) in one year and if I can get to a few obedience shows (even just companion) with him as well he might stand a chance – I reckon he needs at least 30 points. However, this year is obviously more than halfway through now and although he might well get his Bronze & Silver this year I’d rather have a whole year to try and collect points, and do some more practice towards Gold – he can do Bronze, a couple of exercises need work for Silver, but he’s way off Gold atm. So that’s why I’m not taking it this time and she said as he’s ready he’s more than welcome to stay behind and do the extra session too 🙂

Solei & Fancy’s puppies are now 6 weeks old! They’re growing up so quickly. I honestly don’t know what to make of them at the moment…we have 1 little red sable girl, 1 bigger very dark red sable girl, 1 black & white boy, 1 red sable boy and 1 very, very, very dark (calling him black sable atm) red sable boy…who can remain being called black sable because it differentiates the two sable boys 😆 The little girl is going to be too small so I won’t have her, other than that I really wouldn’t like to say…luckily that’s because they’re all looking quite nice rather than all looking awful 😆 I’ve liked the black & white boy from the moment he was born and he is still my favourite, but I’m far from saying oh yes I’ll have him. The black sable boy did nothing for me until his eyes opened, and I’ve really liked him from that point…then the big girl did nothing for me until I saw them at about 5 weeks and now I rather like her too 😆 No decisions will be made for a long time yet, time will tell.

Ooo I almost had my other breed puppy too! A bitch was confirmed pregnant and had her puppies just 3 1/2 weeks after Fancy’s, which wasn’t ideal but I’ve waited so long and wanted it so much I didn’t know if I was prepared to wait (especially given it could be months and months). However, as it happens she only had 1 of the right sex who is incorrectly marked so that was my decision made for me! I’m disappointed even though I know it was probably a good thing in that now there’s going to be at least 4 months between Fancy’s litter and this pup which is a much better age gap.

Wow…what a weekend 😆

On Saturday I had two shows I wanted to go to…there was an open show where none of my dogs were entered but S&T had entered two dogs in each class and as T was at home with puppies I went down to help S. I needed to leave by 1:45pm – preferably about 1:30pm – to make it to the second show, which was a companion. We were quite a long way down the judging order but most of the classes before us were tiny, so in theory it should have been more than doable…problem was we had the slowest judge ever! Judging speed actually wasn’t too bad but they were wasting so much time after the dogs had been placed and in between classes. Eventually as it got nearer to 1:30pm it became obvious she wasn’t going to finish in time. I really didn’t know what to do;  I really wanted to stay and show the dogs (one of whom was Sarah) but I knew I was running out of shows for Solei too. Then my decision was made as the steward came over and said the judge was stopping for lunch! She still had two more breeds to run through before us too, so I decided to leave.

Thankfully it was worth it!

Darwin didn’t show terribly well but got a 5th in Puppy. Jeanie absolutely showed her socks off and got a 2nd in Junior, behind the eventual BIS winner. Solei was in Non Sporting and was absolutely terrible on the table – he found a smell and refused to stand so I ended up stacking him and holding him there like I would a puppy! – and not very good on the stand but moved well…at least he did something right 😆 and came out with a 4th. He also got a 2nd in Best Mover. There were toys as prizes for every placement so I got a ball on a tugger which I let Vale have (not something I’d feel comfortable letting the Paps have), two squeaky toys and a ball on a rope 🙂 Oh, and two ProPlan sunshades for the car! Then….Jeanie ended up as Novelty Best Puppy in Show! Absolutely *gorgeous* rosette, one of the nicest I’ve ever seen. So I was glad I went, if disappointed about Sarah & Tyler.

On Sunday I went to another companion show (not making a habit of two in one weekend 😆 just happened to be two weekends with two local ones) and…wow, what can I say!

There was no Junior class so I debated for the most of the hour I had before entries had to be in about what to do with Darwin & Jeanie! Usually I would not show Jeanie if there was no Junior class, but I wanted to show her after the previous two shows when on one occasion the judge had actually told me she preferred Jeanie to Darwin and on the other Jeanie had done so well and I think again would have beaten her brother! So eventually I opted for Jeanie in Puppy, Darwin in Non Sporting and poor Solei up into Open! It was very hot and Jeanie decided it was far too hot to keep her tail up properly which was a shame after she’d been going so well…she showed well otherwise and got a 3rd. So I thought I’d got that wrong again (if I enter Jeanie it should’ve been Darwin and vice versa) but I was to be proved wrong!

The classes were enormous and Darwin’s Non-Sporting class had 18 dogs present. I was sitting in the ring looking round at all the bigger completely mature dogs as I had this 9 month old puppy sitting on my lap and thinking he hasn’t got a chance! Bless him, he pulled all the stops out for me and showed better than he ever has. These companion shows are really helping, he’s so much more confident than he was at 7 months. You could’ve knocked me down with a feather when he won the class! Second time in 3 weeks he’s done that to me 😆 Poor Solei was in a class of 28 and he showed the way he is showing at the moment….he was good on the table but had a hell of a job to get his attention on the floor cos all he wanted to do was sniff and when I pulled him away that of course made the tail go down! I ended up holding his tail manually at one point. He was the first dog to go as well which isn’t too good when there are 27 other dogs to see…has to be a judge with a pretty good memory when there are too many dogs to move them all together or move them individually again and you have to remember what you saw (without notes) nearly 30 dogs ago! He didn’t place 😉

Then I had to take Darwin back in for Best in Show, not expecting anything…..and he went Reserve Best in Show!! He was slightly “unlucky” in that Best in Show was also a Puppy, otherwise he’d have been Best Puppy in Show too! He beat well over 50 dogs and this is where the fact I *did* do the right thing comes in….because BIS was the winner of Puppy if I *had* put Darwin in Puppy he would have been 2nd and thus not able to challenge for BIS – so he couldn’t have got RBIS 🙂 I actually got it right for once!

Solei had his agility lesson this morning. He’s doing quite well though he did the dog walk properly for the first time today and had a little go on the seesaw (nowhere near full height). He did the dogwalk a few times beautifully, then did the seesaw which was very scary…so after he’d had a couple of goes she wanted him to do the dog walk again because sometimes they think the dog walk is going to move like the seesaw and they refuse to do it. Solei got up the up bit, then decided it was very scary, might move like the seesaw and jumped off at the highest point (about 4 1/2 feet) which wasn’t terribly clever! Scared me and I hope he doesn’t repeat that 😛 Other than that it was a good lesson. He’s started weave poles too, though he’s only running through them in a straight line (channel weaves) at the moment and not actually doing any weaving.

Tomorrow we have a day off, Sunday another companion show where I’m hoping Solei will make his obedience debut and then Monday is my 21st birthday! Sunday will probably be a terrible let down after last weekend, but hey ho – it’s all good fun 😆

As always I got it wrong!

We started weaning the puppies on Saturday morning. Lovely and messy! Puppies climbing in the food dish and spreading scrambled egg everywhere. What did end up in their mouths they enjoyed, though! Definitely ready for it. The little girl wasn’t quite as keen as the rest of them, but she was still enjoying it…just in a slower and more reserved way!

Solei was bathed on Saturday morning too, because he was looking a bit the worse for wear and I thought it was worth doing as he was showing Saturday & Sunday and hopefully Saturday and Sunday next week too, so he’d look good for the first weekend and it should see him over to the next weekend as well, with just minor titivating.

So Saturday afternoon rolled round….and with it pouring rain! You can imagine my reaction with a freshly bathed Solei 😆 At least I hadn’t bothered to do anything major to the puppies, just washed their ears because they’d gone crinkly where they’ve been playing and then groomed them through. Luckily it was showers so on and off with varying degrees of heaviness and it wasn’t too bad for the pedigree classes. I didn’t show Jeanie because there wasn’t really a class for her (bar puppy and I can’t really show two at once!). Darwin got a 3rd in a good size Puppy class, Solei absolutely showed his socks off….he went so well, like he hasn’t gone for the last couple of weeks. And got completely and utterly thrown out! I don’t think he should win all the time, but he really didn’t deserve that – he looked so good. Of course then I was upset that I hadn’t entered him in Southern Counties, because he would’ve shown so well! He got a 4th in Best Mover which was rather meh too but still 😆

He wasn’t soaking but when we got home I dried him off under the dryer so he still looked as good as he had done before he went out in the rain!

Sunday dawned surprisingly dry…forecast wasn’t good but being intrepid off we went again! Amazingly it paid off because bar a couple of tiny showers the weather was lovely and actually quite hot! In the pedigree classes Darwin got a 6th in a large puppy class, Jeanie a 4th in Junior (bless her) and Solei a 5th in Non Sporting! Darwin has just reached the age where he’s started snorting on the move which isn’t very helpful but still. He’s a nightmare for picking up things off the floor in these fields as well, but on the whole he didn’t go badly – well, he can’t have done because it was a nice & big class! Jeanie was wonderful…god she’s cute 😆 Lost the tail a couple of times but on the whole she was standing wagging, so she gets away with the fact she never really carries it over her back! Of course I got it wrong because the judge said she preferred Jeanie to Darwin but with companion show rules even though she was an unbeaten puppy Jeanie couldn’t challenge for Best Puppy, so I should have entered them the other way round – Darwin wouldn’t have looked so out of place in a Junior class either. But never mind, at least they both placed! I never get it right as far as those two are concerned – if I enter Jeanie they won’t like small & cute, if I enter Darwin they will like small & cute!

Solei was an abomination! I’m sure there had been a bitch in season (or coming in, going out or possibly a UTI I suppose) there somewhere because he’s not usually too bad with smells but I couldn’t get his attention to the point on one occasion I held a piece of liver under his nose and he refused it – first time in his life! There’s only one thing that makes him do that – bitches 😛 Eventually I got his attention and he didn’t show too badly – he was a bit rocking horse on the table but not too bad, tried to get his head down a few times during his triangle but listened to my corrections and moved well enough! Then he was standing ok at the end but because it was a fairly large class (15+) she was shortlisting 8 and then moving them again and although he actually moved very well that time I could NOT get him to behave and stand properly at the end….so a 5th was actually very respectable 😆 Wonder what he would’ve done if he’d behaved himself! It’s always more difficult with smaller dogs & smells anyway, because they’re nearer to the ground.

Jeanie got a 4th in the Novelty Puppy class and Jeanie and Darwin got a 5th in the Brace, which was a pleasant surprise because it was a good size class and a brace of Papillons won it, so I didn’t think she’d place another brace of Paps as she had a few other breeds to choose from! I’d entered Solei in the obedience for a bit of fun – his heelwork is practically non-existant but it was only heel on lead, recall on lead, sit stay and down stay, so I thought we could just fluff the heelwork (he’s not bad to the point of pulling me round the ring like a train…usually) and the rest would be good practice. Only they didn’t announce the stays on the tannoy and we missed them. By 30 seconds – literally. The sit stay is before the down stay and I looked over and saw they were doing the stays just before they went back to their dogs from doing the sit, which was only 30 seconds long. I was so annoyed, I don’t know if someone else complained because there were two classes and for the next class they announced what time the stays would be around half an hour because, then when they were starting announced they were about to start. So I didn’t bother doing the rest either because it was only heelwork + recall and as I say it’s pointless doing heelwork at the moment! Stays were the main thing I wanted him to practice. Never mind, another time! Probably wasn’t the best show to try it at anyway, given the smell situation.

Took him to obedience on Monday and he was very good 🙂 I’m carrying a stick round absolutely everywhere I go at the moment (as long as Solei is with/around me) to try and convince him that it’s not scary, so then I can use it to give him a point to follow for heelwork. (Typed hellwork then…that’s actually probably more accurate!) He’s still wary of it…I carry it round with me all the time at home as well and wave it in his direction :p

Agility was cancelled today so he’s been driving me mad bouncing off the walls! Fridays are wonderful, he’s absolutely shattered after he’s used his brain and done so much running about so I get peace for the rest of the day and often Saturday too 😆

Gosh it’s hot! Solei has been driving me nutty since this heatwave started, he can’t get comfortable anywhere and he keeps pacing about and fidgeting. Can’t stand pacing, and the fidgeting is irritating as it’s often on the bottom of my bed!

I actually just got the fan out on Monday afternoon because I was getting rather hot, which seems to be helping…he seems to have been a bit more settled since; at the moment he’s lying on his side at the bottom of the bed within range of the breeze. Actually the puppies were absolutely priceless! They’d been having their lunchtime sleep when the fan came out, then they got put outside before they were allowed in…and then they came in, and saw the fan. They were both huddling in the corner together looking at it with such suspicion! It was hilarious. (They were born at the end of August and we didn’t have much of a summer last year anyway, so first time they’ve ever seen one)

Sunday was the interclub match Jeanie had qualified for. We thought we’d left plenty of time to arrive at 1pm for the match to start at 1:30pm, but somehow it took much longer than it was meant to and we arrived at about twenty past! When we got into the hall it was quite small (village hall) and crowded with lots of dogs barking and Jeanie was totally overwhelmed by it all, I actually didn’t think she was going to show at all. I had her out on my lap to acclimatise and as it happened she was one of the last ones drawn and was one of three because they had an odd number. I took her in and she wasn’t too bad at all, not as good as she was for the qualifying match but she hasn’t been as good since then so it was just about as good as it was going to get! Never the less her tail was wagging and she won the round!! Only flaw with that she then had to go straight back in for the next round and as I tend to have the more fickle dogs going straight back in without a rest in between is not good! She decided she’d had enough, wouldn’t show properly and was – unsurprisngly! – knocked out. I really didn’t even expect her to get through the first round so I was still more than happy with the result 🙂

I didn’t go to obedience on Monday, it was hot and I didn’t feel inspired! I debated all day and eventually compromised and took Solei out for a walk and training session by ourselves. When we got down to a relatively safeish area I let him off the lead –  first time I’ve had him off the lead (bar agility) for longer than a few seconds since he got chased nearly 2 years ago! He wasn’t too bad either….we did some nice stay work, if he’s focused he’s usually good…problem is if he’s allowed to wander! Solei is usually very food orientated but to him smells are better than anything else in the world, so I can go up to him when he finds a smell (usually where another dog has weed), make him look at me and literally hold a piece of food right under his nose – he still ignores it! He looks up at me with a “why would I want that? There’s PEE down here!!” 😆 Which makes his recall terrible because he’s not a dog that wants to please – he does things because there’s something in it for him – and to him nothing I have is better (or even as good) as the smell he’s currently investigating, so why come!

On Tuesday mum & I spent the day at Ts puppy sitting! They’re absolutely gorgeous….the older two litters are at that lovely “big dog” stage now where they’re running about and playing but still not quite coordinated and occasionally fall over 😆 And Fancy’s all have their eyes open and are starting to totter 🙂 I’m going over tomorrow morning and we’re going to start to weaning them, they’re 3 weeks and 1 day old now! Didn’t go to ringcraft (match night) because we were at Ts until late and missed it.

Then today Solei had his second agility lesson! When we first arrived and I let him off the lead I thought it was going to be a bit of a disaster cos he really seemed to be off on one and lacking focus, but he improved and I think we have a potential agility star in the making! Ok, maybe that’s wishful thinking 😆 but he’s definitely not doing badly.

In just two lessons he’s been introduced to the tunnel, normal jumps, part of the dogwalk and the tire jump 🙂 And he’s done a sequence of three jumps (albeit not at full height) as well as the tunnel & a jump together 🙂 We even moved two jumps so that he was coming at the second one from an angle and he did that too! Obviously in the progress we had a few running past the obstacles but for only his second lesson… 🙂 Before we started our trainer, M, thought he was going to take 12 or even 18 months before he was going to be able to enter agility shows but I think she may have changed her mind about him over the last two weeks! The major hurdle is going to be me and the fact I can’t run as fast as Solei so he’s going to have to learn to work distantly. Not sure how he’ll cope with the seesaw either but time will tell and hopefully those worries will be unfounded too!

After we’d finished he had a wonderful time running and playing with M’s 6 month old Sheltie puppy 🙂 It was so nice to see, they played so well together…she’s the perfect temperament for Solei 😆 He’s finding my puppies a bit much at the moment, especially Darwin – I think it’s the age. They’re 9 months now so raging testosterone and Solei is trying to show his dominance over Darwin by mounting him, but Darwin isn’t yet prepared to back down and snaps in retliation – which makes Solei mount him again and repeat! We’ve almost had a couple of nasty scraps over the past couple of weeks so I hope they’ll sort themselves out soon.

Southern Counties is on Saturday…I haven’t entered and surprisingly I’m not really regretting it at the moment. Maybe it’s because Solei has started showing badly again and so the rate he’s going he would’ve thrown any chance of placing away anyway! It helps that I’m hoping to go to companion shows both Saturday and Sunday so at least I won’t be twiddling my thumbs at home, and I get to show Darwin as well which I wouldn’t have been able to do at Southern Counties! I probably won’t enter Jeanie, the problem is very few companion shows have a Junior class and obviously I can only show one at once so that leaves me with three classes they’re eligible for – AV Puppy, AV Non Sporting and AV Open. Now Darwin goes in Puppy because I think he has more chance, I like to put Solei in Non Sporting and at 9 months and being very little too there’s no way Jeanie could hold her own in an Open class! I think she’d even struggle in Non Sporting, which is why I don’t put Solei in Open & Jeanie in Non Sporting – I don’t see the point in moving Solei into a more “general” class when Jeanie would still be out of her depth.

I need to get these dogs sorted out first though….Solei really could do with a bath, Darwin will pass just being groomed and Jeanie ditto but needs some poo removed from her bottom! Even though I don’t intend to show her I still like to take her looking her best. The puppies were both wormed today which wasn’t the most sensible thing to do given I’m hoping to show tomorrow & Sunday and worming usually gives them diarrhoea! But what’s done is done now so I’ll just have to hope.

Fingers crossed for some good results this weekend!

When I watched the weather forecast on Tuesday I thought we would have the best day to be showing at the Bath & West, and it looks like I was right 🙂 Wednesday was absolutely horrid – poured with rain all day – and judging by the weather here when I was out this morning, today is going to be too hot. Yesterday was just nice 🙂 A touch hot in places and I got sun burnt, but on the whole very pleasant!

I bought a new camera on Monday, so I took it for a test drive. I didn’t get to photograph anything except dogs and I haven’t got them off the camera yet, but if they’re as good as they look on the camera screen I think I shall be very pleased 🙂

In terms of results it was one of the best & worst days for me for ages! 😆 Jeanie decided that as it was her first time showing on grass it would be much more fun to gallop and bounce round the ring than actually trot nicely – of course when I took her round the ring before judging started she behaved beautifully! Never the less she didn’t show too badly and got a 2nd…I hadn’t taken any notice because I was concentrating on Jeanie, but mum said the judge looked very hard at her so if she’d behaved better maybe she’d have won it! But no matter, happy with a 2nd for her first outdoor show & still only a baby at just 9 months. Then it started to go downhill 😆 I had Darwin (Jeanie’s brother) in Graduate. There were 7 or 8 dogs in the class and she was placing down to 4th, she threw him out! Jason was in Open (6 or 7 dogs) and again placing to 4th she threw him out too which is absolutely unheard of. He went well so obviously not her type for some reason! Always fascinates me to know what they didn’t like when that happens – he’s a gorgeous dog with not much to not like, but evidently whatever it was she didn’t like she really didn’t like! So not a good day with 2/3 dogs being unplaced – which then made me wish I’d entered Solei even more, he couldn’t have done any worse than the other two boys!

They declared a BOB and RBOB and then went on to BP. Darwin had been the only puppy in Graduate so despite being unplaced he was still an unbeaten puppy and therefore eligible to challenge, along with an unplaced puppy from Open and the winner of Puppy. I actually would just as soon have not have gone in (after all, the judge had already binned him once!) to the point where a friend offered to take him in for me but I said no, as it had to be done I’d do it. So we went into the ring, stood in line with the other two puppies whilst the judge made her decision….and omg you could’ve knocked me down with a feather as she handed me the Best Puppy in Breed rosette!! The look on my face must have been priceless, I don’t think anything has ever been so unexpected in my life 😆

So after that we had to wait for the Toy Puppy Group which wasn’t to be before 2:30pm. When we did the entry I’d asked S to put Jeanie in AV Puppy as well, and Darwin in the Puppy Stakes. Of course I got that wrong again – S had forgotten to put Jeanie in AV Puppy & I had to withdraw Darwin from the Puppy Stakes as they were being judged before the group and he needed to remain unbeaten! Should’ve gone for Jeanie in the stakes 😆 (good prize money)

As the groups had a not before time we had a bit of time to spare so went for a brief wander around…didn’t really anything of note! Though had less than half an hour before I had to get back, so didn’t get that far. Again, I wasn’t expecting anything in the Puppy Group – maybe as far as the judge was concerned he was the best of a bad bunch of Paps! – but I feel if you’re fortunate enough to get BP or BOB you really ought to stay and represent your breed in the group, bar emergencies. They always do the regular group before the puppy group so I groomed Darwin up and then tested a few features of my new camera out on the BOB Papillon! He wasn’t placed but I think I got a couple of lovely photos of him in the ring. Then it was the puppy group! Darwin was flagging a bit by this time, it was way past half two – in fact almost 4pm – and fairly hot. He stood absolutely beautifully at the beginning when the judge had a first glance round and then felt ok on the move but after that was very quick to think about dropping his tail! Never the less he can’t have looked too bad because he ended up with Puppy Group 3!! I didn’t see that one coming either 😆 though I wasn’t quite as surprised as the BPIB.

That was my very first Best Puppy in Breed 🙂 So obviously my first Puppy Group placement too, but actually also my first open show group placement – I’ve only ever had one other group placement (a Group 2) and it was at a limit show. I always thought Sarah should have had a BP but she never did. Largely thanks to her brother – lost count of the number of times she was 2nd to Sam!

Then talking of firsts, this morning Solei had his first agility lesson. I was so pleased with him! I think our trainer was quite impressed with how much he’s come on since she last saw him six months ago, too 🙂 We started off making him go round a cone – he’ll follow a pole beautifully but isn’t so good at working away if he hasn’t got something definitive to follow, so that’s our homework for this week! Then moved on to doing a recall through two jump stands but with no bar on them, then rested a bar on the floor and progressed from there until by the end he was doing two jumps in a row with the bars about an inch off the ground & with me running along side him rather than calling him to me from the far end 😀 He also went through the normal tunnel a couple of times with no problem. Lastly we tried him on the up part of the dog walk rested flat on the floor which he trotted along beautifully, so she raised the top of it up on a box so it was on a very slight gradient – again no problem! After that we called it a day cos it was getting hot and he’d done an awful lot, but all in all very positive, I think! There’s hope for him yet 🙂

The puppies were 2 weeks old yesterday! Won’t be long now before they’re toddling about and causing mischief and mayhem 🙂 Three of the five opened their eyes today, just the little girl and the boy that now has sabling on him -but still looks black at the moment so is now a mystery whilst we wait and see what colour he’s going to decide to be! – who haven’t yet opened them. The one that’s caught my eye from birth is the pup that is now the only true black and white, closely followed by the red sable boy – my opinion hasn’t changed, at the moment they’re still my two favourites 🙂 Though really they’re still too young to be able to tell anything other than whether they’re well marked or not.

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!