Rally at the Dog Barn and MADS

I took my two to compete at the Dog Barn in a Rally competition on Saturday, Brodie was doing Level 1 and 2 and Sparkle was just doing Level 1. It was a very soggy day so I'm really pleased that my Level 1 ring was indoors! It was a lovely show though and again I was struck by how friendly and helpful everyone is. They had lovely Rally themed cakes on sale as well!

Brodie was a total star! He was a bit unsettled in his Level 2 round as a car backfired and put him off but the judge was lovely, stopped the clock and let me take a second to settle him. He ended up 5th which I was amazed at! He did his Level 1 round like an absolute dream, so attentive and everything just flowed. Spark on the other hand I had to work hard to keep her attention and it felt much more messy. I could not believe it when Brodie came 2nd with 207 points (out of 210) and Spark won it with 208!! I had seen some amazing obedience dogs go round and they were sooo accurate but I forget that Rally isn't necessary about perfection, its about flow and connection with your dog and each judge looks for slightly different things. 

My two having a rare moment of looking angelic! 

On Sunday we went to MADS UKA show, mostly to do Masters with the older two and do some nfc with Sparklina, particularly aluminium dog walks as they are more of a challenge for her than wooden or plastic. I handled Brodie like a numpty and got E'd in both bits of masters, Matt and Brax on teh other hand came 2nd in both bit making them 2nd overall and qualifying for the grand finals again! Spark did some good nfc stuff too-love UKA for baby dogs! 

Brooke bean is being a good girl most of the time and continues to stay so happy despite all of her restrictions. We had coffee on the comm on today and she loves people watching-she has always been very curious!

No wonder they made such gorgeous babies!

This is Spark BEFORE her weekly agility lesson! She was so cute all curled up that I felt bad waking her up!

And this is her having a race around the field today with Squidge...if you look closely you can see Toad mousing in the long grass!

A day in the life of a bored dog!

Brooke has had many weeks of not being allowed to run around and do normal dog things so she has made some notes about fun things to do if you are restricted just in case other poorly dogs could get some tips...over to Brooke!

 I am not allowed to do ANYTHING at the moment, I even have to go to the toilet on lead which is really embarrassing :-( Because I hurt my shoulder I have to be in a pen or a crate most of the time and am not allowed to walk or be loose in the house. I have a choice of beds in my pen as sometimes I like my bed with sides to put my chin on and sometimes I like my blanket so I can stretch out. I also have a special Back on Track bed that is therapeutic and I love sleeping on that in Dads office and in my crate at night.

Eating is the highlight of my day!! I love my food and its sad as I don't get to eat as much now as I'm not running around. My Mum and Dad have a huge variety of food toys for us doglets. Here are some of the toys I get my food in to keep me busy! Since I had my operation I haven't been drinking very much so my food has been really well soaked which makes it harder to get out of the food toys. Sometimes Mum is really mean and freezes it in my Kong toys-grrr!! You don't need to have fancy toys though, sometimes they put my food in a plastic bottle or a folded up bit of cardboard and I love ripping it up. I have used some fun food games too that involve pushing and sliding things but I got a bit too wild with my bad leg-oops!

I am having this thing called bio magnetic therapy twice a day at the moment. My lovely physio Sally has lent Mum and Dad a machine and I have started to associate this with sofa and bed time! I get to cuddle up on the sofa in the morning while Mum has her cup of coffee and at night time they let me curl up on the bed to be done as it takes 20 minutes each time. It is warm and nice and I often doze off having it!

If Dad is working from home then I hang out with him in his office for the day spending some of my time attached to him via a lead and some of the time in a crate. If I have to go with Mum in the car then I get my own crate on the back seat so none of the others bash into me and I get a hoof to chew on-yippee!! I love hooves and Mum says they are good for my figure as I can't eat them like most other chews :-) 

Because of Mums job she is like a flea in a fit and we go all over the place! She takes me out and lets me sit watching the world go by. This is me and Brax having a picnic. Mum had walked my lovely husband Brodie and stupid Sparkle and they had got all smelly in the river so us posh gingers wanted to get as far away as possible! Mum let us sit out while she ate lunch. I am getting good at going to coffee shops too-Cafe Nero is my favourite...I can sit in if its nasty weather and sit out on the the common if its sunny. Otherwise I would get no fresh air! Dad is strong so that he carried me on a walk round the fields. It was nice to be out with everyone again. They say I've got to stay at the vets on Friday for another operation so wish me luck everyone.

My puppies cheer me up and they are now handsome 5 month old boys!! Here is a picture of each of them, so proud of my boys :-)

Squidge (with his brother Rommy)

Blaze in his new harness

Maverick graduating from puppy class

Poor Brooke Bean

We have been battling trying to keep Brooke sound since she hurt her ligament in her shoulder earlier in he year. We had been doing a lot of physio work on it and she was getting progressively more lame to the point that we decided together with Sally our physio that it was worth getting a specialist vet to have a look in her shoulder with a camera via keyhole surgery.

She has never had so much as a sedation before so we were reluctant to leave her but Patrick the vet was lovely and kept us informed about what was going on. Unfortunately it was not good news. Her shoulder injury had caused inflammation that had made her immune system go into overdrive and lay down bony calcium deposits in her biceps tendon and shoulder joint. This is turn had made the joint more inflamed and has created a vicious circle of calcium deposits and inflammation which is gumming up her joint. The next step is another general anaesthetic to put a steroid injection right into her joint which stops her immune system going into overdrive. Fingers toes and paws crossed that it works for Bean as we are just desperate for her to be able to enjoy life again.

The size of the surgery wound was incredible. Shame she spent all that time growing her hair back though!

Brooke has been really spoilt-we got a lovely pressi of a Back on Track bed from her Grandma Lian which was so kind of her. Brooke always chooses to lie on it so it is obviously very comfy! Thank you Lian x

The other dogs are mostly fine. Brodie has had a cyst on his tail which has been quite sore and needing to be bandaged up to stop him fussing at it. You can just about make out his little bandage in the pic below. He has a Rally competition coming up so we have been getting in a bit of practice. The nice thing about Rally is that you can practice easily everyday on walks and in the garden. 

Haven't done any agility training at all since the show (until Tuesday when I did some entertaining seesaws with Spark!) but the dogs have been enjoying hanging out in the field with me as Brooke prefers being left in a car crate to being left at a home while I walk the others. No agility shows for a couple of weeks so will have some down time while we get Brooke through the next op-can always rely on these goof balls to cheer me up! Was lovely seeing my sis at the weekend as well, so nice to catch up and the doglets just adore her! 

Doglet hugs are always lovely too! (Excuse my sock!)