Update

We attended a UKA show last weekend and a BAA show this weekend. I was a bit concerned about doing two shows in a row with Rum and how he would cope but I needn’t have worried. He is doing so well, his stress levels are remaining at a normal level. I have entered a KC show in August which is normally a good show in terms of the rings are well spaced out and lots of room so we shall see how he copes with it, it might be too much for him so he will stick to smaller shows but I will continue to do some KC with Ember and Cas in veterans. All that matters is he is happy and I enjoy the classes at UKA and BAA so if we stick to those shows with him then so be it.



Anyway onto how they’ve have done, I am really pleased with how they’re doing considering they don’t get any training and I mean nothing. Cas had her first clear this weekend and won medium helter skelter, she is like a bat out of hell over medium height and I must admit I struggle to control her!


Ember is running really well to, she’s started testing me a little again (knew the angelic Ember wouldn’t last lol!) but otherwise she’s fab, there was one course at the weekend I was impressed at how we worked as it was very tricky. She had a 1st in Novice Snooker at UKA and a 1st in Jumping at BAA, she’s been getting 90% of her contacts so am pleased with that.


Then Rum, he’s fab, he’s my boy, he does as his told, doesn’t try and push the boundaries, he’s amazing. He had a 2nd in Senior Steeplecase and a 4th in Novice Agility (with held contacts but this has now taken him senior) at UKA and a 1st in Power & Speed and a 3rd in Agility (5F for a pole) at BAA. I have always loved running him, he’s just such a genuine, honest dog and he feels so smooth to run.

Ember turned 8 this week and Diz is now about 12 so Happy Birthday to the two non collies.

Emz @ 9weeks

Diz @ 6 months - shepherd ears!  Aww lol.

UKA Phoenix

It’s been a while, I competed with Cas & Ember at an EMDAC show in Stoke in April as Cas comes into their medium height she can still enter competitive classes so it’s nice for her to have a couple of runs. Considering the dogs hadn’t had any agility training (I just have a couple of jumps I had been putting them over to make sure they are fit enough) they did really well. First class for each of them wasn’t brilliant but the second class went a lot better and they just knocked poles.



I really enjoyed the show so decided to enter a UKA show and entered Rum with the idea mum would come with me so she could queue for us and knowing UKA are smaller so not as stressful.


That show was Phoenix on Saturday. Ember absolutely amazed me, she ran excellently, was absolutely fab – she won Senior Steeplechase I with a rather messy run as it was quite tricky and I wasn’t sure of my handling (very rusty & first run of the day!). Then we had Novice Jumping and I thought that the course looked like it needed a lot of running and with Ember she’s not normally one for going on by herself! But I was wrong she had another cracking run but knocked the last pole – gutted! Novice Agility, she was fab again but typically she missed her a-frame (I should have put her back on) and Novice Gamblers I won’t mention as we never ever get our heads round gamblers! Finally Senior Steeplechase II which I hadn’t walked as the rings were a long way from the parking and I was shattered! She had a near perfect run, I shaped her more into her turns so they were a lot tighter, I was getting back to knowing what I was doing, we just had a messy turn where I front crossed, she won that class too!


Rum was a good boy too, though I am so unfit I just couldn’t keep up and he has always been used to me being up there with him so he was a little unsure at times! Novice Steeplechase I he was flying and took me by surprise at how far ahead he was, he went into the wrong end of the tunnel and turned out of the box. Then onto Novice Jumping, I thought it was a nice course for him as he could really power on, he was running lovely but just jumped too long to get the second weave entry – I didn’t shape him into the turn, I took him back which I shouldn’t have done as it really stressed him out and I just felt him snap into Mr Stress at that point so I know if he goes wrong not to correct him as it really wasn’t his fault. Novice Agility and he sort of fell off his seesaw somehow which worried him so I held him on a perfect a-frame contact and told him it was okay, he then carried on fine, otherwise he ran lovely in that. Gamblers again we’ll say no more. Then finally Novice Steeplechase II, ahh we went clear bless him but it was very very messy as again I was just struggling to run, my legs were giving up lol! The last tunnel I told him right and he flew right out of the tunnel which surprised me that he actually did it so I didn’t then reinforce & he turned back as if to say – am I right lol. Anyway he ended up 2nd and I was pleased with that as it had been extremely messy!!

Cas had one Casual Jumping and although missed her weave (not sure why as she’s always always got her entries) she flew round like a spring chicken and won the class.



So it was a fab day, it was lovely to have my boy back as he always feels so smooth to run and with our system of mum queuing and it being a smaller show he didn’t seem to be stressing at all. Though I am so unfit, my legs almost gave up in the last run and I am just nowhere near my dogs, I haven’t been doing any exercise whatever though so it’s no surprise lol!

Were off to Paris next week, Mark and I will have been together two years :)

Happy 11th Birthday Cas!

I can't believe Cas is now 11!!  She still acts like a 2 year old and I think as she's white, will never go grey so she never looks old. 

I moved in with my boyfriend a few months ago and brought Rum and Cas with me, mum has Emz & Diz as Diz has always been close to her when I have gone off to shows and Diz and Emz get on very well and to be honest Ember has always liked mum better anyway.  It makes life easier as neither of us are worrying about keeping Diz and Cas separate, they're happier too.

Rum is also a lot better as he is getitng more attention.  Though I started by taking them for a run with a frisbee daily (something we never did before as Diz wasn't up to it) but Rum just couldn't cope again with the adrenaline and he was stressing so much.  So now we just have gentle walks and sometimes some obedience training.  I had thought about trying agility with him again but if he can't cope with frisbee chasing there is no way he will cope with agility - it's such a shame that for a young dog I can't let him have good fun chasing a ball etc.  But if he's happier without then that's how it has to be.  He is so protective of Cas it's so funny to watch them, my boyfriend has a German Shepherd who Rum hates and he really protects Cas from her. 

We're picking up a kitten on Wednesday as we wanted something to do some ratting and I miss having a cat, I had thought about bringing Dixie with me as she is such a character and so pretty, but it's not fair to upset her and mum is attached to her and she absolutely adores Diz and Emz.  So we said we would look for something.  Unfortunately not a rescue as nobody came back to me on rescues so we had to go elsewhere. 

I haven't been very well during 2010 so am hoping 2011 will be a better year, I have turned a corner the last couple of weeks and long may it continue.  We have rebooked NYC for Christmas, this year we will get to go!!  And I am starting a city & guilds course in photography soon also!

This vid just sums my gorgeous girl up:

Our Travel Nightmare!!

Oh my god, what a weekend, do you know when you're sitting in the comfort of your own home watching the news and you think 'that will never be me.'  Then you find yourself in the middle of a nightmare?

It started Saturday morning when we left snowy Wolverhampton at 10:30am in plenty of time to get to Heathrow for our flight to NYC, little did we realise the chaos to unfold.  We steadily made our way down the M6 averaging about 40miles an hour on the snowy road.  Everything cleared for one junction on the M42 and things were looking up, that was short lived as in soon got back to averaging 40mph on snow again.  Then it all went downhill, we reached the junction before Newbury and it was a standstill - there was snow between the lanes, changing lanes was treacherous and I could feel the tyres struggling for grip.  We were probably queueing for a couple of hours when we got past the junction and the traffic had cleared, again this was shortlived and we were soon queueing again.  This time we were averaging a mile in an hour!

You start to think you had wished you had listened to the advice - keep water, food and a shovel in your car!  We hadn't eaten all day and were starving.  The snow was about a foot deep and the motorway hadn't been gritted, it was a nightmare.  People were going to the loo on the side of the carriageway (we cut the bottom of a bottle out so I could have a wee!  Lol!) and building snowmen on the central reservation.  It was quite surreal!!  We finally got the root cause of our blockage - lorries jacknifed all over the carriageway!!  So we got through and finally got to Heathrow 13 hours after we set off!  All the time following the car in front's tracks in the snow. 

At Heathrow we had already been notified our flight had been cancelled but we got there to see if there was any information on our next step - nothing!!  There were people sleeping everywhere and it was chaos.  So we went for some food at MacDonalds (this is like midnight now!) - wow a burger has never tasted so good!!  While we were there we searched for hotels available - nothing - so sleep in Heathrow?  We decided to opt for the car, Heathrow's cold hard floor didn't look very appealing.  Luckily I had some of those silver blankets in the car but still we were frozen and every time you moved they crunched.  We must have caught an hour's sleep before we got up to get into Terminal 3 to see what was going on.

At 5am we were in the queue at American Airlines behind a lady who had been there when the desk was open on Saturday - she had been given the customer services number to ring (which just makes you hold for ages and fails to tell you they closed at 5pm!!) or to come back on Sunday when someone will be at the desk at 5am.  Well we waiting till 6am and still no show, so we decided to make our way across to terminal 5 to see if BA had any flights available, terminal 5 was a lot better organised however we were directed to BA's website to book.  We made our way back to terminal 3 to see if there was any sign of AA and still no show - the terminal by now was even more packed and really you could not move at all - you would not believe the mess the place was in unless you had seen it with your own eyes!!

Off we went to MacDonalds for breakfast where we searched for a hotel (finding the Holiday Inn available) and new flights (finding flights with BA 22nd-28th - Christmas in NYC and we would be safe with Wednesday flights - 3 days time no problem!)  So we made our way to the hotel and more queues of people - 2 hours we had to wait to check in there were people everywhere again!  We finally got into our room and I was so pleased to have some peace and quiet and a bed!!!

All Sunday afternoon we tried to get through to Expedia (our booking agent) without any luck.  We finally got through Monday morning only be told to ring back later as hotel reservations wasn't open for them to contact for a refund.  Later that day after 90mins on hold we finally got through and everything was refunded, well 7-10 days from the hotel and up to 12 weeks refund by the airline!!!  We booked another hotel with hotels.com making sure we got through quickly and checking on the cancellation policy.

Our Statue of Liberty View Room - or is that the M4??

Tuesday was looking good as the temperature had risen to 3 degrees, no more snow and the second runway was clear.  We went round to see my aunt and two cousins and during our visit found our flight had been cancelled - the only BA flight to NYC from terminal 5 to be cancelled, all others were flying.  Just our luck, we couldn't believe it.  So all that for nothing, I cancelled the hotel again no penalty.  Gutted, NYC at Christmas was my dream holiday and we had a tour to the Niagra Falls booked which is something Mark has always wanted to do.

Mark, my cousin and me

We decided to leave Tuesday night with more snow forecast Wednesday morning in the Midlands we thought it best to get home, it took a little over 2 hours to get home this time, bit different to 13 hours!! 

We have another holiday booked leaving Manchester on 26th, returning the 2nd to Lapland so I hope we get to go.  I am sick to death of queueing, of snow (in this country as they can't handle it), of traffic, of lorry drivers, of looking at flight information and sky news (which we have done continuously for the last 4 days!!

Update

It was Rum's 5th birthday on the 25th November, I can't believe he's 5 already!  


Mid October we took him and Diz to the beach as I really am not sure whether Diz will be up to it next year and she loves the beach.  Here are a couple of pics:

Here are a few pics I took today:

And non-dog related, my lovely boyfriend bought me a day's formula ford racing at Silverstone, it was amazing!  

And I raced in the Cambrian Rally back in October, great day, I didn't get as much of a thrill out of it as I imagined, which is good as it didn't make me come away thinking I want to do more - it's too expensive lol!!

Agility

I met up with Anna and Lee yesterday and today I was on my laptop when I came across some agility videos and realised how much I missed it.  So I got out the little equipment I have kept and had a play with Rum.  He is such a fab dog, I wish we could go out and compete, he is an amazing partner.  Though it's no wonder my back ached, stand up straight woman!!!!

One Horsepower to a Couple of Hundred

It’s been a while again, have had a bit of a rough time lately but thanks to support of friends and family I am gradually moving along the road to recovery.


Poor old Diz has developed severe arthritis in her neck/right shoulder so is now on metacam full time. It was awful to see her shaking in pain and squealing with the smallest movement.

I had to sell Bean as my knee just wasn’t up to the amount of work he needed, I found myself just hacking him a few times as anything more was too painful. He has a home with a local family (literally 2 mins away) who have their own paddock so he is getting lots more attention than I could ever give him.

I’ve bought a car to take to track days and do some drifting with, well it’s a joint car with my boyfriend – Toyota Mr2 GT. I have a rally driving scholarship final in 2 weeks and it was really to get some practice in for that, however am sure we will keep it and run it until it dies!

Dixie chick is a fab little kitten and although I haven’t done much training with her she has already figured out how to fetch and is driving us mad with it!! I’ve entered her first show in a couple of weeks to get her used to being handled by strangers, always good for doing media work etc.  Here's a little video of Rum getting her to play when she wasn't in the mood as was recovering from her second vaccination!!



I’ve got a musical interpretation day in a few weeks with Emmy Simonsen, I am sooo excited about it. If you haven’t seen any of her routines, look her up on Youtube, she’s amazing! Musical interpretation has always been my downfall and probably the main reason I stopped as I just ran out of ideas. So thought I would take the hairy one (Ember) as Emmy works her sheltie so well, it would be too much (stress wise) for Rum and Cas can’t do as much as she used to. I am soooo looking forward to it!!

Meet Dixie

I thought it was time, after losing Kali that we had a kitten, so her she is.  Meet Dixie, a 10 week old rescue kitten.  I am hoping she will follow in Kali's pawsteps and do some media work.  She already recognises the clicker and we have started working on a sit!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy 11th Dizzy

Sometime about now Diz will be (if not already) 11 years old.  She has done so well considering we were told she wouldn't last till too old an age due to her spinal surgery when she was 4.  She does have her stiff days and is a little incontinent but other than that she is still her old bouncy self and living life to the full.

Here she was at 6 months old the day after we had her followed by a few pics taken the other day.

And here's last year's video

Dizzy - Celebrating 10 Yrs from Gina Graham on Vimeo.