Not good at this now!

Blimey I am rubbish! May as well not have bothered saying I was going to make the effort to write this regularly as I have just got back here and its 5 weeks since the last one! Useless!
However, we have been a tad busy, and so much has happened I am not sure where to start but will try.

We have had a lot of snow, and rain, lots of floods and not much training really started with the dogs yet. We have all been very busy with the agility business, and the orders are flooding in! We would so love to able to concentrate more of our time building agility equipment and developing new ideas, but we just dont have the financial backing to do that. Rog has to put the Electrical Engineering first as it still pays our bills and just about keeps us afloat, and my job helping to run a haulage company pays the rent so for now we just have to work 25 hours a day.
I finally re did our Web Site and although still a few bits to add, I am a lot happier with it now and the counter is clicking up well! 
To the dogs..............
Young Will has settled in beautifully and has become such a cheeky, and happy member of our gang. Every dog is a joy, and its fascinating to me just how different they are, each having special little quirks or behaviours that make them unique, and I love them all. Will is no exception. He is very loyal to Fern, and within a few days of being here, took to trotting around by her  side, wanting to be with her and looking for interaction. He learns new things daily and with ease. Extremely intelligent and such a drive to work, yet also laid back and easy to live with. Compare him a lot to George, who was also instantly attached to me from a pup, and is very definitely my dog and mine alone, yet it took me months to get George to come back at me, bouncing and demanding I play with a tug or ball, whereas Will is doing it already at 12 weeks old! Will and George are both working lines, and it shows in the natural herding and chasing they have both shown so Fern has to work more with Will alone (a point I keep nagging her to listen to, but she is stubborn! and I am just a nagging Mum) I walked George alone for months to start with until we had a real bond, not just a loving one, which was there from day one, but a working relationship, an understanding of each other and that takes time and patience. Obviously George is a blue Merle so is much more mental than Will but they really are very similar.

Have started running now, on a program thanks to an app on the iPhone. Bought a decent Canix belt and double bungee lead and have Lily & George as my running partners. 2 reasons for this team. 
1. They are similar size, build and get on very well, with identical stride patterns.
2. Lily needs as much work as possible to keep fit, and George has more energy than the rest put together!
I did try Twiggy & George one day last week, as they are best buddies, but Twiggy was hilarious!!! She just gallops and bounces at the end of the line, so excited and mad keen. Poor George couldnt keep his stride and I was nearly bent in half the wrong way trying to hold her back!!! Not maybe the ideal running dog, but she is perfect in every other way Princess Twiggy, so can let her off that one. :-) Olli is a great running partner but only off lead. He will stay near you, is so close and trustworthy off lead, but on the bungee he darts across infront of you, hears a possible something in the hedge, runs backwards, and nearly had me A over T so many times I am afraid he cant do the roadwork :-)

All the dogs are happy & chilled and enjoyed the winter break but are now back on training. Had a couple of workshops with the youngsters and they are full on raring to go! I am looking forward to this season more than ever, as my babies are growing up and now we can really see what they have up their sleeves. 
The excitement starts with Rog & I travelling by train to Scotland this weekend to collect our new van!! Rex has been a brilliant van for us for 3 years but he needs a new home, so is off to Cornwall next week to be loved and to look after some new dogs :-) We will be taking care of our new "lass" and hope she will look after us and our gang for the next few years. First show is in 2 weeks and I cant wait!! 

Now to set my alarm to remind me to Blog again in a week!!! :-)

New Year, New Goals, New Puppy, New toes!!

 2013 already! Must try and remember to set aside an hour a week to do this, as I was slack last year, but lots of new beginnings this year :-)
We all gave up smoking in November, and by Christmas I was really starting to notice differences. I could taste better, smell better (and SMELT better!!) but also my breathing improved. I had not really thought I had a problem, but as I now seem to have more puff I must have been doing some damage! 
I had decided it would be a nice change to go away for Christmas, with all the dogs, and to spend it with some distant friends, so I text Natalie on a whim, and before we knew it we had booked one of the best kept secrets ever!! We had rented the chalet next door to Sharon, Chris, Sam & Nat for 3 days over Christmas, and they had no idea. When we arrived on Christmas Eve to surprise them in the Sandsifter Pub on the beach, there wasnt a dry eye in the house!! 
It was the best Christmas. We walked on the fabulous beach and dunes, we laughed a lot, we managed to cook a scrumptious Christmas dinner between the 2 chalets, and it was all over far too quickly. Twiggy got to spend the holidays with her favourite ever foster family, and we loved every single minute of it.

Coming back was a downer, but we had a small cunning plan up our sleeves. Another little secret that we were going to collect on the 29th December.

 Meet FlickFlack Will.

For months we had been discussing Fern having a youngster to bring on. Cove was her first and only agility dog, and as he will be 4 this year it was agreed that another pup was needed around the start of 2013. Sadly a few of the lists that Fern had been on, had not produced a boy pup for her, including the Flickflack litter, which produced 2 girls and 1 boy pup who was already booked. 2 weeks before Christmas I had a surprise message to say that the boy could be ours after all, but he wasnt "perfect". Well define "perfect". After a very emotional excited phone call, a 2 week wait, a 408 mile round trip we have a "perfect" pup. Stunning, bold, confident and has fitted in here as if it was meant to be. He has a slight overshot jaw, which meant he couldnt go to anyone for breeding or working trials, so he obviously knew where his home was :-) Fern has her boys now, and I think this new lad is going to be a hell of a lot of fun!

Twiggy was named "Rescue Dog of the Year" in the Supadarl league this week!!! her story was voted as the best and I am so thrilled with her! What an amazing start to our year! She has come along way, and I hardly even think of her now as the nervous little freaky dog that arrived 2 years ago, but its such a lovely award to receive, and we now have the Supadarl rescue dog finals to look forward to in June :-)

I have a few tough goals this year. Well they are not so much tough as challenging for me and my dogs. Lily & Olli are still very much in form and are not going to be slacking off yet! I would love to get those last 2 wins with Lily and retire her at Grade 7 and I would still love Oliver to get to a big final, ABC probably. Twiggy & George are my stars, and I know they will both go far this season providing we all stay fit, healthy and have fun like we have for the past year. Will be interesting who moves up the grades the quickest!! Cove will almost definitely go quickly into Grade 7 to catch up with his siblings, and Dave is going to be competing and will be an interesting prospect in mediums this year.

So I have 2 new repaired toes and have started to run with my renewed smoke free fitness, the dogs have all had 6 weeks off agility and are chilled, happy and raring to go, and Fern has a busy year ahead training Will!!

Thank goodness we have Rog to support us. He has a new found hobby being Jamie Oliver!! I can hardly get in the kitchen these last few weeks, as he has taken it over and filled it with some herbs, spices and oils I had never heard of!! He is so good! Some amazing meals being produced at the moment, but the real challenge will be if he can do this in the caravan! First show March 16th, and first camping booked for Easter and Kernow K9 :-)

Lets get this show on the road!!!!!!