Lochaber Open Show

So this weekend saw my first breed judging appointment up at Lochaber and District Open Show in Fort William, I don’t need much of an excuse to visit that part of the world, I am totally in love with the Scottish Highlands but this was a perfectly good one anyway, I just wish I’d been able to spend a bit more time up there to enjoy the beautiful landscape. It was a bit like a mystery tour since I decided to just follow the SatNav and discover which route it was going to take me as we went along. I would normally travel up via Glasgow and the A82 up past Loch Lomond and through the Trossachs and Glencoe which is a stunning drive. Instead the SatNav decided to take me up to Perth then West along the A9 to Dalwhinnie before dropping back down to Lochaber via Laggan, more beautiful scenery to make a long drive much more enjoyable...









Ardverikie - on the banks of Loch Laggan, was used as the ficticious Glenbogle house in the TV drama Monarch of the Glen


Laggan Dam on the River Spean, to the south west of Loch Laggan


I didn’t arrive ‘til about 8pm having stopped at Strathmashie Forest on the way and taken the 7 dogs I had with me for a run up the forest to blow away the cobwebs after that 5 hour drive! We had another lovely forest walk early Sunday morning before the show too so I didn’t feel so bad about having taken them all that way.

I was sharing the judging with Stuart Platt (Caldonbeck) so just had 4 bitch classes - puppy, yearling, post grad and open and was pleased to receive a respectable entry of 23 and some really lovely quality bitches , I ended up having to really nit pick for the places but I was pleased as punch when the bitch winner went best of breed (under the referee) and then Pastoral Group 3 and my puppy went best pup in breed and reserve best pup in show. Both beautiful girls I would have happily taken home (think someone might have noticed though lol)

Full results were…
Lochaber and District Canine Society Open Show – 12th September 2010
Puppy Dog (1)

1 - McCallum's Borderbrook The Dauphin

Yearling Dog (3,1)

1 - MacDonald's Locheil Once in a Blue Moon
2 - Kempton's Borderbrook Show Me

Post Graduate Dog (3)

1 - Jones' Sianworth Firecracker
2 - Heggie's Dalond Blaze of Glory
3 - MacDonald's Bordertime Hot Chocolate

Open Dog (8,3)

1 - Turner and Alexander's Kaeleon Showstopper at Locheil - BD
2 - Gray's Locheil Joint Venture
3 - Kempton's Locheil Manhatten at Borderbrook (AI)
4 - Gray's Rosara Dream Boat

Puppy Bitch (4,2)

1 - MacDonald's Locheil Just Cruisin – BP RBPIS
2 - Kempton's Borderbrook I'm The Diva

Yearling Bitch (5,1)

1 - Donald's Locheil Violets are Blue
2 - Jones' Starside Gold Dust Over Sianworth
3 - Kempton's Borderbrook I'm The Diva
4 - Downie's Dalond Blue Bayou

Post Graduate Bitch (7,3)

1 - Hagan's Tribboch Thistle Do Me
2 - McCallum's Tribboch Truly Scrumptious
3 - Conacher's Locheil Chic Flick
4 - Downie's Dalond Blue Bayou

Open Bitch (7,2)

1 - Turner and Alexander's Locheil Funny Face - BB BOB PG3
2 - Jones' Sianworth Mystic Dream JW
3 - Kempton's Borderbrook Atomic Kitten
4 - Donald's Locheil Luck of the Irish

The hospitality was excellent and after the judging we sat and had a good old natter with some of the other judges and stewards over lunch before I embarked on the long drive home around 2.30pm I stopped and took my dogs for another run up Strathmashie Forest at Laggan on the way home so they had a good stretch of their legs first and happened across an impromptu hitchhiker at Dalwhinnie, some poor chap who had missed his train and since he was headed back to Oxenholme (just outside Lancaster) I agreed to drop him at Penrith train station so he could catch a train there instead so he got home at a decent time and I had some company for a few hours of the journey at least. I stopped at Sizergh (near Kendal) on the way home to pop in for a cup of tea and a natter with my mum and gran who were there in the caravan for the week (seemed rude not to since I was passing!) so we were pretty late home but young Rachel had done a great job minding all the dogs at home and they were all pleased to see us back. I was very glad to have Monday off work, despite it being a pretty hectic one but I’ll post more about that later.

Dogs enjoying one of their forest runs…



Esther, who appears to be rather enjoying her holiday in the caravan...

On the mend

The dressing is now off and she is feeling a lot brighter in herself,



this does of course mean that she has started complaining about being crated all the time and wants to attempt her usual running up/down stairs, jumping on/off sofa when she's let out! Another week of crate rest and she can then start having short lead walks but I'm really pleased with the progress she's making.

Little China Doll…

This is often what springs to mind when I look at Esther, particularly in comparison to her littermates, she’s such a finely built and, to be honest, scrawny little dog but she runs and plays with the big dogs and is one tough little cookie, or so I thought. Truth be told the big dogs, particularly Spark and Ethan, pretend to play rough with her but are actually very gentle. The fragility of these little breeds in comparison to the collies became brutally apparent on Weds night when, while running around my bedroom like an idiot before bedtime, she dived across the bed and fell off the edge and screamed her little head off! Now, I’ll admit, I wasn’t terribly sympathetic at first; these terriers can be rather prone to dramatics so I thought she was over-reacting as she hopped around on 3 legs refusing to put her left hind on the floor. I had a quick look and the pain seemed to be coming from the top of her leg/hip…I really wasn’t sure what she’d done…a knock or sprain but she was obviously unhappy…it was late at night so I gave her a double dose of metacam and put her to bed to see how she was in the morning. Come morning she was still holding the leg and very quiet so we went straight down to the vets; after a quick examination it was concluded she’d probably broken her femur (thigh bone) and needed x-rays (cue a very guilty feeling me!). I left her in and went to work and rang after lunch to be told she had indeed broken the femur which was going to require pinning. Poor little girl :o(

x-ray…


The vets said they could do it but suggested she might be better going to an orthopeadic specialist so I immediately called Tom who runs with the Dolphins flyball team and specializes in this kind of surgery at Nantwhich Veterinary Group in Cheshire, he agreed to see her straight away so I took the afternoon off, went and picked her up from the vets and drove down to Cheshire and left her in Tom’s capable hands; we talked through the options and decided on internal surgery rather than the external fixators so she’s had the bone pinned through the centre and plated. This has left for a very neat wound that has been stitched internally so nothing to come out and nothing for her to chew at but this surgery is obviously very invasive, involving a lot of muscle and tissue so she’s still very sore and feeling very sorry for herself.



For the moment she's quite happy being left in her crate sleeping, she has 2 weeks of complete crate rest before she's allowed out for short lead walks, she should be having follow up x-rays in a months time to make sure it's healed and then hopefully, fingers crossed, she'll be good as new.

And then there was one...

The last parson puppy, Fagin left home on Sunday so now I'm just left with little Esther who looks like she will be staying :)

Here's the two of them snuggled up on the sofa for the last time on Saturday evening...

And here's Esther snuggled up with mum the next night...bless...

She is a lovely little pup, not as bold and outgoing as I would normally choose, she probably is the quietest in the litter to be honest but I'm sure she won't stay that way living here! lol

Here she is playing in the garden with some of the big dogs.


and 'striking a pose' in the garden...


I've really enjoyed this litter, lovely quiet easy puppies, far less demanding than the collie litters and such fabulous little characters...love them!