A well earned rest...

So, after a weekend of lovely dry weather I woke up last Monday morning to another beautiful sunny day; I had booked Thursday and Friday off work so that I would be able to spend a couple of days at Crufts, as it happened that ended up being impossible because my mum went away so I had no-one home to look after the dogs so we could only go for the day but I decided to ring my boss and see if I could take the whole week off and he agreed that would be fine…yippee!! A chance to catch up with all those little jobs I wanted to do but hadn’t got round to and spend some more time with the dogs and make the most of the good weather we were finally having! Monday afternoon I popped round to see a friend and we went for a walk up Beacon Fell. I just decided to take my current competing flyball dogs for the extra walk in an attempt to get them a little fitter after our enforced winter layoff due to the terrible weather we’ve been having. We were out for an hour or so and walked through the trees and over the top to the trig point where we could enjoy the views.

Here’s a couple of pics...


...there are more here

Tuesday I had a day of catching up on chores, so while out doing all the shopping for me and the dogs I decided to take five of them round Cuerden Valley Park ; this is over in the direction of Batleys (where we get all our dog food from) and there is direct access into the park from Asda carpark which is rather handy! I often take the dogs here at lunchtime when they’ve come to work with me as it’s not far from the office. We did a nice long circular walk across fields, through trees and around the lake and were out for about an hour and a half. Although huge (370 acres in total) this is quite a busy park and the rangers are quite ‘keen’ on limiting dog numbers per person so five is the maximum I will take on my own. It’s so nice to be able to enjoy a relaxing walk and be able to stop and take photos and play fetch in the river etc rather than the forced march our daily walks usually consist of when I’m always pushed for time! lol

Here’s the motley crew I took with me (flyball dogs again)…

Teal eyeing up the ducks on the lake…


And some more pics of them here

On Wednesday Gemma had the day off so came up and we took ALL the dogs to the beach; well all apart from those in season and Spud who unfortunately is just too arthritic to go on big runs with everyone now (poor Spud). We split them into 3 manageable sized groups so were on the beach for nearly 3 hours in total…what a beautiful day it was and not at all busy, how I wish I could be at home every weekday! All the dogs had a lovely long run and swim in the sea and Aston, who was enjoying his first trip to the seaside, also had his first swim…he’s proving to be just like his mother (Lexie)…a real water baby, we couldn’t keep him out!

Lovely wide open spaces for running!!


A few more pics of them all here Then it was back home for some lunch, a bit of flyball training with the youngsters… Jovi, Fynn and Squirrel. We’re having to really work on Fynn’s drive back from the box which is currently, well…non existant! We’ve had dogs like this before and it does come eventually so we’ll just keep working on lots of chasing runbacks.

Squirrel on the box…

Although she’s jumping on the box nicely she’s still not pushing off very well with her back feet, not sure how to ‘fix’ this but will have a think about it. then off to the local butchers/farm shop to pick up lots of bones for the dogs we were leaving at home the next day then straight to the vets with Esther for her vaccinations (she was a very brave girl) and finally time to start bathing and prepping the two dogs we were taking to Crufts the next day…Mercy and Spark; both shampooed and rinsed twice then blow dried (which Spark doesn’t mind but Mercy hates) then all off to bed before the ‘Big Day’!!

Getting not a lot done

Sunday morning I have to say I was knackered and didn't get up 'til 8am. Despite having lots to do at the house I wanted to give all the dogs a really good run and ended up heading up to Hest Bank Kennels for Teals' beginner Agility course. There's a long waiting list for the beginner courses and we were lucky to be offered a place and I really didn't want to miss it so while the timing was terrible we went anyway. She was ok, she has done a few bits at Joy's house...a line of jumps, tunnel, mini dog walk etc but she just didn't get the 'doing jumps on lead' concept. I don't really blame her, Teal is so rarely on lead and she's never asked to 'work' on lead so she just wasn't sure what was expected from her. Her tunnel was great and we did some contact work on a down plank...she was driving really nicely down to her toy. I am planning to train Teal a running contact as opposed to the 2on2off that I have taught Faith. I am hoping to buy a dog walk to have in the garden at the new house which will really help with training. We'll see how we get on with that! lol I took them all for a good run on the 'beach' before we went home. I say beach but it isn't really, it's more of a foreshore I guess but the tide was in so they got to have a swim in the sea. You can see on the photos how much the seawashed turf area is being eroded by the sea. There are little channels and gullies cut up into the grass area all the way along...the dogs have great fun charging around and jumping the channels and pools but they're all so 'gung-ho' I do worry someone will break their neck! I feel much happier on the sands at St Annes!









We got home just in time for puppy visitors, lovely people who chose one of Lori's boys. Just one boy left to find a home from Lori's litter now. They're are a lovely bunch of pups. I can't believe how quiet they are, it really doesn't feel like we have 9 of them in the kitchen. They're just really happy, contented puppies. Must get some new piccies of both litters!

All over for another year...

Had a lovely Christmas although all too short a break as usual. Was working Christmas Eve and am back in work today (boo!!). It has however been a lovely four days, beautiful winter sunshine pefect for dog walking. We were at the beach every day although I completely failed to get any pics (useless I know!). Hazell and Michael came down on Saturday to pick Floyd up, it was lovely to meet Michael's mad Springers (and yes, they are mad...made my cockers look quite tame! lol) and catch up with Hazell and the lovely Jack, River and Scot who came for a family visit too.

Had a little get together at our house on Christmas Eve which was lovely. Trish's eldest daughter Elizabeth brought her guitar and sang a song they had composed about the ’Demon Dogz’ which was just hilarious!! Although not quite as funny as watching my mum trying to play tennis on the Wii after a bottle of Cava (lmao).

Spent Christmas Day with my mum, brother, sister in law and nephews which was really nice. I stayed home on boxing day, walked the dogs and just spent some time at home with them, just totally shattered from the previous week. Spent quite a bit of time just watching Lori's pups; they're growing so fast and so active already!

Spent the weekend packing and measuring up etc for the house move at the end of January...only 5 weekends left...eek!!

p.s. Faith also came in season on Christmas Day...only Faith could time something like that! lol

Winter Wonderland...

Well, it's December already (where has the year gone??) and brrrr....has it turned cold this weekend?!!! I had a busy day at home on Saturday and it was gone 3pm before we got down to the beach to give the dogs a run.... the thick freezing fog hardly moved all day, it was FREEZING!!! They all enjoyed themselves though and it didn't keep them out of the water either! Sorry no pics, it was just too foggy and don't know that I could have operated my camera very well through the thick gloves, scarves, hat etc anyway lol

I picked up a load of cheap lamb bones in Morrisons on the way home so they had those for tea as a little treat, we usually get bones from the butchers in Chorley mid week but they sometimes have them in morrisons too.

Mmmm...tasty...

We don't tend to get a lot of frost/snow where we live because we're on the North West coast of England so directly in the path of the gulf stream, it tends to remain much milder in this area compared to places further inland but we do get quite a lot of rain! The North West of England has the perfect grass growing climate which makes this the dairy capital of the UK although even here there has been a large number of dairy farmers de-stocking and leaving the industry. The cows are obviously all indoors now, feeding on the silage (which is effectively just pickled grass!) that has been harvested over the summer. I do wonder who will manage the land once all the farmers have gone? I don't think people fully appreciate what an important role they play in our landscape and environment.

Sunday was a beautiful day, very cold but dry with sunshine and beautiful clear blue skies, a perfect winters day. We had a leisurely start before driving over to Harrogate for the NAWS agility show. I didn't leave home 'til 9.30am and it was still - 4°c!! It was a lovely scenic drive over the A59, that route over the Lancashire/Yorkshire border takes in some of my favourite places and scenery in the whole of England. Again, I don't know how much longer this scenery will remain this way as large numbers of upland hill farmers de-stock and leave the land. It's the grazing sheep and cattle that maintain the landscape as we we know and love it. Without them the scenic rolling hills will soon return to scrubland and gorse and eventually thick forest and the fell walkers paradise will be lost. Sorry...am being rather gloomy today aren't I!

A few pics along the route...
Pendle Hill







Near Skipton...

(p.s. I wouldn't normally recommend taking photos while driving!!)

I was sorely tempted to stop and just spend a day out walking with the dogs but we carried on to the show. I had 4 runs with Fi and not a clear run among them but I was really really pleased with her. She hasn't done any agility training for over 2 months and hasn't done any agility since she last competed at NAWS a month ago but she was totally hyper and ran much better than she had done last time. She was fast, focused and driven...running on and working ahead really nicely and really 'attacking' the contact equipment, she was like a little bomb and really enjoying herself, it rather caught me by suprise! lol I am in desperate need of some training (yes me...more than the dog...as usual!), as Fi's confidence grows my handling skills need to improve dramatically! Nat and Kai were brilliant and won the jumping and came 2nd in the agility (this is their 2nd show), Sharon and Max were also fab again with Max coming 2nd to Kai in the jumping. Brenda and the lovely Bryn (Faith's brother) came 2nd in the class C agility but I didn't get there in time to see it...wah!!! I also met a lovely young choc tri Canen lad called 'Rio'...he was making his debut and came 4th in the agility, always nice to catch up with the 'rellies' :)