sore paw

The first night of training after Izzie's show did not end well. She clipped a pole near the end of the class (though didn't drop it) and managed to crack her nail. She didn't cry, and it only bled for a little bit but I cleaned it when we got home just incase.

The morning after I had a proper look at it and realised it was cracked at the quick, so it was off to the vets. They agreed that something had to be done, as if it was left to grow it would be infected easier. They gave the option for surgery, or pulling the whole nail out then and there. Although it was going to be sorer, I opted for doing it then and there as the idea of surgery made me sick. She was taken into the back and I was warned I would hear her squeal - so off I went with her lead into the waiting room in tears. I felt so guilty.

However she was extremely brave, our vets said she only cried a little bit and that she was a very tough little Cavalier (as when his cavalier had the same procedure done, he acted like he was having his leg sawn off). He didn't dress it at all, which I agreed with. However whenever she goes outside I thought best to cover it, and then undress it again when inside. Paranoid mother I am.

Kingdom of Fife show

Our first show back turned out to be very much worth the 1 and 1/2 hour drive, the camping in so much rain we thought we would drown and the BBQ which nearly burnt down our tent.

We got a lovely start to the morning when I texted in the radio at 6am and we got a mention! First time Liam and me had been on the radio so it brought for lots of smiles. When we got there the weather was lovely and the show was on an old airport runway, so was thankfully flat ground to camp on. Liam pitched tent while I done my runs, and we tried out our disposible BBQ and although it caused for lots of flames and smoke, the grubb was lovely.

At night however, the rain came. And boy did it pour. It lasted all night and we were lucky that in the morning all 4 of us were dry. Sadly when it's raining Izzie turns into a little princess and refuses to run, so after 1 attempt we packed up our stuff and left.

However! The show turned out to be well worth it as Izzie and me walked away with two 1sts and a 2nd! As one of the 1sts was her 3rd clear jumping 1sts, we have been promoted to Grade 2, so so proud :)

Here is her agility run, it was a combined graded 1-4 and she was 2nd, she done so well.

holiday time

With my 1st year of university over (well..minus 1 assignment due in at the end of the month), it is such a huge sigh of relief. I have 7 weeks off now to reminisce on all the amazing ups and downs which it has brought, and the amazing people it's brought into my life. I'm so happy to have these experiences and I'm honestly sad it won't last forever.

Hopefully in my time off I'll be spending lots of days at home with my man and the pups. I feel as if I've been disconnected from them for so long and can't wait to be able to spend time doing nothing together.

This starts tomorrow as we're off to an agility show in St.Andrews. Izzie hasn't been to training in a couple of months so I think it will be amusing to say the least. We'll be camping but apparently it's to be heavy rain so I'm imagining it'll be lots of reading in the car and the tent. Wish us luck!

[Izzie and me are Portabella beach, Edinburgh)

Is two enough?

My Mum says that when our family dogs grow old, and their time with us comes to an end, she doesn't want anymore. She loves them both very much. But they're too. Too noisy, too needy, too yappy, too smelly, too hairy.

Trixie

My Dad and me laugh each time, laugh because we know she would love any dog who came to live with them. Laugh because we couldn't imagine the house without them. Laugh because we're scared she's being honest.

Dogs and all of the things that come with them having become one of the main focal points in my life without me realising it. There when my parent's split up, there when I started high school and finished, there when I left home for the first time. I studied them in college for two years. My baby girl taught me to how to look after someone other than myself, about how the little things are most important. She boosted my confidence, she introduced me to new friends and a new world of people in Agility. She makes me smile with only a thought or a look every single day.


My little man showed me that everyone is different. That while things might start off difficult (or cheeky), that in the long run they'll be so worth it. He knows you don't need perfect hair to be cute, and that greeting people with a bark just means you wanna say hey.


A house without a dog isn't a home. A walk without a dog is pointless. A plate that hasn't been licked isn't clean. And a life without a dog isn't worth living.

flitting!

Liam and me - after months of humming and hawing - have finally put down a deposit on a rental flat and we're moving in next week. A little sceptical on how the dogs are going to be, bathroom break wise, but I'm not worried. When we walk them we drive to parks rather than walking so it won't be a huge change. Either way, I'm excited about us having our own place and starting to fill it with our own things.

I've been putting off doing uni work since I went on my community placement, this whole working 9-5 Mon-Fri thing really doesn't do it for me. I'm definetly a shift person. I'm excited about going into the wards from next week and really getting back to normal, not to mention start some due very soon work.



I've been trying to get Liam to take photos of Izzie and me at training as I don't have any good jumping pictures of her. A little blurry, but oh how cute.

Woodbank

Sun burn? In Scotland? From a couple of hours outside? You would think it was a dream - but it's not! I walked away from the Woodbank Agility show on Saturday with two rosettes (4ths!) and a tan.

Something very strange happened from the off at the show - Izzie was running flat out. Usually when watching Cavaliers in agility they're quite the plod alongs, but my my did I get a shock. She was going at full pelt, so much so I didn't have a clue how to handle her around the courses because I was caught between laughter and amazement. I'm hoping it could be that she really enjoys the outdoor shows, and her confidence was boosted after Dundee and that she keeps it up. It's all really down to me learning how to control a speedy little dog now!

Sadly I don't have any of her runs on video as Liam was working and couldn't join us. My parents did come by to see us run for the first time which was nice, and my step dad is currently dreaming of training his next dog in agility, very addictive it is!

I'm a little bit gutted that it was our last show that we've entered at the moment. I think Izzie is coming into season and I'm hoping to get her spayed asap, as well as me doing my hospital placement over June and July and shifts being really awkward. But we'll still be attending our training and be back in the swing of things for August. I took a little (not very good, mobile phone) picture of our rosettes from her first ever 4 shows, can't believe how well she's done!

Dundee Agility Show

If this show taught me anything, it's a bad trait of mine - I am a bad loser. Or well, not in an angry, unfair sort of way. In more of a I want to cry and take a huff way - all in all not a very attractive or mature look, and something I really need to work on. However not that this weekend was a bad one we had some really lovely runs, unfortunately there was a soft tunnel in most of the courses which we haven't trained on at all due to us training indoors and they need to be pegged outside. I'm simply putting this down to Izzie only starting in August when we went inside, it's not her fault she's so good at agility she started competing in under 6 months before we had a chance to go out! It was the 1st outdoor show of the season, her first time competing on grass, and she really was great.

Here we are getting a clear round in a Combined 1-4 Jumping class. She won 3rd place, very proud of her! Can't believe she done the 12 pole weave with no problem, her first time even trying it at a show. We also got a 2nd in an Agility run but sadly I can't find the video.




Liam and me had a chance to enjoy our camping experience for 2 nights as well. The first was a pleasant surprise as we ended up roasting, whereas the second we woke up to frost on the ground - ouch on the toes that night! But we really loved the camp, and are on the look out for some nice places to go next time we have a weekend free together.

off camping

Small little holiday over the weekend - Liam and me have spent the day packing camping equipment (I honestly don't know if my poor little C2 will carry it all, or if I'll even be able to see out of the back window), and we're ready to go. Hoping we have nice weather and some good agility runs with Izzie, though it's some difficult competition this weekend!

Had some lovely comments on my last post, so I think when I get home I'm going to go fabric and supply shopping and hopefully get started on making a little etsy shop - exciting!

lazy weekend

[weheartit.com]

My poor little Izzie had a sad time at agility training last night. After a german shephard went for her last week she doesn't want to run near the corner of the barn he's in - which is fair enough. I was quite teary though as I hate to see her like that as she loves her agility so it's a shame, however when she gets to a different venue or show etc she's brand new. I ended up running her in the opposite way and that put a smile back on her face.We need to work on it though but it's not really something we can overcome with the particular dog, he's sadly just not the friendliest.

I've been off of uni since Thursday and managed to not do any work. This may seem like a bad thing, but I've started assignments due in August so I'm way ahead of myself - and relaxing was totally needed. Basically my weekend as been;

♥ Getting camping equipment together for Friday, cannot wait.
♥ Managing to get to the E4 in Pokemon White, geek anyone?
♥ Do lots of weave training at home with Izzie, working on right hand entry.
♥ Look at fabrics for making dog collars.
♥ All in all, be lazy with my pups.

even more agility

Izzie and me had her second ever show a couple of weeks ago at Gleniffer (what a lovely indoor arena it was). There was a lot more dogs there than at Avon, and 4 rings instead of one. We had a little bit of a rocky day, she ran past a couple of jumps and I lost my way during our agility run - but despite this we still managed to take two 1st places in the jumping and agility. Sadly though due to me losing my way and us getting time faults, we don't move up to Grade 2, but that's alright there's no rush.
Here is both of her wins;





She is turning into a fab agility dog. We're off to our next show this weekend at Dundee - where we're also camping for the weekend. This should be fun, as I haven't camped as a sober adult before, and I've love to know how I'm going to straight my hair, so we'll see how it turns out!

a mother's woes

Izzie had a bad night at training last night. I don't mean that she worked bad, I mean that bad things kept happening to her. I accidentally stood/tripped over her twice, she tried to greet a less than happy dog and was snapped at, and she attempted to jump a large pole and smacked her head off of it. All this ended up with her traumatized and a shaking mess by the time we got her into the car at the end of the night. Thankfully though she seems to have forgotten all about it and it hopefully won't have a lasting effect.


It must be those kind of days though as I had to leave uni early yesterday to take George to the vet as he constantly has uh, less than perfect stool. Lots of money less later he has some meds and new food. However today he launched (or was pushed by Izzie, can't really tell) off of a chair and he's bashed one of his teeth - we only realised from the blood all over their cream teddy bear.


A very stressful puppy-mother couple of days so uploaded some pictures of some of their walks to remind me it's not all bad.

Our first show

Izzie and me had our first show on Sunday, Avon in Hamilton. We went along to get her measured and had entered 2 agility and 2 jumping - grade 1. She was confirmed (not that we needed to be told) as small height and we got ready for what was we expected to be just a bit of fun, well didn't she suprise us.

We walked away with two 1sts, a 2nd and a 4 place. Two trophies and 3 rosettes! (not to mention the bag of dog food and voucher, yum yum). My heart really cannot contain how proud I am of my little girl. She impresses me everyday and never fails to keep my spirits up. It was the best first show we could have asked for. Thankfully her agility 1st wasn't a clear round and so we don't have to move up a grade! The atmosphere was great and I honestly even enjoyed sitting around from 7:30am - 6pm in the freezing cold watching owners and their dogs do their runs. I really do need to invest in some chairs/blankets/flasks/waterproof/outdoor equipment in general for the upcoming summer events.

Here is a video of our first ever run, which she won. Lots more over on our club youtube page.

She's hopefully going to be entering a few shows after Crufts, on the weekends. I want to do as much as possible but I'm sure all the expenses like entering and petrol add up really fast - I'm very glad I'm only running 1 dog.

But anyway, that's it. I'm hooked. I'm officially an agility addict!