Christmas Day!

Christmas Day starts as it always starts with the present opening - yippee! This involves a pile of presents for everyone in our house - Malcolm, Emma and the dogs. It always makes us laugh when Barney runs straight over to their pile of presents and immediately starts sniffing away. He loves Christmas! As you can see from the photo below they both got the idea of opening their presents!

And to honour the occasion Pebbles always wears her Christmas outfit - so cute!

And then took some time to enjoy one of her treats!

Santa was good to both of us with lots of undies and socks to go round! Malcolm was also really happy with some great walking boots and a great new, no effort involved, coffee machine. I was lucky to get lots too - a CD, a ring, pyjamas and best of all a voucher for the sales! Yippee, shops here I come!

After a good long walk it is time for us to leave for my brothers for Christmas lunch. It is always great to have all the family together to celebrate Christmas and Graham (my brother) and Hazel (his partner) always do an amazing job with the food and entertainment (mostly provided by my 2 nieces!!!).

This years award for the most apt Christmas present goes to my Mum for giving my Dad this hat!

This year was also very special because the last few years have seen the 'Grannies' having a few serious health problems that they have battled hard to overcome. It was great to see them both looking so well.

This Christmas was Mac's first Christmas and he was very well behaved after the initial mad moment when everyone arrived. He soon settled down to enjoy his very, very large chew bone. This kept him amused for ages!


Like mother, like daughter!

Malcolm modelling the Santa hat!


After lunch we headed home where Malcolm slept off the Christmas lunch and we watched some rubbish Christmas TV. Another great Christmas.........until next year!

Glow in the Dark!

I hate this time of year with the short days and having to rush home from work to walk the dogs before it gets dark. Most days I can get home in time to walk them by 3.30pm when it is still light but occasionally we have to venture out in the dark. Not too bad because I go to the golf course and they get to run about on the course and we rarely meet anyone so they have a ball.

Last Friday, however, I ended up walking them in the dark. Given the colour of Barney and Pebbles (black!) it is very hard to see them in the dark! Therefore, I have had to invest in glowing collars and little lights that hang from their collars, so that I can see them! They are prone to running into the woods, always coming back, but it gives me peace of mind knowing where they are as I see the little lights bob back and forwards in the distance. I thought I would take a picture on this walk to show you what I mean!!!!

Barney and Pebbles in the Dark!

Of course, it is not only the 2 dogs that are lit up like Christmas trees! I wear my head torch so I can see where I am going!

Me in the Dark!

While on this walk I was going to let Barney and Pebbles play their weekly fetch game with the ball but alas I could not see the ball. For Pebbles who brings the ball back faithfully this would not be a problem. Barney, however, likes you to chase him when he has the ball or he might decide to randomly drop the ball whenever he gets a good sniff, maybe in the trees, or last week it was dropped in the small stream! Not so easy to know where the ball is!!! Therefore, I decided to buy some glow in the dark balls!!

Now these are hilarious and I hope to get some pictures of them in action next week. There is one red ball and one blue ball. They are brilliant! It is so funny to see the balls hover around in the dark and together with the blue and red lights on the dogs collars we must look like a mini light show!! It made me laugh that is for sure!

Woodside Show

Today I was at Woodside winter agility show with Barney and Pebbles. It was great because the venue was in Broxburn which was only a 30 minute drive from home so it was not too early a start - only 6.45am!!

First up was Barney in Combined 5-7 Agility. He did his usual jump off the bottom of the dog walk and then was eliminated at the last jump when he went straight on instead of going right over the last jump. Otherwise I was really please with his run and he was running quickly and flowing well. Then it was Pebbles over the same course for smalls. She did a lovely round and was working away from me well but knocked the pole down on the second to last jump! Looking at the times she would have finished 5th if she had not got 5 faults! I am happy with that though since time wise she is back in the mix, at the last show she was a few seconds off the pace so progress there.

Then it was a jumping course for Barney Combined 5-7. It was a really tough course with lots of twists and traps. Barney did really well and only made one small mistake pausing at one jump to give him 5 faults. Pebbles did the same course. I knew that the best and quickest way to do it was for me to do a cross behind and for her to turn right - a move she is not good at but needs to learn. So I did not take the easy option and try and cross in front but made her do it. As predicted she protested and stopped and barked at me! I made her go over the jump and I crossed behind but this got us 5 faults. Not that it mattered since she got eliminated later on! On exiting the tunnel I pushed her out then raised my hand too early and this sent her back through the tunnel!!

Then it was onto Barney's last run - Combined 4-7 Jumping. Again it was a really tough course but he managed to go clear - clever Barney :-) And he finished 5th. It was a good round and he did really well to avoid the traps. He was working well and really listening. He is still a bit off the pace of the higher grade 7 dogs but it was not his kind of course.

Finally Pebbles did a Combined 4-7 Agility and it was the craziest course I have ever seen. Put it this way 30 or so dogs all Grade 5 and above and only 3 dogs went clear!! Pebbles protested at the wall (4th jump) by running past it and it went downhill from there! I think she was eliminated about 3 times! Not my type of course at all - lots of changes of direction and no flow at all.

So all in all not a very successful day results wise but I was happy with the way they were working. I don't think they really like indoor shows - no caravan, stuck in car between runs and they don't work well on the indoor surface. They seem much happier outdoors on grass when they are in the caravan.

That's all the shows now until February which I am quite glad about - it will be a nice break and give us a chance to get some training in.

Mobile Phone Photos

Thought I would post a few photos that I have taken on my mobile phone recently since they are of the dogs and are really cute. Please excuse the quality but I only have a 2mp camera on my phone - I am thinking of getting a better camera on my next mobile phone so I can take better photos for the blog without having to remember the digital camera!

Pebbles in the van in her favourite spot on the table!

Pebbles looking amazingly cute sleeping on the van! Aawwww!

Barney resting on Dad's foot!!

Barney cuddling his favourite toy - Duck! Cute or what?!!

Today we went for a walk with the dogs as usual but it was not a normal day. It was absolutely FREEZING!!!! The temperature did not get above freezing all day and was probably no higher than -3 degrees for most of the day. It was unbelievably cold. So cold that the frost was thick everywhere you looked - trees, fences, and cars. It was quite pretty to look at even if it was cold to be out in it. Here are some photos from to give you an idea of exactly how cold it was!

I was very glad to get home to a warm house and stay inside for the rest of the day. I think even the dogs were happy to be out of the cold!

Sunday Walk

Last Sunday we went for a walk with my brother and my nieces and their puppy Mac. Mac is a Border Trrier who is now almost 7 months old. He is a lovely, friendly dog and loves to run and play. Here he is below playing in the snow! Yes, we had snow last week in November!

Barney and Mac have their odd moments. Mac tries to play with Barney who is not interested so Barney spends a few moments growling at Mac. Mac soon gets the message and goes running after Pebbles.

Mac and Pebbles love to play and they love to run and run. Mac can sometimes get a bit over excited to have someone to play with and sometimes can spin Pebbles round and round on the ground. Pebbles is getting used it to it now and gives as good as she gets! The good thing is they manage to tire each other out :-)

Here are some great shots of Mac on his walk:

It is great to see Mac change over the months - we even got to witness one monumental stage in his development during this walk - he lifted his leg for the first time!!! Apparently he is a dab hand at this now and is leaving his 'scent' all over the place now!!

Here are some close up shots of Mac at home with the girls:

We all love our weekend walks, it is a great chance for a chat and to let the dogs have some fun.

Agility Training

Today I went to training with Kenny and had a great session. I really enjoyed it and thought it worked well on the points that needed work.

We started with the channel weave for Pebbles. This is like a weave but every second pole is pulled outwards so she can run straight through the middle. This means she can go fast and will work independently of me. Up until now she would not weave unless I am right beside her. This exercise aims to work on this and allow me to cross behind her. By next season we hope to have some great angled weave entries and the ability to cross behind and move away from the weave. She was starting to do some really good angles and was running ahead of me which was great. I can see this hard work all paying off by next year.

Barney started by working on the dog walk. Kenny started him on a new technique to try and get him fast and confident on the down plank. This involved a set of sticks with a rope tied between them sitting at the bottom of the down plank. This meant Barney had to go under this. We then put a bit of chicken onto a tub about 7m away from the bottom of the dog walk for Barney to run towards at speed (this technique had been used previously). We started by putting Barney half way down the plank and getting him to go under the barrier. He did this a few times and soon was going the full length of the dog walk and running under the barrier to the food. I was really pleased with this and loved the fact that Barney was getting to run flat out and not getting scared of being stopped. This was the cause of him crawling down the down plank. He still has many sessions of this to keep building the speed but I can see how it will work in the long run and I am so determined to achieve consistent dog walks with Barney!

Then we did some work on straight line speed over jumps working in front of me. Barney did this so well and even did 2 jumps at each end at an angle. All independently of me and at speed. Very Happy. Pebbles was not so good at this one still looking behind to find me between jumps and not going without me. Work to be done here me thinks.

Finally we finished by putting these sequences together with a couple of blast courses. Barney was amazing he sped off without me and did most of the course with me shouting commands remotely. The course finished with the dog walk with the barrier running onto the tub with food. He did this really well.

Pebbles did well too and was really good with the weave allowing me to cross behind and ran well down the jumps.

It was one of my favourite training sessions for a long time and I really, really loved it. More of the same please!

Barney is a Grade 6!

Last Saturday saw us at the first indoor agility show of the year. It was held at Ingliston indoor horse arena which is a great venue.

First up was Pebbles in combined 5-7 agility. This was an elimination with Pebbles stumbling slightly coming over a jump and on getting up I think I pushed her the wrong way by moving towards her (mother's instinct to move towards them when they fall!) and so she back jumped. Still the rest of the round was good and she is starting to work away from me quite well and I am getting more confident about not having to be glues to her side all of the time.

Next up was Barney over the same course. Again we got eliminated! Not a great start to the day! This time Barney jumped the wrong jump in the box (one of his favourite moves!). Again the rest of the round was good although he could still do with going a bit faster.

Then it was the first of the jumping courses for Pebbles. Again she got eliminated (definitely a bad day!). I pulled her through two jumps and must have moved my shoulder a fraction too early and it pushed her back throught the same jumps and she jumped the jump the wrong way! Mmmm, my fault I think. Pebbles is just so responsive to any slight movement I make which is great sometimes but not so great others.

Barney was next up over the same jumping course (Barney loves jumping). He did a lovely clear round which meant he won Grade 5. This was his 3rd jumping win at Grade 5 which meant he qualified for Grade 6. Yippee! Only disappointment is that he did not win Grade 5 agility. This will have to change now though since he cannot progress to Grade 7 without winning 2 Grade 6 agility courses.

Over the final agility Pebbles did a lovely clear but was not fast enough to place. It has to be said though that all the good small dogs were out at this one so I was not surprised. Barney did his usual 5 faults on the dog walk. He still won Grade 5 though which was great. Back to the drawing board with this I think. He just does not get it. Must do more training!

On the final jumping course Pebbles went clear but again was not fast enough to place. Barney was eliminated by my handling again! He was supposed to go round the back of the the jump but I did not push him out enough and he jumped it the wrong way.

Overall I am happy with the way the show went. Things to work on are Barney's dog walk and Pebbles's speed. But really please with the progress Pebbles has made with working away from me.

Barney and Pebbles Go Swimming!

This winter, in between agility seasons, I thought I would take Barney and Pebbles swimming for a bit of fitness. Given that neither of them like to go beyond paddling in water it should prove an interesting project!

There is a canine hydrotherapy pool not far from us in Glenrothes which I thought we would try. On arrival I was asked various questions about Barney and Pebbles and their general levels of fitness to allow the staff to guage how much swimming to give them on their first visit.

At this point both were a bit unsure of their surroundings and tried to hide when getting their life jackets on! They did look very cute in their little red jackets though!

We then went through to the swimming pool where it was decided to get Barney in the pool first given that he seemed more scared than Pebbles. He did so well and although he was very wary and not too keen he just got on with it and did so well. Here is a little video of Barney in action:

We then moved onto Pebbles as Barney watched from the side. I have to say Barney did look mighty pleased with himself at this point!!

Pebbles did really well as well. She didn't look particularly happy throughout but got on with it too. Here she is in action:

All in all I think it was a successful visit. The staff at the pool said it was virtually unheard of for a dog to actually enjoy their first swim and that Barney and Pebbles managed to swim for a lot longer than the majority of dogs. Oh what a proud Mum I was!

What I found really amazing was the fact that both dogs were unsure of what was happening and were not altogether thrilled about swimming but both just looked at me and trusted the fact that I was there and asking them to do this. What amazing faith and love they have.

We are going to go swimming again in 2 weeks, then 3 weeks and then every 4 weeks until next spring. I think it will be a great way to keep them fit and I hope they will start to enjoy it before long!

Mhairi's 11th Birthday Party

On Friday 7th November Macolm and I went to Mhairi's birthday party. It is always good fun to share these events and to see all the family together. This year it was especially nice to see Edma and Charlotte there given they have both had their troubles with illness over the last while.

I can't believe that Mhairi, the birthday girl is 11 already - it seems only a short while ago that she was at our wedding as a baby!! Oh, how she has grown :-) Although not quite as tall as me - yet!!

We enjoyed some lovely food followed by the 'chocolate fountain' which was very exciting and very, very yummy!

It was eaten with various lovely options including strawberries (my favourite!), marshmallows, and fudge. Yummy!

Of course there was no way we were giong to have all that chocolate around and not have Edie all covered in it!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mhairi - hope you enjoyed it xx

Dougal

26.06.95 - 29.11.08

I am so very sad to be writing this post to my Mum and Dad about Dougal their lovely, sweet dog, that had to be put to sleep last week.

Dougal went to live with you at just 8 weeks old and you gave him a long and very happy life. He was one in a million and I know you will miss him so much but he will live forever in your hearts. Remember the good times and the fun you had. Remember the games of ball every night, the 4 legs in the air in the mornings, the games of chase around the sofa, the cuddles and, of course, the shared meals!

Dougal was the most amazing dog, so gentle, so loving, so loyal, so faithful and so loved by all who had the pleasure of meeting him. I hope you will find comfort in the fact that your lovely little dog touched so many people.

Dougal loved his walks with you Mum and enjoyed many, many miles of walking together over the years. He even came to enjoy his walks with his mad nephew and niece, Barney and Pebbles, right up to a few weeks before he passed away. He was so well behaved and I am sure was there to guide my two and show them the way. No more so when it came to the order that the treats were handed out, Dougal, then Barney then Pebbles!

Dougal lived a long, happy and healthy life right up to the end and was very lucky to have found his forever home with you both. You were the perfect match. And he was never happier than when he was with his Mum and Dad.

We will all miss you sweet Dougal. Sleep well lovely, gentle boy xxxxxxx

Pebbles

Well, where to start with writing about Pebbles, our smallest and youngest sheltie! We got Pebbles just over a year after we got Barney since we thought it would be nice to have two dogs and for them to have each other. We thought long and hard about whether this would be too much for us to cope with but decided to go for it. And lets just say that we have never regretted our decision and we love the fact the two dogs have each other for company and to play with.

Pebbles came from Wales and arrived with us in September 2004. We thought Barney had been small when we first got him but Pebbles was absolutely tiny. But that did not stop her. From day one she was confident and fiesty with a huge charatcter.

I love these pictures below because it shows you how small Pebbles was when she first arrived - so cute!!

And this picture is one of my favourites showing the difference in size between Barney and Pebbles as they are both flat out on the sofa sleeping.

And so we then looked forward to the next few months of puppyhood where Pebbles would grow long legs as Barney had but alas that never happened and we now have got one very, very small, fluffy, cute sheltie that at 3 years old still looks like a puppy! In fact we still often get people asking how old our puppy is!!!

Pebbles favourite things in the world are grub, running, playing ball, chasing anything that moves and agility. She would run and chase her ball all day every day if given the chance and her favourite place is the beach where she gets to do both of these things for hours.

She is definitely a character and being small has never stopped her from being larger than life. Everything has to run to her timetable or you get stared at and barked at until you do what she is expecting. It is unbelievable how accurate her internal clock is in terms of telling us what time she should be getting walked, fed and her final supper at night. She constantly makes us laugh because she is so cheeky.

And as for agility what can I say but she is amazing. She started off a bit unsure of things but as soon as she got going there was no stopping her. In just over a year of competing she went from Grade 3 to the top Grade 7. She qualified for the Olympia semi-finals the first time she entered the qualifying event and finished 13th just outside the top 10 who went through to the final. She is one of the best, most consistent small dogs in Scotland. I love working with her because she is so enthusiastic and loves to train and compete. Here are some of my favourite action shots:

In summary Pebbles is an amazing dog and we could not have asked for anything better. She is fun, mad, so very cute and one in a million.

So that is my brief summary of Barney and Pebbles so far. I will try and post as many of their antics as I can in future!! And I will try harder to get more videos of them in action I promise!

Barney

Given that our two dogs - Barney and Pebbles - are a pretty major part of our lives I thought it might be a good idea to write a post about each one to introduce them. Barney is our first ever dog and is a bi-black Shetland Sheepdog (Sheltie). This is a very rare colour for a Sheltie and we get a lot of comments at agility shows about how unusual he is.

We picked Barney up as an 8 week old puppy from the north of England and to say he won our hearts over as soon as we saw him would be an understatement. It was love at first sight and that has never changed in the 4 years he has been with us.

He was the runt of the litter and very small when we got him but he grew pretty quickly and it was not long before the puppy was gone and the long legs and long tail emerged as he grew. An how can forget those ears. They were folded down like a Sheltie's ears should be and then one day they sprung up and have been like fox ears ever since!

We still laugh now that at the time we thought he was the most gorgeous dog to look at and very handsome. But as we look back at the photos we now think he looked like an alien! Long legs, long tail and bat ears!!

He has, however, grown into a very handsome dog. We get a lot of people who stop to say what a good looking dog he is. And as proud parents who are we to argue!


Since he was small he has always been the most loving dog, constantly wanting to be by your side. He is quite a worrier and likes to make sure you are always nearby. But he has always been very bright and active. He loves his walks and loves agility and just loves being with you.

In the winter months Barney enjoys his walks and agility training and the odd indoor agility show. In the summer months from April to September he loves to spend his weekends away in the caravan at agility shows. Barney is pretty successful at agility and has not failed to come home without winning many rosettes at each show. This will get harder now as he moves up the grades. He is now a grade 5, out of 7.





It was not long until we got the bug for Sheltie's and after a year of just Barney along came his little sister Pebbles and life was never to be the same again! I will post a blog about her later!!

North Berwick Oct 08

Well last weekend was the last weekend away in the caravan this year - boo hiss! We absolutely love going away in the caravan with the dogs and it will now go into storage over the winter for about 6 months. Nightmare!

Still we spent our last weekend away at our favourite camp site at Dirleton, just by North Berwick. It is a great site because it is a 5 minute walk to the most amazing beach that the dogs love. The great bit is that the beach is open to dogs all year round, which is why this trip was our third to this site this year!

The dogs absolutely love going to the beach - I am sure Pebbles has a grin on her face the whole time. And even better she gets to play with the ball which is her favourite pastime of all time. She would chase the ball all day if she got the chance.


The weather was mixed with it being wet and windy on the Saturday but the Sunday and Monday were lovely. Cold but with blue sky and sunshine.

We were also trying out our new porch awning. We thought we would take it to try and put it up when there was time restrictions like at an agility show and when we could take our time to work out how to do it! It was actually really easy to put up although I did make a mistake on the first step which only came to light at the end so we had to dismantle it and start again - yes, Malcolm was not best pleased!! However, we got there in the end and we were really pleased with the result. It looks great and is much bigger than our last one.



The site was really quiet at this time of year too so we did not have anyone to either side of us and managed to get the windbreaks up to form a little garden for the dogs. This always makes a huge difference when letting them out first and last thing.



It is now back home to the worst months of the year with dark mornings struggling to get up and dark evenings trying to walk the dogs before you cannot see anything. Never mond we have enjoyed a great season in the caravan and enjoyed a great agility season. Here's to another successful year next year.