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.