Grace was a bit poorly on Monday night. She had her head in a corner , then fell over!
She saw the vet on Tuesday who thought it could be a mini stroke. She took blood and urine samples.
On Tuesday evening Grace started wobbling on her back end and not wanting to put her left hind leg to the floor! Back to the vet on Wednesday...
The blood results were back and they showed that there was a problem with Graces liver...... More tests.
Thursday Grace is back in the vets for an ultrasound scan to see if there's a growth and more blood tests to see what else may be wrong!!!
The wobbly back end appears to be due to arthritis in her left hip!!
Wednesday 19 January 2011
Sunday 9 January 2011
Ooooops!!!!
How could I have forgotten about this blog for soooo long!!!
Must try to keep this up to date this year!!
Well, 2010 has been THE most amazing year for us.
We took up Heelwork to music, also known as canine freestyle or doggy dancing. Lottie prefers Freestyle, whilst Loki would much rather do Heelwork, so in May, we had our first competition. Loki just did a training round, but Lottie competed and was I shocked when she came 2nd!!!
This gave 6 points towards winning out of starters (you need 14).
The following week we competed again and Lottie excelled herself and WON the class, giving her 10 points and thus winning out of Starters!!!! It all happened so quickly, even now, it feels somewhat surreal!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=favxiIy1JUA
This Lotties' winning routine!
Must try to keep this up to date this year!!
Well, 2010 has been THE most amazing year for us.
We took up Heelwork to music, also known as canine freestyle or doggy dancing. Lottie prefers Freestyle, whilst Loki would much rather do Heelwork, so in May, we had our first competition. Loki just did a training round, but Lottie competed and was I shocked when she came 2nd!!!
This gave 6 points towards winning out of starters (you need 14).
The following week we competed again and Lottie excelled herself and WON the class, giving her 10 points and thus winning out of Starters!!!! It all happened so quickly, even now, it feels somewhat surreal!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=favxiIy1JUA
This Lotties' winning routine!
Loki started his HTM competition at the same show, but I let him down badly as I'd not thought out the middle of his routine - if I didn't know where we were going - how could he??? He still managed to finish 6th!!
In August we went to Stoneleigh and he really pulled out all the stops at this show and WON Starters HTM! He'd had a 4th at another show, so was just 2 points short of winning out!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqIr86N4D-Y
This is Lokis routine.
We had to wait till September to get the final points for him to win out!! He came 2nd - and Lottie who had been playing around in HTM with him, came 3rd!!!
Also in September we entered one of the few Agility shows we manage to get to and Lottie came 2nd and 4th, which is amazing. The courses were very hard for her level (Grade 1), but she loves the hard stuff!!! Loki got 12th in his class, I was making sure he got all his contacts, so wasted time!
In November we had our flyball teams last ever competition (although we didn't know it at the time!) And what a swansong it was We only dropped one leg all day and WON our division in fine style!!!
So, for 2011..... we will be competing in more agility shows and continuing to compete in HTM/Freestyle, as for the flyball - I don't know!!!
We have our first show - a small fun HTM show on Feb 12th. So we are training hard. Lotties routine is complete and just heeds the polish. Loki is taking longer to get his routine together.
Our first proper HTM show is on March 26th, so we will see how we get on! My worst fear for Lottie is that her success in starters was a fluke and she will be terrible in Novice!!
Time will tell.
:-) HAPPY NEW YEAR
Friday 15 May 2009
Loki Update
As the weather has been so awful we've not done much training this week, so I decided to take a chance and go to an obedience club with him. The last time he went (to a different one) he freaked out!!! He was not happy at the beginning, but he worked and by the end he was relaxed. His left turns have gone to pot so I need to work on those if it stops raining long enough!!!!
Cefn Coed is on Saturday, and if it is chucking it down, we may well not go!!!! Yes, I am a wimp, but I'm not that committed to obedience - yet!!
Cefn Coed is on Saturday, and if it is chucking it down, we may well not go!!!! Yes, I am a wimp, but I'm not that committed to obedience - yet!!
Wednesday 29 April 2009
Lokis' Obedience Training Progress cont.....
I am so pleased with his progress. He is not swinging his back end out on the about turns any more, which is great, he doesn't drift off my leg so often and his concentration is improving.
The running order for Cefn Coed came today and we are drawn to work 6th in Novice, which couldn't be better as this is how we worked at the West Of England show. I can use the novice round as a "training" round if I need to.
I have started to re-teach sendaway with a down at the end instead of a stand, which we used for working trials, and he is happy to down, so no problems there so far. I need a good reliable fast send before adding in any "markers" into the equation.
The running order for Cefn Coed came today and we are drawn to work 6th in Novice, which couldn't be better as this is how we worked at the West Of England show. I can use the novice round as a "training" round if I need to.
I have started to re-teach sendaway with a down at the end instead of a stand, which we used for working trials, and he is happy to down, so no problems there so far. I need a good reliable fast send before adding in any "markers" into the equation.
Saturday 18 April 2009
Lokis' Obedience Training Progress
After our amazing day at the West Of England Border Collie Club show, I have entered Loki in some obedience shows. We are doing Cefn Coed, CwmBran, Cheltenham and Taunton. We are also going to Golden Valley and Caerphilly agility shows. This will be a busy year as there are the flyball tournaments to fit in too!!
I took him out into the garden to train the other day and discovered that if I’m not feeling 100% and don’t put a lot of effort into working with him, he doesn’t bother either!
Today we went out in the garden and in the 20 minutes we were training, the want and attitude were there in bucket loads!!
We started with small left circles to get him in the correct position and to remind him that he has to be “on” my leg, then from left circles we added a short straight line – lovely, attention and constant contact with my leg.
We then tried small right circles and after a shaky start, he was much more consistent in his position.
His presents are much better – have to work on his wait though, he is enjoying the training too much lol.
I will have to remember to only do one, maybe two retrieve training bits at one time as he gets over excited and starts being silly!!!! I am pleased with his work so far. Let’s hope for some dry weather so we can consolidate our work so far.
It hasn’t been easy trying to remember how we taught turns years ago ( I haven’t trained a dog for competition obedience for 12+ years – it’s a long time to think back!! It’s coming though, once you get into the right frame of mind and in a training situation, it just sort of pops back into the memory again.
I took him out into the garden to train the other day and discovered that if I’m not feeling 100% and don’t put a lot of effort into working with him, he doesn’t bother either!
Today we went out in the garden and in the 20 minutes we were training, the want and attitude were there in bucket loads!!
We started with small left circles to get him in the correct position and to remind him that he has to be “on” my leg, then from left circles we added a short straight line – lovely, attention and constant contact with my leg.
We then tried small right circles and after a shaky start, he was much more consistent in his position.
His presents are much better – have to work on his wait though, he is enjoying the training too much lol.
I will have to remember to only do one, maybe two retrieve training bits at one time as he gets over excited and starts being silly!!!! I am pleased with his work so far. Let’s hope for some dry weather so we can consolidate our work so far.
It hasn’t been easy trying to remember how we taught turns years ago ( I haven’t trained a dog for competition obedience for 12+ years – it’s a long time to think back!! It’s coming though, once you get into the right frame of mind and in a training situation, it just sort of pops back into the memory again.
Wednesday 8 April 2009
Video of our round
www.youtube.com/watch
This is Loki's obedience round.
The begionning is very ragged - my fault for not getting him focussed enough before going in! But once we got going, I thought he was very good, considering the little bit of training we have done!!!
This is Loki's obedience round.
The begionning is very ragged - my fault for not getting him focussed enough before going in! But once we got going, I thought he was very good, considering the little bit of training we have done!!!
Saturday 4 April 2009
Loki the obedience dog!
We couldn't have had better weather today at the West Of England Border Collie Club show. It was sunny but cool.
Grace got 4th out of 4 in veteran in the breed show, and came last in working bitch, so the judge didn't like her - so what, she behaved beautifully, did what I asked, when I asked. I think she enjoyed herself, which is the whole reason for showing her again.... Mission accomplished!!
Loki was his usual sniffy, wanting to say "hi" to everyone self and I thought he was not going to get his brain in gear and concentrate! Wouldnt blame him as I've not done much training at all!!
We worked the novice round first and what a surprise..... he went in the ring and as soon as he was set up, he became a different dog!!!! Apart from his retrieve, he did really well. I didn't bother doing stays with him.
Kim, my friend from flyball came to film his beginner round for me so that I could see what needed to be worked on. The first exercise was heel on lead and after a shakey start, he suddenly switched his brain on and worked like a little superstar! Recall was not bad - crooked present, but then he's never done a straight one yet!! Heel free was beautiful. Yes he drifted, but he was paying attention and worked really well. Retrieve was his downfall in novice, so I wasn't hoping for much.... He sat and waited whilst I threw the dumbell, I sent him and he picked it up and for some reason I said "in" which I don't normally..... he came in and sat in front with the dumbell in his mouth!!!!! I was so so pleased with him.
I went back after showing Grace to see where he'd ended up... only to be told that he was needed for a run off!!!
Run back to the van, chuck Grace in, get him out, do a warm up - badly, runback to the ring, do another warm up. He has no attention - oh well, he is at his first ever obedience show, what can I expect?
We have to do heel free again. I set him up and his on switch kicks in and off we go and he is working. I am so proud of him. And the icing on the cake is that Jenny his breeder is tere to watch him!!
Loki ends up winning his run off and coming in 4th place!!! I am over the moon with him. And I have the film to remind me!!!! I have no idea what he lost.
Grace got 4th out of 4 in veteran in the breed show, and came last in working bitch, so the judge didn't like her - so what, she behaved beautifully, did what I asked, when I asked. I think she enjoyed herself, which is the whole reason for showing her again.... Mission accomplished!!
Loki was his usual sniffy, wanting to say "hi" to everyone self and I thought he was not going to get his brain in gear and concentrate! Wouldnt blame him as I've not done much training at all!!
We worked the novice round first and what a surprise..... he went in the ring and as soon as he was set up, he became a different dog!!!! Apart from his retrieve, he did really well. I didn't bother doing stays with him.
Kim, my friend from flyball came to film his beginner round for me so that I could see what needed to be worked on. The first exercise was heel on lead and after a shakey start, he suddenly switched his brain on and worked like a little superstar! Recall was not bad - crooked present, but then he's never done a straight one yet!! Heel free was beautiful. Yes he drifted, but he was paying attention and worked really well. Retrieve was his downfall in novice, so I wasn't hoping for much.... He sat and waited whilst I threw the dumbell, I sent him and he picked it up and for some reason I said "in" which I don't normally..... he came in and sat in front with the dumbell in his mouth!!!!! I was so so pleased with him.
I went back after showing Grace to see where he'd ended up... only to be told that he was needed for a run off!!!
Run back to the van, chuck Grace in, get him out, do a warm up - badly, runback to the ring, do another warm up. He has no attention - oh well, he is at his first ever obedience show, what can I expect?
We have to do heel free again. I set him up and his on switch kicks in and off we go and he is working. I am so proud of him. And the icing on the cake is that Jenny his breeder is tere to watch him!!
Loki ends up winning his run off and coming in 4th place!!! I am over the moon with him. And I have the film to remind me!!!! I have no idea what he lost.
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