Cooper goes to Fan Llia

As a special treat today my Dad took me to Fan Llia - one of the quieter, lesser known hills in the Brecon Beacons, just above a little village called Ystradfellte.  Lovely spot - a nice little parking area right by a crystal clear mountain stream, where we stopped and walked up onto the open moorland.  Loads of sheep though (very tempting but a No, No), skylarks galore, meadow pipits, finches, woodpecker, jay, buzzards!

Quite warm at the top after a long walk up, so Dad took me back via the edge of a forestry plantation in the shade and then I had a nice long splash in the mountain stream I told you about.  Lovely it was!  I then mugged Dad for some of his pasty, lay in the sun and chilled out as I dried.

Dad took me to the distillery in Penderyn on the way back and put something that looked like a bottle into the boot of the car.  When we got home, as Mam is away for the day, I notice he hid the bottle at the back of the cupboard.  That's gonna cost him dearly - at least a few cocktail sausages that I've seen in the fridge!

Got a lot of photos of the trip which I hope will persuade you to go there one day.

 

Dog's paradise

On the way up

 Nearly there

Those sheep look tempting

Time to cool off

Where's that fish gone?

It got away!  Settle for a stick.

I'd have preferred a trout!

Can't work out how it got away!

Time to dry off in the sun

Yawn, shut my eyes and go to sleep!

That's all for now - speak to you again soon.

Love from Cooper x

St Clears YFC Show

Bron had an outing at the weekend to the YFC show to get her more familiar with large animals which was a great success. Initially she was a bit afraid of the cows and horses and stood woo wooing at them a lot but after just a short time she was quite relaxed and happy to be very close to them without batting an eyelid. We stood watching the horse showing for a long time and Bron was sat right up against the fence as the horses were riding past within about 2 feet and she wasn't at all bothered by them so I am very pleased about that.



Met quite a few people that knew what breed she was! Hooray! Weighed her at the vet tent and she was a whopping 13kg! No wonder I have a bad back lifting her in/out of the van all the time....

Bron really enjoyed the sheepdog demonstration and wanted to join in, and when the protection dog demo was on and the GSD was biting the man with the sleeve on his arm she was yelling her head off at him!

I had to keep a close eye on her though because she was trying to steal ice-cream and sweets off small children and generally hoovering up any horse pooh on the way round too.

She was worn out when we got home.

St David's Show

Today was the St David's Horse and Dog Show, a lovely event in a superb location on the edge of the smallest city with the sea in the background.  An informal and friendly charity companion show it was well attended with a variety of different breeds and cross breeds.

These types of shows can give much needed practice to puppies and young dogs and was Eve's first outing in such an environment.  Trio was 4th in the sporting category and Maddie 2nd in the open, both of which were classes for pedigree dogs.  A host of rosettes were then gained in the novelty classes with the girls gaining best & reserve junior handlers. 

Eve took it all in her stride, and to finish off we stopped at St David's airfield to let the dogs run off steam after being so well behaved. 

Cooper goes National

Hi again to all you Seahaven Blog followers.  Yesterday I went to the National Dog Show in Stafford.  What a journey - motorway hold-ups and getting lost in the last few miles meant we were doubtful we'd make the judging.  But made it we did, so Dad's language changed from Anglo Saxon to Queen's English and his blood pressure came down to nearer normal (for him)!

It was my first attempt at a qualifying show for next year's Crufts, and I was entered in with the big boys now - Post Graduate, no less.  Just before Mam took me into the showring I spotted Dad trying to hide with his camera.  Not having any of that so barked at him until he came to reassure me.  Then - into the ring!  Mam tried to set me up - move my back legs to position, OK - I'll move my front ones then.  Move my front legs - I'll move my back again!  Starting to enjoy this game again.  Nice judge walks over to look at me (lady this time) - not interested in her, where's my Dad hiding!  Mam has to move me round the ring - better go REALLY slow Mam, or I may jump on you again.  All the Tollers in my class then line up again - think Mam's given up now because she's stopped fussing so much.  I'm standing as crooked as an MP's expenses claim!  Judge points to one dog, then second - then ME!?  Mam looks like the girl in the Sky broadband advert who walks off with Bruce Willis; Dad reappears from nowhere and his BP isn't looking too good again.  But there it is - somehow I've pulled a rabbit out of the hat and Crufts 2014 beckons.

Mam looks startled!

Outside the Showhall - standing OK now!

That's really what happened, but in Toller World something far more significant happened yesterday.  Trevargh the Entertainer (Woody) made history as the first UK Show Champion, winning his third consecutive CC.  He took Best Dog and Best of Breed and thoroughly deserved the awards. Huge congratulations to him and his family!  As our owners' names are very close alphabetically, we are nearly always benched close to each other now, so maybe, just maybe, he had enough magic to help me on my way too!  And even more special yesterday - I was benched right next door to Arni (Narod the Impossible Dream).  He is 14 now but what a legend to be introduced to.  He had his lunch right next to me and I was so in awe of him that I never asked him for a bit!  Two Tollers who are living legends within a whisker's distance of me throughout the day - what a story to tell young Tollers when my whiskers turn grey.

So, that's all for now folks.  Speak to you soon.

Love

Cooper
x

Eve's swimming progress

Eve hasn't been out with the big dogs much at all, she is much too young to keep up and we want her to respond to us and not the dogs when we are out and about.  However we have been taking her with them now and again to build her confidence around water.  She started off on the beach exploring rock pools, and progressed on to wading through a shallow river with a few pools where she was temporarily out of depth of a stride or two.  We have now progressed on to the lake where she follows the other dogs in for a retrieve, we will continue to build on this until she can go out on her own for a retrieve.

Bank holiday Monday was spent at the North Somerset Show, where we competed in the agility with the munsters.  This was there first outing of the year at a proper agility show and the first outdoor show since Paington in August last year.  It was incredibly hot, such a change from the weather that we have been used to!  Sadly Maddie was eliminated from the 3 classes that she was entered in, her concerntration wasn't as it should have been and she was very distracted by the gunshot from the clay pigeon shoot area.  Back to some training now before her next outing!  Trio was much better having a clear round but not fast enough for the placings, 5 faults and then eliminated from the last class for back jumping (same thing as Maddie). 

We did have a fab time and it was great to catch up with friends from club and away. Eve came along and got to meet lots of different things, she wasn't keen on the Llama's but I think the feeling was mutual! 

We also took part in the gundog scurry, with Maddie having a time of 9.6 secs, and Trio 10 secs, the winning time was in the region of 8 secs so very pleased with this.  Eve also had a go with Eleanor and she ran out confidently to the dummy, but it was too heavy for her and she was struggling to bring it back even though she was trying ever so hard.  The very kind people let her have another go but with a tennis ball to help build her confidence where she did a lovely retrieve back to Eleanor.

Banwen Open Show

Today we had an outing to Banwen Show to see Cooper on his home turf, and give some support to Dawn and this lovely show.

No breed classes were scheduled for either Munsters or Tollers, so only Any Variety or AV not separately classified ,and Junior Handling.

Only Maddie and Trio entered from heer, Tilly stayed home and we took Eve for a first visit to a show environment.

Trio and Cooper were both entered in the AV Gundog Open class, and we had a great result with Trio (Seahaven Borrowed Heaven) 1st and Cooper (Seahaven Galatic Storm) 2nd.

Eleanor handled in the JH class to gain 4th and Tasha was unplaced in the older category, she has just moved up in to the older category.

Maddie then had to wait until the end of the day for the AVNSC Open class, and she was 2nd, really pleased that the judge came over to us to tell us that it had been a close call for 1st which went to a lovely Malamute.

Eve took it all in her stride and I think Dawn enjoyed introducing her to her friends as Cooper's little sister.  Had some lovely comments from people and she behaved very well, one very tired puppy though now.

Colour coded walkies

Bron is fast approaching the height of Dizzy now, starting to grow some tail feathers now and her puppy fluff has disappeared to reveal a darker adult coat coming nicely. She continues to be an absolute joy to have around. Dizzy has become her new best friend and they spend hours zooming round playing chase and hide n seek and every now and again there is a little yip where Dizzy nips Bron on the bum and she squeaks hehe, such a wuss, she loves to dish it out but cannot take it!