Greetings from Big Brother

Just got back from my morning walk and I've sneaked into the living room while I'm still wet to get onto the laptop before my Dad.

I want to say Happy Birthday to all of Tilly and Red's pups.  I've met Eve, Bron and Sox, and have seen photos of Scout (formerly Santa). It would be lovely to see photos of the rest of you too.  You are all crackers - I mean really special (as well as nuts by the sound of it).  Hope you are all enjoying life!

Love

Cooper
x

Ginger Beastie - Seahaven's Gloriana - is a year old! Where did that time go?

It's time to wish Bron and all her litter mates a Happy 1st Birthday! Where did that time go? I can't thank Donna & Sean enough for allowing us to have a Tilly baby. Beastie really is the perfect toller in my eyes, beauty, brains (naughty ones), fun and games and THE most amazing temprement all rolled in to one.  She has made us laugh so much since we brought her home, probably gained a few extra grey hairs and apologised to several people along the way for one enthusiastic ginger ninja leaping on them plastered in mud or trying to lick their eye ball etc etc. At times she has been a bit of a hooligan BUT has also showed amazing patience when Nell had her pups and they were all biting her and leaping all over her, she would lay down and play with them for hours on end even when they were almost eating her alive! When Bron met a friends 9 month old baby she was very gentle with her, sat and allowed her to pat her and she instinctively knew she must not climb on her.

We've done a bit of showing, had a lot of laughs, met lots of people, travelled about a bit and Bron has been to work with me quite a lot, even to the airport and taken it all in her stride. She loves swimming, getting filthy dirty and visiting Pets at Home for a spot of shoplifting (but we don't talk about that). She learnt to clear the stable door about 5 months ago and despite attempts to stop her, she is still flying over it with no effort at all....

When we lost our older collie Toby to cancer in the summer quite suddenly we somehow decided to keep back one of Nells pups 'Ted' who is only 5 months younger than Bron so it has been a lot of fun (and hard work) having two puppies around, however the pair of them love each other to bits and can let off steam each day. They have time apart as well to settle them down or we would never get any peace at all.

Speical hugs to Sox who is having his birthday present with the vet today in the form of a nutcracking job!

 

I thought id share a few pictures of "Santa" who has been names "Scout". Boisterous doesn’t come close to his personality and I’m thinking it’s a sign of his teenage years! He loves the outdoors and saying hello to our passing neighbours by way of a bark when they least expect it. He’s been up a few small fells in the Lakes as we live just outside of Kendal. I hope everyone else has had a good year with their new addition.

 

 

LKA

Maddies BOB

Somehow I was persuaded to enter the girls in the Junior Handling at LKA!  With the first class going into the ring at 8.30am it meant a really early morning of a 4.00am start.  Not easy getting up and going out at this hour during the winter when it’s so dark and cold.

 

Thankfully we had a good journey and arrived in good time in order to sort out benching , give the dogs a groom and for the girls to get changed. 

Eleanor was first in the younger category with Eve, who worked really nicely for Eleanor but unfortunately she was placed in this large class.  Tasha was in next with Tilly, who for some strange reason was rather excited to be out at a show!  She was miss fidget throughout the class and threw in a few whines for good measure.  Tasha wasn’t too pleased with her but did manage to get some nice work out of her, but again she wasn’t placed in a large class.

Whilst Tasha was in the handling, AVNSC classes were being judged in the adjoining ring.  Megane (Seahaven Celtic Cariad) was first in the Post Graduate class, which she won.  Hazel really did a really good job with this young lady who hasn’t been the easiest dog to handle in the ring.  She went perfectly and I hope will give Hazel some confidence to take her to Crufts in March.

Maddie (Paddockridge Madelaine at Seahaven) was in the Open Class which she won, she then went back in to be awarded Best Bitch with Megane as Reserve Best Bitch!  Maddie then went on to be awarded Best AVNSC Gundog!!  We were so thrilled with her and Megane.

We managed a short break before Toller judging, so we all met at our benching area for a Christmas/Birthday (Dawn celebrated her birthday on the Saturday) buffet.  This gave us all a chance to relax, chat and a bite to eat together which is such a rare thing when showing two breeds.

NSDTR was then on and we managed to get some good seats to watch where one of the rings had been finished with.  Cooper (Seahaven Galactic Storm) had a VHC in Post Graduate Dog, he went really well for Dawn.  A bit of a wait for the dogs to finish judging and then onto the bitches.  Eve had her final appearance as a puppy and was awarded 2^nd in Puppy Bitch.  She was again handled by Eleanor and they are starting to look like a great team.  Tilly (Dinaskarrek’s Red Vixen at Seahaven) was in Open Bitch where she was awarded a VHC.  Lucy had Milly (Seahaven Red Andromeda) entered in the Good Citizen class which she won, she really has matured since we last saw her at WKC  in the summer.  She had to go back in for the Bitch challenge, but didn’t get any further but we were all thrilled with the days results.

We also managed to put together a team for the Breeders Comp, but didn’t win on this occasion.  As always we all had a great time doing this, and it great fun to watch.

Rookie's Been Visiting

I was in the Bristol area yesterday, so I paid a visit to Carol and the lovely Libby (Seahaven Olympic Vindicat).

It was utter bedlam, they zoooooomed around the garden at 100mph, then did the same in the house! Rookie tried to lay down for a rest a few times but that Libby sure is tenacious!

It was great to catch up with the two of them, Libby is such a sweetie, and quite beautiful to boot!

Thanks for having me Carol, hope we can do it again.

Libby (Seahaven Olympic Vindicat) and Rookie (Seahaven's Celtic Commander)

How most of the photos looked!

There's no escape Rookie!

Rookie barking at a passer by, Libby saying "what is it, Rookie?!"

The unrelenting kisses!!

A little video of the madness.


And another couple of pics from a recent charity show run by a group called K9 Focus, where Rookie won most handsome dog, got 5th in best pedigree dog then got best in show, and won all these Chuckit goodies!

Jess and Rookie

Trio's Progress

Can't quite believe that it's been three months since Trio had her accident!

She is continuing to make good progress and both our vets have been thrilled with how well she has done. 

She has quite a following now at The Oak Vets! and all who have been involved with her always comment on her lovely personality, she is always such a sweetheart there with everyone.  If she's not really happy she just looks away until whatever is being done is over with.

This is the longest that we've gone between appointment, back next week for a check but would be straight back if we were concerned with anything.

We have been slowly increasing her walks, and have introduced some hill climbs too.  She really looks forward to her outings as this is normally one to one time with either me or Tasha, sometimes we might take one of the other dogs for a change but it's nice to just have some special time with her.

Massage is still ongoing, as is some passive movement exercise and we have introduced Trio's favourite activity - swimming!

Initially this was just walking through the water but now moved on to some swimming.  Sadly we don't have a hydrotherapy pool near to us, so being inventive we have found that we can use the slipway at Goodwick, just being careful to ensure that she's dried thoroughly after each swim and warmed up.

Ginger Beastie Shenanigans!

Having seen Coopers impressive catalogue shredding effort, not to be left out Bron has been on a wrecking expedition lately, among a regular attack on the roll of bin bags creating 'plastic confetti' she has managed to 'disconnect' the tumble drier!  and disembowel the duck.....

  

 

Had a new dog to walk last week, a red setter, a good match for Bronski - bags of energy for racey chasey games! Plenty of rushing around at the country park and they were filthy! Click the link to see the video

Country Park shenanigans