Showing 11 posts from April 2009
My baby Sizzle is poorly! He was absolutely fine last evening as we went Flyball training at 6:45, he was dashing about, learning to trigger the box (he actually trigger the box "accidently" twice!), he was full of himself, not slowing down. This morning, we woke up to find some vomit on the kitchen floor, I kinda remember he came to scratch me in the middle of the night (this normally means he asked to go out as I have not teach him to use the dog flap yet). To confirm it was him that was sick, he actually sick again in the morning, he then went to lie down on the grass. I thought he just enjoyed a bit of the sun in the morning.
Anyway, I took him with Sing & Saturn to Pachesham, our club training this morning. I usually arrived 15 minutes early so the dogs get to do a short toilet trip in the wood. He was running into the wood with Sing and Saturn then suddenly stop. To me, it looked very funny. Sizzle is a livewire, he nevers stop. I thought he hurt himself or something so I check on him but cannot see any injury or cut but he refused to walk and he stand in a funny position. I picked him up and carry him around.
When I ran Saturn in our first class, I can see and hear him barking mad in the car everytime I ran Saturn, when Saturn's class over, I pop him back in the car to find out Sizzle has been sick many times all over the car boot. I clean up the mess and he looked quiet, so I carry on with Sing's class. When Sing's class was over, I have noticed Sizzle is very quiet and tired. I thought maybe he just a bit weak from all the sick. Normally I would stop at Oxshott Common for a walk but I decided I will go home.
Sizzle normally sit at the car boot area but he wanted to sit next to me, that was good as when I was driving home, I have noticed that he slept too well. I tried to wake him up but he didn't response so I got very worried and pulled the car on the hard shoulder. I tried to wake him up again and he did open his eyes after I gently shake him. I quickly rang my vet for an emergency appointment. Luckily Kevin hasn't got any operation today so we got to see him within an hour's time.
On the way to my Vet, I can see he was in discomfort, he can't settle down at all. Kevin check on him but he didn't show any sign of tense in the abdomen (I thought it got something to do with his stomach); then it got me worry more as Lungworm seems to be the big issue now and normally young dogs got it. Kevin suggested a blood test and admitted him for a few hours to put him on a drip.
I was very anxious waiting for the phone call, so I took Sing and Saturn for a walk and bounced into another uncontrollable dog which I mentioned in my earlier post. I rang Kevin at 4:30 to find out how my little boy is, he told me he is on Intravenous Fluid and he is fine and he can come home tonight but I need to bring him back tomorrow morning for another check up.
So, baby Sizzle is at home with me now. He is very quiet and weak. I am keeping him away from the others but Sing and Saturn are with him so he won't feel alone. He looks very tired and weak. Vet said no solid food until he sees him tomorrow but I need to give him the Glutalyte often and little.
More update tomorrow!
This means no agility for Sing and Saturn this weekend and no Flyball for Sizzle too! Who cares! I want my bouncy baby back!
I wanted to write about this post three weeks ago but I haven't have the courage to do it, I am worry I will upset some dog owners but after reading this and today's walk, I decided I will write it anyway.
I took my dogs out walking at least twice a day and we go to different places, depend where I am. For the last three weeks, very often (nealry at every walk), we have trouble walking stress free like we used to be. I like to take all my dogs out at the same time, so walking 5 or 6 shelties at once is quite a scene. I have no problem with any of my boys or even Samber, they are very well behaved and very responsive to my recall. I also make sure I always carry some yummy treat or a toy if anything happen so I can get my dogs back at anytime.
For the last few weeks, we keep facing other dogs coming up to us, many of them are boisterious and uncontrollable. I am not over protecting my dogs but if I see that is too much, I will straightaway scoop up Sizzle, Titan and Samber because these three are petite and small. I can't have a strong boisterous lab or a heavy build staffie constantly jumping all over them.
I was watching (and studying) how the owners react when this happen, generally they just called their dogs hoping they will go back to them and of course the dogs totally ignored the recall. What did the owners do? Still calling from where they are and the dogs are still jumping all over my dogs. I do not mind asking my dogs to sit/stay for 5-10 minutes waiting for the owner to come up to catch their dogs but the owners just left the dogs do what they want to do and this really got me very irritating. If I politely asked the owner to come and get their dog, they would answer me: He/She is alright, he/she will come back. When I heard this, I gave up and I just walked off with my dogs + the dog! I thought the owner will definitely come and get their dog this time, NOPE! They are still calling from where they are!
Another time (at least three times), I bounced into this woman with a poodle x cocker, a very young boisterious dog. She said to me: Do you mind I walk with you? I want him to learn to walk in a pack. I thought, why would she wants her dog to walk in a pack? She said: Then, he will learn not to run away. I think to myself: Really? So, off we walk together, my dogs were quite happily sniff away and do their businesses but this dog just wouldn't leave them alone, he will jump from one dog to another until all my dogs looked so fed-up. In between, we saw some other dogs from a distance, he will charge off towards the other dogs and the poor woman stand next to me calling the dog. At one point, I gently said to her: can't you go and get your dog? She said to me: No, he will come back. I got so angry, so I march off with my dogs leaving her still calling her dog.
I cannot say ALL my dogs are very good and well behaved. They sometimes have an off day and wanted to do something not so obedient, so I am always prepare for the bad day. At many occassions, Skye was being naughty, he saw a dog from a distance, I let him go and say his hello then called him and he wouldn't come back, so I just walked up to him and put his lead on. To be honest, walking so many dogs at once, I cannot afford to have a disobedient dog, so I always restrain my training until I am happy with my result.
I remembered many years ago when I only have Sing and Seagull. I can't remember why but I only took Sing out for a walk that morning. When we got on the Common, we saw a staffie and a white GSD fighting in a distance. I got a bit worried but I thought I was miles away and we should be quite safe but how wrong was I? I saw this staffie turned around and ran towards Sing, I was very frightened and quickly picked Sing up but I am not a tall woman, so the Staffie jump and got Sing's tail. Sing wanted to fight back but I lift him up as high as possible and the Staffie jump up again, this time, he got my arm! Yes, HE GOT MY ARM! Can you imagine I have got a Staffie hang on to my arm? I was in tears, don't know whether I was frightened or I was in pain. I saw this woman (the owner) casually walk towards us and said to me: He's alright! I shouted at her: I am bloody not alright! She didn't even said a thing and walked off, so I have to kick this dog to get him off me. I went home with a bloody arm and Colin had to rush me to hospital. I did report this to the Dog Warden but I heard nothing back from them.
Now, the government wanted to convert 50 places near us to "non doggie friendly". Arrrggghhh ... Why can't some dog owners learn how to control their dogs? Instead of banning dogs in the park, why don't the government set a test to see if the people pass to own a dog?
I was very annoyed today by another dog owner. I have to say I wasn't in a good mood today as Sizzle was very poorly and I have to drop him off to my vet and Kevin is keeping him in for a few hours for the drip, so my poor little man got me worried. I took Sing and Saturn out to the Common after leaving Sizzle at the vet. We were walking and joined by a JRT, the owner was walking towards the road (leaving the Common) and I was walking into the Common, as I was worried about Sizzle, I kept marching and my two dogs were following me but this JRT wouldn't leave us alone and I wasn't stopping. I was miles ahead (I am not good in distance but I was definitely very far from the owner) but this owner didn't bother coming up to get her dog. I still carried on marching and I was crossing to the upper part of the Common, I can't see the owner at all but this JRT didn't seems to bother his owner is not around, all he cares is to jump on top of Sing. I wish Sing would tell him off but he is such a gentle soul. Anyway, I was very far from the road now (at least 10-15 minutes walk), I suddenly heard someone calling: Milo! Milo! When I turned around, I saw the owner running 100mph towards us. I guess she finally got worried for not seeing her dog, she even shouted at me: Hey, can you stop for just a second. So, I did. She came up to catch the dog and put him on the lead and said: Milo, What's wrong with you today? I think to myself, there is nothing wrong with the dog, it is you, stupid woman!
We keep hearing news about dog attacking children and elderly but don't they know it is the human should be responsible and not the dog?
I went to a few training classes and have met some aggressive dogs. Some handlers/owners are very good in controlling their dogs. We were also told in advanced that the particular dog can be a bit nasty so we all aware and do our best not to upset each other. I really do not mind as long as the owner has his/her control over the dog. We also met some aggressive dogs at flyball, when I looked at it and studied carefully, it was the owner that let the dog does the nasty behaviour, so the dog carries on ...
We have no luck for a relaxing weekend. To start with, I have not enter any dog shows, thinking we could spend a stress free weekend with the dogs then do some gardening and maybe spring clean the house before my mum arrives. I did tell Ray Sing is available if the Team needs us. Later I found out from the Wimbledon Whizzers website that Ray has Sing's name down for Sunday. As I have contact problem with Saturn last weekend (he ran passed the A Frame and see-saw a few times), I thought it would be good to do some UKA shows with him to get his confidence back.
So, we woke up early on Saturday to drive to Patenden in Dial Post. I know the Novice is not the first class but I like to go early to switch myself into agility mood and also I need to enter on the day, so early is better. We did get there very early, so the boys have a good walk around with Colin while I went to sort the paperworks out.
I have entered three classes each for Sing and Saturn, Jumping, Agility and Steeplechase. I was tempted to do Snooker but I think it is too complicated for me, so I chicken out. I want a stress free weekend so I do not want to get worried about how to do the snooker.
The show started a bit later than it scheduled, so I have plenty of time sitting around watching other dogs run and catching up with friends that I haven't seen since last year. The Jumping ring was quite exciting, the judge set up some very challenging jumping courses. The first one was the Championship Jumping, all I saw was either a push through or a pull through. Not many dogs got clear in that but some runs were just smashing, I love watching those top handlers handle their dogs. They made it look so easy, I bet if I was in there, I will get eliminated after the second jump!
Our first run was Novice Jumping. I was hoping the judge will set up a challenging course but it wasn't hard to handle. I need to watch two bits, both have the "invitation" jump in front of it, so I need to call the dog at the right time for him to turn where I want him to turn. Saturn did the #11 jump beautifully. It was a straightline after the cloth tunnel, so he was coming up in a speed, thank God I did called him much earlier, so he was tight when he turned and he didn't even look at the finishing jump in front of him. Then, at jump #15, I would like him to turn tighter but I just can't as from jump #14 to jump #15, the angle wasn't good and I do not want to risk it just in case he miss the jump, so I sent him out to take the jump then call him back to the weave. Sing was a good boy too, he jump very similar to Saturn but 4 seconds behind him. I am trying to achieve with him this weekend is the weave. He kept pulling out from the 10th pole last weekend, so my target is WEAVE for Sing. He was good and he finished all his weave clean.
Then, we have a very long wait before the Agility. Sing was the only clear round! He still got his running contacts which is great and he got his weave too. I know it was a bit slow but that is fine by me. What can I say about Saturn? I know I am using that as a training round but I do not want to show him I have the toy on the start line as I do not want him to learn the pattern that when he sees the toy, he knows is training as we cannot have toy/food when we run at the KC show. I quite like the beginning; jump, tunnel, A Frame. I thought that will give him enough speed to go up the A Frame but how wrong was I? I tried to hang back, so I was behind him when he goes into the tunnel, then pick him up from tunnel up to the A Frame, what did he do? Ran passed the A Frame! I swing him around to do the A Frame again and he ran passed it again! Arrrggghhhh ... at the end I took the toy out from my pocket and show it to him. Guess what? Straight up and down, no problem, not even missing the contact point eventhough he release himself before I say OK. Then, we carried on running until he saw the see-saw. He ran passed it the first time but when I used a firm voice, he went up there but leap off, so I took him back to do another, again he leap off, so do another but I did a front cross and he stayed on the see-saw, I priased him like a mad woman! We carried on running and guess what? He did a superb 2o/2o on the DW. That really made my day! Well, I guess one out of three contacts is not too bad to start with.
I met Jo at the show and got chatted up. We heard the annoucment that they are doing the pairs at 2pm and the Final is on Sunday. I know I cannot do Sunday as Sing will be flyballing but I did ask Jo if she fancy a bit of a fun running the pairs and she said yes so we booked in to run two pairs. Sing & Erik and Saturn & Chester. Leslie Osbourne was the judge and he set up a very nice flowing fast course. I was a bit worry about the weave entry for Saturn as he has longer stride and I have a feeling he will go into the 2nd pole. The weave was set very close to the jump, it is good for smaller dog. I know I need to work on that.
Sing & Erik pair was up first. Sing was fast, I guess he likes the jump being low (this is a toy/midi pairs; Sing is Midi and Erik is Toy), unfortunately he got slipped on the last weave pole and need to pick up his speed again after a couple of jumps but he did alright. Erik is a very young sheltie and he is still learning, he missed the weave entry but he was good and he got that the 2nd attempt. Saturn & Chester pair was last to go. Saturn is a good jumper, as long as there is no contacts, I shouldn't have any problem with him. He seems to know what he is doing, I did tell him to weave when he comes out from the tunnel and he was a good boy and I can see he is aiming on the weave but he looked confused after the 6th pole. Well, I guess we never do 6th pole, so he probably question me is that it? You can see his face looks so funny in that video. Chester is a very fast sheltie and I like the way he weaves too. Between Saturn & Chester, they finished the course in 40 seconds. Sing & Erik pair was about 53 seconds, if Erik went clear, this pair will come 2nd. There were only 3 double clear rounds, so Sing & Erik came 4th. Our two teams got qualified for the Final but I can't make it so the other two teams have our places to run. It was really good fun and I really enjoying the extra runs.
To finish the day, we have Steeplechase. I have been watching the Championship Steeplechase and Senior Steeplechase, I wonder what will I get for the Novice Steeplechase. The judge again, set up some very tricky courses. There were two pipe tunnels facing each other, I thought Saturn will come out from this tunnel straight into the next as he is a tunnel vision dog but I was so glad he LISTEN to me all the time and he was the only dog that went clear in the Novice Steeplechase. Sing got eliminated as he missed the first tunnel. It was so funny as technically he is a good reliable dog, he shouldn't have miss the first tunnel. Sorry no video for the Steeplechase as their daddy was on the phone to his "girl" friend! Arrrgggghhhh ....
here are some runs from Saturday:
Now, move on to the exciting Flyball Tournament on Sunday. We woke up very early again, it was a long frive for us to go to Godmanchester, about two hours through Central London. Well, it was the marathon day, so most part of Central London was close for the big event. We need to go through it very early to avoid the road closesure.
Cambridgeshire Flyball Team was holding the tournament, it was held at the Wood Green Animal Shelter. The ground was fantastic to race. The running order was Div 6, 5 and 4. The Whizzers is in Division 5 but we were ring party on Division 6. I was watching and learning in the morning but helping in the afternoon. It was good fun but I know I need to concentrate with my job eventhough I was so exciting watching the dogs whizzing around.
We have got 6 dogs in The Whizzers but little Buddy is not competing, so we have 5 dogs to swap if needed. We have 5 races, 3 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Sing did most of the legs but we have pulled him out for a couple of the legs in the morning for a rest to save up his energy to run in the afternoon. What can I say? The Whizzers is the WHIZZERS! All the dogs are just superb, they ran wonderfully, we have almost all the clean runs other than when we swapped between Sing and Wellie. Karen was running Maddie and Wellie, so it is definitely not easy but she handled it beautifully.
The result ... this is so excited! There were 6 teams in our Divison, after the Run Around Robin, 5 teams were to tie for 1st place but The Wimbledon Whizzers has the fastest time, so we WON the division! HooRay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
here are some runs from the Flyball:
Just recently, we have A LOT of foxes trespassing our garden during the day and "having a party" in our garden during the night! When we first moved into this house in 2003, we always saw the same two foxes walking on our green house roof. I wasn't liking it, so I always send the dogs to chase them off. I don't really want any foxes "live" in our garden to pass some unwanted diseases. Then, I don't see the two foxes for a while, I thought that is great!
We have an odd one every now and then for the last few years but they didn't bother me because whenever the dogs hear them, they will go through the dog flap anytime of the day to chase them off, so I thought we are safe from foxes.
It all started back in October, I kept asking Colin if he has put away the dog toys that I left in the garden and he said No but we lost a few dog toys and some tennis balls. It is so weird. Then, one day I was walking the dogs in the Common and bouced into one of my neighbours a few doors down the road, he told me he keeps getting some strange dog toys in his garden! I asked him what kind of dog toys and when he described it, I thought that sounded like my dog toys! So, I asked if I can go over to collect them. I don't think anyone of us can throw the toys that far. It has to be something to pick it up from our garden then transport it to the other garden, Colin and I thought it could be a bird, well, I guess he is talking about a big bird! Not until I saw that in one of the afternoons that a fox came into our garden, picked up the tennis ball and of course the dogs shot out through the flap and the fox ran away with the ball! That explained it all.
I sometimes have some dog chew lie in the garden, it normally disappear in the morning if I forgot to pick it up from the garden. I guess the fox came in the night to have it. Just recently, these foxes got carried away, they came in our garden to leave their mess, Sizzle and Samber are both crazy about fox poo, they roll and roll, and you can see them enjoying rolling in the bloody fox poo! I got really annoyed bathing them.
This morning, I woke up to find more horrible runny fox poo on my A Frame! Yuk! I need to bleach it down. I am getting really fed-up with these foxes. I actually started to close the flap at night so the dogs can't get out when they hear the noise, I do not want my neighbours to complain about my dogs barking especially it is getting hot and most people leave their windows open, so noise is the last thing you want in the middle of the night.
Maybe I should leave the flap open so the dogs can go and chase the foxes away? But, I can't let the dogs out in my front garden, the foxes poo nearly everywhere in my front garden too! Arrrggghhhh ...
Also, someone told me foxes carry lung worms. Somebody I know that lives locally to me, his young dog was killed by lung worms 10 weeks ago, so that make me feels very unsafe having so many foxes coming in and out in our garden.
I was feeling poorly last week, my whole body ache and my migrane is bothering me, I am not coping well when the weather turns hot! Isn't that sounds funny to you, I came from a hot country and I am complaining HOT when the temperature hits 20c? I am living on ibuprofen but my migrane just wouldn't go away, so I am hiding indoor during the day. This means I am not enjoying the lovely sunny spring.
I didn't do any training last week with the boys, it was humid and wet and our club training was close for Easter break. I enjoyed a bit of agility break. Well, maybe I was too relax about it and I did terribly at Wallingford on Sunday. I have entered Saturday and Sunday and even got a camping pass from Marion but Friday was pouring, so I decided not to go camping. On Saturday morning, my migane hit me again, so I told Colin I want to stay in, not going to agility. Colin thought I must be seriously ill as I am always energetic about agility and I guess he was right. My headache wouldn't go away, after dropping my nephew at Pryford to play golf, we took the dogs to the swampy Wisley Common for a walk, both Sing and Sizzle loved the puddles and water ditch, they even tried to swim, that was so funny.
I was feeling a little better on Sunday, so we went to Wallingford. We didn't leave home until 8am, it was a funny feeling, normally we woke up before dawn and set off to the show before the sun comes out but Sunday was very leisure. I gave myself plenty of time. There were about 200 dogs before us, so I thought two hours after the show starts should be the right time. We got there around 9:30am and our first run was at 1:20pm! And yes, both Agility and Jumping started at the same time, so after four hours' wait and we were done in 30 minutes (including the queing time)!
I had 2 runs each with Sing and Saturn and I had four eliminations! We started with Agility. I like Carlos's course, he always set up some nice challenging courses which needed some handling, I was running a few of his courses last year and I really love it.
this is the Grade 4-5 Agility course (just a draft from what I can remember)
My worried was the #5, #6, #7, #8 bit. I know I can trust Saturn to find the weave, so I challenged myself to turn him in between #5 and #6, then push him to take #7 and asked him to weave. He did that beautifully. His only problem was the contacts. First, he ping off the dog walk, then he ran passed the see-saw and A Frame! With Sing, I did a front cross after #6, so that give me a better position to stay behind #7 to send him into weave. He is not a great weaver so I have to watch him but somehow on Sunday, he kept pulling out from the 10th pole (both in agility and jumping) and that gave us the two e'd!
I being very stupidly handled Saturn in the Jumping class. He should do well in that course but I was moving when I sent him into the weave, so he went in the 2nd pole but I carried on and that gave us the e'd. It wasn't a difficult weave entry but I was being too careless. I am hoping to do more UKA shows this year to improve Saturn's contacts.
Back to little Sizzle. My long waiting custom made hit-it board arrived today! I was a bit disappointed with it, the size and colour is perfect but the beep isn't working too well for Sizzle. I remembered on the CleanRun website, there is a section you need to fill in was "how heavy is your dog", so when I emailed NoseTouch, I told Mary Lou that the weight is between 4.2kg (Sizzle was 4.2kg when I ordered the board, now 4.5kg) to 8.6kg (Sing's weight). I know nothing about the mechanism, but when I put Sing on the board, it beep but when I put Sizzle ON it, it doesn't beep at all, so I try running Sizzle on it and it doesn't beep either!! I guess the board needs a bit of a loosen job?
We have tried out the new hit-it board, after a couple of months break from the Dog Walk, he is keener than ever, so here we go ...
woohoo ... I am flying!
and this is better ...
I am still trying to play with the board, first I put it closer to the bottom end and he jumped over the board A LOT; so I tried moving the board further up to see what will I get out of it, here is the first attempt ... nearly miss!
wee ... here I fly!
then, I started to put his toy closer to the bottom of the DW
I think he starting to get the idea, I put the toy further from the contact and that is so much better.
I will keep experimenting for the next couple of days to see what outcome I have so I can fix up the training method.
small note on our weave: we are still working on our entries and I have also tried different combinations of things, one thing I am glad with is when he weaves, he is always put his head down and focus.
