Wee Diva's - 1 week old

Well here are the pups at 1 week old.

They are 2 weeks old today but I have some photo taking to do today before I can post them. Most of them have their eyes open and all of them are walking around.

Well ok - enough rabbiting on - here's the pups - awwwwwwww.


Pup 1 - black and white blaze boy. Is a handsome little chap and I call him mini mav 'cause he looks like a miniture version of his uncle Maverick, owned by Graeme Fairley. He has his eyes open, and likes to explore. He wanders around and is stable on his wee legs.

Pup 2 - tricolour splitface girl. She loves to have cuddles and curls up in your arms. Seems like a very satisfied little pup. Still got her eyes to open yet. This girl is one of my favourites at the moment.

Pup 3 - Tricolour girl. This little girl is magic. She loves to sleep in your arms. She is very cute and has the cutest little bark when she's telling Diva she's hungry. Would say this little girl is another of my favourites.

Pup 4 - Black and white boy. This little fella is such a charmer. He had a very white face when he was born and because of all the pinkness around the eyes and face he was known as fugly the 2nd, lol. Now he has darkened up around the eyes and nose and has started to develop wee freckles on his face. His eyes are fully open now (as of yesterday) and he is a wee stunner. He likes to explore and loves cuddles. At the moment his wee man is one of my favourites - if not my favourite

Pup 5 - Black and White stripe girl - awwwwww. Have to get a photo of when she sits. She does it quite often and the party piece is when she does it and people are over I say "sit" and she's sitting - what a star, lol and it is sooooooooooo cute. Think this wee girl will be very pretty.

Pup 6 - Tricolour splitfaced girl. This wee lass is such a trooper. She was the first to walk and the first to open her eyes. Was soooo funny yesterday - she has had her eyes open for a few days now and not sure how much she can see - if anything yet, but they were all having a feed and she walked right up to diva's head, stopped and looked as if she was working out - I can see you mum, that's what you look like, and started checking out Diva's mouth then nose then ears - may be she can't see a thing but looked soooooo cute :-)))

Pup 7 - Black and White speckled splitfaced girl. This wee girl is such a cutie, can't help but pick her up and give her big hugs - wonder if she will have a speckled face like her daddy????? She still has her wee eyes to open. She has a wee black mark on her head that looks like a french berret.

Will post another update soon.

snow white and the seven dwarfs

Well it's fantastic news to announce

Diva had her puppies - all ok including mum - wooooooohhhhhhoooooooo

She is such a good girl - yep she had the 3 pups that were spotted on the ultrasound - go Diva - not only that she had an extra 4 just for good luck.

Wee Diva managed to store 7 gorgeous puppies in that belly of hers.

It was on Saturday morning - around 1am ish and she was up and down, up and down off the bed. I knew the pups must be coming so of course had no intention of having a second of shut eye - even blinking became an annoyance, lol.

So of course she had puppy number one on my bed. The little munchkin was half out so I helped him all the way - then he didn't look like he was breathing - certainly wasn't moving - so now what - all that Deb Nook told me went out the window along with the "don't panic" - WTF.

So at this time it's 2.30 in the am - I called Megan and no answer - about 20 seconds later the phone goes - "She's had the first one" - "ok so is he breathing?" - "don't think so" - "ok get a towel" - and then the sound of - waaaaaahhhh waaaaaahhh - yip he's breathing - "so is she cleaning him and cutting the chord?" - "she's cleaning him but not cutting the chord" - "go get some cotton and scissors" - so though I go and grabbed the scissors and got some cotton wool to stop the bleeding - "ok got them - now what?" "you need to tie a knot on the chord - about 2-3cm from the pup" - what the...... the chords only about 4cm long - how can I tie a knot in this - so this conversation lasted about 3 or so minutes - me puzzled in the fact that the pup keeps moving, the chord is only short and how the heck am I going to get a knot in that - should have kept to the girl guides - sure they do knots - but the pup can't be looped around, pulled through and then the knot is tied - chord is way too short - "so tie the cotton around the chord and make a knot" - "ohhhh, cotton - I got cotton wool, doh - ok hang on - right got the cotton" "now tie the knot and cut the chord on Diva's side" "ok done that - awwwwww, thanks Megan - BTW how did you know it was a boy? hmmmm" - so I allowed Megan to go back to bed, lol and I carried little number one black and white boy with a more traditional markings into the nursery.

Not too long afterwards she had number 2 - a little split faced girl. She looked massive - wasn't any bigger than number one but I think the white on the face made her look bigger, awww, little black and white split faced girl. Number 3 can not too much later. Another little girl, awwwwwww. The third girl is very white faced, also black and white.

Then nothing for a while. I went through to put on the kettle to skull some more coffee - was around 5am at this point. I went back in and Diva was licking girl number 3 like mad - she was all soaking wet again - OMG she's trying to eat her - I rush over and grab the pup - hang on this one's a boy - what - oh sorry Diva - she had just had another pup. Another very white faced boy, black and white.

Not long after diva had another little girl - a gorgeous black and white little girl with a lovely wide white blaze that continues down through her collar.

At 7.30am Megan called to see how everything was and I was telling her about the other 4 and we were having a chuckle about me having a blonde moment with cotton wool - how funny - hang on the pups are crying - gotta go, she's probably lying on one of them - so I hang up and rush through - wow, she's just had another one - another split face little girl - quite white faced but more black than girl 3.

About 8.30 she had another girl - very very similar to the last one.

So that was that - 7 little dwarfs, all happy looking and pink nosed and squeeking, lol.

They were born on Saturday and this is now Thursday - day 5. Some of their markings have changed quite a lot already.

It looks at this point there will be 3 tri colours, 2 speckled black and white and 2 black and white - who knows though at this point, it could all change again in a week. The most important thing is that they are all ok, healthy and little fatties :-)

I'll do frequent updates on them and post some photos too.

Big thanks to Megan and Deb Nook, thank God all went ok and my little baby Diva is all ok - she may be a mummy now but is still my little blue eyed pup full of mischief - wonder what colour the pups eyes will be????

Cheers for now and here's a photo of the little tykes at 2 days old in order of birth

Recap and what's left to do

Well it's way past the midyear point and I've been looking over my new years resolutions that I made. Some of them I have stuck to - others have been tossed to the side like an annoying fly that lands on the top of the chocolate mud cake and gets stuck in the creamy chocolate icing.

I'm now gonna start focusing on a few things and see if i can get them in the ring.

Diva - not wanting to try too much different with her - do want to get diva's contacts better and get her driving ahead on them. So as well as maintaining the skills she has I will start working on this with wee Diva.

Mini - OK here goes - getting a solid start line with mini. I've gotta be strong inside and if she breaks at a trial then either put her back and leave the ring or just leave the ring. I also want fast reliable contacts with mini. at the moment she's a hit or a miss in trials. she gets sooooo wound up and I've started not trusting her so will either get really slow contacts because I'm 'demanding' them in the ring because i don't trust her - or she does a fluke and runs through them or we don't get them at all. I want that 2o2o but fast - or faster than she gives in the ring when she has to stop at the end - play the game mini.

I also want her to turn with my body. The way it is at the moment is I'm running diva and she's like a Porche. handles smooth, turns at the touch of a finger, accelerates with power, can turn with speed and power on again - with mini it's like driving a truck at the mine site, not got a very good turning circle, if we take a corner too fast we can't get a tight turn in, noisy, have to make a 3 point turn to get a 180, lol - well may be not quite that bad but definitely not in the class of the porche.

The thing is with mini she picks some things up really really easily - just sometimes she thinks she has a better way of doing things than what I've shown her.

back to the drawing board - again.

Got til December then review the situation again - it's all on my shoulders now - just as well she's only wee :)

Nationals 2010

Well I've been hanging off posting due to no photographs - but I've decided that I'd better update the blog and post the photos later on.

We’ve just had the Agility Nationals 2010 here in WA.

Boy what a nationals it was too.

Diva wasn’t supposed to be there (the plan was she would be having puppies).

The Nationals was on Thursday to Sunday. The Sunday was for the finals and the other 3 days had qualifying heats in the morning and games in the afternoon.

So the plan is to get into the finals on the Thursday and you can have a relaxing next 2 days. Well as we all know things don’t always go to plan – nowhere near.

The build up to the nationals was all but mental for me. As I mentioned Diva was supposed to be having pups - and if you read my last post you will know that it didn't work out.

We had just had the States a couple of weeks before and I knew Diva wasn't running right. I thought at the time it was due to her not doing any agility since January - not even training - but thought I'd better check her out anyway and managed to get an appointment with Deb Nook. Wee Diva's back was very sore so Deb done the acupuncture and I was giving her heat and massages.

Deb and I had spoken about the Southern River trial which was 2 days after her appointment and said see how she goes - well she worked brilliantly so that was good news. I was concerned about trialling for 4 days and Deb had said to me to make sure she was warmed up properly and if she looked sore at all to pull her out of the nationals - not a problem.

This year it was held right here in my “home state” of WA. I can now officially call this my home state since I’ve been here for 8 brilliant years and loving it still.

The setup, smooth running, prizes and goodies were fab. I have to say hats off to the WA team who made it such a memorable Nationals - was obvious how much work went into it - well done to they guys.

Note - there's the short version and the long version - if you want the long version keep reading all - but make sure you have a cup of coffee and a packed lunch by the computer, lol.

Short version:

Most importantly - no dogs were injured - phew!!!!! So regardless of the results this was a good trial :-)

Qualifying heats for the finals:

Thursday - Mini - nothing Diva - nothing
Friday - Mini - nothing Diva - nothing
Saturday - Mini - nothing Diva - masters jumping made finals

Games:

Thursday - Snooker

Novice snooker - Mini - 12th Diva - 1st woohooo (first time played)

Friday - Gamblers

Novice Gamblers - Mini - 9th - go the minmin
Excellent Gamblers - Diva - nothing

Saturday - Strat Pairs

Excellent strat pairs - Mini and Dancer - 6th

Masters strat pairs - Diva and Epic - 1st - woooohoooooo!!!!!

Finals: Masters jumping

Mac's Disco Diva - 1st 500 - woooohoooooo
Mac's Disco Diva - 1st overall - bigger woooooohooooooooooo!!!!!!

So big thanks to

Deb Nook for fixing her up and helping us get where we did
Di Rose for making it possible for us being in the Nationals

Wooohoooo - soooo proud of my wee Diva - to my buddy Sam W. - we done it :-)))




Long version:

Thursday:

Masters agility – Diva was soooooooo unlucky – I late called her after a tunnel and she had to pull off a dogwalk (which was in her line after the tunnel) but I didn’t properly work the bar she was supposed to take and she was upon it at 90 degrees and still tried to jump it – down it came, and only just too. The rest of the run was fantastic – but didn’t cut the mustard.

Masters jumping – not so kind to us this time. My head was elsewhere and Diva too – she dropped the spread on a straight line leadout, WTF. Very unlike her. I must’ve done something stupid though to give her another signal, that’s more like the real story, lol - continued on and got lost on the course (about jump number 6) – thanked the judge and out we came.

Mini in Novice agility. Awww – if I could just run faster, lol. Mini was on the homeward stretch and was to do a line of jumps after the tunnel – but spotted the table to the right and pulled off the tyre and headed to the table – No points for guessing what’s been a high reward obstacle vbg.

Excellent jumping – she was a superstar. I made the mistake of doing a cross at the wrong point and set up her line wrong so that she was heading to the tunnel and not the jump before it – awwwwwwww!!!!!!!

So definitely no relaxing 2 days ahead for us then.




Thursday afternoon we had Novice Snooker. I hadn’t ever played snooker with wee Diva before. And apart from me nearly stacking it on the course and diva doing half of the 3rd dogwalk with 3 legs (she mounted it funny and had only 3 legs on for the full of the up ramp and managed to correct herself on the along plank) we got clear, phew!!!! We knew it would be close ‘cause Jodes and Tivy had done a specky round, but also with a hiccup at a tunnel and Cathy and Snazzy done a lovely round and also done a widey like us at the 2nd jump, and another fast dog from over east, Jazz with Geraldine (which I hadn’t seen but was told) done an amazing run. Wee Diva got First place – woohoo. The times were incredibly tight from 1st to 3rd being half a second separating the 3.

Then I had the min in or as Jody calls her “de min” – She went over the first bar, cut behind me, managed to get on the walk, done the next jump, 2nd walk, 3rd jump and pulled off so I had to take her back to it, 3rd walk, then closing sequence, she barked and barked all the way around the course, headspace somewhere else but having a ball – yay she got clear – De Min got 12 place – go Minmin – so proud of her and she’s loving it 

Friday

I really wanted at least 1 pass out of the 2 dogs. Masters agility was over in a flash. I hadn’t walked the excellent jumping course yet and it was being called 5 minutes to walk it. I was getting myself all worked up and flustered. Agility started with a straight jump and then onto a perpendicular threadle and into the weaves. We love threadles and ever since Stacey Peardot came over I can now actually do them nicely – until this day. I called diva over the first bar was sent her behind the first bar of the threadle rather than straight over it – looking back I have absolutely no idea how we done that ‘cause if we really were supposed to do that there would be no way I would have ever thought I could get that manoeuvre from her from the distance and position I was standing - I thanked the judge and we came out so I could walk Mini’s course.

Masters jumping was also a hardline story. We started off beautiful and fast and out of a tunnel there were 2 jumps side by side – Diva was to take the one closest to me, I said her name – twice (in fact it was “div, div”) but obviously didn’t hold her to the bar and she took the wrong one. I called her back and we had a bit of a discussion that her name is Div and not actually Deafy, so we completed the course in a rather lovely manner – owwwwww.

Novice agility – Mini was great. She done almost all of the course – all we had left was a walk and a couple of jumps – so there was a straight line of jumps down and the dogs had to turn 180 degrees to get onto the walk – mini races down the line of jumps and to the side of the ring was a girl playing with her dog – Mini decided to take a wide turn, looking at the dog and by the time she looked back she had passed the plane of the walk, jumped onto the colour of the up ramp which was now facing 90 degrees of her and jumped off again – she’s such a nosey parker, lol.

Excellent jumping – Well as I mentioned earlier in Diva’s agility run they had called 5 minutes to walk the course when I was running her and we stuffed up so came out. I gave diva to Michelle and ran straight to the excellent course. I just got there and the steward was taking the flag down – I said to him – you’ve just called 5 minutes to walk this course – he said no the judge wants to get started now so we’re starting now – WTF. So I didn’t get to walk the course so had to pay particular attention as it wasn’t a straightforward round – a few twists and call offs. So in we go and OMG we almost got it. I had remembered most of the course – and things look completely different from looking at it from the sideline to when you’re actually upon the obstacles. So we’re nearly finished the course and I thought there was another turn or pinwheel and called mini off the bar straight ahead of her that she was heading to – Mini can obviously count as this was the correct obstacle next – doh!!!! All went to pot after that – we got DQ’d.

Again no quails for the finals – doh!!!

Gamblers in the afternoon was great. Diva was in excellent and done a million and one points and after 45 seconds of directing, calling and running all I needed to do was take a few extra steps put her in the tunnel and run down the gamble line of jumps – well fatty, get a move on she said to me – I truly ran out of steam – the buzzer went and the tunnel looked like a taxi trip away – I seriously can’t make it – OMG Jenny Craig’s gonna be calling me – I didn’t even work the tunnel and she went in the wrong end – doh. She also knocked a bar on the line back – I think that was the point where I collapsed on the ground, lol. Well not quite but almost.

Mini was in novice and I had a lovely course planned out for her. So off we go and she started off flying, but decided to jump off her walk contact – what the – so we go back over it and that’s my course stuffed up. But Mini did do a right hand weave – wooooooohooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! The most funniest thing though was as the buzzer called we were right there so her time would’ve been lovely (points not so good) – and I sent her into the tunnel and she was to do a straight of I think 4 jumps – so she pulled off the bar – straight in front of her – oh no, not again – so I called her back and around me and sent her out (luckily no refusals in gamblers) and she got the other jumps - Come on Minxter. Ended up getting 9th – phew!!!!! We were only 10 points and 6 seconds behind Snazzy (winner) – so close one there – lol, yeh right.

Saturday

Last day of the qualifying heats and I couldn’t even get my dogs around clear – making it to the finals or not – still couldn’t get a clear what-so-ever. It’s such a shunt to the confidence. I know there were almost’s and nearlies and if only’s – but that doesn’t help when your confidence is shattered.

Diva went into Masters jumping and on about bar number 4 I heard it skiff – whooooo horsey, take it easy – just get around clear. I’ll be spewing if I push her and we make a mistake – this is the last chance we have – so steadily we went around – and woooooohooooooooo, finally we got a clear round – yes. Now just have to hope that it was in the top 5 to make it to the finals. I honestly had my doubts as the calibre of dogs is just amazing and to get in the top 5 you really want to be pushing them all the way around. She ended up getting 2nd – wooohoooo, go Diva. It obviously was nowhere near as bad as I had though – phew, we made a final – yeeehaaaaa.

Masters agility was really hard lines. I thought she had got clear round with a specky time of 37.6 seconds (fastest was 39.49 seconds) – but she was called on the down dog walk contact – ohhhhhhhh, what a shame. Was still an awesome run though, unlucky Diva.

Mini in Novice agility – again what a shame – she had gotten around half the course, onto the table and it was a jump slightly offset to the right then a tyre back in line with the table then into a tunnel – I didn’t stand far enough over – just one step over to the right, silly me – but mini came off the table and done the tyre straight ahead – her only fault – again.

Excellent jumping – Owwwww, she was such a star – really, done some breathtaking stuff for the Minmin. Near the end I done a front cross to change her direction and she didn’t follow it and kept going straight – over a wrong bar, ooowwwwww. No matter she nailed the opposite end of the tunnel entry better than I ever thought she could be capable of and was bragging to Diva about it too, lol.

Strat pairs was on Saturday afternoon – my most favourite game ever – sooooo much fun. Megan and I have taken the light hearted approach to it and really have a whale of a time running it.

So we had Mini and Dancer in Excellent and Diva and Epic in Masters. The masters course was open for walking so we went to walk it. We started off walking it and excellent got called for open for walking – oh no. But what had been happening at the nationals all weekend was there were 3 course walks depending on the letter you had after your number was what course walk you were. It went A, B or C and A was first walk, B second and C third walk. So Megan looked at my number and it had B at the end B so we’ll go walk the excellent. That we did.

So Mini and Dancer are in Excellent Strat. Pairs. Mini was on the startline and barked soooo much she actually bounced herself to the side and off position to the line of jumps. Mini was soooo wound up – like a clock. Dancer was an absolute legend and didn’t put a foot wrong – she was a star. Mini was a bit more of, hhhmmmmm, she was definitely out to test me, little tyke, lol. They ended up getting 6th – wooohoooo!!!!

So we came out the ring and we had looked at the masters ring which was running – Megan looked at the catalogue and we were on in 3 pairs – can’t be right – we looked at her number and she was “A” – so in this instance the “A” and “B” were for the pairs only – aaaaaarrrrgggg. So we ran to our cars, stuck Dancer and Mini back and grabbed Diva and Epic. Dashed down to the ring to have a look where we were going since we’d only half walked the course. So there was a changeover and I was to do a pinwheel – so Megan – “bling” (which is our word for go, lol) – me “jump one, two, three, bling” – Megan “no you’ve to do the first jump then 1, 2, and back over the first jump for 3, the first jump isn’t in play” – oh ok, then we looked at what was after that and it was time to go in – not feeling very confident at all.

So on the startline and first few changeovers were unreal – then it comes to the pinwheel for me – jumps 1, 2, 3, bling – oh no not yet sorry – jump 4 – bling – but Megan was now set up wrong and had to bring epic back to correctly do the seesaw – silly me!!!! We ended up completing the course. It didn’t quite go to plan and wasn’t as smooth as it could’ve been – but on the other hand it was nowhere near as bad as it felt – they got 1st place – woooooohooooooooo. Their time was 35.90s and second was 39.64s so their round was much much better than we had anticipated.

Sunday came and we were only in the Masters jumping finals – the very last event of the day. Got to watch all the other rings and boy we have some truly amazing dogs. It was brilliant to watch all levels. Congratulations everyone on making the finals.

As master jumping was approaching I was getting more and more nervous. By the time we were ready to go in I was on my 3rd beer and had the bottle with me outside the ring. I placed it on the step ladders which was undercover from the sun and in we went. Phew, don’t think about the crowds, don’t think about it’s the finals – just go in and do it. And that we did – Diva got 1st in 500 and 1st overall – wooohooooo!!! Was very close between 1st and 2nd. Dan (Diva’s wee cousin) was 2nd and 0.3s behind her – which is absolutely nothing. Their times were 27.64s and 27.94s – oh boy, as one is jumping the bar the other is about to take off – wow.

SO this Nationals was great for me. Considering at the last nationals 2 years ago Samroc was so badly injured with the tyre.

So we have it

Mac’s Disco Diva – Master Jumping National Champion
Novice Snooker National champion
Masters Strategic Pairs National Champion

Still on cloud nine and know we will be slammed back to reality at the next trial with the fantastic dogs in WA so want to make the most of it whilst it lasts and bask in the glory for a wee bit longer - Goooooooo Diva!!!!!!

When we got there the cupboard was bare

Well Diva had the ultrasound and ................ nope, nada, nought, nothing :-((

Well I've gotten over the disapointment (well getting over it) and not feeling as sorry for myself anymore - just wasn't meant to be. So no chance of ever having a wee Samroc running around this house but I'd much rather have the real thing.

SO what's been happening? Well Mini was in an ANKC trial last weekend - got her Novice agility title - FOR REAL - wooooohooooooo!!!!!!! She even got a quali in gamblers too - go the Minmin, she's getting there :-))) I was soooooo happy. Onya Mini.

We also had an ADAA trial this weekend. This was Diva's first trial for months. The last one we did was in January. We hadn't done any training either up until last week - oh boy, it showed.

Friday night was great - wee Mini got 2 passes, 1 in intermediate jumping and the other in open jumping - way to go wee lass. I couldn't get Diva around a course. I think I got so used to running Min that my reflexes and handling was all to pot when trying to run Diva. I'll tell you what though - even though we didn't get a quali it was fantastic to get her back out there - what a buzz it was running her, I was in my glory. We had a bit of an occurance in one of the rings - which paid off worse for me :-((( On the advanced jumping course there was a box which included 3 jumps and a tunnel (lets see if I can create a clear mental picture or if I completely stuff it up) so there was a jump (say jump 1) to the left and right of jump 1 there was perpendicular jumps (on either side) and straight ahead of jump 1 was a bendy tunnel. So we did jump 1 and into the tunnel, which was kinda straight so the dog came out a long way off - now we had to do a 270 and go over the jump to the right of jump 1 and straight over to the jump on the left of jump 1 - well I sent her through the tunnel and stood between jump 1 and the jump on the right of this (should have been on the tunnel side) so I called diva and she knew from my body language that she was gonna turn so I took off a nano second too soon and didn't straighten her up for the next 2 jumps, she took the jump at an angle and crashed into my leg - ouch!!!! she gave me a massive growl as if to say - stupid woman get out of my path, and continued running - wow that really hurt. Needless to say I had my kneebrace on for Saturday's run, lol.

Saturday didn't see Mini getting a clear round - we walked out of 1 ring only this time near the beginning of the trial. She was just being fruity and silly so I just stopped her and came out. She done really well for the rest of the night though- mainly just getting 1 refusal each time, awwwwwwwwww. This was my handling errors too (and a wee bit of experience lacking on Mini's part) but I was very proud of her and her attempts. Diva and me were more on the ball on the Saturday although I could still feel I wasn't connecting with her as well as we can do. She got a pass in Gamblers, Advanced agility and pairs - wooohooo.

We've got a fair few trials coming up in the next few weekends - we've got for ANKC the states, southern rivre, then the nationals and another ADAA at the end of May. Not really had a look at what's on after that so may be having a bit of a break after ADAA in May.

Well have a look at this picture which I nicked from Sam W (permission granted of course). There must've been something wrong with the camera because it doesn't look right - can you spot what's missing?



So have you guessed it yet? May be this will give you a hint!!!!!



well this will sort it.......




The beautiful wee girl in the first photo is Boylee Penny a working border collie, the other photos are of my wee Minmin a meerkat cross. It even got me stumped at first - just missing that patch over the eye, lol.

Waiting game

Well it's 3 more sleeps now until I find out if I'm in the states and nationals with Diva or if she's got a belly full of walnuts :-))) I hate the anticipation but it is kinda exciting too.

Samroc's all fine after the operation - moving freely and not in pain - thankfully. We've been back to the vets 2ce now since the surgery. First time was last Saturday - the swelling had went down heaps but there looked to be a testicle still remaining. He also had a painful lump on the back of his neck - which I though was due to the head collar/bucket/leg bruiser :-))

So we went to the vets and I said to the girl behind the desk that he still has a testicle. She had told me that she was in on the surgery and there were definitely 2 removed - my reply was - well he's obviously had 3 then 'cause he's still got one. She came rushing around to have a look and said it was just swelling, because they were soooooo swollen. His lump on the back of the neck was due to an allergic reaction to the injections he had. I was told to give it another week and if the testicles hadn't went down to go back in.

So a week later and we went back in - no change at all and it still felt very much like a testicle. So the vet took his temperature and all was well. He had a look and said it was either a blood clot or scar tissue, either way it will go away on it's own.

So Sambo gets his stitches out when diva gets the ultrasound.

We had an ADAA competition on this weekend. I only had wee Minmin in it. We had only entered Fri and sat - not Sunday. Thought that was enough for me. Anyway we had 10 runs over the 2 days and I think we walked out of most of them. Mini was soooo hyped and was being silly (more than per norm) and was barking frantic, not listening and running around things - it's the Koolie :-)) Anyway she done 3 not bad runs - snooker, one of the intermediate or open jumping and the teams. The rest was mighty shocking. She was really chatty and not listening at all - oh boy I hope she settles down for the nationals and the states. Come one Mini. It'll be soooo embarrassing if we can't get around a course without having to pull out. I've entered her in 400 height to see if that makes it any easier for her to concentrate. It may fall flat in my face and she's even more mental - can only try though. If she is better on the 400 I may have to start competing on that height - or at least for a while until she gets the hang of what her job is out there. I'm nervous about the trials already and we've got ages to go - butterflies!!!!!

As long as she has fun and doesn't do stupid stuff that can cause injuries I'm happy - pass or not just enjoy it.

Linda and Sue sent me her run in ADAA snooker - thank you guys, I've posted it on youtube. I had to laugh - when I was watching it I was going - awwwwwww, lol. She's such a cutie and really fun to watch - makes me laugh. She's like a noisy teddy that you just wanna cuddle (after you've taken the voice box out, lol).

I love ADAA trials - they have 2 rings and everyone mucks in helping scribe, steward, setting up courses, taking them down and changing the heights. There's also no mucking about - the start line and finish lines are at the opposite ends so when the current dog is on the say 3rd last obstacle the next dog is lined up, collar off - ready to run. You can do a quick check with the table to see if they're ready then off you go. The only time you don't go right away is if the current dog doesn't do the last obstacle to stop the timing gates. Otherwise you just run as soon as the other dog has finished (unless the judge asks you to wait of course if they need to speak to the table). You also don't have to worry if you're in another ring as they take the next dog and everyone is lining up in as close order as possible but it doesn't matter if your say 4th in and you go 2nd or 3rd or 10th if the other dog isn't there or you aren't there - there's also no one pushing in because they have 20 dogs to run, or you're lining up at the gate then 10 people come over from another ring and push in front of you because they're before you in the catalogue and have just come from another ring so get to push in rather than joining the queue. It's great fun and the courses are always flowing and sensible. The style is more like what is adopted across the globe, if you have a look at the Olympia finals course or the AKC nationals courses they are beautiful and open and flowing with challenges, these are like the ADAA courses. Go ADAA I look forward to competing in many many more trials.

Well just a few more days now 'til my next blog post - ohhhhhh!!!! But as my Nana used to say "whit's fur ye'll no go by ye" - too true Nana.

Here's wee Mini's snooker run - thanks again Linda and Sue

Yin and Yang

What is pain...........

Pain is having toothache when you eat and having to chew on the other side
Pain is not winning the lotto and having to go to work to pay the bills
Pain is waiting for news that you are so excited about you just wanna know now
The worst pain is watching your best pal suffering and nothing you can do to help.

So there are different types of pain and suffering. For me out of the list above the worst pain is number 4 – and that is just agonising.

Samroc’s back has been playing up – which it sometimes does. This is usually fixed with a massage and either heat and rest, or exercise – which is usually a walk then a swim with his floaty jacket on to take the strain out of his back.

He wasn’t himself for a few days and getting stiffer and stiffer. At late the worst case scenario is his muscles needing to warm up – rather than the whole rest thing – this was an issue in the earlier stages after his recovery period of his injury. Nevertheless he is older and rest is a thing the body needs to recover. We had tried the light walk and swim but this didn’t seem to fix. So we’ll do the heat and rest.

On Monday morning he was still stiff so I decided to rest him and just took the girls out. Got home and went to work. The trials and tribulations of getting old I suppose, my wee man is old and very stiff. I got home from work that evening and he was ten times worse, he could hardly move his back legs apart and stumbled over – I rushed over to pick him up and feel his muscles – on feeling his back legs my thumb brushed against something weird feeling – which was under his tail – what the......... moved his tail to the side and OMG – VET NOW...........

I lifted him as gentle as possible and proceeded to rush to the car – put him in the car and rushed down to the vet. One of his testicles had swollen to the size of a tennis ball. The vet said it was an infection. There were 2 possibilities – 1 it was just an infection and antibiotics would take away this, or 2 it was a torsed testicle, which means it was in torsion i.e. had rotated and was blocking off blood supply – this would mean surgery. They gave him 3 injections and said to come back in the morning for another appointment. That whole night was hell. We spent the most of the night on the floor having hugs and watching TV.

We waited on the vets opening at 8am – by this time the testis were like a balloon - larger than a grapefruit and his back was like an arch. He couldn’t move his back legs – OMG how much pain is this dog in and he’s not saying a word. Got to the vets and I told the girl at the front to take him through for surgery and not worry about the consultation. I give him a big hug and kiss and they took him though the back. I had been told to call after 3pm.

I cried all the way to work. I know he needs the surgery but the thought of my wee man going under – with his age and all..... So I tidy myself up – breath hard and get myself together and proceeded to walk into work. My mobile goes – it’s the vets – OMG what’s happened, phew they haven’t started yet. Done a test and his kidneys and liver are fine and he should be ok under anaesthetic but they would like to give him fluids – anything he needs give him it. He said they would be doing surgery in the next half hour and to call at 11am. You can imagine the wait.

11am – the call. I spoke to the receptionist and she put me on hold to go and find out. I felt like I was on hold for aaaagggeeeessssss........she came back and said the surgery was all fine and blah blah blah – I couldn’t hear her, is Sam ok, the surgery all went well, blah blah, blah – but is HE OK???? – “yes”! OMG, when can I pick him up – 3pm, phone down, head down and crying like a child. OMG they tears that are just incontrollable and like a waterfall – but with relief.

So I’ve got my boy home again. He was still very drowsy and not sure what the heck was going on. We got home and lay on the floor watching TV. I was supposed to go to training to instruct but I couldn’t leave him like that. I felt bad for not going down to help but my boy needed me and I couldn’t take him with me. Later on he started coming too again and wanted food. He ate slowly but was at least eating.

He’s got a bucket on and got 2 drains sticking outside his has-been testis to remove the excess fluid. Thank the lord he is safe and sound and it is over. He goes back on Friday to have the drains removed and in a fortnight to have the stitches out. Just time now to heal him – I bet he’s relieved he’s got them off. He’s punishing me with that bucket though you know. I won’t need to shave my legs for a while – Sam’s decided to shave them for me with the edge of his bucket – oh well we can be in pain together – owch!

I'm only going as long as NO ONE sees me with this on



Much more comfy now!!!