Thursday 30 October 2008

Puppy pics




Here are the puppies at 6 days old. Lisa informs me that they are big puppies that are eating very well. The darkest one is a girl, I've been told that they have got the best accommodation, first class hotel room with heating, Lisa on the other hand is in her long johns freezing to death sleeping in the second class room next door. Thanks Lisa, it will all be worth it in the end!!!!!!!!!
The puppies are KC registered and both mum and dad can be seen. Ronny is currently out competing in both the agility and flyball circuit and is at Newark on Sunday for the YKC qualifier.
Ronny's hip score is 4:0 and mum Chamonix is 4:3. These puppies are a very good working and breed line and will make excellent flyball, agility, obedience dogs etc.
Mum can be seen on the Witherbark site which can be accessed via my links.

Wednesday 29 October 2008

This week is flying by, I have been so busy at work it feels like I am never at home at the minute.

Sunday I'm off to Newark as the YKC flyball crufts qualifier is on, I'm hoping to be able to video it seems as I will be a spectator for once.

This morning I managed to get to the park with the dogs, typical British weather and we get an unexpected amount of snow. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures as I was too busy throwing snowballs for the dogs, amazingly Ronny still managed to retrieve what was left and drop them on my feet !!!!!
I did however find a picture of Ronny when he was a puppy taken a few years back.

Saturday 25 October 2008

As promised a lovely pic of Chamonix and puppies.

Thanks to Lisa and Chris for sending me the photo.

Friday 24 October 2008

Ronny's a dad !!!!!!!!!!!!

Ronny is now officially a proud dad of 4 boys and 2 girls who were born earlier today.

Mum Chamonix and all six puppies are doing really well, hopefully I will have some pictures to put up on the blog very soon.

People who are interested in having a puppy please contact myself or Jan Ralph who can be accessed via my links, bonvivant belgians.

Wednesday 22 October 2008

I know people say they have multi talented dogs, but look, Keisha is now the new England football striker, she out jumped everyone for the winning header, well in the dog world anyway !!!!



With this weekend being one to not look forward too, i.e rain all weekend and the clocks going back making the nights turn in earlier, it seemed appropriate to make this evening one to enjoy, me and the dogs had a good game of football followed by a luxury dinner of chicken (well for the dogs anyway).

I'm off this weekend and for once I haven't got any agility or flyball competitions, however, with the crufts flyball qualifier next week I'm sure we will not go the weekend without any form of training.

Kody is being packed off with dad to go and watch a rugby match on saturday, it will be good for him to get out and meet some new friends, he can at times be a bit shy but I'm sure if he gets fed cheese all day and people play ball with him then he will more than accommodate those horrible humans !!!!!

Friday 17 October 2008

Lots of flyball training today, infact the whole day has seemed to revolve around balls. My new flyball box has finally arrived and what better way to check that it is in good working order than to use it. Ronny, Keisha and Kody all took it in turn to sample it, if it can cope with Ronny's rocket speed and him breaking on the box then that flyball box is more than capable of any dog!!!!!!

All three of them ran very well and Kody looks like a true professional now, his first competition is hopefully a starters match in January and I think he is more than ready.

After a hard training session it only seemed right for a game of football and rugby, well in some sort of dog form anyway, Ronny and Keisha are hooked on rugby, Kody and Pudsey seem to favour football.

Thursday 16 October 2008

After speaking with Emma and Amy at the weekend I have worked out that there is just under two weeks left until the crufts flyball qualifier for the YKC team. Dad and me have been practicing hard in the garden and are quite happy that Keisha and Ronny are ready for the task, well definitely Keisha, it all depends if Ronny can maintain his patience and wait for the ball to fling out rather than him jumping the box to collect it.
Kody has been practicing for next year too, I think he is going to be like Keisha so at least we will have a variety of dogs to pick from. Pudsey is still too young for the jumps but he has started to learn the touch to activate the ball, his co-ordination on catching the ball is still a little off !!!!!!
This weekend unfortunately I'm on lates at work, on the positive side I will be able to attend agility training on Sunday morning with Ronny and Keisha, it must be a good few months since I have been.

Sunday 12 October 2008

Bandits record a new personal best time !!!!!

Today we were at Portway competing in flyball. We have on past occasions always recorded a new time at this show so we had it all to work for. It has been some time since we last raced so it was always going to be a hard day for our two inexperienced dogs Dylan and Keisha.
We decided in training yesterday that we would be running in a new order, Keisha was to go first followed by Maisy, Ronny and Dylan.
The first race went brilliantly and we recorded a new fastest time of 19.93, we had kept the tradition going.
Even with a new quicker time the dogs were still not at full speed. Although Maisy, Ronny and Dylan were running quick we soon realised that Keisha was not at her best. We later identified that Keisha didn't like running first and this showed in her times.
We swapped the running orders around quite a few times in the day and can safely say that Keisha is at her best when she can run onto a dog and Dylan when he runs last.
Today was very encouraging and when we finally sort out the correct sequence this team holds a very promising future.
We have come away with 3rd place and a new personal best and still lots to work on.
Well done team, what can we do next time !!!

It's not all about flyball, we can do anything for a ball......

Friday 10 October 2008

The last couple of days the weather has been really nice and I have been able to get lots of training in.



Ronny has been earning his goodies by doing some of his tricks, as shown above.
Kody's weaves are starting to look really good and his jumping is coming along nicely. This winter is going to fly by and it wont be long until the start of the agility season again.

Tomorrow I am taking Kody to flyball training, Ronny and Keisha might have a quick go but they are racing on Sunday for the Brickyard Bandits so they will mainly be on rest.

Wednesday 8 October 2008

News update

Pudsey's mum, Brizo went Best In show at the Belgian Shepherd Show. Im not sure Pudsey will be able to live up to his mums standards as he has a handicap, ME !!!!

Pudsey's first breed show is in December at the LKA Show, it would be nice if he qualified for Crufts, that way he would join his two other brothers, Ronny and Kody.

Today me and the dogs have managed to get a stack load of training in. All of them did 15 mins of obedience and then they branched off and worked on their own certain areas. Pudsey had it easy, he practiced his touch commands and his Stand command so he is ready for the breed show. He then finished with a good game of fetch.

Kody worked on his agility, his jumping is really coming on and his weaves were much improved too.

Keisha and Ronny just polished up on their tricks. So all in all a good day of work.
Ive worked out that there is about 15-17 days left until Chamonix becomes a mum.

I must admitt that it has flown by, it seems like yesterday that I took Ronny to get jiggy with it. I spoke with Jan and Lisa on Monday who informs me that Chamonix is looking well.

Which means it is only about 10 weeks or so until I can pick up my mini Ronny, I have decided on the name Zippy, all be it a boy or a girl, it's got to be called that seems as it's a Ronny puppy!!!!!

I will keep you all posted with any news.

Tuesday 7 October 2008

Yesterday it was quite a nice day so I decided I would collect the caravan from off my mum and dads drive and put it into storage for the winter. I cleared all the stuff out including removing all of the cushions of the seating area so they don't get damp. It was only today when I regretted doing it as I managed to get in to a fight with them when I was struggling putting them under the bed, obviously I won !!!

Today the weather is not so good, in fact it has rained most of the morning, I did plan on doing some agility training but it is just to dangerous today. Kody and Keisha did some weave training in the garden yesterday, Kody was quite good at it, he is a bit quick for himself sometimes tho, wants to do everything as fast as he can and doesn't really think what he is doing, still the Mali's don't seem to take long at learning new skills, after a few go's I'm sure he will get the hang of it, looks like I'm going to have three quick doggies at agility!!!!!

Saturday 4 October 2008

Not up too much this weekend, infact im working all weekend so it's a bit of a change from being at an agility show.

Still only one more day to go and then im off for three days. Im going to try and get some of my agility equipment out and do some training with Ronny, Keisha and Kody. I have been working on Pudsey's touch commands which are coming on really well, I don't think it will be too hard to teach him agility or flyball, he is already running like a speed freak after his ball.

Next week we are at Portway competing in flyball, it seems ages since we last raced, Ronny will no doubt enjoy him self, after all he can go as quick as he possibly can and not worry about knocking any poles down!!!!!

Kody and Pudsey have got there new flyball harness,admittedly Pudsey's is a bit big at the moment but no doubt he will grow into it.