Planning ahead

Last night was obedience, Zippy was first on in his puppy class and it was such a lovely way to start the evening. He is a very outgoing puppy and loves meeting all his friends, especially Rosie a Border terrier in his class. He is a very keen worker and it is such a pleasure to train him, in fact he makes it very easy for me, he definitely takes after his daddy for his drive.

Kody was on form again with dad, we had to show each other in the class how we got on with our homework and they made it look easy, we even learnt A-recall in class and they even mastered that, in fact better than Pudsey and me, I was handicapped though, someone from the class forgot to bring treats for their dog so I ended up giving them some of Pudsey's hot dogs. Well that was a major disaster, well to Pud anyway, he sulked for about 5 minutes after that and even refused to do his A-recall.

Dogs are just like kids !!!!

He soon got out of his grump and made up for it by being the only dog to complete the stay.

BEAT THAT DAD !! (Not that we are competitive or anything)

Sunday has been confirmed for flyball training. Mum is coming along to box load so we can all practice racing our own dogs. Hopefully Emma's other team will practice against us so Kody gets used to dogs running along side him.

As Ronny is bullet proof at flyball dad had been racing with him, I ran Keisha, now Kody is in the team I will finally get my rocket back. I have been waiting for this !!!
Keisha will still run but will swap with Kody so we will have more fresh legs, when Keisha is racing I will have to revert back to running her, she is a mummy's girl and doesn't like running for anyone else.

The weather isn't looking good for agility training on Sunday, I really want it to be on so the dogs get all their silly billy's out before the competition next saturday. Keisha will probably be good but I will never keep up with Ronny when he gets those rocket legs going, he doesn't even slow down in the weaves or on the contacts to give me chance to catch up. I cant even imagine how Kody will be, he is not slow either, it will be an exciting day that's for sure.

Weekend weather best be good

Carrots for goodies today, the dogs love them and I always feel like I'm doing my bit with their healthy eating.

Saying that I don't think they get any unhealthy food, apart from their pigs ears of course. Maybe I should take up the dog diet, I probably be stick thin then !!!

This weekend I'm off, I think both me and the dogs are hoping agility training is on, we definitely need to do some, next week we are at Dog Vegas agility show so we could really do with the reminder of what contacts are. Ronny and Keisha will be competing as always but I'm taking Kody too, I have entered him in Grade 0 on the medium height, mainly to see how he has progressed and how we are tuned in to each other, or not the case might be. Nothing like embarrassing myself in public !!

I'm going to speak to Emma tomorrow and see if we can arrange some flyball training on Sunday, i will get dad to come along and practice with our new team (Kody) before we hit the circuit for real in March.
I'm not sure what the weather is but please please be good for the weekend.

Speedy Pics

Speedy pics have arrived. Jan sent me some great photos of him, i think these are good examples of his character, ive been told he is in to everything.








How cute is he ???

Agility training cancelled

Agility training has been cancelled tomorrow. Ronny and Keisha are not happy bunnies, they both love their agility and due to the typical British weather this is the second week running it has been cancelled.

This morning certainly made up for it though, we packed the dogs in the van and took them all flyball training. Mum was on hand to help with the box loading and dad and me practiced our cross overs with Kody and Ronny. I am really excited about these two, they certainly run their hearts out for us. Kody has another starters competition in a few weeks and then he joins the Brickyard Bandits in March where he will make his first Open competition with the big boys.
Pudsey had his first full length run without netting today, it's looks like he will be ready for his first starters competition in May, I think my curly wurly is going to enjoy his flyball.
Zippy had his first experience of watching flyball, he certainly was amazed by his daddy, I've never seen him stand so still, he even manged a sneaky go on the box when we weren't looking and ran off with the ball, we didn't notice as he is still too light and the box didn't trigger, another toy thief in the family !!!

Dad and me finished off the morning with our obedience homework, Pudsey is just brilliant, he picks up things so well, he has mastered his sit at heel and his finish is coming on really nicely. Dad and Kody were good too, considering dad is a complete novice the effort that he is putting in is certainly starting to show and they are looking like a proper team now. Of course they are not as brilliant as me and Pud !!! (Best not let dad read this post)

Ronny gets new record

I have been informed that Ronny is the first ever Belgian Shepherd to reach 5000 points and get the Flyball Dog Advanced award. Ronny is not too far from reaching Flyball Dog Silver which is 10000 points, we have planned our competitions for the year so hopefully he will be able to secure it by the end of the summer season.

Today we have been on the castle walk, the ground was incredibly wet and the amount of mud was horrific.


Perfect weather for the dogs, well they seem to think so, the water stops were full enough for Ronny and Keisha to go swimming and ideally suited for Zippy to stick his legs in for the first time.

Last night we were at obedience class. The night went very well and all the hard work I have been putting in with Pudsey and Zippy paid off. I was asked to demo with both Zippy and Pudsey in their classes and thankfully neither of them let me down. Kody and dad are getting on great, I did the stupid thing of getting the instructor who is one of my friends to try and stitch dad and show the rest of the group what they had done for their homework, unfortunately the plan back fired and in fact they had set me up, that will teach me, next week I'm going to keep my mouth shut.

Zippy is growing fast and everyday he looks bigger, I haven't spotted signs of the famous long legs his dad has got yet, mind they can certainly move. Zippy has discovered the stairs and finds it highly amusing to keep going up and down them as a game. Ive had to block them off so we don't have any accidents. When can he start agility !!!

Hippo pictures

Lisa has sent me some great pictures of Hippo, looks like he is as bouncy as the rest of the litter. Hippo and Speedy are the two boys left in the litter to be sold, they have now been seperated and joined their foster families whilst they await their new owners. Hippo has remained with Lisa and has Solo as a play mate, Speedy is at Jans and has a whole bunch of friends to choose from.

He looks a spitting image of Ronny as a puppy in these two pictures. It appears they all have the toy mad gene, there was no way they could avoid that with both mum and dad loving toy's so much.

Jan no pressure, but I just need some pictures of Speedy and then I have them all on the blog !!!

This month is flying by

Yesterday it was supposed to be agility training in the morning but it got cancelled as the field was so water logged. Ronny and Keisha were not impressed !!!

I took my mob up to Emma's in the afternoon as they were training for the YKC flyball. Ronny will be running for Amy and I think this is a great combination. He always enjoys running for her and I am in no doubt that he will do the job.
I took Kody along too and we managed to get some team training in. It was nice to see Kody in action again crossing with Ronny, I can't wait until we get to do it for real.

After all the excitement of flyball we decided to stop off at the park on the way home. Zippy was with his nanna and grandad so he missed out, the other four enjoyed a pleasant walk, Pudsey was fascinated by the kites that were being flown.

Keisha had her blood test for her pet passport last friday so now we are waiting for the results to come back. I cant believe how quickly this month is going already, I must start looking at entering some agility shows, otherwise the closing dates will soon be on me.

Kody's flyball debue

Today was Kody's flyball debue and what a brilliant way to start. Dad was really looking forward to racing with him and Kody looked full of beans, his first race went well and he didn't even look over at the other team racing against us.
His second race didn't go quite as smooth, I think he suddenly realised he was inside a noisy venue with lots of strange people and dogs and he couldn't work out that it was Emma who was box loading. Thankfully Emma realised what was happening and called me down to box load for him.
Well that seemed to do the trick and the rest of the day he was brilliant, he got better and better and I could even see him pulling to come down for his ball near the end of the day.

I managed to get a quick video of him coming down in his warm up run whilst I was box loading, even that didn't put him off.



Summer had her debue today too, she went really well and she is a fast little thing, I managed to get a clip of her running back on the warm up run too.



I was really annoyed with myself this morning, I kept reminding myself all week to take my camera today and can you believe it, I left the dam thing at home.
Richard and family brought Eva along today, Zippy seemed thrilled to see his sister again and they played for ages in the field, you will have to settle for my mobile filming this time, sorry !!!!



Eva is looking great, she seemed to enjoy her day and didn't seem bothered by all the noise inside the venue. The amount of attention they created went down well, both Eva and Zippy enjoyed all the fuss, infact Zippy even posed for his photograph on a number of occasions.

Zippy progress

Well what a few days Zippy has had, he absolutely loved the puppy party, his tail didn't stop wagging and he made lots of new friends especially with a staffie who was sitting next to us. The vet nurse demonstrated cleaning teeth on Zippy and he loved it, apparently she choose him as he was the most outgoing, that I can confirm !!!
In his puppy pack to bring home he got a squeaky chop, it's driving me mad as between him, Ronny and Pudsey it is never left alone.

Last night we were at obedience, Zippy's class was full of new puppies, there was such a range of breeds which was so nice to see, he made friends with a German shepherd bitch being puppy walked for the West Midlands police.

Pudsey and Kody worked in the same class, working towards their bronze good citizen, I'm pleased to say both worked really well, I was pleased with Pudsey although his sit in the heel position definitely needs work. Dad looked like he was enjoying himself and Kody didn't stop looking at him, it appeared that he had the easier dog out of the two.

Today I took Ronny, Pudsey and Zippy out for a lead walk together, it was a bit of an adventure, I think I counted 40 times getting wrapped up in Zippy's lead, you think I would be use to it having two young dogs, I'm sure he will get use to walking on one side soon. After reading Natalie's blog, she is having the same problem with Reno, im glad im not the only one.

This is a clip of manic Ronny at agility, the first ever posted on my blog, thanks Emma for the video. As you can see, naughty dog walk!!! but good A-Frame.

An exciting week

This week is going to be an exciting week for Zippy, he starts with his puppy party tomorrow followed by his first obedience/puppy class on wednesday. I cant wait just to be able to take him for his first walk on the streets, he will be walking around the block with his dad for the first outing.

As you can see from the picture above and the video clip below he loves spending time with his daddy.



Saturday will be a great day, Richard is hoping to bring Eva to the flyball comp, Richard and Eva haven't met Ronny yet and it will be a great chance for everyone to meet and for Zippy and Eva to play again, this is a picture of them when they were smaller. I will take my camera so I can update the blog on saturday night.

Conor and Kate have sent me another update, Megan's ear's are up now as you can see in the pictures below.

This is the new update: She is doing really well, she is into everything and is obsessed with stealing clothes and shoes. She has us in stitches as she is just so funny! She has been to 2 puppy parties at our vets and she starts obedience training on Wednesday evening at our club too.

Up and running

Finally we are up and running, Zippy went for his second injection today, there was a little kitten in the vets waiting for her injection too, she looked absolutely petrified that Zippy wanted to play with her.

He's a good weight, 8.20kg and the vet said he was a lively little man, didn't seem bothered at all by the strange surroundings.
Zippy is going to the puppy party on tuesday and both him and Pudsey are booked into obedience class starting next wednesday.

Zippy limbering up for his first proper outing next saturday.

Kody is competing in his first starters flyball competition in Leicestershire so it will be a good social event for both Kody and Zippy.
Kody is looking good, I'm really happy with his flyball progress and I know dad, who will be running him at flyball, is really looking forward to competing next week.
Kody has been booked into the obedience club too, his progress with dad is coming along well so hopefully next week both of them will pick up some tips and have homework to complete.

Puppy progress

The puppies are going to be 11 weeks old on friday, time is flying by, I have heard back from everyone now and I have got updates and pictures of some of the puppies below. This top picture is Zippy, after flyball on saturday I left the box in my mums kitchen over night before I put it away. Zippy was caught climbing onto the box, I put a ball in to see what he would do and he just jumped on it and got the ball, he is still too light to be able to trigger the box but he certainly believes he can do it, watching his dad too much in action I think !

This is Eva, Richard's puppy. Eva was like Zippy when they were very small puppies, sounds like nothing has changed.

This is the email Richard has sent me:

Eva is very lively and nothing is safe, anything that she finds she runs of with. Mom's shoes have some attractive teeth marks added. She is settling in well and is very inquisitive, she has visited my nan's puppy and they play well together.

This is Megan, Conor and Kate's puppy.












Megan is really settling in nicely, well she is mental. Very very bold not scared of anything and totally hyper-active. She is generally clean apart from a couple of accidents every so often and sleeps through the night. She gets on great with Heidi.

This is Reno, Natalie's puppy, I updated you earlier in the week on Reno. It sounds like all the puppies have settled in very well. I spoke to Lisa on Monday who said the other two boys waiting for a home, currently known as Hippo and Speedy, are now living in the house with her other dogs, they are little monsters and are in to everything, they love playing with their youngest dog, Solo.

Monday mayhem

This week Zippy is getting his second jab, it seems to have taken ages to get to this point, he is a lively little character and hates not being able to walk with the rest of the dogs. I must admit, he is getting quite heavy and I fear I may end up looking like Popeye !

When he is ready to go out, I think the park will be the best place, I might just take the two puppies, Pudsey and Zippy, they can run around like hooligans then and not worry about the others speeding past, I fear Zippy may feel left out seems as Pudsey can keep up with them all now.

Today we woke up to snow, although I'm not too keen, the dogs love it, they have all been playing in it this morning, unfortunately for them it is starting to melt now, hopefully it wont come back, I start work at 4.00am tomorrow morning and I don't fancy driving in that.

This week I'm at work for most of it, infact today is my only day off, I have been catching up with some jobs, house work and entering some shows, don't forget if you need to enter Crufts the closing date for online entries is the 12th Jan, a week today !!!!
Ive decided only to enter Ronny at Crufts, Kody is not ready yet so I don't want to push him and knock his confidence, Ronny and Keisha will be going for the YKC flyball team and Amy is using Ronny in her YKC handling class too. The sunday will be a very busy day for us.

I heard from Natalie last night, this is part of the email she sent:

Reno is settling in fine but he definitely is a mad bouncy thing! We’ve just come home from Dorset where we spent New Year with my Dad, Sister, Brother-in-Law, 2 Nephews, Gran, 3 Doggies, 2 Cats and countless Guinea Pigs so he had plenty to keep him occupied. Now we are home it’s down to me to keep him out of trouble!
Ade loves him. He thinks he is the sweetest Puppy in the world!

It appears that all the puppies are very bold and outgoing, I don't think agility or flyball is going to be a problem !!!!
There are still two boys looking for a home, if you are interested please contact Jan (Bonvivant Belgians) or myself.

Bandits get new best time

Today the Brickyard Bandits were down on Wimbledon Common competing in the flyball tournament. We have never been to this venue before but we will definitely be going back. It had lovely long walks for the dogs and plenty of space to play ball without distracting the flyball comp.

The Bandits have had their best run ever, we achieved a new personal best in the first race with 19.79 and went on to run consistent times throughout the day. We had five races today and the Bandits won them all, winning the division, admittedly some of the races were not easy and infact most of them went to the full five legs. All the dogs were on form and Keisha and Dylan have now started to get used to crossing with each other which was a great break through. Kody joined in on the warm up and finished the day with completing the full run, it was such a lovely achievement and I'm very excited for when he joins the Bandits team.

I caught Zippy having a well deserved sleep in the front of the van, after the excitement of watching the flyball and meeting his friends and new people again he was more than ready to have his lunch and an afternoon snooze. I can't blame him, if I got chance I would have done the same thing too.

The Brickyard Boomerangs had a great day too, after a good day of racing they finished second in their division, Kathryn was running her boxer Diesel, apparently there has only ever been two boxers that have competed in flyball as they find it very difficult, but I'm proud to announce Diesel completed her run today and infact won the last race for the team. Well done to the Boomerangs.

Flyball training

Today we have been at flyball training, I really wanted to work on Kody's and Ronny's cross over today so when Kody is ready to start we will have it nailed. I can honestly say I'm shocked at how good Kody is, he is brilliant at crossing with Ronny and on some occasions I probably would have got a light if it was in a race.
Pudsey has also started his training, today he mastered running to the box, triggering it and fetching the ball (without any jumps) and he loved it.

Zippy has been with me for two weeks now, as you can see by the video clip of him beating up Ronny, he has settled in just fine. He is such a toy mad puppy and always wants to play, Ronny and Pudsey are his favourites, probably because they all have the same mental age !!!