Friday 30 January 2009

Scandalous update no. 1

We picked Scandal up on Thursday evening, brought her home at 8pm, she was great in the car, went to sleep on my friend's lap after about 10 min, and slept all the way home. Let her meet both Rix and Tia - Rix just pretended he couldn't see her and Tia was scared of her. She has a big cage which she goes in when we aren't around, otherwise she has the run of the kitchen/diner and dog room.

I thought she was going to be soooo naughty, especially after having Bex, who was the most energetic puppy ever, and never slept. Well, I was wrong, she's an angel! She is a very happy, enquisitive puppy, very into toys and chewing them, I put her on grass for the first time on Thurs and she wasn't sure at all so we had newspaper that night and since then she's been in the garden every time, which I am really pleased with as I was hopeless at house training Bex.

I've put her to bed at half 10 each night and she has been quiet and clean until I've let her out in the morning. If you put her in the cage during the day she whines for a minute then settles down for a sleep.

She had her first jab yesterday and then the vet gave her some liver treat things which took her a while to work out that they were meant for eating lol, then she tried to chew the vets stethoscope. I can't wait till she's had her 2nd jab and can go out and about!

I have been clickering her for sitting, I normally hand feed part of her first meal getting her to sit, and calling her name and treating her, she is catching on, and when I was making breakfast this morning kept offering me a sit, which is quite distracting and meant I burnt the toast as was too busy with her. She's sooo cute, I love her lots!

Wednesday 28 January 2009

I've been tagged!

Oh no, I've been tagged!

The instructions were
Open a document or file folder
Click on the fifth folder and then the fifth photo
Post the photo and describe it
Then tag 5 other bloggers

This is Bex and Tia, when Bex was 8 weeks old. Bex lurrrrved Tia, and as you can see, the feeling was not quite mutual!

I'm now going to tag:
Angela - http://arogersuk8.blogspot.com/
Natalie - http://flyinkai.blogspot.com
Itty - http://chasemyrainbow.wordpress.com
Vicky - http://giruff.blogspot.com
and Leanne - http://www.undermybed.co.uk

Pup comes home tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday 26 January 2009

Pup professional pics

Jackie and Ant had some professional pics taken of the pups last week, they are FABBBBB!!!
Mel Taylor took the photos her website is http://www.letcombe.net/meltaylorphotography

Ruby looking so pretty!


Scandal baby
Cutie Nell
Chilli, Rave, Nell and Scandal


Nell and Spot











Monday 19 January 2009

10 days

10 days till I bring puppy home yippee!

I did a spot of puppy shopping today, well, I did what Bernadette does, and raided the charity shops and bought some childrens toys lol, I bought a Barbie toy car thing, which is great fun, a musically thing which makes different noises when you press it, and a soft toy thing which makes more noises when you press it. Tia is scared of the musically thing lol. I hope Scandal likes them, I bought them at great cost, approx £1.25 per toy!! I can highly recommend charity shops for toys, they have so much stuff, although it was a bit embarrassing walking down the high street with an Oxfam bag and British Heart Foundation bag lol.

Not many pics this week, I didn't charge the camera from last week, oops. The pups were awesome, I had my camera on the wrong setting (again) and didn't figure it out until just before the battery went, damn technology. They are much harder to take good pictures of when they are 6 weeks old! It would have been better to video them, as they are so funny. Scandal is definitely one of the monsters of the litter, well, she is the biggest! She is very into everything, and very people orientated. It will certainly be interesting seeing all the pups grow up, and seeing how they change as they get older.



She likes feet/hands/arms/legs!




Uh oh - getting ready to pounce on Fish!




Rave - new owner Jayne Widdess


Fish - new owner Collette Gibson - Fish's ears have already gone up - think they will end up pricked
P.S I KNOW my puppy has BIG ears!!!!

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Scandal

Video of Scandal at 5 weeks old!

Sunday 11 January 2009

Pups week 5

Introducing my puppy, Scandal

aka Rujaff Red Hot Scandal or Rujaff Blazing Scandal!






Robbie





Rave




Nell


Nell again



Fish



Jumbo - pics by Alan Smith


Not many pics this week as I took the camera but not the memory card, so had to save it on the camera's memory, which wasn't very big. Got a cute vid of Scandal which I'll upload soon. x

Friday 9 January 2009

New year, new start

Well I'm quite glad to see the back of 2008, I think the only good thing that came out of it was that my pup was born. I've chosen the pup I want (99.9% sure) and will tell you all on Sunday after my visit to the pups who will then be 5 weeks old.

Last weekend I went on an obedience training weekend with a guy called Kamal Fernandez, he's got collies and a couple of working type Malis, I knew he was very up on motivation, but geez, not that much!!! He has done (or is doing?!) a degree in psychology so placed a very different perspective on a lot of his training, things such as postive and negative reinforcements (which until he said what they meant, I didnt realise) and lots of other things. Everyone I work with at Airbus seems to have a degree in psychology so it was interesting to see it in a dog training light, rather than human...

Tia was great, I have got lots of things to work on, mainly teaching her the EXACT heel position I require (she has a tendancy to surge forward basically as I've never been totally clear with where I want her and still reward even if she gives a variety of positions) and getting her a lot more drivey and intense. I made the mistake of training with her holee rolee ball (aka blue cage ball) and she was refusing to give it back, so put my hand in her mouth to remove said ball and she thought I was still playing and crunched down as hard as she could on my hand... ouch. At least it is teaching my reflexes to be a bit quicker. Also got some new ideas for sendaway training. Kamal did some work with his dogs, ohhh they have attitude to die for. All what he has 'put' into them, they weren't all naturally very strong dogs so it was great to see what you could get if you really put enough effort in. He also did some work with Claire's little 9 week old pup Roody which of course I thought was great as it'll be useful for when I bring pupster home.

Certainly a lot of food for thought when I get pup, making the most of prey drive and getting her obsessed on to a toy, like, REALLY obsessed. Kamal did a really funny demonstration of the 'typical obedience handler' who plays with the dog, toy and dog infront of them, with a "bounce bounce up and down" with the toy in dogs mouth, if the handler is pushing the boat out the dog may get a side to side bounce as well. Lol, it's so true of how we get lazy when 'playing' with the dog. I've been making a real effort to go crazy rewarding and playing with Tia and she loves it, I just wish she'd learn bite inhibition at the same time so she doesn't crunch my fingers again!!!

Oh and one more thing to round up the summary of the training weekend - finished on a bum note when I managed to lock my keys in the car at the venue!!! What an idiot!! I managed to do it because I put Tia in the car and then think I was trying to take her coat off (or put it on properly) and she was being a bit of a pansy as had been scared from walking along a road from her walk so I'd been fiddling with that so put the keys next to her and then was so relieved to have sorted her that just shut the boot without thinking. I didn't even realise until I went to get her out the car an hour later!! Glad I've got AA membership although they took 2 hours to come out, thanks Claire for waiting, you're an angel.

So yep, Tia's getting good on her fitness now, she's still lame, although most people can't tell now. She's a bit more lame if she's just done some intense running about, e.g. chasing too many bunny rabbits, but is loving life all the same. We are doing bits of obedience but it's mainly play play play with a diddy bit of heelwork training thrown in the middle. I'm looking forward to bringing the pup home in 3 weeks time but not so much looking forward to the chaos that I'm sure will follow!

I also can't believe Rix will be 10 in a months time, I can remember going to a show with Angela and her dogs years ago now, Rix must have been about 4 at the time, and Ange said to me "how old is Ricky now" and I said 4, so young, and she said those years will fly by. I can remember thinking don't be silly, we have AGES yet! I can remember that conversation clear as daylight, and yet here we are nearly 6 years later with me wondering where on earth those years have gone. He is doing brilliantly at the moment, looking fab. He has a half an hours lesson with Lee each week which he loves, Lee and him had their first show last week together at UKA at Cheltenham racecourse, Rix did a lovely round but just knocked a pole, I will have to put the video up as its so nice to see Rix having the time of his life out there. Thanks for being his surrogate handler Lee :o)

Wow thats a long post :o)) off to bed now, Claire or Mish managed to give me their damn cold on the weekend so I've been ill the last few days, haven't had a cold since June so have been expecting one as have been smug at how healthy I've been whilst everyone else has been coughing and spluttering around me lolol. Got a long weekend of lessons and then pup visiting. Laura trained Elmo her GSD today at the field just for 15 mins, he's been going to Lowri's too and wow what a difference, he is looking so powerful and strong now, has lost the roach in his back and is really striding out... hopefully 2009 will be a good year for him.

x

Friday 2 January 2009

Pups 4 weeks old

The pics have turned out better than last week, the flash wouldnt work last week but it was working this week so they aren't bad!

The tri girl and the boy, Spot, are like the gruesome twosome, they are sooo naughty and always seem to be the last ones to sleep and first to wake up.

The two tris - bit blurry but I thought it was cute :)


Tri girl








Tri girl play fighting with Fish





Tri girl and Spot


Squiffy


Squiffy again

and again...
Spot and tri girl causing trouble


Play fighting

Still play fighting

Spot coming to investigate the camera
The red and white girl... awake and playing tug!


Red and white girl in all her cuteness :)



Red and white girl again


Red and white girl hiding behind another pup
Jumbo


Jumbo again
Fish




Bruce... now called Rave