A Dog's Day Out 2

If you click on the following link http://www.louismilburn.co.uk/Wales_Photographer.php?Action=Home there are a load of pictures the poffessional photographer took on Sunday, not just Finn, but the whole show_ well the agility bit anyway. When you're on his site click on the Burns agility box.

Dog's Day Out

Finn went to Pembrey on Sunday for A Dog's Day Out, it was a fantastic show with lot's going on apart from the Agility. We had 3 runs. Beryl videod the first one for us, But unfortunately I didn't manage to get anyone to do the other 2. Anyway here's the one that got caught on camera!

Our 2nd run was much better, we were clear! Unfortunately we were 1 second out of time so it didn't count, but it was our first ever round without any faults and I was SO proud of him.

The 3rd run was a tunnel challenge. As we've never done one of these before we didn't know what to expect. There were 16 obstacles 13 of which were tunnels with a jump at the beginning, middle and end. They were set out at angles and we had to do them in the correct order and enter at the right end. We flew! Finn really enjoyed himself and didn't put a paw wrong, as we finished everyone cheered! Finn stopped and looked up as if he thought 'They're cheering ME!'
We came 17th out of a class of about 200! And got our very first Agility rosette. I was VERY proud of my little man.

We met Ann and Peter, Peter had won first prize in the Best Trick class in the dog show . Here he is showing us how clever he is. He puts 3 balls into 3 cups in order.

And here he is playing with Finn. Can you tell who is who?

There were lots of displays in the main arena. There was a display of Carriage dogs.

Cheshire Dog Display team gave an absolutely unfollowable display with dogs climbing stepladders, retrieving flaming dumbells and jumping throug hoops of fire.

I felt really sorry for the search and rescue team who followed them, they gave a good display,but it was nothing like as spectacular as the previous one.

Ther was a display of Newfoundlands, an obedience display and lots more that we didn't have time to watch.

There was also a Cani-x event being held were you run with your dog, there were the dog olympics, but we didn't see those so we can't say what was involved.


There were lots of stalls selling things for doggy charities, the Dogs Trust was there and you could get your dog microchipped there.


Just before we went home they had the presentation for the Tunnel Challenge when Finn got presented with his rosette.

This is Finn with his very first Rosette! He's very proud of himself. I'm very proud of him aswell and bought him a big bone as a reward for being a good boy.

The Smudge cat tried to steal my big bone reward!

misty morning walk

As we've been having some really beautiful misty autumn mornings we've started having long walks across the fields looking for mushrooms (we've found 5!) before breakfast, well it's no good getting them after breakfast is it? Here are some pictures we took one morning last week.


What are these ? Do Fairies have net curtains?

Who's walking across our field?

It's alright, it's only Finn

Pembroke County Show

Sorry guys there are no pictures for this one, everyone was too wet to be bothered with a camera! Pembroke show is our local show and up until this year the agility part was run by our club, but Mike has finally relinquished responsibility to another club, which means that Cantref Gwaelodd members were free to enjoy the rest of the show instead of being tied to ring party duty. It is a 3 day show and we would normally camp there for the 3 days, but as I am dependant on the goodwill of friends to get there this year we were only there for the day yesterday,( thank you Beryl and Tansy).
As I said, the weather was slightly damp (but not as damp as today!). We had 4 runs, 2 agility and 2 jumping. The first was an agility, after getting E'd on Saturday for going on the A frame at the wrong time Finn decided he shouldn't go on it at all in this class! We were E'd for 3 refusals. the second class was the other agility class and we did slightly better, only having 2 refusals due to over enthusiasm and lack of concentration. The first jumping class we had 4 poles down, but I was really pleased with him as I had the feeling we were working together. The last class, the ABC (anything but a collie), which has always been the one I really want to do well in was a total disaster and it was all my fault. Finn was running really well, but something pulled in my leg and I couldn't run properly so I wasn't in the right place at the right time and we got E'd for backjumping, sorry Finn.
As it was raining quite hard by now we decided to go straight home after Beryl had finished her runs and we were back by 5o'clock! Beryl was very pleased with Tansy as she had a clear round well within the coarse time although unfortunately not in the places. Well done Tansy.

Heart of Wales Show

Looking down on the showground

We finally made it to a show this weekend! Beryl and Tansy took us to Builth Wells to the Heart of Wales show. The agility show was part of a game fair, so there wa lots going on. Finn had 3 runs, one agility and 2 jumping. We did the agility first and I didn't get any one to video it because I thought he would be totally MAD. As it turned out I got really choked up walking the course and, considering we haven't done much training and haven't got to any other shows this year, Finn was really good. Of course we got eliminated, but that was my fault for not stopping him going for the A-Frame which was cunningly placed to trap unwary handlers! (He always used to be more interested in tunnels than contact equipment). We got eliminated in the other classes aswell, but he was trying and I was really pleased with him.

Here are the videos of the jumping classes.

(It's probably a good job the photographers forgot to zoom the camera in and you can't see what's happening over the far side properly!)

In between runs we managed to walk around the rest of the show. There was a Husky team talking about Husky racing, I never realised it was so big in this country.

There were ferrets , Finn was totally fascinated by them, the man got one out and while I was stroking it Finn couldn't tak his eyes off it, when it went back in the cage he sat and stared a it ad wouldn't move for ages!

I bought Finn a new collar, I've been looking for one that's a bit different, not too macho and not too woosy, for ages now. It's really difficult finding one that's just rightI thought I'd found one last year but it cost £16.0 and I thought that was a bit much for a strip of leather that will probably get ruined in the sea!

My new collar

There was a Falconry display and a coarse fishing display, lucher racing, a lurcher and terrier show and lots more.

At the end they had a pay on the day fun agility class which we had a go at and we got ALL our contacts! (Finn touched all the yellow bits at the end instead of jumping off halfway down). He was a very tired little pooch by the time we got home!

Penbryn

Today we had a special treat, we got the 'Cardi Bach' to Penbryn. The Cardi Bach is a special bus which runs during the summer for walkers. It runs from Cardigan to Newquay twice a day and passes the end of our road. It was about 1/2 an hour late so we nearly did something else instead. Finn was so excited to be going to one of his old walks that he hasn't been to for AGES.
Penbryn is owned by the National Trust and dogs aren't allowed on the beach in the summer,(GRRRR from Finn), but there is a walk through the woods behind the car park where the bus dropped us.

We left the car park by some quite steep steps which lead down to a stream and this waterfall, Finn was so excited he rushed up and down the steps and into the water. The walk goes through the woods into a field which overlooks the sea, we could hear everyone enjoying themselves on the beach and the waves breaking on the beach. Finn was rushing on ahead and coming back to say 'Hurry up' and rushing off again. I had visions of him going the wrong way and going on the beach by himself, but he was very good and stayed with me.
They have quite recently made a new section of cliffpath from Tresaith to Penbryn which also goes into this field, we thought about walking back that way, but decided to do it another day.

This is the beach which Finn wanted to go on. I was really pleased with him for not rushing on down there! It is such a big temptation.

We carried on round the woods and back to the carpark, which brings me to my first BIG MOAN. As I said before Finn was very excited and excitement does embarrassing things to his stomach. Yes you've guessed, he had made an embarrassingly sguidgy mess right in the middle of the path quite near the beginning of the walk, which I had picked up and put into a (pink!) plastic poobag as all responsible dog owners are supposed to do, I had carried this bag along with a swarm of attendant flies for almost an hour, when we got back to the cafe in the car park the bin had 'NO DOG POO' written on it,on going in and asking if there was a bin for the aforesaid I was told that there wasn't as the council wouldn't collect it ! I'm afraid there is a pink plastic bag still in the car park as I don't think it would have been accepted on the bus home! I'm all for picking up after your dog and I think dog owners are their own worst enemy when it comes to it, but PLEASE give us somewhere to put it after we've cleared it up.

Anyway we still had another hour to go before the bus home so we went along the cliff path towards LLangrannog. I haven't been this way for years and Finn has never been.

This is as far as we went. Ynys Lochyn is the bit sticking out in the distance. LLangranog is just before it. It was lovely up on the cliff tops. There were lots of yachts out from Tresaith making towards LLangrannog, but we didn't see any dolphin which are quite common in the bay.

On the way back I had my second moan of the day, stiles. Why can't they put dog friendly stiles on footpaths, most of the ones we've come across in Pembroke are. I thought we were going to miss the bus because Finn had trouble getting back across one which was higher one side than the other, luckily he eventually managed it without either hurting himself or going over the cliff.

We did get back in time to catch the bus which drove along our road and dropped us by our front door.

Training Again!

Thanks to a military style operation by my friends Finn managed to get to dog club for some proper agility training yesterday. Mark, on whose land l keep the horses, Imshi and Sara pictured below, milks on the farm next door to Beryl. He took me over to Beryls and then she took us on to training. On the way home we met Mark halfway and he brought us back. Life gets a bit complicated without a car!

Finn was really excited to see all his friends again and it almost made up for not getting to the show on Saturday. The first course we did was a bit mad, but after everyone had had a go we broke it down into exercises and then did the course again at the end which he did much better.

He was a very tired little pooch last night!

Thankyou Mark and Beryl.