MIXED FORTUNES

Spring blossom

Well it's not often I manage to get two blogs written so close together. I would really much rather have been out enjoying the sunshine but I am stuck indoors waiting for important phone calls that haven't materialised..
grrrrr.
2011 is proving to be just as bad as 2010. I don't know what we have done for things to still be going so wrong. First Frank's broken leg, then Ghillie's new bouts of illness, followed by totally unexpected family problems which have turned our lives upside down and now after a fantastic day out on Sunday, we got home in the early evening to find we had had a visit from the fire brigade. The garage had gone up in smoke literally minutes after we went out on Sunday morning. The mess was indescribable. We think that it must have started with a short from the tumble drier although it wasn't left on when we went out. All the circuit breakers had tripped but obviously not soon enough to prevent the fire. There was old oil in the garage from when Frank changed it in the car and everything is black from where it went up in flames. We are going to need a new roof, doors etc  and to add insult to injury although we have contents insurance, we have only just found out that we have no building insurance which stopped after the mortgage was paid off last summer. Hey...Ho...and it's only April!!!
Having had my moan, the sun is shining, the dogs are great and we have a lot more to be thankful for than a lot of people- not least those in Japan.
Pepper had her first big day out on Sunday. A quick visit to the Knightswood championship  show to introduce her to the obedience fraternity followed by a day in Dumfries and Galloway. We always take our pups to some out of the way place for an early intro to the big wide world and although it is little more than a change of scenary, I think it is good experience for a pup to travel in the car and see and hear new sights and sounds as soon as possible.

My...but that's a lot of water!!!

It's a big world out here!!

We actually ended up driving along a forest track that gradually became more suitable for a 4x4 than a Touran. It developed the look of somewhere that hadn't seen civilisation for a considerable time, but proved to be an absolutely idyllic spot obviously only ever used by fishermen. We stopped to let the dogs out and have a picnic and Frank went exploring only to return to tell me to follow the little trail by the river to a small memorial.

Unattributed memorial.

This lovely little spot had a poem inscribed in a piece of slate and placed into this tiny section of wall. A large stone with regular holes in it lay in front. There was nothing to say who it was for, why it was there or who wrote the poem but it was beautiful.

As it is probably difficult to read from the photograph, I will put the poem below:
                                    Quick Water
                      Palfern springs between alder trees
                      turns back to the wind at Tonderghie
                      down Grey Mare's Tail and Clugie Linh
                      falls pierce the mountains with their din
                      Through a strip for cattle, Carseveige Burn
                      Then the chattering one, the little Louran
                      along Barhoise with its field of thistles
                      The yellow clearing where Blairbuls rustles

                       In paradise, Bargaly hazelwood
                       grow nut and leafy branch and root
                       Under Bardroch wood, field at the bridge
                       round Kirroughtie's brindle ridge
                       between Muirfad Flow's long marsh
                       and the rich loop of Meilde Carse
                       Clear Palnure, stream of the yew tree
                       winds to the fish-trap Guives o Cree
I did wonder whether this was written by Burns and will do a little more research to see if I can find out any more about the place and the poem.... watch this space.

Ghillie and Pepper are doing a fine job of wrecking the house. I hold my breath when Pepper's head disappears in his mouth, but she seems to be holding her oen so far. All I can do, is get out with Ghillie so we can run off a little of his exhuberance. Fortunately the weather has been beautiful and the walk yesterday in Drumpellier Country Park was lovely. I swear there was a chiffchaff or a willow warbler in every tree and I could hear the distinctive drumming of a great spotted woodpecker in the nearby woodland.

Lots of running space for Ghillie

 

As usual, Ghillie and Flyn headed straight for the water. Fortunately there were no deer in evidence this time as last time he was swimming out to retrieve when he caught the scent of deer high up on the ridge so he just kept going to the other side and took off at a rate of knots and was missing for ten minutes. This time, it was the ducks who took his attention but fortunately, he left them alone.

just goin for a look.

Can't I......

...and not to be left out.......

Well, thats Frank home for his dinner, and the dogs are also getting a little insistent. Time to sign off.

HELP!! - I CAN'T KEEP UP

Spring is Sprung.

I have lost count of how many times I have said to myself, 'I'll write up the blog today'. The days are just running away with me and there are at least two blogs that I had planned on writing that have been shelved and will be added into later blogs.
Frank has had the plaster removed from his leg and is doing really well. He has been back at work for two weeks so it's more than two months since he broke his leg and it only seems like yesterday.
Flyn managed to get a bad cut on one of his front pads and is getting more 'stir-crazy' than Frank. I have done all the usual things, cleaning, redressing etc. and although at first, it seemed to be healing, it is far from being right and I think a visit to the vet is on the cards for next week. Pads are a nightmare because they aren't usually stitched, but I am wondering if the vet will with this as it is so deep and not healing. He is also getting fat through lack of exercise even though I have cut his food back.
Ghillie has had a great time on long walks with me while I have been snap-happy with the camera capturing images of Spring which should have been one of the missing blogs!!! Still the photo of Ghillie amongst the daffodils is a favourite in my album.

Wood anemones along the Clyde

This time last week saw the start of yet another change in our lives. After losing three of our collies last year, I swore that I could never go through anything like that again. However, time mellows the painful memories, and the wonderful memories once again take over. I don't think a day goes by when we don't mention at least one if not all three of our recently lost family. The last few days have seen older memories rise to the surface. Memories of our sealight bitch, Cally or 'cowbag' as she was often called amongst many other things. Cally was Frank's first collie and first dog. She came from Border Collie Rescue at six months of age, - a package of temper and teeth. Frank took her from beginners to C. I was privileged to work her in C and qualify her and work her in ticket. Our best performance was to run off for a reserve ticket under John O'Hara at the Govan championship show. The fact that we didn't achieve greater things was more because I was her greatest handicap than anything else. She was a great character and everybody who knew her will remember how, when I set her up, at the start of heelwork, she invariably took the opportunity to show me her teeth and give me her particular Cally look before we set off. Why are we remembering her now with such affection? I think we have aquired Cally reincarnated although Frank refers to our latest addition as the daughter of Beelzebub!

Pepper

For some time I had been browsing/surfing the web just idley looking at puppies, but not seriously considering taking the plunge again. Then I saw a picture of Pepper and fell head over heels. I did nothing for twenty four hours and when I went back to the web site it said only one left, but not which one, -there had been two bitches, Pepper and another gorgeous girl with a half white face; I have never really liked half white faces. Without much hope I phoned and was told that they still had the two pups as they had been unhappy about the prospective buyers for Pepper. It was only then that I realised she was in South Wales- nearly 400 miles away. Peter, her breeder, said he realised that it was too far to come twice and that if I sent a deposit, he would keep her for me, and refund it if I wasn't happy with her. The outcome was that last Saturday morning, my pal Heather, her collie Wispa, myself and Ghillie set off on our marathon drive to South Wales. We had already decided that even if I didn't like the puppy, we were going to have a great weekend. Neither of us was familiar with that part of the UK  and we were going to enjoy ourselves. Armed with an assortment of ordnance survey maps and blessed with the best weather of the year so far, we pootled our way down the road.
I had booked us into a pub, The Royal Oak, for Saturday night; it would have been Frank's idea of heaven having been listed in the Good Beer Guide just about every year since Noah built the ark and not just for beer,- Heather and I were delighted to see 3 additional hand pumps- 2 for cider and 1 for perry, I thought we had died and gone to heaven!! We were really out in the wilds, there was no bus service or street lighting, and after dark, it really was dark!!

View from our bedroom window at the Royal Oak.

We were up at the crack of dawn to walk Ghillie and Wispa at the local RSPB reserve. The beds had been super comfy and an excellant breakfast saw us set up for the morning.
We arrived later than anticipated to see the pup, having managed to get lost on the final 5 mile lap of the journey. She was everything I had hoped for, and her breeders had their work cut out keeping me from running away with her father and Heather from abducting a gorgeous 12 week old red tri bitch puppy that they had recently bought in.

Pepper's Mum: Sky

Pepper's Dad: Shep

Pepper an arriving by 8pm d Shep

Knowing we had a long drive in front of us, we finally took our leave and started for home. Apart from a small early bout of sickness from Pepper, and poor Ghillie being deprived of his lunch when I managed to drive off with his bowl on the roof of the car, we had a good run home arriving by 8pm. Pepper had had her first marathon drive through 3 countries of the UK before she was even 8 weeks old and she was a proper little trooper.
She has settled in really well. Flyn hates her- he hates all puppies but she is so in everybodies face, even he is starting to mellow. Ghillie and Pepper are getting on like a house on fire. Dear Judo had taught Ghillie well, and I am already wondering how long we will have a house left!!

'Now you listen here...'

Heather is supervising my training very closely. At least I can rest easily as I know she won't run off with her. She thinks she's ugly...just because she has a blue merle ruff, red merle legs, tri face and a white stripe across her rear quarters. I think she is absolutely gorgeous..but then, I would wouldn't I? Frank reckons he has never seen me spend so much time rough and tumbling a pup on the floor before.She is definitely a time-waster; I only managed to get my last uni assignment in, ten minutes before the deadline and I don't think it will be winning any Nobel prize for literature.

My best boy and girl.

The only down side of the last week is that Ghillie came home with more than thirty ticks and Wispa, with about a dozen. We never thought to frontline them before we went, a mistake we will never make again!! Ghillie had an antibiotic injection on Tuesday afternoon and was really quite ill for 24 hours. What else could we possibly expect from Ghillie?
Pepper is starting to look as if she might actually go to sleep so I am off to take Ghillie out while the going is good. Roll on the time when the wee hooligan has finished her injections, I can't wait.

4 down- 2 to go!!!

A man and his dog!!!

That's the first four weeks over for Frank. Hopefully now, only two more to go before the plaster comes of and life starts to return to normal. The doctor has told him that he has to start using the leg more, hence photo yesterday at Musselborough. He is trying to use walking sticks instead of crutches despite the fact that I told him he will be putting stress onto different areas. He certainly suffered for it last night!! However, he did really well- in spite of Flyn who thought it was great fun to keep up running interference in front of his long-suffering guvnor.
We have had some great birding days in the past here and have enjoyed watching the antics of the little owls that frequent the area but there has been no sign of them on our last two visits. We did however see Smew off shore as well as widgeon, curlew, shelducks godwits and other assorted waders that we still have trouble identifying on the reserve.
Ghillie and Flyn had a great time playing chase - each other and the seagulls on the nearby pond. Ghillie swam and swam but the gulls ignored him and just moved further out of the way. I suppose they are so used to dogs; in fact I think we saw more breeds of dog than we did species of birds around the pond and parking area. Thankfully most people are sensible enough to stay away from the actual reserve area. Ghillie also had great fun with his 'safestick' a bright orange 3 feet long piece of rubber with rounded ends that I bought for him at Crufts. He really loves it  but I am going to end up with the muscles of a shot-putter...it is no light weight to throw.


Guess who's feeling better!!!

 He is certainly getting back to normal. The parvo results show he is clear thank-goodness. It is an impossible situation as he has his nose permanently glued to the ground and if his immune system is really poor, there is no chance that he is going to avoid picking up anything that is around. I can't wrap him up in cotton-wool or curb his natural instincts, - he is a munstie after all!!! I still have to take him back to the vet's for blood tests re his pancreatic enzyme levels which will be sometime this week.

After spending a few hours at Musselborough, we trundled on down the coast with the intention of  stopping off at Aberfeldy Bay to see what was flying around. However, when we got to the Longniddry Bents it was obvious that the tide was so high there would be little to see. So we stopped for coffee and just sat for a while and watched the wind surfers and the sea pounding the old concrete defences along the shore-line.


An extremely breezy day on the East Coast of Scotland.

 I took the dogs off for another run risking getting swept off my feet and getting soaked by the spray which even kept Ghillie at a distance from the waves. I certainly had some colour in my cheeks by the time I got back to the car....and slept like a log last night.

On my last blog, I wrote about the many species of birds that had put in an appearence in our garden this year including two redpolls which have become regular visitors. Just after the last blog, we had an exceptionally cold and windy couple of days with snow showers blasting through but thankfully not settling. These winds brought a phenomenon to our garden not seen before. We had a flock of redpolls and siskins descend and we were quite sure that there were at least a couple of very pale arctic redpolls amongst them. At one stage we counted 29 redpolls on the ground and on the feeders. It was a one-off event and they stayed around for most of the day. We could only assume that the high winds had driven them south. Life around the feeders is definitely quieter now that the weather has warmed up although the gold finches are still consuming copious quantities of niger seed.

Well having lost one of my front teeth to an abcess at the end of last week, I returned to the dentist this morning for a final scale and clean of the few survivors. I was very proud of myself as this was accomplished without a local anaesthetic although with one or two yells. Hopefully, I won't need to go back again until my 6 monthly check-up.

I was very relieved that Frank dissuaded me from making a 600 mile round trip last weekend in the stupid belief that I could do something to avert a confrontation between people who I thought were my friends and members of a club of which I was a founder member. Thankfully no incident occurred. Deliberately ambiguous and misleading information was posted on facebook for reasons that I cannot fathom and which since, seem to have given rise to amusement and delight from those involved. I have steadfastly refused to get involved with the politics that are out of all proportion, in what is a numerically small breed of dog, in this country. This whole incident seems both immature and irresponsible and is seriously making me think that maybe I should just stick with my border collies. I had hoped to see signs of bridges being mended for the sake of our lovely dogs, but I am now left sadly wondering just where it is all going to end.


On a happier note.



51 WEEKS TO CRUFTS!!!

Well, that's it, over and done for another year. I always swear that I'll not go again, but as the tiredness recedes, the headaches disappear and my feet recover some semblance of normality, I know I'll soon be booking my accomodation for next year.
I have to say that despite all, I thoroughly enjoyed Crufts this year. I sat with Nicky and Erin Logie throughout the Munsterlander judging, and Nicky and I put the world to rights and were amazed at how similar our views were on the dogs entered. It was nice to see Ghillie's brother over from Belgium win the post grad dog class and his mum win the special working gundog bitch class. Erin did a magnificent job of handling Mo's Poppy; she is an absolute star and a teenager to boot, having attained the scarey age of 13 last Sunday.
I felt it was a shame that the winning line-ups of dogs were pulled out and presented to the least well populated side of the ring so that the handlers had their backs towards the majority of the spectators. Not only were most of us deprived of seeing the dogs in the line-ups, but we were also unable to take any photos had we wished to do so. I don't know whether it was decided by the Kennel Club or the ring stewards that the dogs should all stand in numerical order of entry and be so close to each other that it caused added problems for some handlers to stand and present their dogs to the best of their ability. 
I actually managed to see some of the obedience this year, both the inter-regionals and some of the bitch championships. I think it's such a shame that the television programmes show nothing of the obedience. I know it can be a bit like dressage in horses and only really appeals to those with a deep understanding of the sport, but what about showing something of the YKC or the good citizen obedience or even the World Cup which is more visually interesting with its hurdle and retrieve and directional retrieve.
I was glued to the telly for the BIS on Sunday. I thought it was a really fabulous line-up of group winners and I believe that for once they were all British although the Fox Terrier is heading for Brazil. Even during the gundog group judging, when just lying down, that wonderful flatcoat's tail was wagging non-stop. When he moved on Sunday night he was magnificent and I have never seen such a gleam on a dogs coat. I think that was a sight I will never forget and I was ecstatic when he won.
I left Crufts at lunchtime on Friday. Spurred home by dire weather forecasts of heavy snow, I did the trip in  four and a half hours, I think my best run-through ever, and that included a hold-up because of an accident and a blizzard over Shap. I am now waiting with baited breath for speeding tickets to drop on the front door mat!!
To say Ghillie went ballistic when I arrived home does not even begin to describe my reception. Frank had been an absolute star coping on his own. I think Frank, Ghillie, Flyn and myself were all glad to be together again. It might have only been two days but I think the dislike of separation is mutual between all of us. Ghillie has been a bit loose again which I think was due to stress as much as anything else. He certainly showed no ill effects on Saturday morning when he disappeared after deer, screaming his head off and, totally oblivious to my whistle. He has been under very firm control since, just reminding him that I am home and am 'she who must be obeyed'.

You really wouldn't believe how much illness he has; this picture of my beautiful boy was taken last week

This has really been a birding year so far. Frank's incapacity with his broken leg has meant days out with scopes and binoculars so he can sit and bird watch while I walk the dogs. By far the most exciting spots have come from our back garden. Considering that half the garden is given over to a little used kennel and a garage overflowing with junk, it is amazing the variety of birds that arrive at our feeders on a regular basis. I guess the garden area is only about 25 ft x 25 ft, but blackbirds nest every year in our back hedge and bluetits produce a brood every year in our nestbox on the side fence. Greenfinches used to be regular visitors but we hadn't seen them for some years so, I was delighted when I saw one arrive on the feeders a few weeks ago. This prompted me to rush out and buy some niger seed, which I know finches are partial to, and some new feeders. Within hours siskins arrived en masse along with several chaffinches. It was then that I noticed a flash of red and grabbing the binoculars was amazed to see that there were red polls as well. We had only ever seen red polls once before and never in the garden. Gold finches are now back on the feeders in force after an absence of a couple of years. Sadly I haven't seen the greenfich again, but maybe he comes when I am not looking. We have a full array of tits including my favourite longtails who arrive in a pack in both the front and the back garden. The other day, a sparrowhawk was sitting on top of the bird table and on Sunday morning a great spotted woodpecker was happily munching peanuts. In the front garden, dunnocks and robins are nesting in the woodpiles left when the trees were heavily pruned a few months ago, we are now stuck with the wood until later in the year!! I think we are incredibly lucky to have such a wide variety of birds so close to hand; trouble is, I am starting to think they are costing me more to feed than the dogs!!


Longtail tits on feeder before tree was pruned

 Well I guess that's it for now, need to go feed Ghillie......and the birds.

NEVER A DULL MOMENT

Catch me if you can!

Life is never dull in our household. I didn't realise how well I had trained Frank. I so miss my morning cuppa in bed, the great cooked breakfasts at the weekend, and the wonderful dinners he prepares when I am just too tired to cook. Now, I just have to get on with it while he scoots up and down stairs on his bum, hobbles around on his crutches or mostly just sits with his leg supported on a cushion while watching the cricket world cup. In the meantime, I have totally lost track of what is going on on Neighbours, (shameful confession!!!) while I wait longingly for the 1st April when, hopefully, the plaster comes off and a semblance of normality returns to the household. The only trouble is, he now knows that I know how to change a dead brake light, top up the oil, and check the tyre pressures on the car although, I have to admit, the blown fuses for the interior lights have still defeated me. It has taken 30+ years to train him, (he is no border collie), and I can't help but wonder if life will ever be the same again.
    I am so glad we have had a few Spring-like days so that I have been able to take Frank out to the coast for a change of view, (thus avoiding 'caged bear syndrome'). He has been able to do some bird-watching armed with his binnoculars and spotting scope while I have taken the dogs off for a mega romp along the beaches.


'Splish -splash'

I finally managed to complete the articles for the new Large Munsterlander handbook. They were a real challenge as I was trying to write from a factual point of view rather than a personal point of view. It also meant that I had to do some research as my memory of events from more than 40 years ago was not totally up to scratch. Not only that, but I then had to justify some of my facts and respond to queries from the 'ed' and rewrite bits here and there. It was actually great experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. The worst part was sending the photos through; for some reason, I always have problems sending photos by email. I regret to say, I am still a luddite at heart. I also dragged my 'patient' down the road to take some photos of Ghillie tracking for the article on working trials. We hadn't done any tracking for a while and Ghillie set off at a rate of knots while I was still trying to sort out the tracking line. I got totally mixed up in it and how I didn't end up face down in the mud, I shall never know. Frank insisted it would have been a brilliant photo to demonstrate how not to.....

'I know there's chicken here somewhere'

Ghillie continues to improve after his latest illnesses, although I was shocked when the results of his faecal samples came back from the lab showing positive for parvo again. This is an almost identical scenario with last year when he also had a bad attack of parvo 3 months after his booster injections. This time it has been complicated by pancreatitis and none of the vets know whether the parvo caused the pancreatitis or whether the pancreatitis made him susceptible to the parvo. We are now waiting for the latest results from samples I sent to the lab on Friday. No-one seems to know whether he is shedding the parvo virus, or whether he is contagious, so we are trying to keep him away from other dogs at the moment. If anyone reading this has any experience with these issues which are even mystifying our vet and the vet school, I would appreciate any input you could send to me.
The final bit of bad news, although not a surprise, is that I have had the results of a genetic test carried out in the USA for Ghillie and he is affected with a condition that can give rise to stones in the bladder and the kidneys. My poor boy really doesn't deserve to have any more problems. You would never think he had anything wrong when he is out running, he looks so strong and full of life. Still we will keep our fingers crossed that we can stay on top of all these problems and hope that once again he will bounce back and continue to give us so much joy and love.


'Ghillie'



Ghillie, Frank and Update

A MUTUAL SYMPATHY SOCIETY FOR TWO OF THE MEN IN MY LIFE

Life has been a little hectic of late. I promised various people that I would write a catch-up blog last week. Unfortunately, trouble and strife reared its head again before I could put pen to paper- or fingers to keyboard. Not wanting it to seem as if I only write when doom and gloom are in the ascendancy, and not wanting it to seem as if I only write when I want sympathy, I decided to postpone 'catch-up' until I at least had some good news to report. This is not to say that the fantastic messages and good wishes that I received from everybody both at Xmas and again this week have not been truely inspirational. I cannot begin to say how much they help, and what they have meant to me and Frank. I have actually kept all of them.
      I seriously considered quitting my O.U. course when I fell so far behind. However encouraged by friends and tutor, who extended the deadlines for assignments, I did continue and caught up. Incredibly, I got a really good mark for a Science Fiction short story that I submitted for the assignment. I was very pleased as it was my first attempt at that genre. Furthermore, there was lots of scope within the story for a possible return and expansion into something bigger in the future. I have now left the fiction writing part of the course behind and am into the poetry section- not my favourite and a bit of a struggle. I love writing and reading poetry but hate the technical aspects of it. I also have to admit to finding a lot of modern poetry extremely pretentious- a bit like modern art, which I have never really got to grips with.
    Quite apart from the O.U. stuff. I have been asked to produce a potted history of the establishment of the Large Munsterlanders in the UK., (about which I know a bit) and a wee bit about working trials, (about which I know less). Both pieces are for the new handbook being produced by The Large Munsterlander Club. The articles are wanted by the end of the month, so, no pressure there!!! Trouble is trying to reduce what I know to the required word count...I always talk too much!!!
    Well, I guess being stuck in a car wash, the other week, with the windows going up and down kinda gets relegated to a minor incident compared with this weeks mayhem.....
    It all started on Sunday morning when Frank decided to take Flyn for a walk. I got a phone call to say he had had a bad fall on one of the wooden bridges in Strathclyde Park and could I fetch him. I got him home, elevated and slapped ice on a rapidly swelling ankle and left him watching football while I went to play silly games on the computer. I really didn't like the look of  it a couple of hours later, and decided that he had to go to A & E to get it checked out. We arrived at Wishaw A & E AT 4.15pm and were told to expect a 3 hour wait. As it turned out, they were really in a state following a big accident earlier in the day. We didn't get home until 9.45pm after X-Rays showed Frank had a fractured fibula and he had been duly plastered. I had had to leave him there at 7pm to dash home and feed the dogs who must have been thinking they had been abandonned.


Not a pretty sight!


   I thought that having to nurse Frank and cope with my writing was enough to be going on with. But, on Wednesday morning, Ghillie was violently sick. I had to take Frank to the fracture clinic in the afternoon, run the dogs, (Ghillie seemed much better), and then drive to Glasgow to take Frank to the chiropractor. We didn't get home until after 6pm and then Ghillie started having diarrhoea. It continued all evening getting worse and more bloody and at 10.30pm phoned Vets Now and charged off into Glasgow with him. They checked him over, thought he was over the worst of it, charged me £120 and sent me home. Overnight he vomitted and passed more blood and ended up at my own vets on a drip on Thursday When I went to pick him up on Thursday afternoon, he was howling the place down. He had now been starved for 2 days. He was really poorly still on Thursday night and after 5 more episodes of passing fluid and blood was back at the vets on Friday morning. By Friday night blood results confirmed that it was definitely pancreatitis and cholitis, but he was much brighter and had had no more diarrhoea or vomitting. He was now being fed chicken breast fillet and brown rice hourly.  In view of his blood results, the vet changed his drug regime and I picked up fresh drugs this morning. He is as bright as a button, thinks he is in heaven with the ongoing hourly feeds of chicken breast and brown rice...(we are having Shepherd's Pie for dinner).
   I am totally knackered; never have I known hours go by so fast and Ghillie dogs my every step. When I am not running round after him, I am feeding Frank, watering Frank... allowing Frank total control of the remote- nothing new there!! It's actually quite relaxing to escape to the computer and write this. But, I still had to break off to feed Ghillie. I think, I had better stop now as I guess it is also time to feed Frank......

My Boy

A New Year

Here we are already a week into 2011. It is still really hard to settle down to write anything and I am already late in sumitting my last open university assignment.
The snow is back; 3-4 inches last night and with it, the still raw memories of Jig were renewed with sadness as we walked the fields this morning with the last two members of our canine family.The most fascinating thing that has happened over the last ten days, (apart from England winning the Ashes), is the developing relationship between Flyn and Ghillie. Flyn has studiously ignored Ghillie's existence since the day we brought our wee munsty home 2 years and 2 months ago. Every evening, Flyn would disappear into the other room while Judo and Ghillie had their mad hour with the ball, kong, tuggie or anything else that came to hand. He has now started behaving like a 'proper collie', as he continually brings toys, demands to play, rounds up Ghillie and vocalises in a manner that Jig would have been proud of. He and Ghillie have started inter-reacting in a really positive way and are running and chasing each other when we are out which, is the most amazing thing of all, as Flyn has made a career out of hanging around our feet and trying to do permanent heelwork while the rest of the pack ran around like mad things. He is now exhibiting a turn of speed we didn't know he possessed as he chases after Ghillie, nipping at his heels. Both dogs are changing so fast that each day is becoming a revelation.

Long- Suffering Flyn with baby Ghillie

Ghillie and I are now getting down to some serious training. I'm really keen to continue with his working trials training, but I am ashamed to admit that obedience training needs a lot of work before we can advance any further down that route. To that end, I have set myself a goal to have him ready to compete at an obedience show by April, which means really knuckling down to some training. I have dusted off my Charlie Wyant's 'Heelaway' book, still in my opinion, the best common sense and down to earth advice around, and am now in the process of some serious 'back to basics' with a schedule of his hearth-rug tips.
I am under no illusions, I forsee some hard times ahead. Ghillie however now has what he has always craved, my whole-hearted and complete attention, so we shall just have to see what we can accomplish.

The early snows of 2010. A tribute to our black and white family who are now running together again over Rainbow Bridge.