Diva's 1st trip to the groomers!

Diva is smelling particularly pleasant this evening after her first trip to the groomers this afternoon. Never having had a particularly high-maintenance dog before, I learnt some new things today, but I can't say I'll be giving up the day job just yet! It was interesting to see what they do, but it doesn't fascinate me like training does. I was very proud of my girl again today, as she remained pretty relaxed throughout, a little shaky sometimes, but not to the point of refusing liver cake :-)

Today is 4 weeks since her accident, and tomorrow will be the first time we can do a little off-lead exercise since then. I'm going to avoid meeting other dogs until I feel a little braver about them saying hello to her - she has no worries, so I'll have to have them for both of us! On a serious note though, she constantly impresses me, and I love the little dog she's developing into. I know that she'll be a success at whatever I ask of her, and providing I've done the best I can as her handler and trainer, she'll always give her best straight back. Hopefully we'll be able to get to some training classes together soon, after some work at the magical place known as the Smart clinic. I am so grateful to my Kai for leading me to them, and in doing so making sure all the dogs that come after him are well looked after.

Today I'm grateful for all the wonderful elements which make up my life - Callum & Diva illustrating below what I mean perfectly :-)

Well done everyone!

I felt I had to just write a note to say how proud I was of everyone today - the long break doesn't seem to have done anyone any harm at all, and you were all very focused - dogs and handlers! Well done!

Today I'm grateful for my beautiful boys who were very pleased to see their Mummy after she'd been out all day. It's so nice to be welcomed home by wet kisses and little bear hugs :-)

Late Christmas Eve

My mum and I have not long finished my youngest son Callum's Christmas sack. It's a big, padded sack in Christmassy material, with his name embroidered in green on the front. My eldest Jamie has one too, made for him for his first Christmas. I can't believe that his time last year I was pregnant with Callum, and the year before that with Jamie! He will be 2 years old in a couple of weeks time, and it's hard to believe that all that time has gone by. We can't imagine our lives without our beautiful children and we really do celebrate the fact that our family has been so blessed to have them.

Today I am grateful for my Mum who is such a constant source of love for me and my little family. I couldn't have made Callum's Christmas sack without her, and she is one of the few who understand just how important it is that these small things get done. Happy Christmas everyone!

Photo from Severnside demo

Here's my darling little toddler Jamie, thumb in mouth, tired out from a lovely day demonstrating agility at the RSPCA's dog show in Ashton Court - the dogs were brilliant and are enjoying a well earned break in the waterhole. Thanks to Fiona Melford for the great shot! :-)

Leading up to our 1st KC Festival..

Lovely weekend off with our little family which was just what I needed before the approaching festival. Ella's wins ought to have given me a lot of confidence going into the weekend, but I have to say I'm perhaps more nervous than ever! I know my gorgeous little girl can do it now, I have complete faith in every obstacle I send her at - including those weave poles! Just wish I could say the same about me! Life as a mum to two little boys is exhausting some days, and summoning up enough energy to be a worthy agility partner to Ella is hard going. Especially when she's clearly raring to go - it makes me very jealous :-)) Still, Martin Tait is over for our Daybreak competition group this evening so I anticipate a good session to buoy me up before Friday.

Now we've won into Grade 3 we're no longer eligible for the Starters Cup at the festival, so instead are in the Novice which is grades 3-5. What I need to remember is that this is effectively Ella & I's first year of competition and we have nothing to prove to anyone - we can come back next year with winning aims. This year is about getting back into the swing of competition and we're already being quite successful. This festival is about continuing the great work we've been doing in the ring, and investing in our relationship. Any wins will be a bonus, but they're not what we step into the ring for.

Today I'm grateful for my fantastic agility partner Ella, who's right beside me as I follow my agility dreams :-)

Thames DTS Agility show

Another great day, although no trophies to show for it I'm afraid. Not that you'd know that from the great big grin plastered all over my face - Ella hit the entries for 3 sets of poles, only coming out of one set at the end which had a tunnel beckoning at the end of them. So very happy as the handling errors I made were small (unlike the runs from last weekend, I won't elaborate further :-)) so I'm upbeat about this season. I have such a great dog!

Anyway think I should probably be headed on up to bed. I'm pleased to report that Callum has managed to wait until 7.00am or after for his bottle these last few nights, but I wouldn't like to say that it's a permanent arrangement just yet - or at least not without touching wood :0)

Plus I spent a very uncomfortable night on Friday with a terrible headache, which was still hanging around on Saturday morning. My back was all kinds of stiff, so after a visit to the osteopath it was decided that I might want to be a bit kinder to my body. After all, it has provided me with the most beautiful little boys not so long ago! So this week my aim is to practise my stretches and when I need to lift anything, to do it carefully. Fingers crossed!

Today I'm glad that Callum was better from his heat rash of yesterday, that I got to spend an hour with Jamie before he went off to bed after getting back from the show, and for Mike who refused to let me stay at home as I had considered with Callum being poorly and my bad night on Friday. He knows what I need more than I do some days, I'm a very lucky girl indeed :-)

Website updates

Despite a very long weekend, I felt the urge to update the Daybreak websites (dog training & pet care - http://www.daybreakpets.co.uk/) to include baby Callum & whilst I was at it, the rabbits too. This was prompted by the capture of some beautiful pictures of the boys which I wanted to share - my favourite is this one I think:

Now I know I'm their mother, but aren't they just scrummy! Not to mention good little people - we went caravan hunting at the end of the day yesterday, and despite obviously being tired were ever so good. I think Jamie is quite looking forward to caravanning at the shows, if we can ever find a suitable caravan that is!

With the shows in mind I'm really looking forward to a training session with Martin Tait on Tuesday evening for my competition class at Daybreak. If I could explain to Ella I know she'd be equally excited, so perhaps it's better that I can't - two of us excited probably wouldn't be a good thing! Plus, along with my friend Caroline & her dog Jake, we might be paying a visit to Tace Allen for the dogs to have a once over. I don't have any specific concerns, but would like to make sure Ella's in tip top condition to start the season. We ask a lot of our agility dogs and I think it's only fair we repay them by making sure they're fit for the job we ask of them.

So expect an update after Tuesday I guess - can't wait!

UK Agility Beckford

Well some success at the UK Agility Easter show yesterday, 2nd in the Beginners Standard Steeplechase, and although unplaced because of faults in the rest of her rounds she worked really well. The bloomin' weaves are letting us down and I'm seriously considering petitioning the Kennel Club & UK Agility to ban them! A photographer caught her in the weaves, although sadly as you'll see if you look at where she is, it's as she's making a mistake through them - durrhh!

Still I'm not too disheartened. Callum was only 7 weeks old yesterday and for our only problem to be the weave poles after such a layoff, I haven't much to complain about. And it was such fun to be back at shows and bumping into people I haven't seen for ages! Not to mention being able to run around with her, rather than what seemed like a very long way behind her!

Plus Hattie & Helen Sharp won another 1st place rosette in their Novice Toy Jumping class, so they're really going to have to start thinking about an extension for all Hattie's winnings :-))

Out of little acorns..

Some lovely things of this past week or so:

1. Baby Callum giving me and my mum his first smiles - aaah!! :-))


2. Having a lovely evening out with my husband Mike on Saturday for his hockey club's annual dinner
3. Lel & Hattie winning Grade 1 agility on Saturday - go girls!
4. Ella & I winning the agility round in Sundays league match, and nailing two sets of 12 weave poles during the evening - perhaps winning Grade 1 isn't as far off as I worry it might be?!
5. Lel & Hattie coming 3rd in the agility during the same league match
6. New starters group at Severnside really inspiring me, and enjoying being back teaching agility

Baby Callum

Well it's been an exciting week! Baby Callum was born on Friday 20th February, just over 3 weeks earlier than we were expecting him. Despite being what the doctors class as premature at just under 37 weeks, he weighed in at 6lb & 10.5oz and at his 5 day weight check today hasn't lost more than 10% of his body weight which is considered to be a good thing. As you can imagine we're quite tired out here, but just wanted to post quickly to let people know what's happening in the Osmond household.