Camping with Ernie!

Well me and Ernie have been camping since Friday at a flyball competition and have only just come home. We went with my nan's dogs and had a blast! There was loads of space to walk the dogs, which we didn't have when I took him camping last time. He had such a good time, and it was such a good experience. He met hundreds of new dogs, competed in his first flyball competition and did lots of agility practice! I could take him everywhere off-lead (except when the flyball was going on obviously) and he was perfectly behaved! He is just such a super little dog and I am so proud of him!

So, yes he competed in his first flyball competition. It was only starters, but considering he's never been trained in flyball at all I was completely shocked. I had to run on the outside of the netting with him, the ball had to be rolled down the box and I had to tell him to get it but considering it was his first time ever actually doing it he did great! All that agility practice on logs really paid off as he knew exactily what to do and he went straight ahead, knowing all he had to do was run! The other dogs in the team was Forest my nan's Sprocker spaniel, Charlie a little terrier cross, Cadine a little collie cross and a Labrador (can't remember the name as he was an extra from another team). Altogether we came 4th, and Ernie got his first ever rosette in flyball!

There was also a little flyagility course set up, so on the days we weren't racing me and Ernie did some agility training on proper equipment. As it was quite empty on the last day (today) we did tonnes of work, especially on the tunnels as that's one thing we can't train at home. He did the chute well, but wasn't very confident going through it and so didn't a few times. The normal tunnel, after a few goes we got him going in with the command 'tunnel' and he loved it! I also competed with Fudge and Barnie and came 3rd in small-medium with Fudge and 3rd in medium-large with Barnie. With Fudge we didn't do the flyball as he can't really do it but instead just ran to the top and then ran all the way back down!

So, overall a fantastic weekend. A great experience for Ernie, and I also did some training with my nan's dogs. Kez the lurcher collie cross I taught to beg and give paw. Barnie the BC I did some leg weaving work with and played some frisbee which I got on film so will be able to add to my next video! Of course there is no place like home and it's nice to be back to Indi as he is now following me around everywhere probably worried I'm going to go somewhere without him again! Well no more camping trips for a while, but I will hopefully be going to a starters competition with Ernie in October a few days before his birthday so we will see! I have also got some photo's of Ernie doing flyball taken by one of the flyballers but I need to wait for them to be emailed to me! Hopefully that'll be soon, because they are awesome!

Well now some pics from the whole camping trip! It was such fun and I am so glad I decided to go after a lot of indecision. I forgot how much fun camping is! The dogs in the pic are Ernie obviously, Fudge the Springer Spaniel, Forest the Sprocker spaniel and Alfie Ernie's brother!

The end of summer is nearing!

Yep, its nearly the end of August which means back to school and less time to spend with the dogs. On the up side, it should start cooling down again, and the leaves will start falling soon! Good news for Indi! And in October Ernie will be 3 years old! In some ways, he seems too young! He's come so far from that nervous, unfriendly little dog into a completely trustworthy, confident perfect dog! In November it will also be exactily two years since Ben died. It seems too long. Although I'm getting ahead of myself. We've still got a week to go before I go back to school!

Well a few days ago there was a party down the pub near where I live. I have to take the dogs past it to get to the field, and I didn't really feel like doing this with Indi as he pulls madly and there were people with dogs outside. Instead, I went in the opposite direction to some different fields. I'd never done this before, and so I did a bit of exploring. It was amazing how many fields there were, but it was a bit of a hassle as I didn't know where the roads were so I kept having to put Indi on the lead. So today I went with just Ernie, and we went for an hour and a half just exploring the fields. They went on forever, and it was so beautiful and peaceful. Ernie loved it, and the whole time we saw just two other people in the fields we were in with dogs. It was great exploring new places, and I even found this little grass strip. There was a tractor thing at the end so I'm not sure if I was meant to be on there or not, but it wasn't closed off or anything so we played a quick game and then carried on, on our little adventure!

Oh and my camera is finally working normally again! It's having hiccups every now and then, but 99% of the time its working perfectly. I've managed to get some really cool footage of his leg weave so I hope to make a new video soon showing off the rest of our tricks!

Not much other news, so here are some pics from our walks today and a pic of Jasper! Yes we kept his name, and he is now 4 months.

Cooler!

Well today was so much cooler than yesterday, and I decided to take Indi on a long walk like I do with Ernie. When I do this I usually take one dog and take them for a road walk to some parks and then sometimes go on to the beach and if I feel really energetic I go round to another park and then back home. Well as it was just an experiment to see how Indi would be I just walked him to the parks, and he was fantastic! He chased leaves for ages and then took a breather in the shade before chasing more leaves! He was so good, and I really had missed taking him for long walks like that. He also hardly pulled at all the way there, a little on the way back but still nothing compared to before. I am so pleased with him!

Oh and today I took him dog training for the first time in weeks. He was really good, we had a few issues with him barking at dogs but he said hello to some little dachshunds he'd never met before and was fantastic! It's where he's been attacked twice and tries to get in there first so we've just got to only let him say hello to calm, friendly dogs and we will beat this problem!

I also took the other 3 out for some long walks, but later on in the evening. Max nearly ate some caterpillars I was taking photo's of! Those poor caterpillars! Oh and my camera is finally starting to work normally again! Its starting to zoom in completely again, but only when it wants to. Even so, I got some good pics from our walks today!

So here are some pics from our walks today!

Yep all the hay has gone, and its just field now!

Too hot!

Well at the moment the weather is just heat and sun! It't not nice, and Ernie is suffering a lot. His skin has gone pretty bad and we can't take him, or the other dogs out, until the evening. This means they're stuck in all day, and most of the time were pretty bored. I'm running out of trick ideas fast with all this spare time!
Indi is also not liking the heat at all. After his walk today, he came home and could hardly walk on his back legs. This panicked me a lot, my first thoughts were oh my god hip displasia! I don't think I could handle having two dogs with hip displasia. We will just have to watch him over the next few days, and walks will have to be shorter.
Well my cameras sort-of working at the moment. It wont zoom in past 1.7 but at least its taking photo's and Ive been able to do a bit of filming so will hopefully make a new vid soon! I got some good pics on our walks today without having a battle with the camera in the middle of the field!

Not much else to say, so here are some pics from our walks today.

Camera troubles!

Well I am having a lot of camera troubles at the moment. My camera has broke and is only working when it feels like it, and the other camera I have doesn't take anywhere near as good photo's :(. I also can't film as I've filmed some clips but they don't seem to work in windows movie maker, so I wont be able to make another vid for a long time. I have quite a few new cool tricks that I want to make a video out of as well :(. Never mind, I did take some cool pics at the field today with my broken camera, but it sure was a battle!
Well the corn fields have now finally been cut, and its really nice in the corn fields! They've got piles of hay stacked up in lines and Ernie and Indi just get lost in it! Indi loves jumping over them and it really is amazing watching him as he jumps so high and runs so fast! I hope to do agility with him in the future! I filmed it, but the clips dont work in movie maker which is very annoying!
Well at the moment Indi is learning to 'say no' and we are at the stage at the moment where he is targetting both hands so now we just need to get him doing it in sequence and then fade out the hands. Ernie is learning to jump onto my legs when im on my back and my legs are in the air. So far he does it well, but is having trouble balancing and staying on. It's good for building his trust and confidence though!
I also bought a frisbee today as I hope to get Indi doing frisbee! He was a bit scared of the plastic ones, but he likes the soft ones so we will see how it goes! At the moment I'm just playing tug with it and we will see how it goes!

So here are some pics from our walk today! We had a lot of fun, even if the camera was playing up!

Beach fun!

Well today we went to the closest sandy beach to us. I went with my nan and her 7 dogs and of course Indi and Ernie came too. We had tonnes of fun, and Indi went in the sea for the first time! He was a bit unsure about being too deep, but loved running through the shallow water! Ernie's confidence in water has also gone up so much, and he had great fun!
The best thing about the whole walk was that Indi went up to a strange dog, and wasn't aggressive at all! I nearly died of shock, he really has amazed me! We are finally beating this problem, he really is a little star! We still have the woofing but once he woofed a bit, he went over and was fine. I was so proud!
Ernie has also learnt to limp on both his front paws, we really are running out of tricks fast! I'm now teaching him to pull my waterproof coat out of its bag. He's already mastered tugging it, so now im just going to do some shaping to see if he can do it without me holding the bag.

Indi really is one very amazing dog, and I am so happy with the dog he's grown into. He is everything I wanted in a new dog, plus so much more. He's crazy, mad and loves to play! He's willing to learn and just has so much enthusiasm! He has grown into such a fantastic dog!

So here are some pics from our walk down the beach. The little tan and white Jack Russell in the pics with Indi is Ernie's brother Alfie. They look nothing alike!

Summer fun!

Well summer is well and truly here and its been a very busy week. I've been in Wales all week and came home yesterday. The dogs stayed at home, my nan looked after Indi and Ernie and my Grandma looked after Max and Lola. They were all very happy to see us.
We climbed Snowdon, and reached the Summit! It was amazing, and a fantastic achievment. I will miss the amazing views of Wales, but there really is no place like home.

Today me and Ernie went to a dogs trust show. There was lots to do, and me and Ernie had so much fun! We had a go at a little mini agility course, which he did fantastic on! He was amazing on the jumps! It weas the first time he'd done a tunnel without someone holding him at one end, and he went straight through! I was so amazed, he just needed a little coaxing to go through but was great! He missed one weave pole, but other than that he did really well! He wasn't fast, but then it was his first time doing anything like that. What a clever dog! We also did a fun obstacle course. He did fantastic on the jumps again, went straight through the tunnel and was brilliant! We got pretty slow times but both had a blast! What's also great, is that in the process we gave lots of money to the dogs trust!

Ernie really is one very special dog, and I feel so lucky to be able to have him in my life!

Having fun at the beginning of the show!