Life has been so hectic recently as my house sale went through and that meant i had to get packing pretty quickly as they wanted to be in by the end of May. As i have been grooming at home for a number of years i also had to move the grooming salon to a unit, which means for the first time i have to drive to work. At the moment i am in a rented place until a property comes along which fits what I'm looking for. Im thinking at the moment of giving it 4 - 6 months and then perhaps settling for something different if the right property hasn't come up.
As well as the house move of course I have added to my canine crew by welcoming little Tikka. Perhaps it wasn't the best thing to do, have a pup just when i moved but its a great time of year for socialising pups as i am away doing demos at weekends. In fact Tikka has been in the demos since arriving at 7 weeks old and has proved to be a real pro. Tikka is from trialling parents so i have my fingers crossed that she will be interested in sheep. She has seen some sheep and ducks whilst being on the lead but wasn't too interested. Her training for HTM/freestyle is going well and boy aren't collies easy to train. Im not saying she does anything on command but it is easy to see how with repetition she will catch on. Her attention training has been going well and I'm very pleased with the way she has watched me during demos. From not being interested a few weeks ago in a ball she is now very interested in a tennis ball which is great for her play drive. Her food drive is very high and from day one i noticed she was mad about her food. This of course can go too far so im keeping an eye on it to make sure at this age she doesn't get too possessive about food.
The last few weeks has seen me receiving many responses to my Dog world article regarding small dogs working, the amount of freestyle in htm routines etc. I was saddened by some responses which were attacking me for writing the article even though the content of the article was made up of topics other handlers had discussed with me. Its emails like these which only serve to stop debate as newer judges are frightened of putting anything on the lists. Some judges/handlers replied to me privately as they fear if they put something on the lists they will be shouted down. If discussion about topics is to take place perhaps the members of the lists need to look at topics from all angles rather than just one.
Well that's it for the moment, i will try and keep making a blog entry but with all the things going on at the moment i seem to be running out of time each day.
