A nice weekend

The first weekend in July saw us making our way to Ardingly as we had been booked to perform at the Smallholders show. I was looking forward to this event as i am now the owner of four ducks and was eager to get some good advice.
Just like the previous weekend the first day was very hot and not the ideal conditions for running around doing routines. After the first display is was time for a well earned Pimms to quench my thirst. Whilst relaxing between displays it was nice to meet Mo with Breeze and Topaz who anyone that competes in HTM will know from the show circuit.
The weekend went really well with lots of people coming up after the displays to meet the dogs and tell me how much they had enjoyed it. The rest of the show had everything and anything to do with smallholdings and i resisted the temptation to come away with a few chickens ! There were plenty to choose from with the ones that look like a fuzzy white dish mop being one of my favourites.

A busy time

The display season has really started in earnest but i have still managed to fit in a couple of workshops. The last was a very busy day as i had a morning workshop, afternoon workshop plus a cabaret evening, so by the time i got home at 12.30am i was ready for my bed. Pogo was a little weird on the cabaret evening and not her self at all but it wasn't till after the evening had finished that i had been told there was thunderstorms outside. Now i don't know if this was the reason but the day before and the day after she was totally fine so perhaps just the noise upset her.

The duck herding has been coming along well and i am looking forward to my "Ferrari" ducklings ie Indian runners which i hope will be arriving soon. I spent an interesting few hours at a local sheep association event recently where there was lots of different breeds of sheep. Its not until you attend an event like this that you realise how many breeds there are and i came away quite liking the Zwartbles ! fingers crossed a piece of land comes up for sale around here soon as i could do with my own area to practise.
There also was a sheepdog auction at the event which was one of the reasons i had decided to attend as i have not been to one before. Basically each dog is run on the sheep and then sold to the highest bidder if the bid is high enough. The sheep they were using were not easy at all and were running straight at the fences and then either going smack bang into it or over the top. There was one bitch who i could have easily bid on as she had been well trained and looked of a nice biddable temperament. Although i like the really up for it dogs i know the confident but a little sensitive type of dog suits me better.

More displays over the next few weeks plus another couple of sheepdog lessons so i hope to update the blog as things happen.

Betty's first outside demo

When i first got Betty it was at the end of the season of my entertainment show so she didn't really experience what its like to work outside in the show. During the winter she has been great at the cabaret nights and also demos at Crufts so i hoped she would work well outside when the K9 Freestyle display season started.

The first outside show of the year was the Newark and Notts county show where we had two 30 minute demos a day. On the first day the weather was awful and i got very wet during the first show and not much better during the second. Due to the rain i decided not to bring Betty out as the last thing you want is for a new dog to have a bad experience on its first outing. Luckily the next day it was sunny weather so i opted to work her in both demos. She was great and even after the sheep and ducks had been in the ring for the sheepdog display she still remained focused and didn't sniff. So i was very pleased with her but i know by the end of the season, all the dogs get a little ring wise so i hope her present attitude in the display remains.
Over the next few weeks i have a competition and workshop to teach before the outside demos start in earnest.