Sunday 24 January 2010

Winnie's First Show

Today was Manchester Dog Show and our judge was Mr Tony Taylor. This was a championship dog show although there were no tickets available for our breed and being local to us (at Stafford Agricultural Show Ground) it was an ideal opportunity to take Winnie along and get her accustomed to the hustle and bustle of a big show.
Despite the fact that she had only attended three ringcraft classes, Winnie showed no sign of being phased by the crowds, the dogs or the noise and she stood and moved in the ring beautifully. We were delighted to be placed fourth in the puppy bitch class.
To finish our day Gary and I took Winnie to our local dog friendly pub, The George and Dragon, where she enjoyed a nice bag of scratchings before curling up and going to sleep amongst all the feet.

Saturday 23 January 2010

Winnie's First Pheasant


Well living in the back of beyond most definitely has it's drawbacks (far more outweighed by the advantages though, I must admit) - one of them being the problems that we have encountered with our broadband.
Despite having had internet for the best part of a year now, we were unable to access our Blog and were on the verge of pulling it and designing a new one, when we decided to give it one last go on our new computer (which has Windows 7) and low-and-behold, the Blogg was accessible!

Today we took Winnie (our eight month old puppy from our Tilly to Timo litter) to join our local shoot for the last hour and only for the second time this season. We were delighted that she readily retrieved to hand one of the pheasants that had been shot. She really is a delightful little lady, who is so willing to please.
Fergus accompanied Gary, as he has done all season. Prior to moving to Newhouse Farm Gary whilst being very active with the dogs behind the scenes, has not been involved in showing, training or working them. However, since our move and being invited to join our local shoot, Gary has taken a more pro-active involvement with them. They have made quite a team and I think they will both miss their Saturday mornings out together!