Happy 13th Birthday

Tali 

Blanik Frankie

Rangemore Arko x Blanik Deeanna. 

I made a collage for Facebook but then realised it may not work on here .. so I revamped it .. hope it works, too many years and memories for just one photo!

A Walk To The Empty Lake ..

.. and the camera came out of the bag. I kind of decided not to bother with too many photos today, and only took one "special" one on walk 2 incase the weather wasn't as good for tomorrow's celebrations. Anyway having not been here in such a long time I couldn't help but admire it's beauty. Previous generations swam here, the water use to come up almost to where Kaiah stands. Now it looks nothing like it did then,
where did all that water go? 

You Take The High Road ...

On walk 2 we absolutely got hammered in the hail, I honestly didn't think it was going to stop but I was the only one that seemed to care! Anyway I opted to turn back slightly earlier than I normally would, but within minutes the hail had stopped and I had a rethink and decided to take a longer route home. This is not a path I use but it takes me a short while further round, I just thought they would like it  .. but not everyone agreed, someone decided she was going home the usual way, and nothing I could do would convince her otherwise. 

So there goes Tali ... her own way home...

and yes in the interest of her safety as the paths got further from each other we did have to cross over and go her way!

 Can You See Her?

Zooming in ..

An Old Game For A New Year

 Kaiah continuing to play her hide then pounce game.

The boys never know what to do, though Ross did blow her cover and left her with only poor Loki to torment!

Blustery On That There Hill

Dog food delivery day -

 

Well what a fecking palaver! I get a call from the very pleasant driver to say he's on his way and will be with me at 12.30pm. I'm prepared and waiting and he rings and informs me that his wagon is too big to come up the track. So I tell him, "but they know not to send a big wagon, we've been buying this food for about 10 years!" Anyway he says no worries I have a forklift and will bring the pallet up on that. I wait .. and wait .. and wait. The drive comes walking up the track and tells me he's got the forklift suck on the track and can we drive the van down and carry the food up in the van .. 50 bags of it, 50 x 15kg bags! After going down for the first lot, I'm only willing to carry about 14 at a time, another delivery van comes up the track and is then stuck behind the forklift! Thankfully he was a very very nice man and both vehicles were reversed down the track and the food loaded onto the second carriers van and he brought it up here.
Fourteen  bags were taken off the pallet, loaded into the van and then unloaded again at home and carried to the shed. Thankfully the others went straight on the pallet into the delivery van and only had to be unloaded and carried across the yard to the shed here. But with three varieties of food then came the next cock up at a Tripe food was buried under a pile of the adult food, so that had to be moved again or it would be impossible to find it later. I gave the van driver a small token of our appreciation, well what could I do? What would we have done without him?  I'm not sure I can blame the wagon driver either? Can I?
All I can say is we have been buying food from CSJ for about 10 years. This has happened once before and I've a feeling it may be the same driver as others have without doubt been up here in that huge wagon. The driver admitted that on CSJ's delivery note it said .. small wagon. So why did the delivery company send it out in this huge thing? God only knows, I guess the blame lies with them. Today I'm aching, but I'll get by .. someone else can hardly move!
So why do I do it this way? Well three reasons, one logically is cost. There is a huge discount and no delivery charge on a pallet of 50 or more. Another is safety over Winter, nothing worse than being snowed in and running out of dog food, I know I've pushed a bag in a wheel barrow up those hills .. and of course convenience, well usually anyway, though yesterday has left me doubtful but now I do have about 9 months worth of food for 8 dogs safely locked in the shed!

This Colour Thing

OMG - you have to laugh don't you. Not only is someone saying her black and tan GSD has turned sable, but someone else is now saying that Asha is a sable; and when someone in the know tries to correct them it all kicks off. I'll stay silent I think. Mind you the same was said of Krizzie and that by someone who has been involved with the breed since the sixties. My friends will know who I mean, she who knew/knows everything. haha

Why can't people understand a sable is born a sable and has to have one sable parent (or in rare cases a white can produce sable I'm told) and a black and tan is born a black and tan. It's the fading of some black and tans that seems to confuse people I think, some, particularly bitches can fade dramatically and look nothing like their former self. Sable also comes in a variety of colour e.g red, grey, silver, black .. but whatever sable is still sable.

Black is even more confusing genetically as both parent have to carry the black gene to produce black puppies. So if I mated  black dog to my bitches we would not get black puppies as my line does not carry the black gene. But if I kept a black and tan puppy from that litter and mated her to a black male then theoretically we could get black puppies. I like blacks, but at the moment there is only a couple of decent quality in the show ring.. well only one I would even consider using at stud really!

Above is Krizzie at 6 months and again as an adult - Huge difference

Below is Asha at 9 weeks and 9 years - very faded but also a very pale tan. 

Below is my first ever sable, 

Ross at 9 weeks and 6 months.The puppy photo showing a huge difference between him and a black and tan puppy. (Asha Photo)

This is Sammi Belle, she like her mother Ziva she has kept a strong black saddle with only a little bit of ticking along her spine. It will be interesting to see what Kaiah does over the next few moults though as she does already have more ticking in her saddle than her mother. 

Bloody Crufts

Practicing With Louis before he won SYD in 2005

Last night I had a message followed by a call from handler and dear friend Sarah to see who I was taking to Crufts. My heart sank at the thought. "errr, I'm not sure I'll be going" I said. It's no secret is it, I hate the bloody show! I hate the travelling, the parking the six mile walk laden with bags and pulling dogs to the  halls. I hate the benches, the people,oh don't get me started on the people, I don't mean your average GSD exhibitor, they are the only sanity on the day. I mean all the other twats who push and shove and give no consideration to you or your dogs. I hate the hanging around, the queuing to the toilets, the cost of the food and drink .. and on top of it all you are not allowed to leave when you've finished for the day! You have to stay till the KC says you can leave, and then EVERYONE leaves together. Madness, just madness! Getting out of the car park is hell .. and that's before everyone hits the M6!
The good thing about it is seeing friends, I have some lovely friends from across the UK who are involved with this breed and seeing them is always a treat. Of course we also get to see some fantastic dogs, and it is nice to see the cream of the crop in the ring together. But of course whatever GSD wins the media will find fault with our crippled breed. Five minutes of unfortunate footage can haunt a breed for a life time!

Me and Mr Mikey

Last years judge was someone I had great respect for, I entered, but chickened out of going last minute. If I enter this year I'll have to make more of a commitment to going. Then who do I take? All 5 exhibited last year have qualified, and of course I'm proud, but it would be a rich idiot who tried to take more than 2 of these dogs there at one time! Loki is last years top winner here, but I doubt he would be to the judges taste, I think he lacks the drive for this years judge. Sammi looks great, but now in limit bitch she may be slightly out of her depth. You have to be sensible and know the limitations of what you've got, and sometimes the class is just too big for the dog, (I don't mean numerically) you don't want to constantly be considered as "also ran...!" You have to look at your dog sensibly and consider .. are they good enough for this class at this standard or am I wasting my money and doing the dog an injustice? After all as much as these love the shows they don't understand what it's about, to them it's just a day out.  With Sammi, who is my world, I am aware of her limitations and the limit class as Champ shows is as far as it goes, she won't be making it into open. I will do a few general champ shows with her this year and after that maybe consider just sticking to open shows with her. She's far too precious to me to be considered as ... "also ran!"

Nico winning in 2013

Back to Crufts, I'm dismissing Asha straight away really. She looks great, and I will show her locally but she's had her day in the limelight. That leaves the 2 youngsters. I do think Kaiah would be more to the judges type, harder in overline and better angled than her mother. Hopefully her season will be over and done with and she should be in full bloom by then. Sarah said "As Ross has qualified so young then he has to go!" I understand that, So Ok, if he's sound then Ross can go.
Ross and Kaiah it is then .. If I go!!!!!!!!

Little Ones Having A Ball.

 Ross having his New Years Day Swim 

 Haha Kaiah flying

 Same Game - Next Generation 

On our way back - the gorse looks like it's going to be flowering again all this Winter.

Happy New Year Walks

 Jezi and Nico at LLyn Cop in the sunshine 

 Steve came with me on walk 2 so we took Loki with the ladies. 

The parking area for Llyn Cop was a mud bath and I walked from the village on the first walk. There was no way I could have stayed on my feet walking a large group of dogs through the mud towards Llyn Cop so we opted to go up hill with Tali, Ziva, Sammi, Asha and Loki

Just Ross and Kaiah on the last walk on the base of Mynydd Cilgwyn and along to Llyn Cop. This could have been a super pic, but Ross closed his eyes. Maybe he was thinking if he closed his eyes Kaiah may actually stay there this time!!

As predicted the weather soon turned and we just got caught in the rain as we got back to the van, still a lovely morning out with the kids and the pleasure of Steve's company for one walk.