Abbie

Beti's sister Abbie who is at home in "Pinchmill." Emma doesn't show and has no interest in showing but she has tried to let us see who Abbie is. If all is well, we may pop over to see Abbie and Zoe on our way home from Bath at the end of the month and get photos of both. From her description, Abbie is a much bigger bitch than Beti, and she does have better colour. My only criticism is that she needs to drop into her hindquarters a little more, as many of them do with maturity .. (i.e Loki here!) I have to say the females of this litter have really turned out well but baby B is still the one for me! 

Scotland And Welks

 We've packed our bags and Beti and I are heading off to Scotland later this morning. We are staying at Abingdon then tomorrow morning will take the 30 min journey to the venue at Strathaven. I last attended this show, Clyde Valley GSD Ch Show, with Dexi so yeah many moons ago. Over the years I've travelled a lot to the Scottish shows, SKC, WPBS, Breed Champs Shows, and Kelso for Border Union, now that one is a killer to do in a day. We did them all in a day, sharing costs and driving pretty much as we do now.

I just had to buy this photo of Beti in the ring at WELKS last week. Isn't it a cracker! Only one foot on the floor, and it is only the foot and not the rear pastern! This weekend will be a very different style of showing, maybe my last other than the Sieger. I think, certainly for now, I'll be sticking to general Champ shows with Beti and Orin. 

Going AWOL With Orin And Siska

I left a dry Fron and ended up getting a soaking walking on the Lon Goed. I didn't even have a coat but it was raining all the way from Penygroes to Porthmadog. Still it didn't matter, this was a lovely walk, a new one for us and less than 10 mins drive off the main road. Though soggy underfoot, the whole place was beautiful ... I will be going back!

Beti is 10 Months

Just love this photo of her. She is so pretty. 

No idea on weights or measurements as I tend not to bother really after 9 months, but thankfully she's still a lot smaller than Sammi.

Feeling Deflated

Days like today really leave me thinking. What the feck is this dogs problem? How can he be so different to the others?  At times, he is a liability and this morning he showed me how difficult he can be. This was not fun and games, not haha catch me if you can. In over 30 years of owning this breed, this was a situation I've only previously found myself in with him, for the third time he was a leads length away from biting me. And what did I do to warrant such behaviour? Well, I tried to put wound powder on a small cut on his foot.

When I worked at Freshfields I really saw some unpredictable dogs, some proper arseholes, and I prided myself on the fact I'd never had a dog like that, well I have now! Ok he has one thing in common with them, an unknown history ... Steve constantly preaches, if he'd always been here, he wouldn't be like this? Steve is so quick to forgive him any misdemeanour, but it's not in my nature to have a dog I have to manage and not just love. On days like today, I really could not give a feck about his past, I could just give up on him, the dog gives me little pleasure, he is unpredictable and unsafe .. there you go I've finally said it! I try my best for him, I really do, but he breaks my heart, every time we begin to bond there is an incident which leaves me doubting I'm the right person for him, but seriously who the hell else would want him? And more so, who would be able to manage him? I honestly think had we rehomed him, he would have been PTS by now. Don't worry, I won't bow down from my responsibility, I bought him into the world, therefore it's down to me to keep him safe and give him the best I can. Had he been my first GSD, I'd have never had another. 

So now I'll go back onto Facebook to read all the cooing comments about how beautiful he is, well there is no disputing that, but sometimes beauty is only skin deep eh! (Or hair in this concern!)

#blanikgsds

 

A very proud Mrs S with her team of Blanik kids, show dogs and retired, they are my world. 

Anyway I've added a hashtag page on Facebook, so if you have a Blanik bred, or a progeny of Orin/Nico - please can you add the tag which I've used as the post title, making sure to spell it correctly. Thanks all ...

Loki's Librela Day

Yesterday Loki travelled in style to the vets, well on the back seat of the car with his auntie Linda. We know it's illegal for a dog to travel in that manner, but this time it was needs must! Beth was pleased with him again and he weighed 39.8kg, which is great. 

Sunshine

Blanik Bus

So I'll start at the end, you may recall I mentioned the van was playing up on the way home from Builth last week. Well it was checked out twice over the week and we were told there was nothing seemingly wrong with it. The knocking noise was from some brushes that needed replacing. With this in mind I was quite happy driving it to Malvern, ignoring the knocking and the occasional juddering from the steering wheel. On the way home at the Minffordd roundabout the knocking got so loud then there was a bang/snapping and a scrapping sound. I pulled off the roundabout and up onto a grass verge. The Blanik bus was going no further. The first port of call was to ring Steve, then the AA. So here comes another problem, wearing my driving glasses I couldn't read the details on the card, thank god for Jackie. A Police officer stopped, she was lovely and as I was concerned that something may have fallen off .. she went to check. It took ages to get through to the AA, who then sent a link to my phone for me to register the breakdown and give a pin drop of our location ... all easy I'm sure with reading glasses .. Impossible with driving glasses, and what about the people who are not able to use a smartphone? What about the places where there is no signal? What if it was my mother? Anyway with the pin drop sent we were given another number to call, it must have taken 20 -30 mins to get through and with a low battery it was a concern. I have to say that it took longer to get through to them than it did for the guy to come from Caeathro to pick us up!

Well if your my age or older you probably remember the AA adverts .. "The Man Who Can!" Well yeah this one was the man who can, but only because he had too. He was really grumpy and moaned about everything, as I think was his nature. Anyway he told me that the rear axel had collapsed and it could not be fixed he said replacing it would be over a thousand pounds and that my van would probably be off the road for a long time. He made me get on the floor to see, yeah I could see that it was much lower on one side than the other, but what no one took into account was that to get off the road I'd pulled it onto a grass bank so it was uneven. Jackie and I are not mechanics, we just drive them! When Mr Grumpy got me home, Steve came out to see the van .. he said, it doesn't look like anything has collapsed to me. I looked .. oh bloody hell now on even ground the van looked OK. 

Yesterday our local garage came to collect it, he says the CV joint has gone on it, which is at the front apparently! Funny that, I think Frank had mentioned that last week. According to Ian it can be lose and go back into place, so it may rattle and judder on the move but be hard to spot in a stationary vehicle .. Ok so I'll stop threatening JP in my head, but I never warmed to him, and never will. 

The van is now in the garage waiting its turn to be fixed, here's hoping once it's on a ramp that its an easy, inexpensive fix!!!

Ram Jam - Black Betty (Lyrics)

Put your headphones on and listen to it LOUD. Imagine it paying as she one day makes her lap of honour in a big ring .. well we can dream!