Seren

Great to catch up with Seren and her family yesterday, it made my day. She still looks very much as she did as a 6-week-old pop. A very glamorous puppy, to be hyper critical, currently a little bit short in length of body with quite a steep croup, but she's not a show dog, so who cares?

Also available in the short coat variety! LOL

Videos

Regional

 With the loss of the venue 48 hrs before the show the WUSV team had very little time to find an alternative for The Valentines Regional event, but they did. I have to confess that being out in a wet muddy field at the beginning of February was pushing it close to limits of my dedication, but we went! It was all it could have been and more. Wet, misty, muddy, windy, and cold, so so cold. A show I'll never forget, and not necessarily for the best reasons, but you make your own fun, and mostly we had fun! 

Meerah was in first and she was last. Disappointed? Well yeah to a degree with the position but not with her performance, critique, or grading. I'll post videos on a different post. She seemed to enjoy herself and looked as if she had an idea what to do ... hopefully it can only get better. Her young handler was lovely, patient and kind with her and his apology for not doing well enough at the end of the class was very unjustified, he did a great job and I wouldn't hesitate to ask him again. 

Beti fared better and was SG4. In that company she was not going to get any higher up, but I was delighted with how she went and her critique. I was also delighted with compliments for her from people who matter and the praise for her character. 

Siska And Beti

Siska looking fab, apart from the mouth full of mud! Under the right judges, I'm looking forward to getting her back into the ring. She looks more like her mother than she ever did. 

Beti's hips have come back as 4/4 which is fab, but the elbow issue needs sorting. As long as Beti is Ok and can cope then I'm happy, well not happy but I can live with that!

A Day To Be Out

Head collar photoshopped out.

A disappointing walk with Orin and Siska - exploring ruined by brown cows!

Health Tests

I've finally done it, the build up has been so scary but today Beti has been for her health tests. The vet team were fantastic and though Malan denied it, I think they had a pact to help me through the day. I was able to take Beti in and stay with her until she was out for the count. Malan and Rhys did the X-rays whilst Beth stayed chatting with me in the corridor. I was even offered tea and toast! I can't thank them enough for helping me through the day. Beti was just fab, kissing Beth as she drifted off for a quick sleep. 

To my untrained eye her hips look really good. I'll be disappointed if it's not single figures. Sadly as discussed in this blog in 2023/24 there is an abnormality on her right elbow. The severity is way beyond my understanding. I can see/understand a good elbow and a horrendous one equally, but something in between is over my head. I can see a small crack, to me, I think a mild UAP, but I'm really not sure and have no idea what it will score. 

Elbows score differently to hips. Mild is 1, severe is 3. Breeding from a 1 is acceptable, but from 3 is really unacceptable. I'm not sure on 2, I guess we have to look at the over all picture. If both elbows score 1 then the overall score is 1, if one elbow is 2 and the other is 3 then the total score is 3. The overall score is the score of the highest elbow, unlike hips were 2 and 3 make 5. I've been so lucky to date, I've never had anything but 0 elbows in my breeding line, that's why I have no idea if this elbow will score 1 or 3 or something in between. 

So what for the future? Well from a showing point of view, worse case scenario a score of 2 or 3 will mean no breed survey, no regionals, best case scenario a score of 1 and life goes on as it is. At the end of the day, Beti being well and unaffected by what we see is paramount, after all she's not been lame for a year so here's hoping things continue that way. What ever the result, life at home will carry on as normal, I'll carry on showing her, walking her and loving her, just no regionals and no litter, disappointing but not the end of the world. 

Meerah is 6 Months

Where did that time go eh? She is 58CMs a 25.5KG. 

Nothing I can say - tall and heavy but lovely!

Loki

 How do we deal with it time and time again? How do we cope? One thing is for sure, it never gets easier even with so much time to be prepare as we'd had with Loki, there's never a way around the pain. Of course the others needs play an important part in my sanity, I can't imagine the pain of nothing. After a loss I usually do the same things, I wash the dinner bowl and put it at the back of the cupboard, I strip the bed, collapse the cage and change the layout of the dogs bedroom. I've hidden his toy, at the moment I don't want to see that toy. I don't now walk into their bedroom and see his bed, because it's not there, when I'm preparing meals, I don't accidentally count 8 instead of 7 .. and I write, I write this blog, a tribute to the one I've lost ... it all gradually helps me adjust to what has to be our new normal. 

Is it wrong of me to admit that I feel some relief? Watching him deteriorating was heart-wrenching. Every time he fell I swear my heart missed a beat, but I continued to try and make it fun for him, me stressing and crying was not what he needed. The incontinence was neither here nor there, it was mostly easily managed, but for the last couple of months he looked so frail. He was skin and bone, his coat was dry, thinning and coarse, and he had no undercoat to protect him from the elements. He regularly had sores on his feet and his nails bled, but seeing him fall on, and cutting his face yesterday was heartbreaking. We knew it was close, we really did, but it was still unexpected. I was I could find solace in religion and see him in my mind running again with the pack; but right now all I want is to have him back here, fit, proud and beautiful. I really hope someday that when I visualise him, that I see him again as he was at his best and not the shell that he'd become recently. My darling Loki it was time to say goodbye, but it broke my heart to let you go. Let's hope I'm proved wrong and we do have the pleasure of meeting you again, someday ...

Manchester Critiques

Nos Da Loki Bach

I guess I start at the beginning in 2014, a phone call, a mating and a large litter sired by Nico. With Sammi still being a puppy, I had no intention of having a puppy but an invitation to see the litter followed by the kindness of what were then new friends planted the seed. A lovely litter, but the puppy with the orange collar always caught my eye, he had something.

Initially, Loki was a nervous puppy, but my lot took to him immediately. For Asha he became the son she always wanted and for Sammi her new best friend. Mikey, Sammi and a Malinois called Noya helped us build up his confidence and by 6 months "little legs" as I referred to him then, was ready to hit the show ring.

Loki was a tall rangy teenager who simply needed to fill his frame, but even in puppy classes Loki was starting to make his mark. I missed his first birthday as I was in Walton hospital but I remember coming home and thinking wow this boy is maturing. 

With maturity, Loki became hard to beat at open shows and made his way easily to his ShCM, he was only 5 points short of his ShCEX when covid struck and deprived us both of that achievement. I also wonder if Covid deprived him of his Champions title, as he was at his best in 2020 with 1CC and 1RCC under his belt. Sadly, we'll never know.

Loki was a showman, a handsome, upstanding, eye-catching male of glamorous coat and colour, his movement was far-reaching and effortless. His continued success showed the true colours of a few people around me. Sadly someone was unable to be pleased for us and the green-eyed monster stuck the knife in both our backs. Yesterday I had been shattered by information that the pot was still being stirred, to be honest I felt emotional and sad all day, but I am very glad to have been told. To be hated for something I didn't do is so hurtful, but today I have it all in perspective, today I don't care. Basically you couldn't beat him in the ring, so you slated him, and that got you nowhere. 

Loki's ill health has been well documented. In June 2021 to see the boy go from what seemed to be a fit health dog to being paralysed in just a couple of hours was shocking. Everyone who helped us with Loki treatment have been amazing in his care, but I'm convinced his will, his strength and our love for each other was what gave him the determination to improve so dramatically, well that and his steroids anyway. Following a second collapse in September of that year Loki's improvement was remarkable. Until Christmas 2023 Loki was fabulous, but at that time, and for the first time he experienced great pain. We thought it may have been time to say goodbye, but the vet suggested Librella injections and that gave Loki another year of living life to the full. In December 2024 Loki deteriorated significantly again but the boy was not ready to give up quite yet ... he wanted his Xmas pressie and lots of edible goodies! 

Yesterday we walked the fields, his mobility was as it had been for the last 6 weeks or so, we plodded on. This morning I got up at 7am, he went out and  came in and had breakfast. Later in the morning our world was shattered as Loki lost his mobility as he had done in June 2021. With his toy in his mouth he staggered towards the top field, but went down. I went to help him up, but he got up before I got there, knuckled on his front and went down hard onto his face. I tried again to help him up, but somehow he found the strength and determination and took the few steps to the bottom field, where just inside the gate he sadly fell again. This time there was no getting up, he moaned in pain or frustration and chomped hard onto his toy. I tickled his belly and talked jovially to him to try not to cause him any more anguish with my emotions. I managed to get him to his feet, but he could not use his front at all. Steve came to help and between us we just managed to get him into the house. After that, Loki was not able to get to his feet unaided again. 

The journey to the vets took so long, but in my mind we were still there too soon. I sat in the back of the van saying my goodbyes and feeding him fish treats and biscuits until he drifted away to the other world. It has been so hard to see him completely there in his head, but watch his body failing him. Throughout everything Loki has been brave, strong and loyal. He has shown complete trust in us and the people who have cared for him, from the vets to the physio, which he loved. I think he relished the attention, be it treats from Beth, laser treatment or physio with Gillian.  A great dog, a true ambassador for his breed, a great friend who we'll both miss tremendously  .... Loki was such a lovely dog, aloof with strangers, yes, but with us, he was one of the best. RIP my lovely Loki 

Lokean Of Blanik - Loki

Conbhairean Danko Of Blanik x Grazias Gofferdo 

1 CC 1 RCC ShCM 

4/9/14 - 3/2/25 

The hardest part of the loving is the letting go. You fought so hard with dignity, and always gave of your all. A true ambassador for the breed both in and out of the ring. RIP our beautiful brave boy. You have been loved.

Miss Meerah

Another Sunday - and I've measured Meerah. Comments in PMs after yesterday's photo of her walking with Beti obviously had me over thinking again. These comments were from trusted friends, so not said in malice, but you can't hide the fact that at 6 months old she appears to be as tall as Beti. Anyway, she'll be 6 months on Wednesday, and she's already 58cm, not a hope in hell of being any less. Siska was 55cms, Beti 56cms, Kaiah 57.5cms and then we go to the girls that were/are oversize with Asha 58cms and Sammi 58.5cms. I know there is not a lot in it, but at 6 months she will grow a minimum of 2.5cms again. Generally the girls seem to vary in growth from 2.5 to 3.5 cms after 6 months - Siska who was always a small puppy, grew more than anyone else to make 59.5cms. If Meerah gets to 61cms and no more, then with favourable health tests we can compete at all events, if she's over it then she will probably fail the breed survey, or at best get a lower class, then she will only be exhibited at KC events under judges who don't carry a measuring stick! Breed council criteria, which is due for updates, currently reads "Class 1 - SIZE: To allow 3.5 cm above the ideal height i.e. up to and including 66 cm (males) & up to and including 61 cm (female). Class One (minus) Males which are over 66cms but below 68cms and females that are over 61cms but below 63cms but are otherwise excellent animals may be given Class One (Minus). Over 63cms in females is an automatic fail. The Kennel Club standard reads as follows - "Ideal height (from withers and just touching elbows): dogs: 63 cms (25 ins); bitches: 58 cms (23 ins). 2.5 cms (1 in) either above or below ideal permissible." Of course at K.C shows height is just part of the big picture and she is less likely to be penalised in most cases. 

The tip of the missing P1 has now broken through the gum ... so that's one thing less to worry about, as for the rest, well I'm still hopeful that with normal maturity she will be a beautiful female.  

Road Walking

A very different kind of walk today. Continuing on Meerah's training with traffic we walked along Lon Eifion from Penygroes to Llanllyfni. Nowhere better really, the safety of the fencing and areas where the road runs parallel to the track. She did well really, though she is far gobbier than her mother. For her and Beti this was a very different kind of walk, and something I should do more of. It was also great to have company to walk, being billy no mates on walks is mostly fine, but some days it's great to natter with a friend and have the company of Kiaan!!!