Merlin's Magicians November 2010 Newsletters
Ferryside Newsletter November 2010
She’s done it again! If you want the ultimate in embarrassment with a dog, get an English Bull Terrier.
Last training session in October before anyone arrived, I was giving the dogs a quick run before confining them to the van whilst I set up, I ‘do’ them two at a time and Charlie Brown and Thistle were having a run when, a couple pulled up and parked, a right of way goes through the field we use. They set off walking and Thistle……… decided that walking with them would be much more fun than staying with me so joined them! She would not come back, and they, despite having a ‘Burns’ vehicle (one would have thought them ‘doggie people’) would not stop. It took me two fields to catch them up, by which time I was almost reduced to tears, Thistle was just trotting alongside them, I asked that they just stood still for a minute whilst I called her to be told “it’s not my problem”. “We want to get our walk in before it rains” I did eventually get hold of Thistle, but was not a happy Tigger as you can imagine. She is such a thick animal, they didn’t even like her bless……….. mind you I do admit that I had forgotten to put a tennis ball in my pocket, for that she would have come back, without it, a walk, with anyone, was the best thing on offer!!! Grrrrr………
Any offers to have Thistle whilst I undergo a hip replacement operation? (Within the next 12 – 18 months I am told) Having been told that I am going to need this surgery I have been mentally allotting my pack of 8 for temporary fostering, Thistle should be a ‘challenge’ for anyone : - ) Bye the way, my daughter and my Doctor tell me that the best exercise for arthritis apart from swimming, is walking (increases bone density) so, my daily labor of love, or, ‘painful hour’s plod with walking stick’, has become ‘what the Doctor ordered’ good for me as well as necessary and fun for them!!!
I am lucky that not only are fireworks a rarity in the village where I live but, my pack are very laid back about noise, thunder storms are just a nuisance, disturbs their sleep! Mike’s Meg is a different kettle of fish, usually confident, almost to the point of being a pain at times, thunder, fireworks guns etc reduce her to a trembling heap. As Mike lives in a built up area in Hereford he upped sticks and came down here for the weekend. Rusty was not impressed, Meg has this ‘Collie thing’ stalks him, drives him to distraction. Thistle, was delighted, Meg is the only dog except for Charlie Brown that puts up with her, very rough play.
Mike and I went to the Bluebell for a Carvery lunch on the Sunday and were able to confirm that club members will be there 12th December following our AGM follow up meeting.
Getting cold now isn’t it? I not only take the pack of dogs to bed but two hot water bottles : - )
Andrew made a great job of the set of jumps for Ceredigion, but didn’t have enough material to make a full set of slats so they will be keeping the 4” slates from my second set. We never use two sets of jumps on full height, when two sets are up it usually means we have height dog or dogs to run.
Back to Thistle, no surprise there …………..Nov 10th. Just come in from walking, that dog has absolutely no loyalty! Met June, a friend on her new horse, got Thistle on a lead until they disappeared, but, the moment I took the lead off, Thistle took off like a bat out of hell after them, with Charlie Brown in hot pursuit, fortunately she couldn’t have caught up as they did, eventually, come back, Charlie Brown first. Following this, we met a complete stranger with a Springer, again Thistle on lead until they had disappeared, we got back to the van and what did Thistle do? Looked at me, looked at van and took off at full speed back down the track in the direction the Lady with Springer had gone…………………….. Again, fortunately, she must have thought better of it when she didn’t find them immediately, and came back to my frantic whistles and shouts minutes later!! Conclusion? No faithful hound this, Faithless with a capitol F!!! She’ll go with whoever offers the most interesting exercise/experience: - ) On the plus side, she runs Flyball for anyone!!
Had an email from June, seems Thistle did catch up, so did Charlie Brown, they both came back to me then Thistle caught her up again just as she reached the exit she uses from the woods. June stood her horse and says, you could see Thistle’s tiny brain working on it before she decided to beetle off back to me. June then took off at a gallop and didn’t see Thistle again! On the plus side, I did win this time she did come back!!
Janet, who joined us with Harvey the Lab cross, is unable to come for a while as her husband is in hospital. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to having Janet and Harvey back with us in the future.
Liz has a new baby, nothing to do with Flyball, I am sure he will never be large enough to trigger a box! The smallest, cream long haired Chihuahua, she has called him Torrin Gaelic Irish for Chief, no wonder he has such a high opinion of himself : - ) Liz lost her previous Chihuahua Ike to a mystery illness last year. Thor is a typical tiny dog, sorts out all the big dogs with total belief that he is not a ‘little dog’! I will try and get a picture for the site so you can all say aaahhh…
Just come in from training 14th November, very disappointing turn out, there is no point in me trying to split groups at the moment. I do appreciate that it isn’t always possible for everyone to attend but…………… please, can you let me know? Llinos was there with Llew who is so good for the short time he has been doing Flyball, Ginny and her Dad came with Dixie, Dixie is a bit noise shy so not up to doing the box yet but, doing the rest perfectly. Ginny is a very promising…. Boxloader!! Had a go and was immediately very good. Boxloaders are one of, if not, the, most important members of a team, Sarah and myself usually do it but, at tournaments we need to be able to run our dogs. Ginny also is a promising handler, she had a go with Thistle and did brilliantly!
I have been looking at Flyball boxes on the net. Would love to get one of the Canadian type, with two holes but 12 inches apart, it would help turns enormously. Sigh…. Oh well I can dream can’t I? And, you never know what the future holds.
Personal note: went to the Doctor this morning, seems that the rest of me (not counting minor problem of bones disintegrating!!) according to the blood screen done, is A1, no I don’t have diabetes (it was queried) my cholesterol is fine, as is, surprisingly : - ) my Liver!! Along with everything else. My comment. “Thank goodness don’t have to give up the alcohol then?” Christmas is coming folks; I can Bah Humbug with a drink in one hand remote in other as before.
Thistle is very typical of her breed, hates the cold, she likes nothing better than to dig herself into a fleece blanket tuck her nose between her front legs (like a cat) and sleep! So, I have ordered her a fleece jumper, made to measure by Sioux Rix of Forest Fleece, it should be here in about three weeks, I shall take a picture and, if Thistle and I are as impressed as I hope, add a link. Have a look at the photo gallery of coats she has made. I was impressed, which is why Thistle will be in a made to measure Forest Fleece.
We have a follow up meeting on 12th December to see if decisions made at the AGM were correct or need some ‘tweaking’. All members are invited to attend, whether or not you came to the AGM. The meeting is 10.30 am Sunday 12th December in the village hall, Cynwyl Elfed. Following the meeting we are having a Carvery meal together at the, Bluebell Inn, Cynwyl Village. I need numbers for the latter so please ring me, like….. NOW!!
OUCH!! Tried the ancient art of staircase surfing this morning, top to bottom on my backside. Bum like a Mandrill, thigh like a Cantaloupe and a very painful carpet burn on my elbow!! The good news? I was carrying Dolly (elderly Mini Dachshund) and she was quite ok thank you, I think she thought it was some sort of Doggy Fairground ride! Might even have quite enjoyed it! She was still in my arms clutched to my chest at the bottom and unscathed. Add to this the fact that my Lap Top has (hopefully only temporarily) given up the ghost. Not a good week. My lovely friend Gareth is trying to fix the Lap Top but if he doesn’t it can be formatted (it is a software problem) It actually gave out signals that it was failing. Kept freezing and I quickly backed up the most important ‘things’ i.e. Merlin’s Magicians folder : - ) Am able to use the desktop pc for now. Need winter woolies though it is in an unheated room!!
We have had to cancel training for the past couple of weeks due to the atrociously freezing weather, the ground so hard we would have been risking broken bones, canine and human! I will write to everyone after next week’s meeting with ‘notes on the meeting’ and training. We usually have a winter break until the weather improves.
Keep smiling, keep warm and ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’
June
Ps. At the end of the Newsletters Georgina has put instructions for making Dog Treats for our dogs to enjoy, I shall be making some for my pack. Thank you Georgina: - )
Pps. Still very colourful bruises in places I wouldn’t want to show but no lasting damage from my ‘trip’!
CEREDIGION
Not much news from the Beulah Bouncers this month. Attendance figures have been low, but at least in this cold weather it has meant we are all busy all of the time! Training was cancelled on Saturday 27th for safety reasons - Brenda is a wonderful vet nurse and we all have the greatest confidence in her but we did not want her to have to work overtime on broken legs! The weather is set to stay bitterly cold so we anticipate that Saturday 4th will be cancelled as well... Remember to check the calendar!
4th December was due to be the last practise of this season, provisionally we will be restarting in March, ready for April Tournaments. If the weather is decent we may well try some ad-hoc Saturdays - I know I have said it before but keep an eye on the calendar - it will be updated.
If you want to take part in Tournaments please let Brenda know so she can plan a team. I am sure June will be putting the dates on as a link somewhere.
Injuries - no flyball related ones thank goodness. Deese hurt his foot and had to have a rest, much to his disgust. Ishka ploughed through a bramble hedge and came out with assorted scratches and cuts, so she had to miss a week (tho she did say that as it was very cold she was happy to just watch from indoors). Jazz - Alfie and Sadie's non-flyballing relation - says to watch out if you put salt down. He had a cut on his foot which was made very sore by safety conscious humans sprinkling salt to prevent ice build ups.
Young Meg did very well the week Deese was off, she managed to do a full 4 jumps, get the ball, then back over the 4 jumps! Our secret weapon for training paid off well (sorry, no video yet). The following week when Deese was back on form the two of them were running as a mini team, they should be ready for starters next year.
MICROWAVE DOG TREATS
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup non-fat dry milk powder
1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tsp. sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tbsp. instant bouillon granules - either beef or chicken
1/2 cup hot water
· Combine flours, milk powder, rolled oats, cornmeal and sugar in medium bowl. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add egg to dry this mixture, and stir. Add bouillon into hot water until dissolved. Slowly pour hot water/bouillon into flour mixture with a fork till all is moistened. Form dough into a ball and knead on floured board 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Divide dough in half and roll out each half to about 1/2 inch thick. Make cut-outs with cookie cutters, or make nuggets by rolling round into 1 inch diameter log, and cutting into 1/2 inch pcs. Arrange six cut-out shapes or 24 nuggets on a 10 inch plate. Microwave at 50% (medium) for 5 to 10 minutes, or until firm and dry to the touch. Rotate plate every 2 minutes and turn shapes over half way through the cooking time. Cool on wire rack. Shapes will crisp as they cool.
Happy Christmas everyone!
Georgina
Bad Day?
Started off well - stopped at the cheapy shop on the way to the beach and got lots of tuggers etc for the Secret Santa Dogs.. same brand as the ones in the pet shop but much cheaper.
Got to beach and parked on the area by lifeboat station to avoid sliding over on the ice in the road again.
Just as we got onto the sand there was a lady with a biggish dog. Same size and colouring as the one who attacked Jed so straight away he puffed up and did the big "I am" strut around, then realised it is a female so all fine. China was good, Cassie was bouncing round to make friends with it, Bo was having a giant poo. Then all hell let loose. Neither of us saw what happened but no doubt Bo zoomed over at 1000000 mph. Next thing Bo is screaming in pain being pinned down while this dog attacked his neck (back of it luckily). Bo does not do self defence, but of course the others saw he was in trouble and zoomed over. Took ages to get the dog off him, and in the process I got bitten. He zoomed off so he was ok - checked later on and a couple of scrapes on the back of his neck with no skin broken, unlike me who has a glove full of blood.
Lady was v apologetic and as we cannot say who started it (well, I know Bo does not attack but he also does the big "I am" at high speed so the dog probably saw him as a threat) we just went our separate ways.
Further down the beach is a dead seal - now just at the ripe stage because China raced over and rolled in it. And rolled in it, and rolled in it... and when I say "in" I mean "in" and not "on". Chased her off then rounded up Cassie.
Cassie had been rushing back and forth while I was running over to get China out of the seal. Thought "ah, she has something to play with, that's nice" - WRONG, what she was actually doing was pulling yards and yards of intestines out of its stomach
Finally managed to get the girls away from it, took China to the water and tried to scrub it off - soaked up to the knees doing so.
Further down the beach is the remains of a dead sheep but luckily this is now just the skeleton with a bit of wool, only one interested in it was Bo who had a good sniff then weed on it.
Somehow I think maybe they should have just had a lead walk round the block today.
Have warmed up a bit now so about to give China a shower - stopped in Aldi on the way home and bought Fruity Shower Gel as that is the smelliest..... too bad you are meant to use only dog shampoo, she will be getting on the bed in the middle of the night and I want something that masks the smell of rotting flesh.
Georgina
Merlins Magicians - November 2010 Newsletter