It's that time again when both girls need a good groom!

I wasn't sure when I would get time to do it so decided to take an spur of the moment day off work and dedicate it to them.  Pepper first and things were going OK but I was really struggling to get her face and legs right.  Then it was Ruby's turn and the same problem - although worse as she really doesn't like having her paws touched!


I was feeling a bit useless and fed up so decided to call my lovely friend Suzi who is a groomer to see if she might have time to help me sort out the bits I was struggling with.  Thankfully she said she could make time so I headed over to Bark Avenue in Odiham to see her.

Suzi has a great location for her grooming buisness - a fully enclosed field where the dogs can play and a purpose built wooden structure for the grooming room.  She soon worked her magic on the girls and we were able to make the most of the gorgeous weather and have a play in the field with her Cockapoo, Humphrey and their other day guests. 

I can't thank Suzi enough for coming to my rescue!

Here are some pictures of our play time:

I'm delighted to report that we have won our first rosette at a Kennel Club show today!

We've been to the Nedlo show for Small and Medium dogs - our third KC show.  We met up with our lovely, supportive friends - June and Kola, and Emma with her 3 gorgeous spaniels, George, Toby and Star - I can't thank Emma enough for her help while walking the courses!

Our first run was Graded 1 - 7 Agility.  It was an intersting course with some tricky elements, but I had worked out a strategy and I was feeling OK as we set off.  My only concern, as always was how Pepper was going to behave on the contact equipment!  That was answered quite quickly as the second obstacle was the Dog Walk - she didn't stop in her 2o2o position, but she didn't miss the contact so we weren't faulted!  Unfortunately the 'tricky' bit got the better of me - I forgot a key part of my handling, to setp into the wing so that I could push her round the back of the jump - she saw the gap between me and the wing and took the jump the wrong way!  Another valuable lesson learnt!  The rest of the course was OK after that but the elusive agility clear round still evades us.

Next was Combined G1 - 6 Jumping.  Another good course and Pepper was fab - there were a few wide turns where I wasn't quick enough with my commands for her, but she watched and worked hard to get our first clear round.  We were placed 3rd overall - in a Combined class all of the grades compete against each other so this was a great result for us!

Last was Combined G1 - 3 Steeplecase.  A flowing course that shouldn't have been too difficult but unfortunately Pepper knocked a pole - very unusual for her - and then towards the end she missed a tunnel entry but I can see that I pulled away from it so as usual it was my fault!

I'm so pleased to have our first KC rosette - it will always be a special one - but I can't stop beating msyelf up about the silly mistakes I made on the other two courses!

Here are the vidos of our runs: