Ghillie sends licks & nips to Grandad Logie.
Things are certainly hotting up for us. Ghillie seems to finally be putting on weight but our latest problem is akin to one of Tessa's. Ghillie is peeing for Britain and is practically floating away in his crate every morning even if I have been up to him in the night. He drinks like no dog I have ever had so I guess what goes in must come out!!! I have now started picking up water bowls at about 8pm and don't leave him a bowl in his crate anymore. I am almost afraid to consult the vet yet again!!! however he has to have blood tests next week for liver function following treatment for his injesting of copious amounts of cocoa powder last week so I will mention it then.
Our dog club ran a weekend course at the end of March with Kathy Ingham (runner-up in obedience championships at Crufts this year and one of the top handlers in the country). Ghillie was fairly well behaved..a 2 day course with alot of sitting about is really quite hard on a 6 month old pup. Kathy said I was going to need to make a decision quite soon as to which road I was going down re obedience or gundog training as I was going to find it incredibly difficult to combine the two disciplines. Well this week saw the start of our HPR course with the Gundog Club. Believe you me there is no relationship between the high stepping 'fun' competitive obedience heelwork and what is expected in the field. None of my collies walk at heel in the conventional sense and when not in the ring, will pull my arms out of the socket given half a chance when on a lead, and Ghillie whilst looking fantastic doing competitive heelwork is no different to the collies in a 'normal' situation. Life as we know it ended last Tuesday... Our trainer..Graham Gibson who has won field trials with retrievers, spaniels and HPR'S opened his bag and produced check chains and flexi leads for the 5 of us. We proceeded to do an hours square bashing of heelwork, at the end of which I have to admit all 5 youngsters had improved a million per cent. We were told that for the next 3 weeks they were only to be exercised on the lead by which time they should all be walking at heel totally unaware of there not being a lead on them when it is taken off. No treats, no jumping up, no 'whittering'...I have to admit I was surrepticiously slipping poor Ghillie the odd treat even so. At the start of the session, he said that munsters could be a real handful, off the wall, wired, and uncontrollable by the time they got to 2 years old.....hmm... by the end of the session he said to me that Ghillie was the calmest munster he had ever come across... omg... if he only knew lol. Well I'll let you know how things go as we progress but I can see why the two disciplines are hard to combine and I am having real problems getting my head round it all.
We are off to Tweedmouth tomorrow for our first show. Only AV classes and it is really just for experience, I am not expecting to do anything as he is still so immature. Watch this space....
Love all the photos, the Eternals and other babies are really coming on. It will be so exciting watching them develop as the year goes on.
All for now. Huggzzz all Lyn
