Wylanbriar Labradors

As usual, a week down, and I’m slacking keeping everyone updated! AND, as usual, tons has happened! When did I leave you last? OH! I know! The day I managed to delete all my previous blog entries! I’m so good with technology. I am known at the office for being ‘afraid of change’… I nearly resigned when they changed my computer, the fact I was using Windows 95 or something about 13 years after everyone else stopped using it is beside the point! I practically needed a paper bag to breathe into this week when I was advised that EVERYONE was being both upgraded and have their computer changed over Christmas!  I’m trying not to think about it…. after all there are LOTS of things to get myself worked up about between now and then and for a person who is never happier than when they have LOTS to worry about, thats a comforting thought…. 😉   I feel that many elements to trialling are sent to torture us. First when a draw arrives in the post, I open it praying to be in the first 12…. AND simaltaniously praying I am number 77! What a strange person I am! Anyway I sit here today, waiting on the lovely Neil to ring me to say those fatal words ‘youve got a run tomorrow Di!’ Mallie and I are first reserve for the Southern Golden Retriever Novice at Knowle Game Farm tomorrow. So I’d like half to pray he calls, and half to make all his runners not have their dogs go lame, come into season or just train REALLY badly today and make them bottle it!  😉 I’ll let you know what happens! Its supposed to be windy as hell so the old girl will have double the excuse to blank me… ” Sorrreee? Mother?? Can’t hear a WORD you’re saying… anyway leave me alone I’ve got a trial to run…’ (Mostly in the wrong direction no doubt…. )  😉    Visited my good mate Graham Home last week with Tom and Fish. Graham has an really interesting and exciting way of training which in general focus’s on the bits of my dogs that I am not very attentive to…. straight lines… fast send aways…. and confidence. Fish has taken to Grahams methods really well… Its hard to explain exactly the differences between trainers. I train with three people over the course of the year that I trust and respect hugely, Gilly Nickols, Robert Worral and now Graham…. Training is such a difficult area. Club training can be so negative for young dogs sometimes… not through want of clubs to try and give the best possible starting point… but the group environment can start a few bad habits when a young dog is bored… whining being one. Now saying that I was hidiously embarassed when Tom got out the car at Grahams and was a total headless chicken! But I suppose having never had him in company before I have to cut him a bit of slack! You can always feel like by going to more than one trainer you might offend someone or confuse yourself but somehow it works for me! Gundog training eh? The great leveller! Perfect for me as there are just SO MANY things to worry about!  😉     Some random thoughts! I’m love love loving!: Fast Forward on Channel Five (Brilliant!) Also…..: Collison on ITV. Fantastic too! Nothing like a massive crash on the A12 to keep me glued every night for a week!  😉 Music: Paolo Nutini – Pencil Full of Lead Spandau Ballet:  Once More Westlife (Yes! I Know!): What About Us My brand new Meercat “Simples! (Squeek!)” Text tone! Absolute class and will not let anyone tell me otherwise!   Checking the above… Westlife… Meercats…. how old am I!?   😉   😉     Fish is such an interesting dog. His speed and power is beyond doubt – but his confidence in himself is huge. That comes through from his mother. Allan set me the task of teaching him to hunt recently. Now he hunts… and suddenly he is a mad hunting machine! Quite incrediable how one area falls apart when another improves! So when he is hunting NOW he doesn’t listen to a word i’m saying! …. Well thats not strictly true, but at least hes discovered he owns a nose rather than just a pair of eyes and a handler to lean on if all else fails  😉  I feel Al is going to have a lot of fun with him next Summer. Funny thing being distance is no problem to Fish, Uncle Robert’s long long memory backs have taught him that distance is not something to get all jittery about from a young age – the man is a genius! The only thing with Fish NOW is you put him on something close and he goes screaming over it to hunt about 150 yards further on 😉 BUT…. much as anyone reading this who trains me will have their head in their hands at this moment, you have NO IDEA how much of a brilliant problem that is to have compared to my previous dogs who usually took about seven ‘backs’ to GET 150 yards away!!!   😉   😉    Bondy biscuit Meercat Nickols has come on a lot this last week. Granny Gilly gave me a whole lot of advice whilst we sat at the weekend at a Breeding Seminar. He is such a sweetheart! So sensitive. Definately is a true door opening ‘after you Madam’ sort of a gent! He is so keen to be with me if something is remotely tricky to find he has a token look round then screams back to me full of the joys of life! Its impossible to get cross with him! His heelwork is amazing! being WITH you is his favourite part of gundog work! 😉  I’m trying not to get all panicy about him and know he is just a boy that need boosting up all the time. He was charging back to leap practically over my head with a retrieve a couple of weeks back and spitting it two foot before his massive leap! Now we have the same Gazelle leap but the dummy stays put at least!  😉   Tom….. Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom…. So much ethusiasm…. so much drive…. so many things that scare me to death about him, so no suprise there!  😉 He has this amazing mix of trial and show about him. he takes something on board…. fires out and does it…. fires out a second time…. and then completely forgets what we were doing and gets all panic stricken!   So it may be of no suprise to anyone that poor old Brogan hasn’t started ANYTHING yet… my brain can’t quite take the extra workload! I am blonde after all (well sometimes…)  😉  😉     Comment of the week from my assistant Georgina.   George:  ” Di, can I ask you a stupid question? Where is Namibia?” Me:  ” Thats not a stupid question, I’m not sure completely myself, Africa or somewhere around there….” George:  ” So not in England then?” Me: “OK, so NOW its suddenly a stupid question…..”

Well you know when its going to be a bad day sometimes? Well somehow in saving the above entry to the Blog I have managed to delete every previous entry! I don’t know how….really I don’t. I can do one of two things right now. I can put my fist through the computer screen whilst bawling like a big girl, or I can hope most of those reading this had read the previous entries, saw the pictures and enjoyed it and will remember the bits they liked. For anyone ‘tuning in’ now, I suppose what you didn’t know existed, you don’t miss!

We had fantastic news last Sunday. I took all three young boys, Fish, Tom and Bond down to Southampton for Fish’s hip and elbow xrays for scoring and Tom and Bond for an xray to look at the quality (or otherwise!) of their hips. Its for a bit of peace of mind OR to know the worst as soon as possible. But thank GOOOOD (that god of good joints was smiling!) because all three got the thumbs up from the woman who knows, and although we await Fish’s actual scores, I am entirely confidence they will be good ones… and the terrible twins have not managed to trash theirs either with their skydiving and divebombing ways! Lady Luck smiles upon us in this department again!

Antoine de Saint-Exupery described in Wind, Sand and Stars: ” Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outwards together in the same direction…”  This phrase has struck me to the core in reading it. This is not just about human love but canine partnerships. If you are both not trying to see things in the same way, or we cannot try and see things from the dogs perspective as much as HE attempts to understand what we want from him, we are sunk. Sometimes the more I stare at my dogs thinking ‘WHY?’ WHY did you do that? WHY don’t you retain that piece of training? WHY don’t you try harder? I can only imagine they look at me thinking ‘PLEASE try and understand that I don’t understand’…. ‘Please try and see I am attempting to please you but I can feel you getting angry and I don’t know what to do to stop that other than do nothing….’

My promise to my dogs. I will try very hard to try for us to look out in the same direction. Its not an easy relationship to find our way to, but if you try your best, I will try harder for that to be good enough.

Dylan – Miss you my boy. Ten months and no easier.

I decided to keep a bit of a diary type thing. Not daily, but a record of what goes on here at the ‘ranch’. Hopefully I will add some pictures along the way too. Below are our most recent entries….:

The boring disclaimer bit: please note any opinions or thoughts written, are, entirely my own, and in no way express what *should* or *shouldn’t* be taken as gospel or any offence be taken if they seem in any way, controversial. I’m purely sharing thoughts and recording events…..