Lilly and Libby pairs

This is a clip of Lilly and Libby competing in a pairs competition. Pairs can be quite a high pressure event because if you make a mistake but your partner does a good round you have spoilt it for both of you. Fortunately Rosie and I have been best friends for many years and any mistakes were just a reason for a bit of light hearted name calling, on this occassion it was me and Lilly that got it wrong.
Although they were both std poodles, their attitude to agility was quite different.Llibby was a very good dog but much harder to motivate than Lilly, Rosie really had to work to get the best from Libby (which she did). I was so lucky with Lilly, all she wanted to do was please me and would give her all every time. This certainly didn't make her a perfect agility dog but it did make my life easy, she always put a smile on my face and now watching this she puts both a smile on my face and a tear in my eye :-)
Libby is Audreys auntie. She was one of the best natured dogs I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and it was her that made me want an apricot poodle. Lilly and Libby were born 3 weeks apart and both lived to see their 15th birthdays.

Lillys last show

As the title says, this was to be Lillys last show as my then husband, Mark, died shortly after which put an end to my agility. Lilly was such a special girl and although I love all my dogs, she will always have a very special place in my heart. Lilly was over 15 years old when she was put to sleep (respiratory problems) and right to the end she remained a loyal, fun loving dog who would still chase deer when we were out walking. She was my first home bred dog and the start of the Itzapromise gang.

Lilly in slow motion

This shows Lilly working at novice level, she was at the time one of the best std poodles competing in agility, she always drew a crowd. The second part of this clip shows her doing the same round in slow motion. This shows the amount of drive she had and how much work she put in to please me, I think it also shows the amount of stresses the sport puts on a dog and why it is so important not to do too much too soon and that your dog should be very fit and not carrying any excess weight (unlike me at the time, I did go on to loose 8 1/2 stone in a year and have kept nearly all of it off for 9 years :-)). Watching these videos now make me realise how much I miss it, perhaps I will find the time and money soon and have a go with Audrey and Dilli as I think they both have the right attitude.

Daphne

This is Daphne. She was my first toy poodle and is Bettys mum. She was a lovely example of the breed and won alot of people over to the breed. She was never going to set the world alight with her agility, especially as she was so small the canvas tunnels were too heavy for her to push through easily, but we had fun together, and I think that is how it should be.

Lilly in starters agility

This was Lilly right at the start of her agility career, she was a fantastic dog who always gave everything she had for me. She loved agility although she was hard work to train, she had a typical poodle stubborn streak when it suited her, but once she got it everything was fun! You may notice she barks all the way round, just so she had the last word :-)

Rosie and I spent 2 days working out how to transfer the old video images that she had put on DVD onto my pc so that we could edit it (which turned out to be extreemly simple once she found the right program). I would like to thank her for her refusal not to give in when I was all for throwing the computer out of the window!!!!

New camera and new cat

Got my new camera today (late birthday present) so will be out taking lots of superb pictures :-). Also have a gorgeous new cat, well gorgeous may not be everyones 1st thought but we think he is. He is a blue tabby sphynx called Gary-baldi. What he lacks in fur he more than makes up for in purrsonality. He joined our madhouse on Thursday and fits in beautifully, he will hopefully be the start of a very limited sphynx breeding program in the future.

Meanwhile Frankie and Dorothy continue to be best friends.

Frankie and friends

Just a quick bit of video showing the girls out on a walk and how Frankie copes when out and about