Herding instinct day

Last saturday we headed to shropshire for an ACD herding day. Suzanne Nevada was across from alaska visiting one of the ACD breeders here, so they organised a day for instinct testing. I dont think theres any doubt about Hollies instinct , but I went along for the day to watch the others being tested and to give us at least some sheep time.

The day was alot of fun, and all the dogs switched onto the sheep nicely, some faster than others, and some a little more enthusiastic (or should I say determined..) than others. It was wonderful to see so many cattle dogs (plus 2 swedish valhunds and a GSD) having a good introduction to sheep, and I think we now have alot of owners wanting more!!
Hollie got to spend a few minutes in with the sheep, and did well with sheep that would rather stand the dog up than fetch to the handler. But I think the best part of the day was getting to meet the other wonderful people who were there - some whom I'd had contact with but was yet to meet, and a bunch of others!

The Lakes District

I was suposed to be coming back to a job that fell through, so I had a little extra time on my hands at the last minute. What else was I to do but more travelling ..so I headed up to the lakes district for a couple of days. I stayed at a dog friendly B&B in Bowness-on-Windermere, a very pretty town, and did some hiking around the area. I wasnt feeling quite brave enough to tackle the fells yet, but hopefully one day I'll get to.

Les chiens en France

From Toronto we flew into Paris...mainly because after Zoom airlines collapsed it was faaaar cheaper to fly the dogs as excess baggage into europe than it was as cargo as would be required into the UK.

Loading the dogs onto the plane at the canadian end was fantastic. I had Kims help (to which I am indebted), and the airline staff allowed us to take the dogs out of their crates after they had been checked in..they just had to be back within an hour prior to the flight leaving. I think this was fantastic of the airlines to allow.

Unloading in Paris was a slightly different story. The dogs got brought out with all the other luggage..poor Hollie was put on the conveyor belt and got half way round (with people sticking their fingers in her crate none the less) before I could rescue her. It was there the fun began.. We flew into terminal 3, but had to get to terminal 1 to pick up the rental car. This involved walking down a long eisle way (with 2 large dogs crates, 2 dogs and all my luggage) and then getting a train to the other terminal. While it was interesting to say the least, I got very proficieint at managing all my gear, the dogs handled the train ride just fine, and we did have many nice people attempting to help.

After picking up the rental car, I headed up to Lille for the night.

From there, we then finished the trip to Calais (which wasnt that much further). It was at this point that we had to go through the whole procedure with export requirements again, but at this point it was sooo much easier. We found a vet in Calais that spoke some English, they frontlined & wormed the dogs and stamped off their pet passports..process complete.

We then had another day to spare in Calais, so I went for a drive down the coast line, stopping at a few points along the way. It was very scenic & beautiful!!

Our final morning we headed off to the ferry terminal to make the trip back to England. We travelled with P&O, as they were the only company that would allow dogs on with foot passengers. Once again I had to drag around all my luggage and crates, but by this stage I was quite proficient at it, and I had help from the employees there. And we got our own bus onto and off the ferry. The dogs had to stay in their crates on the cargo deck for the duration of the crossing, and were a little shaken at the other end but none too bad.

Whilst waiting for our rental car to be ready on arrival in Dover, 3 young boys were fascinated by the dogs, and spent a good half an hour running Tooheys around the terminal. Tooheys being a good boy, was more than happy to run with them, and I dont know whether boys or dog were more exhausted!

At Cap Gris Nez

Back to canada

I really do need to get this up to date, given we've been back for a week now...

From the herding trial we headed back up to Toronto to spend the night at Kim & Dereks whilst finalising all the arangements to fly the dogs out. That in itself turned out to be a little bit of a nightmare.

I thought the dogs pet passports were sufficient to fly the dogs back into the EU, I just needed a vet certificate to say they could fly. I was advised by CFIA however(Canadian equivelent of AQIS/Defra) that I needed to get a certificate for import into the EU.
So that involved first going to a regular vet (thanks to Kim for lining me up with their vet..) 24-48hrs prior to travel and getting a vet check, checking proof of rabies vacc & titre and having paperwork filled out. No where did it specify whether or not france required tick and worm treatment done as the UK does, so we did that too just incase (I now know that they dont need it..).
From there the completed paperwork had to be taken to the CFIA office for them to certify it. Unfortunately the CFIA vet was a little confused by the rabies paperwork (given that it was done in aus) and needed to keep it overnight to check on it. So back to the CFIA in the morning to pick up the paperwork, only for them to tell me one of the dates was wrong on the paperwork and that I had to take it back to the vet to change it....even though I had the originals there for CFIA to view. Boy was I fuming by that stage. So a long drive back to the vet, and then back to CFIA again to give it the stamp of approval.

And the most frustrating point is that when we finally arrived in France their paperwork was never even checked!!! And I still think had it been the pet passports would have been sufficient - and I could have saved myself time & money.

Yet another title

I've finally got a few minutes to write some updates...

The week following the agility trials we stayed with Hayley & Jason just outside of Washington DC. It was nice to have another week to relax, and just do a little local siteseeing (alot I had seen previously). The dogs got to experience city living in an 11th floor appartment, lots of elevator rides, and lots of people around. I have to say, I dont understand how people live permanently in appartments with dogs..I got pretty tired of having to take the dogs through the routine of taking the dogs out to the toilet!

From DC, the following weekend we headed back to Birdsboro PA for another herding trial (AKC). I had only entered Hollie on sheep, not wanting to risk frustrating/exciting her on cattle prior to our sheep run. I came to regret that, as in contrast to the flat dog I had at the AHBA trial, I had the fast and furious version of Hollie on my hands. Its been a long time since Ive seen that! She was covering the sheep far better than the previous trial and in general had much better control, but got a little too pushy for my liking. Despite a few slip ups here and there (mainly on the cross drive), inevitably caused by bad handler decisions, she qualified both days. This gave her the final pass for her US HSAs title. So she came out of the US as Aust Ch. Crystalledge Hollie CD ADM JDM ADO JDO SDX GD Aus/Am HSAs NA NAJ HRD1

We got to meet alot of wonderful people at the trial, and it was wonderful seeing a whole range of breeds (rotties, bouviers, corgis, shelties, collies, belgians, aussies) doing some really nice work - especially at the advanced level since I had been yet to see many dogs in advanced previously.

I'm afraid my camera didnt make it out of the car at the trial..