If you go down to the woods.....

....you will find a Gruffalo, or not as the case was today.  Macy did search high and low but he was nowhere to be seen so she decided he must have gone to the loo!

Pedigree Dentaflex

Thank you to Pedigree who sent us a box of goodies including a month's supply of Dentaflex for each dog, some food and treats for the kitten and a lovely limited edition bowl.

Sweep did a bit of posing before devouring his Dentaflex, nom nom nom.

Ember took a little longer over hers!

And Rum is probably the one who needs them most, he is 9 this year and has just started to get smelly breath!

Mmmmmm 

You feed them twice a week and I have to say I have noticed an improvement in Rum's breath. After a few days it started to smell so he had his second chew and smelt of roses again :) lol. 

They have all only had two so far so will report back after 4 weeks. They do smell horrid to me but the dogs seem to enjoy them so that's all that matters!

Pet London

Pet London kindly sent us some goodies to try :), I love Pet London and was so excited when they said they were sending me some goodies.  Thank you very much, the dogs loved their pressies.

First up was a toy - a UK Royal Guard Dog soft squeaky toy, which with Sweep wasn't going to last two minutes, his eye fell off!  So this is a toy for an older dog who isn't a chewer, it's a really sweet little toy and a lovely size for Ember to run round with.

Next up was a t-shirt, another patriotic item which looked so cute along with the little toy!  It fit well but I don't think the sizes available go up much larger than this so it  is more of a little dog item.  It did look pretty cool though and I am not normally one that buys dog clothes.

Then we tried on the Puppia Soft Harness, I actually had one of these when Sweep was smaller as I much prefer a harness on a smaller dog/puppy as they tend to pull and I hate them putting so much strain on their necks.  The harness fit really well and I do think they feel like they are comfy as they have a soft wide band that goes around their neck and under their tummy. The only thing I would prefer on them would be to have two clips on their back as you end up having to put their leg through or pulling the harness out of the loop, just makes life a bit easier when you have two clips.

I also tried it on Ember and it fit well too :) It did look very smart.  They come in all sorts of pretty colours.

Ember the Sheltie

Ember the Sheltie has the most amazing bombproof temperament, she has the best temperament out of all the dogs. She's brilliant with Macy.

Mug shots

I found an article about the new craze of baby mugging, well as we have not got our human baby, I decided to mug the dog!

So here's Ember's Mug Shot!!

Agility Wins

At the UKA agility show yesterday my lovely Rum had four wins and a second! The naughty sheltie also had a win. I won't bore you with the details, if you want to know more go to discodogs.blogspot.com


I have been working hard on the cross trainer this week to increase my fitness and it's paid off!


Here is a video of all but one of the wins:

Petplan Toy Test

Petplan has provided me with these toys as part of their Pet Toy Test review programme. Visit the Petplan UK Facebook page for more information and a chance to win the winning toy!

Tyre 

 This comes in a handy carry bag and easily fits together.  There are two uprights which have a spike in the ground enabling it to stand up, the spikes are a decent length so are quite sturdy.  There are four connectors which the frame sits in, these can also be used as jump cups if you didn't want to have the tyre jump in place.  The corrugated piping then just velcros onto the frame.  

It is a great piece of kit, it can't go very high as the top of the frame is only about waist high, but if you just want to have a go at agility then it is ideal or if you have a competing 'small' dog (ie under 35cm) then it is also fine.  

The frame sits into the jump cups so can't be dislodged however when using the equipment as a jump you can rest the poles on the jump cups enabling them to be easily knocked for safety.








Weaves


These come in a set of 12 (6 orange & 6 blue), they have a long spike on the bottom to enable you to put them in the ground.  The poles themselves are probably about half the width of regular competition weave poles.  They also come with a handy measuring tape which has standard KC competition widths marked on it, this is brilliant as it helps you keep the weaves straight and evenly spaced when putting them in the ground.  You then just take the measuring tape out to use.

All sounds great, however the major flaw which I find with these is the colour of them, I think they need to be white.  My dogs are experienced competition agility dogs and compete at grade 6 (out of 7 grades) and struggled with them.  I am not sure whether it could be due to them being thinner than normal or whether it is due to the colour, I personally think it's colour.  My sheltie seemed to skip the orange ones when they were at the end of the set.  So my solution was to put some white PVC piping over the poles and then then completed them fine every time.  The spikes were long enough to keep the weaves quite sturdy however there were a couple that ended up a little bent.  


I found it useful as you can change the weaves into a V formation or a channel which is great for teaching new dogs to weave and there are full instructions on how to do these on the case for them.  
Tunnel

The tunnel comes flat packed but easily folds back flat as it just collapses and is held closed with velcro.  There are 2 points either end of the rigid tunnel which allow you to peg into place.  There is then an attachment which allows you to attach a floppy chute to the main tunnel, this just attaches around the rigid part as it is elasticated and has veclro attachments.  


However there aren't any points at the end of this 'floppy' section to peg into the ground, therefore it moves around a lot, I ran my sheltie through and she almost got stuck.  I therefore didn't use it further as I felt this could be dangerous especially with a bigger, more powerful dog, I wouldn't run my collie through as he could have broken his neck.  I therefore just used as a rigid tunnel which is quite short, if the 'floppy' section had some peg points at the end it would be perfectly fine.

All in all these are fantastic for anyone wanting to teach their dogs a bit of fun agility, there could be some amends made to the equipment which would make it a lot better.  I would also use some myself for competition practice, I just would add some piping over the weaves and wouldn't use the floppy material attachment to the tunnel.  Therefore my favourite out of the three would be the tyre.  I also reviewed on video - below.