Yesterday

Yesterday was a very busy day first thing we went and did the horse, then we went training with Search dogs Sussex Lowland rescue team, meaning that Rafi spent quite a lot of time in the car crate and seeing various team members and their dogs. I could not believe how good he was, we didnt finish training until 5pm and after driving home, and having a quick dinner we were out again to go to the Lifeboat service which starts lifeboat week, a week of fund raising events to raise money for the RNLI.
My husband took the service which was held in the lifeboat station, while the local Catholic Priest gave the Blessing at the end.
Rafi and I walked home from the service as he hadn't had a great deal of exercise today and it was cooling down by then.
Once home, I considered myself on holiday even if I do only work part time.

I'm forever blowing bubbles!

Its raining! Off and on throughout the day we have had liquid weather.
I am extremely pleased to find that Skye was not my only dog who enjoyed walking in the rain, Rafi loves it! As we were going to take Mia to the Aldingbourne country center and he would be on his own for a short while until my husband got back I gave Rafi a long walk, in the rain and he loved it! I am dying to let him off the lead but until his recall is spot on I am not taking and chances.
When we got back from the Aldingbourne center we put Mis's new bubble machine in the center of the garden and let him chase bubbles.

Black and White and hairy!

This morning my Mum and I tried again to walk the dogs together, this time it was so much more successful they walked together and Rafi only got told off once for being too overbearing. Back at Mums we sat and had a cup of tea, this would have been impossible before, he has come on so well its such a relief.

How to keep cool on the hottest day ever recorded in the UK

Rafi had another 1 to 1 training session today, he is doing so well I am really pleased with him. It was also lovely to be in the dog barn for the session as it was so lovely and cool. Before we left I got him a cool coat which you soak then put on the dog just like any other dog coat but its so cool its lovely!
Straight after training we went to Therapaws for a swim. His third swim session and he couldnt wait to  get in. The first few times he went down the slope then as he grew more confident he went in from the side. It looked as if he was waiting for  the judges to score his dive, Bless him. I would have given him a 9.9 as it was a little splashy!

Four legged friends.

Beach Baby.

This should have been posted yesterday but I was so exhausted I didn't get round to it. It was also called castles in the sand, but after a message from my Bestie I had a change of heart!

Monday is my husbands day off so from time to time we try and do something or go somewhere for the day, today we decided to take our youngest Granddaughter and Rafi to the beach, just for a walk, a paddle in the sea, collect some shells and to make a sand castle!
Its been a very lazy day today as I am feeling a bit under the weather, probably just over tired, all these late nights and early mornings!
Added to that my bike is only firing on one cylinder....I think its contagious!

Flappy ears

Rafi has flappy ears, my horse likes flappy ears! She likes to flip them inside out! I have no idea why she does this or even why Rafi lets her do it, but he does and so far the pair of them get along just fine and that is how I would like it to stay.

Hay stack

This morning I took my Mum my granddaughter and mums dog to the vets to have the made to measure American splint fitted to mums dogs front leg, the dog was so good and let them do it several times before having a short walk in it. For the next few weeks she will build up to wearing her prosthetic more and more until she is wearing it all day.
My hay arrived today too,

it smells lovely and the bales are nice and heavy, I have a small barn at my disposal and together with the 'help' of Rafi I got it stacked and away before any rain could get to it.
When I say Rafi helped, I mean he stood on every bale to inspect it for mice and rabbits sadly for him there were none, he did find a couple of very big spiders which he had as an evening snack.

Attempted Drowning.

This morning I took Rafi to the dog swimming pool again. We arrived just in time for our session, having been stuck behind a slow moving vehicle all the way there.
This is Rafi's second session and he remembered it very well hardly waiting for me to take his harness off and give him a shower. Once he was in he swam brilliantly. jumping from the side and walking down the steps, all to fetch his turtle toy.
Then in comes a golden retriever puppy with only one thought on its mind..... Dum Dum Duuummmm!! Murder!
Whilst Rafi was swimming the retriever lept off the side of the pool straight on to Rafi, it then twice tried to climb onto his back  pushing poor Rafi right under the water. It was decided to get the retriever out to let Rafi have one more swim before we got out for the end of our session.
Please note:
 1)Rafi was unharmed and unphased by the events.
2) The retriever was not being nasty it merely wanted to play, but was twice the size of Rafi.
3) I was very traumatised by the whole situation, my poor Rafi!!

Second training session

Today was Rafi's second one to one training session, he was also fitted for his new Perfect Fit Harness' and the most impressive thing of all...
We left him for a whole hour in the house on his own! When we got back he had chewed nothing and eaten nothing, he was such a good boy!
Its taken it out of him though, he flopped into his bed and hasn't moved since!

Lazy Dayz

Today is a day off!
This morning I moved a few of the fences around at the stables so I can strip graze the grass in the winter paddock. Its so long its unmanageable so I am taking back some of the summer paddock and allowing her access to the rest slowly. Hopefully this will work, I don't want to have to pay to have it topped.
This afternoon I literally did nothing. Lounging about in the hammock (and falling asleep) until one of my friends came over for a coffee, I think she saved me from getting burned. Thank you for that Meisie vriend!
While I had been lazing in the hammock Rafi had been laying underneath, in the shade!

Borde Hill's Sculptures

Its been years since I went to Borde Hill, and as they are dog friendly I thought it might be nice to go today with Mia and take Rafi with us. Its about an hours drive away and I couldn't remember what catering facilities they had so we took a pack up for lunch.
We wandered round the gardens looking at the flowerbeds and sculptures some of which moved in the wind, one of them frightened Mia, although I don't know why as it was literally 5 feet long metal rods which swayed slightly when the wind caught it! She loved the water tipping one though, so did Rafi we stood and watched it for quite a while.
We found somewhere to sit for lunch then had a walk through the woods. Rookie mistake I thought how easy it was to push the pushchair through, not realising it was down hill slightly, that is until I had to push it back again! Doh! It was nice though.
Our return journey took an hour and a half thanks to massive traffic build up at Arundel. Mia slept for most of the drive though and I suspect Rafi did too.

Rare Breeds

Its been over 3 years since I was at the Weald and Downland Museum, except for one day when I went to say goodbye to the lovely Bayleaf Neville.
It felt quite strange walking in, it felt even stranger having to pay! I was a volunteer there for over 10 years, helping with the three shire horses and the other animals and being first aid cover for the many events they held.
This time I was a member of the public, taking my two granddaughters for a day our to their rare breeds show.
The first stop had to be the stables to say hello to Mac, the only remaining shire on the site, they now have two Percherons called Ollie and Kash to help Mac with the work load.
It was a lovely surprise to bump into another of the volunteers who I used to work with, she was also at the show socially and wandered with us for a while.
Rafi was very well behaved considering there were so many people, new animal smells and stalls selling food. He was interested in other dogs but didnt get over zealous with them and was quite steady with the livestock both the four and the two legged varieties.
Once back home however he just flopped into his bed and slept.

Meet and Greet

Its not often I get to the stables and am met at the farm gate by my horse. Clearly she had been practicing her Houdini act again.
After putting her back where she should be I drove into town bought a new battery and some more extra tall fence posts then went back to the farm to sort out my perimeter fence. Hopefully she should stay where she is supposed to be now.
Little Minx. I have staggered the taller posts untill I can get enough to

Just keep swimming

Today I took Rafi to the swimming pool, it was his first time in a pool. We were very early, due to my husband needing to borrow my car and having to drop me off. Whilst we waited for our time slot in the garden to the side of the pool area 5 large breed dogs came in, Rafi is very over zealous with other dogs as he hasn't really had a great deal of contact with  them, he began with the 3 second sniff rule and was fairly well behaved, infact it was only when a large golden retriever, who was only 3 years old himself, wanted to play bow and be a bit boisterous that things got a bit ott. We kept the 6 dogs in the same area but not able to actually touch.
They had the time slot before Rafi's  so we watched them playing for a short while then as it was hot we went and sat in the shade. The pool owner came out and chatted to me for a while, we have known each other for a good 13 years as Skye used to go swimming there too, she told me that the owners of the bigger dogs had invited Rafi to join their session for the last 10 minutes as they had been playing beforehand. We went in, Rafi had a quick shower then we put him in the pool. His first two laps were wide eyed and high paddling with his front legs until we found a squeeky toy frog for him to retrieve, at which point he put a huge smile on his face  curled his tail over hos back and swam beautifully  all round the pool all by himself! I kept the long line attached just for safety, if he got out of the pool and someone opened the door or something.
After the 5 had gone we continued swimming in our own slot and were joined by a pretty tri coloured border collie.
The slots are half an hour, but with the ten monutes in the slot before I decided to get him out early, its tiring swimming and a new experience for him meaning he had a lot to process too.
We ended on a great swim and booked up for next week.

Ann

Lunch thief

Today was one of those days which is more if a roller coaster than anything else. To start with we got a team call out at about 3am due to this and the fact I had got in after midnight, I managed to over sleep by half an hour. Doh! When I arrived at the field, the horse had decided to clamber in to the adjoining paddock and stand with her friend, meaning I had to get her back through and sort out the fencing. Double  Doh!
At 11am I set off with Rafi to Sussex County dog training for his first session of 1 to 1's we are going to see if we can get him used to being in dog company without him being overbearing and trying to pull their tail fur out... (I have no idea why!) The session went really well and this evening we managed to put some of what we had learned into  practice on our short walk. Our next session is next week but before then I intend to go to places where we can practice, he also has his first pool swim booked in for tomorrow.
..But I digress, cut back to this afternoon, lunchtime to be precise, my husband had decided to take a pack up and do a quick bird watch at Lavington common, he parked the car and off he went, when he ggot back to the car someone had smashed the back window and passenger window and stolen two jackets a bottle of orange tango and half a tub of pringles(!!) He called me then called the police. When I arrived at the car park there was evidence of two further break ins and a couple who came over and spoke to us said they had had their car broken into just down the road earlier that week.
For the sake of 2 jackets and my husbands lunch, they caused so much damage and trouble!
I hope they choked on the pringles!

Go Team Ginger

Tonight Rafi and I went to misper for one of our team members who has a Vizla, we call them team Ginger due to the colour of the dog.
Mispering, means hiding in the woods waiting for the dog to find us, (missing Person)
Team Ginger needed to do a night mock assessment in order to go to the Nationals and qualify as a Path and Route Search dog and be able to go out on live call outs, they have already passed their day mock so we all had our fingers crossed.
It takes a good two years plus to reach this point so the whole team were routing for them. I was one of three Mispers who had been put out ready for them to find. I can tell you that at night in the dark and quiet the sound of harness bells (Hawk Bells by any other name) and the appearance of collar lights and harness lights can be seen and heard from quite a way off so I was worried that she had gone passed and missed me until I realised the sound was coming from the other side of the bend in the track.
Suffice to say team ginger made the grade its off to the Nationals for them.
It was lovely laying on a mat in the dark, the sound of Night jars chirring and owls hooting was lovely, the sound of buzzing followed by a sharp pain by my right ear wasnt so nice though! Bloody Mozzies!
We finished training at 11.35 pm and I got home at 12.07am yawn.

Yin and Yan .....or little pink flowers!

Today didn't start well, I got up at the usual time let Rafi out, and went and did the horse everything was fine all were behaving themselves but everywhere I looked, little pink flowers seemed to have popped up overnight. This is nothing to get worked up about, but, in April I lost my beautiful Skye dog, shortly after this we went away for ten days, when we got home the place in the garden where the skye dog liked to be the most was marked by a clump of little pink flowers! Add to this the fact that while we were away my husband bought me a bracelet which had a charm on it depicting the very same little pink flower. For them to suddenly appear everywhere reminds me how much I miss her and what an incredible companion she was.
This afternoon I took Rafi out for a rather long walk, longer than he usually has, I lost track of the distance we had walked. He doesn't seem to be any worse for it and I almost let him off his lead he was so good. A sudden panic that he might choose that moment to run off made me change my mind. His excellent behaviour had brightened my mood a little too.

You can follow Rafi on Instagram

rafi9lives

The second sleep post of the day!

This morning my horse scared me with her deep sleep, this afternoon Rafi was dreaming of...... who knows what, whatever it was he had to run pretty fast to get to it or away from it!

Panic stations

My horse doesn't  sleep laying down very much and when she does she is usually up and awake as soon as I get to the the gate!
Today however she was laying flat out and as still as can be right until I was in the paddock with her I called her name twice before she responded and even then she had the look of a horse which had possibly had a stroke! Her ear was flicked inside out and her face was stiff and strange. It took a few minutes for her to regain some form of normality, talk about scaring me half to death!

Deflated

Today the boy managed to pop his favorite toy, at first he seemed a bit put out as he likes to actually roll over it and now he can't, but then he discovered he could actually carry it around with him. That was a whole new 'ball game!'

Unless he completely trashes it, he can keep tha burst one, I shall however have to get him another one as watching him play with it makes everyone smile.

Instagram

Rafi is now on instagram, his user name is Rafi9lives if you want to follow him.

Zoomies

Zoomies.....
So we are home from our camping expo and I think that although he showed no signs of being anxious Rafi possibly was, because soon as he got into the garden it was at least 10 full minutes of Zoomies before he finally threw himself down in his bed and is now sparko.
Exhausted.

Houdini

It has come to my notice that I called my dog by the wrong name! He should have been called Harry Houdini! At least twice today he managed to escape his harness, I was, at the time in a working lunch at a rather nice Inn, fortunately my friend who was working on the 'project' with me is extremely sharp witted and has a car full of .. well everything really. She managed to catch Rafi and then had a second harness collar and lead that we were able to put on him.
Harness shopping monday then.
Once we had eaten and had a rough idea what it is we want to produce, we decided that both our dogs could do with a walk, we took them to a harbour where Rafi promptly followed my friends dog into the water. A lucky tennis ball find meant that she could throw a toy for her dog right out in the water and Rafi could swim for one much closer, he loved every minute and had about four retrieves which he had to swim for.  On the way back to the cars he walked perfectly behaved beside the other dog not once did he do his tail biting over zealous behaviour, I am sure he was probably shattered but he was still excellently behaved.

Away from it all

This morning I called the vet as soon as they were open, Rafi had eaten and slept well, he had no symptoms and was trying to play with all the vet nurses. Music to my ears.
Before all this had started, Rafi and I were supposed to be going away for the weekend in the caravan, AnnieMay.
My husband said we should still go so we packed up our things and set off. We are not going too far as I am helping a friend with her animals and also now, if Rafi becomes ill I need to be able to get him back to the vets.
Once we had arrived at our 'undisclosed' destination, we set up the caravan and went for a walk.
Rafi loves Caravanning!

Elephants Ears

The trouble with puppies is they chew, they also eat anything and everything that they can fit in their mouth! True fact!
This afternoon I caught Rafi eating a plant, on further investigation it turned out to be elephants ears also known as Bergina I think. After asking on facebook if this could be a problem I decided to call our vets who told me to bring Rafi in.
All the way there I could feel panic, we have only just lost our beautiful Skye dog, and now we are going to loose this bundle of puppiness.
The vets decided it would be best to keep him in over night for observation meaning I went home without him. Poor boy must be so confused.
Tomorrow can't come soon enough.

Green Family

Today the ambulance service lost a student Paramedic in the line of duty.

The thin green line just got thinner.

Rest In Peace

Crazy dayz

Sleep

I have no words to describe the ways in which Rafi chooses to sleep, sometimes I worry he will cut off his breathing other times I'm just lost for words!