McManigan

We have decided that after so many problems with videos and pictures on this blog that we would start a new one so we ahve moved to:

www.mcmanigan.blogspot.com

We will still be keeping the website up to date with pictures of the dogs on their individual pages so please come back to take a look.

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Yesterday we spent the day in London and it was brilliant! The sun was shining and we had a really great day. We took my mum and dad to see various places, including Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden, the London Eye and Big Ben. We had a wonder around the shops and then went to see Mamma Mia.

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I can honestly say it is really a brilliant show, definatly one of the best I have seen and my dad and Conor both enjoyed it too (so it's not just for girls!) I would definatly recommend it and if you haven't seen the film I wouldn't bother as the show is miles better.

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By all accounts the dogs have behaved themselves whilst we have been away and have had lots of fun meeting new dogs. After I collected them this morning the four of us took them out onto the plain to a new water spot we have found where they can swim. I took my camera but no memory card so I didn't get any photo's but if it's sunny again we are going back there tomorrow. The dogs had a great time, Brian was swimming all the way to the middle of the pool but the girls weren't confident enough to take their feet totally off the floor today, i'm sure they will be soon though after a few visits.

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My mum and dad have headed off home now and all the doggies are shattered and taking shelter indoors where it's slightly cooler, Megan has found a good spot, our bed!

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Today I have been at home all day, I have managed to get plenty of house work done and the dogs have had 2 good long walks. While I was tidying up they spent the day in the garden, you would think that being indoors during the week they would love to be out in the sunshine but no, they all kept wanting to come in! (Just nosy I think really)

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Last night Heidi went to her new agility club, they worked on the see-saw alot so that Heidi knows to steady in the middle and they worked on their contacts. Megan has got a couple of new games to play so we wil hopefully get chance to do some on Monday as we are off work.

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In about an hour the dogs are off on their holidays for a couple of days, (well til Sunday morning anyway), they are all going to stay at Hazels, our dog sitter as we are off to London tomorrow to see Mama mia. We are taking my mum and dad for their silver wedding anniversary as they have never been to London before. It will be the first time Hazel has had all our dogs together at once and she is looking after two other and has one of her own so she will have her hands full! I hope our three behave!

Here are a few up to date pictures of Megan. I took them yesterday and tried to post them last night but had website issues.

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Megan is almost 7 months old now, it only seems like yesterday since we brought her home. She is a very lively puppy who is always wagging her tail, even when she gets told off.

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A couple of mornings ago when we were out on a walk Megan ran under a gate into a field of cows, she ran right up to them as they were all lying down, when she got they they stood up and began to move, she stood perfectly still for a few seconds and then began to run left and right, herding them backwards. It was as though she knew exactly what to do. When we got home I told Conor and we laughed about how Megan wants to herd cows when she grows up! Anyway the other day when I was looking on the internet (for something totally unrelated) I came across a trainer (who has belgians) about an hour and a half from her who does introduction to herding workshops, I emailed him and he is doing one in August so i'm hoping to take Megan along just to have a go. It's something different to try and will probably be fun!

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Today has been a really wet and miserable day and we were working outside on Salisbury Plain. The dogs would have loved it but unfortunatly couldn't come. The sun is out now though (typical) so we will head off for an evening walk shortly.

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I have just booked me and Brian onto a canine  massage workshop at the end of the month in Warwickshire, its supposed to be good for dogs who do agility and dogs with hip displsia so it will be of use to all the doggies in one way or another.

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Megan wants to say congrtulations to her daddy Ronny for winning into grade 5 agility yesterday. Well done Ronny!

Today is our only day off work this week as we have to work tomorrow so I decided not to take Brian to agility training and Conor didn't take Heidi either. I wanted a lie in this morning but Megan had other ideas, she was awake and wanting to play tuggie at 6! I packed her off to bed and we got up a little later.

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We seem to have been really busy today although I dont seem to have got much done and we haven't had the day of rest we had planned. Still never mind. I did take my camera out on our walk earlier and took some pictures of the doggies which was good but then it started to rain so we came in early.

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Last night I took Brian swimming and then came home so I could go and watch Heidi as she had her first agility class at Up and Over. She did really well and had a great time. They practiced running a few courses and Conor got lost a few times. They are going to be attending the earlier class though as Conor wants to go over all the equipment again with Heidi and teach her to stop on the contacts until she is told to move.

The good news is Megan is starting there next week too. She is a little young at the moment to join in with the puppies as they dont take them til they are 9 months but Karen, our new instrauctor said that Megan can join in the last 15 minutes of each puppy class to do the 'homework' part of the class. in this she will give us games and practices to do at home and then the next week we have to show how we have got on. All the games are agility related so I think it should be good fun and will be good to get Megan into a different class environment. Looks like i'll have to change Brian's swimming to a different night.

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I saw the picture below on Jo's blog (she has Meg's dad and brother) and it reminded me so much of Megan, the only difference being, Megan has two devils, one saying 'pee on the rug', the other saying 'chew the rug!'

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Megan has been in the dog house today. When Conor got home at lunch time he found that Megan (probably helped by Heidi) had pulled up the carpet in the spare room and ripped a great big hole in it! She had done the same thing in the hall a few months back and I had got used to the fact that we would have to replace it when we left but now we have to replace a bedroom one too! I was not impressed. The thing is she is just so cute you can't stay mad at her for more than a second!

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Tonight she had her puppy class, we haven't been for about 3 weeks and some of the puppies have grown loads since then. Meg is the biggest in her class now though. We had a good class, practicing stays and recalls and the present.

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Tomorrow Heidi and Conor have got their first class at their new agility club so I'll update you on how that goes. We haven't got any competitions for about a month now so plenty of time to get lots of training in.

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Heidi would like to say well done to her dad Cliche for becoming a Champion at the weekend, Well done!

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(Cliche and Baby Heidi)

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We have just got back from our weekend away. Only one clear round this weekend and that was from Brian on his first jumping round yesterday. He did really well however missed out on a place due to being sooo slow! I really need to try and speed him up now. Brian did his agility run almost straight after but this wasn't so good, he missed his weave entry and there was a damn see-saw so he ran up and took a giant leap off it into the air! I think he knocked a pole down too!

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Heidi's first class was steeplechase and she was mental! She ran around as fast as she could, tigger jumping up and down  she was so excited. She knoced a few poles down but enjoyed herself! Her next class was nursary agility she was a little bit calmer however she kept running back to conor and nipping him out of excitment and wanted to jump over the flat tunnel rather than go through it.

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This morning Brian had his jumping class first thing and it was a horrible course, it didn't flow at all. Brian tried to charge a jump, knocking it out of his way! Heidi did her steeplehcase run kept running under the first jump so Conor took her back to it and on the third time she went over, she did most of the course really nicely and then missed the last jump. Her agility was spot on really however the course was very tight with not much space between a jump and the dog walk which was at a right angle so she over shot it and had to go back. At the end of the dog walk was another jump but there wasn't enough space for her to land and take off again to jump so she jumped the contact. It was quite frustraiting as she has lovely contacts usually.

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Brian did a very similar course to Heidi but it had weaves instead of a flat tunnel. I thought it was definatly a good course for him but he had other ideas and basically couldn't be bothered! He charged at some of the jumps knocking them over and ran under a few too.

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Meg seemed to enjoy herself this weekend and even did some agility of her own (not planned) I was in the caravan preparing the dogs dinners with the bottom half of the door closed. I heard some scrambling and she had climbed up the door and over the top of it! Conor wants to do working trails with her now!!!

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(Meg and Bri chilling in the caravan)

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This weekend is our first weekend away in the caravan and we are really excited. We are off to a UKA show in Oxford. Both dogs have 2 runs each on each day. We have had such a busy week this week that we haven't got much done towards going away so i have booked tomorrow off work so that I can get the caravan packed up. We are not planning to leave until early evening anyway as the A34 is always busy on a Friday afternoon.

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Today we went paintballing with work, We had a fantastic day out but we have both come home covered in bruises and Conor has hurt is knee, lets hope its okay by Saturday as Heidi doesn't run slowly!