I kept meaning to post...but there was so much to catch up on I kept putting it off, then obviously the longer I left it the more there was to catch up on and so it went on!

Anyway, the big reason for my distraction which is also exactly the reason I should have been posting -

Meet Sadie :) She turned 6 months old yesterday, she belongs to the boys breeders (S+T) but came to live with me at the beginning of February. If everything works out she is "mine" to do what I want with in terms of show, agility, obedience..etc and so could be here for years.

She was completely unexpected - at 3pm I had no idea I was having a puppy (a couple of days before I'd actually thrown out some boxes..etc that I had kept for puppy play, and put all the puppy toys away at the bottom of the toy box cos I thought it was a long way off!) and by 4pm I had a puppy!

I had mentioned to S+T some months ago that if they had a Papillon "spare" I would be interested in borrowing one to show. I knew Sadie's breeder was bringing her litter down for them to look at and all being well have a puppy (they bred both parents), I got a phone call that afternoon asking me if I was busy and would I like to come over cos they had something to show me...with which they produced this puppy and asked me if I'd like her!

She's been an interesting challenge so far! She's got a lot of attitude, but she isn't particularly responsive (even to all the weird and wonderful noises that puppies "always" respond to!) and she's very independent. She knows precisely no commands so far (well, I have taught her her name!), which feels so wrong for a 6-month-old puppy, but we have been busy...just busy with other things! Mostly play :) I've just been doing tons of toy play with her and some fun stuff like running to a toy or running with me in circles....oh and we are working our way through Crate Games. Started some self control with toys/food and targeting...hoping to book her on her first workshop (games, appropriately enough lol) in May.

Other than that things have been ticking over as per usual! Most of it we'll have to gloss over now because I've forgotten it, but I want to do a big post about Crufts (which was AMAZING) cos we had some fantastic results...other than that I don't think there has been anything major. I have done very few shows, Elton got BOB at the two general open shows we attended in March, and I went to my first "normal" (not Crufts!) champ show of the year yesterday with Elton, Sadie (just scraping in for her first show at 6 months on the day!) and Ria. Elton did nothing and did not deserve it - tough being a Phalene :( and it was all less than satisfactory with Sadie, we had been outside all morning, practiced in the outside (grass) ring and were all nice and settled...then just before her class it started raining and everybody went inside. It was chaos as everybody tried to find a spot and resume the judging with minimal delay. So suddenly we were in a very noisy building Sadie had never been in before, with a carpted ring she'd never seen, and a frazzled handler! She coped very well, was happy enough - just very unsettled and erratic on the move. Got a 3rd so she has now qualified for Crufts, but it wasn't the experience I was hoping for for her debut! Ria showed really well and got a 2nd to the Reserve Best Bitch, so very pleased with that.

Oh! We did pop along to a companion show last weekend to give Sadie some grass practice before the champ show - and she won the puppy class and Best Puppy in Show!! Start as you mean to go on ;-)