Hol-ee-day, just for me!

Hurro Efurryone! It me, Ludo!

I told you I was going camping right? Well something really exciting happened after camping at the agility show. My TND turned up and instead of going home and the people’s going back to work we went to a hotel! Mum and TND said it be a trip just for me because we has not beed on a hol-ee-day for a while and I love going to hotels!

First of all, I had a nice time camping. I did not get to do agility, but I got to go on some walks and hang out with Mum and I got to sit and watch whilst she helped on a ring and watch some other dogs and bark at them. We made our tent nice and cozy although Mum did not let me sleep on her pillow like I really thought I should. It rained a lot on the Saturday but me and Arran didn’t get wet, only Mum and it dried for us to go for a walk and cook Mum’s dinner. Mum and Arran didn’t really get their act together to do any winnings but Arran did manage to get one 5th place rosette and it does be a very big show with 10 rings so Mum thinks he did well. (Of course, I got 3 rosettes last year…)

The show just in between Cumbria and Lancashire and it on the canal for nice walkies.

There be lots of shelties there. Can you spot us?

We beed very happy to see TND. I love staying in hotels and we stayed in a very nice little Inn in Kirkby-Lonsdale called The Sun Inn

We had our own goody bag in our room

The peoples bed did be very comfy and we had a nice quiet room where we didn’t has people walking past so Arran did not do guarding of the door. The Inn had a little section of the dining room just for peoples who wanted to sit with their doggies so we got to eat breakfast and dinner with our pawrents and we got lots of lots of tidbits.

I got duck and fish and chicken and creme brulee. I even got to eat some wheats (I intolerant to wheats)! The people working in the hotel all be very nice to us and of course you has to be nice to them acoss they bring the food!

Give me food!

The next day we went for a walk around the Forest of Bowland, I can still do walkings but I is not very good on runnings as I am too ouchie and I has to go nice and slowly but my peoples doesn’t mind. When we headed to the car me and Arran both said ‘no we wont go!’  and pulled back on our leads. But it ok, because we just went on a walkies and did not go home and we comed back to the hotel again!

Let’s go on an adventure!

Stones from old houses that got removed when a reservoir got made.

We got back to the village and had a late lunch in a dog friendly Cafe called The Crossing Point. I got in everyone’s way but I is pretty sure no one minded. The waiters just stepped over me. Well, you cas not see what be ON the table if you sit under it like Arran does. Kirkby-Lonsdale seemed very dog friendly. It had some nice independent shops which Mum liked to go in and a nice smelly old church to explore and lots of walks around it.

The next morning we explored the village and went down to the River Lune  to see ‘Ruskin’s view’ He thought it be a lovely ‘English’ view of river and pasture.

At the bottom of the ‘Devil’s steps’

I had a super ‘last-trip’ thank you so much to The Sun Inn for letting me and Arran come and stay.

Arran sniffs me all the time now!

Good bye Sun Inn

I wanted to thank all my friends who has gived me power of the paw against the cancer lumps. I is sure it working to keep me comfortable but the vet says nothing can make it go away now, not even good wishes, and I know I has a whole bunch of those. . My ‘golf ball’ in my groin seems to get bigger every day and I has new sores on my front leg. I has some more medicines to keep me ‘comfortable’ but the vet talked with Mum and TND about supporting their decision once they decide that I is not comfortable anymore.

Right now I am happy! Mum says she is not ready to say Goodbye yet so she hopes I can stick around for a bit longer. You know I will do anything for treats right? So I is sure I can do sticking arounds too!

~Lickies, Ludo!

Happy Birthday Arran and Faline!

Hello, it is me, Arran! Do you remember when I was just a little scamp, like this? Well, that was a long time ago now, because today, I am three! I am no longer a Scamp (sometimes). I am going to tell you all about my birthday and how grown up I am now. Oh, and it was my Sisfur Faline’s Birthday on the 12th, so I will tell you about that as well.

Platinum Agility show

Hurro Effurryone!

It me, Ludo! I has not blogged for a couple of weeks because Mum has beed ill but I wanted to tell you about a couple of weekends ago, when I went to an agility competition.

It be up in Scotland over on the East border in a nice place called Kelso. Mum entered it before I got my diagnosis but I am still doing fine so we could still go.

Arran and TND comed too and we stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights. TND stayed at the hotel and went for bird watching walks and relaxed whilst we went to the show. The weather be just perfect for me. No rain, but not too hot.

We started off with a jumping round each and we both got a clear round (no faults). Mum be very pleased, especially with Arran as it be his first ever clear round! Mum decided to trust him to get his own weave entry and she tried to run fast so Arran could not get distracted. We had a wait for our next classes so Mum had some breakfast and helped on a ring and then we had more jumping rounds. We both got clears again because we is amazing! Mum did not know what came over Arran. I had gived him a stern talking to about not being silly in the ring!

We did our agility classes next and I did a couple of things which were really Mum’s fault for calling me off too quick and so I got a refusal on a jump and then had to redo my weaves acoss I stopped to bark at Mum and came out of them. Arran went round a jump and also got a refusal. We both got E’d on our last agility, it be a quite fiddly course though so we did not expect too much from Mum in being able to get us around it. BOL!

Whilst Mum sat around she heard Arran’s name called out and she could not believe it, he had got a 1st place! Then Arran got another! He also got a second place for his agility. Show off! Arran has some points for his record book now. He seems to really be enjoying agility now and not finding it so overwhelming, he does be faster than me, but doesn’t do tellings him that, ok? I got a first place in my first jumping round too Mum got a little bit teary when she got my rosette but she managed not to make too much of a spectacle.

 

I is still the best dog, Ok, Arran?

Whilst we were away at the hotel Mum promised us a ‘no posing’ day.

So here be some photos from where we stayed at the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel. You can see the ruins of the Abbey from the hotel. We had a very dog friendly hotel, we could eat with our pawrents in the bistro and we could go in all the places in the hotel except the restaurant and one lounge. We had a lot of fun trying out an old wooden revolving door, I learnt to put my nose right on the edge and push it. The hotel had a swimming pool for the humans too.

And here some walkies we did nearby. I decided halfway across the bridge that it did be scary but Mum comed back and walked with me and I ok then. We did not even bark at the statues in the ‘muses temple’ that we found. It a lovely riverside walk with lots of flowers and wildlife. Mum and TND decided that we must go on a local hol-ee-day again soon.

I will add it to my bucket list!

What a great weekend!

~Lickies, Ludo!

Birthday shopping

Hurro, it me, Ludo!

Mum DID take me birthday shopping on thursday. We went to Pets at Home, since they has nice big aisles and stuffs on ground level.

I had a good time sniffing everything and trying to find treats what had been dropped on the floor from the pick and mix bins. Mum said it did not be a scavenging excercise but a dog’s gotta do what a dog’s gotta do. Anyway, I think they keep those shops pretty clean cos I only found one! Maybe they has some customs beagles sweep the shop at night?

I got some treats from the check-out lady though!

Mum embarrassed me by making me wear my hat! Arran did has one too but he would not wear it. I am a good boy! I doesn’t know what Mum would do without me to keep her entertained.

I picked out a pheasant, it make a fun honking noise. I also got a holey ball with a yellow ball inside. I already tooked it to the beach with me. I picked some treats out too.

Don’t forget to enter my competition too! You can find out more on my last post.

 

~Lickies, Ludo!

Mini holiday to Overwater hotel

Hurro, it me, Ludo!

I has my stitches out now although I am still a bit sore, my results has not come back yet on account of those bank holiday things over Easter.  So, while we wait I thought I would do tellings of our recent mini hol-ee-day to a place called Overwater hotel.

We just went a little way away, in the Lake District, for Grandma and Mum’s birthdays. We took Dad and Grandpaw and Rusty (Grandpawent’s dog) too.

TND found the Overwater on a list of 10 best pet friendly hotels.  I has already been to one of them, Trigony and now I has been to this one. So there only 8 more to go. Mum says some of those very nice hotels is out of our budget, so  I is happy to settle for going 8 more times to the same ones. Mum?

The Overwater be a very nice ‘Country House hotel’ with big grounds and very nice foods.

On the way there we stopped off for a walk at Whinlatter forest. Whinlatter a very nice place to walk, even when it wet, because the trees protect your furs a bit. The forestry commission closed some of the paths though the trees because of the recent flooding.

It stopped raining near the end so we dried off a bit before we went to one of our most favourite pubs for lunch…

The Pheasant! I had chips! Well, I had some of TND’s chips! We seed an Airedale in there, like our furiends Mitch and Molly.

We arrived at the Overwater and had a very nice greeting from the owners, they seemed very pleased to see us. I knew right away that we beed on a hol-ee-day so I marched right in there and followed the man up to our room. So far so good on the pet friendly (and friendly in general) scores.

Me and Mum and TND and Arran had a big room with a four poster bed. That like a fancy people bed that dogs is not allowed on. They seemed to think it be comfy. I prefer to sleep on the bathroom floor pawsonally, but I has never seed a people do that yet.

Mum got a bath and TND went to the bar with Grandpaw. Arran stood guard at the bathroom door. He always wants to get IN the bath. He a weird, weird, weird, weird-weird dog.

Later Mum tooked us down the stairs to the bar. I had a good vantage point from here.

Hehe! (Dad made me get off)

Long time readers may know that I ALWAYS get on the furniture. E
ver since I beed a little puppy and followed my cat brofur Pepe onto the sofa I has decided if peoples is on the chairs, so should Ludo be! But sometimes Mum says ‘no’, I is not allowed on furniture. Sometimes though, other peoples help me. Like when we went to a restaurant with all Mum’s family and she went to the toilet and when she comed back they had got
me my own chair at the table. Not this time though.

We went to go relax in our room whilst the people went for dinner in the restaurant. Well, Rusty did not relax so he had to go sit in Grandpaw’s car.

The peoples had a very nice meal. Grandma especially enjoyed her food and her special birthday mini hol-ee-day! We even got to try some of Grandpaws steak, they wrapped it up for us. I must admit I did not get to taste it very much, on account of me eating it very quickly, but it sure smelled amazing.

The next day we explored the Overwater’s grounds. It has a nice wooded walkway.

Until the next 8 times (don’t shake your head at me Mum!) This concludes our mini hol-ee-day.

Have you been to any dog or pet friendly hotels lately? We’d love to hear about it in the comments.

~Lickies, Ludo!

 

Dreaming of Crufts

Crufts 125 year anniversary celebration is just one day away!
We are really excited! Our Mum, Dee  is going to the NEC on Friday and Saturday and she’ll be blogging from there about Crufts, for us.

If you’re going too don’t forget you can share your experiences on social media using #Crufts125, us modern day dogs has to be very media savvy now, doesn’t we?

Where would you head first?
Shopping? We’ve given Mum strict instructions that she must come home with some treats that we has never tried before. Mum says don’t forget to take a pencil and paper or a smart phone so you can make a note of which stalls are where. You can visit the Crufts online market place to see which stalls will you like the sound of before you go too.
Discover Dogs? To meet some breeds you don’t know much about?
The Arena is chocked full of exciting events and finals like flyball, agility and Obedience displays – but the obedience has it’s own ring so don’t forget to check that out too! There’s so much to do you really need to go for more than one day!

Picture shows Flyball Team Quarter Finals (Thursday 05.03.15), the first day of Crufts 2015, at the NEC Birmingham.

Of course, if you’re rooting for a particular dog or breed to win Best in Show you’ll need to know which day they are on… Shelties are in the Pastoral. There’s a lot to do to win. First you have to qualify, then you have to win your class, then your breed, then your whole group just to get through to the final judging! Those show dogs sure have a lot of stamina!

• Day 1 – Thursday 10 March 2016

  Toy & Utility

• Day 2 – Friday 11 March 2016

  Gundog

• Day 3 – Saturday 12 March 2016

  Working & Pastoral

• Day 4 – Sunday 13 March 2016

  Terrier and Hound

If you can’t get to Crufts this year, you can still catch all the action. It will be on the Where’s-the-remote-box in the UK at

On More4

• Thursday 10th March: 18:30-21:00
• Friday 11th March: 18:30-19:30

On Channel 4

• Friday 11th March: 19:30-21:00
• Saturday 12th March: 19:00-21:00
• Sunday 13th March: 19:00-21:00

Or you can watch Live Streaming from the arena all day long by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8qOSScEFVM

As for me? Well, Mum did think about taking me with her and Crufts very kindly gave me a ticket, but since we live so far away Mum thought it best I stayed at home with Grandpawents because I would only be complaining and wondering why I didn’t get to has a go doing all the fun things the competing dogs be doing. (and Arran be too nervy to be in such a busy place)

So I will stay at home and dream of joining in with the agility, or maybe dancing with Richard Curtis in the Freestyle competition.

Ah, Bliss!

I casnot wait to see all my new treats that Mum brings home.

~Lickies, Ludo!

Pee ess: You can see more of Mum’s first time visitor tips for visiting Crufts in this post.