Welcome to the Sunday Sports and Social Club

Training your dog is fun, but it’s even better fun when you add in some cake & coffee with good company. 

It’s good to mix activities up and cross-train for fitness, plus it keeps everyone on their toes. 

So we’re launching the Well Connected Canine Sunday Sports and Social Club (2-4pm) from 28^th January!

Our FREE monthly social club held on Sunday afternoons near Market Weighton. 

You just need to have trained with well connected canine to be eligible to attend, and keen to train with your dog in a friendly atmosphere.

There’s no formal teaching at these sessions. But there is plenty of space and equipment to set up practice areas and other people to help you out.

Activity options

• Rally and Fenzi TEAM
• Agility (with Hoopers coming soon)
•  Scentwork
• Canicross (brilliant trails within easy walking distance)
• Parkour
• Anything else you’d like to work on!

Just let us know you’re coming, and bring along something to share (cake, fruit, biscuits etc). We’ll provide the space*, equipment and tea/coffee.

Are you coming on Sunday 28^th January?  https://doodle.com/poll/d2uyeq3ibar52zr4

And sign-up to the dedicated mailing list http://eepurl.com/PcFGv  for monthly reminders and activity update.

Happy Monday!

Morag and the collie girls

*all sessions are outside, so come prepared for the weather. Dogs will enjoy the sessions most if they’re able to settle in your vehicle while you have a coffee and warm up in the kitchen.

Do more stuff with your dog

Thanks to the hardy souls who braved the cold and came along to our first Parkour walkies on Saturday at Brimham Rocks. Sian led us on a magical mystery tour to find objects to climb on, under, go through and more. 

We did manage to get everyone on the same rock (briefly), and several people managed to film some elements for their International Parkour title submissions. 

Parkour is a dog sport/activity that builds confidence, improves body awareness and can be done by all ages and sizes. Most importantly it gets you into the outdoors having more fun with your dog – the best way to build a better relationship!

Want to find out more about Parkour? Just email us (info @ wellconnectedcanine.co.uk) and ask to go on the waiting list for our Parkour workshops and classes, we’ve lots of fun events planned for 2018.

Hope your dogs are enjoying the frosty weather

Morag and the collie girls

PS We’ve all enjoyed doing more activities with our dogs this year so here’s a sneaky early announcement that from January 2018 you can join the Sunday Sports & Social Club every month. A chance to catch up with like minded people and dogs plus practice your skills for rally, agility, parkour, scentwork and more. We’ll provide the space and the hot drinks, you bring cake, dogs and enthusiasm!

What Farah did on her holidays (quality of life for senior dogs)

You might have noticed the absence of emails and blogs for the last couple of weeks – I’ve been on holiday with my three collies.

Holiday time, or more specifically downtime, is surprisingly important. Without quiet time brains don’t get a chance to process all the information or learning – and that’s true for our dogs just as much for ourselves.

So the only “training” I worked on was Freya’s ongoing “Project Squirrel” (resist chasing the squirrel and come back when called). We had lots of new places in Scotland to practice and it went really well – more about that next time.

Most of my time was focused on Farah, affectionately known as the “little old lady collie” now. Farah is about 13 yrs old and bright as a wee button. However her physical body is slowly giving up on her (hip & elbow dysplasia, arthritis and heart issues). We need to balance medication, massage and acupuncture to keep her pain levels down.

Quality of life is our priority right now, and for the moment I think we’re managing ok. 

 

Here’s what Farah did on her holidays (in her own words)

“I started by supervising a canicross training camp in the Forest of Dean. While I enjoyed sleeping on my own air mattress I was less impressed at being told I couldn’t do any of the running – these youngsters have no idea how to do it right.

I’ve been out for dinner several times though I did have to chase down a waitress who foolishly took away my chips. The waitress stopped and apologised which made it a bit better, but I still didn’t get my chips back.* 

The chauffeuring has been better than usual with daily trips to good places, often with streams or rivers for me to guddle** in. I particularly enjoyed the morning visits to Loch Tay.

We stopped off on our way back from Scotland as it’s a long drive, and the room had a whole bed just for me – this is proper luxury retirement. Shall have to ask for my own bed at home…

Coffee and bonus cheese sniffing at cafes has happened fairly often (but could always be improved), so many dog friendly cafes make it much easier for me to have exciting days.

I convinced mum to get back into the kitchen and bake my favourite biscuits this weekend (cheese flavoured obviously) as she’s been a bit slack lately. I tested the dough several times, and then the biscuits – you can never be too careful.

One day mum did sneak in teaching a workshop, but I made
it clear this was not acceptable by eating her dinner roll, opening my medication pots and eating a whole tub of cocktail sausages at lunchtime***

It’s been a lovely couple of weeks, and I do hope my mum can keep up with this new lifestyle as I’m rather enjoying it….”

Notes and translations

*The chips were left over, Farah had already had several and didn’t need any more!

**Guddle means paddle and mess around in water

***I now know not to leave ANYTHING in the front of the van – she really is growing old disgracefully!

Have a wonderful week!

Morag and the collie girls


PS This is a great website with lots of helpful hints for your older or arthritic dog https://www.caninearthritis.co.uk/