Christmas update

 I hope you all are staying healthy,
Christmas is around the corner, and we are making sure our dogs are being totally fine with the things that happen around the house.

Non of our dogs seem to have problems with the tree and decorations. We do loads of fun games and involve Christmas decorations with our games.

I just wanted to share this with you all, as we do not really have lots of things going on. We do our training/games and we have our snuggles and walks, but we sure look forward to some conformation shows.

In the meantime please stay healthy.

Glamourace Collies Princess Leia

 Finally a page for Glamourace Collies Princess Leia
pet name Leia
DOB juli 3th 2019

Rawenclaw Black Illustion of Kingly Shine x AKC ch. Highcroft summer Embrace

Due to Corona crisis Leia has been shown very very little
Her only real succes was best puppy in show (at her first show)
a few times best puppy of the breed, and a Best opposite.

We did have the time to get her a Novice and intermediate trick title and level 1 fitness
She was awarded 1st in our area for Most prettiest dog of the Netherlands (photocompetition)

We are working towards an awsome 2021 with her

Mid november update

 Still no dogshows, we don't really get used to it, but it is what it is.

We started with some tricktraining with Judy, nothing to fancy, and we are not putting an enddate on the title. Scarlett is doing very very well.
We shot a little video that shows her movement at this moment, and I'm happy she is able to move like this at the age of 11 years and 9 months.

We took some pictures with Leia, only the weather was a bit windy so hair and ears where flying all over.
Still they are pretty nice so I'm putting a few of them here anyway.

I hope you all stay healthy and happy, and I will try update soon again! 

Quick update

 No updates is such a long time.

I'm so sorry.

We are doing great here at Glamourace Collies.

Tricks and Fitness are now our current main goals.

We did participate in some online dog shows and Lucky gained a Best of Breed that way, but it is not the real deal.

Scarlett had a pyometra so 15 days ago she had surgery, but all is looking fab.

She is happy and healty again.

Since we went into this corona period, Star gained level 3, and 4 in Canine fitness, and Canine Fitness Champion, she is the first rough collie Ever!! to get this title.

She also gained her advanced and expert trick title.

Emmy, Vivien and Scarlett!!!!! gained their novice trick titles.

Leia got Fitness level 1, and trickdog novice and intermediat.

Emmy won in a photocontest!

Leia was nr 1 in the competition "Mooiste hond van Nederland 2020" for our area Sudwest-Fryslân.

Judy did an online fitness challenge called ob-STAY-cle.

We cannot wait for things to go more normal and to be in the showring again, but for now we are trying to keep happy and healthy and just do lots of fun training.

Fitness Champion

 We are super proud to say that Star got her Fitness Championship title

And she is the first rough collie to get awarded this title by Do More With Your Dog.

She needed to complete a list of exercises and we needed to video that, then we could send it in for assesement and after that, she passed.
We are super exited by this new title, as it is very new, so we did not have a lot of video's we could watch from other  people and their dogs

Here are the video's of Star who is now officially a Do more with your dog Fitness Champion!!!

And her pictures, the ribbon is so pretty, and if you like to get the titles yourselve got to the Canine Fitness and Tricktitles page on this website

Show update!!!!! Heteren, Teteringen and Maastricht

 Finally we had some dogshows!

Last week we had the Borzoi championship show, and we showed Anna, in championclass, she gained an excellent 3 from judge ms Regina Tromp-Pruijn

One day later we had a very small outdoor clubshow

We entered Leia and Anna.

Ofcourse it was a little bit exiting doing shows in Corona time, but it went all well, everyone wearing masks and a lot of space

Leia was entered in Juniorclass and got excellent 1 BOS!!!!! And that for her first show in juniors, Anna did even better by getting excellent 1 BOB, and later on BIG2, Thanks to judge mr Jan Coppens.

Picture by Clemens Bosman

And then yesterday we had International dogshow Maastricht.

All corona proof, temperature check at the door, we all wore masks our judge a face shield. We where not allowed entering to early and we had to be out of the building after judging and a bit of shopping (If needed)
We had a few talks but not to much, we made sure our dogs where ok and be as short time as possible in the building. I do think dogshow Maastricht did a very amazing job organizing this event!

This was for Leia the first time on a big show in junior class, and as it looks now, it is possibly the last one in a big building for a long while.

Leia got Excellent 2 in junior class.
Vivien was also entered, for the first time in Veteran class, and oh my, she did a super job, she actually outmoved all the other dogs, she performed beautifull.
She got rewarden Excellent 1 Best Veteran of the Breed and has her first veteran championship point

Judge was Ms Roel van Veen-Keur.

I was so happy to be in the ring again, and so where the dogs. 

Fitness with Leia day 14

The last day

I hope you liked the video's, and I hope you liked watching what we do on a normal base with our dogs.

All our collies and borzoi are doing those exercises, and not all in order, and not all to get a title, but we like being active with our dogs.

This last one is crawl tunnel,

And I made Leia crawl under 2 chairs, I encouraged her with cookies and praise 

Lots of dogs find it very weird going under something so  this can take a while before they get the hang of it.

Leia also wasn't doing this in 1 practice.

Maybe you get interested in training fitness with your dog aswell, on facebook I have my spark team

Lucky pink paws   you can go there and get more info on getting a fitness title.

It is a lot of fun, and it is really great for bonding with your dog.

I'm very proud that my furry friends are so easy with exercise and video taking.

Fitness with Leia day 13

We are almost done with all the exercises towards Do more with your dog Fitness level 1

Only 2 exercises

Today we have fitbones

I used all my low inflatables for this.

Cushions and pillows will also work.

Let your dog walk over it in a slow manner.

Put your equiptment in different patterns to make the exercise more difficult

Tomorrow is the last day............

Fitness with Leia day 12

Walk a line of platforms.

I'm a lucky girl, because my dad made 2 platforms for me, but when I did my exercises with Star I did not have these pieces of equiptment.

So I used chairs.

Now I used 2 chairs and my 2 platforms.

Leia is not afraid to go over the platforms, but that is because we did so much exercises in the whelping box, so this was very easy to train.

I placed my platforms in a way that she needed to think on the landing, but close enough that she would not make any weird jumping, the exercise is called Walk a line of platforms, not jump.

I lured with a cookie, and she was going great.

I hope you are all still liking this and following 

see you tomorrow 

Fitness with Leia day 11

Ladder work.

Use a regular ladder, or a fancy rainbow ladder, or cavaletti's. Even can's with brooms will do the job.

Make sure your dog goes over the rungs, in a nice even way.

As you can see, Leia needs to really lift her paws, so this works her muscless, and she has to think about where she places her feet.

Ofcourse make sure you praise your dog as he goes over the rungs.

We are almost finished with our exercises for CCF1

Tomorrow again a video 

Fitness with Leia day 10

This exercise is scattered sticks.

Get your cavalleti sticks, brooms, other sticks, hoops what ever you can find,

just place it on the floor, no need for a pattern.

This makes the dog think on where he needs to put his paws.

Leia thinks this is pretty easy, 

Are you checking back tomorrow? 

Fitness with Leia day 9

Today is wall stand,

So your dog needs to stand against the wall, this is real great for the back end of the dog.

I lured Leia up, by putting a little treat in front of her nose, and then very slowly move it higher until she needed to come up and lean against the wall.

This can be a bit weird at first but if you keep calm, and keep encouraging with a cookie and a happy voice, your dog will do this in the first session of training!

Tomorrow another video

Fitness with Leia day 8

Paws up on a platform

This looks a lot like yesterday! Only now I use a little stool, you can also use a stack of books, a small fitness step for humans, a brick, you name it.

And again simply lure the dog up with a cookie.

Leia had really beautifull posture on this one.

Are you following along????

Tomorrow I have again a video for you 

Fitness with Leia day 7

Today is paws up disc.

I used a wobble cushion that is for people gym.

You can also use a sofa cushion or a real dog fitness inflatable.

Simply lure the dog up with a cookie

Leia was doing this since she was only a few weeks old, we put those pieces of equiptment in our whelping box, so this was not to hard.

See you tomorrow 

Fitness with Leia day 6

Jump through a hoop!!

Again I used a tug toy to get Leia enthousiastic, and a lot of praise aswell.

Jumping through a hoop can be intimidating for dogs, so first lure your dog through when you just hold the hoop up. Don't put any height on it.

After some great repetitions, you can slowly increase heigt, keep encouraging an praising, and if they get a bit scared, just lower the hoop again.

If you are enthousiastic and encouraging, this trick will be no problem

Tomorrow another video for you! 

Fitness with Leia day 5

Stretches

Just like the passive range of motion is this an exercise you need to be very carefull with. Also no jerking on limbs, but gentle stretching. And never ever on cold muscles. You really need to warm the dogs up.

So I did the stretching after some workouts.

Again a little bit longer video.

See you tomorrow

Fitness with Leia day 4

Nose touch!!!!

Leia adores her tug toy, so to get the best nose touch I use that toy.

To start with this exercise you need food and a clicker or marker word.

Hold out your hand, if your dog gets interested in your hand click and treat.

Then hold out your hand again, if they are interested in your hand for a few reps, then wait until they touch your hand and then click and treat.

If your dog is not interested in your hand, put a small piece of food inbetween your middle and ring finger. When they try to get that piece of food out, say touch and release the food.

I will play tug with Leia in between the nose touches to keep her energetic and engaged.

I hope you will check back tomorrow

Fitness with Leia day 3

Passive range of motion.

This can be a little bit harder for some dogs, because some don't like to be touched on their feet.

Leia also tought this was a bit weird.

This exercise is very relaxing, you manually rotate the limbs of your dog through their complete range of motion.

Don't just pull and jerk on limbs, that will only cause damage, but slow movement is really relaxing for the dog.

This video is rather long and if you like to know more about this exercise I suggest looking through the site and look for the stretching video of Scarlett.

Tomorrow we have a bit more action again

Fitness with Leia day 2

Day 2, are you ready. Leia defenitly is.

Today is Bar jump. 

We do have a lot of equiptment, but buckets and a broom will work just as well.

Begin with the bar on the ground, encourage your dog and praise when he get's over de bar. (and give a treat or toy)

Then slowly start raising the bar, and when they jump over, praise and treat!! This should not be so hard.

When I have a cookie Leia does this pretty well, but if I have her favorite tug toy, she performs even better.

Will you check back tomorrow for another exercise??

Fitness with Leia

Now we had our pictures with the fountains, I wanted to show you some training with Leia.

I hoped by now there would be some dogshows, but things are looking, well, not to positive.

But we keep positive!!!

Leia and I have been working on our Fitness title.

Star has all her fitness title's and we are working on our fitness champion title, and Scarlett also has her fitness title level 1. (CCF1)

As a coach I wanted to motivate the students to get active with their dog, and as an extra motivater I did all the exersices with Leia.

And as I now have all the video's I'd like to show you the video's aswell 

If you like to join, you are welcome, and if you like to get a title, just contact us and I'm glad to help out.

Here is the first video.

This is a substitution for walking on a treadmill. I do have a treadmill, and we use it very often, but I find it also very important to walk the dogs outside, next to my bike, or next to the step scooter.

Jogging is also very nice.

Leia has been running next to my step scooter for a few weeks now. We slowly build up the km's. Currently we are not even up to 1km. For me it is the most important to get her moving correctly.

Check back tomorrow for a next fitness video

 

Fountains in Fryslân

The last one, Leeuwarden, Ljouwert.

In 2018 Leeuwarden was cultural capital of Europe, so all the 11 cities got a fountain.

Also there was a lot of cultural stuff hapening in Leeuwarden and the whole province.

Because of the Corona virus there are no events, workshops or dogshows, and I wanted to show Leia so much.

I had this plan of visiting the fountains last year, but it was just an idea.

Ofcourse the first weeks of Corona Lockdown we did not go out. We went only for dogwalks close to home and the supermarket, avoiding people as much as we could.

In the last weeks of the Lockdown we decided that if we took distance and we played safe, we might be able to visit the fountains. 

We decided to take pictures of multiple fountains in one day making sure we would get to all of them before restaurants and such where opening up again. 

And we did it. Only 1 day before most of the catering industy would open up again we went to Franeker, Dokkum and ending up in Leeuwarden. Playing it safe and really not getting close to people as we want to be over with the virus asap, and have a normal live again, with events and dogshows, meeting up with our dog show friends.

This fountain is called Love, and it is Huge, really.

And sadly it was out. ( I saw this one in 2018 and then it was on and it is really pretty)

And because of the nice wheater and the fact it was not on, there where people sitting against this big masterpiece.

We really liked going to all the fountains, I don't think in a normal show year we would have been to all of them.

Because normally we love to be at home when we don't show, or go for walks in the wood.

But now times are so different.

As I write this we are not having dogshows. And we still take walks close to our home. Because tourism is now starting up and the woods we normally go to will be full of people.

We still try to maintain a social distance, but we sure hope to go back to normal as quick as possible.

I hope you all liked the pictures of Leia, and maybe I inspired people to go visit them too.

If you want to know more about the fountains you can visit This link and it will take you to the website with all the fountains and all the adresses.

My favorite fountain is Ijlst, but I do really love Leeuwarden.

Sloten and Bolsward are also on my toplist.

Maybe we will do some cultural picture taking again, it will probably will not be a weekly topic again. We will see!! 

Fountains in Fryslân

Nr 10, We have 11 cities in Fryslân, I know some of them are almost smaller then where I live myself, but they are cities

This week it is Dokkum, the only one that is in Dutch language exactly the same as in Frisian.

This one is called de Ijsfontein and like Franeker, mist is coming out of this one.
We went to this fountain the same day as we visited Franeker, so we made sure things where not being to hot for Leia, so cool water handy and airco in the car.

We found a nice bench in front of the fountain and I wanted Leia to stand on there like on a show podium. We are afterall show people.

She jumped on (ungroomed) and she stood very pretty so I did not bother with her paws being in the exact spot. I found she was pretty enough just as she is.

The fountain is pretty big and there is a fog coming out all the time, but on the pictures that is hard to tell. A bit sad that I was wearing a grey shirt and Leia is blue merle, ( I love blue merle, but it has no contrast with the fountain)
But I was asuming the fountain was white, I was wrong.

For us Dokkum is pretty far, so I only went there twice (now three times) and it is a very narrow place, we had a very hard time getting out of Dokkum.

Now this is almost the last one.

You probably can guess where we are next week.

Fountains in Fryslân

Slowly we are getting to all of the fountains of the Frisian 11steden.

This time we went to Franeker (Frentsjer)
And when we went there it was a very warm day, actually warmer then expected so yay for airco in the car.

We also took loads of cool water so we could refresh Leia whenever we wished, because dog health and welfare is The most important.

The fountain is called De Oortwolk, and as Franeker has a real museum to do with Astronomie, this was inspired on Astronomie.

We had to locate a bit where we could stand as we did not want to get wet, like we did in Workum.

Water is not coming out all the time so when we first came there we where almost dissapointed it was not on.

Later when we got to the fountain we found out a mist or a fog would come out instead of loads of water, and then we took pictures and it stopped again.

Also there where many people watching behind the camera, so Leia is looking everywhere, but not direct in the camera. She wanted so badly to go over and get a cuddle, and that is not ideal ofcourse in Corona times.

Look at her smile, she so much likes people, but these are not the times to get over to people and get hugs.......

Did I really like this fountain, mmmm. I don't think it is the prettiest of them all, you probably know how I like Ijlst. There is only 2 to go so then you can decide for yourselve

Next week another fountain

Fountains in Fryslân

From IJlst to Sloten, Sleat in my language.

And from a huge one to another large work of art.

This one is called "Kieviet"  because of the bird the girl is having in her hands.

This one is also one of my favourites. I has a lot of buckets, with a man standing on it, and the man is holding the girl on his shoulders, and the girl has a bird in her hands.

Not really a lot of impressing water coming out, but it is beautifull sculpted. 

And it was super easy to find!!! 

It was a hard time getting the whole fountain on it!

This was already fountain nr 8, only 3 to go being, Franeker, Dokkum and Leeuwarden. I've been to all the places before as I did the traditional cycling tour de 11steden tocht, as many Frisians, but this trip takes us to a lot of unknown stuff.

Next week Leia will be visiting one of the other fountains, maybe you can already take a guess.

I hope you will check in next week....... 

Fountains in Fryslân

After Sneek we went to IJlst, or as we say Drylts

This one in my favorite, it is called "de Onsterfelijke Bloemen" meaning The immortal Flowers.

It was pretty sad the wheater was not so pretty, because this fountain is really beautifull, it has a lot of shiny and mirror-like parts so we probably need to go back and watch it, when the wheater is sunny

This one is also very huge and impressive and really easy to find.

(It was way harder to get out of this city)

Look how big!!!

As you can see, a lot of dark clouds, we where not lucky to see this masterpiece with this bad wheater.

Next week another fountain, I hope you enjoy this trips through my province of Fryslân, we sure do! 

 

On the move

Here is another on the move video, and this one is a recent one.

We made this last sunday, the wheater was great so we went to our local sportlocation.

Unfortunatly they just mowed so there was a lot of loose grass.

It was a bit funny because Leia tried to snitch the grass while gaiting, so a lot of footage had to be edited from the video.

And because of that we needed to re-start again and again, making me more tired.

I am a runner, but running at a speed that the dog is gaiting nicely is very different from jogging.

I hope you like this video of Leia, she is 11 months in this clip! 

               

Fountains in Fryslân

Sneek!!!! or Snits as we say

This fountain is very close to the Waterpoort and it is actually not very far from our home.

It is pretty strange we never saw this one, because we do sometimes go to Sneek for shopping.

This one is called "Fontein van Fortuna" and it must resemble the goddes Fortuna. ( I'm researching a bit while posting this, I get confused because there is a man standing on a golden ball, and it resembles a Goddes??)

It is standing in the middle of the water so really close for a picture was just not an option

The Waterpoort and the fountain

In front

From another angle

We also found this statue aswell, it is called de Touwslager 

Fountains in Fryslân

From Stavoren to Hindeloopen, Hylpen

This one is called "Flora and Fauna" 

It was not easy to reach this one, you cannot go there with your car.

Hindeloopen is one of the smallest city's we have, and it is called city because of the city rights.

We where not impressed by this one at all. The water was not coming out of it really clear, and the whole thing looked like a dead tree. ( I'm sorry, I know it is hard for an artist to make art..... I really do, but it doesn't mean I cannot have an opinion) 

I like Workum more then this one.

But I found a very nice small statue of a war veteran, that was really close to the fountain, so I took a pic of that also.

I tought of show stacking Leia, but the ground was very uneven. I still thinks she makes a nice picture.

Next week will be way more pretty I tell you!!!!

I must say we enjoy this culture trip, I get to know some places I normally would not go to.

And I do hope you enjoy this culture trip with me.

Shame her front feet where in a bump in the ground, 
Still a beautifull picture 

Peter Tazelaar, War veteran 

Fit dog friday Stretches

Another fit dog friday, to keep fit we do exercises, but it is also important to stretch, to make sure to keep the body flexible.

It is not advisable to just tug and stretch cold muscles, just as it is not very handy to go workout without any warming up

In these video's you see the passive range of motion and stretch exercises that we had to do for our level 1 canine fitness

                    

Both are demo's with Scarlett, collies can be a bit anoying when it comes to touching their legs and feet, so she really wants to watch what I do constantly.

Also here is another video that shows passive range of motion, I demonstate this with Lucky

When you get the hang of it, this is really relaxing and enjoyable for the dogs.

Tricks on tuesday Vivien has her Novice title

And another Novice tricktitle for one of our dogs

This time was Vivien's turn

She is extreme energetic and sometimes super hard to train.

She loooooovvveeeesss to work, but out of her enthousiasm she doesn't know what she is doing.

So I was actually very surprised what we both could do!!!

Enjoy her video below.

And if you are exited yourself, just hop to Facebook, and check out Lucky pink paws trick dog spark team and earn your title

In 3 to 4 weeks you can get a title.

 
                   

Game with toilet rolls

We are not only working on conformation or tricks. But every now and then we do make our own snuffle games.

Over the years I also collected many nice plastic games. (also wooden games, but I don't really like those, because of cleaning reason)

Most fun things with making your own games is, that you can make it from material you would normally throw out in the trash.

We collect stuff, like emtpy toilet rolls, and if we have enough I make a game. If the game is done, I will throw it away and collect new.

This game is pretty easy.

Just throw the toilet rolls in a dishpan, put in some cookies and there you go!!!!

I make sure that I take the amount of food, from their daily allowance so they don't get fat!

You can even give your dog their whole diner in this game.

If your dog thinks this is a bit strange try it out first with less rolls, and gradually ad more

All ages can do this, and even Anna likes it!!!

  

                    

Fountains in Fryslân

Last week Workum, this week Stavoren or in my language Starum

This fountain is called "De Visfontein" de fish fountain, 

Well this one is huge!!!!! really huge.

The water from this huge animal is making a lot of noise, and there is water coming out of all places.

The waterflow looks like the teeth of the fish.

Leia has watched the water flow for a few moments and then she was not really interested, there where birds, and she loves birds so much.

I think you can even go in this big fish, but it was too cold, also I don't know about dogs. And then I think it could be slippery and I don't want Leia to get injured, so we took the pictures in front of this giant animal.

I hope you like the trips we take to the fountains, and maybe if you are in Fryslân you want to visit them also.

Next week another one.

checking out the huge fish of Stavoren

Tricks on tuesday, Emmy has her novice title

Emmy and I have been training, and having fun

And we did it.

Emmy is Novice trickdog!!

As you could see in one of my friday posts, Emmy is a weirdo and she did so many tricks and in the middle of the trick

she would lie down on her back.

So the final video I had to send in for her title is far from perfect, but she did it.

And as long there is no camera, she will really do a great job.

I'm proud of Emmy and I love her so much 

And here is a little video of Emmy jumping over a bar

Fountains in Fryslân

Last week was Harlingen, this week is Workum

This one is called "de Woeste Leeuwen van Workum" 

Personally, from the pictures I found this one not really pretty, to be honoust I tought he is hideous.

But in real life, well ok, not my favourite, but not that ugly as I thought from the pictures

It is really a high one and the water will come out at different speeds, from their paws.

Workum is a coast city so like Harlingen it was very very windy, and that made the water of fountain blowing on our backs.

I don't think Leia was impressed by this huge masterpiece, she was more interested in her cookies.

shake hands