CadiWaterDog

Woooooow it's been such a long time since I had time to write! I hope you've all been missing me!

Ben busy training since I last blogged - lots going on, all going really well, with some interesting stuff, which I'll tell you about in due course. We're about ready to make the transition into the boat now, and we have all the gear we need ... boat, drysuit -for me, that is, Sian's still waiting for hers, and Phil of course isn't going to fall in! No, I'm kidding, I don't need one, but I have my lifeacket from Ruffwear, and Sian has her extremely flattering - and non-claustrophobic one - from Aqua-tek in Denbigh, just waiting for SARDA badges on it, and Phil of course isn't going to fall in! We spoke to Uncle Yoda on Saturday, and he explained to us how to do it - well, he gave us various options as to how to do it, and true to form, we've chosed the KISS method - keep it simple, stupid!!!

Biggest problem we've had recently - other than the fact that Sian and Phil need to retire from paid work and do this full time - is that Llyn Padarn has had too much toxic algae for us to work there - something called something like anaboerida spirodes - blue green algae which is flowering Nice! It's too dodgy for me to go in the water, as it would make me ill, and maybe die, and as they've invested such a lot of time in my training, they don't want to lose me ... nothing to do with me being a precious pet of course!!!

Anyway, I'll write again to let you know how the boating is going! Maybe now that it's started raining again the flowering algae will go away! Hope so!

See ya peeps x

Hiya folkses, how's it going ...
Wewent looking for Druids yesterday ... Jude and Terry came to stay, on Sunday, so on Monday we had a wet day - superb run and play on the beach at dinas Dinlle in the morning - that was SOOOO windy! I came home and Sian said I'd had Dermabrasion, whatever that is! My face was sore anyway! In the evening, we went on the beach again, and I did lots of running and jumping in the sea - it's warmer now than it has been, although it was cold when you came out - not sure why the humans don't come in with me though!

Yesterday, we went to Anglesey to look for Druids - well at leastI think that's what we were doing. We went to a strange place with some dead smells in the morning - bit of a walk to it, where we saw some of those strange animals in fields - I know they're not sheep, cos they're bigger, and Iknow they're not horses, cos i know horses. They run up to me, and then stop, and run along the fence with me, and they're really a bit scary! I barked at them, but that just makes them stand and stare at me. When we got to the dead place, there was a sheep running around, so I just lay on the ground and let it calm down, and eventually it went back out to it's lamb. After this place, we went to another place, where Flash and I had to stay in the car, then we got a run near a beach. I don't think we found any Druids, but I wouldn't know what one was anyway. We stopped by some lakes, so I think Sian might have been looking for somewhere new to go pigging.

Talking of pigging, we had a good training session last week, at the top end of Llyn Padarn, where I had to search for ages and ages - must be the longest one I've done! The week before, we did some work at Llyn Lockwood, and Sian and Phil were both really pleased with me - some really good find, and they were really pleased with the way I was working! All going well now really, and we're ready to move into the boat - just waiting to hear from Neil about when we can go and do that bit! Yay - I can't wait!

Cadi xx

I've had a lovely few days - Iwan brought Anna and Billy home with him from Cornwall, and they've both been soooooo cuddly! I've just been sitting on the sofa with them having lots of strokes and cuddlZ! Anna's gone home now, and Billy's still here, but he and Iwan are staying up at Iwan's dad's, because Hannah's home again - she came home from the racehorse place for the weekend, and then got ill again. She's still having problems with her ribs which got hurt by Bex last December, so they've been to the doctor again, and she's had a photo taken of her insides, and has to go for more inside pictures before she sees a people vet! Poor Hanzie!

We went for an awesome HUGE walk last Saturday - up a mountain called Cnicht. It was a hot day, and there were loads of people there. My feet were hot by the end of it, but on the way back, there was a lovely mountain stream for me to walk in! Poor Anna had sore knees.

Today, Sian and me met up with Lesley from Cantech, and her dog Bentley. Lesley wanted to see what I do, so I showed off a bit for her! She wants Bentley to have a go at water searching, but Neil explained to her why Bentley can't do it - he's already a live person search dog, and it just gets very confusing for a hound if you find live and dead people! We did some good training on Llyn Padarn, finding piglets in deeper water than usual.
The water's much warmer now too - I like swimming in it now! Even though there was ice at Llyn Lockwood last time!

Oops, just realised - I've already blogged about Cnicht! Never mind!

Hi
I said I'd try and get round to writing a bit about last training weekend - we stayed at Caeathro because it was an assessment weekend. On the Saturday, me and Sian got to do some training - Phil came and helped on that day, and we went to Llyn Padarn to the Quarry hospital side. It was very very windy and I had to work really hard, but I think I got them all in the end. I watched children playing on Ropes and Ladders in Llanberis - that looked fun - I fancy that, but I'm not sure how a dog could manage it!

On the Sunday, it was a much better day, and Elinor came and helped. We went up to Llyn Lockwood to see hows the wind was. It was a lovely day, sunny, nice wind, but there was ice on the lake! Good day's searching thought - managed a good few of them, and Sian was very pleased ... I jumped in the water a few times, so got a bit cold, but Uncle Harold had given Sian a sort of furry bag for me, and that kept me warm. I found some pigs that I just had no idea where they ended up!

Last Tuesday we went to Glynllifon to do some training - there's a river there, so Sian hid the pig in the river and I managed to find it - complicated, because you have to look way up the river to find it! Good fun on a really windy evening - and it went dark while we were still there!

Cadster zzzzzzzzzz

Hi gang
Had a superb walk up Cnicht today with Sian, Iwan, Anna and Billy. Iwan you know - he's my big brother who lives in Cornwall, Anna and Billy are on the same course as him, and they came up with Iwan to do some mountain days to count towards their Mountain Leader Log book thing - they have to do 20 quality hill days for the training, and another 40 for the assessment - it's a bit like I have to do a training log for the pigging.

The weather was fantastic - so warm that Flashers and me had to spend lots of time in water to cool our feet down. We slept all the way home, and after tea, I've slept on the sofa.

Phil went to the football, and came back with smiley face, and now he's doing a Llanberis job - I think he's going to a barbecue after that!

I just realised I haven't written my log from last training ... I'll have a look what I did and write shortly!

Tarrrraaa
Cadders xxxxxxxxxx

Oh dear folks, I've just realised I'm getting really lax about this blog thing! We've all been so busy over the last month that I just haven't had time to write! Sorry - must try harder x

Last writing was when I got staged ... since then, I've done the odd bits of training with Sian, but on the whole, she's been working, they've had things to do with Hannah - she had a big birthday, and we've still got a house full of balloons and floating things - I know balloons are the strange smelling things on the floor, but we also had some big ones up in the sky - big pink ones shaped like a 1 and an 8! We had good fun with them!

Sian went to collect some piglets this week, and she changed over the old pig - really stinky one - she was nearly sick!! I had fun, because she'd left them on the steps at the back while she went to get the basement key, and of course, I sniffed them, and barked at her - guess what - she didn't have a ball to reward me, so I just barked and barked and she had to get one quick! We've now got a basement full of piggies!

We had Bobby and Ellie staying with us this month too - Bobby's ace - we have a really good time - even though he's older than Flash, he's loads more playful, and we play chase on the beach. I've gone right off Ellie - she's been really grumpy with me, and fighting with me, and I got really frightened - she was bossing me and bullying me, and we ended up having massive fights, and I got bitten loads by her. She's gone back to her dad now, but my leg's still sore - she bit it on both sides. I also got loads of scabs on my chin and my face - Sian calls me a "scabby dog" but I know she doesn't mean it nasty!

My leg's much better now, but I forget about it, and do too much running about, and then it hurts - I've been resting it this evening, but it's quite sore.

I'm really tired now after my training weekend, so I'm going for a sleep, and I'll write about the training tomorrow - see you then xxx

I'm just going to write a little bit before I go to sleep - I'm so tired, and my head is battered with thinking too much!
As you know, we've just had a training weekend, and I've had such a challenging time - but great fun because I got the ball lots and lots of times.
Yesterday was very strange. We went a long way in the car first, picking up new girl Alex on the way - she's just been accepted as a DogsBody with SARDA, and Sian was giving her a ride in our car - very brave considering how smelly our car tends to be. The pig was 4 weeks decayed - so you can imagine how bad it was! Sian couldn't smell it, but the rest of us could!!
She left me and Ellie (who came along for the ride) in the car, then we had a long long drive to a strange bit of water - not quite a river, but it was moving, had high concrete sides, and had very strange, long boats going on it! I found the pig smell a few times, but on the whole, it didn't really smell very much, until they put the pig juice in the water too, and then it was brilliant - found it from a long way off! they had to do some small quick things with me so I recognised the smell - and then I was fine - had some good finds before lunch - sausages - then off again. Lots of the long boat things around after dinner, and I found some smelly holes in the ground - rabbits they reckoned, and I got a bit distracted - don't come across them very much really.

We went back to Rhyd Ddu then for the humans to watch the rugby - woo hoo!!! Cymru am Byth!
Came back home for a proper warm sleep and a dry, and then back again this morning. We had a bit of a lie in this morning - except that Bobby and Ellie will insist on barking like mad dogs in the morning - embarrassing when you've got neighbours - who sometimes have loud parties, and it's ok to bark loudly then, but not when it's a peaceful Sunday morning when dogs want a lie in!

Sian then took just me along to the lagoons in Llanberis, and we had a very peaceful morning, just her and me, doing a few searches, which all went very well. We then sat in the car for ages, listening to the radio, when all of a sudden, Phil, Gareth and Richard turned up. Turns out that I was getting staged! That means when someone comes along and watches what you do, and decides what stage in the training you're at. They gave me some really good ones to do - the last one was really cool cos I knew that I found it before Sian did - she had no idea where it was until I told her, and even then she couldn't find it - but at least she believed me!!

Anyway, she was very proud of me, and gave me lots more sausages!

So after all this, I'm shattered, and falling asleep on my little legs!

Thanks to everyone who came along and helped with my training this weekend - Big Uncle John yesterday, and Richard and Gareth and Phil today!

Good fun - when are we going again ?? zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Yay!!
Training tomorrow! I hadn't realised, because Sian's been working for ages and ages - and we've hardly seen her. Tonight she came home from work and she's been busy getting the car organised, putting my cage in the back, and the search box, and I think I could smell a new pig in the basement - she also had lots of tennis balls in her pocket!

Yippee!!
I wonder where we're going to go!
She and Phil have been really busy with the mountain rescue team, and with SARDA searches - the air scenting dogs have been going out on the mountains to look for missing people - and finding them too - which is good news. All a bit sad and stressful though - the look on Celyn's face in the photo I told you about - I bet she's going to be even more miserable looking by tomorrow - sometimes the dogs and handlers get bad dreams - that's if they can sleep at all ...
Sian was telling me about the risks of that when I qualify - I guess we'll be seeing some pretty gruesome things, but if we're prepared for it, and can talk to someone about it, and understand that it's normal to react to that kind of thing we'll be ok - the problems start when people - and dogs - try to be heroic about it - and try to pretend that they don't react, and it doesn't affect them - Phil calls it the "John Wayne syndrome" - I think he was in school with John Wayne or something ...

Anyway, we have sausages in the fridge ready for the weekend, so here we go - I'll let you know how things go!

Cadz xx

You know how labradors eat everything - I think Flash ate everything and it died inside him and the gas is now coming out - what a smell! and it's been going on all day!!

Did I tell you we got the training stages from Yoda Neil? Well, we did, and Sian asked him what he wanted to do about staging me - that means when someone takes a look at what you're doing, and decides whereabouts in the list of stages you're at. It's quite important to do really because it gives you something to aim at, and it sort of sets in stone where you're up to. I think - and Sian agrees - that I'm at stage 7 - which is shoreline searches, and working towards stage 8 - which is where the target is up to 10m out in the water, and somewhere along a 500m stretch of shoreline. Actually, I'm probably at stage 8 really, but we don't have a 500m stretch to use - the lagoons in Llyn Padarn are very broken shoreline, but I guess in total we manage to search 500m. Lockwood is less than that, but you can manage more than 10m out. Sian's going to ask some more people if we can use their lake - that's got nice clean edges so will be good to use for training. She's done risk assessments for everywhere we use so far - I do dynamic risk assessments myself - goes a bit pearshaped when I get new experiences, but I guess that's the dynamic bit of it!!!

Anyway, Sian's asked Richard if we can go for staging at the next training weekend in a couple of weeks - maybe use Llangollen Canal and go for the Stage 8? What do you think?

The boat engine has arrived, we're just waiting for the cheque to clear. Once we get that, we can start on the boat stages - can't wait!!!

Sian showed me the photos of Celyn and Teal on the Llanberis job yesterday -it looked awful weather, cold, windy, snowy. The look on their faces was classic! Sad as well though - I'm glad I do water search - we can't go out when the wind is too strong, the waves too slappy, and the water too cold! How good is that !!! We can justify waiting for nice weather!! Sian's talking about doing a poster to show people what the water searching is all about - that'll be good! I don't think people generally have a clue what we do!

I'm ready for my tea - just off to nag a bit!

See ya x