Amber's Party!!



Musical Chairs

Today was Amber's birthday party. We sent out invitations to her doggy friends a few weeks ago and seven dogs came: Lady, Shelley, Mitzy, Fido, Hannah, Rosie and Charlie! When they first arrived we let them all play together off lead as they were mad excited! Then we organised some games. I had got lots of ideas from the internet of different games we could play and we started off with Musical Chairs! This was a doggy adaptation of the classical children's game. This is how you play it: Dogs are on lead and walk around the outside of the circle with their owners whilst the music is playing. When the music stops, owners must put their dogs into a sit-stay (or alternatively a down-stay - even a stand-stay......basically just a stay!!!) owners must then rush to find a seat (however there is one too little so one owner ends up without a seat...!) then the owner without the seat is able to run around trying to distract the other dogs out of their stays (and if they do move then owners must get up and put them back into a stay!) You then have a ten second countdown, and the owner without a chair gets disqualified. That's how you play, however, it ended up being a bit of a relaxed version! It's a great game to practise "stay"!!!

My brother Tiarnán with Hannah

The Markie and Spoon race was quite a laugh, with the rules being that if your dog ate the markie then you were out! I had Amber and she ate it within a few seconds!! She's a big fan of markies. Skye managed to wait until the end of the race to eat hers, though I'm sure she was very tempted!

The Markie and Spoon race!

Next up we had some other games - Water Relay, Agility, D-O-G, Racing Recall, amongst others. We didn't get to play all of them (we had 14, but managed to do about half and then the dogs wanted to just play!!) We might be able to play some of them at puppy classes next week though.

Caitlin with Rosie

Everybody swapped dogs for the different games, so Skye was handled by lots of people. I did the Water Relay with her and you had to hold the cup of water in the same hand as the lead - which could have meant spilling the water! but Skye was a good girl and it all got into the bucket (but then she drank some of it!!)



We had Amber's new sandpit and paddling pool out for the dogs to play with and the paddling pool as far as the dogs could see was their giant water bowl - it was the warmest weather we've had for a while now, so the dogs did appreciate the water to cool down, they all seemed very thirsty! Skye and Rosie went inside for a paddle so they got quite wet!

Water Relay Race!

Agility

More agility....! (The jump looks quite high - it's because they went under it!)

Amber does a very good "stay"

The dogs all had a good run around and play and then they got hungry so we brought them inside for their dinner. We had made lots of different things for the dogs so Skye got to try some of our Sardine bake but we also gave her some of her kibble. She obviously didn't feel I had fed her enough and was trying to steal some of the other dogs dinners!

The cake! 

We all sang "Happy Birthday" to Amber and had made a cake, and all the dogs got a slice!

Amber had a fun time!

Then we brought them inside with the idea that they'd settle down while us owners got a chance to have some dinner too! We had made a "Chill Out Room" for the dogs with beds and toys but most of them chose to come in beside the table with us.

Final play - you can see it's starting to get dark.....

After that they all got one last play before it was time for everyone to leave........next time it'll be Skye's birthday - she'll be one on December 26th..imagine, how time does fly by!!!!

Here are some more photos of Skye....

Skye wants to play!!