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16th December 2007: Just a quick update, to wish you all a very merry christmas and a happy new year. Its been a busy year for us, but next year is going to be even busier, with the start of our new Wet Leo's Water Training Group in April and hopefully returning to the show ring with Ti we also hope to start some agility competitions with Willow and Rudi, and there is the possibility of a litter of pups with Indi, so we are going to need the rest that Christmas will give us before we start the new year. So we hope you all have a good rest and we will see you in the new year. Until January take care.

30th November 2007: November has been a very difficult month for us, I have had to abandon my family for most of it and disappear down to Wales to help my Mum. My Dad suffered a brain hemorrhage and Stroke and as a result it has been a very difficult month for my entire family. Between us all our family have managed to keep Mum company and helped get things organised for Dad who remains in the high dependency unit in Hospital. Jamie has been a diamond looking after me and making sure I don't fall by the wayside while trying to care for mum and dad. There have been some improvements in my dads condition in the last week that have given us hope but it will be a long recovery for him and we will all be dedicating a lot of time to helping Mum and Dad through this process.

As for the rest of our news, fireworks night passed quite quietly for us thankfully, with so many professionally organised displays in our area people seem to have abandoned the use of home fireworks and so it was much better than normal. I know that thousands of animals all over the UK will have been very upset by the noises, and I think that this year mine seem to have been more relaxed about it, it may be due to an accidental de-sensitisation, over the last year, living near a farm we have had regular gunfire from shot guns as the farmers practice clay pigeon shooting and as a result the dogs didn't seem to take too much notice of the fireworks cracking and banging this year, which was great news for them and us as they were far more relaxed.

Indi's Hip and Elbow scores came in and they were really good Hips 5:5 and Elbows 0:0 this means that all we need is her eyes tested and we have the all clear for her to have a litter of pups when we are ready. On the topic of puppies, Indi decided to season two months early and with the commotion that surrounded Dads sudden illness we missed the opportunity to mate her. Indi is currently down in Wales keeping my mum company, Mum feels safer with her down there while I cannot be with her and as Indi is such a gentle and protective dog she suits my Mum as a companion. We certainly don't mind lending her to Mum for a little while. This means that while Indi is away she has not been able to attend her Obedience classes, but she is so close to passing her Silver Obedience Award that a short break will not do her any harm. We miss her terribly but she is doing a very valuable job keeping my mum safe until I go back down.

Ti has been through his first month of injections for his allergies and is showing only slight adverse reactions to the treatment, our hope is that in a years time he will no longer react to his dust and storage mite allergy at least not in such a dramatic way as he has in the past. He gained 2kg in weight which was brilliant, but due to Indi coming into season, lost some of it in excitement. As we now know the formular of his new diet is working we know that he will make progress when he calms down again.

Willow is still having lots of fun with her agility and even though we have only made it to 2 of the 4 sessions this month, is still making good progress. Willow is currently at level 1 Agility for dogs but is managing to complete levels 5 to 7 well, so I am very pleased. We haven't managed to get any photo's to share with you yet but we shall try to get some as soon as Jamie can come along to one of the sessions. Willow will be taking part in an Agility Competition in February in the 'Not For Competition class', the course will be very simple so as not to over stretch her, being at level 1, I will not let her do the more difficult courses as she is a little old to start competitive agility, but for fun and to show others what the bigger dogs can do and I am looking forward to showing everyone how well Leo's do at this event.

Rudi is also having lots of fun at his Agility classes too and is doing so well he has already been entered for his first official competition in February, at our Agility clubs next show. He is doing really well, he's really quick and rarely makes mistakes, we don't have any pictures at the moment but hope to get some to share with you soon. He has made some progress on his Gold Obedience Award, but we still have some way to go before passing it I am sure he will get there eventually!

Having secured a site for Wiltshire Wet Leos Water Rescue Training Group, I can announce that the Keynes Country Park Lakes at the Cotswold Country Park in Cirencester, just outside Swindon, will be our venue. There is an excellent website so check it out at, www.waterpark.org/leisure/what-is-the-cotswold-water-park.html, with loads of pictures of the areas we shall be using. I have some pictures that I took while there last month and I hope to share these with you next month, our venue site is amazing and I am looking forward to April. Our thanks to the Ranger of this site, Matthew Stokes, for his help and allowing us to use this lovely venue to train our dogs. Anyone wishing to join our group due to start in April 2008 please let me know via email at = becki.willow@virgin.net or Ti@wet-leos.co.uk.

Due to my Dads illness and having to go down to Wales to help my Mum, I had to miss the Leonberger Club of Great Britain AGM. This was a double disappointment for me as it was the first time in ages I had been able to attend, I had also put myself forward as an applicant for one of the vacant positions within the clubs Working Sub Committee. I was very fortunate, and very thankful, that the clubs AGM attendees looked upon my situation and reasons for being unable to attend very sympathetically and allowed my application to continue in my absence. I understand that I was elected to join the working sub committee which I am delighted about and hope to be able to help in anyway I can within the clubs working section activities.

That's all our news for now, some good, some not so good, but until next time take care and hug your loved ones, be they dogs or people, you don't know how long you are going be fortunate enough to have them. Take Care until next time.

31st October 2007: October has been a very busy month with me being out 3 evenings out of 5 in the week doing activities with the dogs, my poor long suffering husband Jamie is left to hold the fort while I disappear to do either Agility or Obedience, not including the numerous dog walks, shows, fundays, water training etc! I couldn't do these things without his support and I'm eternally grateful that he gives me the flexibility to follow my interests with the dogs.

Water Work: After announcing, via various Leo forums, and our website, the planned organisation of the new Water Rescue Training Group for Wiltshire we've had an excellent response from Leo owners who wish to come along and give this exciting activity a go. In preparation I've attended my first training day with John Tyler of the Hinchingbrook Wet Leos group. My thanks to John and his lovely wife, and to Bev Reeves and the many others at Hinchingbrook for answering my many questions and helping me and Ti enter the water for our first experience of Water Rescue Training. My thanks also to Mark Green who was one of the photographers on the day who kindly took loads of photo's of Ti and me doing our stuff and has allowed me to use some of my favourites for this site, so take a look and I hope you like them. It's a taste of things to come and we are going to find it hard to wait until April to get back into the water. In preparation I was bought for my birthday present (and squeezed into) a new wetsuit, gloves and boots and scared myself to death by accidentally setting of my life jacket while adjusting it to fit! Thanks to everyone who is supporting our new group, I know you will have to wait until April but I promise you it will be worth it. Anyone else who wants to join our new group can email me at: becki.willow@virgin.net, you will be more than welcome.

Willow is continuing to achieve a good result in her Agility, she had her first go on the seasaw this month, its the very last piece of equipment we have had to learn and it didn't phase her at all, she is consistently completing the courses set up and has even started to bark in excitement as we go around, something Willow very rarely does and when I heard her at first I thought she had hurt herself, but thankfully no, she was just so happy and excited she barked to let me know. Jamie is hoping to come to a session soon so that he can take some photo's while we practice and you can see what she gets up to.

Indi passed her Bronze Obedience award at the beginning of the month, which I was thrilled about, considering she has only been doing this activity for such a short period. We are now well on our way to completing her Silver award with just two items left to pass and has already achieved some of the more difficult aspects of the Gold! We are still waiting for Indi's hips and elbow results and will post them the minute they come in.

Ti, as mentioned above, enjoyed a days training with the Hinchingbrook Wet Leo's. He thoroughly enjoyed splashing in and out of the water and he was, as I suspected, a natural. I think I've found his forte. Ti loved his first full experience of water work and took to the fun with much enthusiasm, just for a change he was surprised that I was encouraging him in to the water and the look on seeing me follow was one I shall never forget! Take a look at the photo's on his pictures page of him in the water.

Rudi as you know started his 'foundation stage' for Agility, having passed this he has been invited to join the beginners course for Agility. The foundation stage is a 4 week handling skills course to help orientate the dog and owner to the hand signals and basic skills that will be needed to start Agility properly on the equipment. It also helps the trainers to further assess the capabilities of the dog and handler, not everyone passes's but advice on how to proceed is always given to those who need a bit more practice before starting Agility. We were delighted to start two weeks ago and we now have the first two session under our belt on the equipment. Rudi was brilliant and we had a lot of fun, the first session saw him completing 3 sets of single low level jumps in a row, the tunnel and the 'A' frame up and over. In our second session he learned about the walkway and weaves and a further set of 4 jumps, all of which he took in his stride and completed without fault. It was strange doing agility with a smaller dog as the turn of speed is completely different and much faster than that of a Leo.

In other news, Jamie and I attended the Leonberger Club of Great Britain's 6th Championship Show on the 21st of October. We didn't have any of our dogs entered this year, so were able to relax and take it all in being just spectators. We were delighted to watch Yvonne, John and Boden (Leonius Leviathan at Valeguard) gain and excellent 2nd place in the Novice Dog class. Well done guys for such an excellent result. It was also an opportunity to catch up with everyone we've not seen since being away from the show ring. Thanks to everyone who took time out to say hello to us some of whom we met for the first time. I hope everyone enjoyed this event as much as we did.

Well that's all our news for now, so until next month, take care.

30th September 2007: Well September has passed very quickly and we have seen our children go back to school. I hope you like the new look that we have given to the pages of our website, I decided it was time to update its look.

Willow - We have continued making excellent progress with Willow at Agility Club, we are now putting together some combinations and working towards accuracy rather than speed. Combinations can lead to confusion when you first start them, but skillful use of hand signals and body language help to instruct your dogs direction to the obstacle they should be heading to, in fact the dog usually picks this up quickly leaving the owner/handler playing 'catch up'. We still practice each piece of the equipment at each session but until all the novice dogs are more confident at the higher obstacles (the 6Ft high 'A Frame' and 'Walkway') we take them at a much slower pace and they are not part of any speed combination until we gain more experience on these items.

Ti - Ti is continuing with his Obedience and whilst progress is slower with him its an excellent forum for socialisation and learning concentration. I'm hoping to get Ti back into the ring at some point next season, probably after Crufts 2008, but for now we are continuing to enjoy our walks and training. He will soon start a course of 12 injections to help him with his allergies I shall let you know how we get on.

Indi - Indi celebrated her 2nd birthday this month (Happy Birthday Indi) we gave her a special dinner of roast chicken with gravy, her favourite. This month we also had Indi's hips and elbows x-rayed and we await the results which should be back in about 4 weeks time. We have made good progress with Indi, she attends the obedience sessions with me and concentrates so hard its like there's no one else in the room (until the little dogs start to run around which gets her very excited). We also, for the first time, attended the Obedience Club 'Walk', which entails meeting at our local country park and all going 'walkies' together. This being the first time we have gone to this group walk I was overwhelmed to see 20 dogs ready to go out into the park. This apparently was one of the smaller groups to date. We all set off around the country park and once we hit the fields, everyone let their dogs off. It was lovely to see 20 dogs all running free all getting along and all returning to their owners when called. Indi thoroughly enjoyed herself and was completely tired out by the time we got back to the car, I was very proud that she behaved herself and was a model doggy citizen and a good representative of our breeds temperament and behaviour. We have decided that we shall attend this walk every time they have one, which is once to twice a month along with our normal walks.

Rudi - Rudi continues to work towards his Gold Obedience award, its proving to be harder and requires a little more training than the other awards. He is doing well though and we hope to pass this award soon. Rudi also started his agility course last week and my son Matthew practice's with him in the garden, making sure that he gets about 10 minutes a day going through the tunnels and over some jumps in the garden, practicing the hand signals that will prove to be so vital later on.

In other news, we are really pleased to be able to congratulate Yvonne, John and Boden (Leonius Leviathan at Valeguard) again on another excellent 2nd place at Birmingham Champ show on 1st Sept. Well done to Yvonne and John for yet another excellent place in a group of 8 tough competitors. Boden has qualified himself twice for crufts this year and is well on his way to obtaining that 1st place he so rightly deserves.

Water Rescue Work - With the help of other more experienced Wet Leo enthusiasts within the LCGB, I have started to organise a group of Wet Leo's for our area. I have found an excellent venue not far from us that will hopefully be confirmed in the next two weeks. So if you own a Leo and you want to do water rescue work, you can get to the North Wiltshire area and don't mind getting wet and muddy, all in the name of having fun, then let me know and I shall put your name on our list for this new and exciting group activity (contact me on becki.willow@virgin.net for further information). We already have 4 owners and 8 dogs who have signed up, so get your name down fast.

As you will have noticed there are three new pages, dedicated to Agility, Obedience and Water Rescue Work, this is very basic information at present and will be updated as I learn and gather more information about these topics, this is in an effort to help promote the fun things that you can do with your Leo's, I hope they inspire you to join a group in your area or start your own!

That's all my news for now, until next month, take care.

June, July & August: Well with continuing computer problems we finally invested in a new laptop to solve the ever growing technical issues we were having with the old one. We can now update you with all our news and there is lots to tell so make a cup of coffee and get comfortable, my apologies for anyone who has been visiting our site to find no new updates.

Firstly we shall start with Willow, as you know she passed her Agility Assessment back in April and we began a beginners course in June, this entailed going to a weekly session for 8 weeks to learn all aspects of agility. Well, she did BRILLIANTLY and after completing the course was invited to join our local club as an official member in the improvers class. I am thrilled and so proud of Willow, who really enjoyed the activities and took to it like a duck to water. We completed all the aspects of Agility bar one (the seesaw - very difficult for beginners) these aspects included the Tunnel (2 different types soft and hard), Jumps (4 different types 1 - 3 bars high and a distance jump), Weave - which is not easy for a dog the size of a Leo and takes great control to keep the dog focused so as not to miss a weave out, the Tyre, the 'A' frame which is a 6 foot up and over - very daunting prospect for me but Willow just flew over it without a seconds thought and the 6Ft high Walkway plank. Willow achieved an excellent standard in all and passed the course with flying colours. Being the biggest dog that has ever joined the club yet special attention was always focused on her to see how she compared to the other smaller and more agile dogs and as a result she is somewhat of a celebrity for doing so well. I am so Proud of her and am thrilled to now be able to attend the weekly sessions with her to begin in the improvers group. We then hope to join the display team, this will give members of the public the chance to see what these clever dogs can do and achieve with a little time and patience and a lot of hard work. I have decided not to enter Willow competitively at agility, she is now 5 years old and I don't want to risk an injury to her at this point in her life. Competitive Agility is extremely hard on a dogs body, and I would say is very much for the younger dog, but I know she will enjoy displaying for the public and I can't wait to show off what she has achieved (hope to have some pictures of this to show you soon).

Ti is continuing to attend obedience class with me on Thursday evenings, he is such a happy bouncy dog that he finds it difficult to concentrate and just wants to have fun, but we have made steady progress and he is on the verge of passing his Bronze Obedience certificate. As we are not in the ring competitively with Ti at the moment we have channeled his energies into lots of walks with Obedience practice on the way round. I had hoped to get him (and the other Leo's) involved with a wet Leo's Rescue/Draft group in our area, but there isn't one and with no response from the Newfi groups nearby we are going to try to enlist our Leo club to help set one up in our area so that other like minded Leo's can come and learn about water rescue work. It is unlikely that this will happen this year as the season is nearly over, so we shall plan for next year in the hope that we can organise a group in time. I have a feeling that all my Leos will attend this as they love the water and Ti is a natural in it. I know they will all enjoy it and I shall have the pleasure of donning a wetsuit/drysuit for the duration! Not a pretty picture I can tell you. Titan has spent most of the summer resting up, as you know his weight gain has been somewhat of a concern for us but he is a fit and well dog and we continue with his special diet to help him gain the weight he should have. He will eventually even out and gain the weight he needs, time and patience is all that is needed here. He also had a rather awful allergic reaction to a bite or sting from, I suspect, as wasp in the garden. He had to have half the fur on his left side shaved off to treat it and for a while looked rather sad and bald on one side. He has recovered well though and his fur is starting to grow back nicely but it means he definitely won't be in the ring for the rest of the year and so will not have an opportunity to qualify for Cruft, but there is always next year.

Indi has now joined the local Obedience Group too and comes along with me and Ti for the session before Ti's on a Thursday night. Our Group is so popular that we had to wait for a space for her but we have now started on her Bronze award. To my delight on only her second visit she had already completed half the Bronze award goals signed off in one night and did a 5 minute down stay to complete the first of her Gold Award goals. She is exceptionally clever and I thoroughly enjoyed taking her along. She is developing nicely and is such a good dog on the lead, never pulling and always patient. She will hopefully be assessed for PAT work soon allowing us to visit our local hospital, hospices and homes so that other people can enjoy these beautiful dogs, if only for a short time. (Pictures coming soon)

Rudi, my son's Border Terrier, is doing really well, he celebrated his 1st birthday at the beginning of August (Happy 1st Birthday Rudi). He is still attending the obedience classes on Saturday mornings and he passed his Silver Award in July, which we were thrilled about. We are now working towards his Gold award and he is doing really well having already ticked off 3 of the 9 goals he needs. There is now a platinum award which we shall have to work towards after that! We also, as you know, had Rudi assess to join the Agility club. This was done at the same time Willow passed but as I was not able to handle two dogs and the classes were too late in the evening for Matty to attend I had to make the decision for Rudi to wait for the next beginners course. Well he will be assessed again in September and we will be joining the next course in October. I have a feeling that Rudi will shine doing Agility as he is so quick and nimble, very clever and also has the agile side of the smaller dog that gives them that competitive advantage. I know he will love it as he has already been practicing with me in the garden in preparation and he gets very excited when we start to get the obstacles and training aides out and in my son's words goes 'mental'! I shall let you know how he gets on. (some pictures coming soon)

Well as for us humans, we celebrated our 1st year being in our new home. We have in that year extended our property to include a place for my in-laws to live. This is now finally completed and they moved in after spending the year living in our house with us. We have also remodeled the Garden to make a few Leo Exclusion zones so that my mother-in-laws plants had a chance to flower before they got dug up. The children have their play area and our fish pond has been protected with a high fence so that the Leo's don't take a daily bath in it. They still have the best part of a acre to run around in which has been specially fenced to keep them safe - so everyone is happy.

We wanted to take this opportunity to say Congratulations to Yvonne and John at Valeguard who gained a fantastic 2nd Place with Boden (Leonius Leviathan at Valeguard) out of 8 at WKA last weekend, we understand the competition was very tough guys so well done. Give Boden a big hug from us all.

Well, I said we had a lot of news, no more photo's at the moment but I hope to have some pictures of the dogs as the do their activities soon. Until next time, which hopefully won't be quite so long as the last, Take Care.

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April & May 2007 : Yes, finally an update......we have had terrible computer problems and haven't been able to update you recently on our antics, but here we are back up and running again.

Although we have had a quiet show month during April and May we do have other news to share with you.

I am pleased to announce that Willow passed her Agility Assessment in April so we start our beginners course with a local club in June. I'm very excited about this as I have wanted to do Agility with Willow for a long time. As you have to wait for a space in a club to open up and then pass an assessment its taken a while for this to happen as no spaces were available. Willow also celebrated her Birthday on May 12th and is now the grand old age of 5 years old.

Ti's obedience training is improving a great deal, we hope to pass his bronze award soon. We won't be doing any shows with Ti for a while as he has not only dropped his coat in a big way but some weight too! After exhaustive tests at the vets, as we were getting a bit worried, we found out that he is perfectly fit and healthy just slim! With an acre of garden to run around in he is burning off any weight he is putting on, so we now have a special diet for him to help him gain the weight he should have as a Leo. We shall wait for him to put his weight back on before venturing into the ring again probably about October time I should think.

Indi is doing fine and developing nicely, she is going through that awkward all-over-the-place junior stage that Leos go through. I will be doing an agility assessment with Indi in December this year, once she has passed her 2nd Birthday, she should do very well at this as she is very agile and quick on her feet. I know she will enjoy it and I am looking forward to taking her along with Willow.

I'm thrilled to say that Rudi passed his Bronze obedience award and is doing very well in his training, he is now working towards his Silver. He also passed the agility assessment and I am sure he will ex cell at this as border terriers are so quick and agile, my son Matthew who owns Rudi, will be coming with me to agility and handling Rudi so it should be a lot of fun for him too. We didn't get to show Rudi at the WELKS show in May as we had hoped as a mistake on the electronic entry wouldn't allow us to enter, but we will be taking him to Windsor for his first show so we shall let you know how he does. Taking Rudi means I can keep myself up to speed in the ring and I could always do with the extra practice.

We have added some new pictures to Ti and Indi's pictures page so click on the links above to check them out.

We are also hoping to get all three of our Leo's in to a Wet Leos group, a group who do water rescue work with dogs, Leo's as most of you know, love water and someone from the Leonberger Club's Working Group is kindly trying to organise a group in our area so that we can enjoy this fun, exciting and valuable side of our dogs. I just know my Leo's will love it and I can't wait to get started.

We have been sent some lovely photo's of Boden from Yvonne at Valeguard Leo's check them out he looks stunning.

We are also very pleased to send our congratulations to Darren and Mandy Spencer of the Mandazz Kennel in Wales. Darren and Mandy own Ivan (Knockandos Ivanhoe Original at Mandazz), Ti's and Boden's Dad. Ivan recieved his first CC at the WELKS show and went on to gain Group 2 later in the day. Many congratulations guys we are very proud and pleased for you. There is a beautiful new picture of Ivan on Ti's pedigree page so click on the link and go to the bottom of the page to see how fantastic he looks.

Thats all our news for now. Until next time, bye for now.

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March 16th 2007: We've had a busy time since we last wrote in our diary, Crufts for one, 10th March came and we set of from home at 6am having got up at 5am to get ready and arrived at the NEC just after 8am, Ti having been washed, blown dried, brushed, trimmed and buffed went into the ring in the Post Graduate Group, the largest one for the Leonbergers that day with 19 entries, one of which was Boden Ti's brother, Ti did me proud and behaved himself, he stood nicely for me and I couldn't have asked for more, I feel we've made progress with his new training but with some helpful tips from some of our friends on the day we know where we need to make more progress. Sadly this year we didn't get placed, but against such a tough group we were not surprised, to qualify at all is an achievement in itself. Ti is still a very young dog and has a long way to go until he is fully mature and while he still enjoys showing off in the ring we shall continue to take him along. It is, however, the first year that this has happened so it was a little odd not to have something to celebrate personally, we did however have the pleasure of seeing Boden (Leonius Leviathan at Valeguard) take a VHC in the Good Citizenship Class to Valeguard so many Congratulations to Yvonne and John, he looked wonderful. We managed to stay for the whole day this time and watched the rest of the judging before we left to go home at just after 4pm, exhausted and with aching feet we headed South. I would like to thank Carol D'arcy Masters for all her help on the day, Carol, who I attend puppy classes with on a Saturday with Rudi came with us for the trip to Crufts as she lives just round the corner and helped Jamie and I carrying all our bags and show stuff, Thanks Carol you were a star and you did help to keep me calm despite appearances. It was great seeing everyone and so many people came to say hello and introduce themselves to us, thanks to everyone who took time out to say Hi. Check out some of the snaps of our day on our new Crufts 2007 page.

This, however, was not the end of Crufts for me, I had the pleasure of being treated to a day out at the Best in Show day by Yvonne of Valeguard Leo's and we had a lovely day browsing the trade stands, spending lots of money on doggy things and watching some of the Toy dog breeds being judged before we watched the Pastoral and Toy Group Judging. We then sat ringside for the Best in Show Judging which was extremely exciting. There was of course the lovely movement to music with the dogs trained to move with their handlers to music, awe inspiring and the fantastic Agility which was thrilling. We also saw the Friends for Life which nearly reduced both myself and Yvonne to tears. Thank you so much to Yvonne and John for my treat it was lovely. They were two very wonderful days and I shall look back on them with many good memories.

As we now have to qualify Ti for Crufts 2008 we have a new set of shows for the rest of the year and the first of these being WELKS at Malvern. This will be a doubly exciting day as Rudi, my son's Border Terrier, will also be attending the show in the Terrier Class for Minor Puppy Dog and with the Birmingham National that follows in May we have our first two shows of the new show calendar year.

On other news, we have been sent some lovely pictures of Bailey from his owners Claudia and Lee so take a peek to see how Bailey is coming along thank you to Claudia and Lee for these lovely pictures. Also we were delighted to receive some more pictures of Tia who looks the image of her mum, and so beautiful, Thank you Carol and Nick for these photos.

Well, we are off for a nice rest before we start again for more shows, so take care until next time. Bye for now.

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February 8th 2007: We have been very busy through January and this month with training, training and yet more training. As you know we joined an excellent Saturday morning puppy obedience class with Rudi, he's doing really well and coming on a treat, he learns so quickly and we are nearly at a point where Rudi can pass the clubs Bronze Award. Rudi will also be entering the show ring after March this year for the first time. Matthew my son has decided he would like to see how he does in the ring.

We also managed to secure a place with the same training club on a Wednesday night, which is no mean feat as the club has a very long waiting list, we attend this session with Ti who is in the throws of re-learning how to concentrate. He has always been a good boy but it never hurts to re-educate, me as well as him! It's great fun and we've met some lovely people and dogs. Ti is learning to concentrate again and focus on me and what we are trying to achieve, rather than what is going on arround us, I've noticed the difference already. I'm hoping that this will pay dividens when we get him back into the ring and with Crufts aproaching fast we need to concentrate so we can do our best.

It's cold, cold, cold, at the moment, as most of the South of England is covered in Snow and as a result the kids are off school and I have some spare time on my hands, we have heaps of lovely pictures, children and dogs enjoying the garden covered in 3" of soft, fluffy, white snow. I've added some pictures to a new page dedicated to the snowy weather called 'Snow Dogs' as there were so many I just couldn't decide which ones to put up. For Rudi this is the first time he has ever seen snow and Indi has never see so much, as the last time the snow was just a quick flurry and was gone in 20 minutes. Willow and Ti have both seen snow like this before and they were so excited they were like big kids. I have also added three new images to the bottom of the Wildlife at Home page, taken recently.

We've a show, weather permitting, at the weekend and hopefully Ti's new training will help him to stay still for me while we are in the ring. It will be good practice as we have not been in the ring since October's club show. We have two more shows to attend before Crufts, some very important show practice so wish us luck.

The 13th February 2007 will see the 'puppies' from our first litter turn 2 years old, so we would like to wish them an early Happy 2nd Birthday Age of Mythology Leos: Bailey, Boden, Bones, Freya, Jess, Max, Nana, Tia, Tucker, Ziggy and our own boy Ti. I hope you are all spoiled rotten with treats and walks. Big hugs to you all on your special day from your Mum Willow and Dad Ivan. (I'm such an old softy).

Well, until next time. Bye for now, and stay warm.

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January 2nd 2007: Well HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone, we hope you all had a Happy Christmas and a good New Years. We certainly didn't have a quiet one, with a house full of family, visitors and dogs there was lots of noise to be heard, but all of it good.

We would like start the new year by saying thanks to everyone who has visited our website and supported us and our dogs through 2006. It's been nice to meet some of you at shows and events we've attended and we always appreciate your kind messages and introductions.

We started last year with over 8000 hits to our website, both new and returning visitors from 2005, we have had an additional 5600 hits this year, again new and returning visitors for 2006 making nearly 14,000 visitors in our 2 years of existence as Leonius. The website saw some new pages added, the 'Wildlife At Home', 'General Information' and of course 'Rudi's' pages.

We would like to start this year with a review of the last. Last year was a different kind of year for us, in February we saw our first litter of pups turn one year's old and we are still fortunate to be sent regular news updates and photos from the owners, which is lovely for us as we still care very much about the dogs we sent to homes all around the country.

Our show year was quiet until March, Crufts saw both our boy Ti (Leonius Titan) and Yvonne and Johns Lance's boy Boden, Leonius Leviathan at Valeguard, placed 4th and 3rd respectively and we were all thrilled with this result we had a great day and one we shall not forget.

We continued the year by getting Ti qualified for Crufts at the Birmingham National Championship Show in May, Ti was placed 3rd out of 13 dogs, we could then relax a little for the rest of the show year, just as well really as we were unable to attend half the shows we entered as we were in the process of showing and moving house.

May also saw Willow turn 4 years old, and we decided that we would also have her spayed, she recovered well and is looking good for it.

Showing our house and the subsequent move meant that we couldn't attend the shows we wanted too and as a result missed out on the chance of getting Indi qualified for Crufts, this we are not too concerned about as Indi is very young and still has plenty of time to mature and fill out before we go back into the ring with her at the end of the year.

June saw us move into our new house and we finally had a garden the dogs deserved, running free and lots of exercise, 1 acre of grass and orchard to play in and it's been a change I'm so glad we made. It did mean a lot of fencing and securing to keep them in the garden and safe. June and July also saw some of the hottest temperatures since records began and we provided huge ice cubes to the dogs to help them stay cool and mostly they rested in the shade the trees in the orchard provided for them.

September saw Indi turn one year's old and the start of the new school term for the children.

October saw us attended the LCGB 5th Champ show at which we took took all our dogs, it was lovely to be out with them all, but definitely hard work juggling them about from ring to ring. October also saw a new addition to the family, Rudi the Border Terrier, who was a present for my eldest son Matthew, he has proved to be the most adorable little dog and he has settled in very well with all the Leo's very protective of him.

The rest of the year was just as quiet and we saw in the new year with no hangovers, luckily, and lots of family gatherings.

We hope you will enjoy 2007 with us and don't be afraid to come a say hello to us at shows and events, we are always happy to meet new Leo fans as well as old ones. I have added a couple of new pictures to Ti & Rudi's pages and also some to the Wildlife at home taken recently in the garden during the frost that took everyone by surprise, I hope you like them. Until next month, take care.