Northern Schnauzer Club Championship Show

Hallo friends - it's been over a week now since I last blogged and that's because my peeps have been very busy. First they were getting things ready for the Northern Schnauzer Club show last weekend where they had a stall selling schnauzer goods and cards.....and then they've been trying to sort out all the boxes of schnauzer goodies they brought back home with them! As you can see from the photo above, me and Trilby have been catching up on our beauty sleep when we can find a sunny spot on the best bed :-)

This is one of the fun schnauzer items Judith & Leigh were selling in their little schnauzer club shop. They said they would like to buy all the things there but they have run out of money :-(

This is the picture of 2 minis and a frog on a set of place-mats.

and this is a cute pen pot or toothbrush mug!

They also have lots of lovely schnauzery Christmas cards and a special calendar for 2013 with pictures of schnauzers for every month. And guess what - my Trilby and Malfi are the August schnauzers :-)

Anyway a good day was had by us all - even Crybbe and Aoife went along to support the schnauzers and Trilby strutted her stuff in the ring and came away with a green rosette and card for Reserve. She was 4th out of eleven dogs so my peeps were very happy she had done so well. 

The Eye Test

This is where I have been today :-( - yes my bloggy friends the V-E-T!

The good news is though that I am not ill - but I have to have an eye test every year to make sure that I haven't got any of the eye problems that some poor mini schnauzers suffer with. It is sadly true that many mini schnauzers who are not loved and cared for are used to breed puppies in barns and sheds and they are never eye tested so if they have problems they pass these on to their babies too. Here I am waiting to be seen by the specialist eye vet:

Before I saw the vet I had to have my microchip scanned to make sure I was the Magic my peeps said I was.

You can see I was eager to know that everything was OK there!

Then when they knew it was me, I had to have drops put in both eyes:

Then we had to wait for half an hour for the drops to make my eyes ready for the eye test.

The vet was very friendly and he had lots of strange equipment and bright lights to shine in my eyes. It was too dark to take any photos in the vet's room but I can tell you that I officially am not affected by hereditary cataracts, congenital hereditary cataracts or progressive retinal atrophy - phew just as well Leigh was typing that :-) I had my Kennel Club papers stamped and signed by the vet to make it official and we got copies of my results to take home. Then it was back to the car for the journey home. It was quite a long way as we couldn't go to our regular vet. The tests have to be done by an eye specialist vet so we had to travel 35 miles to our nearest one - just as well it's only once a year :-)

Trilby gains her Good Citizen Award

This post is just a little celebration of my girl Trilby who gained her Bronze Good Citizen Award last weekend. She has wanted me to tell you about it all week :-) Here she is just checking the rosette is fixed right.

Yes Trilby I will tell everyone what you had to do. The test was held in the town of Harrogate which is a bit of a drive from where we live. There were quite a few dogs taking the test on the day and they didn't all get through :-( . For the test Trilby had to show that she can walk and behave properly when on lead, including walking through doorways and walking around other people and dogs, that she can stay in one position for 1 whole minute when asked to do so (very hard for Trilby!), that she can wait patiently while her handler is having a conversation and allow herself to be groomed and inspected calmly; that she will come when called. She had to wear a collar with identification tag and be on lead and Judith had to make sure she carried a supply of poop bags and knew the answers to the examiner's questions too. The full details are on the Kennel Club website if you are interested just click this link.

One last photo Trilby - I've got this award already too you know..but maybe not at only 7 months old :-) We are all proud of you baby!

Halloween Hats

HAPPY HALLOWEEN  to all bloggy friends! This is the pumpkin Judith carved for us with a scary schnauzer face :-) We were quite happy for a while as we saw treats of all kinds being put in a strange green bucket but then.......OMD hats appeared!!

You can see from our expressions what we thought of them!
Me absolutely shocked!

Trilby - sadness personified.

Aoife - you wait till I get this silly hat off!

Only Crybbe was lucky enough to get away without the hat humiliation:

But while all the sad posing was going on I saw an opportunity to raid that treat bucket:

I don't see why the little peeps who knock on the door should have them all.

Wishing all bloggy friends a happy (and not too scary) Halloween - and hope that all those in the path of Hurricane Sandy stay safe and well!

A Little History of the Schnauzer

Today I  thought I would tell you a bit about schnauzers as most people know about mini schnauzers or have at least seen one but not so many know there are actually 3 sizes of schnauzer: giant, standard and miniature.

Schnauzer type dogs go back to the Middle Ages but it was in the 19th century that the 3 distinct breeds of schnauzer were really developed.The original schnauzer was a German breed that was used to work with people driving cattle to market, with night watchmen patrolling the streets in the past and also to keep down vermin in homes, farms and yards. There is a statue in Stuttgart erected in 1620 of The Night Watchman with his Dog which is believed to be an early type of schnauzer. The dog is quite sturdy and would have been a bit like the middle size of schnauzer today which in the UK is just known as a 'schnauzer' but in the USA is called the 'standard schnauzer'. At shows, the standard and the miniature schnauzer in the UK are shown in the 'Utility' group which is for dogs who had a function or did a job of work in the past but now are not really used for that any more. In the USA the miniature schnauzer is in the Terrier group for showing.

This is a picture of a 'standard' schnauzer nowadays - as you can see they are much bigger and heavier than us minis! They weigh between 35-50lbs (16-23 kg) and are up to 20" in height. Most standard schnauzers are a pepper and salt colour.

The schnauzer was loved as a faithful companion in the past and peeps thought it would be useful if they could have even bigger stronger schnauzers to do guarding work and other jobs like that...and if they could have smaller friendly little schnauzers who would be happy to be companions for people who wanted a pet and who lived in apartments or small houses and did not have room or need of a big dog.

The giant schnauzer is a very big dog weighing 70lbs - 100lbs ( 32-45 kg) and standing up to 27.5" (70cm) . It is thought the black Great Dane or the Bouvier de Flandres dog may have been used to create the Giant Schnauzer and they are shown in the Working Dog group at dog shows and have been used as a herding dog in Bavaria and by the army and the police in several countries for guarding and protection work. The giant schnauzer is most commonly all black:

This is a giant schnauzer at the Fun Day the schnauzer club held last year - you can see how big he is next to our Aoife and the little white mini at the back.

It is believed that the miniature schnauzer was bred down to a smaller size using small dogs such as the affenpinscher. No wonder Crybbe and Aoife think they are so important :-) Miniature schnauzers can be seen in many colours but here in the UK the only recognised colours from the Kennel Club are pepper & salt (like me!) black; black and silver (like my boys Otto & Malfi) and just recently white has also been accepted. 

Malfi - one of my black & silver pups.

An interesting fact about our breed is that the name 'schnauzer' comes from a dog called Schnauzer who won the wire haired pinscher class at an international dog show in Hanover in 1879. Schnauz is German for muzzle (snout) and he got his name because of his lovely bearded muzzle! Some years later the schnauzer breed was born when the pinscher dogs were divided into two breeds - the smooth coated keeping the pinscher name and the rough-coated becoming Schnauzers! There are not thought to be any other breeds who are named after an actual dog :-) I hope you have enjoyed this little history of the schnauzer.

Magic's News Report about Pet Insurance

This is me in our garden enjoying some sunshine with Trilby and telling her about some news we have just heard. It's probably most interesting for families like ours with more than one dog or cat as it's to do with Pet Insurance. We hate to think about visits to the vet I know but sometimes we need to go and it can cost a lot of money when our peeps want to get us all the best treatment but it's very expensive.

Some of my bloggy friends may remember my brother Kaska who had spinal trauma and had to have lots of scans and X rays and physiotherapy and then got his wheels to help him walk. Judith & Leigh did everything they could to help him manage for as long as possible but some families might not have been able to do so much if they had not had insurance to help with the bills. There are lots of companies who can offer insurance but if you have many dogs and cats it can be very expensive just paying the insurance! Now here in the UK there is a company that is trying to help peeps who are looking for insurance for many pets to find the best deal they can.

 Even Crybbe is looking interested now :-)

This is the first time that peeps in the UK can compare insurance deals for up to 5 pets in one go and get a discount for insuring several pets at the same time on just one site. Instead of having to go to every company and check them out one by one peeps can go online to this website and check out the companies to find the best one for them. If your peeps are interested tell them to click on the link to take a look at this website for all the details:
confused.com

Phew - hope I got all that report across OK. They tell me that things are hard here in the UK just now to do with peeps not having a lot of money and bills getting harder and harder to pay. I don't understand much about that but I do know that anything that might help pay the vet bills sounds like a good idea. I think I need a lie-down and a snooze now :-) Back soon with more adventures!

Our Friends in the North

As well as going to see Northumberlandia last weekend we also called in to see some friends in Newcastle. Judith & Leigh have known the peeps for many years as they all took their mini schnauzers to the same training class - the one my boy Malfi has been going to :-) Anyway we called in to see them and have an explore of the garden and meet their 2 mini schnauzers Jana and Katja.

This is Jana - I don't think she looks too sure about us all invading her garden.

and here is her younger 'sister' Katja.

Here I am furtling among the plants.

Jana and Katja were very welcoming but Aoife got a bit anxious and started woofing so she went to rest in the car where she felt safe and we all carried on exploring until it was time for tea. Here are some more photos of these two lovely girls:

Thank you for letting us visit and hope to see you again :-)