March in Review!

Wow, what a month March is turning out to be!
Rather than bombard you all with numerous shorter posts I thought i'd write one big one to summarise everything that we've been up to!

On the 8th March we headed up to Coventry via train with Sev ready for Hound day at Crufts on the 9th, as mentioned in my previous post it was our first Crufts together so I was super nervous (and excited actually!) Sev as always was an absolute star and placed 2nd out of 9 in a really strong Yearling Dog class under a very well know judge - I was (and still am) ecstatic and so, so proud of my little boy! This has qualified us ready for Crufts 2018! (apologies for the photo quality of some of the photos - a friend took them on her phone for me!)

After we were done in the show ring I took Sev for a wander around and met lots of our favourite brands; Naturo, Mabel & Mu, Dapper Pets, Dependable Pets along with lots of our blogger friends; Alfie Bear (Emma and the dapper Alfie), Spaniel Life (Steph and the gorgeous Sevvy and Lily) and Amelia's World (Eva and her gorgeous cavi, Amelia), as i'd travelled up by train I had a suitcase with me so didn't do much shopping but I was lucky enough to be back at Crufts for Saturday and Sunday!

(the first photo was taken by Emma of Alfie Bear)
I spent Saturday with Emma and Alfie (Alfie Bear) and Emily (Adventures of Doodles) and Laura (SillyTillyPoodle) and the adorable Rhapsody and Colin (who are far cuter in person - if thats even possible!) I did far too much shopping on Saturday but there will be separate blog posts for that! Isla competed on Saturday winning 3rd out of 6 in the Post Graduate.
I spent Sunday chilling out around the St Bernard breed ring watching Ava and her siblings compete which was lovely - sadly no placing for her but it was a very big class.

To top off what was an already brilliant weekend Monster Pet Supplies contacted me earlier in February and asked if i'd be interested in being their featured blogger for March - I said yes straight away! It was so hard to keep it quiet until it went live last week! If you'd like to read the interview I wrote for them please click here :-) Monster is one of my favourite online pet shops they sell everything that you could possibly need!

The various Crufts shopping posts will follow, as needless to say I bought far too much!
Thank you for reading!
Jaime, Lily & Sev xo

Our Crufts Adventure!

I've been to Crufts many times both with and without show dogs, what makes 2017 special is that it's mine and Sev's first time on that infamous green carpet!
Severus qualified for Crufts last May at Bath aged 12 months, and every time we've entered a Championship Show since he's managed to do the same! 2016 was a very successful year for Sev in the showring he's consistently done well and i'm so ridiculously excited for Crufts! (and very nervous!!)

The photos above were taken at Bath :-)
The photo below was taken of Sev in August at a show, slightly different to his usual photos!

I asked on twitter if anyone would be interested in a behind the scenes type post about Cruft and lots of people said that they did so here we go!

For us the Crufts prep starts weeks in advance, I'm a big fan of supplements to make sure he's looking the best that he possibly can, our ultimate staple is the Dorwest's  Omega Star, Sev has been on this since May and it really is brilliant, he coat looks shiny and feels so soft! I'm sure it makes his coat easier to maintain whilst he's been having this too!

For a normal show I do most of Sev's grooming myself as he's pretty easy to sort out (the main two areas are making sure his nails are short and that his feet are trimmed neatly) but this year i'm cheating! Sev is booked into our favourite dog groomers to have his feet trimmed, nails cut and teeth descaled - he will be competing against the best so needs to look his best!

As we will be going up the day before so he's booked into the groomers at 11, he will go home and be straight into the bath!
I have a failsafe bathing routine using three of my favourite products; firstly I wash him with a Biogance Long Coat shampoo, this isn't my favourite scent wise but it really does work! I always shampoo Sev twice, the second shampoo I use more for the nice scent which is the John Paul Pet "Awapoochi" Shampoo, this smells incredible and makes Sev smell divine!
And finally I use a conditioner just because it makes drying his coat easier and helps with getting it to sit correctly - no sticky up skirts at Crufts thank you! I use the John Paul Pets Awapoochi conditioner, another favourite!

Sev went to a championship show on Saturday and due to me putting him in the wrong class didn't place but preformed beautifully so fingers crossed he will do well at Crufts as he's in the right class this time!
Myself and Sev will be at Crufts on Thursday (9th) and I will also be there on Saturday with Isla (11th). Super excited to see everyone and hopefully finally get round to meeting some of our blogger friends! If you see us, please feel free to say hello! :-)

Thank you for reading, hopefully see you there!
Jaime & Sev (and Lily who'll be staying at home!) xo