We have had a lovely lazy weekend even if it was a little bit wet! The dogs had some very soggy walks and I seem to be doing a lot of washing at the moment as my work clothes get soooo muddy. I decided it was time to get their coats out as Brax feels the cold and both of them take so long to dry out when they are wet. Here is a pic of Brax looking smug in her coat!

A big well done to Jane Emmett and her dog Millie who won the Starters Cup at Discover Dogs on saturday!! Wow what an achievement and having watched her run on you tube Millie didn't seem fazed by the atmosphere at all. Also well done to Sam Lane and her lovely cocker spaniel who won the medium starters cup on his 2nd birthday! I wish I could have been there to watch but I was at work getting wet and muddy again!

I did a really fun Trec competition yesterday with Max and my friend Kate on her horse Speedi (who also happens to be Max's girlfriend!) Its basically an obstacle course with points awarded or penalties deducted for how you tackle each obstacle. The lovely thing is it is soooo relaxed, nobody gets dressed up for it and every shape and size of horse can have a go. Some of the obstacles include a narrow corridor of poles to ride through (without touching the poles), going under simulated low tree branches, riding over a bridge, going over a ditch, bending in and out and immobility. There is also a control of paces section where you have to canter as slowly as possible and walk back as fast as possible. Max absolutely loved going out with Speedi and they got a 5th in their pairs (mainly because Speedi can canter beautifully slowly!!) and Max and I got 5th in the indivdual competition. Wow didn't expect that!! He was a superstar though as nothing fazes him (apart from the scary people in the hedge outside the school!)

Here is the pair of them sharing hay-it has to be said that Max doesn't normally share ANY food!! The other picture was after they had finished and they look shattered!!

Bracken can fall asleep anywhere. She sat on Nicola's lap at breaktime and dozed off-crazy dog! She fell asleep on Matthew last night and just look at the grin on her face! They competed at Barking Mad agility at Keysoe and she did very well getting a 2nd in jumping and a 3rd in power and speed. Brodie got a clear but as usual was out of the placings!
We have been practising hold it with different objects and one of the hardest so far has been a rawhide chew! I did manage to get them to hold it for long enough to take a picture!

We have had lots of gorgeous puppies to play with at work recently! The handsome young Springer puppy is Sykes who belongs to my friend Eve. This was the first time he met Bracken and decided to stay right next to Eve! His 'big brother' Flint has qualified for Crufts in the breed ring again and I'm sure Sykes will do very well once he's old enough to go to parties!!

The Bull Terrier puppy was staying in the kennels and we decided to have her visit us in the staff room for some lunchtime cuddles!

I had a lovely walk this morning on Harpenden common with Brodie (Brax is staying with Matthew at home today as I think its great for them to spend time with us on a 1-1 basis.) It was so misty when we got out of the car that I had to put Brodies high-viz gear on! I took a pic of him wearing it as he looks soooo cute (and a bit funny!!)

I was practising the 'hold' command with the dogs yesterday at work just in case we feel brave enough to do some obedience! They were so good and remembered what to do.

On saturday, Matthew took the dogs to Shrewsbury for a KC small/medium show.

They had fun by the sounds of it despite the appalling weather! Brax got a 3rd in the pairs with Lians fantastic young dog Sizzle, she also got a 2nd in the graded agility, 4th in the combined agility and WON the grade 6 jumping. Now she only needs one more win to be Grade 7! Matthew drew me some of the courses and they looked challenging but fun.

Matthew also ran Brodie in the G1-3 jumping and the C1-3 jumping. He came 3rd in the combined class which again wasn't straightforward. Brodie was one out of the places in the graded class so thats now the 18th time that has happened this year! I was really pleased with 2 clear rounds though and that Brodie is running so well for Matthew.

Today (sunday) we had the annual sheltie society agility training day and this year it was with Natasha Wise (new World Champion!!) I was a bit dubious to begin with as I'd been put in the more advanced class but I quickly felt at ease as Natasha is really helpful and encouraging.

The first exercise we were working on was getting tighter turns round wings. This is a bit of a problem for me and Brodie and he demostrated his wide turns by going off up the dog walk (miles away!!) We repeated the exercise and as I improved my handling his turns got much better. My lack of coordination became apparent - Natasha was very patient luckily!! Matthew and Brax were superstars at tight turns and Matthew got some good tips to improve her turns even more.

I was really proud of Brodie on the next exercise as we worked on push throughs and I was brave enough to work the A-frame from a distance which paid off. Natasha liked the consistency of his running contacts although we did find he was a bit 'sticky' on the see-saw so I've got a few tips to improve his speed over it. Brodie's push throughs were ok but again my handling needs some work. Luckily one of my trainers, Lisa with her super fast sheltie Tyler was also at the training day so we can practise some of the sequences again!

One of the things that was a real weakness for me was (as usual!!) pull throughs. I need to be giving him an 'in' command much quicker once Brodie is committed to the jump and make sure I'm in the right place!! As we will be getting more pull throughs in shows I know this is something I need to work on without slowing Brodie down too much.

Brax was fantastic at most of the exercises but contacts again were her major issue! Natasha said she felt that contacts had become tense for both Matthew and Brax as he gets worried and shouts touch and she isn't sure about what he exactly wants. More work needed over winter!! Here is a little video of Brax getting her dog walk contact. Sorry about the quality of the videos as they are on my phone!




All the shelties had so much fun and it was so nice to catch up with all our sheltie friends! Here is a picture of Brodie trying hard to impress Genie (who is actually his half sister) but she only had eyes for Lisa's Tyler-there was some serious flirting going on and Brodie does look a bit put out!! I have also added a pic of Tyler looking very chilled out at lunchtime.

Wow what a busy couple of days Brodie and Brax have had!!

On friday Brax wasn't so busy as she was at home being spoilt by Matthew as he was working from home! Brodie had more fun though! My friend and work mate Megan brought her super terrier Hattie up to work to have a run round as she has had time off with a cut paw pad. I got to have a go running her and she such a cool dog as she works so well for anyone, she just gets on with it and knows exactly what to do. Here is a video of me having a run round with Hattie.






Then I had a run round with Brodie and he loved it but had a refusal after the A-frame as I forgot to say 'go' and then he got distracted. Good dog, shame about the handler..! I was really pleased though as he did go off like a rocket! Here is a video of Brodie having a race round. Hattie makes an appearance at the end of the video as she had realised by then that I had sausage in my pocket!