Let me introduce Tresca who has an amazing story which highlights the importance of having dogs microchipped!! Three and a half years ago my Mum and sister Amy adopted her from a rescue shelter in Aberdeen (they live in Aberdeenshire!) and although she was nervous she settled well in the following month.

Unfortunately one day in Feb 2006 she bolted and despite hours of searching, radio alerts, posters and knocking on doors she disappeared. Around that time I travelled north to have my wedding dress fitted and the countryside where she escaped was hit by very bad weather. We checked sheds and woods but no sign of Tresca. Anyway, eventually you expect the worst has happened so imagine Mum and Amys surprise when the local dog warden turned up with her a couple of weeks ago!!! It it was the microchip that reunited them. If only she could talk, I bet she has a few stories to tell!

I'm looking forward to meeting her as she looks lovely!! Sometimes I wish I didn't live the other end of the country as i'd love to be on hand to help with overcoming some of Tresca's worries. She is a bit wary of noises and traffic but all credit to Amy and Mum for quietly working with her to increase her confidence.

I thought I'd pop on a quick video of Matthew running Brodie at JDA this week. Now Brods is a grade 3, Matt has entered some jumping classes with him on saturdays while I'm working. As my legs were sore last week I thought Matt could have a wee practise!!

The woofs had a good weekend at the Agility Club show-Brodie came 2nd in the Starters Challenge Finals!! I'm so excited I haven't stopped grinning yet :-) I was worried that the atmosphere would affect Brodie (and me!) as he can get easily spooked by things round the ring but he did me proud although as Matthew said he did corner like an artic lorry!!

Brax however decided that the starters challenge was actually a 'take your own line' class and got eliminated despite Matthews best efforts to stop her being too wayward! We think she does better competing on Sundays as shes calmed down a bit by then! Brax didn't get any placing on the saturday but managed three on the sunday to make up for it. She got an excellent 10th in the KC 1-7, a 3rd in C3-5 agility and 5th in a very competitive C4-6 jumping.

Talking about Brodie getting easily spooked, our first run on sunday was in the C1-2 agility and unfortunately the dog walk was the third obstacle and the judge ran alongside it very close to Brodie and he lost the plot slightly!! Its something we have never come across before and for the rest of the course he kept stopping and looking at her so it was a bit of a disaster. We went straight into the c1-3 jumping which was a nice straightforward course and I mucked that one up by not giving him room for his weave entry. His best run of the day was in the KC 1-7 where we got 5 faults but he went like a rocket round most of it and just went past the second last jump
(again my fault!) ironically he did all the tricky bits quite well though!! I'm so proud of him though as its too easy to forget that hes still a bit of a baby. Next week is our first run as grade 3 and we are doing four classes so at least we get plenty of practise!!

No agility this weekend as we were at a wedding! It was a beautiful day and Matthew had been asked by Andrew and Jane to be best man, a duty that he carried out very well. It was funny to be going out somewhere without the dogs but it was great to catch up with lots of old friends from school and uni.

Unfortunately I appear to be a bit sore after some enthusiastic ceilidh dancing so I'm hoping that with enough paracetamol and deep heat that my calf muscles will be up to doing the starters challenge at the weekend!!

We had a fun day yesterday at Billingshurst show. I think its a lovely show and the atmosphere is so friendly and relaxed. Plus it was lovely to catch up with Lian, Lynne and Indira and watch their shelties in action.

Brodie was on form and I'm so proud of him as he got three clears rounds! He got third in the agility club starters challenge qualifier for next year and the lady that came second wasn't a member so we have qualified for the 2010 final!! It takes the pressure off a bit for this years final :-)

He also got 6th over a very tricky jumping course (C1-4) despite me getting in his way. Brodies final class was C1-4 agility and he came third out of 70 + dogs. He worked really well all day and didn't seem to tire for the third class too much as sometimes I forget hes so young.

Brax did an amazing jumping round (C5-7) to get 2nd place and also got 4th in a very fast
(C3-5) agility course with no weaves! Matthew took Brax to Rugby on Saturday and got a 2nd in jumping and a first in jumping that wasn't presented to them!! Long story but somehow they had missed Brax's time out of the scoresheets and had done the presentations. Matt queried the results as there was only 19 that ran and they placed to 10th! He thought it was a bit strange that she had gone clear and not been placed. Anyway, it turns out that they were first but they didn't want to call everyone back to shuffle rosettes around so Matt is going to get a trophy in the post!

We went to Wellingborough Agility show yesterday although Matthew was so tired from moving office on saturday and I was shattered after work so we almost wimped out and stayed at home!

Probably a good thing did make the effort as Brodie WON INTO GRADE 3!! Its very exciting but also a bit scary as he hasn't even been competing for four months yet. He is getting more consistent generally and with more confidence he is getting faster. It was a graded agility (1-3) class yesterday with 58 dogs across the 3 grades and he was the fastest overall. Brodie now also has enough points to become Chandling Ebony Charge AW(B), yay go Mr Toad!!

Brax did well getting a 3rd in G4-7 agility and so narrowly missed winning the jumping as she did a fast tight round over a very twisty course and had the last pole down on the run home. It was such a shame as it was a beautiful round otherwise. Her and Matt just got into a race for the last jump! She wasn't quite firing on all cylinders for the small helter skelter and neither was Brodie for his jumping but it was getting hot by then so we'll let them off!

My sister Amy made me this beautiful bridle for my birthday - she is so talented and Max look so handsome in it! We now need to find a party that we can show it off at!

Last friday, some of my friends and I went to Whipsnade Zoo for 'Zoo nights' where you can wander round until 10pm. It was great fun as I have never been to Whipsnade and it was brilliant to get so close to some of the animals! Defeinitely want to go back and see some of the things we missed and its only about 15 mins to get there. I'll pencil it in for when my Mum next visits!! The lemurs and meerkats were hilarious and we got so close to the elephants and giraffes. I think the Meerkat had heard enough of the 'compare the meerkat' jokes though!!