Training on Crufts surface

Brax and Saturn have qualified for CRUFTS!

We all had so much fun training yesterday! Matthew and I took the shelties for a training session so that Brax could practice running on a surface similar to the Crufts surface. We met up there with Lian and Colin and three of their shelties, Sing (whose also going to Crufts), Saturn (Brax's pairs partner) and Sizzle (Brodie's relation). It was so a lovely day and it was so much fun to play around with different dogs and different courses. We all took turns running our dogs and had a swop around as well. Brax and Saturn were fab and it gave Matt and Lian a chance to practice handing over the baton.

Thanks to Lian for finding such a useful training venue and organising it as well as taking some amazing photos of Brodie strutting his stuff! It was interesting watching how the dogs adjusted to landing and turning after the jumps as all of them slipped a bit to begin with until they got sure of their footing. I'm very proud of my little Brodie as he ran for Matthew and Lian. Considering he has never ran for anyone else, he probably went faster for Lian than us, certainly in the weaves!! Cheeky boy -he loves his Auntie Lian!!

We got our letter from the Kennel Club this week to say that Brax and Saturn had qualified (in first place!) for the mini/mixi pairs. Its all very exciting!! Brax has been to Crufts before on a dog pass for a trade stand and the atmosphere doesn't bother her at all, as long as she doesn't realise that my Mum is watching her. She adores my Mum!

Snow finally gone!

At last the snow has finally thawed out and we are starting to get back to our normal routine. Its so nice to walk the dogs without doing the 'penguin walking on ice' impression! I actually rode Max today, just a plod round the block as he hasn't been ridden for a few weeks and he didn't put a foot wrong. He then got a full clip to prepare him for getting fit again. I don't think that he was very impressed but it was great being back in the saddle!

The next thing on the list is to get the dogs back training again as they haven't done much recently due to Christmas and all the snow. I think it does them good to have time off but now we are desperate to get back into shape! Matthew and I have been planning our shows and its very exciting looking at all the schedules. Before we do any KC shows we have Crufts to prepare for! Bracken will be totally unfazed by it knowing her. Its so great that my mum is coming down from Scotland to watch her, we'll just have to make sure that Brax doesn't see her while shes in the ring!

I know what I'll be doing at work for the next week-puppy cuddles!! My boss has just got the cutest Italian Spinone puppy called Aero as she is a brown roan with spots. We walked our two to work yesterday to meet her. Brax was not interested at all (typical!) but Aero thought Brodie was fair game for a play!

On a sad note, my hamster who we had managed to revive unfortunately has died. I'm not sure why as he was well fed and warm but he was getting quite old so it might have been old age. Its very sad especially after we had 'saved' him a couple of weeks ago. Jaffa, we'll miss you and all your antics.

Amazing back from the dead hamster!

Its been a WHOLE MONTH since I rode my pony because of the snow - ARRGHHHH!!! He on the other hand thinks its great as he thinks he is now retired and spends most of his time stuffing his face!! I couldn't get out to buy his normal bedding so he is bedded on straw at the moment and in Max's world that is even better, once he finishes his hay, he has an edible bed to eat!

I had a hairy (!) moment with my hamster Jaffa at the start of the week. Over the really cold spell he had gone into hibernation overnight and fortunately we realised that he was alive but very cold. My friend Nicola and I managed to revive him by holding him over a heater and Brodie thought he'd get in on the act and was terribly concerned about Jaffa. He made all sorts of strange Lassie type noises and was trying to lick Jaffa and nuzzle him! Anyway, my hammy is fine again but he did give us a fright!!

HAPPY 2010!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
I have been a bad blogger as I have not been at home since Christmas day. We had a lovely but busy time over Christmas and New Year working and staying at the kennels while my boss was away. Combined with looking after horses for various people I have been chasing my tail!

Unfortunately the weather has been so awful that I haven't ridden since mid December and agility training has been impossible due to snow and heavy frosts. We did make it out to have a little play on new years day, mainly using poles on the base of the wings. I have been trying to do some pole work with Brodie using leg wraps as well to make him more aware of what his legs are doing. Here is a pic of him modelling his wraps!

It was a good thing that they had a quick practice on Fri as their first show of the year was on saturday at Keysoe. Both dogs were superstars for Matthew and clocked up 6 clear rounds! Brax got 2 3rds in very competitive c5-7 classes and clever Brodie won his c3-4 jumping. Matthew drew a pic for me of the course and I was really pleased that Brodie had done so well as there was some quite complicated bits including the dreaded pull throughs!!

I haven't put a snow pic on the blog yet so here is one of the pups!