Brooke 9 months and Merry Christmas!!

Brooke and her handsome brother Sonic are now 9 months old! She is such a happy, bouncy beautiful young lady and we are so lucky to have her. She has had a very exciting week as we have a lovely Lab called Alfie staying with us which Brooke has found soooo exciting! We haven't done much with her agility wise recently apart from teaching her to go round the coffee table from a distance!

Matthew was poorly last friday so his shelties thought that they would make him feel better! Its funny how dogs have a sixth sense about it. Brodie had been out with me helping Mr Mitch the greyhound get used to other dogs - Mitch coped really well considering Mitch was worried by Brodie last time they met. It was lovely to see them walk so well together :)

Brooke had a 1-1 agility session today with Dan Shaw and LOVED every minute! She did her first ever jumps (only 4" high!), tunnels and bendy grids amongst other things. The half hour was plenty but she worked so well through the whole session considering she was in a new environment. I meant to take videos but was too busy watching!

I have to say a massive WELL DONE to Lian with Brodie's brother Sizzle who have been picked to represent England at the World Agility Open Champs next year (the one Brax did this year) and also to Jackie Scott with her lovely Cocker Mr George who won Grade 5 agility recently - go George!!

Lastly I'd love to wish all my friends and their lovely dogs a very Merry Christmas and great 2012!

Feeling Christmassy!!

After feeling not at all Christmassy I have got into the Christmas spirit a bit more this week. Decorations are up, cards are sent, some pressi's wrapped and I've had some lovely evenings out with great friends and family. My Mother In Law had booked tickets to see the Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House, something I have never seen and always wanted to!

Well it was brilliant! Beautiful to watch and amazing music, such a treat! I'm so lucky to have a lovely Mum in Law who appreciates culture more than her son does! ;)

At St Pancras station they had built a Christmas tree out of Lego!

The dogs have had a busy week - Brooke met a sable boy sheltie called Alfie yesterday on the common and after being a bit hesitant she ran around with him for ages. Her new trick that Matthew has been working on it getting an instant 'down' at a distance, something that she enjoys doing, even in mud! It nice that she seems a bit less of a princess than Brax who won't do anything in bad weather!

Brodie is still getting better - he has been off his lead when its just him and Brax as she is kind to him! I leave him on if Brooke is off so they don't whack into each other :) Here he is looking handsome in the winter sun, my wee sweetie!

Agility withdrawal...

I have been missing doing agility a lot, especially as Brodie and I should have been at the UKA National Finals. The good news is that he is seeming better and can do his stretching exercises much easier now so we are on track to get back doing some agility in the new year. I was missing agility so much that I ran Brax at training last week (rare as she is Matthews dog) and I have the bruises to show for it!! She was soooo excited that she nipped me a couple of times after runs, cheeky girl! I didn't mind as she ran beautifully (that and Matt has always let her do it, grr!!) and we had so much fun :) Usually in winter she runs like a snail but this year she is much brighter - I think that being out walking a lot more during the day and not shut in a cold, dark staff room may have something to do with it!

Brooke pups is now 8.5 months old and is gorgeous and crazy! Love her to bits!! She is turning into a snuggle monster and loves laps. The two sable girlies are very similar in a lot of ways and have started playing much more. They are both unusual as well in that they hardly have any white hairs on the tip of their tail. In fact, both of them have black tips to their tail. Brookes coat is getting darker in places but its hard to get a good pic of it!

The two older dogs went to Rommy's house for a get together and watched him do the weaves in his garden which he did beautifully! Brax had a go as well but Brodie had to content himself with watering the garden! I love the pic above as it has all three common sheltie colours and they all look so sweet! :)