Brooke redeems herself!!

Brooke has redeemed herself after being very teenage and getting up to mischief! She is just so adorable and cute that even when she is taking the lid of the food bin its hard not to laugh at her!! After the brain blowing excitement of class on tuesday we decided that another 1-1 with Dan was required to get her to focus in a less intense environment. She was still distracted (sure she is brewing a season as she is being a dreadful tart!) but got her working head on and did some lovely bits. Being a horse rider its a bit like judging how much warm up each horse needs before competing - too little and the session is not productive, too much and their wee brains are fried!! Brodie and Brax are good examples - Brodie needs very little walking/mental work before doing agility training as he gets mentally tired quite quickly. Brax on the other hand needs a fair amount or she is crazy! I think before class for Brooke I need to do some attention and focus work as well as having free running during the day!

Anyway, I'm off on a tangent! Brooke did a bit of her 'herdy' behaviour but coped well with doing staircases, stars and a line of three jumps to a tunnel. Here is a video of her in action - bless her :) Blink and you may miss it!!

Teenage Brooke!

Our little princess is being a bit of a teenager at the moment! Nothing really naughty but just pushing the boundaries with Bracken in particular and seeing what she can get away with (like knocking the lid of the food bin when no one is looking and helping herself!!) She was a pickle at school on tuesday as well - very excited about her toy to the point that her brain stopped working! I probably hadn't helped as I'd had a manic day and they hadn't had as much free running as normal. Also Brooke and I met Matthew there as he had driven straight from work so that was SO exciting for her before she even started class!!

She was excellent at running in straight lines but was very 'herdy' doing an exercise with two sets of wings (no jumps) at 180 degrees. She just kept running round the edge!! I think a lot of it is that she is totally unlike the other two and likes to work further away and we have also done a lot of straight line 'go on' stuff with her. My first sheltie was also very herdy and would constantly circle us on family walks - Brodie and Brax just aren't like that at all. Brooke however is like a mini collie on walks (rounding us up, stalking the others, lying down and then racing off) and seems to handle like one in agility which is something new for us!! She has the speed but now we need to control :)

Tired puppy after class!

Brooke is 10 months old!

Happy 10 month birthday to Brooke and her handsome brother Sonic - wow they seem so grown up now! She is a real madam, cheeky and bouncy and gets away with murder with the other two by being faster than them and sneaky - just as I'm typing this she has dive bombed Brodie while he was looking away and pinched his bone, poor boy!

Festive Training!

We spent New Year in Wales with my Auntie and her family including my cousin. We had such a nice time and it was so lovely to catch up with them! The dogs were spoilt and really enjoyed the walks despite the infamous Welsh rain :) Thanks to my Auntie for having us to stay and cooking soooo many yummy things!

Between Christmas and New Year we managed to squeeze in a bit of training with all three dogs. Brodie hadn't done anything in four months so he was only doing Brooke height jumps and tunnels and a couple of dog walks. He was very keen!! He ran well but still isn't extending his stride as confidently as I know he can. Brodie is shorter in length than Brooke but we were amazed to see that she takes one stride on some of the grids where Brodie takes two. Considering she is def 'small' height at the moment (and hasn't grown for weeks) she has an amazing stride and amount of power, controlling it is the challenge!!

Brodie doing jumps and tunnels

Brodie first time on dog walk in four months - he gets the contact nicely but we need to work on his forward focus a bit. I could tell he was a bit hesitant, bless him!

Little Brax had a go at some running contacts and her re-training from a 2o/2o is coming along nicely. Here is a video on low dog walk.

Brooke was brilliant putting jumps and tunnels together, bearing in mind that we only have been training her on equipment about once a month. It really keeps her fresh and raring to go though :) This is her second time on 'jumps' and although she almost trips over the second one, she is figuring it out!

Brookes first time on low dog walk.

Thanks to my fab Mum who stood in the cold and took all the videos of the dogs - love you!

Brooke is starting class again tomorrow night which is great as it is the next one on from her pre-agility puppy class. Lots of handling which she is ready for without the 'big' equiment. She loves to learn and is such a bouncy, sweet girly :)

We are both back to work and busy again. I have to say a big well done to my clever class that I taught yesterday. I missed working with them for the past couple of weeks and it was so nice to teach them yesterday - all the dogs worked so well! This season is looking promising for the competition group!!

Christmas 2011

We have had a lovely busy Christmas and so much going on that I will do a separate New Year post! I thought I'd be quieter running up to Christmas but I was as busy as ever and work carried on between Christmas and New Year. I have such lovely clients and am so lucky to be doing what I do!

Matthew was off work for a couple of weeks which made me and the shelties very happy! We spent Christmas and Boxing day at his Mums and had a lovely time. One of my friends gave the shelties some fun Christmas fancy dress items - here is Brodie in his beard!

Here is Brooke with her new toy from Matthews Mum on Christmas Day

My Mum flew down to see us on Boxing day - yay!! Brooke definitely remembered her and Brax was delighted to have her fav person to snuggle up on the sofa with :)

We did manage to squeeze in a bit of training with all three dogs between Christmas and New Year. Running contacts for Brax, baby stuff for Brooke and Brodies first run for four months. More in next post...