Easter and training

Well I can safely say that Brodie looked NOTHING like this after our training session yesterday!! Matt and I shared a lesson at Dan's with Caroline - sorry no videos as the weather was appalling. It was great to be training Brodie, it makes my day playing agility with him :-) It was also good for him to train on grass. Everywhere I normally would train him is indoor school or astroturf, which although lovely, flat and mud free doesn't prepare the dogs correctly for running on grass at the majority of shows. Brodie shared his lesson with Bobby (his lab x staff girlfriend) and they both worked really well - Dan gave me some great tips and we really enjoyed it. I do need to trust in my training more and I know I'm guilty of helping Brodie too much sometimes. Training is the place to try new stuff so now I have to be brave enough to try it in competition! I trust Brodie totally but do lack confidence in my ability to get my handling/timing right. Its so good to have a fresh perspective on things as there is always something new to learn in agility.

Brax stayed at home while we were training as she doesn't like doing anything in rain - even agility! We were going to do Easter UKA but because of the weather decided there was little point in wasting petrol money if she wouldn't enjoy it. Brodie and Brooke on the other hand love working whatever the weather whereas Brax is solar powered and likes at least 30 degree blazing sunshine!! Here is a video of her training last year, please turn the volume down as there is a 15 week old Brooke screaming in the background! In the video Brax is doing 2o/2o on the dog walk and 4 off on the A-frame but we are retraining her to running contacts as a project. She sometimes reverts still so its very true that what they learn first they learn best.

Anyway on to Miss Brooke. She was a superstar puppy in her lesson at Dan's! She shared with Caroline's younger dog (possibly sheltie cross) Ripley. I love this little dog - great drive and enthusiam so mediums better watch out cos he is FAST!! They had been in a puppy class together before and spent a bit of time barking at each other so it did them good to share a lesson. This time they were much more focussed and there was no barking at all. It was a great, session and Brooke and Ripley worked really well and there was lots of take away and work on. Brooke managed to string together seven obstacles (jumps and tunnels) and do some front crosses on 180's which she finds hard (herdy puppy!) Dan wanted to see them do a dog walk plank off a chair as well which made Matt and I panic initially as we hadn't bought the manners minder cos of the rain. We used a target instead and bingo - perfect running contact! Nice to know she remembered her criteria - clever girly.

I should stop waffling as I could go on about the shelties all day! The picture below is for my Mum. I originally started this blog for her as she lives in Aberdeenshire (where I grew up) and it meant she could keep up to date with our news. Anyway, I told her I was making Easter Nests and unfortunately they are all gone now but I thought I'd prove I did!! ;-) I didn't think they would travel to Meikle Wartle very well in the post so we thought we might have to eat them...