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I have updated my website except for the latest news (which generally can be found on my blog!) Click the link on the left to have a nosey...

Diva 1st Birthday and show news

Diva pony is now officially a yearling! She has grown into a very pretty young lady and has finally lost all of her winter coat and is looking very sleek! This is Diva with her big brother Rio.

At the moment she is about 13hh so still has a fair amount of growing to do - the guestimation is that she will be about 15hh which is a nice size :)

Max can't be left out so here are a couple of pics of my handsome boy :)

Onto agility! We went to the FAB Gloucester show at the weekend for the third IFCS qualifier. Unfortunately this time they decided to split the four classes over two days which seems a bit unfair on the day trippers like us so Brodie and Brax only did two runs each, jumping and gamblers. Brooke puppy did Agility, Jumping and Steeplechase. Brodie and Brax both did a fairly scrappy clear in the jumping (sorry haven't done video uploading yet!) but managed a place each. Brax won her class and Brodie was 3rd (only 0.3 seconds behind Brooke's brother Sonic - go the shelties!!) Matthew and I both failed miserably in the gamblers, the judges got in my way and I have to make half my course up as I ran which put me in the wrong place at the wrong time and both of ours failed the gamble so we need to practice sending them into tunnels!! Unfortunately since Axstane champ I have been doing loads of work pulling Brodie off tunnels so he didn't quite believe me when I wanted him to go miles away into one, lol!!

Brooke did a lovely run in the agility over a really tricky course (go round after weaves, straight tunnel under A frame, funny jump angles for a baby dog) and got eliminated on the second last jump. The judge clapped her elimination though as she was the only dog to get round that far! Her jumping run was a nice course but she came out of her weaves as Matthew was pushing it a bit on purpose but she did it beautifully second time. In the steeplechase she ran past a jump but I think it was because her bad Daddy gave her the wrong verbal command! Seeing as I haven't got round to putting the videos on YouTube yet, here is her Jumping run from Axstane last week

A weekend in the life of Sparkle :)

Hi my name is Sparkle and I'm 19 weeks old now. I thought I'd tell you about my weekend as I have been very busy! When my Mum goes to do the horses, she takes me to the park on the way so we can have a big play and do something she calls 'recalls' I like them cos it means I get sweeties and toys! We have been learning to do 'wait; which is a bit boring but I'm getting the idea - it means she takes more photos of me though! This is me practicing my sit wait :)

On Saturday morning we went to St Albans for a walk round the market and so that Mum could go to the bank. This is me and Dad in the bank. We left the shelties at home as they had a long walk and it is good for me to be brave by myself!

Dad went to get food shopping so Mum and I had fun playing and meeting people. Mum says my ears make me look like 'Yoda'. I don't know who Yoda is but I'm sure she is beautiful like me :)

We even had a sneaky practice playing ball somewhere busy - I have learnt to bring it back nicely now.

After all that I needed to go home and sleep!!

On Sunday we went out to a party!! I love parties, everyone gathers in one place with all their dogs so that can meet me!! I think the dogs play party games too which involves doing an assault course but Mum said I can't do the party games until I am a lot older. I like playing tuggy games and meeting people and their dogs - I even got to see my boyfriend Trek yesterday. He is three weeks older than me and very handsome!

This is me, Dad and Brodie waiting for Mum (click to make it bigger and you can see how cute I am!)

The show yesterday was nice, Mum was doing something called 'champ' with Brodie. She was very happy as he was clear in the jumping and really wild in the agility which meant he went in a tunnel that he shouldn't have. Oops, naughty Brodie! Mind you, I have been in a tunnel now and they are good fun :) The star of the show was Brooke though as Dad and her did something called C1-4 jumping and WON it! Mum said there were 157 dogs in that party game so she was a very clever Brooke. She is now Grade 4 whatever that means?

After going to parties I am really tired as it is sooooo exciting so I curl up on my fav sofa and have a nap. Maybe one day I'll grow into my ears...

Sheltie Camp and Bitz 'n' Chips shows

Sheltie camp was great fun as usual! We went last friday and took the equipment down to Surrey in a transit van which we then slept in for a couple of nights! The dogs were great considering they are not used to camping and it was Sparkles first night away from home.

I had found a cheap puppy pen that was invaluable for the dogs to be in while I was teaching - they enjoyed watching the action I think! We had some fantastic shelties and handlers who were really keen to learn and enthusiastic! We did different sessions throughout the day and had a little course at the end for everyone to have a go at. It was lovely seeing the partnerships grow in confidence over the weekend as many have never competed.

Sparkle is now 18 weeks old and is at the lanky teenageer stage! She is skinny and awkward at the moment and chewing like crazy as she is teething. She is still a little superstar though and LOVES learning new things!  I have booked her on to her first puppy workshop next month with Dave Munnings so that will be fun :)

Sparkle and Dolly asleep after a busy day walking round the rings!

Brodie and Brax had a great weekend at Bitz n Chips shows! Brax didn't compete as it was a KC show much to her disgust! Brooke managed to get a 1st in C1-3 jumping, 2nd in C1-3 Ag and 3rd in C1-7 Jumping (behind to G7 dogs!) Her and Matthew looked like a real partnership in the ring for the first time and it was a real joy to watch them :) I won't bore you all with videos but if anyone wants to look they are on my YouTube page. (The pic below was taken on saturday so Brooke doesn't have her 1st place rosette)

Brodie did me proud even though he was slightly WILD! He was crazy in the first agility but WON the C6-7 Agility! He was such a dude, love my boy! Sadly no vid of his winning run but there is a video from Sunday on an interesting course. He finished just out of the placings but I'm really pleased with his dog walk to weaves :) Also huge well done to Caroline and Bobby for winning the SuperDarl G1 final, Jenni and Rommy who came 2nd in G3 jumping and Helen and her gang who had numerous wins and placings!!

Here are a few pics from a sunny sheltie walk - love Brax's tail getting all bushy and Brodie looking so posh after his bath - thanks Jenni. Click on pics to make them bigger to laugh at Brax's tail!!

Where to start?!

Hmmmm seem to be behind in blogging again! On bank holiday weekend we went to the FAB show in Gloucester. Again it was a lovely set up, fenced rings, very laid back and good training for baby dogs. We had entered Brooke in Newbie agility and jumping and the two older ones were doing the IFCS qualifiers again. Brooke was a little star as she managed to run with her 'Grandma' Lian standing watching and only had one distracted moment (on a tunnel of all things!) and did lovely weaves, Af and DW.

Brodie had had a bad tummy on saturday and I almost didn't run him but I'm glad I did as he did well getting 3rd in Agility, 2nd in Jumping and Q (qualifying score) in Gamblers. You had to send them off into the weaves in gamblers and layer a jump - both Brax and Brodie managed this really well and it was weird that loads of the bigger dogs didn't manage the layer.

Brax was a total superstar and managed 3rd in agility, 1st in jumping and a Q in both snooker and gamblers. Her jumping run was awesome and all the videos can be seen on my YouTube channel. Jumping really is her thing - she thinks contacts are a waste of time!! It is entirely our fault as she is our first 'proper' agility dog and she was never trained how to do contacts consistently as a youngster. We have messed around with them waaaay too much and the old adage of 'what they learn first, they learn best' is very true in Brax's case! We have been training her to run her Aframe and stop on her dog walk and she is fabby in training but it all goes out of the window at shows. More NFC runs needed I think!!

Brax's dw walk in training this week - trying to muddle up rewarding and fast releases. The video is a fast release and her position is perfect :)



Brooke has been doing a lot of stopping on her dog walk recently and after a minor blip of forgetting how to run, she hasn't muddled them up again!