First show of the year!! AWC UKA

We have done our first show of the year and its nice to get back round the rings seeing everyone again! Before I get onto show news, the doglets have had a busy week. Brax and Brooke had their hair done by their Auntie Jenni-this is little Brax after her bath and tidy up. She looks so much better for a trim! I know its not the done thing with shelties but I asked Jenni to take her belly hair shorter (bits of it were on the ground!) and neaten up her ears and leg hair. I think she looks amazing-thanks Jenni!!

Brax getting special treatment at Matts Mums yesterday-she gets away with anything cos she is cute!

Brooke had a bath at Jennis as well and looks very shiny and smart too-its been nice weather this week so they have had lots of chill out time running round the field.

So we went to our first show of the year on Saturday which was extra exciting as a couple of fellow J9-ers were competing as well. I was very proud of Willow beagle, her first time in the ring and she worked beautifully, she could have won the Beginners Steeplechase but her Dad sensibly took the wrong line! Jenni and Rommy did some brilliant nfc contact work and came 2nd in his steeplechase :)

Our guys did really well too. Brax came 3rd in champ power and speed and it was nice as Matt could take his time making sure she got her contacts before blasting round the jumping section. Brax did a lovely nfc round in champ agility and so did Brooke. Unfortunately Brookes only competitive run (we only did two runs with each dog) was power and speed and a small child ran at the (netted luckily!) ring fence right next to the weaves so she came out to investigate. Dolly did some lovely contacts after being E'd at the start for going up the A frame instead of into the weaves and clever little spaniel won her steeplechase class! Brodie was a very excited boy and did a stonking run in the agility but got a refusal for hesitating before the tunnel (I was in the wrong place!) but still managed to win bless him! He also came 2nd in his steeplechase class so good, positive runs with all of them :D 

Sparkle came too and was a very well behaved girly round the rings, hardly any screaming at the dogs running and nice focus and toy play! I love this picture of her toy on her head-she is a wally!

Birthday girls!

Our two lovely sable girls had birthdays in the last week-Brooke turned 3 last Wednesday and little Bracken is 9 today!! Bracken is showing no signs of growing up at all and is still as fiesty and naughty as ever! We have a lot to thank that crazy little ginger for-she introduced us to the world of competitive agility and we have met so many friends through people coming up to talk to us about Bracken! She is definitely unique and we love her to bits!

I can't believe that Brooke bean and her brother Sonic turned three. She is so different to Bracken in so many ways-she is much more cuddly and 'sweet' at home but they are both crazy about agility and toys! Much less fiesty than Brax but just as gobby :D

Here is a video of Brax and Matt having a run round at the field-she doesn't act her age at all! 

Photo shoot!

We had a fun photo shoot for our sponsors Jamieson's yesterday. The sun was out and it was t-shirt weather so perfect conditions to get some really lovely pictures. I can't wait to see how the photos turn out and the dogs were superstars dong action shots over jumps and through the weaves. I was very impressed by Sparkle who did a couple of small jump sequences with Claire (the photographer) sitting on the ground and she didn't run over to see her at all. Gives me hope that she might not get too distracted in the ring!

This was my not very good attempt at an action shot!

Still shots of shelties are much easier!

The girls got to do a bit of training with Matthew as well so they were very happy. I think we are all ready for the show season to start now-bring it on!! I have managed to do some training with Dolly a couple of times this week. Her weaves are more reliable and her seesaw has sped up a lot so the little bit of winter training we have managed has paid off. Here is a pic of Dolly and her sister Dixie flying! Look at those happy spanner ears!!

Little Diva was enjoying the sun yesterday as well! 

I'm off to teach at the Dog Barn again tomorrow-Brooke is helping me work out which course to use! I did a couple of contacts workshops at my friend Helens on Saturday and it was good fun to teach some lovely dogs and handlers. Matt did one of my workshops with Brooke who enjoyed it lots but it showed up what we need to work on :)

After such a busy weekend all they wanted to do was sleep..zzzzz

Next weekend is possibly first show of the year-exciting!! Also Sparkle has just started her weave training so watch this space...

Crufts visit and some photos

On Friday I went to Crufts with Jenni and Rommy as their groom as they had qualified in the YKC Senior Jumping. We had such a great time and for first time at Crufts they did so well-Rommy coped with the atmosphere like a pro. He was just wanting to say hi to everyone while we were walking round but the moment he was in the ring he was so focused and worked really well. Unfortunately they had 5 faults on the weaves as they had duct taped them to the floor with half a roll of duct tape that was everywhere!! The big dogs could avoid it but most of the mediums came out of the weaves. You would expect better from a show like Crufts really!! Anyway, the rest of Rommy's run was lovely and I'm sure they will be back there next year :)

Our shelties haven't had quite such an exciting time! We went round to Matt's mums and being tennis mad, it started the inevitable ball wars with the youngest two! Its great as they amuse themselves very nicely at Granny's house! Here are a few random pics I took on my phone...

Aren't these two going to have the cutest babies?!

Throw the ball!!

Brooke won!

This photo was taken before me and Sparkle got seriously rained on! This sums up Sparkle perfectly!

Brodie and Brooke just back from a walk, posing as usual :)

Sparkle and Brax out this morning coming back from the (Dry!) fields

We went to the Dog Barn at the weekend and met up with Lian and Roz to do some training. It was great fun to set up an IFCS course and run it. The youngsters had a go on bits of it as well. Here is little Brax and Matt running it :)

Puppy squidging and dog walks

We went up to Lians on Saturday to see her puppies and do some agility work with Brooke bean with her Grandma around! We were blessed with a lovely sunny day and no wind! I took some puppy pictures on my phone but they didn't all come out that well-here is one of the cutest photos!

Lian does such a great job socialising her pups-its like a giant adventure playground in her lounge and as a result the pups are confident and play monsters! :)

Matthew ran his two girlies round over some courses while we were there and Lian took some pics-what amazing photos!! Thanks so much for these :) 

These are Brooke managing to concentrate with her Grandma Lian there-love the gobby picture!

Brax also got her pic taken, she looks so happy in this one!

And so typically Bracken in this one-naughty!! Hard to believe she is an old lady!!

On the Sunday I did some dog walk training with Sparkle and seesaw training with Brodie. Thanks to Helen I have the use of her low trestles for a couple of weeks so Sparkle can get used to a low dog walk. I am using Bonny Quicks method which I am loving as its about shaping the behaviour and Sparkle loves playing shaping games! Here is a video I put together of our whole 3rd session on the low dog walk, warts and all!