A day in the life of little diddly Brax

My name is Bracken and I am the most important of all the Burdett doglets. I am the oldest and boss the others around! This picture wasn't taken today but I look pretty here after my pamper session at Auntie Jenni's. I am possibly one of the smallest shelties in Britain as I am only 11" tall but Mum and Dad say I make up for it by having something called attitude!

My Mummy was away in Scotland over the weekend visiting my Nanna and Auntie Amy and their dog Tresca. I love seeing my Nanna and like to scrabble my paws on her feet. Here they are in Aberdeen doing one of the favourite human things, drinking coffee and blethering! 

Nanna plays hand bells and my Mummy went to watch the Cushnie handbell ringers at a rally in Inverness-look at how much Nanna is concentrating :-)

 Normally if my Daddy is at home working, my favourite thing is to sleep on my special cushion by his chair and Brooke (my fellow ginger) sleeps under his chair. In this picture the stupid collie got in the way-grrrr.

Sometimes even if Daddy is at home, I go out with Mummy for the day and help her train dogs or go on her walks. Today was a training day and Brodie and I were more than happy to have a go on the balance equipment. It keeps me fit and healthy even if I am not very coordinated!

This afternoon we went to a local hospice to entertain some of the people. I love going as they drop cake crumbs and I like hoovering them up-yummy! I love showing off my tricks and getting fuss.

We then went to the bank and waited beautifully while the humans do the boring stuff!

After such a busy day I had to put my feet up for a snooze! Love Brax x

A day in the life of Brooke

My name is Brooke and I thought I'd tell you a bit about what I did on Saturday. Weekends normally start with going to an agility party but this weekend we got up a bit later and went for a walk round the common. It was nice to have a bit of a lie in as I'm a lazy girl at heart!

Its not a very good picture as I wouldn't keep still but I found a 'treasure' on the common. Ever since I was a little puppy I have picked up treasures and carried them around-I love old tissues but this was the best find yet!! Mum let me bring it home which was really exciting :-) 

Normally when Mum and Dad go shopping they take a couple of us shelties or that silly collie but today I got to go by myself-woohoo!! Here is me trotting along to the shops with my Dad.

But then he kept disappearing into shops which was a bit disconcerting. It was ok though as lots of nice people stopped to talk to me.

Humans always have to have coffee and cake...I waited very patiently while Dad went into the shop...again! Its nice to have an outing as they keep talking about seasons and puppies and mentioning my name, not sure why? I know that I have no more agility parties to go to which is a shame as I have just got to Grade 7!

Mum and Dad have been having a sort out and sorting the house out-these are all of our rosettes from this April onwards. Luckily Dads Mum recycles them for her childrens gym sessions along with some of our trophies. 

Some of the rosettes have printing on the tails which means we can't give them to Granny. These ones from Dog Vegas are so pretty though!! Really nice colours-I like pink ones best!

We went to Grannys house to give her the rosettes and we had a nice play in the garden. This is me and Brodie posing-aren't we a sweet couple?

Then after all that cleaning me and Sparkle had to have a little sleep in the spare room to recover!

Last party of the show season and a rant about a stupid rule!

We had a very busy weekend doing shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We went to Adams on Friday pretty much for the sole reason of getting Dolly out to a show that has 4 combined classes! Annoyingly most of the other shows only have one combined class-no wonder dogs win up a bit too easily sometimes particularly in small and medium with the smaller class sizes. I was very pleased with Dolly as she isn't mine so has to compete in combined 1-3 or 1-4 classes as her owner is Grade 1. Its a stupid KC rule really as if she was mine she would now be G4 by virtue of having won a C1-4 agility (she also came 2nd in a C1-4 jumping!) Unfortunately she moves up to G2 so we have to go through beating much higher grade dogs again before she gets to G3 and can enter graded classes. It seems that this particular rule is a bit silly as its like you are being handicapped for running someone elses dog-generally a dog that you don't train as much as your own either!! Anyway, we have done it now and she has come 2nd so many times I'm very pleased with the little choccy one! My little dude Brodie also won his C5-7 jumping class and it wasn't even twisty or tricky. He was on rocket fuel that day!! Here they are with their rosettes :-)

On Saturday and Sunday we went to Dog Vegas which was at a venue not too far from us. Bracken had a good couple of runs being just out of the placings in one jumping and coming 2nd in the other. We pulled her and Brodie from a jumping run on Sunday as the ring was just a bit slippy and poached up after quite a crazy storm on the Saturday afternoon. Brodie had three runs at DV, one slowish clear straight after the storm and two runs where I was in the wrong place at the wrong time! My goal for the weekend was to work on his stopped dog walk in a show environment and he did well with it, stopping nicely in both agility runs. This was my favourite run of the weekend with him-I just needed to move faster after the seesaw! None of the courses were what I'd call Brodie courses as they were generally very flowing and blasty but we both really enjoyed running them.

Brooke bean was a little star-she obviously decided that being a career girl was higher on her agenda that being a Mum just yet as she STILL hasn't come into season!! She loved her last weekend of being in Grade 6 and won two agility classes, 3rd in another  one and 2nd in a jumping class. Matt's favourite run from the weekend with her was her 3rd in C6-7 agility (only 0.6 seconds behind the winner-very tight times!) and she was really working nicely now her neck issue is resolved, better weaves and no poles at all. It was a fast course that let them just stretch out and run the majority of the time-just what Brooke loves!

Here is the last sofa picture of the season-sad!

My Sparkler had three runs in total over two days at the weekend (still all jumping). She did some lovely work in all of her courses, got her weaves first time in two out of the three-including a rear cross into 12! She was eliminated in every course but we were working as a team much more effectively. Even managed a wait and a ketchker in the ring! Really looking forward to a winter of training contacts and getting her out in the ring next year :-)

Must say a well done to all the J9-ers competing at the weekend. We might be a little club but we have some great dogs both competing and coming out-yes I'm a proud trainer! Jenni and Rommy got two Grade 6 wins so are now only needed one to go Grade 7. Chester beagle won a G7 jumping and Paul and Marias younger dog Willow is finishing her first season of competing in G4 but showing so much promise. Now to get on with some winter training before giving the dogs their agility break! 

Positivity

They are going over a bit now but I got given a lovely bunch of flowers and a card by one of my clients for helping her with her dog. It was a lovely surprise and to be honest the hard work is down to her for her dedication in doing homework and keeping positive with her dog despite him giving her grief occasionally! I really enjoy my job so much no matter what the weather (it has rained a lot this week!) I love working with any dog handler combination as long as they are keen to learn and enjoy teaching young dog, beginners right through to Grade 7's. I learnt a while ago that life is too short to carry on with something that makes you frustrated and unhappy, no matter what security it may offer. We are only here once and life is too short to be miserable! A positive outlook on life is so much more healthy and I have got to the age/stage where I find negative people pretty draining to be around. A friend put this on Facebook and it is so true.

This little boy is Mr Positive personified!! This is him in my 'throw my ball pose!'

It rained all day Monday so I did lots of balance and coordination work with my lot-here is the obligatory posing picture! 

Sparkle has been a bit cheeky with her waits around agility equipment recently. I have been practicing lots and I love this picture of my two-they look so regal!! It also shows that even next to a medium jump, Spark can only just see over the pole and Brodie is sitting up really tall for a change :-)

And a cute picture of Brooke having snuggles with Matthew, bless her!