Rally, Agility and Dolly goes Grade 3!

Again I have been naughty about blogging-I do apologise! So much has happened in the last few weekends so will try and summarise :-) Firstly well done to the ESSC (sheltie) Medium Team who are off to Crufts next year! Brodie is reserve on the team so he gets to go along and cheer his mates on!! The focus for winter will be keeping him fit and his muscle tone up, he loves his pink wobble cushion and I love this pic of Brax photo-bombing! 

Sitting looking so happy out on a walk :-)

Brodie says mouse hunting keeps you fit too!! 

We went to Kelluki UKA show at the beginning of July, mostly so Brax could do Masters and I could do some NFC contacts in the ring with Sparkle. I did one competitive run in gamblers which she won and got a pretty pink lead as a prize! Brodie came 2nd in a tricky champ jumping and Dolly spaniel came 3rd in steeplechase!

The weekend after we stayed at home but did a gridwork workshop at my field. Blaze and Squidge took part in their first ever workshop and did really well running over jump bumps. This last weekend we both went to Rally, Matthew and Brax doing level 1, Spark doing her last level 1 and Brodie doing level 2. It was Matts first time doing a whole course as he hadn't even practiced a whole round but they did so well and ended up with an excellent score of 196 and 5th place, beating Sparkle into 6th place by one point! Spark was a bit distracted having her Daddy there but still got a score of 195 meaning she is now Reivermorada Fiery Angel RL1.Ex! Brodie got 195 as well in his Level 2 and came 3rd-what clever doglets!

Here is Matthews round with Brax

Brooke enjoyed being carried round the rings to watch and meeting up with some shelties!

I took the medium crew to Empingham agility as well (Spark, Brodie and Dolly spaniel) I was soooo pleased with all three! Sparkle had an amazing run in the agility, nailed all her contacts and weaves and just did a wrong end of tunnel. In jumping 4-7 jumping it was just a pole and a refusal in the 1-4 jumping. So pleased that she managed weaves in all her classes and although she is still less focused and fast than she is at training we are starting to get it together in the ring. I keep reading on facebook about dogs younger than her that are already G7 and wondering what the hurry is??! Anyway, Brodie did me proud on a tricky agility course where he stopped in position on his dog walk and stayed there with a tunnel tempting him! So clever! Dolly spaniel was the star of the day tho and won a C1-4 agility by a very convincing 2 seconds making her Grade 3!! That means that she can finally enter graded classes and come to more parties :-)  She also got her Flyball dog graduate award-such a multi talented girl!

I have started teaching turns on the dog walk with Miss Sparkle and am pleased so far with how she is working out her striding. The picture below shows straight on runs on the left hand side. The right hand pics show a turn each way. Photos aren't great quality as taken from a video :-) 

 And tired doglets after all their adventures!!

Milton Keynes show

Naughty blogger! I have got behind a bit, probably due to keeping everything up to date on Facebook and Instagram and forgetting to blog! Anyway first news is that Brodie and Brookes boys are 6 months old today-Happy Half Birthday to the Braxway boys!! We are having a little party tomorrow so hope to put lots of pictures on here of them next week. I love seeing them grow and seeing how they differ from each other but how they have all got some of their parents traits (good traits I hasten to add!) As one of my pup owners said, she is so pleased that Blaze has his Mums work ethic and his Dads temperament and both their good looks-to be honest comparing them to their parents is the highest compliment Matt and I can be paid as breeders! We are really pleased with how they are all turning out and what a great job all their owners are doing with them :-)

Anyway that was off on a tangent! Last weekend I went to Milton Keynes show and ran Sparkle and Brodie. Sparkle did two jumps each day and Brodie did pairs with Helens Sweep on the first day and two runs on the second day. Mine aren't used to doing two days in a row and I was glad that they coped really well with the excitment, especially as the weather was so warm. Sparkle had a pole in her first jumping at Grade 4 but otherwise did a lovely run and made a minor whoopsy in the 1-7 but really pleased with her weaves in both classes. 

Here was her G4-5 jumping. I cued her late on the pull in which is why she took the pole.

The J9-ers did really well with Jenni and Rommy winning the C1-7 Brillo Bounce qualifier and Sarah and Bailey winning Grade 1 jumping!! On the Sunday Sparkle did a stonking run in the G4-5 jumping and won it! It was one of those runs that just went to plan and felt amazing, lovely to start getting that connection in the ring with her and trusting her more. Our other jumping was not so good...green weaves straight after a tunnel...cue Sparkle looking confused and wondering what on earth I am talking about! Mr Toad did an awesome run in the agility to finish 3rd, just fractions behind Rommy-go J9 sheltie boys!! I don't have any videos from Sunday sadly. Here is the sofa picture-they look at bit miserable but I think they are just tired!

I took Dolly, Dixie and Sparkle to Kelluki on Friday as they had a practice ring with full aluminium equipment in it...and they allowed food in the ring!! I didn't enter Spark but played in the practice ring with her twice and she did beautiful dog walks, seesaw and weaves. Just the metal A frame that seems to be the issue now. Hoping to practice at a friends soon to give her more confidence. Dolly was running nicely considering the heat and came 3rd in a very fast Novice steeplechase! Dixie (Dolly's younger 'sister') was along to get measured and loved playing in the paddling pools!

Matt and I went back to Kelluki on Sunday so Brax could do Masters but sadly it wasn't to be this time as she got E'd in the jumping. Here is her Masters agility run which unfortunately the timer failed on so she had to do it all over again, poor Diddle! I missed the start and its not the best filming.

Brodie did a steeplechase and a jumping and managed to get 2nd in the jumping-love running my boy! He tries soooo hard bless him, only a second off the winner who is a collie! Miss Sparkle played nfc agility and we did gamblers for competition and she was hilarious, good thing there wasn't actually a course to do as she was wild but somehow managed to win it and got a pink lead! (The yellow rosette is Dollys)

Brooke bean is doing ok, she is visiting lots of places to hang out and people watch! She is good at having her bio mag therapy too :-)

And here are a few random pics from the last couple of hot weeks!