Wednesday 24 August 2016

Adams and a heatwave!


My two doglets and I went to Adams on Saturday. Matt was supposed to be running Brax but had taken one look at the weather forecast and decided not to go. As it turns out apart from a little shower in the morning it was lovely! Sparkle worked amazingly, winning two jumping classes and qualifying for a finals (this weekend so not going as haven't entered show!) She had only 5f in her agility run on the sodding aframe...the rest of it was perfect! So Aframe homework for us. She has always shortened her stride coming over the top since she banged her stifles so think its a matter of confidence. I need to retrain it over winter so she gets deeper hits. Her dog walk and seesaw were stunning and she was perfect in her weaves in all of her runs :-) 




We had a nice time at Matts mums in the garden on Sunday, my two 'helped' watering the plants and the gingers were very happy sunbathing. What a gorgeous trio!



Meanwhile someone had too much fun with the hose...


It has been really hot over the last couple of days so have been doing early walkies and just hanging out in the field during the day. These two are quite weird haha!


Up to 30 degrees today so the pool was the place to be :-) 



Sadly Brookes Hoopers workshop has been cancelled as there wasn't enough interest. I will look around for another workshop she can do, even if it is agility puppy foundation stuff! 

Thursday 18 August 2016

KCI and sunny summer days :-)


After Brookes tunnel incident we got her checked out and found that her neck was very tight. She has had laser treatment and stretches to do and is back to off lead walks and little bits of fun in the field again. We have a Hoopers workshop booked for her in September so I have been getting her used to running through a hoop which she picked up straight away, clever bean! 



We are loving the long evenings and sunny weather and the dogs are having loads of nice stubble field walks. 


We went to KCI at the weekend and had very mixed results! On Thursday I ran Dolly and Sparkle (pic of me about to set off with Dolly!) Dolly worked well and although she got E'd in both courses she did some lovely work and super duper weaves :-) She did get put back on two out of the three contacts tho...oops! Spark just had a pole in the British Open jumping but got a brilliant time, unfortunately we got E'd in the agility but pleased with how she worked.


On Saturday, Matt and I went and the older two shelties and Spark had two runs each. Sparkle got E'd in both of hers again but again ran really well. Brodie was amazing running on lower height and won both of his classes, Grade 7 jumping and agility. Brax was flying and caught Matt by surprise at her speed! She got E'd in the jumping but managed a 2nd in the agility despite a flying hamster impression off the dog walk! 


Brodie loves people watching! I have never been placed at KCI so my very special boy has made up for it!


Little Miss Sparkler after training today at the field...snuggling was not necessary though! She is working really nicely and for some reason decided today that she was only going to do four stride dog walks in straight lines. Bit weird for her to suddenly start doing it, would rather she put in five strides really! 



Friday 5 August 2016

Rugby Rally and Barking Mad

What a busy weekend the doglets had! We did agility and rally which meant all of them were doing some competing over the weekend :-) I had a bit of a moment at Rally as I got stuck in traffic on the way and missed walking the Level 2 for Brooke and Spark. Everyone else had declared their running orders so I ended up right at the end with both dogs...I almost turned round and went home again! But decided to stick it out and see how Spark was in their indoor venue (after freaking out a bit at Leamington inside with the shutters banging) I shouldn't have worried as she went in and did an awesome round and got an excellent score of 200 and just out of the places. The judge did point out that I need to slow everything down with how I work her tho...her time was hilarious! It puts her into Level 3 (and off lead) for her next competition!


Brooke was at a disadvantage as I didn't have the same time to get her focus as I had raced back to the car and grabbed her. She was excited and got a lot of marks off for excessive jumping on her left turns. She got a score of 189 (one off excellent!) but worked so well apart from the jumping! I actually managed to walk Brodies course and it was technical but flowing. He was an absolute dude and managed to win it! Into Level 4 in style! I had lots of lovely compliments about the round and how we clearly love working with each other :-) I adore that dog!


We also competed at Barking Mad show at the weekend and the doglets were amazing...Brax was back in the ring but running for me as Matt was away watching cricket. The old girl did well and flew round! In her graded 1-7 jumping she was out of the places but if they had combined the results across all the grades she would have been 8th out of over a 100 dogs! Sparkle had her brain in gear and managed to get two jumping wins so is now halfway to Grade 7! 



Sadly Brooke fell over coming out of a tunnel on her bad shoulder during the week and is sore :-( It is so frustrating as we were doing so well. I hope it isn't too serious, we have been resting her and doing biomag but will have to take her to see Sally physio I think. She isn't happy :-(