Dog Swap?

I forgot I had this picture of my Mum with Brax and Toad, all of our doglets adore her coming to visit! Little Brax is feeling better now and putting some weight on :-)

And a family photo with our giant sunflower! The fence behind is 6ft!

At the weekend we went to Lechlade UKA show and Matt tried the Performance Challenge qualifier with Brooke again. She was absolutely off her rocker and landing at a heap at the bottom of the aframe which put him off! I can understand why he finds her hard to run as he worries about her hurting herself and she is ten times more excitable for him and screams her way round a course. So we have decided to dog swap for a few events/classes coming up. Spark runs well for him and Brooke is slightly less excitable for me so we will see what happens. One thing I have wanted to work on is Brookes distance skills as she isn't as reliable as Spark so I feel a winter training plan coming on!! This is Spark playing in the field this week

Miss Sparkle bear was very consistent this weekend and won all three of her classes at Lechlade UKA so she is not far off champ level now! The aim is for her to do Masters next year :-)

Bru got to play in the ring again and was super confident and happy! His weaves are coming on, I managed to get him weaving to a dead toy this week which is progress. He has started aframes as well and I really need to get going with his dw! 

Dog by dog agility update!

Bracken
 She doesn't do agility but I can't leave her out! Brax is doing ok after being quite poorly while we were on holiday. She has had bloods taken to monitor her kidney falure and her levels weren't bad at all. Her liver values were up a bit but the vet thinks that could be to do with her pancreatitis flare up. She is back doing walks again now she has a bit of energy and is now up to (cringe!) 2.8kg!

Brodie
Toad is loving his agility! He no longer does agility runs, just jumping and steeplechase but he still seems to be able to cope with 400 height which is brilliant. He won his steeplechase on Sunday at Lydiard by four seconds...not bad for a dog who is 11.5 years old! I also realised that he is only 3 points from going into Champ steeplechase so that is the goal by the end of the year!

Here is my little dude in action...



Brooke

Brooke bean has been doing so well recently getting into the champ finals at Dundee and Northern Week. She is far more consistent than she used to be and is slowly learning lots of the skills training that she missed out on when she was younger and then off agility for two years. She has the same weave entry homework as Bru! Her pull thrus are coming on lovely and she is good generally about not taking tunnels...to the point that sometimes she won't take an obvious one for Matt!



She did an awesome couple of runs at Fab KC, she won the agility and came 2nd in the jumping. So pleased with her weave entry!!

Sparkle
Spark is finally getting a little bit of consistency and I'm getting confidence in my handling and timing with her in the ring. She did four runs at the weekend and went clear in three of them!! Maybe my fiery angel is growing up?!

I loved this run from Fab KC as I tested my pull thru after aframe and running dog walk to wrong end of tunnel and she nailed them both!!



The next day at Lydiard (after saying to one of my RC friends I haven't needed to use her stopped dog walk on a course for ages, I used it!) Spark managed to qualify for the CSJ Grand Prix by winning the heat! Yay agility goals this season ticked off :-)

Bru

He is now 16 months and old enough to play in the ring at UKA! He doesn't seem to care about working somewhere different at all and is taking it all in his stride. Lydiard was a great show as there was a practice ring and we could take his manners minder in and reward some dog walk down planks!



Such a handsome, sweet little boy! He has had his first UKA measure as well and is definitely toy height!

August Hols!

We went off to Scotland for our holidays and had a lovely time catching up with my family. We did Dundee Champ show on the way north and Brooke made it into the champ final and then was wild!! Spark got faults in the jumping due to a badly times verbal from me causing a refusal and also had some poles so although it wasn't an E in wither round we didn't manage to get into the final. Unfortunately Bracken was unwell for the majority of our holiday which was very worrying and a bit stressful! I have to say thank you to my lovely family for coping so well with five dogs staying!! Thanks to Amy for giving up her bedroom and to my Mum for cleaning up Brackens first ever number 2 accident inside...I'm still mortified!!!

Here are some holiday snaps :-)

Bennachie walk

Venturing north! Brax got a carry on this walk bless her

Family walkies!

Stone stacking :-)

Bru at Brewdog!

Daviot stone circle

Down to Gullane to stay with my Dad, the doglets enjoyed racing around the garden!

Up Trapain Law

Brodie waiting for the gulls!

 Down to Wilton champ show and met up with the Licosateria family! From l-r Bru, his full brother from a previous litter Sirius, their Dad Sonic and his sister Brooke. Typical Bru having his tongue out!

And a pic of Miss Brax and her ladybird as she is cute!

Wilton champ went well, Brooke was awesome as despite having faults in the rounds she made it thru to the final and finished 6th despite a spin into the weaves! 

Sparkle bear was awesome in the champ agility round but we couldn't get it together in the jumping! She won the agility, woohooo!! We are yet to make a champ final so this is next years goal!

Next time I will do a run down of what all the dogs are doing agility wise as this post is getting a bit long already!!