Happy 2023!

I can't believe we are into a new year already! I decided to try and update this and am currently trying to type with a Pickle putting his head on my typing arm...not helpful!! We had a lovely break over Christmas and New Year. We saw Matts folks on Christmas Day and then went north to see Amy in her new house in Northumberland which was very exciting with the added bonus of seeing my Mum there as well! Unfortunately the weather wasn't so good so we didn't explore many walks but it was nice to think about all the exploring we can do next time! Although we had a super festive break it was very sad being the first one without Toad 💙 We miss him so much and he always loved Christmas and all the socialising.

I love this photo and didn't realise until it was bigger that both dogs are shaking!

Brooke Bean is going to be 12 in March and we think her eye sight is getting a bit worse in bright sun. She is still very lively and full of herself but we might get her bloods checked at the vets soon as she is drinking more than usual. She is still obsessed with sitting in things!! 💚

My little Christmas helper! He put his trick training to good use tidying away wrapping paper 😂

How is my puppy now 18 months?! ❤ I'm biased but I adore him, he is cuddly, clever, funny and so much fun to hang out with! He isn't ring ready for agility but we almost have upright weaves so we might be able to do some jumping runs at some point. His contacts training has basically stopped as the weather is so terrible and my field is a bog 😕 We are having a load of fun with trick training and doing the odd bits of agility here and there though! He had his hips x-rayed last week so fingers crossed for good results.

We are trying to step up Bru's training a bit after his winter break. Matt made it to a Beyond Grade 7 workshop this week and Bru was awesome! 💛 He just needs some more practice course running (Matt that is not Bru!) before the Team GB Pre Selection Qualifier in February.

And what can I say about my Sparkalina?! 💜 She has come back from her shoulder/rib injury all guns blazing and is so keen and ready to work. She even had the all clear from her physio today, no niggles at all (a rarity!) I ran her in Pickles training session this week and she nailed all the discrimination and had the best time. She is obviously not ready to retire just yet! 

We made it to Wrest Park on New Years Eve for a lovely dry wander round

And a couple of Pickle action pics! Plus his most recent weekly video. They are all on a playlist on my YouTube channel if anyone wants to see an Ickle Pickle! 

Brodie is 15!!! And some puppy thoughts

 My special Mr Toad has turned 15 this month! 💙 I feel so lucky to have him in my life and what adventures we have had together!! He is the sweetest boy, so good with dogs and people and such a pleasure to take anywhere. Rather than put old pictures on here I thought I make a montage of what Toad has got up to over the last month 😍 He still loves his walks and goes out for a couple of 20 min walks a day usually although we did 40 mins this morning and he bounced along quite happily!

All the lovely weather we have had over the last month (very dry and quite warm...notice the dogs not wearing coats sometimes in Toads video!) has rapidly gone downhill. We had a lot of rain last weekend and then Storm Dudley followed by Storm Eunice a couple of days later. Unfortunately the garden is now like a bog, my agility field is like a swamp and we lost five fence panels! 

Branston is now 7.5 months and had a busy week last week! I taught a puppy workshop at his breeders and he came in at the end and did some proprioception work and recalls which was testing as he was sooo excited 😂 He also had a trick training workshop where he learnt cross paws, hid leg lifts and reversing round me. He loves trick training so much and I'm a bit biased but he is a smart cookie! Pickle also had a rally class, an Agility Workshop and a Hoopers class during the week. I don't usually do so much in one go but as they were all groups of 6 dogs he didn't get too tired in any of the groups. In fact it was the tricks that wore him out the most as we worked at the same time quite a lot.

For me it is the bits between the exercises that I'm just as interested in with a young dog as the actual exercises. I want them to be quiet and settled between turns...something that I failed with massively with Sparkle and I didn't realise how much it would impact on her future agility career. The sight of another dog running would send her into a screaming lunging lunatic and then she would be unable to think straight when it was her turn! Queuing at shows has never been easy and although she has got better I can never relax when I'm holding her. Branston has either been in a crate or a raised bed at classes/workshops so far. I have used the crate if its a class of dogs I don't know and there will be dogs running off lead (I don't trust other teenage dogs not to run over and I want to keep him safe) At rally and 1-1 lessons he has been on a raised bed in between turns as I don't feel there is the same risk factor. I might sound over the top but Brooke got attacked at his age and she has never got over it...its just not worth the risk! Anyway as usual I'm going off on a tangent! So apart from settling between turns (so far so good but will keep rewarding him for being quiet!) I'm also looking for him to

- be restrained happily by anyone (this is a work in progress but he is getting really happy with it)

- play with the trainer (absolutely fine with a long tuggy so far)

- ignore the other dogs while he is working (so far so good but aware hormones may change this!)

- allow me to clip his lead on at the end of his go (ok so far)

- send back to his bed/crate if I'm not putting his lead on (prefers this to the lead as it involves running!)

- swap between toys and food happily (I have worked hard on this at home and it has transferred well)

- retrieve a toy (it doesn't have to be a perfect retrieve but not to bog off with his toy!)

When I'm teaching workshops I often feel that these are just as important as the actual agility work, not to have them as perfect skills but to be aware of them and continue rewarding them making the right choices. Most teenage dogs want to join in with other dogs running, don't want to wait their turn, be put back on lead, bring a toy back and many are hitting a second fear period so playing with a trainer can be too much for them. At the moment I have upped Branston Pickles rewards to fridge raiders and stinky sausage for workshops! We have a grid workshop this week which will be a good test of all of the above as Dan and his puppy Nerd are in my group and Branston loves them both! 

Anyway enough rambling from me! Here is the latest Pickle video ❤

Brooke bean got to play hoopers this week as well, she absolutely aced the course that Jo-Ann had set! It was nice to work her as the weather has not been on our side, even for working in the garden! Her distance work is coming on so nicely, we have a competition soon so hopefully she will remember how to send out! 💚

Branston 6 months old!

I have been having so much fun doing bits with Branston pickle! Now he has got all of his adult teeth we are back to playing tuggy again and I have been testing his toy play at different places (local fields and commons as well as a friends agility field) When Matthew had a workshop with Bru at the dog barn I managed to hire the ourdoor arena for the others. This is a record for myself of what we have been doing as well! We are following Dan Shaws online puppy foundation course and having great fun working through the exercises. With my own clients I am never in a hurry until they have their foundations right...for example there is no point the dogs learning contacts if they can't happily turn round, sit and lie down on a dog walk width plank! It helps keep them fit and injury free if they understand how to use their bodies well. I'm so lucky that Lian encourages her pups to explore and be confident on new surfaces and Branston is pretty good at knowing where his feet are 😁 I have done a few wraps round a cone at home and shaped it but this is his first time being asked to tight turn on a barrel and accelerate out of the turn. I don't use wings until I know they have value, understanding and the strength to wrap properly! He isn't ready for curvy tunnels just yet but he is enjoying learning straight ones! The main thing at the moment is that we generally don't do the same thing more than a couple of times a week...its nice to mix it up for their brains and their bodies!

At the weekend we did a trick workshop with Nicola Smith of Lucky Dog training. It was Brans first proper workshop and he was brilliant!! We learnt lots of new things and he focused so well in a room full of dogs! 

 

December catch up and Happy New Year!

 I have been very slack at blogging yet again! A whole month has passed since I last updated and to be fair it was a bit of a whirlwind with Christmas and trying to rearrange work around the stupid weather! Covid caused a few cancellations as we have a new variant called Omicron and Matt and I had our booster vaccinations which wiped us both out for a couple of days. The doglets are all doing fine...I thought I'd do a little bit on each of them below

Toad 💙

Brodie is doing so well (touch wood!) He is enjoying two walks a day and we try and mix up a bit of time off lead in safe places for him as well as he is deaf and a bit blind as well. He has been the bestest big brother and role model for Branston 😍

Brooke 💚

Bean is enjoying lots of hoopers training, we are currently doing our Level 3 Hooperstars challenges and have done some workshops recently which she loves! She is retired from competing at agility as she will be 11 this March and we don't want to push it with her shoulder. Bean remains our best sofa snuggle buddy and the easiest dog around the house! 

Sparkle 💜

Sparkle is still a full of herself little nutcase 😂 She is loving her agility still and we have done a fair bit of hoopers recently to test her distance and keep her fitness up. Spark will be 9 at the end of this month so chances are that this will be one of her last seasons competing so we are going to make the most of every run and make an effort to do some champs now Bru is G7 as well. 

Bru 💛

Little Rupert had a great season qualifying for the Novice Cup, being selected by Team GB for the Pre Selection Qualifier and getting to Grade 7. We are looking forward to seeing how he will get on in 2022! He has a few training days booked for agility and I have been doing hoopers with him to keep up his distance work and fitness.  Like Brooke he is also on L3 of his Hooperstars awards! Apart from being the sweetest, cuddliest little boy he is so good looking...love these photos of him! 

Branston ❤

My little pickle pup turned six months old on New Years Day...it seems like only yesterday that we brought him home! He is full of character, loving and a little bit nuts, my perfect combination!! 😂 He takes everything in his stride and is into everything! I have done weekly videos of him that are all on my YouTube page if anyone is interested https://www.youtube.com/user/burdettshelties 

We have done a couple of puppy classes (one indoors and one outdoors), an online trick class and introducing a hoop, barrel and tunnel so far. He is loving learning! We have a puppy hoopers and tricks workshop this weekend coming and some agility foundation training days booked over the next few months so he can work in a group. 

Mums 70th Birthday visit!

 We had such a lovely time over the past couple of weekends catching up with my family and celebrating my Mums 70th birthday! The weather wasn't brilliant on our family get together but the house that was base for the day was huge and had plenty of space for us all. There was also a nice paddock for the dogs to have a run around in. Spark found a frisbee which made her day although she couldn't run with it hanging down as she is so dinky so she quickly figured out she could run with it in the air!

Part of my Mums Birthday surprise was this beautiful Birthday cake made my talented friend Julie at Julies Cake Company!! The detail was amazing and the cake was delicious 😍 We spent the day catching up and it was so nice to see everyone! Branston was impeccably behaved which was a relief as he hasn't been in other houses before! 

Helping my Auntie in the kitchen! 

Waiting for the feast!

Branston meeting his Nana for the first time! 💕

The celebrations continued when Mum and Amy came to stay with us!

Lunch out with Wendy 😊

Walkies!

Puppy class with the Pickle!

Chiltern open Air Museum which was a great day out! So much to explore, I think we all slept well after!

Stockwood Park

Tea on the patio in October! Sunbathing shelties!

Wrest Park with Toad and Branston!

Someone crashed in our selfie pic!

While we were at Wrest Park Matthew and Bru won a Grade 6 agility run at Paws in the Park!!

And finally here is Branstons recent video! There is one for every week that we have had him on my YouTube channel...I'm keeping a record of our adventures! ❤

Sparkle is the Birthday Girl!

 Sadly last week the Coronavirus death toll for the UK reached 100,000 people and the average daily death rate is 1,200 people roughly. Unfortunately this is the lag from December where people were mixing and preparing for Christmas combined with the new more transmissible variants that have mutated. On the brighter side the vaccination programme is going well and the majority of the over 75's have had their first dose of the vaccine.

I can't believe that Sparkle is now 8 years old, that seems to have passed in a flash! We sadly didn't do anything very exciting to celebrate other than she had a nice chew after her dinner and we actually did a dry walk in the morning! In fact the sun was out and it made the dogs squint in the photos! The day started with a beautiful sunrise

And the little montage I put on facebook, I have finally manage to recreate the beautiful puppy picture I have of her with and she hasn't changed much 💜 Still enormous ears! 

She definitely enjoyed her birthday walk!

And it was nice to have clean dogs for a change!

Also Sparkle is currently the cover star for Agilitynet! 

After the pretty snow last week, this week has consisted mainly for floods and mud everywhere. I honestly don't think that even if we hadn't been in lockdown that I would be able to do much work at the moment! Brodie has managed a couple of potters to the fields over the last week which he really enjoyed and we are working on getting him back to bigger walks slowly as well. Bru was the king of the castle on this bit of left over snowman! 

The mud everywhere has been disgusting, I really want to give the dogs a good run where its not slippery but its so hard! We resort to pavement walking them a lot as it saves so much cleaning. Bru is also less then impressed by mud 😂

Brooke found the (slightly smaller) ex snowman on one of our potters to the field! 

And this van was a bit optimistic about getting through our normal village flood! This is the road in a previous post I mentioned that needed a fire boat as it was too deep for the fire engine! 

I made some flapjacks during the week as well and for whatever reason I cannot get them to set properly! Not sure if its that I used marg instead of butter but I cut them while warm and left them to cool in the tin but they still came apart. They tasted good though! I am going to try a different recipe this week and have another go!

And I had a very exciting package from my Mum...chocolate brownies and a puzzle! They were so yummy! 

I have got round to sorting our dogs portraits out and they just look so lovely all together! My good friend Nicola got a couple for me, the last being Bramble for Christmas so the set is complete now ❤ I decided that they should each have a ribbon in 'their colour' (all our dogs are given a colour so that we know whose stuff belongs to who) and they have worked so well. I haven't decided where to hang them yet!

Its a good thing our boys get on so well, Bru fell asleep on Toads head! 

Toad wrapped up in his blanket! 

Lockdown Day...no clue!!

I know we are now past a hundred and something days since Lockdown started, at the weekend the pubs and cafes were allowed to open on what Boris called 'Super Saturday' I'm sure the poor couple who moved in to the bungalow next to the social club fields didn't agree that it was very super when they had drunk people fighting at 1am outside! I fear there may be more restrictions in place at some stage as people can't seem to control themselves and I have noticed even with my clients that there is a much more relaxed attitude to handling stuff and standing close to me. I'm not too bothered mostly but I am aware that I don't want to be too 'peopley'! I have struggled a bit with lack of me time recently which sounds a bit selfish but after weeks of it just being me and Matt with the dogs (I count time with Matt as me time as we can really chill out) it is hard to be sociable sometimes. I realise how much I need weekends as down time to switch off. Its funny how lockdown has made a lot of people learn things about themselves, it was such a strange situation to be in! I am loving being back at work but miss my time in the garden and exploring walks.

Our tomato plant is now a giant!! You can't tell but its about 7ft tall!

Goofy Sparkle!

I absolutely love the Hydrangeas round the village, the colours are so pretty!

Talking of work I ran my show over the last couple of weeks and this week I have been handling rosettes out. I am so very proud of everyone who took part and had a go! Some amazing young baby dogs doing their first ever courses right through to older dogs who are nearing retirement and won't ever compete again. I got to do some course running of my own on Monday as I entered Brooke into the series 2 of the Lucky 13's online competition. She hasn't done one yet and when my friend Helen said she had the courses set up, I went and taught her and ran Brooke. Here are her two runs! She was a good little Bean 💚