First Rally Comp and Spark goes Grade 4!!

So our busy Bank holiday weekend started with a trip to Cippenham KC show. Dolly was such a good girly and got 4th in the C1-3 agility (with weave faults on a really hard course!) and she also came 5th in the C1-3 jumping in a big class of 52 dogs so I was very proud of her! This is her on the jumping course-almost had a detour past the tunnel :-)



Sparkler had her first ever clear round at a KC show and came 3rd in a C1-7 helter skelter which was a lovely flowing course-she still is backing off the jumps more than she does in training but that will come with experience.

On Monday I took Brodie, Brooke and Sparkle to their very first Rally competition. Nervous was an understatement!! I was terrified! Had no idea what I was doing but everyone was so helpful and friendly. It was really well organised and fairly similar to champ agility in that you walk the course and then run in order. The dogs really enjoyed their day out, particularly Brooke as it was fun for her to be working again. It was a great experience for Spark as a young dog to work without the adrenaline of agility!

Well the dogs did very well for their first time! I didn't really understand the scoring system but apparently all five rounds were deemed 'excellent'! Brodie got a 6th in Level 1 and a 4th in Level 2. Brooke came 2nd in Level 1 (with a score of 205!) and got 199 at Level 2 so another qualifying score. Miss Sparkle only did Level 1 but managed a very respectable excellent score of 197! The classes were so big that they were split into 3 parts with 35/36 in each part so really pleased for a first time!

Little Brax has snuck into the sheltie photo to show off her rosette from UKA. While we were doing Rally, Brax and Matt were busy at agility coming 2nd overall in the Masters and qualifying for the Grand Finals! Not bad for a tiny ten year old fuzz ball!! So proud of them both :-)

Sorry epic blog continues! I then went to JDA agility show with Sparkle and Toad mid week as some of my clients were competing and it was a bit of a J9 club outing. Well what can I say?! Totally speechless with how well everyone did! First up was C3-5 agility which was a tricky course with a tricky entry and exit to the dog walk. I handled it the 'safe' way as didn't want Spark (who is long striding) to fall off trying to get on the dog walk. I had also decided that if she ran her dog walk nicely and happened to go over the finish jump I would just reward her. Well she didn't see the finish jump so I called her back towards me (haven't taught turns off dw yet!) and finished the course. What with the long route onto and detour off the dw and the held seesaw I thought we would be safe in a combined agility but nope...she won it! Grade 4 was not the plan just yet!! She was a little superstar though and went on to win her helter skelter and C3-5 jumping. The only one filmed was the jumping :-) I had given myself a kick up the bum and decided to run her like I do in training hence the blinds and the ketchker turn!

Just as exciting as Sparkle getting her first wins was my clients doing so well! Jenni and Rommy got their last G6 win to reach G7 and champ level and Willow beagle won her second G4 agility confirming that she is ready for G5! So proud of them all :-D Special mention for my little Toad did a stonking run in the agility and the jumping but after a sat nav failure in the agility he is on the lookout for a better handler!! Love him! 

Oh and I saw two of the Grandpups at JDA-what stunning little boys they are! Here are Mav and Squidge

Workshop week

I have had a bit of a manic week this week! For some reason I had booked workshops on Tuesday with Laura Chudleigh and Thursday with Dan. As it turns out Brodie worked in the Tuesday one and Spark (who had the all clear from the physio on Wed) worked in the Thursday one. My little boy did me proud and worked nicely despite me panicking a bit about him not doing all the euro turns. Like all workshops there was definitely things to take away and practice from it-one being that I needed to cue my pivots more with a bit of off arm as I am lazy and know that Toad turns tight anyway! Here is a video of his workshop



Miss Sparkle had a great time yesterday and got to put weaves in a course which she hasn't done on a workshop before. It was so obvious that she felt better as she didn't take any poles and got her weaves every time bar once when I said something silly! I asked a friend to film her last run where we put all the elements of the course together and she got it right. Being picky she was a bit wide on the left turn on the third jump but I should have hung back and nagged more!



We are still not seeing a vast improvement in Brooke bean, she is being a good patient (most of the time!) but is lame particularly after exercise. It must be so frustrating for Matthew-not sure I'd cope as well as him as it is frustrating enough looking after her on a daily basis and not letting her do the one thing she loves most which is running :-( Generally a bit fed up at the moment. We both seem to have encountered more than our fair share of rudeness and 'yes...but' people this week. Hopefully some changes are in the pipeline...

Catch up...naughty blogger!

The pups had a get together in my field last week! They are such scrummy handsome boys :-) Here they are with Zoe's sheltie Merlin. From left to right Squidge, Maverick and Blaze. The two tri's are a very similar size but Squidge is still smaller and lighter-he gives as good as he gets though! 

Blaze, Brooke and Squidge posing at Tunbridge Wells show. We kept being asked if Brooke was a puppy!

The boys playing with Auntie Sparkles favourite toy!!

Blaze and Sparkle also came with us to vote last week! Spark has an ear out on the door as Matthew was inside voting :-)

 We have done a couple of agility shows over the past couple of weekends. Brodie and Brax had a great time running at the Kent FAB show. Both of them won their senior jumping class which qualifies them for the finals in August! Brax also won the IFCS jumping and agility qualifier! Brodie had 5 faults on the Aframe (I think he got it...partly as he has only missed one in 6 years of competing when he was in G1 and partly as I actually looked back at him which I don't always do) He technically won as all the other dogs in his height were eliminated!

I took Brodie, Sparkle and Brooke with me to Hatton on Saturday. Brodie only ran one class (C5-7 jumping) which he came 4th in. It had some great quirky jumps in it which made a nice change. It had a water jump, gate and brush fence! Sparkle did her first agility properly in the ring, it was a lovely course and she got her dw, weaves and aframe but then flew off her seesaw at the end (which she promptly put herself back on!) In the jumping she coped with all the strange jumps well and only had faults in the weaves and in the steeplechase just had a couple of poles. 

Best thing about Hatton was there was 'have a go' Rally right next to the agility. I did rounds with all three and got feedback about what to improve on. Also it was Sparkles first go and she did well, especially with the agility going on in the next ring! All three have their first competition in just over a week-eek!!

On Sunday Matt and I took all the doglets to Tunbridge Wells show. Brodie did Olympia qualifier (5f on seesaw) and Crufts teams. We were eliminated in teams which was gutting as we still finished 3rd and were 28 seconds faster than the winners. Feel so bad letting my team mates down :-( 

Brax was in her first champ of the year and got through to the final bless her! She ran well but got eliminated at the end having already done a naughty dog walk! She was loving it though-going great guns for a veteran. 

Spark did one jumping run and could not weave. The more I thought about it the more I wondered whether she had done something flying off the seesaw the day before. Luckily my wonderful physio fitted her in and I feel terrible as her neck was in spasm. Luckily her back was ok but she was all locked up through her neck and shoulder. Fixed now but a week off work and heat packs and stretches. And I thought she was being cheeky in her weaves...

Love this pic of the older two! They are the healthy, fit ones at the moment!!

Little visitor and random pics!

We have a little sheltie shaped visitor at the moment! Blaze has come to stay while his Mum and Dad are on holiday. We are loving having him to stay and he has slotted in really well with the other doglets. He is a very happy, cuddly little boy :-)

Here he is posing with his Mama Bean-he isn't as tall as her yet but taller than Brax (not hard!) 

Grandpa Matt and Blaze at puppy class-he was very attentive!

Granny and Blaze selfie! (although it makes me look like I have a moustache lol!)

The whole gang together-what a gorgeous load of doglets!

In between puppy cuddles and work I have done a bit of dog walk training this week-I did a session that was 100% hits (on 11 reps) which was brilliant as its finally coming together after me being almost ready to chuck a stop in!

Brodie found a fake cat on his walk and stared at it like this for about a minute while I almost wet myself laughing-he never fails to make me laugh, my little clown!! 

First rainy day for a while so I went fishing in the field and caught a collie :-p

Training, showing show and Wallingford!

My two have had a very busy three days! I hired Chance dog trainings lovely indoor venue to practise contacts somewhere else with Sparkle and see how they coped on the carpet. Unlike a lot of the training arenas with poorly cushioned astroturf, this one is actually the same as the one at Crufts (it is the actual carpet from Discover dogs) My guys loved running on it! Here is a video of them training-thanks to Jenni for filming :-)



Jenni ran Rommy and bought Squidge out for a play as well. Being somewhere new didn't bother him and we discovered he has inherited his mamas love of cage balls!

On Saturday we went to a local fun show. Brodie only did one class but managed a 3rd out of a decent entry in AV Pastoral/Working. Jenni got this lovely picture of him in the ring. Just love this boy!!

And here he is posing! His coat has been looking so lovely since he has been on Millies and its hard to believe that he was struggling with pancreatitis for so long. Sparkle was a good girly at her first showing show and came away with 3rd in Best Condition and in Best Trick!

Yesterday we went to Wallingford show. Brodie managed a 7th in C6-7 Agility and was a bit too wild in the jumping getting E'd! Sparkle had two E's but they were good ones. She found the distances quite tight but left the poles up which is progress!! 

No shows but some Bean adventures

We had a quiet weekend, no shows but did some training at the field and went for some nice walks. Some of my lovely J9 people were competing at Shuttleworth so I went along to watch and as usual they all made me very proud doing some lovely runs and coming away with some great results!

We have been trying to entertain Brooke with various things that tax her brain but keep her calm as she is so full of the need to run but can't be let off lead. We managed to get a thundershirt to fit her (yay!) to limit the amount she can move her shoulder sideways. It definitely seems to help. This was us shopping in the pet shop...trust her to find some cage balls! She looks very scruffy at the moment due to losing her hair after the pups. It is slowly starting to grow back!

Modelling her new thundershirt in St Albans on a trip to the market

She also took Brodies place at Rally and was a very good girl! I took this while I was walking one of the courses and she was sitting watching one of the other dogs have a go. She was so good that I have been brave and entered her in a competition along with Brodie and Sparkle in May :-) 

And just to prove despite her lack of hair that she can still look pretty!

It has been so warm here over the past couple of days-the older two couldn't even pose properly! 

We have a few exciting days coming up! Hiring an indoor astroturf venue to practice contacts, a fun dog showing show and an agility show on Sunday! 

Easter, catch up with the pups and pondering running contacts...

Two weekends in a row I have done a UKA show in not the best conditions! I took Brodie and Sparkle to Lydiard and the wind was horrendous to the point an Aframe blew out of the ring! Brodie was a good boy and came 2nd in a steeplechase. Miss Sparkle had a couple of poles in the Beginners steeplechase qualifier and would have qualified if she had kept them up! She had a crack at Gamblers (all contacts had been removed so it was a tunnel or weave gamble-I opted for tunnel so we didn't get max points but she had a nice blast and came 2nd! Her first rosette this year :-)

I took Dolly and Brodie to UKA Easter and he did a lovely agility run to finish 3rd despite a bit of dithering! Dolly did a lovely jumping run and was 5th (placed to 4th) in a good sized novice qualifier-good spanner! Well done to Jenni and Rommy who qualified for the Grand Finals!! Brodie had fun socialising-here he is trying to get into Rowenas caravan :-)

I also got to see Squidge and Blaze at UKA Easter-what fabulous pups! Happy and confident around the rings at their first show on the ground. This is Blaze doing some downs next to the rings

And Squidge having a tug round the rings-yes it was very muddy and chilly but the pups weren't bothered!

Yesterday we went to Matts Mums for dinner and took Brax. She was eyeing up Matts carrot cake but trying her best to be sweet and innocent! 

Brooke is still on lead walks only and very fed up bless her. She has her physio check up tomorrow so hoping to find out how she is doing. She is very naked after the pups and is shedding hair like crazy! Still such a pretty girly though.

Sparkle and I have been trying to practice our running contacts as we have had a few ropey session since her coming back into work after her season and my 8 weeks off due to the pups. I think it is lack of confidence so trying to get her out to different venues on varying dog walks. She was good in our session the other day-she did five dog walks in total and had three hits like the picture, one total miss and one miss where she tried to dunk a front foot in. 

I will give it a few goes in the ring and see how she gets on but sooooo tempted just to whack a stop in and be done with it! All the courses at Crufts pretty much required a stop and a lot of handlers with running dog walks either struggled or their dogs missed. Same story in a lot of champs. Lots of think about! Brodie has a running contact and when I got to G7 most of the courses had turns off the dw so I trained him to stop too and its come in really handy. Here is Toad demonstrating his stop at the weekend (wrong end of tunnel after dw) Please excuse the dither by the weaves and the messy handling after the tunnel!