Thursday 31 January 2019

Sparkle is 6!! And snow arives!

My little puppy is 6 today!! How did that happen? I thought seeing as I was snowed off today that I could update my blog which seemed like a better idea than doing any housework!





She is such a pretty, goofy little girly and I love her to the moon and back! 💜 Looking forward to seeing what this year brings for us. I haven't done any training with her apart from some contacts and grids in my field so here is an old video of us playing in the sunshine instead!



We have had snowy walks the last couple of days and the doglets have been having fun out walking while I've been off work. Poor Brax has had a pancreatic flare up so has been staying inside in the warm. 


Brodie modelling his equafleece onsie...perfect for keeping the mud off but he does look funny!


My office currently looks like this! 






Tuesday 22 January 2019

Lower Height League Awards and sable training!

The shaded sables had great fun at their Grandmas yesterday training with Nicola Garrett! Brooke was far more on the ball than last time (I'm not as exciting as her Daddy!) and little Bru got to try his dog walk and Aframe in a new place for the first time. Here are a couple of videos of them!





Bracken enjoyed coming in for some cuddles with everyone and I got some funny pics of Spark who was very cross about not working!!



Brooke and Brodie had post this week! Brooke was 4th and Brodie was 5th in the Lower Height League 2018!! The rosettes are stunning! 


And these two were unimpressed by their 49p jumpers from Aldi!!!



Thursday 17 January 2019

M&M's January


We have been really lucky with the weather up until now in January. We have even got some training with our own dogs in! This is the gang waiting for Matthew while he was in the post office. Notice the colour coding, everyone has their own colour to avoid confusion!



A couple of cute snuggly pics! They are loving our sofas, even Brodie who has never been a snuggler has decided that being on the sofa is pretty good, despite having Bru curling up with him! 


We went to M&M's show at the weekend and these two did really well! Brooke bean won her jumping and Brodie won the steeplechase. Bru and Spark did some brilliant nfc work and Spark had a really good 'almost' run in the jumping with me just pushing her round the wrong side of a jump. Brodie had a play on the contacts and did really well...in fact he was a little bit too excited!! We have entered the next show and hopefully by then Bru will be ready to try weaves and some contacts in the ring...eeek! 



Tuesday 8 January 2019

Snuggly dogs and goal setting?

We have had a lovely time over Christmas and New Year, lots of time to chill out and recover from the nasty bug we had. I went off exploring some new walks and this one is only ten mins from our house! I walked all the way up and round the ancient woods and back, it was peaceful and so pretty!


The dogs have been really chilled out and enjoyed having us at home...here are a few cute snuggling pics 😍






Brodie and I went to a rally seminar at the weekend as a lot of the signs and regs have changed for 2019. As I teach and compete I thought I should make sure I was up to date with the changes. Toad really enjoyed the practical session and working through the new signs!


I have been getting the doglets fit again after their winter break (2-3 weeks for some of them but a very unfit collie having had 6 weeks off!) We have built up their jump heights gradually and Bru has started Aframes and almost cracked upright weaves!! Here is a little video of what we have been getting up to...



We have also been thinking of some goals for our doglets this year. Due to the jump heights staying the same until 2020 we won't be running Bru at full height so we aim to have him in the ring doing jumping classes at lower height. It would be great to start some contacts in the ring nfc with him and also go for the UKA Beginners steeplechase qualifier! Brodie is at the age where every run is a bonus so the only goal I can think of is getting those pesky last 4 points to go champ in UKA steeplechase! Brooke is the same really, anything she does agility wise is a bonus 😊 It would be great for her to nail some dog walks in the ring though. My main goal for Spark is to get the last few points needed to go champ at UKA and attempt some Masters classes. I would also love to make it to a champ final!!! Also to carry on working on her fears and confidence in the ring. My friend is going to take some photos of her working on thursday so fingers crossed it goes ok