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! 

Bru wins small champ ticket at Axstane!!

 My blog recently is full of Bru doing clever things so why not post one more! 💛 We did champ at Axstane on Saturday, Bru had faults in the weaves in the agility round and came 2nd in the jumping which put him 5th to run in his first champ final! Matt knew he had to go for it as there were so many good dogs in the final 20 and he did a fantastic run and held the lead. I don't think I have ever been so nervous!!! I'm so proud of them that I could burst! It qualifies them for the Championship class at Crufts next year too 🎉🏆

Bru also came 2nd in the jumping with a hairy moment on Number 2!! 

Spark had an unfortunate pole in the jumping and missed her dog walk in the champ agility but her time would have put her 3rd which I'm thrilled about as it wasn't her sort of course really! 💜 The best thing was that neither her nor I got stage fright which seems to have happened in champ most previous years! Something has gone wrong and then one or both of us falls apart and we end up leaving the ring in a hurry. This years goal was not to do that so that was a personal win!! 

The weather has been super hot this week. We had 32 degrees last Friday so spent most of the day in the shade in the garden and doing some freework. The shelties enjoyed sleeping under the tree over the pond!

Yearly pic of my favourite Petunia!

Spark and some of the pots this year 

Bru is on Team GB for the European Open Championships!!

I'm so so proud of these two!! Bru and Matt have made it onto Team GB for the European Open Championships in Belgium in July!! 💛 The hard work starts with weave bootcamp commencing this week, he still struggles with weave entries and exits so we have been doing short sessions in the garden to help him understand it better.

At the start of April I took Branston Pickle for a weekend break in Wales to catch up with my family and celebrate my lovely sisters 40th birthday (a month early but nice to be sooner!) Here are a couple of holiday snaps, it was fab to catch up with everyone and also have a semi surprise party with a fabulous cake made by my very talented friend Julie (from Julies Cake Company in St Albans) 

We have also done our first couple of shows on the year, we had a brilliant time at Kelluki! Brooke bean got to play hoopers and even managed to win a couple of veteran classes! Bru and Spark had fun playing agility on some cool courses. Here is Brus winning agility run

Branston has been practising watching the dogs in the ring quietly

Spark had a very successful weekend at Wallingford show, she won the G7 jumping and came 4th in the agility! 

This is her winning jumping run!

Unfortunately Bru did lovely runs apart from the weaves...hence the weave bootcamp this week!! 😂

In other news I got my new jumps for the field, they are amazing and perfect for young dogs as they go so low and are very pretty!

Branston is almost ten months old now and is doing more in the way of agility training. He is so enthusiastic and keen to lean ❤ He did a puppy camp a couple of weeks ago and worked so hard! It was lovely to see his Granny Lian and sister too!

Our garden is still fenced off as our fences are still not repaired from all the storms 😕 It is our neighbours fence and we have even offered to pay to fix it but she wants to sort it herself. In the meantime we have a tiny patch of grass that is ok for the dogs but are trying to make the most of it.

We found some bluebells the other day on our walk!

Branston passed his Level 1 Hooperstars and has done all his Level 2 exercises so fingers crossed he passes! He is started to really understand looking for the hoops!

And the cutest little puppy pic! Oakley is only 9 weeks old in this photo and so gorgeous! He explored my field and then crashed out in the coffee shop! 💕

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 7 months and Sparkle turns 9!

 In the last two weeks Branston Pickle has been a busy boy! He did a Hoopers puppy workshop, agility foundation workshop and rally class 😁 It is nice to get him into some groups so that he learns to take turns and watch the others quietly on his bed...something that Sparkle never managed! 

Here is a video from his puppy Hoopers workshop ❤

And a recent video of what we have been getting up to! Agility wise so far we have done a straight tunnel, a jump bump grid, just started curvy tunnels with no speed and he has done a couple of wing wraps 

In the last week Sparkle has turned 9 years old! 💜 I can't believe it as she is still my little puppy really! She certainly doesn't act her age and many people still think she is a puppy as she is so dinky and cute! We have had the most wonderful dry weather recently so Sparkle got a birthday run round in the field. We haven't trained our dog walk exits recently so I was very pleased with these! Hopefully she will have this year doing some champs with Bru before starting to wind down agility wise a bit next year.

Here are some recent photos of the birthday girly! 

And some other photos of the gang! Bru and Brooke both passed their Level 3 Hooperstars award! Look how gorgeous the rosettes are!  

Finally a photo of all four shelties looking the same way and actually looking the correct sizes! Branston is now about 39cm so taller than Toad and a couple of cm shorter than Sparkle. I think he is pretty much finished growing now so will be a nice sized medium. 

This photo makes me smile! She is learning to tolerate him and he is learning to avoid her!

Gorgeous trio! 

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.