Brooke 20 weeks - Proprioception work

We have had a weekend off doing agility as my Mum was down visiting. We had a fab time and Brooke thought that 'nanna' was VERY exciting!! She has lost three out of four of her canine teeth now and is starting to look like a mini adult rather than a puppy. Brooke has learnt a new trick this week which is walking backwards over or onto something.

If only we had know about this fun foundation training when Brax and Brodie were pups. For a start Brax would be less clumsy! :) Exercises like these help the puppy learn proprioception or 'the ability to know where their limbs are in relation to other objects' She is very good and fast at going forwards but we want her to THINK about what she is doing and be able think through a task slowly and use her legs independently. As you can see from these two videos she enjoys this work!





The pole and wobble cushion are not too high (still below her hocks) as we don't want to strain her joints or muscles and we are encouraging her to use her back end as she is quite a long puppy! When she was on the wobble cushion, Matthew managed to get her 'being a bear' briefly which helps with her core stability as well as her balance. She is such a superstar puppy!! :)

Brooke 19 weeks

Our gorgeous girly is now 19 weeks old and is looking like a mini adult now rather than a fluffy puppy! Its hard to take photos of her as she isn't still very often but I managed to get one! She was standing still so Brodie could lick her legs - the two of them are real play mates now and she adores him :)

Now she has lost her puppy coat on most of her body and her adult coat has come through a lovely rich colour. There isn't much hair there yet so she looks lanky but its growing steadily. Her tail is the most amazing black and cream colour and attracts a lot of attention! Brooke is bigger than Brax now and has lost most of her puppy teeth at the front. I don't want to jinx it but so far her ears have stayed perfectly tipped without any help...

Here is Brooke and Brodie playing - the squeaking in the background is Brax desperately trying to get some attention bless her! (She doesn't 'do' rough games!)

Agility Club Show

We only went to the Agility Club show on saturday as we had entered champ and teams each. Brax was an absolute superstar and went clear in both champ rounds and again in the final to finish 4th. The sun was out so the solar powered sheltie was happy :D Little Brooke really enjoyed going to another agility party and meeting lots of shelties! She is now 19 weeks old and just a bit under 12" so has now overtaken Brax in height (just!). I'll try and post some Brooke pictures later in the week.

Brodie didn't fair quite so well as he didn't quite get his weave entry in the jumping and even looking at the video I can't why he went wrong but I'm assuming I was in slightly the wrong place. There were only 7 people that didn't get E'd in the medium jumping so I'm pleased that we got round the rest of it! In the Agility round there was a jump that they had to take the back of right next to the dog walk and I knew I'd have issues! I had managed to pull him off and round at Hinckley but I just wasn't there this time and we got E'd. Amanda had set lovely courses that we really enjoyed running and Brodie and I had fun! I'm not going to post all the videos as they are on my YouTube page but here is Brax in the champ final.



We also did the team events and having done the champ agility I ran over and did teams straight off. Our ESSC medium team ran well and only one dog has done team events before so the other three coped well. Brodie had a very uncharacteristic run past a jump but I think he'd done the Aframe faster than I expected (normally if I rear cross it he is a bit slower) and I just wasn't there. Suppose I'm going to have to take up sprint training!! They ran well as a team and fingers crossed we can all get to the shows next year. Well done team mates! (Brax ran in the small ESSC team and the video for this is on Lians blog)



I was gutted that I couldn't stay into the evening and watch all my friends in the Starters Challenge Finals and be there to support them as I know how nerve wracking it is! I was over the moon when I received a text saying that Paul and Chester the beagle had WON THE MEDIUM FINAL!!! I'm still so excited!! Paul and Maria really deserve it as they put a lot of work into training Chester and he is enjoying his agility so much. He is also enjoying showing people how amazing Beagles can be at agility :D I have pinched a video to put on here and I defy anyone watching not to smile as Chester howls on the A frame - its his party piece!!

Brooke and Rommy play date :)

Brooke went round to play at someones house yesterday! She absolutely LOVED Rommy who is a very handsome blue merle sheltie who is almost one. They played great chase games round the garden but it was the naughty lil minx chasing Rommy in HIS garden!!



I am having slight issues finding a harness that sits well on Brooke at the moment. She is currently in Brodies Rogz puppy one which isn't great (partly as its blue and everyone thinks she is a boy!) but at least its not tight round her 'armpits' like the green one was getting. I've also tried an ezy-dog one on her but as she is quite narrow across her chest it slips from side to side too much. I'm sure its just a lanky stage she is going through but any ideas gratefully received for a long narrow puppy!!

UKA Thames and Brooke 18 weeks

We had a fantastic weekend relaxing on the Saturday and going for a nice dog walk and on the Sunday we went to Thames Valley UKA show. Brax and Brodie were on form and they do love the slightly lower jump heights at UKA. Brodie was a wee superstar and won all three of his classes - agility, jumping and steeplechase!! I was so pleased with how he ran and it also qualifies him for the Tug-e-Nuff Performance Challenge at the UKA Grand Finals in December!! Clever sheltie, I'm so proud of him :)

Brax won her jumping class and came third in her Gamblers. Its funny watching the videos as Brodie struggles to find his stride in the wider weave poles but Brax loves them and goes much faster! Here are a couple of videos of each dog. We only took four videos as we kept clashing with each others runs!


Its the first time that Brodie had run on the aluminium equipment and he has a 'moment' on the dog walk and then was fine on the seesaw!






Congratulations to Jane and Robbie and Jackie and George who both won their Steeplechase classes on their first attempts at a higher level!! (Also thanks to both doggies for making friends with Brooke!) Well done to Helen and young Toby who got a 2nd and a 3rd in the agility and jumping :)

Brooke had great fun being out round the rings making friends with lots of dogs. Two dogs that she particularly liked were both blue merle shelties. One was a young merle dog who she really wanted to play with - he was very handsome! This was her after her busy day


I finally managed to video her on her wobble cushion. She is all lanky and leggy at the moment so organising her legs is an issue!! You can see in the video as well that she has suddenly lost all her puppy coat and looks really slinky and smooth.

Rugby and 'In the Box!'

The dogs and I went off to the local hospice to do another demo last week and again I was amazed and so proud of how well they coped, especially little Brooke. She took great delight in showing off her 'In the Box' trick which the patients loved. She also retrieved her little ball from under peoples chairs and that earned her a round of applause! Here is a video taken a couple of weeks ago of her box trick. Since then she has lost loads of puppy fuzz and has some lovely rich coloured adult coat coming through.



We went to Rugby at the weekend and had some nice runs but the weather was awful on the Saturday so no videos! Brax did two clear rounds in the champ but didn't make it into the final, prob due to getting slowed up in the very wet cloth tunnel. The bigger dogs managed to push through slightly easier but it was a shame for the real lightweights! She did some lovely contacts and considering she doesn't 'do' rain she was a good girl :) She got 9th in a huge C6-7 jumping class on Sunday despite the weather.

Brodie ran clear three out of four times over the weekend and was just out of the placings again in a couple of classes. I'm actually most pleased with the one I mucked up (silly handler!) as I managed to layer weaves from miles away - clever Brodie! Brooke came rounds the rings with us again and enjoyed taking it all in and watching the action.

Well done to Jackie and her lovely spaniel Mr George who won into Grade 4 at Rugby!! Also congrats to Caroline and Bobby for their 4th in a big jumping class :)

East Lothian

We had an exciting adventure up to Scotland last week with Lian and five shelties! My Dad only lives a few miles from the showground so it was an ideal opportunity to visit him as well. We had a lovely, busy weekend and it was also the pups first big road trip and they did really well. They also had soooo much fun playing on the beach and in my Dads lovely garden. Matthew was racing the pups on the beach and he can't get away from them, they are faster then him now! Thanks to Lian for the fab pics.






Lian has put some gorgeous photos she took on her blog There are some great action pics of the dogs racing around and the pups playing :)



On the saturday all three of us had champ class up first. Unfortunately the bloke who does the show processing had messed Matthew's tickets up and had entered him and Brodie into the small champ!!! This meant that he had to run 4th instead of 16 and Brax and him were not warmed up and flustered :( resulting in an E.



Brodie and I then ran the same course and got E'd in the same place!!! I just totally forgot to engage my brain and tell him to come to my side. Poor Brodie looks really confused in the video - bad Mummy!



We both did G5-7 agility before Champ Agility and Brax was 3rd and Brodie was one out of the placings. This happened to us in both the graded agility runs on saturday and sunday 4th but placed to 3rd! I was really pleased looking at the grade 6 times though as he would have won by a good margin in both runs.

Brax and Brodie both ran clear in the Champ Agility. It was a good course, testing but flowing and the dogs enjoyed it! I had to slow Brodie down to run the left side of the dog walk but I was pleased with his rear cross towards the crowd - he wouldn't have happily done that last year :)





On the saturday we left early and went back to Gullane to let the dogs play. It absolutely poured with rain so we met up with Lian, Yvonne and her Mum to have a meal and good chat! It was so nice to catch up properly in the dry and have a lovely meal.

On the Sunday we went to walk the first course and discovered tunnel under Aframe and Dog walk and a TABLE!!! The judge had specified that she didn't want a pause on it but the dog to jump on and off cleanly. Fortunately all three shelties were impeccable on the table! Brax had a cheeky detour in a tunnel but an otherwise good run, Brodie did a nice run (4th again but placed to 3rd!)but I slowed him up to get the dog walk. Lians Sizzle, Brodies lil brother had a brilliant run apart from an unlucky E. All runs are on my YouTube page. It was such a fun course to try though.





Last run of the day was the jumping which all three dogs did a lovely clear in. Great fun blast for the dogs and a nice way to end our Scottish agility adventure! I only caught half of Brax's run :(





The puppies were so well behaved all weekend and had so much fun beating each other up! Being 16 weeks we took them out round the rings to get used to the atmosphere and they were brilliant. The only time Brooke got a bit gobby was when Matthew was running Brax - very jealous! She tugged and played round the rings happily though which was great. She is easily distracted by Sonic but this got better over the weekend and she got her usual focus back on us. She is now spitting out baby teeth all over the place - poor lil gummy bear!! Last video is of Brodie getting the girls to chase him in my Dads garden - he is such a tease!