Brooke agility in slow mo

I've finally managed to work out how to get video's in slow motion-yay!! I'm what my sister would call a techo numpty :)  I posted this video on Facebook at full speed but I just love watching her striding over the first three obstacles in slow motion. It also shows how much she has benefited from gridwork as a young dog.

Brax didn't do any as a youngster and isn't that confident about her striding, she used to have a lot of poles when she started competing. As a consequence, I did a bit with Brodie after he started training (at a year) mainly as it was something we always did with young horses and I felt that he should after Brax's issues. The real eye-opener was going to Gemma Hanekoms brilliant gridwork training day with Brax a few years ago. She really highlighted good and bad jumping styles and how if a dog was confident in its striding then it would take strides out therefore saving half seconds all over a course. I now use the video as a tool to check our dogs striding and if necessary do some extra gridwork sessions with them.

We did a UKA show today and Brodie was a good boy in all three of his classes - he won his gamblers :) The jumping was a fab run and he was really going for it and just ran past the tyre which was the last obstacle. He had got distracted running up the last line and as he was ahead of me there wasn't much I could do - think I need to take up sprint training!! He was fab in the agility and did all the complicated stuff and then I moved too much on a pull through and he back jumped. Bad mummy. I was soooo pleased with him as he was really fast and confident all the way round all his runs. Its the first year he has competed where he hasn't had a 'spook' in the ring at something. I know it sounds silly but its a massive step forward for us :-D

It was VERY scary to realise that Brooke can compete the next time we are at a show!! Watch this space :)

Photos and Brooke pupdate - 15 months

This was Max trying to pretend he hadn't been asleep as I walked up the field to catch him!! I love the look on his face - proper just got out of bed look!!

I finally got a photo of Brooke doing 'froggy legs' she does it all the time and we have started to put it on command. I also have a video of her doing froggy legs on my YouTube channel.

This was Brooke and Brodie on a walk today with their mate Jess, the sun was out and it was just lovely to be outside and stay dry :)

Below is a picture of Toad fresh from his bath. My friend Jenni  is a groomer and my shelties adore her! He looks lovely and fluffy and is sporting a smart bow - Brookes turn next as Brax got done last month.

Below is Brodie and Brax on the field, Brooke didn't want to pose for a picture so I took one of the professionals who will sit and pose for ages bless them!

Anyway, enough photos! I can't believe that Princess Brooke is 15 months tomorrow. She is training a couple of times a week with Matthew and I pop her through the weaves another couple of times a week just to get the idea in her head. She is a real worker, tries so hard and is soooo easy to motivate - just a dream to train :) I'm sure we'll have wobbles with her but its all part of learning. She had a lesson with Dan last week as its great to have someone 'outside the box' to highlight things that we need to work on. Homework includes building value for tunnels, front crosses and getting her upright weaving before next lesson (next week). Happy to say unlike school days, we are loving our homework! Its amazing what you can achieve by doing a little bit often and I wonder how we ever managed to get Brodie and Brax trained by only doing a class once a week. I took a video of her full height A Frame and weaves.

I mentioned last time about running someone else's dog and I did my first training session with her at the weekend. I have trained her and her owner  for a while but when offered the chance to train and compete her and I wasn't going to say no! Dolly is a chocolate Working Cocker Spaniel who is coming up 2 years old and she is just lovely!! She has a good grasp of the basics except weaves (work in progress!) and I'm hoping to get her out at some UKA shows to do NFC this year and hopefully KC eventually. Her and Brooke may be starting in Grade 3 at the same time with any luck :) At the moment my timing is all out but we'll get there! Here is a little clip of our first session together.

A-Frames and Trec

It was so nice to have a let up in the rain over the weekend! Last Friday I took the dogs to Quad Paws again to do three classes with Brodie. I would have run Brax but the weather was not nice enough and she is a bit of a diva! Brodie did a jumping, agility and games class (snooker) and clever puppy won them all! I'm so pleased that we managed snooker as it was quite a tricky set up and we were the only ones in beg, novice and senior who did it in time!

On Saturday I had a lot of training to catch up on at the field as I'd had to cancel a few sessions during the week. What a great bunch of enthusiastic handlers and lovely motivated dogs :) Matthew and I also did a bit of work with Brooke as she has just started doing the A Frame. We only did it low a few times as she was getting it quickly. She did do full height but I have no video of that yet. This was Brooke doing the low A Frame with a couple of obstacles before it.

On Sunday I went with my friend Kate to a Trec competition with the horses. It was soooo much fun and Max and Speedi were awesome!! We had to do a 'control of paces' section first which is to canter as slowly as possible and walk back as fast as possible through a 100m corridor. Kate's mare Speedi is an Spanish horse and is great at cantering very slowly and walking very fast!! Next we went off separately for the obstacle section. This involved things like rein back between two poles, opening and closing a gate, weaves poles (horse distance apart!!) leading them up a step, through a trailer and riding through a narrow corridor. It was all set on Keysoe's cross country course so there was big canters between each obstacle! We also had to jump a ditch, log, hedge, step up (with a ditch), go through the water complex and over a bank. The nice thing about Trec is you can miss out anything you don't want to do. Max and I gave up at the gate as the time was 10 mins to do 16 obstacles so I knew I couldn't waste time. In the afternoon we had a 12km ridden orienteering course and we only got lost once! Lots of lovely bridleways and places to canter :) There are checkpoints and each section is timed and has an optimum pace so you have to guess how fast you are going. We had such a great time and so did the horses! We haven't had the results yet as one pair got lost and hadn't got back until after we left!

The other exciting news is that I have the possibility of running someone's dog at agility both in training and at competition. I'm soooo excited about it as she is a stunning young dog who has got the basics and loves to work. It will be good for  me as a handler (as running Brodie is like putting on comfy slippers bless him!!) oh and just a bit of a difference from the shelties...! More about her at a later date :)

Quad Paws UKA

The shelties did their first show for a month on saturday! Boy did they have fun and so did we :)  The weather was kind to us and it was lovely to meet up with agility friends again. We only entered two classes each with Bracken and Brodie as one of the main aims of going was to get Brooke out and about round the rings and playing over a practice jump. Its not long until she can do a NFC run at a UKA show which is very exciting and also quite nerve-wracking! She is managing to string things together quite well and had her first go on the Aframe this week (bull in a china shop puppy as normal!) so probably no 'big dog' agility yet but no hurry! We just want her happy and focussed at shows.

Sorry went off on a Brooke tangent! Brodie and Brax both won their jumping class (Brax is champ level and Brodie is senior). I was really pleased with my jumping run as Matthew suggested taking an alternative route to everyone else (he normally does!) and although it was risky it was faster. I love the tactics of course walking and although I'm the first to admit I'm not very competitive I am trying to take the attitude of trying to 'beat the course' this year. Its one part of teaching that I enjoy immensely with my advanced class and we set up courses and run them in different ways. Its great to work out what works best for each pairing and what needs work on. I know that Brodie for example is fastest chasing me round a course and struggles with rear crosses to the right after his back problem last year. Lian (Brooke's breeder) kindly took a video of Brodie's jumping run.





Brodie and Brax ran over the same course for the agility as it was the CSJ quailfier which means the two fastest dogs from novice, senior and champ combined qualify for the finals in December. We hadn't gone with any intention of qualifying but for getting round the course clear! Brax came 2nd to Lian's Sizzle (Brodie's brother) who qualified - well done Sizzle and Lian!! Brax was 3rd fastest overall so didn't qualify but sooooo pleased with her contacts as they have been neglected a bit! Here is her agility run thanks to Colin and Lian.



Brodie won senior agility on the same course (no video) and was 2nd fastest overall so has qualified for the finals!! I was pleased that I managed to get him round clear as it was quite a clever course and only one novice dog went clear and only a handful in senior and champ. I handled it differently from Matthew with Brax as I flicked him the other way round the wing before the weaves. It was a tight entry but he did me proud! He had such a great time and even got to share some of Lian's ice cream as a well done!!
Matthew borrowed Lian's Sipzie for a steeplechase run and they did really well and WON the class!! She really made Matthew run!!




Oh, Brodie and Brax have had their eyes tested by Professor Bedford today and both passed with flying colours - he even commented on how well behaved they are!! :-D

Breed show and Brooke weaves

Brodie and I went to a breed show today and my wee toad was such a clever boy coming 4th in his class! My aim is to do a few more shows this year and then show him at Crufts next year. He has his stud book number (from his agility RCC) so already has lifetime Crufts qualification. He really enjoyed his day out and its nice to dabble in something different occasionally, especially as I have the worst cold this week so running around doing agility would be out of the question! Thanks to my friend Eve who drove today and kept me right as its years since I have shown. Her gorgeous springer Flint got 3rd in his class so our boys did us proud!

Now we have our own set of weaves, we can get to work training Brooke more seriously - little princess is 14 months today!! She did three V-weaves last monday, six on tuesday, thursday and friday. Each session is very short, only about 5 - 10 mins and we are teaching her with her manners minder (best invention ever!!) Matthew took a video of her weaves today and on her 6th session she is really getting it. She is a clever little bean :-) We are sending her from slight angles and doing recalls, sends and being alongside her. Our hallway is quite narrow so no chance of teaching her to be too dependent on our movement!

I also have to say a massive well done to Brooke's breeder Lian with Brodie's brother Sizzle who has come 4th in the World Agility Open Games competition!! The England team has done really well so massive congratulations to all of them. We really enjoyed the experience last year as the team is so supportive and its amazing walking the courses and watching the best dogs in the world compete.

Dreams can come true!!

Well after years of hankering after our own equipment, we finally have some!! It depended on being able to rent a field and we found somewhere only 5 mins drive from the house, best of all there is a toilet and coffee shop on site!! To be honest, so much agility now relies on being able to practice often enough so our dogs will benefit enormously from short regular sessions. Also Brooke is now old enough to be doing weaves and contact training and she loves her new equipment!!

Over the weekend we went to Sheltie Camp where Matthew and I were doing the agility training side for the two days. We had hired a transit van to take our shiny new equipment from the factory straight to Surrey. The van doubled up as a hotel for the weekend - not a warm experience!! Brooke got to travel on the front seat of the van and enjoyed looking out!

This is the new kit - very adjustable jumps which are light and easy to move and all rubber contacts :)

At sheltie camp there was the chance to do Rally, tracking, obedience, heelwork to music and agility! This is Brodie doing scent work for fun in the ball pool. He also did some tracking training to find sets of keys and was really good at it - well it did involve food!

Lian took some amazing photos of our doggles - this is Brax with one of the obedience sendaway markers!

My handsome boy!

Princess Brooke puppy and her Bridget Jones knickers!!

All together!

The shelties had such a great time and we really enjoyed training. There was everything from young dogs just starting to grade 7's and so many lovely, talented shelties! I look forward to seeing them again.

This is a video of Miss Brooke doing a short sequence at camp - first session on equipment for about 6  weeks cos of her split pad so she was a bit mad!!

Bank holiday and tough decisions...

On saturday we went to St Albans market for a wander round with the shelties. It never fails to amaze me how many people will stop to say hello to them. They love the attention and we also used our town visit as a good opportunity to do some focus work with Brooke and Brodie around the pigeons which are everywhere!! 

We took the non dog car which mean Brodie has to be on the back seat in his car harness - he really enjoys looking out the window and although this photo is blurry he has his 'smiley ears'  and slightly smug face that he is not in a crate!! Bless my little toad!! 

Brooke puppy is still on lead walks with her foot covered due to her cut paw pad :(  She is coping with it really well and being so good about wearing her boot to walk in. Its a boot my clever sister made (she is a saddler) for her dog and she has kindly let me borrow it as it is MUCH easier than a sock and poo bag combo!!

On sunday I did dressage again. Max and I had entered a higher level this time so I was competing against my instructor and other talented people - eek!! I was very proud of Max pony though as he got 60%, mostly 6's (each movement is scored out of 10) and was only 7% off the winner. No placing but thrilled with  they way he went and the fact I remembered my test!! :)

On monday we went to the EABCC show at Littleport. We actually didn't have a first class in the ring and thought we'd have a leisurely start but found out sunday night that they desperately needed someone for the tannoy and ring managers. Matt and I have ring managed several times so thought that was a better option than tannoy! We had a great enthusiastic band of helpers who were all lovely and cheerful despite the foul weather we had after lunch. It makes such a difference having people even giving up half an hour of their day to keep the rings running smoothly. Not wishing to get on my soap box but there are so many agility competitors that don't ever pitch in and help and are rude to the ring party on top of that :(  A simple thank you for the poor leads person (who has trudged back and forward with hundreds of leads in the rain) goes a long way and after all, good manners cost nothing. 

Being ring managers and having bad rain meant that Matthew only did one run with Brax and I managed two with Brodie. I told him to go the wrong way in the steeplechase (bad mummy!) and got E'd and he was clear in the C5-7 jumping (4th but placed to 3rd) I didn't do the agility as it was last in the day and it was so muddy by then. Brax would have been 4th in the steeplechase but they placed to 3rd and tried her hardest but actually measured a couple of jumps :(  

We pretty much decided on the way home not to jump her KC small height again. She is so tiny and obviously is much happier at the UKA height so we will stick to that for the rest of the year. Brodie ran lovely over the KC height but again finds UKA midi more comfortable. Its a shame as we won't be seeing much of some of our friends who only do KC shows this year. Assuming Brooke's training goes well we hope to be back at the big KC shows next year. Brax will love doing anysize next year and Brodie might do the odd champ again. The future is filled with a lot of promise! We saw Brooke's older full sister Tig yesterday with her owner Sally and Tig did some lovely runs and got some great placings. They are so alike in a lot of ways and Tig is a real workaholic too! Shame I didn't get photos but the weather was so gloomy.