Eek...Obedience!!

Uh oh, we have entered an obedience show in Februaury! I do like doing a bit of everything with the doglets and seeing as we are on the ESSC Working Section (sheltie club) committee its nice to see the obedience shelties strutting their stuff. They are such amazing versatile little dogs and throw themselves into any activity you want. Ours are hilarious doing obedience training, Brooke spits the dumbell out and wants it thrown rather than presenting it nicely, Brax tries to get BETWEEN Matts legs instead of in finish position at the side of him and Brodie is a lazy toad and lies down in his sit stays-we will be the entertainment I'm sure!! Its a shame that its a sheltie only show as I would love to do a bit with Sparkle as its a nice way to get them working in a ring with a judge and steward. The shelties have all won out of Pre-Beginners so they have the retrieve to do as well-must find the dumbells!!

Here is Brooke doing some heelwork with Matthew back when it was sunny. He has been told many times that she is perfect for obedience and should do more-she is awesome at agility though so it might have to be a retirement hobby for her!



The other slightly scary thing is that I have entered Brodie and Brooke in showing classes! Brodie has been in the ring lots so I'm not worried about him as he will love showing off. Brooke has never been taught to stand let alone be gone over by a judge so LOTS of practice to do! I had a little practice this morning and she was typical Brooke, took it all in her stride and posed beautifully. I just need someone with a camera and I'll be fine!

First attempts at standing her-I had to stack her rather than free stand her to get her feet in the right position-she does have lovely angulation in her hind legs-sod the showing, look at that power for agility!!

Pretty girlie, despite having wild ear hair which will need minor trimming (shush don't tell Matt!)

Brodie had a bit of a bad tummy earlier in the week so he had his butt hair and tail plaited up (thanks to my ace groomer Jenni for the tip!!) It shows his hind legs better-he looks a bit sad as his tummy hurt :( He isn't stacked properly in this picture but he is very four square normally. He needs a ear hair tidy too!

Here is Brodie in action doing some gridwork this week and loving it!! Flying fuzzball!! :D

Sparkle and I went to a 'Injury prevention in agility dogs' worskhop on saturday. It was very interesting as it was run by my Sally Medcalf my dog physio. Sparkle was a good puppy and concentrated very well though all the exercises. Here she is doing a sensory labyrinth with a balance harness on-you can tell how hard we are both concentrating!! She slept soooo well after, bless her x

Canine conditioning and a visit to the dog barn

Wow what a busy weekend!! On saturday I took my two doglets for the second in a series of canine conditioning classes with Gail Baker. It is something that I feel very strongly about and am always aware of, even when training various people who never plan on competing. You wouldn't expect to drag yourself off the sofa and do an assault course once a week with no warm up and a very basic fitness level...yet we think our poor dogs can!! I have to say that the people I train are awesome and most can be found in the car park before a lesson walking their dogs round and doing stretches. Most of the competing dogs regularly see a veterinary physio (who competes in agility herself) a couple of times a year as well.

Brodie and Sparkle were really good and got another batch of homework, it is amazing how much better they have got at the exercises over the few weeks between sessions. Sparkle can now beg! (Well with the help of primula cheese!) Her leg lifts are much better now, this picture was taken at the first session, Miss wobbly pants!

Yesterday we went to the Dog Barn in Banbury as I was teaching a couple of Brooke's nieces as well as some of the owners other dogs. It was great fun and wow those pups are talented! Our girlies had a go each and really enjoyed themselves. Poor Matt was very rusty having not worked either girl properly since the beginning of Dec but they got it together and started to look like a team again. This was Matthew running diddle ginger!

Sparkle worked well, it is such a great venue and I love the fact that she has now worked in nine different venues on equipment and just got on with it. She even seemed to be ok with Matt restraining her :) She did get chased and bowled over by a sheltie in the exercise field which I was pleased about as it was about time she was on the receiving end of it!! She is great around other dogs and people but its nice for her not to be too bold all the time. This was her sucking up to the shelties :)

Mummy-I got beaten up!!

And when she got hold of a ball she went and sat on various peoples feet with it!! Daft pup!

 Mr Toad has been on his holidays at Auntie Jenni's house. It sounds like he is having such a good time with them and his mate Rommy. He is probably enjoying not being beaten up by all the girls! I have missed him like crazy but its better that he doesn't get stressed about Brooke. Jenni has been great sending me pics of him! Here he is all muddy and happy on a walk with his best mate Rommy-super handsome boys :) It is giving Jenni practice at having two shelties too...!

Puppies on hold...

Brooke has decided to come into season finally after being poorly over Christmas. Unfortunately it is too late for puppies this time as they would be here while we are in Holland competing. Anyway, our puppy owners to be have been very understanding so fingers crossed for Autumn beanie babies! Toad is being a very good boy at the moment but will heading off for a couple of nights sleep over at Auntie Jenni's house next weekend. He'll have great fun I'm sure :)

The shelties saw a squirrel, or possibly two as Brooke is looking in a different tree! I have moved my equipment to the other side of the field I rent as it has been so muddy recently. There are chickens wandering around in the trees which provided a lot of entertainment for Brodie!

Sparkle is upset as her favourite Octopus toy got binned this week due to his innards falling out! Last play with 'Octo'-happy face!

And all sad as Octo was not there the next morning...

We haven't started our agility training in earnest again as I was so busy last week but this week hoping to do some gridwork with the doglets and borrow Dolly to start her back training again. Hopefully I can get some videos with any luck!

Lots of pics and some training

After the fun and chaos that was Christmas we are back to our normal routine today. I was very proud of the doglets over the holidays as they all behaved well at various peoples houses and we had my lovely Mum staying as well. We had a bit of a week running up to Christmas with Brooke and Brax being very poorly (Brooke was much worse) and us running around like headless chickens. Fortunately they seem much better now but Brooke lost a lot of weight which was worrying. Brodie, Brax and Sparkle got physio'd and both of the older two had a tight spot so they have been lasered, stretched and are hopefully ready to get back to training after their months break if the rain ever stops!

Brodie watching out of the window at 'Granny's' house!

Sparkle found this Christmas malarky a bit hard going...

Brooke fully recovered and back to being ball mad!!

Brodie and Brooke on our road trip to Wales to visit my Aunt and Uncle-sleeping on a lovely patchwork quilt that my clever sis made for Christmas. Thanks Amy!! x

Brooke and my Mum relaxing at my Aunties!

Brax seeing if there is any dinner left!!

Doglets out in St Albans!

Snuggly gingers curled up 

Yesterday Sparkle and I went on a training workshop with Dave Munnings. It was brilliant fun but I realised how rusty I had got from not doing any training for a month. Poor Sparkler was chucked in the deep end a bit with older dogs but we broke some exercises down for her so she got rewarded more frequently. We did some blinds, ketchkers and front crosses and once I got my brain in gear it all clicked! She was a good puppy-I was really pleased with her being restrained by three different people and coping much better with it than before. HUGE thank you to Becky who owns Sparkles lookalike Sixx as Becky managed to juggle restraining and filming!! It was great to have a chat with Becky as they are similar in character as well as looks, right down to the not liking restraints. It is also lovely to have video evidence of what your arms, shoulders and feet are doing and how my timing affects Spark. I was very pleased that I didn't fall over!! Spark is almost a year old so it is a good time to think about what she has learnt so far and what I need to start working on. I am very proud of my little pipsqueak! This is a video of her last run-you can see what a head start a ketchker gives me on jump 3 versus a pivot. She has a little look at the end as Dave is holding her toy but she carried on working :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

It only seems like yesterday that I was writing a blog post for Christmas last year. This year I am not very organised for Christmas-wrapping still to do, house to tidy, washing... the list goes on!

Looking back on what we have done this year with the doglets makes me happy and exciting about next year :)

BRAX
 Our little diddle pocket rocket started her treatment for thyroid problems and decided that retirement wasn't for her! She managed to win a masters, win a circular knockout heat and get through to a champ final. The icing on the cake is that she has qualified to represent Britain at the IFCS World Agility Champs next year!! The toy height jumps suit her tiny size and we are so looking forward to training her again in the New Year.

BRODIE
My handsome toad has had a fantastic year, he has managed to win a masters round, win the overall masters, win several G7 KC classes and like little Brax he is on the IFCS team to represent GB next year!! Wow what can I say?! Our older two can teach our youngsters a thing or two :) Above all he is always at my side, my best pal and great little companion.

BROOKE
Bean has had her first proper grown up agility season and won into G4 very convincingly. She could have gone up more grades but sensibly Matthew isn't pushing her-what is the point? She needs ring experience and to get over her ditzy runs when Grandma Lian is around! The next thing we are looking forward to with Brooke is the pitter patter of tiny paws at some stage in 2014!!

SPARKLE

Haha!! Where do I start?!! She was a twinkle in her mummy's eye last year and I can't believe that she will be a year old in January-crazy, happy bundle of fun! We have had so much fun doing puppy training, socialising and starting her agility training. She is a clever little girly :) Looking forward to starting contacts and weaves in the next few months-exciting times! 

From this...

To this..my grown up young lady!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR FROM ALL OF THE BURDETT SHELTIES!!!

So much homework!!

Last weekend we went to Lian's beautiful farm to do a training day with Toni Dawkins with Sparkle and Brooke. The weather was very kind to us and although it was a bit chilly we were warmed up by lots of warm soup, hot drinks and Roz's yummy cakes! Sparkle was a good little puppy, she was the only collie in the puppy group, the others were all shelties including Brooke's nieces Tula and Rae. It is a good thing that Spark thinks she is a sheltie!! This is a little compilation of the exercises we were working on



It was good practice to not run all the time and do a combination of dropping the toy in on a tight turn and driving them forward to a toy. I was really pleased with Sparkle as her turns are coming on nicely and she was getting better about being restrained.

Brooke was a different story bless her. She worked quite well and then saw her Grandma Lian and could NOT string a sequence together :( It was even affecting her jumping style to the point she was over-jumping and not reading Matthews cues at all. After Lian went back into the house Brooke did some amazing runs and her jumping style improved no end. If anyone has any ideas about how to rectify this issue I would be really grateful! Lian has tried ignoring her and telling her off verbally for coming near her but it makes no difference. I am sure she will grow out of it at some point but it drives us nuts!!

We finally got round to doing some Christmas shopping yesterday (without dogs) and had all you can eat Chinese for lunch. Only Matthew would voluntarily put a sprout on his plate!!! Apparently it was horrible-what have I tried to tell him for years??!

Matthew got out one of the shelties favourite toys yesterday evening-squeaky egg that Sarah (who has all the lovely hounds) gave us. Brooke won it off Bracken and Spark decided she quite wanted it...

...So Sparkle and Matt had a little chat about who gets to play with the egg...

...and Matt decided to steal it off Brooke bean...and give it back to Brax!! Poor Sparkling!

And Brodie didn't care about who had the egg :)

Thanks to Caroline for filming all our dogs runs-good thing really as we didn't have time!

Here is Brodies Masters jumping (3rd)



And his Masters agility (1st)



And little Brax in her Masters agility (4th) with her new running dog walk :)



I love the way that on the same course, Matt and I do totally different things, lol!!

Master Toad!

Last week passed by in a haze!! I can't really believe it so maybe writing about will help it sink in a bit!

We went to the UKA Grand Finals last weekend and we had Brooke in beginners steeplechase, Bracken in circular knockout and masters and Brodie toad in masters. Brooke was up first and from the moment she entered the ring you could tell she was distracted and a bit overwhelmed. It is quite an atmosphere with the commentator, viewing gallery, electronic starter and LOUD music! We think in hindsight she was probably distracted by having her Grandma Lian there (more on this in another post) but her brother Sonic was awesome winning the midi height Beginners Steeplechase!! :)

Masters jumping was up next and Brodie was the second dog to run in the first height-eek!! The course was pretty fast and flowing (see below-click to see better) and I took a gamble doing a serpentine on 7-9 but it paid off and stopped me cluttering up the box and getting in his way trying to get my dodgy knees to front cross!! He was an absolute dude and ran clear finishing in third behind two other shelties (Fudge is in a league of her own, lol!)

Brax ran the Masters jumping like a wee rocket but sadly got E'd by going back over the wall instead of chasing Matthew to 11. It was a real shame as she was flying and she had the fastest split time. She went to run the knockout after the jumping and got through two rounds which wasn't bad going on a fast course :)

Masters agility was an interesting course and I couldn't wait to have a crack at it! I was one of the last to run and Brodie was soooo excited and up for it. I stood in the tunnel waiting to go out just grinning at having the opportunity to run my amazing little dog at such a great final. Well my little buddy only went and did a nice clear round! It turned out that he was the only one that went clear meaning that we had not only won the agility but won the overall Masters!!!! So he is now officially Brodie MA, UKA Masters Champion!! Bless his little socks, I am so proud of him my one in a million boy. I better not start getting soppy about what he means to me as I won't stop but I owe him so much for making our agility journey so fun. To all of you handlers with nervous, steady dogs please ignore anyone who says you will only get to Grade x, y or z - my little toad used to freak out and run like a snail in the ring (after being attacked at training) and look what he has achieved!!

Brax did really well in the Masters agility coming 4th with her new running contacts. She was possibly a bit tired having worked herself up doing a few runs already but I have never seen her run so fast than up the last straight to the finish!! My friend filmed their runs so will post when I have them :)

This is Master Brodie on the podium looking very happy as he has a sheltie girl each side of him! Well done to Apryl and Amy for their places. It turns out that Brodie finished in second place for the win on spot for the WAO team next year! Amy and Fudge will do a fab job representing England-sheltie power!

Brodie enjoyed watching the action from the stands!!

Excuse the rude picture but his is how he spent the evening after his fun day at the Finals!! :D