We went off to Scotland for our holidays and had a lovely time catching up with my family. We did Dundee Champ show on the way north and Brooke made it into the champ final and then was wild!! Spark got faults in the jumping due to a badly times verbal from me causing a refusal and also had some poles so although it wasn't an E in wither round we didn't manage to get into the final. Unfortunately Bracken was unwell for the majority of our holiday which was very worrying and a bit stressful! I have to say thank you to my lovely family for coping so well with five dogs staying!! Thanks to Amy for giving up her bedroom and to my Mum for cleaning up Brackens first ever number 2 accident inside...I'm still mortified!!!
Here are some holiday snaps :-)
Bennachie walk
Venturing north! Brax got a carry on this walk bless her
Family walkies!
Stone stacking :-)
Bru at Brewdog!
Daviot stone circle
Down to Gullane to stay with my Dad, the doglets enjoyed racing around the garden!
Up Trapain Law
Brodie waiting for the gulls!
Down to Wilton champ show and met up with the Licosateria family! From l-r Bru, his full brother from a previous litter Sirius, their Dad Sonic and his sister Brooke. Typical Bru having his tongue out!
And a pic of Miss Brax and her ladybird as she is cute!
Wilton champ went well, Brooke was awesome as despite having faults in the rounds she made it thru to the final and finished 6th despite a spin into the weaves!
Sparkle bear was awesome in the champ agility round but we couldn't get it together in the jumping! She won the agility, woohooo!! We are yet to make a champ final so this is next years goal!
Next time I will do a run down of what all the dogs are doing agility wise as this post is getting a bit long already!!
So after my last blog update being about wet weather and shows being cancelled, believe it or not but we are now in the longest heatwave I can remember in my life time! I literally haven't worn anything other than shorts for six weeks now, I have the worst tan lines ever and haven't taught in an afternoon for weeks as its been 28 degrees plus and today is currently 32 degrees!!! As a result the dogs are struggling with getting enough exercise, have hardly had any training and we have missed some shows as its been too hot.
Our garden is looking a bit dried out and brown! We have been watering our veg and so far have successfully grown runner beans, courgettes, peas, beetroot, raddish, lettuce and spinach beet. We should hopefully have some potatoes, tomatoes and carrots too!
The pots have been pretty too but any photo is improved by adding shelties!
Bru and Auntie Brooke on a rare cooler morning in St Albans!
If only my feet were as brown as my legs!!!
Beginning of July I managed to see my family which was lovely! My Mum and sis came down and Amy and I went to Harry Potter studio Tour which was great fun!! We spent the morning at Woodside farm, this is my Mum making friends with a llama!
Amy and Wizard chess!!
Sister selfie!
Diagon alley :-)
We then went onto the Hyde in Worcestershire for a reunion with my Dad's side of the family. My Aunt and Uncle having breakfast outside!
Dad, Amy and Ruth
While we were away for the weekend Matt went to agility with the doglets, someone managed to snap a pic of the camera shy collie!
Shows wise we haven't done very well generally! We have been doing champs and Spark and I have been E'd in every one 😂 at non champ shows she has been great and won classes so I think its my nerves playing a part. This was our champ agility at Axstane and it was just one little thing!
Matt has had similar luck but for him it seems to be refusals, particularly on tunnels. Brooke is a monkey as she is good in training! We are going to try some dog swapping to see if it makes a difference. This was Brooke in the Olympia qualifier on Sunday at Chipping Norton, soooo close! Even with her whoopsie time wise she was 6th and 5th qualified so she would have been joining her son Squidge in the Olympia semis...clever little ginger boy!!
Bru has been coming on well and loving the teeny bits of agility he has done. He started weaves before it got too hard to get them in the ground!! And he has done a couple of workshops with Amanda and Dan which he loved.
Brax and Toad are doing well, Toad is the most consistent of our agility dogs by a mile and he seems to be coping really well with the heat!
Brax is managing ok and still is loving snuggling up in the biggest bed in the house!!!
I don't really want to be updating my blog, its been a horrid week in so many ways and I really don't want to have to say anything about it so I will focus on the positives. Starting on a little negative however in that Spark came into season a month early which means that she missed Vyne and Beacon champ classes. Hatton Rally was cancelled cos of the rubbish weather so at least she didn't miss out on that at least!
Brooke has had a case of 5 fault-itis in three out of four of her champ runs over the two shows. One of the 5's was a mystery as we had no idea what she did wrong and it was a beautiful run!
And in both of her runs at Beacon she ran past a tunnel!
Brodie was awesome at Beacon and qualified again in 2nd place for the LHO steeplechase qualifier! He loves the fast flowing courses :-) He had a lovely jumping run at Vyne as well but was out of the places
And little Bru has been a superstar, he had a go at Hoopers at Vyne show and worked so well!
Bru has also had his first time doing mat work on a dog walk plank, he is really working it out nicely
We had a busy weekend doing agility at Wallingford on the Saturday and Rally at Best Paw Forward on the Sunday. The girls were on fire at agility! Spark repeated a feat only done once before (doesn't bode well for champ!) and went clear in all three of her runs getting a 1st, 2nd and 3rd! Brooke bean won a jumping too 😊 Brodie was the last to run and was very over excited by the time we actually got to the ring...he went like a rocket but got a refusal!
Sparks jumping win
Brookes jumping win
On Sunday went off to Rally and the shelties had the best time! It was Bru's first competition and I had no idea what he was going to do but he was fantastic! He managed to score 199 (out of 210) and was just out of the placings. Brooke came 4th in her second Level 3 with an 'excellent' score of 195 and Brodie won Level 4 with score of 199! He now has three excellent scores so moves into Level 5 and has his RL4.Ex title after his name.
First champ show of the season and we had serious doubts about running when we turned up at the showground! Despite the show deciding the ground was fine when we got there is was pretty boggy in day parking and as we walked over to the champ ring our hearts sank as it was muddy where people had been walking the course. After watching a few people run and slip everywhere we decided football boots were the best option and actually it was ok with studs on. The dogs line was fine and I didn't see any of the dogs slip, only some that were very reluctant to run over the patch of mud by the tunnel! Spark and me got E'd because I totally lost connection with her and didn't work a jump but she did all the hard bits really well!! Brooke was amazing apart from forgetting how to weave, the rest was perfect! 😂
The agility course was lovely too, sadly I missed Brookes run as it clashed with Brodies steeplechase run. She was a good girly and only got marked 5f on the dw which meant she made it through to her first champ final! Spark ran lovely again and just one oopsie from me where I trusted her to take the dw a bit too much! Her contacts and weaves were great again tho, I quick released her seesaw and then tested her dog walk stop and she nailed it!
Brodie won the LHO steeplechase qualifier so he has a place in the finals in August! Not bad for an 11 year old, he loved all the tunnels!
Brookes champ finals run was so good (and nerve wracking to watch!) She had some faults but ran nicely and we know that homework is weave entries, tunnel commitment and dog walks! So lovely to see her running at all given the last couple of years, she is one special girly! Nice that a sheltie won the ticket and Brookes little brother Tye won the reserve :-D
Little Bru dude has turned 11 months 😎 He is such a fun puppy and picks things up really quickly. Here he is in a lesson from a couple of weeks ago
https://youtu.be/lgynjpUoVSM
Brooke has turned 7 years old which is crazy as it feels like yesterday that we picked her up! She spent part of her birthday at her Grandma Lians house and got to see puppies and her brother Sonic
Brax turned 13 last weekend and had the best day going as she saw my Mum (aka Nanna) She also had her hair done recently by her auntie Jenni as her chest beard was getting very impressive!! She looks much smarter now!
The morning of Braxs birthday we went to Paws at Play show to reward some contacts. Brooke won her jumping run and pushed Brodie into 2nd!! How rude 😂
We have had a couple of days of sun and it was amazing! Nothing can describe how truly dreadful this winter has been, it has been wet, cold, snowy and miserable. I can't wait for more sunshine!
Last weekend we went to the ESSC Working Section AGM. As trophy secretary I have to give out the annual awards. There are trophies for agility, obedience, working trials, junior handler, rally and veteran dog and some of them are sooooo old! I'm giving up this year as have been doing it for 7 years but wanted a pic of all the trophies together.
The league rosettes are presented there too. Brodie won the L4 Rally league and came 4th in G7 agility and Brooke bean came 2nd in L2 Rally league and 6th in G7 agility. I'm biased but what talented doglets!
Its been so cold here, this was the start of the week when we were doing pyjama walkies with a sprinkling of snow
And this was a few days later! A thick covering of snow again, we have had so much this year!
Not that Spark is complaining as she looooves the snow!
Brax isn't so impressed by it! We cleared her a little path to get to the garden :-)
Bru thought it was amazing fun!
These two are snow monsters as well, Brooke likes to do zoomies in it and Brodie uses his nose as a snow plough!
As a result the snow we were supposed to be at this weekend has been cancelled which although its a shame is so sensible! Hopefully we will get some nicer weather again soon, I hate not being able to work!
