So we are still in the midst of dealing with Coronavirus in the UK, we went away on holiday while we were in tier 2 (meet groups outside but not go into other peoples houses, shops and hospitality open if covid compliant) and on the day we returned we were in tier 3 and then swiftly into tier 4 less than a week before Christmas. This meant no meeting indoors (Christmas day plans out of the window for many of people) no hospitality or non essential shops open, no meeting outside in groups and a stay at home order. Anyway, we were very please to make it away on holiday and back in time from the Lakes. We had a wonderful time and although the weather was terrible we had some amazing walks! Get ready for some photo spam!
This was our first day walk...we tootled down to Bassenthwaite lake and it was very windy as you can tell by their ears 😂
The next day we went to Buttermere which is one of our fav walks! The older two managed really well as it was a two hour walk (Brodie is 14 in Feb and Brooke is only 9 but struggles with long walks due to her shoulder) and they even had energy for playing in the lake at the end!
Lots of Herdwick sheep to stare at!
Have to do the obligatory pose on the rock! ❤
Loch Ness Sparkle 😁
We went to Ravenglass one day and walked for a couple of hours round Muncaster castle. It was sooooo muddy!!! The way we were supposed to walk to start with was cut off by high tide and so was the poo bin!
Poor Rupert got splattered with mud and was so cross about it!! If you look at his face he is covered in gloopy mud!
We did the walk back to front so finished by walking along the coast
As the Ravenglass walk was a couple of hours we stopped in Whitehaven on the way home and walked the older two for an hour and got some fish and chips!
Brooke was cross that we didn't share our dinner!
The sunset was beautiful
And the dogs enjoyed letting off steam!
We did a group walk from the cottage a few times, this is looking down onto Bassenthwaite lake
The cottage we were staying in was in the group of white buildings on the left of the photo
And we walked past this quirky house with lovely wooden sculptures!
Climbing above Thornthwaite and looking down onto Bassenthwaite
We had to walk through a ford which was quite high due to the rainfall!
One day we climbed Skiddaw, it was very cold and cloudy at the top but the views on the way up and down were absolutely stunning! You can see the gravel path we went up winding up the middle of the photo, just to the left of it was the original very steep path!
Looking over Keswick and Derwent water
Bru was sooooo thrilled to find a patch of snow that he had to roll in it!
Spark had trouble controlling her whiskers!!
We also did a walk from the cottage with younger two up to Whinlatter forest and went into a cafe for the only time on holiday! Dog friendly luckily so we could get out of the rain!
While we were on holiday we actually braved playing Scrabble and found we quite liked it!
The above photo says it all! What a clever little Brooke Bean 💚 We went to our first Hoopers UK show and what a brilliant show! We only had Brodie and Brooke entered as the original date of the show clashed with a workshop that Bru was on in the evening so he wasn't entered. Brooke has hardly ever run or trained with Matthew so the fact they nailed FOUR clear rounds was amazing! And as she was the only dog to do so they won the Golden Hoop award for being the most consistent partnership on the day! She was very excited about it! Individually she came 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in her classes with some tough competition!
Brodie also loved his day out and in Veteran (bear in mind he is against dogs that are over 8 and he is almost 14!!) He got two 1sts and a 2nd! 💙
Here is a couple of runs from each dog!
I had to include these photos as they are the cutest! Brodie was very cross that we had washed his bed so he thought he'd get into the washing basket 😂
The dogs and I have been trying to get out for the occasional longer walk which is a battle when we are working and it gets dark so quickly. I managed to catch this...how does her tongue fit in her mouth?!
And the cutest little pounce!
Rare photo of me but I am making good use of my Christmas mask that my Mum in law made me, its very comfy!
The dogs are currently on an agility break, the last bit I did with Spark was a workshop with Jenny and she had a brilliant time! 💜 She even managed to stay out of the van for the entire 1.5 hours without driving everyone nuts!
Bru hasn't had much of a mention bless him! His tricep muscle is all fixed but he won't be doing agility until Kelluki before Christmas...hopefully he will remember what he is doing! 💛 He loves snuggling with his auntie!
I have been struggling to fit in work with the winter weather this week, it seems to be a never ending round of doing admin and shuffling people around. I hate having to cancel people! The positives from this are that I can spend more time walking my dogs and hanging out with them which is good for the soul ❤
I haven't managed to do much agility recently with our dogs (Bru has been out of action but he did do some hoopers this week) I have done some gridwork with the girls and its given me a kick up the butt to do it more often as it has so many benefits. Here is a little compilation
And some distance work with Spark as the ground has been too soggy for handlers to run around much!
I know I am particularly geeky but I could watch dogs doing grids all day, coming from a horsey background I know how much a rider can influence jump style and take off fir a horse whereas our agility dogs have to work it out for themselves! Well set up grids make such a difference to their confidence and technique
Some random pics from the last couple of weeks!
The first time ever that Bru has actually stayed on his back for tummy tickles!
It was time to dig out the waterproof onesies!
Sables and leaves are a tricky photo combination...thank goodness he has white on him!
Apart from making Christmas cake I also baked some ginger cookies today... I seem to have made masses though!
Out on our walk past the village pond today we saw the rock snake that people have been adding to!
The older two managed a clean dry pavement walk today!
As usual I have let my blog lapse and totally forgotten to update it for a while! We are now in Lockdown number 2 for a month (started on bonfire night) and again eating places and non essential shops are shut but the rest of life seems to be carrying on as usual. This lockdown is England only, Wales had a 'firebreak' two week lockdown over the childrens half term holidays which was very sensible as this time the English schools are not off at all which seems crazy. The number of parents hanging out together walking home from school show that they aren't taking social distancing seriously at all! I'm currently working but there are a few people on FB making anyone trying to carry on with lessons feel very guilty despite guidance saying we can. The winter battle with the weather versus my field has started and in general I think it fair to say that Matt and I need a holiday and a change of scene!
Anyway, on to more exciting news, Matt and Bru competed in the British Agility Novice Stakes which was three runs (agility, jumping and steeplechase) and the three results are combined to find the overall champion. Rupert was AMAZING and came 2nd in the steeplechase, 2nd in the agility (with 5f...coming out of the weaves at the 10th pole!) and 5th in the jumping despite falling over in tunnels! But he WON overall!! 💛🎉🏆 Unfortunately no videos as I couldn't watch!
As you can see in the above pic if you look closely, his dew claw was still wrapped up just in case he caught it! The rosettes and medals arrived in the post and the biggest rosette is bigger than Bru's head! I'm so proud of my boys!! Bru did get checked by our lovely physio after his slip in the tunnels and he had a sore tricep so he has had a week of lead walking and biomag therapy much to his disgust!
Last week I had had enough of fireworks as well, as there were no public displays I think a lot of people were having fireworks in their gardens. So cue a week of very upset Spark shaking and crying every evening 😢 She even went off her food this time.
Her thundershirt helps a bit...she gets a bit anxious on walks around bonfire night too. If only people could see how it affects our pets!
Here are some random pics from the past couple of weeks...first some sheltie grooming! You can see how much hair they all shed!
We got some new waterproof fleece jumpers too for our holiday that hasn't happened yet! All in their colours except for Toad (as they didn't do royal blue) Matt said he looked like he was wearing curtains!!!
Some posing photos from walks!
And some cute sleepy pics!
Last weekend Matt ran the girls round, it was the first time that he had run Spark fro ages and she was really good, here are a couple of pics
In other news I have started soaking the fruit for my Christmas cake! I used Rum last year so thought I'd use Brandy this year
My plants that my Mum gave me are settling into life as soft Southerners!!
And lastly the newest member of J9 agility...Monty! He is an adorable border collie puppy 😍
