Rommy came to play!

Yesterday Rommy the handsome blue merle sheltie came round for a walk and general sheltie party! Brooke loved seeing him again and chasing him around in the field :) She is such a cheeky girlie!

Here are some pics - not great quality as on my phone. Rommy is a lovely marked merle, he is related to Brodie through Blenmerrow Barnaby.

Rommy and the ginger girls - Brax looks headless!!

Brodie had enough partying by this stage, bless him!

Obedience Show

Its very rare that the Burdett shelties do obedience shows but I think its great for them to do for a change - very different from agility in so many ways but attention and focus with distractions around is vital in both. Motivation and the dog WANTING to work with you is important in both and its great groundwork for a young dog to get ring experience with judges, stewards, dogs barking, etc

Brodie and Brax have done bits of obedience before but it was Brooke's first time in the ring and we hadn't done masses of work on her stays so she didn't do them. Her heelwork was lovely despite the odd distraction and she held her wait and even managed the finish! What a superstar puppy :) Love her! She didn't get placed but she got her first ever rosette. The judge gave her a special rosette for her lovely heelwork and for showing so much potential at 7 months - you might say we were a bit proud of her! Here is her test - sorry about the video shaking, I was quite nervous for them!



Brodie and Brax did really well too, Brax got a 6th in Pre Beginners, 2nd in Beginners and Brodie came 4th in Beginners (only 0.4 marks behind Brax!) Very pleased with how they worked, particularly Brodie as he had a chunk of hair taken out of him by a show dog on the way into the venue :( No apology from owner and although Brodie was a bit worried at the time, he worked nicely in the tests. In Novice he did well in his test but lay down in his sit stay as I think he was quite tired by then. We are doing an obedience training day with all three of them in a few weeks time which will be interesting!!

Talking of training days, we have some fab agility ones booked up for wee Brooke! Coordination, balance, motivation, drive and basic obstacles are some of the things we'll be focussing on. I'll try and keep the blog up to date as to how we get on.
These cute pics were taken by my sister on holiday - thanks Amy!!

Brooke 7 months already!

Our gorgeous pup has turned 7 months today - I can't believe it as it only seems like yesterday when we met her for the first time. She is such a beautiful young lady, great attitude to work and so very affectionate. She has recently discovered the joy of sitting on laps when its cold and will really snuggle up! We just love her to bits and can't imagine life without her :)

We have been away for the last week in the Peak District and also celebrated my Mums 60th Birthday in style with a big party! Despite my Mum feeling under the weather, she had a great time and we all enjoyed catching up with people that we hadn't seen for ages. There was about 40 people in total and the shelties and Tresca (my sisters dog) had fun mingling with people and hoovering up the food that was dropped!! The picture below was taken just before all the guests arrived - what a wonderful team of people that hosted the party and organised food.

The rest of the week we spent doing some lovely walks and some included walking to dog friendly pubs! We stayed at Wheeldon Trees farm which is very dog friendly and the owners Martin and Deborah are lovely and so helpful. The cottages are fantastic and there are enclosed dog paddocks as well as the fab walks. Also every cottage has an enclosed patio or garden area.

Here are a few pics from our holiday, Brodie's face is hilarious on the photo below :)

Watch out Britains got talent...

What a talented puppy! For fun I had taught Brooke to put her back feet on a small pile of videos which she was quick to learn. Then inspired by Silvia Trkman's puppy trick training, I thought we could turn it into a handstand. Well, Brooke decided to skip about 5 stages and got it straight away! She cracks us up though as she is so serious about working :) Here are the 3 short videos of her attempts at handstands




And much quicker to get it in this clip

Obviously she is young so we have kept the training very short and sweet as with everything at the mo but she loves it. We did another demo at an old peoples home on friday and she was a star. The other two really enjoy doing the demos as well and payment for them came in the form of ginger biscuits! Agility wise we have nothing else planned so can concentrate on Brooke training, keeping Brodie ticking over and retraining Brax's contacts - watch this space!!

Our 5th Anniversary!

Last week was our 5th Wedding Anniversary and I just have to say how lucky I am to have such a wonderful husband who has been so supportive of me in general but also in my new buisness venture. He is also my best buddy to bounce ideas off, have a laugh with and its so nice to see so much more of each other - life is definitely too short!! (Still wondering why I didn't do this sooner?!) It is also so lovely to be able to share a hobby with someone who understands the highs and lows, helps with training issues and shares your excitment at a good clear round! It seems like only yesterday that we got married yet I can't remember not being with Matthew, I guess he has put up with me for 11 years now! :)

Anyway, I got very exciting pressi's from Matthew, a new crate, a slow cooker and a Manners Minder which I have wanted for a while! For those of you not in the know, a Manners Minder is a remote controlled dog treat dispenser so it is excellent for teaching the dog independent behaviours. Already Brooke has been going up the hallway over her little jump bumps to it - what a great game!! I haven't got any videos of her with the Manners Minder yet but here is a clip of her going over the jump bumps to her ball.

We also managed to get her up to the arena to do a tunnel somewhere other than puppy class. Here she is racing through a slightly bend tunnel for the first time.



I have to say a huge WELL DONE to Paul and Maria with Chester the Beagle as he has now won into Grade 5!!! What an amazing first season they have had going from Grade 1 up to 5 in as many months and winning the Agility Club Starters Cup along the way! Very proud of you all for all your hard work and dedication :)

Brooke 6 months Birthday!

Brooke celebrated her half birthday with a lovely walk in the morning, a big biscuit at lunch and a fun time at school in the evening!

Here are the shelties on their early morning walk
Brooke had fun at school again and I finally managed to take some little videos of her. (I must explain that Matthew is wearing smart trousers and trainers because he had just driven from his work in Kent and hasn't got time to go home first! ) The first video is her doing turns off lead and from watching this back I think we'll do obedience if agility doesn't work out - what a trot!!

This video is Brooke practising her elephant trick but as with all behaviour, its very different with distractions present. She is tentative and unsure as her box is a lot smaller and she doesn't normally have 6 dogs watching her! Bless her she manages ok with a bit of help from Matthew.

The last video is Brooke going through the straight pipe tunnel which she loves!

Brooke photos

Here are a few pics of Brooke puppy out on a walk this morning. We went without the others to get her a little more confident about meeting other dogs and she was very good - even wanted to play chase with a HUGE pointer! The photos also show what a huge amount of hair she is developing round her neck and chest! The pics below are her practising her 'waits' - what a cute expression :)