Getting chilly!

I have totally run out of time to blog so far this week! I went to a wedding at the weekend and it was lovely to catch up with old friends, the weather was a bit grim but at least the whole day was inside the church! On Sunday Matthew and I had an obedience lesson with Anna with the two youngsters. The dogs worked really well and we have lots of things to do for homework. So when we get all the piles of snow they are warning us about, we will be able to do lots of constructive work in the house! We had some exciting news earlier in the week which means I will have to sit down and concentrate on sorting out some winter training plans, more news in a future post :)

Brodie posing!

Ickle diddle!

Brooke doing her froggy legs - her tail never stops!

Dolly practicing waits, she is really getting it now! We had a fab training session at the end of last week. She did some great weaves and lovely contacts :)

My little Bumble bear is 9 months old tomorrow-eek!! What happened and where did that time go?!

I got her a new toy this morning and she loves it, she like to lean on my legs or feet to chew her toys! Its a pink 'log' that you can pop treats in - haven't put treats in it yet as it seems exciting enough without them!

Wet weekend :(

No shows this weekend, just horrible rain which seemed never ending. I was supposed to be doing horse agility yesterday with Max but it got cancelled as the school turned into one giant lake and I would have needed waders to work him!!

I ended up walking my little Sparkler in a storm, poor girly! Her first experience of hail, thunder and lightning and it all came together. The hail was the worst in her opinion as she felt she couldn't possibly open her eyes and look at where she was going!! The lightning came next and I geared myself up for the thunder not knowing what she would do. I guess walking her near the clay pigeon shooting place has paid off as noise doesn't phase her generally. I found a manky bit of sausage at the bottom of my treat bag so by the end of the walk she was looking forward to the thunder-crazy pup!! :) The shelties are all totally laid back about storms, fireworks and shooting so I'm glad Sparkle is too.

This is Brax after having a bath and tidy up at Auntie Jenni's last week :) She is sooo cute!

There was lots of sofa snuggling at the weekend - Brodie is the only one who doesn't because he gets too hot!

I took some photos this morning as the younger girls were making me laugh so much about the pink ball, there was no squabbling but they both wanted it!!

Sparkle had it first...

Then Brooke pinched it...(note the smug tail wag!)

Sparkle plotted to get it back...

Brooke wasn't going to give it up easily...

But the sneaky collie got it back when Brooke went for a drink!

Dog Vegas-a show of 2nds!

We had a lovely time at Dog Vegas show over the weekend, despite the slightly wet weather! The doglets were brilliant and were really keen. Brodie only did two classes and was 2nd in G7 agility and 3rd in C6-7 agility. He is pictured above with 4 x 2nd rosettes just to show how pretty the 2nd placed rosettes are! The other two are Brooke's for C4-5 jumping and C4-5 agility. Clever bean! Dolly also outdid herself getting 2 x 2nds in C1-3 jumping - fabby spanner. 

The other J9 doglets competing did really well too - Jenni and Rommy got 2x1sts and a 2nd in C4-5 jumping and Paul and Chester came 2nd in C6-7 jumping. Very proud of how well they did :)

Tired doglets all sofa snuggling after the show-don't know what Sparkles excuse was as she didn't do much!

Love little diddle!! What a hairy little bear she is now-amazing to think that last year we could see her collar as she was so hairless. She has come so far since being diagnosed with hypothyroidism a year ago.

I haven't put a picture of Diva on the blog for a while but this was her first rug experience-she doesn't approve of the colour!!

The doglets chilling in the field today :) Brooke was too busy playing with her ball and Spark was ploting how to get it back!!

Chippenham Champ Show

We had a lovely weekend with my Mum staying on her return from America. The dogs were over the moon to see her again and turned themselves inside out with excitement! We had entered Chippenham Champ show a while back so dragged my Mum along to watch. Well... did our clever dogs put on a show or what!! Having not done a champ class with wee Brax for over two years we thought it was time to give it a go, knowing that she was fit enough and coping ok with KC height jumps in training. Matthew (as he put it) did it for a bit of fun! There were 51 entered and some of the best small dogs in the country competing. Our little diddle (twice the age and half the size of a lot of the entrants) was on fire!! She came 7th in the jumping round and 12th in the agility round (veeery slow dog walk) but the times for the jumping round were soooo tight (click to make it bigger)

Here is little Brax in action in Champ jumping

She got through to the Champ Final but unfortunately ran past the tyre which was the penultimate obstacle! Matthew is still kicking himself as if that hadn't have happened Bracken would have got her second Reserve Ticket!! Its hard to tell why it happened. My only thought is that he had pulled her off it once after the dog walk and being a smart little dog maybe she thought a bit too much for herself! Here is her Champ Final run - please excuse the dreadful filming, I was being a nervous wreck!

Brodie and Brooke did very well at Chippenham too! Brodie came 2nd in Grade 7 agility and Brooke came 2nd in Grade 4 agility (with very held contacts, lol!) You can't really see in the photo but they each won a very pretty plate :) 

I really liked these two pictures that I took during the week - Brooke snuggling up to Brodie but he doesn't look too sure about it! Also little miss naked Brooke out playing in the field, her coat is coming through very dark this time round.

A week in the life of Sparkle (aged 8 months)

Hi I'm Sparkle and I thought I'd tell you what I did last week. One of my favourite places is Mum's field - I am a VIP (very important puppy) as I help her set all the equipment out and also keep the field clear of stupid crane flies. This is me catching flies while my big sister Brooke sneaks up behind me, she is very cheeky!

This is me with the rest of my doggy family - Mum calls them shelties. My ears are like sheltie ears so I must be one too, right?!

This is me and my oldest sister Bracken at a fun place called Heartwood. It is lots and lots of fields and woods and I can just run and run :)

We go into St Albans on Saturdays when we don't go to agility parties. My Mum and Dad love having something called coffee so I have to wait around while they sit down - boring!! Last time we went it was cold so they hugged me to warm up - I am very snuggly. This is me and Dad.

I love this lady! She is called my Nanna and she lives in a very far away place called Scotland. She visited me last weekend and I just love snuggling with her on the sofa with my hoof. Here (Mum says if you click on a mouse(?!) you can make the picture bigger) you can see we are having a serious chat.

Sometimes I actually stop running around - here I am with my brother Brodie. He is the best big brother but I think I annoy him sometimes. This is me after my class on Wednesday at Auntie Anna's. We were doing something called heelwork, it was good fun but very tiring! I am very good about letting Auntie Anna hold me now - I can reverse my back feet onto her lap for a sweetie - lots of people laugh at me but its cos I am so clever I think!

When I am really tired I have to sleep with all my feet in the air-its tough being a puppy.

I get to play in Mum's field lots - this is me and one of my toys. I could play all day!

I also like balancing on things and take this very seriously. If my brother and sisters try and join in, I push them off!

Sometimes its nice to have a nap here, it is very comfortable.

We went to an agility party this weekend and although I get to watch and play I can't wait until I can join in! I have been learning little bits at Uncle Dan's field where I have my weekly lesson. I have some good friends in my lesson and I love running around and doing tunnels. 

Brodie and Brooke are very clever - I want to be like them when I grow up. Mum says that Brodie won Grade 7 jumping and agility and Brooke won G4 jumping - wow look at those pink medals. One day I want to win one!!

 Yesterday Mum and Dad took us into Harpenden to do something called food shopping. I like watching people walking past and enticing them to speak to me by staring at them - I am very good at this game of 'catch the human'!

This is me and one of my other favourite toys - I like to carry this round the house all the time, it is funny as I drop it and let Brooke think she can get it and then grab it again - haha!! 

This will make you smile!

Had a lovely weekend with my Mum who stopped over with us on route to America-fab time seeing her and a weekend totally agility free which was weird in a good way! All the dogs loved seeing 'Nanna' again and my Mum couldn't believe how much Sparkle had grown up. I still can't believe that she is 8 months this weekend :)

Anyway, we trained all four doglets at the field on friday - if you really want to be bothered look at my Youtube page but here is a funny video of Matthew proofing his weaves which is guaranteed to make you smile!

Super shelties :)

The doglets have had a crazy agility weekend but loved every minute! We couldn't decide whether to do EASS UKA at Littleport or Ajaxs at Mapledurham so we decided as we live half way between the two that we would do the Masters qualifiers at each. Bracken had already qualified and I was hoping that I could qualify Brodie as that meant all three would then be doing something at the Grand Finals in December and also that I wouldn't just be Matthew's groom, lol!!

Brooke did three runs on Saturday, two nfc's so that Matt could reward her contacts and a jumping. She came 2nd in the jumping, not sure how as she managed to come out of the tunnel on her head - it was a bit wet and slippery and she got mud all over her eyebrows - bless! Her agility run was stunning - her speed over the contacts equated to what she does in training :) Only her nfc runs were filmed over the whole weekend as the video camera died on saturday and we forgot it on sunday!!



Little Brax did lovely clears in both the Masters agility and jumping (the results are combined to get the overall so it's like champ without the final) and finished 3rd overall. Brodie was running like a nutcase iin the jumping and idiot mother managed to get him E'd but he managed everything well. The agility course was great fun - I had an unfortunate refusal as got in his way doing a front cross before the dog walk - I'm just not fast enough on my sore knee so winter training is to focus on blinds and rear crosses! He was such a little dude managing a great running dog walk back to the jump (see course below) and got his weave entry with no help from me as I was miles away-love my boy :) I think he finished 3rd or 4th overall but we as it was late we headed home. Thanks to Amanda Pigg for great fun courses! This is the agility course (click to see it properly)

Yesterday we went to Ajaxs and Brooke did two runs and the older two did Masters again. Brooke puppy WON the jumping class!! It was really fast and flowy and little bean was the fastest over all heights by 3 seconds! It was probably the first time that she ran a whole course at the speed she does in training.

Bracken was on form again and talk about consistent! 3rd in jumping, 3rd in agility (5r) and 3rd overall!! She was running so well and her times were really decent considering again the jumping course was quite fast and flowing. Brodie toad managed to win the jumping with 5r as I tried to send him half a mile away into a tunnel  and he wasn't convinced I meant it! Apart from that he did really well, again I struggled to get into position using front crosses so ended up going to plan B and rear crossing loads of it - stupid knee. In the agility all of the midi's got E'd for going in the tunnel under the dog walk so Brodie and I won it overall!! I'm really proud of all three of our shelties, especially little diddle who was retired this time last year. We are going to have fun at the Finals but lots of work to do before then, for me and Brodie its definitely blind crosses, tightening rear crosses and speeding up his seesaw. Brax needs to keep up with her contact work - she actually managed 2o/2o in the ring!! Bless her tiny cotton socks :)

Sparkley bumble had fun playing at the shows and getting cuddles! Her eyes almost popped out of her head when she saw a canoe race at Ajaxs on the Thames. What was even funnier is one of the people passing in a canoe called out to her and it was my wonderful osteopath Gina who was competing in the race!! Sparkle almost jumped in her canoe!! :)

Took a video of Sparkle catching daddy long legs in my field - she is hilarious!! Brooke keeps looking up as though to say 'what on earth is she doiing??!!'