First show of the year!! AWC UKA

We have done our first show of the year and its nice to get back round the rings seeing everyone again! Before I get onto show news, the doglets have had a busy week. Brax and Brooke had their hair done by their Auntie Jenni-this is little Brax after her bath and tidy up. She looks so much better for a trim! I know its not the done thing with shelties but I asked Jenni to take her belly hair shorter (bits of it were on the ground!) and neaten up her ears and leg hair. I think she looks amazing-thanks Jenni!!

Brax getting special treatment at Matts Mums yesterday-she gets away with anything cos she is cute!

Brooke had a bath at Jennis as well and looks very shiny and smart too-its been nice weather this week so they have had lots of chill out time running round the field.

So we went to our first show of the year on Saturday which was extra exciting as a couple of fellow J9-ers were competing as well. I was very proud of Willow beagle, her first time in the ring and she worked beautifully, she could have won the Beginners Steeplechase but her Dad sensibly took the wrong line! Jenni and Rommy did some brilliant nfc contact work and came 2nd in his steeplechase :)

Our guys did really well too. Brax came 3rd in champ power and speed and it was nice as Matt could take his time making sure she got her contacts before blasting round the jumping section. Brax did a lovely nfc round in champ agility and so did Brooke. Unfortunately Brookes only competitive run (we only did two runs with each dog) was power and speed and a small child ran at the (netted luckily!) ring fence right next to the weaves so she came out to investigate. Dolly did some lovely contacts after being E'd at the start for going up the A frame instead of into the weaves and clever little spaniel won her steeplechase class! Brodie was a very excited boy and did a stonking run in the agility but got a refusal for hesitating before the tunnel (I was in the wrong place!) but still managed to win bless him! He also came 2nd in his steeplechase class so good, positive runs with all of them :D 

Sparkle came too and was a very well behaved girly round the rings, hardly any screaming at the dogs running and nice focus and toy play! I love this picture of her toy on her head-she is a wally!

Birthday girls!

Our two lovely sable girls had birthdays in the last week-Brooke turned 3 last Wednesday and little Bracken is 9 today!! Bracken is showing no signs of growing up at all and is still as fiesty and naughty as ever! We have a lot to thank that crazy little ginger for-she introduced us to the world of competitive agility and we have met so many friends through people coming up to talk to us about Bracken! She is definitely unique and we love her to bits!

I can't believe that Brooke bean and her brother Sonic turned three. She is so different to Bracken in so many ways-she is much more cuddly and 'sweet' at home but they are both crazy about agility and toys! Much less fiesty than Brax but just as gobby :D

Here is a video of Brax and Matt having a run round at the field-she doesn't act her age at all! 

Photo shoot!

We had a fun photo shoot for our sponsors Jamieson's yesterday. The sun was out and it was t-shirt weather so perfect conditions to get some really lovely pictures. I can't wait to see how the photos turn out and the dogs were superstars dong action shots over jumps and through the weaves. I was very impressed by Sparkle who did a couple of small jump sequences with Claire (the photographer) sitting on the ground and she didn't run over to see her at all. Gives me hope that she might not get too distracted in the ring!

This was my not very good attempt at an action shot!

Still shots of shelties are much easier!

The girls got to do a bit of training with Matthew as well so they were very happy. I think we are all ready for the show season to start now-bring it on!! I have managed to do some training with Dolly a couple of times this week. Her weaves are more reliable and her seesaw has sped up a lot so the little bit of winter training we have managed has paid off. Here is a pic of Dolly and her sister Dixie flying! Look at those happy spanner ears!!

Little Diva was enjoying the sun yesterday as well! 

I'm off to teach at the Dog Barn again tomorrow-Brooke is helping me work out which course to use! I did a couple of contacts workshops at my friend Helens on Saturday and it was good fun to teach some lovely dogs and handlers. Matt did one of my workshops with Brooke who enjoyed it lots but it showed up what we need to work on :)

After such a busy weekend all they wanted to do was sleep..zzzzz

Next weekend is possibly first show of the year-exciting!! Also Sparkle has just started her weave training so watch this space...

Crufts visit and some photos

On Friday I went to Crufts with Jenni and Rommy as their groom as they had qualified in the YKC Senior Jumping. We had such a great time and for first time at Crufts they did so well-Rommy coped with the atmosphere like a pro. He was just wanting to say hi to everyone while we were walking round but the moment he was in the ring he was so focused and worked really well. Unfortunately they had 5 faults on the weaves as they had duct taped them to the floor with half a roll of duct tape that was everywhere!! The big dogs could avoid it but most of the mediums came out of the weaves. You would expect better from a show like Crufts really!! Anyway, the rest of Rommy's run was lovely and I'm sure they will be back there next year :)

Our shelties haven't had quite such an exciting time! We went round to Matt's mums and being tennis mad, it started the inevitable ball wars with the youngest two! Its great as they amuse themselves very nicely at Granny's house! Here are a few random pics I took on my phone...

Aren't these two going to have the cutest babies?!

Throw the ball!!

Brooke won!

This photo was taken before me and Sparkle got seriously rained on! This sums up Sparkle perfectly!

Brodie and Brooke just back from a walk, posing as usual :)

Sparkle and Brax out this morning coming back from the (Dry!) fields

We went to the Dog Barn at the weekend and met up with Lian and Roz to do some training. It was great fun to set up an IFCS course and run it. The youngsters had a go on bits of it as well. Here is little Brax and Matt running it :)

Puppy squidging and dog walks

We went up to Lians on Saturday to see her puppies and do some agility work with Brooke bean with her Grandma around! We were blessed with a lovely sunny day and no wind! I took some puppy pictures on my phone but they didn't all come out that well-here is one of the cutest photos!

Lian does such a great job socialising her pups-its like a giant adventure playground in her lounge and as a result the pups are confident and play monsters! :)

Matthew ran his two girlies round over some courses while we were there and Lian took some pics-what amazing photos!! Thanks so much for these :) 

These are Brooke managing to concentrate with her Grandma Lian there-love the gobby picture!

Brax also got her pic taken, she looks so happy in this one!

And so typically Bracken in this one-naughty!! Hard to believe she is an old lady!!

On the Sunday I did some dog walk training with Sparkle and seesaw training with Brodie. Thanks to Helen I have the use of her low trestles for a couple of weeks so Sparkle can get used to a low dog walk. I am using Bonny Quicks method which I am loving as its about shaping the behaviour and Sparkle loves playing shaping games! Here is a video I put together of our whole 3rd session on the low dog walk, warts and all!

Burdett shelties do obedience...

Wow the shelties did really well at the Breed and Obedience ESSC Spring Show!! My lovely Mr Toad dusted off his show lead and did me proud by winning the Special Open Working dog class and then coming 3rd (1st and 2nd were 'proper' obedience dogs!) in Beginners Obedience. To top it off it turned out that he had won the Miyrowan Salver for the dog with the highest obedience mark that was also placed in a breed class :) Love my little boy-who says men can't multi-task! ;-)

  The girls did really well too-Brax was definitely the entertainment in the obedience ring!! How she came 4th is beyond me, mind you I didn't see all of her round as I was too busy crying with laughter!! In her recall she skidded straight through Matt's legs and ended up in a heap but somehow managed to sort herself out. She didn't spit the dumbell at MAtt but she did give it back and then do the most enormous 'bounce' (one of her fav tricks!) in celebration! Then in her heelwork she swaggered round yipping and as she as the steward said exercise over she got his trousers!! Naughty diddly! 

The handsome merle is Rommy and it was Jenni and Rommy's first go at obedience and they came 2nd in Pre-Beginners-yay!! He was brilliant and they worked through the tests like pros.

Brooke bean was a really good girl-she ended up 6th in Beginners because of the retrieve. She thinks its a game so she gets the object, comes most of the way back and then spits it out and goes 'throw it again!' Shame as her marks up until that point were amazing. We had a few people come up and say how much potential she has in obedience, especially in her heelwork. She is poetry in motion to watch (like watching a horse doing passage for all you horsey people!) She never made it into the breed ring as it clashed with the stays unfortunately. She was very tired after her busy day!

We have lovely Bailey staying with us at the moment-he is such a lovely dog and fits in so well with our lot. He loves his Uncle Matthew too :)

Naughty Brodie is good at pinching his bed though-poor Bailey!

Bailey last stayed when Sparkle was quite little-she is trying really hard to endear herself to him but its not working really...

Bailey is cage ball mad, just like Brooke and Sparkle-I had to find extras for playing in the field today. Then Brax decided she wanted one too, jealous little miss!

General milling around but look-its SUNNY!!

I haven't posted much on her about the horses recently, mainly becasue I have been making some hard decisions :( I have taken the heartbreaking decision to sell Max sadly. Mucking out is taking a real toll on my back this year, partly as because of the awful weather he has to be in for a long time as he breaks through the electric gate if he decides he's been out long enough! As he is very wide (being a Highland pony) he puts my back and knee out if I have been mucking out and its sore already. I feel I can't do him justice and so he is going back to his previous owner. I'm so pleased that he is going to such a great home where they will keep me updated. I'm so sad as I love him to bits and will miss him so much but I have to do whats right for both of us :(

I will keep little Diva for now as I don't have the same physical stresses and time constraints looking after her. I will see how the next couple of years go but at the moment she is eating herself silly and enjoying being a baby with her pals!!

Fun at the Dog Barn!

Our doglets had loads of fun doing some training at the dog barn at the weekend. Lian had hired it so it was great that Brooke puppy worked so well with her Grandma around! Rather than waffle on about it I will let you see how much fun we had :)



The only thing that concerned me was Brodie's apparent dislike of the dog walk-he was very unsure going in one direction only! Luckily I had booked the barn again for my class yesterday so I took Brodie too and did a lot of rewarding his dog walks and he was much better!