Demo's and Rest

Lots of people have kindly asked how Miss Brooke (should that be Mrs Brooke?!) is getting on. She is being a very good patient considering how dull her life must be, despite our best attempts to cheer her up! Her favourite thing is to sofa snuggle with Matthew in the evenings. You can tell its getting colder as Bracken is only interested in laps as a source of heat! 

The older two shelties did a demo for a hospice on Wednesday this week and Sparkle did one for Age Concern on Monday. They really enjoyed showing off their tricks and as ever Brax enjoyed the biscuit crumbs :-) The pic below is the pair of them walking in St Albans squirrel hunting!

At the weekend we ran the ESSC Sheltie Agility show and it was a brilliant success thanks to a few hardcore helpers. It is amazing the number of people who will sit and watch you run backwards and forwards and not lift a finger to help! It is generally the same people that help every year and we are so grateful as otherwise the ring would have ground to a halt. Our dogs really enjoyed having a run! Bracken was brilliant getting a 3rd in 4-7 jumping, a 4th in agility and winning the Best Veteran trophy! Brodie came 3rd in 4-7 jumping and n2nd with his mate Rommy in pairs so a good day all round!

On Tuesday evening I discovered Miss Sparkle had come into season. She had done a lesson on Tuesday morning and ran nicely but she is now on her winter break for a month of not doing agility. She is a terrible flirt so poor Brodie is not getting any peace! Here is a pic from their last day running round the field together.

Mr Toad in lesson on Tuesday-he is just so much fun!!

And this is Sparkle running her last sequence for a while-boo hoo!

Sparklelina goes Gradey 5!!

One of my goals for this year was to finish the season with Sparkle in Grade 5 as its a nice place to be going into next year competing. She isn't consistently going clear enough on the lower grade courses to be Grade 6 yet and we still have work to do on our contacts and weaves over winter. I am pleased with her five runs at Dog Vegas (one agility....see below and four jumpings) In two of her jumpings it was just the weaves that let her down and in one it was wrong end of tunnel that got us E'd. So actually we are getting far less E's which is good! The video below shows her only agility run of the weekend and the refusal and pole were totally my fault for late cues. So happy with her contacts tho!



The other nice thing about being in G5 is that she can have a winter of just doing jumping runs at monthly winter shows to get her used to tackling some 5-7 courses. I have also found a couple of shows where she can do some nfc contacts :-)

Dolly was a good girl at the show getting a 2nd in G4 jumping. Her weaves weren't very confident to start with but got better the more she did. She is so very close to getting her Bronze agility warrant now! My Brodie boy was fabulous, at almost 9 he got a 1st and 2nd in 6-7 agility classes beating some dogs quarter of his age and much taller-he really is a little superstar! The pic above show the lovely trophies we got.

Brooke continues to recover well from her operation and is having her stitches out tomorrow. She is being a perfect little patient and very good about being on rest. Will do a proper Brooke update next time. We have sheltie show coming up this weekend which we are running-eek! Lots of shelties in one place is always great tho and I love watching them compete :-D 

Holiday time and Brooke's operation

We spent last week in Wales on holiday and caught up with my family for my Aunts 70th birthday. It was lovely to see everyone and the cake my Mum had made was amazing! My cousin who is very talented at art had done drawings of the family and my Mum had drawn them onto the cake. My sister had made models to sit on a toy train that went round the edge too :-)

Matts Mum and Dad joined us on the first weekend and we went for a lovely sunny walk

And played some games when my Mum and Amy came over...spot Sparkle snuggling with mu Mum!

Our cottage was lovely and the dog friendly garden got the thumbs up from this lot!

We walked round some beautiful castles

Shelties in an oven!

Sparkle had a thing about looking out of the windows!

Brax with a halo! :-)

Dog friendly cottage was great!

Walking at Dinefwr, such a lovely sunny week!

We drove over the Brecon Beacons-the views were amazing

The weather was nice enough to sit out on the patio-Brooke enjoyed cuddles!

Walking at Ferryside...the jellyfish were disgusting!

But the views were beautiful, all the better for doglets in the picture!

We carried Brooke Bean down to the beach 

And she got to visit my Mum and sister in their holiday cottage for a meal

So when we got back from Wales Brooke had an operation to remove her biceps tendon. Its complicated to explain but she had a lot of calcium deposits in her tendon and despite rest she was still lame. As soon as she exercised again it aggravated the tendon and it flared up again (no blood supply to tendons so no healing) Patrick our vet thought it best to cut the tendon loose as it stops the cycle of inflammation and he explained that dogs don't actually need biceps tendons and can function normally without. We are keeping fingers, toes and paws crossed that she makes a full recovery and can go back to all the things she loves! But first we are in for a long slog of 12-16 weeks cage rest and then very slow careful rehab work. I will post updates on her but if anyone knows/has a dog who has had a biceps tenotomy operation I would love to hear from you! 

Dolly goes G4 already!

Bridge House
Wow well Dolly spaniel obviously thought that Grade 3 was rubbish as she went and won into Grade 4 straight off! We went to Bridge House in Surrey and the classes were a decent size so I didn't think we would even place with some held contacts but she came 2nd in the 1-3 agility and won the graded 1-4 agility! Superstar girly :-) Sparkle did some lovely work and I gave her faults by patting her on her seesaw.

No videos but this is the course that Dolly won!

And this was Sparkles course. I managed a blind between the A frame and jump 3, her wing wraps on jump 7 and 9 were really tight and I managed to rear cross the weaves :-) I also got a blind in on 13 and sent her out to 18 so I was ahead on her dog walk which she did beautifully-it really all clicked and was a fab course! 

Letchworth

I took the medium crew to Letchworth for one day and two of them did very well! Sparkles first run involved flying off a seesaw (wooden one) at high speed and landing in a heap. Luckily Sally and her magic physio fingers were there and sure enough she was sore in her shoulders :-( Dolly did a lovely run in her first agility but self released on the A frame so got put back on. I have decided to teach her a running A frame over winter as I think it will be more fun and motivating for both of us! Her next agility run was better but she got marked a refusal but still ended up fastest 5 faults and 6th in a huge class-clever spanner! She was 8th and just out of the placing in the jumping. Mr Toad got eliminated in jumping but I didn't walk the course! He ran well in the agility and ended up 4th on a fast blasty course-not bad out of 70 odd dogs!!

This is Brodies agility run

Where did summer go?!

It has been such a wet week-having to dash out for walks between showers and sometimes failing! I managed a dry walk with my two where I could actually take some pictures and the bonus was that we had all the fields to ourselves!

I love this picture of Toad and Sparkle-she looks so goofy and he is so cute :-)

One of the few pictures of Sparkle that show the white patch on her bum that has faded so much

Toad was getting bored of having his photo taken!

Brodie and Bracken waiting for dinner

Brooke is doing well, the physio is happy with her progress so she has to go back to the vets in the next couple of weeks as her three months rest is up. She has been doing her wobble cushion work very well and it is the highlight of her day!

I am still taking her out and about to watch the world go by, this time Bracken joined us for coffee on the common! 

And Brooke just LOVES being a pub dog!!

I have Dolly staying on a sleepover tonight as we are off to a party tomorrow-she does make herself at home! It is her first show as a proper Grade 3 dog-can't wait! 

I took these at lunchtime today-so funny :-D

I went to Adams show last weekend and Sparkle was very clever winning a C4-7 jumping!! She had a fun day out popping up to the Flyball Champs up the road and meeting her breeder, Grandpa Viggo, and brother Bertie. Brodie was hilarious and was shouting his head off at the dogs running. I also now have a few people wanting Sparkle babies if we were ever to breed from her! I tried the Beginners Steeplechase qualifier with her at HADS and she had two poles but the fastest time. She went so fast that she broke the new e-gility system as the guy who invented it came over to tell me she had logged an 'impossible' time! She is finally getting to training speed in the ring which is making my timing easier. 

Some broken doglets :-(

Last week the dogs all had a check up with their lovely physio and to be honest I thought Brodie might have a niggle or two but Spark was the most broken poor girly. Her pelvis was out, her back was sore as a result and her shoulders were really crunchy and tight. She had some laser treatment and manipulation and was to have strict lead walking for the rest of the week. Brodie was a bit tight over his lower back and Brax had a sore spot on her back. Ironically Brooke bean was the best out of all of them and was just there for her weekly laser! 

During the week we put Brodie in with his wife to cheer her up...he is such a gentleman! What a sweet couple :-D 

The dogs had had the all clear to compete at FAB on Saturday...less said about that the better! Spark did manage to keep poles up and win a steeplechase but couldn't weave so she went back to physio on Monday and had a sore rib. Poor girly! So its the night before KCI and I haven't done ANY training for over two weeks...doesn't bode well!! At least I should have a fit dog, fingers crossed :-)

Brodie, Sparkle and I went to Rally on Sunday. It was Brodies last Level 2 and Sparkles first L2. The competition was fierce as it was open to L2's only (no Level 1's) so the standard was higher than I have been used to. Brodie was awesome and got 207 out of 210 and came 5th!! He is now Chandling Ebony Charge AW(G) RL2.Ex

Sorry for the lack of pics, my phone has died so I have an old brick and it doesn't take pics!!

Rally, Agility and Dolly goes Grade 3!

Again I have been naughty about blogging-I do apologise! So much has happened in the last few weekends so will try and summarise :-) Firstly well done to the ESSC (sheltie) Medium Team who are off to Crufts next year! Brodie is reserve on the team so he gets to go along and cheer his mates on!! The focus for winter will be keeping him fit and his muscle tone up, he loves his pink wobble cushion and I love this pic of Brax photo-bombing! 

Sitting looking so happy out on a walk :-)

Brodie says mouse hunting keeps you fit too!! 

We went to Kelluki UKA show at the beginning of July, mostly so Brax could do Masters and I could do some NFC contacts in the ring with Sparkle. I did one competitive run in gamblers which she won and got a pretty pink lead as a prize! Brodie came 2nd in a tricky champ jumping and Dolly spaniel came 3rd in steeplechase!

The weekend after we stayed at home but did a gridwork workshop at my field. Blaze and Squidge took part in their first ever workshop and did really well running over jump bumps. This last weekend we both went to Rally, Matthew and Brax doing level 1, Spark doing her last level 1 and Brodie doing level 2. It was Matts first time doing a whole course as he hadn't even practiced a whole round but they did so well and ended up with an excellent score of 196 and 5th place, beating Sparkle into 6th place by one point! Spark was a bit distracted having her Daddy there but still got a score of 195 meaning she is now Reivermorada Fiery Angel RL1.Ex! Brodie got 195 as well in his Level 2 and came 3rd-what clever doglets!

Here is Matthews round with Brax

Brooke enjoyed being carried round the rings to watch and meeting up with some shelties!

I took the medium crew to Empingham agility as well (Spark, Brodie and Dolly spaniel) I was soooo pleased with all three! Sparkle had an amazing run in the agility, nailed all her contacts and weaves and just did a wrong end of tunnel. In jumping 4-7 jumping it was just a pole and a refusal in the 1-4 jumping. So pleased that she managed weaves in all her classes and although she is still less focused and fast than she is at training we are starting to get it together in the ring. I keep reading on facebook about dogs younger than her that are already G7 and wondering what the hurry is??! Anyway, Brodie did me proud on a tricky agility course where he stopped in position on his dog walk and stayed there with a tunnel tempting him! So clever! Dolly spaniel was the star of the day tho and won a C1-4 agility by a very convincing 2 seconds making her Grade 3!! That means that she can finally enter graded classes and come to more parties :-)  She also got her Flyball dog graduate award-such a multi talented girl!

I have started teaching turns on the dog walk with Miss Sparkle and am pleased so far with how she is working out her striding. The picture below shows straight on runs on the left hand side. The right hand pics show a turn each way. Photos aren't great quality as taken from a video :-) 

 And tired doglets after all their adventures!!