Another fun-filled weekend!!

Another very busy and exhausting weekend but at least no-one needed bathing! lol

We headed over to Rotherham early Saturday morning for the flyball tournament. Gemma was already on site having stayed over with Andy and Sam, Paul and Alison were in Halifax overnight so there was just Trish and I driving over from home. I left home at 6.30am but almost as soon as I hit the M61 there were signs saying the M62 was closed between J22 and 24, my the time I reached the M62 the signs were saying there was just congestion so they had obviously re-opened so I decided to continue that way and hope for the best. I knew racing started at 8.30 but we weren't in the first division so no panic. The traffic started queueing up on the moors before Huddersfield so I took the opportunity of taking a couple of pics of the sun rising over the hills while we were stationary, quite dramatic colours...


Trish got up late and was way behind me but decided to go over Woodhead Pass to save some time so ended up arriving only 20 mins or so behind me. We needn't have worried, when we arrived racing hadn't even started, there were major problems with the lights (that had been working perfectly the night before!) which plagued us all day so racing didn't get finished 'til about 8pm. A very long day for everyone.

This was the first time BFA flyball has ever taken place on grass inside a marquee and it was a great success. I was a little concerened about Teal being 'spooked' by the tent flapping in the high winds but it was actually very solid and there wasn't much flapping at all; she never batted an eyelid.

Inside the marquee...

The teams all ran well, I was so pleased with the Racers particularly, we ran Storm for the first time since his cruciate surgery, swapping him in and out with Spud and they both ran brilliantly...so pleased!! They ended up 3rd in Div Two which I was really pleased with. The Demonz were off their usual pace, a combination of the light issues forcing late starts and lose changeovers and Misty not being on her usual form but they ran consistently (only a couple of dropped balls from Dylan so we are making some progress!) and came a respectable 2nd in Div One. The Pawz came 5th in Div Three, which is where they were seeded, all 4 dogs ran well so I was pleased with them too. Due to the lateness of the finish there were no awards presented so Dottie will just have to wait 'til Selby for her Silver!

Demonz racing in Div 1...

Pawz racing in Div 3...

Sadly we didn't get any footage of the Racers running in Div Two because Faye was also running in that division (and she was filming for us) which is a shame because that team ran so well...nevermind, will get some next time hopefully.

This is Charlie (Bryning Bright Light), Spark's litter brother who is owned by Sam and Andy, running in starters on Saturday...

I was staying with Andy and Sam on Saturday night so we all helped marking out new lanes for the next day and packing away the lights etc, we didn't get finished 'til about 10.30pm, I ate with Steve and B (thanks guys!) but we we're all struggling keeping our eyes open so I walked the dogs and joined everyone else in the marquee for a quick drink then hit the hay around 12.30 although...it was really only 11.30 'cause the clocks went back! I slept really well but we were all woken at 5.30pm by Karl who had arrived to start setting up...guess who had forgotten to put his clocks back??!!! lol I didn't get up 'til 7am by which time everyone was up getting set up for Sunday's racing. I had a quick brew and chat with folk then headed off up to Harrogate for the NAWS agility show, arriving there at around 9.30am to find lots more flyballers there too! I was also pleasantly suprised to find Sharon was there with Max (Bryning Bright Star) who is also Spark's litter brother and making his competition debut at 16 months old. Well, all I can say is that he was very aptly named because he's going to be a cracking little agility dog! Fi ran 'clear' in the jumping with just a couple of little 'moments' costing us time but she felt really good and was really 'up for it'...she finished 4th so that's her first agility rosette! Having watched the video back I know that our 'moments' were entirely my fault...must stand up straight and keep my shoulders open!! She also ran really nicely in the agility but really struggled with a section where you had to push them out left over an angled jump and then turn them immediately right to get on the dog walk, for a dog moving at any speed it was an almost impossible turn to make and on both runs Fi overhsot the dogwalk and bless her, she knew that was the next obstacle so scrambled on the up plank from the side! It was a bit silly for a pre-competition class and the judge hadn't run a dog over the course to see how it would run beforehand which, in my novice opinion, was something of an over-sight. Most handlers struggled with the push out over the angled jump and the dogs hesitated before it so they were jumping short and found the turn easier. Because I recalled Faith over 2 jumps at the start I got a good position to push her out over the angled jump so she was running flat out and couldn't get the turn tight enough...ho hum...such is life. She finished 7th with 5f (places to 6th!) but ran the 2nd fastest time despite the inelegant scrambled dog walk, what a shame. On a good note...Max won it!! What a little star :)

I'll upload some agility vids once I have them all (Adele took quite a few too) and have had chance to do some remixing.

Oh and...heard along the Canen grapevine...a big congratulations to Alison Gresty who won the Bitch CC at Tunbridge Wells Champ Obedience show at the weekend with Canen Georga, she is a younger full sister to Kes and this was her first time working ticket!