Selby College...you win some, you lose some...

I haven't been very well this past week with a very bad head cold and sinus infection so I really wasn't looking forward to racing this weekend. Saturday morning was an early start as we were flyballing over at Selby College in North Yorkshire. Paul was working so Trish, Alison and I piled all our gear and dogs into my van and travelled together to meet Gemma there.

Selby College sports hall isn't the ideal venue for flyballing really, there is very little room inside once the ring is marked out, it's very very noisy as the sound of barking and shouting etc echoes a lot and there is a very short runback area so the really fast dogs never quite hit maximum speed which is always telling in the times. The faster teams are always worse affected than the slower ones. Quite a lot of forward planning had gone into working out how exactly we were going to run 2 teams in the same division since the Demonz and Racers had both been seeded in Division One...and there was only 4 of us! We took crates into the hall and set them up along the side so that we could have one team crated while we ran the other...Frosty and Dylan made pretty short work of my crates...bending and breaking the bars in their frustration at having to watch the other team run! Our friends from Notts Supadogs were brilliant and Steve boxloaded for both the Div One teams with Jo watching the line for us. There were 8 races in the morning session of Division One of which we were involved in 5. Having arrived in multiple layers to fend off the cold weather we were soon all down to our t-shirts and vests! lol

For several of the dogs this was their first time running indoors on rubber matting...Teal, Dylan and Faith. It is quite a different experience to running outside on grass, everything is much closer and louder and feels quite different. I was most concerned about Teal since I'd taken her in to be measured here last year and she'd been a quivering wreck! I was just hoping that after having a litter and a season of competing which has seen her really grow in confidence, she would be ok. Thankfully all 3 were fine, although Teal looked a little worried when we first went in she soon came round and got excited and was ready to race. She really benefits from running with Faith, they seem to really wind each other up! Mac hasn't run indoors for the last couple of years following a groin strain sustained at this venue back in the winter of 2006/7 which he took quite a while to fully recover from. It is one of the problems of not having the entire floor area matted, just the lane areas...if you have a big powerful dog miss the ball and run wide to chase it they can easily lose their footing on the slippery floor and sustain and sprain/strain. I decided to run him this weekend but he wore his wrist protectors and had his feet 'paw waxed' and he ran fine...I am always a little on edge though!

The morning's racing went really well with both teams winning their first two races. I'll be totally honest and admit we were just cruising with the Demonz. The were entered on a seed time that was a second faster than the 2nd seeded team, as often happens at one day tournaments when the entry is limited, you get quite a spread of seed times within each division and the racing isn't as 'tight' at the larger summer comps. We did have to work a little harder with the Racers though. The last race of the morning session we were racing each other so we had a brilliant little band of helpers from other teams. Martyn from Notts boxloaded the other team and Jo ran Misty. Young Lucy from Wire Sparks ran Bailey start dog in the Demonz and her mum Marina ran Mac start dog in the Racers (Marina owns and runs Mac's son Zephyr so she's used to handling a big strong lad!). Julie K ran Faith in the Racers (she got the nice easy one! lol). Actually...everyone that ran a dog for us owns a pup I bred...one big happy 'Bryning family'! lol. Alison and I stuck with Dylan and Lexie in the Demonz and Trish and Gemma stuck with Frost and Teal in the Racers but Gem and I ended up swapping after Teal ran wide and slipped on the floor which knocked her confidence and she came looking for her mummy (bless). It wasn't the tidiest race ever with Mac running out twice (I think he must just have been distracted seeing Bailey in the other lane and run wide??) but the result was as we expected and the Demonz won it. Straight out with those two teams and back in with the Pawz for Divison Two!

The Pawz really did run brilliantly in Div Two...I don't quite know what's got into Ethan but he's gone up another gear and was really up for it. We had some really silly/unlucky moments on lost the first race when we really should have won it (damn!) but I was pleased with how they ran. We were straight out with them and back in Division Three which I was judging and the rest of the team were ring partying. I had tried to get someone else to do it for me as I really wasn't feeling up to it but to no avail...at least Peter had swapped with me so that I could have my own teammates ringpartying. There was some good racing in this division but I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I usually do, with a banging headache I was having to work really hard to keep my concentration and was feeling particularly impatient with the people faffing about at the start. It really does drive me nuts when racing is behind schedule and we're all ready to go and there's one person dallying around catching their dog or arranging their clothes or toy or anything and making everyone else wait, I just think it's really inconsiderate and selfish to be honest. A cup of tea or a can of coke wouldn't have gonme amiss either. Most people don't mind judging/ring partying but it's common courtesy for the tournament organises to at least provide them with a drink. Have to say, my ringparty were brilliant, Demonz and Kiveton...they were a great help keeping everything ticking along quickly.

We then had 2 divisions off to get some lunch and get the dogs out for a quick run before the afternoons racing started again. Quite unbelievably the Demonz and Racers went back into Div One for their last two races of the day and were both unbeaten making them 1st and 2nd in that division!! The Pawz still ran well but that bloody cocker spaniel struck again and when we were two legs up in the last race decided to run down to the box and....do a poo in the middle of the lane!!! This dog craps for England and drives me absolutely mad. Every single competition he will crap in the ring!! I'm sure he doesn't actually need to go because he can have just been and will still do it. I think it's just become a habit so we've been telling him off and stopping him from doing it which is why I think he went to the box end...BAD COCKER!! He got told off and then wouldn't run for the next two legs...just running down to the box and coming straight back up without his ball...we lost the race...I could have killed him!! The rest of my team however were struggling to compose themselves as I had to pick them all up off the floor laughing!! Am going to have to think of a new 'Drake Strategy' as the telling off one clearly isn't working...maybe a change of diet or pre-competition feeding regime??

All in all it was a good day. Faith was presented with her Graduate Award (that she gained back in August!) and Dottie finally got her Silver. Frostie also got his Pearl Award. We're at Newark next weekend but only taking two teams so fingers crossed all goes well (and no crapping cockers!)

I should have been at Border Collie Club of Great Britain 'Pup of the Year' with Spark on Sunday but I was just so tired and poorly I couldn't face going. I was planning to go over and do some flyball/agility training with 'the Doghouse' lot but I couldn't face that either. I hate being ill and not being well enough to do all the things I want to do. Everyone keeps saying I need a break but I don't want one!! I guess my body is forcing me into it! lol