A hectic end to the ‘summer’

(I did actually write this on Friday but never got round to posting it so it's even more behind!! I'll post a report on this weekend just gone later!! lol)

Very behind in my blogging again, another busy couple of weeks…

We spent a nice weekend over at the Phoenix Club in Brinsworth at a tournament hosted by our friends at Tyne flyball teams. Our starters ran brilliantly, Squirrel and Radley really seem to have got this game sussed now and were superb; they were ably assisted by Ben and Hazell’s young rescue blue merle girl Nell and John’s fabulous young Mexican hairless Wesley and ran consistent 22 sec times which, for a thrown together multibreed team, isn’t bad going! We only had Bailey for the two morning races in Div 1 so always knew we were going to struggle, we decided to go for a time against Brigg since we were running 1sec faster than them but ended up giving it away on lights and still not getting a time…ah well c’est la vie! Somehow or other though we did win two other races and ended up coming 3rd in that division. The Pawz ran well in Div 3 but we were a dog down since Dottie was in season and stayed at home (and we had to have 5 dogs in the Demonz) which meant we had to run both cockers, in the same team, at the same time, this is never a good idea because they both always want me and it’s hard work keeping them both happy and motivated. We decided to try Drake start dog and he ran a few really good 4.7 legs but he was very inconsistent throughout the day, down to the fact I was running Teal in the same team I’m sure…they are such babies! We did ok with a fastest time of 19.81 but didn’t run consistently enough and ended up 5th.

Spark went home with Ben and Hazell who took him back up to Morpeth where he went to stay with ‘Auntie Julia’, she and Heather were kindly taking him to SKC Champ Show for me the following weekend since I would be flyballing down at Stoneleigh so he was part of the ‘Locheil gang’ for the weekend.

During the week Dottie was also mated to Seamus (Starside Paddy) so all being well we should have black/blue/tri/sable puppies due around the beginning of November.

Friday we headed down to Stoneleigh for the bank holiday weekend country show. It was late when we arrived and Gem and I had to put up our little tent in the dark, torch light supplied by Paul and Alison thankfully! The camping was quite tight and there wasn’t a great exercise area but there was a great community spirit amongst the flyballers at the show and the Nunnies were the usual perfect hosts so we had a good time. We were joined by ‘the Allcorns’ on Friday evening for ‘a few’ drinks and ended up nattering away ‘til 4.30am!! Whoops….poor Sharon was judging first thing Sat morning while we had the day to ourselves and enjoyed a nice long lie-in and leisurely potter around the show. The news came through from SKC, the Locheils had a really good day with lots of class wins, a RCC, best puppy and a puppy pastoral group placing! Best of all though (for me) Spark placed 3rd in Limit Dog, his first limit class and he’s gained his stud book number! This means he is now qualified for Crufts for life. His son (Locheil Blue Moon) was awarded best puppy dog and his daughter (Locheil Tell me a Story) also qualified for Crufts at her first show.

I think my age must be catching up with me, I was in bed for 11pm on Sat night…absolutely shattered! Sunday we had a very busy day, well I did anyway. Only 3 divisions of racing but I was involved in all 3, judging the first div on (another 7 team division!!) and running in the other two. Unfortunately this meant I couldn’t run either of my girls in the agility competition that we’d entered. We decided to try something different this weekend and ran Teal as a height dog in the Speed Demonz so we ran Dylan-Bailey-Lexie/Faith-Teal. Now, this actually worked quite well but Dylan was way off his usual pace and we suffered because of it. I’m not sure whether he was suffering from an upset tummy from the roast bone he’d had the day before or whether he was struggling over the 8” hurdle height. While a lot of dogs run much faster over the smaller hurdles it can hinder dogs that aren’t used to the smaller jumps. Teal however ran like a little Demon all day, she LOVES running with the big guns in the top team!! lol This team ended up 6th out of 7 with a fastest time of 18.17. I think we may try this combination again next weekend and see what happens.

The Pawz ran ok but were a little disappointing time-wise, a lot of teams were saying that the ground wasn’t running very fast so maybe this played a part but we did have Mac, Dottie, Pip, Drake and Ethan in this team so they should really have been running low 19’s and they only actually managed a 19.94….hmph…we ran faster last week with both the cockers in! They did come 2nd though!

I also got the news that Nancy Hudson and ‘Naughty Niamh’ (Bryning Red Rascal) had won Grade 6 agility over at Dordale, this is their 3rd win towards grade 7, they’ve had such a consistent season this year! Fingers crossed for that final win needed to take them to Grade 7 and Champ!

We went to presentation and I got the van packed up ready for my trek up the M1 to Drax where I was supposed to be staying with Drew and running Squirrel in the Multibreed with the Geordie Racers. Best laid plans and all that….the van wouldn’t start! Now, I’ve been with the AA for a few years and have had A LOT of experience with them since my last van was a mobile disaster! However, I cancelled my AA membership when it was due for renewal at the beginning of August because my van insurance includes free breakdown cover. The guy at the AA tried to convince me that any level of service I would receive from this free service would not be as good as theirs. I pointed out I’d never actually had very good service from them and recounted several instances…he gave up! Lol Anyway, I was a little nervous about what to expect from ‘Angel Assistance’ but was very pleasantly surprised to have an RAC patrol arrive within 30 mins, the guy spent nearly 2 hours bent over the engine locating and fixing some worn wires that had been causing an electrical short…he was very thorough and I ended up with a fixed van! It was pretty late by this point though, I was wet and tired and I had a van full of tired dogs so decided to head straight home. Lola went home with Gemma for some ‘one on one’ time, to learn some more manners! lol

It was nearly midnight by the time we got back and after settling all the dogs down to bed I finally fell into bed myself and slept like a log! I have to say, I did very little on Monday and just pottered around the house and it was lovely. I rather wished I was down in Mansfield though since Maizy decided to whelp four days early and quickly delivered 5 beautiful cocker puppies (in less than 2 hours) so we have 1 blue roan/tan boy, 1 blue/roan tan girl, 2 black/tan girls and 1 black/tan girl with a white bib. I really can’t wait to see them but hope to have some individual photos soon.


This morning saw Viggo at Moy Farm Vets having his hip and elbow x-rays, he proved very popular with the vets and nursing staff who all wanted to take him home (he is such a loveable young boy) and best of all Mark was very pleased with his x-rays – perfect elbows and very nice hips, predicted scores of 0:0 and 5:3 accordingly so we shall wait and see what the BVA come back with although we have always found Marks’ predictions to be very accurate.

It’s all happening today!! Got the news through from Nancy that Niamh has got her final win towards Grade 7 at Letchworth…fantastic news! Didn’t have to keep our fingers crossed that long did we?! Also heard from Joy down at Stoneleigh, Becca and Teal (Bryning Time to Shine) finished 2nd in the Olympia Semi qualifiers so will be off to Olympia in December!

Tomorrow we are competing in Sheffield at the Steelers debut show at Norfolk Heritage Park. Radley and Squirrel are running starters first thing, The Speed Demonz and Demon Pawz are both entered but I haven’t decided on team combinations yet!

It’s getting to the end of the flyball season now and we are all starting to feel ready for the break, August has been a very hectic month for us taking in 6 tournaments over 5 weekends and I think we may be suffering from flyball fatigue! Lol Although this will be the last competition we are doing together as a team for a while Drew and I do have a couple more busy weekends ahead with Richmond and Darlington Champ shows and Acremead flyball tournament which involves a trip down to stay with Joy and Becca which will be really nice as I’ve hardly seen them both over the summer (apart from a very brief flying visit on the way to Reading in July!). With a couple more bitches to be mated over the next couple of weeks we will soon be taking a few months off for puppies over winter. I’m really starting to feel quite broody for puppies again.