A weekend in Dundee

Friday evening we headed up to Dundee for a weekend of flyball,; two one day tournaments so lots of running! Paul, Alison and I and 12 dogs packed into the van with our tent and all our gear! We left Preston at around 6.10pm and arrived at Caird Park around 9.45pm so the journey wasn’t too bad but of course it was dark by the time we arrived so we had to put the tent up using the van headlights! Lol It didn’t take too long thankfully. Drew arrived just before 2am since he’d been working late so it was a late night but thankfully we weren’t on first thing and had the chance for a lie-in in the morning. Caird Park is a great venue, handy for everything with really nice toilet/shower facilities too, always a bonus in my book!

We were ring partying division 3 which unfortunately was spoiled by a very rude and unpleasant handler from one of the Scottish teams. Everybody knows flyball can get very competitive and heated at times and can bring out the ugly side in some people but this is something I’ve never experienced north of the border before so was a bit of a shock. Having been told to ‘get a life’ for upholding a handler fault, followed by a rant and petty point scoring…one has to wonder who it is exactly who’s in need of a life?? Sad isn’t it when people get so wound up about something that’s *supposed to be fun!* With more and more teams now competing, the Scottish shows do seem to have lost some of their laid back and relaxed charm which is the price of progress I guess but a shame nonetheless.

We were running completely thrown together teams and knew we were going to get stuffed in both divisions since we were missing two first team dogs in the form of Bailey and Dottie so we were just using the weekend as a training exercise. The Pawz consisted of Mac, Pip, Teal and Ethan and they all actually ran quite well. Mac has been a bit off colour lately so I thought he might benefit from the 8” jumps and he was running around the 4.6 mark so better than last weekend but still not what he should be running. Drew did a great job of getting to grips with running him and getting some really good starts since it’s a bit like wrestling an octopus keeping him still on the start! Lol Pip ran well, she likes running behind her daddy and kept trying to bite his bum in the line up! lol. Teal stayed motivated for most of the weekend with just momentary lapses in concentration which was quite a relief since she was running in a 4 dog team! Ethan had moments of brilliance and moments of his usual clown self. It is frustrating that he does the opposite turn in each lane since this does really affect his times in the blue lane (where he’s turning against his natural left turn and turning right instead).

The Racers was a rather odd line up of Dylan, Faith, Lexie and Drake so was a bit of a family affair (Lex with her son and daughter) with the cocker interloper. I started off running Drake but then swapped with Drew and took over Lexie since she really does need that high pitched scream to get her back faster, I was really pleased with how she ran actually and she was back running 4.6s. In fact that team ran really well and although we got stuffed in div one, they did manage a time of 18.30 which, considering we only ran 18.15 last weekend with Bailey, is pretty impressive! It makes me much more confident in the 17.80 we’ve submitted for the champs since Bailey is easily a good half second faster than Drake. Faith ran really well, especially since she was running 12” all day but again we have the same issue we have with Ethan where she’s swapping sides depending on the lane, only she’s the opposite to him so she runs better in the blue lane where she’s doing her natural right turn. What is doubly frustrating about this is that she didn’t do it last season, it’s only since she’s come back from having pups that she’s started this and we’re really struggling to stop it!

So, something to think about for the Champs next weekend, not sure what teams we’ll run yet but I’m keeping everything crossed that Dottie will be sound and we’ll have 10 dogs to run at least!

Anyhow…here’s some pics from the weekend taken at Camperdown Park on the Sunday…what a fantastic venue for flyball…check out all that open space for running dogs in!

'The Pawz'...


The handsome Spark...dozing in his crate...

The handsome Dylan...

Maisie and mouse...having a whale of a time!!

Another fab weekend on the Wirral

What a fantastic weekend we had at Eastham which is one of my favourite tournaments in the flyball calendar. I must confess, we were all total lightweights on the party front…I think 5 tournaments in 5 weekends including the Euros has taken it’s toll and we’re all completely knackered!! We have this coming weekend off although I will be at Blackpool Champ Show on Sunday with Spark, our first breed show since Crufts! I have also entered Dottie as she was looking fab when the entries closed ( I really should know better) but of course she’s blown all her coat now and to be honest, she’s in prime racing condition at the moment…lean and well muscled and is really too thin for most (probably all!) show judges preference. Ah well, she’s running really well! I’ve been fattening Spark up since we got back from Belgium as he also tends to be a the lean side but he hides it better with his thick coat.

Anyway, we set up camp on Friday evening, I was judging first div on Saturday so had vowed to curb the alcohol intake and as it happened I was too tired to drink anyway. Paul went off partying with the Steve and the Cheshire Set while Alison and I stayed in and chilled, we went to bed about 1.30am…Paul fell in at 4am!! He wasn’t too bright in the morning I have to say (makes a pleasant change…it wasn’t me! lol). Gemma arrived in the morning just in time to help ring party Div 8, the one I was judging, which seemed to take an age to complete! The lower divisions are always more *interesting* to judge as there tends to be a lot more going wrong! We then had 2 divisions off before the Pawz ran in division 5. They were in on a seed time of 19.96 which put them 2nd seed but as they hadn’t got under 20 seconds at Rotherham last week I did wonder how we’d fair. Teal was back having finished her season so we decided we would just swap the cockers in and out with each other and leave the rest of the team the same. So we were running… Faith – Pip – Teal/Drake – Ethan. First race of the day I ran Drake and we were faster than the other team but we totally threw it away on lights, just couldn’t get the changeovers right. The electronic time displays showing individual times (thank god for those…I’ve really missed them!) gave us some indication…Faith had gone up about 3 gears and was running 4.3-4.4’s (she has never run these times over 12” before!), Pip was really off form…don’t know why? Drake was usual Drake and Ethan had also gone up a gear and was running 4.8’s. In the second race we brought Teal in instead of Drake and my god she was on fire running 4.9’s, the jump heights dropped to 8” and now Faith was running 4.2’s! They ran 19.21! more than half a second faster than they’d ever run before! The decision was made to move Faith up into the Racers at the next comp (Newark). I was so pleased with the way they all ran. Race 7 it all went a bit *pete tong* with Ethan running out at the first jump, we’ve decided to go back to loading him alternate sides again so he can always turn towards the other lane as this is what is causing it. We pulled him out and ran both the cockers which is something I really didn’t want to do but hey ho. By this time they were running much slower and that turned into a tense 5 legger against our old team, Red Rose Renegades and was really tight racing which saw us just narrowly winning…really good close racing, what flyball is all about. By the last race of the day Pip had gone right off and Paul offered to pull her out and run both the cockers again so Gem and I ran the cockers and Paul ran Ethan….it worked and we won the race but the thrown away first race cost us and we ended up 3rd but had run the fastest time in the division! I’m not sure what we’ll do at the next comp in terms of seed times as we’re taking Faith out of that team so may well submit a time rather than face being thrashed in a division we won’t be able to compete in!

Gem and I dashed off straight after presentation (sorry to all the teams in the division I judged that I couldn’t be there to congratulate you!) as we were heading over to Shirley’s in North Wales to pick up a new puppy! This little man is called ‘Roo’ and is one I am co-owning with my friend Laura Cunningham and he will be going up to Scotland to live with her and hopefully become a super little sheepdog in time. He is 7 weeks old, sired by Canen Wallace and out of Canen Katrina so is line bred on the lovely Canen Baz and therefore also my beautiful Spangle which is where his ee red colouring has come from. As far as I know, he is the first and only ISDS registered ee red which makes him a little bit special. He’s certainly not of the type of ee red I’m used to, he’s much finer and has less coat than any I’ve had before but I know these working lines very well and they are much later maturing so I am sure he’s going to turn out to be a really nice dog. He’s got nice eyes and dark eye rims and I think his nose will fill in in time too. He’s certainly going to have good ears! Most importantly he’s got a super temperament and character, he’s a bold but not pushy pup; very inquisitive and confident but not stupid and he’s already sleeping through and staying clean in his crate…good boy :) We’ll see how he turns out over the coming year.

Here’s some pics of him in the garden at home…
covered in oil from crawling around under the caravan, highlighting one of the main issues of having such a pale coloured puppy! lol

Sunday morning brought showers but it was still warm and bright. Conrad and Jackie arrived with Radley for the starters first in. We were running Spud, Radley, Squirrel and a borrowed retriever…Ollie who was lovely. Viggo also went on the sheet although I have decided to not run him and Squirrel at the same time as they both need my undivided attention at the moment. Spud ran start dog and, although he has aged so much and slowed considerably in the last year, he was his usual reliable self. It’s a real bonus to have an older experienced retired dog in your starter team as it really seems to help the younger inexperienced dogs/handlers. Radley ran 2nd and we were working on tightening up her changeovers running in, she was a bit more focused this week but still had a couple of ‘loopy’ moments like when she smelt the burger van and when she saw a blue roan cocker in the other lane and thought it might be her mum! Lol Squirrel…well, what can I say…where’s my naughty little parson gone??!! She was SO good, it all finally seems to have clicked with her! She was totally focused on what she was doing, only dropped her ball once and most impressively I was able to start sending her in from 20 ft and she was running right in past Radley without batting an eyelid…result!! There is light at the end of the terrier tunnel after all, and after I’ve been telling everyone she will probably never run in open and always be a starter dog…she does so love to prove me wrong! We now need to work on getting her to hurdle lower over the jumps as she’s wasting time in the air. The photos show she is jumping high enough to clear full height hurdles when she’ll only ever be running 8”!! Viggo ran in one race when Ollie’s handler was running another dog against us, it was er… *interesting* but we did manage to get him down and back with his ball…small steps for the blue bimbo me thinks but he will get there and when he does, I have a feeling he’s going to be a cracking little flyball dog…time will tell I guess.

Radley on the way to the box with a look of steely determination on her face…


We were straight in div 2 with the Racers. Again we were second seed in this division and we were still on a seed time of 18.82 from Wood Green with Kiddy Minx’s top seeds on 18.48. We knew we had a chance of winning this having run an 18.45 at Littleport and 18.43 at Rotherham last weekend but we thought it might be tight. As it happens it wasn’t and we won the division, Kiddy’s weren’t on form and we were running better still, with a fastest time of 18.24 (with a 0.1 late start!) and consistent 18.30’s all day. Mac ran a few sub 4.5 second legs and maintained 4.5’s all day, he is a really good start dog because he doesn’t seem to tire between each run and he loves to go first, this is the position he always run fastest in (he’s not patient enough to wait his turn! lol), Bailey was running 4.2’s all day so was a little off his fastest pace, Dottie ran 4.5’s…she’s in great form at the moment but Lexie …was RUBBISH!! 4.7’s and 4.8’s all day, I just don’t know what’s wrong with her? Part of me wonders if it’s the change of handler, I have always run Lexie myself from when she first started competing but now I’m running Dottie (who is not an easy dog to run as the bruises up my arms from her excited nips will testify!) and I just wonder if this has curbed Lexie’s enthusiasm some? At the next comp Alison will start running Faith in this team and, provided she maintains the form she was showing this weekend, she will run every leg and I will probably swap Lexie and Dottie in and out as last dog to keep them both fresh. It will be interesting to see whether Lexie’s times pick up again with me back running her. I will also see if I can fit in a visit to Katherine before Newark and just get her checked over to make sure she’s alright. We *should* be breaking the 18.00sec barrier again if Faith delivers at Newark and we can all get our changeovers right, it often takes a couple of weeks to ‘bed in’ a new combination so we’ll see what we can do.

The best news of the weekend is that Tom had a look at Dylan and said he was looking/feeling totally sound and we can start training him over low jumps…yippee!! We’re all really excited but also a little nervous about bringing Dyl back; 6 months is a pretty long lay off and cruciate injuries are notoriously fickle but we’re keeping everything crossed and may have him running in the Pawz at Newark all being well…can’t wait!

Here’s a little vid of his first training session last night, he could hardly believe he was finally being allowed to have a go bless him!

We were just using 3 hurdles with no run in and 8” jumps to keep him nice and steady but…the boy is back!!

We also did some training with the youngsters and had Radley running without netting/wings for the first time…she was a good little girl and ran in but she does seem to have lost some of her drive and focus which I’m hoping is just down to her having been in season recently, she has a few weeks out before we’ll be running starters again so hopefully she’ll pick up before then.