Drax - May Bank Holiday

Fallen a little behind on the blog again…oops!

So…over the bank holiday weekend we went over to Drax for three days of competition. Two days of open competition on the Saturday and Sunday and multibreed on the Monday. As it happened we didn’t have any teams running on the Saturday so had a nice leisurely day pottering about and helping the Tyne teams. I took most of my dogs with me and also had Ebi, my brother and sister-in-law’s parson puppy from Squirrels’ litter so he and sister Esther had a nice weekend together and had chance to catch up with their littermates Boz and Stella.

Here's Boz making the most of his 'ringside seat' in Bob and Lyn's caravan ;o)


The weather was kind and I crashed with the Tyne team….proper camping…in a tent and everything! lol The clubhouse there serves excellent food and is good value so we ate all our meals in there. We also collected our new (secondhand but new to us) flyball box, we’re planning to move from a boomerang box to a flat fronted CanAm style box which should give us faster box turns but requires a well trained box technique.

So Sunday arrived and we had a busy day ahead, three of our teams running, two of them at the same time in different rings! Hmmmm, that was going to be fun! I was also down to judge the division that Squirrel was running in with Tyne so had to ask Gemma to judge for me. As it happened I needn’t have bothered, Squirrel ran the first couple of races perfectly then just decided she wasn’t going to play ball. Firstly she wasn’t bringing her ball back, then she was bringing the ball but not coming over the hurdles then eventually she just refused to run at all….arghhh!!! What on earth possessed me to train and run a terrier??!! lol I just put her back in the van and panicked about what we were going to do for multibreed the next day when we needed her to run! We managed to hastily secure a super-sub JRT from the York Monsters flyball team…phew!

Here’s a few pics of her when she was actually doing it!


Very happy with that box technique…


Really MUST do something about that hurdling!! lol

It just turned out to be one of those frustrating days, we were top seed in Div 2 with the Demonz and 2nd seed with the Racers but just really struggled to get it together…everyone seemed to be struggling with the new start light sequencing so there were loads of false starts for both me with Mac and Gemma with Bailey. The dogs that tend to hit the box hard really struggled and were way off their pace including Bailey so the first team really suffered…we had thought it was due to us running on the new flat fronted box but he ran no better when we switched back to the boomerang, just seemed to struggle getting his footing when pushing back off which we eventually put down to the hard ground in that ring…most of the div 1 dogs were also way off their pace and a lot of teams were running a good 0.5sec off their seed times. I saw a lot of 4.1-4.2sec dogs clocking 4.5’s instead. On a positive note all the other Demonz ran well on the new box and it particularly seems to suit Teal and Faith well; Gemma has taken it home to do some box work with Bailey and I’m hoping his underperformance was down to the ground and not the change in box type. We ran an 18.17 as the fastest time which is just rubbish…we seriously need to tighten those changeovers!

We ran the Racers on the boomerang but struggled for consistency with running a 6 dog team…going to have a re-think about that one. Running a 6 dog team is actually quite tricky when you have 6 unevenly matched dogs. Firstly, you get a seed time based on your fastest four dogs, which obviously you’re not always running so can’t always achieve and secondly, you have handlers swapping between dogs which makes consistency very difficult and it showed in our results…lots of lights and lots of ‘should have won’ races…all in all rather frustrating. Ideally we could do with sticking to running the same 4 dogs but that then means 2 of my dogs don’t get to run. Lexie and Ethan have hardly run at all this year and it’s really not very fair when both are good dogs and both enjoy it so much. We desperately need to get that 3rd team running but until Squirrel starts running more consistently and we get Jovi out into Open competition we’re a bit stuck. The Demonz finished 3rd and Racers 4th, not a great day.

Thankfully our starters all ran really well, I swapped between Maizy and Jovi since, at the moment, I feel they both need me to run them…Jovi is very much a ‘mummy’s girl’ and has eyes only for me and Maizy needs someone who knows her well enough to be able to react to what she might do next…she was much better this week and we didn’t have any running back up the lane or dropping the ball…good girl :o) The revelation of the day was Fynn who ran very reliably…always got his ball, always brought it all the way out and no running back up the lane…by jove…I think he’s got it! He’s also picked up the pace but is only putting in about 50% effort…I’m hoping the rest will come as he gains more experience. I was very pleased though when we ran them in singles on Monday without any netting and they all ran perfectly…Maizy is certainly nothing if not consistent…she ran all 3 timed runs in 5.07secs exactly! She has loads more to give but considering she’s actually only been doing flyball for 3 weeks I’m over the moon with her performance!

A few pics of the babies thanks to Brian McMurray from Tyne…

Jovi


Maisie


Fynn


Monday was a much more successful day altogether, Squirrel still started the day ‘out on strike’ so our second multibreed team (Demon Medley) ended up only containing one of our dogs for most of the day! We decided to run Dylan on the first team (Diverse Demonz) rather than Bailey simply because there’s nothing between them time wise when they’re both on form but Bailey had definitely been off the previous day. We also ran that team on the new flat fronted box. So that team ended up being… Ruaraidh (xbreed), Leo (standard poodle), Dylan (BC) and Teal (cocker) and worked really nicely…of course my changeover with Teal was easy peasy since that’s the changeover we do every week in the Speed Demonz but everyone else did a great job and we easily won the division with a fastest time of 17.84.

A few pics of the Diverse Demonz thanks to Kirtsty Price from Linnotts...

Ruaraidh (Rory)

Leo

Dylan

Teal


We had to work somewhat harder with ‘Medley’ which consisted of Finnbarre (standard poodle), Bailey (WS), Jet (xbreed), Scooter (JRT) and Squirrel (when she finally decided to do it!)…it was a shame because they were narrowly ‘pipped’ in a couple of the earlier races and it wasn’t until the last race, when we were against Scooters team (Monster Mash) that I decided to give Squirrel a go and see what she would do…of course she ran all 3 legs perfectly and they ran 0.25sec faster despite my late changeovers….grrrr…bloody terrier!! lol Scooter was a little star and that team would have been completely stuck without him. They managed a 4th place which is exactly where they had been seeded. Sorry, no-one took pics of this lot!

I’m just glad that Squirrel managed to finish the weekend on a good note and I have learned a valuable lesson….treat the terrier like a spaniel (i.e. be extremely nice to it and don’t let on it’s done anything wrong no matter what it does) or it just won’t run so our new team mantra is no longer just ‘keep the cocker happy’ but also ‘don’t upset the terrier’!! lol

All in all it was a good weekend, it’s a lovely venue for hanging out and spending time with friends because of the club house (although the food is far too good and portions too big…I think I’ve probably gained several pounds over the weekend!), 4 of Squirrels puppies were there which was nice and loads of Viggo babies to enjoy cuddles with too. Just a pity the weather wasn’t better, although mostly bright and sunny it was quite cold and windy with intermittent showers. We have a weekend off now and will be back out competing again on mine and Sharon’s birthday…Dinnington Rugby Club on the 15th May :o)

Tilly...a Viggo baby out of River (Bryning Super Cool)


too cute!

More Starters Flyball...

The youngsters are all coming along nicely and last week's training session went well with Maisie , Jovi and Fynn all running in a team together (so all should hopefully be ok at Drax!) so I was feeling quite hopeful about running the girls in starters at Norfolk Park over the weekend. Lori ’s pups were due mid week (21st to the first mating and 23rd to the second) so I expected we would have puppies before the weekend but no…nothing…Saturday she was a little restless but I knew she hadn’t started so decided to go to Sheffield for the flyball and leave her with some peace and quiet.

I got hopelessly lost trying to find my way into Norfolk Park…last time I went I had a sat nav…now I don’t…I missed the first couple of races in starters…doh! Maisie was running with the Alphas and Jovi was running with Tyne…of course…the first race for both of them was against each other so I opted to run Jo with Tyne and Mark took Maisie to run with Alphas…she will run for anyone but decided she wanted to run every leg!! What can I say? She’s keen!! Lol

Jovi ran well in a few different positions. Positives – I had her running in from 35ft and doing nice tight changeovers with the dog coming out, not bad for only her 3rd time competing. Negatives – I have a feeling she’s going to be like Ethan (not surprising since she is his niece) in that she runs in like a train but has a lot of eye and is really having a good look at everything on the way back! As a consequence her runbacks are slow and I’m struggling to find anything to motivate her out quicker…hmmmm. The Tyne team finished 4th and Viggo also managed to complete a few legs too! So Jovi now has another rosette :o)

A couple of pics of Vi and Jovi taken by Jess Penaluna from the Tyne team (thanks Jess!)





Maisie…well…as I said she is very keen…she is also running in from around 30ft and happily running past another dog, she is also much more focused than Jovi on the runout…she comes belting back to me and goes ‘what are we doing next?’ with a big smile on her face (she is just too cute!)…HOWEVER…if I don’t ‘answer her question’ quickly enough she belts straight back down the lane again…regardless of who else might be running! So…I’ve started having another ball for her when she comes out which is fine at keeping her focused on me BUT can make her drop her ball on the runback (yeh, I know...it’s a common complaint) so I’ve decided to start training her to return to a target like we have done with Dylan and his tuggy in the bucket. I have target trained various dogs within the teams I’ve run in over the years but never had to do it with one of my own so this is a first for me. I just need to have a think about what form this might take?? Anyway, the Alpha team won (again!) so Maisie has another 1st rosette, not bad for a little dog that has only been training for 2 weeks! (although to be fair, the Alphas do have a cracking starter team that she’s been lucky to run with)

Squirrel ran with one of the Tyne open teams, making her open competition debut and despite a couple of dropped balls (we were using full sized soft balls but new ones that hadn't been well 'broken in', she likes to be able to squash them so they don't make her jaw ache I think, she won't entertain small balls at all!) I was really pleased with how she did, some nice tight changeovers and no running out! She now has her first flyball points too, clever girlie! :o)

We are running our own starter team at Drax this weekend…Maisie, Jovi, Fynn and a couple of Tyne dogs too…should be fun! Squirrel is also running with the Tyne Titans and will be making her multibreed debut in our second MB team on the Monday, which has been seeded in Div 1 with our first MB team! Haven’t quite figured out how I’m going to run Squirrel and Teal at the same time yet! Fingers crossed Squirt behaves and gains her flyball dog award this weekend!

Flyball starters and training

Arghhh…behind on my blog again already!!

I have an excuse though, I’ve been really poorly with a nasty sinus infection; this is one of those things that, until you’ve experienced it yourself, you really can’t appreciate how unpleasant it is :o(

I had come home from Sutton Fields at Easter with a heavy cold which always makes me a little nervous since I am prone to blocked/painful sinuses but the cold seemed to clear up within the week and all was fine so I tootled off over to Drax for the BFA judges and ring party training seminar on Saturday afternoon. I wasn’t attending the seminar but running dogs in the starters competition that was being held at the same time. The way this works is…those attending the training seminar have theory presentations and discussions in the morning then get to practice what they’ve learnt in the afternoon with some unsanctioned competition; in this case it was a division of starters and an NFC division of teams made up of dogs currently running in open competition that also happened to be there. It was a really beautiful day and I was really surprised when I arrived by the number of people that were there and how many were camping and almost immediately regretted not having brought a tent and camping gear! Anyway, I was running Squirrel and Jovi in the Alpha Dogz starters team and both ran well, Jo is starting to get used to passing with other dogs now and we were loading her ball in the box…she’s making excellent progress, especially considering the small amount of training she’s had. Both girl ran in various different positions and I was pleased with them both, the team all ran well and they came 3rd :o)

Hazell and Leanne arrived just as the day’s activities were ending, they were attending the seminar on Sunday but…Hazell had a spare tent and Sharon had a spare sleeping bag so….I ended up staying over! Lol Hazell had a lovely smart new black harness, still with the label attached and asked if I had a dog it would fit so I suggested Maisie, she was just a year old that day and I really needed to start her flyball training! We’ve been doing lots of groundwork in the last month or so…restrained recalls and sending away to a ‘dead’ ball or to take a ball from someone else but she hadn’t actually seen any of the equipment (I know…I am very lax in training my youngsters! lol). Anyway, Hazell gave Maisie the harness as her birthday pressie so while everyone wandered over to the club house for some tea we decided to make the most of the beautiful weather and the ring that was all set up and do some training; I wanted to see how Viggo was coming on (he’s staying with Hazell and she’s training him for me!) and also see what Maisie could do. I went to borrow the Cheshire Set box (which is the same as ours) and Hazell took Vi and Maisie into the ring…Vi knows exactly what to do so he ran straight up the lane and then back down again, it was all netted for the starters the next day so Maisie just followed him…up over the hurdles and back again. Leanne came over to box load and I did a couple of runbacks with Maisie…no problem, she was hurdling perfectly so we decided to try sending her up to Leanne for a ball…again…no problem..she ran straight up took her ball and came back…she was really keen! So after a couple more like this we decided that Leanne would show her the ball and then load it in the box as she approached…she took it straight out of the box, triggering it and no reaction to the sound or firing action. Ok…so…it seems…Maisie already knows how to do flyball!! Lol

Viggo was doing full runs up and down and triggering the box (this has taken a lot of work because he has been quite sensitive over the box) and, more importantly, he was doing this while Maisie was lined up and alternating his runs with hers…this is also a breakthrough because he has such a high chase drive that he finds the other dogs very distracting. There is hope!! All in all very pleased with both of them :o)

We then went to the club house and had something to eat and a few drinks with everyone before piling back to Sharon’s caravan for more wine (so sorry Sharon…didn’t mean to keep you that late!) and then bed. Well, the next morning I felt terrible…I was so cold I just couldn’t get warm and felt so ill. Couldn’t understand why I had such a bad hangover when we really hadn’t drunk that much. I got up and sorted the dogs out, went and sat with the Rotherham lot and watched them box training (and drank several cups of tea!) then went back to bed for a couple of hours while everyone else was on the seminar. Got up around lunchtime feeling a bit brighter but still not 100%. I asked the Alphas whether it would be possible to put Maisie on their teamsheet for starters and try some runs with her in the warm ups and they said they would be happy to run her so we decided to give it a go. I wouldn’t normally throw a youngster in with so little training (i.e. none!) but she had done so well the night before and I knew I would have to run her so we might as well see how she did. Well, she was super…ran really well throughout the whole division in numerous different positions and ended up being able to run in and do (loose-ish) changeovers etc…I was SO pleased with her! The team also won so not only did she make a fab debut but she won a first rosette!


Maisie sporting her FIRST rosette (which was sadly eaten by Esther this weekend!!...BAD parson puppy! lol)

We also made up an ‘open’ team with Leanne’s Floyd (a beautiful HUGE rottie-dobe cross), Hazell’s River (Bryning Super Cool), my Dottie and Squirrel…the idea being that it would be a good way to introduce Squirrel to open competition…no wings and no netting along the lanes but there was netting in the middle, between the two lanes. For some reason, Squirrel never even looks at the other lane in starters but as soon as you remove all wings and netting she gets very distracted by it…she doesn’t run over and chase but it draws her concentration and causes her to run out. I can only think this stems back to one of her first starters competitions last year where a Rottweiler (a friendly one but huge nonetheless!) jumped over the netting into her lane and scared her; I think removing the netting makes her feel a little vulnerable so she worries and watches the other lane. Hopefully, the more she runs and realizes that no-one is going to come across into her lane (fingers crossed!), the more confident she will become. Anyway, this setup was ideal and she ran paw perfect throughout, turning well off the box and not running out once…clever parson! Next thing we have to work on is getting her to hurdle (single stride) over the jumps. This is a big ask for a small, short-coupled dog…although she and Teal are measured the same height (both run 8”), Teal’s long and low build is actually much better suited to the action of hurdling. I have a few ideas to try to achieve this with Squirrel so we’ll see. She is set to make her open competition debut running with the Tyne team at Norfolk Park this weekend…fingers crossed! Until we have a 3rd team up and running we don’t really have anywhere to run Squirrel so she is going to run with Tyne for a while. We didn’t get in at Norfolk Park (I didn’t send the entry in time since the schedule came out the day Tammy had her accident and I forgot about it) but I will be going on the Sunday to run Squirrel and also to run Jovi and Maisie in starters too.

We stayed and had some tea in the club house at Drax and then set off home so my afternoon of flyball ended up turning into a 2-dayer! It was a lovely unexpected weekend though, good company, good food and flyball…what more could you want?! Got home and was so tired I just sorted the dogs and went to bed. When I woke in the morning feeling as though I’d had the previous day’s hangover, only three times over, I realized it hadn’t been a hangover at all…yup…the dreaded sinusitis, ended up having the whole week off work, two doses of antibiotics later and I'm back at work but still not 100%...not happy! This is typical, just as the weather has finally picked up and the evenings are getting lighter and I've done very little of anything :o(

So...puppies due this week and flyball at Norfolk Park to look forward to at the weekend...I hope this final couple of days of antibiotics finally knocks this on the head and I can fully enjoy both :o)

And then there was one...

The last parson puppy, Fagin left home on Sunday so now I'm just left with little Esther who looks like she will be staying :)

Here's the two of them snuggled up on the sofa for the last time on Saturday evening...

And here's Esther snuggled up with mum the next night...bless...

She is a lovely little pup, not as bold and outgoing as I would normally choose, she probably is the quietest in the litter to be honest but I'm sure she won't stay that way living here! lol

Here she is playing in the garden with some of the big dogs.


and 'striking a pose' in the garden...


I've really enjoyed this litter, lovely quiet easy puppies, far less demanding than the collie litters and such fabulous little characters...love them!

'Shattered and Sunburnt'

Anglesey at Easter

Well, who would have predicted the fantastic weather we had over the four days we spent on Anglesey, blue skies and sunshine from the time we arrived to the time we left...absolutely perfect :)

With only 6 divisions of racing over the weekend we had plenty of time to enjoy the fabulous weather, the big open spaces for dog walking and the fantastic flyball and agility training facilities provided by those lovely PODS. Racing started at 9.30am each morning although we were racing in the last division on each day so we got to enjoy a nice leisurely walk and breakfast in the sunshine followed by a very civilised hour lunch break and presentation around 4pm. The whole weekend was just a very leisurely and relaxed affair, a perfect little flyball holiday.
Breakfast on Easter Sunday...boiled eggs and 'soldiers'...what else?!! lol

Paul also introduced us all to his new favourite vodka cocktail...Apple Pie...a specific brand of Vodka (sorry, can't remember which), cloudy apple juice and a sprinkling of cinnamon...absolutely delicious (it does taste just like Apple pie!!). I'm so glad we decided to spend our Easter over in North Wales; Anglesey is one of our favourite venues and chances are we won't be at the summer show this year as it's only on for one weekend, it's a bit of a trek for just 2 days.

I'm also really glad we took Faith and the pups, she got plenty of exercise to help get her back fit and they got lots of time and attention.

sunbathing on Gemma's lap...look at all that milk still!!

a short vid of the pups playing...

Dora also had a whale of a time, she was able to be allowed loose pottering around the caravans most of the time and really enjoyed the freedom, she's a very easy little pup to have around, she loves company but is equally happy off playing and amusing herself and so far (fingers crossed) she has a fantastic recall!

Both teams ran well but we did get an awful lot of lights! We ran the same dogs in the same order as last weekend but swapped all the handlers so we might as well have been starting from scratch! lol I did get to run Mac start dog again though which is something I always really enjoy. I also had to run Teal as she suddenly decided she was going to be a mummy's girl and didn't want me running Drake instead of her! I think it may have been something to do with the fact I had been doing some chute training with her in the morning. We've started loading her ball in the left hole as she's now decided that's the way she's going to turn. I remember Oskar took a while to make his mind up so maybe it's a spaniel thing! The Alpha's did a brilliant job boxloading for us though which was greatly appreciated and Genna has offered to be our boxloader for the Euros which will be great. I judged div 2 on the Sunday and really enjoyed it, the racing was tight and the relaxed friendly banter between teams was really nice.

On Monday Gemma and I competed in the flygility with Bailey and Teal, this involved a short agility course and then straight onto a flyball lane, the dog must bring the ball back out of the lane and then do the agility course back the way they came. It sometimes takes the dogs a while to understand that they're doing agility and flyball at the same time but Teal seemed to pick this idea up quite quickly, so long as I didn't move past the first agility jump on the way back before she'd exited the flyball lane (else she thought we were done with the flyball bit and dropped her ball!). The course started on the weaves so dogs not weaving got to miss the first obstacle and got a 10 sec penalty, you then got a further 5 secs for every obstacle you (the handler) had to run past so the further you can send your dog ahead the faster time you get. I just decided to run the agility course with Teal because at this stage she's still learning and I want to keep her confidence high, she did however complete the whole course (minus weaves) in the fastest time of the day, under 16 secs. Gemma and Bailey predictably won it (again!) as he was the only dog that would send on over the whole course and back again so they incurred no penalties, he did the whole lot, including the weaves in under 20 secs. Go Bailey!!

I had also agreed to run Squirrel with the Dolphins starter team on Monday but after her performance in training recently wasn't sure this was such a good idea. It wasn't a problem because they had a 5 dog team so I could try her and take her out if she messed about. Well, unfortunately a Dolphins team member had to leave urgently on Monday morning so that left them with just the 3 dogs so Squirrel had to run. We took Viggo over with us too, in desperation really because he really isn't ready to compete. We tried running Squirrel last dog in the first race of the day but she just got so excited watching the other dogs go she wanted to just chase them instead of going for her ball (bad little parson!!) so we ended up trying Viggo and...he did it!! We won that race :) In the next warm up we tried sending Squirrel first with Gemma on the box to get her focused, this did the trick and she ran fine after that. We even managed to get two rolling starts on the last race of the day! Don't think I've ever seen a terrier running start dog before?? lol Vi didn't run again, they'd started the flygility in the top arena and he was totally distracted by that and wouldn't bring the ball back. To be fair to him, it was a big ask, I only showed him flyball 2 weeks ago and he's done about 10 mins training so I really didn't expect anything from him. There's plenty of time to let him pick it up slowly. So our little starter team of Squirrel, Steve's Rory, Roxy the cocker and Bridget's Tearlaidh ended up unbeaten and winning the division!! Not bad for a first outing and especially considering how our day started! Paul took a couple of short videos of Squirrel running so I'll upload them when I get them.

We're over at Sutton Fields this weekend for the judges training seminar and starters competition. Radley will be making her flyball debut so we're hoping to get a little training session in one evening this week and see how we get on. I just hope Squirrel remembers what she's doing!!

Star pupils and class clowns!

'Perfect Pip'

Well, the weather stayed fine enough for us to do some flyball training last night. Conrad, Jackie, Paul and Alison came over and we spent quite a long time with the babies first. Radley was a little star and as she gets more confident about what she's doing she's starting to demonstrate her dad's speedy turn off the box! I have high hopes she's going to be one speedy little dog! We trained her mostly with Teal to begin with and also did a little with Faith, while her pups are only just 4 weeks old she just did a little bit over the low jumps and wasn't exactly speedy! I hope we can build her back up gradually and have her back to full fitness for the Euros...keeping fingers crossed!

We then got Squirrel out....the less said about her performance the better!! I'm putting it down to her being in season at the moment! She was AWFUL...the attention span of a gnat! I have ordered her some new 'different' tennis balls as this seems to make quite a big difference to whether or not she's going to keep hold of it. She doesn't like small balls but sometimes struggles to hold onto the harder full sized ones so we're compromising with full sized softer balls that she can 'squish' a bit! She would have to be different!

I then decided to get Viggo out and just have a look at him...the first runback he did was actually more like a 'walkback' lol He was really unsure about what was being asked of him (this is Vi all over!) and slowly stuttered over the hurdles. However...the second and third he started to get the idea and was really getting into this game, pulling on his harness and running down with purpose! Then we tried sending him up to Paul for his squeaky ball until he was having the ball rolled down the box front (and doing some nice turns actually! lol). He thought this game was great and just kept running up and down the jumps by himself. Now this is quite cute and at least demonstrates that he knows what to do but could get quite annoying if it becomes a habit! For now I want him to enjoy it and be happy but we'll have to nip the 'laps of honour' in the bud! lol

We then ran Pip (Paul), Mac (Conrad), Drake (Jackie) and Ethan (Me) together while Alison boxloaded. Now, for a first attempt at running a (manic) trained dog within a team I was really impressed with Jackie and Conrad! Mac and Drake are not the easiest dogs in the world to run (one pulls like a train and the other wriggles like a cobra!) but they did a really good job. There is so much to learn about running a dog that experienced handlers take for granted. Pip was putting in some lovely four-footed turns off the box, she's running really well at the moment. Mac was a bit of a plank about the starters netting still being up and kept running out but we got him sorted. Drake and Ethan both ran fine although I was finding it harder and harder to see Drake (an almost entirely black dog!) coming back as it started to get dark so my changeovers were seriously suspect!

All in all it was a good session and I was pleased with (nearly) everyone. Gold stars to Radley, Viggo and Pip and a big red penned 'must try harder' for that naughty terrier!!

'Quick, slow...Quick, Quick..slow'

It's been a funny few days with long periods of total inactivity interjected with short bursts of intense activity! I've been laid up with 'flu' for a couple of days so haven't done much apart from the bare essentials with the dogs and puppies. I really didn't think I was going to make Stocksbridge on Saturday but slept most of the day on Friday and drank about a gallon of lemon and ginger tea with honey in and dosed up on paracetemol and amazingly felt not too bad when I woke on Saturday morning. Paul and Alison arrived at around 6.15am and we all piled into the van and headed over to Stocksbridge on the outskirts of Sheffield for my first flyball tournament of the year. This is a venue I haven't been to before and I was really pleased to see the lovely big exercise area available to run the dogs on. It was another superbly organised affair from the Sheffield Speeders, we started off with dog measuring, the first time I've had my lot done since the new jump height rules have come in, as expected Teal measured 8" and Drake 12", this is the final measure for both of them so I can now apply for their height cards. I also had Dottie and Lexie measured and they have both now come in as 13" height dogs under the new rules (5" below shoulder height). We just ran the two teams, as expected the Demonz were seriously outclassed in Div 1, we've decided we probably won't run under this team name again until we get Dylan back running later in the year (fingers crossed!), they were running mid 19's most of the day. The Pawz were also a little off form running mid 20's but after such a long break and on the indoor rubber matting I was actually really pleased with everyone's performance. Both the cockers in particular runnning really well. Thanks must go again to the wonderful lot from the Notts Supadogs for their much appreciated help in box loading, ball collecting and running Mac and Dottie. I judged Div 4 which turned out to be a fiercly contested affair, I must admit I was (secretly) really pleased when the Nunnies won it running two of the Oz sons (Bray (choc/white) and Shimmer (tri blue merle)) that Pam had bred, two very handsome young boys. I must thank all the teams and the very patient ring party for putting up with my coughing and sniffling throughout, I think I'll sterilise my whistle before I use it again...god knows what germs it must now be harbouring! lol

Sam and Andy popped over in the afternoon although they weren't racing 'til Sunday so I got to have a cuddle with Eabha and I also snapped a few pics of Sparks' brother Charlie.



(no...he hasn't got a short tail...he just wouldn't stop wagging it while I was taking his pic! lol)

Dora and 'Jerry' came and were impeccably behaved, I was quite suprised by Dora who is quite a cocky little madam at home but wasn't too sure about all these people and all these big dogs somewhere new...she'll soon get over that...she's got a lot of flyball to go to this year! lol

Here she is eating a biscuit...

Jerry was just 'Mr Cool' and took it all in his stride and as the day wore on I was really starting to weaken towards the idea of just keeping him. Watching him trot about on the field with his stunning movement already showing at 11 weeks old I was seriously beginning to wonder whether I was quite mad to let him go! Fortunately(?) a lovely lady came today and took 'Jerry' (now known as 'Stanley'), he's going to be living relatively close by and will hopefully be competing in obedience in the future. I really hope things go well for him because he's a super little fella, I was very sad to see him go.

I woke up this morning feeling really rough again, maybe I just wasn't up to a full day of flyball yesterday after all?! Just seemed to take me ages to get going. Needless to say I didn't make it to agility training and just had a quiet morning at home. We had a steady stream of visitors this afternoon. Conrad, Jackie, Amy and Jess came over and we did some flyball training with Radley in the garden. She's doing really well and was doing full runs and triggering the box by the end of the session and even had 'mummy' Teal running in on her doing close changeovers. We just need to do some chute work to perfect that box technique and she should be ready for starters! :)

Nathan (my brother) and Sue popped over with Connor and Charlie; they'd been into town and Charlie was sporting his new hat and shoes...HOW cute is he??


Once all our visitors had left we finally settled down to a roast dinner and Sunday evening tv. Here's a pic mum took of me and 'the girls' watching the 'Dancing on Ice' final (and HOW good was Ray Quinn?!!)...

...to be honest...I think I may have been the only one of us actually watching it lol
(check out my poor red nose...tissue chaffed from excessive nose blowing!! lol)

So...off to bed and hoping for a return to feeling 'normal' in the morning!!

Where does the time go??

Have had quite a busy past week, the usual stuff with the puppies and dogs but then we had a really hectic weekend with the family to celebrate my gran's 80th birthday. It was all organised pretty last minute but my Auntie Jan came up from Cornwall, she came up to Birmingham on the coach and I drove down there to pick her up on Saturday afternoon, she stayed with us 'til Tuesday which was really nice. It was a big suprise and no-one else knew she was coming which was great! Sunday morning my grandparents came for breakfast and were really pleased to see Jan. I took Teal to agility training, I must confess, I'd set up some jumps and the channel weaves on Saturday morning and spent 20 mins or so doing some bits with her so she was a bit of a class swat when we made it to class ;) lol I'm really pleased with everything she's doing at the moment, she's so fast and so ethusiastic about everything she's an absolute pleasure to work with. We did A frame and dogwalk, running over both to a tennis ball...she just has such a lovely action over both :) curved pipe tunnel (she loves this too), jumps to teach lefts and rights, tyre and channel weaves, no problems with any of it she's loving it all! We were both absolutely knackered after our session though!

I got back and had a (very) quick shower and change and we all went out for lunch to the Birley Arms (which is actually in Bryning) ...28 of us!! lol It was a nice meal and good to catch up with all my aunties, uncles, cousins and their kids. Everyone (yes, all 28!) came back to our house after the meal so the puppies had LOTS of cuddles which resulted in a phone call from my cousin Barry the next day asking if they could take the half white face boy from Kitten's litter...they've been talking about having a dog for ages (in fact Ella has been asking for one since she could talk!) and they'd all fallen in love with him (he is a super pup) so 'Patch' will be staying local which I'm really pleased about :)

The evening took a rather dramatic turn after everyone had left when my brother noticed a fire in the farm yard at the back, a boat stored on the yard was ablaze with flames reaching some 20 or 30 ft high and the yard owners car parked some 6ft away (he'd gone out in another vehicle)...pretty scary stuff! We called the fire brigade who arrived within 10 minutes (thankfully we're not too far from Preston fire station!) and they quickly got the flames under control and then continued to fully dowse the boat to ensure there was nothing left burning.

Charlie, my (nearly) 4 year old nephew thought it was all brilliant and calmy announced that he thought he might like a fire engine for his birthday next month! lol

I took Monday and Tues off work. Monday was my gran's birthday so we went for a walk and picnic at Cuerden Valley Park, my gran outstriding and outwalking us all! I just took Squirrel and Lori so we had a nice peaceful walk ;)
Lori on the lookout for Squirrel...

Ah, there she is...the seldom seen lesser spotted parson!!

My Gran did keep commenting on how like Spangle Lori is, she is very similar in character and temperament which I guess isn't that suprising since Lori is both Spangles great grand-daughter and niece. Both my grandparents still really miss her, she was a very special girl. We did a bit of shopping in the afternoon and I bought Charlie's fire engine, it's fab, has flashing lights and siren and everything! :) (hope he isn't reading this??? lol). Jan treated us to dinner at our local pub which was really nice but we were tracked down by Barry and Sarah and two very tired little girls, Ella and Niamh, desperate to see their new puppy again! He absolutely loved the fleecey ragger they'd bought him too.

Tues morning I drove Jan back down to Birmingham coach station and then carried on down to Oxfordshire to see Joy and Becca since it was Joy's birthday. We had a nice lunch and did a bit of shopping, popped to see Sally with Digger and Skye at their lovely garden centre near Banbury, Purely Plants (and spent more money!). Well worth the visit if you're in the area, they have some really beautiful things for the garden and home and some lovely gifts. Sally was also preparing for a vegetable lecture, offering help and advice to people wanting to start growing their own veggies at home, some really great ideas. We could have stayed there all afternoon (well, we nearly did!). It was great to see the dogs, I haven't seen Skye since she was a tiny baby and she's grown up into a really beautiful young lady, she's very like her granny Dazzle to look at (only better ears!), carrying less coat at the moment but I think that will come as she gets older. Digs was his normal bouncy and smiley self and had great fun playing chase with Spark, all round the garden centre!! Batty pair! lol Skye wasn't quite so sure about her dad (well, he does look a bit like a big hairy yetti at the moment!!). Wish I'd taken some pics...I am useless!! I also took Beau and Casper (pup still waiting for the right home) with me and they were great in the car, no screaming and no sick! They had a wonderful time tearing round Joy's garden!

We made it back to the house in time to do some training, I wanted Joy to see Teal just to make sure that we're not doing anything that might cause problems going forward. Joy is very good at picking up on things that I don't see (benefit of experience and a whole load of dog sense I guess!) but was happy with the contact training so we'll just stick with what we're doing and try and get in as much practice as possible. We then did some jumping exercises to teach Teal to look for the jump wings and keep working forward to her toy, so she sees her toy at the end of a sequence of jumps but knows she has to do all the jumps first before she gets it. This is quite hard for Teal because (a) she LOVES her toys more than anything else in the whole world and (b) she likes to please so wants to do it right. The beauty of that is of course, that once she knows she has to do (b) to get (a) she does (b) as fast as her little legs will carry her!! She's already proving to be one speedy little cocker, wish we'd video'd some of her work because I'm really proud of her. I'm starting to feel a bit nervous about having a dog whose ability and potential in agility far outstrips mine!!