Ending on a High...

So…this weekend was our last outdoor comp of the season as a team and we headed over to Norfolk Heritage Park in Sheffield for the Steelers Flyball team debut tournament. We were running both teams on the Saturday since Gemma was working Sunday so it was another busy day for me being involved in all 4 divisions. Squirrel
and Radley ran in a combined starter team – Norfolk Mix and Match, 2 Demonz, 2 Steelers and 2 Water Orton dogs, this was a really nice mixed breed team with a collie, parson, cross breed, lab and 2 working cockers (the other cocker in the team turned out to be a cousin of Radley)…they ran brilliantly…I was SO proud of my babies and they won the division with a fastest time of 19.95 :) We each got a lovely rosette and memorial shield.

Next up were the Speed Demonz running in Division One, Brigg were top seeds with a time of 17.94, we were second seeds on 18.13 but since Brigg had to pull out at the last minute we were now the favourites by about half a second. Sometimes this sort of pressure is not good and we were still running the experimental team from Stoneleigh with Teal in as the height dog so I wasn’t sure how we were going to get on. I needn’t have worried , we ran the fastest time of the season in our first race with a 17.90 with Dylan, Bailey, Faith, Teal and then went on to run 17.91 with Dylan, Bailey, Lexie, Teal. Drew ran both Faith and Lexie and did a good job swapping between them both, although they seemed to be running similar times they do run quite differently with Lexie faster on the way in and Faith faster on the way out, this obviously affected both his changeover behind Bailey and mine in with Teal but we seemed to settle into the spot quickly and the team just seemed to ‘gel’. Teal really seems to have found her feet and is running better than she ever has, all the boxwork we’ve done over the summer, getting her to drive off faster is paying off and is making all the difference to her times…now we just need to work on her hurdling consistently! (she often puts an extra stride in between hurdles when he stride isn’t quite right, this is quite common for short legged dogs). It all went a bit ‘Pete Tong’ in the third race where, for some unknown reason, Teal was hitting the box and driving back off so fast that she completely forgot to catch the ball!! This is one of the dangers with teaching drive off the box, you are effectively moving the dogs’ main point of focus…i.e the reward isn’t in getting the ball but in getting back faster. You often find that the fastest flyball dogs are ball ‘spitters’ and it’s a common misconception that a good flyball dog has to be ball obsessed, I have actually found this to be the opposite. The ball really needs to be secondary to whatever the reward at the end of the runback is to get them to run as fast as they can. If you watch the REALLY fast American teams their dogs are all trained to a tuggy. Anyway, I digress…we took Teal out and ran all 4 collies, this wasn’t the fastest team you’re ever likely to see because they suddenly went from 8 to 13” and it did throw them all somewhat (especially Faith who struggles over this height) so the changeovers were atrocious but we did manage to win the following 3 legs and win the race. We went on to win both races in the afternoon too and Teal ran fine (thankfully) so obviously won the division…a lovely way to end the season and another collection of rosettes and shields  I am confident there is another 0.5 second in this combination of dogs so we will spend the winter training this combination and see what they can do! (although Teal is due to carry out maternal duties some time over this winter too!)

The Pawz ran next in Division 3, we had Mac, Pip, Drake and Ethan. They all ran ok and this was a very tight division so we ended up on a 3 way tie for 2nd and came 4th…bummer! Lol I think we ran around 19.70 which was better than last weekend but still not great. I think maybe some of the dogs are ready for a break.

I was judging the last div of the day, Div 5 which was ANOTHER 7 team division!! My back and legs were aching so much from being on my feet all day by the end of it! This was a really nice division and was won by Minster Monsters from York who were running a lurcher, GERMAN WIREHAIRED POINTERS and munsterlanders…lovely dogs to watch running!

It was a lovely show, fantastic venue, good ground and plenty of space with a café on site and a lovely friendly and relaxed atmosphere throughout, I really enjoyed it. Despite the forecast and the previous few days we didn’t have a drop of rain and in fact the sun came out! Everyone knows…the sun goes where the Demonz go! Lol We have been so fortunate this year to see very very little bad weather. Presentation was a really small and intimate gathering and it was really nice to receive Dotties’ gold award and Macs’ Platinum from Howard along with Paul getting Pips’ Gold too.

Lola is coming along nicely, I decided to make the most of the lovely venue and good weather to snap some pics of her….

Here’s one of Travis too, looking very serious!!

And one of him at home…pooped after his exhausting day out…

Other news this week…Viggo has mated Dazzle, I have hopes that he will be a great little stud dog on his performance because there was no messing around and he got on with it like an old pro! lol (granted, Dazzle is not a difficult bitch to mate). We should hopefully have blue/white and slate merle pups due around the 8th November…can’t wait!! (you can read more about planned/expected collie litters here btw)

I also heard from Kerena that the Dream Team qualified for the flyball at Crufts at the qualifier at Prestbury Park over the weekend which means that their young working cocker Magic, Bryning Makin’ Magic (a Drake-Teal son) will now be competing in both the YKC Agility Dog of the Year AND the flyball. I am so pleased with this litter and can’t wait to see Maizys’ pups growing up!

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.

British Championships

I know I’m being a very bad blogger again! Quite a lot has happened in the last couple of weeks, we’ve competed at the British Flyball Championships and then again at Rotherham, Travis has arrived and Dottie has been mated. Maizy’s pups are due in just 9 days time (eek…excited!!)…these will be our first cocker puppies for two years and the start of our autumn/winter ‘puppy season’ now the flyball fixtures are starting to slow down.

So…briefly…the Championships were bigger and better than ever, a testament to the hard work and organization from Steve and Bridget and the Dolphins team who were this years’ hosts down at Holt Farm in Southam, Warwickshire. This year saw 32 divisions run in 3 rings spread over 3 days running in reverse order. Since both our teams fell into the top 10 divisions we didn’t actually run until the final day on the Sunday but we spent all 3 days there just catching up with friends, helping other teams, soaking up the atmosphere and chilling out. I did try to photograph all the Brynings there competing but failed miserably and missed a fair few. I’ve uploaded a selection of photos into an ALBUM there’s too many to post here!

I did get to run Jack (Bryning Bold Jack Donohoe) on the Saturday in the Tyne Tailtwisters (Thanks Hazell!) and he ran really well, alongside his housemate River (Bryning Supercool) to go on to win Division 13 which was really nice :) I also got to judge division 12 which I really enjoyed, despite Jason from the Shooting Stars badly spraining his ankle and one of their dogs getting stung by a wasp! This division was won by the Wilmslow Jackals featuring the lovely Kite (Bryning Black Kite) which was also really nice! :)

The lovely Jack...

and the lovely Kite...


In terms of racing we actually did a lot better than we thought we might, both teams were seeded low in their divisions and both were in on seed times they hadn’t run for a while. Now…there is an awful lot of ‘cheating’ that goes on at the Champs, by that I mean…teams deliberately slowing their seed times down with lose changeovers leading up to the competition to get seeded in a lower division that they can just go out and stuff (grrrr) or teams submitting one team name and then running dogs from another (faster) team in it so they can do the same thing. I know, hard to believe anyone could be that sad but it is true!! Personally, I really don’t see the point in winning a division you’ve ‘fixed’, where’s the achievement in that? Moves are afoot to identify the culprits and but rules in place to stop it happening in future, I think they should all be ‘named and shamed’ to be honest!

Anyway, the Pawz were seeded 5th in Division 10 on their fastest ever time of 19.21 that they had run once! On paper there was just 0.05 between top and bottom seed…we expected a drubbing! However, the dogs all ran really well and with a fastest time of the day of 19.45 they actually ended up 2nd behind the Rotherham Runaways who ran 18.88! Our friends at Rotherham had a fantastic Champs winning 4 out of their 5 divisions! (they could have let us have one couldn’t they! lol). We were running under the Speed Demonz name for the first time this year, finally having all our dogs back running…or so we thought! (yes, we did the opposite of the ‘cheats’ and submitted a faster team! lol). Unfortunately after the first two races in the morning it became apparent that Bailey had injured his shoulder so we had to pull him, Gemma was understandably very disappointed, as we all were, we’d lost our fastest dog. We struggled on with Dylan, Lexie, Dottie and Mac and didn’t achieve much time wise but consistency paid off and we won two races ending up a very respectable 4th

Rachel and Phil arrived late Sunday afternoon with Travis and he had his first experience of flyball with a carry round the rings and lots of cuddles, he wasn’t fazed by anything, a real testament to what a well grown and well reared little chap he is.

All in all it was a very relaxed and enjoyable weekend…good weather, good company and good racing…and we came home with a new puppy…who could ask for more?!

Fi-Reeky Pupdates

Here’s a couple of pics received over the last week or so of pups from Rico and Faiths’ litter, just turned 5 months old.

Ossy (B. Would you Believe)…

Jeep (B. Believe it or Not)…

Rosco (B. Daydream Believer)…

and Monkee aka Cowboy (B. I’m a Believer)…


‘Monkee’ is settling really well into his new home, it’s just 5 weeks since he left us for Florida and he’s had a name change to ‘Cowboy’ since Mike and Renea already have a ‘Monkee’…no really, they do…a sable/white bitch by the name of Companions Daydream Believer, would you believe?! Lol Great minds think alike and all that ;) Cowboy is forever sitting watching the cattle on the ranch so he’s kinda chosen his own new name; he’s growing up into a really handsome young man.

Check out all those lovely ‘batfink’ ears!! Now…why has mine not got ears like that?!!

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!!

mid week training and what to try next??

So, we decided to do some training last night since we’re having to have a fairly substantial re-shuffle for Dundee this weekend. Bailey isn’t coming, Mac is off form and Dottie is still lame, we will just have 8 dogs. We took the kit down to the playing fields where we had a bit more room so we could set up 6 hurdles to help teach Faith to hurdle fast and accurately over 13”. For some reason, she runs fine over 12” but struggles with 13”…she did get 3 measures at 12” but when I went for her final one at 30 months they would only give her 13”…I really wish I’d held out and got another measure but I needed to apply for her height card before we went to Belgium so she’s stuck with it now. She is obviously smaller than Dottie and Lexie though who both also measure 13”…hey ho, I digress...

We lined up Ethan, Lexie and lastly Faith and sent them for run backs quickly one after the other to get her to power through over all 6 hurdles, this seemed to help and she was running much better than she has over 13” before but still not quite there. We than practiced Faith in on Dylan, Lexie in on Faith and Ethan in on Lexie to see how that worked and it was ok.

We then got the slant board out and did some runs with Pip and Teal over 9” and both were doing some lovely box turns…Teal is SO fast with that board in, we’re going to work on reinforcing this over winter.

Then we got Drake out and I ran him behind Pip…well…he had spent the last hour in the van whining because he thought it should be his turn and buggar me…he absolutely flew! We popped the jumps up to 12” and he was still running around the 4.5sec mark so we’ve decided to try him in the Racers at the weekend instead of Ethan, if he runs like that (which he probably won’t!) he deserves to be in that team anyway but it will also give Fi her 12” jumps. I’d really like to know how to get the cockers performing they way they do in training, in competition?? I can only conclude it is a confidence issue, cockers do tend to be sensitive little souls but how to deal with it? Answers on a postcard please!

flyball and fun down on the wirral...

Glad to be back competing after 2 weekends off and I dashed home from work to finish the last bit of packing and get the caravan hooked up and away for the weekend on the Wirral at Eastham Country Park in Bromborough, one of my favourite venues hosted by one of my favourite teams! The UK agility competitors amongst you will know this as the venue for Wirral agility show.

My excitement was tinged rather with sadness as I said goodbye to Dora just before we left. After several weeks of deliberating and changing my mind one way and then the other I finally decided to let her go. I will really miss her she’s such a little sweetheart but I just can’t justify keeping her. I already have a midget collie with her mother Kitten and I really don’t need another, sometimes you just have to accept that you can’t keep them all. She’s gone to a lovely home where she will be an only dog and get to go to obedience classes each week and go out running with her new owner and just be a much loved and spoiled family pet. This will suit Dora down to the ground!

I now just need to find the right home for her sister Lola who was returned to me last month, she’s a much feistier character all together!


So off we went down to the Wirral, the 10 dogs I had competing (7 open and 3 starters) plus Spark, Kitten, naughty Lola and the two pups…15 in total, just another normal flyball weekend! We didn’t get away ‘til quite late with having to sort Dora out first but at least everyone got a good blast round the garden before we left! I went and had tea with Paul and Alison after a quick set up and we had a few (ahem) cheeky drinks before Drew arrived straight from work at around 11pm bless him…it’s quite a drive from Scarborough! When we (and a number of our old Red Rose team mates) carried on drinking into the early hours, we had a good laugh and enjoyed catching up but were all rather tired the following morning! Conrad, Jackie and Amy didn’t arrive ‘til Saturday morning and quickly set about putting up their NEW TENT…hahaha…we have converted them at last!!

Saturday was quite a busy day with the ‘Cubz’ in starters followed by the ‘Pawz’ running in Division 4 and then me judging and the team ring partying in Div 3…not much time to relax! Katherine joined us in starters with her lovely (but incredibly soppy) rescue pointer Jasper, all the dogs ran really well and they came 4th. The Pawz were rather outclassed in Div 4 and the cockers decided to play silly beggars with Drake running out in the warm up for the first race resulting in me running Teal who ran her little socks off in the first two races and then refused to run in the 3rd??? Teal out, Drake in…he ran like a little star and I kept him in all day and didn’t run Teal again, I really enjoyed running him actually, he was really up for it. I think they came 5th out of 6 which is where they were seeded but they didn’t even break the 20 sec barrier all day. Amy ran Faith start dog which was her first experience of running a dog in open and she’d really got the hang of it by the afternoon but Faith was on another planet again and just kept looking over at the other lane as she was running in. I think we’ll swap her into a later position and see if that focuses her any better? That dog is infuriating! Ethan was the star of the team and ran consistent 4.8’s all day…we’re starting to see a bit more focus from him…finally!

Division Three was quite a tightly contested 7 team division that seemed to take forever to complete, lots of false starts and 5 leggers!! I don’t know what I’ve done wrong in a former life but I’ve had 7 team divs to judge at the last few shows we’ve been too and find myself losing the will to live by the end of it! lol We had some good banter though and the PODS earned a well deserved win and Amy did a great job line scribing for the first time, I have to mention my team and the Kiddy Monsters who made for a very competent and patient ring party!

Saturday evening and I took a few of the dogs out only to discover…arghhhh…Dottie was lame on her rear left (wah!!); after a quick ‘once over’ from Katherine it was decided she’d just tweaked a muscle in that leg so she got a rimadyl and was allowed to sleep in the caravan in the hope she’d be ok to run the following day. We finished the day with our usual Eastham treat…a lush Chinese banquet from the takeaway across the road!! (oops…diet can start again on Monday! lol)

Gemma and Bailey arrived on Sunday morning, all fit and raring to go after his staples came out this week. Sunday was a much quieter day with us only having the ‘Racers’ running in division 2 so we all had a lovely lie in (at flyball…that’s virtually unheard of!). Paul and I helped the Doghouse team who had just come over for the day and were a little short staffed but this meant I got to watch Echo run; Echo is a Quillan-Lexie daughter just making her open debut, she was fabby (typical Lexie baby!).

Dottie seemed much better in the morning so she went on the team sheet but was nearly 0.5sec of her normal times and completely lame after the morning’s racing so we pulled her. Mac was also way off his usual times and I’m not entirely sure why? Firstly he was running 3rd dog and he does usually run a bit slower when he’s not going start but the swelling on his dew claw still seems to be bothering him too. Once the season is over I’m going to have him castrated and ask the vet to remove his front dew claws too. I’m wondering if this swelling is caused by the papilloma virus that caused the wart on his pad, removed a few weeks ago? Annoyingly this meant that, once again, we couldn’t run our fastest combination of dogs and although we ran a new seed time of 18.17 it’s nowhere near what we should be running. I am going to rest Dottie at Dundee this weekend and fingers crossed she’ll be ‘match fit’ for the Champs in 2 weeks time where we’re entered in Div 3 on a submitted time of 17.80. Both Dylan and Bailey were both back on top form running consistent sub 4.2 times and Lexie was back running 4.6’s now I’m handling her again (mummy’s girl!!) so all we need to do is get Dottie back and sort our bloody passing out!! Lol We’re going to get stuffed at Dundee as we have no Bailey or Dottie so are going to try some different combinations…I’m even contemplating running Ethan in the Racers (gasp!) since he was running consistent 4.8’s at the weekend. I just wish he and Faith could focus fully on their flyball then we’d really see what they can both do! I’m also contemplating running Squirrel in the Pawz too (bigger gasp!) so this weekend is going to be very much an experiment!