Barleylands April 09

Well what a weekend. Barleylands was a great success even if I do say so myself! I am soooo tired though lol. I got there at 9am Friday morning and marked out the general position and size of the ring so that we could organise our camping. Tasha, Dave, Kate, Lee, Tony and Faye got there about half an hour later and we decided to get our caravans sorted. By the time we were all set up Sam and Andy arrived so we helped them with their awning and spent the rest of the afternoon marking out and setting up the ring (no mean feat I can tell you!!). We were finished at about 7 so had some dinner and a few drinks and went to bed very early for us.
On Saturday we started racing at the leisurely time of 10am as we only had starters, pairs and singles. It was a very relaxed day. We had no warm up limits and spent the day helping out teams and giving advice. It was very productive day and I feel that the newer teams went away with a clearer idea of the rules and etiquette of flyball. I learned that there is no way that Fox can go in a flyball lane until he has matured a bit more!!!!! I'm not even going into that disaster!!!! My friend, Sarah, came to look at Teddy a lovely little rescue dog that I had been looking for a home for, fell in love with him and took him home with a promise that she would be at our next training session with him! We also had some ladies from a brand new team in Manningtree who had a go in the singles. One of the ladies had a cracking pointer who did a time of 4.90 secs very impressive for such a tall dog. Pairs and singles went really well but not always completely smoothly lol! After presentation we had the fifty metre dash but I think all the handlers were too tired and we only had about ten dogs compete. After we had finished Kate and Sam went and got a KFC while we all fed and wee'd our dogs and cleared away the lights and gazebos. We then all fell on the KFC like vultures owing to the fact we had not had time to eat a single thing all day!
Sunday went like clockwork! Very few problems and some great racing. The terrierists won their division with some great racing and changeovers. The Muttleys were really outclassed and I just could not get my changeovers onto Lily sorted as Jamie was completely over excited and I had trouble holding him let alone trying to get a decent changeover!!!. The team did not really gel until the last race of the day when it all clicked and we got our fastest time of the day (probably because Jamie had actually settled a bit)! I'm not sure what was wrong with him this weekend as he barked constantly for two days (he never does this) and was bonkers! I'm taking him back off CSJ food LOL!!!! The Running 4 Mutts (our top team) were running pretty well. We were in line for a 2nd place possibly 1st when disaster struck and Poppit split her claw all the way up! ARGH!!! We came 4th! Fly was not very good in the morning and very stiff. I have to keep reminding myself that she is approaching nine and although she is in great condition and looks (and acts) like a dog of one age is definitely creeping up on her. Bless her. Barley had a great weekend. We put her, Henry and Fraggle in a big pen by the admin tent. Lots of socialisation!! LOL!! They had a blast! The only thing that marred the weekend was the fact that we found out that we had only received 13 entries for our May show so it looks like it won't be going ahead :( Keeping our fingers crossed.