This was a weekend of 5ths!!
Saturday was a nice easy day with just one open team in and starters. We had the Express team in who managed a fantastic new seed time of 20.55! Having not gone under 21 secs since the team dropped Annie and replaced her with Razzle and knowing from timing them that she was faster, I wondered if was time to try her back in the second team again (she was dropped to the third team after getting frightened by running beween Fly and China) but Razzle was storming and totally showed that he deserved his place.
That night we had a lovely BBQ with Ramsden and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening
On Sunday we had the Extras in who where really good and fought hard to win but were really outclassed, Fox seemed to be really slow and I was a little upset that he seemed to be taking a backward step, when he suddenly upped the pace and suddenly did a 4.25! I was gobsmacked as he didn't feel that fast. I was also able to let him go from 45ft on the blue lane yeay! He only ran out once in the whole comp so I was really pleased.
The Echoes did ok time wise but we were still plagued with Box troubles and Mitch and Echo making the box stick. It also rained and got really boggy so we pulled out of the last race of the day just showing up and not actually running the dogs. Mitch and Echo are so big and heavy that we were worried for their welfare. I know that we were criticised for doing this but I don't care, anyone who said a bad word about us molly coddling our dogs obviously didn't appreciate the circumstances in this instance and should keep their opinions to their selves!!! Ok rant over! All in all though it was a brilliant show and we really enjoyed it!
Thursday, 9 September 2010
Thursday, 2 September 2010
The Champs
Well it has to be said that this was a bit of a disaster all round really!!
We met Jenny who is a brand new member to the team at South Mimms Services. Kim turned her van off to pop to the loo and it wouldn't start again. We were stuck there for two hours and missed all our mornings racing with the third team. Finally got to the show and put the awning up and one of the screws in the awning threaded leaving us no option to but to get the gaffer tape out! We finally get everyone set up and walked down to the lanes and ran the third team. We only had four dogs (with Fox) in this team so I was a little stressed and it passed down the lead to Fox. In the first warm up he wouldn't run right and I got more and more upset. Val who is a fantastic judge and a lovely person, calmed me down and ordered the team to put wings up so that Fox ran right (remember this is only his second open). He ran beautifully and Soph was able to do cracking changeovers onto him with Raven. I was very proud of him :). We went back to the caravan only to find that the water pump was broken :s
On the Saturday we were in with the Express (Fly's) team. Fly had skinned her pad ten days before so I decided to leave her out as much as possible and only bring her in if we needed her as she is by far the fastest dog on the team. On the first race the team went two legs down, I put her in and she hurt her foot on the first run, I was really upset and she was out for the rest of the day. I got Matt to hold her away from the ring and I managed the team. They did surperbly well and ended up with a second. I was really pleased and still went to get my rossette as my dog ran one leg lol! We had a lovely bbq in the evening and sat watching the lightening from under our gazebos lol.
On the Sunday was the top team with Neo and Jamie. I was really worried about Jamie as he had barely eaten for a week and was very thin. The vet hadn't been able to find anything wrong with him and put it down to him being a beardie lol. He is a very sensitive boy and not a foodie at all so it doesn't take a lot to put him off his food. He definitely wasn't running right but that wasn't our biggest problem! The box that we had brought only two weeks before has a serious design fault which means that when a dog hits it hard a flap of rubber matting gets wedged inbetween the top of the box and the pedal. We ended up gaffer taping (good ole gaffer tape) another piece of rubber matting onto it!! The dogs were not happy though as we were all now rather hacked off with the whole weekend and never ran right. I think we would have won the award for the most lights in the comp and we looked liked we had no idea what we were doing!! All in all not a good weekend for me but as usual the comp was fab. Very slick and well run and Div 1 was amazing! Can't wait until next year (I think!!)
We met Jenny who is a brand new member to the team at South Mimms Services. Kim turned her van off to pop to the loo and it wouldn't start again. We were stuck there for two hours and missed all our mornings racing with the third team. Finally got to the show and put the awning up and one of the screws in the awning threaded leaving us no option to but to get the gaffer tape out! We finally get everyone set up and walked down to the lanes and ran the third team. We only had four dogs (with Fox) in this team so I was a little stressed and it passed down the lead to Fox. In the first warm up he wouldn't run right and I got more and more upset. Val who is a fantastic judge and a lovely person, calmed me down and ordered the team to put wings up so that Fox ran right (remember this is only his second open). He ran beautifully and Soph was able to do cracking changeovers onto him with Raven. I was very proud of him :). We went back to the caravan only to find that the water pump was broken :s
On the Saturday we were in with the Express (Fly's) team. Fly had skinned her pad ten days before so I decided to leave her out as much as possible and only bring her in if we needed her as she is by far the fastest dog on the team. On the first race the team went two legs down, I put her in and she hurt her foot on the first run, I was really upset and she was out for the rest of the day. I got Matt to hold her away from the ring and I managed the team. They did surperbly well and ended up with a second. I was really pleased and still went to get my rossette as my dog ran one leg lol! We had a lovely bbq in the evening and sat watching the lightening from under our gazebos lol.
On the Sunday was the top team with Neo and Jamie. I was really worried about Jamie as he had barely eaten for a week and was very thin. The vet hadn't been able to find anything wrong with him and put it down to him being a beardie lol. He is a very sensitive boy and not a foodie at all so it doesn't take a lot to put him off his food. He definitely wasn't running right but that wasn't our biggest problem! The box that we had brought only two weeks before has a serious design fault which means that when a dog hits it hard a flap of rubber matting gets wedged inbetween the top of the box and the pedal. We ended up gaffer taping (good ole gaffer tape) another piece of rubber matting onto it!! The dogs were not happy though as we were all now rather hacked off with the whole weekend and never ran right. I think we would have won the award for the most lights in the comp and we looked liked we had no idea what we were doing!! All in all not a good weekend for me but as usual the comp was fab. Very slick and well run and Div 1 was amazing! Can't wait until next year (I think!!)
Thursday, 19 August 2010
Mass Blog
I have totally forgotten to up load my blog! I can't believe especially considering some of the huge things that have happened recentely!! I'm afraid this will be very brief!
I never thought he would do and I am so proud of both of us! Now just those pesky girls!!
Hearing Dogs - This was a fab show. We were up nice and early as always but the site was lovely when we got there. As always with Bandit's shows it was very well run and organised. We had a lot of fun at this show but the weather was really hot and our dogs all flagged badly. On the whole we didn't do too bad and had a lovely time. Below are results and pictures :)
Echoes - 4th - 18.84
Express - 5th - 21.74
Extras - 4th - 23.73
Not too bad really and as you can see we had a whale of a time :)
Just Dogs Live
We only went to this one for the day as Daisy was injured (non flyball related) and Kim couldn't be away for the weekend. Kim persuaded me to bring Fox and try him in the third team warm ups as Daisy (who I usually run) wasn't there and they only had four dogs who wouldn't need the warm ups. Fox had been doing pretty well i training so I decided to stop being a wuss and try him. (I still haven't got over the Barleylands incident and dread a repeat of it!!) He did really well in the warm ups with wings and only ran down the side once or twice when he got really distracted so I was really pleased with him. As we went to walk into the ring for the second race Talisman's back legs went out from underneath him and he fell, hurting his back (the vet thinks he trapped a nerve temporarily) totally putting him out, that made Fox 4th dog GAHHHHHHH! I decided to go for it!! He was by no means perfect but he did really well and got better and better during the day. We worked out that he has to go first as he loves to race the dog in the other lane and we got 2nd!!! I couldn't believe it!! Nothing could have made my day more then that, I was absolutely over the moon. I don't know how we did it though ha ha!!
PROOF!!
I never thought he would do and I am so proud of both of us! Now just those pesky girls!!Tia is bringing a ball back over two or three jumps now and the big news is that Barley is finally fetching a ball!!! Yeay!!!
On a sad note though Daisy's injury was found to be bone cancer and she subsequently had to have her leg amputated. However at training three weeks later she was milling round while we were setting up and took herself up a lane of full height jumps and brought the ball back over them!! We were all a little gobsmacked to say the least!!! lol
Friday, 18 June 2010
Paddock Wood
I've just realised that I haven't posted anything about Paddock Wood! This was a lovely relaxing show. There were fun events on all weekend and the sactioned tournament on the bank holiday Monday. We toodled up on the Sunday, getting there for 9am and had a very relaxing day. We ran a starters team which I put Tia into just for warm ups and she brought the ball all the way back twice. Why is it that over the field she won't let go of the bloody thing!!! lol. We put Mitch & Jamie and then Neo and Echo into the collie pairs as they are all collies or collie crosses of some sort lol and did really well. We faced each other and a bad changeover from Lynne twice meant that Me and Kim won this race! Yeay! We then went onto be slaughted by the winning pair lol! I can't remember what times we got but they all averaged at about 8.7/ 8.8 per pair, which as I pointed out means we have absolutely no excuse for not going under 18 seconds!
The next day was sanctioned, here a brief over view of out results:-
Echoes 5th place (out of 5 teams!) With a new best time of 18.48
Express 5th place (out of 5 teams!) with a time of 21.14
Extras 2nd place (out of 4 teams) with a new best time of 23.51
Disapointing placings but great times. Hearing dogs show next!
The next day was sanctioned, here a brief over view of out results:-
Echoes 5th place (out of 5 teams!) With a new best time of 18.48
Express 5th place (out of 5 teams!) with a time of 21.14
Extras 2nd place (out of 4 teams) with a new best time of 23.51
Disapointing placings but great times. Hearing dogs show next!
Monday, 17 May 2010
Wimbledon
Another stupid oclock start this weekend lol. We were up at 4am (eek) only to have to wait 3/4 hour for Ayrton who forgot to get out of bed. I swear I could quite easily have strangled him!! lol! We got to Wimbledon, filled in our race sheets and started to set up. This was the only div that we had free and it took us most of that to put Kim's awning up. I hurried off to help the Fantastic 4 with ring party, then in the next division I went back to the caravan to pick up my dog, then back to the ring to race her, then back to the caravan to put her back, then in the next division, back to the ring to do the line for the Fantastic 4, then back to my caravan to put the awning up and so on and so on! Just when I thought I could finally sit down I remembered that I had to do starters! Wahhhh!!! I had a dog in each div too. Tia went in with the Wimbledon Warblers and did all of the warmups and a couple of legs. She did really well and nearly brought the ball back. She really enjoyed her self and was calm and happy which I was really pleased about as she is a very nervous girlie, she even jumped up someone to give them a kiss! I also noticed an improvement in Fox and I managed to get him going up and down the lane which was great. Normally he is so hyped he just freezes and stares at the other lane whether there is a dog going up it or not! lol idiot!
The Express team (Fly's team) did well. Annie was still in season so we were still on too high a seed time but they ran well, Fly was living up to her name and flying! She was clocked doing 4.47 over 13 inch jumps which is fabulous for a 9 1/2 year old dog!
We finished racing at 9pm and had dinner at 10pm! I sat with the team for about 15 mins had two mouthfuls of magners and then went to bed!! Not really surprising after the day I had! lol!
On the Sunday we only had one div free again! Groan! First in I was box loading for the Extras team who were on a submitted time of 23.00 secs (my fault) and they managed 23.81. Soph handled Kim's large lab Raven like a pro and I was really proud of her - bless.
We then had a div off and I fell asleep doh!
The Echoes team were next. Neo was at the ring side quivering like an idiot (good sign) Jamie and Mitch were barking their heads off and lovely Echo stood and watched the world go by! lol! We managed to persuade Darren from the Lightening Strikes to watch our change overs for us and thanks to him we ended up running 18.51!! I felt really vindicated as it was me that submitted 18.50 as our declared time. We still got thrashed but never mind at least we were in the right division ha ha!!
All in all it was brilliant weekend! I can't wait for Paddock Wood!
The Express team (Fly's team) did well. Annie was still in season so we were still on too high a seed time but they ran well, Fly was living up to her name and flying! She was clocked doing 4.47 over 13 inch jumps which is fabulous for a 9 1/2 year old dog!
We finished racing at 9pm and had dinner at 10pm! I sat with the team for about 15 mins had two mouthfuls of magners and then went to bed!! Not really surprising after the day I had! lol!
On the Sunday we only had one div free again! Groan! First in I was box loading for the Extras team who were on a submitted time of 23.00 secs (my fault) and they managed 23.81. Soph handled Kim's large lab Raven like a pro and I was really proud of her - bless.
We then had a div off and I fell asleep doh!
The Echoes team were next. Neo was at the ring side quivering like an idiot (good sign) Jamie and Mitch were barking their heads off and lovely Echo stood and watched the world go by! lol! We managed to persuade Darren from the Lightening Strikes to watch our change overs for us and thanks to him we ended up running 18.51!! I felt really vindicated as it was me that submitted 18.50 as our declared time. We still got thrashed but never mind at least we were in the right division ha ha!!
All in all it was brilliant weekend! I can't wait for Paddock Wood!
Monday, 10 May 2010
Newbury
We were up at 4.30am on a very cold sunday morning for Newbury. the Lightening Strikes first show.
We ran first with the Express team. We were down Annie as she is in season but decided to put Razzle in as he really has gone as far as he can in starters. We didn't suffer too badly on times (about 4 tenths of a second) but the team just didn't gel as well as they had at easter. I think it may have been the pressure of being top seed as well has having two different dogs in, Misty was there as well as Razzle. We managed a fourth place which we were really pleased with.
One after the racing
We ran first with the Express team. We were down Annie as she is in season but decided to put Razzle in as he really has gone as far as he can in starters. We didn't suffer too badly on times (about 4 tenths of a second) but the team just didn't gel as well as they had at easter. I think it may have been the pressure of being top seed as well has having two different dogs in, Misty was there as well as Razzle. We managed a fourth place which we were really pleased with.
Essex Express
Some pictures of Fly :)
One after the racing
We went in the Echoes team next and were really eager to see what they could do. We hadn't managed to race this team (top team) at Easter due to the comp being cancelled. We were on a declared time of 18.50 and I was pretty confident that we could get near this. Luck was not with us however as I realised that Neo really wasn't very well after the first run and wasn't running properly, He came out of the ring and was really quiet and even more clingy then usual. He had a very upset tummy and was really off. We ended up pulling him as he just got slower and slower and we ran, super sub, Daisy the rottie instead. I think our fastest time was 19.67 and we managed fourth which we were actually over the moon with! No pics of this team I'm afraid :(
The show itself was fantastic, the atmosphere was lovely and it was such a relaxed friendly show. Shame it was so cold.
Wimbledon next weekend and Tia is running her debut in Starters :) Watch this space
Monday, 3 May 2010
Training today
We had a bumper flyball training session today!! I thought I'd update on how they are all getting on.
My Dogs
Fly - Brilliant as always!!
Neo - Ditto!!
Jamie - Little Git!! He decided to go wide on the box and run down the side of the jumps on the way back. He always does this in training for some reason. We perserved until he ran in again - Monkey!!
Tia - Now doing full runs and is pretty quick. She will make a good third team dog until she gets a bit of confidence. She will only pick up a soft ball and will only go to the box if Soph is box loading but hey ho she's running!!
Fox - Amazing today!! He is running with a dog in the other lane yeay!!! I actually did a victory run around the training field hee hee!
Barley - Getting better with the ball and is single striding nicely up and down the lane. I will take some time to teach her a formal retrieve and then she will be doing it :)
The whole training session was really good and positive. We went from not being able to get a starters team to suddenly having two!! We have some very promising little height dogs coming up too. Very exciting!!
My Dogs
Fly - Brilliant as always!!
Neo - Ditto!!
Jamie - Little Git!! He decided to go wide on the box and run down the side of the jumps on the way back. He always does this in training for some reason. We perserved until he ran in again - Monkey!!
Tia - Now doing full runs and is pretty quick. She will make a good third team dog until she gets a bit of confidence. She will only pick up a soft ball and will only go to the box if Soph is box loading but hey ho she's running!!
Fox - Amazing today!! He is running with a dog in the other lane yeay!!! I actually did a victory run around the training field hee hee!
Barley - Getting better with the ball and is single striding nicely up and down the lane. I will take some time to teach her a formal retrieve and then she will be doing it :)
The whole training session was really good and positive. We went from not being able to get a starters team to suddenly having two!! We have some very promising little height dogs coming up too. Very exciting!!
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