Changes

Well this year has had some amazing ups and some very disappointing downs. Ive got a lot to think about regarding the future. I have really struggled with motivating myself towards the end of this year and have realised i need to ignore the negative people in my life and train my dogs in a way that makes us both happy. Lots of changes need to be made me thinks!

I have found agility very frustrating as its not easy training a dog with issues and i have more than one! i find other people can be so thoughtless and just because their dog can walk through a gap an inch wide with lots of dogs barking at them doesn't mean every ones can. Please next time you are maybe blocking an entry into the ring at a show or the entry into a venue think about how someone Else's dog may struggle with the pressure of passing yours as such close range.

Flyball has been great and its been horrible! I've really enjoyed training and developing all the dogs at Power Paws regardless of their speed and all the handlers are lovely people who i enjoy spending time with. We have been unlucky and not really managed to have stable teams this year so our times have been a bit up and down but i am very excited for the future as we now have 3 open teams who all seem keen to get out there and compete in 2011. We have grown a lot during 2010 and I'm not sure we will be able to take on many more dogs which is a shame. The British Champs was a bit of a disappointment as none of the 3 teams my dogs are in did very well but there is always next year. I'm looking forward to Crufts in March and feel we have improved so much this year that we really have a chance of doing well but that all depends on the draw so I'm keeping my fingers crossed we get a good one in the first round.

Saying that Campbell, Cai and Chico have all done better than i ever hoped. Chico ran at the British Champs and gained his first every flyball points. OK hes not going to set the world on fire with his 6 second times but at least hes giving it a go.



Campbell's flyball times have really improved this year and he very close to those magic 4 second times but im struggling with his focus as he has started crossing and chasing the dog in the other lane if i run him from more than 5 foot back from the start. I'm not sure this is ever something ill correct as he has such strong eye. The few agility shows he has done have been good. He won the Jumping at Eastbourne agility show and moved into Senior at UKA. Nearly every placing hes had this year has been top 5 so hopefully we can fit a bit more agility in next year.



Cai has turned a corner this year and is now out and competing in agility with no sign that i ever had a problem once he is working (although actually getting into the ring is still a challenge!) He has been placed top 5 every time he has gone clear which I'm so pleased with. Hes been an amazing flyball dog as always and pulled off some 3.8 second times over 11" and ran under 17 seconds with the Dream Team. I have also signed him up for a training day with Kelly Robbins-Walt & Aaron Robbins from Rocket Relay in Canada to see what they think we can improve on.



Roxy and Rayne have had an easy year just being pups... well OK Roxy is quite an old pup but as i already have 3 dogs competing i don't feel the need to push her to quickly! Roxy has now started flyball training and is showing promise and Rayne is now working lovely with the clicker and offering all sorts of cute and odd behaviours! She is so different from the collies and I'm enjoying the challenge.

Dream Team Tournament... We did it!!!

16.98!!! woohoo we did it!!! What a weekend. The dogs just felt ready (well apart from Tess who has never been to a flyball tournament let alone competed in one) They were all on top form which is lucky as looking at the video afterwards our changes were horrendous! Who knows what we can run if we actually manage to tighten up our changes.... british record next? ha ha ha. All the dogs were turning nicely on the box though so we dont need much work there.

We finished 2nd which really didnt matter as i still had goose bumps from earlier. The racing was so exciting and it really felt like all the teams were pushing themselves to their limit.

Crufts 2011 Qualifier

The Dream Team haven't managed to make it to any of the other qualifiers this year as they were either too far away (Scotland!) or on the weekend of our own shows so this was really our last chance to qualify. We made the journey up to Prestbury Park again which is where we qualified last year. We left a heavily pregnant Michelle back at home running the Dream Team Tournament and thankfully she managed not to go into labour. Prestbury park is a lovely show and part of me would have liked to stay for the weekend and do the agility too. Maybe next year.

For the first time ever we had a lucky draw and got an easy team in the first round and only had to win two races to qualify. We coasted in the first round with 20 foot late changes winning 3 - 0. The second round didn't really push us much either and we won that 3 - 0 too qualifying for Crufts 2011!! We then raced Sheffield for 1st & 2nd place and again won 3 - 0 to finish 1st. I had really wanted to qualify for Crufts again and would have been gutted if we hadn't managed it so I'm glad the pressure is now off and we can relax till March next year. The dogs really feel like a team now. Cant wait for tomorrow as i can feel best ever time coming. Sub 17 seconds? maybe.

Dream Team Tournament

Saturday

Just Chico running today with the Dream Team Maddogz. After his promising start at the Champs i was looking forward to running him... hmmm.... shouldn't have bothered! he was so naughty. He refused to run in the red lane and kept stopping and cowering like someone was about to hit him and sniffing the floor. it turned out a fox had pooed in the ring the night before and he was scared of the smell! He ran ok in the blue lane though. Annoyingly we took a second off our seed time but lost quite a few races due to Chico being a wally and ended up 5th out of 7. I'm really not sure if i should keep racing him as i don't know if he is enjoying himself or not, hes such an odd dog.

Shooting Stars Flyball Tournament

Saturday

Power Paws were seeded 4th in Div 5. After being disappointed with the dogs (and handlers!) at the champs i was hoping we could get it together this weekend. We always seem to loose our first few races then win the rest. I think this is partly down to nerves (handlers) and inexperience on the dogs part as 3 of the dogs have only raced in open this year at less than 5 shows. Well as normal we lost the first race! we then seemed to gel better as a team and ran some really good races with consistent times rather than slowing by 1 - 2 seconds in the afternoon. We ended up running the best time of the division and winning the race against the eventual winners so not a disappointing day. We also ran our best time ever of 20.23 seconds. We finished 3rd so improved on where we were seeded too.

Cai and flea entered the pairs and finished 2nd. It was run over 11" which obviously suits Cai and quite a few people came up to me after and said he had been running 3.8 seconds which i think is down to us going back onto the boomerang box. On the combi box i could really see him sticking to the box but he is not able to do this with the boomerang and his turns have really sped up.

Sunday

Our open debut for Power Paws Flyers today. only one dog had run in open before and kept dropping the ball so i had no idea (or expectations) on how we would do. All the dogs ran very well. Charlie our start dog ended up running some of the best times of the weekend earning himself a promotion into the top team. His average was well under 5 seconds and his starts were 0.00 - 0.06 so as near to perfect as we will get! The other dogs did well although both height dogs slowed considerably but Skye didn't drop the ball so very pleased with her progress. Storm who has only been out of netting for one week ran perfect all day with some respectable times.



Dream Team Supreme were seeded in division 1 as normal. It was an interesting division as there were some different teams than we usually race but all with the potential to do well. Breeze was missing from the lineup this week due to injury and Flo was back from injury taking her place! We had to go up one inch to 13 so i expected some slower times as the dogs adjusted. Well how wrong was I! Cai ran 6 legs in a row under 4 seconds and stayed under 4.1 all day. Flash and Skye ran some cracking times too and Flo was back to running 4.2. We went on to win the division and get a new best time ever of 17.32 which I'm so happy about as we have had a disappointing year getting a few 2nd and lots of 3rds and 4ths. We also ran 16.99 with a light that was only just a light so next weekend we are really going to push to go sub 17 seconds... things are getting exciting!

GT Agility Show

Well i found i had a free weekend so decided last minute to go along to GT Agility as its only a couple of hours away from me and i really wanted to get Campbell into senior this year. He only needed 4 agility points so i felt confident i could do that in a weekend. I love going to UKA shows as you get a good choice of classes and can choose to train in the ring which is always helpful. I went up early Saturday morning and arrived when it wasn't too hot although it quickly heated up to a level that i almost didn't want to run my dogs in.

Saturday

First up Campbell had Novice Agility. Quite a sensible straight forward course (some of the novice courses i did last year were horrendous!)that i knew would run quite fast. I wasn't looking to get a place as i was happy with 2 points from a clear so didn't really mind that the faster dogs would probably beat us. Well to my surprise Campbell did a lovely round to come 4th, although i was far from happy with his contacts but that was my fault for handling him differently than how i do in training. That gave him his final 4 points and moved him into senior which i was really really happy about. He's such and honest dog and tries so hard for me and i really enjoy working him. He might not be the fastest but he is tight and accurate.

Next up he had Novice jumping and did a nice but slow round due to the heat to finish clear. I didn't want to do anything more with him as it was far too hot and he had worked really well in the first two classes. He also came 3rd in the 'Tough Enough' qualifier as he had a double clear in the agility and jumping but only the first two qualify so he didn't quite make it this time.

Cai had Beginners Agility first. It was the same as the Novice course but i didn't feel it was too much for him. He did a good round that was pretty slow for him as he still doesn't have the confidence in the ring that he has in training but there were lots of nice bits. His contacts were lovely and he got his weaves on the first go. He just had 1 pole down and ran past one jump. He also waited on the start line which really surprised me as he usually buggers off the minute i let go of his collar and i have to make a mad dash to catch up with him! I still cant believe when i finish a round that ive actually done it with him. I never would have believed even last year he would be out competing.

Next he had beginners steeplechase. Again a nice round but had 1 pole down and missed one jump! i hope this doesn't become habit! The annoying thing is it not always in the same situation he misses a jump sometimes he still just starts cutting across me for no reason although a lot of the time its his massive stride that causes him to land almost past the next jump so doesn't give him time to adjust to take off and forces him to run past.

Chico got two runs today. Beginners agility was actually not that bad! just came off the seesaw a bit early so he finished on 5f. He was a bit slow generally and his weaves were painfully slow and creepy but at least he actually did them. Beginners Steeplechase was ok and a fairly good speed but he had the first pole down so again finished on 5f. Sometimes i wonder why i both with him as he really doesn't put any effort in and can get quite stressed if he has to queue but screams if i leave him in the van without a go!

Sunday

Campbells first day at senior. I decided to train one round and do one for competition. First up he had senior snooker which i decided to run as he usually does well in games classes as its not all down to speed. I walked the course and almost changed my mind as it was horrendous! We both did our best although i did hesitate at one point as i was sure we had been eliminated but the judge didn't seem sure of the rules so i carried on going and he finished 3rd so now has his first 6 senior points. I decided to train his agility round as i wanted to know i could put him back on the contacts if he didn't stop. I was in two minds while walking the course though as it was a lovely course with a good mixture of handling required. I decided i really need to sort his contacts out before we loose them again so did a training round. He didn't stop on the seesaw which was the second obstacle so i put him back over after and that he stopped in a perfect position on the dog walk and A frame exactly like he does in training so hopefully that has helped to remind him that i expect a stop at shows as well as in training.

Cai had 3 runs. 2 nearly runs in the Agility and steeplechase and a cracking round in the jumping to finish clear in 3rd place. That's his first clear round and place outdoors on grass so i finally feel we are getting somewhere.

Chico just had beginners jumping and decided he couldn't weave again! little bugger.

Had i known how hot it was going to be id never have gone but i was really pleased with how they all did in the heat.

Dream Team Starters Tournament

We had one team in today. Not quite the line up i'd planned but due to as few broken dogs and a handler unable to come we ended up running Charlie, Barney, Onyx, Alfie, Florrie and Campbell. After a bit of messing around we actually got Charlie running. We have discovered he can only go first as he needs time to focus or looses the plot. Laura was handling him and did very well considdering she had never been to a flyball show before. She pulled off two perfect starts a 0.01 amd a 0.02 in the afternoon. You cant get much better than that! Onyx was a bit distracted but ran well the times she compleated. Barney and Campbell were obviously tired and Alfie run without any problems. Florrie who just refuses to run in training was a little star and managed 4 good legs with not bad times so there is hope for her yet. We managed a few 23 second times but only won one race. We ended up in a 3 way tie for 3rd and for once won as we had the best time so ended up 3rd. I think most of these dogs are ready for open now so maybe ill be brave and enter two teams next time.

Dream Teams first Flyball Tournament

Well what a weekend! i arrived home exhausted and felt like i needed a week off work to recover. I turned up at Frimley at 7pm on friday night, i got the tent and garden set up quickly then went to help Michelle and Roland with the set up which was mostly done as they had been onsite since 9am that morning. The ground look superb and probably as good as you will get. The arena was almost perfectly level and the grass was short and thick. I couldnt wait to get out there and race our dogs. On Saturday i just had the Power Paws in. It was there first time in open under our own name as we have only run in Multibreed and under the Dream Team name up till now.

I really had no clue what times we would run so submitted 23.80.... Michelle thought i was mad and put us down for 23.20 which was exactly the right thing to do as we ended up running a 22.44 in our first leg of the last race against the Terriorists and would have broken out quite a few other times on 23.80. I didnt realise till that evening that no one on the line noticed we had broken out so although we were actually awarded the win for that leg we shouldn't have been given it. We ended up winning 4 out of 5 races just being beaten by the Terriorists who we couldn't match on speed without breaking out. This put us into 2nd and bettered our time from Wimbledon by 1 second.

We had our usual team of Barney, Poppy, Ben and Campbell running with Maddie as reserve. I also decided a few days before to give Alfie a go as he has been doing so well in training. I felt we would never get a better chance to test him than running against the Terriorists as they know staffies and would be happy to grab him if he ran into their runback area... and probably forgive him if he ran out into there lane! I went and spoke to them before to make sure they were happy for us to run him and they were lovely and said im worrying too much and just to get on and run him. Well that told me! We did run backs with him in a few of the races before and he was so focused so i started to get quite excited. I decided to run Barney, Poppy, Maddie (as she was fresh not having raced all day) and Alfie in the final race. The did a fantastic first leg and got our best time of the day. In the second leg maddie slowed right down and we lost that leg. In the third leg she lay down at the box and just refused to move so i had to pull her and run Ben who by now was quite tired. They managed to pull things back and win the third leg with out second best time of the day. So now it was 2 all and getting quite exciting! Sadly the Terriorists just found that extra bit of speed and beat us on the fifth leg by 0.01 seconds. They were lovely though and came over and gave me a hug and said how well Alfie had done.

On Sunday it was just Cai running. We were in Division 1 as usual. For once i was looking forward to it as we were set to race the Jolly Jumpers who had come over from Belgium. They are the current European record holders and their dogs all have lovely box turns and their changes are just to die for. They were so friendly and i spent quite a bit of time chatting to them about training and managed to get quite a few tips. Lots of them were things i was already doing with our new dogs so feel like we are heading in the right direction. They came to watch Cai run and thought he looked good but feel i can get more out of him so im going to work on some of the things they suggested. They felt i could get 0.2 - 0.3 off his times with work so that would take him down to 3.7 & 3.8's which ive always felt he had in him. Ill just have to wait and see now!

In the first race of the day we managed to pull off a 17.64 which is our best time this year. Unfortunatly for us there was a problem with the lights and they made us re run the whole race so we lost the time and didnt manage anything quite as good all day. We ended up 4th with a best time of 17.77 seconds.

Wimbledon Flyball Tournament

Power Paws had 1 team entered today in division 8 although we ran under the Dream Team Babes name as i am still planning on running Campbell with them for a while. We were on a declared time of 23.80 which i didn't think we would manage but couldn't declare slower as we needed to race on Sunday and anything slower would have put us on Saturday. Thankfully this actually turned out to be a good time for us as we managed a best time of 23.31 only 0.02 seconds off breaking out! I was very pleased with how the team ran as it was the first time out for Ben and Skye and Poppy ran out every leg at Maidstone which was her first show so i wasn't sure what she would do. Barney was really keen today and crosses so well with Poppy. It took us a while to sort Barneys starts out on the lights because although he is a fast dog the first 15 feet after release he is not consistent so was either very late or very early! Shelly did very well handling Poppy and did quite a few changes that made me flinch but she didn't get a light all day so really impressed me. Also we seem to have fixed Poppy's running out problem as she didn't even think about doing it today.

Ben was running for the first time and although he is slow he is reliable and easy to cross into. Lucy was handling him today and he doesn't run as well for her so was often 20 foot late on his changes but for a first show never having done starters i didn't think that was too bad. Skye got a few runs but has started ball dropping again so i had to pull her out of most of the races. Campbell ran last and has really gone up a gear and is starting to enjoy himself. He hasn't crossed into the other lane for quite a while so hopefully that problem is fixed. We had a couple of dropped balls but much better than the last few shows. He actually managed a 5.19 second run and averaged 5.4 so he is improving! We ended up 5th.

Cai was running with Dream Team Supreme as normal we ended up seeded in division 2 which made a nice change from div 1. He was on top form, i really think the effort i have made to get him fit is paying off. His best time was 3.95 from what i could see but i didn't get most of his times this weekend. We finished in 2nd on a best time of 17.78 which i know we can improve on.

Eastbourne Agility Show

This is our main club show for the year so I knew id be running around very busy helping and would probably not run my dogs very well. Cai was entered in all 3 classes, Campbell in 2 and Chico just in Agility. I decided to get Cai’s classes out the way first. We started in the grade 1 – 4 Helterskelter. This was the perfect course for Cai. Spread out and flowing, I knew I had a chance of getting him round clear. He broke his wait and was the other end of the ring before I even had chance to take a breath. Thankfully he was heading the right way so I just cut across the ring to catch up with him. Sadly he went to go in the wrong end of the tunnel and although I managed to call him back he had just put his nose in getting an E. I’m not sure why he did this as it wasn’t the obvious entrance. In grade 1 – 2 Agility he was ok but had lots of poles and was a bit all over the place. Grade 1 – 2 Jumping was last. It wasn’t the easiest course but ran well. He missed his weaves but that didn’t surprise me and went wide on a few jumps but listened so I know with a bit more training we can get it together.

Campbell was up next. I decided to run his Agility first as he is so close to winning out now and if he does I’m guessing it will be in Agility as he has always placed higher in agility as he just can’t match the speed of some collies on the jumping courses. He started off really well with perfect contacts and lovely tight wing wraps but sadly decided to miss his weave entry getting us 5 faults. I was quite disappointed as we have very few agility shows this year as we are concentrating on flyball so have much less chance to win out. I decided to just take him straight into the jumping even though he was puffing as I wasn’t expecting much. Well as usual Campbell proved me wrong. He did a blazing round that felt fairly fast and finished clear. We were one of the first few to go so I didn’t get excited when that put us in 1st. Well my boy did me proud staying in 1st until the end and winning our huge Agility club trophy for highest placed member.



Chico had fun but fell off the dog walk while checking everyone was watching him from outside the ring. I put him back over and he was fine and finished the course in typical Chico Style. Thankfully I have a sense on humor when it comes to this dog!

Mad Mutts Flyball Tournament

Campbell was running with the Dream Team on Saturday in division 8. He didn’t run very well at his last tournament as he was running 3rd with a dog crossing into him who gets very hyped up and ran from the line barking and screaming. Campbell doesn’t like crossing into a dog he doesn’t know especially one like this and he starts to drop the ball. Sadly he obviously remembered and dropped the ball quite a few times we also had many of the other dogs running out and generally messing around so did well to actually take home a rosette. They finished 4th but it didn’t feel like they deserved it! He did manage a 5.35 second time though and finished on an average of 5.54 seconds which is his best to date. Slow but to be honest better than I ever expected from him

Cai was running in Division 1 which to be honest is starting to get me down a bit. We are now too fast for Division 2 but don’t really stand a chance in division 1 as we just don’t have the dogs. We tried our best all day and even managed to beat the Bassett Hotdogs who are the current British record holders. We didn’t realize how well we were doing though until someone said if we win our last race we will come 1st. Our dogs ran there best but it wasn’t quite good enough and we lost our last race to the top seed in the division. There was a 3 way tie for second which we ended up loosing on time and finally finished 4th. Annoying but on the right day it shows we could pull off something special.

Crufts 2010

Well it came and went in a flash but we had a great time! We arrived on Thursday and settled the dogs in, thankfully the flyball benching was out of the way so it was less stressful for the dogs as it was fairly quiet with not may of the public walking through. Cai surprised me and coped really well. He just got in his crate and went to sleep like he’s been doing it for years! We had hours to wait as we weren’t going in till after lunch so I went off and did far too much shopping… I did manage to get new harnesses for our flyball team though so they should look very smart next time out.

The briefing was quite exciting as we finally felt like we were actually at Crufts. Lots of questions got asked and they showed us a photo of what an acceptable cross is which surprised me as it was fairly tight and I did wonder how they would judge it by eye…

The time finally came for us to go in. They wanted all teams ready in the holding ring so we had to get our dogs ready even though we were the last team to go in the ring. It was boiling hot in there so the dogs all got very very hot and they could hear that flyball was going on the other side of a big curtain so keeping Cai calm was almost impossible. I wasn’t too worried as our goal had been to win our first race which would qualify us for Saturdays racing. We knew before who we were racing and as long as we made no mistakes we knew our dogs were much faster than them so we just had to go in and run perfectly with no distance markers and no warm up… sounds simple!

The first 3 races were run and then it was our turn. We ran into the ring and Cai didn’t seem bothered at all. The ring feels so much smaller when you are in it and you are concentrating on your dog so much you don’t even notice the public. We had been drawn in the lane nearest the cameras so every time I looked up and the big screen they had images of our dogs on there. Cai look superb if I do say so myself! We quickly measured our 40 foot marker and lined up. With the flyball they really rush you so you go straight in and race with no time to get nervous. Cai ran start as usual. The judge blew the whistle and we were off. Cai was flying as he always runs well on rubber matting, Flash did a perfect cross into him and was well ahead of the other team. Jasper kept us ahead and Breeze went last winning the leg for us. It was fantastic to have breeze with us after nearly dying a few months before. Sadly I could see her already tiring and getting affected by the heat.

Cai was perfect in the second leg but we got faulted for two early crosses, having watched the video back later though they were really wide but that shows you how hard it is to judge by eye when the dogs are going so fast.

That put pressure on us as we couldn’t afford to get faulted again. The last leg was just perfect! We were miles ahead of the other team and actually got a ‘wow’ from the commentator. Thankfully we didn’t get faulted for our changes. That qualified us for Saturdays racing so there were big smiles all round. We left the ring thinking that was it to find out we were racing for placings! We got a few minutes break and the dogs got a quick drink then we were back in again.
We won our next race too and stayed in the ring to race for 1st and 2nd. The dogs were really tired by now and all effected by the heat and so were the handlers! I’m wearing shorts next time. We didn’t expect to win as we were racing the fastest team in the UK but the dogs did there best to try. We ended up 2nd gaining us a lovely Crufts rosette and a lap on honor round the main ring. Who would have thought four years ago my Cai would be leading everyone round the main ring at Crufts. This just shows you that you should never give up as you can achieve anything if you try hard enough.

Maidstone Flyball

Power Paws had one team entered today. We ended up in Div 6 on a declared time. I really had no idea how the dogs would do as Charlie had never done starters but had been running with three lanes up in training out of netting for months now with no problems. Poppy had done one starters comp and didn't put a paw wrong all day. Barney has run in open but got badly interfered with at his last open comp and refused to run again and its taken months to build his confidence back up. and then i had both Campbell and Maddie running. Both have done a few starters and Campbell has run in open once with the Dream Team. We had to run under the Dream Team name as we didn't get in but thankfully they had space for us. Well there were some good bits and bad bits! Barney, Campbell and Maddie all ran perfectly. Poppy for some reason decided to run out of the first two jumps on the way back from the box every time. She has never done this in training and hasn't done it in training since so i really dont know if she will do it again. We decided to go NFC so that we could put wings up to stop her as i didn't want this to become a long term problem. Hopefully she wont do it next time out. Charlie really didn't cope well, he got very spooked and wouldn't leave his mum so we couldn't run him all day.

Our best time after going NFC was 20.5 seconds with Campbell, Barney, Poppy & Maddie who Michelle had to run. I was pretty pleased with this as our changes were really wide and barney was pretty much running from the line! They are all more than ready so fingers crossed they get there act together next time out. I don't think ill enter them until the Dream Team show in may though as i don't want to travel miles to find out Poppy is running out again.

Cai was running with the Dream Team as normal. We only ran 4 dogs in the team Cai, Flash, Jasper and Bailey and they managed a best time of 18.08 seconds which wasn't bad but i know we can get to mid 17's with a bit more work. Cai ran some cracking times and managed a 3.95 so his times are still just getting better and better. Id really like to get him fit enough to run under 4 seconds on grass consistantly this summer but ill just have to wait and see if its possible.

TraVal Crystal Challange

Our first agility show of the season. Just two classes for Cai and Campbell and one for Chico. First up Cai had starters (grade 1 - 3) agility. There were two sets of weaves and Cai missed both but did the rest quite nicely. Starters jumping was a nice course and Cai did a lovely round to finish clear. He is losing lots of time on wide turns though so we really need to work on that. Next up Chico had starters agility. I rushed him in the weaves and he didnt complete either set properly and just went off and did his own thing rather than doing the pull through he was ment to be doing. He was quite slow too even for him but seemed happy enough to have his one go. I decided to only enter Campbell in the open classes as he is very good on twisty courses that require more handling but is not so fast on simple flowing courses. He did a cracking round in the open agility (grade 1 - 7) to finish 7th beating lots of dogs that are much higher grade than him. The start was quite tricky with a right hand weave entry but he didnt have any problems. He did a lovely round in open jumping but was obviously not quite right as he had two poles down which is not like him at all.

Doncaster Flyball Again!

Well i really must be mad as we decided to make the trip north again to Doncaster for more flyball. The racing was held indoors in a riding school with turf laid down on the racing lanes and runback. Not seen this before and i have to say i was impressed with how good it looked and the ammount of work that must have gone into laying it before hand, although it had all got very muddy by the time division 1 started. Today i was not just running Cai but Campbell was making his open debut too. I hadn't been that bothered about running him before now as hes very slow compaired to Cai and not really that bothered about the ball. I think he just does it because i ask him nicely. Well he was a little star and actually rather enjoyed himself! I think he may have even run under 5 seconds once during the day. He ran in 3rd position and crossed in nicely and came back out without even looking at the other dogs which has been a problem in the past. Unfortunatly other dogs in the team let us down so although he completed all but 2 leg he has not ended up with many points but i know he can do it now so look forward to his next show.

Cai's team ran well but we were down Breeze one of our key dogs as she had started fitting foillowing the show the week before so got no where near our seed time and got smashed in all the first halfs races. We clawed our way back in the afternoon and ended up 3rd (there were 7 teams in our division) Counting up the points it looks like they have ended up with around 600 each as we took many races to 5 legs! All in all a good day... although i got up at 3.30am sunday morining and didnt get back to 1.30am that night! 22 hours awake for flyball.... not sure id do it again. Oh hang on we are going back in March! i think we are offically mad.

Doncaster Flyball

The first show of year for us and what a way to go! We got up at 3.30am to make it to Doncaster for 8am. We actually did it in far less time than i thought and arrived at 7.30am so had lots of time to spend with the dogs before our busy day started. I was only racing Cai today so didn't have too much to think about. He was fantastic even though he is really not fit at the moment and hasn't done much training over the winter.

It was his second time on matting and he was running around 4.2 seconds so nowhere near what he can do when fit but he was consistent so i cant complain. I just couldn't get the lights right all day though and ended up being 0.1 second late every time which is not much but its annoying when you are consistently getting it wrong by the same amount but cant seem to get it right! Cai is really better running from 50 foot but these lights only allowed us to go from 40 foot so maybe that's why we struggled. We were seeded 1st in div 1 on a time that was really a bit too fast for us but even though we didn't come close to our submitted time we still won every race to finish 1st with a best time of 18.44 seconds.

He finally got his Flyball Dog Intermediate award certificate too which i was very pleased with. My only goal for 2009 with him was to get him running in open, i never thought he would finish on well over 1000 points. We are back off to Doncaster next week lets hope we do as well.