Monthly Archives: March 2008

Match It for Pratchett

  By Leanne | March 20, 2008 - 3:02 pm | undermybed
Leave a comment

I’ve had this post on my “things to post about” list for a week or so, but I didn’t want it to get lost amongst all the flyballing excitement. I’m still not really sure how to post about it; it’s not a dog thing, it’s not a dog charity, charity isn’t something I want to really discuss on my blog, but it is something that really made me sad and I wanted to mention it somehow.

Most of you already know I’m a big Terry Pratchett fan, I’ve spent way too much money on the Discworld series over the past couple of years (if you haven’t read them, you should!). To quote from another website and summarise:

Terry Pratchett, author of the bestselling Discworld novels, has been diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s. He has donated half a million pounds (approx $1 million) to Alzheimer’s research and appeared in the media highlighting the low levels of research funding Alzheimer’s receives.

And when they say low levels of funding, they really mean it.

It is a shock to find out that funding for Alzheimer’s research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures.
Mr Pratchett’s donation is in recognition of the urgent need to provide funding for research into the disease, which affects an estimated 700,000 people in the UK. For every person with Alzheimer’s, £11 is spent each year on UK research compared with £289 for each cancer patient, even though similar numbers of people are affected.

You can read the speech that Terry gave to Alzheimer’s Research for a more comprehensive and coherant view of his situation. Since the announcement, fans have decided to try and match the donation given, and have set up http://www.matchitforpratchett.org/ and as of March 18th have raised or helped raise around £34,000. I think the general feeling is that even though there will be no cure for Alzheimer’s in time for this person, if we can help boost the research funding just a smidge there might be a cure for someone (maybe even one of us) in the future. The comparison with Cancer Research is not about undermining what they do or what cancer patients have to go through, but there are (some) cures for (some) cancers, and there is a lot of hope. Alzheimer patients have very little to hope for by way of a cure.

And yes, I’m not just posting and doing nothing. I gave £5 this morning, which means I won’t be going to the cinema this week and I still have £1.40 change to spend tomorrow at Selby.

I will now resume normal broadcasting on undermybed.co.uk — expect some serious flyball reports from this weekend.

Selby

  By Leanne | March 18, 2008 - 11:38 pm | Dylan, Dylan's Blog, Flyball, Kim, Mollie
1 Comment

Just two days to go until Dylan’s big flyball debut! It’s going to be really odd doing Starters again, Kim moved up to Sanctioned tournaments in 2005. Hopefully it will be a good experience for him. I’m confident that he knows what he’s doing and won’t be phased by the atmosphere, as he’s been going to flyball tournaments to watch the girls pretty much since we got him. Obviously being in the ring is another step, but the only real difference is that there will be another team with strange dogs rather than dogs he knows. Providing all the dogs on the other team are reasonably trained, we’ll be ok!

Sadly there seems to be an increasing trend for teams to be entered with dogs who have done little training, especially against another lane. My biggest fear about this Friday is that another dog will run across and scare my poor boy. Dylan is the biggest wuss on the planet, and he sometimes lacks in confidence. I can well imagine him being completely freaked out and going into anxious-Dyl-mode, which will mean he loses all his speed and therefore his lovely boxturn that we’ve worked so hard on.

Luckily the rest of the team is a bit more experienced. Beautiful Poppy and Harvey have both competed for a long time – Harvey usually runs in our “big teams”, and Poppy is our reliable lifelong Starter dog. As Amber is an agility dog and used to the high-pressure situations, I hope she’ll be fine too. Really it’s just the big boys to worry about, Chip and Dylan!

Kim and Mollie are both running in Barking Owlers on Saturday morning, which I’m really looking forward to. Kim seems to have really improved today, probably because (as I said in my last entry comments) It seems like ages since we last did a competition! Finally back outdoors on grass too, so we’ll have to see what kind of times we run to start off the season. All the pad protectors and harnesses are washed and ready to go, and by the look of the weather report Mollie will need to wear a different set of her pad protectors in the afternoon session, I have a feeling her morning ones could be too muddy! Decisions – pink or purple first?!

I’m going to try and get some video of all three of them running to, providing I can find a camera(wo)man!

Sick Puppy

  By Leanne | March 17, 2008 - 10:59 pm | Kim
4 Comments

Kim still isn’t back on form, but we suddenly realised today that she’s been carefully eating her kibble and not the little granules which are supposed to settle her stomach, and then Dylan goes in and hoovers up before we notice. Still, if she’s not going regularly again by tomorrow night she’s heading back to the vet. I can tell she’s not quite herself, a bit less terrier than normal, but it’s annoying because there doesn’t really seem anything specifically wrong with her; she’s got her normal appetite and isn’t trying to throw up, and her stomach isn’t uncomfortable or bothering her, but she’s asking to go out into the garden every couple of hours still and nothing is really happening. She normally only pees in the garden anyway because it’s not grass, and that’s always under duress as it’s muddy and it gets her beautiful clean white paws dirty. Fingers crossed we don’t have to pull her from Carlton Towers because I know it will upset her if we go with just Mollie and Dylan. She would run if she could, but I won’t let her if she isn’t completely 100%.

I’m just thankful it’s not Kennel Cough though, we ran a risk going to Dogs on Top but everyone whose dogs had it seem to have stayed away thankfully, and ours have all been healthy since. It seems to have died down again now, although I’ve heard that there were dogs at Crufts who almost certainly had it or were probably contagious so I hope all the dogs are ok for Selby. (Kisses to Marley who is currently coming out of his Kennel Cough, hopefully to be flyballing again soon!)

Also, a quick but important hug to Raven the agility-obsessed Border Collie of http://ravencypher.blogspot.com/, as it’s been confirmed that her cancer has returned. I was so pleased when she beat it before and I hope so much that she does so again.

What a depressing post, all on sick dogs!

Weaving Video

  By Leanne | March 14, 2008 - 8:07 pm | Agility, Dylan, Dylan's Blog, Kim, Videos
2 Comments

Finally managed to get some decent video of Dylan weaving today! Took the jump and the weaves down to the park for 15 mins.

Or for those of you who are able to view the videos via Windows Media Player (or equivalent), there’s a much more clean version here: http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/dylanweaving001.wmv

As always, Dylan is always teaching me. Today he taught me that a) he will not weave if I’m too far ahead, b) he has a better grasp of weave entries than I thought, and c) he has a much better grasp of left and right than his handler. It doesn’t matter if I’m indicating left with my body language, if I’ve said right he’s going to go right, even if I actually meant left. Poor lad, see what he has to suffer with?

Kim has been to the vets this evening, nothing too serious but she is now gobbling sardines as though her life depended on it. Looks like she should be good to go for flyball tomorrow, which I know will please Julie!

A Mid-Life Crisis on Behalf of Kim

  By Leanne | March 11, 2008 - 3:45 pm | Agility, Dylan, Dylan's Blog, Kim
5 Comments

I’m finally getting organised with all my show entries for the next couple of months. Shrewsbury entry went in a few weeks ago, and then this weekend I also sent in my EMDAC April and May entries, and my Waldridge Fell entry. The EMDAC July is almost ready to go, just debating on how long I want to camp for.

April EMDAC will be Dylan’s first 2 day show, so I’m glad we start summer training before then. He found four runs in January tough going, although it’s mental tiredness rather than physical. I know seven runs over 2 days will be asking a lot of him, particularly as this will also be the first time he’s “camping” (does staying in a Travel Lodge count as camping?!) but we’ll see how it goes. We need to take the step up at some point, and I’m really still considering any competition to be training runs rather than serious out-to-win stuff.

Now I’m just waiting for the Newton Heath schedule. I’m trying to fit more Kennel Club shows in with Kim, as I know she could potentially do very well at Kennel Club shows and I’d really like to get her Agility Warrant, she only needs another 30points or so. On the other hand, I much prefer BAA shows and they spoil me. I get impatient with the Kennel Club. I have to hunt through scribe tickets and pages of badly-written results to see whether I’m placed, usually hours after the class has finished, and even if Kim gets a win I still have to wait another two-three months before I can compete at the higher grade. With the BAA, I get to sit and watch live results being processed, so I know if Kim’s won even before the class has finished. The results are there, online, as soon as I get home on the day of the show, and if I want to move up after the necessary wins, I can do it the next weekend.

I’m also aware that at 7 years old, my beloved Kim is considered to be on the wrong side of the hill. At the moment, I’d say she’s faster and fitter than she’s ever been, but I’d like for her to get in as much of what she loves whilst she’s still fit and healthy and enjoying herself (although I do sometimes wonder if I’m having a mid-life crisis on her behalf) without overwhelming her with competitions, because I don’t know how long it will be before she isn’t fit or healthy or enjoying herself. Hopefully it will be 4 or 5 years before I even have to think about this seriously, but it’s been niggling at the back of my mind for a while now. Any retirement for Kim will also be too soon for me — probably for Kim too — and I can’t imagine not being on course with her, but I know one day it will happen.

Now I’ve thoroughly depressed myself, I’ll go and walk the dogs!