New layout! Well, technically just a bit of an update on the old one. New header/footer, some slight colour changes on the links, nothing too noticable except the header image. This post is a run-down of various UMb related things, one post is better than many.

Shows: Show Diary has been updated. Results pages have been split into Agility Results/Flyball Results, and I’m also keeping a page of more detailed stuff that reminds me what happened on each run. So far Dylan’s is a long line of E’s. The Agility Qualifiers and Classes links have gone. It was too hard to keep updated, although I do still have all the information so if someone wants it to try and set up another database, they’re more than welcome.

Media: Video Archive has been updated and reformatted to make it easier to use/read. New photos in the photography section, let me know if I’ve missed any credits. I’ve also added a page for the Agility Eye covers, although I’m not sure exactly when they were used (if anyone does, please let me know!)

Links: have been updated.

If you spot any problems let me know! Sitemap can be viewed here: http://www.undermybed.co.uk/sitemap.php

Stats

I’m a sucker for Wordpress Stats, I love it. undermybed.co.uk averages around 1,100 hits a month, although generally that figure is on the rise by 100 or so hits since I first installed WPStats. (That’s an average of 40 hits per day). Not a huge amount but always more than I expect.

Most people on my blog click off to:
http://bouncingbackbailey.blogspot.com
http://jetpops.undermybed.co.uk
http://flyinkai.blogspot.com
http://giruff.blogspot.com
http://summerick.blogspot.com

Most people arrive via:
http://flyinkai.blogspot.com
http://summerick.blogspot.com
http://giruff.blogspot.com
http://ruffdogs.myforum-online.com/viewtopic.php?t=6601
http://bouncingbackbailey.blogspot.com

Hosting

On a slightly unrelated note, I’m on the hunt for new hosting. Streamline.net have been good for the past couple of years but I’m getting loads of 500 errors since they changed some of the servers, and a couple of friends had a horrendous experience with their customer service over the summer.

These are the important things for me:

• PHP
• MySQL database
• bandwidth
• no more expensive than what I pay now (I pay annually but it works out at £2.35 or $3.74 a month)

I’m currently using the Streamline Power User plan which has tons of features, most of which I don’t actually use. But it’s so much cheaper than anywhere else that I’ve found, so I’m not sure what to do! Recommendations or suggestions welcome.

New layout! Hopefully this explains why the site was down all day Monday. I loved my green layout but I wanted to try a different colour and some new techniques for the pages. I know it doesn’t quite work in Internet Explorer, I’m still working on it, but as IE tends to render code totally differently to every other browser I might be fighting a losing battle. Everyone should just use Firefox instead!

Anyway, Leeds ‘Owlers had a fab weekend at the Summer Champs! Barney’s came home as Div 4 Champs and Marsh came a very respectable 4th. I’m loving hearing about everything but it’s a bit tough to listen to sometimes, I’m so disappointed we couldn’t go and it sounds like we really missed out on a great weekend with some fab racing. I’m trying not to wallow in self-pity and be miserable but it’s a bit hard at the moment!

I was up very late last night, and for whatever unknown reason I thought how good it would be to have a British version of the Agility Record Book program. It would work out your Agility Warrant points and your BAA League Table points (and probably your UKA titling points as well) and would be a wonderful computerised way of keeping track of your dog’s progression.

And then I read that the advanced Agility Record Book program had originally started as a MS Excel Spreadsheet, and my sleep-deprived brain thought “ah! I can work with Excel! It will merely be a matter of throwing together some If Statements and VLookup tables and we’ll be off! How hard can it be?!”

Remind me never to say that again.

Still, 14 hours later and I have a working prototype running. It currently calculates BAA League Table Points and Agility Warrant points (including different points for the different BAA levels and different AW points for agility/jumping classes) depending on clear round places. UKA might take me longer because I don’t really know how their system works, but that’s project for next week. And then I’ll try and add some kind of Calender, although I don’t really need that because there’s the online Agility Organiser which is far better than anything I could come up with!

Although I originally intended this to be for personal use (I’m a geek, I like to keep track!) would anyone be interested in downloading a more polished version? If so, what other stuff would you like available?

Currently the format is pretty simple, and only works for one dog:
Sheet 1 = Dog Information (Call name, registered name, breed, DOB, registration number(s), grade/level)
Sheet 2 = Show Records
Sheet 3 (Locked) = Points Tables

Obviously it would be good to have it work for more than one dog, and I have got the foundations of that in there but I haven’t quite worked out which is the best way to do it yet.

I really should be writing my essays right now, especially because I entered Shrewsbury this weekend knowing full-well that my essays would be due in next week. Just another 3500 words to go …

Dylan and I had a horrible training session yesterday. I was going to post about it in an attempt to try and work out what is going wrong, but I’ve been chatting to people and wrangling it out that way, and really I already know the problems. Dylan always takes the easy route. This is not like me or Kim at all, and so I’m used to working with a dog who will try something different or stretch herself to reach something if she (or I!) dares. Dylan never dares! He is happier drifting along with what he knows rather than doing something new and scary. It’s all about our mental outlook, and Dylan and I are thinking on different wavelengths right now. Despite all the frustration, I know Dylan and I will have a better relationship when I work out how to fix things.

Kim sulked because I didn’t take her training last night, which also left her enough energy to wake me up this morning. Normally she’s quite a lazy dog and will happily stay in bed until 8am or later. But today she squirmed over 5:50am and, once she knew I was awake, rolled on my head. She then fetched her toy and threw it at me, which was not appreciated but did make me laugh! She’s usually very elegant and dignified so it’s always funny to see her doing something puppy-like or silly. I’m looking forward to this weekend with her, we haven’t had a competition without Dylan for a couple of months and so I’ll be able to concentrate on her properly. I don’t know how people manage to run 3 or more dogs, I can barely make the switch between two! We also have Pairs with Bailey this weekend, which should be fun. Neither Emma or I are very serious about Pairs or Team events, we do them for a bit of fun and an extra run for the dogs.

Lastly, I’m sorry the website went down for 24 hours! I attempted to upgrade to Wordpress 2.5.1, and it (for whatever reason) didn’t work. I didn’t have chance to fix it immediately, which has played havoc with my web stats! For those odd people who are interested in this kind of thing, undermybed.co.uk has had over 1100 hits this month, and had about 200 click-outs from the links on this page, mainly through comments. So if you want some more visitors, comment with a link from your name to your website. Plus I love getting comments.

Well, everyone seemed to like the first one, so here it is!

There are quite a few changes from the original design, mainly to the header image, but I think I’m satisfied now. Anyone who has been around this website for a while will know I’m rarely happy with a layout for long. The last layout (the pink and black one) was up from November - April, which is a relatively long time for me! Feedback on this one is most definitely welcome, please let me know if you find anything that isn’t working or that you just don’t like.

In more doggy news, I can’t believe how much Kai looks like her big brother right now! She’s there on the right. Her ears are exactly the same as his, and they have a very similar build. Isn’t she gorgeous? She’ll be 9months old at the end of April, and I think she’s got a lot of growing to do yet! Dylan didn’t stop growing until he was 16months. I can’t imagine this pretty girl will be done much before he was, her paws are still huge. Natalie is keeping track of her agility training in her blog.

Nat hasn’t confirmed what Kai’s KC name will be yet, but the blog url always reminds me that I really need to get Dylan’s registration sent in. I’m still dithering over names, and any suggestions are very welcome. I’m not overly fussed about having his name included as Dylan is hard to fit in properly. The guys over at Ruffdogs came up with some great ideas but none of them quite fit him.