Tailwaggers Nov

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Leanne

Back over at Tailwaggers this winter, they’ve done unaffiliated and I don’t blame them as the BAA has completely gone off the rails with some truly ludicrous rule changes amongst other things. Shame as it had the potential to be a great organization, but I won’t be bothering with it anymore.

Dylan and I were there to train only, the Senior classes were pretty big for an unaffiliated (50-60 dogs) and most of them were really good. We had a clear in the Steeplechase and came 9th, 2s off the winner, and it was not a particularly good run. Dylan’s jumping however was really nice, and it proved that his times are better when running in third or fourth gear and having smooth jumping, than running flat out and having poor jumping.

I trained his Agility; he set off with the same super jumping, and I rewarded his seesaw after the flyoff at HnH the week before. His jumping then went downhill for the rest of the day, I’m not sure what that’s about. Anyway, really nice Aframe and he was literally the only dog in the class that I saw nail the weave entry and stay in them whilst I moved away to the dogwalk. Go Dyl!

We got nothing in the rest of the classes, a slow clear on the fairly simply Jumping course and a big E in Triple A.

I did get to run Emma’s Bailey in her Agility and Triple A, as Emma was concentrating on Diva. We had an unlucky pole in the Agility which was my fault, but we still finished 8th. We had a cracking clear in the Triple A but couldn’t be bothered to wait until prizegiving, but I love running Bails. She’s so well trained, so naughty and fun, and she’s such a fast little cannonball! I might try and borrow her for some proper shows next year. (Just looked up the result, we were 5th. Bailey is amazing.)

Had lots of fun supporting Emma and Diva at their first show, Diva is going to be seriously fast! Some of our other club dogs were there too so it was a worthwhile show just to support people.

British Flyball Championships 2011

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Leanne

Summer days. Love the Champs. I don’t care that they’re not whichever competition you* think is better. I appreciate these Championships for what they are, which is a fun, competitive, and noisy tournament full with teams from every corner of the British Isles. Also, nowhere else would you get 200 people willingly dressing up in all kinds of bizarre costumes and dancing like idiots all evening, from tiny babies to 80-yr-olds. Agility just doesn’t have that kind of willingness to let go.

Kim was running in Hawk Owlers on Friday, seeded bottom of Division 31 and eventually coming 2nd. Sad that we didn’t win, but it was a good effort and Kim ran her socks off. She was tired by the last race of the day, due to the ground and the fact she was height dog and so had run every single leg, but she tried her heart out like she always does.

Dylan and Mollie were on the same team on Saturday, in Division 26. The team ran amazingly, very tough racing and coming back from 2-legs down on a couple of occasions. So proud of all of them for coming 1st, I can’t think of a bunch of dogs who deserve it more. Mollie is 12, Buffy is 10, Dylan has worked through many issues, Bailey is ever-reliable and ever-speedy and we would be lost without her, Biba has come from running into things to actually running up and down, and Ronnie has embraced his new team without batting an eyelash.

From my own perspective, this is Dylan’s first Divisional win at the Championships. He always tries and he doesn’t always get the credit for that, but he also has to overcome a lot of anxiety to flyball, so I’m very proud of him for this.

Mollie has won every time she has competed, in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011. She will be 13 yrs old for 2012 so we don’t know if she’ll be back to defend her title, but we’ve been saying that every year since we started. Either way, she’s amazing.

Ghost Owlers, our top team, ran in Division 9 on Sunday and came away with a 2nd. Proud of them as well, and really looking forward to where this team goes in the next year, especially with a handful of new dogs waiting in the wings.

Looking forward to next year already.

*Non specific “you”. Seemed to hear lots of generic grumping on this topic this year, which I just thought was a shame.

Bouncing out of Grade 4 at Ribble

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Leanne

Ribble was such a nice show! So relaxed and lovely courses from the judges, just really nice. Obviously a bit of a busy weekend nationally, I know people who were at Easington, Bromsgrove and somewhere in Wales?! Thankfully we were indoors, unlike all those other people, and a good job too because it rained all day.

Dylan was just … amazing. I’ve never had a show where he ran better than he does in training. Most of his runs were fast, smooth, driven and beautiful, and even the one that wasn’t was mostly positive.

Graded 1-4 Agility was first thing, running a little late because the judge got stuck in traffic! The rings were quite small so the spacing was really tight in all the courses, but it was a fairly straightforward course with a kick at the end to catch everyone out! I think most of the clears were Grade 4 dogs, some of the baby dogs did get caught by the tight spacings. Dylan’s run was just magic. I had one heartstopping fraction of a second when I thought I’d lost him after the Aframe, but it was only a tiny second. The rest of the run was absolutely paw perfect. Superfast contacts, lovely extended jumping, tight turns, total fabness! I had no idea if we’d placed, especially since Emma was ring-partying and had seen at least two really fast runs (and I’d seen a few as well). Results came out and he was 1st in the Grade 4, and had the fastest time of the class as well. So straight up to Grade 5!

The Helter Skelter was our only off-run, Dylan ran it very neatly and smoothly but it was a bit boring, until the end when he successfully bounce a corner and we were both so surprised (me at him attempting it, he at it being easy!) we got E’d. There was a big “ooooh” from the spectators which at least made me laugh, but I don’t think we’d have been placed anyway, one of the Darleyfalls set a really fast time to win.

The Graded 4-5 Agility was a tricky course, very tightly spaced but definitely worth a shot. We had a brief argument at the weaves (Dylan wanted to do the dogwalk) and then kind of lost it, I got too far in front. Finished up with a really lovely dogwalk, and Dylan stopped on the end in a lovely stretchy 2o2o. He then bounced off and because I hadn’t moved, so he spun around before doing the last jump. I couldn’t stop laughing at this point as Dylan just doesn’t do stuff like that, definitely doesn’t do impatient mad collie spins.

His last jumping run was lovely, really open course but with a tunnel call-off that caught a lot of dogs. Dylan and I had a great run, fast and smooth and fab, but I saw a really fast sable collie run that I knew was Grade 4, and I really thought that dog would win it. Typically last class of the day, and so we waited for the results … Dylan did pull it off, and came 1st (by a nose!).

I really wish I’d entered Kim at this show as she would have loved the Medium courses, but huge well dones to Emma and Bails for their great results in the Combined 5-7 classes, Bailey was just pipped by a Grade 7 dog for the winning spot(s!).

I’m still slightly shellshocked, Dylan will get one more show at Grade 4 and then it’s straight up to Grade 5 at Hare’n'Hounds at the end of October. I don’t think we’re quite ready! If Dylan ran like he did this weekend all the time, I’d be very happy to be moving up, but it could all go downhill again at Lune. Lune is a training show now anyway, and hopefully Dylan will be running like a superstar again.

Dinnington Flyball

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Leanne

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Dinnington as much as I did, but it was a bit of a blast from the past; tiny one day tournament at a nice venue on good ground, just three divisions and a proper set of Starters, and the weather held all day. Done and dusted by 5:30pm.

We knew this was going to be our prep tournament for the Champs, and we also knew we were going to need the training as gypsies have taken over our training ground, leaving us without anywhere to train at the moment. Typical!

Dylan’s team was a bit of a mixed bag, we’ve been running together for 6 months but we just don’t seem to be gelling, I don’t know why. We are getting better, and we’re throwing out consistent times, but I don’t feel like this lineup is working.

Kim and Mollie’s team were … unexpected. We were seeded on 22.25, and I was pretty hopeful we would get under 22s and get the girls some points. I wasn’t expecting great things as the top seed was on 20.92, which we seemed unlikely to run. And then we ran 21.12 twice for the first race, with the slowest dog on the team in, a 6s dog.

And then, second race, we broke out. The girls ran a 19.82 … I actually thought Katie was joking, and then we ran 19.90, and broke out again, and just, what!? How can a team seeded on 22.25 run 19.82? Day, made. (Of course, this does put us in a bit of a bind for the Champs, where we are seeded on 22.25 and the slowest dog from this weekend is being replaced by a faster one. And the divisions will be closely seeded, meaning the break-out time is likely to be 21.00 at best).

Meanwhile, I told Katie I wanted some more Flybe pictures, since the blue puppy is 6months old and I haven’t seen her for a month. Fly wasn’t so much into the photos at first.

But she came around!

Dinnington Div1

Originally uploaded by kayanem

My trusty camera camera buddy Emma snapped a couple of random shots, and so did I. Click to view.

Drax

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Leanne

My first Drax. Events have always conspired against us in previous years, and we’ve never made it. Well, we kind of made it via Rotherdrax, but I’m not sure that counts!

I warned everyone Kim wasn’t at all fit for solid racing, but due to one of the bottom team dogs coming into season, we had to reshuffle slightly and so Kim ended up running as a equal part of a 5 dog team (on a declared time, no less!) We got very very close to breakout; I think our breakout time was 21.10, and we ran a 21.13, with a few under 21 but with lights, thankfully! Kim was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day, I felt pretty bad about running her but unfortunately Bailey came out lame on the second to last race of the day, so we didn’t really have any option. We came 3rd, I think.

Mollie was dropped down to the bottom team and promptly ran 5.1s singles times as lead dog for them, so it was probably a good job she wasn’t in Kim’s team after all! We’d definitely have broken out if she’d been running with us, eek! Even more impressively, she ran consistent 5.1′s all day and although she was over 9″, she should only get fitter and faster from this point. I’d hope that she’ll continue running 5.1s for the rest of the season with Bails over 11″, and that’s just a bit good for a dog who will be eleven in June!

Dylan’s team was down to four dogs due to the reshuffle, but they were a strong four, all young but experienced and they ran together all last summer (although not over the winter) so we slotted back together easily. I really trust all the dogs and handlers on the team, so it was nice being able just to think about getting the best out of Dyl for once! Speaking of, Dylan ran really well, especially in the afternoon. He’s very comfortable over 13″ and he really likes running third as he can get hyper-focussed and noisy at Lucy (who runs lead) and then has time to re-focus for his own run.

We ran easy 20s times all day, which was a good start to the season, especially as this group should improve – but it does depend on who we have at the next tournament! (My feeling has always been that this team should run with four dogs rather than mix/match with five, but it’s always up to the team captain in the end!) It was good to see that we were running the same kind of times at the end of the day as at the start, which just proves how fit the dogs are. I think we were 3rd in the Division, but I was frozen to death and went home before the presentations.