Sutton Fields

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Leanne

Lovely day at Sutton Fields. I love this venue, I am going to continue my pestering of the team and hope we get to go again next May.

Two mix teams as we had several dogs on holiday (how inconvenient!), although Dyl’s team was actually the same as usual but with a fifth dog change.

Dylan and Mollie ran brilliantly, the team ran a new seed time of 20.16 and finished … last. Well, 5th. We can’t have everything. The 20.16 was on a break out and yet we managed to lose nearly every leg all day, oops. Really do feel like this team is gelling now, the dogs are getting comfortable running together and we’re pushing down the seed time even though ditzy Biba still isn’t running as consistently as she can. Unfortunately we now have the winter break and by next summer who knows what the team will be!

Kim’s team was made up of three top team dogs and then Kim and Bailey from the third team. We were on a DF time but I always thought we’d be pushing for break-out and we did, but nearly everyone in the division was. Lovely fast ground at Sutton! We ran a fantastic 19.40 with Norah, Roi, Kim and Bailey over 11″, and both height dogs were running over 5s. With Jet in there and a fast height dog this team would easily be running 17s times, so we’ll have to see what winter brings!

We finished 1st but it was tough racing, especially against Fylde in the last race where we were a leg down and had a dead heat before pulling it back. Super stuff!

I have all my fingers crossed that Kim has picked up the final points for her Ice Blue Moon at this venue as well, for various reasons, but we’ll see what happens when the points go up.

Cannon Hall

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Leanne

Trip to Cannon Hall was in order. I wanted to go in the Maize Maze, because I’m actually 8, but we didn’t have time.

Also, my dogs hate me.

Well, maybe not. But looking at their group portrait shots, you would think so. Kim is thinking how she can maybe kill me in my sleep, Dylan is thinking bad thoughts that probably amount to “I’ll maybe hide one of my toys, that will show you” and Mollie … well, Mollie’s probably not plotting my downfall, and is actually planning to decapitate all the flowers in front of her with misplaced enthusiasm when released from her wait. Mollie’s was the only successful plan.

Girls were very tired after playing frisbee all across the estate, and Dyl was tired because it’s exhausting being stressed. Actually, Dylan did really well. We did some basic BAT retreats from a stressed Westie who was defending his 50ft space bubble, which relaxed him enough to be able to walk past later (no option to go another way, unfortunately), and then greeted some well-mannered Labradors politely and briefly. One minor meltdown which resulted in some barking and major retreating when a Golden Retreiver with a flexi-lead attached came flying down the gravel path, being chased by two young boys, but to be honest I wasn’t awfully relaxed about that one either! Positive reactions to the two small terriers we met later anyway, by ignoring and circling away.

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.

Nantwich/Larden Green

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Leanne

Lovely venue, lovely hosts. Would go again, two thumbs up.

Dylan and Mollie both ran in the second team. Dyl has been dropped down to this team for several reasons, mainly because we have several injured or recovering-from-injury dogs who we have had to pull completely, or put into teams where they can be pulled as often or as little as they need to be. Dylan is also happier, because he can run anchor and change into a dog he is comfortable with. It made a real, noticable difference this weekend. Running over 9″ was a little bit hit-and-miss, Dyl hasn’t trained over this height so he was overjumping for most of the day and his boxwork was alternatively great or very very wide. Still, he clocked steady 4.7-4.8s and he should be faster than that for the Champs, which is good. Mollie ran great, as ever, and we won that division.

Kim’s team struggled, we won only one race and our times weren’t great. Much to work on there, I think. Kim’s splits averaged around 5.5s all day, which is reasonable. She is a 10.5yr old 12″ height dog running every leg, which ticks every excuse in the book for slow times.

Champs next time!

Flyball Training

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Leanne

We worked very hard with Dylan at training this week. He is getting more confident changing into Roi, but he’s not foot perfect. Neither am I; it’s very hard to work on perfecting the change when Dylan sometimes “flinches” (throws in an extra short stride just before the line). I’m between 1-3ft off on my changes, so we have work to do yet. Since Norah wasn’t at training, Dylan also hasn’t had chance to work into her and I foresee this being our biggest problem.

We did a lot of box work as well and Dylan ran with a stride regulator in, which makes an immediate and hugely positive impact on his turn. I get lazy with including it, but since it works very well for Roi as well, the stride regulator will be making a more constant appearance in training.

Kim and Mollie both looked great. It looks like – for the first time! – the girls will be in seperate teams at the Champs. Mollie just runs so much better over 9″, and at her age it makes a big difference to her consistency. Because of injuries amongst some of our other dogs, Kim is now the height dog for the bottom team, but if we do get one or two of our other height dogs back, she’ll be advantaged by running over lower anyway. Mollie can’t really run 12″ all day anymore and so we can’t risk that she might have to.

Very complicated team structuring but that’s the way it’s had to roll this time around! Next year we will have a whole bunch of different dogs anyway, with our babies coming up and our older dogs very close to retirement now. I’ve been saying this for ages but that’s how it will go!

Best of luck to everyone at the European Championships this week, especially Katie and Jet, and the rest of the High Flyers teams!