MollieBaldEars is back amongst us! She had a lovely time at the vets, she get’s spoilt rotten with cuddles whilst she’s there. Her ears are now all clean and shiny and sadly hairless, so she looks hilariously bad.

Possibly as a result of being laughed at so much, she went missing (presumably escaped and roamed wild around the neighbourhood) for an hour and a half this afternoon, which means I’m now exhausted as I spent almost all that time walking every possible route I could think of that she might have taken.

On to more well-behaved dogs. Kim worked surprisingly well at training! I set a course that was purposefully full of pull-thrus and flick-flacks because that’s where we have our weaknesses, and once I’d finally got into the right place she actually did it nicely.

She seems to have got over her seesaw freak-out too, which is good. She’s never going to be superfast on the seesaw, she’s not brave enough to run right to the end and because she’s so light, it takes a while for the seesaw to drop. I have worked out how to ensure she hits her contact though, which is good to know.

Speaking of seesaws, you would never think Dylan had been so afraid of it at the beginning of this year. He loves it now, can’t get him off the damn thing! We had a few crazy skidding-to-the-end moments but he settled down after that and worked it with slightly more sense (ie. not trying to kill himself) but not much. He also nailed every weave entry, and then he had a run around with Emma right at the end which was adorable. Emma has a very different handling style to me and doesn’t use left/right commands as religiously as I do, so he got a bit confused, but it was obvious he was trying really hard to get it right. He has “good dog” written all over him!

No flyball training this morning, too many people on holiday. Which is a bit weird, but there you go!

Should have been Newark next weekend but we’re not going now, which is probably a good thing as Mollie is off to the vets again this week. She really loves it at the vets, and they all love her because she’s such a wiggley snuggley dog, so I never get too worried about her like I do for Kim or Dylan. They are going to have to knock her out a bit though, her ear is a real mess, the wax has built up too much and then she’s clearly scratched it and so now there’s blood in it too. Poor Molby, and plus — how neglectful do we look?!

I always feel guilty when we take Mollie to the vets because they always say whatever injury/illness she’s got has been there for at least a week. The trouble is, Mollie is very stoic and just plugs on without giving any indications that she is in pain or not feeling her best. Not only that but she’s mainly black and has a very thick coat — not easy to spot cuts or blood spots. We do check her daily for things like that but unfortunately it’s easy to miss.

On the positive side, she’s lost a smidge of weight and is down to 18.50 now. (For comparison, add 7 to that for her weight when we got her in 2004) In everything except her left ear she’s looking very fit and very healthy, just very accident-prone. This is her third day-trip in 12 months (she had 12 stitches last year after a dog bite, and she had 8 stitches in her lip in August) — she’s cost us more than both the other dogs put together, good job we love her (and we have insurance!)

The Kennel Club has just announced that they’re making a change from the “traditional” foot-pedal “Crufts Box” to the flat-fronted style used by the BFA.

A bit of history first, I think. The British Flyball Association was formed in 1994 after a group proposed a change to the Kennel Club rules, for the introduction of a new regulated style of box that was considered safer for dogs (and faster, incidentally). The Kennel Club rejected their proposal and although they brought in a regulated style of box, it was not the suggested flat-front style as they thought it would detract from the entertainment of the sport. Those flyballers who had made the proposal were dissatisfied and went away to create the BFA where the safety of the dog was put first. The BFA went on to develop the use of electronic timing and Formula 1 style starting lights, and introduced height cards for height dogs and teams rather than the fixed 12″ height the Kennel Club offered, which also meant smaller dogs could now be included without asking them to jump over-large hurdles. Rules also stipulate the size of the runback area to ensure dogs and handlers have enough room to race safely.

This announcement has a lot of flyballers happy. A few have commented about the risky design to dogs of the old box, and a few have equally expressed some concern that the BFA will lose its independence by becoming affiliated or answerable to the Kennel Club as the Kennel Club have approached the BFA for their input (there’s always a first time!). Rumours on that front have been quashed already, thankfully, but I thought I’d add in a bit on my personal experience of the Crufts flyball box.

Video: Kim doing Crufts Flyball

Kim and Mollie have both trained to do Crufts flyball on the foot-pedal box. Both dogs were trained not to jump forward into the air for the ball, which would mean they landed on the box itself. Sometimes Mollie got a bit overexcited and went over the top but she was always corrected. Kim was brilliant at it, even if I do say so myself. She was fast, accurate and I had no qualms about running her. When she competed at Crufts she made no mistakes all day and was never at any more risk of injury than when she competes at BFA competitions — other than the ridiculously short runback. When you’re trying to fit 6 dogs and handlers into a 12ft x 12ft space, you can’t hear anything due to the noise, and the dogs are all wildly excited and running at relatively high speeds, it is not safe.

Anyway, the Crufts box is definitely not for all dogs. Some dogs don’t have the catch reflexes, some dogs don’t have the self-control not to leap for the ball. Some dogs can do it perfectly at home but when it gets to the excitement of a competition, the self-control goes. So yes, it can and probably does cause more injuries that the flat-front box (I’ve already discussed Slammer’s vs Swimmer’s Turns and the safety of the flat-fronted box for dogs). So way to go KC! Making the right choice for once.

What I’d really like to see them do now is throw out the fixed 12″ jumps so that it’s open to smaller dogs, get a bigger runback and introduce electronic timing. Please!

Agility Forum Discussion: http://agilityforum.agilityaddicts.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5203
BFA Forum Discussion: http://www.flyball.org.uk/webboard/messages/119/12172.html?1226072679

Mollie is off to the vet tomorrow with what we think is an ear infection. She’s been walking around with lopsided ears for the past three days and although we initially thought she was just being odd (it’s very hard to tell with Mol) we now think she’s got something going on. She hasn’t been to the vet since August anyway, she’s about due another vet bill around now.

The fireworks weren’t too bad here last night, just a couple of diplays that were almost on our doorstep. Kim was not happy, and Dylan was a bit concerned about the first couple but then settled and slept through the rest. Mollie was thrilled, as usual, to have lots of loud noises and flashing lights going off, but it was too damp to sit out with her this year so she had to be content with watching out the window. Mollie really loves fireworks.

I’m still trying to find out where Kim is in the Agility Eye League tables, so if any has a copy of the latest issue, could they please let me know! I only have online membership, which I’m seriously considering dropping when it comes up for renewal as they aren’t really offering much except access to results, and most of the time I check results before leaving the show anyway. I’m still debating!

Training was … “interesting” this week.

Dylan was totally over the top, completely overexcited and silly. Broke all his waits, pushing all his contacts, just pushing in general on everything that was asked. It sounds really odd when I try and describe it to people as really, he doesn’t sound like he was doing anything out of the ordinary for a collie. But he was not my normal dog!

Anyway, he ended up nipping my friend’s dog which was awful, I’m so furious with myself for not realising how wound up he was and putting him away until he’d calmed down. Thankfully the other dog is fine, just a bit bruised, but Dylan got a proper telling off and although he was apologetic and calmed down, was still pushy and bolshy when I ran him at the end of the session.

Considering how well he’s been working over the past couple of weeks, it’s frustrating to have something new crop up now. Especially because he nailed all his weave entries, all his contacts (although he was pushing all evening) and worked over the equipment fine.

*insert angry face here*