Tag Archives: flyball tournament

Sutton Fields

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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.

Nantwich/Larden Green

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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!

Hayfield Lakes

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Good weekend, close racing and Notts were excellent hosts. Shame the venue wasn’t as wonderful as everyone else seemed to think (we camp in a tent, flat clean ground is important).

Dylan’s team broke their seed time and won their division, which was great. We also managed to get splits on the dogs for all their races, which was useful for a variety of reasons but from my point of view, confirmed what I already knew about Dyl. He sat out the first race, and then in the second 2 races in the morning session he was running into the same dog (Roi). He clocked consistent 4.8s for those races. In the afternoon Roi was dropped and he had to change into Norah, and his times dropped immediately, and then got worse when he switched back to running into Roi in the second afternoon race (I think his times dropped off to 5.3s at that point, and he normally runs better in the afternoon). He has to change into the same dog otherwise he begins to stutter into the first jump (which is also awful for changeovers).

So, I’m not sure if Dylan will continue running with this team, and if he does, we will have to change the lineup which is not the best option a month before the National Championships. This is slightly frustrating as there’s very little I feel we can do at training; Dyl isn’t comfortable with these dogs away from flyball, it’s not something that will be overcome by practise (although that will help). I feel bad for our team as well, as we’re the weak link.

The girls were in two mixed teams as we’d lost height dog Bailey to injury. We bumped Mollie up a team so she could run 9″ (12″ is too much for her all day), and Kim took up height dog duties in the bottom team, with usual second-team dogs Chip and Buddy to bring a little more speed.

That all fell apart slightly anyway when Mol’s team lost a dog through injury, leaving a 4-dog team! They finished 5th in Div 5, but ran 21s which really wasn’t bad considering we had 12-yr old Mollie, blonde Beardie Biba who is really only in her first season, and 10-yr old Beardie Buffy who hasn’t trained for 9months! Poor Ronnie was the only one left of the original team.

Kim’s team won their division but didn’t run great times, we weren’t exactly on top form but we got lucky on a few legs and pulled a few nose-in-front legs out of the bag.

Champs prep at Nantwich next time, another new venue for us. We’ll be giving our Champs lineups an outing (barring disasters) although I don’t think we know what they will be yet!

Gap Farm February 11

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Excellent flyballing, some very good racing.

Dylan was on brilliant form, the specialised training we’ve been doing recently has been hugely and noticably beneficial for him and a few of the other dogs. It was very cool to see real results so quickly! His boxturn wasn’t brilliant, he is coming away much sharper now rather than turning wide, but he isn’t executing the swimmer’s turn as he should be.

Dylan was also very confident as he was running with his best girls Kim and Jet, and his old Labrador friends Buddy and Lucy. All dogs he feels very comfortable with! Kim wasn’t quite on her usual form, I’m beginning to think that the Gap Farm matting just doesn’t suit her, she never seems to run at her best there. She’s unusual in that respect as I think most teams have found that their teams run equal or better times on the matting. Kim has always prefered very hard ground though, like sports halls or sun-baked turf, so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised. She brought the hurdle height down for the others though, so it was worth keeping her in that team.

Mollie unfortunately drew the short straw. We knew she was going to be unfit and really needed the spot in the bottom team, who ended up running in the second arena. It was more dimly lit than the main arena and although it was perfectly fine for most dogs, Mollie really struggled to see. It was exactly the kind of light she has the most difficulty with, a kind of muted half-light with deep shadows but no real bright spots. She ended up interfering a few times simply because she lost my mother, and she kept mistaking various non-ball objects for balls which caused some chaos as well. We are just going to have to pull her if the team ends up in that arena again, although I think by this time next year it’s unlikely Mol will be running indoors at all as her eyesight will have deteriorated further by then.

Next flyball at the end of March, plenty of time to get Mollie back up to fitness and hopefully work a little more on Dylan’s box.

Bromley Farm Flyball (with extra snow!)

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It was -7 when we arrived at Bromley Farm on Sunday morning. That’s really very cold. Due to the cold and the snow, several teams pulled out and so Extreme re-organised the divisions from 4 to 3. Worked really well, even if it did mean two of our teams racing against one another.

Kim and Mollie were running in the bottom team, Kim ran well but made a few uncharacteristic mistakes on the box and Mollie was completely overexcited all morning and didn’t run at her best. We actually pushed most of the teams to 4 or 5 legs, but we lost everything in the end and finished 6th (oops!)

I was actually expecting Dylan to be off-form again (as per Saturday), but he actually ran pretty well. He’s running just under 5s line-to-line, which isn’t perfect but is better. He also didn’t stutter into the first hurdle at any point during the day, which was promising. Apparently it only takes him 8 months to get comfortable running into strange dogs, who knew? The team finished 1st and ran a fastest time of 19.46, which wasn’t too bad considering the 14″ height and the cold weather!

Absolutely brilliant to watch Extreme Racers break the 17s and run a 16.95 in the afternoon too!

Finally, everyone should check out the Flyball Seminar that Flyball Fever are hosting in the new year. I really hope all the flyballers out there take up the opportunity, it’s too good to miss!