Just got sent these 2 pics from Shackerstone of Asher waiting to race. Fully kitted out in his Rogz stuff, I think I should get sponsorship lol!
Olympia
7 years ago
Sunday 20 September 2009
Thursday 17 September 2009
Fab Four!
As Sarah (author of campbellsdogs.blogspot.com) is currently doing work experience she has bravely entrusted me with the walking of her 2 dogs. Walks are definitely never boring and so far i haven't lost anybody so all is going well!
I was very impressed I got them to stay still for this photo so thought I'd post it here. Left to right we have: Asher, Jemma, Elliot and Tess.
Thursday 10 September 2009
Agility Update
I realised I haven't posted anything about Agility in ages so...
I have entered our 1st KC show. We are going to Honiton on the 26th-27th September. I am camping Saturday night so if anyone reading this is going please let me know as I will hardly know anyone!
Well Asher is getting better. His weaves are cracking now, always gets entries and hasn't popped out of them for ages. Hopefully this will repeat in competition as at the Agilitynuts shows he just got too excited and hit them too fast. Contacts are ok, I think he is understanding a little bit more now. His position is alot better although he is not driving quite as much as I would like. I just need an hour alone with Asher, a dog walk and an Aframe and I reckon I could sort it but at training you only get a couple of reps of each at each session. As far as jumping work/sequences go, we have good days and bad days. He has more poles than I would like, its most common when I ask him to jump towards me or when he's trying to turn after building up speed along a straight but to be honest sometimes I don't see the reason for it! He's quite good at snakes and can do pull throughs. Lefts and rights are now pretty good but we still go wrong a fair bit. The main problem is that if I'm not clear enough in my handling he gets very frustrated, starts barking and switches off. Thats when he turns in to the tunnel demon and heads for the nearest tunnel. Tunnel obsession is still a bit of a problem but it is getting better as he is getting more confident in other areas. I'm quite happy that he's ready to start competing as I don't think there is alot more I can do until I find out how he reacts to the competition environment. He should certainly be capable of grade 1-3 courses. So we'll go with an open mind and see what happens!
I have entered our 1st KC show. We are going to Honiton on the 26th-27th September. I am camping Saturday night so if anyone reading this is going please let me know as I will hardly know anyone!
Well Asher is getting better. His weaves are cracking now, always gets entries and hasn't popped out of them for ages. Hopefully this will repeat in competition as at the Agilitynuts shows he just got too excited and hit them too fast. Contacts are ok, I think he is understanding a little bit more now. His position is alot better although he is not driving quite as much as I would like. I just need an hour alone with Asher, a dog walk and an Aframe and I reckon I could sort it but at training you only get a couple of reps of each at each session. As far as jumping work/sequences go, we have good days and bad days. He has more poles than I would like, its most common when I ask him to jump towards me or when he's trying to turn after building up speed along a straight but to be honest sometimes I don't see the reason for it! He's quite good at snakes and can do pull throughs. Lefts and rights are now pretty good but we still go wrong a fair bit. The main problem is that if I'm not clear enough in my handling he gets very frustrated, starts barking and switches off. Thats when he turns in to the tunnel demon and heads for the nearest tunnel. Tunnel obsession is still a bit of a problem but it is getting better as he is getting more confident in other areas. I'm quite happy that he's ready to start competing as I don't think there is alot more I can do until I find out how he reacts to the competition environment. He should certainly be capable of grade 1-3 courses. So we'll go with an open mind and see what happens!
Wednesday 9 September 2009
ShakaKhan!
Wow what a fantastic show! I went Friday night in order to get the full party experience, beer tents are so much fun! Saturday I had a free day so just watched racing and pottered round the show. I also got to go visit some very cute puppies, Carol and Mark chose their pup (Piper-Brae litter) so we will be welcoming little Loki in to the mad world of the Ballistics in a couple of weeks :-). Saturday night we danced like crazy people and got very drunk. The Cutlery Crew was born and we tamed the Chair Police! I think we are all off our rockers!
Sunday we had 2 teams in. Extraset were in division 5. The team was Sonny, Perry, Jamie, Guiness and our lovely baby Luna making her debut. Luna was fab, she ran really well and was very quick. She only had one little wobble the 1st time we changed lanes when she really thought she should be on the other side but we soon sorted that and she was paw perfect after. Although I think Carol found it a little difficult adjusting to running a dog that goes out like a rocket (especially with a hangover!!). We only lost one race and ended up in a 3-way tie for 1st place, we had the fastest time of 21.63secs so won the division :-), not a bad way to start a flyball career. Oh and the best news is that Luna got measured at 12".
Ballistics were 3rd seed in div 1, we had Diefer, Asher, Rosie, Smartie and Bunty. 1st race against Molten Magnetics didn't quite go to plan, we went 2-0 up then got a light and the next 2 legs they beat us very slightly on speed. Against Northants we got lights on the 1st 2 legs then the last leg everyone was late so we lost that. We were trying to be quite fair about the amount of racing everyone got so 3rd race against High Voltage we rested Diefer which meant I got to go start. I never go start and the last time Asher did it was his 1st starters! I really enjoyed it and Asher was really racing the other dog, his times were soo fast! We won that race. In the afternoon we had Bassetts and Flyers who we lost to. Last race was against Mutts, Asher again got to go start and we won that one. Our fastest time of the day was 17.64secs. I was hoping for a bit quicker than that as the ground seemed to be running quite fast but a couple of the dogs were a bit off their usual times. Asher was just awesome though, he was driving back so well. Box wasn't so good, if I can ever get him doing the perfect box when his speed is like it was on Sunday then he will hit consistent 3.7s. As it was, last leg of the day I had a 0.05 start and he ran 3.88secs. I don't think he had a single run all day that wasn't sub 4. Sorry for the massive brag and I will shut up now but I'm just so proud of him! So anyway we won 2 races and finished 5th. Mega huge congratulations to High Flyers who ran 16.66secs which should be the new British record but doesn't stand due to the rule that states all record breaking runs must be filmed. The record will just have to wait til next time!
Big thanks to Mutts and Flyers for the use of their boxes again and to the Nunnies for a fantastic show. Just 2 more for us this year.
Sunday we had 2 teams in. Extraset were in division 5. The team was Sonny, Perry, Jamie, Guiness and our lovely baby Luna making her debut. Luna was fab, she ran really well and was very quick. She only had one little wobble the 1st time we changed lanes when she really thought she should be on the other side but we soon sorted that and she was paw perfect after. Although I think Carol found it a little difficult adjusting to running a dog that goes out like a rocket (especially with a hangover!!). We only lost one race and ended up in a 3-way tie for 1st place, we had the fastest time of 21.63secs so won the division :-), not a bad way to start a flyball career. Oh and the best news is that Luna got measured at 12".
Ballistics were 3rd seed in div 1, we had Diefer, Asher, Rosie, Smartie and Bunty. 1st race against Molten Magnetics didn't quite go to plan, we went 2-0 up then got a light and the next 2 legs they beat us very slightly on speed. Against Northants we got lights on the 1st 2 legs then the last leg everyone was late so we lost that. We were trying to be quite fair about the amount of racing everyone got so 3rd race against High Voltage we rested Diefer which meant I got to go start. I never go start and the last time Asher did it was his 1st starters! I really enjoyed it and Asher was really racing the other dog, his times were soo fast! We won that race. In the afternoon we had Bassetts and Flyers who we lost to. Last race was against Mutts, Asher again got to go start and we won that one. Our fastest time of the day was 17.64secs. I was hoping for a bit quicker than that as the ground seemed to be running quite fast but a couple of the dogs were a bit off their usual times. Asher was just awesome though, he was driving back so well. Box wasn't so good, if I can ever get him doing the perfect box when his speed is like it was on Sunday then he will hit consistent 3.7s. As it was, last leg of the day I had a 0.05 start and he ran 3.88secs. I don't think he had a single run all day that wasn't sub 4. Sorry for the massive brag and I will shut up now but I'm just so proud of him! So anyway we won 2 races and finished 5th. Mega huge congratulations to High Flyers who ran 16.66secs which should be the new British record but doesn't stand due to the rule that states all record breaking runs must be filmed. The record will just have to wait til next time!
Big thanks to Mutts and Flyers for the use of their boxes again and to the Nunnies for a fantastic show. Just 2 more for us this year.
Thursday 3 September 2009
Stoneleigh
We had 2 teams in at Stoneleigh, they were both very mixed and we weren't sure what times we would do. We entered the Extraset who we thought would be seeded on 23.15 but the seed time dropped to 23.62 by the time the running order was out. Either way it wouldn't of affected the division we were in. We had Sonny, Perry, Jive, Chelsey and Guiness, so 2 rocket dogs, 2 missiles + Jive who kinda floats between. We didn't expect to go under 23secs but managed a time of 22.36secs. We lost 2 races, one on speed and one lights but still came 2nd :-).
Sunday we had Ballistics 3rd seed in div 1. We didn't have Rosie or Bunty so decided to try Jamie the usual Rockets height dog along with Diefer, Asher and Smartie. To be honest I wasn't expecting too much but the dogs did well, we won all our races in the morning, then it rained and everyones times really slowed, we lost all our races in the afternoon but that was to Bassetts, high flyers and moltens so can't really complain and we finished 4th with a best time of 18.11secs. Asher ran well, box wasn't great but is was a bit slippery and he was driving back better than he was at Champs.
Thanks to Flyers for lending us a box as ours is still broke and also letting me stay with them to save me driving up both days! The show was good, we had a nice look round, I went on the Waltzers, very scary experience!
Really looking forward to Shackerstone this weekend, we have a full 1st team and Little Luna will be making her open debut dead on 18months, fingers crossed that it all goes well. Oh and that the rain stops so the show can actually go ahead this year!
Sunday we had Ballistics 3rd seed in div 1. We didn't have Rosie or Bunty so decided to try Jamie the usual Rockets height dog along with Diefer, Asher and Smartie. To be honest I wasn't expecting too much but the dogs did well, we won all our races in the morning, then it rained and everyones times really slowed, we lost all our races in the afternoon but that was to Bassetts, high flyers and moltens so can't really complain and we finished 4th with a best time of 18.11secs. Asher ran well, box wasn't great but is was a bit slippery and he was driving back better than he was at Champs.
Thanks to Flyers for lending us a box as ours is still broke and also letting me stay with them to save me driving up both days! The show was good, we had a nice look round, I went on the Waltzers, very scary experience!
Really looking forward to Shackerstone this weekend, we have a full 1st team and Little Luna will be making her open debut dead on 18months, fingers crossed that it all goes well. Oh and that the rain stops so the show can actually go ahead this year!
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