Caerphilly Agility

Well it went better than Thames, not that that would be difficult!

Saturday 1st agility went jump-weave to start, he got the entry but missed a pole and then just kept going over the next jump so got E'd. I brought him back and he was fine but I was too far behind to bring him round a wing properly so he went on to the dogwalk at a funny angle and fell off it. Redid the dogwalk and he completed the rest of the course really nicely.

Jumping was a fairly challenging course that I knew wouldn't lend itself well to ashers pole knocking however it was probably the smoothest he's worked a jumping course. He listened and was pretty tight on the turns but had 3 poles. He also messed up weaves again, got entry but missed a pole so I got him e'd by putting him back over the jump again and in to the weaves and then they were soo good, how annoying!

Last agility was really frustrating as it was made for Asher, all spread out and contacts breaking up jumps so less chance of pole knocking. Start again went jump-weave and again got entry but going too fast to do anymore, brought him back and fantastic weaves followed by a cracking run with just a messy bit after the weaves where I didn't work it from being annoyed about said weaves! His contacts were fab and he flew round so pleased about the rest of it especially as apparently I actually handled lol!

Sunday I took out a different dog, the crazy, insane side made an appearance. Agility was pretty disasterous, he didn't stop on the dog walk as there was a tunnel after it and he got marked on his up contact for dogwalk and aframe, he did however get his weaves! He screamed the whole way round and was generally a bit of an arse.

Next was 1-4 collie sprint which really was a sprint. He was a really good boy in this and flew round it but had 3 poles :(. Had to check the time as there were lots of fast clears. Winners time was 16.525secs, Asher did it in 16.358secs so was really pleased about that. There will hopefully be a video of this coming on in the next few days.

Should really have stopped there but took him in the 1-2jumping. Ahh he was so bad! Broke his wait, why I didn't put him back is beyond me! And then the rest of it was all over the place, got e'd for going back in a tunnel, got his weaves and then wouldn't go on down a long straight to the finish. This is something we really need to work on as it affected us a couple of times over the weekend. And it seems completely silly that he will power on ahead when you start a course but not when were driving to the finish.

So weaves were a bit better but I still find it very very frustrating as yet again at training last week I physically could not get him to miss them no matter what I was doing. And I really don't want to start going backwards by stopping him before the weaves in competition. Overall though he was much better, Saturday particularly I enjoyed running him as he looked like he might actually know what he was doing despite the silly mistakes. Ooh and I think this week at training we might be proofing waits, I DO NOT approve of him breaking his wait!

Chilterns

Missiles and extraset ran Saturday, I unfortunately couldn't be there to see them but apparently they both ran well and had close racing which resulted in them both finishing fourth. The only change to the teams being Sonny swapping with Elliot in the Extraset.

Rockets were 4th seed in division 2 and had a team of Diefer, Elliot, Smartie and Bunty. The 1st race we lost on lights but did a best time of 19.00secs. After that we narrowly lost races on speed and another 1 on lights. They did however manage to win the last race which somehow resulted in them finishing 4th!

Ballistics were 5th seed in division 1 (still on the 18.12 seed time). Unfortunately Lacy wasn't able to run so we had a team of Piper, Asher, Rosie and Luna. Again we were great in the morning, won the 1st 2 races against Jet Stream and High Flyers with a best time of 17.42secs. In the afternoon we had similar problems as at Frimley and struggled to hit the times which resulted in a few lights but less than last week which I think is mainly due to the order we ran in. Lots more stamina work required! We won against Bandits and Dream team but by the time we raced Jets we just didn't have the speed left in the tank although 1 of the legs did result in a tie so you can tell how close it was! Still we were all thrilled to finish 2nd after some great racing.

Asher was a good boy but didn't feel like he was quite 'on it' and his box turn was a bit all over the place. I think I need to get back in to his fitness routine as I have been a bit laxxed since getting back from Euro's. Less than 4 weeks until Champs, better start getting him ready!

Frimley - Birthday weekend

Thought I'd better quickly update this as we're at Chilterns this weekend and don't want to get behind again!

So 4 teams and no Louise, scary times! Missiles ran Saturday in division 6 which was 1 above where they should of been as they were on a seed time with Jive in the team. They actually did really well and managed a best time of 24.09secs, they won 2 races but unfortunately only came 5th.

Ballistics were 1st on in Div 1 on Sunday. I was really looking forward to it as we had the full 1st team and a fairly new combination of Piper, Luna, Lacy and Asher. We won the 1st race and did a time of 17.43secs. 2nd race was against Bassetts, it was very very close, Asher just couldn't quite catch up lizzy but they had a best time of 17.36secs and we had a best time of 17.38secs so very exciting racing! In the afternoon things went a bit to pot with more lights than a rave. All 3 races went to 5 legs and we should have won them all comfortably but managed to lose them all! A couple of the dogs seemed to tire alot, I suppose this was due to a number of factors as it was hot, they had ran a lot of legs and they hadn't run over 12" in a while but it was a bit disappointing to have been so good in the morning and so different in the afternoon so we will have to work on fitness and consistency. Hopefully that will come as the team gels. So we had the 2nd fastest time of the day and came last lol! Well chuffed with the time though!

Rockets were in div 2. The team was Diefer, Smartie, Sonny, Rosie and Bunty. Again we had problems with consistency, lots of lights and lates. On the plus side Diefer did blue lane and looked really good. The team won 2 races and did a best time of I think 19.26secs, they came 5th.

Extraset were in div 3. They were Jemma, Elliot, Perry, Jamie and Jive. This team ran brilliantly. Really consistent and.... Jemma did red lane :-) :-D all day and looked super speedy, what a clever girl! The others also ran well, they had a best time of 20.24secs, they only lost 1 race and managed to win the division!

So overall a fun weekend at Frimley, with good points and things to work on. Had fun Saturday night for my birthday celebrations even if my team did try to get me to drink a disgusting concoction of all the alcohol they could find, it even had curdled pina colada on the top... nice!

European Flyball Championships 2010

Hmmmm well where to start...

Firstly we nearly never made it at all. The short story is that I had major problems with my car the day before we were due to leave which meant I had no car to drive! We ended up having to hire a car and change the time of the ferry so that we had time to pick up and pack said hire car. It was a huge relief when we finally made it to the venue in Belgium late Wednesday evening.

Racing started on Friday with the lower divisions in temperatures of around I think 36 degrees, I literally felt like I was melting! Saturday was slightly cooler and we spent most of the day supporting the other british teams entered (as we did on friday). Friday and Saturday evening were good fun with everyone in good spirits and lots of Belgian beer.

Sunday soon came around with Asher racing with High Flyers in Division 1. The rest of the team were Maizie, Floss, Millie, Tanner and Badger although it was a great shame that Badger wasn't able to compete due to him still recuperating from his injury. I thought the team gelled well together and I really enjoyed doing changeovers on Maizie although I don't think my starts were so good! In speed trials we managed a fantastic best time of 16.62secs which put us as 2nd seed for the double elimination. We won our 1st two double elimination races putting us in to the semi-finals but unfortunately lost to Jolly Jumpers (who had broken the European record with 16.12secs earlier in the day). Our last race was against K-otic Flyers who we had beaten in the previous race. By this point in the day they were just a little too much for us and we lost but still came a fantastic 3rd in the division which meant we got on to the podium. Jolly Jumpers won with K-otics coming 2nd. I thought all the dogs ran well. I was really proud of Asher he tried so hard in every one of the 8 races and I have never seen him so tired as he was afterwards!

I thought the racing format was brilliant, racing was so exciting! The support between all the british teams was great. I also really enjoyed watching all the other european teams and how they did things, it was all very interesting. Overall a fantastic experience.

Big thanks to High Flyers for letting Asher run with them and making me part of the team. Thanks to Katie for putting up with my panic on the tuesday, keeping me company for the looong journey, bringing our good mate Tim and generally being a fab holiday buddy. Thanks to Jeanette for having Asher on the Saturday so that he could relax in the van rather than stressing himself out being tied up and to Nat for lending us the tent! Finally thanx to all the british teams who were around the ring supporting us.

Ooh and congratulations Jolly Jumpers :-)

Here is a vid of some teams competing, we are in the 1st clip, Asher is 2nd dog:

Ahh I'm soooo behind!

Very sorry for those few people who read the blog that I have got so far behind! So here's a quick update.

Thames agility was a bit of a disaster. Asher decided that he couldn't possibly weave and I think missed every entry. Gutted is not the word, weaves are usually something I feel pretty confident with, lets hope it was just a bad weekend. Contacts were pretty good but none of his runs felt all that good. He had 1 ok run each day, both in agility. On the Saturday he missed the weaves and then fell off the dog walk but he worked the course well. On Sunday he missed the weaves and came inside a jump but that was because I wasn't in the right place due to him missing the weaves!! The rest he worked nicely. The other runs aren't even worth talking about lol!

On 20th June we were back at hearing dogs but this time for a show held by bandits instead of mutts. We just had ballistics in div 2 consisting of Piper, Asher, Lacy and Bunty. We had to swap the order a few times to try and get it to work. We found the best order to be as above but then Bunty started running out on her way up. We somehow managed a best time of 18.12secs, won 2 races and came 4th.

On 26th June I went up to Stevenage to practise with High Flyers before the Euro's, training went well and Asher seemed to gel with the team which was good. I was a bit worried about him changing box but he coped well only fumbling a couple of times.

I'll write a separate post for the other stuff!