Alton

We had a bit of a depleted team for Alton but still managed to put out 3 teams. Rockets and Missiles raced Saturday.

Missiles did really well in division 6. Ruby was the most focused I've seen her and is getting speedier. We have starting working on the catching and she is progressing well. Unfortunately we have a conflict of interest as obviously her owner wants to continue racing her but that means she can't transfer what we are training her over to racing as she hasn't done enough reps yet. Just one of those things I suppose, and if it doesn't improve over the Summer it'll just be something for Winter training. The rest of the dogs also did really well, they just lost 1 race and finished 2nd.

Rockets were 3rd seed in division 2. We had a team of Jemma, Merlin, Elliot, Smartie and Bonnie. All the dogs were great, the judging however was not. I wouldn't usually say anything as it takes balls to go in and judge but I was getting more and more frustrated as the lights were playing up and decisions kept wrongly going against us resulting in unnecessary reruns and losing legs. It was Jemma's (and Sarahs) 1st competition this year, Jem was off her rocker in the 1st race especially as we didn't have time to warm up properly so we left her out of that one but she was great after that and didn't look like running across at all. She tired a little bit towards the end of the day but then it was also her 1st time over 12" so we'll let her off! Sarah also did well on her starts (and her ankle held out... phew!). Merlin's box deteriorated a little from last weekend which I think was partly to do with the ground (dip infront of box) so we're going to do some reps on Friday before Farnham to remind him, other than that he was focused and consistent as ever. I ran Elliot who was great, I find it difficult to judge how fast he's running as I'm trying to run away with such enthusiasm! The interesting thing was that at training last weekend he spit his ball nearly everytime for the tuggy but I had real trouble getting him to spit his ball from the start this weekend which kinda dispels our theory that he won't spit when he's tired. Looks like a competition issue! Hmm now how to fix that...! Mark ran Smartie and she found it very exciting watching her owner Carol run Merlin before her which meant she was flying! Bonnie was awesome as anchor dog and ran fantastically. I think the 12" really suited her as it helped her striding and slowed her down a touch which made her box turn significantly better. So we were really pleased with the dogs and only lost 1 race to come 2nd. We had a best time of 19.16secs and that was in the last race of the day so pretty good going!

Ballistics were 2nd seed in Division 1. The team was Piper, Asher, Luna, Loki. We had a successful but slightly frustrating day. Our 2 main races were against Dream Team Supreme and Bassetts as the other teams were in the 18-19s. I tried getting my team to push it in the early races but as we were comfortably winning this proved difficult! We managed a best time of 17.33 but it could of been so much better, every changeover had room. Infact we didn't manage 1 leg all day where everyone was bob on. We did do a 17.04 with a tiny light (from moi) in the 1st race and Luna and Loki still had room so we know the speed is there, just gotta coax it out! After Asher we were on 8.04 and after Luna 12.53. So we won all our races up until our last against Bassetts. They got a light on the 1st leg but we were quite a bit up on them going in to last dogs so I think if Loki hadn't fumbled (blooming red lane with the dip infront the box lol) we would have had them on speed anyway. They got a leg back after that but then managed to get 2 lights handing the win to us! Thanks Bassetts! Asher ran ok, his box was a little better than it has been. He still doesn't seem as quick as he was last year. I keep getting super paranoid that it's his leg but I know I would be able to tell if he was even slightly lame as I spent the majority of my time staring at it when he was actually injured. He is completely sound and happy so I think I just need to chill!

Looking forward to Farnham now, going to be a very tight div 1 and I'm a little bit nervous! We only have 4dogs aswell (no Piper) which is a shame. Lets hope we are on it!