And so 2008 comes to an end

After a tricky start 2008 turned out to be a great year, I just wanted to reflect on each dogs achievments and aspirations over the past 12 months and the year ahead.

Ben - Thorpers Big Ben.. our Ben Ben dispite his numerous health problems was awarded the Rebecca Pointer award at Crufts where Amy took the decision to retire him from competition, it was a very proud moment, this is awarded to the YKC dog and handler who has achieved the most points over the prevous year. However he was allowed to breifly have a flutter at the Newark YKC obedience advanced competition purely to make up the numbers, winning the class was his way of proving he still has it.. he is really enjoying retirement and can be seen occasionally running at flyball shows as a spare dog.

Dylan - Thorpers Dandy Dylan.. Dillie has had a great year, he has finally found his "thing" Flyball, he is never happier than at a flyball comp, this year he has achieved his Flyball dog Intermediate. He seems to have overcome some of his demons and once again has qualified Amy for the YKC handling. he continues to be a character, and will enjoy flyball and agility in 2009.

Maisy - Thorpers Miss Maisy.. The Queen!! this dog for me never stops giving, she is a real worker and her enthusiasm for everything that I ask is amazing. this year she has gained her flyball dog Graduate, and along with Ronny won the fastest pairs ABC at the flyball british champs. she started Agility this year and we have done a few competitions and finally last weekend I managed to work at her level and we pulled a 5th place and a clear round, next year we will concentrate more on agility, we both love it so much as it challanges us to work as a team.

Summer - Darian Enchanted by Fire.. our little princess, this baby has been a pleasure to own and train, she is a very willing pupil and attended the Mary Ray training week which is what started Amy using the clicker, Summer responds so well and they did their first obedience competition earlier this month where Summer exceeded Amy's expectations. in 2009 Amy will compete mainly in obedience hoping to win out of Novice, and will probably dabble in agility and flyball.

Clear round!!

Well Maisy decided to give me my Christmas pressie a little late this year, today she got her first clear round in touch and go, she got all her contacts perfectly and followed it with a nice fast clear jumping round, although it was in 1-7 which meant we were up against some seriously fast dogs which put her just outside the placings. she also ran a fantastic jumping round, just tipping a pole giving us 5 faults in a time of 17.56 seconds, had she gone clear we would have been 4th.. her other rounds were really nice too and I really feel like this weekend we have turned a very important corner, and must thank Jo for all her kind words and advice throughout the day. Jo also did really well today and Keisha is looking really fab, she never lets her mum down, Ronny on the other hand was showing off to Maisy today and took the tunnel despite Jo being miles away from it showing him the correct jump!! good job he does well most of the time. Diesel the boxer was a little star, she jumped most of the fences and took a very large water jump in her stride.. Jess was a monkey and had her nose on the floor a bit too much. I had the most wonderful weekend and am really looking forward to Preston, just looking for a few more rounds like this weekend.

whoop whoop!!!!

Well I have just had a brilliant day, maisy had 4 runs today 2 eliminations and 2 with faults, in her agility class I was late with her weave command and she missed the entry but appart from that she flew round and to my astonishment came 5th!! she has really began to listen to my directional commands and I can see her potential. in the same class Keisha won, so very well done to her. Ronny ran brilliantly too but watching his video back I can certainly see the similarities between him and Maisy they are soooo fast. Ellen and Hamish came 9th in jumping, but he was a bit naughty in the agility rounds and reminded Ellen not to take her eye off the ball... Anne and Crafty had an interesting day, she lacked concentration but there were some really nice parts so I think she should be pleased, onwards and upwards.

Christmas Dogs

All the dogs are really enjoying all the attention they receive while everyone is at home together, Dylan makes the most of doors being left open and spends most of his time sleeping on Amy's bed, while Maisy, Summer and Ben take it in turns to sleep by the fire. Maisy has an agility competition tomorrow and Sunday, Jo is there too with her two, Maisy always gets excited when she sees Ronny as it usually means some fun. Tomorrow I will hopefully meet Zippy, Jo's new baby. also tomorrow Anne and Crafty will be there so it is going to be lots of fun, you never know we might come home without an elimination in every class!!

Christmas Training

After having such a great lesson with Yvonne last weekend I decided to buy Lee Gibsons new training DVD, both Amy and I have been to him for a few lessons in the past, unfortuantely he is just too far away to commit to regular lessons so the DVD was the next best option, I had a quick look at it last night and have set myself the task of training waits, and weave entries over the Christmas period, he has also give me some great ideas for training Maisy to go on and make her own decisions ahead of me, which is one of the downside to all that obedience training - don't get me wrong I'd much rather have an obedient dog who wants nothing more than to be stuck to my side than one who can't remember who I am!!

Amy & Summer will be concentrating on improving their heelwork stamina, stays with distractions and more retrieve training, they have a try out for the Midlands team on January 3rd, we are not too hopeful but again it will be great experience for them to mingle and have a go, we are already looking at which competitions to go to in 2009, i'm not entirely sure how we will fit it all in!! however I have now decided Maisy will not be going to any more Obedience competitions we will concentrate on Agility and Flyball this year which is what we both enjoy, and I love to watch Amy compete in Obedience so it'll be back to being a chauffer this year, that is if she lets me go with her!!

Last Weekend

Well what a busy weekend we had... Friday - Amy & Kathryn went to LKA, this was Amy & Summers first obedience competition, Amy reported back to me throughout the day to tell me how things were going. Our Friend Laura and her puppy Coral won Starters and qualified for Crufts and Also had borrowed Diesel and had qualified in the handling too - Well done Laura, a well deserved win, we knew it was only a matter of time. Kathryn was 2nd in her handling class, just missing out on that all important qualifier so Next year we'll have to tackle training with a vengance. Amy said Summer was being a little star, the NEC is a daunting place to have your first show but Summer apparently took it in her stride, she was a little bouncy in her heelwork, which is quite a nice problem to have, rather that than lagging!! and a few minor issues here and there, if she hadn't broken her down stay she would have been 2nd - not bad at all for her first outing. Saturday Amy was at the NEC again and Summer didn't let her down, this time they were placed 4th which has given Amy a real push towards next years competitions. Our Friend & Bandit team mate Jo had Pudsey in the breed ring for the first time and I must admit the photo she put up of him on Friday left me thinking "I hope she's going to bath that!!" bless him, he has got to be one of the sweetest dogs you could ever meet, and with those teddy bear looks, you just gotta love him!! unfortunately the judge was a bit heavy handed and Pudsey backed off putting him in 4th place just outside of the qualifying marks - we think you're a winner little man, and can't wait for you to be old enough to join in the real fun at flyball.

Maisy & I had our Agility lesson, we nearly didn't make it as the heavy rain throughout the morning had closed a few roads, but it was worth all the hassel once we had arrived. we came away with plenty to work on and are already looking forward to our next one at the end of January.
Sunday was our Clubs Christmas party, which was great fun, plenty of games to keep us warm and hot chocolate and mince pies for the humans.

Summers 1st show!

Amy & Summer are off to the NEC tomorrow for their first obedeince competition, Summer has proven to be a little madam when it comes to learning the retrieve and Amy has asked me to take over this particular part of the training process!! we had a go on Tuesday evening and Summer just curled up on the floor not having any of it, i offered her sweeties and she just refused, I was about to give up when I happend to open a packet of raw mince which we were having for our tea! (obviously I was going to cook it first LOL) and Summers ears pricked.. I took some of the mince and asked her to hold the dumbell - hesitantly she went towards it a picked it up! I gave her some mince and we just did it a few more times before ending the training session. this has proven to me that when she give us the "I can't cope with life" look what she really means is "I'm not doing it for that boring treat" Amy won't have a retrieve tomorrow but she is going to work the round and see what happens in the retrieve, it will all be good experience for her going forward.

Maisy and I have a one to one agility lesson with Yvonne Croxford on Saturday afternoon weather permitting. so hopefully, I'll come back with a Zing in my step.

Ronnies Babies

There are a few babies left, if anyone is interested see the mali link on this page for more pictures and information.

Up North Again

Another early start this morning, Maisy and I arrived at Clares for 5.15am ready to hit the M6 to Preston. 2 agility classes and 1 jumping ahead of us. after taking Clares advice I tried to forget I was against the clock and pretend I was only training. well to cut a long story short i came home with a hat trick of eliminations, however I was completely thrilled with how Maisy had performed, we had a wait at the start,12 offside weaves, and contacts Clare only dreams about LOL (she won't thank me for that) Clare had a bad day too there was a brush fence and a wall in agility Maisy jumped without a second thought but Charlie wasn't sure Clare really mernt him too,he also had remembered his fall from the dog walk and had a refusal. after all the classes were over we took the dogs for a walk and boy did they have fun, Maisy taught Charlie to swim!!

Flyball Dog Advanced

Well finally the points have been added to the BFA website and I can now confirm Maisy is now a Flyball Dog Advanced having gained over 5000 points. When Maisy came to live with us at a year old, I never would have dreamed we would be doing what we are now, my main passion has always been obedience, but unfortunately Maisy didn't share that passion with me!! we put in the hours of training but never really clicked and it was always a fight, since we started flyball about 2 years ago our relationship has blossomed, as owners we always think we have a great relationship with our dog and that it couldn't possible get any better, but Maisy has proved to me that as with people relationships take work and commitment, our bond grows all the time, she adores flyball and now agility and she really excites me about the future, she has taught me it really isn't the winning but enjoying what we do together that counts. those of you that know us will know she is my little Angel even if her halo slips from time to time!! Gotta love her really, I just wish she wouldn't take the "P" out of Amy so much..LOL

Good Citz

Yesterday we had the good citizens testing for Bronze and gold at club. I am very pleased and proud to say that we had a 100% pass rate. It was a freezing Sunday morning and after Amy and I standing around in the field for nearly 5 hours it was lovely to get home, stick a film on and cuddle up with the dogs on the sofa in front of the fire. Sheila, Chris and Kate (Summer's Mum) and Folly (her sister) popped in to see us, which was lovely, all 3 girls had a lovely time.

Tonight is agility training again, fingers crossed I come home satisfied I have been able to keep up with Maisy! it's going to be cold but we'll soon warm up once we start running around. We are off to Blackpool again on Saturday Morning with Clare for Agility - I wonder if Maisy will be mental for the first class or if I might have a modicum of control LOL the spectators always get their money's worth when we are in the ring.

Preston Agility

After an early alarm call (4:30) I set off to collect Clare & Charlie, the journey to Preston went without any hiccups and we arrived in plenty of time to walk the dogs, get a coffee and find the rings. Our first class was Agility, a fairly simple course with no weaves, there wasn't much room outside the rings for cueing which made Maisy even more hyped than usual and I set her up too close to the first jump! Our first run was pretty much a disaster, with maisy being so hyped and my terrible handling!! I came out having been eliminated although was really pleased she had got all her contacts. Nest was another agility class, again elimination, but again all her contacts and I felt my handlig was much better. Clare and I had lunch and discussed the morning so far, it was obvious that if there is something other than a jump in her veiw she will go under the jump to get to it. we have devised a training plan for this so hopefully next time we will be ready. Clare had two agility rounds in the morning, Charlie was really up for it but missed a contact and got a pole down, in the second round he went so fast onto the dog walk he ended up falling heavily onto his side, he seemed fine and was soon up and over it again. after lunch we took the dogs out to stretch their legs and found Charlie to be lame, his fall must have taken its toll in the cold weather, after his walk he seemed fine and we decided to stay for the jumping round, Maisy was in first and went like a dream, I pushed her past one fence so we had 5 faults but the remainder was clear and in a super fast time. Clare and Charlie went clear but were just outside the placings. It was a really long day but we came away super pleased with the dogs. One day Maisy and I will get that clear round!! we have loads of fun and don't take ourselves too seriously just yet, there's plenty of time for all that.

Jo & the Mali's were there too, little Keisha did us all proud, not only with her 2nd place in Jumping but also winning grade 3 agility. We are so proud of you - soon you'll be beating the Ronster!! clever girl.

Preston & Dinner Parties

Our friends Kathryn & Ian invited Amy and I to dinner last night, it was lovely, Ian had cooked a yummie meal and there was plenty of wine flowing!! probably a bit to much wine for a school night... although I have managed to hoist myself out of bed and get to work, luckily working 3 miles from home does have it's advantages. We were well and truly boxered, having there 2 and also baby gloria who came to visit with mum Anne.
Clare and I are off to Preston on Saturday for an agility competition, I am really hoping for an easy course (as I expect everyone is) and hope not to embarras myself too much. keep an eye out for updates.

flyball update

well it was brilliant to be back at a flyball competition with Jo and her parents,all dogs and handlers get along so well no matter how we do we always have a good time. we got off to a rocky start with a close call in the first race followed by a couple of crashes between our dogs, luckily none of them were injured!! then we settled into our stride and ended up in 4th place. We had introduced Smartie into the team yesterday, just a couple of practice runs or so we thought, but he just took it all in and never put a paw wrong so in the final race decided to let him have a go, if we won the race he would stay in and if not he wouldn't, he ran all 3 legs and we won with the fastest time of the day. what a star he was - we must not forget Alice who ran Smartie exactly in the right way, they will both be an asset to our teams.

Bandits at Newark

This Saturday the Brickyard Bandits are racing at Newark which will be our first indoor show this year. This time we will be taking Smartie along to have a go at the "Real" thing. We have no idea how he will react to the noises and other teams but it's a good opportunity to take notes for next time when he can run for real. Summer should also be coming but she won't fully be off her season by then so I think we might leave her at home with Ben! I have been doing some interval training with Dylan and Maisy over the past few weeks to build up their stamina levels, which in turn will hopefully help them to maintain their speed throughout the day, not that we have really noticed any drop in speed in the afternoon but every little helps, especially in the quest for faster times, who knows another PB might be in the wings.

Maisy and I are still really enjoying our agility training, we seem to have lots more control now and I'm finding my own handling skills are really letting our team down, Maisy has plenty of potential and drive I just need to catch up with her - it's all very frustrating, but hopefully with plenty of training over the winter we might come out next season with a chance of a few clear rounds.

Discover Dogs

Well the girls went off to Earls Court bright and early on Sunday morning, Diesel was all spruced in anticipation for her Handling class and Amy was in full "Shopping" mode!! whilst Summer spent the day behind the sofa dreading what Pink accessories she might be adorning on Amy's return. I had a few calls during the day telling me how everyone was in love with Diesel which was hindering their shopping skills!! Imagine being slowed down by adoring fans - How rude!! Kathryns class was at 4pm and her judge was the one and only Phil Paisly. Apparently kathryn looked completely at home in the ring with all the experienced almost professional handlers and as this was only her 2nd competition she did really well and was placed 4th. we are all very proud of her and can't wait for the next one at LKA in December.

Newark & Babies qualify for Crufts 2009

We braved the wind and driving rain at Newark YKC activity weekend, but despite the weather we had a great time. Unfortunately we had to leave Summer and Dylan at home due to Summer being in season so Amy had time to concentrate on having a good time without the pressure of having to perform. Saturday was purely training in any activity you chose, we took Paul and Alice with us and our friend Kathryn came along, she is 22 but still eligible tor training until she is 24, Amy encouraged her to take part in the handling competition with her Boxer Diesel so Kathryn took advantage of the training on offer. in the evening there was a fun and games night organised, so in true YKC style we all took part and had a ball.
During the night the weather took a turn for the worse and several times during the night I had to check the dogs were still safe in the awning, each time i checked they seemed oblivious to the strong winds blowing a gail outside.
Sunday was competition day with crufts qualifiers in handling, obedience and flyball. Amy and Kathryn were in the handling class and although Kathryn did an amazing job for her first time didin't make it in the final line up, and Amy was only in it for moral support!! In the Obedience, Amy was supposed to be taking Summer in, but decided to take Ben and maisy into the advanced class to make numbers up, poor old Ben was dragged out of retirement!! he bounced around playing tuggy up to the ringside and went in with more enthusiasm than we have seen for a long time, nice heelwork, good send away, bit of a hold on the retrieve, and a dodgy scent. but he had a ball, and bless his heart he won the class!! clever boy, just out of qualifying marks which means he can stay at home for Crufts 2009.
Brickyard Babies flyball team had entered the qualifyer the team is Amy, Alice, Paul and Sarah, we also have Ellen and Ali, but they were not able to attend this weekend. they put on a sterling effort and congratulations as they qualified for Crufts. I was a very proud today watching the team and I can honestly say I've got a very good feeling about this team at Crufts next year. A special thanks goes to Jo from Maili- Mania for lending us Ronny & Keisha and for taking the time to drive up to Newark.

Training

We didn't manage to get to the obedience show today, Maisy and I have been focussing more on agility recently and Summer just isn't quite ready for a novice round so we took Summer and Ben to the park for a bit of training and a nice walk. Summer is going to be so good at obedience, her attitude and relationship with Amy is lovely to watch, she's just a little stunner, we could not have asked for more - I must add at this point her breeder helped Amy to chose the puppy which she thought would best suit her and WOW did she ever get it right. Thanks Sheila.

Planning Ahead

Only a few more shows left this year! Summer has her first obedience show next Sunday, I think Amy will use it as a training round, she has stunning heelwork and her recall is sound, but we are experiencing a little hiccup with the retrieve - she does everything well except she has started to be a little madam about the hold!! till now her training has been clicker based and she is indeed a willing student, however we are now seeing the odd tantrum! this is something Amy and her will need to work through in their own time, so giving her a couple of training rounds will do them both good before the onset of winter training.

Maisy and Summer are both entered at an indoor agility competition in November, it will be the first competition Maisy has been to were I have confident weaves, and it will be Summers first show, she isn't ready for proper competitions yet but it will be a good experience for the two of them.

We have the YKC training weekend the 1st & 2nd November at Newark, Amy and I will be there as trainers and more importantly the Brickyard babies will be trying to qualify for the Flyball Crufts Finals. we have a really strong team this year so fingers crossed we can pull it out of the bag.

New PB for the Bandits

Left to right Dylan, Maisy, Ronny, Keisha
Well, Portway has a great new venue at Becketts Farm, even though we had practiced we really were not as prepared as we'd have liked. the first race in the ring we went with the new line up, the dogs ran well and we ended up with a new time of 19.93. Unfortunately the greeness of the novice dogs came through, and we had no choice but to nurse them through each race, we tried lots of combinations and have now realised Keisha needs to run in the middle and Dylan needs to run last, this gives us 3 good crossovers, but we still have to give Keisha and Dylan plenty of space. We came away with 3rd place and were very pleased with our progress.

Left to right - Summer, Dylan, Maisy, Ben, Ronny, Kody, Pudsey!!!, & Keisha

Portway Flyball Training

The Bandits have acompetition tomorrow, AT LAST!! it seems ages since we last ran our dogs together so Jo brought the Mali's for a practice. First we had the babies out, Summer who is now 17 months old and has been clicker trained to run the flyball lane and Kody who is now 16 months old, and seems tobe turning into another Ronny. OMG lookout flyball world!!. they ran really nicely together and had so much fun, they haven't quite got the idea that the most important thing is getting the ball and not playing with each other, but that will come with practice. Then we got the others out. We normally run Ronny as start dog who is folowed by Maisy, then Keisha and lastly Dylan, but because both Dylan and Keisha are still only novice dogs and are both easily spooked we decided to try running them at seperate ends of the race hoping that the confidence from the steady dogs would provide a comfort zone. we started with the two boys, they are both strong characters but after a few runs seemed to get on with it, then we tried the girls again, even though Keisha is visibly steadying for the crossover as the runs went on she improved. at last we tried all 4, Keisha as first dog, Maisy 2nd, Ronny 3rd and Dylan bringing up the rear!! WOW this could be what we need for a new PB tomorrow - I'll keep you posted and try to capture it on video, I can't wait.

Weave evidence!

Agility training again last night, and again I've come home really pleased with our progress. Clare set a perticularly difficult course last night, we broke it down first and then had a go, we made a few mistakes but mostly I think it went well.

No Comps This Weekend

It's a fairly quiet weekend, it's got much colder now and we've been forecast rain later so I met Mum to go for a walk to the pond with Maisy. Before we set off we had a coffee and a slice of Mum's homemade fruit cake - Yum, then we squueezed willow and Mum into the front of the van and set off. there were lots of people around today but our girls had a great time romping in and out of the hedgrows searching for anything they could find. a quick swim in the pond and then a long walk back to the van. Maisy has spent the afternoon snoozing in between Summers demands for attention. Agility practice on Monday night again, i'm hoping to video our progress!.

Maisy Has 12 Weaves

Great news, Maisy has finally decided to be as neurotic at weaving as she is at everything else, she now has 12 consistant weaves!! PHEW - I must admit there were times when I never thought we would get there at all,, but patience has paid off. I feel my handling is getting better all the time although loads more training required, but Maisy is really starting to tune into my body language and not just take any draw she sees, the only problem with that is that if I am even slightly off line or give too much shoulder she's gone, which I'm sure is a good thing or it will be once i get it right. I only have one message for all you people who look at her and think "Mental head" watch out - she's coming.... lol. let's hope I'm with her - eh?.

Midlands border collie club

today we went to the Midlands Boered collie clubs utility day - Our great friend Sheila asked us to help out with the flyball at this event and we jumped at chance. However Amy had decided she really wanted to have a go with Sumer so I enrolled the help of my sister Sara and mother Gill. The day was brilliant, Amy and Summer and Alice and the gorgeous Smartie had a fantastic day, they had a go at all the activites and decided after a fabulous lunch which incidently only cost £1 to have a go at the bronze good cits with the babies, summer passed but unfortunately Smartie decided a whole minute staying in one place was ridiculous and decided with 10seconds to go to check Alice was ok!!

little blighter!! next time he will be trained with an inch of his life..... Summer also passed all of her obedience appart from her sit stay when she momentarialy lost concentration and fogot what she was doing so went down in her sit stay!! Ben passed his flyball, halt at curb and 5 minute out of sight stay with no problem at all, Diesel (Darien the Commodore) passed his silver good cits, flyball and had a realy great time playing at agility, these Dariens really know how to have a good time. Just a quick thought I'd like to thank everyone at MBCC for a fabby day.

Agility Weekend

The weather was very kind to us, in fact I was even able to top up my tan yesterday afternoon!! Maisy and Dylan had a brilliant weekend, Maisy although no clear rounds is really starting to listen, loads more work on her weaves required but as soon as we have that sussed i think we might be getting there, out of 6 runs I was only completely out of control once!! and in the 1 to 7 jumping the judge saw fit to include a lovely gate and wall which Maisy took in her stride. Dylan and Amy had a few ups and downs, the most tricky course of the weekend they were fantastic, if Dylan had not overshot the weave entrance he would have had a place I'm sure. I still think sometimes Dylan forgets why he's there!! I guess thats the spaniel in him, his head goes up and his mind wanders just for long enough to miss a command - but having fun is still the name of the game, as yet neither Amy nor I have got too competetive and allowed the fun to evapourate.. luckily we are not on the agility pot hunting curcuit - but I'm sure it's only a matter of time! Summer was measured and we are very pleased to announce she is Standard so watchout next year.

Bromsgrove This Weekend

Thankfully the weather looks like it might just hold out and our Agility competition this weekend, Amy has already left with Clare to help set up her tent and to save spaces for the rest of the BB's gang and I'll be towing the caravan up later to meet them. This weekend Amy is running Dylan allowing me to give Maisy all my attention, we are very nearly ready to compete properly, her weave entry is at about 80percent accurate, the main problem is still her over enthusiasm so this weekend I'm going to try tireing her out just before we go in the ring!! some people would say train though it to make her listen all the time, but to be honest anyone who says that has never experienced Maisy!! she is a very exciting prospect so I'm happy to take it slowly. I'll write more on monday and hopefully have some video's too!! Watch this Space....

Wet Weekend

OMG when is this awful weather going to end?!? we were supposed to be competeing at Shackerstone Festival but at 5.55am this morning I received a phone call from the organiser advising the field was water-logged! no real suprises there. Still it gave us a rare opportunity to take Ben and Summer for a walk with my parents. It was still raining quite heavily but the dogs didn't care at all, my parents Goldie Willow was pleased with the company and showed off her swimming skills and Ben & Summer quickly followed. after all the excitement we went back to Mum's house for a lovely mug of hot chocolate and chicken rolls -yummy.

Dylan's Agility Training

Bless little Dylan, he loves agility soooo much, last night They concentrated on control and he loved it.

Amy & Summer Progress

Amy has now really started to train Summer, and I think you will see she is going to be a little stunner, I've warned Amy she'd better keep it up now or I might have to steal her away!!

Lichfield Obedience Show 30.08.08

Well after much trepidation I decided to have ago at the obedience today, we were drawn 3rd and due to slight navigation problems didn't arrive until 10 minutes before the show started! luckily Amy was on hand to sign me in and get our number sorted so I could concentrate on Maisy, I was determined I wasn't going to let her down today. She did a lovely heelworkround and just anticipated the recall slightly losing 2 marks, the judge was very complimentry and we only had stays to do later in the day. going into stays we were lying in 3rd. We cleared stays and ended up in joint 3rd with 3 dogs, the run off was a recall, Maisy's was very nice appart from aslightly crooked present,we ended up in 4th position, I wasover the moon.

British Flyball Championships

It was a lovely venue, the weather was just glorious. Ronny and Maisy were entered in the multi breed pairs and were against some tuff competition.The dogs were allowed one warm up run and then 3 races to record their fastest time. Ronny and Maisy ran fantastic and nailed there first and second cross over, there 3rd race we were a bit eager and unfortunately Maisy had a light. There fastest time recorded was 8.89 seconds. Checking the results we and could see Ronny and Maisy had won. What a fantastic result, with them running together for the last year or so made them given them the trust needed to concentrate on speed. Maisy & Dylan also ran for the Brickyard Boomerangs a new team just to make up the numbers, unfortunately they ran so fast they eliminated themselves, still everyone had a great day out and we all managed to take the best dogs home with us.

Camp Update

Hi, well the weather held for us for the whole week and we had a great time training the flyball, all members put in lots of effort and it paid off as all the dogs ran fantastically well.
Each evening the YKC seniors put on entertainment, Amy and her friends had a brilliant time and put in lots of effort especially on the line dancing evening, see the video of Amy and her friends.

Young Kennel Club National Camp

Today Amy and I are setting off to YKC national training camp, Amy has been a member of the YKC for the past 7 years and attended Camp for 4 years as a trainee. In 2006 I was invited to train Obedience which was a great opportunity and a real pleasure, although imense hard work training 4 hours a day for 5 days! this year both Amy and I have been invited back to train Flyball along with our friends Jo Hicks and Sarah Walker.
We leave home this afternoon and set up camp at Melton Mowbray, tomorrow all the YKC members arrive and from Sunday onwards the training and FUN begins. I'll be back home on Monday evening so I'll update the blog with pictures and info then.

Chilterns Flyball 20th July 2008

What a fantastic day, this is only the 2nd time these 4 dogs ahave raced together, Ronny has a new inexperienced handler in Nigel and Amy is now patnering Maisy leaving Jo and I spare to run our inexperienced dogs Keisha and Dylan, and of course not forgetting our fantastic helpers on the day Sheila (Jo's mum) as boxloader and Luke and Alice assisting in the ring.
Raicng started well, we were seeded 3rd and were first up against the second seed "Demon Pawz" we had a clean sweep beating them 3-0 and came out with a best ever time of 19.97 seconds - we were all very excited we had smashed our PB and gone under 20 seconds. next we were against the "Monday Niters" seeded 6th and again a clean sweep 3-0 with a fastest time of 20.05 all was going really well as we went into the luchtime break. After lunch we raced "Molten Marvels" seeded 5th and again we won 3-0 this time with a fastest time of 20 seconds dead. next up was the "Molten Metals" seeded 1st, we were now pushing our crossovers with tired dogs and Maisy had a light in the first race, but Amy adjusted her position on the line and we won the next 3 races. this left it all up to the last race against the "Knights" seeded 4th, all day they had been running at around the same times as us so we knew going into the ring this race was for 1st and 2nd place. we did our best but lost all but one race, on this occasion the Knights were too good for us, but I'm sure we'll meet them again in the future and hopefully we'll have more experience. Our dogs were brilliant, and they went home very happy with a 2nd place rosette and an extra helping of dinner.

Saturday 19th July

This morning Amy and I took the dogs to the training paddock for an exercise and a game, in between showers we even managed some obedience training! Tomorrow we have another flyball competition with our friends the Mali's at the Chilterns Show near Bicester our dogs seem to be in tip top condition at the moment and hopefully we can continue to improve on last weeks score,more pictures and comments tomorrow night, hopefully with some good news.

Agility Training

We took Maisy to agility training last night - when we got there she was so excited it took 4 attempts to get her to concentrate enough so I had even a little control!! after which she worked quite nicely and her weaves are at last starting to come together.. you never know a clear round might one day be a possibility!!

She is very fast and I find it very difficult to get my directional comands out in time, or I panic and give them too soon so she makes a turn before the jump instead of after!! I'm very lucky to have an understanding trainer in Clare, she is very patient with us and always has some good advice - I guess i just need to listen (a bit like Maisy)

Fawsley Hall

We're just letting the dogs have a lazy day today after yesterdays competition, so I decided to meet up with my sister Sara for a walk with Summer and her dog Smartie who just happens to be Summers Brother (Darian Wheels on Fire) - actually Smartie belongs to Alice my neice but she was busy doing other things..we like to meet at Fawsley Hall as it's halfway between our homes and the dogs always have a really fun time. Today there were lots of sheep around but neither Smartie nor Summer took any notice as they were far too busy playing games having who can eat the most sheep poo competitions!! I think Summer won.... after a lovely walk they had a nice cold drink out of Smarties pink bowl..he definitely has gender issues as you can see from his pink harness.

Rotherham Flyball Comp

We've just got back into the house after a VERY long day. we set of at 6am this morning and after a 2hour drive arrived at the Rotherham venue. even though Ronny and Maisy are seasoned flyball dogs, Dylan and Keisha are onlyjust beginning and today was the first time we had competed with the four dogs together.
In the first set of races Dylan and Keisha really suprised us and we had a perfect score winning 3 out of 3 races and a new time of 20.57. In the next set of races it all went to pot and the greeness of the dogs showed through, it was a set back and we lost that set of races. we then broke for lunch and took the time to evaluate the dogs and decided we just needed to give them a bit more space to build on their confidence.
This tac tic seemed to work and our fabulous dogs went on to work their socks off and won the remaining 3 races with a new fastest time of 20.38.
I must add that we had the services of a brilliant new boxloader -Sheila, and a very special ball girl and video technician Tully, without who's help we would not have achieved such a brilliant place - we were joint 1st with 2 other teams, in that situation it goes down to fastes overall time, we came 2nd overall!! what a fantastic day with great dogs and great company.

Bad Weather

What a horrible day - even the collies don't want to go out! obedience and flyball training have been cancelled tonight so we'll have to think of something else to stimulate them. Luckily we had a flyball training session last night with our friends the Mali's - we have a competition in Rotherham on Saturday, it will mean an early start but it promises to be a good day. We run in the Brickyard Bandits flyball team so we'll keep you posted on how we do. Maisy was in the Leamington Royals team with Ronny (Mali) until recently, their fastest time was 19.04 seconds, one day the Bandits hope to beat that.. so wish us luck.