Derbyshire Agility Show

Wow what a difference in the weather, the temperatures were up at 30 degrees and you could definitely tell, the fact that we were all eating ice creams slightly gave the game away.

Anyway a mixed weekend really, we either had some rounds that the dogs didn't go clear or some fantastic rounds when the dogs placed really high.

We had nothing from Ronny on the saturday, I think he was suffering from the dramatic change in the weather, he seemed to be running his normal fast self but not really wanting to listen, which is really unlike Ronny nowadays.

Keisha only managed the one clear but what a fantastic run it was. G3-5 agility, 9th place, her first ever top ten place at a KC Show. She is looking so much better and starting to run very smooth, her speed is picking up and she has hit her weave entries everytime.

Today Ronny ran a great G1-7 jumping class, ran it perfect with no faults whatsoever, he finished 5th place with the top five dogs only being separated by 2 tenths of a second. It just go's to show that when he is in form he can match any collie who competes in the top grades. COME ON THE BELGIANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then to finish the weekend Keisha added another great agility run in the Olympia qualifier to finish in 16th place, another fantastic performance and it was nice when we collected our rosette and the judge said "That's a Bonvivant dog from Jan, isn't it" We are starting to be recognised in the agility world as being proper contenders now!

Happy Birthday Ronny

Today we were in Buckinghamshire at the Chilterns Flyball show. We were seeded 3rd in our division which was the highest of the day.

Today is also Ronny's 4th birthday so as a team we wanted it to be a successful day.

Our main aim today was to get the dogs down and to try and beat our best time of 20.48 as set last week.

So ........

Our first race up and we flew, our second leg we beat the 20 second barrier and recorded our fastest time of 19.97.

Brilliant we were all really pleased with that time, the second ever time we have raced together as a team and with still more adjustments to be made we are looking like we could be a very fast team.



We then went on to win the 2nd, 3rd and 4th race with very consistent times varying from 20.00 to 20.20



That was it, again it went to the last race of the day to see who was going to win, we were against the fastest team of the day so it was not going to be easy. Sadly it was just to hard for us on this occasion, loosing the race 3-1, our dogs were all exhausted and although they ran 20.01 we just couldn't clinch the race.

Second place with a new fastest time of 19.97 and consistently beating our old best time today we couldn't ask for anymore from them.

Well done doggies you were great.

EMDAC Agility Show

Three days at agility with our mob and we had a fantastic time.

Keisha started us off on the first day with a brilliant run in her jumping to gain a 4th place. She then went on to win an 11th and a 12th in her jumping classes on the second day with Ronny also running a lovely round in his jumping to place 4th.

Today was our last day there and we were joined by Nige's son, Luke. We had a fun packed day with Ronny being entered in Dash and Splash and the frisbee retrieve with Luke.

Luke managed 4th place with Ronny today in Dash and Splash, it was a great run, have a look at the clips below.




In his frisbee challenge they came 5th, unfortunately it was very windy so the frisbee contest was incredibly hard, his best throw was the second one, have a look how the wind takes the frisbee out of the arena.



Well done Luke, you both did very well.

Dash and Splash will be at Paws in the Park show on 13-14th Sep, if your dog loves water then it's a brillaint thing to do.

Ronny then went on to get 3rd place in his agility today, it was a brilliant run and I was so pleased with the way he was listening to me. Keisha then matched Ronny with a 3rd place in her jumping round, she was proper good and her turns are getting really tight, today was the day Keisha did her first right hand weaves without any faults, brilliant!

Then to top off the day we entered the pay on the day class which involved two handlers with one dog, the first handler did the first 10 obstacles and then the second handler did the last 10. Nige and Luke ran Ronny, Nige managed to get them eliminated at the 6th jump, Luke took over and ended up getting him around clear.

Nige and me then entered with Keisha, Nige ran the first part and handed her over to me with a clear, I then took over and also went clear, 4th place, brilliant!

So all in all a successful weekend.

This week is going to be a good break from work. We leave tomorrow morning to go to the summer EMDAC agility show which starts tomorrow night, it's not a winning out show but it is a great show, it has the added extras such as Dash and Splash, water retrieve, frisbee competition and clever dogs. We are going to stay until Saturday and then come home as we are racing in Buckinghamshire on Sunday with our flyball team.
The dogs have been on good rest this week and looked in tip top form tonight at agility training. Baby Kody even managed to put a small sequence of obstacles together which looked great!

Rugby Agility

After an exciting day yesterday it was always going to be a hard job to beat it.

The dogs looked ready for action, Ronny started us off in his jumping class but unfortunately got 5 faults as he came out his last weave pole. Keisha did the same class and managed a good clear.

Keisha went on to do a brilliant agility round but sadly knocked the last pole down. Ronny was obviously watching and he had the same issue in his jumping round, a little frustrating as he would have placed second.

Although we only managed one clear round today I was really pleased with the dogs, even after a hard days racing yesterday they were still in good form and roaring to go.

Rotherham Flyball

So today was the day our new team made their debut in the flyball world.
The team running order after a few tweaks here and there consisted of:

1st leg: Ronny handled by Nige
2nd leg: Maisy handled by Amy
3rd leg: Keisha handled by Jo
4th Leg: Dylan handled by Emma

Box Loader: My mum Sheila
Ball collector: Tully Kearney

We were seeded last in our division so I guess there were no great expectations. So here's how the story goes.............

We won our first race with a fantastic time, beating our seed time of 20.74 and reducing it to 20.58. The dogs looked on good form and we were in for a good day's racing.
Our 2nd race didn't go so well, unfortunately we didn't win this race so we had a few tweaking issues to sort out. Fortunately that was all our races for the first half of the day, so we could discuss over lunch our new game plan.



So out we came and ran a fantastic race, beating our opposition and yet again beating our new time to come in at 20.48. The dogs maintained their form and then went onto win the 4th and fifth race's with fantastic runs.

We checked the board to see where we had come, there were three of us all tied for joint first, to decide the placings it goes on the quickest time each team ran during the day, unfortunately we didn't get the quickest time, but we did get the second quickest time.



Fantastic, what a great start for our new team, 2nd place with a new faster time, who could ask anymore from them.

Of course our baby Brickyard Bandits to be, needed entertaining, what better than to do it themselves!



Thanks to Tully Kearney for filming the doggies today.

So as we have the typical British weather agility training is not on tonight, the dogs love the rain so we decided to take them out for a long walk. Frisbee and swimming were the highlight of today's walk.

The weather looks like its is here to stay for the weekend, I don't think it will bother our dogs too much, after all they tend to run their best in bad weather!!!!!

Kody was not feeling too well last night, not his usual bouncy self, he didn't want to play with Keisha which is really unusual and he didn't want his dinner either!!!!!
He has adopted a small cough, almost as if he had a hair ball stuck down his throat.
He looked a bit better this morning and was out in the garden playing with Keisha, still, I decided to take him to the vets as he was still coughing on occasions.
£72 later and he was diagnosed with a throat infection and has been put on 10 days of anti-biotics and pain killers.
At least he is on the mend now, I've given him his first anti-biotic and his pain killers went in his breakfast that he just gobbled up. I'm sure he will be back to normal very soon.

This weekend we are competing in both flyball and agility.
Saturday we are going to Rotherham to compete in flyball with our new team 'Brickyard Bandits', it will be the first time Ronny and Keisha will run together, hopefully we will be able to video it so we can put a clip on the blog. We are seeded 5th out of 6th place in our division so its not going to be the easiest.
Sunday we are then off to Rugby for agility, it's a local show so at least we haven't got to travel too far. Lets hope the weather will be good for us!

Tuffley Agility Show

With the dogs being in such good form at the moment I was hoping this weekend would be a success, Ronny didn't win out but he managed a good run in his jumping class leaving him lying joint 5th with another dog at the end of the class, a run off was to decide the placing of 5th and 6th. Ronny managed a faster time than the other dog but unfortunately he had two poles down and the other dog went clear which left us finishing 6th.
Keisha had a good weekend, she had a nice clear in her agility on the saturday and she finished 19th in her jumping today, she wasn't running as fast as she has been, but I think that's because the weather was so poor and she was being careful.
So all in all a good weekend, shame about the weather !