Sheffield Flyball

Today was Kody's debue at his first open flyball competition The morning didn't get off to a good start, we never had a warm up run and went straight into racing. It was hosted inside a sports hall today and it was the loudest venue I have ever heard. At first we couldn't get Kody to concentrate and look down the lane towards the box, when he did he ran quite well. Our regular team looked a bit rusty and really we weren't running our best, Ronny even dropped the ball on a couple of occasions. I must admit I did feel stressed this morning, having three of my own dogs in the ring was very hard work, especially as they are all manic. I think all of us were glad when the morning session had finished.

Over lunch we talked about our team tactics and decided I would run Kody as he really needed the extra help and dad would race with Ronny. I'm pleased to say it went to plan and Kody ran fantastically well for the rest of the day. On reflection both Smartie and Kody had a really successful day and it looks great for the future.

Pudsey and Zippy had a great day out, they played for hours together and we even managed to fit a nice long walk in. Zippy was absolutely fascinated by the dogs racing and I can feel another Ronny in the making !!!

Tomorrow we are off to Newark showground for agility, Jan, Lisa and Chris will be coming down and bringing Speedy, Ronny's son (Zippy's litter brother) and Richard and family are also coming along with Eva and Zippo (Zippy's litter sister and brother) I cant remember if Natalie is coming along so there is potential for Reno to be there too, I'm definitely taking my camera for that !!!

Anyway I'm off to bed, I will update my blog tomorrow with the news.

Flyball and agility

Zippy's new crate has arrived, it finally looks to big for him again, I cant believe how time fly's and how quickly they grow up.
Last weekend I decided to get the caravan out of storage, I've still got to wash it but everything looks in good order, I cant believe I will be using it in a few weeks at our first camping agility show, which means the agility season is about to kick off, yipee !!!

This weekend we are fully booked, we are off to Sheffield on saturday for flyball, fingers crossed everything goes to plan, dad will be running Kody and I am getting my boy back (Ronny). Thankfully we have now got six dogs in our team so we should have fresh legs for each race.
Sunday we are off to Nottingham for an agility comp, Ronny and Keisha will be competing and the other three will be going for a day out. I must dig out my agility shoes, hopefully there isn't too much dust on them.

The start of spring

Is spring about to start, how nice was it to see the sun out today, in fact according to the news we are going to have a whole week of it. Agility training went well today, Keisha was her usual easy self and we did master those right hand weaves too, Ronny had his thinking head on after the initial five mad minutes he always has, his contacts were brilliant today and his weaves are always reliably fast. After class I stayed behind and did half an hour with Kody, his contacts are looking really good and he even mastered the see-saw today, its all starting to come together, I wasn't going to bring Kody out until next year but he has picked it up so quick I think I'm going to run him and have a fun year, let him grow in confidence.

Keisha's passport arrived on friday, looks like we will be ready to try out for the Belgian Shepherd team to go to the world champs later in the year, well as long as I get my passport renewed, to busy trying to sort Keisha out I totally forgot about myself.

Ive just ordered Zippy a new bed, I cant believe how quickly he has grown, last night I put him to bed and noticed he could only just get in it, his ears were poking out the top and the look on his face was of a proper hard done by dog !! Lets hope it arrives quick.

Flyball and weave training

The worst thing about working
8-4 every week day is that when it comes to weekends your body still wants to be up by 5.30am, no chance of a lay in !!!
Anyway this top picture is of all the boys playing tug, keisha is sensible and just supervising them from a distance

I managed to get a stack load of training in today, we went to the local rugby club this morning and did some flyball training, Kody is looking great and he makes his debue next saturday in Sheffield and will be crossing with Ronny, i must say Kody is not at all bothered by Ronny running at him, if he can cross with the rocket coming at him at that speed then he will be able to cross with anyone.

Keisha and Pudsey had their flyball training together, Pudsey absolutely loved training with Keisha and made his first ever run on his own there and back over the jumps.

I took my weave poles this morning so after flyball training I managed to get some great training in with Keisha and Kody, I have finally cracked right hand weaves with Keisha so lets hope we will be able to pull it off in competition. Kody had his second go on them and he is really starting to get the hang of them now, I don't think it will be long until he can do them on his own.

Keisha's run


Kody's run

Just chilling

This week has been so busy at work in fact I have spent the whole day out of the office attending meetings, I'm dreading my in tray tomorrow morning. This week the dogs have had a relaxing few days lazying about at home. We attended obedience club last night and Zippy moved from puppy 1 straight up to puppy 3 class, we seemed to have bypassed puppy 2, still he is more than ready and definitely held his own against the older puppies.

Kody and Pudsey started their first silver class, last night involved the retrieve and both seemed to really enjoy it, I got Pudsey a pink dinosaur out of the toy box which he loved, Kody nicked it at one point and dad got all embarrassed that his big butch dog was playing with a pink toy (don’t worry dad I wont tell anyone).

I started my teaching again last night and I absolutely loved it, I've adopted the class training towards their bronze good citizen so at least all the requirements are still fresh in my head.

This weekend is one of rest, agility training on Sunday with Keisha and Ronny as long as the weather is good, I'm hoping to take Kody to the field and practice his weaves, especially as I've now got the guides.