Catching up

Last weekend we were at Scunthorpe agility show just for one day - Maisie did some nice runs, including a good clear in G1 jumping even though it was late in a hot afternoon. I abandoned her contacts again in the agility - in trying to get her zoooming over - it worked and she missed them and then I felt a bit annoyed with myself as there were hardly any clears and she could've had a good place had I worked her steadily and 'safely' ....... ho hum. With hindsight it was the right thing to do - bigger picture and all that :o)

Oh, the week before that Billy flyballed on the Wirral. Good day, team came second. Unfortunately the low-flying planes really worried Maisie and that's taking some getting over.

This last Friday Billy ran at the British flyball champs near Daventry. The team didn't fare too well in their division (5th) but he was such a good lad and loved the frenzied atmosphere, and he got a lovely rosette for the wall anyway. Not sure who was most over-excited - the dogs or the flyballing humans ... I got thinking and felt proud of Billy's progress in the past year or so, from agility hooligan to competing well at national level, albeit in a different doggy sport.

Photo with kind permission of Sunnyside photography

Then we came home via Delinquent Dogz and Maisie had a couple of runs on Sat aft, then 3 on Sunday. She got 3rd in Jumping on Sat which was nice, and she ran beautifully in the flick-flack class - an 'open' class so no place, but pretty speedy for her. We like flick-flacks :0) Then another clear and good happy runs, plus more positive 'freestyle!' contacts on Sunday. She's such a little superstar.

Tim is coming along nicely and he makes me giggle. He had a poorly tummy a couple of weeks ago, but bounced back quickly and his daft big tail never stopped wagging even when he must've been feeling pretty rotten. Agility training is fun though challenging (for me probably more than him) and we're getting there ... He's a lot smarter than he sometimes seems ;o) The best thing is we've made some more strides in him not bogging off to say HELLO to other people/dogs when off lead. I can now take him on exercise fields at shows, with his cage ball on a tuggy, and feel relaxed that he's probably not going to harass anyone, unless he's extremely tempted e.g. by a ball and collie being thrown right in front of his nose LOL. He's also finally got the hang of retrieving said toy so that's a good way of burning up some of that gingery energy. He looks soooo angelic when he sleeps:
ZZZZZZZ

West Lakes for agility this weekend - looking forward to that one ...