Dog Vegas at Bakewell

Hot chocolate with cream and sprinkles, yummy coffee cake, hot air balloons, 6th in Agility, cold nights and perfect days, huge fish in the river, scenery on tap. Another good 'un!

Here's a nice balloon:

Wibble

This weekend was agility at Ribble - nice indoor venue and the closest show to home we've ever been to - only 48 minutes away! (I'm not a journey time nerd, just happened to notice we set off bang on 7am ... ) I love having an excuse to go that way as it's a nice drive over t'Tops. On the way there there was mist in the dips:

.............................. .. Near Wycoller

The show itself was good - small and friendly and the venue in a nice spot. But it was our first indoor show for ages and Maisie was not her usual self, spooked by the environment, and I clumsily misjudged a couple of bits with the courses being more squished together (really they should suit us better) so in both graded classes we got big fat E's!!! Oooops. She also went back a step in confidence over the contacts - getting "stuck" on top of the A-scale both times. She was quite zoomy overall though, and I learnt something when she popped out of the weaves and I put her back through, more relaxed as we were out of the running, and she sped up and did all 12 nicely and happily ... Managed a scrappy clear in the last class but it was 1-3 combined so no place (though not far off one, as it happened - maybe everyone else was having a bad day too?!) So it was a bit of a wibble in the season, but never mind coz it was fun :0)

........................Maisie and her entourage on the exercise field

.......The Boyz!! That Tim thing is turning into a right little beefcake ;o)

Then it was pretty again on the way home. (Pics near Stanbury)

Winning but not winning

Weekend before last we flyballed at Sutton Fields (Cheshire). Same team as the week before but we didn't have our height dog so had to run over full height jumps. So did we do well? Well, we didn't have much hope as our seed time was set with the height dog and we also lost the lovely Flynny as he doesn't do full height. Also, Billy has nearly always run with a height dog before, and when he hasn't he has run out - not that he's physically incapable of full height, and he does it fine in training, but at comps he sussed that he doesn't need to slow hinself down on his way to his precious bally by going over those big jumps, and the box loader is not allowed to nick it out anyway, so has run out up the side instead. He would go back down over the jumps though when the bally was safely in his gob, LOL! Soooo we didn't actually expect to get our four dogs up and down ... but we did!!! Billy never missed a beat all day and he ran so well, as did the rest of the team. However we didn't get into the rosettes :o( Why? Well, even with all the dogs running thier socks off, working well as a team, we were simply up against teams who were physically faster!!.. We did happen to be bottom seed in our division anyway, but this was also based on our faster times set with the height dog, so unless the other teams went into meltdown we just couldn't win. Hmmm, strange sport sometimes! In these circumstances there's kind of nothing to aim for - we couldn't have done any better. So we just had a nice day out with our dogs. Felt a bit flat though.
(Thanks to Iain for the pics)

..............................................What a good boy!

...................................Maisie just goes for the paddling :o)

Go Grasshoppers!

We should've been at High Peak show today but the weather cancelled it as the showground was flooded. Disappointing for us but must be even more so for the organisers who put so much effort into these things. Damn British weather! Actually I think we've been pretty lucky so far this year.

Yesterday Billy was flyballing anyway - at a nice venue (Norfolk Park) in Sheffield. Our team - Greeny Grasshoppers: Dancer, Flynny, Dylan, Billy Woof and Jess, ran really well together and we won our division!! First time we've had a 'first' - a few 'seconds' before but this time we did it :o) & we even got individual trophies as well as rosettes - presented in memory of a dog called Mist - don't know who Mist was but will find out, and I thought sponsoring the trophies was such a nice way to pay tribute to a departed doggy. The park was super and we had some fun walks through the day too.

-

At home last night some fireworks were going off in the distance. Billy and Maisie went straight into panic mode, but then something ace happened. Tim went to the door and woofed at the noise and then came back and started some distraction therapy. He chewed Maisie's ankles and prodded her till she gave in and actually played with him and forgot about the noise! & Billy was distracted too as he had to busy himself grumbling at the pups for playing (bless him) and everyone calmed down very quickly. I'm not sure whether this will work when the real firework season comes at full volume but I'm really hopeful that Tim might be a brave and calming influence?? He's also woofed at thunder. Very strange that a boy with such bat ears should be less noise phobic than the others ;o)

Viva Dog Vegas!

Tried to take a pic of Maisie with her pretty rosettes but she shoved her bum into the frame, leaving Tim to blunder in and pose winningly instead :o)

What a great weekend! Maisie had some really nice runs at Dog Vegas (Winterton) and brought home a lovely haul of rosettes - 3rd, 4th, 9th & 2 other clears - she's ever such a clever Mouse! We had a really nice variety of courses, some big gallopy round ones, and the more twisty-turny ones that Maisie does well on results-wise. Her weaves were sooo much better - think she did 12 correctly three times, not always very speedily but more focused than she was and I tried to give her a bit more space and trust she'd do them without me bugging her too much. And then once she popped out at number 11 but that was just because the judge happened to step towards her at that moment and she had a bit of a wibble. Contacts seem better than they were but still not great. I couldn't quite bring myself to just run her down them "sod it" style, but she didn't dither as much as she was doing and seems to be gradually gaining confidence. In one round (the one where she got 3rd) she really thundered up and across the dogwalk like a good 'un! She also got so speedy she surprised me into rear crosses twice!! And I surprised myself with an unplanned bionic sprint round the top end of a flat tunnel - thanks Brenda for planting the daft idea ;o)

It was super watching the Finals in the evenings - very exciting, especially watching our clever clubmates - Go White Rose! Also there was a divine Welsh Sheepdog called Cai who it was great to watch and later meet.

On Sunday Billy had his turn and flyballed at Drax. Had to leave early so don't actually know yet what place our team got but anyway he ran well and enthusiastically as ever. We had a new Starter team with us too and they did ever so well.

Tim had a nice time socialising and being fussed by humans and humped by male dogs - must get him a less pink lead?! ;o) He was sooo cute with one little dog we met - a tiny 15-year old Papillion, not in the best of health. I thought he might be too big and rough but the Pap's mum said she'd be fine and could stand up for herself, so I carefully let him meet her and he laid himself down flat with his chin on a paw, and then just nosed her very gently and she snuggled up to him. I wish I'd had a camera. So maybe he's not a complete oaf after all!

& elsewhere ... at 'Northern Week' Helen and Skip got that second, closely followed by a third, Jumping win, so it's bye-bye from grade one to them. Big congratulations you two, now go get grade two!!!!!