we have joy, we have fun, we have season in the sun ...

We went to Godmanchester for the weekend, apart from agility, we had a good weekend camping with friends, catching up with each others and to learn more about my new friends.

The boys were not coping well with the heat wave, especially Saturn, he was as flat as a pancake in this heat!! He was a mummy's boy and he tried so hard to pleased me! I was glad that I pulled him out from some classes. Besides my shelties, I could see there are a lot of dogs out there running very slowly and everybody was suffering in the heat!

The funny thing this weekend was when I ran Skye in the agility class on Saturday, there was a long U tunnel, he decided he will lie down in the middle of the curve and that made all of us laugh!

I like Godmanchester show, first time there, I was very lucky to have my friends save me a camping spot, so we were not miles away from the rings. Colin finished work a bit early but we were stuck in the traffic for hours! We camp next to the leisure centre, so toilet and shower were just a few hundred yards away, so handy! The ground was flat, the best ground I've ever run in! The only downside is the dog exercise area, it was ok in the evening after the day parking is gone but first thing in the morning is dangerous!

We had a nice BBQ on Saturday evening, chilled out with good food and wines, the dogs have a good played. Marion's Tess & Mick (both BC) like Sing so much, they actually fell in love with him!! Oh, Debbie's blue merle collie Saffie likes Sing too!!

On Saturday afternoon, they set up a flyball demo just in front of our camping spot, aren't they cruel? Poor Sing was winding everytime a dog was flyballing!! The poor chap missed flyball so much!! We gave up flyball three years ago due to travel distance and the long term injury. Luckily, there was a pay on the day for people to tryout. You can pay £1 for 3 goes, hopefully paying £1 will stop him winding but I was sooooo wrong, he wanted flyball so much!! He spent whole evening crying his heart out!!! When we were flyballing, we used to train in the American type Flat Fronted box which is better for the dog with swimmer's turn and less injury. Unfortunately at the demo, they have the British Boomerang type and they also adjusted the trigger tighter for the bigger dog (BCs), poor lightweighted Sing was struggling to trigger the box for the first couple of time but he was enjoying himself, that's the main thing! Once Sing gets up to Grade 5 (hopefully 6?), I think I will retire him from agility and take him back flyballing again!! When he was competing, his fastest time was 5.20seconds, I think that is very fast for a little sheltie and at Godmanchester, his fastest time was 5.90seconds. I also gave Skye a go, for a first timer, I think he did brilliantly!!

We got home around 7:30 on Sunday and it was still light and sunny and we decided to visit those goslings (hey Paula, I got it right this time!), so Sing can have a swim to cool down. Unfortunatley we didn't see any of these little things, I wonder if they have moved or hiding, hopefully the foxes didn't have all of them!!

Sing had a good swim in the pond and I thought it was a good time to encourage Skye to have another swim. Again, I need to throw the ball and chuck him in the pond and after that, he did the swim on his on without any help, hooray!!! Colin was amazed!! For some strange reason, I started walking into the pond and call Saturn to me, guess what? Sing was out there retrieving the ball and I have Saturn and Skye swimming round and round me, that's probably the best thing I achieved so far!! Who say shelties can't swim?????? I must try to take some videos next weekend when Colin is around.

My shelties are not great in agility but I think they are multitalented, most of all, I like to see them enjoying themselves. I take every opportunity to encourage a new behaviour. Here are some awful agiltiy runs (as you can see in Saturn's H/S, he almost given up!) but gosh! it was hot, I think they tried very hard. Bless them!