Sing is on fire?

I like this picture of Sing so very much! It was taken on Sunday at Prestbury Park.

Colin had a day off last Friday so we can take time to travel to Prestbury Park. We have never been to Cirencester Park before but had heard a lot of good things about this park, so Colin determined to get there early on Friday so we can have a good long walk with the dogs. I think Colin went a little crazy, instead of taking our time, he woke me up at 5am (YES! 5 o'clock in the morning!) to say "let's go now!". I think his job drives him crazy and he always get so stress, so when he has a day off, he normally is crazy and driving me mad!!

We got to Cirencester Park at 10:30am after a long break at M4. Obviously it was too early and the show organiser was not too impress with us arriving at that time. The ground was wet after they have a few days of rain and they are hoping all the campers will arrive after 3pm to let the ground dry up a little bit and thank God we were there early, as we got stuck when I drove to our pitch. I purposely chosen a pitch further in so if Sizzle jumps off the fence, it will not directly near the road. I wish I will take the risk to camp near the road and close to the rings. The car was absolutely stuck in the thick mud and wouldn't move, luckily the members were very friendly and helpful, the nice lady Mary moved us to our pitch for the weekend.

Since we got there early, we helped them setting up the seven rings, which was good fun eventhough I felt so tired and achy afterwards!! We managed to take the dogs for a long walk in the Park in the afternoon, we all came back to the caravan looking miserable and horribly muddy! Yes, the rain started around 3pm and places were like swamp and bog, I cannot describled our "garden" and the carvan and all the dogs defintely needs a good clean up after this weekend.

Both Saturday and Sunday had a mixture of sunshine, fog and shower, the rings weren't too bad but the camping areas weren't very impress. Luckily the people at the show were very friendly and cheery. I was very tense and stress due to the mud and worrying the car and caravan sinking ...

Sing was a good boy the whole weekend. I have been trying to work hard in pushing him to go faster lately and I am still working on that, I still make silly pilot errors especially in Marie's Jumping class. It was a very nice flowing course but I pushed him too fast and I was behind him and won't be able to direct him and that got him eliminated! Hopefully we will be better next season. Sing won the Grade 4 Agility on Saturday afternoon which surprised me a lot! He also won the Combined 1-4 Agility on Sunday, that gave me a "heart attack". I have never dream of him winning so many first places in a grade, especially 2 first places in one weekend, that was just fanstastic! And, this also gives me confidence at Grade 5!

They also have Flyball "competition" on Saturday evening. Prestbury Park DTC have their own flyball teams and I thought it would be good to reward Sing to have a go at the flyball since he won the agility. I have never thought of asking what flyball box they are using, so I was very keen, can't wait to let Sing enjoys his flyball.

The Flyball started at 6pm, some people gather around the ring side, not a lot, especially those that hate noises, they will try to stay away from Flyball as far as possible. When I look at the box, I thought I made a big mistake as Sing has never train on the Crufts Flyball Box before and they are so different to the BFA (British Flyball Association) type, that got me worried, I don't want him to injured himself on that box if he did something wrong but the people told me just go for fun and they will throw the ball to him if he does not know how to trigger the box.

this is the BFA box that Sing used to train with, it is called the American Flat Fronted Box.

If you look at the first flyball video, Sing actually "accidentally" trigger the box and he was surprised where the ball came from. Also, Sing used to be the "height" dog when we were running with Ball Buster Flyball Club. He jump 10", so he can do his "bunny" jump which he just bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce ... but at this fun game, the jumps were about 12"-14" (I guess) and the first round, Sing probably miss judging the jump and tried to do his bounce, he hit the 2nd jump and fell over but he is a good dog, that didn't freak him, he continue to bounce towards the box.

In the second round, his cheeky self made everyone laugh, he is so intelligent to know where the ball is and instead of trying to trigger the box, he jump over the cushion and fetch the ball, you can see the two box loaders were laughing and all the audience were laughing too!

The last two were actually "competition" runs. We (Sing with a terrier and two collies) of course can't beat the Prestbury Park Team but I was very happy that Sing enjoyed himself and I have promised him that once he goes Grade 5, I will take him back to Flyball.

As for Saturn, I did a couple of runs with him and his best one was the Sunday Graded 1-4 Jumping, not because he came 2nd but he actually run with his happy self.

Again, I haven't got time for Sizzle this weekend but I took him out a couple of time to the rings watching the world goes by. He is still shy with people handling him. I took him to visit a treat stall where the lady owner has been very kind to offer sausage to him and made him feel relax at the end. Colin was holding him while Sing and I did flyball. Colin said he was so excited and winding watching us, maybe I can have a go with him at the flyball?

I can't wait to go back next year, eventhough it was wet and muddy but the Prestbury Park members made you feel so welcome!