a very good and successful weekend!

I had a fantastic weekend with Sizzle, Sing and Saturn.

Saturday was Sizzle's first competition ever, Flyball Starters at Billericay. Luckily we didn't need an early start, so we can lie-in for a little while. We left home about 7:40 for 10:00 start. We aim to get there at 9:30 but somehow my Tom Tom took me over Central London and we got caught at Jade Goody's funeral and some roadworks. That gave me frustration and stressed for being late! We got there just before 9:30 but still I was unhappy. I like to have plenty of time to settle myself and the dogs down before racing.

I cannot believe Sizzle and I are competing eventhough it is just a Starters, just imagine how young Sizzle is, I am very proud of him. He was a little star. There were 5 teams in the divison including us, so we have to race the other four teams. We have 5 dogs in the Team, Tommy, Carpet, Sizzle, Dexter and Harriet. Tommy, Carpet and Sizzle ran most legs and Dexter and Harriet were taking turn. I was so worried that Sizzle will not pay me full attention as they were too many things going at the big environment, he got very sniffy but when we started racing, he was very focus. He has not make a single mistake, all clear runs and he has a very nice speed too. For a baby dog, I am more than happy.

There are so many young flyball dogs out there and some of them are really good. Unfortunately, there were also some unfriendly dogs. While we were standing by outside the ring to get ready while the other two teams were still racing, suddenly we had a black labrador charging towards us after the box, he jumped over the fence to attack Sampson, a spaniel that is in our other team. I was very sad and unhappy how the people handle the situation. If this were to happen in the agility world, that dog would have to be removed from the show immediately but the flyball people let him carry on running. Then, later this black lab attacked another dog again in the ring, and yet again, he was allowed to stay!

I was stressed and very unhappy about it. I told myself if Sizzle is running and the black lab is there, I will pull ourselves out, it is not worth risking a young dog, especially a little dog like him. I am not over protecting him but he is so fine bone, any damage will kill him.

anyway, here is a little video, I only uploaded two runs:

We got home from Flyball around 6:30 and it was still daylight, so we got to play with the other dogs in the garden. We then tried to have an early night for an early start for Sunday but as you guess, we never do as planned! We didn't get to bed til 11:00. We woke up at 5:00 and get ready to go to the long waiting Sheltie Agility Show.

I love Sheltie Agility Show, this is my 4th year there and I enjoyed it more than ever! We got there around 7:30, helping them setting up the rings. To my surprised, there were so many other sheltie people there already, so it didn't take us long to set up two rings.

Both Sing and Saturn ran beautifully, I am very pleased with their performances. The jumps were slightly higher, there were the old type but nobody cares, the shelties just want to have fun. I know Sing was struggled as he is so small for a medium but he didn't go under any jump or missed any. He was a good boy. He went clear in 4 out of 5 classes. In the Combined 3-5 Agility, he was very close behind Todd that won the class, Todd was 24.0xx seconds and Sing was 24.204. I am very proud of him. He got 4th in the Combined 3-5 Jumping and 4th in the Combined 1-7 Connections. He also went clear in the pairs with Brian & Barney but Barney got eliminated. The only class we got eliminated was the Combined 5-7 Jumping. My body language sending him to take a jump instead of the tunnel I want him to go in, so this is a pilot error! Sing also won the Best Medium Novice Dog so we were awarded a lovely trophy! Sing won the Best Starter Dog two years ago!

Sing and his Best Novice Trophy

Saturn was a very good boy, he was very keen and work really hard for me. He has 3 out of 5 clear rounds. He was also very close behind Lucky (OBay Truly Lucky) in the Combined 3-5 Jumping, there were both 24 seconds, the difference is also by 100th of a seconds. He won the Combined 1-4 Jumping. He also ran clear in the pairs with Brian & Seamas where Seamas also got eliminated. He had 5 faults on the DW in the Combined 3-5 Agility and got himself eliminated in the Combined 1-7 Helter Skelter. He loves the tunnel so much that he went in twice!!

I also ran Titan and Skye to pair with Linda and Amanda. Titan is always naughty, this is why I never run him in the open KC shows. He loves people so much, he needs to go and say hello to everyone. I managed to get him to weave but I lost him before the tunnel, he ran over to the ring party to say hello but I did get him back, so we lost a bit of time there but clear. Linda and Leo put in another clear round so we came 5th in this pair!

Sing & Saturn with their winning

Sing also won the Grade 4 Dog Sheltie Agility League

Saturn won the Grade 3 Dog Sheltie Agility League

Saturn also came 3rd in the Overall Sheltie Agility League

Skye was pairing with Amanda & Kodak but Skye was so naughty, he didn't finish his weave in the first time so I swing him around to redo the weave, again he cannot complete the weave, after another attempt, he gave up and ran out of the ring!! Sorry Amanda, I promised no more Skye next year!!

This year, we haven't have the Circular Knockout. It is always the hightlight of the show, this class always ran last so everyone will sit by the ringside cheering. Hopefully they will bring this back next year.

here is the collection of videos:

sorry, you might need to turn your volume down if you do not want anymore shelties barking!