WOW! What a weekend.

We have no luck for a relaxing weekend. To start with, I have not enter any dog shows, thinking we could spend a stress free weekend with the dogs then do some gardening and maybe spring clean the house before my mum arrives. I did tell Ray Sing is available if the Team needs us. Later I found out from the Wimbledon Whizzers website that Ray has Sing's name down for Sunday. As I have contact problem with Saturn last weekend (he ran passed the A Frame and see-saw a few times), I thought it would be good to do some UKA shows with him to get his confidence back.

So, we woke up early on Saturday to drive to Patenden in Dial Post. I know the Novice is not the first class but I like to go early to switch myself into agility mood and also I need to enter on the day, so early is better. We did get there very early, so the boys have a good walk around with Colin while I went to sort the paperworks out.

I have entered three classes each for Sing and Saturn, Jumping, Agility and Steeplechase. I was tempted to do Snooker but I think it is too complicated for me, so I chicken out. I want a stress free weekend so I do not want to get worried about how to do the snooker.

The show started a bit later than it scheduled, so I have plenty of time sitting around watching other dogs run and catching up with friends that I haven't seen since last year. The Jumping ring was quite exciting, the judge set up some very challenging jumping courses. The first one was the Championship Jumping, all I saw was either a push through or a pull through. Not many dogs got clear in that but some runs were just smashing, I love watching those top handlers handle their dogs. They made it look so easy, I bet if I was in there, I will get eliminated after the second jump!

Our first run was Novice Jumping. I was hoping the judge will set up a challenging course but it wasn't hard to handle. I need to watch two bits, both have the "invitation" jump in front of it, so I need to call the dog at the right time for him to turn where I want him to turn. Saturn did the #11 jump beautifully. It was a straightline after the cloth tunnel, so he was coming up in a speed, thank God I did called him much earlier, so he was tight when he turned and he didn't even look at the finishing jump in front of him. Then, at jump #15, I would like him to turn tighter but I just can't as from jump #14 to jump #15, the angle wasn't good and I do not want to risk it just in case he miss the jump, so I sent him out to take the jump then call him back to the weave. Sing was a good boy too, he jump very similar to Saturn but 4 seconds behind him. I am trying to achieve with him this weekend is the weave. He kept pulling out from the 10th pole last weekend, so my target is WEAVE for Sing. He was good and he finished all his weave clean.

Then, we have a very long wait before the Agility. Sing was the only clear round! He still got his running contacts which is great and he got his weave too. I know it was a bit slow but that is fine by me. What can I say about Saturn? I know I am using that as a training round but I do not want to show him I have the toy on the start line as I do not want him to learn the pattern that when he sees the toy, he knows is training as we cannot have toy/food when we run at the KC show. I quite like the beginning; jump, tunnel, A Frame. I thought that will give him enough speed to go up the A Frame but how wrong was I? I tried to hang back, so I was behind him when he goes into the tunnel, then pick him up from tunnel up to the A Frame, what did he do? Ran passed the A Frame! I swing him around to do the A Frame again and he ran passed it again! Arrrggghhhh ... at the end I took the toy out from my pocket and show it to him. Guess what? Straight up and down, no problem, not even missing the contact point eventhough he release himself before I say OK. Then, we carried on running until he saw the see-saw. He ran passed it the first time but when I used a firm voice, he went up there but leap off, so I took him back to do another, again he leap off, so do another but I did a front cross and he stayed on the see-saw, I priased him like a mad woman! We carried on running and guess what? He did a superb 2o/2o on the DW. That really made my day! Well, I guess one out of three contacts is not too bad to start with.

I met Jo at the show and got chatted up. We heard the annoucment that they are doing the pairs at 2pm and the Final is on Sunday. I know I cannot do Sunday as Sing will be flyballing but I did ask Jo if she fancy a bit of a fun running the pairs and she said yes so we booked in to run two pairs. Sing & Erik and Saturn & Chester. Leslie Osbourne was the judge and he set up a very nice flowing fast course. I was a bit worry about the weave entry for Saturn as he has longer stride and I have a feeling he will go into the 2nd pole. The weave was set very close to the jump, it is good for smaller dog. I know I need to work on that.

Sing & Erik pair was up first. Sing was fast, I guess he likes the jump being low (this is a toy/midi pairs; Sing is Midi and Erik is Toy), unfortunately he got slipped on the last weave pole and need to pick up his speed again after a couple of jumps but he did alright. Erik is a very young sheltie and he is still learning, he missed the weave entry but he was good and he got that the 2nd attempt. Saturn & Chester pair was last to go. Saturn is a good jumper, as long as there is no contacts, I shouldn't have any problem with him. He seems to know what he is doing, I did tell him to weave when he comes out from the tunnel and he was a good boy and I can see he is aiming on the weave but he looked confused after the 6th pole. Well, I guess we never do 6th pole, so he probably question me is that it? You can see his face looks so funny in that video. Chester is a very fast sheltie and I like the way he weaves too. Between Saturn & Chester, they finished the course in 40 seconds. Sing & Erik pair was about 53 seconds, if Erik went clear, this pair will come 2nd. There were only 3 double clear rounds, so Sing & Erik came 4th. Our two teams got qualified for the Final but I can't make it so the other two teams have our places to run. It was really good fun and I really enjoying the extra runs.

To finish the day, we have Steeplechase. I have been watching the Championship Steeplechase and Senior Steeplechase, I wonder what will I get for the Novice Steeplechase. The judge again, set up some very tricky courses. There were two pipe tunnels facing each other, I thought Saturn will come out from this tunnel straight into the next as he is a tunnel vision dog but I was so glad he LISTEN to me all the time and he was the only dog that went clear in the Novice Steeplechase. Sing got eliminated as he missed the first tunnel. It was so funny as technically he is a good reliable dog, he shouldn't have miss the first tunnel. Sorry no video for the Steeplechase as their daddy was on the phone to his "girl" friend! Arrrgggghhhh ....

here are some runs from Saturday:

Now, move on to the exciting Flyball Tournament on Sunday. We woke up very early again, it was a long drive for us to go to Godmanchester, about two hours through Central London. Well, it was the marathon day, so most part of Central London was close for the big event. We need to go through it very early to avoid the road closesure.

Cambridgeshire Flyball Team was holding the tournament, it was held at the Wood Green Animal Shelter. The ground was fantastic to race. The running order was Div 6, 5 and 4. The Whizzers is in Division 5 but we were ring party on Division 6. I was watching and learning in the morning but helping in the afternoon. It was good fun but I know I need to concentrate with my job eventhough I was so exciting watching the dogs whizzing around.

We have got 6 dogs in The Whizzers but little Buddy is not competing, so we have 5 dogs to swap if needed. We have 5 races, 3 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Sing did most of the legs but we have pulled him out for a couple of the legs in the morning for a rest to save up his energy to run in the afternoon. What can I say? The Whizzers is the WHIZZERS! All the dogs are just superb, they ran wonderfully, we have almost all the clean runs other than when we swapped between Sing and Wellie. Karen was running Maddie and Wellie, so it is definitely not easy but she handled it beautifully.

The result ... this is so excited! There were 6 teams in our Divison, after the Run Around Robin, 5 teams were to tie for 1st place but The Wimbledon Whizzers has the fastest time, so we WON the division! HooRay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

here are some runs from the Flyball: