Drax European Format

I did not really find this format confusing or tiring like everyone else apparently did. It was fun! Much better for the dogs as well, they had long breaks between racing and could therefore race fresh. It was baking hot so that was appreciated all round, I think.

Both our teams came out as bottom seed in the Speed Trials and then were straight out on Double Elimination. This was partly because our top team lead dog Norah came into season on Friday, so we had to substitute her with two third team dogs, Sasha and Mollie, who do not run well in heat or over 12″. They actually clocked some very respective 5.3-5.8s times each, but we pulled Mol out half way through as she was really struggling. She went to see the chiropractor as a result, was pronounced Very Broken, and is on rest for three weeks and will come back out in Starters at Dogs Unleashed, hopefully.

Dylan’s team … less said the better, I think. We have no height dog and 14″ is just too much for some of the dogs in the team, and a few others were suffering in the heat. Dylan actually ran well, although his box turn has suffered after no training for two weeks. He can cope with 14″ although I don’t like running him over it, and he didn’t seem too affected by the heat. No idea what the splits were as there was no display, but I don’t think he was much slower than at Swallownest. My changeovers were worse though, as Chippins had a minor strop which threw us all out a bit.

No flyball ’til Swallownest again now! I’m really looking forward to getting back to agility this weekend, and the first proper camping trip of the year.