Doncaster Flyball Tournament & Wyre Agility

Wyre

I’m not sure I want to talk about Wyre! We had a nice day but for the first two runs I just didn’t get my head sorted. The courses were fair but erred on the easier side and we missed a weave entry on one (bit of a shock, we haven’t done that for years!) and then got E’d on the other, but I could see it coming when I walked the course. The final run is going to be one of those that haunts me for months; Lee Gibson set a tricky course for the Agility Club Starters Challenge, and after I walked it I came out feeling a bit worried about certain bits, so I had a chat with B about it. She suggested I try layering one of the jumps, which I hadn’t even thought of and I’d never tried before, particularly because it was into a tunnel and Kim isn’t a big tunnel fan. Anyway, collected Kim and queued, and I was actually feeling pretty excited about it, for the first time all day! There was a horrible moment at the start when Kim stood up from her wait, but I decided just to go for it and see how far we could go.

Kim was absolutely paw-perfect, fast and responsive and I couldn’t have asked for more from her. B’s layering suggestion worked perfectly, and we had no problems with any of the other pull-throughs and weave exit. The see-saw was a bit slow but it was right next to the ring barrier, and it was the fast Grade 6/7 dogs in the other ring so her attention slipped slightly, but no real complaints. I was ultra cautious with her dogwalk contact and she hit it perfectly, but my caution cost us everything – I turned sideways to make sure she hit it, and as I swung around for the final jump, Kim thought we were turning and took13 again. Heartbroken! It’s so rare for me to get such a switched-on run from Kim, and I know we would have wiped the floor and come home with not only a 1st, but a place in the Agility Club Starters Challenge Final, which would have been amazing. I was so thrilled that she’d been so good, but so annoyed with myself!

Doncaster

Doncaster was a seriously surprising day! We had all three dogs plus Jet (K was due to meet us there from Liverpool, having cadged a lift with a friend from Cheshire Set!) and although Kim wasn’t running, she was down on the Barking Owlers team sheet in case of emergency. After I’d wandered up to the main hall (and the famous turf lanes), Julie rushed over to ask whether I’d put Dylan (or Kim) into a scratch NFC (Not For Competition) team, as one of the other teams had dropped out of Division 5. Julie is our trainer and despite a few misgivings (this is Dylan, after all!) I said ok.

All the other dogs in our little NFC team were tiny 8″ dogs, so Dylan looked like a giant! I volunteered to run first on the principal that I had less to worry about with changeovers, our current weak point. Dylan was an absolute star though – he ran his socks off, and only ran out once on the way back when he fumbled the ball and then lost sight of me, which lead to momentary panic. I am so proud of him!

The only negative was that our team were using a narrow Canadian box rather than our Owlers boomerang-style, so Dylan had some issues with his box but Julie, Jo, and Jane all stood in to help for him. Jane is now talking about putting him at Sheffield with one of the teams, which is equally terrifying and exciting! We’ll see how his boxwork goes over the next couple of weeks, and try and get some “real” changeovers in to see if he copes ok.

The rest of the guys had an ok day – some fantastic racing but not quite enough wins, with Barking coming last in Div 2, Barney’s 4th in Div 1 and Nights (the team I boxload for) pulling out all the stops for 3rd in Div 4 with a tough seed time.