Merlin's Magicians Newsletter
NEWSLETTER APRIL 2012.
Goodness don’t the months fly by? Seems only last week I was doing the Last newsletter.
April has been a very busy month, we have settled into our new venue for Flyball, both sheds are in situ and, Karen (owner of venue) very kindly transported the Agility equipment there too so, we are ‘good to go’ as advertised, ‘Flyball and Fun Agility’.
The new boxes are, a success, we need to do box training work every week now to make it worth the money spent on them. They are a bit heavy and the very small dogs have difficulty firing them, with that in mind we are keeping the Single hole boomerang box to start new and small dogs on. If/When they are ready to run in a team we will have to adjust one of the new boxes for the lighter weights.
New dog Basil with his young owner Maddie is doing very well, and Georgina has recruited a young man, Ben, to help run her dogs and learn box loading, we have Megan doing an excellent job of running Billie, and box loading. Isn’t it nice to see these young people getting involved?
We continue to get requests for displays but unfortunately are having to turn most down as we have a pretty full calendar. Dave, with Ali’s help, has the promotional event at Merlin’s Walk Carmarthen sorted for 12th May, Debs has made a video of our dogs enjoying Flyball and relaxing, put it to music and burned it to a disc (clever girl) this will be showing on a television whilst we take it in turns to man the position, hand out flyers and, tell people about our sport, in hopes that some may want to ‘give it a go’.
The following weekend we will be doing a display at the St Clears Show at the Carmarthen Show Ground and then 26th – 27th May we are taking a team to compete at a BFA tournament held in Englefield, Berkshire, they are not doing ‘Starters’ so a couple of our dogs are being thrown in at the deep end – division!
Entries have also been submitted for Ryecroft, 2nd – 3rd June, the division team and a starter team, I didn’t put in a Multibreed team as I am still unsure as to who is able to ‘make it’. Shift work is an awful nuisance isn’t it?
I must say here that I am finding it extremely difficult doing these entries at the moment, not being sure who can and who can’t make dates means I can only risk entering one division team, this, in turn, if all can get to go, means too many dogs, when this happens sorry, but the more inexperienced dogs will Have to step back into ‘Starters’. If we enter a ‘Starters’ and don’t have enough dogs we can borrow, from other teams, but too few for two division teams would mean us loosing the entry fee for one team.
A second, weekday evening Flyball session is being considered for the summer months, this is to help the shift workers in hopes that they can attend one if not the other, and also so that when we are away weekends, competing or displaying we will still have our weekly ‘fix’!!
Personal note here, at last the council have started on my fence, Whoopee! For months now I have been driven mad by constant barking, with only a wire fence between them and the road, not to mention the newly installed footpath, (which needs speed bumps as it is used almost exclusively by children on bicycles Arrrrrgh!!) my dogs have been well entertained. I am doing my Queen Victoria impression and am ‘Not amused’
I have been taking Thistle and Charlie Brown up to Beulah for some Flyball (don’t get much of a chance to run them at Carmarthen) they are doing OK. A super little dog called Buster has joined there, he is a pug cross, looks like a small black Lab with a curly Pug tail! Buster has picked up Flyball very well in only a few weeks and will be joining us for the St Clears Display.
We had a very welcome donation to our funds of over £100 from one of the Reps that deals with the Veterinary Practice Brenda works for, our account is healthy but........I have to pay for entries and camping in advance so we need to keep it at a certain level.
June