Merlin's Magicians August 2009 Flyball & Agility Newsletter


Why do I open my big mouth? My son Liam was re-admitted to hospital and has undergone surgery for an aneurism of his small bowel!! All, it seems ongoing from the same infection that caused his heart problems! Now home once again, minus a length of intestine and, with an extra scar making a creditable full length zipper from top to bottom of his torso! Please, please let this be the grand finale!

Right, back to the dogs……………….
We now have Agility equipment at Ferryside, although it is a little the worse for wear from being stored for quite a while. We are having bits repaired, cleaned up etc. and have started ‘playing’ Sundays following Flyball, we will have to see how this goes, and maybe we will need to arrange a different time/day and Liz can take a session, we’ll see.

We were thinking of ‘doing’ a tournament up in Cheshire next month but unfortunately Brenda and Trumps (essential to our team) could not make it so we are hoping to get into the Mad Mutts tournament Oxford, September 19th/20th Then, the Wolfpack’s October tournament up in the Midlands. Optimists that we are, we are trying division! Watch this space J

My friend Mike who has been ‘holidaying’ here for a couple of weeks following the Anglesey camping fiasco (he was invaluable there!) is now well and truly addicted…………………Flyball!!!! Mike’s dog Meg a WSD, is destined to be a ‘Cheer Leader’ as she was an RSPCA rescue with very wobbly back legs following a road accident.

She has a very loud bark so the title ‘Head Cheer Leader’? My English Bull Terrier puppy, Thistle, loves the bones of her and Mike. Thistle is already (at 5 months old) fetching a tennis ball with great enthusiasm, we are thinking that if/when she is old enough, maybe Mike can train and run her.

The weather hasn’t been kind lately, if we get any nice dry days they are usually not Flyball or Agility days! We do carry on Flyballing regardless (Sarah says if we didn’t do things in the rain in Wales we wouldn’t ever do anything!) But Agility is a bit hit and miss, running on wet grass………not a good idea (for us not dogs)

Must praise people and dogs, all doing so well. At Starlight: Doing excellent complete runs, over full height is Bo Georgina’s Staffie Cross, Jed’s stable mate. Sadie, Del’s WSD is also doing excellently and Jan’s Lady, although still box shy is happy with the training box and runs well and fast. Jan is going to borrow a box and see if she can accustom Lady to it at home; these dogs have only been training for a matter of weeks. Alfie with Cheryl loves the jumps but doesn’t yet see the point in retrieving the ball!! (He’ll get there Cheryl, read on about Monty!)

At Ferryside: Monty, Liz’s ‘Flying blanket’ who has shown absolutely no inclination to do Flyball suddenly ‘got the message’ and to everyone’s delight is running up and fetching the ball from on the box (not loading yet) and returning over the jumps. Liz is thrilled I think she was beginning to despair. Duffy, Christine’s lovely Blue Roan Cocker Spaniel is coming along beautifully, and when not distracted does complete runs and is not running off  with the ball now, her game was catch me if you can. Christine has been working quite successfully on her bringing the ball back. Pip, Sarah’s Terrier is a right little smasher!! Full of enthusiasm, loving the whole Flyball ‘thing’ another prospective Height dog. We could have a team of mini dogs as these three are all ‘shorties’!!

We are expecting a couple of new dogs this month, one at each venue I will tell about them in next month’s newsletter.

I have had Merlin’s Magicians put on the side of my van, lovely big purple & white lettering, plus the web site address. So if you spot me, and I am easy to spot now, give me a wave or come over and say hello.

Ps. Apologies, Last month I forgot to say a very big thank you to Lydia, Brenda’s niece, she box loaded for us at the Anglesey tournament and made an excellent job of it. Brenda is looking into adding Lydia as a joint member on her membership as this will enable Lydia, when available, to box load when we are running division.

Also, thanks to Mike, who despite not having a dog that will ever do division has sent off membership so that he too can help when and wherever needed.

June