Merlin's Magicians May 2011 Newsletter
Ferryside Newsletter – May
Quite an eventful month. Starting with our display at the Riverside Centre, Arena Pontardawe. Of course the dogs were, as always, dogs!! Not quite as chaotic as the previous outing but not far off! However I have had an email saying how much we were enjoyed and asking if we would consider a repeat performance next year!!!
Our Starter team at Sutton Fields were, the comedy act. As most of you know we were, due to illness etc. Down to just four dogs, one of which was Bo! Another Thistle! Need I say more? OK I will. Billie was great, Jed his usual reliable self, Bo did his, I’ve got the ball what more do you want laying down in front of the box act and..... Thistle? Yes well, the first run she did her fantastic disappearing act from the ring once she had the ball. Yes she got past everyone and off she went doing laps of honour ‘round the entire (very large) camp site with me in hot, limping pursuit, the three remaining dogs just forfeited that heat by running three dogs. Stopped for a poo (Thistle not me) then disappeared whilst I was ‘picking up’. The M56 runs alongside the venue and for one moment I was tempted to wish she’d gone to play on it!! Not really : - ) I eventually found her back in our enclosure happily playing all by herself with the ball from competition!!! After this embarrassing display I ran her last and managed to ‘field’ her as she exited the run. Footnote to this, thank you to Andrew who took over from Tally & ran Jed for Georgina. Made a great job of it.
The team: Merlin’s Magicians, consisted of a mix from Ferryside and Ceredigion. We had to withdraw the Spellmakers due to poor Del being ill, losing Sadie and Alfie from the team. First run was a bit of a shambles, Roxy (only her second outing) deciding that as Debs sister was over the other side of the ring, she would pop over and see her, this lost us the race for interference, then Deese (his first outing) thought it was ‘just too exciting’ and lay doing that ‘Collie thing’ watching the other dogs run, unfortunately, from their side!! The Judge, Tony, had his head in his hands when he saw us, we didn’t disappoint : - )
I was running Rusty, Rusty and Roxy don’t like each other, after the first race I changed to Annie, Rusty isn’t easy to hold at the best of times (although he runs fine) I didn’t want to end up having my hip replacement up in Cheshire by falling on the wet grass! Brenda changed from Deese to Trumps. Now we had Annie, Freddie, (Freddie was brilliant, super fast boy) Roxy & Trumps, and..............We were good!! We actually started doing some winning; I winked at Tony and said ‘You didn’t expect that did you?’ We went on to win two of our five races, the end result putting us down in 5th position. As I explained to the team members, the low placing was due to our slower times than that of the other teams who drew with the same number of wins. Now we have a seed time we should do better next time when we’ll be against teams with similar times.
Our training session post Cheshire was a bit chaotic as I hadn’t sorted when differing abilities should turn up. To be honest I left it as we had 6 new dogs on the previous session and I would have expected 3 or 4 of them to come back, they had too long to think about it: - ) only one turned up! But what a one!!! Another Alfie, a typical Springer Spaniel, soooo..... busy, Alfie has no problem with jumps or box and when we can convince him that his Mum Lynne doesn’t have to throw the ball to the box loader he is going to be absolutely fantastic! Anyway, result of this session is that I have put pen to paper and divided dogs into teams by ability, it also means that multiple dog owners will be able to train all their dogs. We have four ‘teams’ starting with the very new dogs, then ‘Starter’ standard, and two ‘Team’ teams. I have allotted a time for each group, we will start with newest. I will have to be a bit strict (won’t work otherwise) and say if anyone is late, they either get a shorter session by joining in late or miss out. For people waiting the Agility will be available.
Hoping the plan might also allow me to get home before 2 pm!!
I think my disability (old age has nothing to recommend it other than the alternative!) is going to stop me in my tracks for a short while. Mike had to actually change my wet socks at Sutton Fields!! Talk about mortifying? Not to mention painful: - ) I would have had trench foot without him as the drive home was 4 hours. It is getting increasingly difficult to get myself and equipment to places. With this in mind we have purchased a shed from Argos, Identical to the one I donated, and when it arrives Andrew is going to erect it for the Flyball equipment to be kept under lock and key up at the field, alongside the smaller Agility equipment.
Personal note here. I wrote to both my MP and my AM (Welsh Assembly Member) regarding the length of time I have waited for an appointment to see a Consultant about my hip. Within hours I had a ‘phone call from Westminster, said they would ‘make enquiries ‘and the NEXT DAY (coincidence?) I had an appointment for June 1st. So............Watch this space, see how long before they ‘fix me’. The AM got back to me too a week later, both MP & AM have asked that I get back if I need anything more, the latter is going to ask the Welsh Assembly why the waiting times differ so much in Wales from England!!! We’ll see how long the next wait is? There you go folks, result! They do have their uses!
Festival of the Dog we were supposed to be doing a display - Cancelled!! Gutted, got there to find it had to be called off due to high winds, the stallholders gazebos were doing an 'up up and away' act. It was too late to stop everyone although I did text and ring, poor Brenda, Sheryl & Del all the way from Cardigan had to turn 'round and go back home! Oh well 'silver cloud' and all that, Mike & I went off to the pub for Carvery lunch :-)
Tomorrow Sarah is coming up to mine and we are (Mike Sarah & Myself) going to make the base for the new shed, if all goes to plan then we will take it down to Ferryside and meet up with Andrew to construct it on site.......We’ll see, you know what they say about ‘the best laid plans’ etc. Etc.?
Sincere & Heartfelt thanks to both Andrew and Mike, the shed is now in situ and I shall be able to leave a set of equipment after 12th June training session. Thanks also to Sarah who indeed did come and with Mike cut the base, Debbie who also gave a hand at construction and last but not least, Megan who helped to amuse the dogs whilst all this was going on.
Take care and keep smiling everyone, June
Ceredigion – Beulah Bouncers
Seasons come and seasons go but the same core people attend training. We have had a few enquiries from new starters so the leafleting is doing the job. Our new jackets came and are a resounding success – even if the key question is “why is there a zip in that place???”
Brenda, Del and I toddled along with our dogs to the demonstration at Pontadawe. Jed ran out a few times but that was solved by making sure no balls were left by the bucket. Bo – well, Bo was Bo! Need we say more?? The clown of the team who would far rather race around saying hello to the crowd! Ishka felt a little overcome but was a crowd pleaser when she burst out of the tunnel. Deeze was extremely fast – unfortunately a lot of the time he was extremely fast mugging Billie in the other lane! Sadie and Trumps did what they do best and showed what proper flyball is about.
Cheshire – well! Tally kindly agreed to come with me to run Jed as there was a rumour we may have to use both my boys in the same team (eek!). ... thank goodness she did! Jed made me very proud – despite the fact he is known as the Benevolent Bulldozer he can be a real mummy’s boy and has been known to roll his eyes and panic if someone else runs him – even if he knows them. Tally has run him a few times in practise so I was very relieved when he let her run him in competition! He even got a few red lights for going through the start gate early!!! Jed and speed do not normally go together! Bo decided to play up a bit so Tally suggested Andrew ran Jed while she box loaded as Bo may behave better that way – it worked for a short time!
Typically Bo had to ensure he was the focus of all eyes by shooting up like a rocket (when not trying to go back to mug Jed for the ball), collecting the ball and then prancing around in front of the box until enough people were watching him....... aaaaaaaaaargh – Bo, it’s a RACE!!!!
Oh well, at least we are one of those teams who can laugh and enjoy everything, not taking life toooooo seriously!
Georgina