Merlin's Magicians October 2010 Newsletters
Ferryside
She will be the death of me!! Thistle the Bull Terrier, I do so love that dog but…………… I walk my dogs, six out of the eight (two oldies stay home) most mornings at local woodland where they can run to their hearts content off lead.
The walk is about 45 minutes quite a narrow path through the woods, with bends, steep bank etc. The dogs, as dogs do, disappear into the woods just popping back to ensure I am going the right way every now and again. Well, on this occasion, all six charged off into the undergrowth, only five came back. No Thistle! I must explain here that Thistle is what they call in Wales ‘Tup’ or a ‘sandwich short of a picnic’ Thistle can be 20 yards away, I call her and she spins in circles trying to decide which direction I am calling from…..Not good. Despite 20 minutes of calling, whistling walking up and down I decided that she had obviously lost us, and as the path is circular maybe she had ‘popped’ out onto the other side, so I did the complete walk again, no Thistle, beginning to panic now.
Took the rest back to the van and went shouting again, no joy. So home, made out posters and put one in the village shop, one at each entrance to the woodland and drove to the next village, put a poster on the telephone box outside the Chapel. I then drove back past my usual entrance and Pretzel who has the penthouse suite (up top where she can see out) started barking but as I couldn’t see anything in the rear view mirror I carried on around the lanes searching.
By now three and a half hours had elapsed, I was terrified that Thistle had been injured and couldn’t get out of the woods, Bullies just don’t bark they are so stoic, I wouldn’t be able to find her. Decided that I had best go home and wait a while, she has telephone numbers on her collar and is micro chipped. Got to the T junction 50 yards from the woods entrance, looked right before pulling out and……………… Thistle was jumping up and down in the middle of the lane! Best bit? I shouted her and she spun around and took off back into the wood to look for me did I mention they are thick?
Single brain cell, on timeshare! Had to park and follow her. Must say here, she was ecstatic when she did actually ‘find’ me nearly broke my nose leaping up. I then had to retrace my journey and remove all the posters. Like I said ‘I do so love that dog but…………’
Our first training session at Ferryside post AGM was rained off but the following week we had Janet with her Lab X Harvey join us, Harvey was a star, learned everything bar the box in one session!
Unfortunately, Tracey has had yet more problems with her knee and expects to be on crutches (has to have further surgery) for a while yet, she assures me she, her son and their two dogs, still want to come along but it could be next Spring time.
17th October Debbie bought along Billie, Osi’s brother, Billie is a delight, he has settled into their family and is now Freddie’s new best friend, Bob Grainger, who took photographs at the Welsh Festival of The Horse, came too. Bringing his Partner Lili, their dog Paddy and his camera. He took loads of pictures. (These will be added for you to see under the heading ‘training’) Brilliant! Lovely dry clear weather. It went well, a three hour training session with Bob clicking away none stop, can’t wait to see the results. Lili had a go with Paddy the Cocker Spaniel and another new ‘recruit’ Virginia (Ginny) came along with her Sheepdog Dixie. Three new dogs and they all did fantastically for their first session.
We actually have, when everyone turns up, nineteen dogs and eleven people! I am hoping to split into teams, not on ability except for the Apprentices who will be those newest/needing most help. Magicians and Sorcerers can each have about ¾ hour and those with two dogs can do one in each team. Apprentices can have whatever is needed at the end depending on how many they number. This doesn’t mean the dogs will necessarily run in these teams just dividing to make training easier.
Sunday 24th October is a red letter day! THISTLE DID FLYBALL!! Ok so we had wings up but she did there and back without looking to go around. Did I say I love that dog? : - ) Multibreed here we come! Alright I know she has to have a go at starters first but…….I am sooooooooooooooo happy.
Charlie Brown was introduced to run backs over the jumps too. Fun, fun, fun kids….. Harvey & Dixie both on only their second session are both doing excellently. Sarah, bless her, now helps with the training of newer dogs and is much better at holding the extra keen dogs than me. (Poor old thing that I am)
Bob gave us 65 pictures to play with, biased? Yes : - ) I loved Thistle on her very first training session doing a couple of jumps to the ball in the box. Got a ball? Makes you immediately Thistle’s bestest friend ever! – Pictures are on my facebook page and hopefully, will be on the web site soon.
Last training session in October, Not a brilliant turnout, but those that were there ‘did good’! I know that people cannot always make it, but please people, let me know!! Next Sunday we start at 1 pm. See how we go.
Now, I have a date with a bottle of Wine…………………
Keep smiling, and…………….. keep Flyballing!!!
June
Ps .Got my trailer, it is super : - )
The Beulah Bouncers!
We have now had a few weeks of practise at Brenda’s. Unfortunately a few people have difficulty in coming to the winter times (Saturday 2.00 – 4.00) due to other commitments, once the days get lighter next year we will go back to Friday evenings.
We are “doing our bit” for recycling with custom made netting! Brenda’s horses are very kindly eating lots of food to supply us with empty bags, and these are being joined up to make up the stretches of the many various lengths that we need. We have found them very effective as the dogs see them as a solid barrier (well, apart from Jed who just bulldozed through them on the first trial, and Ishka who said “oh, was that an obstacle?” as she stepped over them). Not only are they in use for the “babies” but have also been used with considerable success in tightening up the turns on the box for the more experienced dogs.
We have a new young lady – Meg the lab x collie who is just 6 months old. She is not doing the box yet but is learning to go and fetch a ball via the jumps. Brenda’s Deese is helping with her training – I will try to get a non-blurry video before the next newsletter, in the meantime you will just have to wait in suspense to see how!!
We also have a fantastic secret weapon to train new humans with – Sheryl’s Alfie! He is absolutely spot on, knows what he is meant to do, and pulls a lot less than Trumps or Jed so he is being used to get Sue (Meg’s owner) used to how competitions work.
We have set up a Google Calendar so that if training is cancelled on a particular day it can be noted on there, alleviating the need for lots of phonecalls “is it on, is it raining over there” etc. We will be adding competition dates, extra training sessions etc as they come up. It can only be viewed by invitation, if anyone wants access email us on ukc802262637@btconnect.com and I will authorise the request and you will be sent the access email.
Doggy news – well not much really.
Sheryl’s Diesel is doing a good job of checking the hedging for Brenda during training times (he does not “do” flyball).
Jed, my big deaf boy, is 4!!!!! A quick quote from Dawn who helped his training in Coventry when he first started flyball “I think the only hard part about teaching him flyball was persuading him away from his mum bless him!! I had wondered what I was letting myself in for but once I met him was definitely smitten!!!!”
Many teams had declined my request for him to join because a) he is not a collie (well, he is twice the size of one!) and b) he is deaf.
And (warning – MAJOR proud mum alert!) My Bo passed his assessment and is now a Pets As Therapy dog! Bo is very hyperactive, can have a very short attention span, and had been through more homes than you could count before he came to me just after his first birthday.
Ps. Please can you keep an eye open for a book for me? Not sure of the exact title but it will be along the lines of "self defence for Staffie Xs"
Merlins Magicians - October 2010 Newsletter