Flyball - 30th August 2008

On saturday, I went to another flyball competition, held by my club to help to raise money for Headway the brain injury trust. We held both agility and flyball competitions. As I have only just begun to learn the art of agility I didn't do any agility events. I did enter the flyball with the rest of my starter team and we got second place. We were beaten by our top team. I came home with a blue 2nd place rosette. It was a grrrrreat day although it was hot when we were running. It was really nice to be out in the sunshine.

Introduction To Agility

I have now begun to learn and train for agility. I love it but do enjoy flyball more!!! I am finding it really easy, however my pawrent is a useless handler. She is too slow and has no idea which is her left hand and which is her right. She forgets the layout of the course half way round. For me to complete an agility course I have to take things much slower and rely on the pawrent directing me around the obstacles. This is not like flyball at all, where she releases me by the top of the set of four jumps then I jump the jumps collect the ball out the box return back to my pawrent clearing the jumps on the way back. She is going to need a lot of training for agility.

Local Charity Dog Show

I went to a local charity dog show a couple of weeks ago, there were lots of dogs there and some jumps that looked like flyball jumps so I prepared myself ready for flyball but my mum didn't take me to the jumps, I tried to pull her in the right direction but she wasn't having any of it. Instead she led me into this big ring with lots of other dogs, where this lady went up and down the line feeling our bodies, looking at our faces etc..... then she made me step into the middle of the ring, followed by two other dogs and gave me a big red rosette, saying 'I had to choose the collie, she has beautiful eyes' Mum said I had come first in the Prettiest Bitch catergory. I would rather have been doing flyball!!!!!!!!

A Day at the Beach

My mum took the family, (her human daughter and granddaughter and ME) to the beach today!!!!!!!
My friend Zac would have loved it!!! (lots of sand to dig holes in, I dug a big one just for him). Playing in the sand was grrrrrreat!!!!!! I enjoyed chasing all the different kinds of balls the people were playing with!!! There were footballs, beach balls, volley balls and my FAVOURITE tennis balls. My mum kept bringing me back and telling me to Leave them and making me either sit or lie down. So I played a running game with my playmate, my mums granddaughter which was fun too!!!!!! I was taken to the edge of the sea and my mum began to walk into it and tried to encourage me to walk in while she had me on my lead. I am not keen on water and if I can I will avoid it. I put my two front paws in and that was it for me!!!!!!!!!

Update on Flyball

I have been doing the training at home on a regular basis now and I can now retrieve the balls from the box. The man who runs the club says I am doing very well but he feels there is a lot more in me! Whatever that means? If I carry on improving the way I am I may be entering my first competition at the end of June. I think he means my mum has to try to be as fast as I am!!!!! Flyball is GRRRRREAT!!! Its much better than all that obedience stuff, that's boring. All that 'sit', 'stay', 'down' is very easy (ha ha)

Four Weeks at Flyball

I have been going to flyball now for four weeks. The more I go, the more excited I get about doing the sport!!!!!! The trainer told my mum that I was very fast at going to get the ball and jumping over the jumps to bring the ball back to her. I don't like giving her the ball, but if I don't give it to her fast enough, our team could lose, so I have to be a good puppy and return the ball back to my mum as quick as possible for my team to win.

My mum has had to bring the flyball box home and do some training with me. Its all very confusing, if I just get the ball with my mouth then we don't score any points but if one of my paws touches the box when I go to retrieve the ball then we are on to a winner. I can never remember which is which when we do the training!!!!!!!

First evening at flyball

On monday evening, my mum took me to flyball. It was great fun. We have jump over a row of three jumps that look similar to horse jumps, only much smaller and hit this box thing with our paw and a ball flies out and we have to catch and run back to our mum or dad going over the jumps and give them the ball. Its a race. Its great fun, I can't wait until the next session!!! I'm really excited. There are lots of dogs there and many of them are border collies like me. We all get really excited because we know we are in for some high energy fun!!!!!!!!!!

Mistress went to Crufts

I had to spend the day at my mistress's best friend today as she went to Crufts.
Although I missed her while she was away. Her best friend took my to the park and we played football. then we went for a walk in the park and I dived in the lake after the ducks. I rolled in something rather unsavoury in human terms but to me it smelt very nice so I had to have a bath which I wasn't happy about I put up with it. I was really pleased to see my mistress return, especially as she had brought me some new toys.