Time flies when you're having fun and our monthly update is a bit late ... we've been too busy flyballing! So what has happened since our last update?
Bristols@Frome
After the highs of our performance at the Jets competition in June, we headed west to the Bristol Ball-istics competition at Frome. Our Kennet Kookies foundation team who showed how winning was done - they were so solid throughout the day - Mabel (and her handler Karen) showing increasing confidence, Luna (and her handler Mel) consolidating their skills in preparation for going open, Bobby and Poppy living up to their breed (ball-obsessed border collies!) with no concerns for their handlers Val and Pam, and our sensitive soul Raven managed a full run to the delight of handler Sarah! They did great and brought home another first place rosette!
Our open team Kennet Kestrels was Kizzy, Luna, Bracken, Dory and Buzz - and despite some good times on the clock and some exciting racing, we came last in our division. Spirits remained high though as we knew we had put everything into the day's races, we'd had fun … as had our dogs, and Luna, our oldest open dog, managed a season best time of 4.4s!
Kennets@Alton
July started with our own competition held at Anstey Park in Alton. Kennet competitions are always big events as we run two rings and include foundations - it's really great to see so many clubs and teams and dogs over the weekend, and our club members go above and beyond to make sure everything goes smoothly ... from set up through to close!
The weekend passed by in a flash, but our foundation teams continued to lead the way, placing first in their respective divisions - with so many great performances from every single dog. When we're racing open teams, it's easy to forget the stress and struggle we have all experienced going into those first few foundation competitions not really knowing what might happen when our dogs are faced with a lot of other dogs, people, noise, and smells. And so every single run, and every step toward confidence in the ring, should be celebrated!
Our Kubs line up of Aswell, Maya, Yuna, Raven, Poppy, and Mabel brought clean run after clean run! And Yuna (who has been flyballing for less than a year) became the fastest club dog in competition this season, clocking a time of 4.05s (line to line) - amazing! The Kookies line up of Luna, Fennec, Storm, Ripley, and Toby brought a bit more experience, and again delivered a confident and clean performance. First place all round! So much to look forward to with these dogs as they move toward open competition. And of course thanks to Julie and Jo for serving both teams well as boxloaders.
We were back to 2 open teams as we welcomed the return of Jess and Piper who have spent the last few months supporting their handlers on maternity leave! No concerns that they might have forgotten what to do - not a chance! Jess led the charge as starter dog in Kennet Zingers alongside Cassi, Dory, and Buzz in Division 3; whilst Piper joined Kennet Kingfishers alongside Kizzy, Luna, and Bracken in Division 5 - and we had Sharon and Abbie boxloading. The teams worked well despite the changes and limited training in the new line up, and we raced as best we could ... but our declared times were optimistic and we were a little out of league on pace. We set our first seed times for these teams - 17.95s for Zingers and 20.11s for Kingfishers and knew that we had plenty of opportunity to tighten up the times in future competitions - Zingers came 4th and Kingfishers 5th.
Bassetts@Hullavington
The following weekend, we were back west at Hullavington for the Bassetts Allsorts competition. And talk of heatwaves turned to downpours! We always have concerns about the heat, especially in mid-July, but at Hullavington we had torrential rain!
Our foundation team Kookies (Luna, Maya, Dave, Yuna, Toby, Zephyr) came 1st in their division - we saw some great performances from these dogs as we gradually work on tightening crosses, building confidence, and smooth runs! And the win was also a great way to mark Luna's last race in foundations!
Our open teams didn't quite meet the speed of the previous weekend - Kingfishers (Kizzy, Luna, Bracken, Piper) in Division 4 delivered a solid set of runs to bring home 3rd place with a fastest time of 20.53s. Zingers (Jess, Cassi, Dory, Buzz) were in Division 2 where the fastest team was over 1s faster than us - we were pushing so hard to get some faster times that things got a bit messy and we barely managed a clean run, and so we were pleased to get 5th place with a fastest time of 18.32s. Things don't always work out how you imagine or plan ... neither the racing nor the weather!
Jets@WhaddonFarm
Our final competition for July was back with Jets, but at their Whaddon Farm site where summer once again evaded us, and we instead experienced all weathers, including rather breezy conditions! We had Zingers and Kingfishers running - including Luna with handler Mel in their first open competition. Both teams stepped up a gear from the previous competitions - securing new seed times of 17.93s and 19.81s respectively - which reflected some faster times for some of our dogs, but also some improvements in crossing by the handlers.
And we managed all this whilst navigating a new box made by our very own Ivan Offord ... with limited practice, Sharon our boxloader rapidly got to grips with the different sensitivity (!) whilst our Zingers‘ dogs looked like they had always worked with that box. Kingfishers had a tougher introduction and returned to our original box after the first race. But there were lots of positives to take away from the competition, including Luna looking very at home in an open team - working as start dog for Kingfishers and managing a few sub-0.1s starts! And young Bracken pulled a season's best time of 4.32s.
We still know that there is a lot to work on (much of it human-related!!) ... but we have some time now before our next competition. We want our dogs to achieve to the best of our ability, to enjoy their sport, and to know they are safe. We still have a lot to understand about performance, strengths, and sensitivities, and are well aware that it's not a simple case of just sticking the fastest dogs together in a team. But if we can do the best for our dogs and ourselves, we can manage change better, even if it's just the weather!!