Funky Fidos - Peterborough rugby club - 13/14 May 2023

Another flyball weekend following a very wet week, we were praying that the weather improved and we weren't camping in puddles! As this was a local event Gem camped with Jack and Ollie accompanied by the Hatchers, everyone else day tripped. We were short on numbers and dogs this weekend as Jemma and Ash were on a late honeymoon and Martin was in Benidorm on a stag weekend therefore, luckily for us, Jack and Ollie were stepping up as handlers for the first time this weekend.

Saturday was overcast and cold, coats and sometimes gloves were the order of the day. Today we ran Zulu Warriors (basically Wash team excluding Indie and Bessie) but including Jessie for her first open - we expected anything to happen!! Stan, Zarah and Pip (handled by Jack) ran really well but we have work to do with Jessie who ran out quite a bit, correcting her on resending. She actually ran really well for her first outing only running down the side of the jumps to the box once when Tina pushed a cross. Her box turn was good and she managed a 4.70 s time as her best of the day (but with a very wide cross) so we expect good things of her and were as proud as punch really. Zarah was on fire - running a 4.48 s (only 0.04 slower than her pb gained in 2021) and averaged a fine 4.63 s (her fastest ever average time). Stan 'the man' is back too, he ran a 4.58 s and averaged 4.75 s for the day. Pip's fastest was 4.56 s and averaged 5.06 s with a huge mention to Jack who ran her so well (coping brilliantly when we changed lanes and she got confused running into the other lane). After correcting her she didn't do this again.

Even with resending Jessie we still managed to win 2 of our 5 races and the 4 dogs managed a fastest 19.84 s clean run during the day The team managed 5th place today, but we were happy with that considering it was Jessie's first time out.

We also ran Brave Warriors in foundation with Eddie and Lottie. We are astounded with these 2 dogs... Eddie was on starts and even managed a roller - he clocked 3.77/ 3.80/ 3.81 and 3.99s runs during the day averaging 3.98 s for the whole day with 8 clear runs, he is going to be amazing and we are due to run him in open next time out. Lottie ran paw perfect with 12 clear runs, her fastest was 4.20 and she averaged 4.36 for the whole day. We still have a bit of work to do with her regarding box turns and crossing but we don't think it will be long before she graduates too! Comments were made by the ring party that these dogs are ones to watch!! Brave picked up a 3rd place again in their division but it is a huge win for us with 2 wonderful dogs coming through the ranks.

Sunday dawned with better weather, although chilly in the morning by the afternoon the sun had come out and we had all shed our jackets with some were in shirtsleeves. Today was Viking Warriors with the usual line up minus Bonnie (Blue, Jack, Flo and Charly). Gem was running Blue and it was Ollie's time to step up and run Flo. The team started well, winning their first race but Jack had a meltdown in the 2nd race when he clocked Bhav (who came in to help), whether he thought he was in for a hydro session we have no idea but he stopped racing altogether, not wanting to go down the lane at all. We did however manage to pick him up again and won 1 leg of this race. Luckily we only had 2 races in the morning so Jack had a rest and in the afternoon Tina went on the box to call him down, so by the end of the day we managed another win on the final race. Ollie was amazing managing so well with all this upheaval - Jack is not the easiest dog to run into at the best of times, but he focussed Flo and let her go only faulting her once with a bad cross (which was not surprising in the least). Blue put in another pb of 4.13 s averaging 4.32 s all day. The team managed a new seed time in all of this of 20.32 s and came 3rd to our great surprise. Ollie was a little embarassed to start with when he got a mention in presentation for how well he had run his dog in his first event, but very soon a huge grin split his face!!

We are going onward and upwards with these dogs and again look forward to our next outing with them.