Karran
Well-Known Member
After more training and taking Mrs Spaniel right back to basics after her flyball debut blew her mind a little, we toddled off to Brookfields over Easter to try our second flyball comp, sadly it was rained off/hailed off/thundered off, but nonetheless we had a lovely mini-holiday.
We met wild ponies in the New Forest.
Found the biggest stick to take for a souvenir
And learned Mrs Spaniel is rather uninterested in history.
She has been rather erratic in her training, starting off working fine and then suddenly panicking about changing lanes/running onto different dogs/jump sizes and I began to feel like I was pushing her too much, that she was out of her comfort zone and maybe the stress of a competition might be too much for her.
Then I thought about how people post here how magnesium helps stressy horses and we did a Google, purchased some Stress-Less and it seemed to really help during training.
So yesterday we ventured down the M20 to Cowgate with a slight amount of trepidation and armed with rescue remedy (for me) and the stress-less for her. We would be entering an open babies competition and then today a multi-breed comp (only one collie allowed in each team). I had two main goals for the weekend.
1. Not to get lost on the way.
2. To complete at least one run properly.
If we failed number 2 it wasn't the end of the world, we would use the day as a training session and then take her out of the multibreed and into a starters class with netting up on each side and lots of reassurance for her.
It was a long wait
Finally it was our turn!
And she did it!
I was so staggered I almost forgot to call her home!
And she did it again! And again! And again!
(Didn't know Spaniels could fly!)
My erratic, super-sensitive little flower of a spaniel was actually behaving like a real flyball dog! There was no panicking! No dropping the ball in her rush to get back to me! No stopping to sniff an interesting patch of grass!
We even moved her up to 3rd dog and she won a leg!
So, so, so proud of her!
We have actual real shiny flyball points!
We did three heats and she ran perfectly in all of them before her break.
A long wait for her division to come around again and I could tell she was getting tired now. She was running slower and then the judges had coffee brought to them.
Now coffee is apparently the nicest smell in the world to a spaniel and she actually left her lane mid race to casually lick a cup out!
Final run and it was neck and neck with her running as last dog.
Sadly she dropped it just inches from the end, but I can't be cross with her. She tried her little heart out for me and I could tell she was flagging.
We finished in 4th place, just outside of rosettes.
Home very late for a nice lamb neck tea and a special treat of being allowed to sleep on my bed.
She almost couldn't believe it when the alarm went off again at 5am this morning although she perked up once she realised she was going for a car ride.
It took a while to get her to focus this time and we got a few lights but again she tried hard, the conditions were tough, despite being a working cocker she doesn't do rain and it must have been a hard slog in the mud for her, she completed some legs and got some more points.
And then again on her last race she got distracted by the other team waving treats to encourage their dog home and decided to join their lane in the hope of stealing a treat.
So there's still plenty to work on with her, but she coped remarkably well with everything, I really think the Stress-Less is giving her a little confidence boost and I'm looking forward now for our next comp on Saturday at Headnor!
Super tired pup! Too tired to even beg for part of my bacon butty!
We met wild ponies in the New Forest.
Found the biggest stick to take for a souvenir
And learned Mrs Spaniel is rather uninterested in history.
She has been rather erratic in her training, starting off working fine and then suddenly panicking about changing lanes/running onto different dogs/jump sizes and I began to feel like I was pushing her too much, that she was out of her comfort zone and maybe the stress of a competition might be too much for her.
Then I thought about how people post here how magnesium helps stressy horses and we did a Google, purchased some Stress-Less and it seemed to really help during training.
So yesterday we ventured down the M20 to Cowgate with a slight amount of trepidation and armed with rescue remedy (for me) and the stress-less for her. We would be entering an open babies competition and then today a multi-breed comp (only one collie allowed in each team). I had two main goals for the weekend.
1. Not to get lost on the way.
2. To complete at least one run properly.
If we failed number 2 it wasn't the end of the world, we would use the day as a training session and then take her out of the multibreed and into a starters class with netting up on each side and lots of reassurance for her.
It was a long wait
Finally it was our turn!
And she did it!
I was so staggered I almost forgot to call her home!
And she did it again! And again! And again!
(Didn't know Spaniels could fly!)
My erratic, super-sensitive little flower of a spaniel was actually behaving like a real flyball dog! There was no panicking! No dropping the ball in her rush to get back to me! No stopping to sniff an interesting patch of grass!
We even moved her up to 3rd dog and she won a leg!
So, so, so proud of her!
We have actual real shiny flyball points!
We did three heats and she ran perfectly in all of them before her break.
A long wait for her division to come around again and I could tell she was getting tired now. She was running slower and then the judges had coffee brought to them.
Now coffee is apparently the nicest smell in the world to a spaniel and she actually left her lane mid race to casually lick a cup out!
Final run and it was neck and neck with her running as last dog.
Sadly she dropped it just inches from the end, but I can't be cross with her. She tried her little heart out for me and I could tell she was flagging.
We finished in 4th place, just outside of rosettes.
Home very late for a nice lamb neck tea and a special treat of being allowed to sleep on my bed.
She almost couldn't believe it when the alarm went off again at 5am this morning although she perked up once she realised she was going for a car ride.
It took a while to get her to focus this time and we got a few lights but again she tried hard, the conditions were tough, despite being a working cocker she doesn't do rain and it must have been a hard slog in the mud for her, she completed some legs and got some more points.
And then again on her last race she got distracted by the other team waving treats to encourage their dog home and decided to join their lane in the hope of stealing a treat.
So there's still plenty to work on with her, but she coped remarkably well with everything, I really think the Stress-Less is giving her a little confidence boost and I'm looking forward now for our next comp on Saturday at Headnor!
Super tired pup! Too tired to even beg for part of my bacon butty!
