Wordless watching Wednesday

Hop Farm Flyball (part 2)

Auntie Breeze and Dare were back at the Flyball tournament today whilst me and Chip were resting at home from our racing on Saturday. They were both in the same team in Division 4 and on paper their team was seeded bottom of the division with the slowest time. So things did not look that good not that this bothered Auntie Breeze or Dare.

After the morning speed trials they was not actually bottom but came 6th out of 7 teams due to some nice quick runs by the team.

 
Then the real races started in the afternoon and Dare of course was ready to do his best.

 

The team  won their next few races and actually finished 4th at the end of the racing which was a bit of a surprise. So it just shows you should never assume anything.

 Very well done to Auntie Breeze and Dare for all that effort in some very warm weather.

Hop Farm Flyball

We were in Kent today at another Flyball Tournament and the weather was absolutely glorious. It was held at a show ground called Hop Farm and of course hops are one off the ingredients used to make beer. They still have some of the original hop buildings on the site which are very 'Kentlike'.

We had a great tournament which was in a different format to the one we are used to called double elimination. But it was still loads of zooming up and down.

We had three teams in the same division which was hard work for all the humans. We got the fastest three times in the division and were then seeded 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the elimination part.  

My team came second in the end and Chips team came 4th so we both had success today in all the sunshine.

Breeze and Dare are going back tomorrow for their races so me and Chip will get a nice little rest tomorrow after all today's extreme exercise.

Wordless Wolfie Wednesday

5,112 to 10,012 years old

We travelled past Stonehenge on our trip to the Flyball tournament this weekend. This is a picture taken out of the window driving past.

 
Apparently these stones were erected at the site in Wiltshire at around 3100BC and that makes them about 5,112 years old. But they have found wooden post holes on the site which are dated at 8000BC, thats about  10,012 years old. That's old!  I bet loads and loads of people have seen sheep grazing like this as they travelled past them in all those years.

Anyway  the reason we were driving past was were were going to a flyball tournament in Somerset which is  about 2hrs west of us and we also camped for the weekend . We  borrowed a car trailer to take all our stuff so it was wagons roll on Friday afternoon.

We stayed in a Tent when got to the tournament the same one we used the last time we camped last year. But this time it was a lot colder at night.

We did OK in the racing. Auntie Breeze and Dare got a second place in their Division, I got a 5th place and Chip a 3rd place in our Division which was good apart from the fact Chips Team beat mine ...

  
No actual flyball action pictures this time but we took some nice ones of the area we were staying in which was near Frome in Somerset.

It was in the middle of some lovely English Countryside.

And very peaceful away from the normal busy London hubbub.

Mind you us flyball dogs barking  all weekend probably changed that. I bet the locals are glad we have all gone home now.

 

Etiquette

What all English Shepherds need is

Good table manners ...

The Sun has got his hat on (at last)

No competitions this weekend although we did so some training today. But for a change we had some sunshine. Obviously I was keeping an eye out for the rain clouds or was it the birds?

And then with the lovely weather we had a group photo taken. From left to rights its Dare, Me and Chip.

  I think Auntie Breeze must have been having her afternoon nap when this was taken!

Out the Crate

Just in case anybody thought that we were still stuck in those car dog crates  this is the proof that we are not.

And dispite the bad weather we still managed to get out and enjoy our normal dash in the park today. Well me and my shadow did first, thats him in the background.

Yes its Chip of and this is him enjoying a brief moment of stillness.

You may have also noticed that our Pack generally go out for our afternoon constitutional in pairs and not altogether.

Apparently it’s so the boss has better control of us all just in case any strange dogs turn up in the park when we are out and about.

And it’s not just because me and Chip are Border Collie snobs...

Wordless Wet Weather Wednesday

Mulitibreed and More

It was another busy Flyball Bank Holiday weekend racing.

At first the tournament was called off as the first venue was waterlogged because of all the rain. But fortunately the organisers managed to find another venue in Hawkinge which is near Folkestone in Kent only about 3 miles from the English Channel and apparently on a clear day you can see France.

We raced all on Sunday in open races and me and Chip again today in Multibreed races.

We did well both days and it stayed reasonably dry when we raced.

  
Me and Chip raced today in the same Multibreed team for our Club.

Which is called Lightning Cocktail

And we got second place in Division 1  with a new fastest ever seed time of 17.60 seconds and I did at least one 4.4 second leg today which is not bad racing two days in a row.

I think I will take a bow for that performance.

 

Wordless waiting Wednesday