Mary Ray

News Update

October.2007

Well here we go again. I really did vow that I would do a news event a lot quicker but it has been three or four months since my last one. I make plenty of notes and Mary tells me what is going on but it is just getting round to putting it in writing. At the end of the last article I was telling you that Mary had been approached to write another book and as I write this now that is what she is in the throes of doing. The publishers did a mock up of the new book to exhibit at book exhibitions and the response they have had from companies around the world has been tremendous so Mary is working on that with a ghost writer as putting things in writing is not Mary's favourite pastime as we all know that Mary is more of a practical person. Anyway, the book looks excellent. There is a section on rearing a puppy with a section on stimulation of the brain etc all sounds a bit technical to me, FCI obedience, agility and lots more in it. It looks like it will be a really good read. The Dog Tricks book goes from strength to strength it has really been a good seller and she has just had a copy of the French version so that must be 15 languages that it has been published in now.

Mary and Ozzy, Edinburgh

Anyway, back to the past. Where we left off before was the first week in May and Mary was going to be up in Scotland. She did a cabaret night at a wonderful indoor riding club near Edinburgh organised by Carol Baptie and Sam Butchart. I think there was about 400 there in tiered seating, it was a really good night and I think that Dave was quite amazed as after having a few tips off Richard Curtis got himself an ipod and a portable ipod player when Mary come to do a routine that the player was strong enough to fill the arena with music. Mind you, he did have to find himself a 12 year old to show him how to use it! The only downside was that it absolutely poured with rain in the evening which wasn't a problem until they went back to the hotel and had to feed and exercise their dogs. Anyway, it was a great night with a great audience and it looks like Mary will have to watch herself as there is a new up and coming dog training star of the future about! Erin Logie (9) jumped at the chance to work Mary's dogs and I think she wants to be Mary when she grows up. Mary has already been booked in the same area next year but with a training day as well (May 7th/8th).

Edinburgh

The following week they were back down down in Tiverton in Devon for an evening being organised by Bobbi Boax and Tiverton club and again a smashing evening and a lovely big function room at a hotel and again this has already been booked in the diary for next year (13th/14th May). Mary had one or two obedience shows in between but I will do a round up of her successes later in the article when I have had a chance to talk to her.

The following week Mary took a half day seminar for the Guide Dog Trainers over at Leamington. There were about 50 there from all around the UK and although Mary has no experience of the way they train guide dogs, the idea was to broaden the horizons of the trainers and give them an insight into other methods of training and it was very successful.

Wiccaweys training day

A couple of days after this Mary was the prize. Some months earlier Mary had been used as prize in a fundraising auction for Wiccaweys Rescued Border Collies and Working Sheepdogs. It was originally intended to be an hours lesson but when the bids came in and kept rising it was more a question of how many hours do you want me for. The final price that was bid was £450 to spend a day with Mary. And that is exactly what she did, the handler who won the coveted prize was Sue and her rescued border collie, Hizzy. Lets hope she had her money worth and learned loads. Whilst over at Wiccaweys it appears that Mary did a bit of dancing with the goats!

With the goats

At the end of May they were off to Ireland. Mary was going to compete at the Lisburn Championship Obedience show and the next day there was a Championship Agility show at the same venue the next day. There were two Cabaret nights booked at the Lagan Island Leisure Centre in Lisburn organised by Michael McCartney. Well, the evenings were more successful than the show as it absolutely poured down. But they did stop there for a week in a cottage at Brookhall historic farm and they really enjoyed their week in Ireland, they said it was a lovely place.

Mary in St-Petersburg

In the middle of June Mary was back to Moscow. Dave said that he wouldn't go with her this time so he stayed at home and dog sat. Mary says that Olga and her friends are lovely in Moscow and she taught in seminars at the weekend there then took a train up to St Petersburg to take a seminar there. I think Dave was a bit jealous when she got back and she was telling him about the amber palaces etc that she had been to visit in St Petersburg, it sounded really good.

Mary and Olga in St-Petersburg

The week after saw Mary down in Cwmbran in Wales for a Cabaret night organised by Annette Crew. Another smashing night and they said that Annette and her helpers were really nice and she is always trying to raise money for her favourite charity.

Two days later Michael McCartney and Kate Heron were getting married in Lisburn and because Dave had to go to Scotland the following day so they booked a day trip from Birmingham airport to go to the wedding. I am told it was a lovely wedding in a very picturesque country church unfortunately it rained but it didn't stop everyone having a tremendously good time. Things could only happen in Ireland and Dave was telling me about a couple of occurences. They flew out of Birmingham to Belfast City Airport and that is the only airport you can fly to from Birmingham. So when they arrived Dave rang Michael to tell him they were there and he said he would collect them in 10 - 15 minutes. Dave was outside 15 minutes later when his phone goes. It was Michael saying "where are you I'm parked outside the airport." Yes, you've guessed it - he was parked outside the wrong airport! Michael went to Belfast International instead which you can no longer fly to from Birmingham. The second amusing occurance and they did have a good laugh was when they were collected from the hotel that they were waiting in after their arrival. Many of the wedding guests were in the same hotel and a 30 seater bus pulled up and everybody got in and they set off for the church in the pouring rain which was fine except for the fact the driver went to the wrong church, his boss hadn't got his phone switched on so he couldn't ask him where to go and quite a few of the guests on the bus were ringing people already at the church but of course they had switched their phones off ready for the wedding. I understand that the whole scene created a bit of hilarity. Well I did say it could only happen in Ireland and they did delay the start of the wedding until the rest of the guests arrived. The reception was at the hotel where they had met at in the morning and Dave is still telling everybody how good the food was at the reception and how much there was of it!

Mary and the Russian Entertainers

Well for Dave it was an international week as he was off to Scotland the next day to run the Highland Agility Finals which was in Perth, Scotland. Mary was off competing in Championship Obedience shows and upon his return Dave went off to Stoneleigh to a very wet and soggy Royal Show for the Olympia agility semi-finals. During that week Mary had a tv job for a Channel 4 programme called 'Skins' or should I say that Taz had a tv job because in the first episode of series which will be shown in the new year the father of one of the kids in the programme who is played by Bill Bailey the comedian and musician is an expert doggy dancer (well he is now anyway!) and Taz is his dog. So Mary spent two days down on the set in Bristol doing the filming.

On the Broads

At the end of July it was Mary's annual course just outside Gatwick the venue was the home of Premier showjumps who make the majority of the dog agility equipment in the UK and a lot abroad as well. Liz Pollock is a really good host and there was a paddock for the camping, a paddock for the dog agility and the obedience took place on the lawn outside the house in front of a large marquee where all the refreshments were. I gather it was a really good atmosphere with a lot a participants who return year after year. Dave did one of his famous barbeques on two the nights ably assisted by Liz and Mark from Premier. On the second of these barbeque nights there was a little heelwork to music demonstration by all of the course participants. Very successful no doubt helped by the copious amounts of wine that had been drunk! I understand that Mary has an ongoing waiting list for a spaces on this very popular course. From there it was straight on the the Agility Clubs annual show and on the second day Dave was taken ill. They managed to get home okay with the caravan and in the early hours of the Monday morning Dave was in casualty in Rugby hospital followed by an appointment at his own doctors on the Monday afternoon. Even though he was in severe pain and couldn't sleep and couldn't eat (he must have been ill then!) his own doctor that he saw in the afternoon prescribed a course of antibiotics with the diagnosis being a bladder infection. Dave was not happy with this and made his own appointment with a Consultant privately for two days later. Within minutes of arriving at the hospital he had been diagnosed with appendicitis and was immediately admitted and operated on at 4:30 in the afternoon. The surgeon told him that his appendix had perforated and turned gangrenous and no doubt within 24hrs he would have had septicaemia. It's a sobering thought that if he had waited until the end of the seven day antibiotic course he would probably be dead by now. He did complain to his GP and received two grovelling letters of apology, one from his GP and the other from the practice manager vowing that in future they would actually examine the patients that visit the surgery. Yes, that's right his doctor misdiagnosed him without even bothering to examine him. I understand he has now changed doctors!

2007-Premier-Course

The following weekend which was the second weekend in August was the Kennel Club International Agility Festival where Dave was show manager and also one of the main organisers of the event. Far from being on his sick bed he was discharged from hospital on the Friday afternoon and from the following Tuesday he was over at Peterborough helping with the setting up of the show. He was really rather lucky that he didn't bring complications to himself and he did finish up feeling a bit sore and exhausted after the weekend which was a scorcher had finished. Dave was indebted to Roger and Pauline Churchill, not only did they work extremely hard at the show but because of Dave's incapicity they did everything including towing the caravan over to the show and erecting the awning, they fetched water and even emptied the caravan toilet. How does it go "he couldn't have done it without them" Mary didn't escape helping either. Her job, apart from running the dogs, was being a waitress in the judges and helpers restaurant but she didn't have to put on a short skirt and pinny for this! From there it was off to Dogs in Need for their traditional agility holiday. Including Dave's also traditional day out in a boat on the Norfolk Broads. Also on the boat trip were Mary's sister Pauline, Dave Skipp, Roger Churchill and Ray Morse. I understand that they nearly never made any boat at all as on the way down to Olton Broad Ray said, "Lets go somewhere different to get a boat and I know the way" Well, after spending hours driving around and getting lost and going on the only ferry over the Norfolk Broads which I understand is so small that someone peddles it across! Only to find out once they got to the other side that there was nothing there and they had to come back again! They eventually arrived at a boat hire place at lunchtime that was after leaving the campsite at 8:00am! I think Dave said he is planning his own route next year and Ray won't be allowed to speak when he joins them!

Once back home in Rugby in the third week in August Mary had a Cabaret night in Rugby town hall. One of the few events that she has actually staged in Rugby. It was a smashing venue with tiered seating and a fairly full house with over 200 in the audience. This was a fundraiser for Wiccaweys Rescued Border Collies and Working Sheepdogs which was a very successful evening for them. Apart from a very busy night on the raffle and their shop they raised well over 4 figures from ticket sales and the bonus was it was a really good night. If Mary is doing one of these evenings in your area and you haven't managed to get there yet you really should go. Mary performs a couple of routines during the evening but the rest of the evening is devoted to how Mary trains her dogs, all the tricks they can do including competition obedience and the quite amazing relationship she has with the dogs. They say people treat their dogs like children and this is probably the best example of it.

Of course in between all these events Mary was out competing at either obedience or agility shows. The first weekend in September Dave was out running the big Kennel Club/Pedigree events at the City of Birmingham show and on the first Sunday evening when the show ended they were straight up to Anglesey with the caravan to Rex and Maggies training centre where Mary was running a 5 day course which unlike the earlier weeks course which was obedience and agility the Wales course was heelwork to music/freestyle and agility. Again, a smashing week I gather, they have their own indoor training hall plus a huge field for the camping with the agility course in the middle of it and a couple of barbeque nights etc. Again. most of the participants come every year and a really good atmosphere I understand.

Mary's hosts at Weston; Maggie and Paul

Mary Nester dancing on a chair

The following week Mary was appearing at Mypetstop in Leeds on one of her evenings. Probably the finest and most modern facility of its kind in the UK. Ultra modern kennels, vets, hydrotherapy pool, cattery, training centre and a huge training indoor training arena with a non-slip floor. I hear that as usual it was a great night thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. At the end of September it was over to Leominster for another evening and during that week Mary had the very well known freestyler Richard Curtis come up to Rugby as they are putting a little routine together for the Kennel Club's Discover Dogs show at Earls Court in November. All this was brought about by their appearance on television's 'The Underdogs"programme earlier this year. The final weekend in September saw Mary competing at a Championship obedience show on the Sunday but the two days prior to that she did an evening and a training day for the Weston Super Mare Guide Dogs fundraisers organised by Mandy McCubbin. They stayed with a lovely couple just outside Weston called Maggie and Paul Brett at a lovely grand old 18th century three storey house. I understand they had the top floor to themselves and also staying with them was Miyuki Kanda who is visiting for six months from Japan and staying in Rugby to learn English and dog training so she is spending a lot of time with Dave and Mary at the moment.

At the time of writing this, the first week of October, Mary and Dave are away at a photoshoot for the new book that Mary is writing. I think it is going to cover just about everything from what I am told although the details are a bit sketchy but I know that she has been very busy with it of late. Mary has also been working with Pedigree to formulate a specific training treat for clicker training so its a case of watch this space for next year. This weekend coming they have got a double championship obedience weekend at the Elm Park and Thurrock shows and then on Tuesday the 9th October they are off to the Gold Coast in Australia where Mary is taking a weeks course at the Coolangatta Pet Motel for Ann Bulke the owner who has got one of the biggest and best equipped kennels in Australia. I'm told there is loads of space, indoor and outdoor training facilities, and a dozen holiday cabins with their own individual kenneling and runs. Now, should I ask them if they can take me along to Australia so I can be a roving reporter?!