News Update
October.2008
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Well it is very sad news. You may remember that last time I told you last time that Mary had used this super little puppy from Wiccaweys on a night time at Rugby and we all fell in love with this pup which was subsequently named Molly and Mary's sister who lives on the annexe in our house couldn't resist her and went with Mary to collect her from Wiccaweys on the Friday after the evening. I would like to explain how she settled in but I couldn't.She bonded with Tricia immediately, she went houseclean extremely quickly and Tricia was besotted with her. Then disaster! Whilst myself and Mary were up in Anglesey on the annual weeks camp we had a telephone call to tell us that Molly had died.Tricia was absolutely devastated. It appears that she was playing outside with Gypsy our older Sheltie and they both came into Tricia's lounge and Molly suddenly collapsed and died on the spot.Tricia's had a really bad time of it, she'd only had her a few weeks but she had fallen for her hook line and sinker and she is still not over it now.The vet who performed the post mortem could not find anything wrong with Molly's internal organs at all and reckoned it could only be some kind of aneurism in the brain or some kind of canine sudden death syndrome. So Tricia is looking for another puppy now, she would ideally like a cross and it must be a bitch so if anyone knows of a suitable pup please let us know. There were some Jack Russell x Poodles on Agilitynet but unfortunately they were only advertising dogs and it must be a bitch.



Mary training in New Zealand


Well it is that time of year that we have never seemed to have been at home. In fact we felt like gypsies away in the caravan.Carrying on from where we left off last time the end of July saw us at the annual Agility Club's show at Newbury. A super weekend and extremely well run show as usual. The following week, the last weekend in July, it was the YKC camp at Brooksby College in Leicestershire. It is a 5 day camp and oversubscribed every year and with nearly 100 YKC members camping over the week and lots of adult help. An extremely well laid out event with excellent facilities and a team of very good trainers. You can understand why it is oversubscribed every year. Mary was taking a HTM/Freestyle training class just after lunch in the big marquee and there were lots of children participating in that. And, there was a lot of extremely good future HTM handlers there. In the evening Mary did a shortened version of one of her evening shows lasting an hour and that was immediately prior to the talent show. Well, Mary's show went down a treat. She used 4 of the dogs and did 15 minutes each and, I know I am biased, but she did bring the house down. The dogs were little super stars. It was quite amusing really, all the young handlers were given camp t-shirts and they got Mary autographing the backs of them and I think by the end of the day half of the youngsters were walking around with Mary's autograph on the back. It was a bit of a talking point. Anyway, after Mary's cabaret spot it was time for the talent show. Mary is not keen on judging as I think she is afraid of upsetting anyone but they cajoled her into being one of the judges. The contestants were teams of youngsters who had put together dance routines to some of their favourite music tracks and they had made their own costumes and props whilst at the camp and what a fantastic night, it was really, really a fabulous competition. Talk about Britain's Got Talent? I now know why some people just turned up to watch the talent night show!

The first week in August we were down at the Wag n Bone show in Windsor Great Park. A great show, unfortunately during the afternoon the heavens opened so it did spoil the end of the day but all the major charities were represented. Mary and Richard did their Crufts routine in the main ring a couple of time introduced by the ever popular Peter Purves and they also both did training demonstrations in the Kennel Club ring. And myself and Mary's sister Pauline were kept busy on Mary's trade stand all day. Mary's range of new products have sold extremely well this year and we are really pleased with the quality of them and the sales. I must admit to being a bit perplexed with the Wag n Bone show. Obviously something has gone on? The previous show was held 2 years ago, there was no show last year and this year there seems to have been a split with another event being run now by some of the original organisers who have broken away called the Wet Nose Show held two or three weeks before the W&B show. All that means is that there is 2 venue and setting up costs, a split audience, and less money for the charities so why would that happen? Answers on a postcard please!



Mary training in New Zealand


As soon as the show finished on the Saturday afternoon ourselves and Richard and Andrew were off to Gloucestershire where Mary and Richard's Crufts routine was going to be the Cabaret spot at a rather posh expensive wedding at a country house. We had never met the bride before but we had certainly met the groom, he runs some major events in the equine world and we have worked with him before. The evening reception was a 5 course meal being held in an elegant marquee in the grounds of the manor house and when we arrived we had just missed the starter and they had saved a table for us in with the guests so we were just in time for the main course. I had better mention that we did change our clothes in the van before we went in but we may not have been quite as smart as the rest of the guests! Lots of faces that we knew from the equine and some from the doggy world as well including Nick Brooks-Ward the horse and Crufts commentator. After the meal the show was to take place on the front lawn in front of the manor house all suitably flood lit and with spot lights. Mary was to make her entrance from the front doors of the house so a couple of minutes before they were due on Richard was carried out in the Crufts elephant box and Mary was taken into the house via the side door ready to make her grand entrance. And with just one minute to go before the music started World War 3 had started, they had arranged a firework display to start the evening off. They were the loudest fireworks I have ever heard! Mary's Levi, who she was performing with, was absolutely petrified and dragged her around the house. Richard had problems as well with his dog and as soon as the fireworks were finished Mary was due on with hundreds watching. And I stood there thinking what on earth is Levi going to do now, will he do a runner or what but quite amazingly he did an amazing near perfect routine. I think him having something to concentrate on got him over the trauma of the fireworks. Anyway,a fantastic night. We had a lovely thank you card from the bride and groom afterwards telling us it was the highlight of the evening and we were indebted to Richard for travelling up to Tewkesbury with us and having a long journey home afterwards.

Next up on the magic roundabout was the KC International Agility Festival. Another massive show that takes place at the East of England showground. I was show manager and catering manager. And apart from running her dogs, Mary was waitress at 3 lunchtime and 3 evening meals. A great show, in fact it is a bit too popular really. We had 18 competition rings and over 500 caravans and even with the East of England we are close to outgrowing the venue which is a great shame. As soon as that event had finished we were off to Dogs in Need for our weeks holiday - well I was on holiday anyway! Mary's sister Pauline was with us, so me and her had one or two days out while Mary stopped at home and ran the dogs. Mary's fortunes at agility are a bit mixed at the moment, there is so many good dogs in agility at the moment that the top twenty dogs can be split by 100th of a second so it can be a bit disheartening when you have what you consider a really, really fast clear round and then for you to finish up in 16th place. Weather wasn't good this year in fact probably some of the worst weather we've had a DiN - cold and damp. I just about managed to get the awning down and all packed up before the heavens opened on the final day so that was the only good news weather wise.

The following weekend in August was the bank holiday weekend. Mary was obediencing every day but we will come to obedience later. The final weekend in August was the City of Birmingham show. I stayed in the caravan as I was over there running the KC and Pedigree dog agility finals and Mary joined me on the Sunday because on the Sunday evening at the end of the show we were straight off in the caravan and up to Anglesey for Mary's week camp and once more Mary's sister Pauline came with us. Mary takes the course for Maggie Backhouse and Rex Seddon at their smallholding. They have a small but excellent indoor hall with the same surface that Rugby have got in their venue. It's a rubberised safety surface that they use in children's outdoor play areas. The mornings were freestyle training indoors and the afternoons were outdoors agility training for 20 handlers plus spectators. Once more a great week with lots of good company and it would have been even better of course if it had not been the worst weather in Anglesey that we've ever had. Chilly and wet are the words I am looking for. It is one of those times that you are glad you've got a decent caravan. The next day we should have gone to a wedding and for those of you that are in agility will know the groom concerned - it was Alan Disbery getting married who now has got another life in media sales and his new hobby is scuba diving. He must have had a couple of decent jobs as he was last seen driving a Jaguar company car but that didn't last very long as he had the car less than a month when he decided to take a short cut driving through a ford except the ford was a bit too deep. I don't think the car lease company were very impressed when they had to write the car off as a total loss! Yes, Alan doesn't change! The following week we were involved one evening with a Pedigree night at a hotel at the NEC. It was for winners of a Pedigree Training Treats prize draw at Crufts and pet shops. There were around 25 people there and their prize was a private show with Mary and her dogs and dinner with us. A great night in very pleasant company. That weekend, the second weekend in September Mary should have been at two obedience shows in Coventry but unfortunately (here we go again!) rain stopped play and both the shows were cancelled. But she had better weather the following week as she was off to Spain to take a 2 day clicker course for one of the Spanish search and rescue teams. She had a bit of a amazing time, certainly a different type of dog to work with and the majority of them had not done much clicker training although one or two had actually got Mary's Dog Tricks books and could actually do some tricks so there was one extreme to the other. Mary had an interpreter and it was the young lady from the hotel she was staying at called Maite and the hotel she stayed at Mary said was absolutely beautiful in a small town named Navarra. The bad news was that there was no local airport so she had to fly in to Bilbao and then had a 2 hour drive to the hotel whre she was staying.



Mary refusing to hold a fish she had caught in Australia
The following couple of weekends have been obedience so we will do an obedience roundup. Firstly for FOXY - well she had had little things going wrong with her obedience for the last few weeks and she is a smashing little dog so eager to please and she just needs one more qualifier in Open C to get into Championship class. We were at a show last weekend and Mary changed her handling technique and didn't look at Foxy at all during her heelwork, just kept her eyes straight ahead and her head up and Foxy worked an absolutely stunning round. But there is always something goes wrong with Mary, the retrieve article was a small wooden cross and Mary threw the article out and then gave the "go" command to Foxy and she shot out like a rocket to a ring post as though she was doing a sendaway. The outcome was that she lost 15 on retrieve and 18.5 altogether so she would have won if she had done a normal retrieve. QUINCY - well Mary had been trying to get Quincy qualified for Crufts this year and one of the problems is that we don't do enough ticket shows and again she was a lot of hard luck. He worked a stunning round at a Birmingham show and only got 5th place in ticket and then on the Sunday we were down in Wales and he worked another stunning round under Kath Hood. Anybody who knows Quincy knows that he is mesmorised by send away. He is an excellent send away dog and rarely loses any significant marks for it except when you are looking for a good one! At this particular show as Mary entered the ring the steward said it is send away first. And as she used the magic word, Quincy was looking at a rubbish bag hanging on a ring post 50 yards away and when Mary set him up to look at the correct markers, she had to struggle with him to stop him watching the rubbish bag which she succeeded but in doing so, she over corrected him and he did a huge banana into the sendaway box and that cost him the ticket. So that was the second 'if only' dog of the weekend. LEVI - Levi is struggling on in obedience. He needs two qualifiers to get out of Open C and in to Championship but they seem to elude him. TAZ- now Taz is flying along at the moment, of late he has had 3 Open C wins, 2 x 3rd place in Championship C, and he won the Championship class and qualified for Crufts at Thames Championship show. We've never been to this show before but as you can expect from Thames it was a lovely well run show at a lovely venue and considering the amount of rain we had prior to the show most venues would have cancelled the show but the ground held up extremely well. And finally little OZ - Mary's young Sheltie. He's been toiling away in novice obedience and it is difficult. A little dog does not sit on your leg like a collie and works with a little space between himself and Mary's left leg and it seems a lot of judges cannot accept this even though the rules do not state that the dogs must be touching the handlers leg or laying on for that matter. But none the less he is doing well. He has had 5 places in novice and last weekend he had his second win and I watched him work his round and he was a little cracker. He kept a good consistent position during his heelwork and with his high stepping action he looked an absolute little sweetie and obviously the judge thought so as well because she gave him first place!

As I am writing this we are looking forward to our last weekend away in the caravan at Thurrock and Elm Park Championship obedience shows. And then on the first Monday in October Mary flies off from Birmingham to New Zealand via Dubai and Singapore to take a training course in Dunedin for Sallie and Paul Remon. I am sure some of you agility people will remember them from the Luton area? And in Sallie's case from obedience and HTM. They are now well established in the South Island of NZ having emigrated and going on the tone from the emails I have received - not much chance of them wanting to come back to good old blighty! (did I say good?) From after 3 days of training there Mary is off to Brisbane for her annual weeks camp at the Coolangatta pet motel but more about this in the next report! I unfortunately are not going this year, I have decided that the credit crunch has hit me! I can't travel that far in economy seating and I can't really afford to pay for a business class seat with how much they cost now so I would rather stay at home with the canine kids.

Final update after the obedience weekend. It was a bit wet and windy but Mary came back with a fistful of rosettes but not enough red ones! It was Quincy's final obedience show and obviously Mary would have loved him to have won a ticket so he could have worked at Crufts. He's 11 years old now and although he is working superbly still, Mary is going to retire him and of course it would have been nice to have done that at Crufts. On the Thurrock show day Quincy did a stunning round in Championship C and at the end of the day had a run off for reserve ticket which he won and the judge did say that if he worked like that in the original round he would have won the ticket so at least he has finished on a high. Very sad because he is a lovely dog and not just in his work because he is a super dog to live with. Little Oz picked himself up a 2nd place in novice to go with his previous two wins. Taz got himself a 1st place in Open C and a 2nd place at Elm Park again in Open C and most upsetting for Mary it was due to what she did that he didn't win the ticket at Elm Park. He's really on form at the moment and at Elm Park he worked an absolutely superb round in Championship C
but when he did the retrieve exercise and Mary took the article off him she fumbled with it and dropped it on the floor and that cost him the championship class, without those points lost he would have won it but he still managed to get 4th place. And finally Foxy, she's a smashing girl who would do anything to please and she has really suffered a lot of hard luck. For ages now she has just needed a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in Open C to qualify for Championship C and here we go again at Thurrock she got 4th. Just one of many 4th - 6th places she has got but there you go!

Latest news from Mary at the time of writing was that she left the UK on an Emirates flight on Monday 6th October at 9pm and arrived in Dunedin on the south island of New Zealand at 9am Wednesday 8th October - I make that 36 hours travelling. It's a good job she was travelling business flight otherwise she would have got off like a cripple!



Levi with his mate Ozzy