Introducing our team

Just realised I haven't yet introduced my fellow team members even though I've mentioned them.

Obviously there is my 'sister' Mollie who is another German Wirehaired Pointer. She isn't my real sister but Mum says we act like siblings. No idea what she means by that!

Fynn is a Large Munsterlander who is full of life and has a big personality. He is very speedy over those flyball jumps and as he runs as last dog he usually saves the race for us.

Merlin is a Golden Retriever who likes to spend his time getting cuddles from the humans. He's been doing flyball the longest out of all of us and is a pro, although given the chance he will wait at the box to see if he can con a second ball out of the boxloader!

Soloman is an Aussie Shepherd who has been doing flyball about as long as me. He likes the ladies ahem ... or the fellows to be honest ... so the humans have worked hard to help him concentrate on his flyball. He does seem to have gotten it sussed recently though!

Then there is Ronja who is a Curly Coat Retriever Cross. Ronja and Mollie are 'girls together' and regularly down tools when it is too warm! Ronja recently got her flyball dog award but hasn't run with us over winter.

We mustn't forget the lovely Bailey who is a Golden Retriever. Bailey had to retire from flyball due to non-flyball related leg injuries but he loves to come along for the social side and can usually be found pinching tennis balls or rolling in the grass to get himself as dirty as possible!

You can see pictures of all my team mates on our team website at http://www.minstermonsters.co.uk/ where you can also see pictures of our new members who run in our starter team the Cookie Monsters.

My first two division tournaments

Running at my first flyball division tournament was great fun. Once Mum got over her nerves that was! Apparantly she was worried I would go visiting the dogs in the other lane and show her up ... as if!

The tournament was in Doncaster and Dad came along too to help out. I loved having an audience and made the most of showing off how fast I could run over those big jumps! Even Mollie did well and made no mistakes - she's recently decided to add 'pouncing' on her team mates during changeovers into the equation when doing flyball which doesn't impress Mum but I think its quite funny myself!

At the end of the day we had won all of our races and got a 1st place in our division and both Mollie and I were presented with a lovely rosette each. Mum has taken them though as apparantly I'll chew them!

My second division flyball tournament was at Newark showground. It was a freezing day and this seemed to make the humans go a bit crazy, make lots of mistakes and laugh a lot!

In one race Auntie Vik set Soloman off to run before the lights had even started (even the judge laughed at that one!). In another race Mum forgot to detach my lead before setting me off. She was very embarassed but to be honest it didn't stop me and I just carried on running. So what if the lead knocked all the jumps over behind me! I even managed to carry on running when a dog from the other lane ran over and pinched my ball. I just got another from our kind boxloader and ran like the wind back to Mum. I even got a round of applause for that one which I obviously enjoyed! As always Merlin and Fynn stayed professional and didn't put a paw wrong with Fynn saving the race a number of times. Even Mollie behaved to run in one race.

Despite all the mistakes we won all of our races again and got 1st place in our division again being presented with lovely rosettes.

We have been busy in training again for our next tournament in March and even had a new girl join the team this week. She's called Penny and is a crossbreed with some greyhound or saluki in her. Mum and Auntie Kerry said she did really well for her first lesson and should be very fast!

Flyball training part 2

Just as I had started to get the hang of flyball, and run in a few starter tournaments, Mum, Auntie Kerry and Uncle Paul set up a new flyball team and we moved to a different training ground. This was a great opportunity for me to have some more fun and games!

The new training ground was surrounded by open fields full of pheasants and bunnies! My HPR nose worked overtime, and I found it hard to concentrate on flyball as it was such great fun to run around the edges of the field figuring out if I dare jump over the fence to go and investigate! I never did but I had Mum worried a few times!! I made everyone laugh though!

It wasn't until we found our permanent training ground that I finally decided Flyball was great fun as it was and there was really no need to introduce new rules! These days I will do anything to get my ball, including knocking over ball buckets to steal one!

I have recently been allowed to run in 2 division flyball tournaments which were great fun and where I could earn points towards my flyball dog award. Mum and Auntie Kerry think I probably have enough points but we're just waiting for confirmation. Watch this space ...

Flyball training part 1

Flyball is great fun ... being trained to do it as a puppy was even more fun though!

As a puppy I got the hang of flyball pretty quickly. Go over 4 jumps, get the ball and come back over the 4 jumps with the ball. Easy ... and boring! So I invented some new rules whereby I would miss out some of the jumps, run off with the ball, or just run off generally to sniff a nice smell on the ground or play with some of my other doggie friends. It used to really make everyone laugh so surely that was a good thing right?

At my first flyball tournament, running in starters with netting around the jumps, I got my ball but then spotted a dog running in the lane next to me so I jumped the netting to go say hello and show him my ball! He was most impressed so I bowed at him too. Mum however was not impressed and I had to sit the rest of the races out just watching.

I soon realised though that if I did flyball properly I got a tasty treat at the end and a big fuss made of me. Now I do love my food and cuddles so it was worth doing it properly. I also got to run in some more starter tournaments and get some lovely rosettes which made my mum very proud.

To be continued ...

Introduction

My name is Rolf and I am a 2 year old Black & White German Wirehaired Pointer. I live in North Yorkshire with my Mum and Dad and Mollie (also a German Wirehaired Pointer).
I love mischief and my Mum says my mission in life is to think up the perfect cunning plan!
I thought I would start this Blog to tell you all about my adventures and also about all the fun I have had learning to do Flyball and recently running in my first few tournaments!