Great day today! All the regulars from the Lomond Flyball Club met us at Irvine beach for their New Year walk. We haven’t seen them for a while due to the house move, Christmas and of course the recent deep freeze so it was great to get together with everyone again.

Beanie & Biggles were initially a little overwhelmed by the huge gathering of dogs but once the walk got under way they got into the swing of things.

Obviously this was an off-lead walk for most dogs, and we were sorely tempted to let our two run free as well. It’s been quite a while since they’ve been off-lead together rather than singly -  the temptation to go off on their own high-speed adventures is usually too much for them to resist. This time however they seemed genuinely interested in joining their buddies Robbie and Sam, who are both pretty well behaved off-lead.

Robbie

Sam

Surely with them as role models our two would behave themselves? Eh, no.. not really. As soon as Susan unclipped their leads, they shot off down the beach straight past their pals. Little Robbie wanted to follow them but once he got  too far away from his Mum, he turned around and ran back. It could be said that our two did the same, if you allow for the fact that their idea of “too far away” is very different from ours!

The look on their faces says it all. “Yep we’ve been naughty, and it was NICE!”

Of course treats are nice too..

..but that mouthful of chicken comes at a price. Beanie & Biggles, you’re nicked!

That was the end of their off-lead antics for the day, but they still had a good time walking with the group. We even ran into a couple of other Beagles – two boys, both young like our two, but way, way larger. And much, much better off lead!

Yep, well behaved Beagles. Just rub it in why don’t you!

On the other hand, their hunting skills were woefully lacking. They completely neglected their woofing duties when some horses passed by, leaving Beanie & Biggles to do all the work. That’s a heavy burden on young shoulders, but they have a strong sense of duty, our two.

Given that we were walking with fit flyballing dogs there was bound to be some impressive acrobatics:

But even the professionals can get into squabbles about who’s supposed to be doing what!

After the walk everyone headed back to our house for hot cuppas and some nibbles. To avoid the nibbles being nibbled illegally I had to put Beanie & Biggles in their crates. They took this remarkably well, though there was a bit of wailing when the hot sausage rolls came out of the oven. They got even with me when we let them out of their crates though. There were a couple of sausage rolls and cakes left over from the gathering and I fancied my chances of polishing them off, but I didn’t realise I hadn’t closed the kitchen door properly until it was too late.

• “Hi Dad!”
• Leap
• Gobble

And it was all gone.

Flyball starts up again in February, and we can’t wait to see the gang again for our first training session of 2010.

Success! I am now able to ride my bike. The breakthrough came yesterday when I did what I should have done when we first got our bikes; I embarked on a major Googling session. I found a US site with an instructional video (cheap but not free otherwise I’d reproduce it here) which spelled out the most crucial bit of advice every non-bicycle-riding adult needs, and it’s not advice you’ll get from someone who learned to ride as a child because the whole process is too instinctual for them.

The advice is simply this: when the bike starts to lean, correct it by temporarily turning the front wheel in the same direction as the lean. That’s it. Once you’ve got that idea loaded into your head, progress comes fast. I spent a little time in a deserted car park last night just practicing the balancing side of things, and ten minutes later I was pedaling. This morning we went for another practice session on a bike trail and by the end of it I was getting bursts of 1-2 mins without any mishaps. I haven’t  collected any new injuries either, though my arse is sore thanks to that medieval instrument of torture which is laughingly called a bike seat. Anyway, anybody reading this who also managed to survive childhood without ever learning to ride a bike will find the following link very useful:

http://www.hembrow.eu/personal/howtorideabike.html

I’ve still got a ton of photos from yesterday’s lure coursing to sort through and process before my next post, but for now here are a few snaps from a flyball demo we attended (but did not participate in this time) at James Lindsay Park, Baillieston. The demo was given by the Lomond Flyball Club, and here are a few shots:

Click here for the full set of photos

Time trials were scheduled for tonights flyball class. Last time we did them was in May. Back then the jumps were set at 8 inches and their times were as follows:

Beanie : 5.98 seconds
Biggles : 8.23 seconds

Tonight the jumps were set at 10 inches (which is Beanie and Biggles full jumping height). Their times were:

Beanie : 5.2 seconds
Biggles : 6.75 seconds

Which isn’t at all bad! There’s still lots of room for improvement with Biggles, but he’s still very young and as only recently started training properly.