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Monday 24 June 2013

Filming for the BBC

For those of you not on Facebook I have stolen the text below from Chris and the pictures from Sassy the search & rescue dog :-)
Andy
BBC filming Flyball today for the Wonder of Dogs - I would like to thank everyone in my team, the Rooky Racers, and David Flood and his Fenland Firestorm team for the great job you all did on the set today. All the dogs ran fantastically well and showed off Flyball as a great and fun sport for all types of dogs. The producers and film crew thanked me profusely at the end for such a great display of our dogs. They will feature in quite a few aspects of the programme, not only about Flyball, but also how dogs are built to run. I know all of the dogs went above and beyond what is normally called for, and it shows that no other sport can produce such athletes that can last all day long than Flyball dogs. Every dog that took part deserves a well earned rest and lots of love and hugs. Gary's new demo jumps featured well also.

Special thanks to the 2 box loaders who worked even harder as they were feeding balls into the boxes all day long with very little break. xx

The presenters Kate Humble and Steve Leonard were lovely people and were genuinely amazed at how the dogs ran. Kate's own dogs had a wee go at Flyball also

The programme will air on BBC2 either in mid-August or in September (lets hope not during the Champs!)

We will see what makes the programme and what makes the cutting room floor, but I am sure Flyball will be better known as a result.

Thanks again to the great people and dogs that took part today. Be proud.bbc1bbc2bbc3bbc4bbc5

Last comps. before the British Championships

One post covering the next two competitions.  (If you did not get this via email please let me know, Thanks).

1st  competition is at Mapledurham, July 13th & 14th details on the blog http://rookyracers.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/mapledurham-competition-july-13th-14th.html  (as I am too lazy to type this again !) if you can make it but have not told Chris please let him know.  If you want to go and camp over (even if you are not racing) you are more than welcome to stay over and try the fun stuff that is also going on.

 2nd competition, August 3rd & 4th at Fairview Farm, Stockbridge, Hampshire SO20 6EN

Camping is available if you want it.

As this is the last competition before the British Championships, I would like to get the dogs that are going to the British Championships into their teams at Fairview Farm and race race race !, it is the perfect venue to practice cross overs, starts and working out what combination of dogs works best.  If you are at the British Champs, and you can make this, that would be great.

 I am also happy for new dogs to cut their teeth here (if training is going well and you want to see what happens).

Can you let me know by this week Wednesday morning if you can make Fairview farm please.

There are a few more competitions left this year, details to follow... but with a bit more warning next time!

Many thanks,

Andy

Friday 21 June 2013

I have no idea how this happened...

... not that I am complaining lol... thanks Pets At Home for mentioning us in your latest magazine :-)


Andy (Via Facebook and Suzie)

Thursday 13 June 2013

Hectic June 22nd & 23rd

1) 22/06 = No training

2) 22/06 = Starters comp at Basingstoke Saturday 22nd, Chris will be asking new dogs this weekend if they want to compete at Basingstoke (we have 3 spaces left in the starter team).

3) 23/06 = BBC Filming Rooky Racers dogs doing Flyball for a new programme about Dogs; this will also feature in the opening titles (the dogs not the handlers !).  This is with Chris.

Or

4) 23/06 = Racing at Basingstoke, open to all BFA dogs, the more the better as there will be gaps in teams, so a great chance to race if you are new, or worried about dogs running out etc. as there will be no pressure to win.  This is with Andy.

Let Chris know asap if you want to do the BBC filming OR Basingstoke.

If you want more details about any of the above ask Chris (and yes there is Camping at Basingstoke if you want it on Friday and or Saturday night).

Thanks,

Andy

Movers and Shakers update for May :-)

May movers !

Well, it has been a long time coming but a big congratulations to Chris and Princess Milly on gaining their Silver award in Mapledurham in May, 10,115 points !.

Radley gains his Flyball Dog Intermediate with 1,150 points after Mapledurham (great haul of points for Radley at Mapledurham... 325 from that one competition !).

Future shakers!.

Keep an eye on Harry who has 4,695 points and eyes set firmly on his Flyball Dog Advanced award.

Bruiser "HERE, HERE, here, DOWN" is only 200 points away from Flyball Dog Graduate.

Darcy could also make Flyball Dog Graduate with a good days racing.

Nice going eveyone, keep it up :-)

Andy


Thursday 6 June 2013

Mapledurham Competition - July 13th & 14th + Fun day

Let Chris know if you want to race at this event please.

Held on the field by the river this time and run by the Berkshire Bandits.

last year was fantastic with great weather :-)

Includes a fun day on Sunday in aid of DBARC (you get to meet Sarah North who trained Chris and Andy) so plenty to do even if you are not racing.

Camping is £7 a night:
Thanks, Andy

Wednesday 5 June 2013

BFA Champs 2013

The British Flyball Championships are being held this year at a new venue – Catton Hall, in Derbyshire on Friday 16th Aug to Sunday 18 th Aug. . It certainly looks to be a very beautiful spot to do some Flyball :- ) http://www.catton-hall.com/

The British Championships have a fantastic atmosphere and is a great opportunity to see the top Flyball dogs in the country do their best, as well as have some fun racing ourselves. There are many trade stands usually and food stalls on site.

The club always likes to put as many of our members forward to enter as possible, as so we always offer free entry to this fabulous competition – for members who are BFA registered and who have a dog that does a complete run. There are upwards of 2000 dogs that will be there over the 3 days. As the order for racing is done in strict seed time order, the Rebounds and Rascals are likely to be racing on the Friday, with the Racers and Raiders on the Saturday – though this is not guaranteed at this stage. As the venue is about 130 miles from Bracknell (2 1/2hr drive time) we usually recommend you travel the night before and camp at the venue. Val and I will be there from Thursday through till Sunday in our caravan.

At this stage, and as soon as possible, and certainly by close of play on Friday 21 st June, please can you let me know if you will be attending this Championship and if so, will you will be needing a camping spot or not . Then we will put the teams together and place our entry forward. Please can everyone let me know one way or the other if you will be attending so that I can keep track of things. The club will pay for the entry, but not for your camping.

(You can still come and camp / help out even if you are not racing).

Chris

See below for the notice from the BFA -

The British Flyball Championships will be held this year from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th August at Catton Hall in Derbyshire. The tournament will be limited to 270 teams, with entry being applied on a first-come first-served basis after the schedule is released at 9pm on Tuesday 2nd July. Entry is set at £35 per sub-team entered. Camping will be available from 4pm on the Thursday through to 10:30am on the Monday at a flat rate of £20. All camping must be pre-booked prior to the closing date of 16th July and camping passes will be issued a couple of weeks prior to the tournament. Anybody arriving without possession of a camping pass will be turned away. As is the normal practice, divisions will run in reverse order over the weekend, starting with division 45 on Friday, culminating in division 1 last thing on Sunday. There will be facilities on site including toilets, showers, skips & a bar and there will be evening entertainment on Friday & Saturday nights. The Championships are again kindly sponsored by CSJ Specialist Canine Feeds. Finally, it has been decided that all declared times must be received in writing by 26th July 2013. The seed list will also be taken on 26th July 2013

Kronch competition !

Hello,

Welcome to our first Rooky Racers competition (oooooo !).

Up for grabs is a 175g bag of Salmon Treats for your dog from Kronch.
 
KR4 

Kronch have been in the UK for a number of years and are well known in Gun Dog and Agility circles.

Kronch specialise in providing dog food and treats high in salmon oil; they also provide pure salmon oil to squirt on your dogs (and cats) food.


So, what do you have to do to win the bag of treats ?!... easy !.

1) Get onto twitter and follow @RookyRacers and @KronchUK

2) Once you are following both send a tweet = "@RookyRacers my dog {Dogs name} would love some free treats please!"

That is it!, on 15th June I will put all the dogs names in a hat that appear on Twitter and get someone to pull out the lucky winner; they will get the treats there and then.

Not only that !... if you spread the word to all your other dog owning friends and they follow @KronchUK you and your friends get a chance to win a 2nd bag of treats direct from Kronch once they get 100 followers!.

And not only that (gasp! lol!)...

Kronch have now released a new dry dog food aimed at active dogs with added joint care:


If you would like a free sample of this food email "Karen@Kronch.co.uk" and say you belong to the Rooky Racers, not only will you get a sample, but maybe.... just maybe... a small bag of fishy treats too !.

And as a reminder, please keep checking our Rooky Racers blog every now and then for all the latest news.  http://www.rookyracers.co.uk/blog.html

That's all !...see you at training :-)

Andy

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Are you on Twitter?!...

... If not get yourself an account set up... because coming soon there will  TWO competitions...

1) To win a goody bag from www.kronch.co.uk
2) To win a goody bag from www.bobandlush.com

All will be revealed soon... but all you need to know is... these will be simple to enter, requires minimum effort  and the chances of winning a goody bag are really high because it is open to the Rooky Racers team only :-)

Andy

Saturday 1 June 2013

Pet food / product challenge

As you may (or may not) know I do try and support my local independent pet shop – Pet Fayre in Lower Early (http://www.petfayre-reading.co.uk/).

From today you can now email me at andy@rookyracers.co.uk and ask for the best price on any pet product (for any animal type).

I will come back to you with a price, if you like the price let me know, I will bring the product to training and you can pay me with a cheque (preferred) or cash.

Simple as that !…

The team make no money out of this… but you do get the warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing you are supporting a hard working sole trader.

Examples of prices so far:

Skinners Duck & Rice £23 (15Kg)

Skinners Salmon & Rice £27 (15Kg)

Nature Diet 81p a packet or £13.77 for a tray of 18 packets.

Pet Fayre can quote for anything … give it a go (although my wife tells me horse products are not as cheap as Eileen Douglas !).

Andy

Sponsor a Flyball Dog

Want to get your company or product logo seen at Flyball competitions but cannot afford to sponsor a team?… then how about sponsoring a single dog?.

Sponsorship would appear on the dog handlers competition top, and you will get regular updates on how your dog and the team they compete with are doing.

The Rooky Racers compete at competitions all around the south of England and also at the British Championships, and without a main sponsor yours would be the only logo on the handlers top.

What do you need to do?.

Contact andy@rookyracers.co.uk Andy will work with you and our embroiders (http://www.topembroidery.co.uk/) to get your logo incorporated onto a competition top along with the teams logo.

Our main competition top design is the Finden+Hales LV325 in Red and Black, but you can choose other designs provided they are all Red, all Black or a combination of Red & Black.  (You could possibly have other colours, for example White, but if the colours clash with another teams colours then we ask you to stick with Red & Black).

You will be sent the final invoice for an embroidered top, the Rooky Racers will not add on any extra costs, what you see is what you pay.

That is it, sit back and let your sponsored dog and handler do all the hard work of waking up early and competing at Flyball :-)

Of course if you want to offer anything extra to the dog, handler or even the rest of the Flyball team that is not a problem.

The top will be worn for at least a year (after then the wonderful weather in this country will start to fade and wear the top out, you then have the option to provide a new top or not).

What dogs can you sponsor?.

As a team we have many dogs, and we are certain we can accommodate any request !.

Examples: We have dogs who compete at a high level at obedience competitions, old dogs, young dogs, nervous dogs, pedigree dogs, scruffy dogs, rescue dogs, 5 dogs from the same canine family tree, dogs attempting to qualify for Flyball at Crufts next year, dogs with young handlers, slow dogs, fast dogs, hairy dogs… you get the idea.

Our team are mainly based in Bracknell and Wokingham but do travel from Lower Early, Winnersh, Yately, Sandhurst and Windsor to train / compete, so we may be of interest to a local company.

If you don't want to sponsor a dog, but do want to offer products or services to our team please let andy@rookyracers.co.uk know.

(Fingers crossed Thundershirt read this post, my Chewy could do with showing off their product at competitions !).

Obviously the quicker you get in touch the better the choice of dogs… especially if you want to take a punt on a potential Crufts dog!.

Thanks,

Andy

Our Flyball Chute - pictures and plans

Hope this helps !.
Some measurements added as captions on the photos.
Base length = 110 cm long and 77 cm wide.
Front of chute = 90 to 93 cm top to bottom.  75cm width at the bottom.  65cm width at the top.