THE FLYING PUGS: février 2014

"Pugs" have a bad reputation as a fat and lazy breed and many people think that we can only jump on the sofa... It's about time the world see pugs as a healthy and active breed of dogs...
Our agility titles: Balearic champion 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. National champion in 2011 and 2012, finished second due to injury in 2013. Represented Spain at the World Agility Open in 2011, 2012 where we make the penthalon finales each year and in 2014 we were picked as a wild card and once again made the finales of the penthalon 14th overall and biathlon 23rd, I'm so proud of my Pancho for all his hard work....Yes a Pug at the World championships!!! In 2013 we also represented España at EO in Belgium and won 4 rosettes at the International Agility Festival in grade 6 with a 4th, 8th and 9th place and 1st place at the IFCS qualifier at Oxford. Top 3 on every class at the Jersey Agility festival and made the small final. Pepito and Wilson have won titles too at trials like the Fab Show in Oxford UK in 2013 and team events with Pancho and many podiums at the Jersay agility festival too. I'm so proud of my babies, I really can't ask for more. OUR MOTO "PUGS RULE

YOU CAN FOLLOW USE ON OUR WEB SITE WWW.THEFLYINGPUGS.COM

17 févr. 2014

From junk to jumps

I found what some people call rubbish and the idea came to me to turn them into jumps!!

Those half circles are too big so I cut one at 22cm and the second at 32cm.

White glue to water proof the wood

Sanding it down to remove all sharpe edges

3 coats of paint and......

There you have it 4 jumps for nothing

13 févr. 2014

4 short sequences from my boys

Pancho, Pepito and Wilson are all training very well. Pancho is getting stronger and stronger physically and Wilson is really improving with his striding.

And you don't have to be young to be fit, Gordon is also showing what a grandad can do in the ring :)

Pancho is my black champion. I got him at 7 weeks old from our breeder here in Palma in 2008. I didn't want a black pug but my partner wanted to see him and as soon as he got on the floor he came to me and fell asleep on my lap... Ok he got me!!! I couldn't say no and it was the best thing I did. At the age of 7 months old I started agility after reading in Cesar Millan's book that it can help with "very active" dogs. So we went and the minute he entered the ring he started to jump everything in front of him, climbing the contacts jumps and entering the tunnels all on his own... Now nearly 5 years old, he has won many competitions, 4 Baleares championships in the row, and with Pepito's help finished 3rd at the Balearic championships in at the team event in 2013. In 2010 Pancho finished 3rd team at the Spanish championship and our big moments of 2011 and 2012 was the World agility open "WAO " when we represented España and both year made the pentathlon final. This Year we went to WAO as a Wild card and again made the pentathlon final and finished 14th over 80 dogs. Pancho also won the national and Balearic championship mini/midi 3 years in a raw. In june 2013 we went to England to compete at the International Agility Festival and won 4 rosettes and this year we made the International final and again won many rosettes!! I'm so proud of my "Panpan".

Frimousse is my princess, she is from Essex in the UK and is a real tart... She is the boss and has a temper like her mama I guess, don't mess with her... She is not the active type but does the odd agility training and competes with the babies due to an accident to her eye 2 years ago. She has lost 80% of her sight of her left eye and since that accident she likes her nice and slow walkes and running after Pancho (she is in love with him but don't tell her I said that.) She is papa's girl and when Pancho and Pepito were babies she did a great job playing mom with them.

Pepito is my little pug, at just 6,8kg he is a small pug. I got him 5 years ago with Pancho and it was like having twins.... Double trouble with them 2.... We started agility and everything Pancho was jumping he was jumping, it was so funny... He is my little agility champion but not his prefered excercise, he loves running, swimming and playing with his toys. This year Pepito came 2nd behind Pancho at the Baleares championships in 2011, in 2013 with Pancho's help finished 3rd team at the Balearic Championships and 4th at the national championships in Madrid. I'm so proud of my little Pepito. I can look into his eyes all day, if he was human he would have all the girls running after him.

Wilson is my new black baby, he's 3 years old and pancho's half brother. Since getting Pancho I'm hooked on black pugs. Poor Wilson didn't have the best childhood with 2 eye perforations at 4 and 6 months old due to a bacteria, we are not to sure how it happened, but he had to have an operation on each eye and we discoved that his glands lagrinales didn't do their job. His is now 100% just needs his daily eye drops. A few days ago i had him checked by a bone specialist because i wasn't happy with the "click" coming from his hip bone when playing. My fears were real as he was diagnosed with hip dysplacia. Poor sausage he now has to be on a special diet and have specific excercise training to make sure his back legs are stronge. He won a trial at the Fba show UK this summer and has a great future in front of him. He is my little "baby" and loved by all the other pugs. Wilson has started to compete in FCI and h's doing great.

Our mama is called LAURE, she was born in Le Mans france in 1974 (she's old but don't tell her that!!). She has always had a great contact with animals as a young girl with her gran's dogs and her own. At 7 years old, she started at a poney club and from day one was right at home with poneys and horses. At the age of 15, she received her first and only horse called "MUST". Laure and "Must" had the perfect relationship and went to win many horses trials and participated at 2 Switzerland junior championships in her specialty "cross country". When "Must" had to retire due to emphysema in 1994, she moved to Brighton in the UK to learn English. England was a nice place to live and she stayed... In 2000 she started training and competiting in triathlon and many road races. Within 2 years she was in the Great Britain long distance triathlon team and participated at 3 world championships in her age group. In 2005 she entered an Ironman in Austria and finished it in 12h53, which was one of the best sport achievement. That same year she also moved to Majorca Spain for a warmer way of life and in 2009 started agility with Pancho and Pepito at our agility club Mitjanit. We know that we are novices in agility and have a lot to learn still but we are doing out best to show sportmanship and enjoy every minute of our journey into that sport.

What is agility?

Dog agility is a dog sport in which a handler directs his dog through an obstacle course in a race for both time and accuracy. Dogs run off leash with no food or toys as incentives, and the handler can touch neither dog nor obstacle. Consequently the handler's controls are limited to voice, movement, and various body signals, requiring exceptional training of the animal and coordination of the handler.

In its simplest form, an agility course consists of a set of standard obstacles laid out by a judge in a design of his or her own choosing in an area of a specified size. The surface may be of grass, dirt, or rubber. Depending on the type of competition, the obstacles may be marked with numbers indicating the order in which they must be completed.

Courses are complicated enough that a dog could not complete them correctly without human direction. In competition, the handler must assess the course, decide on handling strategies, and direct the dog through the course, with precision and speed equally important. Many strategies exist to compensate for the inherent difference in human and dog speeds and the strengths and weaknesses of the various dogs and handlers.