Whoooo we won!!!!!

Well yesterday was my first day at Crufts for 2008. I was there for the team competiton. Our team consisted of me, Lee Windybottom, Toni D and David Munnings. I was running Jag, Lee running Shy, David running Billy and Toni running Lee's Bold. Toni's Kite has lots to do at Crufts and as she is 9 (not that you would know it lol)now and Crufts is about the most tiring show a dog can do I think (must be lights and atmosphere)she had decided to rest Kite and run one of our reserve dogs. Toni hasnt run Bold much at all.

Well we started with the morning semi and... we all went clear! I ran first, followed by Lee then Toni and finally David. We won the semi and put in a good time as well, which was nice as none of us rushed anything. I think team is very much about consistentcy and not neccesarily out and out speed, although some speed helps lol.

Other teams going into the final were Bacon, Wilmslow and WHAT.

I don't think I have been so nervous for such a long time. I guess there is quite a lot of pressure in teams!

The afternoon final was to be at 3.25. I walked the course and had assumed that we would run in reverse order of how we finished in the semi. No apparently not! As I was sauntering back to collect Jag, I was told I was running second. This meant I rushed back to the ring with Jag. Might have been a good thing as I didn't have too much time to worry lol.

Jaglet did a good run. He had a pole. Really not sure why but I was really disappointed. We held it together though and managed not to make another mistake. There was an a-frame at the end of the course that required a 180 turn off the end and this is a classic situation for me pulling Jag off the contact. My team mates had all kindly reminded me to work the contact lol. So I managed to nail that!

In the first round only one team went clear and every other team had 5 faults. So my disappointment at getting faults soon changed as now the teams were all much more equal.

In the second round the team that went clear had their dog eliminated so now everything was even! Lee put in a lovely clear. I think another team also had an E in this round. The handler from WHAT putting in an amazing clear. So now it was down to us and WHAT!

Third round Toni did another brilliant clear with Bold (what a good handler and well trained dog!). The dog from WHAT was give 5 on the a-frame. So as we run before WHAT at the end of the third round we were on 5 and WHAT were on 10. So we knew all we needed was for David to go clear and we had won... no pressure Dave!!

Fourth round and David put in a great clear with good old Billy. The WHAT team also put in a good clear but we had the advantage on faults.

Any way after all that sweating... what we didn't realise was that the first dog to run for WHAT had been given 10 faults!!! We didn't know this until we went back to look at the results later on. So all that sweating.. we could have been chilling and enjoying it lol.

I don't have any pics or video.. yet!! One of my friends is ring party up at Cruft and managed to video all our rounds. So at some point I should have video. We also had lots of people taking pictures after we won. So I am sure some pictures and video will emerge.

Well done to Gem and Boo for a clear in their team. Boo looked really good Gem.

I have today off work and boy am I glad I booked it! I feel rather tired. But still rather happy!

Toni, Lee and David are all back up there today for the singles. Good luck to them. Have heard on Crufts FM that David won the morning semi for large dogs. Not sure what else anyone has done.

Good luck to Nancy tomorrow.

I am back up on Sunday. Can't wait!