Watford, Bretons, Dartford and St ed's

All those shows and all over two weekends!! No wonder I spend so much on diesel.

Watford was pretty much a complete waste of time. Will think twice about this one next year if it is at the same place. Mind you they can't help the weather. But it drizzled all flippin day. The grass was really really short and the ground underneath really hard. It was evident quite quickly that a lot of dogs were really slipping. As a result it seemed stupid to try and push the dogs round anything. Jag slipped all over the place in his jumping. Twix was more sure footed in hers and ended up 4th but I left with a feeling that we could have had a much better place but I wasn't going to push and Twix doesn't work well with me running her like that.

Bretons was a good show :-) Our club were ring partying. So it was a case of run off to a ring when possible. This weirdly seemed to work well for me. Jag had two
6th places which I was pleased with as more than anything we were clear!! His touch points were lovely and very controlled. Twix was e'd in her agility.. my fault totally. I forgot to call her before the weaves. Oops. But in her 4/5 jumping... she won... yay. Good little Twix. She really did run well and won by a good margin, well for agility these days it was a good margin.

Dartford wasn't the most successful show for me. Jag did do a lovely round to come 2nd in his 6/7 jumping. And most importantly I released him from the start rather than him deciding when we were going! Twix had a pole in her 4/5 jumping and a clear in her agility but as I trained her contacts we weren't placed.. well at least I don't think we were..oops.

St Ed's today was a good show! Ok Jag had a pole in the chum, grrr. But he was clear in grade 7 agility, lovely contacts had another 2nd in 6/7 jumping and just a pole down in the grade 7 jumping. Although I can't believe I actually managed to remember where we were going... nice course, but I was still thinking about Twix's success when I ran.

Twix came 4th in her 4/5 agility, which was good with nicely held contacts. She came 6th in a 5/6 jumping. Really pleased that she beat some nice grade 6 dogs. Maybe she will be able to hold her own up there. And even better... we won another grade 5 jumping. So two down one to go. Twix again won by a good margin. So very pleased.

Chum semi on Thursday.. gulp! I hate these. Really really hate them. Olympia is lovely but the semi's are nasty. So would love to get through but who knows. So many good dogs. Watch this space!

Well done to Nancy and not at all naughty Niamh for qualifying for a chum semi today. Just go for it out there! Think Karen and Todd had a rather good day to!

Hinckley, Thames and Axstane

Well after the wet weekend at supadogs, all I wanted was a nice dry Hinckley!! Went up on Friday. Toni drive me up there (Lee followed Sat am). We had a nice journey up, always seems to go quickly, mainly because we seem to manage to chat all the way. Set up the tents and then sat down to drink. Had a pleasent evening chatting and drinking.

Sat was at least dry! Champ, hm didn't go well. Actually Jag just had a pole but with something like 43 clears in the jumping we had kinda got no chance. Twix for some reason felt very slow. I was told I was babying her too much. So in her last run I made an effort to be a bit more pushy and it worked. We did get an e but she felt so much better (looks like Toni was right again!). Best result of the day was Jag's 4th place in the Crufts singles qualifier. Nice to get some points under my belt.

Toni won the medium ticket with Minx.. yipee.. another one. Was really pleased for Toni. They are working so well together.

Sunday I was judging a 3/4/5 agility. Was pleased with how the class went. There was a nice tight bit and then a flowing finish. Course below. I was pleased with the way it ran. There was the normal mixture of good and bad handling but was quite happy with the winners run.



On to Thames. Went up nice and early on Friday afternoon, was set up really quickly and was sat drinking rather early!! As for agility, some more Crufts points for Jag. Clear in the Chum but a very competitive class and due to a turn in the wrong direction, Jag was well down the places. Twix had a couple of nice middle of the road places in agility with trained contacts. Missed out on Novice chum because of a pole. Champ was pants again... will I even make a champ final this year. Hm!

Saturday night at Thames is always fun. And that is as much as I will say. But I did feel slightly tired on Sunday and had a slight headache. But nothing to major.

Axstane is a lovely show. Always enjoy it. Jag had a 4th in his agility on Sunday with nicely held contacts. He came 8th in the celebration connection class. Which very scarily qualifies him for the final. Gulp! The best result of the weekend had to be Twix's 5/6/7 jumping on Saturday. She finished 3rd. Now I know there weren't a huge amount of grade 7 dogs there, but the first two places were good grade 7 dogs and there were several good grade 7 dogs behind her. Twix did the best round I think she has ever done. Amanda Rodgers was the judge and course was big and flowing. Not the sort of thing I would expect Twix to do well on. I was very chuffed with Twix after that one. She seemed to work really well all weekend and I had lots of people commenting that she suddenly seems to have gone up a gear. Which is what it felt like running her. So long may this continue. Oh and just for good measure, her dog walks were great!

Axstane and Thames were also debut shows for 3 of the dogs in my puppy class. All three have had clear rounds and these shows and a few places to boot. Is really nice to seem them out there running and work well.