We had our annual trip to Paws in the Park at the South of England showground this weekend.  We camped at Long Acres and began our weekend with a meal at the Blacksmiths Head.

On Saturday Ian wasn't feeling well, so Ruby, Pepper and I headed off to the showground to see what we could achieve.  We had a lovely day catching up with friends, particularly, Julia and John Frost and their boys Bailey and Jasper, and managed some shopping in between our runs.

Our agility achievements were very mixed:

PEPPER

Combined 6-7 Jumping - It was a long, spread out course with an ending that needed me to be with Pepper.  She missed the tricky weave entry so picked up 5 faults, and then were eliminated when I was legging it to the end which caused her to miss a jump.

Graded 6-7 Agility - We managed to get round clear but not exactly as we'd walked it!  I couldn't quite get where i needed to and had to twiddle her round my legs to get her on the right side, but even with this we were placed 2nd.

Combined 4-7 Agility - Another clear that didn't go entirely to plan - our old nemesis of the wrong end of the tunnel (more work needed!).  Not fast enough to be in the places so just a clear round rosette.

RUBY

Combined 1-3 Jumping - This was such a nice course, but Ruby got distracted by a GSD to one side of the ring and missed a jump.  She did get her weave entry - a fast entry from a tunnel, so generally happy!

Combined 3-5 Jumping - A lovely course with some handling needed but we picked up 5 faults when sending her round the back of a jump.  Another good 12 weaves and she picked up speed throughout the run.

Grade 3 Agility - This is the run that is going to haunt me from this show!  I didn't get to walk it as I was running Pepper in her C4-7 Agility at the same time, but it was a nice flowing course and I had watched a good number of other dogs before our turn.  I had expected Ruby to leap off of all of the contacts but she did me proud and got every one!  Sadly it was me that caused us to get 5 faults!  Because I hadn't walked the course I misjudged the angle to a jump and we got a 5R!  Such a shame - I didn't go and look at the times, and am sure she wouldn't have won, but it would have been lovely to get a clear round with her on an agility course!

Back to the campsite to check on the poorly soldier and a quick visit to the Wiremill for a drink!

Here's Pepper with her rosettes:

Goodness, that was a very damp day!  It rained all day, but we had fun despite the weather!

As usual, I arrived at the show and immediately wanted to ignore my Winter training regime, but I gave myself a good talking to and made sure that I used the show to train some of the areas we need to work on.  Here's a review of our runs:

PEPPER

Advanced Agility 2 - Our first run of the day!  Pepper was beside herself with excitement as usual and the second obstacle was the A-Frame - she ran straight off without giving her 2o2o position a single thought!  I put her back over it and she had a beautiful stop!  The rest of the run was fab.  We used our second chance ticket to run the course again and had lovely held contacts this time!  We also won the class!

Advanced Steeplechase - The course wasn't that nice, and the outside school was very wet.  I hadn't realised they had got to the Medium dogs, and was called to run before they closed the class so it was all a bit of a rush.  I didn't run the course as I had walked it, and it wasn't pretty but it was clear.  I completely forgot about this later in the day when I left before the prize giving and at the time of writing I don't know if we won a place or not - very rude of me!

Advanced Agility 1 - We got 5 Faults on this run for a refusal at a jump - my timing into a ketschker wasn't quite right and she turned towards me before the jump.  The rest of the course ran beautifully and she was really driving.

Advanced Jumping - It was getting late in the day by the time we ran this and I set off on the wrong side at the start which threw me completely!  I had to change my plan half way down the weaves and didn't quite get where I wanted to be, but apart from the handler error, Pepper ran really well!

RUBY

Beginner Agility 1 - We ran this course twice, NFC so that I could train her contacts.  She really has no discipline in the ring, but is not too bad at training.  I concentrated on the Dog Walk and after a few runs she was beginning to get a good stop.  More work needed, but we'll get there.

Beginner Agility 2 - I decided to run this for competition but would stop and correct her if she didn't get her contacts.  She did a beautiful run, including 2 x lovely sets of 6 weaves, and we were placed 6th in the class.

Beginner Steeplechase - The course was quite challenging and Ruby ran beautifully but we had 5 Faults as she got quite far ahead of me and I couldn't get where I needed to!  I set a goal to achieve a tricky runnel entrance and she did that really well, so overall very happy with her.

Beginner Jumping - Our last run and Ruby decided that she didn't want to get her weave entries!  There were 2 x sets of 6 weaves and she missed the entrance on both attempts.  Very happy with her drive for the rest of the run, and she's improving all of the time

RAFFLE

We held a raffle to raise money for Canine Epilepsy - three agility friends lost their dogs just before Christmas to this awful disease and Sam decided to hold a fund raiser for them.  Everyone had been very generous donating fab prizes and and I was extremely lucky to win a 10 week course at Paws at Play - Michelle has suggested that I do a couple of private lessons instead which I'm really looking forward to.  I also won a hamper of champagne, wine and chocolates and another box of Maltesers! Probably the best outcome of any raffle I've ever taken part in, and we raised £547 for the charity!
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We had a trip to Southampton today for the Nedlo Small and Medium Show, and our first show of 2017.

We have done no training for several weeks over the Christmas period so I wasn't sure what to expect, and as usual had some very mixed results!

Our first runs were the Graded Agility for all grades 1-7.  

Ruby was first - we're so close to getting the elusive win to take us to Grade 4.  She did a beautiful dog walk, got her weave entry first time, but sadly picked up 5 faults on the A-Frame contact and then ran round a jump towards the end for a further 5 faults.  Despite all of this she picked up 1st place for Grade 3 but haven't won into Grade 4 as the run wasn't clear!

Pepper did a lovely run with a good wait, and a good Dog Walk contact, but she released herself on the A-Frame and was then at the wrong angle for the jump/tunnel that followed.  My fault for choosing a strange way of handling the section to avoid the wrong end of tunnel that I thought would be a problem.  She didn't pick up a faults so received a Clear Round, but this would have slowed us down.

Next was the Jumping - this was a Special Class for Combined 1-7 - the course had 2 wrong end of tunnels!

Pepper was first this time, and I decided to run it how I believed it should be run rather than accommodate Pepper's issue with the wrong end of tunnel!  She did them better than she has for a while, but alas, she knocked a pole down so we had 5 faults.

Ruby did a lovely run, but I lost her on the first wrong end of tunnel and therefore were E'd for taking the wrong course.  She did pick up her weave entry again though, so really happy that she seems to have overcome this.

Finally we had Steeplechase:

Ruby was first in the Combined 1-3 - she did a cracking run and was delighted to find that she won her class!

Pepper was running beautifully in the Combined 4-7 Class, but she missed a simple tunnel entry to pick up 5 faults!

Here are the viideos of all of their runs and a picture of them with their rosettes:

Another agility year has gone and what a year it was!

I didn't achieve all of the goals that I set for the year but am delighted with the following highlights:

• Pepper won into Grade 6
• Ruby is back competing and is confident in the ring
• Pepper won into Senior Performance for UKA compeitions
• Ruby won into Novice Steeplechase for UKA competitions

So here are our goals for 2017:

PEPPER:

• Win into Grade 7 - we need 4 wins in the coming 12 months to achieve this
• Qualify for the UKA Grand Finals

RUBY

• Win out of Grade 3 - we need 1 Agility win, or 2 more Jumping wins to do this
• Qualify for the UKA Grand Finals
• Enter the Novice Cup at KC International Festival with the hope of qualifying to compete at Crufts

To stand a chance of doing any of this I need to continue with my Winter training regime:

• Establish good startline waits with both girls
• Continue to focus on good, consistent contacts
• Get more focus and drive from Ruby, and build her confidence in the ring
• Crack the wrong end of the tunnel with Pepper
• Run - fast - every time we go into the ring!  Stop worrying about getting it wrong and hope to get a clear round as fast as i can!

Here are the girls with their rosettes for 2016:

Our first Paws at Play show of the winter!  It's always a challenge trying to run the dogs and help run the show, but the club members all did their best to make sure that everyone had a good time and the show ran smoothly despite the extreme cold and frost.

Between scriming and helping manage ring 1, and helping the show secretary we managed some lovely runs and was delighted with the following results:

RUBY

I was interested to see how Ruby would perform at the school where we train.  She was looking really happy and it was lovely for some of my friends to comment on how well she is doing.  We ran the Agility twice, using our second chance ticket, but sadly couldn't get a clear round - she is not getting her dog walk contact at all so more training needed here.  Ruby ran in the Novice classes for Combined G3-5:

Jumping - 1st
Steeplechase 1 - 1st
Steeplechase 2 - 1st

PEPPER

I needed to keep my Winter training criteria in mind - startline waits and held contacts - it's difficult as I always get to a show and want to try to win, but I stuck to my gunds and still came away with great results.  Pepper ran in the Novice classes for Combined G6-7:

Agility - 1st
Jumping - 1st
​Steeplechase 2 - 1st

Fantastic results all round - it was quite embarrassing announcing the results and having to keep calling out my own name!

When I booked to take part in the Adams Halloween show I thought the arrangements would work out perfectly - stay with my Sister in Coventry on the Saturday night, pop over to the show for the day and then travel home!  Little did I know that thew were going away for the weekend so that scuppered my plans somewhat but I decided to go anyway and left early on the Sunday morning for our trip to Penkridge in Staffordshire.

It was quite a small show, but turned out to be well worth the trip:

RUBY

I was so delighted with the performance this little one gave me!  She was really enjoying herself and had a good wait.  We were eliminated in the Agility - she leapt her contacts so I put her back.  But she got the weave entries in all of her classes:

Combined Jumping 1-3 - 1st
Combined Jumping 1-4 - 2nd
Combined Jumping 1-7 - UPC

PEPPER

Her classes were very competitive with some really good dogs taking part.  I tried to focus on my strategy of getting good startline waits and good contacts.  We achieved this for most of the runs but had some navigation errors along the way.  

Combined Agility 4-7 - UPC
Combined Jumping 4-7 - UPC

Weve been to Chichester for our last agility camping show of the year.  It was a lovely show that was well attended by my favourite agility friends but I found the whole weekend a bit of a challenge!

Since winning into Grade 6 I've found myself doubting my ability to get any further and win into Grade 7, and through worrying and overthinking I'm not running courses well.  In particular I have realised that I run Pepper very carefully in competition with the aim of getting a clear round, but as she has picked up speed and gained confidence I am struggling to be in the right place.  I don't run like this in training, so this will have to form part of my Winter training plan so that I can come back out in 2017 with renewed confidence.

Here are the results from this weekend:

RUBY

Saturday - Clear Round for Combined G1-4 Jumping
Sunday - No clears!

She was running quite well but we had faults for missed contacts and missed weave entries!

PEPPER

Saturday - 4 x E's - No wait and had to be put back on the start line - bad handling - and fell off DW!!
Sunday - 2 x Agility clears, E for first Jumping and crashed into the 3rd jump on last - thankfully no damage done!

Here is a video of two of Ruby's runs from the weekend:

Pepper has gained enough points to be awarded her Kennel Club Agility Warrant Silver, so from now on she will be known at competitions as Royal Pepperlicious AS(S).

Ruby was very proud of her sister and insisted on being in the photograph:

We had our annual trip to the Agility Club Show last weekend, competing on the Sunday and Monday! It's always a lovely show and this year was no different.

We had a successful couple of days as follows:

RUBY

Sunday - Jumping Graded 1-4 (G3) - 3rd
Monday - Medium Agility 'Cash Back' G1-3 (G3) - 3rd (£8)

PEPPER

Sunday - Jumping Graded 4-7 (5) - 4th & Combined Jumping G4-6 - 6th
Monday - Graded Agility 'Cash Back G4-7' (G5) - 1st (£12) - Our final win taking us to Grade 6

Such a lovely weekend with lovely, supportive friends!
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We took a trip to the Adams show this weekend - I have some holiday to use so it was an opportunity to combine holiday with a camping trip and some agility!

The journey there was tense as we were listening to the European Championships England v Wales game on the radio!  It really made the time go nice and quickly and so relieved that England won!

It was lovely to have the opportunity to get set up with our D&T Windbreak/pet garden, as we hadn't used it with Elvis before now.  We did have a slight issue when I thought i'd forgotten a hammer or mallet, but thankfully borrowed one from a neighbour, and then found that we had one all along! Doh!

We were cometing on Friday and Saturday, and as usual it was lovely to see some friendly faces there - Ash Warner and Janice Beresford.

I had been trying to decide what to do with Pepper as she is currently Grade 5, with one win towards G6, and therefore would currently qualify for the Novice Cup at the Kennel Club International Festival in August, but if we won into G6 before the middle of July we would have to move into the British Open.  So many people had told me that I should try to compete and qualify for the Novice cup that I decided this is what I would do, so my aim at Adams was to get one win for her, and no more!

Pepper

On the Friday we had a Graded 5-7 Jumping - a lovely course that we managed to run a clear - I just had to wait for the results and yes, she was placed 1st.  

So for the rest of the weekend I couldn't afford to risk getting another clear as there would be a high chance that we would win.  This was much harder than I thought, and I won't be doing this again as it just didn't feel right!  But there were also runs that highlighted some of our weaknesses, and good training points for the future, like this run in the Combined 1-7 Adams Shows Offs Jumping Cup - we really need to do some work on pull-throughs!!!

 Ruby

Friday

Combined 1-3 Jumping - Clear (She came 2nd, but the class was small so they only gave 1st place)
Combined 1-3 Agility - She was doing a fantastic run, and I couldn't believe we were nearly at the end and we were still clear!  I panicked and did a strange move on the A-frame to try to make sure she would get the contact, but this made her leap it and pick up  faults!  So frustrating!  If I'd just trusted her she might have been clear and won into G4!!

Saturday

Combined 1-4 Jumping - 2nd
Combined 1-7 Show OffsCup Qualifier - Clear

Ruby did some great work and is really enjoying her agility again, so I'm sure she is going to get a win soon that will take her into Grade 4.

A lovely, relaxing show, and one that I'll definitely look forward to doing again.

There was an official photographer at the show, so it was lovely to be able to get a few pictures of them in action, as well as a couple of our agility set up: