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: