Today we attended the CC Agility Autumn show at Silentpool. These unaffiliated shows are really friendly and brilliant for people like me who are just starting out in agility.

I managed to rope in a couple of other friends from Paws at Play so it was great to be able to support each other through the day. Val brought her Yorkiepoo, Suki who is in the same class as Ruby and she also brought her Yorkie, Clyde who hasn't done any formal training for a couple of years, but she decided she might as well enter him as he would be with her!

She also brought her lovely husband, Dean, who filmed both of us throughout the day!

This show has a Pre-Beginners section that doesn't include a see-saw or weaves in the Agility round, and doesn't have any weaves in the Jumping round. It also allows you to run your dog at any height with all heights competing against each other. Pepper hasn't yet run full height A-Frame or Dog Walk so she couldn't enter the Agility but i decided to run her in the Jumping and Steeplechase just for experience!

Our first round was Steeplechase. The same course was to be used for all abilities so it wasn't exactly easy, and the ground was fairly wet so there was a risk of slipping! I was incredibly nervous - I felt that my legs would give way any second! Ruby ran first - she was quite exciteable and for some reason went into the wrong end of a tunnel! I can't really remember everything that happened, it was a bit of a blur, but we finished the course having been E'd! Pepper ran next - she didn't 'wait' at all - she popped over the first jump and ran around having a lovely time! She also wouldn't come back when called! When I did get her back, Daniel let me start again and she did pretty well - we got round the course but were E'd from her funny 5 minutes at the start!

Next was Agility. We were running two courses. In the first one Ruby started off OK but decided to 'freestyle' a bit in the middle! When she got back on track she finished quite well - another E! The second course seemed to flow much better - Ruby was really focussed and flew round the course! When I finished I thought she had run clear but unfortunately we had been penalised for the pesky contacts so had 10 faults! Her time was 23.606 - 4 seconds faster than the next fastest dog! 

Finally we had the Juming. Pepper ran first - bless her, she was a little poppet! She did a good 'wait' this time and stayed with me round the whole course! We ran clear! Next was Ruby - again, she was quite focussed but her speed made it difficult to navigate some of the tighter turns, however we still managed to run clear!

At the prize giving I was delighted to find that Pepper had come 4th and Ruby had decome 3rd - it was lovely receiving our first 2 rosettes!

Dean put together a fantastic video of our day - thank you, Dean! Here it is:

Today we collected our new holiday home!

We had always planned to board the girls with our dog walker when taking holidays, but the reality is, we really like spending time with them and have never felt that we would enjoy a holiday without them.

Over the last couple of years we have been on the Norfolk Broads and have stayed in some great dog friendly hotels in Cornwall. But we also miss the freedom of deciding to just go off for the weekend if the mood takes us! We tried camping a couple of years ago but it was not a great experience, and we knew that we wouldn't like a caravan, so after doing a lot of research we decided to get a VW California camper van!

Here is our new addition - Tubby!

We can't wait to go away for our first trip and look forward to lots of adventures next year!

Pepper's Kennel Club registriation arrived in the post today - she is now officially Royal Pepperlicious!

Just need to get her measured now and she will be able to officially compete at Kennel Club affiliated agility shows!

Ruby and I attended our first affiliated agility show today!  It was so nerve-wracking!

We met up with Karen, Rufus and Basil so we had some good company, and there were lots of other people there from Paws at Play, including Michelle our trainer!

There was so much to think about - checking which ring we are going to be running in next and listen out for when we can walk the course, and remember to sign in when walking the course! 

We got through the day with four eliminations but lots of good things to take away - Ruby had a good 'wait' and she was quick!  She missed her weave entry but got it on the second attempt!  I just need to get better at handling her and with a bit more experience, hopefully will be able to get her round clear!

Karen and I were able to video each other - it's a really good way to see how errors are made and to learn how to improve as a handler!  Here the videos of our runs: