On Sunday we had our first Paws at Play show!  It was really nice going to a show at the place that we train, where everything is familiar and there are so many friendly faces!

Pepper was running in Novice so it was going to be good to see how she measured up against the more experienced dogs.  The courses were all lovely and flowing and she stormed the Jumping and first Steeplechas, winning both.  The Agility wasn't quite so nice - we were able to run it twice but picked up 5 faults in each run.  Final Steeplechase was another nice course but I failed to collect her out of the tunnel and she took the wrong jump - I bellowed an expletive (apologies to anyone that heard!) - so annoying and all my fault!

The absolute highlight of the day for me was the gorgeous Ruby.  I took her into the Steeplechase ring with a toy to let her have some fun NFC (Not For Competition).  She's been doing great at training and I thought it would be good to let her run in daylight at a familiar place.  She absolutely flew round the course!  She was so happy and wagged her tail round the whole course!

We did the same thing in the second steeplechase and she was just the same.  I decided to take the opportunity to see what she did if I didn't have a toy in my hand - I had a plan if she looked at all worried - but she didn't even flinch!  As soon as she started moving she blasted round the course and I had to leg it to keep up with her!  I couldn't help having a little cry at the end - it was so lovely seeing her so happy!

I still can't believe it but she absolutely smashed it and won the class!  I'm so proud of that little girl and it was fantastic to see her so happy and having fun!  

The rosette and trophy that we were given for this is the most special and treasured of all of the rosettes that I have won!

On Saturday I went to a KC show run by North Downs agility club at Merrist Wood in Guildford.  It was the first show that I was attending as a Grade 3 competitor and the classes that I could enter were all combined - Grade 3-5 Agility and Jumping and Grade 3-7 Agility.  I was a little daunted by what the courses might be like but was glad for the opportunity to get my first show out of the way rather than have it hanging over me through the winter.

It was a strange day as all of the large dogs were running first so we knew that we wouldn't be needed until after lunch, but had to try to guess what time to get there.  I had a lie in, did some housework and found myself with a bit of time to spare so had a little G&T to settle my nerves before I headed off.  I was far too early and had to wait over 3 hours to walk my first course, by which time the affects of the G&T had worn off!  The G3-7 agility was hideous!  Luckily I could run that one first so could use it to settle me and Pepper!  The Jumping was a nice course and flowed well, but I didn't decelerate at a point that I needed to turn Pepper and missed the cue - I managed to get her back and prevent her from getting eliminated by back jumping so we managed a clear, albeit with a twiddle in the middle!!

The final run was the G3-5 agility - another nice course - quite spaced out, but nothing too scary!  It all ran to plan, except one wing where she did another twiddle, but another clear.

We got 4th for the Jumping and 2nd for the Agility - I really can't complain about that for my first outing in Grade 3!  But of course I'm beating myself up for not being half a second faster which would have seen us win the Agility and move into Grade 4!!