We've reached the end of the season and I'm really delighted with what we have achieved.  The highlights have been:

*    Getting our first ever KC rosette in March
*    Winning in to Grade 2 and then Grade 3
*    Qualifying for the Agility Club Starters Final in July next year
*    Qualifying for the UKA Finals of the Circular Knockout and going to the final in November
*    Getting Ruby back to training and having her enjoy it so much
*    Ruby getting a rosette at the Paws at Play show for the Steeplechase

One of the things I've loved this year is the amazing friendships that I have made!  It's so nice going to a show and meeting up with such supportive and generous people who celebrate when things go well and commiserate when things don't go to plan, but more importantly, help me keep a sense of humour!

I'm really looking forward to the 2015 season and hope to get to Grade 5. 

Here are the rosettes that we have collected this year - I had to buy an extra pin board for Pepper as she kept filling hers up!

We had a little trip to Scrambles for our last show of 2014 today.  The weather was relatively kind to us - the rain held off until the prize giving when the heavens opened, but the ground was very slippery from the recent rain.

Pepper continued to be a little monkey in the agility so I had to put her back on to all of the contact equipment.  I'm going to have to run the agility NFC in the New Year to reinforce her 2 on 2 off position!  As much as I love winning rosettes, I know that the sensible thing to do is to sort out her contacts before the new season starts!

She was fantastic in the Jumping and Steeplechase, as usual, and we came first in both of them!  A lovely way to finish off the season!

Pepper and I qualified for the UKA Grand Finals back in July when we came second in an event called the Circular Knockout!  I didn't really know what to expect and was very nervous on my trip down to Clevedon near Bristol - I was wondering why I'd entered!  But when I got there I was greeted by some friendly faces who have competed in the finals before, and they really helped me to settle into the event!

Pepper, in the meantime, was taking it all in her stride!  She wasn't phased by the loud announcements and music playing in the indoor arena and wagged her tail at every person that passed by!

I had plenty of time to watch some of the other events and see how everything ran, and it was great to be able to support Emma, Roz, Becky and Ash in their events too!

Eventually the time came for us to run in the Circular Knockout Final!  This event is unusual as you run against another dog with the winner progressing to the next round - the course has two start points and you both complete the whole course but start and finish in different places.

Here is the course - there are two sets of numbers, circles and squares:

For the first round I was drawn to run the course with the square numbers.

We were running against a little Border Terrier.  The whistle blew and we were off!  I couldn't have asked for any more from Pepper - she was stunning and didn't put a paw wrong.  When I turned the final corner and saw our opponent in exactly the same spot on the course I sprinted (!) to the finish - it was incredibly close, but the judge decided that Pepper and I had won by a whisker!

Shortly after we went back into the ring to run in the second round.  We were running the other course this time, and I'm sure that Pepper was even faster, but sadly not fast enough to win!  It wasn't until after that I found out that my opponent was an experienced Grade 7 Agility Champion who has represented Britain at International competitions, so I really can't complain!  In fact, I'm really pleased that we were as close as we were and Steven went on to win the class.

So we have our first Finals event under our belts and I'm extremely proud of little Pepper!  She was fantastic all day, and once I got over my intial nerves I really enjoyed it!  I hope that we qualify for another event next year!

I was lucky enough to have videos taken of both of our runs from two different angles, so here is a compilation of them all:

And here are a couple of pictures from the day: