The weather was fantastic, a couple of showers but to be honest it was a welcome break from the heat!
My aim for the show was to use it as a training ground for Pepper's contacts so I planned to run the agility courses NFC. They had a practice ring at the show so in between runs I was able to go and reinforce her 2 on 2 off position hoping that she would remember to do it in the main ring.
It seemed to work - the first agility we ran NFC and she stopped on every contact. As the weekend progressed it seemed solid so on the last day we entered for competition as I wanted to make sure that it wasn't my behaviour that was making her act differently. She stopped on every contact and even with held contacts we came 4th.
Our runs were quite challenging as we are now Senior for Steeplechase and Novice for Performance, and I think I'm panicking which is causing us to make silly mistakes - rushing instead of collecting Pepper and causing her to knock poles down. But over the weekend we managed a 1st, 2nd and 3rd for Steeplechase so I'm really pleased.
The highlight of the weekend was taking part in a Circular Knock Out competition. I didn't really know what it was when I entered it but it was great fun. Two dogs run a Jumping course at the same time - the course is laid out with two start and finish points, so the winner is the dog that finishes first with the least amount of faults. The winner progresses to the next round and you keep going until you have the final two dogs. Somehow Pepper and I managed to come second which means that we have qualified for a final that will be held in November. A bit daunted about what the final will be like but it will be fun to take part!
Here are a few photos of the weekend: