Well that was an experience!
Paws at Play were asked to help organise an agility competition as part of the Merrist Wood Summer Show - it's the agricultural college in Guildford where we train.
The show is huge with a classic car show, a central arena with all kinds of demonstrations going on during the day and lots of other stalls and attractions.
A couple of days before the show I was asked if I would be willing to take part in the demonstration in the main arena! I didn't really know what would be required but said I'd give it a go! There were two demonstrations at 12.30 and 3pm that would be run as a relay race of 4 teams of 4 dogs. OMG - the course was huge and the reality of what I had agreed to hit home!
We had to fill out a form with some information about us and our dogs that the commentator would use to share with the audience - it was all starting to sound a bit serious!
Back to the competition - Pepper was very excited as Ian and Ruby had joined us for the day, as well as Julie and Darron with Charlie and Jess. My mind was definitely on the demonstration so we made a bit of a hash of most of our runs, but it was a fun show and nice to have lots of friends around.
12.30 approached and our first demonstration. I was in a team with June & Kola, Sarah & Molly and Melissa and Didi - I was first to go!
Pepper was amazing - she didn't put a paw wrong! It's all a bit of a blur, I was vaguely aware of the commentator announcing the information that I had put on my sheet. I was just glad that I hadn't fallen over in the middle and that I could still breathe at the end! The rest of the team had equally good runs - hopefully it was a good show of what agility is and might encourage some more people to give it a go.
The last demonstration wasn't quite so good - Pepper hopped off the seesaw before she got to the tipping point, but after that it ran smoothly. I can't complain - it was a really hot day and she had completed 4 runs in the competition as well as the two in the main arena. There was so much that could have distracted her and she handled it brilliantly!
Here are a couple of videos of our two runs in the main arena:
Paws at Play were asked to help organise an agility competition as part of the Merrist Wood Summer Show - it's the agricultural college in Guildford where we train.
The show is huge with a classic car show, a central arena with all kinds of demonstrations going on during the day and lots of other stalls and attractions.
A couple of days before the show I was asked if I would be willing to take part in the demonstration in the main arena! I didn't really know what would be required but said I'd give it a go! There were two demonstrations at 12.30 and 3pm that would be run as a relay race of 4 teams of 4 dogs. OMG - the course was huge and the reality of what I had agreed to hit home!
We had to fill out a form with some information about us and our dogs that the commentator would use to share with the audience - it was all starting to sound a bit serious!
Back to the competition - Pepper was very excited as Ian and Ruby had joined us for the day, as well as Julie and Darron with Charlie and Jess. My mind was definitely on the demonstration so we made a bit of a hash of most of our runs, but it was a fun show and nice to have lots of friends around.
12.30 approached and our first demonstration. I was in a team with June & Kola, Sarah & Molly and Melissa and Didi - I was first to go!
Pepper was amazing - she didn't put a paw wrong! It's all a bit of a blur, I was vaguely aware of the commentator announcing the information that I had put on my sheet. I was just glad that I hadn't fallen over in the middle and that I could still breathe at the end! The rest of the team had equally good runs - hopefully it was a good show of what agility is and might encourage some more people to give it a go.
The last demonstration wasn't quite so good - Pepper hopped off the seesaw before she got to the tipping point, but after that it ran smoothly. I can't complain - it was a really hot day and she had completed 4 runs in the competition as well as the two in the main arena. There was so much that could have distracted her and she handled it brilliantly!
Here are a couple of videos of our two runs in the main arena:
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