On Friday I travelled to Orsett in George, with Ruby and Pepper to take part in our first Axstane show.
The traffic was awful, and I'd embarrassed myself falling over in the M&S foodhall on the A303 on my way home from a meeting, so I was feeling battered and bruised and wondering if I should have even bothered. But a chilled evening drinking wine and putting the world to rights with my friend Marianne soon had me sorted.
On Saturday, I had a Graded 4 - 7 agility to run with Pepper first thing, which was good as she has started to self-release from her contacts so it would give me a training opportunity before the Champ Agility. The course wasn't that nice - if I'd been G4 I would have probably cried if I'd been faced with that, but I like a challenge. I decided to run the course to try things that I'm not confident with - the start was jump, pull in, jump, tunnel. She did the pull in, and I was so delighted, I stood watching her and forgot to ketschker the jump, and she nipped in the wrong side of me to take the dog walk instead of the tunnel! E before the 3rd obstable - ooops! Still, I could then make sure we did the training criteria I had set, and she did her contacts really well.
Next was Champ Agility - here's the course plan:
The traffic was awful, and I'd embarrassed myself falling over in the M&S foodhall on the A303 on my way home from a meeting, so I was feeling battered and bruised and wondering if I should have even bothered. But a chilled evening drinking wine and putting the world to rights with my friend Marianne soon had me sorted.
On Saturday, I had a Graded 4 - 7 agility to run with Pepper first thing, which was good as she has started to self-release from her contacts so it would give me a training opportunity before the Champ Agility. The course wasn't that nice - if I'd been G4 I would have probably cried if I'd been faced with that, but I like a challenge. I decided to run the course to try things that I'm not confident with - the start was jump, pull in, jump, tunnel. She did the pull in, and I was so delighted, I stood watching her and forgot to ketschker the jump, and she nipped in the wrong side of me to take the dog walk instead of the tunnel! E before the 3rd obstable - ooops! Still, I could then make sure we did the training criteria I had set, and she did her contacts really well.
Next was Champ Agility - here's the course plan:
I was feeling quite confident and had a plan how to run it. From 7 I planned to rear cross 8, and then German 9 - this worked really well, and she got her weave entry. I wanted to rear cross the weaves but didn't wait until she was fully committed and she popped out - we got 5R. We then picked up another 5F for knocking a pole of the spread - the last jump!
When it came to the Jumping I decided that I just had to go for it. The course was tricky, with lots of traps - here's the course plan:
When it came to the Jumping I decided that I just had to go for it. The course was tricky, with lots of traps - here's the course plan:
We were drawn to run 80th, and watching the dogs before us I realised that the line from 15 (a wall), to 16 and 17 was going to be better if I handled round the right wing of 15 rather than the left - it was all going well to that point, but when I got to 15 my timing was a bit off and she stopped which got us a 5R, and then another 5R, but then she took the jump and we completed the course with 10 faults.
We'd finished all of our runs (more news on this later) and were ready to go home when they announced the finalists, and I couldn't believe it when I heard my name called out first! How did that happen!
So we had somehow achieved one of my agility goals - to take part in a Champ Final. It was more daunting than I had anticipated! The course walked well, and I was looking forward to running it. Here's the course plan:
We'd finished all of our runs (more news on this later) and were ready to go home when they announced the finalists, and I couldn't believe it when I heard my name called out first! How did that happen!
So we had somehow achieved one of my agility goals - to take part in a Champ Final. It was more daunting than I had anticipated! The course walked well, and I was looking forward to running it. Here's the course plan:
As we went round the course, I thought my legs were going to give way completely. We picked up 5F for the weave entry - I needed to take one more step to help her, but realistically I need to train weave entries to make sure this doesn't happen again!! And then right at the end, I nearly fell over and caused Pepper to knock the second to last pole - another spread - more training required!!
So, we finished with 10F - the theme of the day! There were only 2 clear rounds, so we were in good company and were placed 7th overall. Here's a video of of our run:
So, we finished with 10F - the theme of the day! There were only 2 clear rounds, so we were in good company and were placed 7th overall. Here's a video of of our run:
And here are the results:
And so to the rest of the day:
Both dogs were entered into the ABC Olympia Qualifier - Ruby ran first and had a glorious E, needing to be put back on the dog walk and the A-frame. Pepper also had an E - there was a pull in between 5 and 6, and for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to handle it completely differently to how we train it,so she took advantage and took jump 6 the wrong way. The rest of it was lovely!!
Ruby had a graded Agility, and contacts were once again our nemesis - I E'd us putting her back on the A-frame. But she was clear in the combined G1-4 jumping, and I was delighted to find that she had been placed 6th.
Both dogs were entered into the ABC Olympia Qualifier - Ruby ran first and had a glorious E, needing to be put back on the dog walk and the A-frame. Pepper also had an E - there was a pull in between 5 and 6, and for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to handle it completely differently to how we train it,so she took advantage and took jump 6 the wrong way. The rest of it was lovely!!
Ruby had a graded Agility, and contacts were once again our nemesis - I E'd us putting her back on the A-frame. But she was clear in the combined G1-4 jumping, and I was delighted to find that she had been placed 6th.
It was a tiring day, but I was delighted to have taken part in our first Champ Final! Here's to the next one!
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