RUBY
Novice Agility - 1st
Novice Steeplechase 1 - 1st
Novice Steeplechase 2 - 2nd
PEPPER
Senior Agility - Clear (2nd)
Senior Jumping - Clear (2nd)
Senior Steeplechase 1 - Clear (2nd)
Senior Steeplechase 2 - 1st
After a long Christmas break, and not much training due to the weather, we had a fun day at the latest Paws at Play show. Both girls did me proud: RUBY Novice Agility - 1st Novice Steeplechase 1 - 1st Novice Steeplechase 2 - 2nd PEPPER Senior Agility - Clear (2nd) Senior Jumping - Clear (2nd) Senior Steeplechase 1 - Clear (2nd) Senior Steeplechase 2 - 1st We had Sean Cameron at the show taking professional pictures and I was delighted with these:
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It's that time of year again when I take down all of the rosettes we have won, ready for the new competition year ahead.
Highlights this year have definitely been Pepper winning into Grade 7 and seeing how many rosettes Ruby has accumulated: Wow! What can I say! Our first trip to this show and I can now understand what all the fuss is about! It's one of the friendliest shows I've ever been to and so much more than just an agility show. We arrived at the show on Monday and having got plugged into our electric hook up (a rare luxury at agility shows), Ian got his laptop set up for work and I set about getting our camp established. The show was huge, but I could see we weren't far from the rings. The competition for us would be Tues, Weds, Fri and Saturday. Thurs is programmed as a day off unless we qualify for the DINAS Classic Tournament Final. I'm not going to run through every run, there were so many, but needless to say, both girls were amazing and we came home with a vast haul of rosettes and trophies. The highlights included both girls qualifying for the DINAS Classic Tournament Finals in their Grades. Ruby took it in her stride but we were sadly E'd. Pepper was a little star and scraped into 3rd place with 5F for her dogwalk contact. It was a great experience and was proud of them both. Definitely one for the diary for next year! Wow! Wow! Wow!
I'm overjoyed to report that Pepper gained her final win at the Kelluki show at Merrist Wood today taking us into Grade 7 and qualifying us to run in Champ classes next year. It is such an amazing feeling to have reached the highest grade, and Pepper has continued to surprise me with her ability to take everything in her stride. There were many tears shed throughout the day as people came and congratulated me and it reminded me how wonderful it has been to meet so many lovely people who all share my passion for agility and are there to provide support at every show. I'd also like to say a special thank you for my trainer, Michelle Sparks, at Paws at Play. I fell on my feet when I saw the advert for a new agility club that had been formed locally - there are good and bad ways to teach agility, and I was lucky enough to join the best club without any knowledge of this! The foundations that Michelle gave me have allowed me to reach the highest grade even though I only train once a week. She's a fantastic handler and is able to take her experience and transfer the knowledge she has gained, while taking into account the individual needs of each dog and handler. Finally, here's a little show report. It was the first Kelluki KC show and we're so lucky that Sam is running KC qualifying shows throughout the Winter, right on our doorstep. PEPPER Graded 4-7 Jumping: Becky Layphries was the judge, and when I walked the course I was cursing her as I wasn't confident that we would get round clear, and had hoped for a really nice course to give me the best chance of getting our final win. The start was a straight line - jump, straight tunnel, another straight tunnel, and then pull off to a jump right (avoiding the jump straight ahead). When we came to run the course the adrenaline was pumping, but we got the first bit absolutely fine and the course rand much better than I expected. We won the class and I forgave Becky for the course design!! Combined 4-7 Jumping: A similar start to the first jumping, but I was confident after the first run and we came 2nd. Graded 4-7 Agility: Really nice course, and I was looking forward to running it. Pepper was running beautifully, but sadly picked up 5 faults on the Dog Walk contact - it was a DW/Jump finish and I expect that I was running for the finish that encouraged her to leap it! As usual, this will be our Winter training goal! RUBY Ruby was running really well - probably the happiest she's been in a while at a show. Graded 1-3 Agility: She broke her wait but I let her get away with it. The start was Jump/DW - while she was on the DW I had a moment when I thought 'Pepper has just won into G7' and it threw me completely. At the end of the DW I forgot where I was going and pulled her of the next jump causing us to get an E! Sorry Ruby - my fault entirely, however she got her own back by leaping her A-Frame so I put her back. Graded 1-3 Jumping: Nice run, but ran past the 6 weaves! Took back to the start of the weaves and she did them beautifully! Oh, well! Combined 1-3 Jumping: Another nice course from Ian Balchin and this time she got her weave entry and came 8th in the class! We're just back from the Nedlo Show, but sadly we are still waiting for our elusive final win to take us to G7!
We were so close today! Some really nice courses, great weather and lots of support from our friends willing us on. PEPPER Graded 5-7 Agility - Really nice course and lovely run, but sadly lost out on time coming 2nd Graded 4-7 Jumping - Another lovely course, and she ran beautifully, but had 5F due to a pole! So annoying - no idea why - a straight line so I guess it must have just been due to her stride pattern. More annoying, was coming 1st, but doesn't count due to the 5F Combined 4-7 Agility - Tricky course, clear - but the judge was taken ill after the first few dogs so after changing to a new judge had to run the whole class again. Managed to get another clear and improve on our time from the first run, but we only managed a 4th Combined 6-7 Jumping - Great attempt but placed 2nd. I shouldn't be grumpy about this, as a 2nd in a combined class is great, but just not when we're trying to get our final win! RUBY She ran nicely in all of her classes but sadly we weren't able to get a clear round. She's not getting her contacts in Agility and her weave entries aren't 100%, but she's happy and enjoying running, so I'm just enjoying running her. We'll work on the contacts and weave entries and fingers crossed we'll get it together! I had a day off today to use up some holiday, and took the girls for a little walk in our favourite place, Farnham Park.
The weather was unexpectedly lovey so we all had a fab time and I managed to get this gorgeous picture of them on a fallen tree! Last weekend we had a trip to Chichester for the Waverunners show. We did this show last year and really enjoyed it, and they have moved to a new larger venue for 2017 so we were really looking forward to it.
There had been intermittent downpours so we were a little worried about getting onto our pitch in George, but Ian managed to manoeuvre into position without any drama and we got set up in the rain. In fact, I even had a spell sitting in the sun with a glass of wine! I had high hopes for this show - we still needed 2 wins to take us into Grade 7, and as a result my desire to win caused me to do some unbelievably rubbish handling - a couple of runs will haunt me for a long time to come, but I'm delighted to report that we did manage to move one step closer to our dream! On Saturday we had some good runs, and won the G6 Agility, but sadly we had 5FR for some bad handling on my part, and a couple of other clears, but on Sunday won the Graded 5-7 Jumping - our first run of the day. This somewhat went to my head and I convinced myself that I'd breeze through another run to get the second one, but sadly this didn't happen as my nerves got the better of me. It also didn't help that every time I stepped into the ring, all of my friends were watching and hoping that I'd get a clear, so the pressure was immense. My runs were also hampered by the achilles injury that has been bothering me throughout this year It flared up and was making it really difficult to run. I was extremely grateful that Mike Evans found some tape for me to strap it up with, as I wouldn't have managed without this, but still left before my last runs that would have been at the end of the day. Ruby had a 3rd in Jumping, so delighted with her, but agility clears are still proving elusive. Overall a lovely show and certainly one I'll look to do again next year. They were also using the e-gility automated system so results were really quick to be published and the show ran really smoothly. 3 more KC shows to go before the end of the Year - here's hoping we can get that last win to achieve my goal for this year! We travelled to Cranleigh last Friday to camp for the weekend and take part in two shows that run back to back.
SATURDAY - SURREY DTC PEPPER In her first run, I wanted to work her contacts and she knocked a pole so there wasn't any risk of me changing my mind and going for it! The Combined 5-7 Agility run was good with held contacts and a wrong end of tunnel resulting in a nice 4th place Finally in Combined 4-7 Jumping - she was clear but not fast enough to be placed! RUBY Managed a clear in Combined 1-4 Jumping SUNDAY - BILLINGSHURST RUBY Graded 3-5 Agility - 4th with 5F PEPPER Combined 5-7Jumping - 7th Graded 6-7 Agility (G6) - last run of the day - 1st (Second win towards Grade 7) We had our annual trip to Paws in the Park at the South of England showground this weekend. We camped at Long Acres and began our weekend with a meal at the Blacksmiths Head.
On Saturday Ian wasn't feeling well, so Ruby, Pepper and I headed off to the showground to see what we could achieve. We had a lovely day catching up with friends, particularly, Julia and John Frost and their boys Bailey and Jasper, and managed some shopping in between our runs. Our agility achievements were very mixed: PEPPER Combined 6-7 Jumping - It was a long, spread out course with an ending that needed me to be with Pepper. She missed the tricky weave entry so picked up 5 faults, and then were eliminated when I was legging it to the end which caused her to miss a jump. Graded 6-7 Agility - We managed to get round clear but not exactly as we'd walked it! I couldn't quite get where i needed to and had to twiddle her round my legs to get her on the right side, but even with this we were placed 2nd. Combined 4-7 Agility - Another clear that didn't go entirely to plan - our old nemesis of the wrong end of the tunnel (more work needed!). Not fast enough to be in the places so just a clear round rosette. RUBY Combined 1-3 Jumping - This was such a nice course, but Ruby got distracted by a GSD to one side of the ring and missed a jump. She did get her weave entry - a fast entry from a tunnel, so generally happy! Combined 3-5 Jumping - A lovely course with some handling needed but we picked up 5 faults when sending her round the back of a jump. Another good 12 weaves and she picked up speed throughout the run. Grade 3 Agility - This is the run that is going to haunt me from this show! I didn't get to walk it as I was running Pepper in her C4-7 Agility at the same time, but it was a nice flowing course and I had watched a good number of other dogs before our turn. I had expected Ruby to leap off of all of the contacts but she did me proud and got every one! Sadly it was me that caused us to get 5 faults! Because I hadn't walked the course I misjudged the angle to a jump and we got a 5R! Such a shame - I didn't go and look at the times, and am sure she wouldn't have won, but it would have been lovely to get a clear round with her on an agility course! Back to the campsite to check on the poorly soldier and a quick visit to the Wiremill for a drink! Here's Pepper with her rosettes: We had a day at Ardingly last weekend for the Tunbridge Wells show.
Pepper had a lovely run in the KC Olympia Qualifier and was placed 28th - I know that doesn't sound very impressive, but it was a big field with the great and good of the agility world taking place so I was quite pleased! Ruby managed a 4th in Graded 3-4 Jumping Unfortunately we made a pigs ear of the team run on a course that I wasn't looking forward to running! Better luck next year! |
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