One of those weekends that suddenly turn out to be surprisingly good!

Kim

Kim is not allowed to be overshadowed this weekend, because she was phenomenal. A lot of people asked me whether she was running or not when we arrived, and I said yes, but it was purely to get her back into the routine. And then she arrived at the ring and just refused to conform to expectations.

She started steady, with a smooth clear in the Helter Skelter, faster than she’s run recently but just cruising. Something must have felt good though, because she kicked up a couple of gears after that!

We came 3rd in the Novice Agility, and then 6th in the Novice Steeplechase on Sunday. Sixth doesn’t sound overwhelming, but it was my absolute favourite run of the weekend, because mid-way around Kim suddenly kicked up again into something like her old Kim-gear … something I haven’t seen her do for a very long time.

I made a hash of handling the other Novice Agility, I think I’ve been running slow-Kim a bit too long and she took full advantage. We made a mess of both Jumping classes too, a fat E in one and a 5f refusal in the other (she was hot, tired and bored by then).

Dylan

We started in the same drill as normal, ie. steady, reliable clears. Not what I want! I wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or pleased that Dylan got argumentative as the day went on; he ignored a few cues in the Jumping and Helter Skelter classes, and even paused to look at me at one point before continuing in the opposite direction. I want him to be confident in the ring, but I would also like him to listen! We came 6th in the Snakes and Ladders anyway, which was a bit of compensation (especially as I took him the long way around).

The Introductory Agility was a straightforward course, and I pushed Dylan and although I didn’t get much offered in return, we did a reasonably good clear and I was hopeful about placings. We came 4th in the end, which I was pleased with, but it wasn’t the result I was chasing (I’m allowed to admit that now!) so I wasn’t overjoyed. I said I wanted to improve on that result for Sunday; I wanted to be in the top-3, although I thought we’d have our strongest chance in Agility. As it turned out …

I have always said that Power and Speed is Dylan’s forte, and he did a really solid contact work-out in the class on Sunday morning, with a nice Aframe and Dogwalk in particular. The speed section was very straightforward and he clipped around in 9.74s, not too shabby!

It does almost look like he’s stuttering around this (doesn’t help that I got the video format wrong!), but the spacings were too big to bounce, and not big enough for him to stretch into. I thought when I walked it that it was ideally spaced for a Medium dog, and a Medium did win it in the end. Dylan did manage a 2nd though, so I can’t complain too much. (He was a very good boy!)

Introductory Agility was a really basic course; the dogwalk had been removed from the ring as it was judged unsafe after the first class (very sensible as it was bouncing around an awful lot!) but the seesaw wasn’t used either, and there were no weaves. The Aframe was included twice but I wasn’t thrilled about our chances. I had also seen 2 or 3 really storming clears by the time it came to Dyl’s run, so I chose to hold his contacts. We came 14th anyway, a few more points in the League.

Steeplechase was an effective write-off in my mind after a dog lunged through the fence at us and Dylan slammed on the breaks. A real shame as he’d been beginning to pick up speed, but we finished joint 7th so maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought.

Dylan was wound right up to the top in the last Introductory Jumping class of the day. I had seen a couple of fast clears and didn’t think we had much chance, but he was actually running at something close to what we have at training, and turned sharply around the loop of two jumps, which I didn’t think he would do. My ever-reliable source (my lovely mother!) told me that Dylan had had quite a few comments from around the ring, so I was almost confident we were in the placings … the 1st was very welcome though! I am so pleased; to be completely honest, I was beginning to think that Dylan just wasn’t fast enough to get those top placings.

Of course, the camera packed up on Sunday morning so I don’t have any of the later afternoon runs, including the Jumping win. Grr.

Congratulations, of course, to various other people, most notably Malcolm and Sally, who came 3rd in the Novice Jumping, and to Sylvia and Molly who came 4th in the Novice Steeplechase. Go the Mediums! Also to Steve and Gromit for tallying up more points for the Novice Medium Dog of the Year, and to Jean and Emma for doing the same in the Micro category. Who knew you could get ever-reliable spaniels?! Vicki and Pippa also had a good weekend, as did Laura and Gorgeous Merlin, at their first show back after Laura’s maternity leave.

This was such a heartbreaking competition for us last year, and this year was looking increasingly disasterous on the dog front, with 6 dogs coming down injured in the preceeding week. We can’t seem to shake the bad luck at Cantley, and being a suspicious bunch we might make the longer trek over to the Wirral next year instead. Still, Doncaster do throw a good tournament, everything ran like clockwork and the venue is lovely. I just wish every person and dog would stay healthy when we attend!

Dylan was supposed to be running on Sunday, in one of the lower teams who had a tough draw and needed a faster dog to bring them within touching distance of their seed-time. Mollie was always down for Barking Owlers on Saturday, but slowly her team-mates were falling like flies; Kim out, Lolly out with a cruciate tear, Bailey out when her lift’s dog collapsed on Friday night. So Dylan stepped in (emergency measures!) and we ran a 4-dog team over 13″ all day.

Now, Mollie was the height dog, and being an older lady we normally limit her to running over 11/12″ at most. Lucy (Labrador x Spaniel) also normally runs over 10-11″, and she ended up pulling a muscle in the afternoon session. So we were a little down-and-out! I think we finished 5th in the end, way off our seed-time, but we made the other teams work for their wins and Dylan loved running with Mollie.

As we’d technically run all our available dogs on Saturday, we didn’t really have to go back again on Sunday. But Bailey needed a handler as Emma was nursing her 21st birthday hangover, and with 4 teams in, a few extra pairs of hands wouldn’t go amiss! Normally I don’t detail exactly what happened at flyball, but I know Emma will be wanting a blow-by-blow account of how fab her little girl was. And Bailey was awesome, she ran her little white socks off! She was happy when she realised I had a tub full of sausages for her, and we won all our morning races. Unfortunately it all went a bit pear-shaped after lunch …

Bailey was running as normal in the warm-up, but when she set off in the first leg, she did 2 hurdles and then slammed on the breaks. I’m pretty sure the whole team shrieked! She ran in a small circle and then found what had caused the halt: a dropped dog-treat behind the second hurdle*. Despite having eaten it, she slammed on the breaks again in the second leg, and we lost that one too. Two down, one last chance … and Bailey ran perfectly, gave the team a good advantage … until our fourth dog got a light for an early change. Oops!

*I think the dropped treats were from somebody who had run Starters, which had run in the same ring just before our division started.

We lost all the afternoon legs, although Bails was back to being a superstar again. I think we finished 5th, so couldn’t send Bailey home with a rosette, sorry Emma!

I’m sure everyone will be thrilled to know that my naughty little Kim is very much back to her normal self. Frankly, she’s really pissed off, and is taking her anger out with fits of sullen sulking, beating up the other dogs whenever possibly, and generally making herself an absolute nuisance.

The Comfy Collar, though wonderful, is no match for a flexible and lithe little dog like Kim. So she is now wearing a plastic cone collar, which has not gone down well (and is her main instrument in beating up the other dogs).

She’s still lead-walking, for about 20mins in the morning and 40mins on an evening. This does just burns off the extra energy, as she’s still full of herself when she gets home.

Kim has also taken it upon herself to remove her own stitches, a battle which we are fighting with tooth and nail but sadly losing. Trick one (and believe me, Kim planned this one) was to wait until all the Kim-savvy people had left the house, and then put on her most melodramatic sad-Lurcher act for my sister. Sister caved within minutes, took off the plastic cone, and Kim was victorious. Trick Two is the rub-along. No cone removal necessary, just a good rubbing spot where she can have a wriggle.

So far we’ve lost 3 stitches, but the wound is holding without any issues at all on 2 of the missing and is reasonably well on the 3rd. The third missing stitch section is the bit I’m a bit worried about as it looks a something of a mess, but I think she’s just pulled the scab off the top which makes it look worse. I’ve had a very close look and the line isn’t breaking open so fingers crossed this doesn’t put her back.

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