What a weird experience – no rain, no snow, no ice! Just a cool but bright day, and standing outside in the sun was lovely. Please can all the future Tailwaggers shows be like this?

Power and Speed first, Dylan’s favourite class. The Jumping section was a little too Helter Skelter for me, and true to form, I made a right hash of it and pulled Dyl off a jump mid way around. Oops! Took lots of stick about that from … well, nearly everyone, but mainly Rob, Vicki and Lindsay! I was good and held all his contacts properly in the Power section; we took our time and Dyl looked fab.

Tunnel Teaser was … interesting? The course was the same for all the levels, and it was a pure killer, E’s all over the place! I wasn’t worried about the traps but I was very concerned about remembering where I was going! I felt a little bad for Dylan, he tried for me like he always does, but I was really unsure about what I was doing and my hesitation made him steady up. There also wasn’t anywhere to pick up speed, it was constant turning and call-offs. We went clear anyway, and then finished up 1st! So that’s our first Jumping win towards Novice, which is rather unexpected! To be honest, there were only 2 clears, but Dylan beat 2nd by 11s and his time would have put him 3rd in the Novice and 2nd in the Graduate Plus, so maybe he wasn’t so slow after all.

I made sure to tell everyone that I was going to hold Dyl’s contacts in Primary Agility, just so they could call me out on it if I didn’t. But I did! I had to, otherwise I would have died of oxygen deprivation, since it was the longest course in existence. The judge runs a very drivey Weimeraner, and it showed in the course design! Dylan ran it like a star, he was clearly enjoying himself out there and he did a beautiful sliding seesaw stop, just like training! We pulled off a flick around at the top of the course (13-15) and it was just a nice run. We finished up 4th, about a second behind Vicki’s Diesel who had a really beautiful run – I think he’d win it but apparently not!

Primary Jumping was a bit of a wicked course, but if it went well it would flow nicely. I really went for it with Dylan and we were having a flying round, really smooth, until I messed up off Jump 12, oops! I thought Dylan was most likely to take the far tunnel entry, but I pulled him with me for the nearside. I dithered, he dithered, we wasted 3 hours deciding whether to do the tunnel or not. Refusal! This is clearly a recurring theme. Must work on spatial awareness and remember that Dyl always clings tighter in the ring. We finally got it back together and finished up without getting E’d, but we’d lost the plot slightly by that point and I cued Dyl for a flick back at 16 which I hadn’t intended, which also wasted a lot of time. Anyway, despite the 5R, we came 7th (fastest 5 faults) and would have walked away with another 1st if I hadn’t been an idiot. How often do I say that!?

All these results put us up near the top of all the League Tables, which I’m thankful for. We are skipping a couple of the usual BAA shows either for flyball or closer BAA shows, so I knew we needed some good early results to keep us in contention for promotion next year. Having said that, Dyl just needs one more Agility and Jumping win now to go into Novice, which is both awesome and terrifying!

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It’s a good job Mol is lovable, because she’s definitely not all that bright. Give her a tennis ball and a muddy field and she’s in heaven.

I posted on twitter a couple of days ago about Kim trotting – or limping, actually! – off to the vets. I didn’t have chance to post a proper update, but since people have asked, here we go!

Kim has always had a slightly dodgy toe on her right front paw. I’ve had a few off-hand conversations with various people over the years about it; my feeling was always that she’d injured it as a puppy, maybe a dislocation, and as she’d grown it had become slightly lopsided. The webbing between her toes there sometimes gets a little red and sore, but nothing to really get worried about. It’s always been a bit of a niggle in my mind, but nothing ever worth bringing up.

On Monday, she grew a little lump, about the size of a small pea, just at the point where her foot becomes toes, if that makes sense! Quite hard, not sore, but clearly irritating her. I think the “lump” part got some people a bit worried, considering her previous lump-ectomy, but actually my first thought was that it was a foriegn body of some kind that had worked it’s way under her skin.

Vet trip on Tuesday confirmed foreign body, although the lump had vanished by this point (naturally. Kim will do anything to avoid a vet trip!) We agreed that getting it out was the best option, and booked Kim in for a day trip on Wednesday.

Incidentally, whilst at the vets, we asked (as always!) that they check out her heart. Report was good; strong, clear and steady heartbeat. The murmur is distinctly there, but her heart sounds healthy and strong. Also asked about the toe (see above!) and Andy said it was an old injury, and that he felt it was probably a stretched tendon that had healed lopsided.

Kim toodled off for her day trip; light anesthetic expected as it was really just to keep her still. First anesthetic didn’t quite go to plan, since Kim drifted off to sleep and then proceeded to sprint around in her dreams, with much paw flailing. Second, slightly heavier anesthetic required! At least she made everyone laugh, she does love being the centre of attention.

They took out what can only be described (apparently!) as a “lump of gristle”, that was much bigger than expected. FB had probably been there for 11-12months (coincidentally the same time as her previous lump appeared. Connection or no? Genuinely have no idea). So Kim has 10 stitches in her paw and a giant bandage on it, and is sprinting around like an idiot until she thinks someone is watching, at which point it’s heavy limping all the way.

She’d like to point out she definitely wasn’t playing with Alfie the Giant Greyhound on Thursday, she just had to jump in the air to show him her paw.

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The theme at Ruffdogs52Weeks this week was Eyes.

If the Pentax (K-x) has any faults, one is definitely the tendency to overexpose photos. You have no idea how many overexposed shots I got for this! I eventually figured out how to adjust the Exposure Bias, and got this. I know didn’t get it exactly right — this is really too dark! — but I’m pretty happy with how this turned out.

Tailwaggers #1 was all about the ice, Tailwaggers #2 was all about the snow. Bob suggested that #3 would be all about the flooding, but we remain optimistic for bright and cheerful sunshine all day.

Primary Agility was a fairly straightforward course, but with a tempting little dogwalk/seesaw discrimination at the start. What I really love about this show is that they fence off a fairly large queuing area, so you actually have room to warm up your dog properly before you run. So Dylan was absolutely raring to go by the time he hit the start line, stretched and focussed and it really paid off. His dogwalk was perfect, and he was all about working that course, and letting me co-pilot only. I suddenly get why everyone has those hard-staring Border Collies that you just shout directions at from the middle of the ring. It’s smooth and fast and easy!

I genuinely wasn’t sure if we’d won or not, since there were some of the usual super-fast competition still to run (although there were a few missing, like Chloe and Ritz), but Dylan came comfortably 1st in the end. Halfway to Novice, what a star! Bob’s Twig was in 2nd, over 2s behind, and Twig usually kicks our arses.

That 1st also means he now has his BAD-Bronze title. The BAD-Bronze is a special one for Dyl, because it’s the only time he’s been first to get something. Kim has always been their first before, but she never got this one. So props to Dyl!

Primary Jumping was fiendish but fun, and Dylan opted for the “take everything in sight” option. We got E’d, but it was a blast anyway. We had a slight argument in the Triple-A Agility; Dyl blew the first Aframe contact, stopped on the second in a perfect 2o2o, and then stopped on the floor for the 3rd. Naughty boy … but he made the judge laugh, and he jumped everything beautifully, so not too many complaints. I know we have to work on that Aframe, I’ve been letting him run it too often.

Primary Up and Under was a mad course, four tunnels in a row and various options! I was trying so hard to remember where I was going I didn’t really handle it all that well, but we came 2nd anyway, beaten by Vicki’s Diesel, who is just looking more and more speedy every time I see him run. Dylan has also decided that he’s maybe not so bad … maybe in another 3 months he’ll finally seccumb and actually play with him!

This Tailwaggers Dylan? He’s awesome. I’ve got to find out how to have this dog every competition.