We got back yesterday from Melton Mowbray and our first visit to the BAA Finals. It was a very up-and-down weekend but we had a great time.

Kim is officially the BAA Introductory Medium Dog of the Year 2006/07 – she has been leading since last October and her only real challenger this summer was Moss (with Anne Holt), who I think would have caught her in a couple more shows!

Saturday was the Agility Finals day. The BAA have an interesting way of qualifying people for the Finals which I think works really well, as the top 10 in the Agility League table go through, and then a further 10 dogs can qualify on the day from the mornings Agility Qualifier (and the same for the jumping). Because Kim and I were top of both the agility and jumping leagues, we qualified automatically for both finals.

The jumping class in the morning was a really interesting course, and we did the difficult bits and then messed up on a pull-through (my bad handling!). In the Agility Qualifier later I planned to train it since we’d already qualified, and just get her running the dogwalk a bit quicker, but we had a cracking run and came 2^nd! Once all the morning classes had closed, the Agility Finals were held – Intro first – and it was a really tough course. We started off well but it seems Kim came off the see-saw badly and landed on the same shoulder that she injured last week. I didn’t realise and continued on, and we managed to go clear but it was (painfully) slow after that, so we only finished 10th. I’m positive we could have done better but all credit to the amazing winners Shaun and Ribena, who went in first and did a perfect run that no-one else could touch. Kim was fine afterward by the way, and perfectly sound, but it seems to have jarred when she ran.

Sunday we had the Jumping Finals, and Kim and I messed up the Jumping qualifier to get E’d again (oops!) but then went and won the Agility class so I can’t be too annoyed! The Jumping Finals course was lovely but Kim and I were E’d as Kim was going faster than I expected, but she ran beautifully and I was really pleased. It was nice to see that the winner wasn’t a collie either, but a lovely black crossbreed.

Monday was the CleverDogs finals, so I only entered Kim in Snakes and Ladders in the morning. We usually manage to go clear but don’t do very well, so I was very surprised and pleased to find out we came 2^nd!

In CleverDogs, Kim was in the Blue Lane, and was the first leg on in the Multimix division. We lost the first leg, won the second, and then lost the third, something that I was really pissed off about at the time. The dog we were against, Willow, did an excellent run and I had no problems with her winning (she actually went on to win the division). My problem was that she and Kim hit the flyball at the same time, but Kim was unable to trigger the box so lost the leg. Since I know Kim always has a great turn off the box and never has any problems, I complained and was told that the ball sometimes stuck in the box if it wasn’t loaded properly. Since my mum (who was kindly boxloading for me!) boxloads in flyball competitions for our teams at Owlers, I know she is perfectly capable of loading a box correctly, but apparently this box loads differently which we weren’t told before we ran. In the end I was told I should have brought my own box if I was so bothered, which I certainly would have done, but didn’t think much of the attitude — at least because I did kick up a fuss, subsequent boxloaders were taught how to do work that particular box properly. Generally I wasn’t very impressed with the whole thing and probably won’t bother entering again, but congrats to Shaun and Carly who came fourth in the Open Division 2, and to Gemma and the gorgeous Grace, who won it.

Finally, a couple of shout-outs: Huge congratulations to Helen and Lucy who won the Introductory Maxi Dog of the Year (we both did rubbish in the Finals, didn’t we!?) and to Laura and the gorgeous Merlin for winning the Discbusters Toss n Fetch and for your first agility win at Dogs on Top.