It was baking last year at Newark, and Bakewell didn’t want to let us down so the weather was beautiful but boiling. We were flyballing on Saturday and entered agility on Sunday, which worked really well last year, not so well this year. Sheffield were hosting the flyball side of the things and provided plenty of baths, thankfully, but it was still hard work for the dogs.
Having said that, I was very pleased with Kim and Dylan’s efforts. Dylan’s boxwork session last Thursday really paid off, he was turning much higher off the box and it paid off with faster times. Having said that, he was running in Division 1 with the Barneys and he isn’t fast enough for that team. We fought our way into a 4-way tie for 4th place, but it went to fastest times and we came 7th.
Mollie got very very hot after her 600th false start, so she was pulled a few more times than planned – which meant Kim ran all day. I didn’t think she’d be able to cope with the heat and I didn’t think she was fit enough, but she actually ran much better than she has done in the past couple of competitions. I’m not sure if she’s just getting back to something like fit, or whether she was just trying harder against faster dogs. Food for thought, anyway.
Sunday was … hectic! Last year the agility rings and the flyball rings were close together. This year, they were at opposite ends of the showground. Cue running backwards and forwards in baking heat and in between 500 people and dogs, exactly what I wanted to avoid!
I moved Dylan up to Novice for this competition (he was a baby in Introductory this time last year!). First class was Novice Plus Wicked Weaves, a very tricky course but I felt confident we could both handle it. Remind me not to do that again! Dylan missed the first – easy – weave entry, and it went downhill from there. I left the ring when we got to jump 7 or 8, I think. Dylan was appalling … drifting, totally unfocussed, not listening at all. Resisted temptation to hand him over to the amused public, and went to the practise ring. Dyl redeeemd himself with some lovely dogwalks, and a very nice person (I think perhaps Nell Pegg?) gave me some much needed reassurance.
Novice Plus Agility was a lovely course, pitched on the easy side but considering the weather it was ideal. Dylan did a cracking Aframe and stuck the contact, was a little slow through the push-out but did an amazing sliding seesaw (I don’t know which of us was more surprised) and a cracking dogwalk. Clear, and 2nd in his first Novice Plus, beating some really good dogs to do it.
Kim was in the same class and I wasn’t expecting great things, but she was really cheerful all day. She set off a little slow, stopped at the top of the Aframe which she hasn’t done for years, but then did a lovely run and blew her dogwalk contact (of course!).
Novice Plus Circular Jumping was another lovely course, with a tunnel trap that took out a lot of dogs. Thankfully neither Kim or Dylan are tunnel mad hounds, so we avoided that one! Dylan did a nice run but I didn’t think it was particularly fast, and Kim also went clear but she wasn’t happy about the circular bits where I was stood still and she had to run. Amazingly, Dylan came 1st, which is still boggling my mind. He beat some very very good dogs and I’m not quite sure how, we saw Lottie run (Masters/Grade 6) and she ran a tight clear but she finished 3rd.
Novice Plus Jumping was a decent course, but with a weave call-off that I knew neither of my dogs would like. Dylan went straight into the weaves, so a big E there, and Kim avoided them but was not happy about it, and so we lost way too much time to be in the placings.
I wasn’t expecting to get any placings with either dog, and I didn’t think that Dylan had any realistic chances of going clear, to be honest! Makes me a cautiously optimistic about him getting to the Finals though, he’s already 22nd in the Novice Agility league and 24th in the Novice Jumping league. He needs to be in the top-8 to qualify automatically, which will be tough but not impossible. There’s always a chance of placing in the Qualifier class too … but I’m getting ahead of myself! 
