Ok, remind me never ever to try and run 3 dogs at one competition again! I have no idea how people do this on a regular basis, they must be completely bonkers. I don’t suppose it would be too bad if they were all in the same classes, but I had one G6 Medium, one G5 Large, and one G3 Large … which meant that none of them had overlapping classes, nightmare for me!

Having said all that, I was so proud of all the dogs for just getting on with it, what superstars!
Kim was up first in the very unusual G5-7 Agility, no dogwalk and no weaves?! Very weird, but it was quite a nice course, I was really just worried about the slightly nag-nag start that really needed a wait to make it smooth. I finally figured out a way of running it that I thought would work, and Kim had a really great run, I was so proud of her! She hasn’t competed at a KC show since she won out of G5 at Scunthorpe (and hasn’t competed at all since the end of August!). She was in her element though, she loved it and really just had a total blast. She nailed the course and won the G6, which means she’s got her first win towards G7, eek!

Because I spent so much time walking Kim’s 5-7, I slightly neglected walking Dylan’s Open Jumping (2 walkthroughs) and Jet’s G3-4 Agility (one walkthrough) … oops. I did walk Jet’s Open Jumping properly though! Jet was completely nutty in her first run, I had a feeling she might be due to the amount of barking we got when I picked her up. It was a very tight course and Jet bounced pretty much everything, and then popped the last few weaves at every attempt and got E’d. We then got E’d a few more times for good measure!

Dylan’s Open Jumping was a really nice course, but he kind of drifted around and took everything very cautiously. I’m not really sure what happened, but it feels like we took 20 steps back today. He finished 12th and was only 2s off the winner, but it wasn’t a good run.

Jet’s G3-4 Agility was really tough, really awkward dogwalk approach and an Aframe into nowhere. I had no idea how she would do, but we ran it pretty well. We picked up 5R at the tunnel and then had the pole after the weaves, both were totally down to my shoddy handling. We finished 11th anyway, which should indicate just how badly the course ran! Very pleased with Jet’s contacts though, she’s really getting more confident with driving into position.

Dylan’s G5-7 Agility was the same as Kim, but we had a really bad start and I thought we had a really obvious refusal, so I held all his contacts and we wasted ages at the “refusal” faffing around. I’ve no idea how or why, but we apparently went clear and came 4th in G5.

Kim’s Open Jumping was a nice course, but slightly frustrating. The judge and ring party were really trying to rush through the classes, as it was really cold and everyone did want to finish early. But the way they rushed people onto the line was totally unreasonable! I walked the course and fetched Kim straight away, but there was no queue and we were basically shouted onto the line. I was not happy about being unable to warm Kim up; it was absolutely freezing cold, and Kim is an old lady (!) and she didn’t run at her best. This was so disappointing, she worked the course really well and tried so hard, but she wasn’t stretching over the floor or extending into the jumps as she can do and she ended up clipping the last part of the long jump to get 5f. She finished 4th with that and was 2s faster than the winner. I know Kim and I weren’t the only ones who were shouted onto the line whilst trying to warm their dogs up.

Dylan ran his BC Agility and G4-7 Jumping all at once, and got E’d in all of them. The BC Agility wasn’t actually too bad a run, and Dylan tackled a brush fence and long jump on the way to the dogwalk whilst I layered a couple of jumps, which I didn’t think we’d be able to do. The Jumping was awful, very few redeeming features!

Jet had lots of runs all at once too; another fabtastic Aframe in the ABC, and came 5th on a supereasy blasty kind of course! We followed it up with a really messy run in the G3 Agility, which was a real shame as it was a course I thought would suit her. I just didn’t handle it in the best way for Jet, but she came 5th anyway, what a star! Kind of gutted about Jet’s Grade 3 Jumping, the course was great but I gave her no room on the 5th jump and she had the pole, and then I eased off for the ending. It does feel like Jet and I are working much better as a team though, and our placings are reflecting that, which is good!

Kim’s C4-7 Agility was a lovely course, just tricky enough, and she had a lovely clear and came 2nd. We won’t discuss the disaster that was the C5-7 Jumping, but suffice to say Kim ran happy and smooth, just handicapped by handler! So proud of my old lady today, she was really enjoying herself out there and I just love running her so much, the more I learn about agility, the more I appreciate how much natural talent she has. I don’t think one person today would have been able to tell she was 10 yrs old next month, she looked fit and fast and athletic out on the course.

Dylan’s G4-5 Agility was the very last run of the day, and it was just another slow, drifting run (with lovely fast contacts). He definitely wasn’t feeling himself as he tried to sit on Leah’s lap in the queue, so I’m just going to write off this weekend and hope that we come back to form next time.