We set off very early on Saturday morning for the BAA Finals Weekend. Kim had qualified for the Grand Prix Primary Jumping Final on Monday, and I wanted to get some last points in for her in the hopes of being promoted in Agility as well as Jumping next season. Dylan was there for the experience again, I have to admit I didn’t really want him to get placed in anything because I wanted him to stay Introductory for another year! We all had a fab weekend, the show was a bit quieter than last year but the classes were still big and the competition was still good, and it was nice not having to fight for the best camping spots!

Dylan

Dylan had a weekend of 5 fault runs, but he is still improving so much every time we compete. We’re still sorting out our start line routines and he made a couple of baby mistakes that should be easy enough to fix.

On Saturday he had a so-so run in the Agility, and went clear but with held contacts we didn’t get anything. The Snakes and Ladders course was nice but I thought the shortcut was too difficult for him, there was a very sharp angle to the Aframe and with our creepy contact issue I wasn’t going to risk it. He set off nicely but then decided to try and bounce the jump-stretch and splattered himself in the middle of the stretch instead. Oops! We kept going and he had a lovely run, probably our best so far apart from the 5 faults, and looking at his time he again would have been up in the top-10 even though we took the long way around. Clever boy! He grazed his paw as well when he paddled the stretch and so now he has a lovely bald patch to show for it.

Video: http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/baafinals01.wmv

The Helter Skelter was a fair run but we got E’d, not too fussed as it was my fault and he worked nicely. Finally the Introductory Jumping Qualifier, it was a hard course and but somehow we went clear and then somehow we came 10th which meant somehow my little baby dog had qualified for the Grand Prix Introductory Jumping Final! We actually had a daft little spin after the second tunnel which meant we dropped 3s or so off the time.

Video: http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/baafinals02.wmv

Somehow we also qualified for the Starters CleverDogs Final, which was a big shock! We ran our CleverDogs Qualifying time back in March at Carlton Towers, the one and only time Dylan has done CleverDogs. He didn’t get much chance to do any more as we drew Kafka (Cories Affka) in round one, and my inexperienced little boy was unsurprisingly outclassed by a Grade 5, Olympia qualified Kelpie! What was surprising was that he kept pace with Kafka until the tunnel where I pulled him off the entry and had to resend him, and then he only finished a hurdle behind at the flyball. Maybe Dylan is faster than I thought! We lost the second leg too and so ended our CleverDogs career, we had fun and in the end came 5th out of the 8 finalists.

Sunday and Monday offered 4 Open classes each, but when I entered I decided not to enter all 8 classes with both dogs because it would have been too much for me to walk and run first thing in a morning. So I entered Kim in 1 Jumping and 1 Agility each day, and Dylan in 2 Jumping on Sunday and 1 Agility and 1 Jumping on Monday.

Dylan’s second Jumping class on Sunday was harder than the first and to be honest I wasn’t sure he’d get around. The weave entry and exit wasn’t the easiest and there were plenty of places to make mistakes. Anyway, he nailed his weaves as he did all weekend, and although his run wasn’t super fast it was clean and clear until the last fence. I don’t know what happened, but he refused and I was absolutely gutted! He would have been up in the top-10 easily. He ran in the same class as Kim for the other Jumping, and we had a refusal at the weaves (my fault!).

On Monday I walked his courses and by the time I’d got to number 8 on the Jumping I’d decided not to run him in it. It was a very UYOA course, constantly naggy and I couldn’t find a smooth way to handle it at all, and I wasn’t willing to knock Dylan’s confidence by trying something so hard with him. His agility was a really nice Open course, but I lost his attention whilst we were setting up and it all went downhill really.

The Grand Prix Jumping Finals were on Monday afternoon. At Finals Weekend all the other rings run in the morning only and then are shut down whilst the Finals run so everyone can watch. We walked the course and I didn’t think it was much of a Dylan course, although I thought we could probably get round. I would have liked to see 6 weaves instead of 12 as I thought the weave entry and exit were really tough for Intro dogs, 6 weaves would have made both entry and exit a lot easier.

Dylan and I ran 5th out of the 20 and we were ok until the weaves. Dylan missed the entry, I think due to a mixture of inexperience and bad handling on my part, and the suddenly realised there were a lot of people watching him! My poor shy boy found that a bit offputting and we ended up making a right hash of the weaves and got E’d in the end. He finished the course beautifully though and did the flick flack perfectly.

My prediction was right about the 12 weaves though, as we weren’t the only ones to make a mistake there. Mabel (Bekkis Masquerage), the hot favourite, also missed the weave entry, and a lot of the other dogs either popped out or missed the entry. Dylan ended up with the 20th rosette but I’m still very proud of him for getting to the Finals at all.

Apparently he really likes rosettes with writing on the tails because that’s what he got all weekend!

Kim

We had a bit of a rubbish day on Saturday, mainly because I wanted to at least go clear in the Primary Agility Qualifier and either just get points or, ideally, qualify. No such luck! Kim missed her dogwalk contact. We had a nice run in the Primary Jumping Qualifier and somehow we came 4th, which was a bit surprising! Equally surprising was her 10th in Snakes and Ladders; we took the shortest route but we had a bit of framegazing on the Aframe and we basically walked around the course at a snails pace. I can only presume nobody else took the shortcut successfully!

Kim came back to a bit of form on Sunday and went clear in both Open classes. Finally a clear in agility, whoo! She finished up 19th in the Open Agility and 12th in the Open Jumping (out of 170+ dogs), not too shabby. Monday was definitely our day though, my dog finally got her crazy back.

I loved James Denton’s Open Agility course, it was exactly the kind of thing Kim likes, a straightforward opening sequence and then plenty of wide open spaces for her to stretch her legs in. She set off well, but after jump 4 it was like the switch was flicked and I got my crazy little dog back with all the running in her legs. She finished up flying, and came 10th in the end, beating a lot of good dogs including her friendly rival Moss.

Video: http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/baafinals03.wmv

Open Jumping was her last run before the Grand Prix Jumping Finals in the afternoon. I’d been working ring party on Ring 2 for 90mins in the morning so I knew we had to run clear under 20 seconds to be in with any chance of a placing, it was a big, open and fast course that the Graduate and Masters dogs were blasting. We had a bit of a slow start but finished up nicely in 20.88, I didn’t think we’d be quick enough and I was right! We got a rosette for 28th in the end, but there were 72 clears!

Video: http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/baafinals04.wmv

Finally we had the Grand Prix Primary Jumping Finals in the afternoon, and I think running Dylan first took the pressure off Kim and I quite a bit. I walked it the course on my own, and then with Maria who runs Kip, another Medium, and then with Sylvia who runs Molly, a Maxi. We all wanted a wait start to get us into position but I didn’t think I’d get it with Kim, so I walked it two different ways depending on whether we got that wait or not.

I missed most of the Maxi dogs running as I was behind the scribe tent trying to keep Kim cool and relaxed. I knew that Kafka had gone clear as well as a few others, so the pressure was off as I didn’t think we could beat the Maxi’s! As the last few dogs were going I booked in, found out I was going first which somehow didn’t surprise me! I normally hate going first in the Mediums, I always feel rushed to get on the line and go but I’d promised myself I wouldn’t do that this year. I took my time winding Kim up and playing with her, and I actually didn’t feel nervous for once. Maybe I’m getting my head around this Finals lark! Set her up and she bounced straight back up as soon as I stepped away but that’s a good sign normally, so I put her back. She held her wait!

As soon as she set off I knew we were in for a good run. She was fast and responsive and I really did have my girl back, and we were clear until the final turn on the home straight. I was too far behind and panicked, shouted left too early and she spun to check with me before taking the jump, but it didn’t get marked as a refusal and she was clear!

(http://www.undermybed.co.uk/images/jumpingfinals.wmv)

I’m still smiling now, I took her off to play and didn’t watch the rest of the dogs run because I didn’t care if they all went clear and fast and beat us! As it turned out none of the other Mediums went clear so we knew Kim was on for a placing, it would just be which one. Nobody gets to see the results until they’re announced at the presentation so I was more nervous than I had been waiting to run! I was walking about at the back of the hall with Kim to try and keep her quiet and me calm, which wasn’t easy as they didn’t read out our names for 5th, 4th or 3rd! Eventually she got her 2nd, and we went up to collect our trophy and rosette. The wonderful Kafka came 1st.

I have to congratulate everyone else who was there and did brilliantly as well. Vicki and Pippa (Ruffs Kyria Kalli AW(S)) came 4th in the Introductory Agility Final, and 3rd in the Introductory Jumping Final. Our fellow Primary Medium Rasha Beagle (Bonwillan Dizzy Blonde) came 2nd in the Primary Agility Final (go the Mediums!), and Sylvia’s fab little Molly (Molly Coddled) was still in the top-10 of the Primary Jumping Final with 5 faults, she had a cracking run, so unlucky to miss the weave entry! Jean’s lovely little Cav Emma (Baby Boo) also ran her socks off in the Primary Jumping Final despite being exhausted and came 4th, as well as winning the Primary Mini Dog of the Year. Speaking of, we were all rooting for Anne and Moss (May Be Moss) to win the Primary Medium Dog of the Year but she was pipped at the last minute by somebody else, so disappointed on her behalf! Hopefully she can take home the Novice Medium next year. Leah Rumsey also qualified for the Junior Handler Finals, shame she wasn’t there but flyballing at Drax … maybe next year!

Finally, a big congrats to Alice and Sammy who won out of Grade 1 at Dog Vegas on Friday, they won’t be in Grade 2 for long!

Well, I’ve never flyballed in the snow before.

Barking Owlers came 2nd in their Division, although to be honest we really didn’t expect to. The Beardies came into season this week and had to drop out, so we were left with four competitive dogs, plus Chewy. On the day, we also lost one of our handlers as Craig was called into work after the first race, so we had to bring in someone who had never handled in open competition before, and had never run Meg. Jo’s Dad did brilliantly considering, but obviously we weren’t as gelled as normal and Meg had to run as lead dog, which she doesn’t like, and Mollie had to run as second dog, which she doesn’t like!

Kim ran brilliantly all day, she was absolutely faultless. I couldn’t have asked for more from her! But as a team we just couldn’t muster much enthusiasm and the tournament just wasn’t that great. We ran some miserable times, I think our fastest was 20.55 and our slowest was over 22 seconds, which was very disappointing from a team that normally runs sub-20. We were really hoping to get Mollie the 204points she needed for her Graduate award, and we just scraped it; thanks to Julie for counting up at the end, and Jane for offering to get her a few runs at Drax if she hadn’t made it. Go the Mol! Our division was also cut to the minimum of 4 teams as Dog Friendly and Hillam had to pull out at the last minute due to Kennel Cough, so even our 2nd place didn’t feel like much of an achievement.

Video to come …

I was scribing for Barney Owlers in Division 1 who were also down to 4 dogs, as Norah the SuperBeardie was out along with our Buffy. Jet had to step in as lead dog, with a completely new handler who had never done the lights before! Having said that, James got some awesome start times, cutting it down to get a best of 0.01 … impressive! The team did an 18.46 but were mainly running low 19 second times most of the day, which again was disappointing. Jet tried her best but she just wasn’t running the kind of times she normally does, being off by 0.4-6 seconds, but I think she found it hard work running in all the heats. It’s a lot of fun getting to be on the line though!

Dylan also got to play at CleverDogs! I was more interested in letting him work on different equipment than really going for a time with him, which worked out quite well because we only got one recorded time in the end! He clocked a 23.– in the Starters division, not too bad. I was more concerned that he ran the course well, and he did, but boy was he a tired dog! Nothing like his normal speed and enthusiasm. Teams are allowed some time to practise on the course before being timed, so I got a chance to play with Dylan a bit first. I really need to work on being clearer with my commands, but we got some work done on rear crosses and I even layered in a jump at one point, which Dylan didn’t mind at all, although it didn’t exactly achieve the intended and Dyl still took off back towards the weaves!

The CleverDogs was being run by some of the people from the British Agility Association, and I’m apparently a recognisable name now because I was asked whether Dylan was the dog I won everything with or if I had another. I had to confess Dylan was only the baby and Kim was off flyballing today, otherwise she’d have come and done some CleverDogs too.

The weather was awful all day, but we clearly didn’t have the worst of it. All the outdoor agility shows have been cancelled, including the huge Dashin Dogs show. But the tournament just felt very ‘meh’ … nobody could muster any enthusiasm to run, possibly because so often we were against an empty lane, but mainly because the atmosphere was just dead. Other teams seemed to be feeling the same way as us, and I’m not sure if we’ll be doing Carlton Towers next year. The first year I went (2004), Kim was running in her first ever open tournament and we came 3rd in the division, only to be told that the rosettes weren’t available and we wouldn’t get any. I know there are problems with every tournament but that was the standard the first year I went, and it seems to have got worse every year since. There are other competitions on Easter Weekend and right now, even the cancelled ones seem more appealing!

I got three lights for early changovers too, which is appalling. I haven’t done that for months!

Thanks to Cat Clark of http://www.themodernlove.co.uk/ for providing the photos of Dylan in this post and the last, and for the videos. Also thanks to Jess for allowing us to borrow her camera to film the Barking Owlers.

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.

I have finally got around to upgrading my account at streamline, and therefore have also started up a blog on the main website. I will still have my account at LiveJournal (http://moderately-lea.livejournal.com) but it makes as much sense to have a blog here. I’m going to try and keep this blog related to the site - updates about the dogs and the occasional artwork - rather than a personal blog. The layout has changed slightly, and now has the lovely Mollie featured rather than Kim. Dylan will still have his own training blog at undermybed.co.uk/dylansblog

So, what updates do I have? Kim and I should have been competing at High Peak this weekend, but unfortunately it was cancelled. I’m really disappointed about it, actually, since this is a show I’ve been looking forward to since 2005, as it was also cancelled last year. Instead we raced with the Barney Owlers over at York Racecourse, which is an absolutely fantastic venue, I’m amazed no agility clubs have snapped it up for shows! There would be room for 5 or 6 rings, plus camping and all the other trappings.

The BAA have announced the dogs and handlers who have qualified automatically for the annual Finals in August (by being top of the League Tables), and Kim qualified for both, in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. She’s the only Medium dog in the Agility and is the only none-Maxi dog in the Jumping! She has also qualified for the CleverDogs Finals, as top seed in the MultiMix division.

Kim is top of the CleverDogs 2007 Championship Multimix Seedings list! She ran a cracking time at Selby of 22.50 and is currently ahead of her nearest competitor, Poppy, by 4 seconds. We’ll have a couple more chances to improve that time this summer, and hopefully qualify for the Finals in August. Mollie ran a nice time for me in the Open division and is currently 17th in the seedings, but I think we can improve that — we had to double back around a jump so we wasted a lot of time!

CleverDogs is a combination of agility and flyball. The dog must negotiate a simple agility course, and after taking the final obstacle they must then complete a full flyball run. Dogs in the MultiMix division are dogs who are not Collies or Collie Crosses. Only dogs in the Open division can be crowned 2007 Clever Dogs Champion, but Kim sadly can’t run in Open.

cleverdogs