Kim is smug about her trophies. She knows she’s better than me.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy Dinnington as much as I did, but it was a bit of a blast from the past; tiny one day tournament at a nice venue on good ground, just three divisions and a proper set of Starters, and the weather held all day. Done and dusted by 5:30pm.

We knew this was going to be our prep tournament for the Champs, and we also knew we were going to need the training as gypsies have taken over our training ground, leaving us without anywhere to train at the moment. Typical!

Dylan’s team was a bit of a mixed bag, we’ve been running together for 6 months but we just don’t seem to be gelling, I don’t know why. We are getting better, and we’re throwing out consistent times, but I don’t feel like this lineup is working.

Kim and Mollie’s team were … unexpected. We were seeded on 22.25, and I was pretty hopeful we would get under 22s and get the girls some points. I wasn’t expecting great things as the top seed was on 20.92, which we seemed unlikely to run. And then we ran 21.12 twice for the first race, with the slowest dog on the team in, a 6s dog.

And then, second race, we broke out. The girls ran a 19.82 … I actually thought Katie was joking, and then we ran 19.90, and broke out again, and just, what!? How can a team seeded on 22.25 run 19.82? Day, made. (Of course, this does put us in a bit of a bind for the Champs, where we are seeded on 22.25 and the slowest dog from this weekend is being replaced by a faster one. And the divisions will be closely seeded, meaning the break-out time is likely to be 21.00 at best).

Meanwhile, I told Katie I wanted some more Flybe pictures, since the blue puppy is 6months old and I haven’t seen her for a month. Fly wasn’t so much into the photos at first.

But she came around!

Dinnington Div1

Originally uploaded by kayanem

My trusty camera camera buddy Emma snapped a couple of random shots, and so did I. Click to view.

If Kim could use the internet, she would kill me for posting this picture of her.

mollie04 Originally uploaded by kayanem

Dylan worked his socks off on Saturday. His Primary Tunnel Teaser run was genuinely really fab on a very difficult course, he did some awesome tight turns and although we went a bit messy at the end, I was quite pleased just to get round! We came 1st, which was great, and it gives Dylan his second win towards Novice Jumping.

Primary Agility was another tricky course. Katie and I spent ages walking the 6-10 section and I decided to risk it and leave Dylan to do the seesaw (7) whilst I raced ahead to 9. I wouldn’t have dared to it with another dog as I know they would have flown the seesaw, but Dylan has only ever flown the seesaw once and he’s generally more cautious on unfamiliar equipment. Was a bit of a hold your breath moment, but it paid off and we nailed it (and Dylan nailed his contact!). It was a very good run, the only thing I wasn’t happy with was his dogwalk. He was super confident, but crept down the down plank and then ran his contact without waiting for the release command. Hmph. I let it go and I know I shouldn’t, but I really wanted the 1st and we got it. So Dylan has his second win towards Novice Agility too!

We made a mess of Primary Helter Skelter, and then Dylan had a great run in the Primary Jumping class, lovely and tight on his turns, but Jet came along and had a gorgeous run that was the clear winner! So we came 2nd in that, beaten by Jetly, can’t complain! Jetly actually had an awesome weekend, because she got her first win towards Novice Agility too on Sunday. Plus she’s just so cute!

See more Jetly photos here …

Dylan was kind of naughty on Sunday. He wasn’t listening at all in Primary Jumping, and just drifted off and did his own thing. I held his contacts in Primary Agility and that seemed to bring him back down to earth a little (we still came 3rd though!), because he picked up for Primary TFO. Unfortunately I pushed him out at 11 instead of pulling him in so we went out quite early, but because he had an awesome fast time we still came 3rd. Finally did his best run of the day in Primary Circular Jumping, which was a tricky course that went reasonably well and he came 1st. I won’t nitpick because we won, but rest assured it was far from perfect.

Kim was just fab, she made me laugh all weekend. First thing Saturday was Novice Plus Tunnel Teaser was a wicked hard course and I thought we had no chance, but it had a good straight line start and finish that I thought would be good for motivating Kim, and I could do most of the pull-thru’s as outs which she’s usually quite good at. She ran it perfectly, giving me a few evils towards the end but she was happy and tight on her turns, and amazingly she came 1st! I nearly died of shock. I chose not to run in Novice Plus Helter Skelter and we made a mess of Novice Plus Agility so I let her blast around the contacts. She finished up with a good run in the Novice Plus Jumping, she slammed on the breaks at one point and gave me that look which means she’s considering doing it wrong on purpose so she can go home, but then relented and finished up nicely. It was probably her slowest run but she came 2nd nonetheless, it was a hard course and not many went clear.

Nice run in the Jumping and we came 3rd on Sunday morning, and then we messed up in everything else except TFO. I love TFO, and Kim used to be kick ass at it so I really wanted to run it with her. The course was really spread out; even the fastest dogs were only getting 14 or 15 obstacle, but I figured we’d give it a blast and see how it went. Kim rocked it; she actually took it up a gear for the first time all weekend and I had to do some severe improvisation on the pull-thrus because I was so behind. We’d just started out second loop when we got called for time, and had to run to the opposite corner of the ring to clock out. Kim loved it, and so of course she came 1st, because she is awesome like that.

She does make me smile though. She was cruising all weekend, running at an easy lope, all tight turns and long strides without putting in an ounce more effort than she wanted to. She was laughing at me constantly. We would get nearly to the end of the course and there would be one last pull through, and I would call her round and she’d give me a considering look, a smile, and then she’d go and do the jump I didn’t want her to. She knew full well what I wanted every time, but she’d just say “I’ve done enough pull thrus, thanks!”. (Actually, what she said definitely included a lot more swearing than that, but you get the gist.)

Mollie also ran this weekend, in all the Veteran Jumping (based) classes. She was awesome! I ran Mollie in Tunnel Teasers and we were super cool, and she came 2nd, which is her first ever Veteran placing. Go the Mol! We promptly got E’d in every other class, but she had a blast and was generally awesome.