Saturday was a little weird. Dylan wasn’t running at his best, stuttering a little through certain jump sequences and just generally floating around and distracted. We were E’d in the Jumping Qualifier, and then came 3rd in everything else. I’m still not quite sure what was going on! Kim finished out of the placings in her two jumping runs, but she was the top Medium in the Steeplechase and was less than a second of Dylan’s time, so her times are reflecting how much she’s cranked it up recently.

Had the most fun with both dogs in the Triple-A, this is Kim’s perfect game! She did a kickass run and finished 2nd in the Novice, and actually would have come 2nd in the Graduate too, beating Focus’ time. Anyone who knows Focus will appreciate how good that is! Dylan came 3rd, and I think that’s the only time Kim’s beaten him when they’ve both been clear. (Incidentally, the dog that beat them both to 1st is a Large KC Grade 6 dog, so I think they did pretty well!)

Sunday morning was a bit of a disappointment, still not jumping with extension or confidence. The Novice Plus Agility was a nasty little course, very challenging and filled with traps. Dyl got half-way around before shooting off into the wrong tunnel, but worked his contacts beautifully. The Jumping was better, but stuttering again, and he finished just out of the placings in 7th. Didn’t bode well for the Sunday afternoon Agility Final! I’d put Kim NFC in Introductory again and she loved it, despite getting E’d in everything anyway, so she was pretty much a write-off for Sunday.

The Novice Agility Final was actually quite a nice course, tricky sections but much easier than the Primary! Wasn’t really my kind of course, I didn’t feel very confident going in with how to handle the softer traps, and that’s where we lost it. I wasn’t clear enough with Dylan and he skipped the weave entry, and after we’d got 5f I kind of lost it and we got E’d. I wish I’d held it together and pushed on with 5f as we still would have been placed 7th barring any other mistakes.

Monday morning was even worse, if possible! Both really nice Novice Plus courses, really suited both me and the dogs. The Jumping was a super-lovely flowing course, but Kim had a pole (what the hell Kim?! Since when do you knock poles?!) and then (again) I sent Dylan into the wrong tunnel. He finished up measuring his jumps anyway, which left me in a total panic — not what you want with the Jumping Final in the afternoon! Novice Plus Agility was a big, open course, really nice, and Kim decided to do the dogwalk three times before actually thinking about listening to me, at which point she flew around and made it look so easy. Dylan also got E’d, but was jumping beautifully, very confident and very smooth, lovely fast contacts, another “what the hell” moment.

The Novice Jumping Final was a truly wicked course, all pull-thrus and call-offs and a really tough weave-exit. We wasted what felt like forever but was probably only a second or so whilst I tried to send Dylan through 5-6 (he wanted to jump, I wasn’t clear enough that I wanted the tunnel!), were a bit scrappy around to the weaves, but then nailed everything after the weaves, with lovely jumping and lots of drive and we did good. I’d watched a couple of the Mediums go clear, and our friend Moss did a cracking run just before we went in. I was guessing Moss for the win, with Dylan maybe in 5th, or 4th if we were lucky. If we were really lucky, I thought we might scrape 3rd. Somehow though, we came 2nd!

Mollie was the real superstar though. She got a 6th in Veteran Jumping, which is no mean feat at BAA – the Veteran classes are incredibly popular, there are usually around 50-60 ex-Graduate/Masters dogs in there, compared to our stumpy flyball dog who doesn’t actually ever train anymore and has never done any proper competitions. Anyway, with the points from that, she qualified for the Veterans Final! Which was hilarious, we got E’d. Mollie was wound up through the roof, ran like a complete lunatic and spent half the time barking at me. So much fun, love running my crazy old lady.

Waldridge Fell.

The KC Novice Olympia Qualifier was a tricky little course, but being a Combined 3-5 I wasn’t expecting easy. I walked it and quite liked it – Julie Buchanan was judging and she always includes a wall and a brush fence, which I love. The only thing I wasn’t so keen on was the dogwalk approach, it was very offset and I was a bit concerned as to whether Dylan would keep his balance. As it happened, he skittered on the edge for a moment but kept powering on and did it nicely. We did perfectly on the rest of the course, until we reached 16 – it was a push out around the wing to the Aframe. Push outs are the one thing I feel I can handle well, and that both my dogs fully understand and can do, so I have no idea why Dylan came off 15 very lazily, and then came to a complete stop next to me. We both looked at each other, I shrieked a bit and he finally understood, and we finished up clear.

I’m still not awfully sure what happened there. Obviously we had some miscommunication, but Dylan always offers something if he doesn’t understand what I’m asking, he never just shuts down completely. It was very weird, almost as though he’d gone to sleep for a second than then suddenly woke up and began to work again. He seemed alert and interested when he stopped, so I don’t think anything upset him, or that he had hurt himself. Mystery!

Worst of all – or best of all, I suppose? – we placed 8th overall. I was slightly shellshocked at this news! If we had run smoothly Dylan would have been comfortably in the top-4, which would have qualified us for the Novice Semi’s. This just … wow. I can’t get my head around it at all.

Nic Jones set a thoughful kind of Grade 3 Agility; easy for the dogs, tough on the handlers, which is perfect for Grade 3! I wasn’t awfully sure on how to handle the box and I’m still not sure I did it the best way. Dylan’s contacts were excellent though, and we came 4th.

Can’t remember the Jumping courses at all, think we might have got an 8th in one but it’s all a bit of a blur. It was too hot!

Sunday was baking hot. I felt like I was living in an oven. The Grade 3 Jumping was a nice course, a straightforward call off at the start and then a blast around really. Dylan got stupidly wound up in the queue and I had a feeling he was going to get a bit daft, but he blew past me completely at the start. First time he’s ever acknowledged a command and then done something else anyway, cheeky boy! So, big E in that one.

Grade 3 Agility was a challenging course, and really needed a wait start – I think we’ve established I don’t have one of those anymore! I had to handle it from behind and it wasn’t the fastest way to do it, and that kind of set us up for the whole run. Dylan had lovely contacts but didn’t feel as fast in the straights as he had been, but it was still a nice run. I’d watched two very fast clears earlier in the class so I knew the best we could hope for was 3rd … which is what we got!

The final Grade 3 Jumping was not my cup of tea, nice course but all minimum distance boxes, and I knew Dylan wouldn’t be able to pick up any speed. We ran clear but I felt Dylan was really on the slow side and I thought we had no chance of getting placed. Somehow came 7th, I can only assume everyone else got E’d!

The final Grade 3 Agility was a super simple blast, no weaves, and there were about 300 clears. I went in with the aim of getting a really fast final dogwalk, and I got it, but unfortunately the judge marked the down contact. I disagree, and am confident that Dylan got it (right hind paw) but he came off to the side due to my positioning and so we were in the same situation as Newton Heath but this time I know he got it. Win some lose some!

Most perfect agility holiday ever. Redcar is a fantastic venue; I’ve raved about it before, but it’s a huge rugby club/football club training ground, so perfectly flat mowed lawns, nice big exercise areas, and 400m away is the Stray, a beautiful and huge dog friendly beach. What could possibly be better?!

Hare’n'Hounds ran the first half of the week, Saturday to Tuesday. Due to some flyballing issues, I didn’t enter Saturday so we travelled up on Sunday morning with Dylan.

We had a so-so run in the first Grade 3 Agility, it wasn’t a very hard course but I held his Aframe contact and we were very wide and messy around the turns. And the dogwalk was slooooooow! Came a surprising 5th, and Julie’s Winnie won it.

I can’t even remember what happened in the two Grade 3 Jumping runs, so it can’t have been particularly good or bad. I have a vague recollection of one being fiendishly difficult, can’t remember where we went wrong but I know we did!

The other Grade 3 Agility was a nice smooth course, nothing really difficult about it and all I wanted from Dylan was a fast dogwalk. It was reasonably quick, but not quite what I wanted, but he flew around the rest and did a beautiful seesaw for me. I messed up at the end because I ran ahead of Dyl and then heard him crack a pole, but I wasn’t sure if it had fallen or not. I was so busy thinking about that I forgot about the pull to the last jump, and poor Dylan went very wide and then kind of scrambled over it. Eek, bad handler! We got another 5th anyway, good start!

Monday; Grade 3 Jumping was a smooth course, ideally needed a wait start which I don’t have anymore. Made completely the wrong handling choice for the start as a result, we were very messy around the first turn, but still finished 4th. Very pleasantly surprised by that one, I didn’t think we had much chance as it was a nice fast course.

Lovely Grade 3 Agility course, again needed a wait start to get the fast dogwalk from Dylan, and so again he was a little slow to start. A little wide to the weaves as well, but apart from that it was a really nice run, fast and smooth and we came 2nd, behind a cracking little Pointer. We’re getting closer though, so near to that 1st now!

Combined 3-4 Agility … I think we’ll pretend this didn’t happen. I missed the course walking and then tried to run it anyway, and just made a complete hash of it. Trained Dylan’s contacts and bless him, he tried really hard anyway!

The Combined 3-4 Jumping was another superfast course, there were loads of clears so I decided to gamble a bit and leave Dylan in the weaves. I do this at training all the time, but I’ve never dared just run off and leave him in competition. It paid off anyway, he stuck in them and I could get the front cross in and keep him tight to the finish. We finished 12th, not a bad result for my slow Grade 3 dog!

Tuesday … smallest classes of the week and I so wanted the win, I thought we could do it! Had a blitzing run in the Graded 1-4 Jumping, although I called it perfect on twitter and it wasn’t (we were really wide to the second tunnel, I didn’t give Dylan enough information and he wasn’t sure if he should be going on or not). We came 2nd, best ever placing in Jumping. Not really disappointed, Dylan ran like a true pro and was fast, sharp and extended in his jumping. Couldn’t have asked for better from him. (Fab course from Nigel Staines too, loved it!)

The Combined 1-3 Jumping was a basic box type course, all a little tight without much room to stretch. We ran a clear that bagged a 7th but Dylan never really had room to speed up and I didn’t find it all that inspiring. Can’t remember the Graded 1-4 Agility at all, apart from that it was quite hard and I sent Dylan the wrong way (nice contacts though!)

Bit of judge switching went on the afternoon, for various reasons, and so Dylan’s Combined 1-3 Agility was judged by Nigel Staines. He set a fab course with a really tricky pull-thru at the end; Dylan smoked the course, fast contacts and beautiful turns, and then we got scuppered on the pull. Arg! Heard everyone sigh in sympathy, so know the run was as good as I thought it was, and we finished up with a smile.

Started the weekend with a nice course for the Grade 3 Jumping, a little bit straightforward for my taste so I chose to take Dylan the long way around the pull thru, which gave me a chance to test his weave entry. He flicked out to it beautifully, nailed it, and then I steadied him up way too much for the turn at the end. Oops! That pushed us well out of the placings, unfortunately … or so I thought. We eventually came 16th, despite the super slow last corner!

The Alpha Agility (Combined 1-3) was a weird little course, lots of contacts into nowhere and slightly awkward approaches to the dogwalk and seesaw especially. I completely missed walking the Grade 3 Agility, but luckily it was a nice course, just one tricky bit which people really overhandled, for the most part. However, now would be a moment to mention that the showground is right next to RAF Scampton, where the Red Arrows practice. They practised all day Saturday, and that put paid to our agility runs!

The Red Arrows did not go down well with Dylan. He wasn’t frightened or panicking, otherwise I wouldn’t have attempted to run him, but he wasn’t anywhere near as focussed as he should have been, and was getting hyper-aware of unexpected noises. The Alpha was a complete shambles, we were both all over the place and I think we had 5 or maybe 10 faults? Not sure, but it wasn’t pretty! I could tell from the start of the Grade 3 Agility that Dylan was nowhere near as focussed or as fast as he’s been running recently. I held all his contacts as a result, and we handled the pull thrus without a problem, but it felt super slow. Think we came 21st in that?

Final Grade 3 Jumping was a massive course, huge wide spacings and a run along the top of jump-cloth tunnel-pipe tunnel that I knew was going to cause us problems! Because this class was at the end of the day, the planes had stopped flying just after lunch and we were in the quiet again. We set off comfortably, but I pulled him off the pipe tunnel and we dithered around for 3 hours before I got him back on track. Finished up easily anyway, really lovely extended jumping around the last section which was very nice to see! We came 17th, which was a bit of a surprise as I thought we’d had a very obvious refusal, but apparently the judge didn’t mark it (or the scribe didn’t write it down, because my couple of supporters both thought they’d seen him mark it!)

Sunday dawned … rainy. Lots and lots of rain. Bit of a contrast to Saturday when we all got sunburnt! It stopped raining but stayed overcast until lunchtime, by which time Dyl and I had done all our running. We seem to like running in the rain though, so that’s ok.

First class was the Combined 3-5 Vegas Qualifier, and not at all what I was expecting! It was easier than some of the Grade 3 classes I’ve run recently, and it was definitely easier than the Alpha Qualifier. Again, a very fast, very open course but one I thought Dylan would like, so we gave it our best shot. Our best shot is not very good apparently! Dyl veered off towards the dogwalk and so we made a real hash of the top flick around (6-7), so I held all his contacts again. Going back up to take 6 again, he veered off again for the dogwalk(!), so we lost loads of speed again. I would have marked that as 2 refusals, but apparently the judges were feeling really kind this weekend, because it was recorded as clear. I had a peek at the time anyway; Dyl was 34s-ish, and 20th was 28s-ish, so if we’d been clear (properly clear!) we’d have been top-20. However, how many other people can say that as well? Especially the dark blue merle dog with the most mindblowingly fast running contacts I have ever seen, who got 5f (think on the weaves?). I have no idea who this dog is, but wow, it did the dogwalk in 3 strides and nailed the contacts. Stunning!

Grade 3 Jumping was a perfectly pitched course, nice wide spaces but some areas to handle. I was bouncing after walking this! Dylan had a cracking run but I forgot my steady command at the start and he went very very wide around to 3, which cost us any chance of a placing. Oops!

The other Grade 3 Jumping was a strange little course. It looked really simple on paper, but once everyone walked it there were a few frowns! It was a course that had to be worked all the way through, and finished with a tricky weave entry. Dylan had a fantastic run, super smooth and fast, neat and tidy through all the corners and he nailed the weaves. Couldn’t have asked for better, and we came 6th, which was a pretty fab result in a class of 217!

Grade 3 Agility was another nice course, really straightforward and just a box to work at the top. Dylan set off nicely but we had a real regression and he slammed on at the dogwalk up-plank, I was so disappointed! Held his contacts for the rest of the run and tried to stay philosophical, but it’s so frustrating. Further work required.

Congrats to everyone for their results, but especially to Emma and Bailey for their 2x 2nd’s in Grade 5, and to Alice and Sammy for their 1st in the Grade 2 Jumping, about time!

I was really surprised that Dyl pulled off the placings he did; the classes were huge and placings were seperated by 0.01′s, so I thought we’d have to be running our absolute best even to get near the placings. As it turned out, we were in the top-20 or there abouts with pretty shoddy runs by my standards (especially compared to Hare’n'Hounds at Easter), and with our only good run we were in the top-10. In Jumping! I never thought I’d have a good jumping dog, when did that happen?!

Imagine a sea of mud, stretching as far as the eye can see …

Well, it started ok on Friday. A little cold, a little damp, but nice. The weekend didn’t start all that fortuitously when I ran the Combined 1-3 Jumping, Dyl popped the last 2 weave poles (setting a trend for the weekend there) and then I completely forgot where I was going. The only word to describe it was shambles, frankly. Dylan then ran with Cat in Junior Agility, and was a freaked out little puppy … well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. He likes Cat, and got around the course, but really couldn’t understand why he was running with her when me and Katie and everyone were stood right there.

Happily, improvement was made! Doc’s Graded 1-4 Agility was lovely, and Dyl went clear but chose to creep his dogwalk. Still, stayed in the weaves and steadied for his wrap at the end nicely! We came 6th in a surprising turn of events, I didn’t think Dylan was particularly fast but it turned out there were fewer clears than expected – possibly due to the ground, which was (unknowingly) setting the theme for the next 3 days. Dylan also ran with Cat in Junior Jumping, and apart from being an airy fairy, he was much better.

Graded 1-4 Jumping was a nice course, but not really suited to Dylan; it would have been perfect for Kim! Some tight spacings and some slightly awkward turns for the longer striding dogs, but we scraped around and came 8th. We finished up with a good run in the final class of the day, the Combined 1-3, really lovely dogwalk but a little creepy on the Aframe and seesaw. The dogwalk obviously made up for it though, as we came 6th again! Very pleased, it was a good result in a big class.

We went to Tracy’s Quiz, and when we emerged some hours later, poorer and perhaps a little tipsy, the world had turned and the ground was increasingly resembling a swamp land. It didn’t get any better, and the show organisers wisely chose to cancel Saturday’s classes. A handful of people went home (Emma!) but I actually think most people stayed, which was nice. We had a relaxing Saturday, and may have danced when the sun came out at 5pm. In the short hours before sunset, the sun worked it’s magic and we were cautiously optimistic about Sunday.*

*Ok, Katie was very optimistic, and Cat and I were patiently sceptical. It balances out.

Cat went home Sunday morning, which we were sad about but it did mean I couldn’t traumatise Dyl with any more Junior classes. We ran the Combined 1-3 Agility and Dylan again freaked out at the dogwalk, but after watching 90% of the dogs in the class do the same, I was hopeful for the rest of the day. We spoke to the very lovely judge who said he could see the dogwalk was clearly a problem, but by the time the pattern had been established, it was too late to change things. It was solid, not bouncing or rocking, and the approach was straightforward. It wasn’t slippy or hot/cold underfoot, so we have no idea why all the dogs slammed on the brakes on the up-plank, but they did! Anyway, we were clear, but the dogwalk shenanigans cost us too much time and we finished 6th.

Lovely dogwalk in the Grade 3 Agility, which was the same equipment as the C1-3. The course was nice but I think we got E’d … for some reason this course is a complete blank, I’m pretty sure we got E’d but I haven’t a clue how, where or why! The Grade 3 Jumping was a lovely course, consisting just of jumps and tunnels but just the right amount of challenge vs. go. Dylan was running nicely but I fell over a jump wing and completely confused the poor lad, so we got another big E. I don’t think I did the course justice! Katie and Jet definitely did though, since they came 2nd.

Finally, Doc’s Combined 1-3 Jumping, a nice smooth course with a very fast line right around the outside of the ring. I figured we had no chance, much too fast a course, but we gave it a good shot and Dyl worked the wing wrap at the end really nicely. Surprisingly we finished up 3rd! We’ve never even placed higher than 6th in Jumping, so that was a lovely surprise.

Monday morning dawned bright and chirpy with a very chilly breeze! Graded 1-3 Agility up first, last chance to chase the win, and we blew it on the second obstacle by popping the last 2 weave poles! Bit gutted as Dyl did a lovely run, beautiful contacts including a lovely fast, confident dogwalk. Must work on the weave popping!

Graded 1-3 Jumping was a course I loved, really big open spaces and a flowing course, but with some unusual challenges which made the handlers really work from beginning to work. We stood and watched quite a lot of the class, which made for interesting viewing! I only saw 1 person flick their dog to the right of 6 and then bring them down the outside of the tunnel, which had been my plan from when we walked it originally. Sticking to the plan worked, because Dyl’s run was absolutely awesome. He was eating up the ground, lovely and extended and smooth in his jumping, nailed the weaves and turning tight when necessary. We had just one break in the flow, coming over 15 at the end, where he broke stride and stepped in towards the final jump. He came back onto line when I called, but then he broke stride again, checked in with me, and then committed to 16. He was moving forward constantly, and we probably wasted 0.5s at most through a lack of momentum, but it felt like a lifetime! We finished 3rd, but only fractions seperated us from 1st/2nd. It’s the only time that I have ever felt we were chasing 1st, I was absolutely buzzing after we’d run!

Combined 3-4 Agility was a wicked little course, including a brush fence and a wall (I love this stuff, please can we have more!) but it was the best agility run Dylan did all weekend … except for popping the last 2 weave poles again. Arg! I was in raptures over his dogwalk, I think I might be dreaming about it for the next month. Was a bit worried about the increasingly gale force winds, but he kept balanced throughout, never flinched at the “unusual” obstacles and he bounced the corner going into the dogwalk. Shame about the big E, but I’m still very proud of that run!

Combined 3-4 Jumping was a boring little jump/tunnel course, no weaves or much of a challenge, especially compared to the lovely G1-3 earlier. We toodled around it, clear but uninspired, and finished up 17th.

I didn’t think about it at the time, but I realise now that I never walked a course this weekend and worried about Dylan being able to handle it, I just trusted him. It was also nice being up North, because although a lot of the names in the results were familiar to me, I didn’t know anyone well enough to go out and compete specifically to beat them. It was all about getting Dylan to run as best he could, about me attacking the courses and both of us just relaxing and having a blast. Which we did!