What a weird experience – no rain, no snow, no ice! Just a cool but bright day, and standing outside in the sun was lovely. Please can all the future Tailwaggers shows be like this?

Power and Speed first, Dylan’s favourite class. The Jumping section was a little too Helter Skelter for me, and true to form, I made a right hash of it and pulled Dyl off a jump mid way around. Oops! Took lots of stick about that from … well, nearly everyone, but mainly Rob, Vicki and Lindsay! I was good and held all his contacts properly in the Power section; we took our time and Dyl looked fab.

Tunnel Teaser was … interesting? The course was the same for all the levels, and it was a pure killer, E’s all over the place! I wasn’t worried about the traps but I was very concerned about remembering where I was going! I felt a little bad for Dylan, he tried for me like he always does, but I was really unsure about what I was doing and my hesitation made him steady up. There also wasn’t anywhere to pick up speed, it was constant turning and call-offs. We went clear anyway, and then finished up 1st! So that’s our first Jumping win towards Novice, which is rather unexpected! To be honest, there were only 2 clears, but Dylan beat 2nd by 11s and his time would have put him 3rd in the Novice and 2nd in the Graduate Plus, so maybe he wasn’t so slow after all.

I made sure to tell everyone that I was going to hold Dyl’s contacts in Primary Agility, just so they could call me out on it if I didn’t. But I did! I had to, otherwise I would have died of oxygen deprivation, since it was the longest course in existence. The judge runs a very drivey Weimeraner, and it showed in the course design! Dylan ran it like a star, he was clearly enjoying himself out there and he did a beautiful sliding seesaw stop, just like training! We pulled off a flick around at the top of the course (13-15) and it was just a nice run. We finished up 4th, about a second behind Vicki’s Diesel who had a really beautiful run – I think he’d win it but apparently not!

Primary Jumping was a bit of a wicked course, but if it went well it would flow nicely. I really went for it with Dylan and we were having a flying round, really smooth, until I messed up off Jump 12, oops! I thought Dylan was most likely to take the far tunnel entry, but I pulled him with me for the nearside. I dithered, he dithered, we wasted 3 hours deciding whether to do the tunnel or not. Refusal! This is clearly a recurring theme. Must work on spatial awareness and remember that Dyl always clings tighter in the ring. We finally got it back together and finished up without getting E’d, but we’d lost the plot slightly by that point and I cued Dyl for a flick back at 16 which I hadn’t intended, which also wasted a lot of time. Anyway, despite the 5R, we came 7th (fastest 5 faults) and would have walked away with another 1st if I hadn’t been an idiot. How often do I say that!?

All these results put us up near the top of all the League Tables, which I’m thankful for. We are skipping a couple of the usual BAA shows either for flyball or closer BAA shows, so I knew we needed some good early results to keep us in contention for promotion next year. Having said that, Dyl just needs one more Agility and Jumping win now to go into Novice, which is both awesome and terrifying!

Tailwaggers #1 was all about the ice, Tailwaggers #2 was all about the snow. Bob suggested that #3 would be all about the flooding, but we remain optimistic for bright and cheerful sunshine all day.

Primary Agility was a fairly straightforward course, but with a tempting little dogwalk/seesaw discrimination at the start. What I really love about this show is that they fence off a fairly large queuing area, so you actually have room to warm up your dog properly before you run. So Dylan was absolutely raring to go by the time he hit the start line, stretched and focussed and it really paid off. His dogwalk was perfect, and he was all about working that course, and letting me co-pilot only. I suddenly get why everyone has those hard-staring Border Collies that you just shout directions at from the middle of the ring. It’s smooth and fast and easy!

I genuinely wasn’t sure if we’d won or not, since there were some of the usual super-fast competition still to run (although there were a few missing, like Chloe and Ritz), but Dylan came comfortably 1st in the end. Halfway to Novice, what a star! Bob’s Twig was in 2nd, over 2s behind, and Twig usually kicks our arses.

That 1st also means he now has his BAD-Bronze title. The BAD-Bronze is a special one for Dyl, because it’s the only time he’s been first to get something. Kim has always been their first before, but she never got this one. So props to Dyl!

Primary Jumping was fiendish but fun, and Dylan opted for the “take everything in sight” option. We got E’d, but it was a blast anyway. We had a slight argument in the Triple-A Agility; Dyl blew the first Aframe contact, stopped on the second in a perfect 2o2o, and then stopped on the floor for the 3rd. Naughty boy … but he made the judge laugh, and he jumped everything beautifully, so not too many complaints. I know we have to work on that Aframe, I’ve been letting him run it too often.

Primary Up and Under was a mad course, four tunnels in a row and various options! I was trying so hard to remember where I was going I didn’t really handle it all that well, but we came 2nd anyway, beaten by Vicki’s Diesel, who is just looking more and more speedy every time I see him run. Dylan has also decided that he’s maybe not so bad … maybe in another 3 months he’ll finally seccumb and actually play with him!

This Tailwaggers Dylan? He’s awesome. I’ve got to find out how to have this dog every competition.

Let’s gloss over Dylan’s first run, except to say that if you are queuing, have your damn dog with you, especially if the queue is only three people long and you are two of those people. Congrats to Julie and Winnie for winning it though, go the Beardie/Lurchers!

The Graded 1-3 Agility was a really nasty little course. It was the same for the 1-4 Small/Medium classes, and included two contact call-offs and a horrible box push-out and around. Not my kind of thing at all, but Dylan did a nice run, not really flat out at all but he did a really lovely dogwalk. He did get marked on the down contact and I genuinely don’t know whether he hit it or not; I tried to front cross at the bottom and pushed him sideways, and although he did his 2o2o stop, I’m not sure he had any paws in the yellow. Not his fault anyway, and it was almost-fast and was confident.

Lady Jane made an appearance too, because Myerscough is light, clean and airy, and she likes the crowds and the noise. The classes were 5-7 but the gamble partly paid off, and we had a cracking smooth Jumping course, just offset by the painfully difficult Agility. She was really happy to be there, so I still happy with the semi-retirement thing.

Kim and I watched everyone getting E’d or faulted on the Jumping, and Kim showed those whippersnappers what an old lady can do. Shame her handler is spacially challenged! We got a big 5R as I pulled her off a jump way too early, so we looped back around and then came 2nd, with a time that would have comfortably put us 2nd in the Grade 6, and with the second knocked off for the loop, we’d have been in the G7 placings too. This really makes me smile, because Kim runs at cruising speed these days, just chilling in middle gear and laughing at me the whole way around, and still clocks up faster times than dogs running flat out at half her age. For a long time it bothered me that I had failed her with regards to training, and that she never got the Grade 7 label I knew she deserved. I guess I’m just happy to take her line on things these days; she knows she’s more awesome than everyone, and I know she is too.

All the other three rings had packed up by the time came for Kim’s agility, but I guess we can’t be first to leave all the time! The agility involved a little bit of coaxing on the call-offs, but Kim raced through all the straights and made up more than enough time. I promptly forgot the ending, had to make it up and wasted what felt like hours improvising slowly and wildly. We got around though, clear and easy, and Kim came 2nd again. I’m more than happy with that! Staying in Grade 5 means I can stay away from 5-7 or 6-7 classes, and let her have a blast in 3-5s.

Kim also had an interesting end to her Agility run. The big white horse barriers (double bar, about 4-5ft high) were marking out the edge of the run. I’d seen a couple of dogs over the course of the day jump the last jump and then continue to jump through the center of the two bars to leave the ring, mainly when the walkway area was clear of dogs and people. Kim jumped the last jump, and then tried to jump the whole thing. She nearly made it, bailed at the last second and somehow pinged back through the centre hole as it was tipping. It landed on her head … she is such a drama queen, with the screaming and the hobbling and the “much sympathy required” signs.

Within two minutes she was being gobby and muscling in on Pippa’s snapshot moment – Kim was originally stood three foot to the left, until she saw the shutter going down …

Lovely show, but South Durham always put on a good competition. No weaves in any of the classes though, but apparently they couldn’t peg them down. Some of the rings were a bit … oddly shaped, but I don’t really mind that. Anyone with a bit of imagination can put up an interesting course in any space, and I like interesting courses! Some judges were brilliant at this, others not so much.

Graded 1-3 Jumping, and I knew this was not going to be Dyl’s course. Very tight spacing for Dyl, and lots of boring pinwheels/boxes for me. We did a reasonable run, a bit hairy in places poles-wise but tidy turns. I was pleased to see that Dyl was clearly wanting to stretch out and have a blast around, but as soon as he picked up any speed he was braking again to get the strides in. I find it hard to handle when I’m just stood pointing too, so that probably didn’t help. We finished up 8th in the Grade 3, so not so bad in the end.

Walked both the agility courses at the same time, and would have loved to run the G1-3 first, but the Combined 1-4 was running much faster and with Dylan having a lower running order, we had to go for that first.

Five faults, oops! My fault, I early-released and he blew right over that contact. I should know better! I took my foot off the gas then and we made the pinwheel look a bit untidy, and I wasn’t clear enough with Dyl on the run to the last jump about where we were going, so he hesitated for a moment. Fractions of seconds, but if we’d gone clear we’d have placed 6th out of the 220+ dogs, so I’m quite pleased with that. Must practise pinwheels though (even if they are boring!), and look at that terrible jumping action … arg! This was his worst run in terms of fluidity of movement, by a noticable margin.

Graded 1-3 Agility was a superfast course, the only potential problem was a pull-thru at 9-10. Dyl shot off like a rocket, actually showed some of that lovely training speed! Carried that through for a nice Aframe and a really perfect seesaw, but I steadied him up a little bit too much for the pull-thru* and then made a right hash of the ending so we lost too much time there. Surprisingly came 5th regardless, which was a genuine shock!

Final run was Combined 1-7 Jumping (Part 1), and both splits had 157 dogs. I was very jealous of the Part 2 lot as they had a fab course, lots of long stretchy sections and a real flow. Part 1 was a bit more technical, lots of tight turns and those boxes and pinwheels again … Dyl actually ran this with the most enthusiasm and extension he’d had all day, but naturally I was all over the place! I was concentrating too much on remembering where I was going and not tripping over things, which meant I was late on almost all my cues. Poor Dylbert! We had a couple of late hesitations which put us waaaay out of the running, although we were never even in it to begin with as it was 1-7. We got a nice 22nd though, or so Vicki tells me (thanks!).

Congrats to all the usual gang; Julie & Charlie/Gertie/Winnie, Leah & Stan/Doris, Vicki & Diesel/Pippa, Candy & Freddie, Katie & Jet, Orienne & Woody/Murphy, Paul & Farley, all the Wakefield crew, and probably at least six people I’ve forgotten! This was a pretty sizable indoor show but I still couldn’t escape talking to at least 20 people I knew everytime I went for a stroll. Good stuff!

*Expect in-depth analysis of one small half-checked stride in the coming days. I’m becoming an obsessive …

This is such a long drive. Thankfully it’s worth it, because I love the proper Northern shows. Everyone is so friendly!

I had a borrowed dog for this show in Katie’s Jet. Jet is a complete maniac and I haven’t run her competitively since her first KC show at South Durham, since when she’s become 100x more crazy fast. I said back then that running 2 dogs was hard, but it’s actually been a real struggle for me just to run one dog in the past couple of months. The wait between runs just drags on and on!

The Graded 3-4 Agility was an … interesting course? I really liked it, but I might have been a bit more hesitant if I’d been running a genuine baby dog G3 in there.

Jet set off like a rocket, and did one of the best dogwalks I’ve ever seen her do. Katie will be very proud to know that all the training paid off! She ran right to the end, no creeping, but unfortunately I was so overwhelmed by this I was thinking about the wonderful dogwalk and not where we were going. So Jet didn’t turn for the jumps, and turned for the Aframe. Oops! We carried on and did the Aframe again properly, and then again at the end. You can never have too many Aframes, apparently!

Dylan did some lovely lovely contacts in this run, and I couldn’t have asked for more in that respect! He also nailed the turns and generally made it all look pretty easy. Just one thing letting us down, and that was his jumping. More on that at a later date, but suffice to say we came 4th, just less than 2s off the winner. Time that I feel we could easily have made up with fluent jumping! I can’t complain too much though, a 4th is still a 4th and we’re fast approaching his Agility Warrant now so any placing is a bonus.

1-3 Jumping was a bit of a lost cause. I didn’t like the course, too many pinwheels, so I didn’t really walk it properly and then made the same mistake with both dogs, oops! They both popped the last 2 poles on the weaves, and Jet missed the weave entry because I tried to handle her like Dylan … which I already know doesn’t work!

Thankfully I do learn from my mistakes occasionally, and I handled the Graded 3-4 Jumping completely differently for each dog. Made my life more difficult, but I just couldn’t see how I could get Jet around without poles if I handled her like I would have Dyl or Kim. It almost went to plan as well! Jet did a cracking run, but I panicked at the turn from 14-15 and didn’t cue the turn smoothly enough, so Jet slowed right down, and then she jumped completely the wrong way over 16 and we lost loads of time there. I think that was the only real example of miscommunication all day; both my dogs would have read my cues as a rear cross, but Jet isn’t used to running with me (and me with her!) so she didn’t understand what I was signalling.

Dyl’s plan went … to plan, really! Again, just a shame about the jumping. He finished 9th (24.190), and Jet was 13th (24.934). Winning time was 21.215, but second was 23.534, so not a bad finish for either dog.

Huge congratulations to Cat and Gypsy for going Grade 3 – who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?! – and to Tracy and Mac for winning out of Grade 1. Can’t keep the Aussies down … also to Julie and the gang for their lovely pink rosettes, and to Paul and Farley, who has no faith in his dog and didn’t even check to see if he was placed in his last class. (He was, sandwiched between Dyl and Jetly in 11th!)