The Promotion tables have gone up for the 2010/11 BAA season, and Dylan is happily into Graduate in both Jumping and Agility. This doesn’t bother me since he’s going to be doing Novice Plus classes all winter anyway. He finished 3rd in the Novice Maxi Dog of the Year, which I’m thrilled to bits about, I thought he had no chance! He only moved up to Novice from June, so got most of his points in Primary. Primary points are worth less than Novice, so it just shows how well and how consistently he’s done. Good boy! He was 10th in the Novice Agility League and 9th in the Novice Jumping League, so very respectable there too.

Kim has gone into Graduate Agility on wins, which I couldn’t avoid, but she’s fallen into the Voluntary Promotion section for Jumping – we haven’t got any Novice Jumping wins – and I’m not going to apply to move her up. It means she will get a few runs next year at Novice, thankfully! She finished 8th in the Novice Medium DOTY League, which was reasonably good considering she amassed all her points over the summer since I don’t do the winter BAA season with her. Despite getting her wins in Agility, she has generally done better in Jumping, and finished 13th in the Novice Jumping League, and 18th in the Novice Agility League.

I did hesitate about doing anymore BAA shows after this season – I’m not happy with various things, which I’ve gone on at length about before – but I’m at least going to do the winter season with Dyl and then see what happens. I like the four day summer show just because it’s a good training show, and if I think he’s in with a decent shot at qualifying for Finals or even the Dog of the Year, I’m not sure I’ll be able to resist. It’s kind of difficult because there aren’t many other Finals for us to go for; in KC terms, Olympia and Crufts aren’t suitable venues for Dylan to run at even if we could qualify, and I don’t fancy chasing the Adams or CSJ Qualifiers up and down the country.

Maybe I’m just lacking in ambition!

I didn’t quite get the points I wanted from the EMDAC show. Dylan needed to be top-8 to qualify for both the Agility and Jumping Grand Prix Finals, and we are 13th in the Agility and 8th in the Jumping.

So, we’re comfortably into the Jumping Final on that, but not the Agility. We’ll be a strong chance for Reserve but I won’t know until a week before the show, and I really wanted to avoid having to try and qualify on the day.

In a weird twist of circumstance, I’m desperately trying to keep Kim out of the Finals! I never thought she’d have a chance to qualify, but she’s 13th in the Jumping League which means she might be called up as a Reserve, and if she runs like she did at EMDAC, she might even qualify on the day in her own right.

Either way, it looks like both dogs will be going up to Graduate next season on Auto-Promotion. I thought I might have got away with keeping Kim in Novice Agility, but she’s had 2 wins this season which will push her up. So Finals weekend will be Kim’s BAA retirement party, and I will bring a cake!

Hmm, where do I start?!

Thursday. Thursday … happened. EMDAC always run the Thursday classes in the evening, usually starting around 5pm and finishing around 8:30-9. It’s usually fantastic, running on cool summer evenings and under the floodlights. It started so well …

I elected to run Kim NFC in Introductory for Thursday. I can take a toy in Intro classes, and they are smooth, fast, flowing courses, which I thought would be a good way to see if I could get Kim running again. She was a little surprised in Agility when I got the toy out, and so we made a bit of a mess but had a lot of fun, which was the intention! Intro Jumping was a super-fast up-and-down thing, and Kim just went out and crushed the course. She ran like a 5yr old, proved to me she is physically fine, and loved it.

Dylan threw in some good runs, ran well in the Novice Plus Agility and finished 2nd, just behind Lottie.

And then it started to rain. Dylan finished his last run at 11:15pm, and I know some people didn’t run until 11:45. And the craziest thing? Nobody really complained. We have clearly lost the plot, us agility people.

Friday was a better day, only occasional rain and done by 5pm. Mollie had her first run and got E’d, which was hilarious and I apologise unreservedly to the judges for making such a hash of their lovely courses all weekend.

Kim was back in Novice and although occasionally loping around at cruising speed, she ran with more enthusiasm and speed than she has for a long time. She pulled off a 2nd in Novice Medium Helter Skelter anyway, and generally just made me smile.

Friday was split classes by height, so Kim and Dylan were running over the same courses without being in direct competition. Dyl did a smooth but not astonishing run in the Novice Maxi Agility, and came 1st – the course was difficult but nowhere near impossible, so I was surprised no-one else got around! Still, first win towards Graduate Agility, go Dylan! Kim got 5f in the same class for a refusal, my fault as usual and it was a shame as she’d have been well up there.

Kim was 2nd in the Jumping and then 2nd in the Up-and-Under too, what a good girly! Dylan was 2nd to Tri-Dylan in the Jumping, just like Kim (!) and just wasn’t fast enough in the Up-and-Under (think we were 4th overall?).

Novice Triple-A was a bit uninspired and I wasn’t much feeling it, so went in and held all Dylan’s contacts, and then got him E’d. Oops. Kim ran it fantastically though, until I pulled her off the last straight and got 5f. Oops againn!

Saturday was slightly crazy, both dogs were running the same courses again but with split results, but Kim just upped her game. Her run in Novice Medium Agility was blitzing, I was so shocked I burst out laughing and then got her 5f for a refusal. Oops! Dylan got E’d, but he had a really nice run, I just made a mess of it.

The Novice Jumping course was horrendous, all call-offs and tight spacings, and I knew I had no chance of getting Dylan around. I figured we’d try the first bit and then see what we could do, which resulted in an E, of course! Scratched Kim straight off, she would have hated it.

Novice Triple-A was a lovely course, really suited both my dogs. Kim was running clear until she got to the final jump-weave-jump combi, where she steadied for the weave entry and then spotted her lead and ran straight past the poles and over the final jump. Pure naughtiness, but I should have been watching for it!

Dylan also ran it beautifully, and then did the same as Kim and popped his last 2 poles in the weaves to get his lead. Arg! The lovely Rae Blythe, who was judging, came over and spoke to me afterwards though to say what a shame it was, because he really did run it fantastically.

Steeplechase to finish, super-fast course that both dogs enjoyed, although I think they were both a bit confused! Dylan was 2nd and Kim was 3rd.

We were back to combined height classes on Sunday, which turned out to be a low to high day; I walked Dylan out of the Novice Agility, because he was being such an idiot. It was a shame as he did a lovely dogwalk, but he was floating about like a complete idiot and ignoring me, so out he went. Fetched Kim for the same course, and she whipped through and won it by nearly a second. Kim = awesome.

Novice Jumping was an interesting course, really spread out and using every corner of the ring, but still really nice. Kim was slow to start and then picked up, Dylan ran it ok but not fantastic. Dylan was 2nd, Kim 4th – I really though Kim was faster!

Kim was 4th again in the Helter Skelter, but she was easing up a bit by then. Dylan did a beautiful run, and then skipped the last jump to get his lead. Arg!

The British Open Championship was in the afternoon. The Agility was a bit of a killer course, but I felt moderately confident that Dylan could handle all the tricky sections, and he did. In fact, he did an amazing run, blew me and everyone else away, and finished 3rd. I nearly died! He beat some really good dogs that we can’t touch usually, so I was so pleased.

The Jumping round was a straight speed course, a few traps but nothing truly horrifying. Dylan’s run was amazing, he was sharp and tight and then he ran past the last two jumps to get his lead. I nearly cried. Brought him back around to collect the 5f rather than the E, but that was our hopes dashed. I felt like such an idiot too, I should have asked the lead person to leave his lead outside the ring. We finished 10th overall, and I think we’d have been pushing for top-5 if we’d gone clear in the Jumping. I’m still a little disappointed but Dylan stepped up three gears for me and so I’m still proud of him.

Finished off by running both dogs in the Time Gamblers, placed 6th (Kim) and 7th because they were both too fast. Heh, can’t complain about that! Had it been a normal class they’d have placed 1st (Dyl) and 2nd, which is kind of awesome.

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.

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!