Getting to play!

Well I actually got to get out and play with my dogs at The vyne championship show on the bank holiday! Marie had gone to Shrewsbury where she had judged and she got to play with Ruby - to no avail though as she could not attain any clears all weekend. It was just me who went to newbury so I had the choice of which of Marie's dogs to take- and I settled on Blossom the sheltie- mainly because her runs were in the afternoon.
I think it showed in my runs with Ruby just how rusty I am just now. Ruby had a wide pull in at the champ agility round, I overcompensated and tried to get her over the jump quicker than I should have, so a pole came down, IMO though I felt her contacts were spot on, in the jumping round I changed my mind and pulled her off a jump and it was down hill from there on! Loved the champ courses though, great fun to be competing against all those folks again! For some reason ruby was entered in the ABC qualifier! Walking the course in the morning I quickly realised I was correct not to take Tink (Marie's kelpie) as the course was not for the quick and inexperienced! Ruby was run steadily round it with my version of held contacts and for some reason won the class, I think there was only 10 clear rounds in total from over 300 ABC dogs entered!)
Ruby's Olympia qualifier went well until she decided she couldn't possibly go into the correct tunnel entrance! All in all for her she did not miss any contacts- and I did not feel that she would miss any! So very pleased with her.
Puck only had 2 courses, his first big grade 6 courses, the grade 6 agility I knew was not for him, but in places he coped well, and had a lovely fast weave entry, In the Olympia qualifer he was Awesome! Lvely contacts and a hard weave entry, but fell for the same trap ruby had, wrong end of the tunnel, we need to work at dogwalk- tunnel combinations! as although he's getting the contact, there's no stopping him from going straight into the tunnel! Very pleased as well with his performances though!
Then came blossom two jumping runs followed by an agility run. Her failing for me is the weaves and marie has been trying hard to get consistency from Blossoms weaves, in the first run she popped out at the 10th pole, but was flying, same for the other jumping run, except this time her entry was too fast and although she got the entry, she went straight to the 3rd pole! Need less to say I was very very pleased with her performances with me, remember I do NOT train Blossom at all ( Not allowed!) and it was the first time she had run with me since october ( the day the pups were born!)
Onwards to the agility, we were down as one of the last in the class, i decided to get the contacts for marie and work them with the commands marie uses for her, Off she blasted and she was up for it! Lovely A frame, brinkmanship on the see saw as usual! and then a big long run to the dog walk ( her biggest issue when running with me) so I worked it and patiently waited her to have the 2on 2off position, and then off to the weaves, and what a good girl she was, nearly did the missing the second pole thingy, but pulled it out of the bag and stayed in the weaves, last obstacle was then the tyre ( which she does run around, but good wee lassie that she was she went through it! I waited for the class to finish - not too long to wait, into the tent I went and she won the class- and straight up to grade 5 ! Can't wait for the next time to go play with her again!
My knee and foot suffered though- and here I am today still hobbling about thankfully this weekend is a judging appointment at beacon, so no runs till Worcester, and we all get to go as the van'll be back on the road!

Its not only dogs we have I have a cat as well called les ( or fat-les to his friends) he's 14 now and struggling a bit from a life of being pampered and pestered by lots and lots of dogs, I adore him though despite being crotchety and a bit smelly! too fat to clean himself nowadays, and he blushes easily and I can't get him to keep his eyes open when having his piccy taken!