Newton heath and ABC semi final

After what has seemed to be a very long wait the Newton heath weekend came- and a decider to see which of my 3 qualifying dogs would hopefully be going to olympia. I wanted ruby out of preference- she is my best dog and it would be a great shame for her to never get the chance to show off at olympia- Ambers been there 3 times and puck has years to spare! it all depended on the running order as well- as ruby has always had a running order in the first 5 dogs!
2 runs for each dog on the Friday, Puck started off on ground that was up hill and down dale! and dreaded plastic poles and shallow cups! The number of poles that I watched come down this weekend just rubber stamps to me that they are not right for agility- they are unforgiving, unpredictable and dangerous! I run trying my best not to turn my dogs tightly as poles will come down! Pucks agility run was a pleasure- only one ( huge) wide turn saw him post his first clear since supadogs ( which did not bode well for the weekend ahead!) It was a stunning run which eventually would see him finish 4th, by 0.3 of a second from Doris stokoe who won it! But of course it had to be a combined 6-7 course- so we've got to wait for that grade 6 win! his Jumping run was even better, but his fool of a dad pulled him off a jump and I destroyed a fantastic run, his other great run of the weekend saw him knock a pole and post the fastest time of the day in a fun grade 6 jumping run.
Ruby posted the first of her 4 sixth places of the weekend in the jumping as i did a stupid turn which saw ruby fall completely on her side out of a tunnel.
Champs on the Saturday saw ruby post her first ever double E ! Monstrous courses from the judge eventually saw only 7 qualifiers from the 72 to contest the final- which had only one clear round- is this as it should be?- I'm not too sure, I just hope I don't get too many more champ courses like these!
Ruby subsequently posted another 2 sixth places in agility classes!
In the evening and the ABC semi final. Now I must just quantify at thames etc my foot/knee was fine- on Monday Draco started preliminary training and I fell over a sandbag- so i was back to square one for my ankle!
Amber was drawn 11th, Puck 19th and ruby 52nd ( I was very pleased about this- but would have preferred Ruby to go 2nd.
Ambers run was an amble which saw her E'd after the wall at obstacle 4! She saw her mum in the corner and off she went on a mission, so we dawdled around the finish- not bad for her 2nd run since crufts- but it will be her last ever competitive full height course at 8 years old she's had enough of agility so we wait till she's old enough for a veteran class or two in the future.

Puck was next to go and he was 'up for it' and took off like a steam train, and as usual I was left holding on to his shirt tails! A huge miss on the up to the a frame, was followed by his flying the see saw for the first time in a year!, 10f- but with a time that would have won it by 0.5 of a sec! Next year for him.


Then came ruby who showed her class- and experience! I ran her witha strategy of no turning signals and held contacts- oh and a see saw to the floor! And we got it right- we did not run to win, but to qualify! And she won it ! At last she gets to show off at olympia- I not worried about how she gets there, but next year we'll be concentrating on The Chum route!
The next day also saw us post some crufts points for the year with the last of our 6th's!




So all in all a good weekend that cost too much in fuel and ultimately ended in tragedy as Tom and Tracy's dog Peri ( experi-mental) came off lame and had to be PTS today as she succumbed to the same condition that took our Smooth Collie Io! for something so rare we've had 2 dogs at our club succumb to this horrific condition!- Run and scream free, Peri- you chill out in the big agility course in the sky ( with no contacts to get in the way! I'll always think fondly of her jumping way too high over the jumps and taking off from unprecedented distances from the jumps! as unpredictable as they come- and having way too much fun!
We also met up with lots of ruby's offspring and some pics were taken and I'll post as soon as I get them.