The weather was crap on Saturday and my hair went curly and erghh, not a great start, but I soldiered on! First up was one of Rods agilitys, was a lovely course, I really liked it. All contacts were perfect, I just got too excited towards the end and pulled him out of his weaves by calling his name, what a numpty! However, despite my bad handling I was very pleased with the run. We had another agility next (both were either 1-3 or 1-4)this was again a nice ish course, had a couple of bits I didn't like, but I was happy I was going to get around it... this however was not the case. It was a sharp right turn off the A-frame, I have done this a million times in training and I know we can do it perfect, however he jumped, therefore I could not continue, I corrected by doing the A-frame again. I was very surprised he did this, I then ran the rest of the course terribly, which is NOT acceptable. I always tell him once on dog walk what direction he will be coming off of it, this however I did not do and Lee said I wasn't even running right I was doing everything half heartily, which again isn't acceptable, anyway he came off dog walk side ways cos he didn't know where he was going... TOTALLY my fault, the thing with running contacts is, even though it was my fault, I couldn't continue with the run, so I left the ring. Very annoyed about A-frame and for myself for not running rest of course right. Later on there was a practise ring, I did a few dog walks, they were perfect. Then I did afew A-frames, "goes" were perfect, then I mainly spent my 2 mins of time on equipment doing turns off A-frame, these however were only 50%, I don't even remember my contacts ever being that bad. Yes I am annoyed, however just shows an area which I will be focusing on over the next few days or however long it takes to make perfect. I can not get him to do anything wrong in training regarding his contacts, therefore it shows I must get to more new venues to train.
I also had a jumping run on the Sat, Lee had told me the best way to run it, I did what he said and it worked perfectly :D Rod was abit slow in and out of turns, however when I started running so did he. I couldn't really fault the run though, I actually think I handled well for once... weird! His turns were perfect, his weaves were great, was just a nice run... his 3rd ever run, first clear and he came 7th :)Phoebe was also good, by having all clears, she picked up a 2nd in grade 6 jumping... so close, I'm starting to think she may actually go grade 7 one of these days :P
Sunday... Well Sat night was abit of a drinking night shall we say. I drank a little too much and had next to no sleep tut! Lucy Clifton was veryy funny and drunk this evening HA!! Therefore Sunday was abit of a struggle!! Rodneys first jumping class was again really nice. I have spoken to Lee regarding how much I should push/ pressure Rods in the ring, he believes you should be calm, collect and let the dog have there head to start with when you first get in the ring to prevent pressuring and blowing there minds, so this is what I have been doing in his jumping (have to push in agility cos of contacts)Even with just basically doing a nice training round like the jumping on the Sat, Rod came 4th in Grade 3 woohoo. Sian and Eddi won it (It was also Eddi's first show :)) Dave and Nala came 2nd, not sure who come 3rd. Rodneys next jumping class, I was useless in, got around with just having one pole (Rodneys only pole of the weekend)however I wasn't happy with the way I handled at all. So my last run of the weekend 1-4 agility I was determined to do better 1) cos it was our next agility class since Rod jumped A-frame on the Sat, 2) I had just handled terribly in jumping! Gary Woodham was judging, again was a good following course. I literally woke up, thought s**t hope my class is still running ran down, saw Lee and said I was running, then went in the ring. Luckily I did wake up, cos Rod was fantastic and won the class WOOHOOOOOO!!! After watching Heges run with her youngest I honestly didn't think I could beat it. Of course I was really pleased, so grade 4 here we come :D!
Here is a pic of Rods with his trophy and rosette from winning combined 1-4 agility, there was roughly 180 dogs in the class.
I also saw Natasha Wise run Rodneys sister, Jive. She is looking fantastic :D! I think Tash won every class with Dizzy this weekend, including Champ and Crufts singles, I don't know why other people, including myself with mediums even bother... no-one else can even compare.
Today was the GB world team try outs. Lee and Bold won the large overall woohoo (hope he doesn't start charging me for training :S)Sue Rolfe and Kes also made the team, which I am really pleased about. Natasha and Dizzy won medium :)
Once again another very long posting, I know I could prob go on alot more, however ill save it for next week. Weardale this weekend coming :D! xoxo
