A trip up to Middlesborough saw a full complement of dogs competing after Whisky had recovered from his cut pad that prevented him competing at Gillingham. Nancy was entered in an any size classes. These are for dogs either retired from normal competitive classes; dogs coming back from injury or for inexperienced dogs. Dogs are able to jump lower than their Kennel Club height. Nancy showed that she's nearly ready to make her competition debut with a clear round to start the day off nicely :-)
Gertie, who runs at grade 7 medium, ran her little socks off, as usual barking her way round the agility course and had a win and a 3rd (she was only slightly hampered by her handler forgetting the course). Whisky, competing at grade 7, didn't get any clears, but as I've felt 'out of sync' with him for a while due to lack of proper training, all I was hoping for was us to have fun together again and in his first class of the day - Doc's grade 4-7 agility - he had the first two poles down which I ignored and then he worked the rest beautifully, and I even did a blind pick up on a longish straight which worked like a dream. I even had time to hear Gertie barking at the side of the ring enthusiastically encouraging her playmate along! Winnie got at least one clear in a twisty jumping class (as usual Winnie the lurcher beat Whisky the collie for clears!) but the star of the shows, in our eyes, belonged to our baby boys.
We should stop calling them our baby boys really, as Rufus and Glen are both 3 years old but we can't help it. Glen has been having a lot of poles down recently - I've had him checked out at a canine massager and his neck was painful, but he's fine now - and I've finally realised its because I give him too many commands, especially when he's in mid air when its too late to give a command and he can't do anything about them and it makes him drop his back legs. So I planned my course and ran him virtually silently with a couple of directional commands when he was on the ground before a jump.... and he felt brilliant and went clear and came 4th in Grade 5 agility! What a star! In his next class he only had one pole down and took a jump from the wrong side as I commanded him too early - so I praised him anyway! And Rufus the lurcher is actually starting to use some of that whippet speed. Up until now he's been running courses in second or third gear but I know we have fourth and fifth gear and of course whippet warp speed that we haven't unleashed yet. I think we finally hit fourth gear and it actually felt like running a proper agility dog and the 4th place in Grade 4 jumping was an added bonus. Watch out for when Rufus unleashes whippet warp speed as they'll be no stopping him.
And, as usual, we had some excitement on our end of day walk around the lake. Glen fell in and couldn't get out (everyone else managed to!) and I nearly toppled over dragging him out. Oh and Connie somehow managed to get filthy black legs!!!
Gertie, who runs at grade 7 medium, ran her little socks off, as usual barking her way round the agility course and had a win and a 3rd (she was only slightly hampered by her handler forgetting the course). Whisky, competing at grade 7, didn't get any clears, but as I've felt 'out of sync' with him for a while due to lack of proper training, all I was hoping for was us to have fun together again and in his first class of the day - Doc's grade 4-7 agility - he had the first two poles down which I ignored and then he worked the rest beautifully, and I even did a blind pick up on a longish straight which worked like a dream. I even had time to hear Gertie barking at the side of the ring enthusiastically encouraging her playmate along! Winnie got at least one clear in a twisty jumping class (as usual Winnie the lurcher beat Whisky the collie for clears!) but the star of the shows, in our eyes, belonged to our baby boys.
We should stop calling them our baby boys really, as Rufus and Glen are both 3 years old but we can't help it. Glen has been having a lot of poles down recently - I've had him checked out at a canine massager and his neck was painful, but he's fine now - and I've finally realised its because I give him too many commands, especially when he's in mid air when its too late to give a command and he can't do anything about them and it makes him drop his back legs. So I planned my course and ran him virtually silently with a couple of directional commands when he was on the ground before a jump.... and he felt brilliant and went clear and came 4th in Grade 5 agility! What a star! In his next class he only had one pole down and took a jump from the wrong side as I commanded him too early - so I praised him anyway! And Rufus the lurcher is actually starting to use some of that whippet speed. Up until now he's been running courses in second or third gear but I know we have fourth and fifth gear and of course whippet warp speed that we haven't unleashed yet. I think we finally hit fourth gear and it actually felt like running a proper agility dog and the 4th place in Grade 4 jumping was an added bonus. Watch out for when Rufus unleashes whippet warp speed as they'll be no stopping him.
And, as usual, we had some excitement on our end of day walk around the lake. Glen fell in and couldn't get out (everyone else managed to!) and I nearly toppled over dragging him out. Oh and Connie somehow managed to get filthy black legs!!!