What a perfect start to the New Year for our agility club
Several of us went to Dog Vegas show at Bishop Burton on Saturday (3rd Jan) and the red rosettes came thick and fast!
Firstly Pauline - she had two first places in Grade 4 with Harry. Her handling was so good, with clear and positive instructions to Harry who thrived on it and in the jumping class that she won, her handling was near-perfect winning by about 5 seconds I think. Pauline looked and sounded much more confident and the couple of times Harry 'did his own thing' and ran past the weaves, Pauline felt able to bring him back and do the weaves again.
Then secondly Ruth, in only her second show with Morse, came 2nd in the anysize jumping. Well done Morse. Much more to come! Tig, Ruth's older dog, also had a run in the anysize and enjoyed it so much he took in an extra jump. Well done Tig! Although I think Tig enjoyed the queueing and meeting his adoring public more than the agility.
Julie got another win with Rufus in Grade 4 agility (he won 2 weeks ago too) and 1st with Gertie in Grade 7 agility and possibly another win but I have lost count by now! Plus 3rd with Nancy in the anysize (and that included a detour as she said hello to the judge!).
Then I won Grade 5 agility with Glen (first of 3 wins needed to take him to grade 6) and 4th with Whisky in Grade 7 agility. I wasn't expecting or looking for any wins - I was just hoping that Glen and I handled well together, which we did and are feeling like a team now, and that Whisky wasn't too silly, which he wasn't at all. I loved running them both.
The day was so good for us all, and it wasn't the winning that was important - that was just a fantastic bonus - it was the fact that our training for ourselves and others is working. For Julie and I, our competing dogs have had literally 5 minutes at the end of our Sunday afternoon classes often in near-darkness, but because we've been super-focused, kept our dogs fitness up on their daily walks, kept their minds focused and happy by teaching tricks, its all working!
And we're so proud of Pauline and Ruth.
It's a tradition in agility to bring cakes to training to celebrate wins, so we'd best get baking :-)
Several of us went to Dog Vegas show at Bishop Burton on Saturday (3rd Jan) and the red rosettes came thick and fast!
Firstly Pauline - she had two first places in Grade 4 with Harry. Her handling was so good, with clear and positive instructions to Harry who thrived on it and in the jumping class that she won, her handling was near-perfect winning by about 5 seconds I think. Pauline looked and sounded much more confident and the couple of times Harry 'did his own thing' and ran past the weaves, Pauline felt able to bring him back and do the weaves again.
Then secondly Ruth, in only her second show with Morse, came 2nd in the anysize jumping. Well done Morse. Much more to come! Tig, Ruth's older dog, also had a run in the anysize and enjoyed it so much he took in an extra jump. Well done Tig! Although I think Tig enjoyed the queueing and meeting his adoring public more than the agility.
Julie got another win with Rufus in Grade 4 agility (he won 2 weeks ago too) and 1st with Gertie in Grade 7 agility and possibly another win but I have lost count by now! Plus 3rd with Nancy in the anysize (and that included a detour as she said hello to the judge!).
Then I won Grade 5 agility with Glen (first of 3 wins needed to take him to grade 6) and 4th with Whisky in Grade 7 agility. I wasn't expecting or looking for any wins - I was just hoping that Glen and I handled well together, which we did and are feeling like a team now, and that Whisky wasn't too silly, which he wasn't at all. I loved running them both.
The day was so good for us all, and it wasn't the winning that was important - that was just a fantastic bonus - it was the fact that our training for ourselves and others is working. For Julie and I, our competing dogs have had literally 5 minutes at the end of our Sunday afternoon classes often in near-darkness, but because we've been super-focused, kept our dogs fitness up on their daily walks, kept their minds focused and happy by teaching tricks, its all working!
And we're so proud of Pauline and Ruth.
It's a tradition in agility to bring cakes to training to celebrate wins, so we'd best get baking :-)
