Wow, seems a slightly inadequate word to sum up the club at Bishop Burton at the end of December. We had lots of dogs and handlers making their competition debuts, several partnerships on their second or third shows and a few seasoned competitors. It was an absolutely amazing atmosphere, lots of smiling faces, people helping each other out, walking courses together and new agility competitors being shown the ropes of running a ring. I want to thank each and everyone of you for making the show such a success for our club.
I think we can all take a lesson from Jacob our youngest member when those agility rounds don't go quite as planned. It was Jacob and Pip's first show; Pip got a touch of nerves and didn't perform as well as we know he can do in training. Jacob never gave up trying to get Pip round the course and encouraged him all the way round. Jacob left the show telling Pip that he loved him and that with a bit more training that maybe Pip wouldn't be as scared next time. What a fantastic attitude for a young lad and I'm sure at your next show Jacob Pip will show everyone what a cracking dog he is and how well you've done at training him.
Although several of our other partnerships didn't manage a clear round either, you were still absolutely fantastic, I saw some amazing runs, with super handling and even better than that happy enthusiastic dogs. Those clear rounds are really not far away and for some handlers just getting your dog in the ring and working with you deserves a medal. Another one of our young partnerships deserves a mention too - Elise and Darcy. It was this pairings first show and although we still have a bit of work to do on the weaves the rest of their runs were flawless, even when it came to trickier sequences. Once Darcy's weaves are perfected they'll be no stopping this partnership, who have been an absolute pleasure to teach and the fact that Elise has put a lot of time and effort in with Darcy away from the agility field really shows.
I think the club went away from the show with an impressive haul of rosettes. Jason and Ruby were on fire at only their second show and impressively won out of grade 1, and just to prove it wasn't a fluke added another couple of wins to their tally too. Ann-Marie and Jemma added to their every expanding rosette collection with several wins. Cassie and the lovely Charlie won their agility class, taking them to Grade 5 and I saw Charlie do some lovely, fast, enthusiastic other runs too. Alice and Merlin won their agility class, taking them to Grade 4. I was a nervous "back seat driver" watching Alice's run, willing him to get his weave entry; to hit all his contacts and keep all those bars up, I needn't have worried, it was a fantastic clear run that went into the lead and there they stayed. And also a well done to my very own Hector who won two of his agility runs taking him to grade 4. Another special mention must go out to Pauline who is an inspiration to all of us, I don't think Pauline managed any clear rounds but Pauline does fantastically well running both Tia and Harry and we love having her as part of our club, showing those young whipper snappers that agility really is for everyone.
Really sorry if I've missed anybody's achievements out, I'm sure you'll give me plenty of opportunity in the future to blog about your successes. Roll on the 2016 agility season.
I think we can all take a lesson from Jacob our youngest member when those agility rounds don't go quite as planned. It was Jacob and Pip's first show; Pip got a touch of nerves and didn't perform as well as we know he can do in training. Jacob never gave up trying to get Pip round the course and encouraged him all the way round. Jacob left the show telling Pip that he loved him and that with a bit more training that maybe Pip wouldn't be as scared next time. What a fantastic attitude for a young lad and I'm sure at your next show Jacob Pip will show everyone what a cracking dog he is and how well you've done at training him.
Although several of our other partnerships didn't manage a clear round either, you were still absolutely fantastic, I saw some amazing runs, with super handling and even better than that happy enthusiastic dogs. Those clear rounds are really not far away and for some handlers just getting your dog in the ring and working with you deserves a medal. Another one of our young partnerships deserves a mention too - Elise and Darcy. It was this pairings first show and although we still have a bit of work to do on the weaves the rest of their runs were flawless, even when it came to trickier sequences. Once Darcy's weaves are perfected they'll be no stopping this partnership, who have been an absolute pleasure to teach and the fact that Elise has put a lot of time and effort in with Darcy away from the agility field really shows.
I think the club went away from the show with an impressive haul of rosettes. Jason and Ruby were on fire at only their second show and impressively won out of grade 1, and just to prove it wasn't a fluke added another couple of wins to their tally too. Ann-Marie and Jemma added to their every expanding rosette collection with several wins. Cassie and the lovely Charlie won their agility class, taking them to Grade 5 and I saw Charlie do some lovely, fast, enthusiastic other runs too. Alice and Merlin won their agility class, taking them to Grade 4. I was a nervous "back seat driver" watching Alice's run, willing him to get his weave entry; to hit all his contacts and keep all those bars up, I needn't have worried, it was a fantastic clear run that went into the lead and there they stayed. And also a well done to my very own Hector who won two of his agility runs taking him to grade 4. Another special mention must go out to Pauline who is an inspiration to all of us, I don't think Pauline managed any clear rounds but Pauline does fantastically well running both Tia and Harry and we love having her as part of our club, showing those young whipper snappers that agility really is for everyone.
Really sorry if I've missed anybody's achievements out, I'm sure you'll give me plenty of opportunity in the future to blog about your successes. Roll on the 2016 agility season.