Reserve Ticket for Zev at Wyre :-)



Wyre - Stunning location

August has been a cracking month, with Zev already making two finals at DINAS. But frustratingly, I did not deliver the handling/focus required in the finals. At the end of the month we went to Wyre a new agility show, with Champ Classes. And what a weekend, torrential rain on Friday, which saw the Saturday Show cancelled and rightly so. It is always a tough call, but the right decision as the ground was just so waterlogged in parts. The irony is Saturday was actually a beautiful day and some people arranged to walk to the local village with their dogs so we went along. The stroll into the villeage turned into a walk up the fell, well I called it a fell as it seems to be high enough to me. The guys had a great time and so did we, a real holiday 'day', finished at the pub for a cold lager and chips - naughty!!! Sunday dawned and it had rained again, there was mud in places, but the show was going ahead. Luckily the Champ Ring had the best ground and we decided to see how it goes. This is Zev's and mine champ qualifying jumping round, as you can see my handling is 'way wide' on a couple of turns, could have got an 'elephant' though, never mind a medium sheltie!



The champ qualifying agility round, this vid really makes me smile, as you can see progress in Zev's performance for running contacts and his drive. We came second in this; our highest place so far in Champ qualifying rounds.



We made it to the finals, as I did with Rivi and Marc with Big.  What an exciting day, all the guys in the finals. Zev would be last but one to run. Would I hold it together? "Yes I did", and actually for the first time, I felt more in control of my excitement and just generally more focused. This is Zev's and mine run and led us to be awarded the Reserve Ticket.



This is our highest place so far in a champ final. I was so thrilled and so excited, and so was Zev - excited that is ;-) The people running Wyre made great efforts despite the conditions and I luv'd that they awarded the CC and Reserve CC Tickets, there and then with a proper presentation in the ring. Everybody watching could celebrate and applaud, I hope this is copied at other shows, as it is a totally fab thing to do. And really celebrates what is a fantastic agility moment.

x 2 for Rivi ;-)

Rivi and I finally got our grade 7 wins - two in one afternoon. We don't actually need them in terms of qualification for anything, but it is nice to do and was one of our goals for the season. Having had seconds and thirds and and some really excruciating off courses during the past few weeks, it has really been a rollercoaster ride this season.

So we have gone and done it and, it was not just one win but two :-) even as I write this it seemed a totally surreal afternoon, especially when on the Saturday it was like I had been sucked into some weird arcade game and the controls were malfunctioning. Then all of a sudden the malfunction was over and it was as if it never happened.  

It gave me a good lesson in resilience and working through stuff at a competition, because sometime you just have to. Just gotta step up and sort it there and then - best you can. Because how you react when things go 'wrong' from a handler perspective, has a critical impact how you grow as a partnership.

Because as the weekend proved tomorrow is another day :-) 

Big's is Back at Weardale - Yahooooooooooo

Saturday at Weardale Mister Big's first run back is champ jumping. I was almost sick waiting for his run and filming it. The nerves, and I was not even running him. Big's has had a total of 11 weeks out of agility, and for the weeks 8 to 11 was raring to go. But we were determined he was not gonna be a what I call a 'boomerang dog' and a careful fitness regime followed before we were ready to unlease him back to agility. And blimey what a run:

He won this class and needless to say Bigs is well up for doing agility, happy to discharge his lapdog persona of the past 2 months. Whilst an off course in the agility due to pilot error meant no final. It did not matter for Mr Bigs is back well and truly :-) and the cheeky git still wants to be Sir Shag A Lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! boy oh boy has this tiny poodle got oodles of character as well as looks. Crikey this is official I am gushing - cue red cheeks as I write this. Still a little gushing - harmless, methinks.

Weardale - Zev is de Man

Well, what can I say. This is Zev's 5th final this year. I was 'bummed' at Rugby we qualified for the final, and just as I was about to walk the champ final course someone queried my placement. Needless to say, I trust and rely the score people so I suggested that they speak to the judge. This then made me worried, should I be in the final or not? It turned out my placement was correct, however I lost valuable course walking time checking my results and it ruined the fun of the final for me and usually I luv being in a champ final.  However as always onwards and forward, I chucked this years Rugby into the memory dung heap and looked forward to Weardale and what a day it was with Zev.  We were 4th in both the agility and jumping qualifying rounds.Heres the Jumping round:-

Heres the qualifing agility round -

In the final we came 3rd. I was so thrilled, that is the thing with Zev whether we run good and clean or not, he runs his heart out for me. And that really does give me such a buzz. And actually there are so many aspects of our performance that I was pleased with, from pull-thrus (not his favourite), working ahead, dealing with changes in contact surfaces (rubber whilst brilliant, has affected Zev's style which is scoot and go considerably - major retraining having to happen.) We are evolving as a partnership for sure. This is the final round -

My thanks to Weardale for such a great show, scenery, location and people. And you could check your scores easily and quickley, which is fab and very helpful. Plus the black, pink and white equipments looked really smart. Just what agility should be - enjoyed :-)

The garden and agility - bliss

Yahooo, at long last we can use the whole bottom area of the garden for agility. OK, it is not the perfect lawn but it is so much better than it was, and as we had another weekend at home we could properly put it into use. I must admit I was quite daunted, I don't want to overtrain and the garden is our R&R area too for all of us. Where do you start, when one of the things that you dream of starts to become a reality? Oh, the responsibility of being able to do proper stuff in your garden, for when the weather is good at least.

Zev - shaking his toy - good 'n' proper - July 11

So Marc set a course and I handled it 3 times. As if the guys had three runs at a show. And I am really lucky that not only we have a garden where we can now do this, but Marc set a course that contained what I need to work on, which is setting the correct line for Rivi and Zev, when there is a nice 'handlers trap' to fall into, especially of a fast, technical course.  And the guys loved it. It was like "wow can do this at home too not just little bits" :-)