Dixie Licks Does Good.....And Marc too;-)

We headed to Bromsgrove for the weekend, it had a Adams Derby Qualifier which is a nice final for young dogs if can qualify. It is power and speed, so the first section is contacts and maximum spread and long jump. The speed is poles and jumping. Then crikey I missed Dixie and Marc's run, as our runs clashed. Bummer, not only did I miss them run, they did a good 'un' and won the qualifier. No mean feat for Dixie, who must be one of the smallest 'large' dogs in KC agility.

But look at Dixie, she says she born to pose too
 :-) She is now 21 months and is well cute.

All the guys did good, but this is Dixie's time to hog a blog posting as I know it is usually my guys that I write or should I put rave about?

Rivi second champ final and the stutter strikes!!!!

Well, the Rivioli was not gonna be left behind at Wyre, and I was so pleased to get her through to the final too. I don't like to leave a dog behind, in any sense. I want to get her through to the finals at much as Zev. Heres the jumping round (the twiddle being entirely my fault - wrong directional cue):-

However, what has been looming and despite my best efforts I have not cracked her aframe performance. Her see-saw is good and her dog walk performance has really come on. This is the agility qualifying round


With the aframe, the stutter has come back affecting this final and the one at Prestbury - it is so so frustrating.....

I am now conscious of it, can you imagine having such a gorgeous dog, that has one performance issue. It is like a loathsome acne spot on one's face!!!! So at Wyre I made the decision to devote from Oct to Dec 11, to retraining the aframe and the dogwalk. I even declined a call up to the semis, for the same reason. We have improved so much performance wise in other aspects I just need to sort this issue out.

No semis. No WAO tryouts. Yes to developing a contact that suits Rivi and enables us enjoy it even more. And who knows a side benefit of being a more successful partnership?

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.