KC Festival & Dogs in Need

Well, we've just got back from ten days away at the KC Festival and Dogs in Need. The weather wasn't the greatest but considering how much rain they say we had back at home, I think we were very lucky.

The Naughty Niamh excelled herself and I'm very proud of her.

She qualified for the Novice Cup final at the KC Festival and came 2nd (one of only two clear rounds on a very difficult course). We ran first in the final as we were the last to sneak in the qualifying places. I think this was a very good place for me to run as I didn't get time to get too nervous. This result means we get to go to Crufts in 2008, yippee! At the same show she also got a 2nd in G5 Agility and a couple of other placings.

Then at Dogs in Need she qualified for the Novice Finals and came 3rd. We ran fifth from the end as we'd qualified quite high up the table. The course was totally the opposite from the KC final, very fast and flowing. I didn't think we stood a chance but once again she proved me wrong. During the week she collected 1 x 1st place; 2 x 3rd places; 1 x 4th and 1 x 12th place.

We came home with some very nice crystal as you can see from the photo below!

Andy judged one leg of the large dog Olympia semi-finals at the KC Festival together with the medium semi-final. The event seemed to go well and we were both very pleased that some of our friends qualified for Olympia running on Andy's courses, namely: Alan with Jack; Lynne with Kite, Bernadette with Zen and Lisa with Chi.

At Dogs in Need he judged the large and medium dog Championship. The courses ran well and both had worthy winners with a fantastic run from David Munnings and his gorgeous dog Dobby in the large category and Bernadette with the wonderful Zen taking the medium ticket!

We had a lovely time and actually managed to sit out on most evenings even though it was very cold. We sat around wrapped in blankets watching the stars (becoming quite a habit for our gang!) We like to look out for shooting stars and satellites, more commonly known as statellites in our circle!

The wicked Murphy was quite a good boy at DINAS and did a very good round in a G6/7 jumping getting 8th place. The course was quite difficult and had a very tight time. Typically in the first part there were only two clear rounds in the course time, all the quicker dogs came out of the woodwork for part 2! He also managed some stunning contacts during the week and knocked very few poles so Andy was pretty pleased with him.

Kizzy Wizzle had a lovely week with lots of play, walks and training. Andy, Karen and Manda had a good sheltie training session on the day off. They practised their startline routines, targets and recalls. We are hoping to get some photos of Kizzy with her Dad (Tazz) and Mum (Zen) which Dennis took at the KC Festival.

Kizzy also had a lovely game with her new friend Nell-Beans the collie pup (owned by our friend Helen). We took them to a quiet part of the exercise area and they tore round in circles (pretty normal for Kizzy). Kizzy loves to be chased and Nell-Beans was very willing to oblige. Bernadette will be pleased to know that every so often Kizzy changed leg and circled in the other direction!! Helen, Iain and I were very dizzy by the end of the play session!

It was lovely to meet Johanna and her dogs. They are all lovely and we were very sad to say goodbye to them on Wednesday evening. Tazz stayed behind as he's lodging with Bernadette for a while. Andy had four runs with him during the week getting a 5th and an 8th place. Sadly there wasn't a rosette for the 8th place! We just can't believe how much Kizzy looks like Tazz.
We are looking forward to having Tazz to stay when Bernadette goes to the World Championships.

We came home to the ongoing building work last night which was pretty depressing! It seems to be going very slowly. The builders have had a hard time with all the rain but even so it seems to be taking forever.

Today it's really dismal at home. Where is the summer? The dogs are all very tired and I'm just going to take mine for a very short walk later on after I've been shopping. I am trying to get motivated to open the mountain of post that has arrived in the office whilst we've been away. I hate opening post and more than that I hate dealing with the contents! Hey ho. Holiday over.

Have taken lots of video and will post some later in the week!