Wallingford

We had an enjoyable day at Wallingford last Saturday. We were a little dubious about going as the weather forecast was dire. However, I'm really glad we went because we actually had very little rain compared with what had been expected. It was a dismal cold day but mainly not too wet!

As far as agility goes it was a mixed bag really. I loved the courses that Miranda Frankham had set they were really interesting and quite tricky. Overall I was pleased with our efforts; it's frustrating that the two courses I worked best we had a glitch with our weaves and the one course where I made a handling error Niamh did the weaves correctly! We didn't film the jumping class as it was raining at that point but Andy got both my agility rounds and also Poppy's allsorts.

Poppy got an extra run because the tunnel had come out of its cradle and the judge let us have another go which was very nice for Poppy. However, we got eliminated in the same place on both goes. I should have layered the box but I got over excited running Poppy as she so enjoyed herself!

Andy ran Murphy in one class and he was rather naughty knocking down five jumps, Leah ran him in the agility and he did some lovely contacts but no clears. I also ran Jay's little Shy in the G5-7 agility, she was such a good girl and we got 17th place!

It was nice to get home in the warm and light the woodburner.

On Sunday the weather was lovely here and we took the dogs for a nice walk in Eridge Forest and then paid a visit to Mum. Kizzy came along and sat on Mum's bed, she is a brilliant PAT dog and so gentle and well behaved. Not the little monster that she can be at home!

On the way home we stopped off at the pub and sat in the garden with Kizzy and Abbey and had our lunch. The others were parked near by and were very jealous that Kizzy and Abbey were out in the garden with us.

After lunch I had to go off to Dartford to do a final training session for some of the BSD's off to their World Champs in a couple of weeks. I picked a tough course to work on and they were all brilliant. If they all run that well at the World Champs they should do well.

Here is a little film of Wallingford. I am quite pleased that I'm running Niamh better and more proactively. Even when I got eliminated in the G6 agility I was determined to finish the course as I'd walked it and I'm glad I did because I feel much better when I get positives out of the round even when it's gone wrong. Leah has been helping me with some different handling techniques and I think it's starting to pay off. I am gradually moving away from my comfort zone of hanging off my dog and pulling; it's very hard though!