WBSDS & Lewes Agility Shows

WBSDS - Newbury

As mentioned in the previous post, we had a good day at Newbury on Saturday. I had only one clear round and that was spoilt by a very long turn out of the collapsible tunnel (although I'm secretly pleased that Niamh is driving on more confidently); I also over worked her weave entry in the same round which lost me some time. I'm trying hard to eliminate the problem we have with Niamh missing the second gap. We had 100% success with weaves at Newbury and overall I was happy with how I handled the courses. I'm trying to be much more proactive and it seems to be working. I was particularly pleased with the Graded 6/7 agility round. Sadly I rushed the dog walk and we were marked 5 otherwise the round was good and would have given us 3rd place behind Murphy and Leah (sob!)

The only downside of Saturday was Poppy being attacked by a collie that left the Allsorts ring. It was a horrible experience but Poppy seems none the worse for the experience. I am so glad it didn't happen with Niamh as she would have gone straight on the counter attack and there would have been a fight. Al and Jay were the heroes and plucked the dog off Poppy. Sadly the handler of the dog didn't handle the situation well and didn't even both to ask if Poppy was OK. Luckily she just sustained a couple of bites that didn't break the skin and ended up with a load of slobber all round her neck. Poppy is such a sweet little dog and never fights back, she just submits which is possibly a good thing.

I was very tired when I got home, my legs ached from all the walking! See how far from our car the rings were. You can't even see them!!



Lewes

The weather forecast wasn't good for this show but the forecasters were proved wrong. Apart from a few spots of rain we had a lovely day. The trek to the rings was better than the day before but still quite a long way as the car parking is in a separate field to the rings. It's so much nicer when you have parking round the rings but not all venues can achieve this, a real shame!

We only got one round on video from this show. It was the graded 6/7 agility. I really liked the course that Don Nunn had set and decided to have a real bash at it. There was a section after the weaves where most people were putting in a front cross but I walked the course with Marc Saunders and decided to go for a "go round" and push through. Sadly in going for this I moved off the weave entry too quickly and Niamh skipped the second gap (damn, my own stupid fault!) In both her other rounds she did faultless weaves so I guess one failure out of six across the whole weekend is not so bad. I didn't correct the mistake as there's no point and I wanted to attack the sequence after the weaves. I think we did it quite well (it's not my normal style so I'm still way out of my comfort zone) I turned away from the jump in the corner too soon and she knocked that which is unlike Niamh. Despite the elimination I am pleased with the way this round went.

We had a 21st place in the helter skelter (I almost got lost in the middle, these classes make me dizzy) and I was most pleased with 7th place in the G6 jumping where Niamh worked beautifully despite my getting the opening sequence wrong. It worked but cost us a bit of time as I took her the long way round a jump to get to the tunnel because I forgot what I was supposed to be doing and turned into her rather than pivoting. I sometimes despair of myself!

Andy walked the small dog classes that Kizzy would be eligible for just to get an idea of what he might come across. Based on what he walked we think that Kizzy will cope with the patterns without too much trouble (he'll probably curse me for putting this .......)

Here is a little film from the weekend including a little play session with Al and Kizzy. I think he would look good with a sheltie!!