Agility Club Show - Sunday

Another hot day, in fact hotter than Saturday (boy was Andy glad he wasn't judging!). I had a couple of courses to walk early with early running orders but Andy had nothing to walk which was just as well as he awoke feeling very sick. This continued for most of the morning and I kept making him drink lots as it was obviously heat stroke from the day before.

Niamh and I were done and dusted by 9.30 am as we had only two runs yesterday. We got a clear in our KC Olympia class but not fast enough for a decent place (we came 26th). It was a very fast and relatively easy course. Lovely for the dogs to have a good stretch but not enough in it for us to do well. We need to make up time with turns and a bit more technical stuff. Not complaining as it was a lovely course and I thoroughly enjoyed the run.

Then we did our G6 agility and I mis-handled tunnel to weaves (which was very similar to Andy's tunnel to weaves in the champ jumping from yesterday!) Just as well I wasn't in that then! We didn't get faulted, just wasted a bit of time and then I went into my "training" mode which irritates Andy so much. Having decided I'd made too much of an error to do well I tried to layer a sequence. It was over ambitious and we got eliminated! It was quite a tricky course and had I pushed on I probably would have got a half decent place. I must stop this behaviour but it's very hard! I would love to win a G6 class now so I think I'm getting a bit up tight about them. I'm very relaxed when we go into G6/7 classes as I don't think we have much of a chance to do that well (and in fact we do reasonably well, most probably as a result of me being relaxed!) The joys of competititve agility!

Onto Kizzy: she had a great day with two wins. First off was her G3-5 agility where she put in a really smashing round. Neil and Bex came second behind Kizzy and Andy also with a lovely round, they are going so well at the moment and we might have to start hexing them! Only joking of course, it's meant as a compliment!

Then she did a lovely round in her G1-3 jumping and won that by quite a big margin, can't remember exactly what that margin was. Gran'Ma was there to see the jumping round and I have to say the language was a little strong at times ; she finds watching Andy and Kizzy rather stressful as Andy has a habit of putting front crosses in places that she (Gran'Ma) just can't fathom. Andy is finding it quite hard to get some of these front crosses in now as Kizzy has speeded up and it's amusing to see her bark at him if she feels he's getting in her way.

Kizzy almost did a great run in her G1-7 KC Olympia class. However, her pilot got a little too close to the A-Frame and had to veer out around a jump wing. This brought Kizzy cutting into him and in pushing her away over the next jump created a bad angle to the weaves and she just missed the entry. It was a real shame as I think she would have got a very respectable place in this class.

Kizzy was also drafted into the team and did a lovely clear. In this round Andy put a front cross in at a straight pipe tunnel and Gran'Ma became very agitated and once again the air turned blue. I had to calm her down and take her back to the caravan for an iced drink.

All in all, Kizzy's best day yet! Go Super Kizzle!



I've previously mentioned that Kizzy was running by the A-Frame rather a lot and this was causing us concern.

So whilst Andy was out in Germany at the EO I took Kizzy to an excellent physiotherapist. After going over Kizzy with a fine tooth comb, she identified an injury in Kizzy's thoracic spine (T12) which she believed Kizzy has been carrying for a little while. She came to this conclusion as Kizzy's muscles were better developed on one side which indicated she had been compensating for the injury for some time. The injury was treated and it was amazing to see the relief that Kizzy got from the treatment. To begin with she was showing all the usual signs of pain when the injury site was touched but after treatment she was totally chilled and it was so clear to see that the pain had disappeared. On advice we kept her quiet for a week after the treatment and then she had one training session on the A-frame at home.

The difference is amazing as can be seen by her results at the weekend. Thank goodness we got her checked out and discovered that the reason she was avoiding the A-frame was because of pain or discomfort. Thanks to Gran'Ma for suggesting we go down that route and to Karen for recommending such an excellent physio. The physiotherapist we normally use was on holiday so it was great to be able to see someone else so quickly.

Now we're back home and have loads to do this week work-wise and in getting organised for our next trip out in the caravan. We're off for a couple of weeks from Friday. We're going to Aylesbury show for the weekend with Jackie and Terry (looking forward to seeing them) and then off to Peterborough on Sunday evening to help mark out all the camping for the KC Festival and then straight off to Dogs in Needs. Yikes, I don't know where I'm going to put all the stuff in the caravan now we no longer have under-bed storage!