I don't dislike Newbury as the ground is reasonable but the shows there are huge and it takes forever to walk from one end of the rings to the other. Now that I have two different sized dogs I found my rings scattered all over. It's quite stressful keeping an eye on all the rings watching for classes to close and be ready for walking etc.
Anyway, my girls were just brilliant. I am so pleased with both of them as they are focused and keen and such fun. Niamh is finding her feet nicely in G7 and I was thrilled to get 3rd in G7 jumping on Saturday. We didn't film any of Niamh's runs but unbeknown to me Becca got this round on film. Thank you Becca, it's nice to have a video of a good round. We got a couple of other reasonable places and I let Andy run Niamh in her open jumping class and she ran well getting 12th place on a quick course.
This weekend we had some great courses for both dogs. They both had to deal with pull throughs, push throughs, discrimination and weave entries. It was really good to run over trickier courses.
Zeki is gaining in confidence with each round, let alone each new show. She was a clever girl and won two classes (both C3-5) and got 7th in an open class which I really didn't expect. Andy filmed that round which is great but I wish I had her Saturday jumping win on tape as that was brilliant. It was quite a hard course with push throughs and two collapsible tunnels (well actually one but done twice!) Our friend Caroline King was the judge of this class and I absolutely loved the course! Thank you Caroline for giving us a decent challenge! Having had no collapsible tunnels last weekend after all my training efforts the week before I was delighted that there was one in each of Zeki's rounds this weekend. She didn't run past a single one, so hurrah for the clicker again!
I was very disciplined this weekend, as Zeki is on freebie runs having won into G5 at Wallingford last weekend, and elected to train my agility rounds. I still ran them the same for Zeki but I just didn't release her two stop contacts and she passed the test each time by not self-releasing. Good little girl! I know that Christine is finding that Zev's confidence is growing with each passing show and I can report the same for his sister. It's a lovely feeling for sure!
Kizzy had her first outdoor show of the season. For some reason she ran past the weaves in two of her classes but then did a lovely round in her 6/7 jumping coming 8th. Not bad considering how ring rusty she and Andy are. She was on course for a really good run in her 6/7 agility but ran between the tunnel and A-Frame instead of picking up the tunnel. Was a real shame.
Andy judged on the Sunday of the show so he was able to do a little bit with Kizzy in his ring on the Saturday evening when he was setting his courses. She ran really well and it seemed to give her confidence. Andy needs to do more training with her and in different places but unfortunately at the moment he is just too busy. Maybe I can train her ;o)
On that subject I will be doing some of Kizzy's runs this weekend as Andy has had a small procedure on his leg and has six stitches. He isn't allowed to run for at least ten days. It's a real shame as it's Kizzy's first championship class on Monday at Vyne. We are still in negotiations as to whether I will be allowed to run her in this class! Watch this space.
Clever little Zeki with her prizes from WBDSD 2010
Congratulations, what clever girlies, and absolutely it is exciting.
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