Prestbury Park - final post!

Thanks to Bernadette I have all of Zeki's runs from Prestbury Park champ show on video.  Here are the two qualifying rounds  for Zeki together with the course plans courtesy of the judge Arthur Rodgers.  Excellent courses.

A couple more pictures from Prestbury Park Champ Show

Champ judge: Arthur Rodgers with me and Zeki above and below with

Me and Zeki and Bernadette and Zaz 'Ag.Ch. Obay Itz Got Pizazz'

Zeki wins her second CC!

Well, my next post was going to be an update on my puppy, Tidey .... but Zeki Beeks decided differently!



I drove up to Stoneleigh on Saturday morning for the medium Olympia semi-finals.  We had a good journey and the weather was perfect for agility.

Our invitation run was a simple flowing course which Zeki ran clear in.  I stopped both her seesaw and dog walk in preparation for the semi-final.  She ran well and I was very happy.

I was hoping that the semi-final course would be more technical than the invitation event and it was but only slightly.  I knew I could get round the course but in my heart I also knew that it was highly likely that we wouldn't be fast enough.  We had an early running order and did our best.  Zeki ran clear with a lovely round and I couldn't have been more pleased with her.   I think we stayed in the top ten until about three dogs from the end and then slipped to the dreaded 11th spot.   If I had run a little later in the competition there are a couple of things I would have done differently (a blind turn in one spot and a push off the seesaw rather than front cross after) and those things might have got us in as we were very close to the 10th placed dog.  However, running early I opted for the safer way of doing both.  It's impossible to tell how these competitions will develop as sometimes people get through on 5 faults and so I knew I would be cross with myself if I had taken unnecessary risks.  Oh, hindsight you are a wonderful thing which sadly we don't possess!

I have to be honest and say that I was very disappointed.  Not with my little dog, she ran her heart out for me as she always does.  I was disappointed to be one spot off qualifying.  I was in that mind set where I would rather have been eliminated or be placed much further down.  However, the upside is that there is a tiny chance of being called as reserve should someone have to pull out for some reason.    On the day I was beaten by ten fantastic dogs and handlers and I wish them all the best at Olympia.  Maybe next year ....

I had booked B&B in Cirencester ready for Sunday at Prestbury Park champ show.  I didn't much feel like going but knew I would have to pay for the B&B and so didn't really have any choice.  The B&B was pretty good, it was clean and the people were really friendly.  There was a huge field beside the house where I could walk the dogs round a huge circular path which took about 40 minutes so they were happy little bunnies.

Here they are watching X-Factor.  Niamh is bored by it and Zeki is swearing at the judges because they are so very stupid and talk such rubbish.

I drove into Cirencester and picked up some pasta salad for my supper (and a small bottle of cider!) and watched X-Factor.  It was, of course, utter rubbish but I still have to watch it.  How sad am I?  I didn't sleep too well as the bed was very hard and I kept waking up with dead limbs and aching hips.  Luckily the dogs slept well!

It was only four miles to the venue on Sunday morning so I was able to go into the house and have a lovely continental breakfast.  I arrived at the venue and it was pouring.  I felt like turning round and going home.  I was parked in a spare camping spot next to Becca and there was a huge chestnut tree which Bernadette and I parked under so we were able to keep a bit dry.

I walked a couple of courses for Zeki and also the champ jumping.  It was a really good, tricky course by Arthur Rodgers.  Just as I had hoped and expected.   I had walked the course about three times when Bernadette called out to me, what are you doing?  Yep, once again I had picked my own line and missed out a jump.  How am I going to stop doing this!  Thank you Bernadette.   I re-walked the course.   There was one part where I couldn't make up my mind how to handle (that's what I like about Arthur's courses, choice not just one obvious way of doing things) and I eventually opted to run it one way but it didn't work for me and I wished I had chosen the other way.  It put me off my stride and I couldn't recover so we did the messiest round you've ever seen.  On top of that Zeki ran past the collapsible tunnel on the run home and I just about managed to keep my wits about me and not get eliminated so finished the round with 1 time fault and 5 for a refusal.   I knew I would have to do better in the agility round.  Even our judge commented on my rather awful run!

I liked the agility course and walked it correctly from the outset.  Things are looking good!   Zeki ran the course well and we finished with an unplaced clear.  I hoped that this would be good enough to get us into the final and luckily it was.  We were called out as running #6 in the final!   

We ran both legs of the champ class in the rain but luckily not heavy rain, just persistent heavy drizzle.  Yuk, I hate running in the rain but the ground was excellent and yippee we had rubber contacts.

The course was set up during the lunch hour by the ring party but not checked by Arthur so we couldn't walk it.  When he came back from lunch he checked it and we were able to walk it but not for that long.  It all came as a bit of rush as we had quite a walk back to the car to get our dogs.  I hadn't brought Zeki to the ring because we just didn't know when the final would be running and I didn't want her getting too hot on what turned out to be a glorious day after the rain cleared.

I really liked the course because you had to work all the way round but it had a good fast finish which would be exciting if the dogs were clear to that point.  I walked it about four times (normally I would walk a champ final a lot more than that but there just wasn't time.)  I rushed off to get Zeki and by the time I got back the first dog was running.

I did some tricks outside the ring to get ourselves in the groove and then we were on!   I was nervous but not as nervous as I was at Axstane.  I ran late in that champ final and knew I had a really good chance of winning.  I didn't have that same feeling today although I knew I had a chance I also knew there were some very good dogs to follow us.  

We put in our best round but I have to admit I didn't run it quite as I had planned.  I walked the course to have the dogwalk on my right but at the last minute I had a moment of madness and just got very slightly disorientated.  I knew that I wouldn't have time to put the cross in so I had  to go with the flow and work the dog walk on the other side.  There was a tricky go round after the dog walk and now I had to handle it as a flick away go round, yikes could I do it?  All this was going through my head and I even said out loud "I've done this wrong" as I was running along the dogwalk.  Sometimes I think I am mad.    Anyway we could do it and in fact it was the best way to do it so for once my mistake actually got the right result!   I had another moment of doubt when I was unsure if Zeki had actually taken the tyre, it was cleverly set in the corner before you turned for the run home.  However, my common sense told me to keep running because if she had missed it, it was all over anyway!  Luckily my honest little dog had taken the tyre and so we ran clear!

Here is the video of our run.  Thank you to the nice person who filmed it on Bernadette's video camera. I kept forgetting to take mine to the ring.  It's so nice to have it on video.



We didn't get beaten and so to my absolute shock we had won our second CC!  Oh my God!

On the same day Zeki's younger full sister, Zaz 'Obay Itz Got Pizazz' won her third CC making her Agility Champion.  Well done to Bernadette and Zaz for this fantastic achievement.  Below is a picture of both Zaz and Zeki with their prizes and CC's.  

  

European Open Agility

I am glad I qualified and attended this event as we had a really good time despite the organisation of the event being very poor. Austria is so beautiful and we were in a particularly lovely part of the country. It was a shame the weather was overcast and hazy as some of the views were not as clear as they might have been.

Here are two of my good luck presents (blanket from Johanna, and mug from Bernadette.)

Leah bought Zeki a lovely all in one collar and lead combo with 'Zeki Team GB' on the collar plus the little heart which Zeki is sporting below.

We started our journey at 3.30 am on the Wednesday morning and eventually arrived at our hotel around 8pm that night. We had a few stops along the way but not many. It is nice travelling in your own vehicle as you can stop as and when you fancy and not if you don't want to!

The hotel was really nice and made the trip very pleasant. The event itself wasn't great but the courses were, in the main, really good and challenging. It was a shame for the large dogs that they ran their final so late at night in the pouring rain and under failing flood lights. Not good. The small and medium dogs were luckier as they got to run in the main arena in the day light. The large dogs weren't permitted to run in the main arena as the groundsman feared that the pitch would be ruined or so I heard.

Zeki on her cushion in the hotel and below the view from my room

Agility-wise I had a mixed bag. We did two good runs and two not so good. That said the two E's I got were just very tiny mistakes, it wasn't a case of the runs being disastrous. Sadly one of my E's was in our team and I found that quite hard to deal with as I hate letting other people down. I wasn't the only one and the whole team was very supportive.

Our whole Team GB was brilliant as everyone gathered to watch just about everyone else and it was lovely to have the support of your team mates regardless of what height dog they ran. It's something I am getting used to running a medium dog as the medium handlers in the UK are a tremendously supportive bunch on the whole.

I don't think I would travel again for this competition unless it was much closer to home. It is very expensive and the travelling is exhausting which is worthwhile if the event is excellent but sadly this event wasn't.

In this team jumping round I was so worried about Zeki going to the wrong end of the tunnel that I pulled her so much that I lost my spatial awareness and she took the jump instead of the right hand end of the tunnel. I was so angry with myself as she ran beautifully otherwise.

This is our team agility round and I was delighted to run clear in this. I don't have video of her individual runs although I think Bernadette might so maybe I will be able to put them up some time, not sure.

It is interesting that Zeki's A-Frames are so much deeper on the rubber contacts but her dog walks are slower. I haven't really trained on them that much and am looking forward to doing so in the future. I love them. I also love the bigger-spaced weaves. By the second day Zeki had the measure of them and she was definitely faster and lower in her weaves than she is on the tighter spaces versions we usually see over here. Bring on the new weaves also!

Below are some pictures of our day trip to Linz. We went up a very steep hill on the Linz Tramway and visited a beautiful Austrian church. I lit a candle for my mum in the church. There was a huge thunder storm whilst we were at the church, you could see it gathering in the valley and over the hills. We had coffee and pancakes in a little restaurant with amazing views over Linz.

On the tram

A street in Linz

View from the hill top restaurant

The painted church

Below views from the hill top

Zeki and me at the Opening Ceremony

Zeki no longer able to pose quietly - what's new?

Zeki and Herbie

Rodney and Zeki

Girls from Team GB

Team GB

Team Eagle (GB)

Zeki in her pod at the stadium (photo by Amy )

Action shots of Zeki by Candice and Amy

Thanks to all my lovely team mates for making the trip 'such fun' and to Leah and Bernadette for their company but most of all to my beautiful Zeki who gives me so much joy both as a companion and when we run agility together.

Agility Shows - catch up

At last I have found time to sit at the computer and update the blog!

So, let's start with agility shows (I will do a separate posting for the EO's as I think they warrant their own space :o))

Well, since Tuffley the girls have run well. Zeki got into the champ final at Rugby and had I not faltered to mark my own seesaw (which the judge didn't mark) she possibly would have had the reserve ticket. Instead we came 3rd, a result which I was far from disappointed with bearing in mind the large and strong field at this show. I think Leah might have the run on her video so I will have to nag her at some stage to download it for me! Annoyingly we didn't do well in the Crufts singles class which was the one I really wanted in order to get some more points. I think we have one chance left for this competition.

I found it very stressful running two champs side by side. I have done it often in the past but always with large dogs so running in the same ring over the same course. Here, the two champ classes ran side by side and I had early runs in both. Not pleasant!

We were due to stay up for the Sunday but after a sleepless night at the B&B on Friday after the EO training (which was excellent) I was just not keen on going back. We had an unpleasant experience with a group of drunken builders keeping us awake all night long. So instead I headed home and had a relaxing Sunday instead.

Other shows have been Newlands, KC Festival and a couple of days at Dogs in Need. I thoroughly enjoyed Newlands and really used it for training Zeki in preparation for the EO's. I have mixed feelings about the KC Festival because it is so large and very tiring. In addition two horrible things happened at this year's show which will be very hard to forget.

Firstly, a fellow agility competitor and someone I've known for as long as I can remember had a heart attack after running his dog and despite tremendous effort from the first aiders and medical team died in hospital. Don Nunn was a real character and gave back to agility in so many ways: judging, ring partying, club training and more. I remember when Niamh qualified for Crufts at the KC Festival in 2008, Don also qualified and I cannot remember anyone being so thrilled. I think he came 17th in his very last class, the one he ran before he died. Bless him, what a way to go and I hope that one day his family will take comfort from the fact that he died doing something he enjoyed and was so fiercely passionate about. He will be missed very much by lots of people in the agility world and my thoughts are with his wife Christine and their family.

Secondly, a woman was attacked by her own dog after completing a round of agility. It was a horrendous attack, not just a simple biting. Apart from one other ghastly incident a few years ago, this is probably the worst thing I've seen involving dogs and humans in agility in all the years that I have been involved. I have tremendous respect for the men that helped this woman putting themselves at risk and saving her from further serious injury. Luckily this sort of incident is very rare in our sport but it does make you think very deeply about the hyped up situation we put ourselves and our dogs into each weekend and indeed at training classes.

At the KC show I bought Zeki another deck chair. She now has this indoors and absolutely loves it. Here are some lovely pictures that Hannah took when we were having afternoon tea at the show:

Tidey matches Zeki's new chair!

Zeki and Zaz borrowing Zeki's camping version of the chair!

Tidey wants one too!

and here is Zeki ensconced in her new sitting room arm chair at home:

Agility-wise I was thrilled with the way both my girls ran. Niamh got into the British Open semi-final and all we had to do was run clear to get to Crufts but we had a misunderstanding at the weaves (partly due to me shouting weave instead of saying poles.) I originally changed my verbal cue from 'weave' to 'poles' because it sounds just like 'Niamh'. Whatever came over me I don't know. Zeki and I failed to get into the medium semi-final which was frustrating but not the end of the world. She did some brilliant runs and came away with quite a little haul.

We did a couple of days at Dogs in Need and I wasn't sad not to be camping there. I have attended the show almost every year since it started (I think this was the third one that I've missed) and I am tired with the format. I think the organisers do a fantastic job but I just need to do something a bit different. I was cross with myself that I didn't get Zeki into the champ final all down to a stupid error on my part in the agility round in which we were eliminated. We ran clear in the jumping and came 4th but that's no good with an elimination in the other part!

Last weekend were Surrey and Bridge House, I went to the Sunday show and had a lovely day. I took Poppy along and she had a wonderful time round the rings watching the agility. She was exhausted when we got home. Niamh got an 8th in her agility class and Zeki won an agility class. Their other rounds were good but mistakes by me stopped them running clear.

One of my mistakes which is on video is where I completely miss out a jump and get eliminated. This wasn't because I forgot the course but because I walked the course incorrectly. I do this so often but usually someone tells me or when I'm waiting to run I notice someone running the course differently to how I walked it. This time I ran #1 and so didn't get the benefit of seeing it run properly. I actually did this in the EOQ at the KC Festival and noticed with two dogs to go! That was very lucky as I was placed 17th with Niamh and 2nd with Zeki! I must look at the numbers when I walk courses!

I was just too tired (or is that lazy) to get up early on the Monday to go back again so instead had a lovely day at home in the garden.

Next weekend Zeki has her medium Olympia semi-final followed by Prestbury Park champ show on the Sunday. Fingers crossed for both!

Kizzy has been having a rest from agility as she hasn't been running quite right. She is seeing an excellent osteopath who is getting her back to fitness. She did a little bit of jumping for the first time this week and so far, so good.

Here are some photos and videos:

Zeki in her deck chair in the awning (above) and Tidey and Niamh on their beds (below)

Poppy agility-watching at Bridge House show

Niamh (above) and Zeki (below) with their rosettes and trophies from the KC Festival

Zeki with her first place along with some of her Obay relatives and Skipper, Sonia's rescue sheltie who got his first ever clear round and came 3rd!

The beautiful Naughty Niamh from Newlands and Dogs in Need.

Wonderful photos by Alan Score

Five more great shots of Niamh at the KC Festival by Jodi Lunn

And finally ....... some pictures of Kizzy's enforced holiday from agility. Here she is doing what she loves best .... eating: