Northern Festival of Agility: Part Three
Waldridge Fell.
The KC Novice Olympia Qualifier was a tricky little course, but being a Combined 3-5 I wasn’t expecting easy. I walked it and quite liked it – Julie Buchanan was judging and she always includes a wall and a brush fence, which I love. The only thing I wasn’t so keen on was the dogwalk approach, it was very offset and I was a bit concerned as to whether Dylan would keep his balance. As it happened, he skittered on the edge for a moment but kept powering on and did it nicely. We did perfectly on the rest of the course, until we reached 16 – it was a push out around the wing to the Aframe. Push outs are the one thing I feel I can handle well, and that both my dogs fully understand and can do, so I have no idea why Dylan came off 15 very lazily, and then came to a complete stop next to me. We both looked at each other, I shrieked a bit and he finally understood, and we finished up clear.
I’m still not awfully sure what happened there. Obviously we had some miscommunication, but Dylan always offers something if he doesn’t understand what I’m asking, he never just shuts down completely. It was very weird, almost as though he’d gone to sleep for a second than then suddenly woke up and began to work again. He seemed alert and interested when he stopped, so I don’t think anything upset him, or that he had hurt himself. Mystery!
Worst of all – or best of all, I suppose? – we placed 8th overall. I was slightly shellshocked at this news! If we had run smoothly Dylan would have been comfortably in the top-4, which would have qualified us for the Novice Semi’s. This just … wow. I can’t get my head around it at all.
Nic Jones set a thoughful kind of Grade 3 Agility; easy for the dogs, tough on the handlers, which is perfect for Grade 3! I wasn’t awfully sure on how to handle the box and I’m still not sure I did it the best way. Dylan’s contacts were excellent though, and we came 4th.
Can’t remember the Jumping courses at all, think we might have got an 8th in one but it’s all a bit of a blur. It was too hot!
Sunday was baking hot. I felt like I was living in an oven. The Grade 3 Jumping was a nice course, a straightforward call off at the start and then a blast around really. Dylan got stupidly wound up in the queue and I had a feeling he was going to get a bit daft, but he blew past me completely at the start. First time he’s ever acknowledged a command and then done something else anyway, cheeky boy! So, big E in that one.
Grade 3 Agility was a challenging course, and really needed a wait start – I think we’ve established I don’t have one of those anymore! I had to handle it from behind and it wasn’t the fastest way to do it, and that kind of set us up for the whole run. Dylan had lovely contacts but didn’t feel as fast in the straights as he had been, but it was still a nice run. I’d watched two very fast clears earlier in the class so I knew the best we could hope for was 3rd … which is what we got!
The final Grade 3 Jumping was not my cup of tea, nice course but all minimum distance boxes, and I knew Dylan wouldn’t be able to pick up any speed. We ran clear but I felt Dylan was really on the slow side and I thought we had no chance of getting placed. Somehow came 7th, I can only assume everyone else got E’d!
The final Grade 3 Agility was a super simple blast, no weaves, and there were about 300 clears. I went in with the aim of getting a really fast final dogwalk, and I got it, but unfortunately the judge marked the down contact. I disagree, and am confident that Dylan got it (right hind paw) but he came off to the side due to my positioning and so we were in the same situation as Newton Heath but this time I know he got it. Win some lose some!