Midland Counties

mollie04 Originally uploaded by kayanem

Dylan worked his socks off on Saturday. His Primary Tunnel Teaser run was genuinely really fab on a very difficult course, he did some awesome tight turns and although we went a bit messy at the end, I was quite pleased just to get round! We came 1st, which was great, and it gives Dylan his second win towards Novice Jumping.

Primary Agility was another tricky course. Katie and I spent ages walking the 6-10 section and I decided to risk it and leave Dylan to do the seesaw (7) whilst I raced ahead to 9. I wouldn’t have dared to it with another dog as I know they would have flown the seesaw, but Dylan has only ever flown the seesaw once and he’s generally more cautious on unfamiliar equipment. Was a bit of a hold your breath moment, but it paid off and we nailed it (and Dylan nailed his contact!). It was a very good run, the only thing I wasn’t happy with was his dogwalk. He was super confident, but crept down the down plank and then ran his contact without waiting for the release command. Hmph. I let it go and I know I shouldn’t, but I really wanted the 1st and we got it. So Dylan has his second win towards Novice Agility too!

We made a mess of Primary Helter Skelter, and then Dylan had a great run in the Primary Jumping class, lovely and tight on his turns, but Jet came along and had a gorgeous run that was the clear winner! So we came 2nd in that, beaten by Jetly, can’t complain! Jetly actually had an awesome weekend, because she got her first win towards Novice Agility too on Sunday. Plus she’s just so cute!

Dylan was kind of naughty on Sunday. He wasn’t listening at all in Primary Jumping, and just drifted off and did his own thing. I held his contacts in Primary Agility and that seemed to bring him back down to earth a little (we still came 3rd though!), because he picked up for Primary TFO. Unfortunately I pushed him out at 11 instead of pulling him in so we went out quite early, but because he had an awesome fast time we still came 3rd. Finally did his best run of the day in Primary Circular Jumping, which was a tricky course that went reasonably well and he came 1st. I won’t nitpick because we won, but rest assured it was far from perfect.

Kim was just fab, she made me laugh all weekend. First thing Saturday was Novice Plus Tunnel Teaser was a wicked hard course and I thought we had no chance, but it had a good straight line start and finish that I thought would be good for motivating Kim, and I could do most of the pull-thru’s as outs which she’s usually quite good at. She ran it perfectly, giving me a few evils towards the end but she was happy and tight on her turns, and amazingly she came 1st! I nearly died of shock. I chose not to run in Novice Plus Helter Skelter and we made a mess of Novice Plus Agility so I let her blast around the contacts. She finished up with a good run in the Novice Plus Jumping, she slammed on the breaks at one point and gave me that look which means she’s considering doing it wrong on purpose so she can go home, but then relented and finished up nicely. It was probably her slowest run but she came 2nd nonetheless, it was a hard course and not many went clear.

Nice run in the Jumping and we came 3rd on Sunday morning, and then we messed up in everything else except TFO. I love TFO, and Kim used to be kick ass at it so I really wanted to run it with her. The course was really spread out; even the fastest dogs were only getting 14 or 15 obstacle, but I figured we’d give it a blast and see how it went. Kim rocked it; she actually took it up a gear for the first time all weekend and I had to do some severe improvisation on the pull-thrus because I was so behind. We’d just started out second loop when we got called for time, and had to run to the opposite corner of the ring to clock out. Kim loved it, and so of course she came 1st, because she is awesome like that.

She does make me smile though. She was cruising all weekend, running at an easy lope, all tight turns and long strides without putting in an ounce more effort than she wanted to. She was laughing at me constantly. We would get nearly to the end of the course and there would be one last pull through, and I would call her round and she’d give me a considering look, a smile, and then she’d go and do the jump I didn’t want her to. She knew full well what I wanted every time, but she’d just say “I’ve done enough pull thrus, thanks!”. (Actually, what she said definitely included a lot more swearing than that, but you get the gist.)

Mollie also ran this weekend, in all the Veteran Jumping (based) classes. She was awesome! I ran Mollie in Tunnel Teasers and we were super cool, and she came 2nd, which is her first ever Veteran placing. Go the Mol! We promptly got E’d in every other class, but she had a blast and was generally awesome.