Bouncing out of Grade 4 at Ribble
Ribble was such a nice show! So relaxed and lovely courses from the judges, just really nice. Obviously a bit of a busy weekend nationally, I know people who were at Easington, Bromsgrove and somewhere in Wales?! Thankfully we were indoors, unlike all those other people, and a good job too because it rained all day.
Dylan was just … amazing. I’ve never had a show where he ran better than he does in training. Most of his runs were fast, smooth, driven and beautiful, and even the one that wasn’t was mostly positive.
Graded 1-4 Agility was first thing, running a little late because the judge got stuck in traffic! The rings were quite small so the spacing was really tight in all the courses, but it was a fairly straightforward course with a kick at the end to catch everyone out! I think most of the clears were Grade 4 dogs, some of the baby dogs did get caught by the tight spacings. Dylan’s run was just magic. I had one heartstopping fraction of a second when I thought I’d lost him after the Aframe, but it was only a tiny second. The rest of the run was absolutely paw perfect. Superfast contacts, lovely extended jumping, tight turns, total fabness! I had no idea if we’d placed, especially since Emma was ring-partying and had seen at least two really fast runs (and I’d seen a few as well). Results came out and he was 1st in the Grade 4, and had the fastest time of the class as well. So straight up to Grade 5!
The Helter Skelter was our only off-run, Dylan ran it very neatly and smoothly but it was a bit boring, until the end when he successfully bounce a corner and we were both so surprised (me at him attempting it, he at it being easy!) we got E’d. There was a big “ooooh” from the spectators which at least made me laugh, but I don’t think we’d have been placed anyway, one of the Darleyfalls set a really fast time to win.
The Graded 4-5 Agility was a tricky course, very tightly spaced but definitely worth a shot. We had a brief argument at the weaves (Dylan wanted to do the dogwalk) and then kind of lost it, I got too far in front. Finished up with a really lovely dogwalk, and Dylan stopped on the end in a lovely stretchy 2o2o. He then bounced off and because I hadn’t moved, so he spun around before doing the last jump. I couldn’t stop laughing at this point as Dylan just doesn’t do stuff like that, definitely doesn’t do impatient mad collie spins.
His last jumping run was lovely, really open course but with a tunnel call-off that caught a lot of dogs. Dylan and I had a great run, fast and smooth and fab, but I saw a really fast sable collie run that I knew was Grade 4, and I really thought that dog would win it. Typically last class of the day, and so we waited for the results … Dylan did pull it off, and came 1st (by a nose!).
I really wish I’d entered Kim at this show as she would have loved the Medium courses, but huge well dones to Emma and Bails for their great results in the Combined 5-7 classes, Bailey was just pipped by a Grade 7 dog for the winning spot(s!).
I’m still slightly shellshocked, Dylan will get one more show at Grade 4 and then it’s straight up to Grade 5 at Hare’n’Hounds at the end of October. I don’t think we’re quite ready! If Dylan ran like he did this weekend all the time, I’d be very happy to be moving up, but it could all go downhill again at Lune. Lune is a training show now anyway, and hopefully Dylan will be running like a superstar again.